I took the water bottle from Selig and gulped down nearly half of it. I hated physical therapy more than anything, but I pushed my way through it six days a week because I knew I needed it in order to make a full recovery. And I also needed Natalie to overcome my injury. She was my number one source of motivation. That’s why I had decided to undergo outpatient physical therapy at her home in Atlanta. And because she loved me dearly, she’d converted her great room into a therapeutic setting for my benefit with all the necessary equipment. But she never entered the space when Assad was here because she couldn’t bear to see me in pain or struggling to do basic things that I’d once done without much effort at all.
“Okay, Mr. Ellis. Your water break is over. It’s time to get back to work now. Come on.”
Without a word, I used one of the side bars to pull my body up in the standing position. No sooner than I balanced myself, the doorbell rang.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Natalie
“I’ll get it!” Ravie and I yelled at the same time, coming from different directions in the house before meeting in the foyer.
“I got it, Eesh. Take a break from recording and go in there and check on Hayden.”
The doorbell chimed again, and the sound rippled throughout the house.
“Yeah, let me go and give my man some inspiration.”
I turned and jogged through the foyer, en route to the great room. I stopped at the entrance when I saw Hayden struggling to take steps down the narrow strip of carpet between the pair of horizontal support bars. Beads of sweat had sprouted on my man’s forehead and he grunted loudly each time he moved his left leg. It was painful to watch him, but I was silently cheering him on at the same time. His facial expression was so intense. I could tell he was really concentrating.
Come on, baby! You can do it!
“Negro, if I wasn’t six and a half months pregnant, I would kick your ass!”
“Girl, shut up!”
“Drop his punk ass on the floor, Big Quad, so I can stomp him like a damn cockroach!”
My entire body whipped around at the sound of commotion behind me. I was surprised to see Tobias being carried toward me like a child by Big Quad with Ravie waddling close behind them. As usual, she and Tobias were fussing.
“What the hell is going on in my house?”
“Eesh, I came to talk to you, but this big-ass, yellow ape snatched me up. Yo, let me holla at you for minute, bae.”
I glanced over my shoulder at Hayden who was just a few steps away from his destination at the end of the bars. Completely focused on his goal, he had no idea what was going on outside the great room.
“Throw his reject, lowlife, has-been ass out of here, Big Quad! Wooo! I wish I had already dropped this baby! I would be choking you to sleep right now!” Ravie smacked Tobias upside his head.
“Ow! Yo, Eesh, you better get your cousin before I punch her. I don’t wanna lay hands on no pregnant chick, but I will if she hits me again.
Ravie popped him in the back of his head two more times, and Tobias started wiggling and bucking in Big Quad’s arms. There was no way he could break free, so he was making empty moves.
“Put him down, Big Quad,” I finally said. “But he is not to touch me or Ravie. If he looks like he’s about to touch either one of us, squash his ass.”
Obedient to a fault, Big Quad lowered Tobias to his feet on the gray marble floor.
Stepping away from my bodyguard, my ex faced me. “Um, congrats on your Grammy nomination.”
“Thank you.”
“Yo, can we go and talk somewhere in private, Eesh?”
“No.” I planted my fists on my hips. “Since we broke up, you’ve been talking publicly about everything, including personal details about our past relationship. Your mouth has been running like a leaking faucet all over the radio, blogs, on your little ratchet reality show, and anywhere else you can find an audience. How come you want to be private now? Say whatever you want to say right here.”
“Okay. I’m sorry, bae. I made a big mistake. I never shoulda fooled around on you with Jian. That girl ain’t shit! The damn baby ain’t even mine. I found out yesterday. That bitch made a fool outta me!”
Ravie and Big Quad nearly fell over each other laughing and slapping hands. I simply stared at Tobias like he had a big, green, greasy booger dangling in his nose. I guess because I didn’t respond one way or another, he felt like he should continue pleading his case.
“I still love you, Eesh. I never stopped lovin’ you. I just wanted to be a father to my child and give her a family ‘cause I didn’t grow up with a father. But now that I know the baby ain’t mine, I want us to hook back up. Give me another chance, Eesh. Please .”
Ravie smacked her lips. “Negro, please!”
“Tobias, I don’t want you anymore and I damn sure don’t love you. I’m in love with another man…a good man, and we’re happily engaged.” I wiggled my left ring finger, displaying my flawless, ten-carat, emerald-cut, diamond engagement ring with the center stone surrounded by a halo of smaller diamonds of the same cut set in a platinum, vertical baguette encrusted band.
“Man, that ring don’t mean shit! You ain’t in love with that lame-ass soccer player I saw you with on TV. He can’t love you like I can. Girl, you love basketball. That’s how come you hooked up with that ole German soccer-playing dude on the rebound.” He laughed at his own pitiful joke.
“You must be out of your damn mind! I’m in love with a real man , and he’s in love with me. And he doesn’t need me to take care of him, but I would if I had to because he’s worth it. Now, get your trifling ass out of my house! And if you come back, I’ll let Big Quad do whatever he wants to do to you.”
“Come on, Eesh. I love you, girl. Just— ”
Tobias stepped toward me, but Big Quad grabbed him fast. Then, to my surprise, they started tussling. It didn’t take Big Quad long to trap Tobias’ ass into a full Nelson and make him scream like a little bitch.
“Yo, Eesh, I love you, girl! Hear me out, bae!”
“Is everything okay out here, Natalie?”
The sound of Hayden’s voice demanded everyone’s attention. He rolled further into the foyer in his wheelchair with his crutches laying horizontally across his lap.
“Everything is fine, Hayden. Big Quad was just about to take out the trash.
I laughed out loud when Hayden tried to roll his body on top of mine in bed, but he couldn’t. He was a like an octopus with his hands all over me.
“Stop it, Hayden. I’m going to call Assad and tell him you’re not obeying his orders. He said no sex until you’re able to roll over completely without assistance.”
“Get on top of me then, damn it!”
“No.” I shook my head and rolled away from him, out of his reach.
“I thought you loved me,” he whined pitifully, scooting sideways in my direction.
“I do love you. That’s why I’m not going to have sex with you. I don’t want to hurt your knee, baby. Anyway, I kind of like the idea of waiting until after we’re married to get busy. It’ll be like I’m saving myself for my wedding night.”
“No fucking way, Natalie! I’m serious, babe. It’s not going to work. Come here!”
He reached for me, but I inched further away from him. I laughed and threw my legs over the side of the bed, slid my feet inside my bunny slippers, and stood up. “It will work because I’m going to sleep in one of the guest rooms until the wedding.”
“Bullshit! What about the trip to Los Angeles for the Grammy Awards?”
“The suite Ravie reserved has three bedrooms. There’ll be one for me, one for you, and Selig can have the other one. Big Quad can sleep on the pull-out sofa in the living room.”
I walked around to Hayden’s side of the bed, leaned in, and kissed his soft lips. He squeezed my ass cheeks and moaned against my mouth. I became so weak and aroused that I almost gave in to his request for a risky romp under the sheets. But I stepped away from h
im because I didn’t want to hurt his leg. He was progressing so well in therapy, and I didn’t want to be the cause of a setback. The Grammy Awards was two weeks from today, and our wedding would take place the following week at Hayden’s cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains. By then, Assad expected him to be off those damn crutches and walking on a cane. That night, I planned to let him have his way with me even if I had to help him out a little bit.
Los Angeles, California
Staples Center
“And this year’s Grammy Award for best R&B song goes to Zyeshia for “Ugly Love!”
“Hell yeah!”
Hayden seemed more excited than I was. I turned and pecked his lips, cautious not to smear my lipstick. I rose gracefully and walked past the few people seated to my left with ease, excusing myself all the way. When I reached the bottom of the steps below the stage, a male usher took hold of my hand and escorted me up. The snug fit of my bronze, sequin, wide-legged jumpsuit caused me to move slowly. It wasn’t Hayden’s attire of choice for the night because of the diamond-shaped cutout at my midriff, which exposed my belly button. I’d ignored his stank attitude and slid into the jumpsuit anyway and caused a stir on the red carpet. I looked hot!
I accepted the gramophone trophy from Miley Cyrus and hugged her and received and air kiss on each cheek from Brandy, her co-presenter. I found Hayden on the third row and smiled.
“Thank you so much. I am tickled to death about winning this award tonight because the competition was fierce. But since I snagged it, I want to thank God for the gifts of singing and songwriting. Thank you, National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Thank you so much, Mom, Daddy, and Granny for the piano lessons and for believing in me from the moment I sang my first solo at church. I love you guys! Lil’ D, we did again, baby boy! Thank you, Rashad Samba and First Class Records, Vera Lewis and Black Star Management, and Tyson Maxwell Junior, the world’s greatest attorney. I love you, Ravie, Chip, and Big Quad. And a very special thanks to my handsome fiancé, Hayden Ellis a.k.a. Viper Drachenberg. I can’t wait to become your wife. I love you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for loving me just as much.” I blew him a kiss.
“You’re welcome, babe,” he mouthed and pressed his fist to his heart.
“Why do you keep peeping in that room, chile?”
I turned around and saw Granny walking slowly toward me. She’d caught me hiding behind a big-ass ficus tree just inside my daddy’s man cave, trying to eavesdrop on his conversation with Hayden.
“I don’t want Daddy to bully Hayden too bad like he did at my Grammy celebration dinner the other night. He’s a good man, Granny, so I can’t let your son run him off.”
Granny sucked her teeth and waved her hand in the air. “Dale Junior ain’t no fool because his daddy and I raised him right. And even after Dale Senior died, men from our church stepped up to help me keep that boy on the straight and narrow.” She wagged her index finger at me. “Your daddy knows Hayden is a good catch. He just wants to rough him up a little bit for kicks. Come on back in the den with us, girls. Ravie done made us some peach daiquiris.”
I peeped in the man cave again and saw my daddy and Hayden laughing and drinking German beer. When I turned to face Granny again, one of her arms was outstretched to me.
“Come on now. Let men take care of men’s business. We, women, got some daiquiris to tend to.”
I placed my hand inside of Granny’s and allowed her to lead me away from the man cave.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Hayden
February 11 th
The Blue Ridge Mountains
My bride’s brilliance illuminated the dimly-lit staircase, which was lined with a path of votive candles leading to the bottom. In my tear-filled eyes, Natalie was a flawlessly beautiful angel on her father’s arm, floating over white rose petals toward me. Even through her veil, I saw her bright smile from where I stood in the foyer with her lifelong pastor, Bishop Collier, and Selig, my best man. My eyes were totally fixated on her. Natalie was a vision of loveliness, and I was happy that until my heart, overflowing with love for her stopped beating, she would belong to me.
Grateful that I had found my perfect love that would last forever on this mountain at a time I was facing uncertainty about my future caused tears of joy to spill freely from my eyes. Etta James’ “At Last” was the perfect song for the entrance of my bride because my one and only true love indeed had finally come along. And Natalie had told me more times than I could count that I was the faithful and loving man she had prayed for her entire life. I was definitely her Mr. Love.
After Natalie finally reached me at the bottom of the staircase and her father kissed her cheek and placed her hand into mine, everything else unfolded in a blur until she sang to me. I was sure I looked like a weak, little punk, but I couldn’t help shedding more tears when my bride surprised me with a song she’d written especially for our wedding day. The words in “Forever and Ever Love” told our story of a chance meeting between two mixed-matched souls that came together as one in the most unlikely setting during the holidays. When the sweet serenade ended, I could barely wait for the bishop to declare us husband and wife before I took Natalie in my arms and captured her lips with mine in a slow, steamy, calculated, and passionate kiss. I wanted to pick her up, throw her over my shoulder, take her to a secret place, and make love to her right then. But I forced myself to exercise patience and restraint for a few more hours for the sake of our reception and other post-nuptial traditions. Plus my newly-repaired knee wouldn’t allow me to pick her up anyway. So, I decided to stick around and share the wonderful occasion with our family.
I smiled as I watched Natalie dance with her father. She was the most stunning bride I’d ever seen. She had chosen a simple, white, strapless, silk gown embellished with lots of tiny Swarovski crystals and porcelain beads. It was a standard floor-length gown that was form-fitting to her hourglass figure with a short chapel train. It complemented my midnight Tudor-style tuxedo with a white vest and traditional necktie. Her hair was swooped up into a fancy up-do with curly tendrils framing her perfectly made-up face. She’d gotten rid of her shoulder-length veil after the ceremony, leaving a single snow-white gardenia on the left side of her hair.
Everyone laughed when Papa tapped Mr. Taylor on his shoulder, bringing the father-bride dance to an end. I smiled and took a swig from my bottle of Altenburger Premium. Then I looked around the huge formal living room in my cabin that had been converted into a beautiful winter wonderland for our small, intimate wedding. Dozens of white pillar candles sat atop tall pedestals all over the place. Countless white roses and fresh green ferns had transformed the entire downstairs into a botanical garden. An angel ice sculpture next to a champagne fountain in a corner added a lovely touch. And the dining room, occupied by six round tables adorned with white linen tablecloths, accented with silver satin runners and tall floral arrangements of more white roses in crystal vases, resembled a five-star restaurant.
The Taylor, Ellis, and Drachenberg families from the United States and Germany had feasted on prime rib and roasted duck with a smorgasbord of trimmings from oyster dressing to collard greens after the short ceremony. Both mothers had shamelessly cried tears of joy as we exchanged vows. And during my bride’s musical tribute to me, they’d cried along with me. Now, with the ceremony, the dinner, bouquet and garter tosses, and the traditional wedding cake slicing out of the way, family members were on the dance floor busting all kinds of moves to the deejay’s playlist that had been meticulously selected by Natalie and me.
I had danced a few times earlier, but now, I was standing in a corner alone with the support of a black lacquer and brass cane watching my father and my new wife twirl about to the music. At first, I ’d obeyed Assad’s orders to take it easy after the traditional dance with my bride and the mother-groom dance. But then, inspired by sheer wedding joy, I’d also danced with my new mother-in-law, Aunt Gerda, Granny, and Ravie. My knee was a little tender now as a result,
but I was too happy to let it ruin my day.
“You chose well, sir.”
I turned and smiled at Selig. “I did, didn’t I?”
“Yes. I’ve never seen you, happier, sir.”
“Selig, I never knew life could be this damn sweet. Who would’ve ever thought Viper Drachenberg would fall in love?”
“No one, sir. But I suppose meeting the perfect woman in the seclusion of the mountains during Christmastime was just the right combination for a little romantic magic. Because of it, you found love in the Blue Ridge Mountains during the holidays. Just think of the story you’ll be able to tell your children.”
I nodded at Selig’s words and flashed a smile at Natalie when she kissed my father’s cheek at the end of their dance. “We won’t be able to tell our kids everything. It got pretty damn hot between Natalie and me during our time up here for the holidays.”
“Oh my, sir. So, it was hot holiday love.”
“The hottest ,” I corrected Selig as my mind drifted back to the afternoon Natalie and I made love in the shower. My cock stirred awake and rose to full mass in my boxers just thinking about being inside of her without a barrier.
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