by Edwina Fort
* * * * * * * *
Journey
I had heard rumors about how ruthless Joseph and his father could be and tales of people disappearing who attempted to stand in the way of their rise to the top. Michelle had told me about a man who had tried to run against Senator Warren when he was going up for re-election for his second term. She said the senator had ruined the man so badly that he ended up committing suicide to escape the scandals his name was involved in.
But the man’s wife cried foul. She said her husband did not commit suicide and was in fact murdered. A few weeks later, she was being admitted to the mental hospital where she remains today. After that, their family went quiet and stopped sounding the alarm about their father’s death. Of course the senator denies having any knowledge about the situation. According to Michelle, the things that went on in these ghetto streets paled in comparison to the political world. The prize went to the biggest, baddest, and meanest gangstas to play the game.
Which brings me to the other reason I had tried so hard not to get involved with Joseph; he was following in his father’s footsteps. In fact, he was being set up to bypass his father completely and sit in the seat of the commander in chief, which meant Jo had a lot of blood on his hands. And if that wasn’t bad enough, he was a fed.
Neither my mother nor I agreed with how Rome made money to keep us all comfortable. And although we’ve expressed it to him a thousand times, my mother to the point of tears, he had his mind made up on how he was going to do things.
However, this meant that us and them Law Boys had to remain separated. Tonight, my brother looked at me as if I had betrayed him and I guess in a way I had. I didn’t just get involved with a police officer. No, that would have been too simple; I had to go get involved with an FBI agent. I felt so bad. I felt as if I was the ruination of my family.
And now I stood in front of this man, who not only held my child in his hands, but my fate as well. I was so confused. I didn’t know why he was here. His mother said that he no longer wanted me or our child. She had come to give me money for an abortion at his request. Was he angry because I decided to keep the baby? Did he think that I was going to later try and extort him for money or something? It felt like a weight lifted off my chest.
That was it!
He thought I was going to try and use Ayana to milk him of his money. I turned to face him, eager to assure him I wasn’t. But my words stalled in my throat. Not only had he followed me in my room that looked small with him in it, he had shut the door and was standing so close to me that I literally had to take a step back.
“I think she’s hungry.”
He looked at me with eyes so ravenous at first, I thought he said he was the one hungry. And his voice…His deep voice was having a chaotic effect on my nervous system. I nodded reaching for her with hands that shook. I was so nervous and unsure right now, I couldn’t help the sigh of relief that came from me when I had Ayana back in my arms. Without looking up at him I sat in my nursing chair and waited for him to step out.
I mean he did just see me take a seat to feed her.
He didn’t, instead he sat on my full-size bed facing me and since my room was not that big, I was practically sitting between his spread legs. He even leaned forward resting his elbows on his knees, bringing him that much closer.
“Ummm, I nurse.” I hated the fact that my voice quivered in fear. He chuckled dryly.
“If you’re saying that because you want me to leave the room, you can forget it. Those days are over.” Ayana was now getting good and worked up. She was using her little fist to push at my chest while aggressively rubbing her face against me.
I began to rock her trying to calm her while my mind raced for a response. Surely he didn’t think I was going to do this in front of him. I know we’ve been intimate, but that was over a year ago. He was practically a stranger. Heck, I didn’t know him all that well a year ago.
“Please Joseph, can you just give me a minute? I’m uncomfortable doing it with you in the room.” His eyes turned hard.
“There was a time I would have given you the world. Now, your comfort means nothing to me. Feed my child, she’s getting aggravated.”
Tears came to my eyes as I lowered my head. Thankfully my locs were so long that they formed a curtain around me. With trembling hands, I unbuttoned my shirt. My heart was beating so fast and loud that I believe it was causing Ayana to be more aggravated. I peeked up at him from under my lids to see if he still looked and nearly cried out from his intense gaze.
When I finished unbuttoning my shirt I lowered one side. My hand shook as I lifted it to unclasp my nursing bra. Joseph was so close to me that I heard his intake of breath when my breast spilled out. Ayana latched on and began to greedily pull from me.
At this point I was blushing so badly that I couldn’t look up. My hair fell around us like a cocoon. For just a moment I pretended like she and I were safe from the big bad wolf on the other side of our little world. But then I felt him gently move my locs out of the way, placing them behind my back. I still didn’t look up. My whole breast was exposed to him.
“I have never seen anything more beautiful than watching my child nurse at your breast.” I looked up at him then, surprised by his words. He was staring at us as if we were in fact a wonder to him.
“What’s her name?”
“Ayana Indigo Reevers.”
“Indigo?”
I nodded. “Yeah, it’s one of my favorite flowers.”
He slowly shook his head as he continued to watch. “I can’t believe you tried to deny me this.” I frowned. What was he talking about? I tried to deny him?
“What do you mean I tried to deny you? I left because you wanted me to have an abortion!” The look on his face said he clearly didn’t believe me. And yeah, well, I didn’t believe him either. He was never serious about me, and now he was here because he thought that I was going to try and use Ayana to take his money.
“Jo, you don’t have to do this. I was going to raise Ayana alone. I don’t need your help. Rome-”
His nostrils flared as fire came into his eyes. The look of anger that crossed his face was so fierce my words stalled.
“Are you serious?” He growled. “You dare sit here and tell me that my child don’t need her daddy in her life?” Fervently, I shook my head.
“No- no I didn’t mean—”
“You mentioned your brother,” He said cutting me off. “So, your plan was to raise her with drug money, is that it?” I bit my lip. Now it felt like I was talking to an FBI agent. I shook my head no. Rome always told my little brother Rob that if he ever got picked up by cops not to speak and just wait on him, or for him to send a lawyer.
The look in Joseph’s eyes let me know that I had already incriminated myself.
“This is how it’s going to happen. I have four contracts with me, one for each member of your family. You are going to all sign them and do what they say.”
“I—I don’t know what you mean.” My voice shook so badly because of the lump in my throat, my words were barely recognizable.
“It’s simple Journey. I’m in need of a mistress, my last one’s time expired. Your contract is a binding agreement for you to fill the position for the next year. You will be exclusively mine. I don’t like sharing. We will not live together. I will provide a home for you and Ayana and cover your bills, as well as provide a twenty-thousand dollar a month stipend for whatever else you may need. And will continue to do so after our contract has expired. In which time we can work something out as far as custody of Ayana. I’m sure we can come up with something that will be agreeable to the both of us.”
His words were so cold they chilled my soul. He spoke as if he hated me and my mind was having a hard time processing what he was saying. All I could do was stare at him as if he had gone mad. I still hadn’t gotten past the mistress part.
“Wait, you want me to be your mistress?” Genuinely confused, I had to ask. If he hated me so much, why
was he asking me to be his mistress?
“Yes.”
I shook my head. “As in your whore?” He smiled then, reminding me that he was a politician and knew how to cover his true feelings with that million-dollar smile. I hated it.
“No, not like a whore, that’s way too cheap. I’ll be paying a lot of money to have exclusive rights to you. I would think of it as more like a courtesan.” My mouth dropped, he couldn’t have slapped me and insulted me more.
I shook my head. “Naw, you can keep your money. I’m not interested. Like I told you before, I don’t need your help. My brother got my back.” His eyes turned hard again, and for the first time, I was seeing the man that Michelle had told me about; the man that was the biggest, baddest, and meanest gangsta playing the game.
“Oh yeah, your brother got your back?” He gently pushed my locs back away from my face so that he could see me clearly and I could see him.
“How can he have your back if he’s sitting in federal prison?” My eyes shot up to his.
“You wouldn’t!” The politician smile appeared on his face.
“Oh sweetheart, I would. Please don’t doubt it.”
Tears of frustration came to my eyes as I gently took Ayana off my breast to change her to the other. In frustration, she began to fuss, wanting to continue her meal. I in frustration forgot to be inconspicuous and cover my empty breast before releasing the other. And it wasn’t until I got her feeding again and looked up to see the hungry look in his eyes as he stared down at them that I realized what I did.
Quickly I lifted that side of my shirt back on my shoulder covering my breast.
He licked his lips. “Please don’t doubt it!” He repeated in just above a whisper.
My mind raced for a way out of this. There was no way I was going to be this man’s whore. Why was he doing this? Maybe it’s his way of getting back at you for not getting the abortion? It was clear he hated me. Why would a man want to sleep with a woman he hated?
I eyed the handsome man sitting in front of me. Could that be it? Was he playing some sick twisted game where he was pretending not to know about the abortion request? So later on, if the media ever got wind of it, he could deny it while proving he did the right thing as soon as he found out about the baby?
I’d seen him on TV before, seen the way he handled the media. Like his father, he was a master at dealing with them and successfully hid his true nature from the cameras. In front of the camera, he had the charisma of Barack Obama. Behind the cameras, he had the charisma of a cold-hearted killer. It’s why one should never trust what they see on TV.
I don’t think I’d ever seen him genuinely smile. He put me in the mind of a professional hitman, all well-dressed, smooth lined, and violent.
“Jo, this is blackmail.” I said gently, hoping I could appeal to whatever light he had in him. I found that dealing with human beings is a lot like dealing with plants. Sometimes all they needed was gentleness.
He didn’t respond at first, he just let his eyes roam over me in a way that caused my skin to feel as if it was burned with fire. Lifting his hand, he gently pushed my hair back behind my ear.
“When I first saw you, I thought you were the prettiest woman I had ever seen.” His gaze swept over my face not missing a detail. “Flawlessly smooth skin, the color of sun-kissed honey. Beautiful long locs that are soft to the touch. Big exotic innocent eyes that allured helpless men to become your prey. And your lips…” His heated gaze fell on my mouth.
“Do you know that your lips nearly got me killed?” Slowly I shook my head as I tried to remind myself that he was a politician.
“You see, I was thinking about them when I should have been focused on the suspect I was chasing at the time.” His fingers lightly skated down the side of my face to my neck. The caress was so light it was barely there.
“I thought to myself, I need to see what she tastes like. Could she taste as good as she looked?” As he spoke he licked his lips and I’m telling yall he was masterfully spinning the web around me, bringing back to mind just how dangerous he was.
“And then you gave me my taste.” He smiled as if remembering a good memory, as suddenly as it came, it disappeared. “I thought that I would be satisfied with it, but it only whetted my appetite. I tried to call you the next morning, do you remember that?” I nodded.
He did try to call me after that, but I was ashamed of my actions. So I went back to avoiding his calls. When I saw him coming through the front door of the office, I eased out the back. He even came by my apartment a couple times, but I refused to see him.
“You had become my elusive little butterfly that no matter how hard I tried, I could not catch.” His words were low as he gently rubbed his finger over Ayana’s little fat cheeks.
“But you are elusive no more.” His gaze rose back to mine and the look in his eyes was so intense it caused me to gasp.
“I want your body, Journey.” His words were low. Shaking his head he chuckled a bit. “I want it real bad.”
He sat back holding his hands out to the side of him. That politician smile appearing on his face. “Don’t look at it as blackmail, my sweet. Look at it as you, paying what you owe.”
Chapter Three
A New Boss in Town
Journey
I carefully laid a sleeping Ayana in her crib. When I turned back to face Joseph my steps stalled, his beautiful, dark masculinity caught me off guard for just a moment. Having this powerful man sitting in my bedroom felt surreal. Next to him on the bed was the contract. My heart dropped.
Rome and my mom were going to kill me for this.
First, I showed up out of the clear blue with a baby after being MIA for months, now this. I rubbed my hand through my locs as the pressure began to build in my head. How did it come to this? This is not the way I imagined my life would be. I had visions of one day discovering the cure for soil erosion or proving GMO seeds were killing off the bees and other beneficial insects.
I had so many dreams, goals, and aspirations, none of them being a wealthy man’s whore. I wanted to pick Ayana up and run as far away as I could. But alas! I knew the time for running was over. My mistake had caught up with me and he was sitting on my bed, all six-foot-plus of pure muscle, dripping-fine chocolate inch of him.
“J, you look real stressed. Come here, baby.” He said sounding like he really cared. It was the first kind words he’d said to me this whole time. He even held up his big hand towards me. I guess the old saying was true, you get more bees with honey than vinegar. Because against my better judgment, I took it and let him pull me back to sit in my chair in front of him. Only this time, there was no baby in my arms to serve as a barrier between us.
I chewed on my bottom lip as my heart accelerated from being this close to him. He brought up his hand and gently touched my lip, pulling it from between my teeth. I nearly moaned when he softly rubbed his thumb over it, soothing my flesh. Oh boy, here we go! He had turned on his politician and was getting ready to work his voodoo on me.
All of you out there reading my tale, pay close attention to his next words and see why the DNC all felt that he would be the best candidate to replace his father’s Senate seat.
“Listen, this won’t be so bad. I found you a very nice place in Georgetown, walking distance from your school. You can pick back up on your classes if you want.” His deep voice had gentled. “I know you want to go back to school, you love studying plants way too much.”
“How do you know that? You don’t even know me.” One side of his sexy mouth lifted in a grin.
“Why would you assume I don’t?” I shrugged.
“We were only together one time. Outside of that we barely talked to each other.” He chuckled.
“You forget I had been trying to get with you for over a year. In all that time a man picks up on a few things. Like,” his intense gaze looked away from me to go to my window for a moment before his eyes came back to hold mine captive.
“You’re al
ways surrounded by plants. There were plants on your desk at my father’s office. Plants in your bedroom at your old apartment that you shared with your roommate. Plants in your living room here. And you even have plants surrounding you in this room. It’s safe to say you love plants.”
Wow! I didn’t expect him to know that much about me, although if one was looking, it wouldn’t be that hard to figure out. I did have a lot of plants and my major was in botany.
He picked the contract up off the bed. “Don’t let this little piece of paper intimidate you. I just want to go into this arrangement with all parties knowing what is expected of them.”
I took the contract out of his hand and began to read it. It stated that I will agree to move where he wanted me to, go to the appointment he made for me with a doctor of his choosing to get a medical exam, and get on the pill. And most importantly, be sexually available for him whenever or wherever he required.
My brother was never going to go for this. I’m afraid if I signed this, he was going to end up in jail anyway because I was more than positive he was going to try and kill Joseph. And from what I learned about Joseph and his family, I was more than positive they had the power to make my whole family disappear. I began to chew on my lip again.
“Come on now,” he said in a soothing voice, reaching up to gently take my lip from between my teeth. “What did you read in there that have you so stressed out? Surely the thought of letting me make love to you again isn’t that frightening. If my memory serves correct you enjoyed my touch.”
His memory was correct. The night he and I shared haunted my dreams. How many times had I woke up hot and drenched, remembering his hands on me or his mouth, remembering how it felt to have him inside of me? However, I was not going to ever admit that to him.
“It’s my brother. He’s not going to go for this.” He chuckled as he reached inside his jacket pocket for a pen.