Forbidden Dance: Will She Forgo Her Marriage for a Lifetime of Happiness? (7 page)

An hour later, Alero faced her husband in her lounge. She had wrestled with a hard decision. Zane had found it tough to let her get away from the club. Kyle and Zane argued for fifteen minutes, none willing to leave without her. Right now, Kyle nursed a nose bleed. Outside the club, he had broken down, wept and apologized for letting her go. After sniffing for a long while, blood trickled from his nose.

It was only after the owner of the nightclub intervened, reasoned with three of them, she agreed to speak to her husband alone.

Alero folded her arms across her chest. “You’re wasting your precious time Kyle. Our marriage is dead and I attended the funeral in London. As usual, you were absent, but it didn’t stop the proceedings. So, move on. I have done the same.”

Kyle’s handsome face was fiery red in a flash, and his eyes shot daggers at her. “Can I have an ice pack for my nose, please?”

Even her hardened heart took pity on him. His shirt collar hung askew. She retrieved an ice pack from the freezer and gave it to him, avoiding his gorgeous angry eyes. There was no point staring at his exotic features. He could wrap her round his handsome face anytime he liked. But she was over his charm.

“What were you doing dancing like a whore with another man, Alero? You’re my wife. It was disgusting, and definitely a forbidden dance in your own culture.”

“What a great starting point. You call it a
forbidden dance
. I call it having a good time with someone who cares about me. You would know what a whoring dance is, because you keep a chain of whores for your pleasure.” She delivered her blow with a what-can-you-do expression.

He ground his teeth. “Stop shoving it in my face. I saw it all. It hurts, babe.”

She chuckled. “I think you’re speaking to the wrong woman, Kyle. Who’s your
babe
? You must be mistaken. Your lover had a child for you a year into our marriage. So what? You had an affair three months after you gave me the most expensive wedding rings in England.”

His eyes travelled straight to her fingers. “Your rings are gone.”

She splayed out her bare fingers. “I threw them in the drain where they belong.”

Her husband flinched. “You didn’t have to do that, Alero. I screwed things up pretty bad. But it is not over with us.”

A bitter grin spread across her face. “
Us
? There has been no
us
for a long time. I sat in your empty house in the hope you’ll come to your senses, instead, you brought in your illegitimate son to mock my isolated existence.”

“That wasn’t my doing, Alero. Please listen to me.” She left him standing in the lounge, while she breezed into the living area. Even now, her heart bled a little.

Kyle followed her.

“I didn’t know she had a son until I returned from LA. I wasn’t hiding the fact from you. My father erred. He shouldn’t have brought him to our home.”

Oh, she needed a stiff drink. But Zane had cleared every bottle of alcohol from her home when they started dating, insisting they limit drinking alcohol to social events. So she poured herself a glass of lemonade.

Kyle got out a glass from the cupboard and filled a glass for himself.

Alero glanced at her husband. He still looked as ravishing as she remembered. With his tanned, muscled physique that charmed off her panties, a gleaming smile, hooded exotic grey eyes and an easy going attitude, she had given in to him with no idea of what the future portended. But now, her heart toughened against his great looks. Zane was hot too, and he treated her better.

“What an amusing excuse. In your book, having an affair is normal as long as there’s no love child. You’re pathetic! If you were alive to your responsibilities as my husband, your father wouldn’t have had the liberty to run our home. In fact, your dad did me a huge favour. I finally realized what a fool I was. He gave me the final kick up my butt. When you return to London, send your dad my gratitude.”

Kyle frowned, and pressed the ice pack to his sore jaw. “I haven’t seen my parents since you left. I gave them a piece of my mind. I’m not proud of their actions. And I’m not proud of mine, either.”

Her eyebrows turned upwards as she faced him. His nose was still bleeding. She handed him a pile of tissues. She was tempted to clean him up. But the emotional wounds he meted out on her were still sore.

“Thank you,” he said as he collected the tissues. Then, his fingers wrapped round her wrist. Heat swamped her arm, and her eyes widened.

Oh my goodness!
Her heart shrieked.

“I’m very sorry for the hell I put you through. Please forgive me, Alero.”

She tilted her head and tried to wriggle free. But he wouldn’t let her go. “Get your hands off me, Kyle!” she yelled, too frightened at the truth. His touch still lit a lamp in her body. But she must not let him inside her head again.

Kyle let her go.

Alero rushed to the kitchen sink, and splashed cold water on her face.

“I was an ass, and I took what we had for granted, Alero. In the past couple of years, when I came back home, you were always full of questions, when all I needed was peace and quiet and, great sex. Instead, you wanted to know what I had been up to, who I had been sleeping with and you wanted me to talk about work. It was all too much, and I couldn’t handle it. So I stayed away longer and longer.” His voice broke.

She glimpsed the raw pain in his eyes. “What is this, Kyle? Your brand of repentance after the deed? It is too late to apologize. I was full of questions because I wanted to have a relationship with my husband. Was that too much to ask?”

He shook his head, and pulled out his shirt from his trousers. “I know now. I didn’t know then.”

Alero half-turned away from her husband, “It doesn’t take a genius to work that out. You were too busy sleeping with the beautiful models to know I needed your love and affection. Go back to your world of glamour and busy lifestyle. I have found the slow and leisurely lifestyle in Casablanca well-suited to my taste.”

He pushed the ice pack against his chin. And the images of how she kissed his dimpled chin in the early months of their marriage flashed past her head, and she shrank back. It will do her good to recall how sad and miserable she was for most part of their relationship. She stiffened her spine and looked up her nose at him.

“I was stupid, Alero. I really was. When I asked you to be my wife, I thought I was ready to be a dutiful husband. I tried in the first year but when business flourished, I found it difficult to adapt.”

Her fingers quivered, so she put down the glass. “You think sitting at home like your prized possession filled me with untold joy, Kyle? I wanted to open a beauty studio, you said it wasn’t a good idea. I wanted to invite my brothers over, you stalled. I wanted us to try for a child, you said you didn’t want to be an absentee dad. But you remained an absentee husband. Do you have any idea what loneliness does to the soul? Do you?” she wailed. Bitter liquid flushed through her throat. Kyle dumped the ice pack on the kitchen counter.

“There’s no excuse for what I have done, babe. I blamed you in my head for being hard to please. I thought if I stayed away more, on my return, you would be more willing to love me.”

“Great theory,” she snickered. “We grew apart, yes, but I thought, we’ll find a way back. I was wrong. You lost the plot long ago. My husband fathered a child and yet, I remained childless and you stand there talking about
us
.” Alero stormed out of the kitchen. Kyle followed her to the lounge.

“My affair with her was a mistake. She didn’t tell me she was pregnant.”

“And your affair with the other women?” she drilled, her tone heavy with sarcasm.

Her husband pursed his lips. He had the decency to look away.

“Ah, are you quiet because you have no idea how many women you have screwed behind my back?” She was mad with fury.

His eyes widened at her language. What has speaking to him like a prim and proper woman achieved in her marriage? Nothing. She might as well get down and dirty. “Ah, you seem shocked at my language. Deep rooted hurt can alter a woman’s psyche.”

“Alero! Please, can we talk about you and me?”

“No. No. If you won’t answer the question, get the hell out of my house!” She held the door open.

Kyle nodded and lifted up both hands. “Shut the door, please. I’ll give you an answer.”

Alero’s hands criss-crossed her upper body. Her chest palpitated with fear. Though she wanted an answer, she hoped he hadn’t slept with several other women. “I want the truth, Kyle. Not that it matters. I only seek closure, and to know how naïve I have been.”

He shook his head. “You weren’t naïve, Alero. You love me.”

“Answer the question.” He had no right to play on her intelligence.

“Four. There have been four others.”

A hammer hit her chest, and air gushed out of her nostrils. When she recovered, she bit out. “Make it clear, Kyle. Four apart from your love-child’s mother or four including her?”

“Four in all.”

Alero laughed when what she really wanted to do, was to cry, and hurt him as much as he had hurt her. The laughter was for her years of stupidity in her husband’s home. “While you screwed one woman for every year of our marriage, I sat waiting for you to touch me. I began to think I wasn’t an attractive woman. Did it ever occur to you that you were putting our health at risk?” She swayed round the lounge, touched the curtain, and swiped her fingers over the chairs and fittings. Her husband’s eyes marked her every move.

“I find you attractive, Alero. I always did. I was too selfish to understand what a good woman you were to me.”

He was too late. “As I was saying, Kyle, the moment I drove out of your mansion, I was snatched up by a more caring man. I met him in traffic as I fled from the trap, we called our home. He threw me his business card.”

Kyle ran his fingers through his brownish blond hair, and shifted from one foot to another. “Alero, you’re a gorgeous woman.”

She carried on as if he hadn’t interrupted. “Fate brought him again to my doorstep in Casablanca. And he pursued me, and taught me the true meaning of affection, devotion and love.”

“No!” Kyle screamed, ripping buttons off his expensive shirt. “Please, don’t say that, Alero. Please, I’m begging you. What you have with him isn’t real. You’re my wife.”

She shook her head, a naughty grin on her lips. “A marriage certificate doesn’t equate with love and affection. To you, it was a piece of paper that worked against your freedom. So I decided to set you free. Go ahead and screw all the models in LA, I don’t give a damn!” As she said it, tears welled up in her eyes and her chest heaved.

“Yes, you give a damn who I screw. If you didn’t, I would know.”

Pain gripped her heart.

“Did you sleep with him?” Kyle’s voice was low and unsure as if he was scared to know the truth.

Alero shrugged, her face turned away from him. “What does it matter? Our marriage was dead and buried, anyway.”

Her husband flipped her around with ease. She had forgotten how strong he was. With hours spent in the gym and in playing tennis, he was fit and well-muscled. His hands held her waist and he forced her to look at him. Heat singed her waist and her stomach walls clenched. She swallowed.

“Let me go,” she cried.

“Did you sleep with him? I need to know.”

To her irritation, he had the nerve to query her.

“Alero, did you invite another man into your bed?”

“Yes, I slept with him. We’re in a relationship.”

Kyle’s hands tightened around her waistline and she screamed.

“You’re hurting me, Kyle. Take off your hands. I didn’t hurt you when you said you had sex with four other women. Get out of my house,” she yelled. Disgust soaked each word.

He loosened his hold, but he caressed her neck and covered her lips with his mouth. He ground her mouth with force until she opened up. She felt moisture falling to her cheeks and she realized they were both crying.

Twenty-four hours later, Kyle was back under Alero’s roof. After she kicked him out last night, he left in a huff.

“I’ll be back,”
he promised with tears dropping from his eyes.

She ate a light meal and slept. For all that she held dear, she wanted a good head to decide her future.

Zane rang her mobile phone first thing this morning, and she had a tough time explaining the situation to him. He was worried and wanted to come over. She pacified him, but insisted he give her time to sort things out with Kyle. If Zane showed up, both men would hurt each other. She didn’t want murder on her list of sins.

Although, Kyle was a no-good cheat of a husband, she secretly held a torch for him. Dumb idea, yes, but who can understand matters of the heart? It was probably the reason she did not file for divorce. A tiny part of her heart hoped he would come to his senses someday. But why in the Lord’s name did she not explain her situation with Kyle to her lover? She was in a pot hole. The truth was, she did not want to lose Zane, the only man who treated her right. What if Kyle had never shown up? She would have lost Zane for a man she could not have.

Throughout the day, Kyle looked as if he was in a daze. The fact she admitted she found another man desirable seemed to have hurt his ego and ended his hope for a reunion. Too bad. She had lived with the knowledge he preferred other women for years. Two can play the game.

The greatest surprise of all was the fact she still had feelings for him. It just ruined her cosy new-found life.

“Do you intend to stay here?” she asked her husband after dinner. “I have come to treasure my freedom and I have a business to run. Go back to your fancy hotel.” His eyes narrowed. She could hear his head thinking,
what good can come out of a dumb model?

“What business are you running here?”

She grinned, almost sneering. “I established a nail studio and a beauty salon. I rake in good profits and I’m pretty content.”

Kyle gulped his coffee. “I’m pleased you’re doing something you enjoy. Can I come for an extensive beauty treatment tomorrow? I could use a good massage.”

Alero jumped off her seat. “You can’t just come here and act as if everything is normal.” Besides, she didn’t fancy introducing Kyle to her workers first thing on Monday morning.

“I haven’t said all is well with us. We have lost our way, like so many other couples but I’m willing to find my way back to you, and to your heart, if you’ll let me. Tomorrow, all I need is a massage and a little pampering.”

Her chest tightened and she wheezed. She went to stand by the window and breathed out noisily. “I have a new life here in Casablanca, Kyle. It is so different from what I had in London. I never want to go back to that way of life. The path to my heart is blocked.”

Kyle perched on the dining table, his bulging arms folded over his shirtless chest. He had taken off his button less shirt. He flexed his shoulders and watched her reaction from across the room.

Her eyes raked his chest, his nipples, the stunning hard stomach wall she loved so much, and the thin hairline that disappeared into his trousers. She turned away and dragged in air.

“I need a massage, Alero. Would you be kind enough to relieve the ache in my muscles?” His question was so provocative, heat suffused her neck.

“Kyle, don’t do this. Put on your shirt and leave me alone. Just get lost!”

“Do you still find me attractive, Alero? I’m asking because I need to know. I’m going out of my mind. I’m so sorry I pushed you away into the arms of another.”

Was he deaf? She clamped her mouth shut and swallowed. Her heart jumped, and she leaned against the windowsill. She did not expect Kyle to forgive her indiscretion so easily. He was a proud lover, and she knew what she did was the worst revenge she could have taken to get back at him.

“You’re a gorgeous man, Kyle and you know it. That doesn’t make everything okay between us.”
Did you just admit the man who emotionally abused you was gorgeous? You need your head examined. Not your head, your honey pot,
her insides honked.

“That’s not the answer to my question. Is there any part of you that fell in love with me years ago that still feels anything for me?”

Goaded by his words, Alero shrieked, “Yes!” With tears pouring down her face, she murmured, “I don’t want you, Kyle. You’ll only hurt me, and I can’t take much more. It is Zane I need.”

Her husband covered the gap and stood in front of her. Tears welled up in his eyes and splashed over his handsome features.

“Can I touch you, babe?”

She shook her head and recoiled. “You plan to confuse me. I want a divorce, Kyle.” Her voice sounded muffled in her ears but she got the words out.

His throat muscles moved up and down with great speed. “I want to comfort you, please. Let me hold you. My heart is as broken as yours. But I honestly believe we can work things out. I don’t want to divorce you, babe, because I love you.”

She swiped away the tears and pressed her back against the window. Her heart dived down and launched up again. “You can’t love me. I have been screwing someone else.”

Kyle shut his eyes, and placed the back of his right hand over his forehead.

“And I don’t regret it,” she added for good measure.

Kyle picked up the flower pot behind her, stared hard at it and dropped it without touching her. She could tell he worked hard to keep his anger in check. “I know, babe. I regret the secret affairs I had. I turned to them out of boredom, not love.”

She shut her ears. “When you speak about the other women, it still hurts me, Kyle. That’s why I can’t come back to you. I can’t understand how you can say you love me and screw other women.”

He ran his tongue over his top lip. “You did the same thing,” he murmured as if it wounded him to say it.

She nodded and brushed her hair from her face. “Only because I believed I was completely over you. And I am over you,” she quickly added.

His fingers rubbed his nose. There was still a red blotch at the base of his nose from the nose bleed.

“If you’re over me, can I at least touch you? I want to prove to you we can still find our way back to where we started.”

Alero tried to squeeze past him, but he put out his arm, and she stepped back. “You’re harassing me, Kyle. If I come to you, I want it to be of my own free will. And that’s not going to happen.”

He grinned. It was a crafty grin. “I’ll let you out of here if you give me a straight answer.”

She blinked a few times and chewed her bottom lip. For the love of life, she had not seen this sexually aggressive side to her husband in three years. On one hand, it felt good to be pursued by Kyle, on the other hand, his arrival in Casablanca threatened to wreck the peace she had found with Zane.

“What was your question again?” she hedged.

His grin broadened. “I’ll repeat it as many times as you wish. It’s a yes or no reply I’m after. Do you still find me attractive?”

She sighed. “I already answered it, Kyle. What game are you playing?” This was not right. Zane was the one who cleaned her up when she hit rock bottom. Now, Kyle intended to ruin her joy. But her heart was not in sync with her good sense.

“Remind me again. I don’t recall your response.” Alero knew he was being stubborn, but how could she get rid of him?

“You can take as long as you need to give me the answer I’m after. We have the whole time in the world.”

She shifted from one foot to the other. If she brushed past him, he would pounce on her.

“How long are you here for this time? We both know Mr. Sexy Film Director can’t stay away from LA for more than a week.”

Kyle frowned and his jaw tensed briefly. “I deserved that. I’m a changed person, babe. Since you left me, I haven’t been to LA.”

Alero covered her mouth with both hands to contain her gasp. “I don’t believe you.” His work was his first love, and she had struggled to compete, but failed miserably.

“Dickson has been running Thomson Productions for the past six months. If you doubt me, I can put a call through to him.”

She slid to the floor. In her mind, she assumed Kyle had got on jolly well without sparing a thought for her. “Why did you stay in London? I never got you to stay for more than a week. I felt like a loser wife.”

He sat on the floor and spread out his legs on both sides of her body to keep her locked in. “When you left me, my world fell apart. The idea of going back to work filled me with disgust. I instructed Dickson to run the business.”

A bright spark lit in her heart. “So what have you been doing? Partying in London?”

He groaned. “I searched for you in every place I could think of. I recruited investigators to find you in Nigeria and in London. Little did I know we were looking in the wrong cities.” There was a glow in his eyes. “I haven’t had time to think about parties in the past six months. I flew to see your parents in Warri, two months ago.”

Alero bent down her head. “Gosh!” While she thought Kyle had forgotten he was ever married to her, he had found his way back to her parents. They would be so disappointed in her behaviour.

‘A married woman must remain faithful to her husband, even if he marries more wives’,
her mother often said when she was in her teens.

“What did you say to my mum?” Alero held her breath. She had avoided her parents’ phone calls in the past few months because she didn’t want an earful. She was sure Kyle had bad-mouthed her in the worst way possible.

He shrugged. “Only that you sent them your love and gifts. I bought them some items. Your dad’s the proud owner of a new Mercedes-Benz CL-Class.”

“Thank you, Kyle.” She scrambled to her feet and fled from her husband. Alero’s throat burned with tears. He followed her up the stairs to her bedroom. When she attempted to secure the door, he slipped in.

“What do you want from me, Kyle Thomson?” Oh, so her parents called to thank her for Kyle’s gifts but guilt stopped her from picking their calls. Who would have known Kyle could borrow a new heart from nowhere?

“I came to Casablanca with only one demand in mind. One demand, Alero.” He stood with his hands folded over his chest.

Thank God, his nipples were out of sight.

“What is it?” To her ears, her voice sounded weary and high-strung. It was all too much to take in.

“Alero, I want you back.”

She slid down onto the chaise lounge by the window. Air flew out of her throat.

“I’m too far gone in my new life to turn back.” She bit her top lip. Regret slowly eased into her conscience.

“Says who? Give us a chance? God forgives us. It took me a couple of months to shed the guilt I carried around, and to forgive myself for all I had done to you.”

“I’m not the same woman who left London.”

Kyle knelt before her. “Hey, I know you’re not the same woman I married. I understand that. Neither am I the same man who asked you marry him. We have faltered, but we can move on together, because we can find the love hiding in our hearts through God’s grace. I want to be the man you can be proud of.”

Still, her heart toughened and wavered. “Since when did you start waxing religious? I thought you said Christianity was something bored people get involved in to keep busy.”

He moved to squatting position with both elbows on his knees. “It was said out of foolishness and ignorance.” Then, he straightened up and pushed both hands into his trouser pockets. “I met an elderly man on the flight back from LA. For no apparent reason, I poured out my heart to him. He turned out to be a priest and he led me to Christ.”

Alero curled her knees under her chin. What irony! “I was raised as a Christian, but you hurt me so bad, I strayed out of my faith. I don’t blame you. I went into my affair with my eyes open. You, on the other hand was raised with little or no faith, now you have found your way to Christ. Is that why you came back, Kyle? Because you have a duty before God to take me back?” She needed to know what was in his heart.

Kyle joined her on the seat. Alero shifted out of reach. He smiled and gave her a sideways glance.

“When I returned to London, and I met an empty house, it hit me in the chest. Babe, I always expected you be there waiting for me. The silence, and isolation were like poison to my soul. I began to understand why you were so full of questions when I returned. After a month, I moved out.”

She jerked her head his way. “You moved where?” How could he abandon his cherished home?

“To a smaller apartment in Chelsea and Kensington overlooking the Thames. I realized you were the real reason I loved our home. Once you left, there was nothing there for me.”

Her husband was full of surprises. “Tell me about me the priest.”

A twinkle entered his eyes. “Ah, Rev. Jones gave me a bible on the flight. I read it. And I took him up on his offer to give him a call if I needed to talk.”

She was dumbfounded. Her self-confident, and self-sufficient husband suddenly needed a priest to help him find his way to the God he had ignored in the past.

“We’ve had twelve counselling sessions so far. His wife, Aileen is an angel. They both are phenomenal. Once a week, I had dinner with them after each session. My time with them and their son who is a non-practicing medical doctor turned around my life. All I need to make me complete is you.”