“It’s Neil. What’s up, Esther? Dunn?”
Dunn gave me a nod, and Esther slurred in that accent of hers, “Oh, you know…just having fun. Here celebrating.”
“Celebrating what?”
“I’m the newest member of the Real Divas of LA cast!”
Damn, that show was ratchet as hell, a big drop from Go See. “Congrats.”
“Thank you!”
“Is Ella here with you?”
“No, she’s with your brother and his ugly little wife. Did I hear you got married? Congratulations!”
“Uh, thanks. We’re actually here on our honeymoon.”
“Awwww! Let me give you a hug.” She reached for me and almost fell.
Dunn caught her, and said, “I got you.”
“Oh, thank you, Ashley!”
Ashley? Dunn’s first name is Ashley?
“Neil, it was good to see you. I’m going to go to my room so me and Ashley can have sex now. I am going to suck him dry! Byyyyyye!”
“Yeah, cheerio or whatever,” I mumbled.
With my eyes bugged like a motherfucker, I went to my room and was going to tell Sage what’d just happened, but she was lying on her stomach staring at her phone, naked and uncovered with only a strand of red beads around her waist, and well, fuck Esther. I had more pressing business to take care of.
17
“Where’d you get those red beads you had around your waist?” he asked, leaning in close to me.
“They were a gift from Leland’s wife, Kim. She gave them to me at my shower. You like them?” I shouted over the music.
“Mm-hmm. I’ma buy you some more.”
“Well, thank you. Hey, you know what fantasy I have?”
His face was in my neck as he said, “No, tell me.”
I moved my head a bit and looked at him. Damn, he looked good even in that horrible club lighting. This was our last night in Palm Springs, and I’d made him take me out. Otherwise, I would’ve been in that bed in that hotel room throwing my ass back at him. Not that I had a problem with that, but shit, I wanted to have something to share with my friends about this honeymoon when we got back.
“This one time, at Vault,” I began, “there was this couple straight fucking at their booth. They weren’t naked, and of course it was dark in there, but she was in his lap and you could tell what was happening. And it was like they got lost in it, forgot anyone was around or that they were in a nightclub. That was so hot to me.”
“So, you wanna have sex in a club? That’s your fantasy?”
I shrugged. “A club or just in public, I guess. But with the music and atmosphere, a club would be my first pick.”
“Hmm…”
“Neil?”
His mouth was on my neck again as he hummed, “Mmm?”
“This was a good honeymoon. It felt…it felt real. You made it feel real.”
He lifted his head and looked me in the eye. “It is real, baby. I’m real, you’re real, all that good-ass sex we had was real, our conversations are real, and it’s gonna keep being real. And if I gotta lick your ass, suck your clit, and screw you into believing that, I will. We’re falling in love, remember?”
Shit, I’m already halfway there. “Yeah, I remember.”
“Keep remembering it,” he said, and leaned in to kiss me as Summer Walker’s CPR blasted from the club’s speakers.
*****
“You feel it, baby? You feel that?”
Neil was in my ear and in my vagina, one hand gripping my hip and the other gripping my hair as I held onto the kitchen counter, my jeans on the floor by my feet, my blouse pushed up my back. We’d just made it back home from our honeymoon, had barely made it inside the house, and this happened. I mean, I walked into the kitchen to check and see if my pineapple juice was still good—yeah, I kept that on deck; my levels were on fleek—and the next thing I knew, Neil was on me, talking about how he’d been horny the whole ride home. Then he yanked my jeans down without unbuttoning or unzipping them, licked my actual ass, and was now screwing the living shit out of me.
Damn, this was Heaven.
“Oh, Neil! Neil!”
“Yeah, baby…feel that shit!”
“I feel it! I feel it! I feeeeeeel iiiiiiiit!” The orgasm rolled through me, and I collapsed onto the counter. He wasn’t far behind me, and soon, I was bearing his weight on the back of my body and feeling his heavy breaths on the nape of my neck.
I was trying to catch my own breath when the doorbell rang. “That’s got to be Jo or Bridgette or both. They were blowing my phone up the whole time we were in Palm Springs.”
He lifted off me. “Why didn’t you answer?”
“I was too busy having sex with my husband.”
“Oh, yeah…that’s right. I’ll get the door,” he said with a grin, as he pulled his pants up and left the kitchen.
As I gathered myself, I heard both my friends enter the house, heard them greet him and ask about me.
I entered the living room to find Bridgette and Jo on the sofa, and said, “Hey, hookers!”
“Don’t ‘hey hookers’ us! We were worried to death!” Bridgette yelled.
“Uh, I’ma let y’all talk,” Neil said.
“Naw, brother-in-law. I got a bone to pick with you, too.” Bridgette stopped him in his tracks.
“Huh?” Poor Neil was confused as hell.
“Just because y’all decided to make it a real honeymoon by screwing all over Palm Springs doesn’t mean you get to ignore our calls!” Bridgette accurately accused.
“What?!” both me and Neil shouted.
“And don’t bother denying it. Y’all just finished screwing. I know you did, because Neil’s got that same ‘I just got some pussy’ look on his face that Nolan wears after we have sex. Damn, y’all look exactly alike!” Bridgette informed us.
Neil raised his thick eyebrows. “Well, we’re identical twins, so…”
“And I had Ev call you when I couldn’t get Sage, Neil. You had your phone off! I thought you two were killing each other or something!” Jo fussed.
“Well, he was killing this pussy,” I mumbled.
Neil held up his hands. “Okay, look…I understand your concern for Sage, because y’all are close, but she’s my wife now. I got her.”
Silence from my friends.
“I do! We’re good,” he said, with a huge grin on his face.
“I can see that. She’s glowing. Damn, y’all move quick,” Bridgette expressed. “I thought this would take at least six months.”
“Huh?” I said.
“I told you. I could see it at the wedding. I knew they liked each other,” Jo said.
“Here, bitch.” Bridgette dug in her purse and handed Jo a hundred-dollar bill that she quickly snatched from her.
“Wow, y’all placing bets on us? That’s fucked up,” Neil said. “Y’all do know I’m a recovering gambler, right?”
“Oh…our bad,” Bridgette said.
“Y’all some treacherous wenches,” I interjected.
“Whatever. Now that we know you two aren’t dead but just freaks, we’ll leave y’all to it. Bye!” Bridgette waved at us as she and Jo let themselves out.
Then Neil looked at me and shook his head. “Ain’t that some shit?”
“Yep, those fools need to stop.”
“They really do. I’m horny again.”
“Me, too.”
“Come on. Let’s go christen the bed.”
18
The marriage…
“Mr. McClain? There’s a customer who wants to speak to the person in charge, and since Jackie’s not here, I figured that would be you.”
Looking up from the computer screen, I frowned slightly. Jennifer looked frazzled. “Did they say what it’s about? What’s going on?”
Jennifer shrugged. “It’s about some book we don’t have in stock? I did a search of our wholesaler’s inventory, then a general web search, and I can’t find it. I think she might have the title wrong,
but when I suggested that, she got angry, asked for a manager.”
I sighed as I stood and stretched. “All right. Let’s see what I can do.”
As I followed her to the front of the store, a part of me hoped it was Sage playing a trick on me or something, but I knew she was doing makeup for a wedding—the bride and fifteen bridesmaids. So there was no way it was her. Still, the thought of her made me smile. We’d been married for two weeks, had a good little rhythm going, and other than the fact that she left her shoes in the middle of the bedroom floor and my ass was always tripping over them, life with her was good. Sage was funny, silly, more youthful than her age, and I honestly think I needed that. I was serious, too serious sometimes, and I could admit that. Being woke could wear on a person, make them too sober for their own good. No pun intended.
That smile I was wearing faded when Jennifer pointed the customer out to me. She didn’t look disgruntled at all when she saw me. She was wearing a huge smile, and as I approached her, said, “It’s been a while, huh?”
A lot of shit shot through my mind, things like how she’d been the one to cut off contact with me, and how she’d asked Nolan to talk to me, to tell me to leave her alone. How she’d changed her number, and how fucking devastated I was to lose her even if the shit was my fault. But instead of any of that, I said, “Yeah. Uh, what can I help you with? What was the title of the book you were asking about?”
Emery gave me a sheepish look. “Actually, I made the title of the book up. I just wanted to see you.”
“How’d you know I was here?”
“I didn’t.”
My cell buzzed in my pocket, and as I took it out to check it, she said, “I ran into Jeremy Unger the other day, and he told me how good you’re doing. You look great, Neil.”
I read Sage’s What you doing? message and smiled. “Thanks,” I said, without looking up at Emery.
Then I replied to Sage’s text: Wish I was doing you.
I vaguely heard Emery say, “Um, you wanna grab a coffee? Chat for a bit?”
Sage: Well, the damn wedding was canceled, so guess where I’m headed?
Me: You better be heading home and getting naked.
Sage: You read my mind! You gonna come get you some of this hot and ready pepperoni pussy, Mr. Vegan?
I chuckled. She stayed incorrectly calling me a vegan.
“Neil? Did you hear me?” Emery asked.
Shit, I forgot she was standing there. “Yeah. Hey, I gotta go. It was nice seeing you.”
“That was a text from your wife? Jeremy told me you got married.”
I nodded. “Yep.”
“Oh.”
“See you around, Emery.” Without waiting for her to respond, I told Jennifer I was leaving for the day and typed out my response to Sage as I walked out the door.
Me: Baby, you know I’m a coochie carnivore.
*****
I popped up in the bed. The last time I had a dream like that was the night before I agreed to marry Sage, and just like that dream, she was in it. Why did I keep calling them dreams? They were the definition of a nightmare, the kind of shit that made me sweat and shudder.
In the darkness of the bedroom, I reached for her to reassure myself she was okay, but she wasn’t there, so I called her name.
No answer.
What the fuck?
I got up and searched the whole house. Checked the driveway and saw that her car was gone. It was after midnight. So I went back to the bedroom, grabbed my phone, and called her.
“Hello?!” she yelled into the phone. “Neil?”
I could hear music and people. Was she at a motherfucking club? “Where the fuck you at?!” I barked.
“Hold on!” There was a pause, the music died down, and then she said, “Okay, I’m back. What’d you say?”
“I said, where the fuck you at?!”
“Uh…at Ramona’s.”
“Ramona’s, as in the strip club? What in the fuck are you doing there?”
“Chocolate Shaker’s makeup.” She said the shit like it made perfect sense for her to leave the damn house in the middle of the night without telling me.
“And what the hell is a chocolate shaker?”
“She’s a friend of mine. That’s her stripper name. Her real name is Minnie. Anyway, after Sticky Vicky saw how I did Chocolate’s makeup, she asked me to do hers. Then Red Snapper asked me to do hers. I’m working on her face right now. Then I gotta do Bust it Wide Open’s face.”
“Oh, I see.” I hung up the damn phone, threw on a damn Kufi hat and a damn track suit jacket with my pajama pants, slipped on some damn Nike sandals, and jumped in my damn car. When I made it to Ramona’s, the bouncer had the nerve to look me up and down and tell me I couldn’t get in without a shirt.
To that, I said, “Then I need you to go to wherever the strippers get their makeup done and tell the chick with the braids to bring her ass outside. I’m her husband.”
“You talking ‘bout little Sage?” he asked, sounding too damn familiar for my liking.
“Little Sage?!” I questioned, with my eyebrows up in my brain.
Then the big motherfucker said, “Hold on a sec. I’ll tell her you’re here.”
About five minutes later, Sage walked outside in some damn shorts, showing her thigh meat and shit. “Neil? What are you doing here? Why’d you hang up on me? Where’s your shirt? Damn, you’re fine…”
I scratched my chin and gave her a backwards nod. “Come here. Let me holler at you for a minute.”
With confusion in her eyes, she inched closer to me. “Neil, what’s going on?”
“That’s what I need to know.”
“Huh?”
“You wanna explain to me why my motherfucking wife left my bed in the middle of the got-damn night to do stripper makeup in a got-damn strip club in got-damn booty shorts without saying a got-damn word to me? Huh?”
“These ain’t booty shorts.”
I stared at her.
“Uh, I didn’t wanna wake you up, and when Chocolate called, I didn’t wanna turn down the money since I missed the money I would’ve made off the wedding gig.”
“Go get your shit.”
“But—why?”
“Because it’s the middle of the night! You shouldn’t be here! What you tryna pay? Credit cards? Student loans? A car note? I got you. But this ain’t gonna work for me. Go get your shit so we can go the-fuck home, Sage.”
“Neil—” Her eyes scanned the area around us. The bouncer was staring at us, a couple of the strippers were watching us from the door, and I didn’t give a shit. “Neil…”
“Sage? You okay, girl?” one of the strippers yelled from the door.
“She good,” I answered. Then I dropped my eyes back to my wife. “Go get your shit and let’s go, Sage. Now.”
Sage sighed and dropped her shoulders. “I’ll be right back.”
She followed me home in her car, stormed inside the house, and threw her keys on the coffee table in the living room. “I can’t believe you showed up at that club with your damn chest out acting a pure fool! That was fucking embarrassing, Neil!”
“I woke up and you were gone! You scared the shit outta me! Something could’ve happened to you, Sage! Going out in the middle of the night like that is dangerous!”
She fell onto the sofa. “Ain’t nobody gonna mess with me. I’ve been doing this a long time. Shit, most people look right through me. I’m invisible.”
“Not to me. You’re my rib!”
She shook her head. “Well, I’ve always done stuff like this and no man ever seemed to care.”
I sat down beside her. “I ain’t them.”
“I know. I know you care, but did you have to curse me out in front of the club?”
“I’m sorry. I just…like I said, you scared me. Don’t do no shit like that again, okay?”
She sighed. “Okay.”
“And no more strip clubs. My money is not tight. I just got a royalty check for the work
I did on the Mrs. South EP. If you need something, tell me. Hell, your name is on my account. If you need something, take it!”
“I thought you just added me to your account for my green card paperwork.”
“No! I added you to my account and the deed to this house and my store because you’re my wife! Look, just don’t do no shit like this again. Ever. Please.”
“I-I won’t.”
“And don’t leave this house in no damn Daisy Dukes again, either.”
“These aren’t that short. You’re exaggerating.”
“Sage McClain, I am not playing with you. Don’t leave this house with your thigh meat showing again unless I’m with you. You gonna make me get arrested.”
Shaking her head, she said, “Fine.”
He’d already left the bed when I woke up the next morning feeling a whole lot of stuff—still embarrassed, but also treasured. He was seriously upset about me leaving without telling him. His reaction further solidified the fact that the men in my past were some certified dingleberries. Hell, my fake husband actually cared more about my well-being than my authentic boyfriends ever did. I guess this thing was really…real.
I was sitting on the side of the bed, checking my phone and answering a text from Chocolate Shaker, when Neil peeked his head in the bedroom door.
“Good, you’re up. Come have breakfast with me. I gotta go to the bookstore in a little bit,” he said.
I nodded and headed to the kitchen in my t-shirt and panties.
As I sat down at the table, he set a plate in front of me. “Sweet potato pancakes.”
“You made these? We ain’t got no sweet potatoes,” was my response.
“I went to the store this morning.”
“Oh…you want me to give you the money for them since the groceries are my thing?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Okay…we got syrup?”
“Yep.”
Let Me Free You (McClain Brothers Book 4) Page 9