ROMANCING HER PROTECTOR (11 page)

now that Matty was all into making sure she took full advantage of her education, but Jessica,

with all of her various male friends, made concentration nearly impossible whenever she was at

the dorm.

“So what can I do you for?”

“You still coming home tomorrow?”

“Yes, that’ll work,” Matty responded to one of his aides. Then he said to Shay: “More

like Friday, I’m afraid.”

“Oh.” This surprised Shay. She was looking forward to seeing him again tomorrow.

“What time Friday? I’m asking because I wanted you to meet my roommate.”

“Yes, I want to meet her. But Friday won’t work, I’ll be tied up Friday and the

weekend, too.” Friday night was the night of the annual ball, a ritzy get-together for power

players at the college president’s house. Only it was always a weekend affair, not just one

night, with the various events culminating in all of the invitees attending church together on

Sunday, to show a united front. It certainly wasn’t how he wanted to spend his weekend, but

he had promised Alex.

He continued: “Could you bring your roommate by the office, say, Monday, after your

Communications class?” Matty knew Shay’s school schedule almost as well as she knew it

herself.

“Monday?” Shay said. “But I thought. . .” She had thought they would spend the

weekend together. She was certain that they would. “So you’re tied up this weekend too?”

“’Fraid so.”

“Work and more work?”

“Something like that, yes.” Matty exhaled. If it had been anybody but Alex, he would

have told them what they could do with their weekend retreat. But it was Alex. And she’d

been dumped by lover boy football coach, a fact he knew hurt her more than she was willing

to admit. She needed him.

“But I thought you said we would hook up this weekend,” Shay said, “that you had

tickets to the Kennedy Center and everything.”

“I know. And I do. It’s just that something’s come up and I’ll need to take care of it.”

“I don’t get that,” Shay said, a frown piercing her face.

“You don’t get what?”

She didn’t get how he could be so into her, as he claimed every night he phoned her

while he’d been away, and how he couldn’t wait to see her again, only when he got in town he

was going to be so busy that he couldn’t see her until the following week? “Yeah, whatever,”

she said, refusing to allow herself to go down some emotional road. “I’ll see if I can make it

Monday.”

Matty hesitated. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just what I said. I’ll see if I can make it Monday. You’re tied up this weekend, I may

be tied up Monday. I’m not as busy as you, but I do have a life. So I’ll see.”

“What are you telling me, Shay? That you may not be available next week?”

“I might not be,” Shay said defensively. “I’m not going to always be at your beck and

call, Matty, I’m not that hard up and I never will be.”

“Hard up? Where did that come from?”

“I just don’t play games, all right? I know good n’ well you aren’t working no twenty-

four-seven all weekend, so don’t even try me like that. If you don’t wanna be with me, if you

don’t wanna be bothered with me, then fine, just say that. But don’t play me for a fool.

Don’t play me with this working all weekend bullcrap because I ain’t trying to hear that. I’ll

never be that naïve.”

Matty pinched the bridge of his nose. What hurt him most wasn’t the fact that she had

it right on the money about him not being so busy that he had to work all weekend, but that

she had it so wrong about him not wanting to see her again. He wanted to be with her above

anybody else. It’s just that he still had Alex to consider . . .

“Anyway,” Shay said, when he didn’t respond to her diatribe, “I know you’re a very

busy man and I wouldn’t wanna waste another second of your precious time.” A look of

regret, of pain, crossed over her face. “Bye, Matty,” she said as she flipped shut her cell.

She leaned back in her chair as tears stained her eyes. Matty was the only human being

on the face of this earth who had ever treated her as somebody special, and the idea of losing

him would be hard for her to handle. But she’d handle it easily if it meant not becoming

emotionally dependent on him. She’d handle it easily if it meant not playing the fool for him.

She wasn’t the kind of female who could overlook red flags, and a man professing all

this great interest in you, and then not bothering to see you for days after he return to town,

was, for her, a serious red flag. Were there so many other women in his life that there just

wasn’t enough hours in the day? Was that what this was about? Had being with her not

changed his lifestyle at all?

She had so many questions. But it wasn’t as if it mattered now, she thought, as she

picked back up her school book. She didn’t like rollercoaster rides and wasn’t going on one

with anyone. Not even Matty.

Yet, that very next morning, when she and Jessica were walking out of Devender Hall to

head to class, Matty’s Mercedes was parked at the curb, with Matty, in casual wear and

sunglasses, leaned against it. Shay’s heart soared, but she contained herself.

“Who is that hunk of meat?” Jessica asked as they headed down the steps.

“That’s Matty,” Shay said. “Come and meet him.”

Jessica was astounded. That was Matty? She expected a nice looking man, Shay could

be so hard to please about everything, but damn, she thought. That white man
fine
!

“Hello there,” Matty said as Shay and her roommate approached him. He had decided

to cut his trip short, and fly back overnight, to see her again. He had hurt her, he could hear it

in her voice yesterday, in the way she became so defensive on the phone and had lashed out at

him. And rightly so, he thought, as he saw her. He hated lying to her, he hated telling her he

had to work this weekend when it wasn’t at all about work.

But he felt he was in a bind. He still cared about Alex, they had been together too long

for him not to still have serious feelings for the woman, but his feelings for Shay were so

different. Sometimes frighteningly different. And the idea of losing her, he was beginning to

realize, would be a tough pill to swallow. A pill, he thought as he saw her gorgeous eyes light

up just on seeing him again, he wasn’t sure he could swallow.

“Hello yourself,” Shay replied, attempting to sound cautious, although her heart was

hammering. After yesterday she halfway expected him to call it off, to decide she was too

much work like he once told her other men probably decided about her, and call it quits. Now

he was standing right in front of her. “I didn’t expect to see you this morning,” she added.

“I moved some things around,” he said, standing erect, wanting desperately to pull her

into his arms, but unsure if she would approve. Shay was in the end a very private person, a

young lady who didn’t care to be on anybody’s front street. He respected her for that.

He looked at Jessica, who was staring at him.

“Oh,” Shay said, remembering that they were not alone, “this my roommate. Jessica

Malveau. Jess, this Matty.”

“Pleased to meet you, Matty,” Jessica said in a seductive-sounding voice Shay had

never heard before, as she shook Matty’s hand.

She was a strikingly beautiful woman, Matty immediately noticed, with the look and

style of a full-fledge seductress who’d been around many a romantic block in her day.

Although Matty knew Shay was her own woman and wouldn’t be influenced by anyone, he

was immediately concerned when he saw this woman.

Mainly because that roommate of hers was already indicating interest, by the way she

squeezed his hand extra tight as they shook, by the way her assessing eyes slid down his body

and then back up with interest that sparkled. She was a male magnet, a man’s kryptonite, the

kind of gorgeous female that had to attract a slew of men everywhere she went. And if so

many men were always around Shay’s roommate, then those same men would inevitably be

around Shay. And just the thought of some other man so much as thinking about touching

Shay, caused Matty’s jaw to tighten.

“So you’re the roommate,” he said. “What’s your major?”

“I’m a Drama major,” Jessica said. “For now.”

Matty smiled. “I understand that. Anyway, I know you have to get to class, Shay, so I

thought I’d take care of some business here in town and then meet back up with you here, say

around one-nish, and take you to lunch. You and your roommate, if she wants to come

along.”

Shay didn’t like the idea of it, but it would be the only way Jessica could have an

audience with him about helping Hector. “You want to, Jess?” she asked her.

“I’d love to,” Jessica said, looking, not at Shay, but at Matty the entire time. “But I

have a one o’clock class. I’m free now, though. Maybe you and I can go have a cup of

coffee, Matty, just to get to know each other a bit.”

She said this all innocent, but Shay immediately didn’t like the idea. Besides, how

could she be free for breakfast right now when she had the same nine o’clock class with

Shay? But Shay didn’t call her on it in front of Matty. She, instead, looked at Matty.

Before Shay came along, Jessica was definitely the kind of woman he’d be interested in

getting to know better, and would jump at the chance to spend some time with her. She was

that hot. But Shay was in his life right now, and she was the one, not any other woman, who

made his heartbeat quicken.

“I’ll have to take a pass on that, Jessica,” he said. “It wouldn’t be the same without

Shay there.”

Inwardly Shay beamed. She was beginning to just love Matty Driscoll. Jessica,

however, although she kept smiling and didn’t show it, although she played it off like it was

absolutely of no consequence, was already certain she would someday avenge this terrible

slight.

“One o’ clock sounds great, Matty,” Shay said. “I’ll see you then.”

This time Matty couldn’t help it. He leaned over, placed his hand on the small of her

back, and kissed her on the lips. Although Shay would have preferred not to have such an

open display of affection, she missed Matty too much not to be thrilled to feel his touch again.

She smiled, she couldn’t help herself, and felt like the queen of all humanity as she and Jessica

walked away from Matty, and Matty just stood there, staring admiringly at her as they left.

***

returned to the place of their first mating, to the little motel off South Benn.

It wasn’t because of any fondness for the motel, Shay could still remember the spider

that lumbered across the bathroom floor, but it was the most convenient situation for both of

them. Going to Baltimore to Matty’s place, or checking into the only ritzy hotel in Dresden, a

hotel that overdid its’ service to the point of annoyance, wasn’t something either one of them

wanted to bother with. Besides, Matty had to meet up with Alex for the insufferable ball later

that night, and Shay was due at Stop Gap at seven. Neither had time for pomp and

circumstance.

She was stretched out naked on the bed when Matty stretched his own naked body on

top of her, and as soon as they touched, both of them shuttered. They loved these moments,

when they came together, and they never wanted these moments to end. Matty took it slow,

caressing her, kissing her, entering her with the skill of a man who knew what he was doing.

Shay closed her eyes and enjoyed his every touch. And when he was firmly in, and

began to gyrate her in that way of his that always heighted her sensuality, her body began to

gyrate, too. They moved in rhythm for a good long time, moved around and around, up and

down, side to side, making their own brand of music in the silence of the room.

And when they came, Matty arched his back in a kind of spasm that was so intense that

he thought he would pull every muscle in his body. He kept gyrating her, not ready to let it

end, although his come was so great, so intense, that he knew he couldn’t continue. He

collapsed, rolled over, and eventually, when she was ready, pulled her into his arms.

“Oh, Shay,” he said almost in tears, as he held her.

And when he dropped her back off at Devender Hall, kissed her goodnight and began to

drive away, waving even as he drove, Shay felt a kind of uncompromising elation that she

couldn’t hardly describe. She felt as if her life was finally coming together exactly the way she

wanted it to. She would have never imagined in a zillion years that within the span of that