The Price of Forgiveness by Eve Vaughn

Free Story

Disclaimer: This story is intended for those 18 or older.

Burned

Chapter One

For the first time in almost a year Sadie knew everything was going to be alright. She loved her new job and the tiny little house she’d purchased with the savings she’d intended to use for her wedding. And most especially she loved not being at someone else’s beck and call. Moving from D.C. to North Carolina had been a big leap but it was something she needed to do for herself. All her siblings had all flown the coop years ago and she’d stuck around out of loyalty to her mother—loyalty at most times that wasn’t appreciated. But at least she wasn’t far from her sister Lily who resided in Raleigh, a forty minute drive away.

The best part of working for the University at Chapel Hill was that she’d be able to take a free class each semester. In fact, she was on her way to class now. Glancing at her watch, she noticed she had plenty of time before it began. Since it was such a nice day she decided to catch up on some reading outside on one of the benches in front of her building.

This morning she’d woke up to see her answering machine blinking and was surprised to hear her ex’s voice. It had been a long time since thoughts of Terrell didn’t drive her to tears. A long time since the nights she’d wake up crying and the mornings when she couldn’t think of one single reason to get out of bed. Then there were the days when she didn’t think life was worth living. Sadie shuddered to think how she’d allowed a man to push her to those limits.

How humiliating it had been to walk around with her head in the cloud, secure in the knowledge that she was in love and someone loved her back—only to have the proverbial rug pulled from under her. It was nearly a year ago today when Sadie had been shopping in the mall for some birthday presents for Malia, her fiancé’s daughter. She loved his little girl like her own and was looking forward to being the positive female role model in her life the girl needed. Lord knows, Keisha, her mother, didn’t exactly fit the bill.

Sadie had lost count of the times when Terrell would complain about Keisha’s drinking and smoking pot around their child, and how she constantly used his child support payments on her hair, nails and feet. She was constantly asking Terrell for money to pay her rent of some utility. To top it off Keisha seemed to think there was a chance she and Terrell could get back together and made Sadie’s life miserable.

Whenever Sadie and Terrell got together, Keisha would call under the pretence of being concerned about Malia. Sadie didn’t begrudge her man going to that woman for the sake of their daughter but it seemed like every single time they got together the woman would summon him. And he’d go running! Sadie believed she’d had the last laugh, though. After three years of dating she wore Terrell’s ring. It didn’t matter if it was less than half a carat, it had been bought with love and that was what mattered. She and Terrell had talked about getting custody of Malia once they were married.

As she shopped she’d run into one of her mother’s friends. Sadie didn’t particularly care for Miss. Jenkins, a bitter old busybody who had nothing better to do than being in other people’s business.

“What are you smiling so big about, gal?” The woman had approached her without so much as a how are you.

Sadie had swallowed the sarcastic retort and forced herself to smile. There was no point in antagonizing the woman who could turn nasty at the drop of a dime. “It’s a nice day. Why shouldn’t I be smiling?”

Miss Jenkins pulled her gnarled hands on her hips and looked Sadie up and down as if she was expecting something. “Hmph. You’re taking the news much better than I would if I was you.”

She raised a brow. “What are you talking about? What news?”

“About Terrell, girl.”

“What are you talking about? I spoke to Terrell last night. He’s still in New York for business.” Granted he hadn’t answered his cell phone when she’d called him a few times today but she put it down to his battery being dead or some explanation as simple.

It was Miss Jenkins’s turn to look surprised. “Business trip? If that’s what you called getting married,” she glanced at her watch, “in a half hour than he’s having that trip at St. Charles A.M.E. in N.E. with Keisha. I hear that little girl of theirs is going to be the flower girl.”

Sadie’s mouth fell open. “You’re making that up.” Miss Jenkins also happened to live in the same apartment building as Keisha and it stood to reason she knew all her neighbor’s business.

Miss Jenkins shrugged, a smug smile curving her lips. “You don’t have to believe me but you’re going to feel like a fool when you find out the truth. Your mother’s always telling me what a sucker you are. I guess she’s right. Don’t worry, child you’re probably better off without him. Men are nothing but dogs looking for a bone. That’s why I ain’t never been married. I’m too set in my ways. Take my advice girl, and get yourself a cat.”

Sadie looked at the other woman and knew something was wrong. Feeling nauseous all of a sudden, she dropped all her bags right where she stood and hurried out of the mall. She had to make it to the church if only to prove this was all some horrible nightmare. She sped and maneuvered her car through the streets but had the misfortune of being caught in a funeral procession. She made it to the church an hour after the ceremony was to start—just in time to see a crowd throwing rice at the recently wedded couple.

Sadie couldn’t help but notice the affectionate way Terrell looked at his overly made up bride. In that moment, Sadie realized she’d been the other woman all along. It was no wonder Keisha hated her so much. She’d probably been bidding her time because she knew Terrell would go back to her. Then Sadie remembered all the business trips, the 911 text messages he’d shrugged off. He’d probably been sleeping with Keisha from the beginning, he’d probably never stopped. Terrell had made a fool of her—gave her a cheap ring to keep her in line all the while he’d never had any intentions of making their relationship permanent.

To have her mother say she told Sadie so was the final crushing blow, after all, what did she expect? Terrell was handsome and virile, too far out of Sadie’s league to be faithful to someone who was short, and had more than a few extra pounds to lose. Granted Sadie had a bit of a complex growing up with three model gorgeous sisters, one of which who was a model, but she’d always believed herself to be attractive. Her mother’s biting words coupled with Terrell’s betrayal had been like a hammer to her self esteem.

She made a promise to herself then: no more handsome men. They were more trouble than they were worth and thought they could get away with anything because they were so damn good looking. There were times when Terrell would say things to her that now looking back made her cringe, but he’d give her that sexy grin of his and she’d be happy again. Her number two rule was to leave the guys with kids alone. Men with kids came with baby mama drama and she didn’t think her heart could survive going through that again, because not only had she lost Terrell but Malia as well.

Too bad her mother had given Terrell her phone number. Not that she intended on calling him back. Hearing his voice on her answering machine helped her to realize she was most definitely over him. She wished him luck with his ghetto princess.

Sadie shook her head to rid herself of the unpleasant memories. Placing her book on her lap, she closed her eyes and titled her face toward the sun reveling at it’s warmth against her skin.

“Sure makes a guy wish he was the sun.”

Sadie jumped at the sound of an accented voice. She looked in the direction of the speaker and momentarily lost her ability to speak. It was him! The dishy British Anthropology Professor whose class she’d gone to by mistake. It had been her first day of classes and she’d misread her schedule and gone to the wrong room. By the time she realized her error, Sadie had been too embarrassed to get up and leave. She probably wouldn’t have been able to if she could because he’d held her as well as the rest of his female student mesmerized.

The man standing before her was a living breathing God. Not since Terrell had someone of the opposite sex had the ability to turn her into a drooling fool. If she was being totally honest, he made Terrell look like a bum extraordinaire. Standing well over six feet, he was broad shouldered and solid. She could only imagine what he looked like beneath his black button down shirt and dark khaki pants. His smile was….nothing short of breathtaking and those eyes, those dreamy green eyes….. aww hell, she was trouble.

Run away, her brain told her. If she stuck around, Sadie was sure she’d say something stupid. “Uh, I gotta go to class.”

She gathered her purse and book and would have made a dash into the building but she was halted by a large sinewy hand. Shocked that he’d actually touched her, Sadie tumbled forward and nearly fell on her face but found herself wrapped in large capable arms.

“I got you. I won’t let you fall.” Those words were conveyed with some underlying message that made her pause for the briefest of seconds.

She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue, trying to find something intelligible to say. “I uh…need to go. You can let me go now.”

He seemed to take his precious time releasing her. “Please don’t run off. I wanted to ask you something.”

With a sigh, Sadie turned to face him, eyes downcast. She wouldn’t fall under the spell of his hypnotic stare if she could help it. What could he possibly want from her anyway? “Yes?”

“I recognize you from one of my classes but you only showed up that first day and I haven’t seen you since. I’m assuming you dropped the class because I’ve pretty much matched the names to the faces of all my current students.”

She pushed away a stray braid from her face feeling hot all of a sudden. Wasn’t it enough that he was sexy? Did his accent have to make her want to throw herself at him too? “Actually I wasn’t supposed to be in your class. I went into the wrong room.” Sadie made the mistake of looking him directly in the eyes and she could have just melted.

He smiled. “It happens. Look, I’m glad I caught up with you because I have something that belongs to you. You were in such a haste to leave my class, you left this behind.” Professor Delicious reached into his briefcase and pulled out a black and white note book.

Her book of poems!! Reaching out with trembling fingers she took them from him. “Thank you. I thought I lost this.”

“It’s a good thing I noticed you’d left it. I hope you don’t mind that I read a few of your poems. They were quite lovely.”

There were only a few people she’d shared her poems with and knowing this man had been intimately acquainted with some of her innermost feelings made her even more uncomfortable than ever. “Thanks.”

“Are you an English major?”

She shook her head. “No. I’m only taking a class here and there. The University only allows staff to take one free class a semester. Maybe when I get some money saved up I’ll take more classes.”

He raised one devilishly sexy brow. “You’re a staff member? Where do you work?”

Sadie took a step back. If she didn’t know better this guy seemed seriously interested in her. And if that were the case, why her? “I’m a registrar for the Computer Science Department. Look, Professor---”

“Rhys. And you are?”

“Sadie. Sadie Flowers.” She could have kicked herself for giving him her full name and more information than he had the right to know. “Okay now, I really have to go. Thanks for returning my notebook.” This time when she turned to go he thankfully didn’t stop her. When she got home after class she’d definitely need to change her panties.

* * *

Rhys couldn’t tear his eyes away from her Sadie’s luscious backside. Damn. Sadie Flowers gave him another reason why he loved America. They didn’t have asses like that in Wales. He’d noticed her the moment she sat down in class, well actually he’d noticed her knees. The skirt she wore had rode up when she sat down revealing the cutest dimpled knees he’d ever seen. Yes it was weird to be fixated on such an ordinary part of the body, but hers were particularly appealing, not to mention she was pretty cute with attractive chocolate swirled with cinnamon tinted skin.

She seemed to be a bit older than the average student in his class not that he didn’t get a few of those occasionally. It was just that none had ever caught his interest the way she had. During his lecture his gaze would stray to where she’d sat and he noticed the way she chewed her bottom lip and wrote in her notebook, the way she fidgeted in her chair. She was so damn adorable. But she was his student and any thoughts he may have had in the direction of approaching her as anything other than a professor would have been unethical, but hell if he wasn’t attracted to her.

He hadn’t been so interested in a woman like this since his ex wife. He’d dated around and had even considered committing to a couple of them but he’d eventually lost interest. With this woman, he knew that wouldn’t happen. He couldn’t put his finger on why. She wasn’t the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, but she was quite pretty. There was something about her, an inner glow that attracted him. Whatever it was, Rhys had intended to wait for the end of the semester to get to know her better.

She’d been in such a hurry to get out of his class that she’d left behind her notebook. Wanting to find clues about his mystery lady, he’d kept the book instead of returning it to lost and found in thinking it would give him clues as to who she was. It had been to no avail, but he did get a peek into her personality through her poetry. She’d known pain—been burned by love. Someone had hurt her and strangely it hurt him knowing that she’d suffered.

He’d held on to that notebook holding on to the hope he’d see her again when she didn’t return to class. Luck was with him to see her sitting outside the English building on his way to his car.

“Sadie.” He liked the sound of the name on his tongue. Now that he knew she worked for the University, he’d find her again. And the next time he wouldn’t allow her to run away so easily.

To be continued at….http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evevaughnsbooks/

story can be found in the file sector of Eve's group under free stories.