Luke Sanders, one of the richest well known CEOs in Beverly moves to the suburbs to settle for a quiet life, where he meets Alyssa, a woman on the verge of a midlife crisis. For these two, they seem to have all they wanted, which included wealth and a happy family, but they would soon begin to question, Alyssa especially, what happiness really means. They meet at an unconventional moment in their lives, and after a certain tragedy storms the serene town. And while both struggle with secrets of their own, they are being drawn further together especially when Luke happens to be next door. In this steamy novel, Alyssa is forced to forsake a moral compass and chase after what she wants the most- -which is to be the person she was before. Wild, and free, something Luke is willing to offer. But at what cost really? WRITTEN BY ONYEMAOBI.
Chapter 1 ONE
"Armani" Her feet gripped the ground, forcing her to come a halt.
He stopped as well, looking ahead before turning back to her. The lights blazed in her moist eyes, like a lightning strike which he could see. Before them were red and yellow tapes which could only be significant to a crime scene.
The tapes kept aside the crowding pub as Alyssa begun to look around. It was her house.
She was a woman with the wildest imagination and she soon began to think of a life without Tom and her babygirl who were still inside.
The sound of approaching sirens intercepted that thought as she fidgetingly looked around. She was too confused to scream, and to overwhelmed to cry.
She just gave in to her anxiety which heightened by the second. Armani held her close before she could lose it.
Close enough that he could hear her rapid heartbeat. Out of all, she was relieved her best friend was here.
But relief was far from what she felt. "Tom is still in there-" She nervously said. "And Ellen" The thought of her husband having a thing to do with these cops made her stomach crawl.
Especially since Tom was a black man in America. "I'm sure it's nothing" Armani said in the least convincing tone as Alyssa held unto his clothes tighter. Funny how they had left just a little to an hour ago, and now they were back to utter chaos.
She couldn't find peace with the mutterings of the onlookers, and she couldn't find peace in her imaginations as well. It was safe to say she wanted to just die in that moment. "They're both going to be fine" He added, the second being her daughter, Ellen.
The tears impulsively fell from her eyes as they stayed beneath an umbrella, the sound of the cautioning cops with the speakers blending with the rave of the sirens.
The blue and red lights were little more than smudgy illuminations in the slanting rain. As if it couldn't have been the worst timing for the downpour. "Excuse me-" "Ma'am, stay behind the line. We're doing our best to ensure no one else gets hurt" The cop interrupted her, holding the tapes firm. "That is my house" Alyssa yelled back as if it were a fever dream. "Ma'am this is an sos call that unfortunately involves the entire neighborhood. Kindly bear with us-" "That is m-"
"Alyssa. Alyssa" Armani held her back as the sole of her shows went into the muddy portholes.
She struggled within his grasp until her eyes caught something. And it was as if her entire life had been reduced to that single moment- -that single moment a body was wheeled into the back of the ambulance in a black plastic bag.
She froze, as if time in entirety had suspended. A strand of her blonde hair had flown between her lips that had dropped to the ground. "Tom" It took all of Armani's strength to hold her back.
Now, she wasnt sure who exactly was inside the bag but she was just being intuitive. There was a body. A body being zipped in a black bag.
None of anything made any sense.
"Alyssa calm down" She began to yell, imagining a life without Tom and she wasn't sure how she felt. Occasionally she was filled with regrets, but at least now they had a daughter.
Her whole life flashed before her eyes as she screamed. "Let me go" She might have been intoxicated but only a bit. It was the reason she sounded a tad bit maniacal to the crowd that soon began to gather.
This was it.
This was the end of a day that had started off so well, beaming with promises and sun rays that burst in her eyes.
Now those were filled with gloom. But it didn't all just come down to this moment. The day that was once good, took a turn for the worse with each hour.
And she was to witness the ultimate. But how exactly did Alyssa Sanders get here-
TWELVE HOURS EARLIER
With each step he took to her, her chest rose and fell the more, so much that a button fell loose on her lingerie.
Her hands struggled to find the knob on the kitchen cooker as she turned off the eggs. God she didn't want to cook.
She just wanted him.
He took of his suit jacket as she inched closer, letting passion consume his eyes.
She loved when he looked at her that way. Like he would do anything to have her. She loved to feel the love, and the lust.
And the burning passion.
The jacket fell to the ground but he didn't take those eyes off her. Her thighs became moist as she clenched them, biting her lower lip.
Tom had his belt in his hands before he whisked it away.
This time, he was close enough to let his heated breath mingle with hers. "I want you" He whispered, subtle but a lot of intention. And Alyssa forced a lump down her throat, letting her hands find its way to his waist.
She held him close as his breath went down the side of her neck. "I want you to want me" Now, i said Alyssa had a very wild imagination.
So of course, all of that didn't happen.
As much as she wished for him to just look at her, he didn't. Instead, he faced the mirror as he battled with his cufflinks. Her thighs were still clenched, as she bit her lips softly, zoned out on whatever the fuck he was saying. "So the board meeting had to be rescheduled to today. It only means that that the company trip has to be postponed-" "What?" Alyssa asked.
"Have you not been listening to me?" He asked, looking back at her for a quick second. Her eyes darted from his muscled torso to his face with an immediate effect.
His red checkered shirt hung open with his belt around his neck.
God, he was sexy. Her husband was sexy.
And all she just wanted in that moment was for him to raise her to the counter and fuck her like his life depended on it. But that was a reach.
Tom barely even looked at her since she gave birth to Ellen. Her whole life was just a routine now, a routine without any of the sex.
The ecstasy, and any of that thrill.
She had a sexy husband but of what use is that if she didn't get to lick ice cream off his chiseled abs. "You know what nevermind" Tom replied as he buttoned his shirt, slowly tucking it into his trousers.
He stared back into the mirror, flattening out his waves before he walked out of the room. Alyssa couldn't even bear to look at herself.
She was a mess.
"Fuck" She muttered, picking out her hair.
She followed him to the bedroom, where she shuffled through her own clothes as well. She might have been running late but it was the suburbs, and with post covid and maternity leave, she was still trying to settle into schedule.
Luckily, no one expected much from a nursing mother-
-it only meant she always had an excuse.
Within a minute, Tom had his shoes on and he was set, it was something she couldn't quite wrap her head around, how quickly it always took him to get set.
He tied his last piece of shoelace before he looked back up. "I'm done. See you later?" He said, from across the room as he hefted up his bags. Alyssa turned around, using her arms to hold up her boobs in the lavender silk lingerie.
"That's it?" He looked around the room, dazed with confusion. "No kiss goodbye?" She had to say, and he just shrugged his shoulders with a scoff.
"Oh Alyssa. I'm already running late. Love you" His hand was already on the door before he went through it. Her arms fell to her side as she fell back against the walls.
"I love you too" She whispered, and then her eyes narrowed at her closet. Now, she loved Tom.
But there was something she loved a little bit more. Alyssa hated to feel old, she hated to feel like all she ever was was a nursing mother.
And unlike what all the articles said, her raging hormones did not stop after pregnancy. Instead, she thought it got worse.
And it was the part of her she thought Tom had fallen in love with. Because it wasn't always like this. There was that thrill when they first met back in high school.
He was nineteen and she was on the verge of turning eighteen. They met through a friend and somehow got close, and she had never seen someone that got her more than Tom did.
He had his dreads back then, and a beard across his face that made him seem somewhat tough. And that was besides when he did smoke, but only a little weed.
But when he did, it only meant a wild night for Alyssa. He'd go hours on the bed, a quickie in the bathroom, on a fucking ferris wheel. And in the school storage closet. In the back of his car, and on top of his roof, but that's a longer story. The point is, it wasn't always this way- -even when they fell in love.
"I love you" He'd said first, just after they'd fucked in the woods on a camping trip. And she smiled, looking at him. It was that moment, she knew this was forever.
"I love you too, Tom" Now, they had their fights and quarrels.
They weren't perfect, but the truth is no one is. Plus they always made up in a day or two and to her, the lovemaking was worth it.
She began to think when it all changed, and how fast it did. A while ago, they were these two teenagers on a camping trip, two teenagers the whole school envied. Now, they had a kid. Ellen-
-as much as she loved that kid to bits, she could not help but miss her old life, with Tom.
She didn't have any regrets, she'd like to think she didn't because it just made her seem grateful. For the life she had, and for Ellen.
She opened the drawer, hefting the plastic phallus in her hands but as soon as that guilt sipped into her veins, she let it go and just fell back.
Her eyes landed on the clock above the bedstand and all she did was mutter-"Shit" Routine called for work.
And there's only so many times you could use one excuse. "Armani" She picked up her phone, dialing her best friend. "Come pick me up, please" She said.
The fact that she was already half an hour late didn't make her not spend so much time on makeup.
Infact, she had decided in her mind that if she were to finally make an appearance after a two month leave, it would have to be a bang-
-and nothing said bang like a shiny red lipstick. "Damn, girl" Armani stood, his head popping through his convertible as she walked down her driveway. She turned around, covering her lips shyly with her palms.
But only to skeptically reveal her stoned nails. "You look amazing-" Now in that pant suit, one would hardly tell Aly was a mother. It was what she wanted, after having religiously signed up for the gym during the past month.
She felt different now, she was. "Thank you" She dragged, popping in the passenger's seat.
Armani fell back into the seat, igniting the engines whilst Alyssa looked out of the windows.
Something quite caught her attention. "Oh, hi Madeline" She yelled to her sort of snobbish neighbor as a dark jeep pulled up at her house.
Walking back with the trashbag, Madeline just nodded back at her. It was probably nothing.
The music hit record high as Armani burst Chase Atlantic through the speakers.
That alone, was enough to drift her away from her thoughts. She was very intuitive, if only she paid attention.
NOW
"Who's that?" Alyssa continued to yell, as she struggled to break free.
"Ma'am" Was all she heard for a straight minute as a cop walked up to her with his radio in his hands. "What seems to be the problem?"
"I just need to know if it's my husband in there" There was a crack in her voice as the cop looked back at the ambulance.
Slowly, it pulled away from the driveway, revealing the pile of cars parked around. The sirens had ultimately shut off, leaving only the splattering sound of rain against the roofs.
And the awkward silence between them.
Now, she knew what the dead of a siren meant. It meant someone had died in there. Her heart only tied into further knot once she could see the door open to her house.
But alas, a figure approached from the darkness like a knight in a wattpad novel. And she'd recognize that body anywhere. "Tom?" Her lips went to the side. "The fuck?"
To be continued...
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