by S. K. Lessly
Dessert came, and I found myself massaging the back of Georgia’s neck. The slow groan she did woke me up in more ways than I wanted her to in front of my family. I leaned into her ear, feeling the effects of the many scotches I consumed. “Baby, I would advise you to stop moaning like that. It’s been a long time for me, and you’re going to make me take you in one of the restrooms here and see how loud I can make you scream.”
I didn’t miss the heat in her eyes as she looked at me and clamped her lips shut. Her lips… Damn, I missed them. I turned and moved closer to her. “Did I tell you how beautiful you looked tonight?” I caressed her cheek softly, wanting to feel her just for a little while. I didn’t remember picking out this dress for her, but I had to say it definitely helped with my imagination on the curves of her body.
“No,” she said, her voice but a whisper. I knew I was having an effect on her. I could still tell when she wanted me and how bad she wanted it.
Maybe it’s been a long time for her too.
God, I hope so.
“You were too busy fussing at me,” she told me, unfortunately, loud enough for others to hear.
“What?” That was Angel. “Lincoln, I can’t believe you would do such a thing to this beautiful goddess. You really don’t know how to treat women. Listen, Georgia, anytime you want to drop that loser and get with a real man, let me know.”
I shook my head at his date… Uh, what was her name again?
Anyway, she didn’t take too kindly to his words and smacked his arm. Angel, ever the lady’s man, just smiled at his date, “Don’t worry, baby. There’s enough of me to go around.”
“Angelo!” I heard my aunt admonish from across the room.
“Sorry, mama,” Angel called back to her and smiled at Georgia. He said, “So what was my brooding cousin fussing about?”
“Nothing,” I replied hoping that Georgia would get the hint.
However, she didn’t and she said, “He was upset because I parked the car around the corner instead of getting it valeted.”
My uncle and Angel looked at her puzzled at first, and then they both frowned at me. “Where were you?” my uncle asked me.
“I was outside waiting for her,” I replied
“Yeah, you must have been late because if you weren’t, you would have seen her pass and stopped her from parking… Damn, Cuz, that’s fucked up,” Angel added.
“I taught you better than that, son,” my uncle said to me. Then told me how real men take care of their own, in Italian. I had to listen to the speech that I heard a thousand times. My aunt must have heard her husband berate me, and I got it from both ends. Angel sat back and grinned… the fucker… and poor Georgia looked lost but I know she could tell I was getting a lecture. She started to say something, but I squeezed her neck slightly giving her the hint to be quiet.
I took a deep breath, so much for some word foreplay. My erection definitely deflated into nothing.
*****
The ride home was quiet, except for me giving directions to my condo. Georgia didn’t drink a bit of alcohol, which I thought was very strange. She told me she was too nervous to drink. I caught her biting her nails a few times, so I didn’t press it. But I wanted to know how the night went for her. I wanted to know if she liked my family… I don’t know why; believe me. But, shit, I really wanted to know. I started to ask her, but she said, “You have a really good family thing going on.”
“Thanks,” was all I said because I remembered she didn’t have one growing up. Shit.
I added though, so I wouldn’t feel like a complete ass, “They seemed to love you. Nya fell asleep in your arms. She doesn’t do that with everyone.”
She laughed. “I can see that. She doesn’t like your cousin Eddie at all. I saw him trying to play with her, and she would just cry.”
I grew quiet, not thinking she would catch on, but I couldn’t help it. Yes, I’m going to say it for the umpteenth time; I hate that guy.
“I see you two don’t get along.” she said.
I looked at her. “Why do you say that?” I sat up in the seat. “Did he say something to you?”
“Down boy… No, he didn’t say anything. But he didn’t have to. The way you introduced me to him and the way he stared at you all night. If looks could kill… wow.”
“If looks could kill, he would’ve been dead a long time ago,” I added, and then regretted it instantly when she looked at me.
“Why do you hate him?” she asked me and I should have expected it. I left myself open for that.
But that story I won’t tell, so I just said, “I think we both are strong-willed individuals that want the same thing; the approval of the boss man. I’m getting a little more from him than Eddie is, and he’s probably pissed.” That sounded good, didn’t it? Let’s see if she bought it.
She nodded her head. “I can see that. He was staring at you so hard that I thought we were sitting in his seat at the table.”
I saw that, but I was hoping Georgia didn’t. Eddie and I try not to show our hatred for one another in family settings for the sake of his mother and our grandmother. But the way he was looking at me, I could feel the rage pointed directly at me. He and I would have to have some words about that shit.
“So your family… they call you Lincoln? All except you’re Aunt Angelica, Angel’s mom, and your grandmother?” she asked me.
“Yup, pretty much. Sometimes my Uncle Bruno or Angel will call me Drake too. They use that name usually when they want me to do something for them, or I’m being chastised for something I’d done or said. But just like everyone else they call me Lincoln.”
She looked over at me. “Do you want me to stop calling you Drake?”
“No,” I said probably too quickly. It seemed to startle her, but instead of answering her questioning look, I just stared out the window. I didn’t want to answer the question I knew she had because hell I had no way of explaining it. I just preferred to be Drake to her. As I mentioned before, it made me feel normal when she called me Drake. I wished I could be just Drake to her. And I probably could say that to her, and she would undoubtedly understand, but I didn’t.
“Has um…” I looked over at her. She kept her eyes on the road and both hands on the wheel when she continued, “...Has anyone outside of your family ever called you Drake?”
We came at a stoplight, and she looked over at me. I kept her gaze and answered simply, “No.”
“Oh… Okay,” she said softly, and she fell silent.
I felt something starting to develop in the car, and I needed to change the air. I couldn’t and didn’t want to deal with what I knew was starting to happen so I said, “Tell me more about what you went through in that foster home you lived at.”
She shrugged. “What do you want to know?”
I noticed her tense up and bring her right hand to her mouth. I took her hand and put it in mine. “Whatever you want to tell me.”
She looked over at me quickly and said, “So are we sharing?”
I knew that was a loaded question, but I wanted to know what her life was like, so I said, “Yeah, I guess we’re sharing.”
“Then you will tell me about you and Eddie?”
I sighed deeply. I knew she would ask me again someday, but damn I didn’t expect it so soon. “Fine, I’ll tell you about me and Eddie. But you can’t tell me some bullshit and think I’m going to spill my guts afterward. Make it count.”
She moved to take her hand back, and I squeezed it, “No, I’ll keep this with me if you don’t mind.”
She looked over at me and smiled. “Okay. Well, my mother and father were not very nice people. They were when the social worker would come by, but the moment they left, they were back to their mean rotten selves. They let everyone do pretty much what they wanted, as long as they benefited. Some of the boys that stayed there sold drugs and they had to give a cut to them as payment for staying there. Mother and Father would threaten them all the time that they would call the cops on th
em or tell the social worker they didn’t have any more room for them to stay. The boys needed that house. They were either running from their own home life, or they had no place to go.”
“What were the adult’s names?”
She looked over at me. “You know I haven’t a clue? The first day I got there, they told us to call them Mother and Father. I was never around anyone that used their first names and they never called each other anything but Mother and Father.”
“So was the living area clean at least? Did they feed you and clothe you? They were getting money from the state to look out for you.”
“We had food there, but most of the kids pretty much ate all the food. Now Mother and Father had their own stash of food locked away in their room. So whatever we had in the main area is what we got. Of course, they would stock up when the social workers came by but after that we were out of luck.”
“And none of you guys reported them?”
She shook her head. “No. Most of us were scared of Mother and Father. They were crazy. We learned to stay out of Mother’s way all the time. If she told us to do something, we did it, or we wouldn’t eat or have clothes to wear. She figured out a way of punishing us. She didn’t put a hand to us, but she did it in other ways. Mother always told us girls that we would be nothing but whores, addicts or someone’s punching bag. We wouldn’t amount to anything. She would bring suspicious men around us, paraded us around them like she would give us to one of them, stuff like that to keep us girls in line. And these were very scary men. She was useless. She never taught us how to be girls. I learned about my period from my teacher and nurse in school. They knew the situation but in that neighborhood you have to understand; no one really cared, and if they did, it wasn’t received well.”
She pulled into my building, and when she parked, she turned off the car. She started to get out, but I pulled her hand back. “What about the father?”
“Well, he was the creepiest of them all. We learned, some the hard way, to never be alone with Father and to never bathe when he’s home. He would talk to you crazy or grab himself when he looked at you. He wouldn’t touch you, and I don’t think he went so far as to rape anyone, but he would do things like walk into the bathroom while you’re there and say things like ‘Oops. My fault. I didn’t know you were in here or bump into you and grab you close to him and say ‘Oh, I didn’t see you’ or ‘Watch where you’re going now.’ Sometimes the guys would watch our backs and stand guard for us, but they weren’t there all the time. And some of them were creepy themselves.”
I closed my eyes and cracked my neck. I couldn’t get a nine-year-old Georgia being in a place like that for as long as she was and go through what she went through. I didn’t want to ask this question, but I know it would bother me if I didn’t so, I asked, “What about the kid that assaulted you? You said you never reported him. What happened to him?”
She looked over at me and said, “I’m not sure exactly, but I can guess. One time one of Jay Rock’s lieutenants saw Adam bothering me on the playground. He was trying to touch me and pull on me. I managed to get away from him, but not before he ripped my t-shirt. Dawg, was his name, and he pulled off his t-shirt and gave it to me and told me to go see Jay Rock right now. So I did and, well, that was the last time I saw Adam. I don’t know what happened to him per se, but the rumor was he owed Jay Rock some money, and he couldn’t pay up, so he had to pay with his life.”
I nodded and breathed out. One less person I have to search for, I thought to myself. I asked her, “Did any of the other kids mess with you?”
She shook her head. “No, not really. I told you they all stayed away from me after Jay Rock, and his crew was killed. And I told you I befriended two big ass dogs, so they became my bodyguards against Father and even Mother.” She shook her head. “Those dogs were mean.”
I chuckled. “I wish I could meet them.”
I let go of her hand and started to get out, but she pulled my arm. “Your turn. I spilled my guts to the fullest. I think it’s time you do the same, don’t you?”
Shit.
I closed the door back and turned toward her a little. “Baby, what I have to tell you can’t go anywhere. I’m trusting you, understand?”
She nodded, and I closed my eyes. I’m putting her at a huge disadvantage to lie for me if something came back on what I’m about to tell her. But as I looked at her, I knew she would have my back no matter what. I didn’t want her to have to do that, so I said, “There are some things that I just can’t tell you about, okay? I will tell you, but I can’t tell you everything, understand?”
She was quiet a beat, and then she nodded. “Okay. I don’t need the sordid details. Just give me what you’re comfortable with.”
I sighed. “Okay…”
“Wait… should we turn on the radio or turn our phones off? Maybe someone is listening to us talking or something.”
I smiled and shook my head. “Well, baby, first thing first; there are no listening devices in my car. I get it swept often. As a matter of fact, before we left, it was swept, so we’re fine. And don’t worry about our phones. They are safe too. We’re in the basement, and the cement walls down here make it difficult for them to use their listening devices.”
She nodded, and then narrowed her eyes. “Wait… Are you playing with me?”
I tried to keep a straight face, but the look on her face made me throw my head back and laugh. I couldn’t resist. She seemed so serious. She didn’t find it too funny though. She smacked me in my chest. “Asshole.”
“I’m sorry, baby.” I chuckled trying to gather myself. “But damn this isn’t the Godfather or the Wire.” She rolled her eyes at me and got out of the car. She was pouting and maybe my joke was in bad taste. I climbed out of the car just as she got clear of the back, and I pulled her into me. “I’m sorry, baby. Seriously.” I put my hand in her hair and moved her lips to mine. She tilted her head though, giving me her cheek. What she didn’t realize is that she left her neck open for me. I moved my lips to her neck and started sucking on her, giving just enough pressure to have an adverse effect on her body.
“Drake…” she said softly trying to push me away, but I backed her up against my truck that was parked next to my car and moved her hands above her head. “Drake, please…,” she moaned softly as I propped her leg up against my waist.
I grinded my hips against her, hoping I was driving her as crazy as she was driving me. I needed to kiss her. I moved to her lips this time, letting her hands go. As she grabbed me by my ears, I invaded her mouth with my tongue.
Her taste… Damn, I loved it.
I needed more.
I grabbed her ass under her dress and pressed her harder against me. Shit, I was two seconds from taking her clothes off right there.
“Wait,” she said pushing me from her.
My breath was coming hard and strong, the same way I wanted to attack her pussy.
“What?” I looked in her eyes. I know she could feel I was on the brink of losing control.
“Drake…” she pleaded and I knew what she wanted.
“Damn, baby. Can’t this wait?”
She shook her head. “No.”
I rested my forehead against hers and closed my eyes. I couldn’t calm down for shit. I wanted her. I could practically taste her in my mouth. I was salivating for her. The scent of her desires was making me go out of my mind.
Damn it.
I took a deep breath and without moving my head, I said, “Eddie had a huge client that was very lucrative for our family’s interest. He’d been working this client for months. He felt they trusted him, and he trusted them. He trusted them a little too much though.”
I pulled back from her but never stopped holding her. “Eddie believed these people liked and respected him. My uncle trusted them too. Both he and Angel felt like these people were on the up and up. He also trusted his oldest son to have vetted them before we started working with them. Me personally; I didn’t trust them
at all. As a matter of fact, every time I was around them, I felt like they were off. Something just wasn’t right about them. So I did my own digging and found out they were actually trying to set us up, mainly Eddie, my Uncle, and Angel. These people wanted what my uncle’s family had, what they worked hard to get.”
I shook my head and put my hand on the side of her face. I caressed her cheek with my thumb and said, “My family is not very forgiving when it comes to betrayal. We don’t forgive, and we don’t forget. It’s a code that we live by. We can’t seem weak to anyone… Understand?”
Georgia looked at me, and I saw her swallow hard, but she kept her eyes on me. Finally, she nodded. She understood, so I remained quiet.
Finally, she said, “So does Eddie blame you? I don’t understand how he could.”
“Eddie had the trust of his father. With this issue, my uncle started questioning everything, saying those people should have never gotten that close. We had them in our home, around our family. That could have been disastrous for us. My uncle didn’t blame Eddie, but he wanted everyone looked at thoroughly, and the job fell on me. Soon everyone that Eddie wanted to work with, no matter how much he proved the people he brought to his father were legit, my uncle questioned. Eddie began to resent me more and more, and it just festered.”
She didn’t say anything for a minute. I thought this session was over, and I could get back to what I was doing before, but that wasn’t the case. When I moved to her, she said to me, “Okay, that explains why he doesn’t like you, but why do you not like him?”
I frowned. “Because, baby, he’s an idiot. The reason why we were wrapped in those people was because of some woman. Some woman that at the end of the day was screwing him in more ways than one. He wanted to believe she was good and made some horrible decisions not thinking with his head, but with his dick, and I called him on it. I still call him on any stupid decision he makes. He’s trying to save face in front of his father, but he’s been making some fucked up decisions that’s been costing us, costing me. Baby, that kind of person, that kind of desperation; he’s doomed to fuck up royally, and I think when he does, it’s going to be colossal. I refuse to risk my life for that damn idiot.”