Chapter 32

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They were back at Imo in no distant time. He had taken his car at the airport and loaded their luggage into the automobile. He pulled up at her home at exactly eighteen minutes to ten o'clock. He switched off the ignition and turned to her. Before she could comprehend what was happening, he was all over her, mouth, tongue, hands, fingers, breath, possessing her inclemently, and it was a dark contrast of his name. She melted into him, as hungry as he was. They devoured each other whole, taking and taking, furiously, wantonly, as primal as possible. She thought of nothing but him, Clement, of his sweet plundering mouth, the smooth glide of his fingers over her heated pyretic skin. He heard nothing else except her moans of pleasure, his catalyst to do more, and his own thick groans of insatiable want. He drew her closer, to him, wanting more, wanting all of her.

The tempo of her moans increased as his lips left hers and found the left side of her neck. He nuzzled a few times then kissed the skin, leaving trails of saliva with his tongue and lips. She said his name repeatedly, her skin alighting with a greater fire. He tasted more of her skin, craving that taste. She tasted like Chloe, so sweet that he couldn't stop. She said his name again, softly, urging him, begging sensually for his touch, aching at her core. His mouth lowered slowly to hr collar bone. He tasted more of her skin, her unique taste till his mouth finally arrived at the long slight lump there, the one she had covered with makeup. He raised his hands to her collarbone and traced the length of the scar with his fingers.

'How did you get this?' he asked her in a voice thick and coarse with uninhibited desire. The question pushed her off the sensual plane that she had boarded the moment that he had kissed her. She fell headlong, straight, back into reality, jarred brutally. She pushed out of his arms, away from him, suddenly scared. She realized then that she didn't want to lose him just yet, unprepared and she was just about to let that particular thing that she did not want to happen. Fear, anxiety, disappointment and all the other emotions that had plagued her so early this morning returned with quadruple the intensity. She didn't want him to see, didn't want him to find out. It would be wickedness on her part to let him find out such a big thing all by himself without any prior information. She wanted to tell him first and she couldn't do that now. She wasn't prepared to do so. She needed to leave now, while she could. She would let him go, for a while, till she was fully prepared to reveal all to him.

'Let me alone,' she said with lowered eyes, feeling his puzzled gaze on her.

'Chloe, are you alright? Did I do something wrong?' No, he had done nothing wrong, nothing at all, nihil. It was all her fault.

'No,' she said shaking her head vigorously, 'No you didn't.'

'Then,' he began in a confused voice, leaning into her, 'why do you-'

'Let me alone!' she snapped at him in a loud voice that had him recoiling in shock.

'Chloe, I don't care if something is wrong, but it is the dead of the night. People might think that I am only being a villain, get wrong impressions and phone the police,' he scolded her.

'Leave,' she said miserably, feeling guilty at his words. 'Go away, just let me alone, please,' she pleaded with him. She opened the door and turned to leave. He watched her as she left the car. She shut the door and opened the back door to retrieve her suitcase. He hurried out of the vehicle to her and helped her to get it out. She took it without looking at him, turning away from him. On reflex, his hands caught hers. She turned to him then. Her cheeks were wet. She was crying. He wondered why.

'Chloe,' he said. He took her in his arms and hugged her tightly, feeling her immense pain through the contact. She cried and sobbed for but a moment before she began to push him away like she did earlier.

'Hapu m,' leave me, she said in Igbo. 'Biko,' please, she pleaded with him, stepping back as much as he would allow her, looking into his eyes. They gazed at each other for a long meaningful moment. A certain plea in her eyes made him let go of her. She stared at him for a long while before she turned and hurried away from him. He watched her as she half ran with her suitcase to her front door. She went into her home. She didn't for a moment look back at him. His now empty heart constricted with pain and in that moment, he felt as if he had lost her.