Page 40 of His Obsession Her Cure
“Gunner, this is so beautiful. Have you been here before?”
“Yeah, my friend Andreas’ family owns this place. I’ve been here a few times but never with another woman.” I said making it clear that she was the first woman I had ever brought her with me.
The chicken parmesan and the pasta al limone is amazing. Just about everything on the menu is good. We continued to look over the menu while I ordered a bottle of red wine and talked about Pepper’s day. When the waitress returned with our drinks, we placed our orders and continued to enjoy each other's company. Pepper sat happily telling me about her program and how much work it was and how she was working on new ways to cope with the workload. I couldn’t do anything but smile at how she glowed as she told me about her plans once she graduated. It brought me nothing but joy to see her out here living her dreams.
Our food arrived and we dug in right away. It was just as good as it had always been. But the company of the woman I was slowly falling for was what made it that much better. I cleared my throat, tapping my fingers on the table as our conversation got deeper and deeper. When the conversions got around to our families I could feel the mood shift.
“I’ve never heard you talk about your family. Are you still in touch with them?” I asked her.
She picked up her wine, took a sip before placing it back on the table, then said. “They’re dead. My mother and my father both died in a car crash that gave me this scar.” She said pointing to the scar on her cheek that I thought blended in with her features beautifully. It was noticeable if she wasn’t wearing make-up and if you were really looking. It hit me that she usually stood angled with the blemish free side of her face toward peopleso it must be something that bothered her. I need her to know that I didn’t give a fuck about that mark on her face it didn’t take away from her beauty at all.
She went on to tell me about her aunt and cousin and what she went through living with them. My baby had gone through so much in her young age and I just wanted to take it all from her and make it better. After hearing her story, it wasn’t as hard as I thought, giving her all the details of our childhood growing up in a household with drug addicted parents. Leaving out the part where my mother may have gotten my father killed over a drug deal gone wrong. When I told her about my mother’s mental illness I saw how she seemed to recoil in on herself and I couldn’t have that, I didn’t share any of that to make her sad.
“I’m sorry lil baby. Did I say something to upset you?”
“No. I know the feeling of living with mental illness.” She hesitated, chewing her lip before adding, “I’ve got… a voice in my head. Nyx. She’s… not just a voice. She’s me, but darker. Smarter. Scarier. People call it mental illness. But Nyx helped me, she protected me when I couldn’t protect myself.”
I watched her eyes, waiting for the flicker of shame, but she held steady. Brave. “And Taye the nigga you ran from?” I asked gently.
Her shoulders tensed, then eased as if she was peeling back a bandage.
“He… broke me every chance he got because I stayed longer than I should have and because of it, Nyx stopped talking to me. Until she couldn’t take watching what he was doing to me anymore. And then…we hurt him back.” Her gaze met mine, sharp, intense.
And I could see it, that glint in her eye that was her but someone else at the same time.
“You can run now if you want. But just know that you are Nyx’s new obsession and I don’t think she’ll let you go that easily.”
I leaned in, locking eyes so she could see the truth in them. “I’m not running. I’ve never been scared of darkness, lil baby. I was raised in that shit. Why would I run from yours?”
Something in her shifted, and she relaxed into her seat and the tension in the air lifted with each breath.
After our meal was done we ordered some panna cotta for dessert. Our waitress returned to the table but this time she brought guests. Two men dressed in black tailor-made suits followed closely behind her as she approached our table. I could spot Andreas from anywhere, so I knew his tall bulky frame from a mile away. The man next to him was a smaller carbon copy except for the glasses so I only assumed that this was his younger brother. Andreas greeted me with a bro hug when he got to our table. As we greeted each other I couldn’t miss the moment of recognition and longing in the eyes of his brother when he saw Pepper.
“How you been, my boy? Andreas said as he embraced me in a brotherly hug. We had all been close throughout our teenage years growing up here in Brookview. We had even worked for his father doing a few odd jobs here and there. His brother was younger and more sheltered than us, so we didn’t really hang out with him.
“Doing well, I just had to bring my wife here to enjoy some of your fine food. This is Leila,” I introduced him using Pepper's middle name like she insisted with strangers. As he smiled at Pepper, I caught the lustful gaze his brother was giving her out of the corner of my eye.
Andreas seemed to notice it too because he hurriedly introduced his brother to me to try and distract him from Pepper who was enjoying her dessert without a care in the world. But Iknow her ass could feel how the little brothers stare burning a hole into the side of her head.
“Gunner, this is my younger brother Samuel. Samuel, this is Gunner, my friend from high school. You remember him and Aren from when we used to hangout before college, right? Charlotte is their cousin,” He said.
Samuel broke his stare from Pepper just in time for me to make eye contact with him. He looked at me nodded and then he held his hand out with a smirk on his face like he knew something I didn’t. He was out of his mind if he thought I was about to shake the hand of the man that wanted to fuck my woman.
Fuck out of here.
“Samuel.” I said evenly. I’m not sure what your brother has told you about me, but you got about three seconds to remember your place before I put you through this wall in front of your brother.” I prided myself on holding my composure because normally I would have knocked his head off of his shoulders but out of respect for my relationship with Andreas I would give him a pass just this once.
“Excuse me for my rude behavior. There’s no need for violence, Gunner is it? Leila and I are in med school together. I apologize for staring. It's just that I never get to see her in anything but scrubs and as you can see the view is magnificent,” he said, turning back towards Pepper like I wasn’t sitting there. “Leila, nice seeing you here you look beautiful as usual.” This lil nigga had the nerve to say to her before leaning forward to take her hand in his and was inches from kissing it before I reacted. Before he even knew what was happening, I had him gripped by his shoulder and wrist, twisting it behind him at an odd angle before slamming his head onto the table.
Pepper didn’t even flinch as she sat in her seat, eyes wild and filled with lust as she watched the scene before her. She leaned forward and placed her hand on my wrist.
“Gunner, I understand that a lesson must be learned here but be mindful that he is still my brother, " Andreas said, watching me with his hands in his pockets. I wasn’t worried about Andreas doing anything to me. He knew about me just like I knew about him.
“Him being your brother is the only reason that he is still alive.” I gritted.
“Samuel, when a woman tells you that she is not interested because she is seeing someone you leave her alone,” I told him, emphasizing each word with a twist of his wrist, making him wince. “And you should never, and I mean never, underestimate a man that you know nothing about. Now repeat after me. Leila McKinney is off limits."
“Leila McKinney is off limits,” he seethed through gritted teeth.
