“Come here! Jenay?”
Jenay handed the paperwork back to Bonita. “Don’t lose that,” she said, took another sip of her coffee, and then made her way upstairs.
“I don’t get it,” Ashley said. “All Dad has to do is tell her to come, and she drops everything and take off.”
Donald looked at Ash. “So?”
Ashley looked at him sidelong. “So? If that was my husband, I’d ask him what was wrong with his two legs. And then I’d tell him to bring his ass to me.” Donald laughed.
Carly shook her head. “That’s why not one of those men you date day in and day out has asked you to marry him.” Donald laughed even harder.
“No, you didn’t say that to me!” Ashley responded, smiling too. “At least I have prospects, Miss Bookworm. All you have are books!”
“Read one,” Carly said. “You might actually enjoy it.”
“Kiss this,” Ashley retorted, lifting her butt toward her sister. “You might actually enjoy it.”
Donald laughed again. He loved both of his adopted sisters fiercely, although he made it his mission to never let that uppity Carly ever know his true feelings. “You’re always good for a laugh, Ash,” he said heartily.
CHAPTER NINE
“Charlie, aren’t you going to be late?” Jenay asked as she walked across the landing into the master bedroom. But she stopped talking and walking when she looked up. When she saw Charles naked and lying across the bed, his feet on the floor, rubbing his dick, her vagina tingled.
“Lock the door,” he said.
If he was up to anything else, Jenay would have protested vigorously. They both had jobs to get to. But Charles had a way of bringing out the lust in her unlike any other man ever could. On sight he could give her a rise. And just seeing him, just seeing his penis, made her so filled with lust that she could hardly get to him fast enough.
She locked the door and walked up to him. He opened his legs. She stood between them and untied her robe, revealing her own naked body.
“That’s right, baby,” Charles said. “You know what I want.”
Jenay knelt down, placed his cock in her mouth, and began to lick it.
Charles leaned back and felt the sensual texture of her tongue as it slowly slid over the ridges of his penis. And when she put it into her mouth, he could feel the muscles of his thighs tighten. He never dreamed he would want to be with a woman as badly as he wanted Jenay. In his player days, he was not a kind lover. He was good in bed, but not kind. And he always knew there was a difference. Because with Jenay, he was living the difference. The way she made him feel could not be verbalized. Just felt to the roots of his hair. And he felt her now. He felt her tongue, her touch, her mastery of his body and mind.
And when she looked up at him, as if she could instinctively feel the emotions he was feeling for her, and he saw her big, brown expressive eyes, he took her by the arms and pulled her up the length of his body, until she was sitting on his lap. Her legs were on either side of his thighs, as he pulled her further down, and began sucking her breasts. Then he moved up to her mouth, and kissed her for a long time. Until he knew he couldn’t hold out much longer.
He lifted her ass so that when she came back down, she was sliding down on his rod. He let out a heavy sigh when she slid down and down and down until his cock was all the way deep inside of her.
Jenay felt it too as she slid down his long rod. And when she began to move up and down, along the length, she closed her eyes and enjoyed him. Her breasts were bouncing so much as she rode him, that he took his hands and squeezed them. But they continued to bounce in his hands. They were that big. And he loved it. He loved it so much that he pulled her down again, and sucked her as she fucked him.
When they came, it was as magical as it could ever be. They came hard and they came together. Charles pulled her in his arms and took over. His strokes increased as he poured into her, and she wanted to cry out with joy. But she knew the children were downstairs. She held her peace. And he continued to fuck her hard.
Downstairs, Ashley had finished eating and was grabbing her purse. “I’m out,” she said as she began to leave. “Bye, Nita.”
“Bye, Ashley,” Bonita responded. “Be good.”
“Why are you leaving all of a sudden?” Donald asked, still stuffing his face with food. “Aren’t you going to drop me off, Ash?”
“Then come on! Dad said if I’m late one more time I’m fired. He can be late all the time, but if I’m late he threatens to fire me.”
Carly could hardly believe it. “He owns the company, Ash, why are you comparing yourself to him? He owns the company.”
“So?” Ashley asked. “What does that have to do with anything? Late is late. What’s the difference?”
If she didn’t know that difference, Carly thought, then she would be wasting her time explaining it. So she didn’t bother.
“Come on, Donnie, I mean it!” Ashley said, as she hurried out of the door.
Carly watched as Donald drank the last of his juice and hurriedly ate another spoonful of egg. “If I were you,” he said as he ate, “I’d take Dad up on his offer and get that new car. You’re crazy not to.” Then he kissed Bonita goodbye, and took off.
Carly shook her head. If that boy only knew how little she cared about some car, or any other material thing right now, he’d stop bringing it up. But she didn’t try to enlighten him. She let him go.
Bonita looked at Carly. “They are always late,” she said.
“Yes, they are,” Carly agreed, with a smile.
“That’s why I like you the most,” Bonita said. “You’re never late. You never make mistakes.”
Carly had a sudden flash of that knife coursing through Ethan Campbell’s back, and the way his knees bent when she pulled it out. And Nita thought she was the perfect one? “Finish your food,” she said to her kid sister.
Charles and Jenay, showered and fully dressed in their respective business suits, arrived downstairs some ten minutes after Ashley and Donald left. When Charles saw Carly sitting at the center island, staring at seemingly nothingness, he touched Jenay on the arm and pulled her back. When Jenay looked at him, he nodded toward Carly.
Jenay saw the staring and nodded too. “She’s been doing that a lot lately.”
Charles looked at Jenay. “Does she talk to you about it?”
“That’s the sad part,” Jenay said. “She won’t tell me a thing. She won’t tell anybody. She keeps it all locked in. Sometimes I wonder if she’s still reliving that hellish night, and reliving it over and over and over again.”
Charles opened his suitcoat, placed his hands on his hips, and exhaled, as they both continued to watch their daughter. “I’m worried about her, Jenay,” he said. “I’d be lying if I said otherwise. She seem so normal when I’m talking with her and when she’s one-on-one with others. But when she’s alone, and she doesn’t know that she’s being watched, she seem to be in such pain.”
“Poor baby,” Jenay said. “There’s a lot going on inside of her, but she won’t say what. I still think she should go to therapy.”
Charles looked at Jenay. “And say what? She can’t tell them anything about what happened that night. She can’t even hint about it. And please don’t hand me that nonsense about how they can’t tell. They can tell the authorities if a crime has been committed, or something like that. Therapy is out.”
“I hear what you’re saying,” Jenay said. “But she doesn’t have to talk about that night. I think Carly had a lot going on internally long before that night in Boston.”
Charles nodded. “That’s true.”
“But it doesn’t matter. She tells me no repeatedly when I ask her to at least consider seeing a therapist. Or even Tony. He’s a clinical psychologist. I asked her to at least go and talk to him.”
“She refused?”
“Yup. She declares she’s fine. She’s real good at declaring that.”
Charles nodded. “Yes, she is,” he admitted
.
“Anyway,” Jenay said. “I’d better go.” She leaned over and kissed Charles on the lips. Charles pulled her back, and kissed her again.
Jenay then walked toward the front door. “Bonita?” she yelled. “Come on!”
Carly broke her stare when she heard Jenay’s voice, and Bonita jumped down from her chair, grabbed her book bag, and hurried toward her parents.
“My baby!” Charles said as he lifted her into his arms.
“Bye, Daddy!” Bonita said. “You be good today.”
Charles laughed. “If you will, I will,” he said as he put her down.
“I will,” Bonita said.
“Then I will,” Charles responded.
“We’re leaving, Car,” Jenay yelled toward the kitchen, and Carly turned toward her. “See you tonight.”
“Have a good day,” Carly said, rising, and Jenay and Bonita hurried out.
Carly began grabbing her purse and IPad. “Ready, Dad?” she asked as she headed his way.
“I’m ready,” Charles said as he watched Carly head his way. She was smiling now, as if her somber mood never happened. When she arrived, they hugged.
“Thanks for letting me use your car today,” she said when they stopped embracing. “Milt said mine should be ready in a few more days.”
“No problem,” Charles responded. He kept an arm around her waist. “If I hadn’t left my truck at the office, you could have already been on your way.”
“How did that have happened anyway? How could you leave your truck?”
“Your mother picked me up at the office because we had a meeting to attend. After the meeting we got lazy and decided to just come on home. But you don’t mind dropping me off first, do you?”
“Not at all! We’re late, but it’s no big deal,” she added.
Charles was surprised. “Late? But I thought you didn’t have to be to work until 9?”
“I’m not talking about me,” Carly said with a smile. “I’m talking about you. I said we so you wouldn’t feel bad.”
Charles laughed and pulled her closer. “You’re a good kid, Carly,” he said. “I’m proud to have you as my daughter.” Then a serious look came onto Charles’s face. “Don’t you ever forget that.”
Carly looked at Charles. Here was a man, she thought, who took an entire month out of his life to spend it cooped up in her house in Boston, all for her sake. Here was a man who was not even a blood relative, but yet treated her better than her biological parents ever did. And her heart swelled with emotion. He was the very reason she hadn’t completely given up on men. “Thanks, Dad,” she said heartfelt.
But Charles continued to look at her with concern in his eyes. “You’re okay?” he asked.
At first it seemed as if she would crack, and tell him how she really felt. But then she reverted back to form. “Oh, yes,” she said bluntly, as if it was an obvious fact. “I’m great.” Then she smiled again, and headed out of the front door.
She was a long way from great, and Charles knew it, as he followed her out.
CHAPTER TEN
The Jaguar lumbered along the streets of Jericho and Charles, with sunglasses covering his eyes, took peeps at Carly. She sat quietly on the passenger seat, reading from her IPAD. She looked like a typical school teacher in her tucked-in brown blouse, cardigan sweater, and pencil skirt. Her long hair was pulled back into a thick ponytail. But her outer appearance was the only thing typical about her that Charles could see. Because looking deeper told a different story. She never fielded messages on her cell phone the way women her age always did. She turned down every guy that asked her out, and refused to hang out with any of the single ladies around town. Even when her car wouldn’t crank and had to be towed to the shop, she refused his offer to buy her a new car. She refused to let him buy her a house. She lived at home and preferred it that way. He used to think it was because she needed the closeness of her family to help her overcome what that tragedy in Boston might have done to her. But now he wasn’t so sure.
He turned a corner, and looked at her again. “What are you reading?”
“Loving the Head Man.”
Charles suddenly thought about what Jenay had done to him that morning. “Head? As in?”
Carly smiled. “The boss, Dad. It’s about loving the boss.”
Charles smiled. “Ah. A romance novel?”
“Right.”
“Most girls your age wouldn’t be reading about romance. They’d be out there living it.”
Carly looked up, her big, sincere eyes on full display. “I’m hardly like most girls my age, Dad,” she said honestly.
Charles’s heart squeezed when she made that declaration. He waited for more. He waited for her to say that most girls her age didn’t have a murder under their belt, but she didn’t go there. She never went there with him. “So how are things going with you overall?” he asked. “Teaching in a small, private school in Jericho is a far cry from running a PR department in Boston.”
“That is true,” Carly said, still reading.
Charles waited for more, but nothing came. Yep, he thought sadly, as he turned another corner. Great his ass. She was a long way from great.
He looked at her again. “I still want you to consider coming to work for me, darling.” She looked up. “When you’re ready.”
“I know,” she said. “And I probably will. When I think I’m ready for the grind again. Teaching presents the right level of stress for me right now. Not too much, and not too little. The kids are sweet. I can deal with my co-workers pretty well. This is what I need right now.”
Charles nodded. Carly always had that clarity of thought whenever she chose to share it with him. “Understood,” he said.
She smiled. “But it is rather odd, don’t you think?”
Charles looked at her. “What is?”
“You already have Ash, Donald, and Bobby working for you. Three of your children. Aren’t they enough?”
“No,” Charles said bluntly. “The three I want, you, Anthony, and Brent, are charting your own path. Instead I’m stuck with Robert, who pays more attention to his ladies than his job. Ashley, who pays more attention to her men than her job. And Donald, who pays more attention to anything other than his job.”
Carly smiled.
“They’re good kids,” Charles continued. “I love them to death. But they’re badly distracted and I don’t see an end to that distraction anytime soon. It’s you that I want. You, Brent, and Tony. You guys are dependable. You’re leaders. You’re the ones who can carry on the family business, and your less-focused siblings, right along with it.”
“Thanks, Dad, for the vote of confidence. I really appreciate it.”
“But?” Charles asked.
“I’m not ready yet,” she said sincerely.
Charles nodded. “Good enough. But when you are ready to return to the corporate world, you give me first dibs, you hear?”
Carly laughed. “I hear,” she said.
But when Charles turned the corner onto the street where his downtown office was located, and saw a small group of protesters in front of his office, his face went from a smile to a frown. “What the hell?” he asked rhetorically. Then he lifted his sunglasses off of his face and placed them on top of his head, for a better look.
“What?” Carly asked, looking too. When she saw the assembled group, she was surprised. “Protestors?”
“Yes,” Charles said with anger in his voice as he sped up to the curb in front of his storefront office, stopped his Jaguar with an abrupt stop, and jumped out.
Carly’s heart began to pound. She knew there was a lot of tension in town because of the election season that was still in full bloom, as candidate after candidate attempted to portray the Sinatra name as if it were synonymous with greed and excess and everything else that was wrong in their town. Her father, especially, had to endure withering attacks, and he was enduring it with class, she thought. But even she would agree that this protest in front of his
place of business was taking it too far.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Charles asked as he began walking toward the protestors. “This is private property.”
“My name is Abe Norris,” the leader walked up to him and said. “I am here to tell you, Mr. Sinatra, that your days of tyranny are about to come to an end.”
“This is private property,” Charles said. “I want you off of it now.”
Norris lifted up his bullhorn. “This building may belong to you,” he said into the horn, “but you don’t own this sidewalk. You may think you own this city, but you don’t own us!”
The protestors cheered.
“Get the hell away from my office,” Charles warned, “and I mean now.”
“You may own this building,” Norris said again into his bullhorn, “but you don’t own this sidewalk. You may own this city,” he continued, but Charles angrily grabbed his bullhorn, broke it across his knee, and then tossed the remains into the street. The protestors, seeing his anger and suddenly realizing who they were dealing with, backed up. Even their leader backed up.
“Now get the hell away from my office before I break more than that horn!” Charles blared. When he moved as if he was going to attack them, they ran.
But Norris held his ground, and glared at Charles. “Make me,” he said with clenched teeth.
Charles went up to him. He grabbed Norris by the catch of his shirt and began dragging him off of the sidewalk. Norris tried to hit back, but Charles was pure muscle and Norris was hurting his own fists more than he was hurting Charles. When Charles threw him into the street, causing him to scrape his hands, he could hardly believe the treatment.
“You won’t get away with this, Big Daddy!” Norris yelled derisively as he stood back up. “I’ll cut you down to size one of these days, boy. I’m going to cut you down to size!”
“Fine,” Charles said. “Just keep your ass away from my property while you’re doing all of your cutting!”
Norris snatched up his broken bullhorn and then made his way across the street too. But when he saw the beautiful black lady get out of Charles’s Jaguar, his walked slowed. When he arrived on the opposite side of the street, he pulled one of the male protestors aside.
Big Daddy Sinatra: Carly's Cry Page 7