Nothing to Lose (BWWM)

Twenty Four

"Why the long face, dolcezza?"

Dropping her phone on the side table in annoyance, she sighed. "I just got off the phone with the realtor." Imani slipped into the bed beside him, a frown on her face. "You remember that house I showed you two days ago? Somebody's already paid for it. It's off the market."

"Oh?"

She pouted. "I'm devastated - I really did like that place. I was already starting to picture where Luke's room would be and where I'd be able to put some furniture." Imani couldn't seem to wrap her mind around the fact that the house was gone. Seeming unusually quiet, she turned to Vincent, who had what looked like a faint smile on his face. "What are you smiling about?"

He kissed her in reassurance. "Nothing you need to worry about." She nodded and faded into another sigh - turning on her back and groaning loudly. "It's such a shame about it being taken." He replied unconvincingly. "Such a shame."

"I guess I'll have to start my search for a new place all over again." Imani said and if she had been facing Vincent, she would have seen his face fall and harden. "I'll go see the realtor tomorrow."

"You can't." He replied hurriedly. "I need you to stay till late tomorrow."

Not understanding his statement, she turned to him. "Why?"

Vincent had answered too quickly - he didn't have a reason. "You need to stay late."

"But you-." His lips pressed against her motionless ones in an attempt to shut her up as she lay beside him - baffled. "Why would I need to stay late?" Imani asked after he ripped his mouth away from her, only to slide down her body and disappear under the covers.

It was when she felt his wicked tongue on her other set of lips that she shut up. Every question died on her lips and moved to the back of her mind as he worked her lower body until her eyes were rolling to the back of her head.

"I want you to stay late because-." He teased, lifting his head up and making Imani tear her eyes open.

Glaring at him, she reached for his head and pushed him back down. "I don't care - quit talking."



"GREEN? SINCE WHEN DID WE USE THE COLOUR GREEN?"

Imani saw the thin man who was seated in front of Vincent pale. The pastel pink suit he wore seemed to match the shade of his cheeks as Vincent slated him.

"THIS GREEN IS DISGUSTING!" He screamed. "What was the first thing you saw when you entered the building?" Imani felt incredibly bad for the guy. She could see that he was obviously shaking in his white snakeskin Giuseppe Zanotti's. "You're supposed to answer." Vincent added impatiently.

The lanky man couldn't even put a sentence together. It took him a while to say, "The-The Pellegrino logo, sir."

"And what colour is the logo?" The slow and patronising manner in which Vincent was speaking was making the man even more nervous. He knew that the tall male in the black shirt and black slacks with similar coloured eyes was going to explode again soon.

Fidgeting with his peach coloured trousers, he gulped.

"W-white and gold, sir, white and gold."

The pause after he spoke seemed to last hours.

Vincent lifted the sample that he had been handed and ripped it up. Standing to his full height of 6'2, he placed both hands on the desk in front of him and leaned down, keeping those malicious, inky eyes on the soft baby blues of the employee in front of him.

"The next time you are here in this seat, you will give me the correct sample. No green, understood?" He nodded vehemently. "Good, now get out."

He nearly broke his neck flying out of the office.

Turning to the petite woman beside him, he saw her raise a manicured eyebrow and shake her head disappointedly. "You know for a fact that the green was olive and you were the one who requested - no wait - demanded that olive be incorporated into the packaging."

"I did, didn't I? Oh." Imani scrawled a few words on the notebook in her hands. "And what exactly are you writing down?"

"A reminder to get that poor guy some daisies and a box of chocolates for the trouble you put him through." She said, mentally outlining all that had to be completed within the next two hours. "Ok, you are actually a minute late to the meeting with HoughtonChem - so let's get going."

Vincent shrugged his black suit jacket on, looking as if he had no worries or nothing important to get to. "Bella, you forget that I'm the boss - they can wait." He claimed as they walked towards the elevator.

She rolled her eyes at his cockiness, pushing the button to go down. It was only then that she remembered that she had left a few files in Vincent's office. "Go down without me, I'll be 2 minutes behind you."

"It's fine, I'll wait."

"You'll be even later."

He blinked. "Since when did I care about punctuality?"

Her mouth opened to reply but she decided against it and raced back to the office instead. Searching the 7x8 room, she tried to think about where the manilla folders could be. Dragging open one of the drawers, Imani huffed in exasperation. She was making them later than necessary.

The shrill sound of the phone ringing had her groaning. There was no time to be answering phones - she had somewhere to be.

As the handset kept going off, Imani thanked God when she found the pile of files that she was looking for.

"Good morning Mr Pellegrino, it's Gerry Travers from Eagle Real Estate," Imani's ears perked up after hearing her realtor on the line.

Why would he be calling Vincent?

"Your offer for the two storey, semi-detatched with three bedrooms on Wellington Street has been accepted and all we need now is for you to come in and sign the paperwork."

Slowly, as if she hadn't heard correctly, Imani neared the phone - eyes narrowing and fists closing. That was her place. So the offer that had trumped hers was Vincent's.

"If you can call me back on this number, we can appoint a time for you to come in and hopefully you'll have your keys within two weeks! I'll be waiting for your call, bye."

Breathing evenly through her nose, Imani tried to control herself. She was furious. Her mind raced through reasons why he would buy the house and each and every one of them infuriated her.

Did he buy it for her? She didn't need him splashing out that much cash and undermining all the hard work she had gone through saving up all that money. She could do it on her own. She could support herself without his help.

Without a second thought, Imani lifted the handset and redialed Mr Travers' number.

She looked at the time and realised she couldn't care less if she was late - her mind was elsewhere.

"Good morning, Eagle Real Estate, how can I help you?"

It only occured to her then that perhaps he would recognise her voice - having spoken to him just the previous evening and numerous times before that. So she did the first thing that she could think of and lowered her voice a few octaves.

"Hello, this is Mr Pellegrino's assistant." She answered, "I'm, uh, calling back to let you know that Mr Pellegrino is currently out at the moment however, if you call back at 1pm - he will be available."

"Oh, that's fine. Thank you very much, Mr..."

Imani hung up before she could think of a fake name. She was a quick thinker but just not that fast.

There was no way Vincent could escape explaining his actions to her once Gerry's phone call came whilst she was in the room.

"You took your time." He said smugly, still leaning against the elevator wall when she made her way towards him.

Imani couldn't reply. Not with the red hot rage she could feel bubbling inside her.

Stepping into the lift, she jabbed the button a little harder than needed. Vincent limped in afterwards, looking at her with an eyebrow raised.

When the doors reopened, she was first to walk out, not waiting for him as she moved towards the meeting room.

With a gentle tug to her elbow, he turned her around and bent so that their eyes were at the same level. "What's the matter?"

"I'm fine. We're late - let's go." When he began to ask her whether she was okay again, she replied with a firm, "I'm fine." Vincent decided to let it go, he would push the subject when they got home. He leaned in to meet her lips but she turned her cheek, letting his mouth land on the side of her face.

Before he had a chance to question her, she had walked into the boardroom and left him on his own.



She was angry about something. It was something that he had done obviously from her behaviour towards him.

When he asked her for notes during the meeting, she passed them to him with a lot more force than needed and she somehow managed to place her chair so far from his that he couldn't reach out to her.

Clearly, Imani didn't know Vincent as well as she thought. The further her chair got from his, the closer he moved to close the distance.

By the time the meeting was over, he could tell she was seething and even he was getting quite irritated. As far as he knew, he hadn't done anything wrong. Everything was fine before she left to go back to the office. Upon her return, the attitude was in full force.


Vincent knew she had entered his office when her sweet scent filled the air and danced into his nostils, cutting off his train of thought. He always underestimated easily she could throw off his focus. How quickly she could make him forget about what he was thinking with just one look. Shutting the door behind her, she sashayed to the plush leather chair and sat.

Not one to ever be confused in a situation, Vincent felt uncomfortable.

The way in which her wide, cinnamon eyes never left his face had him thinking of all that she was up to.

"Is there anything that I can help you with, Imani?"

Imani shook her head just as the phone began to ring. Vincent made no move to answer it, wanting to find out what was going on with Imani instead. "Your phone is ringing."

"You are more important. Is there anything I can help you with?" He repeated much to her annoyance.

"Answer the phone, Vincent."

Narrowing his eyes in suspicion, he folded his arms over his large chest. "Why?"

"Because it could be an important call. Could you please just answer it before they hang up?" Imani said, reaching over and answering the phone for him. She pressed the speaker button and sat back.

"Hello?" Vincent grunted.

"Mr Pellegrino, it's Gerry Travers from Eagle Real Estate." It didn't take long for Vincent to realise what her plan was. She was aware of his offer. Imani knew.

Cursing under his breath, he extended his arm and ended the call.

There were two ways that he could've approached the issue. One of them was to pretend he had bought the house as a present for her and the second option was to tell the truth. To let her know how he was feeling.

Bringing his gaze back up to those almond shaped orbs, he knew he would have to reveal the truth.

"Is there a reason why you placed an offer on the house that I wanted?" She asked, scowling at him. "If this was you trying to buy it for me, I can tell you now that I don't need your money, Vincent. I worked hard to earn enough money for the deposit, I really didn't need your- why are you laughing?" Imani cut herself off when she heard his rich chuckle.

"You are the first woman I know to complain over having money spent on them."

She watched as Vincent stood from his seat and limped around the desk to rest on the expensive cherrywood. "Yes because I don't want it, Vincent! If I wanted you to buy me the house, I would've asked you. But you and I both know that that was never going to happen." She continued. "So would you please take back your offer? Thanks, but no thanks."

"I didn't buy it for you, Imani."

"Huh?" With a crease in his cheeks from a smile, he patted his left leg. "I'm not sitting on your lap, Vincent, that's your bad leg." Sucking his teeth he took hold of both of her hands and pulled her towards him until she was stood between his thighs. "If you didn't buy it for me then who did you buy it for?" She asked, new doubts and suspicions clouding her mind.

"I bought it so that you wouldn't be able to have it." He admitted just as Imani's frown deepened.

Was this some form of him trying to control her and her decisions?

Did he think that the house wasn't good enough for her?

What possible reason could he have had to go and buy the house just so she couldn't have it?

"I don't want you and LJ to move out."

Imani felt her heart soar with the confession. Truth is, she had been wanting to hear some sort of objection from his side on her moving out. The topic hadn't been approached before - always swept under the rug.

"I thought the only way to keep you here with me would be to buy the house so that you couldn't have it."

"Oh come here you useless idiot." Imani cooed, wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly. His large, calloused hands found her waist as she pulled back. "Why couldn't you just talk to me like a normal human being and let me know how you felt?"

 "I didn't want to be selfish. If you want to leave, you should be able to do so."

Imani caressed the side of his face, the rough shadow on his jaw tickling her fingers. "You should've told me." She said gently. 

"I know." 

Staring at the man in front of her with his confession still ringing in her ears, Imani mentally cursed as she realised she couldn't walk away from him. Not now and perhaps not ever.

"Vincent, Vincent, Vincent-," Imani repeated against his lips as his hands moved to her lower back, "what am I going to do with you?"