by Vera Roberts
But that wasn’t Jake, and he knew it.
He cared more about the things that weren’t popular in hip-hop: respecting women, saving money for retirement, and going on vacation on some tropical island. He didn’t see a problem with driving the same five-year-old BMW instead of upgrading to a Bentley as most rappers seemed to do. He didn’t brag about what he could afford or what champagne he was drinking; no one cared about that other than him, anyway. He was more into designer labels and not how many bitches he could bang in one night or making it rain at some nightclub. Why in the hell would he willingly toss his hard-earned money at strippers? He still had a mortgage to pay.
Furthermore, Jake didn’t look like the average rapper. He had a few tattoos, but he wasn’t covered in them. He didn’t wear a ton of jewelry and kept his fade clean every couple of weeks. He was strikingly handsome with a muscular build, trimmed goatee, and chiseled jaw. He could always have a second career in modeling or acting, should he ever tire of music.
Whatever career path Jake chose, however, he definitely did not want to follow the footsteps of his parents. He could remember how lonely he had been at school when the other parents refused to let their kids play with him and his sister, afraid they could somehow influence their children to start drug dealing. Jake could remember his grandmother often quoting the Bible whenever he told her what happened at school that day. He swore he would never subject his children to same thing.
All he had was his sister and vice-versa. No matter what sibling bickering they had or how long it had been since they’ve seen one another, they always came together.
He knew about the clean rappers, the ones that were never taken seriously. He knew about the extreme rappers, the ones who rapped about rape, cop-killing, and incest. He decided to find a nice middle. He spoke about his struggles growing up, having fun with his friends, and spoiling the woman of his dreams. Every song he rapped about told a story—silly or serious—and every hip-hop head from Brooklyn to Houston to Los Angeles could relate in some form. He gave himself a name, Dolce Gabbana, after the brand and because it was his mother’s favorite and he wanted to pay homage to her.
Jake’s formula worked. His debut album, Almost Famous, debuted at the top of the charts and his sophomore effort, Infamous, was already considered a classic hip-hop album, selling over a million copies in its debut week. He was currently working on his latest album, Notorious, set to be released soon.
“How did that sound?” he asked the studio engineer. “Better than the last take?”
“Jake, all of the takes you’ve done have been amazing, man,” the engineer replied back into the microphone. “I don’t know what you’re hearing, but I’m hearing greatness.”
“It needs to be better than great.” Jake took a sip of water. “It can’t sound like that other bullshit that’s being played.”
“I promise you it doesn’t,” the engineer yawned. “Now can I go home and get some sleep?”
“Go home,” Jake nodded. “Thanks for everything, dude. I’ll catch you tomorrow.”
Just as the engineer was leaving the studio, Zerrin entered. “Can you tell your brother to sleep? It’s good for the soul,” he yawned as he left.
“I’ll try,” Zerrin shrugged. She took her coat off and sat it down. She saw her brother was strumming on a guitar and he beckoned her to join him in the booth. “What brings this visit?” He got up to give her a hug.
Zerrin pulled up a stool and sat next to her older brother. “I was in the neighborhood and I decided to stop by.”
Jake began to strum on the guitar again. He was working on a rap acoustic piece. “You were just in the neighborhood and you decided to stop by, huh?” He asked.
“Yep,” Zerrin smiled. She loved listening to her brother when he was deep in the creative process. “What are you working on?”
“A new song,” Jake smiled, “It’s called ‘Why Is My Sister Bullshitting Me?’”
“Jake…”
“Tell me why, why, why is my sis bullshitting me?” he sang to the guitar melody. “She damn well know Manhattan ain’t in the neighborhood when she lives in New Jersey…”
“Jake…”
“Tell me why, why, why is my sis bullshitting…” He furiously strummed the guitar and ended up on an intentionally off-key note. “…me.”
“Oh, wow,” Zerrin cringed, “I hope that was the Biz Markie version.”
Jake set his guitar down and led his sister into the mixing booth, where Chinese takeout awaited them. “So what’s going on? I get a text from you saying you needed to talk to me about something and you just randomly pop in? Is everything okay?”
Zerrin fixed herself a plate and grabbed a soda. She sat down at the table and waited for her brother. They both said grace and began eating. “Everything’s great. Grad school is a challenge but it’s to be expected. My TA position has been phenomenal and I’m getting the hang of teaching.”
“So what’s the hesitation?” Jake poured himself a beer. “You sounded urgent in your message.”
“I wanted you to meet someone.” Zerrin swallowed her moo shu pork. “Technically speaking, he’s my boss.”
“But reality speaking, he’s been giving you a bit more extra credit, hasn’t he?” Jake smiled.
Zerrin tried to hide the smile from her face. Nick was everything he had promised her the first weekend they spent together: her lover, best friend, provider, and leader. “His name is Nick. His mother is Nicola D’Amato of Madre’s .”
“Oh yeah, I know about Madre’s,” Jake scooped up some sweet and sour chicken, “I love their stuff. So this Nick guy is a professor, too?”
“Yep, at NYU. He teaches English,” a light bulb went on in Zerrin’s head. “Say, would you be able to do a favor for me?”
“Sure, what is it?”
“The students are doing Shakespearian raps—rapping about an act or passage in Shakespeare to a hip-hop beat. I was wondering if you would be able to come in and give them some tips? I could give them some pointers and I’m sure Nick could as well, but let’s face it—you’re the one with the millions of records sold and we aren’t. Plus, I think it’ll be a cool surprise for the students to see someone of your stature come in.”
“Hey, I’m just a rapper, not Jesus,” Jake agreed, “But sure, not a problem. When did you want me to come in?”
“Next week. Let’s say next Thursday?”
“Got it.” Jake smiled, “So tell me more about this Nick guy. Does he know about mom and dad?”
“He knows all about mom and dad and what they did.” She added, “He’s not threatened or intimidated by them.”
“So what’s wrong, then?” Jake asked. “He seems like a nice guy.”
“I have this feeling about him, about us that I can’t shake,” Zerrin took a sip of her soda, “like it’s too good to be true.”
“You think he’s hiding something like a wife and family?”
“Oh no, no, no, no…” Zerrin shook her head. “It just feels surreal, like is this really happening?”
“Maybe because it’s the first time you’ve been in love for a while,” Jake suggested.
More like ever. Zerrin knew the truth but she couldn’t admit that to her brother. It was bad enough she admitted to herself. She’d had boyfriends and various flings, but she couldn’t honestly say she had been head over heels in love with any of them. “I just don’t know if I’m doing too much, too soon.”
“Sis, if it feels good, go for it. If it feels wrong, leave. It really isn’t that hard,” Jake shrugged.
“Mom and Dad were together forever until the very end,” Zerrin reasoned, “Granted the circumstances they went through weren’t anything to brag about, but they stayed together. I kinda want that.”
“Then go for it,” Jake encouraged. “Just leave the drug dealing and prostituting out of it, please?”
“Whatever!” Zerrin laughed. “So what about you? Any honey dip capturing your eye?”
�
�There’s somebody,” Jake slowly nodded, “somebody special.”
A long silence passed between the siblings before Zerrin spoke again. “You want to fill me in or do I have to read about it on the gossip blogs?”
“Her name is Alexis. I call her Lexi because I think she’s sexy,” Jake grinned to which Zerrin rolled her eyes. “She’s special to me. Look here’s a picture of her.” He handed her his cell phone.
Before Zerrin was a stunning beautiful Black woman with short hair, cropped in a pixie cut. She was thin and had a megawatt smile. “Beautiful. She’s not on the pole, is she?”
“Oh, no, oh, no. She’s a schoolteacher. Good, Christian woman.” Jake’s eyes lit up, “I wrote ‘Hot Coffee’ about her. I think she knows, but she doesn’t want to guess. She’s kinda shy about that.”
“Sounds like you’re serious about her, bro?” Zerrin commented.
“I guess you could say that.” Jake became serious. “I guess because we never had mom and dad around us, I take relationships a bit more seriously than my peers.”
“Maybe that’s what makes us different,” Zerrin replied, “we had everything and absolutely nothing at the same time.”
****
Master,
Per Your request, here is an e-mail detailing the highs of my day and what I’m grateful for.
The highlights:
Watching my brother in the studio and having lunch with him.
Having another lesson with Whitney. She’s truly amazing.
Being able to do fifteen pushups without stopping.
Having more time to do research during my office hours since students are preparing to go on spring break.
A short line at Starbucks!
What I’m grateful for:
My health.
Being with You.
My brother.
Spring weather.
My life.
At Your will,
Zerrin.
Nick smiled upon reading Zerrin’s email. The deeper they grew in their D/s relationship, the deeper his love grew for her. He could finally admit his mother and Sanora were right—he was in love with Zerrin and had found his equal.
Fifteen
“Dude, are you seeing what Ms. Campbell is wearing?” a male student commented.
“Fool, she’s right in front of us! Kinda hard to miss!” the friend replied back.
“I wonder if she has office hours…” another male student nodded.
“All of you are so nasty!” A female student shook her head.
Zerrin wrote on the whiteboard about the final presentation. She was wearing thigh-high black high-heeled boots with a short jean skirt and a white blouse. She wore an outfit that Nick picked out for her, stating something to the effect of, “I want to show you off.”
Zerrin had felt a little uncomfortable at first dressed so provocatively at work and got more than a few stares and whispers from her peers and colleagues. As the day progressed, however, Zerrin began to feel sexy underneath that garb. Her Master had instructed her not wear any panties, and she often felt the cool breeze flirting with her folds, making her shiver. A couple of people complimented her on the heart-shaped crystal-encrusted collar Nick gifted her recently. You definitely earned this, she remembered Nick saying to her as he collared her.
It was something she took seriously—being collared. She knew he didn’t collar all of his submissives and only reserved that privilege for those who truly earned it. Several months of complete obedience and servitude had solidified her relationship with Him, and one evening after a passionate night of lovemaking, he presented the collar to her. She lightly touched the collar, smiling upon the memory.
The cherry on the icing was that she knew, deep in her mind, Nick was the reason behind it all. Every move she made, he was in the back of her thoughts. The male students had noticed how much she had toned up over the past several weeks, shrinking before their very eyes.
“Okay, as I pass out the assignment, you are to come up with a song based on a Shakespearian play. It could be inspired by Othello, A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, whatever your heart desires. The song should be at least two minutes long. Now if you want to make a video instead, I highly encourage you. If not, you can do the presentation here in front of your peers. You won’t get more or less credit if you choose one or the other. The key thing about this assignment is the song is supposed to relate to a Shakespearian play and you need to state the play you are referencing. If you do not, you will be marked off a full grade. So if your song is a C, you will get a D.”
A student raised his hand. “You’re going to grade that harshly, Professor?”
“I’ll grade based on if you know how to follow directions,” Zerrin smiled.
“Damn!” another student commented. “She’s harder than Professor D’Amato!”
“Now, to help encourage you with your assignment, I have a very special guest. I know him as Jake, my older brother, but you may know him as that guy they call Dolce Gabbana.” The students whispered amongst themselves. “So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, here is my brother, Dolce Gabbana!”
Jake entered the classroom to wide applause and a standing ovation. He gave Zerrin a kiss and a hug. “That’s an interesting choice of outfit you have on, sis,” he whispered to her.
“It’s springtime and I needed to dress up,” Zerrin covered. There was no way she was going to tell her brother the real story.
“Springtime, huh?” Jake was smarter than Zerrin realized, and he didn’t buy her excuse not for a second. “Your boyfriend didn’t influence you?”
“You act like it’s a bad thing.”
“No, it’s not.” Jake smiled. “It’s nice to see you not wear the same outfit with the same chunky heels.”
“And what’s wrong with my shoes?”
“Nothing except DSW needs to put you on their payroll.”
Jake took over center stage while Zerrin joined Nick on the sidelines. “You did very well up there, tesoro,” Nick commented, “I’m very, very proud of you.”
A large smile grew on Zerrin’s face. Once she let go of worrying about pleasing Nick, her confidence had grown ten-fold. She made sure to make eye contact with all of the students and fully engage in conversations with them. “Thank you, Sir.”
“How are you feeling down there?” He mentioned. “Chilly?”
“I got used to it, Sir,” Zerrin crossed her legs, “it was refreshing.”
“Ooh, refreshing, huh?” Nick slowly nodded.
“Refreshing, Sir,” Zerrin repeated.
“Maybe tesoro needs a refill of something, huh?” He turned His head towards her. “It’s been a while since your pussy swallowed My cock.”
Zerrin closed her thighs shut and leaned forward to hear her brother’s talk. Was Master really talking dirty to her in front of the class and worst yet, in front of her brother? “Jake is such a natural at public speaking,” she changed the subject.
“And you’re a natural at sucking cock,” Nick whispered to her. “It’s been a while since you had a good spanking, isn’t it, tesoro?”
Jake was fielding questions from the audience and Zerrin smiled at the class’s participation. “Master…”
“We’ll wait until your brother is done. He might want us to have lunch with him,” Nick glanced at His watch, “and then after lunch, I’m going to fuck you in My office. I have a ball gag in there so no one will hear you screaming and cumming on My cock.”
Zerrin hated how Nick’s voice was perfectly calm and collected while He talked dirty to her. His words were causing her to squirm in her seat and she had adjusted her position about five times already. “I’m not going to make it to lunch if you keep talking like that, Master.”
“Yes, you will,” He promised, “I need that pussy just wet and ready for Me. You know how much I like how wet and tight you are. And when your legs are wrapped around My back when I’m fucking you…”
“And thank
you, Jake!” Zerrin shot up from her seat and walked over to her brother. “Everyone, give a round of applause to Dolce Gabbana. He’s available for autographs and photos for a few minutes.” Zerrin walked back over to Nick, who was calmly smiling at her. “I’m completely wet now, Master,” she whispered to Him.
“Good,” Nick’s eyes sparkled with pleasure, “exactly how I want you. Now keep that for an hour or so.”
“It’s going to be a long lunch, Master,” Zerrin sighed.
“For one of us.”
****
After Jake signed autographs and posed for photos, the trio went to Butter, a high-end restaurant specializing in American food. It was a place Zerrin wanted to try for a while but never managed to find the time to do so. She was pleasantly surprised when Nick suggested it to her and Jake.
“I’ve heard a lot about you, man,” Jake sipped on his Coke. “A lot of good things about you from my sister over here.”
“She’s a wonderful woman.” Nick smiled sweetly at his girlfriend. “She’s incredibly smart, and you saw how she taught the class earlier. She just has the fire and hunger for teaching I haven’t seen in a long while.”
“It’s not just that,” Jake commented. “She’s smiling more. She’s happier. And she’s been getting into shape as well. You’re good for her.”
Nick rubbed Zerrin’s shoulders. “I think she’s good for us both.”
“I wish you brought Alexis here, Jake,” Zerrin commented, “I wanted to meet her.”
“She’s in school, and she can’t escape too easily like that. But she does want to meet you soon,” he promised. “Maybe sometime during the summer before I go on tour again?”