Fine ending, p.1
Fine Ending, page 1
First Published in Great Britain in 2021 by
LOVE AFRICA PRESS
103 Reaver House, 12 East Street, Epsom KT17 1HX
www.loveafricapress.com
Text copyright © Emem Bassey, 2021
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
The right of Emem Bassey to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
BLURB
It's the evening after Mandy and Joe's wedding. Celia is expecting the knock on the door but not the visitor on the stoop. Having courted feelings for Adebayo, who is her intern and younger, Celia held back despite knowing he reciprocated these feelings.
When he upped and left before the end of his internship, she missed him terribly. However, when he stood before her that night, both of them alone in Mandy's former apartment, Celia wondered if she'd be able to let go of the hang-up of being older than him.
CHAPTER ONE
The sigh that thundered from her body as Celia unlocked Mandy’s apartment was of utter fatigue. As the Chief Bride’s Maid in Mandy’s wedding, she’d done everything. The other three married women making up the short train—Sifon, Dora and Agnes, all pregnant—left most of the running around to her, even controlling and guiding the little bride and groom.
Jesus Christ, Celia sighed again, trudging into the guest room. Mandy had graciously offered her apartment when Celia had arrived a week to the wedding. The luxury of having the apartment to herself came because Mandy having already moved in with her sexy landlord, now husband. Celia chose the guest room because most of Mandy’s things were still in her room, and she didn’t feel comfortable staying there.
With how tired she felt, sitting down to rest for a bit meant she’d never get to bathe. And with all she’d done at that wedding, she needed a seriously hot bath, finished off with a cold-water rinse. The ritual usually helped her relax and fall asleep quickly.
She could feel her muscles loosening as Celia stood under the hot shower spray. And it was in that relaxed mode that the thoughts she’d managed to hold at bay all day came flooding back.
Thoughts of Adebayo. He’d left Ad Guru Consult weeks before the end of his internship at the company. Mandy had encouraged Celia repeatedly about showing him how she felt about him and had already hinted that he liked her.
Celia just couldn’t bring herself to. Her strong personal policies wouldn’t let her.
As the boss and co-owner of Ad Guru Consult, in charge of their main office and day-to-day running, Celia had made sure to maintain outstanding character and morals worthy of a big company like theirs. She held the highest level of integrity as an example to their workers. She needed to be and stay that way as an example to their staff. It served as a deterrent to excuses for messing up or going against the bylaws of the company.
In the advertising industry, she’d been called the ice-queen. They weren’t far from the truth. On the other hand, Mandy remained Celia’s antithesis. Their staffs knew not to mess up, and men in the industry had learnt to go straight to business, keeping all transactions professional.
Showing Adebayo how she felt about him—how breathless he made her when he stood close, how his obvious intelligence warmed her belly, how his deep voice melted her knees and his cologne made her mouth water—would be taking all those years of moulding her integrity and sparkling character and flinging it in the bin.
People did business with people, not companies. And as Celia owned the responsibility for cutting deals most of the time, she’d met a plethora of people in the business world who knew her. They didn’t know her from being her friend, nope. They knew about her because Celia had never been shy to express that she didn’t cut corners nor mixed business with pleasure.
Celia feared, worried, that if she’d been anything less than professional with Adebayo, someone would call her out. Of course, she’d have done the same, and it would crumble everything they’d built so far.
“God,” Celia murmured, realising she’d been standing in the bathroom, lost in thought. Water had utterly dried on her skin. Shaking herself from her ponderings, she went to the guest room and lightly moisturised her skin. She pulled on cotton sleep shorts and a Sponge Bob tee that had seen better days. The tee was her absolute comfort dress for when she wanted to rest deeply.
Her body kept pulling her to the bed, but she recalled Mandy’s mom saying she would be by with her little niece to grab a bag of gifts Mandy had kept for the teenager. She explained that she had to pick it that night as the teenager and her parents were travelling early the next day.
Celia clicked her phone to check the time and frowned. Her digital time raced to 9 p.m. Would she still make it? Biting inside her cheek, she pondered on calling Mrs Uffot. On second thought, maybe it’d be better letting it play out on its own.
Instead, Celia imagined Mandy and her husband had arrived in Lagos already. The thought exhumed the joy she’d felt for her friend during the wedding celebration warm her heart again. She was thrilled for...
The doorbell interrupted her thoughts, and Celia sighed, thinking it’d been a good thing she’d not called Mandy’s mom. She didn’t want it to seem as though she’d been hurrying her or something.
When the chime came a second time, Celia rushed through the corridor, bursting into the small sitting room before recalling she could have thrown on a sweater over her soft tee. She shrugged off the concern, Mandy’s mom being a woman after all.
Without asking or bothering to check the peephole, Celia hurriedly turned the key. She wrenched the door open with a ready smile that died on seeing who stood at the threshold.
Her jaws slacked, leaving her mouth open.
“Hello, Cee. You should be more security conscious when opening the door, especially because you’re staying in this compound all by yourself. Well, not anymore,” he grinned and moved inside, leaving her no option but to stand aside.
He didn’t walk in and allow her to shut the door, which would’ve been the most natural thing to do. Nope. He closed and locked the door himself before turning those dark eyes on her. His gaze gave her a thorough appraisal, from her head to her feathery slippered feet. Goosebumps sprouted on her skin at his slow perusal.
Many questions rushed to the fore of her consciousness.
What the heck was he doing there? He’d disappeared for weeks, with no calls or messages.
Nevertheless, all Celia could do was stare, her eyes eating up his height, his dark, dark skin, and long hands which she’d fantasised about for so long. Adebayo, standing there, in Mandy’s apartment, alone with her, presented so many delicious possibilities.
Yet, the question remained, would she allow herself to take the plunge? Celia wanted to but would she be able to?
Celia noticed the travel bag when he dropped it by the sofa and the impeccable suit he had on when he commented on her dressing.
“I’ve never seen you this dressed down before, Cee.”
Jesus, she’d never heard a voice so deep. Her knees already felt wobbly, and his eyes, oh, his eyes missed nothing. Dear God, were those her nipples she could feel going so hard they hurt? And, of course, it would be engraving her soft, barely there, t-shirt, all for Adebayo to see.
Her arms jerked to cover her chest, but she held back. Celia’s innate need to be in control detected that covering her hard nipples would mean handing over the little control she had left of this situation, one he’d succeeded in taking from her with his surprise appearance.
“Are you going to say anything to me, Cee?”
There goes that name again, Celia thought. Nobody had ever shortened her already short name. A frown furrowed her brow. “Cee?”
“That’s the only thing you got from all I’ve said?” he chuckled, and the sound tasted like smooth chocolate. God help me, Celia thought, I’m going insane. How the heck did she ever control herself around him at the office when his voice enchanted her so?
“Umm...” she swallowed and took a deep breath. Her eyes followed his gaze as it dropped to her boobs and darkened. Celia forgot what she’d been about to say.
“You looked, absolutely, beautiful at the wedding today,” he said this moving his weight from one Italian shoe covered feet to the other.
“Thank you,” she croaked, and then what he said really sank in, “Wait, what? You were at the wedding?”
“Yes, I was invited,” he smirked, and it was a wonderfully sexy look on him.
Then Celia realised how rude her question sounded. “Sorry, I didn’t mean...”
“Don’t worry about it,” he waved off her apology.
“I didn’t know you would attend the wedding.”
“I know. I wanted it that way.”
Instantly, she frowned, “I don’t understand.”
Adebayo grinned, lowered his great height and picked his bag, “You’re staying at the guestroom, right?” he asked over his shoulder as he moved towards the corridor.
Celia had to clear her throat to find her voice, “Yes.” Yet his reply stole her voice right back.
“Good,” and he ma
CHAPTER TWO
Adebayo followed to the latter Mandy’s advice about keeping Celia off balance. So far, he’d managed to render her speechless. He felt like dancing since a speechless Celia could be sold as a rare commodity. The woman conversed in sarcasm and came up with the most creative clap-backs. Attending business meetings with here had been a revelation to how she easily put arrogant men in their place. Also, most staffs were wary about being called to her office.
But one of the things he loved about her, yes love, was her sense of fairness. She was quick to praise as much as she criticised. All these and more Adebayo had learnt when he’d really settled down to observe her after travelling with her to Uyo for the first time.
He’d always be grateful to Mandy for the insight and the fact that she’d chosen him to intern at their company. He was still happy he’d met her.
At twenty-seven, Adebayo had been in six relationships. None had lasted past four months. So, for the past three years, he’d decided to concentrate on his career and wait for that beautiful, encompassing feeling called love.
He’d prayed for clarity and discernment to know when he found it. Celia was it.
It had started with her voice on the phone, despite sounding angry and borderline rude. Adebayo had felt an ignition in his stomach and a pressing need to see the face of the person speaking. When he’d met her, it’d been showers of sparks all over his body, one he had to tried, really hard to control.
He’d had no idea if she’d noticed how fixedly he’d stared at her most of the time. And when Adebayo found out she was thirty-two, it did nothing to reduce the sparks that had begun burning brighter and brighter each day he went to work.
She’d knocked the breath out of him when she’d opened the door in her nightwear. After that first perusal which had gotten his dick jerking awake, Adebayo had tried and succeeded in keeping his eyes above her neck, even though it’d been difficult.
However, she’d gone and taken a deep breath, and his eyes had fallen below the neck at their own volition and damn, she had full, beautiful breasts and nipples that called out to him. His dick had swollen in his pants, and Adebayo had worried that she would see the bulge. On second thought, the infuriating woman ought to see what she did to him.
Adebayo’s last reply about not wanting her to know he’d be at the wedding would definitely drive her crazy. Celia always wanted to have the power, but for this night, he had to be in control for them to move past this tiptoeing around their feelings.
After his bath, Adebayo pulled on a pair of joggers and a grey t-shirt before returning to the sitting room where Celia currently paced.
Her sleep short was a thing of wet dreams. It did nothing to hide her narrow waist and how it flared over the roundness of her hips. It moulded her protruding buttocks, the soft material entering the cleft of her jiggling arse as she moved. With the length ending mid-thigh, Adebayo was presented with smooth, light-skinned thighs that he wanted to hold up, spread them, while pounding into her.
He might likely pounce on her than talk at the rate his dick was charging. Sighing deeply, Adebayo walked past her to the kitchen, because, what else could a man do? He needed to will his dick down before he faced her. He needed blood in his brain, not his cock.
“Have you had anything to eat?” he flung over his shoulder in the most casual tone he could muster. The last time Adebayo had been there, Mandy had given him full run of her kitchen seeing as she wasn’t really a culinary person. However, he was and had enjoyed cooking their meals those few days. Mandy though, was a cook’s ultimate delight because she enjoyed eating.
Adebayo hoped the plan worked as Mandy had sworn some of it had been used on her now-husband. He’d been made to understand why the landlord had revved his car the Sunday he’d arrived Uyo. Mandy explained the man had been jealous of him.
He shook his head, thinking, the dumb things men do for love.
Celia’s presence behind him came as an awareness; a thickening in the air as she entered the kitchen. The breath Adebayo took expanded his chest before he asked, hopefully, as casual as he wanted to sound, “Care for noodles?”
“We...we need to talk first,” she said belligerently and joined him at the counter, folding her arms over her breasts. What a shame, Adebayo thought, forcing his gaze from her chest.
“Okay,” he turned around from the sink, leaned on it, and mimicked her folded arms.
Adebayo noticed that he’d shocked her into speechlessness again. Perhaps, she’d not expected his ready acceptance to talk. Well, dear Celia, this is actually what I want - to talk, he thought.
“Umm...what are you doing here, Adebayo?” she still sounded confrontational, and it made him smile. Adebayo had discovered her brittle attitude was a front to keep the possibility of hurting away.
“Clement. My name is Clement.”
She frowned at him, the kind of frown that usually presaged her usual ‘I don’t understand’ comment. Adebayo held her gaze, his eyebrows going up as he waited. He could see the ticking pulse in the base of her neck as she tried to figure out what all these meant.
“Okay, I hear you. But I asked a question,” she pointed out.
“Yes, you did. Ask it with my name.” Already his throat bobbed as he wondered how his name would sound coming from her mouth.
Celia scoffed, as though he was ridiculous, “What’s this about?” she choked on calling him his grandfather’s name again.
“Clement, Cee. Why is it so difficult to call my name?”
“And why are you calling me Cee?” she bolstered, pinning him with a stern stare.
“Because that’s how I call you in my head when I imagine us being together...as husband and wife,” Adebayo replied, swallowing with some difficulty. Cat’s out of the bag, he thought with a racing pulse.
Her mouth dropped open, “What? We aren’t even dating!”
“We will be.”
“What is wrong with you – Clement?” she finally said his name like a curse. But it was something.
“I’m in love with you, Cee. That’s what’s wrong if you want to put it that way,” Adebayo snapped at her, startling her to take a step backwards. He was done beating around the bush or trying to keep her off balance. This thing needed to be said, and she needed to deal with it already and stop wasting time.
Her mouth opened and closed a few times like a fish out of water. “I...umm, don’t...”
“You do, Celia! Stop avoiding it,” he hated snapping at her, but she needed to get it.
“Avoiding what?” she cried.
Adebayo moved into her space, aligning his body on hers with her back on the counter, igniting the sparks between them ablaze.
“Avoiding the obvious fire between us. I know you feel it,” he whispered plaintively, and she swallowed, shutting her eyes as she sighed and melted against him.
They stayed that way, her head on his chest, their pulses pounding. Their bodies shivered with the intensity of their emotions.
“It isn’t right, Clement,” she whispered, sounding close to tears, and it broke his heart.
“Sweetheart, it wasn’t before, but it is now. It was the reason I left Ad Guru before time.”
Celia leaned away from him. “Really?” Her gaze searched his face for the truth.
Adebayo nodded.
“Really. I was eager to come to you like my own man and not your intern because I noticed you’re particular about stuff like that,” he explained, his chest expanding at the smile on her face.
“Yes, I am. But, you could have called … texted. I missed you,” she said, startling herself with the confession, and relief flooded his system.
Yes! Adebayo mentally punched the air.
“I missed you too, very much. I wanted to come to your house or visit the office, so many times. However, Mandy told me about her wedding. I decided this would be better,” he murmured his last word, his eyes drooping as his hand caressed her smooth cheeks and his head lowered to hers.
“Oh yes, kiss me, Clement,” she murmured in apparent acceptance. She lifted her head and accepted his lips on hers. Christ, the blaze turned into an inferno.
