Scented Dreams ((A Dogon-Hunters Series Novel))

by Turner Banks, Jacqueline

  “Come for me, baby, come for me,” he pleaded.

  His words sent her over. She screamed out when the explosion hit. Her hair and expression were so wild, they sent him to a frenzied finish just seconds after hers. The nonverbal testimony between them came in the form of call and response moaning.

  She collapsed on his chest and tried to catch her breath.

  “Okay,” she finally said. “Now I understand what all the hoopla is about.”

  He pulled her closer. They lay still, listening to each other’s heartbeats.

  She fell asleep in his arms and he lay there, with her, basking in the aroma of her beautiful skin for nearly a hour. This is what peace feels like, he told himself. He could have stayed exactly where he was until she awoke and they repeated their lovemaking, but her telephone rang.

  “I fell asleep,” she shouted, still half asleep. She tried to jump up, but he held her.

  “Nesta, it’s all right. It’s just the cell phone.”

  He held her until it stopped ringing. Somehow he wanted her to feel the calm in his arms that he felt in hers. “It’s probably my parents—I need to call them back,” she said, still struggling to reach her purse.

  “And you will, but will you stop? Just for a moment, for me, please?”

  His accent sounded so sexy. She stopped and waited.

  “I want you to know how much I've enjoyed being with you this afternoon,” he whispered, holding her in his arms as he stroked her back, neck and hair.

  She sensed that he had nothing important to say, he just wanted to prolong their moment. The thought made a warm glow flow through her from the top of her head to the tip of her toes. She took a deep breath and relaxed. He was right. She would call them back, and it would be fine.

  “It was good, Ian. Certainly better than I’d thought possible.”

  He wondered about that. What was sex if not good? “What do you mean, better than you thought possible?”

  “It was never all that before. It was nice and cuddly, but not explosive. Does that make sense?”

  Actually, it didn’t. He thought about her words. “Are you saying you never had an orgasm before?”

  She instinctively cupped his ears as a child might upon hearing embarrassing words.

  He laughed. “I believe we’re too close for that to stop me from hearing your answer.”

  She realized what she’d done and removed her hands. “I’ve had orgasms before, but I was alone and they never came on top on each other like that. I didn’t know that could happen.”

  Her confession broke his heart. What was wrong with a man that he would leave her unsatisfied?

  “Sex was okay, but I didn’t understand why everybody wanted to talk about it all the time. I was beginning to think something was wrong with me. But now I get it.”

  He kissed her neck. “There’s nothing wrong with you, Nesta.” He sat up with her still in his arms.

  Again, she noted his physical strength. “You’re freakishly strong,” she told him.

  Not knowing if he should thank her, he just laughed. “Go ahead and call your parents; we’ll talk more later.”

  He was so lost in studying her and memorizing every detail, he was surprised when he saw her close the flip phone and take a deep breath. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “They’ve decided they’re going to a see a movie. And, by the way, I declined to join them

  because you have work to do?”

  He wasn’t sure why she asked it like a question, but he nodded so she would continue.

  “So by all means, tell them that you need me this evening. . .”

  “I do need you this evening.”

  She looked up and caught his sexy smile. “Ian, my parents ain’t trying to hear you telling

  them you need some from me!” Even though she'd spoken in her playful ghetto voice, inside she

  felt so frustrated she wanted to cry.

  “Okay, Nesta, I was just kidding.”

  “I know you were, but they drive me crazy. The main purpose of the call was to tell us we’re

  eating at five.”

  He laughed. “That’s the dinner they invited themselves to, right?”

  “Now you’re starting to understand.”

  He stood up and offered his hand. She took it. He pulled her up from the bed and hugged her.

  “This is so not a big deal, Nesta. One day soon you’ll look back on this evening and laugh,” he

  said while he rubbed her naked back. He felt himself hardening and he stepped back, hoping she

  hadn’t felt it.

  “That’s easy for you to say. You’re going back to Sacramento.”

  “Come back with me and we can say it together.” The words came from his mouth without a

  thought, and they scared him. He pulled away from her. Why did I say that?

  She smiled. “The wrong head made strange words come out of your mouth?” she asked him.

  He couldn’t believe this child had bewitched him. Ian felt his face burn; for him, a new sensation. “Nesta, I’m not toying with you. I don’t know what made me say that.”

  “I do. My parents. Now, they’re making you crazy!”

  “Let’s get dressed and face our dinner companions. We can talk about the future later.”

  “Okay.” She gave him a quick peck on the lips and returned to her room.

  She handled it well, but he felt like a fool. As he took his second shower of the day, he wanted to bend over and kick himself. Good sex made me invite a woman to move across the country for me, he said to himself still not believing it.

  Her heart wouldn’t stop racing. I can’t believe he asked me to return to Sacramento with him. She couldn’t stop smiling as she showered and dressed for dinner.

  Before returning to his room, she called her friend, Aletha. Nesta thought she wanted somebody to congratulate her on her prowess, or at the least a chance to brag about a hottie none of her friends would get a chance to see. Instead, her friend warned her, “Don’t forget, Nesta, a hard dick will make a liar out of the best of men.”

  Nesta knew her friend was right. By the time she knocked on the door that separated the two rooms, she’d decided to forget he ever made such an offer. She figured he’d already forgotten.

  “Did I hear you in there talking to someone?” Ian asked her after he’d told her how lovely she looked in her little black dress.

  “I called my girlfriend to tell her I now know what the hoopla is all about.”

  Ian was tying his tie but stopped and laughed. “Did you really?”

  “I sure did!”

  “It must be wonderful to be a woman and able to tell your friends anything.”

  “Don’t give me that—men talk about everything too. They just do it while they’re playing with a ball or watching some other guys playing with a ball.”

  “Touché. So what did the dear girl say?”

  “She wanted to know if you have any brothers and, if not, would you swing around to her place before returning to California.”

  He smiled. He pulled her into his arms. “And that arrangement would be fine with you?”

  “I didn’t say that. I’m just delivering the message. You’ll have to rely on your own counsel as to what you plan to do with the information. And Chicago is an awfully big city for you to run around the streets calling out the name ‘Aletha,’ since I have no plans to give you any more information about her.”

  He squeezed the hot young body he held. He was more than a little surprised about how happy it made him to learn she felt some jealousy for him. “If you decide against medicine, I believe you would have a future in law.”

  They kissed.

  She broke it and said, “None of this around my parents.”

  “Understood.”

  “But one more before we meet them.” Again she let her lips melt into his.

  Chapter Nine

  Nesta’s cell phone rang as they walked. Ian was thankful for
the distraction. A second before the rap music started playing, he’d been fighting the urge to grab her hand. Get a grip, man, he told himself. No public displays of affection.

  “That was my mother. She said they would meet us there since they’re not coming back to the motel after dinner.”

  “That’s good. I need to go back to Northtown and maybe check around at a few of the other bars too.”

  “Exactly what are you checking for?” She opened the passenger side of the front seat, and he got in.

  By the time she got in on the driver’s side he had an answer.

  “Anything or anybody who might be a threat to the students.” He figured a little honesty was better than an elaborate lie.

  “Okay, but I don’t get why you would have to come all the way from California to Indiana for student security. It would seem to me that would be taken care of locally.”

  He nodded. “I agree, but I have to admit I’m glad I got this assignment.”

  “Why?” she asked.

  He looked up to see if she was fishing for compliments. It didn’t seem like her style, but he couldn’t imagine why she would ask such a question. All he saw in her eyes was innocence. “If I hadn’t gotten it, I wouldn’t have met you.”

  She stopped fumbling with the radio. “Wow. I’m all hyped up about going in there to expose you to my parents, and I’m losing sight of what’s important here.” She took her hand off the keys, leaving them hanging.

  He knew she was about to do something, but he didn’t have a clue as to what. Again, the human had left him baffled.

  “What’s important here?” he asked in a teasing voice, but he couldn’t have been more serious.

  She leaned over and kissed him before she answered. “The hottest man I’ve ever seen likes me.” Then she adopted a different voice and said, “He really really likes me. Thank you, Ian.”

  He looked around to see if she was talking to somebody else or for the benefit of another. They were sitting in a car on a city street. There were people about, but none of them seemed in the least interested in them. He tried to listen in to her thoughts, but all he got was a jumble of notions, half fearful and the other half gleeful.

  “I don’t know why you’re thanking me or who else you're speaking to, but you’re welcome.”

  “Okay, let’s go face my folks.”

  He smiled, and again he fought the urge to take her in his arms and never let go. He admired her courage. As much fear as she was feeling about dinner, she was moving bravely forward. You would have made a great Dogon-Hunter, little girl.

  “Why do you call me little girl?” she asked.

  His heart jumped. “Why did you ask me that now?”

  She looked at his face. Why does his voice sound like that? “I don’t know, I was just thinking about it. As tall as I am, nobody calls me that.”

  “In some very good ways you seem younger than your years.”

  “That’s funny. In some very good ways you seem older than yours. Okay, there’s my mother!” She waved at someone he still hadn’t seen.

  The drive to the restaurant was short. They parked and walked slowly, each of them having their own reasons for slowing the pace.

  Through the window, they could see that a woman had stood and was enthusiastically beckoning.

  “Why is she doing that? She just saw me this morning.”

  “She loves you, Nesta. Enjoy her love.”

  “Oh, she’s going to like you. I wonder where my daddy is?”

  She was seated at the same table Nesta and Ian shared the previous night. Nesta’s mother was a very nice looking older version of her daughter. The only thing that didn’t quite fit was her height—she was barely five five. Ian looked around for Rosa but didn’t find her.

  “Hi, sweetie. Here, sit down.”

  Ian wasn’t able to reach Nesta’s chair in time, but he did pull out her mother’s chair and waited for her to sit.

  “Look at this, Nesta. A boy with some home -training.”

  Ian tried not to smile when he saw the redness on the rims of Nesta’s ears. The two women sat opposite each other, and Ian took a seat that would face Nesta’s father when he arrived.

  “Mother, this is Ian Camera. Ian, this is my mother, Dorothy Avery.”

  “Everybody calls me Dot, Ian, and you should too.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “No, darling—yes, Dot.”

  “Yes, Dot. I can certainly see where Nesta gets her good looks.”

  “Thank you for saying that, but the truth of the matter is her father is a fox like you. I got lucky.”

  “Mother!”

  “Mother, nothing—this young man has seen mirrors!”

  “Speaking of Daddy, where is he?”

  “You know how your father is. We passed a group of men, and he thought they might have been causing some trouble. He went walking back up the street to check.”

  “Excuse me?” Nesta said, her expression incredulous.

  “Yes, there were four boys, all blonds and tall like they might have been on the basketball team. Except they didn’t look that healthy. When your daddy said something and I looked up, they were just walking in the direction of two girls who were standing by a car talking. I have no idea what he saw that made him think there was a problem.”

  “What direction did he go in? Maybe I should go see if he needs a hand?” Ian was already standing. When her mother mentioned their height, the hair on both arms had stood up. Also, Blood Suckers always traveled in even pairs.

  “I’ll go too,” Nesta said.

  “No, sit down and enjoy your mother’s company. I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about.”

  He left before there could be any more discussion. As soon as he was out of their sight, he disappeared. He reappeared next to their parked car and looked around. He didn’t see Nesta’s father but he saw a group, and he also saw a Hunter or Tracker looking at them from the other side of the street. He crossed to meet up with his fellow Dogon.

  The Sangsue always appear in pairs, dressed not unlike church evangelists. They tend to wear skinny black pants and white shirts. In some cities they wear dark ties too. Like Dogon-Hunters, they are always taller than average with the shortest ones, even the women, being at least six feet. Since their only sustenance is blood, they are skinny and usually pale.

  “Sewa, my brother,” Ian said.

  The word was a common greeting in Mali, where Dogon are often called the Sewa People because they spend so much time in detailed greetings that are generally answered by “sewa,” which translates to something like “it’s all good.”

  “Sewa. Am I glad to see you. So far they’re just toying with the women. I think they’re waiting for that party to break up.” He nodded toward a group of two men and a woman, on their side of the street, saying their goodbyes outside one of the downtown worker bars. Ian believed it was the one where the happy hour crowd had been the night before.

  “Have they seen you?” Ian asked.

  “No, I doubt it. Unless things have changed since the last time I’ve been out here, they tend to avoid a fight when they can. If they saw me they would have run by now.”

  “No, that hasn’t changed. So you’re retired?”

  The man extended his hand. Ian took it and shook and then half hugged him. “I’m Kingsley—our brothers call me Kingsley.”

  Ian wondered if the retired brother almost told his birth name.

  “I’m Ian. It looks like we’ve been spotted.”

  The human group outside the bar seemed to be talking about the two of them. Ian looked across the street at the four Blood Suckers. They were much too entranced with their next meal to look away. Most of the Dogon-Hunters believed there was a sexual component to their feeding too, because the men seemed to prefer young, attractive women.

  The bar guys walked the woman to her car and then went in the opposite directions to their own cars. One of them drove by very slowly and eyed Ian and Kingsley.
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  “Why do we bother with the Ketier?”

  “I don’t anymore, my brother, at least not to fight for them. That’s why I was so glad to see your gait.”

  “You knew from my walk?”

  “Just as you knew when you saw me.” Kingsley looked up at the office buildings that were housed on the top floors over the restaurants and bars. Nobody seemed to be watching from above. He continued talking. “That hasn’t changed in all these years. Okay, we’d better make our move, before we get anybody looking out of all these windows. I’ll take the two on the left.”