Should've Been
Page 5
He kissed me, stopping my words and my heart, his hands on my cheeks. He kissed me for eons, his tongue soothing all that ailed me, and when he pulled back, he softly said, “You need time to deal with this?”
I dropped my eyes and nodded.
He rested his forehead against mine, and we sat there like that for several minutes.
When he finally moved his head, he cradled my face in his hands again, his thumbs caressing my cheeks. “Okay. I’ma give you time, but I’ll be back for you. I promise I will.”
And after one more kiss, he left. I heard he’d left the city and didn’t know he’d come back until he showed up at the bar last Friday night, less than a week ago. Two years had rolled off the calendar by then.
“…and then he gon’ apologize! I was like negro please!” Gary, the bartender I was relieving said, bringing my consciousness back to the present, to Thursday night at The Royale. He was also a good friend of mine, and I missed hearing about his shenanigans since we hadn’t worked the same shift in months.
“When did you start dating black men?” I asked, genuinely shocked.
“Oh, he’s Italian. Same thing.”
I rolled my eyes and chuckled.
“But speaking of negroes, who in the absolute fuck is that?”
I knew it was him, because he was the one and only man who could make a person say what Gary had said. He was the only man I knew who was fine enough to drop the jaws and drawers of straight women and gay men, and the thought of it being him made my pulse accelerate. I’d missed him.
So much.
Without giving me a chance to answer him, Gary said, “Let me go see what he needs while I’m still on the clock, because that nigga can have my whole damn credit report if he wants it,” and then he twisted his narrow ass over to Truth, who wore a white dress shirt and black slacks. I watched Gary greet him, observed as they exchanged brief words, and let my eyes follow Gary back down the bar to me.
“What’d he want?” I asked.
“You, bitch. He made a special request for you, and if you can’t describe his dick to me in vivid detail the next time I talk to you, I’m having your ass committed.” With that, he left, and I just stood there for a moment.
When I was finally able to get my feet to move, my first task was to make the drink I knew Truth wanted. Then I approached him, setting the glass on the bar before him. “Hi,” I said. “You’re back?”
Paying no attention to the glass, he shrugged. “I thought maybe you were ready for me now.”
“I thought maybe you’d given up and moved on.”
He gave me a deeply incredulous look. “I’ll never give up on you. Don’t you know that?”
“Because you love me?”
“Very much.”
I moved closer to him, leaning over the bar. “Say it. Tell me you love me.”
He smiled, his eyes displaying the adoration I’d always seen in them when he looked at me. “I love you, Claudette Wynn.”
“Why?”
“Because we’re the same, kindred. Can’t nobody convince me you weren’t made for me.”
“But I’m so fucked up…”
“So am I, baby.”
I dropped my eyes and then raised them to meet his again. “I…love you, too. I’ve loved you since I was sixteen years old.”
He opened his mouth, and then he closed it, and then he smiled. “Does that mean you’re ready for me now?”
“It means I’m more than ready for you, Mr. Ebo.”
He gave me another smile as he inched his face closer to mine and kissed me.
“I know that’s right! Shiiiit, you better kiss him before I do!” That was Gary, who was evidently still there and made me break away from Truth and giggle along with some of the bar’s patrons.
He made Truth mumble, “The fuck?”
I laughed harder, covering my mouth with my hand. Truth moved my hand and shook his head. “Don’t cover that up. You smiling, laughing? That’s the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen. I’d like to see more of it.”
I smiled wider.
Taking both of my hands in his, he returned my smile. “I have somewhere to be, but can I see you tonight after you get off work?”
“I’d love that.”
8
Truth
Later that Thursday night, I stood just inside the entrance to The Royale’s bar watching as she performed the closing duties, thinking about the pull she had on me that I was helpless to fight, not that I wanted to fight it.
When she finally noticed me, she jumped a little and then smiled. “Hey, how long you been standing there?”
Moving toward her, I replied, “Not long.”
“Well, I’m almost done. Only be a few more minutes. I just need to wipe the bar down and then I’ll be ready,’ she said, as she began that task.
“No rush, baby,” I said, stepping around the bar. Once I was behind her, I pressed my mouth to her ear. “Take your time.”
She clutched the towel in her hand, halting her work. “Truth, you can’t be back here.”
I dragged my tongue down the side of her neck. “Why not?”
“B-because it’s against the rules.”
Wrapping my arms around her, I began to pull her black shirt out of her pants. “Is that right?”
“Y-yes,” she almost whispered.
Sliding my hands up to cup her breasts through her bra, I said, “Well, since I’m the owner of this hotel now, I say fuck that rule.”
She stiffened in my arms and then spun around to face me. “W-what? How? When?”
“Turn back around and I’ll tell you.”
She did, letting out a little yelp when I snatched the button closure of her pants open and slid my hand inside them. “That’s what brought me back in town. Besides you. I needed to wrap up the deal to buy this hotel from the Holmans.”
“You…shit!” she whined as I stroked her clit.
“So we can do whatever we want in this bar, and right now, I wanna fuck you. It’s been a long time for me, baby. Like you, I haven’t had sex since we were together.”
I sped up my strokes until her chest collapsed onto the top of the bar and her legs began to tremble. While she came down from her high, I slid her pants down her legs and did the same with mine.
“But your wife. Didn’t you—”
As I glided inside her good-ass pussy with a groan, I said, “No one else, baby, especially not her.”
She softly whined my name as I closed my eyes. This shit was heaven. Being inside her was something I didn’t think I’d ever get used to.
“Claudette,” I moaned. “Got damn, baby…”
Leaning over, I licked her back, gripped her ass, and before I could stop myself, I was driving into her at a hectic pace, making her moan and groan and whimper.
“I…love…the…shit…out…of…you!” I screamed with each thrust.
“Ooooh, shit! I love you too!” she hissed, as she began to contract around my dick, and that was it. I couldn’t have held out even if I wanted to. So I didn’t.
A few seconds later, I was lying on her back, trying to catch my breath.
“Truth?” she said, her voice light, weary. I’d worn both of us out but still wanted more of her.
“Yeah, baby?” I responded.
“I need to turn around.”
I lifted my heavy frame off her, and my eyes damn near popped out of my head when she dropped to a squat and grabbed my wet dick, wrapping her mouth around it.
My hand instantly met the back of her head as I willed my legs not to fucking give out, and then I closed my eyes, moving my hips to the rhythm she’d set as she sucked my very soul out of my body.
Claudette
“I can’t believe you own this hotel now,” I said, as I dug into my French toast the next morning.
Sipping coffee from a tiny cup, Truth nodded. “I do, and I’m working on becoming part owner of the building next door.”
“The convention
center?”
“Yeah, my ex-father-in-law is bringing me in on that deal.”
“Oh.”
He grinned at me. “Me and him are cool, always will be, but you got my heart, Claudette. Don’t ever doubt that.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You didn’t have to, and hey, whatever I own, you own. What’s mine is yours, including my heart.”
I tried not to smile but failed.
“Ah, there it is. I love that smile.”
“Thank you. Hey, am I still a black rose?”
With peaked eyebrows, he sat back in his chair. “It depends. You still see that as an insult?”
I shook my head. “I never saw it as an insult, it just took me aback for a moment. But I actually get the metaphor…and I like it.”
“Then hell yeah. You are definitely still a black rose, my black rose.”
I just couldn’t stop smiling. I truly loved this man and loved being with him. “So…what do we do now?”
He stretched his body across the table and kissed me. “Whatever you want to do. We can see the world or stay in this room and fuck until the end of time. You want a car, a house? Shit, does your mama need a house? It’s whatever you want, baby, but first…”
He stood from his chair, reached into the pocket of his robe, and stepping closer to me, kneeled beside my seat at the table, holding a beautiful ring up to me. Raising my eyes from the ring to his face, I took him in from his closely cropped hair down to the goatee and mustache that framed his thick lips, and as tears spilled from my eyes, I said, “Yes.”
With a lopsided grin, he said, “Damn, I ain’t even ask you yet, but thank you.” He slid the ring on my finger and then kissed me with so much love and passion, I felt dizzy by the time our mouths parted.
“I love you, Claudette,” he murmured. “And I always will.”
Reaching down to rest my hand on the side of his handsome face, I declared, “I love you, too, Truth, and thank you for making me your new Toni Childs.”
He laughed, his eyes crinkling at the corners as he stood, pulling me to my feet. “Nah, you’re my Claudette Wynn. The one and only.”
“Soon to be Claudette Ebo.”
“Yeah, and the sooner the better, baby.”
A southern girl at heart, Alexandria House has an affinity for a good banana pudding, Neo Soul music, and tall black men in suits. When this fashionista is not shopping, she’s writing steamy stories about real black love.
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Also by Alexandria House:
The McClain Brothers Series:
Let Me Love You
Let Me Hold You
Let Me Show You
Let Me Free You
Let Me Please You (A McClain Family Novella)
The Strickland Sisters Series:
Stay with Me
Believe in Me
Be with Me
The Love After Series:
Higher Love
Made to Love
Real Love
Short Stories:
Should’ve Been
Merry Christmas, Baby
Baby, Be Mine
Always My Baby
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