When Maya attempted to sit up and reach for him, he actually held her wrists over her head. He kissed her neck and murmured against her skin, “let me love you.”
She couldn’t argue with that at all. But her fingers itched to touch him. She wanted to feel his warm erection in her hand. And she wanted to be the one making him crazy. As soon as Kohl slid his fingers into her though, all thought fled her mind. She gripped his shoulders as she rode his hand. He made her come twice before finally replacing his fingers with his cock. Maya lost count how many more times she climaxed after that. Eventually she fell asleep, exhausted and satiated.
* * *
Maya woke up to a dark and empty room. She stretched and detangled herself from the sheets before getting up for a shower. Afterwards she went in search of Kohl. Downstairs she found only Rowe and Jaye out front talking.
“Hey guys…” Maya stood just inside the door way.
“Good evening my lady,” Jaye said with a small bow. Rowe followed suit.
“Where is Kohl?” she asked curiously.
“He has been called back to the Union of Earth Nations building. He said to tell you that he’ll be back by morning and that tomorrow we would likely be returning to Ve’dras,” Rowe informed her.
“Oh, okay then,” she said and wondered what time it was. She had to say goodbye to Tilly. She thanked the Jaye and Rowe for filling her in before she went back inside in search of her phone. It was only eight when she checked, so she called hoping Tilly wasn’t with Jack Russo or anything.
“Hey Maya, what’s up,” Tilly said after answering on the first ring.
“Are you home? I kind of wanted to hang out,” Maya said.
“Sure, yeah, come on over,” she said. “Are we just shooting the breeze or…?”
“I’m going back to Ve’dras with Kohl tomorrow…to live there,” Maya told her. There was a long pause over the line before Tilly let out a deep breath.
“Yeah, come over,” she said in a small voice. Maya knew she had a tearful goodbye ahead of her.
Chapter 9
Kohl
“Are you ready?” he asked her. Maya glanced up at him and smiled.
“Yep, I’m ready…” she said without hesitation.
“Before we board…I have something to show you,” he said and gestured to Kelhan. He came forward with Kohl’s copy of the peace accords he successfully struck with Earth’s leaders the night before.
Kelhan handed Maya the portfolio and she opened it to read the certificate inside.
“It’s called the Maya Accords?” she said, pleasantly surprised.
“Yes, without you there would have been no such thing,” Kohl chuckled. Maya’s smile grew and she threw her arms around his neck for a hug.
“You know…I think you’ve turned into a hopeless romantic,” she said. She took his hand in hers and led him towards the waiting spacecraft.
“I have indeed,” he admitted with a wry chuckle. “Only for you,” he added.
“Why of course,” she said, winking at him. Once they boarded the craft, they were followed by their guards and before long they were ascending into the sky.
“I had a dream last night that our baby is going to be a girl,” Maya told him. Kohl looked at her with wide eyes and she nodded sagely. Maya said, “I was walking in the gardens at the palace. And a little girl who looked like both me and your mom came running up behind me and took my hand. Then I just had this gut feeling, like that would happen in real life. And I woke up.”
“A girl?” Kohl couldn’t help but smile at the thought.
“Yeah, one who’ll grow up to be really attractive. We have to have a game plan for keeping the boys away starting now,” Maya said, making him laugh, though he couldn’t deny the sliver of anxiety that entered his chest at that thought.
“Perhaps we should simply keep her indoors until she turns sixty?” he suggested, making Maya laugh.
“That’s not a bad idea…” she said. “Hey…if we do have a girl, can we name her after my mother?” she asked tentatively.
“What was your mother’s name?” he asked thoughtfully.
“Lea,” she said.
“That is beautiful and exotic,” Kohl said with a smile. Their child had just become very real to him in a way he was hardly prepared for. A great wave of emotion swept through him.
“You okay there?” Maya asked, a smile in her voice. He nodded, recovering before anyone else could witness his momentary lapse.
“I’m fine…I am looking forward to starting our life together,” he told her. “We should get married as soon as we land,” he added.
“What are marriage ceremonies like on Ve’dras? What is everything like on Ve’dras?” she asked with a chuckle.
“I will teach you our culture and ways. A Ve’dran marriage ceremony is not so different from Earth’s in reality,” he assured her. Kohl grew excited thinking of the road ahead of them. He would always ensure her happiness and that of their daughter.
“So do you think the UAP will grant Ve’dras a seat on the alliance?” she asked him slowly.
“I am hopeful for it, even more so that we have the Maya Accords with Earth,” Kohl smiled at her.
“So once you manage to have a seat on the UAP, then what?”
“It is like having insurance. We’ll have military backing if needed, we’ll have access to patented medicines and technologies shared amongst UAP member planets. And we will have assurance that none of the UAP allied planets will act aggressively towards us,” he explained.
“Oh…I see, so it’s sort of like being a part of a worker’s union,” Maya mused. Kohl chuckled.
“Precisely. Trade will also be a benefit. It is a common side effect that allied planets of the UAP tend to be wealthier than non-allied planets,” he said.
“I see why joining is such a big deal now…” Maya murmured.
“Yes, soon over fifty percent of the galaxy will be under the UAP umbrella,” he said.
“Sheesh…” Maya was thoughtful for a long while.
After a long flight, they landed on Ve’dras. A crowd awaited them, amongst them being Kohl’s parents.
“What a welcoming,” Kohl smiled at the gathering. Once the craft landed, he and Maya exited behind Kelhan, Jaye and Rowe, the few other guards filing out behind them.
“Welcome back son, and welcome Maya. We are very glad you chose to return,” Avira greeted them. She gave Kohl a kiss on the cheek and embraced Maya. “The child grows,” she said with bright eyes as she touched Maya’s stomach.
“Yep she’s in there…” Maya chuckled.
“A girl? Have you had dreams?” Avira asked. Before Maya could respond Omrin cleared his throat.
“Welcome Maya, Kohl. It is good to have you both back,” he said gruffly. Omrin kissed Kohl on the cheek as well as Maya. Kohl smiled, appreciating his father’s acceptance of her. Once it was seen that Omrin had welcomed Maya, the small crowd cheered and welcomed them back to Ve’dras. Kohl, Maya, and his parents were escorted to the palace. Where Kohl was surprised to find Alora as well as a few other UAP Representatives gathered with her in the throne room.
“Well…this is a surprise,” Kohl muttered to himself, though Maya heard.
“Welcome back Prince Kohl, Maya Lu. We’ve been awaiting your arrival here,” Alora said.
“How long have you been on Ve’dras?”
“Shortly after our meeting I left for here to gather with the UAP’s admissions committee. We often visit a planet up for admittance into the alliance before making a decision. And we have made our decision…” she said slowly.
Kohl stepped towards Alora and gestured her and the rest to follow him.
“We should discuss this in the King’s Study,” he said. The throne room was a public place, often visitors to the royal campus entered to and fro. Kohl led their small party to his father’s small library. When they passed through he felt Maya’s unease, saw her shiver absently as she glanced around the room. Kohl wo
uld make a point of creating good memories in the room for her once he was made king.
“So what is it your committee has decided?” Omrin asked. Kohl glanced at him briefly before looking at Alora. She took no offence in Omrin’s gruff manner. Perhaps she’s had time to become used to it while on Ve’dras.
“The rulers of Earth signed the Maya Accords, which was a positive step. We then observed the ways of Ve’drans and how this planet is governed. We also took into account your approaching coronation and the eventual birth of your child with twined background. Having considered all these things, we thus decided to grant Ve’dras a seat on the UAP,” Alora said finally.
“Thank God!” Maya said in relief, after a beat of silence mostly everyone laughed. Relief was heavy in the room. Kohl simply smiled in satisfaction and took a deep breath.
“There are many documents that must be signed of course as well as an official ceremony. Though all of this will happen once you have taken the throne here on Ve’dras Prince Kohl,” Alora said.
“Consider that done,” Omrin weighed in. “We planned the coronation for tomorrow if you all would like to extend your stay,” he suggested.
“If we can get everything done in three days’ time then we would certainly stay,” Alora said.
“Perfect,” Kohl smiled, he glanced at Maya who grinned happily up at him. Avira took over then, she invited the representatives to all the coronation festivities. Kohl held Maya to his side as most everyone filed from the room. Apart from she and him.
“So?” she said, looking up at him expectantly. “Everything is set up for a pretty good life huh?” There was nothing but optimism, excitement and love in her eyes. Kohl saw that love, and he felt it. Radiating from her pores the love that had saved him and ensured a bright future for his people.
“I owe all of this to you Maya,” he said sincerely. She blushed and stepped into his arms.
“Well Kohl I think you had something to do with it too,” she said with a smirk.
“Without you none of it may have happened.”
Maya fell quiet and nodded once. “I love you and I’ll always be your driving force,” she said simply. Kohl bent his head and kissed her for all their love was worth.
THE END
= Bonus Book 4 of 17 =
Bad Boy Daddy
Cherise Clayton knew that she should have flown from San Francisco.
When she was assigned to interview a new dating app developer in Omaha, Nebraska, she’d been encouraged to fly, or take a train or simply interview the guy via Skype or FaceTime, but Cherise had firmly insisted that she could drive herself. She needed a break from San Francisco and a cross-country drive seemed like a peaceful way to escape the madness of the Bay Area and maybe, just maybe, get her own head in a better place.
So, Cherise loaded her little SUV with luggage, snacks, loaded plenty of playlists on her phone and headed out for a two-day journey across half the country to scenic Omaha, Nebraska.
Now, as she pulled her car into the parking lot of the Camelot Inn—a rundown motel just off the interstate whose fizzling neon sign declared, “Vacancy!” in buzzing pink letters—she was really beginning to regret her stubbornness. The Camelot Inn was in Left Fork, Nebraska, still a day’s drive away from Omaha and, judging by the looks she was getting as she unloaded her suitcase from the trunk of her little SUV, the residents weren’t used to seeing black women travelling alone.
Or any black people at all, she thought, as she entered the hot, non-airconditioned lobby of the little motel. The teenaged girl at the counter gaped at Cherise, her hands poised with her phone in mid-air, as if she were about to send a text but was distracted by the sight of a black women walking into her place of business.
The counter-girl—Ashlee, according to her nametag—was blonde-haired and blue eyed, and just about the most all-American kid anyone could imagine. Cherise peeked around the lobby. A young, tired looking couple with a baby were checking out with another clerk and, yep, all of them were white.
Cherise straightened her shoulders and smiled brightly as the clerk, Ashlee, checked her in and pointed her in the direction of her guest room. It wasn’t until Cherise had firmly shut and bolted the flimsy motel room door behind her that she collapsed on the bed and released a series of slow, shuddering breaths.
The road trip to Nebraska had seemed like a good, brilliant, wonderful idea at the time.
Back in San Francisco, Cherise had just been dumped yet again, one more in a series of unfortunate, short-term relationships that were beginning to be horribly laughable, considering that Cherise was technically employed as a dating/relationship blogger.
“A dating blogger who can’t seem to find a date,” she said aloud to the lonely, dim motel room, flopping down flat on her back onto the musty comforter, a gold and rust-colored relic that was probably older than Cherise herself.
That statement wasn’t exactly true. She could find a date, thank you very much, but she just couldn’t seem to make any of those dates turn into a relationship. She’d tried everything: apps, websites, meet-ups, social clubs, even speed-dating. But every guy she met ended up fizzling out after one or two dates. They all claimed that it wasn’t her, it was them. Cherise was inclined to agree. It was them: they were all terribly boring and completely intimidated by her career, striking good looks and bold self-confidence.
They weren’t bad guys, they weren’t pathetic losers, they were just so…boring.
Cherise’s mother had always told her to find herself a nice guy with a good job but, now that Cherise had dated a parade of such men, that advice seemed dreadful.
“For once, I just want to meet someone interesting,” Cherise said again, this time to the water-stained motel room ceiling directly above her tired head.
Minutes later, she was bounding down the motel stairs and bursting into the reception office, once again startling young Ashlee away from her texting.
“Where’s the most interesting place to go in this town?” she asked the young clerk, who seemed to have recovered from the shock of having a black woman in her motel but was now wide-eyed with surprise from Cherise’s unexpected question.
“Um, I don’t really go out much,” the girl began tentatively, her cornflower blue eyes wide. “Some kids from the school like to go to the Sonic Drive-In up in Williamstown on the weekends?”
Cherise tried not to roll her eyes at the girl’s answer. She knew that Left Fork was a small town—it was barely a speck on her map app and featured only one lodging option—but she didn’t realize how small it actually was.
“Are there any, I don’t know, bars in town?” she tried again, hopefully. “I mean, no offense to drive-in burger joints or anything, but I was hoping to go somewhere a little more…adult.”
The girl’s jaw dropped. “There is one bar, but I wouldn’t go there, ma’am,” she told Cherise, who just so happened to absolutely hate being called “ma’am.”
“Tell me about this bar, Ashlee, sweetie,” Cherise pressed. Ashlee took a deep breath and started to tell Cherise some details.
Cherise cocked one dark, perfectly sculpted eyebrow and nodded as the girl began to describe the town’s one bar.
“It’s called the Olde Glory Inn,” said the counter girl, “but no one from town ever goes, not even adults, not even my dad. My mom said she’d ground me for a year if I ever set foot in there, and my dad says it’s chock full of guys who are nothing but trouble…”
“Nothing but trouble?” That sounds perfect, Cherise thought, smiling to herself.
“Ashlee?” Cherise asked sweetly. “How exactly do I get to this bar?”
***
The tavern or bar is a staple in almost every American city and town, and Cherise, whose career kept her constantly on the move, thought she had seen every kind. She’d been in hip, big-city clubs, tiny dive bars in college towns, upscale wine bars overlooking the ocean and tacky chain-restaurant bars in strip malls. Cherise had visited old pubs in London and gon
e dancing in dimly lit gay bars in the Castro. She’d been everywhere.
Cherise Clayton thought she had seen them all but nothing, nothing, she’d seen in her entire career prepared her for the Olde Glory Inn in North Fork, Nebraska.
The building was plain and simple—a low rectangle, small and squat and built from what appeared to be unpainted cinderblocks—and dimly lit on the outside. One florescent spotlight crackled near the establishment’s single door, sporadically illuminating a hand-stenciled sign on the chipped, sand-colored cinderblock wall of the building. “The Olde Glory Inn: Members Only,” it read.
“Never judge a book by its cover,” Cherise muttered as she pulled her SUV into the parking lot next to a long line of gleaming motorcycles, all parked neatly in a row. She glanced quickly around and realized that her car was the only car in the entire lot. The rest of the vehicles were only one kind: Harley-Davidson motorcycles.
She hesitated for a brief moment before removing her key from the ignition. Maybe the girl, Ashlee, at the motel was right, this place looked like nothing but trouble. Cherise briefly considered turning around, going back to the motel, and calling it a night, but then her defiant streak kicked in. And Cherise Clayton had a defiant streak a mile wide.
Cherise had never been one to back down from a challenge and the Olde Glory Inn, squatting in front of her in all its shabby, shady glory, was one of the biggest challenges she’d faced.
“Let’s do this, girl,” she said to herself, sliding the key from the ignition and striding across the cracked and pot-hole filled parking lot.
The moment she stepped through the entrance of the Olde Glory Inn, however, the entire bar screeched to a halt. The music, some twang-y tune about the hard realities of life on the road, was still blaring from the tinny jukebox, but not one person spoke. Every mouth in the place was agape, astonished at the strange patron who’d just entered. Cherise had never felt more like an outsider in her thirty-two years of life.
“Hello,” Cherise said, giving a weak wave to the silent, hostile crowd.
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