Vanessa didn't say anything right away. She curled up on the plush couch cushions, watching Hal with hungry eyes as he went through the routine of hanging up his coat and setting down his briefcase and setting the mail in a cubbyhole to be sorted. It was only when he was just about to turn and glance in her direction that she preempted his gaze by saying, "You shouldn't run away from your problems, Hal. They'll only follow you home."
His eyes widened in surprise to see Vanessa sitting in his living room, her long brown legs sprawled out on the couch as if she owned the place, but that was all the reaction she got out of him. She didn't expect anything more, really; Hal had always been a cool customer, ever since the day they first met. It was part of what attracted her to him initially-Vanessa wanted to see what it would take to crack that calm surface and bring out the passions that she could see burning deep in his eyes.
She still wasn't sure she knew. He always seemed so commanding when they were together, looking cool and collected even as he made her lose every ounce of control under his touch. Even when they made love, he drilled her cunt until the string of climaxes wrung her out like a rag doll without ever changing that calm, determined expression of his. If he ever lost control, it was long after Vanessa's eyes had slipped shut. But today was different, and Vanessa wasn't going to leave his house until she got something out of him. She honestly wasn't sure if she was thrilled or terrified at the idea.
He wasn't going to make it easy for her, though. He simply gave her one of his enigmatic stares and said, "I thought you said you were done with me." His voice didn't hold any particular bitterness, just a wry acknowledgment that her presence here wasn't exactly something he expected or wanted. Vanessa's dark brown eyes glittered with barely restrained fury, and she pushed down the urge to rise to her feet and rake her fingernails down his pale, chiseled face just to get a reaction out of him. Did he honestly think she was going to make this easy for him? That she would just vanish out of his life the second she became an inconvenience? He could damn well think again.
"What I said," she snapped, her words so thick with bitterness that she could barely choke them out of her mouth, "was that I was done playing second fiddle to your wife. Done sneaking around, meeting in hotels on our lunch hour, bending over your desk at the office for a quickie when the door was locked. If you thought that meant I was done with you, Hal..." She folded her arms, glaring coldly at him. "That was your mistake."
Hal glanced over at the hallway that led further into the house, but Vanessa didn't give him a chance to speak. "If you're looking for Julia," she said, "she's in the bedroom. I told her that you and I needed to speak about some work issues that came up, and she didn't ask too many questions. I figure you can go in there and talk to her... or I can. Your choice." She set her face in a flat, expressionless stare, what she sometimes thought of as her 'Hal impression' when she needed to lay down the law to some asshole at work. The look that said, 'This is the way the world is. You can't argue with it, so just accept it.'
She knew Hal was going to accept it. How could he not? Julia was nothing but a basic bitch, a little bleach-blonde Suzy Homemaker whose most interesting conversations probably happened when her mouth was too full of cock to talk. Hal might have gotten used to having her around, but Vanessa could tell he didn't love her anymore. Not when he fucked another woman the way he did. He just needed a little push, that was all. A little something to make him realize what he had in his mistress. He might be angry for a while, but Vanessa knew how to make him happy again once it was all over and he was where he needed to be.
Hal sighed, rolling his eyes wearily. "She's not going to believe you," he said, in the same patient, didactic tones he used to explain payment schedules to impatient suppliers. "Go on in there if you want, I don't mind. Tell her you're my secret lover, tell her we've been fucking behind her back for months and you're crazy for my cock and I've hypnotized you into being my fucktoy and you don't wear panties anymore because I told you I wanted to be able to flip your skirt up and play with your pussy whenever I felt like it. Tell her all of it."
He shrugged. "I'll be on the phone to the cops before you get to the end of the first sentence, saying that one of my co-workers has developed a dangerous fixation on me and has broken into my home. I'll say you're delusional, that you've become obsessed with me and you've invented a whole fantasy life about us. Within twenty minutes you'll be in jail, by Monday you'll be out of a job, and I'll still be with Julia. That's not changing, Vanessa. I thought I was very clear about that last week."
Vanessa's entire body trembled with impotent rage. She knew he wasn't wrong-never mind that there were no signs of forced entry, in a neighborhood like this a black woman in a white man's house was always breaking and entering as soon as they said she was-but to hear him say it so coldly and dispassionately stung her to the very core. She knew she wasn't delusional. She knew that she was more to him than just a little fling on the side. The way he growled commands to her in that husky, barely-controlled voice of his when she knelt for him and looked up into his smoldering eyes... he couldn't fake that kind of desire. He simply couldn't.
