Seeing Black (2 page)

Clueless, all Jill could do was nod.

“Don’t get too excited, sugar. I wouldn’t want you
to burst.” Heather laughed as she jumped off the bed, undoubtedly
beginning her party planning.

“What can I do to help?” Jill asked. Heather stopped
and looked up in thought. After a moment she said, “You only have
two assignments.” She ticked off with her fingers, “One, Google the
eighties so that you can find your costume, and, two, get the boys
here Saturday night.” As she left, she stopped. “Oh! One other
thing, get a costume for the twins too. So three things. I’ll take
care of the rest,” she said as she sauntered off.

With all the mess surrounding Jill’s life at the
moment, a party was not something she had expected. However, after
not having been with the twins for the last twelve years, she was
excited to share a birthday with them. Rocco and his men would have
to wait a few more days. She gave herself a fourth task: come up
with a plan to visit Rocco without Heather, Oliver, or Alexander
finding out. Meeting with Rocco soon was imperative, possibly
life-saving. She couldn’t delay it much longer. In fact, she was
surprised she hadn’t received any other menacing messages from
Rocco’s
people
.

She felt her phone vibrate. A new text message icon
lighted her phone.

Alexander: Coming to pick you
up.

Jill: You just left
here.

Alexander: I know. But I miss you.
On my way.

Jill: But I’m so tired. Was going
to go to bed.
My
bed. Alone. Recovering.

Alexander: Bed? That’s perfect. So
was I. I’m great with recovery. ; ) It’s a specialty of mine. Be
there in ten minutes, and you’re coming with me, even if I have to
club you over the head and drag you to my cave.

Jill: Neanderthal.

Alexander: You’ve got no idea,
babe. See you in a few.

“Again with the grin.” Heather rolled her eyes as
she hovered by the doorframe of Jill’s room. “I’ve decided I’m
going as She-Ra. Google it.” With an evil little laugh, she walked
out of Jill’s room again.

Even tired and feeling rushed that Alexander would
be there soon, curiosity still got the best of Jill, so she
couldn’t resist booting up her laptop. Quickly, she searched
“She-Ra” and laughed out loud. Clearly, Heather was going to go all
out, and if she was going as She-Ra, Jill knew exactly what costume
she’d get Oliver.

Fifteen minutes later, Alexander walked into her
room and plopped down on the bed.

“I’m the only one who hasn’t had a chance to lie
down on my bed. It’s where everyone wants to talk.” She smiled as
she finished towel drying her hair.

“Hurry up, babe. I’m tired, and we have class early
tomorrow,” Alexander said.

“I know! That’s why I told you to stay home. We’ve
been inseparable for the last few days. Aren’t you sick of me
yet?”

Alexander stood and took two long strides towards
her. Ordinarily, Alexander was a goof. He was silly and playful and
sexy as hell without trying. Even though he was extremely
intelligent, to the point of landing a full academic scholarship to
law school, one would think he lacked substance by his nonchalant
demeanor. But boy did the man have substance, especially with Jill.
When he wanted to make a point, he got serious and intense. This
was one of those times. He pulled her by her waist. Her towel fell.
His eyes shined a deep blue, and he was serious, very serious. “For
twenty-three years, I’ve been waiting for you. Now that I have you,
now that I know how you taste and how you feel against my body, I
will never ever get tired of you.” He nuzzled her neck, and a
little involuntary gasp escaped her lips. His lips came crashing
down on her.
She couldn’t answer, but she
couldn’t pull away either. Her nipples tightened, and she pressed
closer to him, plastering herself close to his body.
She
forgot all about the doctor, Rocco, laundry, the Smurfs, She-Ra,
and even her own name.

When his lips finally released her, her breath
caught. “As soon as I arrived home, I felt stupid for not bringing
you with me. It felt wrong being apart,” he said.

“Yeah, I know how you feel. Even though I was tired,
I wasn’t looking forward to sleeping alone. We can sleep here, you
know?”

“Um, no, we can’t. Your bed sucks. It’s small and
uncomfortable. It’s dorm-issued.”

She couldn’t argue with that. “Okay, fine. Let me
just grab a few things.” She stuffed some clothes in a small duffle
bag, grabbed the same necessity bag that she had yet to unpack, and
left with Alexander.

“Here. You drive.” Jill tossed him her keys. He
looked at her and then to his bike, not understanding. “It’s chilly
out tonight, and I’m tired and have my bags. Can we just please go
in the car. Leave your bike here.”

Alexander grunted but reluctantly agreed.

***

KA BOOM KA BOOM KA BOOM.

“What the fuck?” Jill jumped off the bed, tripped
over a pair of men’s sneakers, and hit her head on the nightstand
on her way up as she looked around for exploding bombs.

“Relax. It’s just my alarm clock.” A sleepy
Alexander reached over, slammed the snooze button, and went back to
sleep.

“That is the most annoying noise I’ve ever heard.
Ever. Fuck. I think I broke my head.”

“You’re cursing, babe.” Alexander mumbled in a
half-sleep state.

“Oh, shut up.” Jill climbed back into bed. “I don’t
remember falling asleep. Actually, the last thing I remember is
giving you my car keys.”

“I know. You passed out in the car, and I had to
carry you to bed.”

Jill looked down at her nude body and added
sarcastically, “And take off my clothes.”

“God, you’re cranky and way too chatty in the
morning.”

“I’m not cranky. I’m tired. That stupid bomb alarm
thing made me hit my head.”

“Super fucking cranky,” Alexander interrupted and
turned around to face Jill.

“I am not fucking cran—” She was getting out of bed,
crankily,
when he reached towards her with his long arm and
pulled her back to bed by her waist. She yelped, surprised. “Let me
go, Xander. We have to get ready for class. We can’t miss another
day.”

In a swift motion that caught her off guard, he
straddled her. The sheets fell off him. Apparently, he was naked
too. “So in the mornings you’re kind of bitchy.” He looked up as if
he were deep in thought. “I can deal with that.” He smiled his
gorgeous smile that made her not be so bitchy. He leaned down, but
Jill quickly put her hand over her mouth. His forehead landed on
hers. “What now?” he said, annoyed.

She mumbled something he couldn’t understand, so she
had to repeat it but still with her hand on her mouth. “Morning
breath.”

Alexander chuckled. “You have a lot of issues, Red.
I love you. I really do, but seriously, babe, you have to get that
stick out of your ass and loosen up a little. Do you really think I
give a fuck about morning breath? I’m on top of you, and we’re both
naked. The only morning issue you should worry about is my morning
wood.” He said the last part with a smirk and looked down and
wiggled his brows up and down. Then he plucked Jill’s hand away
from her mouth and proceeded to kiss her. “Oh, and Oly is in the
next room, so you may want to keep it down a little.” He slid both
hands under her, grabbed her bottom, and pulled her closer to him,
simultaneously pinning her down. He plunged into her without much
warning, except for a devilish smirk. Her back arched into him, and
she had to bite her lip to keep from moaning and screaming from
ecstasy and surprise. He leaned down and covered her mouth with his
mouth, muffling the noise.

Her legs wrapped around his waist, and she clawed
his back as he thrust in and out of her. “Oh, my.” Quicker and
faster than she could believe possible, she came in an explosion of
uncontrollable orgasms, and then he plunged into her again as he
found his release, surprising her. It was fast, it was good, and
she was most definitely not cranky any longer.

He lay on top of her as he tried to regain his
breathing then jackknifed up, bringing her with him. “We’re running
late. Hurry up, babe. You can’t keep making me miss class.” He
slapped her behind as he walked into the en-suite bathroom.

“Ow!” She padded after him. “I am not the one who is
making us late. You and all your sex, that’s the problem.”

Alexander was already in the shower, hair lathered,
when she stepped inside. “Me and all my sex? I don’t know what
you’re talking about. You totally attacked me. I was sleeping.”

Jill shoved him aside and began to shower. “Stop
talking and hurry up.”

He kissed her shoulder and together they quickly
showered and went to class.

***

As soon as she got home from school, after she pried
herself away from Alexander’s goodbye-kiss grip, she began doing
laundry. It was driving her crazy. Messes weren’t her thing.
Organization. Cleanliness. Order. Those were her things.

She spent the better part of an hour, while she
waited for the first load to finish drying, researching costumes
for the upcoming party. When she heard the buzz from the dryer, she
got up from her bed, but as she closed the screen on her laptop,
all her senses paralyzed.

Sweaty palms.

Flushed cheeks.

Blackness. All-consuming blackness.

Her unseeing eyes burned. Her ears rang from the
blood rushing upwards.

Jillian still felt the heat in her cheeks and ears
and the incessant beating of her heart when she came back to
reality. Usually, Jill didn’t know how long she’d been out because
time ceased to exist when she had a psychic vision. The visions
overtook all her senses, and she was hyper-focused on whatever it
was she saw in her mind. But these last two visions, this one and
the one a few days ago on the island, were fast and intense, just
mere flashes. In fact, they weren’t premonitions at all. They were
coming from a particular person reaching out to her. She knew no
more than five minutes had lapsed, because she didn’t lose sense of
time as she normally did.
He
came into her subconscious and
left a message like a mental voicemail
. He
being some man
dressed as a doctor. She had no clue who he was. The message came
in loud and clear:
You don’t come see Rocco soon, we kill your
friends
. There was no beating around the bush. It was a warning
plain and simple. It was the second time it had happened—once right
before she left the island a couple of days before and now. Still
shaky, she dried her sweaty palms on her thighs, straightened her
spine, and reined herself in before picking up the phone to call
Rocco. She wasn’t sure if he was directly responsible for these
visions, but she was pretty certain he knew something about
them.

“Hey, your clothes are dry. Can I use the dr—”
Heather stopped speaking; obviously, she had noticed the change in
Jill’s demeanor. She ran towards her. “Are you okay? What’s going
on?”

“Nothing. Just a little jet-lagged is all.” The
lingering effects of her flushed face were a telltale sign that
something had happened.

“Did you have a psychic thingy, honey?”

“No.” Jill realized she responded too abruptly and
too shakily.

“Honey?”

“No, really, I’m just tired. You needed something?”
She felt guilty about lying, but really, was it a lie? It wasn’t a
“psychic thingy” as Heather had so eloquently put it. It was really
just a request.

Well, a demand.

Actually, it was a threat.

Damn it!

“I was just going to ask if the dryer was free.”
Heather stared at Jill, questioningly.

“Yeah, I was about to go get my clothes out now.”
She shuffled, tired and frazzled, towards the door, leaving a
concerned Heather behind.

A rasp from the front door stopped her in her
tracks.
What now?

Jill looked out her window to see who it was before
opening the door, something she had started doing a few months ago
after someone, who turned out to be her father, had broken in and
left her a note. Now Heather and Jill always made sure they locked
the door before leaving anywhere and always looked before opening
it. Jill opened the door, and as she was going to say, “Hi,”
Alexander reached forward and grabbed her waist and pulled her
towards his chest.

His teeth nipped her lower lips as his arm tightened
hard around her waist and lifted her towards his chest. She was now
on her toes, back arched. A soft moan escaped.

“Okay, seriously, you two? Chocolate cake! That’s
all I’m going to say. Chocolate cake!” Heather scoffed as she
walked by.

“Chocolate cake?” Alexander asked.

“Don’t ask.”

“You’re flushed. You okay?” He slightly crouched
down and cradled her face to meet her gaze.

“It was a hell of a kiss. Of course I’m
flushed.”

“Yeah, I am a great kisser, aren’t I?”

“And modest too.” She giggled and broke away from
his grip. “Make yourself at home. I have to finish my laundry since
you clearly didn’t give me time last night.”

“I came to get some books I left here before our
trip, but now that I’ve seen you, hurry up, ’cause I want to take
you home.”

“I am home.”

“No, my home. Suddenly, I have plans.” He smiled
devilishly.

“Plans?”

Alexander wagged his eyebrows up and down and
slightly patted her butt as she walked away. In the safety of her
room, Jillian contemplated how she was going to call Rocco. Her
life with Alexander would undoubtedly be full of love and
excitement, but his possessiveness wouldn’t allow her to have a
moment to herself, especially if he suspected she was in any sort
of danger. What he didn’t account for was that the person in danger
was actually him—and his brother and Heather.