29. Naya
TWENTY-NINE
NAYA
"Hey, sweetheart." Amias was at a desk, the glittering lights of New York City behind him.
We spent almost every night from Christmas through New Year together, and alone, just the two of us.
When I started working at InnoWare, he continued to come to my place. I had been to his place a couple of times, but the size and the opulence intimidated me. He guessed as much and didn't push me.
It was March and spring hadn't yet shown its face in Boston. We'd been together for nearly three months now and it had been like being in my own fantasy novel.
I was already in bed when he called me over FaceTime.
"Hey. How were your meetings?"
"Good. How was your presentation?"
"Really good. Everyone was impressed. Eva came and told me that she was so glad I was at InnoWare." It had only been a few weeks, but I was already very happy with my decision to change companies—especially now that, for some strange reason, Amias and I were dating.
We were in our own cocoon. We spent time with one another.
If we went to a restaurant, it was just us.
We spent our evenings at my place with me working on the sofa and Amias on his laptop at my dining table.
I knew he'd be more comfortable at his apartment, where he had a home office, but he never complained.
"She should be. She stole you from Midas," he grumbled and then added, "I'm so fucking proud of you, Little Warrior."
He'd started calling me that, and every time he did, I felt something warm and amazing run through me, which tasted a lot like love and freedom all tangled into one another.
I was falling in love with Amias. I couldn't imagine how I'd hold his interest in the long run and worried that he'd start to miss his life with a busy social calendar and want me to go to parties with him…
or worse, wouldn't want me to go with him because he was embarrassed about me.
These feelings were unfair because he had not once suggested I change one thing about myself except that I stop saying cruel things to me about me.
"Would you look at someone else's scars and say, wow, those are hideous like Kara did to you?"
"No."
"Then why the fuck would you say it to yourself? Cut this shit out, okay? It's pissing me off."
But every time he got annoyed about it, hope bloomed inside me that this relationship was real, that we were a real couple. But I knew the cocoon would burst—his friends, his family, someone would enter, and then what? Would we be over? Would he then see how unsuitable I was for him?
"I miss you," I pouted.
He smiled, and I could see he was tired. He worked relentlessly as always. But he had started to take more time for himself, he told me, by spending it with me. However, when he was traveling like right now, he worked long hours "so I can come back home to you soon."
"I miss you too, Little Warrior. I'm back tomorrow, and I wanted to ask if you'd like to have dinner with Hayes and Darren at my place this Saturday."
All the joy drained out of me. He was missing other people. Of course he was. He wasn't an introvert like me.
"Stop it," he said sharply.
"What?" I tried to sound nonchalant.
"Hayes accused me of hiding you and said he had a right to spend time with my girl, especially since he likes you.
According to him, I have a lot to make up for because he'd had to spend time with Ann, who he, in his words, fucking couldn't stand.
And I thought it would be nice to let Darren see that he doesn't need to beat the shit out of me, which he tells me every week when I come to the institute. "
Amias had started to pick me up and drop me off everywhere; telling me that as soon as the weather got better he'd let me bicycle again.
He also dropped me off at work in the morning and picked me up as well.
He tried to buy me a car, and that didn't go well.
We fought. I yelled. He yelled. We had very good makeup sex.
"At your place?"
"Yes, Naya. Please? I want you to get comfortable in my apartment."
"Okay."
"Any restaurant you want to order food from for that dinner?"
"No," I protested. "I'll cook. No need to waste money on?—"
"Naya," he cut me off.
"I like to cook," I offered apologetically.
Money was still a sore subject between us.
He wanted to spend some on me, and I was determined to not let him.
It felt wrong. The women he'd dated in the past had their own money, but I knew that Amias bought them things: jewelry, expensive vacations, spa days…
whatever. Maybe it was okay for him to do that for them because they could return the favor.
I knew he had diamond cufflinks that Ann bought him and expensive ties.
I couldn't afford that. I couldn't take from him what I couldn't give.
He'd put his foot down when it came to going to restaurants, and I let him because I knew he loved homemade food, and I cooked most nights when we were together.
"But we both go grocery shopping, and you don't pay," he countered.
"Deal," I agreed.
"I get back tomorrow late," he said. "Would you mind very much staying at my place tomorrow night so I can be with you?"
I wanted to say no. But he had just enough hope in his eyes that I nodded. "Yes."
"Use your key fob," he instructed.
"What time will you be back? Should I cook dinner?"
He grinned. "Not tomorrow night, baby, I'll be in late. I love how you take care of me. I love…everything we do together. I'm going to look forward to finding you in my bed naked. Can you do that for me?"
"Yes." Arousal was instant with Amias—and he told me it was the same for him.
"I feel it's been forever since I've been inside you."
"It's been three nights," I teased.
"Like I said, forever. Baby?" He leaned back in his chair, and I heard his belt buckle. "Bring out your vibrator, Naya."
We'd never done this before. Phone sex. But then he'd never been gone for three nights in a row.
"Naya, baby, please. I want you so much."
I closed my eyes and let the duvet fall so he could see my breasts.
"Fuck, yeah. Cup your breasts."
I put the phone down on the stand at my bedside table and moved so he could see me. I cupped my breasts and squeezed.
"Pinch your nipples."
He moved his phone so I could see him at an angle, his cock sticking out of his suit pants as he jacked himself off.
"I need to see your pussy. Are you wet?"
The things Amias made me do, I thought as I moved so he could see my thighs clenched together.
"I want to see that vibrator inside you."
I parted my thighs and heard his groan. I pulled out the black rabbit from my dresser drawer and inserted it inside me.
"Yeah, baby, like that. Oh, Naya, I want to so badly be inside you." His hand was moving faster on him, and so did my vibrator.
I loved watching him as he came. His face was drawn, his muscles strained, his eyes on me.
"Push harder, baby, like I do. Now. Come now."
He came, and as I watched his semen spill into his hands, I detonated as well, gasping for air, tears leaking down my cheeks because it was so intense.
"Bring the vibrator over tomorrow," he said gruffly. "I want it inside your ass while I'm in your pussy."
The things he said, I thought.
He'd been an excellent teacher when it came to sex.
He was relentless and just bulldozed through my embarrassment.
He'd taught me to give him a blowjob, but so far, I hadn't managed to make him come in my mouth.
But I was working on it, and it was something we both enjoyed very much.
He'd fucked my breasts as I held them together for him, and he'd made me clean his cock after he came all over my face.
Sex was exciting with him. But there was so much more to our relationship. We talked about work and discussed projects. He was in New York to acquire a new company and he'd asked me to look at their offerings and code to get my opinion.
I'd never dreamed a relationship could be like this—so safe. I'd talked to Darren about it, and he was over the moon for me.
"Just marry that son of a bitch and lock him down, Sparky."
Okay, so Darren was way ahead of me. I didn't think we'd last through summer though Amias had given me no such indication.
Amias and I talked some more after we cleaned up—phone sex could get messy on both ends.
"I'd like your input on before we make a decision on acquiring this company. Can you take a look at their presentation? Do you have the time?"
"Sure," I told him, feeling proud that he valued my opinion with regards to an acquisition he was making.
"I'm concerned about some of their innovation timelines…or, as always, I'm being an asshole. I don't know."
"I'll take a look at it."
"You know, I should start paying you consultancy fees, and that payment could come in the form of?—"
"Sex," I interrupted him. "I want more lovemaking."
I knew he didn't like it when I said sex. He always called it making love, and I was trying my hardest to do that. But it wasn't easy. I wanted to keep my distance by calling it just sex because when this ended, it was going to be brutal. I'd miss him so much.
"There you go again."
"What?"
"We're not breaking up, Naya, and you need to stop thinking about it constantly."
"Stop reading my mind," I yelled at him.
"Stop being so fucking expressive then," he countered. "Now I've got another hour of work to do. So, good the fuck night."
"I'm sorry."
"Be in my bed naked tomorrow and make it up to me. I'll call you in the morning. Sleep well, Little Warrior."
"Goodnight, Amias."