by Amaya Black
I couldn’t believe my eyes on what I was reading. Both Mikos and Allanah’s signatures were on a guardianship document that had been printed up by Collinsworth Law, LLC naming me as Alex’s guardian. How in the hell had I overlooked this? The date on the document read July, month’s before Alex’s birth. Dana had to have been planning giving Alex up and to me for months. I guess I had been so stressed out from the whole situation and the eagerness to do a good job I had missed the documents. No one was perfect but I really felt like beating myself up over missing such an important detail.
“That raggedy bitch,” I was ready to cuss out a dead woman.
Dana had never had any intention of becoming a mother and Mikos a father. She had planned for me to be that kid’s mom because she knew how much I cared. The crème folder and all its contents went flying across the room and I picked up the phone to call Darien.
“Hey,” he picked up on the last ring. He sounded tired.
“Are you on your way back?”
The sound of wind was whipping in the background. “Yeah, I’m on the way home to you. I’m about to turn down the drive.”
The way he said that sounded so damn natural. I hated it and rolled my eyes. “Okay, see you in a few minutes.”
I hung up and then went into the bathroom. I searched around until I found a twisty tie and pulled my still damp coils into a top knot. I padded from the bed room and went into the kitchen where Helena was humming away.
“Mistress Lana,” she spoke when she saw me.
I frowned, “Just Lana, Helena. Please, just Lana.”
She chuckled. “You sound like Darien, when he was a boy.”
“Did you care for him as a child too?”
She stopped looking thoughtful. “I did. All three boys. They grew up to be fine men….well except for that Mikos. I don’t want to speak ill of the dead, but he could have a mean streak in him some days.”
I moved around in the kitchen. She was making chicken parmesan from the looks of it. She had even made homemade tomato sauce from the looks of everything. The sauce was still cooking in a pan, bubbling slowly as the aroma filled the air.
I heard the door to the house open and moments later Darien appeared with a fresh cut. It should have been a sin for a man to look as good as he did. We quickly made eye contact and I looked away. He had a bouquet of roses under one arm and a bottle of wine in his hands.
“Master Kiriakis, welcome home. And just in time for dinner.” Helena smiled and continued to busy herself with the food.
Darien came over and planted a kiss on my lips like it was the most natural thing in the world. I relaxed into his lips, they were like soft pillows. “For you.”
Twelve red roses, smelling sweet were handed to me. I buried my nose in them immediately. I loved red roses; I wondered how he knew. “Thank you.”
“I’m glad you’re up and about,” he said and placed the wine down on the counter top. I placed the roses beside the wine, and he took my hand and led me out of the kitchen. We thumped along until we were in Alexander’s nursery.
My breath gave way to see him standing and cooing. He was jumping a little bit and when he saw Darien, he began to get excited.
“My boy,” Darien smiled picking up Alex.
I wondered should I spoil the mood and mention the paper work. “Darien.”
“Hmmm,” he had started to take a seat in the gray rocker.
I decided not to. “We should go to New York soon. I want to get Dana’s things.”
He frowned. “She didn’t have anything. I had her vetted as well. There is a small inheritance that will go to you and Alex. But, she didn’t have a residence that I could find on file. She was with Mikos most of the time.”
“Wow…”
“I’m sorry,” he said as he bounced Alex on his knee.
“Do you know how much?” I asked.
“I think it was a small sum of five hundred thousand,” he stated.
I almost choked on my spit. “Five hundred thousand dollars?”
“Mmmhmm,” Darien muttered.
Who in the hell had Dana gotten that much money from? I had been busting my ass bartending for years and she was out here popping her cooch around and balling out. I could have smacked the hell out of her.
“That woman caused so much trouble that even in death, she’s still doing it,” that got Darien’s attention. His head snapped up and he looked at me like I was crazy. Alex stopped cooing and kind of looked at me too.
“What’s wrong now?”
“Darien, before Dana died, both her and Mikos had some sort of contract drawn up naming me Alex’s sole guardian.”
There I had ripped the proverbial band aid off. I didn’t feel the need to keep a crazy secret from him. I alone controlled Alex’s future. It felt like I could breathe now that me and Darien were on equal footing. The look on his face told me otherwise.
“I didn’t think you’d find that out…” he looked at me.
“Huh?”
“I already knew,” he spoke again before standing and placing Alex back into his crib. Darien then stood there in his usual dark suit looking weary.
“You already fucking knew? You blackmailed me into sleeping with you to keep Alex and I never had to do any of that shit because I was already his guardian.”
I could feel my foot beginning to tap as soon as I crossed my arm across my chest. I was about to blow my top. I was sick of Dana and her lies and Darien and his. What in the hell was wrong with people that they could lie just like they breathed?
“Lana, I didn’t want to lose Alex,” he spoke, his tone soft like a field of cotton.
“So lying to me was okay?”
“No, but the deeper we got,” he came forward. “The closer we got, the more I knew that I had made a good decision.”
“We can’t stay here,” I mumbled. “I’m taking Alex and I’m going home to New York.”
I was in angry-Allanah mode which consisted of me flying completely off the handle. I was probably going to say some crazy shit now and regret it later. It took a lot to get me really upset but Dana and Darien had pushed me to my limits.
“Going back to New York for what? Your life is here with me and Alex now.”
Darien came close and leaned over me his words coming out in whispers. I knew he didn’t want to frighten the baby who was standing up and kind of whining. I peered past Darien; my agitation had caused this. I felt bad about how I was acting, which was irrationally. Had a baby just guilt tripped me?
I looked up into his face, he had shaved a while ago. His face looked extremely smooth; he had an unblemished face. “You lied to me. You promised you never would.”
“I omitted the truth.”
I could feel my palm itching to smack his smug ass face. “Is that what you tell people when you’ve done them wrong?”
He took a deep breath. “Let’s eat dinner. Helena will come in and take care of Alexander. We need to talk about what you want to do for Dana and we’ll discuss everything. I am sorry for lying.”
I think he felt like he was chewing on nails after that half ass apology. I rolled my eyes and yanked on the door to find Helena standing there with a bottle of formula in her hand.
“The food is done,” she smiled weakly. I’m sure she’d heard every word and was waiting for us to finish arguing.
I smiled and patted her shoulder. “Thank you for fixing dinner, it smells really good.”
“You’re welcome,” she returned the smile and came into the room and immediately began talking to the baby.
I stormed up the hallway and back into the kitchen. Helena had already plated the food and placed it on the dinner nook of the kitchen. Darien waited patiently for me to take a seat before he opened the bottle of wine. He poured us each two fingers worth before sitting. I scooped the glass up immediately and the blush wine hit my tongue with a cool quick surge.
Darien started with his food first. With expert care he cut into his chicken parm
and cut off a small sliver as if testing it out. He seemed to enjoy the first bite; he looked up to see me starring at him.
“What?”
“I can’t believe you lied to me. But actually, I can because niggas lie every day B,” I couldn’t help it. The wine had loosened my tongue and this European man was looking at me like he couldn’t believe I had just said that to him.
He picked up his glass of wine. “Again, I am sorry for lying to you.”
“No…no you’re not. YOU ARE SORRY YOU GOT CAUGHT IN A LIE!”
“Please don’t yell. You wouldn’t like what happens when you yell at me,” Darien stated quietly.
“Is that supposed to be a threat?”
“Allanah...” he was calling me by my government name. This was new; Darien was handling my mood swings a little too well. “Do you remember what I did to your body just a few days ago. The pleasure games…..pleasure and pain can go very well together.”
Thoughts of rope and leather began to dance in my head. “Promises, promises,” I rolled my eyes knowing that I was beginning to play with fire.
“Lana…I feel like you’re testing me,” he stated with that quietness about him that only he could muster.
“Oh, is that what I’m doing?”
The next thing I knew Darien was jerking me up from my seat by my arm. He was going to leave bruises if he didn’t let go soon. He moved me from the room and pushed me inside of his bedroom.
“You clearly wanted this,” he stated and began pulling my clothes from my body.
I shimmied out of my underwear on my own. I tossed them over my shoulder somewhere as Darien circled me like a lion on the savannah. He was taking in my naked body, and my nipples were getting taut in the air.
He went over to his closet and pulled out something. A flash of silver caught my eyes and I followed him with my eyes until he was back in front of me. He held up a pair of handcuffs.
“This time there are no choices, Lana.”
“No,” I said.
He began clicking them in place and I made no move to stop him. He walked me over to his bed and that was when I noticed for the first time a hook in the ceiling.
“Get up,” he pointed to the bed.
Clumsily like a new born calf, I managed with handcuffed hands to shimmy up onto the high bed. I had never noticed how high off the ground it was before. I sat there in the middle of the bed, naked and on my haunches. Darien began to unbutton his shirt, but his pants remained on. Even from where I was sitting, I could see the dick print. My mouth watered at the thought.
This was how we were going to solve our problems: kinky sex.
“I’m still not forgetting,” I mumbled and watches as he produced a velvet cord. He hopped up onto the bed and just as predicted slipped it through the hook.
“I would never expect you too, Lana.” The roped dangled from the ceiling for just a moment, its red velvet swayed until he caught it and then began to braid my hands into it.
“All this for questioning you?”
“And yet, here we are,” he mumbled as he fixed me in place, my hand high above my head caused my breast to be thrust forward.
He got in front of me and very slowly the tip of his tongue began to swirl around my chocolate tipped nipples. He had pulled my body so taught my arms were starting to grow a little weary from my weight. The cuffs were digging into my skin just a little bit.
“You never told me how you got into such kinky shit,” I said.
“You never asked, now shhh…” he shushed me slowly as he spread my legs apart with his hands.
All I could do was watch. He hadn’t blindfolded me, which meant he wanted me to see what he was doing. I was getting wet from the excitement of watching his hands dance around on my legs, wondering when they would go closer to my pussy.
I wanted him to touch me there. Could he feel the heat from my excitement radiating from my cave? Waiting for him to want to enter me with no more than a finger, maybe two? I was so proud of myself for keeping some regular maintenance down there because for two years I had not been maintaining that area. It had been wildebeest central and you know what I had been telling myself?
Girl, that hair is supposed to be there.
When you don’t have sex on the regular, you will tell yourself a lot of things.
SMACK!
SMACK!
SMACK!
I had been off in my own thoughts that I hadn’t even realized that Darien was behind me. This man was now gently smacking my ass. The slight sting would wear off and then he would slowly massage it.
“I won’t tolerate you talking back to me,” his tone was quiet.
“Hah, and you think I’m going to stop?” I asked, peering over my shoulder and my brown eyes meeting his.
“I know you won’t. It’s almost a guarantee we will wind up in a similar position every day…..with me behind you smacking this ass,” he smiled then.
I gulped.
He liked the challenge. I liked the getting tied up part.
“You are mine’s Allanah,” he kept on massaging my ass.
“Mmmmhmm,” I swear he’d said that before.
SMACK!
“You don’t believe me,” he asked.
SMACK!
“There will be no man after me,” he stated.
SMACK! His little taps were getting harder. The sting was lasting longer but all I could do was moan as the pain of the cuffs started to become pleasurable.
“Tell me that you are mines, Allanah,” Darien demanded, his voice raspy. “And I will free you from the cuffs.”
“No,” I bit out.
WHAP!
WHAP!
I inhaled sharply, the hits hurt a little more. I just wanted him inside of me now. I was starting to leak down my legs. I needed him to enter me, but that would mean I would be giving in before I said I was only his.
“You won’t tell me that you belong to me?”
“No.”
How long could this torture go on? Another hour or so? Darien did have stamina, so I was more than sure I could be in for an all nighter.
Chapter 21
The red marks from where the cuffs had dug into my wrist were apparent. I was trying not to focus on them and instead focus on the funeral director’s words. I eased the sleeve of my sweater down around my wrist a little more.
We were sitting in the funeral director’s brown wall paper clad office. She was a small little lady, with hair pinned back behind her ears, wearing a cream colored suit and had hazel eyes. She looked like some sort of teenager rather than a grown woman. I believe she had introduced herself and Megera and she had taken over the duties of funeral director from her father.
She was starting to sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher. I wanted all of this to be over; I didn’t mean to rush the process. I didn’t mean to try and rush burying Dana. I loved my sister, and no matter what had transpired between previously could change that.
“Have you thought about where you would bury her, Mrs. Kiriakis?” The woman’s voice caught me off guard along with her calling me Mrs. Kiriakis.
I shot Darien a look and he looked over at me. I rolled my eyes at him and his blue eyes seemed to smile. “We’re not married. Just call me Allanah. As for burying my sister….I want to have her cremated.”
She nodded. “Very well then. We have a special selection of urns. Maybe you would like to see them?”
I took a deep breath. The room was becoming so hot that I could feel the dew of sweat popping on my forehead. I dabbed at my head with the end of the sweater I was wearing. Darien started speaking but I couldn’t hear anything again. It was like my body had went numb and I didn’t understand what was going on. I just wanted to get out of this room and away from this funeral home.
“Excuse me,” I finally got out of my mouth.
I exited the room of the funeral director and I could hear her inquiring about what was wrong. My feet pounded in the carpet of the building; and, I couldn’t
breathe until the air of outside hit my face. All around me, people in Athens stumbled around me. I looked around and found no familiar faces. My breathing was still erratic and all I could do was lean against the side of the building for comfort. The chill of the stone building became a source of comfort under my hand and I tried to control my breathing.
“Lana, are you alright?”
It was Darien and I looked into his face and found only looks of concern and pity. His blue eyes, bluer than the Aegean Sea. You could drown if you looked into them to long.
“I don’t know what happened in there…”
He came closer and began to rub my shoulders. It seemed to ease the anxiety off a bit, and I quit clutching the wall.
“It’s okay. The last few days have been trying.” Darien kissed my forehead. “Should we go home?
I shook my head, people passing by giving us looks. “No. I have to finish this. That was always Dana’s thing. She never finished much.”
Darien nodded, “My brother was the same way.”
“Probably why they got on so well.”
“Perhaps.
We went back inside of the funeral home and the still air hit my nose. There were other customers inside looking around. Megera finished up with a couple and then joined me and Darien by a wall of urns.
“I like this one,” I said pointing to a cream-colored urn with flecks of gold and blue. It seemed pretty fancy and reminded me of my sister. She had loved gold; she had spent her first paycheck on a pair of gold hoop earrings.
“Great choice,” Megera said. “I’ll need you to sign off on some paper work for your sister. I’ll have it sent to the Kiriakis residence.”
She turned and looked to Darien for confirmation and he just nodded. Did these two know each other better than I thought? I waited till she had departed.
“Old flame?”
“She was with Andrew, not me.”
The Kiriakis brothers were the love them and leave them type, it seemed. I hoped poor old Megera wasn’t still pining after Andrew after his many years of being away.
“Yall sure do get around,” I stated with a chuckle.
It was Darien’s turn to roll his eyes and he let out and exasperated sigh. He took my hand in his and we left. His brand-new black Audi was waiting for us around the corner, gleaming under the sun. We slipped inside, the lush feel of the leather conforming to our bodies.