Word of Honor, Book 2

by Tiana Laveen

  His hips compressed in rapid fire as the last of him released until he was completely spent, with no more to give. After a few seconds’ rest, he mustered the strength to pick her up in his strong arms, laid her delicately onto the bed, and slid beside her. Aaron pressed his lips against her forehead as he cloaked their naked bodies with the comforter and wrapped his arm around her waist, drawing her near…

  An hour later, she awoke, not realizing she’d even fallen asleep. When she came to, he was looking down at her, smoking a cigarette and wearing a crooked smile. Ringlets of smoke rollicked about his form, producing a surreal image, as if he had been on fire and was just freshly extinguished. How odd; how strange the way the room appeared to make way for him, carve him out a special space and frame his limbs with linear smolder…

  “Do you know you look like a damn angel when you sleep?” He blew out a cloud of smoke, lazily turned onto his side and tapped a few ashes inside of a pewter ashtray before facing her once again.

  “No, I didn’t know that. No one has ever told me that before.” She smiled up at him as she rubbed her eye with the back of her hand and sat up straighter to better take in the view.

  “I’ve never seen somebody look so peaceful when they’re sleepin’, like you didn’t have a care in the world. But,” he cocked his head to the side and expelled a loud sigh. “We both know you got a lot of cares, a lot of concerns, so that ain’t true… you just look okay despite it all.” He pulled her close, so close, and wrapped his muscular leg, covered in dark hair, around hers, possessively pinning her into place.

  Don’t ever let me go…

  “I only made one mistake when it came to you.” He looked towards the window, hidden by heavy curtains, which afforded them the privacy they so needed. He then slowly set his gaze back upon her as he ran his fingertips up and down the curve of her hip.

  “And what was that?”

  “If I had known what was waitin’ for me, how wrong I was about so many things, I would have gotten myself together a hell of a lot quicker, got to the bottom of my own shit. If I’d done that then I could have been open to finding you sooner in my life instead of wastin’ all this goddamn time. ’Cause I been waitin’ a long while for someone like you, baby… a real long while.”

  Framing the sides of his face in between her palms, she made him stare her in the eyes.

  “I’ve been waiting for you too, Aaron. I just didn’t know it until I fell in love with you. I would’ve liked meeting you sooner but everything happens for a reason, when the timing is right. I tend to think things happen the way they’re supposed to, you know?”

  “I’m not so sure about that, baby. I think sometimes we get in our own way, screw everything up. We make our own realities and live by our own rules, even though most think that shit just happens to us out of the damn blue. Ain’t no such thing as random. Most of us just don’t figure the shit out until it’s too late. I don’t buy any of that shit. Yeah.” He blew out more rings of smoke—perfect ovals, thick and airy, that made her fall into a quick daydream and drift into another layer of comfort.

  I wonder what secrets of his they are carrying away?

  “Nobody is promised tomorrow, honey… nobody.” He said the shit grimly, but how could she argue about such a thing?

  “That’s true.”

  “So, that’s why I say I made that one mistake. I shoulda met you sooner, Mia, so I coulda loved on you longer.”

  He offered a deep, husky laugh, paired with a drop of melancholy, the kind that made her pussy pulsate and dance to the rhythm of his words. His sexiness was mixed with something that simultaneously tickled her anxiety, got her fur up like a cat afraid to round the dark corner. Even his damn laugh could make one afraid. There was something unnerving about him, the way he hid his true self from the world, blended in when desired and morphed into whatever he needed, whenever he desired. He had an uncanny way of controlling his urges… but now, he was exposed, willingly showing her his sparkling wares. You could look at the man and never know for sure what he was thinking; but he’d let her in and she could see both the beauty and the horror within him that she knew were for her eyes only…

  “Why are you lookin’ at me like that, beautiful?” He smiled down at her and caressed her shoulder, drumming his fingertips against her skin to the beat of the music.

  “You scare me a little, Aaron, but I know you’d never hurt me. That sounds strange, doesn’t it?”

  His eyes narrowed ever so slightly and his lips twisted in a partial smile. “A little bit, but I suppose I can understand it.” He tapped his cigarette in the ashtray once more. “You don’t have anything to be afraid of though, sweetie. I don’t hurt the people I love. I’m loyal to them, take care of ’em, and I don’t love that many people Mia so…” He shrugged. “That makes it much easier for me to manage.”

  She nodded in understanding.

  “I don’t like that though.”

  “You don’t like what?” She sat up a bit higher in the bed and fluffed her pillow before settling back again.

  “I don’t like you tellin’ me you’re afraid of me. That’s not the way it’s supposed to be. All of my adult life people have been afraid of me and I liked it, I fed off it. I still like it; I don’t think that’ll be changin’ anytime soon and I’m fine with that, but I don’t want the woman I love to feel that way… that ain’t right. That ain’t right at all. You supposed to feel real comfortable ’round me. I need you to help me work on this, help me change it so you feel okay.”

  “I don’t believe it’s your fault, Aaron… it’s just something I’m picking up on. It could all be in my head, but…” and then she drew quiet as she stared at his cluster of intricately designed tattoos. “I still know deep down it’s not directed towards me, but whatever it is inside of you that I think I see, that I think I feel, seems real.”

  “What do you think you feel?” He placed the cigarette to his lips once more, causing the embers to burn as bright as the fire in his eyes.

  “Coldness… aloofness, like you could turn on a dime and not care at all.”

  “Hmmm.” He smirked. “You might be right, but I can’t have you feelin’ this way, Mia.” He kissed the side of her neck as he tugged at her body and a slight growl, dipped in what sounded like definite lust, escaped from his lips.

  “It’s just that we’re so connected is all. We know each other, but there is still so much more to learn.”

  “We’ll get there… we’ll get there, baby.” He leaned over her and pressed his lips against hers, allowing the yearning to finally have its way. He slipped away from her for a brief spell to extinguish his cigarette, then, without a second’s notice, lay on top of her and wiggled slow and easy between her legs. The head of his cock bumped lightly against her zone as he increased his pace.

  “Mmmm,” they jointly sighed. He teased and teased her, forcing his throbbing groin into her own, but never pushing further, delving inside, entering her.

  “I love how you feel inside of me… I never felt that way before, not with anyone else.” She gripped him by the shoulders to press him down onto her, uncaring that his heaviness perhaps would consume her. Resisting her pull, he offered himself the right hand of freedom until he had her damn legs wrapped around his neck, and then let her arrest him once more, in the most intimate of ways.

  “Ahhhh… baby!” she cooed.

  He gripped her right leg by the calf, kissed up and down her ankle and massaged her lower stomach with his other hand until his fingers had wandered to her pubic bone and floated against her pussy lips. He was quiet for so long, so very long, and then, he smiled and laughed lightly as he continued to stroke her…

  “You’ve got a beautiful body, you know that? God knew what he was doin’ when he made you. Whew.” He whistled as if doing a catcall.

  “Thank you.” She winked up at him. “I’m glad you like it.”

  “Yeah, I like it, but it ain’t the first time I took a look at it… I saw you at
the basketball court, Mia.”

  She swallowed when a feeling of shame washed over her for the umpteenth time. The inner dispenser of mad self-judgment reared its ugly head and reminded her once again of the abysmal, unethical crime she’d committed.

  “You did?” she managed to choke out.

  “Yeah, that’s part of how I’d put two and two together, actually. You see, I asked one of the guy’s there who you were when I saw you lookin’ at me, starin’… and he told me your name.”

  She nodded in understanding.

  “I’m ’bout to tell you somethin’ … somethin’ I thought I’d be taking to my grave.”

  “What?” Her brow rose with the utmost curiosity.

  On a deep breath, he traced her right collarbone, and glared at it long and hard, too. “I was attracted to you right then and there… I knew it the instant I saw you.”

  She tried to hide her smile, but it proved damn near impossible.

  “I hated it, you know?” He gazed at her. “It wasn’t the first time somethin’ like that had happened though. I’d seen other black women from time to time that I thought were attractive. It didn’t happen a lot, but it did every once in a while. Yet with you… with you, the feeling was the strongest. I couldn’t stop lookin’ at you. I kept telling myself to turn away, to act like I didn’t notice, but I couldn’t seem to get it together.” He paused for a moment. “Nevertheless, I felt you should know… I was sweet on you before I even knew who you were.”

  She laughed lightly, certain she was blushing by the warmth that heated her cheeks. “When I first saw you on that basketball court, Aaron, all I could think was, ‘Damn, he is fine!’”

  They both burst out laughing, then drew quiet for a few minutes.

  “Mia…”

  “Yeah?” She wrapped her arm around his waist and looked into his eyes.

  “I got another confession…”

  “Yeah?”

  “I would jerk off to how I pictured you in my mind, but you surpassed all of that… Sometimes, I’d lie in my bed in that cell, Mia, strokin’ my dick faster and faster as you took over my brain with your words, your perfume… Daydreamin’ about you, fantasizing about all the ways I’d make love to you when I finally got the chance.” His voice lowered, the nasty utterances getting ready to spill out. The man turned into an animal right before her eyes, down to his most basic; she could see it all over him and her pussy called to him, wishing and wanting for him to take her there.

  “Tell me more…”

  “I would think about the things I’d do to you, like bendin’ you over and eatin’ your juicy peach until you were shakin’ and drippin’ all over the place.”

  Her throat constricted as she processed the mental images of returning the favor to his impeccable, gorgeous cock…

  “And then I’d imagine you suckin’ my dick good ’nd hard, lovin’ it as I pushed it in and out of your mouth.” He paused and kissed her hard and fast, driving her crazy. “And me holdin’ the back of your damn head as you did it… that long, black hair of yours… messy and flowing so fuckin’ pretty… like black angel wings, you know?” He bent lower and kissed her navel. “I’d envision you riding me, too. Bouncin’ up and down on me so hard and fast, the damn bed would be squeakin’ real loud and your big tits would be moving around, smackin’ together as you rode me.”

  “Mmmmm!” She slipped her finger into her mouth and sucked it hard and slow… He watched; oh yes, he watched.

  “Your ass smackin’ into my legs as I’d push up inside of you. You’d cum hard… real hard baby, leavin’ my dick all wet and sticky, just how I like it! Uhhh, baby!”

  He slipped her baby toe inside his mouth then popped it back out and stared down at her with the darkness and light of the world in his eyes.

  “Then I’d put you in one of my favorite positions… turnin’ you on your damn stomach, baby, shove a pillow under you, forcin’ your butt up into the air. Then gettin’ behind that big, pretty ass of yours, like I’m a wild dog ready to fuck. I’d grip your hips real hard, keep them steady so you couldn’t even move…”

  “Then what, baby? Tell me!”

  “I’d shove my big, hard dick in your sopping wet pussy and just… fuck the livin’ shit outta you until I came over and over inside of you!”

  “Is that what you want, baby? You want to bend me on all fours and take it from behind?” She could hardly get the words out as her pussy wept right there on the bed. She bit down on her lower lip, craving…

  “Yeah, that’s what I fuckin’ want, all of that…and more, much more.” His eyes seemed to turn black as he rose from the bed, ready to do some shit that would certainly turn her out.

  “Well then, why are you still talking to me, huh? Why don’t you just come on over here ’nd take it?”

  His eyes narrowed on her. Gripping her by her tiny waist, he tossed her on her damn stomach then reached forward so fast his arm was a blur as he forced a pillow under her gut…

  Cocked, locked and ready…

  “Fuuuuuck!”

  “I WISH I could shake this bad feeling.”

  Dr. Owens gripped his short glass of brandy and sloshed the rich, dark liquor about. He indolently gazed at the large ivory and ebony clock in his den, then back at the fire leaping in the grate before him. The flames crackled and snapped, a tiny orange and golden Hell giving off a comforting heat. He looked at his drink as he turned the tumbler slowly about in his hand, making liquid circles and sinking in the shallow depth yet mounting thoughts. He’d taken a few measly sips, but they did little to calm his shaken and rattled nerves. It was nearly three in the morning, and his phone hadn’t rung. Aaron had not made a call to him, nor sent a text from the loaner cell phone he’d provided. He should have been happy about such a thing, but then his imagination began to run wilder than a pack of wolves out on the hunt for a galloping deer.

  Paranoia must be contagious, for I’ve caught Aaron’s illness…

  He placed his drink upon a wooden coaster and tried to simmer down, find something more useful to mull over and conceptually dissect, but it was no use. Soon, he was on his feet, his cell phone in hand.

  Damn it!

  Earlier, he’d tried to call the apartment, but there was no answer and when he’d called Limestone, they’d stated that the couple appeared to have had a disagreement earlier in the evening based on the raised voices coming from the place; however, that only lasted a short while. No one heard anything except the music that had been playing for hours. They guards eagerly offered to enter the dwelling, but he insisted that they keep their posts and not go inside just as he had instructed before his departure. No personnel was permitted to go inside unless there was clear evidence of a physical struggle, for disruption could unsettle any progress made.

  Things were stuck in the unknown, and unknown was the wrong place to be when it came to a certain Mr. Aaron Joshua Pike.

  Aaron’s previous words began to haunt him… to dare him not to consider dire possibilities at such a pivotal time.

  ‘How do you know I won’t hurt her?’

  The words rang out in his head, on repeat, filling him with trepidation. Coming to a decision, he set the glass down, slid on his flimsy beige raincoat and raced out of there, locking his front door. He ran to his car, his keys jangling in his trembling hand. A sprinkling of rain had begun, perfuming the air with something sweet under the dark sky. As he journeyed down the street, he couldn’t stop swallowing his own breath. It was unlike him to be edgy about therapies he’d administered, but Aaron was a special case and perhaps he’d taken the man’s emotional state in far too lax a manner.

  He’s got a lot to lose…

  His power, his position means everything to him.

  He is quite upset with Mia; that has not changed despite his love for her, and this sort of deception to him is a big deal.

  He may have felt a bit forced into this after all… or perhaps, he simply went along with it so that he could get his hands on
her!

  “Damn it! What have I done?!” He smacked his steering wheel with force as he continued to drive ahead. Forty-two minutes and almost one speeding ticket later, he arrived at Limestone. The place was outfitted with the tightest of security, and so the checks and balances began. He rolled his window down, the rain now pouring much harder than before as two guards stood before him holding up black umbrellas that shielded their heads but not their scowls as the rain played a mean percussion upon the place.

  “Yes!” He called out over the noise as he put his car in park, held his driver’s license in one hand and his prison personnel identification in the other. “I need to get over to building PW!”

  “Conjugal?” the guard screamed out over the sound of his engine and what had become a torrential downpour as he waited for the gate to lift.

  “Yes!”

  “Alright, drive down here and—”

  “No, you don’t understand. I don’t need to tour the area. I have an inmate patient there that I wish to check on… no need for anyone else to meet me at the door or to assist. I have the extra key.”

  The guard nodded in understanding and motioned for the gate to be raised.

  He drove through, daring himself to not speed along the slippery road covered in gunk and swollen dirt that had graduated to gloppy mud. In the distance stood the apartment buildings, a couple of the windows aglow with light. He spotted the one Mia and Aaron shared, and all but one window appeared pitch black. He quickly parked, grabbed his umbrella from his glove compartment and exited the car. As he walked up, his shoes sank into the muddy ground and dirty rain splatter smacked against his ankles, making a mess of things. He soon spotted one guard right outside of the door, standing under an awning that shielded him from the bulk of the weather. He flashed his I.D.; the guard snatched it from his grip, handed it back, then stepped out of the way.

  “Everything all right?” the man asked with devilish grin on his face as he slid the cell phone he’d been toying with back into his pocket.