Darden's Pursuit of Happiness: Darden and Willow (5 page)

She couldn’t believe it.  “Darden is that true you haven’t slept well since then?  Darden shifted Willow in his arms and laid her down across the bed. He kissed her gently at first.  He intended to break the kiss to answer but he couldn’t. He felt himself become nestled between her legs which caused him to moan deeply. He had to break the kiss now.  He pulled away from her and it felt like a hand was closing in around his heart.  He hated to pull away from her.  He pulled the covers back on the bed and asked her to climb in.  He pulled the comforter down to the bottom of the bed as it wasn’t needed.  He would be the one to keep her comfortable.  He placed the sheet over her and laid down on top of the sheet and pulled her tightly against him.  “Just relax and remember how things used to be between us. And to answer your question, yes it is true.”

Willow was in heaven. She couldn’t believe she could affect any man like that let alone Darden. She gently pushed herself deeper into his arms.  This was magnificent. She had dreamt of moments like this but had reconciled in her mind that is would always just be a dream.  She had concluded that Darden would one day go on and marry and she would be invited to the wedding of course but, she couldn’t and wouldn’t be available to go. She would make damn sure of it. How painful it would be to watch him marry someone else. And now he is actually offering forever to her? He must be mad! What healthy, red blood male would want to be saddled with someone who couldn’t be intimate with him and much more than that could have his child. I have to tell him.  I can’t count on him to stay once he realizes what I could never provide him.

Willow finally heard the soft sounds of his breathing that indicated he was sleeping. She moved ever so slightly to look at his profile. She admired his strong jaw with the beginnings of a shadow of stubble on it. Then, looked down at the contrast of her dark skin and his white skin with just a hint of being sun-kissed, probably from being out on a golf course somewhere in the south.

Willow smiled as always Darden had been right she did love him. But could her love sustain them both? The right thing to do was end this as soon a possible and set Darden free once and for all.  They were going to talk, correction she was going to talk and Darden was going to listen. For his own good, he had better listen.  She loved him more then he realized which is why she was going to let him go.
Let It Flow
by Toni Braxton was playing as Willow was just drifting off to sleep.

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              “Sweetheart, wake up.” Darden gently eased Willow into wakefulness.  It was already after two o’clock in the afternoon and he was famished. Holding her in his arms like this was the best thing he has done in three years bar none. Willow felt very soft in his arms.  He loved the feeling of his hard body against her softness. The clothing and the top sheet hadn’t diminished the feeling at all.  In some ways it seemed to enhance the feeling. “Willow, are you hearing me?”

              “Yes, “I am hearing you. It is just I am so not ready to wake up yet.  I fear it is just another one of my vivid dreams.”

              “It is no dream. In your dreams does this happen?”  Darden lifted her head to kiss her lips.  Once connection was made he maneuvered her body over his. His hands slid up and down her back in straight planes at first and then with his thumbs, his practiced hands began to make concentric circles along her spine relaxing her that much more. His tongue began to mimic the circles of his thumbs.  His tongue thoroughly explored her mouth.  Then it began to play a sensual game of tag with her tongue until he could latch on and then release her tongue in a myriad of ways.  She was moaning while he was groaning out their pleasure.

              She somehow found the strength to push against his chest to stop his oral onslaught. She placed her head against his shoulder and breathed heavily. She began to notice that his hands hadn’t stop moving. His four fingers were doing the massaging now and alternate sized circles were being created.  “Darden, what are you doing to me?”

              “I am making love to you. It is just the beginning of the kind of foreplay you can expect from me.”

              If this was foreplay, he is going to kill me when it comes to the intercourse.  Oh my God why am I thinking about this?  The plan was to end this catastrophic relationship before it starts.  Your body is responding to him. He was right when he said you loved him. Maybe he is right about my abilities not to disappoint him? But, still ultimately I can’t give him a baby. I would never be able to carry a baby.  Too much damage has been done internally. There are months that go by with no menstrual flow and then there are months that go by that I think in 2 hours I will bleed through my clothing. I am such a mess internally how could he ever want me.

              “Darden, I need to tell you something and it is important. I can’t bear any children.  I will probably never be able to carry any. So you can just go, now that you know that. I won’t be angry or anything and I will completely understand if you want to seek out other relationships.” Why was he looking at me as though I had suddenly grown an arm out of my forehead?

              Darden flipped Willow on to her back so fast it scared her. “Now you need to listen, I know all about your supposed inability to have children. I don’t give a royal damn about it.  There are multiple ways for us to have children if that is what we want.” Darden paused.  His brow was deeply creased. “I am going to say this only once and I want you to understand and make no mistake about my meaning. I want YOU. I don’t give a damn about what you can and cannot give me.   I, of all the people in the world, know the circumstances. I know it better than anyone outside of you. I knew days before you what had happened to you internally, when you were still drugged up and made to sleep until your parents could make some decisions on your behalf. I agonized about their decisions and their waiting to ultimately do nothing to help you. I was so angry. I don’t blame you at all. None of this is your fault. At times, I wish I had acted on the impulse of carrying you out of the house and getting the medical attention you needed. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if it would do more harm than good. So, I don’t want you to worry about this.  Just know I love and want to be with you.  That our relationship no matter its ups and downs was meant to be. And as for your inability to have children I am not convinced of that.”

              “And what happens when you discover you aren’t right about this?”

              “I am right about your love for me and that shall sustain me.” Darden smiled. He ground his hips into Willow make sure she felt his engorgement. “See what you do to me. No woman has ever excited me like this.  But, I promised to wait until you are ready for me. But for now, allow me to feast upon these sweet lips and that devilish tongue of yours.”  He looked into her eyes and saw her amber colored eyes darken. He knew she desired him as much as he desired her. Darden lowered his mouth to hers and traced the curve of her lips. His tongue licked the top and bottom lip and she parted her lips for him. He licked some more in a lazy fashion before, he could dive into her mouth. He wrapped his tongue around hers and pulled it into his mouth. His heart was beating fast and he was soaring from the pleasure of having her with her legs wrapped around his waist.

              Willow’s stomach grumbles loudly. He pulled away from the kiss.  “I guess it is time I feed you.”

              “I can just finish cooking the breakfast I was preparing.”

              Darden began to pull away from her and reached behind him to unlatch her legs. “I’ll be damned if I eat anything that you were preparing for another man. We will go out. I will even let you pick where we go. “

              “Darden it isn’t a big deal like that. It was just breakfast.”

              “We are going out to eat, topic closed. Either you pick or I pick makes little difference to me but I am not eating what you were preparing for another man.” Darden raised his voice more than he intended and he saw the anger in her eyes.

              “Darden I am not a child. You shouldn’t be speaking to me that way.  Who the hell are you to treat me like a child?”  Willow was angry.  This is why I didn’t want to date him.  He always felt he knew what was best for me.  Yes, his take charge attitude was okay for the old me that used to hang on his every word but not the person I am now. Didn’t he realize I have changed? Doesn’t he know I make my own decisions? “Darden, we don’t have to continue this. As I said last night I want you to leave. You don’t respect me.  Fine you don’t want to eat what I was preparing that is fine.  But did you ever think I could be preparing it for you? Yes it may have started out for Sean but morphed into something for you.  But, now I really rather not have anything to do with you.”

              “I am sorry you feel that way. But I want things for me from start to finish. And I didn’t mean to come off as condescending.  It just angered me that you would be cooking for any man other than me.” Darden stood and looked at Willow for a long moment. “But contrary to what you think I won’t be leaving anytime soon. We were fine until your tantrum.  If you want to be treated as an equal throwing a tantrum isn’t appropriate. We should try and work things out if we are in disagreement. You want to be treated like an adult act like one.” Darden offered his hand to her to help her out of the bed. Willow placed her hand in his and felt the electric current course through her.

              “Your point is well taken, we are at an impasse. We will go out.” She was mad as hell. Yes, on some level Darden was right but moreover why was she so ready to bend to him when he never bends to her will. There was never a real compromise between them it was either his way or no way at all. “Darden, is there a way we could compromise? Could we go out now and let me make us a light snack a little later?”

              Darden ran his hand down his face.  Not sure how to respond. He wanted to be unreasonable and tell her he wanted the complete contents of her kitchen thrown out. But, he knew better. He was jealous. She had offered to cook for him but his male pride couldn’t help but wonder if it was part of the meal planning was for Sean.  The little bastard pissed him off to no end. Just the thought of him being in this apartment made him mad.  Again he wanted to be unreasonable and make her move in with him. His feelings were more out of protecting her than out of jealousy. He had spent three years paying for protection for her. Just for peace of mind, he would have Sean followed around the campus and have a little bit of a background check. Know thy enemy. He didn’t want Sean to turn out to be like his brother. That is another little bastard he could do without.  One of the reason’s he kept his distance from Willow was to protect Willow from the agony of having to see Dade. But, if he could help it, she would never see him again.

Darden, finally, was able to have Dade pay for his crimes against women. The last straw for their father had been that Dade had gone after one of his father’s current indiscretions. She pressed charges immediately but, to avoid the media frenzy they agreed to a deal with the prosecutor’s office. He had been sent to Minnesota Correctional Facility - Oak Park Heights (MCF-OPH), it is a level five maximum security prison. Dade is serving 15 years in complete isolation from the other prisoners. Though, the prison has had only one homicide since its inception, he was sure if his brother was in the general population he would be the second homicide victim.  Darden and his father had called in many personal favors to make sure his brother was going to do hard time and not skate due to their parent’s financial status. There wasn’t a day that went by that Darden didn’t think about that night that Willow had suffered through with Dade. Not to mention the other women who had come forward after Willow’s incident. Discovering the monster his brother had become was eye opening.  He wasn’t fit mentally to see the light of day for a very long time.

              Sean was over at Gallup Park sitting on a bench, stewing about how this day had gone so horribly wrong.  He was angry as hell with himself, Darden and Willow. Admittedly, Darden had handled the situation extremely well, it was smooth too smooth almost as if he had planned it but how. Maybe it was just that the pieces had fallen into place.  I most likely played right into his hands.  But, then again so had Willow, she does whatever he says or asks of her.  She doesn’t even question it.  Had he really just come out of nowhere? Or, has he been in this area all the time? Maybe I should let this pass and move forward.  Maybe it was a set-up between them to get me to leave her alone once and for all? Then why lie to me about wanting to start a relationship?  Something isn’t right here.  I don’t know what isn’t right but something is definitely wrong.  Willow isn’t cunning, nor is she about hurting my feelings. But that bastard, Darden doesn’t give a shit about my feelings or if the truth be known doesn’t care about Willow’s feelings either he just wants what he wants. “I have got to go back over to her apartment to hear her out.” Sean walked to his car.

              “I need to hop into the shower before we go.”  Willow was gathering clean clothes.

              Darden nodded. “Look, I want to apologize about the food thing.  I just can’t handle knowing you were cooking for him and I don’t want anything to do with it.” Darden walked over to Willow and gently placed his hands at her waist.  “I know it may not seem reasonable but I just can’t bring myself to do this. I am willing to clean up the kitchen, while you are showering.” Darden lowered his head very slowly it was agonizingly slow for both of them.  The last thing Darden saw was Willow’s lips, quivering. On contact, Willow latched on with her own brand of hunger. Darden lifted her and headed towards the bathroom. His damn honor was getting in the way again.  His manhood told him, he was walking in the wrong direction. He lowered her to her feet and broke the kiss. “Please go into the bathroom and lock the door.”

              “Why?” Willow thought it was a strange request.

              “Because, I am liable to join you in the shower if you leave the door unlocked. Neither of us is ready for that.”

              “I understand.” Willow opened the door and slipped into the bathroom locking the door behind her.

              Darden started the water for the dishes. He threw away the food that was on the countertop. And he began washing the utensils. He thought about the beautiful naked body just a few feet away. He longed to be in the shower with her.  He could just imagine kneeling and placing one of her legs over his shoulder and allowing his tongue the pleasure of exploring her womanly folds.  Her mouth has an exceptional sweetness. Her sweet nest between her legs must taste even sweeter. He couldn’t wait for her to explode into his mouth.  That day will come soon enough, he hoped.

              Darden heard the knock on the door.  He opened it without looking through the peephole. Sean stood on the other side of the threshold. Sean took one look at Darden and ran headlong grabbing Darden and slamming him to the floor. Darden barely had time to react. He got his arms up to cover his head from the punishing blows. Darden got his legs up and in a twisting move was able to latch his ankles around Sean’s neck. Once latched on, Darden forced his legs downward.  This gave Darden time to regroup a little. He squeezed his ankles together in a scissor like move and then without warning released his ankles for a few hard kicks to the head. Darden quickly stood up. He went to refrigerator and got out a bottle of water and poured the contents over Sean’s face.

              Sean immediately rolled to get out of the way of the stream of the water and stood up.

              “What the hell? Why did you comeback?”

              “I want to talk to Willow. Now” Sean for the first time heard the shower going.  He headed for the bathroom door but Darden proving to be too fast blocked his path to the door.

              “Where the hell do you think you’re going? You aren’t going in there.”

              “I said I want to talk to her. You are not going to stop me.”