No Coincidence Read online

  No Coincidence

  Copyright © 2020 by TMP Publishing LLC/Tiffany Patterson

  All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  A special thank you to Melissa at There For You Editing ([email protected]) for editing.

  Chapter One

  Resha

  “Oh my damn,” I whispered in shock. With ballooned eyes, I stare up and up into the hazel eyes of the man I met not too long ago. “Is that ...” I swallowed, feeling shy as hell all of a sudden, “what I think it is?”

  A rumbling chuckle, that started at the deepest part of his belly, rippled up his large, muscled chest and spilled out of the sexiest mouth I’d ever seen.

  “You’ve never seen a cock piercing, doll?”

  My heart rate quickened and I blinked, shaking my head, not believing the position I found myself in. “Of course, I have,” I retorted, because … what? Was I supposed to tell the truth?

  “Don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt.”

  Gulp.

  I swallowed, not out of fear, but to keep myself from asking, “What if I wanted it to hurt?”

  Shit. It’s been way too long, girl. Get yourself together!

  My womanly parts bellowed for me to not mess this up.

  “Give me your hand,” he insisted, but instead of waiting for me to actually give him my hand, he took it into his much larger one, pulling me closer to him. The heat emanating from his body elicited an immediate response from mine. My nipples perked up and I felt the insides of my thighs being lubricated with the essence of my own arousal.

  “Oh,” I gasped when he guided my hand to his very large member, allowing me to feel the length and girth of him, along with the curved, metal bar that possessed two small balls at either end. The bar that had been pushed through the flesh of the tip of his cock. I tightened my hand around his shaft, but found that my fingers couldn’t touch. Smoothing my hand down his shaft, I ran my thumb along the tip.

  I flinched when he hissed, his body tightening at the move.

  “Careful there, doll. You don’t want this to end before it begins.”

  Feeling froggy, I lifted my gaze to meet his and raised an eyebrow. “If that’s the case, maybe I wound up in the wrong room.” I added a little purr to my enunciation.

  His eyes narrowed and a small wrinkle appeared between his dark blond eyebrows. He didn’t say a word, but the warning alarm that went off in my stomach told me that I just poked a bear. My second indication was the gasp that escaped my lips when, without warning, he lifted me from the ground as if I weighed only a few pounds.

  “You like talking shit,” he murmured, close to my ear at the same time he forced my legs around his waist, carrying both of our nude bodies over to the bed. In the blink of an eye, I found myself on my back, him hovering over me, eyes scanning my face as our breathing patterns synced up with one another’s. “That could get you into trouble where I’m from,” he warned before leaning in and letting his lips cover mine.

  Sighing into his mouth, I extended my hand to entangle in his long, strawberry-blond hair. He took control of the kiss, or rather, I surrendered control the moment his lips touched mine. But when his large hands began massaging my very full breasts, pinching the nipples, I had to break free from his mouth to let out a wild moan. It’d been a long time since a man had touched me there, and an even longer period of time since a man had touched me there in the correct way. His pinches weren’t too hard. But they weren’t delicate either. He applied just the right amount of pressure to cause a small amount of pain, which turned into an immense amount of pleasure.

  “Oohh,” I sighed.

  “You like having your tits sucked?” he questioned.

  I didn’t hesitate to nod. The next thing I knew, his head was dipping lower and that moist, hot tongue of his was capturing my left nipple.

  “Oh shit!” I blurted, my back arching.

  With his hands still on my breasts, he began to slide his body down mine and I held my breath.

  I moved to play with the loose strands of hair that had spilled out of his man-bun, but then I blinked because suddenly it got brighter inside of the hotel room. Startled, I glanced around the room, which appeared to be getting lighter by the second.

  “What’s—”

  Beep! Beep! Beep!

  “Shit!” I yell, sitting up in my bed, pushing the sleep mask from my eyes, and blinking as I look around the room.

  My bedroom.

  I was at home.

  Not in a hotel room, in a different city, with a very delicious man hovering over my body.

  I let out a deep sigh. “You need to let that go,” I groaned to myself as I started to lay back down once I hit the snooze button on my sunrise alarm clock. Unfortunately, my head wasn’t even given a chance to hit the pillow before my phone started ringing. The same phone I intentionally left in my living room before heading to bed the previous night.

  Blinking, I looked at the clock on my glass nightstand. It read 8:02. Only two people in the world would call me this damn early. I had half a mind to ignore the ringing phone, but then I thought it could possibly be my Aunt Donna. And given her health condition, I would feel horrible if she called because she needed me and I wasn’t there for her.

  “Ouch! Dammit!” I barked after stubbing my toe on my coffee table as I lunged for the phone, fearful the caller would hang up before I had a chance to answer. I didn’t even get the opportunity to see who the caller was.

  “Hello?”

  “You sound breathless. Did you finally get laid? Am I interrupting a morning quickie before you kick him out?”

  Frowning, I pulled the phone from my ear and put it on speaker. “Only your nasty behind would be calling me this early with these types of questions,” I retorted to my cousin, Destiny.

  “Nasty? Ha! I’m a married woman.”

  “Yeah, and I’m surprised Tyler let you come up for air this long.”

  Destiny giggled into the phone. “That’s only because he’s in the nursery changing Tristan and Travis while I snuggle with Miss Annalise. She was up most of the night with the sniffles and a little cough.”

  “Aww, my poor baby. How’s she doing this morning?”

  “Better. She’s sleeping comfortably now. I’ve got the humidifier on in here.”

  I nodded even though Destiny couldn’t see me.

  “So, back to the nature of my call. Did you finally get some? Is that why your ass was huffing and puffing as you answered the phone?”

  “You get on my damn nerves, you know that, right? My sex life, or lack thereof, is none of your business. And I was huffing and puffing because the only running I do is to get to the phone as it rings early as hell in the morning, while I’m trying to sleep.”

  “Whatever. You should be up by now anyways. It’s after eight o’clock.”

  “Just barely,” I mumbled. “And besides, I had that launch party last night across town so I didn’t get to bed until almost three in the morning.”

  “Oh yeah, I forgot about that.”

  I rolled my eyes. Of course she’d forgotten. Destiny was busy with her husband, three kids, and running a successful business.

  “You’re still coming to the shelter today, right? To work with the women. They really need your help.”

  “I’ll be there, it’s on my schedule.”

  Oh, and on top of being a wife, mother, and entrepreneur, Destiny also opened and ran a women’s shelter here in Williamsport, along with her mother-in-law and three sisters-in-
law.

  I ignored the pang of sadness that rose in my chest just thinking about everything she had going on in her life.

  “You remember it’s at eleven, right?”

  “I got it. I’ll be there. I’ve already got what I’m bringing packed and ready to go. I’m going to sit down, write out a couple of new posts, respond to some emails, and get ready to go. I’ll be there,” I promised.

  “Good. I think I’ll bring Annalise ’cause she’s a bit clingy when she’s not feeling well. See you there, sis.”

  “See you there.”

  I hung up the phone, forgetting to respond with the usual love you that I typically give when getting off the phone with my sister, slash cousin, slash best friend. Technically, Destiny and I were cousins. But ever since her parents, my Aunt Donna and Uncle Daniel, took me in at the age of twelve, we’ve been more like sisters. That has led to a great friendship and partnership as we hosted a very successful podcast together as well.

  Sighing as I disconnected the call, I allowed my gaze to travel around my two-bedroom, spacious condo that I utilized for both living and work. I loved my living room with its large, floating white entertainment center, complete with my sixty-inch flatscreen, surrounded by my many plants. Wandering down the hall, I headed to my spare bedroom, turned home office. However, as soon as my bare foot made contact with the plush white carpet, I paused.

  “Coffee,” I commented, snapping my fingers with one hand and rubbing my eyes with the other. I definitely needed some coffee. It hadn’t been a fib that I told Destiny the previous night was a late one for me, due to working an event.

  I made a beeline for the kitchen, straight for the Keurig, one of the more luxury items I’ve chosen to purchase for my home for comfort. It took less than five minutes for me to fill up the Keurig with water and prepare a steaming cup of my favorite vanilla-flavored, caffeinated beverage in my hands. Taking the first sip of my drink, I let my eyelids close and inhaled deeply. And just when I started to savor the taste of the coffee, images of the previous night’s dream float to mind.

  “Seriously?” I hissed out loud to the empty room. I pushed out a frustrated breath even as chills ran down my spine at the remembrance of the dream. The damn problem was that it wasn’t just a dream. It was a memory. I could still feel his strong hands on my body. And at the point at which goosebumps began popping up on my arms, I suppressed the memory with a shake of my head.

  “I’ve got shit to do,” I bemoaned, taking my coffee and carrying myself to my office to sit down at my desk.

  The first task of the day was tackling the long list of emails that I needed to respond to before I began writing. They mainly consisted of the typical inquiries from brands, notices of payments, which always made my day, and requests from other bloggers to guest post or show up to their events. A few of my emails were from Shauna, the virtual assistant I hired eighteen months ago. Shauna had been a huge blessing, helping me in getting organized, staying on top of payments, and ensuring that I was making the appointments I’d agreed to.

  It took just about thirty minutes to get through all of the work emails when I came to the final message, but as soon as I read the subject line, a chill ran down my spine. My fingers stopped abruptly, hovering over the keyboard as I read the short tagline of the email.

  Hey there.

  That’s all it said, but I wasn’t unfamiliar with those two words. Clicking on my mouse, I moved the pointer over to the email, opening it.

  You looked beautiful in that picture you posted yesterday. I would love to see you in that outfit up close.

  “Shit!” I cursed as the shaking of my hand on the mouse accidentally caused me to delete the damn thing. I started to go into the trash to retrieve it but stopped myself. I didn’t need to read those words again. I’d memorized them in just the few seconds I spent with the email.

  I shuddered to think about meeting whoever was behind that strange message. This had been happening off and on for the past few months. I would post something on my Instagram page or on my blog, and then this person would send me an email or DM saying they wished my picture was for their eyes only. I tried not to think too much of it once I blocked them. I believed it was just some lonely ass man with nothing better to do. However, it was starting to make me very uncomfortable.

  Before I could get too lost in my thoughts, a window popped up on my desktop, ringing.

  “Good morning,” Shauna chimed, smiling as I answered her video call.

  “Hey.”

  Shauna’s full lips turned downward as she frowned. “Is something wrong?”

  I shook my head even though I had completely forgotten our usual Monday morning check-in call.

  “No, everything’s fine. Just tired. I didn’t sleep well, and woke up a little earlier than usual when Destiny called.”

  Shauna’s eyes drifted from the screen to the open planner in front of her. I was familiar with it. She always kept it close by during our calls.

  “You have that appointment this morning at the shelter, right?”

  I nodded. “Yup. She called to make sure I was still coming for some reason. I think the whole mom thing is going to her head. She double checks on everything now,” I laughed.

  Shauna giggled as well. “I get it. It’s what us moms do.”

  I shrugged. “I wouldn’t know.” It was supposed to have come out as a mere response but even I heard the distress in my voice. And if I hadn’t, the weight that settled in my chest at the reminder of my single and childless status would’ve alerted me.

  “Anyway, I’ll be there until early afternoon, I think, and then I’m headed to the business meeting at Nordstrom to speak with a couple of their execs about the campaign they want me to do. Later, I have that video call with that other brand to be added as one of their plus size models.”

  “Have you decided to move ahead with that?”

  I pushed out my lips and sat back in my chair, folding my arms over my chest. “I don’t know. The money they were offering last time seemed nice, but I spoke with a few other bloggers they approached and they were offered more.” I frowned at just thinking about being lowballed by a brand.

  “What’re you thinking of doing?”

  I pondered for a few heartbeats. “We could hold out for a little more. Destiny taught me the value of getting paid what I’m worth,” I commented, remembering how early on she encouraged me not to accept just anything just to get paid.

  “It’s a good thing you have her.”

  “True. Five years ago I would’ve taken one look at that offer and signed my life away.” Pushing out a breath, I looked to my right, at the large window, at the beautiful skyline view my tenth floor apartment view afforded me. Turning back to the screen, I faced Shauna. “Today, I know the value I offer to any company and am less willing to settle.”

  She nodded her approval. “Amen to that. And you haven’t talked to Destiny about the other brand deal yet, have you?”

  Shaking my head, I said, “Not yet. I’ll get to it, eventually.” I found myself keeping more and more from my cousin lately.

  We talked for another fifteen minutes about what was on the agenda for the following week, how she was doing in uploading the posts to my social media feeds, and what type of responses I was getting back from the posts. We both agreed that I needed to use my Instagram stories more often to engage followers.

  “They loved the stories you posted last night while out at the Sip and See,” Shauna commented.

  “I noticed. I was up for an additional hour and a half responding to inquiries once I got back last night. Most of them were asking who the guy I was dancing with was.” I rolled my eyes because I was always getting asked by my followers who I was dating, how do I maintain a relationship, and more.

  “He looked cute from behind,” Shauna quipped.

  “Yeah, too bad he’s married to the owner of the store. We weren’t really even dancing and he kept himself at a respectful distance. But followers see me
within five feet of a guy, and they have questions.” I didn’t mind it, however. I enjoyed sharing parts of myself with my blog followers and podcast listeners. I just wasn’t divulging anything too personal, which I had made very clear. And, to top it off, there was absolutely nothing to report in that area of my life.

  “All right, seems like we’ve got the week planned. I need to go get ready to leave.”

  “Okay, catch you next Monday. I’ll email if anything comes up.”

  “Thanks, Shauna.”

  Even though I said I was going to get ready to head out, I remained at my desk working for the next forty-five minutes, writing up two posts for the blog and uploading the corresponding images to go up the following day and the following week. Once that was completed, and realizing I was about a half an hour behind schedule, I hustled getting dressed, opting for a light-brown, pleated skirt, cream-colored, scoop neck top that I tucked in at the waist, and a three-quarter length blazer-style jacket. And even though it was fall and somewhat chilly out, I chose to pair the outfit with some strappy, leopard-print heels and my brown leather handbag. I took one final look in the mirror and nodded in approval. The look was both appropriate to show the women at the shelter how to pair a stylish, fun, and professional outfit, while being a little flirty, and also, it was perfect to wear to my business meeting after the shelter.

  I fluffed the long, silky, dark brown tresses that I’d just had installed a week earlier. The tips of the hair were a golden blonde which I loved and felt right given the impending colder weather. I’d become so occupied with my outfit and making sure I gathered all the perfect clothing items, makeup, and other accessories that I lost track of time.

  “Damn!” I cursed, glancing at the clock on my wall. “I gotta go,” I said to no one as I looked around for my keys, which I somehow always seemed to forget to place on the key rack that was mounted right next to the front door.

  “Oh!” I gasped, spotting my keys on the kitchen counter. Grabbing them up, I hooked the briefcase I would need throughout the day over my left shoulder and grasped the handle of the suitcase where I’d packed everything with my left hand and headed out the door.