Want, Need, Love

by Niobia Bryant

  She melted against him as she clasped his buttocks and arched her back.

  Anson dug his fingers into her buttocks and slowly gyrated the soft flesh as he enjoyed the feel of his hard dick sandwiched between them, being stroked by both of their brown skins.

  “For the rest of my life you know I wanna be yours. . . .” They both sang along with the music as he lifted her body up for her to wrap her legs around his waist.

  They smiled softly and kissed again. Slowly. Deeply. Passionately.

  They were lost in each other.

  He walked her over to the bed in the center of the candlelit room. She purred from the feel of the red satin against her skin as he spread her legs and climbed on the bed between them. She reached her arms above her head to tightly grip the sheets as he planted kisses on one knee and then up her thigh.

  The next few minutes she released sighs, soft giggles, and heated gasps as he kissed his way over her entire body, missing not one peak, not one valley, in his quest to please.

  Anson lay on the bed on his side and wrapped his arm around her waist to pull her back against him. Their limbs tangled and she bent her head back on his broad shoulder as he massaged her from her knees to her shoulders with delicate twirls of her nipples that caused her clit to swell and ache.

  And she was moist and ready when he used his thigh to lift her leg and guided the thick tip of his dick inside her from behind. He thrust forward with a spin of his hips that united them ever so deeply. She gripped the sheets and pulled at them. Anson bit her shoulder and winced as he fought against the explosion rising fast in him from the very feel of her.

  Every stroke stoked a fire and they didn’t mind the burn as they made love slowly, with no shame. Their hands were everywhere, their mouths panting and gasping. Their bodies moved in a sweet and hot unison as he continued to stroke her from behind as she met him stroke for stroke with her hips.

  Mona looked back at him over her shoulder as he pulled her hair from her face so that he could look down at her as he brought his hand between her thighs to thumb her clit.

  “Promise you won’t leave me,” he whispered against her cheek.

  “Promise you love me,” she countered, her eyes glazed with desire.

  With his hands twisted in her hair as he circled his hips to drag his dick against her walls, Anson let all of his feelings for her show in his eyes. “I will always love you,” he swore, his pace quickening as he felt that sweet anxiousness at the rise of climax.

  “I will never leave you,” Mona assured him just as she closed her eyes and bit her bottom lip as her body trembled from her core outward with her release.

  Mona awakened with a gasp and looked up at the ceiling of her room in their suite at the ski resort. She lay there cloaked in darkness with her entire body pulsing and alive with desire. The dream had been so vivid and her climax so real that her clit still throbbed between her thighs. She spread her legs a little to relieve some of the pressure. It had all felt so real.

  All of it.

  “I will always love you.”

  His promise in the dream replayed and she rolled on her side and curled her body as she hugged the pillow close. It was a sad replacement for his strength and heat.

  Anson’s eyes opened and he cleared his throat as he awakened. The afternoon sun was still high and blazing, basking his bedroom at their hotel suite in light. After his shower he had lain across his bed hoping for a brief nap in the coolness of the room.

  He’d gotten that and the most vivid dream of his life. He had been making love to Mona with all of the passion she evoked in him. They’d been surrounded by red satin sheets and a sexy Robin Thicke song filling the heated air.

  Anson turned over onto his back and his erection stood up thick and strong. He put his forearm over his eyes as he waited for the hardness to ease.

  Knock-knock.

  “I’m up,” Anson called out, knowing it was Hunter waking him up for them to head to the Superdome.

  He sat up on the edge of the bed.

  “I will never leave you,” she had promised.

  The words filled a need in him. But it was only a dream.

  Mona sat in the lodge decked out in form-fitting ski apparel as she sipped hot chocolate blended with brandy, topped with cream whipped by hand and stacked tall as the snow-covered slopes surrounding them. The fireplace crackled and the warmth felt good near her feet after a day of skiing.

  “I skied today,” Mona said to herself, enjoying her adventure with her sister.

  Over the rim of her cup her eyes sought out Shara and found her by the bar talking to a tall, rugged-looking blond who couldn’t take his eyes off her. And Mona knew her sister well. Shara was in full flirt mode.

  “Care for some company?”

  Mona looked over her shoulder to find a handsome man with jet black hair and green eyes standing behind her. “Actually I’m good, but thank you,” she said politely with a warm smile.

  He gave a respectful nod and walked away. She allowed herself to enjoy his walk away. He was fine, but no Anson. And her body was tuned for only him.

  She took another sip of the hot chocolate and lay her head back on the leather recliner. Her thoughts were never far from that dream.

  “Promise you won’t leave me.”

  “Promise you love me”

  “I see you sent another one on his way,” Shara said, looking like a true ski bunny in all white as she sat on the arm of the recliner next to Mona.

  “I think you were right, sis,” Mona said.

  “About?” Shara asked, taking Mona’s hot chocolate from her hands to take a sip.

  “I need to go home and fight for him,” she said.

  Shara looked alarmed. “I didn’t mean today,” she said. “At least enjoy the rest of our week here at the ski resort.”

  “Hypocrite,” Mona chided her playfully, signaling the waitress for another drink.

  “I just miss my sisters,” Shara admitted, gazing into the fire. “Maybe you’re right too.”

  Mona leaned back in surprise. “You going to stop running, Forrest?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” she said with a nod.

  Mona accepted the cup the waitress brought up to her and the two sisters toasted to that.

  “Jill Scott is dope as hell,” Hunter said close to Anson’s ear, trying to be heard over the roar of the crowd and the music filling the Superdome.

  Anson glanced up from his phone in their spot on the floor just a few rows back from the stage. “I love her music too,” he said, searching through his hundreds of saved contacts,

  “Huh? Uh yeah, her music is good too,” Hunter said, snapping his fingers as he swayed to the music and watched Jill’s every curvy movement as she strutted across the stage.

  Anson found Malik’s e-mail address and shot him a quick request. Although his office manager was off the clock and not at all obligated to answer him, Anson trusted he could get the info he’d requested.

  “Man, get off your phone,” Hunter said, reaching for it.

  Anson held it away from him. “This is important,” he said.

  “How important?”

  “Mona important,” Anson said.

  Hunter looked surprised. “Oh, word?”

  Anson nodded as he looked around at the crowd. A lot of people were coupled up and, as much as he liked spending time with his brother, he would much rather be listening to Jill Scott with Mona by his side.

  Through the rest of the concert Anson tried his best to enjoy himself, but he really just wanted to get back to the hotel, order some room service, and leave the frolicking to the rest of the visitors to the city.

  As they followed the herd of people out of the Superdome, Anson checked for incoming e-mails or missed calls. He was disappointed to see he had neither.

  “Excuse me, sexy.”

  Anson looked up as a curvy cutie in a sundress with a plunging neckline squeezed past him far closer than she really needed to be.

 
; “He’s taken,” Hunter said next to him.

  The woman shifted her eyes over to his brother before shifting her body that way as well.

  Anson shook his head. He was not cut out for the chase of the single life. Never was. Never would be.

  He kept slowly shuffling forward with everyone trying to leave the crowded venue. Hunter nudged him and held a hotel key card in his hand between his index and middle fingers. “Did she just give you that?” Anson asked, his face filled with judgment and displeasure.

  Hunter nodded as he turned the key card over and showed him a gold foil Magnum condom taped to the back.

  “So she just had that ready to hand out to somebody?” he asked.

  “Just my type of one-night stand, bro,” Hunter assured him, sliding the card and condom into his pocket as they finally exited the Superdome and weaved through the crowd to walk toward their hotel.

  Back in their suite, Hunter was showering for his one-nighter at a neighboring hotel and Anson was awaiting his room service when his phone lit up.

  Bzzzzzz.

  He answered the phone. “What you got for me, Malik?” he said, skipping the pleasantries.

  “It wasn’t easy to find . . . especially this time of the night, but I got the info you wanted. I’m e-mailing it right now.”

  “Good. Thanks, Malik,” Anson said, walking out onto the balcony.

  The time had come to make a move either toward or away from Mona once and for all.

  “Your destination is on the left.”

  Following the GPS directive, Anson made the left turn down the long drive lined with oak trees. As the home came into his view, he briefly wondered if he had the wrong address. The white two-story residence with black shutters was sizeable and grand in its design. Pulling to a stop in the rental car, he picked up his iPhone from the passenger seat and double-checked the e-mail Malik had sent him last night.

  “Hey there.”

  Anson looked up through the windshield at two silver-haired ladies standing on the porch, one with one hand on her hip and the other waving him over. “Aunt Winnie and Aunt Millie I presume,” he said, driving forward and parking.

  He climbed from the car and walked up to the foot of the steps to look at them. “Good morning, ladies,” he said, seeing Mona’s resemblance to them and missing her all the more.

  “Mighty fine, ain’t he, sis?” said the one in the “Baton Rouge or Bust” T-shirt.

  “Yes, yes, yes,” the other said.

  Anson smiled and looked down at the ground before looking back up at them.

  “Come on in,” one said.

  “We been waiting on you.”

  Waiting on me? About to walk up the steps, Anson paused as he watched them go into the house.

  They both noticed his hesitation and turned in the foyer to wave him in.

  Chapter 16

  Anson took a sip of his coffee as he sat across from Mona’s aunts in the living room. One was slicing a coffee cake and the other was eyeing him with plenty of scrutiny. He couldn’t help but shift uncomfortably under the gaze.

  “What’s you name again?” she asked, passing him the saucer with the cake as she waited for her sister to cut another piece.

  “Anson. Anson Tyler,” he said. “I guess you’re wondering why I’m here.”

  The aunts shared a glance.

  “Do you know why you’re here?” the one cutting the cake asked before sitting back in her seat. She took a bite from her slice before rubbing her fingers together to free them of crumbs.

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said, sitting up on the edge of the sofa as he placed the coffee and saucer on the table.

  The other one held up one hand and shook her head.

  He closed his mouth as his eyes went from one to the other.

  “You don’t believe, huh?” she asked.

  “Believe?” he asked.

  The aunts nodded.

  “It’s just not my type of thing,” he explained.

  “It’s Mona’s type of thing,” one said.

  “And ours, too,” the other added.

  He nodded. “I guess I just wanted to know more about it,” he said.

  They both shook their heads and chuckled.

  “That’s not why you’re here.”

  Each held out a hand to him. “You want to believe, eh?”

  Anson eyed their hands warily. “No, I just wanted to understand more about it,” he said.

  Shaking their heads in unison, Millie and Winnie rose to come around opposite ends of the table to sit beside him on the couch. Each took one of his hands in theirs.

  “You ready?” one asked him.

  Anson felt nervous as he looked from one to the other as they closed their eyes.

  “Aw, poor boy.”

  “Yes, yes, yes,” the other said.

  As each opened her eyes to look at him with pity in their depths, he freed his hands and stood up to move from between them. “Maybe it was wrong of me to come here. Mona and I aren’t even together anymore—”

  “You love her,” the one in the print tee said with clarity.

  “Yes, yes, I do,” he said. “But—”

  The twins chuckled. “Hey there, we not asking you, boy. We telling you,” she said.

  “And you deserve the love our niece has for you,” the other said, rising slightly to reach for her cake. “It will make you forget all that hurt your parents poured into your soul.”

  Anson slid his hands into his pockets. “I think I better go,” he said. “I’m sorry I came without calling. I—”

  “She didn’t mean it when she said she never wanted you.”

  He froze as he was about to walk out of the living room.

  “She looks down on you from heaven.”

  Anson turned and eyed them; they were comfortably sitting back eating cake as if they weren’t delving into his life, seeing into his life story.

  “She’s sorry about the cigarette burn on your wrist.”

  Anson felt a cold chill race over him. He looked down at his wrist and pushed back his sleeve to look at the scar still there. It was indeed a cigarette burn from when he was five or six. His mother had been so high that the cigarette fell from her lips and landed on his wrist as he sat beside her.

  “You believe now?” one of them asked.

  “Or you want more?” the other asked.

  “Your happiness lies with the woman still waiting on you.”

  The palm reader. His dream. Their knowing. It was all too much.

  He moved back over to the sofa and sat down on it as he eyed them.

  Their eyes were loving and patient. He found comfort in that. “I don’t—”

  “You must,” they insisted together, cutting him off gently.

  “Why?” he asked.

  “Because it is such a big part of Mona’s life and as she gets older her gift will grow,” one said. “She will be able to see things. Know things.”

  “Just like us,” the other added.

  Anson squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose.

  “Your happiness lies with the woman still waiting on you.”

  “You believe now?”

  “Or you want more?”

  Anson rose to his feet. “I’ma take a walk. Can I take a walk? I need to take a walk,” he said, pointing toward the entryway of the living room.

  “No,” they both said calmly. “No running.”

  “Your happiness lies with the woman still waiting on you.”

  “You believe now?”

  “Or you want more?”

  “Who wants to live with someone who can see things?” he asked, almost to himself.

  “It shouldn’t matter, if you are where you say you are and you’re doing what you say you’re doing,” one said.

  “Hey there. Bye there,” the other said by way of agreement.

  They winked at each other before one rose, lightly patting his shoulder as she walked by him to leave the room.

 
; “Your happiness lies with the woman still waiting on you.”

  “You believe now?”

  “Or you want more?”

  “I came to Louisiana with my brother. He’s back in New Orleans waiting on me,” he said, rising to his feet, determined to get the space he needed right then. Without it he would never find clarity.

  Mona’s aunt rose to her feet and came over to put her hand in his. He fought the urge to flinch away from her. “Not yet. You gon’ spend some time with us and have lunch before you head back,” she said, patting his hand as they strolled out of the living room.

  “But—”

  “Be lucky we like you,” she said, her voice no nonsense.

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said, wondering just what the twins had in store for him.

  As she and Shara sat in the airport waiting for their connecting flight to Charleston, Mona yawned. “I am dog tired,” she said, shifting her body to rest her head on Shara’s shoulder. “We won’t get back to Holtsville ’til morning.”

  Shara chuckled. “You inexperienced world travelers are lightweights,” she said, playing a game on her touch screen cell phone.

  Bzzzzzz.

  Mona dug her own cell phone from the back pocket of the jeans she wore with gold wedge sneakers. “Probably Reeba still feeling left out,” she joked, turning the phone over in her palm.

  “We coming home, sis. Dang,” Shara said.

  “Oh, shit,” Mona said, looking down at Anson’s handsome face on her screen. She showed it to Shara with her eyes widened in surprise.

  “Answer it,” she said.

  Mona shook her head.

  Shara rolled her eyes. “No fight, huh?”

  Mona’s heart was pounding.

  I will always love you.

  She answered the call. “Hello,” she said, swallowing over a lump in her throat. Or is it my heart?

  “Hey,” he said. “I thought we needed to talk.”

  “I agree,” she said, waving away Shara, who was trying to tilt the phone so she could listen in. “There’s a lot I felt that I didn’t say. Things I should have said.”

  The line remained quiet.