Our Thing Nicci Harris

I stood at his foot, looking him over. The way he kept up his arms, made the muscles of his arms bulge, leaving those on his abdomen flexed. He looked like a model posing for a casual photo. Just then, a disturbing thought entered my head as I stared at his body. I closed my eyes and shook my head to expunge the illicit thought that crept into it but the thought became vivid behind the darkness. I flipped them open and stared at him again. Then throwing caution and the thought of the dreadful future out the window, I crouched on all fours and crawled on both sides of him till I was face to face with his chest. Slowly, I laid my body on top of his, placed my palms on his chest, and rested my jaws on it. The body contact sent warmth and something sweet up and down my body, going to rest on its usual place below my waist. He still had his eyes closed but I knew he was awake because his face slowly lit up in a beautiful smile, then ever so leisurely, his arms slid down and wrapped around my waist.

"A life lived in love will never be dull.” ….. "If you keep thinking about what society and the world will think, you will never be able to enjoy life," When Vanessa looked at him, Justin further explained, "Because no matter what you do, you will never be able to satisfy them." Tapping the tip of her nose, he added, "And the only person you gotta satisfy is yourself." Pausing for a while, he asked, "So Vanessa Green, have you ever satisfied yourself?" …. Some think love happens only once, while others think it can happen twice or thrice. Sometimes, we force ourselves to love a particular person and give them our all, even though we get nothing in return. When Vanessa's fiance, Oliver Becker left five years ago without saying a word, she felt shattered and miserable. Thinking that Oliver was the only person she loved and could ever love, she patiently waited for five years for his return. But things changed after she met Justin. Justin Wilson, a young, handsome man whose concept of love was completely opposite of that of Vanessa. What will happen after their paths cross ways? Will Vanessa let go of the past? What will happen to their relationship when their past comes knocking at the door? …..

My mother-in-law could not understand me. Before my business trip, I repeatedly told her not to touch anything in my study, but she mixed up the contract I needed. As a result, I lost a million-dollar order and was fired from my company. To make up for her mistake, she promised she would take care of my child and help me find another job. I froze my milk, labeled everything with notes, and gave her detailed instructions on timing and measurements. However, when my baby ended up in the hospital, I found out that she had thrown out all the milk and fed my baby expired formula instead. Even worse, she fed my baby peanuts behind my back, causing my baby to suffocate and die. Afterward, she wailed, "That was my granddaughter! How could I not care? If I could, I'd die with her..." My husband slapped me, shouting, "My mom worked so hard to take care of the child, and you want to drive her to her death? She's an old woman. It's not easy for her!" My sister-in-law came over too, calling me ungrateful and blaming me for treating an elderly woman badly. She claimed I deserved to be childless and alone. However, they did not know how many times I had stopped my mother-in-law from causing trouble and harm to them. I was driven to depression by them and eventually sent to a mental institution, where I was tortured to death. If I had the chance to do it again, I would protect my child and myself and stop preventing my mother-in-law from causing chaos for others. I would watch her bring equal destruction to each one of them!

Our cruise ship got into an accident, but there was only one seat left on the lifeboat. The three of us drew lots, and I got it. I wanted to give Zac Xavier the chance of survival that I won. However, while we were arguing, his childhood sweetheart got on the lifeboat first. Just as we thought our lives would end, the rescue team arrived in time and brought us back from the boundless deep sea. After that incident, Zac and I walked down the aisle. Unexpectedly, his childhood sweetheart returned to that sea on our wedding day and jumped into it. When Zac got the news of her death, he was struck by grief and blamed everything on me. He imprisoned the pregnant me in the basement and made my life a torture. I bled profusely on the day I gave birth. He had the doctor save the baby, asking him to give up on my life. My only child was named Rory, something he thought up based on the name of his childhood sweetheart—Aurora. Even when I died, I was consumed by hatred. When I reopened my eyes, I had returned to the day he proposed to me after the cruise ship accident. Watching Zac hold my hand as he had done in my past life and promise to grant my every wish, I calmly withdrew my hand. "Zac, let's break up."

PHOEBE - Holy mother of craps! I had lost my virginity to the college’s bad boy, Asher Gilbert. And, he told me it meant nothing to him. He told me to get lost! ********* ASHER - All my life till now, no one had ever intimidated me. Not anyone. Not my dad, nor the school principal… Not those street gangs… lastly, not the mafia. But this strange girl— a Maserati shows up. Making me urge to brand her, as mine. ********** “Why are you like this to me?” “What do you mean?” “Why are you so dismissive but save me, every time I land in trouble?” He didn’t reply that. Instead, he sighed, crunching the plastic bottle in his hand. He threw it in anger to the other side of the room. Then he approached me. I took three steps back, timidly. His intimidating gaze dropped towards mine. He didn’t stop until the back of my head contacted the wall. Only then did his both hands angle at the sides of my head. My eyes immediately gorged at his hard-on. Flash backs of the night we had together immediately ran through my brain. The only thing I could think of was the way my mouth was wrapped around him. His Adam’s apple swallowed numerous times, making me wonder what he thought of. It was like one of those scenes of movies. Like he was in a battle with himself. But the question was, what was he so protective about? Why didn’t he like making conversations with females? “I’m never gonna change, Phoebe. Remember that,” ********* What is worse than drunken one-night-stand, with the college’s bad boy? Or a cold treatment thereafter? However, one pregnancy changes it all. In this love so wrong, can they ever make things right?

When straight-A Student Christine caught herself in an accident with Kent, the self-proclaimed heartthrob who sucks in his academics, she also found out a ridiculous theory - she'll never be normal again unless she keeps him literally beside her, 3 meters close.

Sawyer Patterson intended to leave me again for his childhood sweetheart, Mathilde Payne. We'd been together for ten years, and this was our seventh engagement party. For the previous six times, Mathilde always had some kind of emergency. This time, I wasn't going to let him go. "We're about to exchange rings. It won't take long. She's just got a slight fever. It's not a big deal if you go later, right?" Sawyer lost it. "Can you stop making a scene? Mathilde has always been frail. We've been together for ten years. We can do without a ceremony." He walked out, leaving me behind with a broken heart. This time, I was truly done with him.

"Here she comes, witch!" She hissed before throwing a beautiful black dress at me. I hurriedly grab it before it could land on the floor. She might find fault in that and end up starving for making the dress fall on the floor. Not only for a day but might go on for weeks. I was tempted to ask her what's the dress for but she beat me to it. "Go to your room now and change into this. Your husband to be and his mom will be visiting soon" "W... What?!!!"

On their wedding day, a handsome groom and his beautiful bride said, "I Do." Their hearts were fluttering with pure joy! They had married the love of their life! Is this what I experience? No, this is not that story. You see, love didn't become apparent until after my divorce. I can't wait to tell you how it all transpired. It's a riveting sweet romance novel. No cliffhangers, but a good read! Happy ending? You'll have to read it to find out.

"Pregnant patient, corpus luteum rupture, heavy bleeding! We need a consent form signed—now!" I stood there holding the clipboard, waiting, when a voice I knew way too well cut through the chaos. "I'm here!" Jimmy. My husband. The same guy who vanished on our anniversary—now signing off on emergency surgery for another woman. He didn't even blink before writing "husband" on the form. Still had our wedding ring on, too. He didn't recognize me behind the mask. Just grabbed my hand and begged. "Please save her. It's my fault. She's pregnant. I messed up. I love her. I can't lose her." His grip tightened. My wedding ring slipped off and hit the floor. I didn't say a word. Just turned and walked into the OR. A doctor beside me, totally clueless, beamed and said, "Dr. Meyer, your test results came back—twins! Your husband's gonna be so happy. Congrats!" I smiled, barely. "Schedule the termination after surgery."