Dove

10. Dove

Reighvyn didn’t pick me up until several hours after he dropped me off. The shop had just closed when he pulled up out front. I climbed in the car, and we headed straight for the airport.

“How did it go?” I asked.

“It went,” he mumbled, staring out the window.

I reached over and grabbed his wrist, giving it a little squeeze. My heart cinched in my chest because he deserved much better than that. Tears pricked my gaze as I stared at his strong, sharp features. I had never seen him broken, until now.

We rode in silence, and I didn’t speak again until we arrived at the airport.

“Reigh.”

“Hmm?”

“I know that I created an awkward situation for us the other night, and I’m sorry. I don’t regret what I was feeling, but I do regret putting you in an uncomfortable situation. You know I’m here for you, right?”

He turned away from the window, stared at me as though he were seeing right through me, and then sighed loudly. “Yeah.”

“Good.”

“I was reinstated.”

I thought I misheard him at first, but when he turned to look at me again, I realized that the look in his eyes wasn’t sorrow or depression; it was contemplation.

“What? Why didn’t you tell me that when I first got in the car?”

“Because it’s complicated. It’s not the victory you think it is,” he explained as the driver opened the door for us to exit.

“I don’t understand. You were reinstated; isn’t that what you wanted?”

“I’ll explain later. Listen, I’m sure the media will be waiting for us. Hang tight to my hand, keep your head down, and don’t say shit to anyone. Sterling will protect us; we just need to stay close to him. Okay?” he asked, referring to his bodyguard.

“Okay,” I replied hesitantly.

I climbed out, and he was right behind me.

“Reighvyn! What do you think about the decision?” a man called out, appearing from seemingly nowhere the minute we stepped into the airport.

“Reighvyn, did you ever doubt that you would clear your name?” another man asked.

“Who’s next on your list to fight?” a blonde woman asked.

“Reighvyn, you never give interviews. Don’t you think it’s time to speak up with all that’s going on around you? The suspension, the termination, Daniella, and now Kevin.”

As soon as we stepped inside of the airport, we were bombarded by photographers and reporters on all sides.

There was only so much coverage Sterling could provide.

Besides the reporters and photographers, his fans were there too.

Someone had to have leaked that he was coming here, and I hated that for him.

“Hey, it’s Rose the Recker! Rose, are you still involved with Neal Cunningham?”

I stumbled because I was caught off guard, but I kept moving forward.

“Dove, are you and Reighvyn dating?” a tall, reed-thin man with pockmarked pale skin, red hair, and pale blue eyes asked.

I snatched my hand free from Reighvyn’s at that question, which caused me to become separated from him and Sterling.

Although vloggers and reporters knew my name, they seldom called me by it.

Hearing him refer to me by my actual name threw me for a loop.

I couldn’t seem to move my feet. Guilt and shame washed over me along with fear for Reighvyn’s reputation by being associated with me.

People pushed between us, shoving us further apart as they tried to get his autograph and take selfies with him. At six feet and three inches, Reighvyn stood above the crowd, but I blended in at five-six. I saw him looking around, searching for me, but I was still stunned.

The crowd moved toward him, and I found myself alone with the red-haired reporter.

“Are you the reason Reighvyn and supermodel Daniella Pearce are broken up? Dove, did you cheat with him like you did Neal?” the reporter asked.

“Leave me alone,” I muttered, turning away from him.

“Dove, people have referred to you as a professional gold digger. You’ve had a reporter, now an athlete. Who’s next?” the red-haired reporter asked.

Reighvyn spotted me at that moment as my stomach knotted in dread and embarrassment. I finally found my footing and tried to move forward, but the reporter grabbed my arm. Reighvyn’s eyes seemed to go blank as he stalked toward me, almost like he was operating outside of himself.

“Let me go!” I snatched free of the reporter’s grasp.

“Well, you can’t deny screwing someone like Reighvyn is a come up; it’s better than being a poor man’s whore,” the reporter quipped.

Reighvyn reached us at that moment and popped the man in the mouth with a hard fist.

The reporter fell, I gasped, and Sterling rushed in and hustled us away. We shoved our way through the crowd, and the chaos surrounding us became more dramatic. The moment Sterling rushed us into the VIP suite, he pulled out his phone and made a call.

There was so much pandemonium on the other side of those doors that I was about to have a meltdown.

“Fuck! This is bullshit!” Reighvyn grumbled, pacing back and forth.

His hands were balled in fury, and his jaw clenched and unclenched repeatedly. Two airline personnel rushed toward us. Sterling and Reighvyn had an animated conversation with them, while I sat in a lush club chair in a state of shock.

I couldn’t believe that things had spiraled out of control so quickly.

“Let’s go,” Reighvyn demanded in a surly tone after a few minutes. I looked up to see Sterling leaving the VIP suite with one of the airline personnel, while the other team member led Reighvyn and me through a doorway.

Reighvyn’s phone rang as we walked down a long hallway to board a plane.

“Hey. Yeah, we’re heading to the plane now. Thanks for getting this for me so quickly. Yeah.”

I zoned out as he continued talking. When we stepped onto the plane, I noticed that it was a private one, not the public plane that we had taken before in the first-class section.

As the airline personnel turned us over to the airline attendants on the plane, I was left to get settled in, while Reighvyn’s attention was consumed by his manager who patched in members of Reighvyn’s PR team onto the call.

I only knew because he had the call on speaker phone.

Confusion, shame, and disappointment filled me. I couldn’t believe that he had hit that guy, but I also felt the shame of them linking us together. I worried what it would do to his reputation. As much as I enjoyed time with my family, I wished I had never returned.

“I’m sorry, Dove. I should have made separate arrangements.”

“No. I’m the one who’s sorry.”

“What are you apologizing for?”

“For allowing myself to become separated from you. You had just told me to stick close to you, but the reporter—”

“Was an asshole! You have nothing to apologize for. Should’ve beaten the brakes off that nigga,” he complained.

“No, you shouldn’t have.”

“Gahdamn! This is all my fault. I could have avoided this by going another route.”

“What could you have done differently?”

“I should’ve made separate arrangements for your travel. You shouldn’t have had to go through that bullshit. Didn’t want you to see that side of me.” He paced back and forth before he stopped and asked me for the dozenth time, “Are you okay?”

“Yes, Reigh. Are you okay?”

He shook his head. “Hell nah. I’ve worked years to keep my temper under control, but I’ll never be okay with anyone attacking you. I won’t sit back and let nann nigga say the shit that he said or thinking he could put his hands on you. Hell nah!” he exploded, punching the air.

“Reigh, it’s okay.”

“No, the fuck it ain’t, Dove!”

I jumped off the couch and grabbed his arms. “Stop! That’s enough. We’re safe, and we’re here together. I’m worried about what damage that just did to your reputation.”

“You think I give a fuck about that when some nigga just disrespected you?”

I grabbed his hands and stared into his eyes. “You mean the world to me, Reigh. I need you to calm down. I can’t be okay unless you’re okay. You’re the one who matters to me. You matter more to me than anyone in this world.”

He searched my eyes, and he moved my arms from his wrists. He stared at me and inhaled deeply. “Are you still in love with him?”

“No.” I sighed with resignation.

“Are you sure?”

I nodded. “He broke me, and I’m not sure that I can be put together again. So, no, I don’t love him,” I confessed as he reached up and cupped my face.

“Let me try.” Reighvyn lowered his head, brushed his lips against mine, and then in the sweetest, most passionate way, he claimed my lips. “I’m sorry. So sorry,” he repeated between kisses.

I broke away from the kiss and rested my forehead against his.

I pressed my hands on the sides of his face as I spoke.

“I don’t want to hurt you, Reigh. As much as I care about you, I’m damaged goods, and I don’t want to damage you or hurt your career.

Being affiliated with me clearly isn’t a good thing.

You will always be what I need, but I’m not sure that I’m what you need right now. ”

“You are the only thing I need, beautiful. If all the title belts, my wealth, and reputation were taken away today, and I was left with nothing, that shit wouldn’t mean a damn thing. As long as I have you, Dove, I have everything.”

“I might hurt you.”

“Let me prove you wrong.”

I locked my arms around his neck and pressed my body against his. Reighvyn lifted me into his powerful arms and carried me to my bedroom. Not once did we pull away from the kiss that grew more heated and frenzied the closer to my room we got.

By the time that we arrived, I had discarded my T-shirt. When I slid out of his arms, I unbuttoned my shorts and wiggled out of them and my panties. When I stood before him in nothing but a bra, I whispered, “No regrets?” as I reached for his shirt.

He gripped my fingers and stared into my eyes. “I ain’t got time for awkward shit, Dove.”

“I want you, Reigh.”

“If we do this, Dove, ain’t no undoing it. I don’t fuck around with a lot of broads.”

“That’s not what Daniella said.”

“You ain’t Daniella. Let’s be clear: If I fuck this pussy, I own this pussy.”

“It’s yours, Reigh. Nobody else’s,” I vowed.

He released my fingers, and I tugged at his pants as he stripped his shirt off, and the rest of his clothes followed. We tumbled back onto the bed, and I allowed my fingers to trail over a myriad of tattoos as his powerful legs shoved mine apart.

My belly clenched and my pussy pulsed when I felt his hard muscle swing against my leg as he made room between them. I lifted my legs, wrapped them around his back, and grabbed his erection.

“Ohh!” I cried out when he flexed it in my palm.

“You gon’ play with it or ride it, li’l bit?”

I pressed his erection against my core, and he reached between us and spread me open.

He took over, guiding himself into me until he stretched me wide and fully seated himself inside of me.

I cried out at the intense pleasure of being filled for the first time in a year and of how our bodies connected so intimately.

Our kiss was open-mouthed as I reached up and freed his braids from the bun. “We never—”

“We can stop.” He panted as his tongue slid over mine.

“I can’t.”

“I’m good. Tests are clean.”

“Me too. It’s been so long,” I replied in a raspy voice.

“I never—”

I silenced him with a kiss before I spoke again. “Never?”

“Never. No.”

“Daniella?” I asked.

“Never.” His voice was a harsh reprimand as he penetrated deeper and pillaged my insides. His confirmation that he’d never slept with another woman raw awakened something deep inside of me. I could feel those carefully built walls I had erected starting to shift like tectonic plates.

He felt so good inside of me, I never wanted him to pull out.

As Reighvyn stroked the insides of me, kissed my body, and satiated my drought, I cried, begged for more, and welcomed him deeper into the heart of me. For the first time in a long time, I felt that I had found my home.

My back arched off the bed as he pushed me to depths I had never experienced before. My fingers worked deep into his skin; the pads of my fingers connected with the deep scar tissue from the burns. I recalled what each of them looked like underneath the tattoos.

I nipped his neck, pressed my hips against his, and sealed our connection beyond the physical and sought the spiritual.

When I released around him, it wasn’t just the physicality of the moment that drove me there; it was the realization that what I expressed with my body came from what was in my heart, and the source of that was that I loved this man and never had stopped, despite my feelings for Neal.

It was impossible to hold what I felt inside, impossible to ignore what he made me feel, and in the end, I couldn’t help but allow that declaration to pour from my lips. It was in stark contrast to what I had just told him, that I couldn’t offer anything more than sex.

“Oh, damn, Reighvyn. I love you.” I sobbed as I confessed my true feelings for my old friend.

His body froze for several seconds, but when it resumed its movements, it wasn’t the fast, thundering pace that shook my body and rocked me deep to my core.

It was a subtle awakening, a realization that his greatest desire had come true.

His strokes were deeper, yet slower and more evened.

His kisses were genuine, seductive, yet sweet.

With every touch of his hand, he awakened parts of me that I thought had been long dead.

Reighvyn made me feel again—alive, loved, and desired.