by V Vee
“I apologize bruthrar, I must cut our conversation short. I have three employees who need me to… discipline them quite thoroughly for not completing their work in a timely and orderly fashion without making a mess,” Alastair said, with a slight growl to his voice. The sound of girlish laughter and squeals of delight could be heard before the line went dead. Algerone let out a sound of disgust and shoved his phone into the pocket of his black slacks. Not only had he not received any advice, but his brother had only served to turn his stomach with his sexual exploits and fill him with trepidation over his parents’ possible actions regarding their meddling in his life and affairs. Not to mention the fact that it was quite possible that Alastair knew about Valerie and the children.
Deciding to not to leave things up to chance again, and to actually call someone he knew could be trusted upon for advice, Algerone pulled his phone back out of his pocket, and called his friend, Antwaun Swift, who worked for the FBI but who also ran a transitional home and restaurant for former at-risk teens and sex workers with his wife Amber, a.k.a. “Honey Rose.” The big, muscled black man had spent years in service to not only his country in the military but also law enforcement. But it was while working with the agency on a possible sex-trafficking ring that had arms reaching into Malvidence that the two old friends had reconnected. Algerone would always be indebted to Antwaun for helping to stop the sale of Malvidencian women, young girls and boys and also American peoples into his own country.
“Yo, what up A?” Antwaun answered.
“Hey A,” Algerone laughed. The both of them laughed at their long-time joke over the fact that both of their names started with the letter A.
“How are you, man? How’s the family?” Antwaun asked.
“They’re actually doing well. I’m back in the States right now as a matter of fact,” Algerone admitted.
“Word? I’m surprised Val let you back in the house,” Antwaun said, shock coloring his words.
“What? Why wouldn’t she?” Algerone questioned.
“Oh no reason,” Antwaun backpedaled.
Algerone shook his head even though Antwaun couldn’t see him. “No, A, come on out with it.”
Antwaun sighed. “Okay you didn’t hear this from me, okay? But Honey Rose told me that when she went out to lunch with Val a few weeks ago that Val told her that she was pretty sure you were ashamed of her and your kids. And that she wasn’t sure you hadn’t pulled the same marry a woman and have kids with her, but keep her hidden in different countries all over the world,” Antwaun said.
Algerone felt a lead weight of guilt fall deep into his stomach.
“Man, she said she’d talked to her friend, the loud one?”
Algerone chuckled in spite of the heartbreaking circumstances. “Laeticia.”
“Yeah man. Said she talked to her about finding a lawyer.”
Ice flooded Algerone’s veins. A lawyer? Was Valerie thinking about finding a divorce lawyer? After fourteen years, was his wife thinking about divorcing him? No. No, that was unacceptable.
“Fuck,” Algerone breathed out.
“Yeah,” Antwaun agreed. “So what’d you call me for?”
“Honestly? You already helped. I was calling for advice, but now? Knowing that my family is on the line, that my marriage, my wife, my love? I need to step up and tell my parents, my brothers, my kingdom that I’m married. That I’ve been married for fourteen years and that I have children and that if that means I have to abdicate the throne, then that’s what I will do. Nothing is more important to me than them.”
Antwaun let out a curse of encouragement. “It’s about goddamn time, A. You have got a good woman over there. I’ve told you that more than once. Black women put up with too much for you to marry her, put some kids on her, and then hide her away. It’s about time for you to bring her into the light. I wish someone had done something like that to one of my sisters, they would have disappeared… quick.” He chuckled darkly.
“Special Agent Swift, did I just hear you threaten to murder someone?” Algerone teased.
“Seeing as how both of my sisters are single, no you did not,” Antwaun said firmly. “Besides, I know if I needed you…”
“I’ll help you dispose of the bodies,” Algerone promised.
The two friends laughed before moving on to talk about Antwaun’s four kids, and Antwaun and Amber’s non-profit: Blooming Starts, LLC and their restaurants A&A Dining. They now had fifteen locations.
“Man, I could retire if I wanted to and we wouldn’t have to worry about money for the rest of our lives,” Antwaun admitted.
“So why won’t you?” Algerone asked.
“There’s still evil in the world. I can’t rest until I either get to the point where I’m hindering the fight against it, or until my body tells me it’s time to rest. Besides, the more people of color and women we have on the inside the more we can help to combat the injustice done to us.”
Algerone nodded. “Well, I support you man.”
“Thanks, A. Honey Rose does too. I appreciate it. Anyway, now that you’re back with your family, tell me how long you’re going to be here and what you plan to do. Maybe we can all get together.”
Chapter Six
“K
nowing that my family is on the line, that my marriage, my wife, my love? I need to step up and tell my parents, my brothers, my kingdom that I’m married. That I’ve been married for fourteen years and that I have children and that if that means I have to abdicate the throne, then that’s what I will do. Nothing is more important to me than them.”
Valerie stepped away from the back door and headed back to the family room, Algerone’s words playing on repeat in her head. Finally, it was happening. Finally, her husband was going to tell his family about them. Relief swept through her so swiftly she felt almost weak. She wasn’t exactly sure how long it would take before he would return to Malvidence to tell them, or if he would relay the information over the phone—though she was sure this wasn’t the kind of news someone dropped from a distance—but the very prospect that Algerone would willingly abdicate his throne for them? Valerie felt guilt pulse through her for doubting that the man loved her, loved his kids, for even a moment.
She heard the ringing of the home telephone and her mind returned to the present, just moments before she heard Beaumont’s young voice answer.
“Smythe residence, Beau speaking… Hey Uncle Duane! Yeah she’s here. Hold on. Ma! Uncle Duane wants you!” Beaumont yelled from the family room.
Valerie smiled and shook her head even as she approached her son. She took the cordless phone from him. “What did I tell you about yelling?” she scolded him lightly.
“I don’t remember,” Beaumont shrugged.
Valerie quirked an eyebrow. “You don’t remember? Maybe if you go and sit in the corner and post up, you’ll remember?” she hinted at the punishment that all of her children hated. While Valerie believed in corporal punishment, with her father being former military, and her brothers and one of her sisters having served, she also believed in creative forms of discipline as well. “Posting up” was when she had the kids sit against the wall, knees bent, arms straight out, with no chair beneath them, back straight against the wall, for five to ten minutes depending on the punishment, silent. It was not only a form of discipline, but good exercise for them also.
They hated it.
“No!” Beaumont exclaimed. “I remember! You said no yelling in the house, ‘specially at you unless it’s an emergency.”
“And what constitutes an emergency?” Valerie asked.
“Broken bones, blood, broken dishes, broken furniture, police, kidnappers and intruders, gunshots, and…” Beaumont bit his lower lip as he struggled to recall her words.
“Acts of God!” Chiamaka stated proudly.
“Good girl, Chia,” Valerie praised her. She ran her fingers through Beaumont’s hair. “Good job, Beau. Don’t forget that. No more yelling, okay?”
“Okay, Mommy,�
�� he said with a wide grin.
Valerie lifted the phone’s headset to her ear to talk to her older brother. “Whassup, big head?”
“Acts of God? Really?” Duane laughed.
“Hey, do you have five children in your house at one time? All yelling for your attention?” Valerie asked him as she walked towards her office.
“No, thank God. I have two and that’s it. And I’m not even sure about one of them,” Duane groused.
Valerie sighed. “D, c’mon. DJ looks just like you,” she stated reasonably.
“Yeah, but the child don’t act like me,” he said sullenly.
“Of course not! You were a fucking horndog in school. On the football team, a dumb jock. You didn’t turn your life around until later. DJ came out of the womb with his mind on theorems and figures and calculations.” She chuckled. “What’s up, anyway? Aren’t you supposed to be working?”
“Damn, sis, I am working. I’m on a break. I just wanted to call and see how plans were coming along for mom and dad’s anniversary party?”
Valerie’s eyes widened. She turned and looked at her calendar and saw that two weeks from that day there was a date circled with a bright red marker, with red heart stickers and pink balloons, the words: Mom and Dad’s 38th in bright yellow highlighter.
Stupid highlighter, she thought to herself.
“It’s coming along great!” she said, her voice rising slightly at the end.
Duane grew silent on the phone and Valerie nibbled on her bottom lip. “Shit. You are still the world’s worse liar, you know that?” he grumbled. “Have you done anything?” he asked her.
“Um… I circled the date on my calendar,” Valerie admitted.
“Goddammit Val!” Duane yelled.
“Hey motherfucker! Don’t yell at me! I have been raising five children on my own, working, and fucking taking care of this home all by myself. Don’t you dare try to blame me for not planning this party. There are five of us! Why is it only on me?”
“Because you’re the only one who works from home on your own goddamn schedule. Besides, you ain’t got to work if you don’t want to. And you know what? Ain’t nobody tell you to go and get knocked up five fucking times by some white dude that says he’s a prince that can’t stay around and take care of his damn family,” Duane growled.
Valerie’s eyes widened, and she felt a lump rise in her throat as tears threatened to choke her. She knew how she’d felt about Algerone not being around for her and their kids, but to have her older brother throw the state of her marriage and Algerone’s absence in her face? As if he too were angry and hurt over it? The pain was crippling.
“Shit. Val, I didn’t mean that,” Duane tried to apologize immediately.
Valerie shook her head in the emptiness of her office. “No. You did. And you’re right. I did choose to marry Algie and stay married to him, having five children with him, even though he was barely around due to him constantly being needed in Malvidence. A country that he’s really a prince of. I did my research. I knew who he was. What this was going to be. This was the decision I made—as a grown. Ass. Woman. But, don’t get it twisted, big brother, my man takes care of his family. He’s not some baby daddy who pops in when it’s convenient for him, and just sends child support checks. He’s present. He’s here. He loves me and his children. He calls, he texts, he FaceTimes when he can, he Skypes every night to catch up with the kids and me and to say goodnight. That’s not a baby daddy. I went into this with my eyes wide open.” She took a deep breath to calm her nerves and to try to believe the angry words tumbling from her lips. “And as for my career that I can do from home, I make millions on one painting, one photograph, one sculpture, because I have built a name, a brand. It’s something I take time, energy, and put all my heart and soul into. I will handle this party, because I promised I would, but don’t call me back until you’ve learned to appreciate what I accomplish in a day compared to what you accomplish in a month.”
She hung up the phone, blocking out his words of protest, apology, and rebuttal. She loved her brother, but he could be exhausting. Ever since losing his promotion at work to his “nemesis”—a woman—he’d been insufferable. Valerie was pretty sure it was because he had a crush on the woman and she’d turned him down, but it was no excuse for him to act like an asshole.
“Thank you,” Algerone’s voice came from the doorway.
Valerie looked up with a gasp. Algerone leaned against one side of it, his hands shoved in the pockets of his black slacks, his blue button-up shirt untucked, the top three buttons undone. His hair was mussed as if he’d been running his fingers through it in frustration. His eyes took her in thoroughly, slowly, growing darkly and Valerie squeezed her legs together tightly as her core pulsed with desire and her panties grew wet. Damn what that man could do to her.
“What are you thanking me for?” she asked him.
Algerone lifted one shoulder before stepping into her office fully and sauntering over towards her desk, his gaze never leaving hers. Valerie felt her heart pound and her fingers twitched with the urge to touch him. Instead she clutched the arms of her chair. Nope. She would not give in to this almost tangible desire that seemed to almost cloak the air whenever they were around each other. It became way too easy for them to fall back into bed with one another, forgetting that they were fighting, ignoring their problems when they were in the same vicinity, until they were separated. This time Valerie would stay strong and they would talk.
Talk. Yes. With our mouths, she told herself emphatically. Her eyes then wandered down to Algerone’s pink lips, the bottom one fuller than the top. Those lips that begged to be kissed, the bottom that begged to be bit and sucked within her mouth.
Damn girl! Woman up!
“I’m thanking you for defending me to your brother,” Algerone said. “I know that couldn’t have been easy.”
Valerie waved away his words. “I just told him the truth. Even if I wish that things were different now, and that you were around more, that we lived together 24/7, that you acknowledged us publicly, I went into this marriage knowing everything. Eyes wide open, and I’ve continued on that way. You are a good husband and father. Not the best, not perfect. Maybe not even great. I don’t know, maybe that’s my anger talking, but you are a good man,” she confessed.
By now Algerone stood right in front of her chair. She looked up at him and saw the sadness that filled his eyes at her words, before determination and desire replaced them. She gasped and glanced at the door as he knelt in front of her.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she asked him.
“Making up for being a shitty husband,” he told her as he slowly ran his fingers up the inside of her right leg to her thigh. He slowly, but deeply massaged the muscles there, and Valerie let out a deep groan. She watched as he lowered his head to place a small kiss on her knee, licking the skin, even as his fingers continued to massage her thigh. She let out a soft hiss of pleasure as he moved the tips of his fingers over the center of her body as he passed over to her other leg, to apply the same treatment there.
She bit her lower lip to prevent herself from begging him to touch her where she really want him to. The place aching for him. Where she was currently growing wetter by the second.
Feeling his tongue on her ankle made that denial much harder, especially as he drifted his hands up to the button on her shorts and unfastened them. She should really put a stop to his seduction. Their children were in the family room, and while it was practically on the other side of the house from her office, separated by a hallway, a guest bedroom, the kitchen and dining room, she knew how the kids were. They could interrupt at the most inopportune moments.
However, all thoughts of putting a halt to things were shoved out of her head when Algerone lifted one of her legs and put it on the arm of her chair, leaning forward and putting his mouth against her leaking pussy. He hummed as he rubbed his lips and nose over her most intimate place as if he were smelling the most del
icious fragrance. Valerie shivered and lowered her hands to his head, burying her fingers in his hair.
“God, I missed you,” Algerone murmured.
Valerie trembled at the small pinch of pain as Algerone bit gently on the inside of her thigh.
“Algie, the children,” she cautioned him.
“I told them that we were going to have some private time and talk, but I will lock the door, so you can focus on me,” Algerone reassured her. Valerie watched as he rose smoothly and crossed over to lock them into her office.
She stood and unzipped her shorts, shoving them down, stopping with her hands on her underwear when she heard Algerone’s growl. She lifted her eyebrows in surprise at him and glanced down.
“What?” she asked him.
“Mine,” he told her.
She smirked at him. “What’s yours? This?” She reached a hand down to her panty covered pussy and rubbed at the damp fabric, biting her lower lip as lust zinged its way through her limbs. Algerone groaned and the sound empowered her. Reaching down, Valerie slipped a hand into her thong, running a finger through the damp curls of her sex to her plump nub. She caressed it lightly, before strumming it with a stronger more determined touch.
Algerone strode towards her, but Valerie held up a hand.
“Stay,” she commanded him, pleased when he stopped mere feet away from her. She tilted her head back as she slid a finger down through her wet lips to her opening, pushing one finger deep into her silken walls. The pleasure she felt, knowing her husband’s eyes were on her was so intense, Valerie tilted her head back and gasped out his name.
“You are killing me, miora ruĝa,” Algerone groaned.
Valerie smiled. “I don’t want you to die, baby,” she said. “I just want you to beg.”
Pulling her fingers from her wet pussy, she lifted them to her mouth, and flicked the tips with her tongue. Algerone let out a harsh groan and Valerie opened her eyes to look at him. His blue eyes were trained on her, his long black lashes framing the passion-filled gaze. His bare chest rose and fell, a light sheen of sweat glistening on his hard pecs. Valerie slowly dragged her tongue over her bottom lip, quirking her eyebrow when she saw Algerone’s eyes following the movement.