I Love You More Than (9 page)

Felicia found herself getting a little sad as she got the girls’ bags together. It wasn’t often that she was given a break. And although she always yearned for one when they were driving her up a wall… She would miss them like crazy when they weren’t together.

Felicia could not believe that David was leaving as planned. He was not one to follow through on most things, but he must be missing his family because the car was packed. He was just waiting on them to say their goodbyes.

“Remember to tell everyone I said hello. Dana watch out for your sister. And Elena, be a good girl for mommy.”

“I will mommy!” Elena promised as she gave Felicia her megawatt angelic smile.

“Give me hugs and kisses.”

Felicia swooped the girls into her embrace. Looking up at where David was waiting for them in the car, Felicia walked them out coming to a stop at his window.

“Will you guys be making any stops on the way there?”

“I don’t know. Why?” David asked rudely.

“I was just wanting to know so I could gauge around what time you guys will get there.”

“Oh. Well I don’t know. We’ll play it by ear.” He replied impatiently.

“Okay, well, give me a call to let me know you guys made it safely.”

“Yeah whatever.” Was the reply as he backed out of the driveway.

David’s rude behavior never phased Felicia. She was immune to it. It was when he was nice to her, complementing and extending courtesies that she began to wonder what was going on.

Walking back into her house, Felicia locked up and went back to her bedroom to draw a nice hot bath. She could not remember the last time she was able to take one uninterrupted. Since it was a special occasion it called for her to break out the good bath salts and bubble bath.

While the water was running she decided to turn on some music and pour herself a glass of wine. She’d just settled herself into the tub when her cell started ringing. Wondering who could be calling, she immediately grabbed it and saw that Harrison was calling her.

“Hello?”

“Hi Beautiful! How was your day?” he asked, catching her completely off guard.

“It was good and yours?”

“Long, but good as well. Did you see Dana and Elena off?”

“Yes, thank you for asking. They just left about forty-five minutes ago.”

“The girls and David are gone. You’ve got the house to yourself. What’s a gorgeous woman to do?”

“Well at the moment I’m taking a nice bubble bath. Anything after that will be a surprise.”

“I see. Well I’m just leaving the garage now and was going to pick up a couple of movies and some Chinese food. You game for hanging out with me and veg’ing out?”

Felicia’s pulse suddenly started to pound. She had never spent any one on one time with Harrison and was intrigued by the idea of spending a nice quiet evening alone with him.

“Sure. But you don’t have to get us anything to eat. I can whip us up something.”

“I’m sure you could. But I know it’s been a long week for the both of us. It is not my intent to cause you any additional work. You rest, continue to soak. I’ll see you in about forty with the food and movies.”

“Okay, I’ll see you when you get here.”

****

After soaking for another fifteen minutes, Felicia got out of the bathtub feeling relaxed, refreshed and rejuvenated. She toweled off and put on her favorite lotion, Ecstasy by Carol’s Daughter. Everything was running smoothly until it came time to find something to throw on. Felicia owned a lot of sweats and t-shirts. Some were accented by rips and holes. Others hadn’t quite made it to that point yet. But were well on their way.

What she didn’t have was lounge wear. She used to but after keeping an extra five-ten pounds after both pregnancies, Felicia hadn’t felt worthy or sexy enough for it. David sure as hell didn’t help the situation. After she’d hit the six week mark after having Elena, she’d gone all out one night after putting the kids down.

She was smelling good and thought she had been looking good too. That was until David came home to find her posing sexily on the couch. Immediately bursting out in laughter David had said to her, “Damn Felicia, you still look about six months!” Needless to say that immediately put a damper on things.

Felicia hurriedly pushed those thoughts from her head. The last thing she wanted to think about while waiting for Harrison was David. While continuing to search through her dresser drawers, Felicia found a cute little pants and tank lounge set her cousin had given her a few years back. Sadly they still had the tags on, but she was cutting them off tonight.

She barely had enough time to slip her clothes on, run a brush through her hair and braid it before Harrison was knocking on her door. Closing her bedroom door, Felicia went to the front door and opened to find Harrison Kincaid standing there looking like liquid sex. He had on a pair of gym shorts, navy t-shirt with the sleeves cut off, ankle socks and air force one’s on his feet.

Felicia immediately felt comforted in her decision of not to get dressed again. It appeared Harrison was on the same page as her. Smiling, Felicia held the door open wider, stepped back and allowed enough room for Harrison to enter. He came in, stepped right into her personal space and kissed her where her lips met her cheek.

Felicia was fairly certain she was blushing as she closed and locked her door.

“When I was here the other day, I meant to tell you a few years back when I was looking to buy, I looked in this neighborhood. You have a really nice place.” Harrison told her again. When he was here last time the lights had been off and he wasn’t able to see her décor. He did a three hundred and sixty degree turn.

“Thank you Harrison. When I moved here it was a fixer upper. Took me a few years, but it’s finally home.” Felicia led them to the family room where she had the coffee table setup for their dinner. “I heard when you bought the garage from the Morrison’, you also bought his acres behind it. Are you planning on building on it anytime soon?”

Harrison wasn’t really surprised that Felicia knew of this. They lived in a close knit community. Pretty much everyone knew all there was to know about each other. What he was certain that she and the town didn’t know was that he was just waiting for her to be his before he began building on it. Whereas before it had been more of a pipe dream, Harrison could see it happening soon.

“I’ve actually been thinking of getting started a lot lately. But I need to finish the overhaul on the warehouse I’m living in first. I just really don’t know where to begin. On either one truthfully.” Harrison wasn’t being completely dishonest. He knew some information on how to get a jump start on it, but if Felicia were there by his side to help him, that would be even better. It would be perfect.

“Well after having fixed this place up and in my line of work, I could help you with it. At least point you in the right direction on where and how to get you started if nothing else.”

This was the second time tonight, Harrison had to stop himself from attacking Felicia. The first was when she’d let him in. She looked so damn perfect and soft. Warm. Inviting…all of that accentuated in her pajamas. And she smelled so damn good! But he didn’t want to do anything that could possibly make her re-think their date tomorrow. Harrison could not wait to show Felicia the good time she deserved.

He almost decided against calling her up to eat and veg out tonight. Jenna, the gym owner’s fiancé` convinced him it was perfectly acceptable to at least offer to hang out tonight.

“I would love it and be very grateful if you could not only help me get started, but with the whole thing. I’d pay you for your services of course.”

Felicia found she needed to close her mouth before she could respond. “Of course I’ll help as long as you’d like and you don’t have to pay me Harrison. I’m glad to be able to help.”

“Well I’m happy you’re glad, but you will be paid for your expertise Felicia. You work hard at what you do. Anyone can see that. We will discuss the particulars later.”

Harrison sat the last Chinese food container out, sitting down beside Felicia who was sitting Native American style messing with the TV controls.

“I think we have a problem here H.”

Felicia announced as she turned to look at him in all seriousness. He couldn’t wait to find out if while in the throws’ of passion if Felicia would call out Harrison or H…? It was something he was determined to find out.

“What would that be Li?” he asked, causing her to smile.

“Now that we’re both sitting down, who’s going to put in the DVD?”

Harrison threw his head back and let out a deep laugh. Here he’d been concerned that she had changed her mind and decided to kick him out and cancel their date tomorrow.

“I got it. But you gotta decide what we’re going to watch first.”

Felicia turned around to snag the bag he’d tossed on the couch, but he beat her to it. Harrison always had a way of making her feel taken care of when they were together. If she needed something, no matter how miniscule her need was, he was right there giving it to her.

“Let’s see what we got here. No offense Felicia but you strike me as the type who is uncultured when it comes to the finer things in life.” Felicia began to give a rebuttal but was quickly cut off.

“Now don’t deny it, this is just something I can pick about on people. So to help get you caught up with…let’s face it, pretty much everyone else. I brought the classics.”

Harrison could barely keep it together looking at Felicia’s perplexed and pissed expression she wore on her face.

“The first seasons of
American Horror Story
.
Justified
. And last but most definitely not least,
Sons of Anarchy
. All surely to get your weight up with the rest of us. So which one will it be Beautiful?”

Laughing, Felicia felt as if she were in a dream. That is how Harrison made her feel every time he was near. She hadn’t been called beautiful by someone other than her father in a long time. Harrison looked so damn good right now. Relaxed and laid back against the couch. His muscular tanned legs stretched out in front of him.

Felicia assumed he must have come to her place after he left the gym. She could faintly smell the scent of fresh soap on him. But more than anything Felicia smelled his essence. And it was causing her problems down below.

“Well you know the last thing I’d want to be is uncultured and out of the loop. So how about we go with…..Mmmm
Sons of Anarchy
. The title seems like it may be kind of deep.”

There were those damn dimples again!
Felicia thought to herself as she stretched her legs out in front of her and crossed them.

“A girl after my own heart.”

With that, he got up to put the series in. Felicia opened the food containers and started plating their food. She assumed Harrison liked everything he had brought. Ugh, he brought extra egg rolls! Now that was definitely a man after her own heart.

“I can’t believe you only brought part of the
Sons of Anarchy
series over here! You knew how good it was. You had to know I was going to be ready for my next fix and yet…. Nothing!” Felicia couldn’t keep the pout from her lips if she had tried to. The fact that Jax Teller had her head over heels inside of twenty minutes was saying a lot. Had Harrison brought the entire first season, she’d get to find out if Jax and Tara, his high school sweetheart got together or not.

At the sound of Harrison’s laugh, the pout turned to a full out scowl. With an eye roll. “Well I knew that you’d love the series that was never a question. And yes I even knew it was possible you would become a Jax-Lover. But had I brought the whole series over, there would be no way you could be patient. You wouldn’t be able to wait for me to watch like I want you to. So I helped you out by not bringing them.” Harrison explained as he stood up from the couch and held his hand down to help Felicia stand.

The last thing Harrison wanted to do was go back to his lonely warehouse apartment. He knew he had to tread carefully with her. But not so much so that she would be confused as to what his intentions were. Riding that thought when Felicia placed her palm in his hand, he pulled her to him in one fell swoop and embraced her tightly in his arms giving her a tight squeeze.

Felicia could not remember the last time she had felt this safe and secure. It was only from a hug! Felicia instantly knew she felt this safe because of who was hugging her. Yes she felt secure and loved when she hugged her dad. But nothing like this. And oh yeah, dad definitely doesn’t nuzzle the side of her neck and plant pillow soft almost non-existent kisses along her neck………..

Felicia began to feel the moisture run between her legs. Although she tried to fight it for as long as she could. Her palms were slowly climbing up the dips and ridges his biceps created. Molding to the curve of his shoulders, meeting up at the nape of his neck. Her fingers automatically gripped the back of his head. She slid them through his short dark strands.

His only intent had been to make sure Felicia knew his intentions towards her were more than just on the platonic level. Her reaction to him switched Harrison’s brain to the animal instincts side only. Running his hands roughly down her back, cupping handfuls of flesh along his journey. Down to her ass where Harrison firmly gripped the soft globes hard and hefted her up into his arms. Felicia let out a yelp of surprise and he found himself losing all sense of control as he claimed ownership of her body.

Felicia’s mind felt like it was in the midst of an endless dense fog. With extremely low air pressure. She simply could not catch her breath. Not that anyone would accuse her of trying to terribly hard. That would require her to disengage herself from Harrison. With Felicia’s legs locked tightly behind his back, she was in danger of going nowhere.

Her shift in position allowed Harrison’s hands to roam freely. Grasping her flesh in between his strong, long, thick fingers.  His hand travelled upward until he reached the nape of her neck, where he gently massaged her scalp. The sharp contrast between his kiss and the gentle kneading he was doing at the base of her scalp made Felicia release the moan she had been holding tightly onto.

The sharp shrill sound of Felicia’s phone ringing cleared the fog away and brought the altitude back down to a more comfortable level. But the effects lingered and her response was grudgingly slow as she repeatedly blinked her eyes trying to clear her head. Every single time they re-opened Harrison was still in front of her. Holding her. Whoever it was calling sure was persistent. Undeterred by her voicemail, they called right back. Still, Felicia made no move to hop down off of Harrison and go get her phone.

Understanding Felicia’s dilemma, Harrison walked them into the kitchen, where her phone lie on the counter. With strong and sure arms, Harrison sat Felicia on the counter next to the atrocious piece of technology. Felicia normally couldn’t live without her iPhone. Looking at the display only confirmed what she had known. David was calling. Seeing as how he was now ringing back for the fourth consecutive time, Felicia knew without a doubt this was not a courtesy call to let her know they made it safely.

“Urrmm. Hello,” Felicia answered trying to sound as casual as possible. She failed miserably, but she did sound as if she was just awakened from a deep sleep.

“I need you to wire me five-hundred dollars!” He instructed loudly through the phone.

“What? What’s happened?” Harrison moved back slightly to give her more room. But kept up a soothing rhythm as he rubbed the side of her right thigh.

“I swear you are so stupid sometimes! Who said anything was wrong? My daughters are fine. They’re with me. I need five-hundred. I didn’t make it to the bank in time to cash my check and they don’t have my bank down here.”

“Well does the bank that issued the check have a local branch there?”

“Do you really think I’d be talking to you if there was a branch here?” David asked in a nasty condescending tone. “Just get you fat lazy ass up and wire me the money! Send it to western union on Main St.”

Felicia took a few deep breaths.

“Hello?” David yelled in her ear.

“David I don’t have five-hundred dollars. I can maybe scrape up a couple of hundred.” Felicia didn’t want to dip into her savings for David. But as he knows very well, where her daughters are concerned, there’s pretty much nothing she would not do if he asked. She would do whatever it took to make sure her girls were safe.

“You’ve been walking around like you’re the shit. All high and mighty and you still don’t have shit to show for it. Hurry up and send it, I’m tired!” With that the line went dead.

Felicia could tell by how the soothing rub on her thigh turned into a deep tissue massage that Harrison had pretty much heard the entire conversation. She knew with every fiber of her being David didn’t really
need
the money. He just wanted to see if she had it. She would still send it to him just in case she was wrong. And also so she wouldn’t have to worry that he would take his anger towards her out on Dana and Elena.

Felicia hated that while she knew the last thing David would ever do at two in the morning, is drop everything. Hell, it wouldn’t even matter if it was in the middle of the day. He wouldn’t put anything on hold to help her. They both knew that she would. She hated that part of her that was weakened by a mothers love for her children.

Once when Dana was in kindergarten, Felicia’s car battery died while she was watching her at soccer practice. The practice field was only two and half miles from the apartment and it took David over two hours to show up and jump off her car. Had she been by herself she would have walked home. But she had an exhausted five year old and a toddler who was in the terrible two stage…..Enough said, Felicia waited.

When he’d finally shown up, his excuse for taking so long was that the game went into double overtime. Felicia was not the most knowledgeable when it came to sports by any means….But she knew that time frame still didn’t add up unless she happened to call right after halftime.

Felicia couldn’t bring herself to raise her head to see the pity surely reflected in Harrison’s eyes. How could she blame him, he’d just seen how much of a pushover she was. Just then she felt his finger tip firmly applying pressure under her chin until she was forced to look into his eyes. Eyes that expressed every emotion except pity.

“Come on. It’s late,” Harrison announced as he kissed the tip of her nose. He placed his hands around her waist. Stepping back he lifted her down. “I’ll drive you to Kroger where we can wire him the money.”