Beautiful Surrender

by Sherelle Green

  When he’d asked her to go with him to Detroit for the weekend, it hadn’t taken long for her to say yes. But he had failed to mention that they would only briefly be stopping at his condo in Detroit. Instead, they’d driven about an hour and a half out of Detroit to a small lake town.

  “The only other properties that I have that you haven’t seen are in Arkansas.”

  Mya raised an eyebrow at him. “Properties as in more than one.”

  “Yes,” he said with a laugh as he they made their way up the stairs of the lake house. “My brothers and I invested in a building in Little Rock and I also invested in a home in Cranberry Heights. I usually rent out all my properties except the penthouse of my building in Chicago and my condo in Detroit.”

  “So this location is not usually vacant?” she asked as he opened the door.

  “No it’s not, but I don’t have anyone staying here for another few weeks, so I figured it would be a perfect minivacation.”

  He opened the door and gestured for Mya to step in. The first thing she noticed when she walked through the door was the modern wooden furniture and massive fireplace. She took a deep breath as she moved into the living room. “I love that smell,” she said as she followed the scent to see where it was coming from.

  “It’s clove and cinnamon with a hint of ginger,” Malik stated as he placed their bags down. “When I was initially looking to purchase a lake house, I couldn’t believe how many places the Realtor showed me that were stuffy or musky. My mom is constantly making oils and fragrances for the home, so I had her create a scent for the lake house. Even though it’s time for me to swipe out the old oil, you can tell how long the smell lasts.”

  Malik showed Mya the rest of the lake house, including the large oversized wooden deck in the backyard, and the customized wooden balcony on the second floor that overlooked the lake.

  “It feels like no one can see us when we’re up here,” Mya said as she walked to the railing.

  “That’s because they can’t,” Malik said as he walked over to join her. “Check this out,” he said as he grabbed her hand and walked to the side of the balcony to a set of stairs.

  “Where do these stairs lead to?” she asked as she followed him. Large trees sat on either side of the balcony. Mya was in such awe of the fact that they were walking up wooden stairs through a set of trees, that she almost missed the perfect sight that came into view when they reached the top of the trees.

  “Oh my goodness,” she said as she looked into the sky and twirled around in a circle. The sun was beginning to set and colored the sky in an array of warm orange, red and yellow colors. The top of the large trees cascaded over the top layer of the balcony and offered a secret view to the lake.

  “We can see other houses,” Malik said coming to stand near her. “But the neighbors can’t see us because we’re nestled in the trees.”

  “How in the world did you come up with this idea?”

  “I didn’t actually,” Malik said. “A friend of mine works for this company that specializes in building tree houses. They also have a show on television.”

  “Oh man, I think I’ve seen that show,” Mya exclaimed.

  “You probably have. It’s on the home network channel. They were in Michigan building tree houses for two families and I asked him to shoot on over and take a look at these trees and tell me if there was anything I could do. The trees were really the main reason I settled on this house. I knew it would be perfect for a balcony and large deck, but I never imagined having this add-on. The only thing I have to battle up here are the birds and squirrels who like to drop by from time to time.”

  Mya laughed at his comment as she walked over to the edge of the railing. “This is so peaceful,” she said as the wind caught in her hair and whipped in the wind.

  “I’m glad you like it,” Malik said. “I was really hoping you liked it.”

  “What’s not to like?” she said as she pulled her hair to one side. “It’s beautiful. Have you ever brought another woman up here that didn’t like it?” she asked. He glanced at her before leaning over the railing.

  “No,” he said looking back at her. “I had every intention on bringing my last girlfriend up here. But she never made it past the front door.”

  “Why is that?” Mya asked. “She didn’t want to spend time here?”

  “It wasn’t the lake house,” he said as he gazed back out into the water. “We had an argument right before we arrived and when we got here, she asked me if I could bring her back home. We broke up soon after.”

  Mya leaned down so that she was aligned to Malik on the railing. “Is this the same woman you brought to Imani and Daman’s wedding years ago?”

  Malik gave her a side smirk. “One and the same.”

  She watched the range of emotions cross his face and something about his look was a little unsettling. Does he still love her? She’d heard they’d been together for a while and although she’d never given her heart to someone, the tone in Malik’s voice proved to her that he had.

  “I don’t still love her if that’s what you’re thinking,” Malik said, interrupting her thoughts.

  “Why did you two break up?” Mya asked.

  Malik looked from her to the lake again. After a few minutes of silence, Mya figured he didn’t want to talk about it.

  “I remember my first day in seventh grade, I had no idea that my teacher’s introduction would have stayed with me all these years. This teacher probably impacted me the most.”

  His voice trailed off and Mya tried to piece together what his schooling had to do with his previous relationship.

  “My school in Little Rock didn’t have the best academic record at the time and my teacher was trying to get the class to understand the importance of education,” he continued. “He divided us into four groups and then told us that out of the four groups, one group wouldn’t graduate eighth grade next year.”

  “That’s intense for a group of seventh graders to hear,” Mya replied.

  “It was,” he said nodding his head. “But he needed to be frank in order to reach at least one student in that class. When he took a good look at the three remaining groups, he said only one group would graduate high school. Then out of that last group, he pulled two students aside and said only two students would actually make it to college and neither would attend graduate school.”

  “Sounds like a good scare tactic,” Mya said as she turned to face him.

  “It definitely worked on me,” Malik continued. “The last thing he asked us to do was look around the room at our classmates. Some students just laughed it off, some seemed indifferent to the exercise and a few students, like me, actually took a good look around the room at every student. He said at least five students would be killed before their sixteenth birthday.”

  “He liked to make an impact,” Mya stated.

  “He was a realist,” Malik added. “His point was to say that those were the statistics based off of previous students, but that it was up to us to beat the odds. Society wanted us to fail and even with the cards stacked against us, it was in our power to succeed if given the right tools and that’s what he wanted to do.”

  “What group did he place you in?” Mya asked.

  “Everyone in the class knew I had the best grades, but he’d divided us randomly, so it wasn’t based off your rank in school.” Malik glanced over at her before continuing. “I was in the group that got eliminated first. That was the day I decided that no one would ever be able to pick me from a crowd and choose my destiny.”

  Malik glanced up at the sky before asking her if she wanted to sit by the lake before the sun went completely down. As she observed his behavior, she wondered what else was on his mind since he seemed to be deep in thought.

  “That was a really enlightening story,” Mya said as they took a
seat side by side on the edge of the wooden dock leading to the lake. “I imagine it somehow ties into your relationship with your ex.”

  “It does,” Malik said as he leaned back on the palms of his hands. “That was also the same year my dad managed to get me my first bike. I drove that bike everywhere and it offered me my own escape of reality. A way of leaving my world and experience other neighborhoods and different cultures. I refused to be another statistic and I didn’t care that my feet barely touched the petals because I knew I’d grow into it one day. I fell in love with cycling so when I got to college, I decided to enter my first bike marathon.”

  “That seems exciting,” Mya stated as she curled one leg under the other and turned to face him instead of the water.

  “The thrill I got was amazing and when I cycled, everything and everyone disappeared. It was me and my own world that I’d created.”

  “Do you still compete in marathons?” Mya asked. She watched the lit expression he wore on his face dim the minute she asked the question.

  “Not anymore,” he replied. “After my first marathon, I was able to compete in two more before I was in a biking accident during my fourth marathon.”

  “Oh no,” Mya said as her hand flew to her chest. “How did that happen?”

  “Some idiot didn’t pay attention to the road block. He’d also been drinking in the middle of the day. Turns out, he’d just lost his job and his wife on the same day.”

  “Were you okay?” Mya asked as she lightly placed her hand over his.

  “Two broken ribs, a sprained arm, a broken leg and bruises all along my body.”

  “That’s terrible,” Mya said as she scooted closer to him. “But it could have been much worse.”

  “It did get much worse,” he said as he leaned up and faced her. She studied his eyes as she waited for him to continue. When he dropped his head and lifted it back to hers, she could see the emotion in his eyes.

  “At the time, as I began to heal, I thought I was fine. My ribs began to heal, the bruises started fading and my leg was beginning to feel better despite what had happened. It wasn’t until seven years later, that my girlfriend at the time, who I’d planned on proposing to suggested we get checked out.”

  Mya’s heartbeat quickened at a rapid pace, as she waited for him to continue. It was hard not to react to Malik’s nervous energy, which caused her anxiousness to increase.

  “She knew I was close to proposing as well and she wanted us to be aware of what lied ahead. She was always prepared like that so we went to a fertility clinic together and that’s when I learned that the chance of me having children of my own was extremely slim.”

  Mya’s hand clenched at her side at the look of distress on his face.

  “I’d experienced some testicular damage during my biking accident resulting in poor sperm motility. So basically, my sperm is sluggish which makes it harder for me to fertilize an egg.”

  Reacting on instinct, Mya got on her knees and lifted herself on top of Malik and encased him in her arms. “And your ex left you because of that.”

  “Yes,” he said with a sigh. “Both my exes did. Each woman wanted a guarantee that they would bear children and neither was willing to look into opportunities beyond the old-fashioned way.”

  He finally wrapped his arms around her and returned her hug. “Can you believe it?” he said with a slight chuckle. “The one activity that helped me escape from the hardship of my neighborhood was the exact same thing that caused my inability to fertilize a child.”

  “God has plans for each of us,” Mya said as she gently cupped his face with both hands. “You can’t look at this like a burden, but instead, an opportunity to possibly make the life better for a child who would benefit from having you as a parent. Take it from someone who used to pray she got adopted. There is plenty of love you can give a child without a home and those women who left you didn’t see what I see...a man willing to do anything for a family of his own.”

  Her eyes watered when she saw the relief in his gaze and she returned to hugging him as he rested his head on her chest. In that moment, she knew in the pit of her stomach that she was falling hard for Malik Madden.

  “Is that something you could handle? Not bearing your own children?”

  She squeezed him even tighter. “I knew a long time ago that even if I bore children of my own, I also wanted to adopt. I’m okay if adoption is the only option.”

  Mya knew that her statement was the most she’d insinuated to a future with him since they’d begun spending time together. She’d spent this entire time appreciating his support, but believing that he didn’t really understand how it felt to not feel wanted when it turned out he’d been rejected twice for something that was completely out of his control.

  As they sat on the dock, the bright moon rising to replace the fallen sun, she thought about how her life would be if she were to marry Malik. They hadn’t expressed their feelings for one another, but if they were meant to be together in the future, she knew for a fact that walking away from Malik was not an option.

  Chapter 18

  Malik patiently watched Mya take a bite of her chicken before picking up her glass to get a sip of water.

  “Are you going to keep staring at me all night?” she asked.

  “Probably,” he said with a smirk as she resumed eating. He had been stealing glances at her for the past thirty minutes as he waited for her to finish her meal. He’d taken her to his lake house with the intention of telling her the secret he’d been harboring, but he hadn’t known the right time to do so.

  When they’d started talking outside upon arriving at the lake house, the window of opportunity presented itself and he took a chance and opened up to her. The response he’d received had touched him more than Mya probably realized and had been just what he needed to solidify his feelings. There was no more denying it. He’d fallen in love with Mya, and his feelings felt so strong that he questioned his prior serious relationships, no longer confident that what he’d felt for them was that deep hit-you-in-the-middle-of-your-gut type of love.

  Mya was the real deal. The type of woman a man rarely found and he was confident that she felt the same way although they hadn’t shared their feelings with each other yet.

  “I’m finished,” she said as she wiped her hands on her napkin and lifted her plate from the table. When she made it to his side of the table, she reached down to pick up his plate, when he lightly gripped her wrist.

  “Leave it,” he said as he took her plate out of her hands and placed it on top of his.

  “I thought we were going to watch a movie,” she said looking down at him. He released her wrist and stood up in front of her.

  “The last thing on my mind is a movie,” he said looking her up and down.

  Her eyes trailed over his body and stopped right at his midsection. “I guess you’re right,” she said, gently cupping him through the fabric of his pants. “A movie is the last thing on your mind.”

  “Glad we’re on the same page,” he said before he scooped her over his shoulder and began walking up the stairs.

  “Is there a reason why you always lift me in the air?” Mya asked with a laugh.

  “Maybe if you didn’t make things so difficult, I wouldn’t have to lift you in the air.”

  Even upside down, he felt her brain processing his words. “Oh,” she said. “Well in that case, I guess I better not make things too easy for you.”

  “Somehow I doubted you would,” he said with a laugh. When they arrived at the second floor, he opened the screen door to the balcony and placed her on her feet.

  “Come on,” he said as he led her up the stairs to the second balcony level in between the trees.

  “It’s a little chilly out here,” she said with a shiver as she observed the large gray clouds above them.
“And it looks like it’s about to rain.”

  “Then we’ll just have to create our own heat.” Malik took off his shirt and threw it on the corner of the balcony. His pants quickly followed. “Your turn,” he told her as he took a seat on the lounge chair he’d brought up while she had showered earlier.

  “Evidently, you had all this planned out, huh?” she asked when she noticed he was wearing protection. She began giving him a mini striptease as she removed her clothing, purposefully moving very slowly.

  “I’m done waiting,” he said pulling her closer to him and kissing her fiercely. He turned her around so that her back was to his chest and lifted her up, gently gliding her down onto his cock. When he was completely inside her, he groaned in satisfaction.

  Mya wasted no time moving up and down his length, gripping his legs tightly as she slipped him in and out of her wet center. He kneaded the bead of her clit with his thumb, taking advantage of the backwards angle Mya was positioned in.

  As their moans increased, so did their pace. “I’ve dreamed about making love to you on this balcony for weeks,” Malik said in between thrusts.

  Mya didn’t respond, but instead, she rotated her hips in a way he’d grown to love over the past couple weeks, pushing him closer to his breaking point. When she bent over, giving him an unrestricted view of her butt as she continued to gyrate on top of him, Malik almost lost it right there as the seductive image glared back at him. He didn’t want to do something reckless like express his love to her in the middle of sex, but the way she was moving her body made him want to spit out all types of sentimental words of adoration.

  When she sputtered a high-pitched moan, he knew she was close, so he stood up and grabbed her by the waist as she locked her legs around him backwards. Malik never rehearsed the moves in his mind of what he would do to Mya, but he appreciated the fact that she always caught on quickly no matter how insane the sex position was.

  “If you drop me, I’m going to hurt you,” she said in between thrusts. She really had nothing to brace herself on but his forearms, so he swung around to the railing to offer her a better grip. When he did, it brought him even deeper inside.