CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
The next morning and she was sitting on top of Stuart riding him hard.
He was squeezing her breasts and admiring her body as sensations rolled through his penis with every glide she made.
His phone was ringing, but he didn’t bother to answer.
His phone rang again, but they ignored it.
They were in the deepest throes of their passion.
So much so that after nearly half an hour of Tabby riding him hard, Stuart grabbed her, laid her down on top of him, wrapped his arms around her, and took over.
It was different level whenever he took over. Because he knew how to hold’em, fold’em, walk away and run! He went slow, then faster, and then so fast that he was pounding her. And then slow again. And all of it kept them nearly climaxing, but never all the way.
Then his phone rang yet again. Agitated, he grabbed it from the nightstand and glanced at the Caller ID.
“Who is it?” Tabby asked.
But he didn’t answer her. He placed the call on Speaker and answered the phone. “I’m in the middle of something, JK.”
Tabby knew then it was his lead attorney.
“After reviewing the tape where Darius Browne paid Juan Gomez to pin the assassination attempt on you,” JK said, “all charges have been dropped against you. They already have Gomez in custody. An arrest warrant has been issued for Browne.”
Stuart and Tabby glanced at each other. Good luck with that warrant, their eyes seemed to say. But mostly they were relieved. “That’s good news,” Stuart said to his attorney.
“The DA just announced it at a press conference. Why didn’t you answer your phone when I called? You might have caught it live on TV.”
Tabby was sitting up but still on top of him. Stuart began fondling her breasts. “I was busy,” he said.
“I’m sure you were,” JK said with a chuckle, Stuart smiled too, and then the call ended.
Tabby was grinning from ear to ear. “I’m so happy, Stuart. You’re a free man again. That’s the best feeling ever. We can stop right now.”
“Stop?” It wasn’t the best feeling ever to Stuart. He laid her back down and wrapped his arms around her again. “You must be out of your mind if you think I’m stopping.”
Tabby laughed until he thrust so deep into her and with such a hard thrust that it shook her out of any thought of stopping. It felt too good.
And when they began cumming, she quickly realized how wrong she was. Cumming in Stuart’s arms, and with him pouring into her, was the best feeling ever. They came hard.
But a couple minutes after it was all over and she remained on top of Stuart laying in his arms, his phone began ringing. Because his phone was wired into his home system, every Voice Mail could be heard over the intercom.
Every call was from his friends, and they all were congratulatory in tone. They knew he was innocent all along, they all claimed.
“Now they call,” Tabby said disapprovingly as she and Stuart laid there and listened to every message. But it wasn’t lost on Tabby that ninety percent of the calls were from females.
She sat up on top of him to get a good look at him. “Are all of these women friends with benefits like me?”
He didn’t hesitate. “No.”
“None of them get the benefits I just got?”
“Some have. Some haven’t.”
His honesty sometimes felt brutal. “I can’t be in a relationship with a man who cheats, Stuart. Not that you’ve said we’re in a relationship. I’m not saying that. But whatever this is needs to be defined. Because if I’m not enough for you then you need to tell me that.”
He looked at her. “I don’t cheat,” he said.
“But I’m not interested in an open relationship or whatever they call it now.”
“Or?”
Tabby frowned. “If I’m not good enough for you I’m out. For real though.”
“Are you giving me an ultimatum, Tabitha?”
It felt like the moment of truth. But if he thought she was going to keep going like they were going and agree to be one of many, especially now that his “friends” were back, he was sadly mistaken.
She needed to shut that down now. If it meant the end of their whatever this was and she had to take her broke ass back to Larkin, then so be it.
She would hate it. But so be it. “Yes,” she said. “I’m giving you an ultimatum.”
“Good,” he said as if he’d been waiting for it. “I choose you.”
Tabby’s heart wanted to soar, but she was too scare to overread it. “What do you mean?”
Stuart was studying her as he placed his hand on the side of her face. “I want you and nobody else. That’s what I mean. If you will have me, you are officially my lady, Tabitha Morgan. And all those ladies before you are officially in my past. That’s what I mean.”
But instead of smiling the way he expected her to react, tears filled her beautiful eyes. Which concerned him. He wiped a singular tear as it fell down her face. “What’s the matter, sweetie?”
It took a moment for Tabby to compose herself.
And then she spoke. “To go from being a nobody to all those people I would pick up when I had my rideshare job, or to be lied on by people I delivered food to, or cheated on by every boyfriend I’ve ever had, to go from all of that to you? That means a lot.”
More tears fell. But she kept going. “Nobody wanted me. Not even my father or any of the siblings I helped raised. They all left and never checked on me or anything. So I decided that I had to want myself or I’ll just wither away to the invisible nothingness they saw me as.
I was gonna be alone in this world and I accepted that.
But being with you, and you wanting me, is so much better. ”
“Well damn I hope so,” he said, which made Tabby laugh so hard.
But then he turned serious too. “The truth is,” he said as he rubbed her hair, “nobody wanted me either.”
Tabby looked at him side-eyed. “Nobody? But all of those women are calling you.”
“They want what I can give to them, Tabby. They don’t want me. No one ever has. Not even my mother.”
Tabby stared at him. “We’re in the same boat, aren’t we?”
Stuart smiled. “The same leaky-ass boat, yes we are,” he said, and they both laughed.
“Dry your eyes, sweetheart,” he said to her as he wiped her eyes. “I’m here now.”
She loved his strength as she laid back on top of him and he wrapped her in his arms again.
And then one of his longest-serving “friends with benefits,” Jennifer, left a congratulatory message too:
“Oh, Stuart, I just heard the news. How marvelous! I knew it wasn’t you all along.
Those people are just awful for even suggesting such a thing.
But it’s perfect timing because it’s my Friday night dinner party time.
Which means we can restart fresh again.” Then she laughed.
“Gheri just said you ruined the stay over when you stopped coming around. But it’s not ruined, is it darling?
You can come Friday and stay over like you used to all those times before you stopped returning my phone calls.
Oh, darling it will be so lovely for you to come.
I miss you so much. Let’s not throw away all that history completely.
Please? Okay. I know it’s been a taxing time for you, so I’ll end this call.
But please show up this time, Stuart. You’ll be my guest of honor. Okay. Bye darling.”
Tabby leaned up and looked at him. “That was a lot.”
“Yes it was.”
“Who is that? She sounds like she was your main squeeze until two years ago.”
“Nobody was my main squeeze, as you put it, but she was a friend.”
“With benefits?”
He hesitated. “Yes.”
“What happened two years ago? Why did y’all break up?”
“We weren’t a couple, first of all. I simply stopped coming to her dinner parties.”
“And staying over afterwards.”
“Correct.”
“Why?”
He exhaled. “Remember the first time I met you?”
“At Argyles? Sure I do. You gave me that big tip.”
“Do you remember why I gave you that big tip?”
“Because that heifer at your table was. . .” She couldn’t believe it. “That lady, that Jennifer, is that heifer?”
Stuart nodded. “Yes.”
“And you stopped sleeping with her because of how she treated me?”
He nodded. “Yes.”
“But why?”
“I felt she crossed the line. I felt as if everybody was dumping on you and you didn’t deserve any of it. I don’t know. It was an instinctual thing. She was a bitch from the day I met her. That wasn’t new. And I’ve seen her mistreat waitresses a thousand times. That wasn’t new either.”
“Then what was new?” Tabby didn’t understand.
“You were new,” said Stuart. “There was something about you from the moment I laid eyes on you that made me feel . . .”
“That made you feel what?”
“Responsible for you. Don’t ask me why, but that was how I felt.”
Tabby smiled. “You’re an old softy.”
“That’s a lie,” he said and they laughed.
But then Tabby was still concerned. That woman spoke of history and what sounded like it could be love to her. “Are you going to her dinner party?”
“I am, yes.”
Tabby’s heart dropped.
“And you are too,” he added.
Tabby was shocked. “Me? Why would I wanna go anywhere near that horrible woman?”
“It’s time for you to meet my friends, and for them to meet my lady.”
His lady. It still seemed surreal to Tabby. “But when you needed them, when you were being accused of such a heinous crime, they weren’t there. They wouldn’t even call to check on you. They aren’t your friends, Stuart.”
“They’re fair-weather friends, darling. I told you that. As am I.”
“You aren’t a fair-weather friend.”
“Oh yes I am.”
“But you aren’t like that with me.”
“That’s because you’re different. You’re in a special category in my life. Now get up.”
She smiled because nobody had ever viewed her as special. “What are we about to do now?”
“I need to go see my son.”
“Oh!” But then she stopped. “But he may not wanna see you.”
“That doesn’t matter. I have to see for myself that he’s okay. He haven’t accepted any of my calls.” He was calling Alan against his attorney’s advice. “I’m going to have to go see him. And you’re going with me.”
Tabby didn’t argue about that one. She was thrilled to be included. And got up.
But after they showered, brushed and gargled, and were getting dressed, Stuart looked at her naked body one time too many and could no longer contain himself. He wanted her again.
And he had her. He bent her over for a quickie that turned out to be much longer than he had anticipated it would, and got some.
They were cleaning up again when his house manager’s voice came over the intercom. “Excuse me, sir.”
“Yes, Joshua, what is it?”
“Mr. Alan Jacobs, Miss Clare Jacobs, and Miss Nora Jacobs are downstairs in the lobby requesting permission to come up.”
Tabby looked at Stuart. She could tell he wanted to see his son, and maybe his daughter too, but did he want to see the one woman who broke his heart? She could immediately see a change in his entire demeanor. But she couldn’t figure out what it meant.
Stuart pinched the bridge of his nose. He hadn’t seen his ex-wife in over a decade. Why would she suddenly appear?
“Sir, are you there?”
“Yes, I’m here.” Then Stuart exhaled. “Go downstairs and escort them up, Joshua.”
“Right away, sir,” his house manager said and then ended the conversation.
It wasn’t lost on Tabby that Stuart continued to get dressed, with his usual pristine attention to detail, without looking at her one single time.