Authors: U
block out the early morning light that flooded the room. The sun in
Japan tended to rise bright and early. Moaning, she pulled the pillow
over her face and buried herself in the bed and fell back to sleep to the
smells of Casey filling her senses.
She did dream of him. His hands touching her the way he had the
night before, kissing her neck. But each time she looked at his face,
his eyes would blaze red and then go solid black.
* * * *
Jumping out of bed, wide awake in an instant, she threw on her robe.
Pushing the dream aside, her heart pounded in her chest and her
stomach did a little flip flop of excitement that Casey returned, a silly
smile plastered across her face and she yanked the door open without
looking.
But it wasn't Casey standing there. The smile faltered and she
stared in disbelief for a moment before stepping forward and kissing
him on the cheek. Stepping back, she motioned for him to come into
the room. Oh shit! Her mind raced to what had happened the night
before and nearly turned to sprint back into the bedroom to make sure
nothing of his had been left behind. She felt the heat rise up her neck
and spread across her face.
"How, how did you get on base?" She stammered, not believing
that Dalton actually stood in front of her. "When?"
Pulling his overnight bag behind him, he plopped down on the
couch, smiled and pulled her across his lap. His mouth found hers. It
was automatic to give him a quick kiss and pull back, but this time his
hand came up behind her head and held her in place, his tongue
slipped between her surprised lips and slid across her teeth.
This was so not supposed to be happening; she was stunned that her
husband had shown up. Out of the blue and in Japan of all places and
after what had happened the past couple of days. A couple hours
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sooner and he would have met Casey going out the door. She wanted
to crawl into the corner and die.
"Come on babe, aren't you happy to see me?" Dalton held her in his
arms, leaning back against the sofa and stared at her.
"Of course I am." She responded immediately. She knew her face
was still red. "I just didn't expect you to be standing there."
"I'm gonna jump in the shower, be out in a bit then we can go grab
lunch or something." Dalton pushed her from his lap onto the sofa
then stood.
"But aren't you tired after a sixteen hour flight?" Paige called to his
back while he walked away, running her hand through her hair, still
not believing that he was there.
"No, I got here yesterday. You were out. I didn't want to bother
you and I would just be sleeping anyway, so I got another room."
The shower came one while she paced, biting at the corner of her
fingernail. Then remember her fresh manicure and jerked her hand
out of her mouth. Rosa had planned on them going out again that
night and couldn't go now that Dalton was there. Dammit, she was
looking forward to going. Oh hell, what was she going to do now?
The guilt of what she had done slammed into her. Her stomach was
twisted in knots and she thought she was going to be sick. Her mouth
hung open. She looked around the room trying to think of a way out
of this mess.
"I'm going over to talk to Rosa." "Okay babe!"
Her breath caught slightly.
Pounding on the door, she pushed it open before Rosa could stick
her head around, and hurried into her room. She whirled around and
stared at Rosa wide eyed. "What the hell am I gonna do?"
"First of all, calm down, and second, what are you talking about?"
Rosa leaned against the countertop, her slender armed draped across
her stomach, her other hand lifting a glass of dark red wine to her lips.
Paige thought, it's a bit early for drinking wine, but oh well, that's
her life. Her moves looked effortless and so graceful. Paige had to
shake her head to get her thoughts back on track. "Dalton is in my
room." She started pacing and brought her hand to her mouth again,
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but dropped it just as quickly. That's why she never got her nails
done, because she always chewed the corners when she became
agitated.
"You should be happy to see him." Rosa told her, tipping the glass
back until it was empty. Licking her lips, she turned and washed the
glass out immediately.
"If I hadn't just gotten out of bed with another man I would be!"
She exclaimed a little too loudly.
"Darling, don't worry about that. Things will be fine." Rosa made
her way to the living room and lowered herself onto the sofa, patting
the cushion next to her for Paige to sit down.
She wanted to shake her head, to pull her hair out, to scream, to do
something other than just sit down. She couldn't believe she had
gotten herself into this and wondered how people cheated on their
spouses then faced them. Then wondered how the hell Dalton had
faced her after having slept with that woman for more than a year
during his affair.
She sank to the cushion and dropped her head back against the back
of the sofa with a groan. "Yes, he cheated on you and you got past it.
It lasted longer than it should have and it left scars on you, but you got
over it. He will get over this."
Rosa sounded so rational, wait a minute. Paige stared at her.
How
did she know what I was thinking
? With a frown, she opened her
mouth to ask, but clamped it shut when the dreams swam through her
mind.
Rosa stared back. "Just have to be patient. Things will work out.
We are going out again tonight; you will get the answers you need
tonight."
"What the hell has gotten in to you? Can you read my mind or
something? Did you become a psychic or a fortune teller without
telling me? Rosa this is freaking me out! I have never cheated on
Dalton until..." She couldn't even say his name out loud. Her hand
waved towards her room and she covered her eyes with the other. "I
can't do this and I can't go tonight."
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"Yes you can, and you will. It's not up for debate and Dalton is
already on board with going, so you can't stay in your room and pout."
"How is Dalton on board with this? Did you already talk to him?"
Then the realization hit her. "You knew he was here last night and
you are the one who got him on base." Paige jumped up from the seat
and stared down at Rosa with an accusing glare. "You knew he was
coming and you did set me up with Casey."
"Sit down Paige." Rosa's voice didn't raise, but Paige could feel the
command there and she automatically sat, which was strange to her.
This was all turning out to be one big cluster fuck and she didn't know
how to deal with it. She hated not knowing how to handle a situation.
Her life was ordinary, like clockwork and nothing unexpected ever
happened to her. Not until going to that damned club and meeting
Casey.
Just then she heard the bedroom door open and jumped when
Lamar came around the corner. Oh great, Rosa's husband was here
too. "When did you get here?" Paige gasped when she realized that
she had spoken loud enough for him to hear their conversation
through the bedroom door. Her face flamed once again.
"I flew in with Dalton yesterday." Lamar's white teeth flashed
against his dark chocolate colored skin. Paige had always admired the
rich darkness of his skin compared to smooth light milk chocolate of
Rosa's. Against her Latino coloring, their skin blended perfectly when
Rosa stood up and wrapped her arms around her husband's neck and
gave him a long, lingering kiss.
Dalton hadn't mentioned Lamar being with him, but he really hadn't
had time she supposed. If Rosa could be so nonchalant about banging
her brains out on the very loveseat she and Lamar now leaned against,
couldn't she relax and enjoy having her husband with her?
Just then a knock sounded at the door. "The guys are going to run
grab some lunch." Rosa told her and crooked her finger at Paige,
motioning for her to follow her into the bedroom while Lamar headed
to the door and down the hallway with Dalton.
A stack of boxes lay on the bed and Rosa that damned secretive
smile was on her face. The logo from the store they had visited the
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day before was scrawled across the side and had the same little bows.
There was an assortment of sizes. Paige narrowed her eyes in
suspicion while Rosa passed the boxes to her.
There was no way Rosa would talk her into going out again tonight.
What if Casey showed up? How was she supposed to act then?
Would there be a scene? Would this cause an incident and would she
lose her job? Plopping down on the bed, her elbows on her knees she
cradled her head, rocking back and forth slightly. She couldn't believe
she was in this mess. She had actually been excited at the thought of
Casey being back at her door and had been disappointed.
She had never been disappointed to see her husband, especially
after being separated for six months. Sniffling, she realized she
needed to go take a shower. She was still in her robe and had not
showered since making love with Casey the night before. Then the
thought hit here that Dalton had showered in the same shower as her
lover and oh damn! Standing with a panicked look on her face, she
hurried towards the door. "I have to go."
Running to the bathroom, she glanced at the trash can, realizing she
hadn't done anything with the condom from the day before. It was
gone. Sagging against the door, she remembered the maids had
cleaned her room the evening before. She hurried into her room and
threw the covers up. She could still smell the lingering scent of Casey
on the pillows and sheets and groaned. There would be no reason for
Dalton to check the bed, she hoped.
She hoped like hell that Dalton hadn't noticed Casey's smell when
he had kissed her. Jumping in the shower, she looked almost
frantically around, snatched the bar of soap and scrubbed the smell of
her guilt from skin. If only it were that easy to scrub her mind.
Her skin was raw by the time she rinsed and grabbed the towel to
dry off. Lifting her leg up to the side of tub she leaned over and
noticed the bruises on her thighs. Her eyes darted to her hips and she
cringed at what she saw. How the hell was she going to explain finger
shape bruising like that? Then thought, it wasn't likely Dalton would
see her naked anyway. They would go to bed, him in his boxer shorts;
her in the same old knee length night gown she usually wore. A few
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minutes of watching television, he would turn over and go to sleep
while she laid there wide eyed staring up at the ceiling until she fell
asleep. Then since they had been apart for so long, about thirty
minutes later when she was just dozing off, he would turn over and
snuggle for a moment, poking her backside with his hard on.
With the towel wrapped around her she shook her head and slipped
into her room and pulled on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt over her
underwear and bra. She was pulling on her tennis shoes when the
door opened and Dalton sauntered into the room.
"Perfect timing." He held the door open for her to proceed him out
and over to Rosa's quarters where lunch waited.
Sitting around the small table, Rosa and Lamar were snuggled up to
one another, giving each other bites of food. Paige was envious of
their closeness and wondered why Dalton couldn't be more
affectionate, while trying to keep the thoughts of Casey far from her
mind as possible. Just then Dalton's hand landed on her lower back
when she leaned forward and took a bite. The unexpected caress
caused her to choke on the fried rice she had inhaled.
Teary eyed, she coughed up the offending rice and set her chop
sticks down with a shake of her head. "Okay, I'm done." She
whispered hoarsely, her voice cracking from the strain of coughing so
hard, her throat throbbed.
A glass of wine was placed in her hand and she thankfully took a
big swig, and then coughed once more when the warm liquid slid
down the back of her throat. It tasted strange, a slight coppery taste
filled her mouth and she pushed the half empty glass away and
glanced around. Everyone else was drinking just fine, so it had to be
her. Maybe she was getting sick or something.