Page 25 of Someone Like You

Giselle

W hen I woke up, Casimir was already gone.

The night before was beautiful, and I enjoyed our time together.

I knew that I was falling for him, and the logical part of me, with my medical background, knew that it was foolish and unsafe.

But the romantic in me kept nudging me over the edge with every memory, every touch, and every taste of him.

After dinner, we returned to the penthouse, and we showered together. Casimir had washed my body, constantly kissing me, but he didn’t make love to me. He told me that he was tempted, but he wanted so much more from me. After our shower, I had fallen hard asleep, exhausted by the day’s events.

I only had two clients on the calendar for today, and both of those were virtual meetings. They struggled with agoraphobia and seldom stepped outside. I had just concluded the second one on Zoom when I heard the doorbell ring.

A glance at the clock showed that it was 5:38.

I had no idea who would ring the bell because Casimir was in the shower.

He had come home early, saying that he needed to discuss some things with me, but I was just about to start my final session for the day.

So, we agreed to discuss it over dinner when I finished with my client.

Jude wouldn’t drop by without calling first. Although my sister and friends had pressured me to stay with them, I declined because I was fine where I was.

Visitors had to be either on an approved list and be scanned up or called up from the front desk, and neither of those things had happened, to my knowledge. The only thing I could conclude was that it was a staff person in the building or one of the other residents.

“Cas,” I called out as I headed into the living room. “Are you out of the shower yet?”

My heart almost dropped when I stepped into the living room and saw Casimir standing in the foyer with the front door wide open. The person standing just inside of the doorway was Bethany. I froze and wanted to disappear. My worst nightmare was coming true.

“Well, isn’t this just cozy?”

“Beth—”

“No, it’s perfectly fine, Casimir. No need to explain anything.”

“You act as if I have to explain anything to you. We’re divorced. Or did you forget?”

“Of course not. And now I see why. I understand why you were in such a rush to not only end the marriage but move out of the house too.”

“I didn’t move out nearly as quickly as I should have.”

“Yeah, well, you did enjoy our final night together.”

“What’s she talking about, Cas?”

Bethany smirked. “Oh, I guess he didn’t share details of our last night together.”

“Beth, stop.” Casimir hissed.

“What is she talking about, Cas?”

“Nothing,” he growled.

“Oh, after all the work I put in, it was nothing? It seemed like something when you were losing control and begging for more when I had your cock in my mouth, sucking you dry the night before you moved out. The way you moaned and begged for more was just like old times. That’s when I knew that she wasn’t taking care of you. ”

I felt sick to my stomach as I looked at Casimir. I could see the guilt on his face.

“I guess you must have been trying to get your little love nest in order for you and the good doctor.”

Although I wore a short-sleeved, wine-colored blouse for purposes of the Zoom call, on my bottom I wore a pair of lounge pants.

“Don’t do that, Beth.” Casimir snarled.

“Don’t do what? Point out the fact that the same doctor who was supposed to save our marriage is the same one who destroyed it?

I guess that was part of her manipulative plan.

Get you all to herself so that she can get her hands on your money, and now you’ve brought this fancy place to hide your whore in. ”

“Watch your fucking mouth, Beth!”

“Why? Why should I, Cas? I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve had this place all along and you’ve been hiding her away up here.

Is that why she always looked down her nose at me?

Did she know all along your dirty little secret?

Have the two of you been having your little penthouse affair behind my back? ”

“Leave!” he barked.

“You’re a fool, Casimir! But I didn’t know that you were an idiot. Is she also the reason that you resigned from your position at Glenco yesterday?”

They both heard my gasp of shock behind them because he turned to face me, and her furious eyes pinned me in place.

“Cas, is what she saying true?”

Beth smirked and placed her hands on her hips. “Yes, sweetheart. Let’s see how much longer he can keep this place up now. You might as well find yourself a new sugar daddy because this one’s broke.”

“Bethany—”

“Do not speak to her, Giselle. Ignore her.” Casimir seethed through his teeth.

I took several steps forward until I stood by his side.

“I am not a part of Casimir’s life to take advantage of him or to use him for my benefit.

I’m not here to make him into anything other than the man he is, and I see him for who he is and accept him for who he is.

So, whatever you’re thinking, please get it out of your head.

I was not involved with your husband while the two of you were married.

And I do not need him or any man to take financial care of me when I’m capable of doing so myself. In fact,—”

“Giselle!”

I jumped at the bite in his voice and the way he gripped my upper arm and pulled me protectively behind him.

“I’m glad that you’re feeling that way now, Dr. Champagne. Because I can promise you that I will be bringing this before the state board, and we’ll see what they have to say about the matter.”

My heart dropped, and I closed my eyes. This was the main reason I hadn’t wanted to get involved with Casimir besides him being married.

Casimir moved so fast that it caught both Bethany and me off guard.

“I swear to God, if she so much as gets a letter about a hearing for unprofessional conduct, you will regret it,” he growled as he backed her up against the wall.

I had never seen Bethany have anything other than an attitude of superiority or outrage. Fear etched on the planes of her face or shining from her eyes wasn’t a look I ever thought I’d see. Yet, her skin had blanched pale, and her eyes were wide.

“Casimir,” I called gently.

Despite my heart breaking, I was more concerned about the impact his actions would have on his future if he threatened her in any way.

I wasn’t worried that he would cause harm to her.

Although I hadn’t known either of them long, I knew Casimir well enough to know in my heart that he would never hit a woman.

“You’d do well to remember what the fuck I told you, Beth. If I catch you around here again, I promise that you’ll wish that you had never lain eyes on me in life!”

Bethany jumped and backed up out of the door after I tugged on Casimir’s arm one final time and forced him to back up.

He slammed the door so hard that the vase on the foyer table shook. He caught it just before it smashed to the ground. I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to ward off the inner turbulence that I didn’t realize I was feeling until Bethany left.

“Giselle,” Casimir called to me through the emotional fog that I staggered through.

I didn’t respond, still reeling by the fact that Bethany not only knew about us and threatened my license, but the night before he came to me, he had been with her.

“Giselle,” Casimir stated again as he grabbed my shoulders and slightly shook me.

“What?” I knew my voice was cold and riddled with anger, but I did not care. I was angry with myself for making such a stupid decision to become involved with him.

“Are you okay?”

“No. I’m not.”

He crushed me to him and wrapped me up in his arms. “I’m so sorry, baby. So sorry,” he whispered. He repeated it until it turned into Spanish. “Lo siento.”

I recalled that his father was Dominican, and he grew up in a household that spoke both English and Spanish.

I pulled back from his grasp and stared up at him. “It won’t be okay, Cas. I could lose my license behind this.”

“And I will take care of you.”

“I don’t want to depend on a man to take care of me.”

He gripped my chin and tilted it back. “Do you recall when I told you the moment that we had sex, it created an inseparable bond, a soul tie, and that you now belonged to me, and I belonged to you?”

Tears pricked my eyes. “What’s that got to do with anything?” I asked and angrily swiped tears from my eyes.

“That shit meant everything to me, Giselle. I don’t talk for the sake of hearing my voice. When I speak, I mean what the fuck I say. You’re mine. And I take care of what belongs to me. Even if that means I gotta go to war. If that bitch wants a war, she’s got one.”

“She’s threatened my license, though, Casimir.”

“That’s light work. Let me handle that.”

“Her family has power, Cas. Money.”

“I’ve got power and money.”

I scoffed. “Not their kind, and according to her, you’ve quit your job.”

“Baby, they have a militia, but I’ve got a fucking army behind me.”

“Your street friends don’t have anything on the Huffingtons and Bradwells, I’m sure.”

A smirk tilted his lips and transformed the man before me. I had seen various sides of Casimir before, but I swear to God, I didn’t know the man who stood before me now.

“Never underestimate your man. General Leo Anthony Perez didn’t become a four-star general by sitting on his ass.

My father is a brilliant man who always employed both critical thinking and strategic vision in everything that he did.

I learned from the best. They’re not ready for me.

I will win this war. The only thing I need is for my woman to believe in me.

I can do anything with your faith and belief in me. You understand?”

“I understand what you’re saying, but I need you to understand how hard this is for me, Cas. When I lost Elijah, I vowed to myself that I would never put myself in a position where I would hurt this way again. I never wanted to love someone so much again that I lost myself if I lost them.”

“We all take that risk, baby. Any time we love, we take the risk. Whether it’s our parents, siblings, friends, or a lover, there will always be that risk because we’re all going to die one day. But this ain’t that.”

“I have no idea what you’re planning, but it’s scaring me.

And what scares me even more is the loss of my independence.

I worked hard as hell to get my doctoral degree, to become licensed, to start my practice, and to build my clientele.

To have that taken away from me because I love a man who once belonged to someone else . . . I cannot fathom that, Cas.”

A strange look crossed his face, and it wasn’t until he squinted his eyes and held my face in his hands that I realized my mistake.

I vowed that I wouldn’t tell him how I truly felt.

I believed that if I kept it to myself and did not acknowledge it verbally, it wouldn’t have the power to hurt me.

But the love I felt for this man caught me by surprise and stole my breath away at the most inconvenient of moments.

“Did you just say that you love me?”

Casimir lifted my face again and forced me to look into his eyes.

“Please don’t act like that makes this the end of the world.

Do you know how long I’ve wanted to hear a woman say that and mean that shit?

Do you know what it feels like to have women fawn over you and treat you like a commodity but never know if their love is really real?

With you, I know that it is true, Giselle. ”

I swiped at the tears that fell from my eyes. “That’s what makes it so hard, Cas. The way I feel about you makes it hard for me to breathe sometimes. I don’t know what to do with that.”

“Loving is not always easy, Giselle. It’s a battle sometimes, but one worth fighting for. I will fight for your love until time ends and begins again because you’re worth that to me. Do you want to know the day that I fell in love with you?”

“You don’t love me.”

“Can’t you see it in how I care for and protect you? The way that I hold you through the night, massage your feet when you’re tired, and run your baths are all small tokens of my love.”

“It’s convenient for you to say it now, isn’t it?”

“I didn’t want to risk running you away. But I’ve loved you for a long time. I knew that I loved you the day that I walked out of your office, and you forced me to turn around and look in your eyes. You gave me a warning about how to handle myself in volatile times, and then you called me ‘king.’

“I already wanted to protect you from Beth’s evil ways, but what you did .

. . no one had ever done anything like that for me before.

You showed how much you cared with those simple words.

And I fell in love with you at that moment.

That was the day that I told Beth I wanted a divorce.

We hadn’t even made it out of your parking lot. ”

“Yet, you lied to me.”

“About what?”

“You said you hadn’t been with anyone, but you were with her the night before you returned to me.” I spun away from him and locked myself in the room.