Ties That Bind

by Brenda Jackson

  And when he was embedded deep within her, he felt her move, slow at first, up and down, in and out, while she continued to kiss him long and hard, using the same rhythm on his mouth that her body had set in motion below. His hand moved from her hips and began rubbing her back as she rode him over the edge, her every movement branding him as hers more and more, and making every cell in his body fully charged and ready to explode at any minute.

  And then it happened, the explosion—that intense pleasure he knew he would find with her. Only her. The sensation hit straight in his loins. He knew she felt it as well and he hardened even more inside of her as she continued to ride him wildly with mindless passion. His mouth captured the scream she threatened to make, as ecstasy ripped through them both and they soared high among the clouds.

  Moments later when they finally came back to earth, Leigh’s body sank down on Noah. Still connected to him, her breathing was hard and fast. “I love you,” she whispered, knowing he meant everything to her and knowing how life could end in an instant, like it had for her brother.

  “And I love you,” he answered softly, nestling her in his arms as she lay atop him, still a part of him. He kissed her before pulling the sheet over them.

  “I’m tired,” she said sleepily.

  He smiled. “And you should be, baby. Go to sleep.”

  And she did as he held her in his arms, close to his heart where he knew she would always and forever belong.

  Four

  Saturday evening, after finishing all the school assignments she needed to complete, Jenna decided to go to the football game using the free pass Randolph had given her. They were playing the Hampton University Pirates.

  Green Stadium was already crowded by the time she got there. She quickly found her seat before the pregame show began. Turning when she heard someone call her name, she looked up and saw Leigh and Noah sitting not far away. She smiled and waved back at them. There was another guy sitting with them who was looking at her strangely, and she immediately knew he was Randolph’s brother. She didn’t want to stare but she could clearly see the resemblance, and like Randolph he was a very good-looking man.

  During halftime she and Leigh met up at the hot dog stand. “So what do you think?” she asked Leigh as she put mustard and ketchup on her hot dog.

  “We’re going to win,” Leigh said, pretty sure of herself.

  Jenna wasn’t too sure. “You think so?”

  “Yes. A lot of our key players haven’t been on the field yet, including Randolph.”

  Jenna nodded. She couldn’t help the smile that touched her lips. While standing on the sidelines, Randolph had looked up in the stands and had seen her and smiled. “That guy sitting with you. That’s Randolph’s brother, isn’t it?” she asked after taking a sip of her Coke.

  “Yes, and I hope you don’t mind but I mentioned to him that Randolph was the one who gave you your pass to attend today’s game.”

  No wonder he had looked at her funny, Jenna thought. He was probably trying to figure out what his brother saw in her. “No, I don’t mind,” Jenna assured Leigh.

  After returning to her seat for the beginning of the third quarter, Jenna looked over her shoulder. Randolph’s brother was staring at her, and surprisingly, he smiled. Recognizing it as a friendly gesture, she smiled back at him.

  Leigh had been right. In the end the Bisons won, beating the other team by five points. She had watched with admiration when Randolph had gone onto the field, earning his team points with a touchdown, and at another time stealing the ball from their rivals with an interception.

  After the game it had been her intent to leave and return home. She was surprised when Leigh approached her with Noah and Randolph’s brother in tow. “See, I told you we would win,” she said happily, grabbing her arm.

  “So you did,” Jenna said, smiling, as she gave Noah a hug.

  Leigh then introduced her to Randolph’s brother, Ross.

  “Nice meeting you, Jenna,” he said, smiling down at her.

  “It’s nice meeting you too, Ross.”

  When Leigh and Noah invited her to join them for something to eat, she declined, saying she was going back home.

  “You’re not going to wait around for Rand?” Ross asked her. He actually seemed surprised at the notion that she wouldn’t be.

  “No, I hadn’t planned on it. Besides, I’m sure he has plans.”

  Ross chuckled. “I doubt it.” He could see why Randolph was taken with Jenna. He thought she was a very pretty girl and she didn’t act like the other girls Randolph had dated before who treated him like he was the next best thing since bread pudding. “I plan on waiting around for him. Would you wait with me?”

  Jenna wondered why he would want her to do that and decided to come right out and ask him. “Why?”

  Ross smiled and Jenna immediately thought it was a smile very similar to one she had seen on Randolph. “I think he’ll be glad to see you.”

  Jenna wondered why he thought that but instead of asking him she told him she wasn’t sure that would be a good idea.

  “And I happen to think it’s a wonderful idea. Trust me.”

  And for some reason she did, which was why moments later the two of them were standing outside the players’ locker rooms talking while waiting for Randolph to appear. She was enjoying Ross’s company. She noticed there were other girls around, too, waiting for players as well. She noted Ellie among them.

  Tyrone was one of the first players to come out amidst the loud cheering from the crowd. He went straight over to Ellie and kissed her soundly on the lips. Other players soon followed and it seemed that each had a special girl waiting for him whom he greeted with a kiss. Jenna began to feel uncomfortable. She wondered what Randolph’s reaction would be when he saw her standing there waiting for him. Although he had pressed her about them seeing each other again, he hadn’t made it clear exactly what their relationship was.

  Her heart nearly stopped when he walked out. He wasn’t looking around the crowd for anyone in particular and Jenna’s breath caught when she noticed Lena Weaver walk over to him.

  Randolph greeted Lena with a smile but didn’t kiss her. Then, as if he had some kind of internal radar where Jenna was concerned, he glanced over in her direction and saw her.

  Surprise flitted into his eyes and the smile on his face widened. Excusing himself from Lena, he quickly headed over in their direction, his gaze dead center on Jenna.

  Jenna couldn’t take her gaze off Randolph any more than it seemed he could take his gaze off her. Her stomach twisted nervously in knots and the rest of her insides began to stir with the heat from his gaze. In the distance she thought she heard thunder rumbling—or was it the sound of her body trembling?

  Moments later he was standing in front of her and without saying a word, he leaned down and captured her lips with his. Sharp thrills of sensation flooded Jenna’s body, taking her breath away.

  “Hi,” he said, smiling after ending the kiss. “I’m glad you came.”

  A part of Jenna was glad she had come, too. She didn’t know why but she was glad he had kissed her. That kiss had basically made a statement to everyone that she meant something to him.

  Taking her hand in his, he turned his attention to his brother. “You two know each other?” he asked curiously.

  Ross smiled. “No. We met officially after the game. Leigh introduced us.”

  “You know Leigh?” Randolph asked Jenna.

  Jenna chuckled. “Yes, Leigh and I are roommates. Small world, huh?”

  “Yeah, but not small enough,” he said, frowning at his brother, wondering how he could get rid of him so he could be alone with Jenna. Thankfully, Ross caught his drift.

  “Well, I guess I’ll be going.”

  Jenna turned to him, surprised. “You’re leaving?”

  Ross chuckled. “Yes. I was only waiting around to make sure Rand didn’t have any broken bones or anything. You know how it is, big brother looking out for little brothe
r and all that nonsense.”

  Jenna felt the brothers’ closeness and thought it was wonderful that they were friends as well as brothers. “It was nice meeting you, Ross.”

  “It was nice meeting you, Jenna, as well.”

  After Ross walked off, Randolph’s hand on Jenna’s tightened. He looked down at her. “You want to go and get something to eat?”

  Since she had eaten a hot dog and drank a Coke earlier, she wasn’t very hungry but she figured that he would be after playing such a grueling game. “I’m not hungry but I’ll go with you if you’d like.”

  He smiled. “You don’t know just how much I would like.”

  “So what do you think of Ross?” he asked as they walked down the paved lane toward her building, after leaving the restaurant where they had gotten something to eat.

  “He’s nice,” she said, looking at him under lowered lashes. “You may want to keep him around as a brother.”

  Randolph laughed. “Believe me, I intend to.”

  “Do you remember a lot about your parents?” she asked him, remembering that he had been ten when his parents had gotten killed in a car accident.

  “Oh, yeah. They were the best. My father was a prominent attorney in Virginia, but he still found the time to spend with Ross and me. He and my mother were very close, too. They loved each other very much. I think that’s why God took them away together because he knew it would have been hard on one without the other, even with me and Ross.”

  When they reached her building, they stood and talked a while under the light. She finally got the nerve to ask him something she had been wondering about all evening. “Today when you saw me, why did you kiss me?”

  He thought about her question for a minute before answering. “Because it seemed like the right thing to do,” he responded quietly. “It was something that I wanted to do.” He looked at her, studying her. “Did it bother you?”

  Jenna shook her head. “No, it didn’t bother me.”

  “I’m looking forward to our date next Saturday night,” he said, drawing her to him.

  “Me too,” she said honestly, allowing herself to be drawn into his arms when he reached out and lifted her mouth for his kiss. Just like earlier that day, the kiss was special, sweet and tender. It tempted her to put her arms around his neck and get closer to him.

  Moments later when the kiss ended, he continued to hold her. “What will you be doing tomorrow? Studying?”

  She shook her head. “No, I’ve completed all my homework.”

  He nodded. “Would you like to go to the movies?”

  She smiled. “Sure. What time do you want me ready?”

  “How about around five?”

  “Okay.”

  He then leaned down and kissed her again. This kiss was a little deeper and lasted a little longer than before, and she gloried in the feel of his lips on hers.

  “I think I better let you go inside while I have the mind to do so, Jenna.”

  She nodded. “Good night, Randolph.”

  “Good night. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Jenna nodded before turning to go inside her building.

  Jenna awoke the next day to hear the news that a big demonstration had erupted on some college campus up north that was protesting the United States’ involvement in Vietnam.

  At breakfast in one of the cafés on campus, Johnny was glad to fill her in about it. He also told her that a group calling itself the Black Panther Party was growing in membership across the country and demanding the end of racism and class oppression on constitutional grounds. Johnny even admitted that he had gone to one of the secret meetings and said he was thinking seriously about joining the group. He claimed the leaders of the party weren’t street thugs, but highly educated individuals who had gotten sick and tired of the government dragging their feet to do what was right by black people.

  When Randolph picked her up for the movies, Jenna asked him what he thought of the group. “I think that like a lot of organizations, they started out with a really good cause but now their ideology is questionable, especially with the group on the West Coast. Rumor has it that one of its leaders was arrested for the assassination of a police officer. I don’t know if it’s true or if the group was framed. If I were your friend Johnny, I would be very careful before thinking of joining. I hear J. Edgar Hoover’s men are watching them like a hawk, just waiting for them to make a wrong move.”

  Jenna nodded, hoping Johnny was doing as Randolph suggested and thinking things through before joining the group.

  The following weekend Randolph and Jenna went to the concert and afterward met with some of his friends for dinner. The more they were around each other, the more they enjoyed each other’s company.

  “So, Jenna, you and Randolph have been dating for a couple of weeks now. What do you think of him?” Leigh asked her one night while they were still awake, lying in the darkness listening to the soft music playing on the radio. Ellie claimed she was staying out all night with a friend. Both Jenna and Leigh had a feeling that friend was Tyrone.

  Jenna smiled. “I really like Randolph, Leigh. I like him a lot.”

  “Oh, is that all?” Leigh said grinning. “I was hoping it was a little deeper than that.”

  “We’ve only known each other for three weeks, Leigh. We’re trying to take things slow.”

  “Why bother taking things slow?”

  Jenna raised her eyes to the ceiling. She knew Leigh was only teasing but she felt the need to answer her anyway. “Because we don’t want to rush into anything. We want to make sure what we have and what we feel is right.”

  “Trust me, Jen, it is. I think of how right it is every time I see the two of you together. You and Randolph make such a cute couple. Nearly as cute as me and Noah.”

  And with Leigh’s statement they both laughed.

  “Leigh, can I ask you something?” Jenna whispered hesitantly, a few minutes later.

  “Sure. What?”

  “When did you know that you loved Noah?”

  Leigh smiled as she lay in bed thinking. “I think it was the first time my brother Zachary brought him home with him from school. I was twelve and they were about fifteen. I thought he was so—so cute and I developed a crush on him then. As I got older, things got worse but I kept my feelings to myself. When I was fourteen he left home to come here for college and Zachary entered the police academy. After that I only saw Noah when he came home for the holidays since he always made it a point to drop by the house to visit with Zachary. Then when I turned sixteen and was in the eleventh grade, Zachary was killed in the line of duty. Noah’s family got word to him and he came home immediately.”

  Leigh rubbed the goose bumps she felt on her arms as she remembered that time. “Noah took Zachary’s death real hard, but so did everyone else, especially me. He was the big brother I adored. After the funeral Noah asked me to go for a car ride with him. He said he wanted to talk to me about something. What he did was share with me the last letter he had gotten from Zachary. In that letter, which Zachary had written a week before he’d died, he asked Noah to look out for me if anything ever happened to him.”

  Leigh inhaled a deep gulp of air as she fought the tightening she felt in her throat. “It was as if my brother had known he would be dying or something. After Noah told me about the letter, I fell apart and he tried to comfort me. Somehow we started kissing and couldn’t stop. He finally pushed me away but not before I told him that I loved him and had always loved him.”

  “What did he say? Was he surprised?” Jenna asked curiously.

  Leigh chuckled. “What he was, was mad as hell. He was mad at himself for being weak. He felt he had taken advantage of me although I tried to convince him he hadn’t. He immediately took me back to my parents’ house, saying I was too young to know my own heart. When he left I thought I had ruined things and that I would never see him again. And he deliberately didn’t come home that Christmas. Everyone assumed the pain of Zachary’s death was
the reason, but I knew he was avoiding me.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “He didn’t come back home until the summer before I was to start my senior year of high school. I came home from spending a day at the community pool and there he was, sitting in the living room talking to my dad. The moment he looked at me, I knew. I knew in my heart that as much as he had tried fighting it, deep down he loved me, too.”

  “How did you figure that?”

  “By the way he looked at me. Noah has very expressive eyes and I was able to read how he felt in them, and later when I got him alone I made him admit it.”

  “How?”

  “By coming on to him and kissing him again. This time he didn’t push me away but kept right on kissing me. Before he left to return to Howard at the end of the summer, I was no longer a virgin and we’ve been together ever since.”

  Jenna drew in a deep breath, thinking that had been such a beautiful love story. That night after both of them had drifted off to sleep, she couldn’t help but dream of Randolph.

  Bronson College

  Many miles away, someone else was also having dreams about Randolph.

  Angela opened her eyes and shook her head in disappointment, realizing she’d only been having a dream.

  Being careful not to wake up her roommate, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and came to her feet. The lower part of her body still throbbed.

  With a small sigh she grabbed her robe and put it on before opening the door and quietly easing out of it, deciding to go for a walk. She needed relief and finding it wouldn’t be easy when the entire student body was nothing but girls.