Then he listened. “Oh Royce I didn’t mean to hurt anyone! I wish I could speak to Tammy and your father and make them understand that!” She cried and his heart broke and went out to her and he heard Royce soothing her. “And to think I was your mistress! Oh my god!” She bemoaned and Jameson knew that was true, but that didn’t warrant this.
After listening to her worries and blaming herself he couldn’t help it he watched her all the time. Even with her sadness she was blossoming into a beautiful mature woman. In South Africa she wore nothing but cowboy boots and jeans, she looked like Royce half the time, her hair pulled back in a ponytail and little or no makeup, but here she changed. She started wearing her hair out. She brushed it and let it flow wavy down her back and she started wearing cute comfortable modern dresses. She went to Issa’s salon and had her nails polished and her eyebrows arched, and she wore a little makeup every day and everyday he saw her take her basket and walk down in the village. She’d stop and talk to the villagers at the market, “Buongiorno bella Joy,” they all said and she’d smile a sad smile and stop for a moment to small talk. Then she’d go to the stone wall that looked over the edge of the high cliff and she’d stand there looking out at the beautiful expanse and shade her eyes and just stand there her expression sad, serene and beautiful.
Since Mr. Harrington had the horses to occupy him he was her shadow now and followed her everywhere. After weeks of her tears he went to her as she stood looking out wiping tears, “Are you troubled ma’am?” “Oh Jameson I don’t understand this…but I did this, I’ve done something I shouldn’t have to cause this,” she wiped tears. He took her in his arms and held and soothed her, and he couldn’t help it he smelled her hair and loved her body pressed to his, but she was so sad and that broke his heart; he’d heard her at night crying and questioning. “Ma’am I can’t believe whatever you did is as bad as this?” “I’m too ashamed to say…”
He held her and looked into her dark soft eyes, “Did you order the assassination of a woman and her children?” She cried and shook her head, “Well then what he’s doing is far worse and I don’t care what you did it doesn’t warrant this,” he held her tighter and Jameson stayed that way holding her until her tears subsided.
And as with the changes of the seasons she changed too, the air turned fall crisp and the fields behind the villa turned into a sea of green, tall green grass the horses loved to graze, run and frolic in and Royce and Autumn seemed to love it out there too and she let go of her sadness. Now she stayed in the kitchen. She loved the brick oven and made the best pizza and fresh pasta Jameson had ever had. With her housekeeper Natalia's help she was always learning and preparing something new and she began to smile again. Jameson would stare at her, he had to often force himself to turn away, but most of the time he couldn’t. Her inner and outer beauty seemed so well meshed now. She seemed to have accepted her fate and loved life. She was soft, serene and beautiful and as different as a caterpillar to a butterfly from the woman he heard fucking her brains out every night.
Every night he heard her go to Royce and he to her and they seemed to need each other with a ferociousness and Jameson heard their deep cries and ravenous lovemaking and he was nearly losing his mind and this time he found Issa. She was older, a divorcee and in her forties closer to his age and he liked that, no more young girls like Lita and Naledi. She ran the spa Joy went to. He’d go to her most nights so ravenous and do things to her with such passion and heat that he blew her mind that she often said, “What’s gotten into you?”
Fall crisp air and green flowing grass turned into golden fields and now a cold nip was in the air and Joy had a nip too. Jameson often heard her angry outburst. Joy was furious at Royce’s father, how dare he do this to them! How dare he come after them like they were things to be disposed of. “What the hell is wrong with your father?” She demanded of Royce, “What kind of cold callous person is he Royce to do something so vile and evil,” her anger flashing. Royce went to her. “I know baby this is stupid as hell that he would do this to me, to us. My father is…my father is…He’s not cold Joy, but he is demanding, strict and he has expectations of…his family…We had to live up to high expectations.” “Well hell Royce I had to live up to high expectations but my parents aren’t trying to kill us!” She said indignantly and Royce knew she was right and he was angry too.
Joy was on a rampage and his fear went up and he worried himself ragged that she might leave him, and he almost laughed at the insanity of his thoughts, that he was more afraid of her leaving than any assassin his father sent after them. But he also loved her anger, she had a right to be angry, he was angry too, angry that his father would do this. And because of Joy’s anger and the passion it brought out in her and him he needed more and he went to Jameson again.
“I want to buy a racehorse and I think I can do a pretty good job of training a winner.” After Rocco filled his head with the races the past year they’d all gone to see where No Mercy and Windstar use to race and they had to see a Palio di Siena or II Palio, the race was intense and all about pride, the jockeys rode bareback and represented a contrade or a district and had strange names they didn’t understand like Chiocciota - snail, Lupa-she wolf, Tartuca-tortoise, Oca-goose, or Valdimontone- Valley of the Ram, but Royce didn’t want to participate in that race he wanted thoroughbreds like No Mercy and Windstar. So the next couple of weeks Jameson drove him all over Italy until in the southern tip in the Apulia Region he found the perfect colt he could train.
Against Jameson’s wishes Royce named him Joy’s Fury, “You don’t want to do anything that will connect you to…” “I’ve done what you asked I go by Roberto Fennini here, no one knows me okay! And I want to name him after Joy,” he wanted to name him after her beautiful righteous anger, he loved her anger, it was well deserved and well placed, right at his father. And he loved the passion it brought out in her, in him, it made him feel alive, it was the fuel he needed and seeing a horse barreling around a track his nostrils flared, his muscles straining, the thunder of his hooves released his anger. No Mercy taught him that, he’d released his anger more times than not on the back of that horse. And Jameson gave in.
When the golden fields turned into a blanket of white and back again they’d been here two years and both seemed to let go of their worries and concerns and settled into life in Italy. It was just past the New Year and the mountains had been blanketed in white for weeks and they’d just celebrated Epiphany where Le Bifana brought gifts for the children. Jameson loved this time of year, the village and the mountainside covered in white, it was a postcard. A quaint little village with snow on the roofs and smoke coming from chimneys. He donned his jacket and was doing his usual surveillance. He liked to walk through the village, keeping his ears open and in the process check on the children. He never forgot why they were here and they weren’t confined in the middle of nowhere like in Cape Town. The village had a nice population of young folks so the three older children were always out and about and checking on them became a necessity. He walked through the main square past Issa’s salon, he glanced at it, but he knew he couldn’t see inside.
He decided to check on Lindsey first. When they first arrived she was sixteen and growing into a beautiful young lady and now she was eighteen and like her mother in so many ways, but like all the teenage girls in the village after school they came home and took off their school uniform and changed into trendy stylish clothes and Lindsey fell right in. She straightened her thick curly hair and wore short skirts and tights on her long legs, her thick dark hair gorgeous flowing from under a cap or bandana. He saw the Italian boys looking at her and making plays for her trying to get her to notice them and he saw her ignore them and he’d purse his lips. He was glad they’d done what they did to Sayeed but he’d done a number on her self esteem. Lindsey was beautiful, stunning actually to all who looked at her, but she couldn’t see it.
Lindsey hadn’t forgotten about Mr. Abdullah. She knew from the moment he said she wasn’t worthy of A
mar she knew it was because she was too dark. She’d heard it in the way he said it and she heard it when they moved here and people found out she and Justin were sister and brother, “How come she’s so dark?” So she knew her dark skin was the problem and the boys acting like they liked her didn’t change anything. She knew they were pretending to like her, she was the darkest one in the village, but Amar.
Amar was the one who didn’t care about her dark skin. He’d defied his father after that meeting and he defied his father after he snatched her down off the school steps. She saw the way his father looked at her, like she was a bug to be squashed and she was so scared, but Amar he kissed her so sweet that day, even in front of her parents and his father. And then without missing a beat he came to her and before long they were right back the way they’d always been, up close and personal, her smiling and looking at him with his dimpled smile, and his eyes always smiling and showing exactly how he felt about her. He liked her, he really liked her for who she was, dark skin and all, and while they sat as one the conversation always turned too, “When we get to Cambridge.”
Even though her mother and Mr. Royce tried to shield them from knowing she knew. Men with guns were after them and that’s why they moved so much. She knew from what she heard at school about a trial and a hit man, she knew the night she saw Jameson and heard gunfire in her house and she knew when she saw a gunman firing from a helicopter. So she thought it would be better if she and Deon were together. “I’ll apply to Oxford and Cambridge but I want Cambridge, it’s not as stuffy I think,” and Amar said without blinking an eye, “Well then I’ll go to Cambridge too,” and before long it was, “When we get to Cambridge….” That was the plan, finish school and then go to Cambridge together. But she’d left without saying goodbye, and she hadn’t spoken to him in two years and she didn’t know if he remembered their plans or if he remembered her or if he still wanted to be with her. She didn’t know and even as she held on and was planning to attend Cambridge she felt in her heart Amar had forgotten her.
Royce was excited; he’d entered Joy’s Fury in his first race. “He’s ready baby, Gustave says he has the time to quality and I think he’s ready to race.” “Well that’s what you’ve been training him for, so go for it baby,” she rested her head against his shoulder, “I mean he’s been racing against No Mercy and Windstar,” and Royce chuckled. Even though No Mercy and Windstar were retired they sure didn’t act like it. They pushed Joy’s Fury hard around the track and true to his name with no mercy.
Royce watched as the horses were lined up in the gates, he’d already placed his bet on Joy’s Fury. The gun went off and the gates opened and he felt like he was in the rodeo again, the heart pounding excitement of man and beast on a thrill ride of their lives. He watched as the horses took off. Joy’s Fury was in the middle, and then other horses passed him, and others and he finished dead last and Royce couldn’t believe it and went home and started training again and Lindsey was accepted to Cambridge.
Lindsey was happy just to be going to university so she could stop running, and afraid she’d be disappointed she didn’t want to think of Amar but in her excitement her happiness showed, she smiled bright that first day. She dressed the way she was accustomed, heavy boots, black tights, her hair straight and flowing free, and that god awful red lipstick her mother hated. The first day was beautiful, the sun was bright in the sky and she’d been to two classes already and she was in the Great Court in the midst of her fellow students all going about their business and she loved it, she walked amongst them happy.
“Lindsey! Lindsey!” She heard someone shouting her name and looked back and saw Fabio coming from a building running towards her. She’d met him on the plane and they’d talked nonstop. She stopped to wait which was a mistake because there was a throng of people behind her and someone bumped her hard spilling her backpack to the ground.
Amar had been waiting for two years. He’d lived the life his uncles wanted, he prayed five times a day, celebrated Ramadan with passion and fasted and prayed with the strict Muslim doctrine. He took an interest in the family business and graduated with top honors, and he only asked one thing, “I want to go to university.” His father was dead and no one knew why and he thought it was a bad business deal, at first his uncles had been relentless in their pursuit to find who did it. They were angry and determined, but as time went by and nothing surfaced they calmed down, but his father’s death was not the thing that consumed him. Only one thing consumed him, one thing had burned in his soul for two years. He had to find her, he had to find Lindsey.
Lindsey squatted to pick up her things as many pairs of feet walked around her and someone stopped in front of her, she saw black men’s shoes and khaki pants.
“Lindsey?,” a male voice said softly and unsure. She looked up and at first he didn’t recognize her, her hair was straight, her lips painted red and then he saw her eyes. Lindsey’s soft dark eyes and his eyes brightened, he smiled and Lindsey saw his dimple, “Amar!” She hadn’t recognized him so quickly either. He was a man now, he’d grown tall and had lost that little boy look, but that dimple and his eyes, “Lindsey!” And she was up in his arms, and he held her tight, so tight, “Oh Lindsey, Oh Lindsey, I found you, I found you,” they stood there holding on tight and Fabio ran up.
“Lindsey!” He said out of breath and they released just enough. “Oh Fabio this is Amar the one I was telling you about,” and Amar loved that she’d thought about him. “Oh ciao,” Fabio said and Amar saw the look of disappointment and Amar held Lindsey a little closer. He could see Fabio liked her and he wanted to show him she was his and then his heart beat faster, maybe she wasn’t, maybe he was her boyfriend?
“Can we talk Lindsey? We really need to talk,” she looked into his eyes. “Sure, Fabio I haven’t seen him in a long time and I need to talk to him, I’ll call you later,” she touched Fabio’s hand and Amar saw Fabio brighten and he thought, oh no he is her boyfriend, and his heart was crushed. Fabio walked away and as he looked back he saw Amar kissing Lindsey and he was disappointed again. “Oh Lindsey, I have missed you, missed you,” Amar couldn’t help it if she was going to tell him she had a boyfriend then he had to kiss her lips just once before she broke his heart to pieces. She kissed him back, and he felt her lips smiling as he kissed her.
“Let’s go somewhere and talk,” he picked up her backpack, “Where can we go?” “My housing unit is over there, we can go there, it will give us the privacy we need,” Amar took her hand and Lindsey let him. Lindsey watched him as he led her away, he looked different he was so much taller and more filled out, but he was wearing the same school uniform she’d seen him in last, khaki pants and blue blazer. She smiled, Amar was here, she held his hand and let him lead her to his room.
“My roommate is an Aussie, I’m sure he won’t be back until later,” and Amar thought he’d probably be out trying to get a girl to shag since that was the first thing out of his mouth when they met. Amar sat at his desk and Lindsey sat on his bed and he looked at her, stared at her. He found Lindsey, this was Lindsey, but not the Lindsey he remembered, “You straightened your hair.” “Yeah, but the curls come back when I wash it, all I have to do is wet it and boom,” she said spreading her hand out from her head and smiling her Lindsey smile and he smiled back. “Yeah, can you do that Lindsey? I’d love to see your curls, I love your curls.”
Lindsey looked at him, he was looking at her in that special Amar way, the way that made her heart melt, “Sure, the shower is the quickest.” “Okay you can use mine,” he wanted his Lindsey, the one with the ton of curls and not this red lipstick on her beautiful lips.
Lindsey was smiling, Amar was here, and she turned on the shower and let the warm water wash over her and down her body. Amar sat waiting, and after too many long minutes he was growing impatient and he wanted to be near her, he’d waited so long to find her and she was taking too long. He went into the bathroom and took off his clothes and stepped in the shower.
Lindsey yelped and covered her breast with one hand and with the other her crotch, “Amar!” “You were taking too long,” he said smiling and he hadn’t thought about her being naked, he’d only thought about being near her. He didn’t care that she saw him naked, after he’d seen his father going inside a man’s rear nothing could shock him more than that, and being naked in front of Lindsey wasn’t shocking to him, but he could see it was to her.
Lindsey had never seen a naked man before; she’d only seen boy parts when she changed Justin and Christopher’s diapers. She’d seen their little male organs and to her they were something to be avoided or you’d get peed on so she’d change them quickly before the water works but here was Amar standing there naked and she looked at him not knowing what to think.
Amar saw her looking, but to him he saw his Lindsey, her hair had curled up and the red lips were gone, “There you are my beautiful Lindsey, that’s the girl I know,” and he took her hand from her breast, “You’re beautiful you don’t have to hide from me, you’re beautiful,” he took her in his arms and Lindsey believed him. He was the one person she believed and she let him kiss her and she felt his warm wet skin against hers and he kissed her wet beautiful lips, and he didn’t want to stop, and when they did he looked at her, her wet body.
Amar had never seen a naked girl either, and what he saw of Lindsey was beautiful, her breast upright and full with dark nipples, her tapered waist and those legs, long with beautiful calves, he marveled at her.
They talked and washed up, not because they thought they needed it, but because they were in the shower and that’s what you do. He took the soap and washed her body, caressing her soapy breast in his hands and cupping her beautiful behind. Lindsey washed his chest, and marveled at how he’d filled out, he was a man now, that was all she could think. She leaned up and kissed him, something was stirring in her, stirring in her belly as she looked at him, and his eyes were soft and loving. He turned off the shower and they dried off, she wrapped her hair in a towel and they ran to get warm under his cover laughing and giggling.
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