In the Ring: A Dario Caivano Novel Page 16

I can’t lie; it felt good hearing her voice, but I wouldn’t tell her that.

  “Hey. How’s things?”

  There was an elongated pause before Chanel spoke again. “Hey Dario, how are you?” she asked.

  It wasn’t lost on me that she chose to not respond to my inquiry into how she was.

  “I’m good. Well, kinda. Shit.”

  My words were constricted and I didn’t know what the hell I was saying. I felt like I was in business I had no place being in, but . . .

  “What’s going on?” she asked, her tone laced with concern. “Is everything okay?”

  “Not really. I . . . uhh . . . uhh . . .” Exactly why I was tripping over my words, I didn’t know, but it was a weird-ass feeling. I didn’t want her mad at Rai for any reason, but I couldn’t walk away at a time when I felt like he needed me to be his voice. “I talked to Rai earlier. Are you free to talk in person, real quick? If so, you can tell me where you are and I can come to you.”

  “No,” she responded quickly. “I mean, yes, I’m free to talk, but I’d rather come to you.”

  “Okay, well, I’ll be at my house in about ten minutes if you want to meet me there.”

  ~*~*~

  I had no idea that Rai was still in contact with Dario. I smiled at the thought. It warmed my heart that he didn’t turn his back on Rai. I knew how much Rai valued the friendship they shared.

  Damn, Chanel.

  I hadn’t seen Dario since the breakup and I was a bundle of nerves. I missed him with my entire heart, but I did what needed to be done. I couldn’t bear for the truth to come out and that was something I knew Tyler would make good on, if I didn’t do things the way that he wanted them done. The problem was that it was becoming more and more difficult to look at him each day with the brewing hate. It was beyond me why a man who prided himself on being able to have any woman he wanted would subject himself to being in a relationship that was forced. I didn’t understand. And the bottom line was that I didn’t have to understand because what was at stake was much more important.

  After passing security and driving into Dario’s community, I inhaled a deep breath in preparation of seeing him. I wondered if he would see in my eyes the longing. I had to stand my ground and remain strong. I drove up his driveway and parked in one of three spaces in front of his home and killed my engine. I was so nervous that I’d forgotten to check the mirror to ensure that I was intact, and now I couldn’t do it because he could very well be looking at me from any one of his many windows.

  Just get out the car, girl, so you can see what this meeting is all about.

  Before I did get out of the car, I called Rai to let him know that I’d be to his grandma’s a little later than normal. When he didn’t answer, I shot off a text message. A few more deep breaths later, I exited my vehicle and journeyed to Dario’s front door where he was already awaiting me.

  Oh my God, girl, he’s right there. He’s right there . . . Shit.

  I was about to be met with that physique. Maybe that smile. And those eyes. I need to focus. I made my way up the walkway and once I reached the top stair, a smile formed across Dario’s face. I reciprocated as he stood to the side, allowing me into the house. Damn, and there’s that scent. The moment I walked past him, his Irish Spring and Creed Aventus mix tickled and lingered at the entrance to my nostrils, bringing back memories of being in his arms.

  CHAPTER 40

  Dario

  As hard as I tried not looking at her in her track suit, it was hard as fuck . . . and so was my dick. But I had to make sure that I stayed on track. I hadn’t called her over to make moves on her, but it was taking everything in me not to. She looked flawless with her smooth skin and bright eyes. I could tell that she was avoiding direct eye contact so I knew she was uncomfortable and that was the last thing I wanted her to feel.

  “You’re looking good, Chanel.”

  “Thank you, so are you.”

  “How are you doing?” I asked, hoping that she’d answer this time since she was face-to-face.

  “I’m . . . uhhh . . . okay,” she nervously replied. “How are you?”

  “I’m okay. Got Wicked right at the finish line, finally. Things are moving along.”

  “Oh, that’s great, Dario. I’m happy for you. I’ll bet it’s one of the hot spots, huh?”

  “We’ll see. The grand opening is in a few weeks. Check back then,” I chuckled.

  “I’m sure it’s going to be phenomenal.”

  “Thanks for the faith.”

  “Of course.”

  Our eyes lingered on one another for seconds on end before I broke the silence. “There’s still a few minor interior things to do, but for the most part, it’s pretty spiced up.”

  “That’s great, Dario.”

  That was the second time that she’d spoken my name since she arrived. Yeah, I was counting. And I was counting because each time it rolled off of her tongue, memories of her calling out my name during lovemaking sessions, flooded back like a tsunami.

  “Well, I don’t want to hold you. I’m sure you’re wondering why I called you over here.”

  She looked up and offered me another thin smile. “You’re not holding me up, Dario.”

  Dario. She’d said it again. That was the third time . . .

  It was something in the way she spoke those words. There was something there in the tone and I found myself trying to find the underlying meaning. Maybe I was reading too much into it and maybe it was just a statement, but whatever the case, before I knew it, I was where she was and I was pulling her to me in a hungry embrace. Not once did she resist and that alone gave me all the permission that I needed.

  When I penetrated Chanel and felt her warmth surround my dick, I lost it. It felt too good to stop. We’d gone too far already and there was no turning back. Not that I had intentions of turning back. I took ownership of her pussy and held it captive. With each deep stroke, my dick grew more rigid. I swam inside of her, moving in and out at varied speeds, making sure that we both got what we needed—closure. My body must have gotten the memo because not even after cumming twice was I anywhere near done. I wasn’t ready for it to be over—to let her go.

  “How is that?” I asked as I slid in and out of her weeping center. “How is it?” I asked her repeatedly, knowing that she was too spent to respond.

  Closure wasn’t looking for a finale, it wanted encore after encore. Chanel held on tight as I rode her. It was as though our peak had no ending as we continued the wave of sensation.

  “Ohhh, ohhh, ohhh!” she cried. “Ahhh, ahhh, Dario . . . Ohhhh!”

  Chanel pulled my head to hers and with our sweat becoming a pool of one; our kiss was salty with hunger as our tongues swam around each other’s mouths. It was a labor of lust . . . I’d even go so far as to say . . . love. But neither of us would say it. Not that we needed to because the moment had spoken for itself. It was spectacular, meaningful, and an event that neither of us wanted to end. Clearly, we belonged, but would that be?

  The question was answered a short time later when Chanel grew quiet on me.

  “Dario . . .” she whispered, with tears resting in the corners of her eyes. “I have to go.”

  I remained where I was, speaking no words. I wanted for Chanel to think about what she was doing without any help from me. I felt her when we made love and I knew by the level of intensity that she knew where she belonged, but I wasn’t going to force her to come to that conclusion.

  “Before you go, you might need to talk to Rai. He’s not doing so well.”

  She turned around to me as she was snapping her bra back in place. “Did he confide something in you?”

  “Just that he’s worried. But that’s all he said,” I lied. I didn’t want her mad at him. “I talk to him all the time, and he always seems okay.” Another lie. “But there was just something about this time. I think he needs to talk.” That was truth.

  “Oh. Okay. Well . . . we talked this morning and I know that he’s strugg
ling with things. I know.”

  She was nervous and her entire body and voice told the story of just how shaken she was.

  “He really is . . . struggling.”

  “I’ll talk to him some more when I get him home later.”

  “Don’t let him know that I mentioned anything to you. I’m not sure that he wanted me to tell you and I didn’t get to tell him that I’d be saying anything. I don’t want him to think that he can’t come to me when he needs to. Regardless of what you have going on, I don’t want Rai to feel as though he doesn’t have multiple outlets.” I proceeded to clean my clothes from the floor so that I could hop into another shower. “And if it causes a problem for your boyfriend, tough shit. Because the way I see it, Rai really needs somebody and I can’t sit idly by while he suffers through whatever this is you’ve allowed yourself to sink back into.”

  “Thank you,” she said, while making her way to the front door. “I appreciate you being there for him.”

  That was the last thing she said before turning away from me. Everything in me told me that she was crying. Everything in me wanted to run to where she was and scoop her up into my arms and bring her back inside, but then logic kicked in and made me realize that that was more than likely the last time I would see Chanel.

  CHAPTER 41

  Chanel

  When I got into the shower I still had a few hours to spare before getting Rai from my mother’s and I was glad for that time to regroup. I needed it, desperately. The last thing I wanted to do was wash the memories of Dario off of me, but a shower offered me relaxation. I craved that so much right now.

  Something needed to silence all the noise that was going on inside my head and inside of my body. In my head, I was going over all the lives that had been affected by Hurricane Tyler and this mess, but my body was still skipping happily down memory lane. The spasms that would hit my core ever so often, ever so tingly, and ever so powerful, wouldn’t let me forget.

  The contractions from my walls were without warning and often to where I had to tighten my thighs to silence the darting sensation. Dario’s touch was still very much alive as I closed my eyes and allowed the shower’s rain to fall over me. The warm trickle of the water was soothing, but with my eyes closed, I had a replay of our entire excursion on repeat in my head. Dario sucking my nipples, Dario’s fingers playing in my juices while he teased my clit, and oh my God, that initial penetration that had my entire pelvic vibrating! It was the God-given goodness that bliss was made of.

  I stepped out of the shower and felt revived. Rai was on my mind heavy. My baby was suffering and I needed to fix it for his sake.

  “Look at that,” I heard as I snatched my body toward my bedroom door. I immediately ditched my towel and hurriedly reached for my robe to cover myself.

  “Tyler, what are you doing here?”

  “I came to see you and hang out for a bit.” He proceeded toward me, prompting me to tense up. “Looks like I came at the right time.”

  “You should’ve called before you came over, Tyler.”

  “What’s the purpose of having a key if I can’t come by when I want, pretty girl?”

  He entered my personal space and started to grab for my robe. “Don’t do that, Tyler. You know we’re not there.”

  “You better get there, Chanel. We’re not doing this shit half-assed for too much longer, so you better get with the program. This shit is all the way real with me and that’s how it needs to be for you too.”

  I heard the threat in his tone, as his face sat mere inches away from mine, making me despise his ass even more. If I had the gene in me to kill at will, I would fuck him good and kill his ass in his sleep. It would be worth it just to get him gone. Fortunately, for him, I couldn’t ever see myself taking somebody’s life. But the same couldn’t be said for him because taking life from me was exactly what he was doing each and every day I was stuck in his trap.

  “I told you that I needed time.”

  “And it’s been damn near five months,” he shot. “The sooner you accept that we’re a family, the better off you’ll be. It ain’t like I haven’t touched you before. It ain’t like you didn’t enjoy it all the times it happened. We were good together, Chanel. All you have to do is give in to it. I’m not the same man that I was before.”

  “No, you’re not, Tyler. You’re something much worse.”

  “That’s fucked up. You know that I love you and that I always have.”

  “I know that you want to control me. That’s what I know. I doubt that love has anything to do with it. If you loved me, the only thing you’d want for me is my happiness. You wouldn’t try to force me into a fake world with you where nothing is real. You wouldn’t do that if you loved me, so you can stop saying that shit.”

  “I’m sorry you feel that way. Shit is unfortunate because the only thing you’re doing is prolonging a situation that should come natural to you.” He ran his hand down the length of my robed arm and smiled. “Just let it happen. I promise it’ll be good and probably even better than you remember. I just want to feel your body against mine, suck your nipples until they’re hard as pebbles, and then slide my tongue up every inch of your body. Just let me.”

  Just as I was about to tell him ‘no’ for the thousandth time, my cell phone blared playing, Rock the Boat by Aaliyah.

  Recognizing the ringtone, Tyler smiled. “Saved by Ma Dukes, I see,” he stated sarcastically, as he moved away from me. I used that opportunity to take a huge step backwards.

  A few minutes later, I ended the phone call with my mother and proceeded to throw on some jeans, a tank and a hoodie. “I’m going to get Rai. I guess I’ll see you later.” I was hinting for him to get his ass out. But he had other ideas.

  “I’ll just wait until y’all get back. Maybe we can hang out since it’s the weekend.”

  “I don’t know if that’s—”

  “Hurry back, baby,” he interjected with the wickedest of smiles, ever.

  Asshole!

  CHAPTER 42

  Chanel

  I could already tell from my mother’s tone over the phone that she was ready for battle. She had some shit on her mind and she made that really clear when she rolled her eyes at me as soon as I had walked into her house some twenty minutes earlier. She didn’t miss a beat either. From the moment I came in the door, she was at it. I tried for the longest to avoid a confrontation with her, but the more she poked and prodded, the more impossible it became not to go toe-to-toe with her.

  “Mama, please do not keep beating this damn dead horse over the head!” I finally shot out full speed ahead. She’d been talking at me and I was tired of it. With her relentlessly going in on me, and then knowing I had to face the damn devil when I got home . . . I just had enough. “You got you a new life, a new man, focus on that!”

  “You should really check your tone, Chanel. I asked you a simple question and you are up in my damn living room . . . in my house acting a damn fool. That’s what you’re not gon’ do. Not today, ma’am. No, no.”

  My stress level had been so high lately that I had neither the strength nor the desire to debate with my mother. I didn’t have it in me to battle with anybody behind this decision that I had made to be with Tyler. I knew that everybody was looking at me like I was some kind of fuckin’ crazy. I knew it. Everybody, including my child, but it had to be done.

  “Now, if you’re going through some shit, then we can talk about that, but don’t take that shit out on me because I ask a damn question.”

  “It ain’t just a question though, Mama. You’re asking about a decision that I made for my life. Just leave it at that. It’s not as serious as you’re making it.”

  “Now, that right there is some bullshit. I’ve seen you. I’m your mother. I know that you’re not the same. You don’t even walk around with the same happiness in your demeanor. Your eyes never have a smile inside of them. I know something ain’t right! And since I noticed it from the time you got back with him too many
damn months ago . . . I’m asking. Now, you can say however many times you want to, that it don’t have anything to do with me, that it’s not my business, but as long as my grandbaby is affected, it does have to do with me.”

  “Mama, you already know more than anybody that I’m never gonna put Rai in a position that’s unhealthy for him. You know that.”

  “But it is unhealthy—emotionally unhealthy!”

  “Oh my God, Mama! What’s so hard about trusting me?!”

  “Because this isn’t right! I saw you when you were with that other guy, Dario. You were happy, Rai was happy, that’s why. I saw how alive you were with that man and in that relationship. I saw how he was with Rai and I know that there was something there. You don’t just walk away from something like that and go back to that. You just don’t. So, what I needed you to come over here today for was to see if today would be the day that you stop feeding me the bullshit.”

  I shook my head. She wasn’t letting up even a little bit. I’d never known her to be so persistent about anything before. I inhaled a deep sigh and then puffed it out in the manner that I did when I was young with an attitude. I felt like she was holding me hostage with her burning gaze.

  “Mama, look, I didn’t come over here to argue. I’m not going to argue. I’ve already told you all that I can . . . I’ve already told you all that needs—”

  She stepped closer to me and locked her position leaning down into my face. “See. That right there. I didn’t miss that. You said all that you can. I heard that, Chanel.”

  “It was me talking too fast, Mama. Stop reading more into it than needs to be read.”

  I pushed the chair back away from her and rose from my seat. I began to pace around the kitchen until I found myself at the bay window overlooking my mother’s garden. I was so close to tears it wasn’t funny. But I knew better than to cry because if that happened, she would have me spilling all the truth and I just couldn’t do that.