“Please don’t go, I don’t want to be alone… I—I just want to sleep without being afraid!” I whispered. He looked down at me with searching eyes.
“You don’t have to ever be afraid again. I will take care of you— always.” He stood and quickly pulled his shirt over his head before kicking off his shoes, and then he joined me in the bed. I nearly climbed on top of him, and didn’t relax until his big arms circled around me, securing me in their safety.
Moments later I was asleep again, and slept peacefully till morning. When next I woke, I was in bed alone. I sat up blinking as I looked around the room. I could smell Gabe’s cologne which meant he was probably dressed and already gone for the day.
I threw back the covers angry.
I had wanted to ask him for my bag. Yesterday, after he had given me his credit card with instruction to go shopping for the event tonight, he had scooped up my bag holding it in the air.
“I’ll hold on to this.”
“No, you can’t, I need my bag!” I begged as I reached for it.
“What do you need it for?” He looked down at me, his eyes missing nothing. I tried to school my features so he wouldn’t see how desperate I was.
“You’re just going shopping with Stacy and then you’re coming back. You don’t need your bag to do that.”
“Yes, I do!” I grimaced because that came out a whine. No matter how hard I was trying, my frustration was bleeding through my voice. This was my last chance at escaping, but I couldn’t go anywhere without my bag. It didn’t only carry my worldly possessions; it also carried my wallet with my social security card and my state ID.
“Tell me why?” He asked studying me so close I felt naked. I looked down at the floor, needing to break the contact.
“Because…” I muttered. He took a step toward me closing the gap between us.
“Because what Yas? You think you’re going to run away from me?” He leaned closer bringing his mouth just underneath my ear.
“You think I won’t find you?” Gently he touched his lips to that spot just underneath my ear that caused shivers to vibrate down my spine to settle in my center.
“I will find you. I won’t stop until I do. And that’s my word!” My eyes came up to his, his threat very real in the air. He leaned his head down and kissed my lips. This kiss was very gentle, just a touch of his lips against mine.
“I have to go to work. Jerome will be your driver. He’ll take you anywhere you want to go.” Mac came back in the kitchen then and handed him a silver phone.
“Here, this is your new phone, keep this on you at all times.” I took the phone from him looking down at it.
“Yas...” My gaze went back to his.
“Keep the phone on you!” I nodded and watched as he turned and left the kitchen with my bag clutched tightly in his fist. Shortly after that, Stacy, Mac’s sister showed up.
Stacy reminded me of Shanice, only more refined. When she walked in wearing a blue business casual suit that fit her shapely frame as if it had been made just for her, and a pair of nine inch heels, I looked down at my pa-pa’s overalls and my flats, feeling outrageously under dressed.
Then when she told me she was almost finished completing an eight year law program at NYU, and was already working as a paralegal at Geiger, Kline and Geiger; her intimidation level grew by leaps and bounds.
If Shanice made me feel like a country mouse, Stacy made me want to keep my mouth closed just so she didn’t know how unrefined I was.
“Myself, and more than half the black women in New York are extremely jealous of you right now. How the world you managed to catch the uncatchable will forever be a mystery.” She said as she dragged me in a place called, Elite Spa.
“Well not really, you are extremely beautiful. And you seem like the type a Dom like Gabe would be attracted to.” I had no idea what she was talking about. Me catching the uncatchable… Gabe being a Dom,and me being his type—goodness, what was she babbling on about? And why was she dragging me into a spa? We supposed to be dress shopping.
“Why are we going into a spa?”
She stopped and looked at me as if I had just uttered a curse on the entire world.
“Honey, if a man gives you his credit card and it’s black, dear heart, the spa is always the first place you stop. One needs to prepare one's self to go shopping with a black card, biscuit.” She grabbed my arm pulling me through the door that was being held open by a smiling employee.
“Hang with Stacy sweetheart, I will teach you how to do this.” And boy did she teach. She ordered both of us something called the, Queens Pampering Package. Four hours later, I walked from the back feeling like a noodle. I had been submerged in mud and wrapped in sea weed. I got a facial, an hour long massage, a pedicure and a manicure. Who knew such bliss existed. I had never been so relaxed in my life.
However, when we got to the front desk and it was time to pay the bill, I reached in my pocket for the credit card but it dropped from my fingers when I saw the receipt.
“Twelve-hundred dollars!” I cried appalled. Stacy smiled at the lady behind the register as she picked up
