Love UnCharted (Love's Improbable Possibility) (28 page)

Thompson’s smoldering eyes were drunken with strong desire that couldn’t be mistaken. When his mouth came into my face I knew what he was doing, but didn’t have the speed of mind and/or the coordination of body to move clear out of the way of his tempting lips. I felt the heat from his tequila fragrant breath and braced myself when I was abruptly hit with the realization that it wasn’t Azmir’s familiar brandy mixture. But it was too late.

“
YOU MUST HAVE LOST YOUR FUCKIN’ MIND!
”

The frightening shriek rang familiar and had my legs quivering in my pumps. My movements were slow thanks to the four cocktails I downed at the restaurant, but eventually I was able to turn to see Azmir’s onrush towards me and immediately felt him toss my limpid body away from the car. Panic settled in when I couldn’t stop flying and then I felt the arms of someone else. I looked up to find Ray’s long arms surrounding me, breaking me from my near-cement collision.

Thompson flew into a rage. “What in the hell do you think you’re doing, Jacobs? She doesn’t belong to you anymore!”

Azmir’s seething eyes left mine, but before he looked over to Thompson and I saw red in them. They were droopy and told stories of his lack of sleep, restlessness, and something darker—
fury
. He was draped in a wonderfully fitted two-piece dark gray suit with a hint of a gloss that exposed his deliciously crafted thighs and his dress shirt was untucked with the first few buttons undone. The stubble in his face couldn’t go unnoticed. While the look flawed on most men, it wondrously made Azmir’s look edgy and sexy as hell and turned me on to end. My strong, commanding, virile mogul was exhausted, and looked at me with such ferocity that it terrified me. In a flash, I saw pain and betrayal in his eyes that oddly gave my drunken state a boost of courage.

“Who do you think you are, making a scene like this?” I fired away.

Azmir’s face scrunched as he walked closer to me suspiciously. It was deathly frightening. I didn’t know what he was capable of, I’d never seen him this angry…with me. That’s when I saw Thompson rushing Azmir, and before I knew it, he swung his fist and hit the tip of Azmir’s chin and seemingly without much impact.

Fearing Azmir would be caught off guard and harmed, I screamed, “Nooooooo!”

Azmir, unfazed by the minor blow due to Thompson’s inaccuracy and lack of strength, maintained his amble towards me.

“Are you… Have you been drinking?”

I didn’t know how to respond to it. His revelation made me feel exposed and that somewhere along the way I’d allowed my tipsy state to show. His scowl effectively forced me off my balance and farther into Ray’s hold. Angrily, I snatched away from him, trying desperately to give a façade of dignity.

“What is it to you, Azmir?” was all I could think to retort.

Azmir reached over to me, causing me to flinch, and with tender care, wiped my right eye.

“You let her…fuckin’ did this to her in the middle of a workday?” Azmir yelled over to Thompson.

That’s when I saw Thompson, again launching toward Azmir, “Don’t fucking touch her!” he screamed violently and hit Azmir in the back of his head.

Again, Azmir didn’t recoil. It was as if Thompson’s efforts were from an errant toddler.

Hoarsely, Azmir ordered to Ray, “Take her to the fuckin’ marina! I’ll be there in a minute!” Brooklyn was definitely in effect.

When Ray gently, yet firmly took me at my shoulders, he urged, “Come on, Ms. Brimm. Let’s go.”

“No! I’m not going anywhere!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. “Azmir, I don’t belong to you. I’m not one of your many assets!”

Calmly and with gentle tugs, Ray begged, “Ms. Brimm, please. We’re causing a scene at your place of business.”

Huhn?

I turned to see at least a dozen of people gawking at the events taking place. Then what should have been my initial fear in a sober mind had arrived. At least a half a dozen of brawny and treacherous looking men suddenly started closing in on our cipher and zeroed in on Thompson like vultures to its prey.

“Give the word, Divine!” the thick one with his shirt already removed vowed, flexing his chest muscles, nearly drooling with harmful anticipation.

Azmir, without looking at them, raised his left index finger in the air. The gang stopped in their tracks. “Legal Eagle,” Azmir spoke firmly. Even through my drunken state, I presumed it was cryptic for
lawyer
.

He then looked over to me and roared, “You stay the fuck put until I get there!”

That’s when Ray practically lifted me in the air, pulling me away from Azmir and Thompson. I wanted to scream and to pull from Ray’s grasp, but before I could sway my body, I saw Azmir walk into Thompson’s person with his head cocked to the side, saying something that wasn’t audible. I couldn’t hear what Thompson said in return either, but saw when he took another jab at Azmir that Azmir caught effortlessly midair. He grabbed Thompson’s fist and with lightning speed struck him square in the face twice, causing blood to squirt from his face before Thompson’s legs gave out and he collapsed on the ground. Azmir stood over him, still speaking as if Thompson was in any condition to respond.

Thompson’s body was sprawled out and motionless on the concrete. Just like the guy on the dance floor with me last summer, Thompson didn’t see his doom coming. Azmir was a quiet storm, unassuming and I think that’s the way he wanted to be reputed. As Ray placed me in the car, I heard Azmir’s voice raise as he repeatedly asked him, “Didn’t I fuckin’ warn you to stay away from her?”

It tore at my chest to see Azmir so angry and in acrimony while I was being hauled off, unable to calm him. Thompson was laid out on the ground, bloodied without Azmir even breaking a sweat. 

~~~~~~~~~~

I sat on the sofa back at the marina with tears streaming down my tightened and stained face. In the past thirty minutes, I’d cried an abundance of tears—some that had dried, making tracks down my trembling cheeks and others fresher, tasting of bitter regret. Guilt had settled in while I rewound time and replayed it over and over again in my mind. My chest heaved in my blouse violently, my diaphragm was hyperactive with spasms. My quivering lips were moist from the warm breaths that rushed through my mouth. As my cosmopolitan high came down, I couldn’t believe the many lapses in judgment that led me to this agonizing place.

Was Azmir arrested? Was Thompson hospitalized? Will this ruin Azmir’s image? Will I have a job? How will I deal with his pending hatred of me?
I couldn’t begin to piece together a plan of resolve after this.

Was it worth it?

The plan was to sit. And wait.

Ray kindly walked me to the door and let me in. I didn’t have my keys. Azmir had snatched them from the ground after they’d dropped from my hand when he pulled me from Thompson’s fold. I couldn’t go home to check on Azna. He needed to be let out and fed,
he can’t call for help
.
Will Azmir call from the county jail?
He wouldn’t call me, he has handlers for that. The cogs of my mind wouldn’t slow.

Will Brett be calling me with the news?
Perhaps Dawn Taylor.
Oh, god! What have I done?
My fretful thoughts wouldn’t halt.

I jumped and swung my body around when I heard the door snatched open. Azmir’s lengthy physique forced through the door frame, cupping Azna in one arm while carrying two duffle bags on his other shoulder. I immediately recognized them. They were the same ones I packed from here when I left him last week. His eyes seized mine right away. I steeled.

He dropped the bags from his shoulder and let down Azna, who didn’t run over to me. Instead my little fur ball ran toward the back of the apartment, possibly looking for his old toys. Azmir sauntered past me and over to the bar there in the living room near the waterfront view of the picturesque marina. He snatched a tumbler and poured a half a glass of brandy and in seconds, drained it before going for another. Seconds felt like hours anticipating his next move. The silence was deafening, but my throat was constricted and fear gripped my liberty to speak. He emptied the second glass of amber juice and slammed it on the bar, spewing mumbled profanities. My sweaty hands clawed the sofa.

He set his fixation out on the marina and with a calm voice that roared in my heart he asked, “Do you want Thompson?”

My eyes widened and mouth went dry as I parted my lips. “No,” I spoke with trembling chords.

“Well, why the fuck would you get drunk with him during work hours?”

I didn’t know how to answer that. I didn’t have to.

“What do I have to do?” he asked with a frightening even tone.

I didn’t understand his question. With a deep swallow, I attempted to wet my throat.

“Do…?”

His head jolted over to me infuriately. “Do! What do I have to do to make you feel safe again? What do I have to do to get you to forget about Thompson and…and Dawn…and to get you back to understanding that here is where you belong?” His breath gave out and his fist rose to his mouth. I knew there was no way around this conversation.

“Time,” I submitted just above a whisper.

Azmir slammed both fists into the bar and all the bottles on top leaped in place and met the bar top with a clash on their way down. “
FUCK TIME! YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH IT!
” His vicious shout in his Brooklyn tongue vibrated off the walls.

My head flew back into the sofa and wind came crushing through my mouth audibly. There was that frightening side of Azmir that I’d guessed laid dormant. I couldn’t believe that I caused the resurgence of it. I’d uncovered the rage.

“In all my projected thoughts and plans of aging, never once did they include scraping at the meat of my nails…” he glanced down at his hands and I shivered at the visual. “…to keep a woman in my arms, at my side, in my home, in my bed. Never once did I think she wouldn’t feel that I am good enough to hold on to.”

His words plummeted my heart in double time. My throat closed up. I couldn’t breathe. “No, Azmir. It’s not like that,” I whimpered.

His scowl darted back over to me. “The hell it ain’t!” he scoffed. “You run every chance you get. You run!”

“It’s not like you have no culpability in this,” I bravely murmured, offended by his summary of things.

“
FUCK DAWN!
”

“YOU WANTED TO!” I jumped from the couch and dug my feet into the Persian rug, seething at his audacity. “You can stand here and lie all you want, but I know you—I know your sexual temperament. You wanted to fuck her, just like you wanted to fuck me after our first kiss,” I charged back at him.

He cocked his head to the side, pushing his tongue into his molars and walked slowly over to me with revelation in his eyes. “Is that what you were going to do?
W
-was that your plan…to take him home and fuck him?” His brows were furrowed, masking the deep stirring of his wrath as he searched my eyes for the truth.

“I-I would
never
stoop so low. I can’t believe you asked me that—”

“You let him kiss you! If I hadn’t come out there looking for you to return, you would have—” he turned in disgust at the thought. “Gah!” He tramped back toward the water view with one hand on his hip and another in air until he swung it aimlessly and so hard, I jumped.

What did I do? Would I had kissed Thompson back? Am I even attracted to him?
I mean, he is an attractive man, but does he even catch my attention? Or was my behavior retribution for Azmir’s betrayal? Had I allowed my pain and angst from his kissing Dawn to push me to behave so reckless?
That was it—that was my motive!

“You kissed her,” I murmured.

“And you let him kiss you!” He shot back with his gaze steady on the marina and his voice with a sudden tremor. “When I saw his lips touch yours…I felt a pain spike my dick as if that motherfucka’ tried to yank it from my body. He tried taking something that is attached to me!”

Tears pooled my eyes and my throat choked out,  “Well, I’m glad you know how it feels.”

Azmir’s head swung around and his eyes pierced through me like a sword. Before I knew it, his lean frame jaunted over to me and his hand cradled my head as his mouth covered mine. His tongue pushed through my lips as his strong arm pulled me into him by the small of my back. The brandy…the stench of auburn juice that I’d come to appreciate hit my nostrils, surging through my brain, alerting of a familiar fragrance and suddenly every cell in my body came alive and hypersensitive to his scent, touch, and sight.

He reached down, ripped off my blouse and tore the zipper of my skirt. His touch was so abrasive, but my body responded to it so well, I needed it. I needed him. To cleanse me, my mind, and inoculate my body of every memory of another man’s touch. And I wanted him to. I wanted him to free me of everything that prevented me from loving him the way he needed me to—because I knew I needed him.

His head bowed and from my chin to my eyelids he licked every stained tear from my face. My breasts felt so heavy in my bra and my breathing was uncontrolled. His tongue traveled down to my neck and I pushed his head into me, clawing my frustrations at him, my insecurities of his adoration for another woman. My chest heaved again and tears began to pool
again
. I collapsed my hands to my side.