Skin Like Dawn (When You Come to Me) Read online

  SKIN LIKE DAWN

  A novel

  by

  Jade Alyse

  SKIN LIKE DAWN

  Copyright © 2013 by Jade Alyse Writes

  All Rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Printed in the United States of America

  ISBN:

  Dedication

  To my late, loving, and brilliant aunt, Rhonda Scales. I finally did it!

  PASSING TIME, MAYA ANGELOU

  Your skin like dawn

  Mine like musk

  One paints the beginning of a certain end.

  The other, the end of a sure beginning.

  Brandy,

  It’s difficult to write this. There are so many things that I want to say. And I’m not sure that you’ll understand any of it. But rest assured I’ve loved you more than I’ve ever loved myself. Or anyone else, for that matter. Breathing without you in proximity often becomes difficult, and it’s a dependency that I’ve not only relied on, but have felt crippled by as well.

  Please, understand me, baby. Our history proves far greater than anything I’ve deserved or could have conjured up.

  But a time for change has come...

  KISS THE SKY

  SHE HAD A DREAM ONCE, WHILE LAYING QUITE STILL ON A HAMMOCK SOMEWHERE IN THE CARIBBEAN, that she was floating. Or flying, rather. Or maybe she was just wading in some water; nearly drowning herself in cool, clear water of Robin’s Egg blue, under a heady sun. It was all quiet. And she was a little girl; barely old enough to notice anything more than the tiny brown knobs growing on her chest, and her love for baby dolls and strawberry ice cream. She was hiding, for sure, but didn’t think enough of anyone to tell them where she’d gone. It was only easier to get away and pretend that no one of substance existed for awhile. Her mama would tell her to get out of her own head and “join the rest of us”. But her father,, would laugh warmly, pat her on the head and encourage her to “kiss the sky with her dreams”.

  She could hear the sweetened hush of a burgeoning morning, and the sound of her papa’s voice, coming from the porch swing, laughing mockingly at her attempt at setting herself aside. “If you truly let yourself go, my little one, you might actually fly.”

  Swaying side to side like a pendulum, she slowly opened her eyes, as the shiver of her father’s face slowly faded into the mist of her subconscious. Someone was looming over her, smiling down at her. It was a face that she’d come to recognize well - open and light and comfortable. Sleepily, she smiled back up at the face, succumbing to the vulnerable side of herself.

  Then, a hand flattened gingerly against her forehead. “Hey, you.”

  She exhaled. “Brandon...”

  THEY WERE BACK TO WHAT THEY USED TO BE, or so it seemed. She was all gaping mouth and grinning at the end of it all. Out of breath and over-satiated she’d become in a short while. She’d drawn close to his warmth and general sense of things at present.

  And she couldn’t move an inch. Not even if she actually wanted to try. He’d finally gotten the better of her; he’d finally gotten her.

  She’d planned it that way all along – he just didn’t know it.

  JUST A COUPLE OF HOURS EARLIER, she was strolling alone by the shore, smiling a little to herself, all holistic and sure of her purpose. Somewhere in her very recent past, she’d fallen in love, and she couldn’t shake him off. She’d tried her damndest, too; stomped and pouted and cried about it. She even ran a little bit too. There was always something about the look in his eyes and the way he carried himself. He’d always known exactly who he was and what he wanted, and he never once apologized for it. She was putty in his wake, a real pool of mess, which she tried to mask with perfume, sardonic eyes, and a facetious tongue.

  But he was no fool – he’d always known her better than anyone.

  She left him sleeping awhile on the lanai in their villa. Their villa. Which now hummed of their hot skin, lips and legs and other lopping extremities languidly melded together for a throng of minutes at a time.

  Her stomach clenched at the thought of it all and she giggled.

  She could have stayed there with him -he wanted her to. His back had claimed the space between her thighs after it was all done between them and he’d drifted quickly as she hummed a melody and stroked his raven-black hair.

  It was only a matter of time before he awakened and discovered her missing.

  Then what would happen?

  Would he have his way with her again? Barricade her body in that king-sized bed so she couldn’t leave him?

  They both knew that wasn’t her way.

  “Believe it or not, Tallie,” he’d say coaxing her to irrevocable submission with his eyes. “I’ve waited twenty-seven years for this…I deserve it…” And he did.

  The more she processes it in her head, the more she believes it as true.

  A wave of the unvoiced things that she’d refrained from exuding, prompted her to turn on her heel and walk back in the direction of their villa.

  But just as she did so, there he was. There he was, damn it. All six-foot-four of him. All shaggy, undulating jet black hair. All cerulean eyes that matched the water they stood near.

  And she visibly shuddered.

  Jesus, Tallie, what has he done to you? Look what he’s done to you!

  Sleep is still on his face, in his ragged breathing…but she’s in his eyes.

  “I distinctly remember having a discussion about something last night,” he begins calmly, crossing his arms at his broad chest.

  The Caribbean sun has treated him well. A tawny color suits him.

  My big, strapping white boy. Where the hell did you come from?

  “Oh?” she replies coyly. She adjusts the straps on her bathing suit and his eyes dart there quickly. He rolls his lips in.

  He nodded. “I think you were there, too…naked, if I’m not mistaken…”

  “I’m not sure,” she replied. She instinctively took a step backward. He remainedstationary – she knew that this was only temporary.

  “Are you sure it was me? I mean, we are in the Caribbean…and I do remember you eyeballing that waitress on St. Kitts yesterday…”

  “I recall no such thing,” he replied. He took a step forward. She halted breathing momentarily.

  “Oh, I do,” she began. “She got all googly-eyed because you weren’t wearing a shirt…”

  “We’d just come from the beach…and it was a hundred degrees out yesterday…”

  “She sure was pretty…”

  “Don’t try and distract me…”

  “Oh, I’m not,” she said. “I’m simply reminding you of what occurred yesterday…”

  “And I’m talking about last night…”

  She took a step back, grinning.

  “Refresh my memory, B…you know how it slips every once in awhile…”

  “I think we’d just finished…”

  “Finished what…?” she prompted.

  She pretended to bite her nail, pressing her lips keenly into the tip of her finger – but he knew what she actually meant.

  “What’s the terminology for it? Oh yea…we’d just finished ‘making love’…”

  “Is that what we were doing?”

  “Yes, I believe so…”

  She shrugged with indifference, but the humor remained locked in her narrow eyes. “I
wouldn’t know any different…”

  “That’s right you wouldn’t…and it better stay that way…”

  “We have a written contract between us that says that if it doesn’t, we’ve got a lot of money to pay to the state of Georgia…”

  “Well let’s take a moment and totally disregard what it’ll do to my heart,” he admitted, moving toward her once more.

  She backpedaled. Her eyes never leave his.

  “You have one?” she teased.

  “Keep talking, Mrs. Greene…you’re working up quite the tab…”

  “One that I’ll hope to never close out…”

  “You’re going to have to a lot sooner than you think,” he reminded her. His breathing is rapid, and his eyes have changed.

  These weren’t his lovemaking eyes. These weren’t the eyes that she gazed into the first time she let him inside her, and she started to cry. These eyes are different, filled with a purpose.

  But she liked them.

  “We had a conversation about your need to leave my side…do you remember that conversation, Tallie?”

  He was moving a little quicker now. She immediately sprung to the tip of her toes, preparing herself.

  She pursed her lips. “I remember speaking with you after we made love…and then it rained…and we talked about the rain…”

  “What did we decide would happen if you chose to leave my side again without telling me?”

  “I’m not sure, Brandy…refresh my memory?”

  He chuckled. “Oh, my baby…don’t ask questions you aren’t prepared to hear the answer to…”

  And then he lunged out toward her sharply. She dodged out of his grasp. He growled with defeat, and she took off soaring through the sand, using her long brown legs and svelte body to her advantage.

  “Baby!” he called after her. He was laughing. She loves the sound of his hearty, deep laugh. He trudged through the white sand lethargically behind her.

  This will not end well, she knows it already. One of them will have to give in. One of them will have to be the bigger person and admit with their tongue and their deep kisses and their unspoken, unbending love for the other, that they had no other choice. They are going to make love eventually. They are going to be catapulted to the stars, singing high praises of love with their bodies.

  This was meant to be all along.

  They had no other choice.

  She manages to get all the way back to their villa – clever girl. But there was a point when he stopped chasing her, when she lost sight of him completely. She didn’t mind it. Hell, she’d spent a good number of years perfecting the habit of resisting him. And she’d gotten damn good at it. Then he had to go and make her swoon, make her trip all over herself and her damn words and her general sense of things. He was the perpetual catalyst to all things good and bad in her life. The beautifully distracting chasm between her twisted inner workings and the rest of the world.

  Her heart beats at the thought of it all: him. Her. The ring on her left finger that bound them together eternally.

  Oh, the thrill of loving that big, brash man.

  But where was he now? Where had he gone?

  She teetered through the front door of the villa really slowly. She doesn’t mind it, though. She’d dawdled there often over the past few days – the smell of the flowers nearby was orgasmic.

  The inside was sun-dappled and shadowed and scarily quiet, save for the whistle of the sea breeze, dancing along the marble floor.

  She stood arched on her toes and aware. But she’s smiling. Somehow she knew where this would go. She felt it keenly. She anticipated the ending with glee.

  She heard movement coming from their bedroom as she steps forward slowly, but she halted herself, eyes wary, teeth buried in the pulp of her bottom lip.

  “Is it too late to apologize?” she called out. No answer. She stepped forward again.

  “Baby?” No answer.

  Her entire body erupted in shudders – he still got to her, frightened her. Damn it.

  “This is payback, you know…”

  She contemplates what she’s about to say…she knows how it affects him. She recalled the last time that she allowed careless diction to drip from her lips and splatter like poison in his hears.

  “An eye for an eye…”

  She should stop…she should stop this now…but she can’t help it. Her internal forlorn attempt at bettering her dirty subconscious fails completely.

  “I woke up one morning…and you…you…you weren’t…”

  “For the love of God, if you finish that fucking sentence…”

  She gasped. There…she’s said it. And there he stands. Feel better, Tallie?

  He glared at her. Him and those big, blue eyes of his.

  She stared back, almost inanely, whittling away on the inside.

  He walked toward her – she stops breathing.

  He ceased right before her; so close that she feel and hear every single one of his breaths. Every single inhale and exhale that she secretly exalted. It meant he was real. It meant he was near her.

  This was it. He would let her have it, she knew. She pursed her lips in anticipation; his eyes move from hers to her lips, and he fixated on them for a while.

  She wanted to touch him, but she doesn’t know what he’d do. She couldn’t take the risk.

  She parted her lips – his eyes still consume them. Then he looked at her suddenly. She’s taken aback. He looked wounded in some way, but she can’t tell for sure.

  Brandy…

  “One of the biggest mistakes of my life,” he murmured. His eyes never leave hers.

  “I’d give anything,” he inaugurated. But he stopped right there and she cocked her head to the side with anticipation.

  This is a monumental moment – her Brandon David Greene at a loss for words.

  Then, he surprised her, capturing her by the ass and lifting her up with ease. Either he’s gotten stronger or she’s lost more weight for the wedding than anticipated. Their stupid families and her overwhelming nuptial qualms are a deathly combination. Her thighs clench around his waist, and he holds her securely under her legs.

  “But I’ll do one thing,” he whispered. His eyelids are heavy with something – she feels it too.

  Suddenly she’s the malleable version of herself – pure putty in his grasp.

  “Hmm,” she breathed. She even has the audacity to nuzzle her nose against his, softening him.

  “Oh, God, baby,” he groaned with draining capitulation. She attempted to stifle a giggle but fails.

  He smirked. “Just give me a chance…”

  “To do what, Brandy…?”

  “To make it up to you…”

  She kissed his lips once, deeply, assuredly. He groaned again, this time from the bowels of his throat.

  “We have the rest of our lives for it,” she whispered against his lips, kissing him again. “But I know where you can start…”

  He lowered her to the floor inquisitively; she smiles up at him as she takes him by the hand.

  “Come,” she enticed. She led him to the bedroom, yanked his arm round so that he tumbled on the unmade bed clumsily. She tugged at the knot that holds her bikini top together. He doesn’t tear his eyes away. His face is serious. He wants this as much as she does.

  They had no other choice.

  In seconds, she stood nude before him, proudly, and he manifestly exhaled as though preparing himself.

  As she ran her fingertips across her hips, she smiled again, and purred, “This is yours…it has always been yours…I never wanted anything else…so take it…”

  ALWAYS TALLIE

  HE COULDN’T SLEEP ONE NIGHT. But he’d really, really tried. He was mentally exhausted from it all, if he had to be perfectly honest with himself. He never thought that he could feel something so significant for someone else; where he lost the entirety of himself.

  He really, really needed the sleep, but it never came. So he sat up. The temperate Aug
ust warmth pooled like beads on his bare shoulders. And he looked down at Natalie. She looked so peacefully despondent to the truth, as though she’d purposely turned her head and encapsulated herself in a bubble, disregarding everything.

  Is this how they really wanted to end their one-year anniversary?

  She didn’t even stir when he moved to slide off the bed away from her.

  I love her, he reminded himself. I really, really fucking love her.

  And why? What had she done in his life?

  For starters, she had become the reason he woke up every morning, and greeted the day with such fervor. Yes, that was just a cliché he’d mulled over in his head, but it held a bounty of truth.

  She was Tallie – the one true unfaltering thing in his life. The one unsullied thing that he wanted to hold onto, cherish, acclaim.

  He fucking loved her.

  But she made him so angry – far angrier than he’d been with any of his past girlfriends. She thought too highly of herself. Whenever they argued (which they did quite often), she’d stomp away with her hands crossed at her little bird chest, purely victimizing herself as though she weren’t to blame for why he completely lost it sometimes.

  And he’d run after her like a fucking fool, soaking up every inch of her self-righteous virtue, dumping it at the collection dock by his heart.

  They were in this together, or so he wanted to believe. The bevy of effort he’d put into his patience towards was slowly starting to dwindle.

  It wasn’t the about the sex. But sex was good. And he was a man with needs.

  He’d never tell her so, it would kill her. But he almost succumbed to his needs a couple of nights before.

  He’d left his heart elsewhere that night, and went out with Scotty and a couple of his friends. He was on his third beer, and thought seriously about calling Natalie but changed his mind. She probably wouldn’t answer anyway. She was pissed about something. But when he questioned her, she completely shut down. Per usual. He just walked the fuck out, leaving her sitting there glaring at him.