The Coldest Love She's Ever Known
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To the extent that the images on the cover of this book depict a person or persons, such person or persons are merely models, and are not intended to portray any character or characters featured in the book.
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This LEO SULLIVAN PRESENTS book is being published by
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Kensington Publishing Corp.
119 West 40th Street
New York, NY 10018
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Copyright © 2019 by Leo Sullivan
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
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ISBN: 978-1496726124
ISBN: (ebook) 978-1-946789-20-4
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Cover Designer: Marion Designs
Editor: Zane Strebor
Format: Nina Simmons Designs, Inc.
Synopsis
Sunday Kennedy has never had an easy life, but nothing has troubled her like the love she has for two men. Malik “King” Shields is the first man she’s ever loved, but she walked away from him when he was arrested… and her broken heart was saved by rising street hustler Caesar Jones.
Caesar knows Sunday will never love him the way she loved Malik, but she is a trophy in his eyes. Now the father of her son, he’s determined to keep her by his side. But when he’s forced to fend off attacks by Sunday’s ex, he plots to use her as a pawn in his revenge.
Malik is trapped in a whirlwind of murder and betrayal after being hit with a death sentence for a crime he didn’t commit. As he fights to clear his name, he also begins to make amends for his past... and reunite with Sunday. But getting her back seems impossible when he discovers she believes his enemies’ lies.
Though Sunday’s heart tells her to trust Malik, she doesn’t want to destroy the family she’s created with Caesar. Caught in the middle of a war that can only end in tragedy, who will Sunday choose?
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Epilogue
Author’s Note
1
Sunday
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I sat on the couch with my legs barely crossed. My belly was mammoth being that I was eight months pregnant. I wore a pair of my fiancé’s boxer shorts over my panties, along with his t-shirt, marinated with the scent of his cologne, as he, Caesar, sat across from me. He was frustrated, for some reason that I didn’t yet know.
I took joy at seeing his handsome face scowling with agitation as he, once again, dipped his hand into the pound of Loud, a blunt smoldering from his lips. He wasn’t wearing a shirt; the apartment was humid and hot because the air condition was barely working, and the landlord really didn’t give a fuck.
“Sunday, there are sixteen ounces in a pound, and 28.35 grams in an ounce. You gotta use this scale to measure or just take from the stash that is already bagged up.”
He pointed, jabbing with his finger.
“It was only a little bit over because I measured it with my hands. Besides, Kelly is my girl so it’s cool.”
He wiggled his head. “No! that is what the scale is for. You can’t just be diggin’ yo’ fuckin’ hand in the bag, measuring the weed. Da fuck wrong with you, man!”
“I saw you do it,” I quipped and then watched his lips turn up at the corners.
“I only do that shit when they spend extra money. That’s the only time I give them a little extra.”
“Humph! Well, how I’m ‘posed to know? I ain’t no drug dealer,” I replied then shuddered when the baby started kicking and moving around like a miniature earthquake in my stomach. You could see the baby’s movement underneath my shirt. Caesar saw it, too. Fascinated by the sight of his baby boy, he hopped up off the loveseat and ran around the table and sat next to me.
“That shit don’t hurt?” he asked, rubbing my belly affectionately as the blunt burned in his other hand.
I crinkled my nose from the potent weed smoke and replied.
“A little but not really. It’s just a weird feeling.”
I watched, feeling my love for him grow as he continued to rub my belly like it was a trophy. Then out of the blue he asked me something as he sucked hard on the blunt.
“Where is the money from the ounce you sold your girl, Kelly?”
A sheepish expression crossed my face.
“Uhhh… I gave it to her on credit,” I answered, apprehensively, fully prepared for what I knew would come next.
“CREDIT! That bitch ain’t got a job. She ain’t got no money! She be hustlin’ niggas for a living and running game and now she done hustled yo’ friendly ass. A zone costs three hundred and our rent is twelve-fifty but you over here givin’ away weed, like that shit charity for broke bitches.”
“She gon’ pay me back,” I protested, knowing in my heart I had possibly made a big mistake. “But Kelly is my girl so… I may have kinda told her that she could have it.”
He gave me a blank look and I squirmed nervously under his gaze.
“You know what? Yo’ ass fired. First day on the job and yo’ ass already fucked up. You fired!” Caesar fumed with disgust, the blunt still burning in his hand.
A halo of smoke formed around his handsome face as he scowled at me like he had bit into a bitter lemon. I don’t know what it was but, for some reason, I couldn’t help but bust out laughing. Maybe I had got a contact high from the weed. I didn’t know what it was, but that shit was hilarious.
At first, he just looked at me with a contemptuous frown and that only made me laugh harder.
“I’m fired? On the first damn day…” I cracked with more giddy laughter.
Soon, he couldn’t help but smirk back at me, his eyes slanted and red. Then he smiled and it segued into sumptuous laughter, loud and vibrant, as he embraced me. I fell into his arms and he held me tight, rubbing on my bulging belly. We laughed until my face hurt.
Caesar and I didn’t have much and, in the eyes of the world, we weren’t worth much either. We were just two kids growing up in the hood, making a way the only way we knew how. In another world, Caesar could have been a shrewd businessman; he was good with numbers and could solve any equation you gave him off the top of his head. I could have probably been a doctor or a lawyer, being that I had what my mama called ‘an elephant’s memory’. All I had to do was see something once and I would remember it for life. It was that memory and my beauty that made all the dope boys want me.
“You a sorry ass employee,” Caesar teased.
I could feel his heartbeat as I rested my head against his brawny masculine chest. He continued to rub my belly. We enjoyed this precious moment together as the blunt burned between his fingers and the music from his phone played the Drake station on Pandora.
“Nah, but for real, ma, we have to continue to stack these chips. I gotta move you and the baby outta here. I’m tryin’ to do it quick… like before you even have the baby. I don’t want my son growin’ up in this bullshit, I have my stash in the closet getting bigger and bigger, keep playin and I’ma fuck round and get us a house,” he spoke from his heart as he rocked me in his arms.
“I know. But we gon’ be fine, bae,” I cooed. Enraptured, I laid back and felt the fremitus of his chest as his heart seemed to beat in a rhythm close to mine. But then, suddenly, a thought occurred to me.
“What about Kirk?”
Kirk was Caesar’s older brother by three years though, after meeting him, you’d think Caesar was the oldest. Kirk was a gentle giant; he stood about six-fee-six with an affable personality, a naturally good spirit. He was kind of slow in the thinking department, but his heart was pure as gold. He had been staying with us ever since he had come home from prison, about a year ago. The plan had been to let him stay for a month, then that turned into two, then three. The next thing I knew, it was eternity.
I never complained because, with time, I learn to really like Kirk. He was just a big lovable oaf. He helped out around the apartment, contributed money that he earned from washing cars and odd job, and otherwise stayed out the way, except whenever I needed him to help with the groceries or fix a running toilet, which was more than Caesar would ever do on his best day.
Kirk was sent to prison for something stupid. He was standing in the trap when Federal agents raided the spot. Someone tossed drugs near him and he was charged for it. His lawyer, a public defender with too many cases to handle and not enough resources to do it, talked him into pleading guilty to three years instead of going to trial, facing fifteen-to-life.
“Kirk is going to have to get his own place or something,” Caesar said with shrug.
I looked up at him, appalled. He knew that his brother was a little slow and it would be difficult for him to fend for himself on his own.
“Or… he can stay with us,” I beamed and reached over to rub his six-pack abs, trying to place his mind at ease.
Deep down, I knew he didn’t want to leave Kirk on his own. It wasn’t a secret that ever since they were young boys, Caesar had been taking care of Kirk after their mom was placed in a mental institution. They were inseparable and I didn’t want to be the reason that he felt the need to leave Kirk on his own. Maybe another woman could be that heartless but not me.
The baby kicked again and, this time, Caesar sat the blunt down and moved around so that he was facing me.
He grabbed my stomach with the palms of his hands like he was holding the Earth and looked right into it as he declared, “This little nigga gonna be a football player. See how he moving around, kickin’ and shit.? We gon’ name him Odell Beckham—”
I sucked my teeth disdain. He must’ve lost his mind.
“I’m not namin’ my baby no damn ‘Odell’. That sounds like a slave name. People will look at him like, ‘what was his mama thinkin’?’” I snapped with a roll of my eyes.
“Odell Beckham is a beast. OBJ… he’s a football player.”
“I don’t care! You need to think of something traditional like ‘Caesar Jr.’ or at least somethin’ civilized. Slave names are dead—out of style. You ain’t get the memo?” I gibed and watched Caesar smirk with his eyes slanted, red and sexy.
“So you got jokes now?” He smiled and I couldn’t help but admire his flat, muscular stomach along with the fine, silky pubescent hairs that cascaded down his torso into his sweatpants.
Out of spite, I dug my hand inside his pants and grabbed his dick. He flinched, when I folded my hand tightly around it. I’d caught him off-guard. It had been weeks since we last had sex. For some reason, with the pregnancy, it hurt too bad to do it like we used to. The pain was unbearable, and I tried, but we just couldn’t go through with it.
“Aight, girl. Don’t start nothing you can’t finish,” Caesar warned, getting hard in my hand.
I knew he wanted sex just as bad as I should have but there was something about my pregnancy that threw off my libido. However, that day I wanted to please him and just sitting there in that hot ass apartment, staring at him with his shirt off showing off all them damn tats and rippled muscles had me getting moist between my thighs.
“I can suck it… get some of that pressure off, if you like,” I purred seductively with a grin.
He just gave me a subtlety glance but underneath the surface I saw his sex face hidden like the sun behind a sublime cloud.
I realized he was playing hard and I liked that, so I stroked him more, increasing in speed until he exhaled a sigh of air and leaned back on the couch. His face scrunched up into an expression that I’m certain he didn’t know turned me, and all the ladies who’d ever seen it. He bit down on his lubricious bottom lip and arched his brow, looking at me just like the man everyone said he resembled: Trey Songz. Only he was sexier, with a mane of short cropped wavy hair, a handsomely trimmed beard with a mouth full of gold teeth. Normally, I didn’t date guys with grills in their mouths, but I had to make an exception when it came to Caesar. He was just that sexy.
“Damn, you gettin’ my dick hard as fuck, bae.”
I was immediately turned on. Call me a vixen, but there was no better feeling then when a woman is in complete control of her man. It’s like femininity conquering masculinity and there are perks that comes with that, especially when you’re pregnant. I got so wet that I could have wrung my panties with both hands and they still wouldn’t be dry.
He placed his large hand on the back of my neck and squeezed it. That was always a prelude to oral sex for him. I stilled his hand and looked up at him with a quid pro quo.
“After I do this, we goin’ to Pappadeaux for crabs and shrimp, right?”
You could ask for anything from a man anticipating some head and, ten times out of ten, you would get it.
“You ain’t shit,” he quipped with a smirk as he continued to watch my hands manipulate his pants, massaging his dick like a masseuse.
I couldn’t help but giggle. The weed smoke was still going up my nose. Where we were from, women smoked blunts throughout their pregnancy, so I didn’t think nothing of getting it secondhand. I didn’t know any better so I was enjoying the high. I stroked him faster, eliciting a groan and causing his hand to travel down and squeeze my thigh so hard that he left a print.
“Make that lobster, crabs and shrimps,” he said with a smile.
He then reached over and pinched my nipple. I flinched. It was sore and swollen. It hurt.
“Ouch!”
“My bad, bae.”
Softening his touch, he caressed my nipple between his forefinger and thumb like how you would put out a wooden match if it were on fire. Whatever the case, within seconds, he had me on hot. Regardless of the inconvenience of swollen, sore nipples I was really thinking about jumping on his dick. But just when I was about to pull out his manhood and please my man, my phone started to ring.
Damn!
I wanted to toss that bitch out the window but instead I anxiously peered at the number. I was waiting for financial aid to approve my grant and I prayed this was the call that I was waiting on, telling me that the money was headed to my bank account. Curious, Caesar looked at the number, too.
It damn sure wasn’t financial aid.
“Shit,” I cursed under my breath.
I made a mental note to have the number blocked, just as I had a million times before. When Caesar recognized the number, his body went rigid as he pulled away from me. I noticed his demeanor change. In mere seconds, he was toxic, like poisonous, dark clouds suddenly blocking a beautiful sun.
“Answer it!” he said in a clipped tone.
With his brows knotted up he looked at me with pure hostility.
“Do I have to? I can just let it ring and we can finish what we started. I can please you… do all the things you like me to do.”
I was talking fast like words on a string, a monotone of pungent pleas, until Caesar interrupted me. He was like a volcano spewing lava as he erupted on me.
“Didn’t I tell you to answer the muthafuckin’ phone? Don’t fuckin’ play me. Tell that nigga not to call you no more. Tell him who I am, that we havin’ a baby and you fuckin’ gettin’ married!” Caesar yelled, spraying my face with
spittle. For the first time in my life, I actually feared he might hit me.
“Okay, okay….” I said out loud but, really, I was trying hard to bridle my nerves as I brushed the palms of my hands down on my thighs nervously, again the baby started kicking. This time it felt like he wanted to come out. I winced, sucking in sips of air like I was underwater breathing through a straw.
I answered the phone with a trembling hand with Caesar watching me intensely.
This is about to ruin our entire day.
What I didn’t know was things were about to go terribly wrong, tragic.
2
Sunday
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“You have received a call from an inmate from a Federal facility. To accept this call, dial 9. To refuse, simply hang up.”
A feminine mechanical voice spoke as I cradled the phone in my hand, staring at it as if it were a dead pigeon. I was horrified to the depths of my soul and one of the reasons was because, the man on the other end of the line, still had a grip on me I couldn’t let go. The problem was that he was also the devil in flesh. He had hurt me to my core, and almost got me locked up for life. I was his lover, his soon to be wife at the time. After spending eight years of my life, who would have ever thought our love could have ended in ruins like this? He was currently on death row about to be executed for hideous crimes, that I was once nearly convicted of.
“Hello?”
“Sunday… I was just calling to tell you something,” King said, his voice making my entire body go warm.