Page 236 of Lau Ahi
Asha’s lips tried not to smile but failed. “You think it was easy?”
“He’s still upright and breathing so… yeah, kinda. You're not really the forgiving type.” A second look of knowing was on his face remembering the way she’d poisoned him.
She laughed again and I knew she would never apologize for what she’d done. “And yet you’re still breathing so…”
Hakeem shook his finger in agreement before backing up. “Point proven. Y’all have a good evening.” He knocked his knuckles on the countertop before he turned to help someone else.
Asha’s eyes were on me as she continued to take down her French 75. “I more than plan to.”
“Sounds like a promise.” I didn’t want to rush her but I was damn sure going to take her out of here soon.
“Oh, it is. But I keep thinking I’m going to wake up and life is going to go back to what it was.” We looked around the room from where this all started and noticed the aerialists were back up on the ceiling.
“I haven’t proven to you that I’m real yet? That I’m not still gone? I think my ladder and I are slightly insulted.”
“I can still feel you and probably will for several days, so no, that’s not what I meant.” We hadn’t come up for air since I’d been back over a week ago. Even coming here tonight was a surprise to me because I didn’t think she would have been up for it.
I looked at her curiously wondering what she meant. “Then what?”
“I keep thinking I’ll wake up back at GW and in my office never having met you. That abo had found another way to help Eritrea and all of this would have been another figment of my imagination.”
“You want to know the easiest way to ensure that all of this is real?”
Her eyes rolled with irritation but the smile was one of pure desire. “If you start talking about your piercing I swear I will call it a cock for the next month and gross you out.”
“If you think hearing that word would stop me and my dick from wanting you and then subsequently reminding you why we’re not to be toyed with then you’ve forgotten who you married, Semira.”
She pushed my arm playfully but she let her hand fall down the plane of my body. “The way to know I’m sane, what is it?”
“Because the mind you had then would’ve been too afraid to conjure up something like this. The hurt that scared you that made you disbelieve that any of this could be possible would’ve imagined something harder. Where you were a happy little farmer getting what you needed off your pigs. You might have had sex but it wouldn’t have been with any type of connection because you have known how to separate your mind from your body for survival. But this…all encompassing passion? Allowing yourself to feel? Your brain wouldn’t have given you a dream world that would have left you so vulnerable because your mind is always going to protect you first.”
I kissed the top of her head feeling her breath on my chest as my reassurance that this wasn’t a dream and she was still with me. I had the same fear despite knowing my mind was sound. Well, as sound as it could be.
“I love you, Ori. Thank you for keeping your promise. No matter what.”
“You watched me murder a man with my bare hands and didn’t flinch. I wasn’t about to lose you. Not someone who could handle me at my worst, as I lost control. I always desired a woman with strength because I assumed my mother’s weakness without my father was the reason she was gone. And even though I know that isn’t the truth of what happened now you still meet every desire of my heart. So saying I love you is too gentle a word. The emotion goes far deeper than anything I could ever give voice to. Now, come play with me in our room for the night.” I held out my hand to lift her off her bar stool. She submitted easily as we walked toward the elevators. We were going to the executive level so a car was waiting for us within seconds.
We stepped through with fingers intertwined and as soon as the door closed she looked up at me with a smile.
“I promise to be here when you wake up this time.”
“Even if you’re not, just know this time I’ll go to the ends of time itself in order to find you.”
“Why?” Those eyes, no longer guarded, looked at me filled with love.
I could tell her a bunch of different reasons but I knew one would suffice above all.
I scooped her up and carried her over the threshold of the elevator and into the hallway. Asha was giggling in my arms as she let me hold her close.
“Because I love you. It’s just as simple and as complex as that.”
MAISON BENIOT
JEMMA MARIE
In shocking news today, retired FBI Agent and decorated combat Veteran Ori Nakoa was discovered alive and well. What is being called the worst case of mistaken identity in recent military history, Agent Nakoa was mistakenly identified as the deceased in an explosion that actually claimed the life of Agent Mitchell Anderson. Agent Anderson is the son of former Senator Glen Anderson, the nephew of former Attorney General Gideon Anderson and the grandson of Congressman McKenzie Chesswick. The interment and funeral services will be held for the fallen agent at a date to be announced later. Former Agent Nakoa had been kept in a hospital under the name John Doe and due to being listed as deceased his records were not included when a search was done of federal databases. His family is ecstatic at his unexpected return and there is no word yet if they will be seeking damages from the federal government for emotional damages for this mix-up. Dave, back to you.
I chuckled at how the asshole’s death had made national news. It was petty for Ori to have used that man as his spare body but he was always efficient that way. He wasn’t about to burn himself up or let Anderson get away with how he’d talked to Asha like he didn’t have any sense. Covering up a murder you committedby using your victim as your stand-in had to be a next-level mindfuck. My brothers had gotten increasingly sophisticated since I’d been gone and I was pleased that he had a happy ending to his story. Asha had been a rock despite how she’d been falling apart when she thought she’d lost him. The only reason I hadn’t withdrawn was because she needed support, despite how much it hurt to have lost my brother. He gave me hope that just maybe I’d be able to get myself out of the mess that I was in.
