Let Me Free You (McClain Brothers Book 4)

by Alexandria House

  She moved faster and faster against me, kissed me harder, and I felt like I was floating outside my body. It’d been years since I felt anything like this, since I’d had a woman in my arms, and it felt like pure Heaven. And the sight of her being lost in the moment, losing control like that? That shit was everything.

  I felt her stiffen, and as she threw her head back with her mouth open, I sucked on her neck while squeezing her ass tightly. And I’ll be damned if I didn’t bust right there, clothes on and everything. That nut was so powerful, I almost dropped her. Then the air in the kitchen was filled with our lurid breathing as we both came down from a high only a good orgasm could induce.

  “I-I brought dinner,” I finally said, as I rested my forehead against hers, still trying to catch my breath.

  She shook her head. “I can’t eat. Too damn exhausted now.”

  “Shit, me too.”

  I placed her on the floor, and before she could turn to leave the kitchen, I said, “Sage?”

  “Yeah?” she responded, eyes wide with an innocence that was nowhere to be found moments earlier.

  “Good night.”

  She smiled up at me and blinked her eyes drowsily. “Good night, Neil.”

  11

  One day before the wedding…

  “…yeah. Saturday…thanks! No, I’m not working next week either. I’ll be on my honeymoon. Uh-huh. Sure! Okay, I’ll hit you up then.” Sage ended her call and blew out a breath.

  “Damn,” I said, “your customers stay blowing up your phone, don’t they?”

  She rolled over on her side on my sofa. “Yeah. They been tripping about me not working this week or next week, But I’m like, shit! I’m getting married, y’all. A couple of these fools actually tryna pay me to do their makeup for my own wedding! Where the hell they do that at?!”

  I chuckled. “Yeah, that’s fucked up.”

  She flipped back to her stomach and was about to put those earbuds back in her ears and stare at that laptop again, when I said, “What you be looking at on that computer all the time?”

  She pursed her lips. “Well, since you ain’t got a TV, this is my only source of entertainment.”

  “That doesn’t tell me what you’re looking at.”

  “If you must know, I’m looking at 4C Angie on YouTube.”

  “Who?”

  “She’s a natural hair vlogger.”

  I lifted my eyebrows and stared at her.

  She sat up on the couch and patted the cushion beside her. “Come here, and I’ll show you.”

  I moved from my recliner and sat beside her, my eyes on the computer screen.

  “See, she does videos about natural hair care, and she does stuff with her husband and their little boy, too. Recently, she’s started doing makeup reviews, so that’s what I’m watching now.”

  “Damn, she got a lotta hair!”

  “I know! My shit will never grow like that. I tried.”

  “I like your cut, but how the hell they attach braids to hair that short?” I asked.

  “My girl, Hera, be working miracles. Bridgette was tryna take me to this expensive-ass salon, and I was like shiiidd, you better take me to Hera’s crib where I can get a fly hairdo and watch all the latest movies on bootleg at the same damn time!”

  I laughed. “You a trip, but I’m glad your ass loosened up around me. Stopped acting all shy and shit.”

  She dropped her eyes. “I had to adjust. But you helped with that, being nice to me and all.”

  “And making you come?”

  “I actually made myself come. I just used you to get it done.”

  “Word?”

  “Mm-hmm.”

  “Okay, if you say so…”

  She lifted her eyes and licked her lips, and I had to close my eyes for a second. “What you be reading all the time? Every time I see you, you’re in a different book. You ever finish one?” she asked.

  “I always finish a book before starting another one. I just read fast.”

  “So, all them books I’ve seen you reading? You finished them?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’ve been here, what, a week, right?”

  “No, baby…nine days.”

  Her eyes flashed, and she cleared her throat. “Yeah…so how many books have you read since I’ve been staying here?”

  I thought about her question, and said, “Seven, I think.”

  “Damn! You really like reading, huh?”

  “I like gaining knowledge. Knowledge is power. That’s why the oppressors tried to keep us from reading, so reading is also an act of rebellion, and I’m nothing if not a rebel. You don’t read?”

  “Naw. I mean, I used to. Back in the day, I loved any book with the word ‘thug’ in the title.”

  “Damn, for real?”

  “Yep.”

  “Why’d you stop reading them?”

  “Because I started messing with thugs in real life.”

  “You like rough necks, huh?”

  “I used to.”

  “Your last man was a thug?”

  “A fake one.”

  “Hmm.”

  “What were you reading before I called you over here?”

  I glanced over at the book I’d left sitting in the recliner. “The Fire This Time, a book of poetry and essays about race.”

  “Sounds too heavy for me. Is everything you read that serious? You ever read fun stuff?”

  “That’s fun to me.”

  “If you say so…”

  I smiled. “Well, I’ll let you get back to YouTube. You’re spending the night with Jo and Ev after the rehearsal dinner, right?”

  “Yep.”

  “You riding to the rehearsal with me?”

  “Uh-huh. Unless you don’t want me to.”

  “Why wouldn’t I want you to?”

  “I’m just saying.”

  “Naw, you’re just tripping.”

  “You know, this’ll be the last night you’ll get to spend in this house without me…”

  “And my last night without you in my bed.”

  “You want me to move into your bedroom after the honeymoon?”

  “Baby, after I put this Superdick on you, your ass is gonna want to move into my bedroom.”

  “There you go with that shit again.”

  “You’ll see.”

  “…I guess those of you who don’t know me have figured out Neil is my twin. I’m the oldest but Neil is the smartest, always has been. And he’s got a bigger heart, which makes it easy for him to get hurt.”

  “Damn, Nole. You got me sounding like a simp, man,” I mumbled, making the people gathered around Everett’s huge dining room table laugh.

  “Naw, it’s nothing but love, man,” Nolan said.

  “Nole, can you wrap it up? We ain’t tryna be here when it’s time for the wedding,” Everett quipped.

  More laughs.

  “Man, I ain’t even that long-winded,” Nolan said.

  “Yes, you are,” Bridgette countered.

  I chuckled.

  Nolan shook his head. “It be your own people. Anyway, I just want to wish my twin and Sage the best.” He lifted his glass, and the rest of us followed suit.

  After Nolan took his seat, I draped my arm over the back of Sage’s chair and rubbed her shoulder, leaned into her ear, and softly said, “I’ma tear your ass up when we get to Palm Springs.”

  She whispered, “You better have me damn near crippled, or I’m kicking your fine ass.”

  I threw my head back and laughed.

  “Can I have everybody’s attention?” Sage’s father said, as he stood from his chair, glass in hand. I couldn’t help but notice his Liberian accent was weak as hell. Sage had said he was laying it on for me before, and now I believed her. I glanced over at her as she lifted her eyebrows, and mouthed, “I told you.”

  I shook my head with a grin on my face and returned my attention to her father.

  “There’s a saying in Liberia that goes like this: �
��Let your love be like the misty rain, coming softly, but flooding the river.’ Sage, Neil, your love came quick, so quick I wasn’t sure it was real. But looking at you two now, seeing how happy you look together, how you look at my daughter, Neil, I can feel the love. So all you two need to do now, is to keep building on that love, little by little like a trickling misty rain, and your rivers will always overflow with affection for each other. Sage, I’m proud of you, and I wish you both a lifetime of happiness.” Then he lifted his glass, and I heard sniffing to my left.

  “You okay, baby?” I asked, kissing her cheek.

  She nodded. “Yeah, I’m okay. I just…I hate lying to everyone.”

  “What did I say about this marriage thing? We can make it real. And shit, it doesn’t feel like a lie to me. Not anymore.”

  She wiped her eyes and gave me a frail smile. “Thank you again for doing this, Neil,” Her voice was almost indiscernible.

  “Maybe I should be thanking you. You’ve given my miserable ass a reason to smile again.”

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  “Can I hug you?”

  I wrapped my arms around her and let her cry into my chest, and as I closed my eyes and held her to me, the entire table sang, “Awwwww.”

  12

  The wedding day…

  “I told you to let me pay someone to do your makeup! You shaking and shit, got lipstick all over your damn nose!” Bridgette fussed, as she yanked a tissue from a box and swiped at my nose.

  “That ain’t gonna get it off. This lipstick is fucking bulletproof! Shit! What is wrong with my hands?!” I screamed, throwing the tube of burnt sienna lipstick on the vanity.

  “Sage, sweetie, I know this is nerve-wracking. Remember how jacked up I was before my wedding? Shit, I swore I was gonna walk down the aisle and Everett wouldn’t be waiting for me. I was soooo anxious,” Jo said.

  “Your situation was different, and you know it!” I covered my face with my hands, propping my elbows on the vanity.

  “Hey, can y’all give us a minute alone with her?” I heard Bridgette say.

  “Why? She’s my damn sister!”

  “And my cousin!”

  I popped my head up. “Ferula, Audrina, go!”

  “Damn, okay,” my sister muttered.

  Bridgette closed the door behind them and stomped over to me in her gorgeous co-matron of honor dress.

  “You look so pretty, Bridge,” I whimpered.

  “Thank you. Sage, sweetie…do you want to do this? If you don’t, we’ll understand. I know you want to stay in the states, but marrying a man you don’t really know is a big thing. Maybe you could try with Gavin again?” Bridgette said softly.

  “Yeah, don’t worry about the money spent or anything. We just want you to be okay. You don’t have to marry Neil,” Jo soothed.

  I wiped my wet eyes and took a deep breath. “Can I be alone for a few minutes?”

  “Yeah,” Bridgette and Jo said at the same time. After they both hugged me, they left, and I picked up my phone from the chair beside me, looked around the hotel room, then peered into my portable lighted mirror at myself.

  After I dialed the number, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

  “You backing out on me?”

  I smiled despite the turmoil filling my mind. Neil’s voice sounded so good to me. Shit, it always had. “I’m a wreck. I’m so scared.”

  “Hold on,” he said, then I heard him asking who I assumed were his brothers to give him a minute. “All right, I’m back. What you scared of?”

  I opened my eyes and looked at myself in the mirror again. “Falling in love with you. What do I do if that happens?”

  “Let me love you back.”

  “But…I don’t have the best track record with love. My expectations are low.”

  “Then let me free you of those expectations, give you what I have to give.”

  “But you don’t know me…not really.”

  “I wanna know you. Let me know you.”

  “Damn, you talk a good game.”

  “It ain’t game, Sage. Can I be real with you for a moment?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay…at first, I didn’t want to do this. When Ev and Nole approached me about it, I thought they were out of their minds, but now? I want to marry you more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life. If you don’t marry me, I will be devastated.”

  “Why? Because you wanna fuck me?”

  “I gotta marry you to fuck you?”

  Hell no. “You got a point there.”

  He chuckled into the phone. “Look, don’t be nervous or anxious or scared. One thing I strongly believe in is destiny. This is our destiny. You’re supposed to be my wife, okay? And I can’t wait to call you Mrs. Neil McClain.”

  “Neil?”

  “Yeah, baby?”

  “I’ll see you at the altar. I need to finish getting ready.”

  “I’ll be waiting for you.”

  She was beautiful, her eyes on me through that veil as her father escorted her down the aisle in the grand ballroom at the Sable-Beverly Hills Hotel. As she floated toward me, I felt my chest tighten and my pants tighten and a smile creep across my face. All those months ago, when I was sneaking liquor into Everett’s house and betting on stupid-ass ball games and shit, I never thought I’d be standing there in that fly-ass tuxedo, about to marry my rib.

  My wife.

  The woman the Creator made for me was about to be my wife.

  As she and her father inched down the aisle, my mind drifted back to that day in Mother Erica’s office and what she told me after I charged in there ranting about how stupid Everett and Nolan were for asking me to marry a woman I barely knew.

  “Neil,” she said in that voice of hers that she never raised. “Sit down, son.”

  I did without hesitation because of the word son. She knew that got to me, too. She was fighting dirty.

  “She’s from The Continent? Liberia, you say?”

  “Yes.”

  “Her name?”

  “What?”

  “What is her name, Neil?”

  “Sage…Sage Moniba.”

  She grew quiet, leaning back with her eyes closed, a posture she usually took when she wanted to hear from the ancestors. Then she opened her eyes and fixed them on me. “Marry her.”

  “What?! No disrespect, but hell naw!”

  “Neil, it is no accident that she needs a husband and you are available to be one. It is no accident that you have undergone this transformation at this time when she needs your help. She is the reason my spirit urged me to release you. She is also the reason you felt you weren’t ready.”

  “Huh? What does that mean?”

  “What do we use sage for? The herb.”

  I shrugged. “Uh, it has medicinal purposes. And if you burn it, it clears the atmosphere of negativity. It—”

  “It heals. It purifies and brings peace to spaces. It’s sacred in its usefulness. And so is she. She’s the last piece of your journey to wholeness. Marry her.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “It’s not for you to understand. You don’t have to understand to be obedient. Did you understand all the things your mother instructed you to do when you were a child?”

  “Not initially, but she made me understand by explaining herself to me.”

  “So did I. She’s your peace, your healing, your soul mate. Marry her, Neil. Once you marry her, you’ll understand.”

  When I left her office, I was confused and conflicted, but after a night of dreams that shook my soul, I was certain that Mother Erica was right. Sage was my wife, my future.

  And now, there I was, taking her hand as her father presented her to me, seeing the anxious look in her eyes. I lifted her veil, took in her beauty—almond-shaped eyes, strong nose, enticing lips, skin the color of dark syrup and just as smooth, tiny braids in curls around her pretty face—and leaned in close to her ear. “You look stunning, baby. I c
an’t wait to lick the crack of your ass tonight,” I whispered.

  Her eyes widened as she turned and faced the preacher, giving him a nervous smile.

  “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to join this king and this queen in holy matrimony…”

  I focused on the preacher as he began the ceremony, and when Sage reached for my hand, I grabbed hers and squeezed it.

  He was so handsome standing there waiting for me with his best men—Big South, Leland, and Nolan—by his side. Nolan was on his immediate left. Now that was a mind fuck. Two identical men in suits watching me walk down the aisle. But besides the differences in their suits—both were white, but Nolan’s tie was black—I knew which one was Neil because of the look in his eyes as he stared at me and the smile on his face that was now familiar to me. When he smiled like that, it felt like it was a smile especially reserved for me. That didn’t make sense, but it felt so real to me that I believed it to be true, just like I believed him when he said he’d be devastated if I didn’t marry him.

  To the left of the altar stood my matrons of honor—Jo, Bridgette, and my sister—all looking gorgeous in their white dresses. Side note, my mother made me make my sister a matron of honor. Otherwise, that wouldn’t have happened. But anyway, they looked good, and the smiles on my friends’ faces warmed my heart.

  I felt giddy by the time my father presented me to Neil, and when he whispered that nasty shit in my ear after he lifted my veil, my stomach flip-flopped and my clit jumped. He was so wrong for that.

  The ceremony was beautiful, infused with Neil’s hotep request of us being referred to as king and queen right down to the preacher’s declaration of, “I now pronounce you husband and wife. King Neil, you may kiss your queen.”

  And then, that five-foot-eleven, one hundred and ninety pound, fine-ass man pulled me into his arms and kissed me like he’d lost his last dollar in my mouth and desperately needed to find it. As our family and friends cheered around us, I got lost in that kiss, wrapping my arms around him. And when he finally released me, he cupped my face in his hands, smiled down at me, and said, “Thank you.”

  My only thought was, He’s thanking me? But my response was to pull his mouth back to mine, and all around us, I could hear whistles and more cheers.