Loving Montie (Breathless 4)

“Woah, what about your responsibility in the situation? You didn’t have to sleep with an almost married man,” he chuckled. “You could have respected their engagement, too.”

“Humph! That’s what you say. I love that man because he was mine to begin with. I don’t feel like the other woman when I’m with him,” I stopped short of saying I was and would always be Jacob Turner’s woman. I wanted to make it inside the event, so I needed Montie’s invite to hold. I was on a mission. “Besides, if a man loves a woman, he doesn’t cheat. I didn’t cheat. He did,” I added in a more subdued tone.

“Well, you have a point there. That’s one thing I never did was cheat on my ex-wife,” Montie admitted. I nearly gagged at the mention of Destiny. “She was the only woman I ever wanted to make love to.” The faraway look in his eyes told me he was envisioning him and her together, making the sweetest love.

“If it’s true that you only had eyes for her, you’re one of the good ones, Montie. Too bad she couldn’t see it when you were together,” I said.

He nodded, stepped out of the car and came around to open my door for me. “Look, I’ve loved and lost, Tracye. It seems like you’ve done the same thing. Maybe we can just enjoy each other’s company and try to forget our past loves for the next few hours. Deal?” he asked, holding a hand out to me.

“Deal.” A counterfeit grin splayed across the expanse of my face as I intertwined my arm in his. He fell for it hook, line and sinker. As soon as he figured out my ex was Jacob, he would also realize Jacob was the engaged man that I slept with. He would tell Destiny everything to get her back in his arms. Then Destiny would know Jacob wasn’t beholden to her like she thought he was. Jacob would be shattered when Destiny left him, and I’d be right there waiting to put him back together again. My plan would reposition all the players, and I would get what I desired. Humph…loved and lost? I’m no loser. I’m going to win when Jacob realizes he still loves me and Destiny goes back to Montie. So really, everybody wins.

I looked at Montie. He returned my gaze with a question in his prominent brown eyes. His kissable dark lips pointed in my direction. He wanted to say something.

“What?” I asked, having gotten sidetracked by my thoughts.

“I want you to enjoy yourself and forget about that loser, aight?”

“Alright,” I said and stopped walking. I squeezed his large hand into mine. “I have to tell you something, Montie. I don’t know how to say this, but earlier in the car, it may have sounded like I was saying you’re not a good man. That’s not what I meant. I was just saying I believe people are who they are.”

Montie nodded for me to continue.

“I mean, look at you. You’re a successful, sexy man and we took a spin in the bed on the first night within hours of meeting each other. Who’s to say you’re not engaged to some unsuspecting woman in Atlanta? Or that you don’t have a woman somewhere having daydreams about the things you did to me, just waiting on you to come back and make her whole again?”

“There is no one to say those things about me. I’m not engaged and I don’t have a woman. You don’t have to believe it, but I’m a one woman’s man. I always have been and always will be.”

“Ha! My ex, the one who thr

ew me out of his house a few weeks ago after we had sex, said the same thing. He went as far as to pretend I was her as we made love. Rain drops were beating on his million-dollar home and we kissed each other like our lives depended on it as he stroked inside of me. It was more than he says…”

Montie held his hand up, ceasing my constant ruminating about the last night I got rocked by Jacob. “Hold up. That’s too many details,” he said, looking sickened by the ways that Jacob took me. The same way he planned to use me after we left this party. Whatever.

After the fiasco I planned to create at the wedding rehearsal, Montie’s last thought would be bedding me. Oh, I couldn’t wait. Destiny would be crushed. Jacob would be upset, but he would definitely come around. A devious grin spread across my face as I imagined the moment this façade of Tracye would come to a head. The game I was playing was going to land perfectly. Destiny was about to find out that I made love to Jacob in the seventeen million-dollar home people were boasting about all over town.

CHAPTER SIX

Montie

Bittersweet

Don’t get me wrong, being with Tracye took my mind off Destiny. Well, until the woman of my heart, all the woman I could ever need and want stood only feet away from me. If only I knew what she really needed when she was mine. I had tunnel vision, clouded by the drive to succeed. Success came to be something I not only regretted but also loathed because it cost me my family. In my mind, I thought once I turned my company into a six figure a month success, I’d be able to kick back without any financial worries and live larger than life with my family. Like any successful business, my company became a leach, sucking the wind right out of my world. Before I knew anything, I was waking up every morning and getting dressed without even speaking to my wife and kids. I’d get home late at night, don my pajamas and do more work before crashing at my computer. That was it, for years…the years she needed me to be by her side with our new babies. I understood what she meant when she said I left her a long time before she left me. That understanding hurt like hell.

In a few days, another man would make her his. She would vow to spend the rest of her life as another man’s wife, and, for some twisted reason, they wanted to do it with me as a witness. I’d been lured into sitting there and watching another man claim my woman, a fact I had a hard time reconciling. I’d been a good sport so far, but how much can a brother take before he breaks?

Whenever I pled my case to Destiny, she would shut me down. Lover boy came in and sewed her heart up so that it’s seemingly impenetrable. When his friend attacked her earlier this year, she let me back in and I had the time of my life. That night of being one with my heart, dancing with her soul and ravishing her succulent body taunted me to this day…

"Damn, baby," I had grunted against her lips. She was tight…and hot…and tight. Fuck! I missed the feel of her like hell. I had slowly thrusted my full length inside her, slamming against her tight walls. I wanted to take it slow, appreciate every moment we had together, but when her hips began to move and meet my thrusts I rocked her core with untamed pounding. The urgency was my trying to show her that we needed this…needed us. She moaned salaciously against my lips, as our hips picked up speed and rocked against each other causing more pleasure with each heated thrust that night. What I wouldn’t give to be inside of her right now?

As I relived that night, my soldier stood high in my pants. A vanilla arm intertwined with mine contrasted that reverie. I sucked in a deep breath to try to tamp back my desire for Destiny.

I smiled at my date. She really was a beautiful woman that would find someone to love her, if she could let go of the pain inside. But who was I kidding? I knew first hand that life after pain was easier said than done. Letting go of my family was the hardest thing I ever had to do. In all the days of my life, I would never forget the day Destiny asked me to leave our old home. It was symbolic of her removing me from her life and choosing Jacob.

“So, it’s just like that? You want me to leave so you can talk to him, Destiny?” I had said as I stared Jacob down.

“Yes, Montie, I do.” It only took four words to wipe out all the years of blood, sweat and tears I put into building the very home we were standing in.

“Excuse me?” Tracye asked, bringing my attention back to the present.

“Huh?”