Chapter Thirty Four
It wasn't so much that Nina stepped back to let the woman in, she was barged out of the way, falling awkwardly hitting the wall heavily.
"THEO? THEO? Why is some slapper opening the door to me?"
When Nina regained her composure, she looked up in time to see Theo appear eyes blazing with anger. "What the hell are you doing barging in here? Sadie, you need to leave."
Pushing past his ex-wife, he came to her, "are you ok?"
Nina nodded, but she watched as Sadie placed her hands on her hips, a scowl on her face. Which was a shame as she was probably the most beautiful woman she'd ever seen, and the scowl took away from that.
So this was Theo's ex wife, Melody's mother.
She'd never felt so inadequate. The woman who had stormed past her wore a designer suit, heels, hair immaculate. Nina glanced at the mirror across the hallway, her hair had the 'thoroughly fucked', fresh from bed look, and she literally only wore a shirt...that barely covered her naked backside.
Theo had followed Sadie who had continued her storm into the lounge, and she stayed for a moment, gathering herself. Taking a deep breath she finally followed them inside.
He was stood in the centre of the room, hands on hips, so obviously struggling to contain his anger, his emotions. Sadie was facing up to him equally angry, and suddenly Nina had a vision of how awful the end of their marriage had been. She felt awkward, an intruder to the whole personal nature of the moment.
"All I want is to see my daughter. MY daughter."
Theo was shaking his head, "no. She's OUR daughter, and when you decided to get stoned off your head in front of her, regardless of her needs...well sorry Sadie, but you blew it. You are not seeing her, not like this."
Sadie looked devastated for a moment, and Nina hated that she was witnessing this, but soon her attitude changed.
"Where is Melody? You are screwing that slut..." she gestured in Nina's direction with a thumb, "whilst my daughter is sleeping. Is that any better than what I did?"
Theo stepped towards her and Nina almost flinched at the intent in his eyes, "she is having a sleep over with her uncle. I would NEVER mix my life and hers. Not on a whim."
Nina gulped awkwardly, everything he said was right, and made sense, but she couldn't deny that she hated being referred to as a whim. As they started a new round of shouts and accusations, Nina sidestepped into the bedroom. She needed distance, personally, but also for Theo's sake, this was far too intimate a moment for her to witness.
Theo noticed Nina disappear, but then his eyes seemed to have a tracking device on her, he hated the worried expression on her face, but then he was also glad that she wasn't there. He couldn't deal with Sadie and do right by her at the same time. If he said the wrong thing he'd hurt her...or inflame his already angry ex-wife. He needed his wits about him, and Nina seemed to have a very damning effect on his sanity. Usually that was a great thing, but now he needed a clear mind.
Striding across the room, he grabbed her arm forcibly, "get out. You have no control over my life, and you no longer have control over Melody's. You are a mess, and this is another in a long line of ridiculous scenarios you've created."
"Get your hands off me, you bastard!"
She wriggled, and he let go, but he pushed her towards the front door, "you have no right to come in here making demands, shouting your mouth off. You're NOTHING to me."
That caused her to cackle, "you reckon? No judge in the land is going to take my daughter off me, not with your history of violence and 'her'..." she pointed towards the bedroom as she spat the word out. "She has nothing on me, you are settling for some short fat woman. Why? She won't get her hands on my daughter; I'll hurt her if I have to." She waved a camera at him, "got photos of you pair snogging in the street, like the CHEAP WHORE she is. NO judge will side with you. YOU HEAR ME FAT BITCH?"
Theo felt sick; she was delusional, uncontrollable, and quite obviously stoned. He needed her out of there before she did any more damage. As he opened the door and threw her out rather unceremoniously, a poor delivery guy stood in front of them his arms filled with their food.
Theo had to curb his emotions in front of the stranger, "don't come causing trouble here again Sadie. This will all go against you in court."
He pushed her gently but firmly aware that he now had a witness to anything she wanted to contort to use against him, then turned to the bewildered delivery guy and took the food from him, slamming the door behind them both.
Nina was pulling on her shoes when the bedroom door swung open, when she looked up it was to see Theo looking at her in a pained way.
"I really should get going."
He shook his head, "don't. The food's here...she's unstable..."
Nina held up a hand to silence him, "it's nothing to do with me..."
Was she annoyed that he hadn't defended her? Or was she just sickened by the whole episode? Or was it that Sadie had screamed every one of her own insecurities at her? She wasn't sure, but either way she wanted to escape. Whatever he said or did, from this point onwards, Nina knew she'd always measure...and find herself coming short, literally, in comparison to his ex wife. How could she compete with a woman who had so much presence, so much more than she had? If she had insecurities about her weight, her height or any other part, then they had just been exposed to the harshness of reality. Saying that even Lilah would struggle to beat the perfection of the woman who'd been caterwauling to her ex husband in the next door room. EX. She had to keep reminding her of that.
"Maybe I should have explained..."
Nina shook her head, "your marriage, your daughter...that's nothing to do with me."
"Don't Nina; don't let this get between us."
"I'm not."
He walked up to her took her hands, "but you are. Half an hour you were lounging just in my shirt waiting for the take away that we'd eat together. Now you're about to leave. That's due to her..." He dropped his head for a moment, when he looked up he was more emotional than she'd ever seen him, "she's on drugs...amongst other things. I'm trying to not let it become common knowledge, as much to protect Melody as anything else." He sighed, "she needs help, but she's in denial. It's a mess. And I can't have Melody seeing that, being exposed to that."
Nina could feel his pain could see the anguish on his face, "she wants to hurt me, and I'm sorry about what she said. Don't listen to her, nothing she said is true, I've never been violent towards her, and you are the most beautiful woman I've ever met. You're perfect, don't ever doubt that."
"I AM short thought..." she offered with a half smile.
His head fell to the side for a moment and he sighed, "you are petite. Not being six foot tall isn't a negative thing. I swear. The first thing I loved about you was that. I called you Pocket Rocket...and you took it as an insult, but I didn't mean it that way. You are like a whirlwind, and it's addictive. You do believe me?"
She was starting to rationalise things, none of this was his fault, "so I'm not a cheap whore?"
He shook his head sensing that her mood was changing, "definitely not, one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, pursuing you!"
That made her chuckle, "and you can tolerate me being short, and fat?"
He stepped towards her and reached for the strap of her dress, loosening it so that it started to fall away from her body. "You are neither, though you ARE curvy, and let me tell you..." he shrugged the dress from her shoulders, and ran his fingers over her bare skin, "let me tell you," his voice was hoarse, "that you occupy my every waking moment, as much for you wit, your humour, your sassiness, as those delicious curves that I constantly want to bury my face in." He pushed the dress over her hips, then pulled her into his arms, her body flush against his warm still bare chest, "I don't think I'll EVER get bored of you, don't think I could EVER get enough of you. You excite me, you tease me, you push me, you pull me...you stimulate me in a way NO one ever has, you hear me?"
Words were intoxicating, more than actions in this situation, they were music to her ears, and it wasn't until he said those words that she realised how much she was holding back, how much fear she'd had over this situation. Letting someone in to her life, into her heart wasn't easy, but this man was making huge steps in that direction.
"Don't ever let ANYONE tell you that you aren't perfect, ok?"
His lips were on her ear causing chaos with her libido, and her head dropping to one side, exposing her throat wasn't a conscious thing. Neither were her moans, her gasps and the goose bumps that erupted on her flesh.
"Theo..." she tried to restore some sanity to the situation, but she was being engulfed by him. Overwhelmed. And for once she was more than happy to lose her control on life.
"The food'll be cold." Nina breathed against Theo's neck. Her body felt limp, she ached and tingled in equal measure, but somewhere in the last two hours Theo had made love to her. This was no longer sex, exciting, invigorating sex; this was something that transcended that.
The rise and fall of Theo's chest was the only think that proved he was alive, as he remained silent for a while, when he did speak his voice was hoarse, "I can warm that...just not sure my body can function well enough to get me to the kitchen."
She lifted her head and looked down at his serene face, eyes closed, features relaxed, the fact that he felt the same way that she did, that he was as boneless and out of body as she was made her heart surge with satisfaction. So she dropped her head back onto his warm chest and closed her eyes.
It seemed like a lifetime later when Theo opened his eyes. It was still dark, so they hadn't slept through the night. Reaching for the side table and his trusted Audemars Piguet watch, he saw it was three am. As he wriggled he felt Nina's luscious body plastered against him and sighed, unbelievable, her, them...what had happened. He couldn't remember ever feeling so...connected to someone else, so complete. Slumping back against the pillows he smiled as she wriggled into him, seeming to wrap her arms even tighter around him.
Rolling to face her, he rubbed his nose on the end of hers, and was rewarded with her wrinkling it, then her eyes slowly opening.
"Hey."
She gave a half smile, "hey you too."
"You hungry?"
Nina nodded, even though she'd just been fast asleep, she had opened her eyes to immediate hunger, "surprisingly so."
Reluctantly he sat up, "I'll warm the food."
"What time is it?"
"Three."
She gave a slow nod, "so we can finish off that champagne and still sleep it off in the morning?"
Chuckling he shook his head, "you can, but I've got to drive to get Melody by eight."
"Daniel won't take her to nursery? Just this one time?"
How would he ever resist her charms?
They ate the reheated Thai food, finished the bottle of champagne, then before they returned to bed, to sleep...really sleep, Theo sent his brother a text asking him to help him out. He could only ask...and pray.