by Edwina Fort
“I mean, I do look at it as my home, for the time being.” He stepped out the shower grabbing one of the towels off the stand.
“What do you mean time being?” He walked up to stand behind me looking at me through the mirror. I looked so small in front of his big powerful body.
“For the year. After our contract is over, I’m going back home.” My words upset him, but he did a great job of not showing it. However, I could tell by the hard look in his eyes and the way that little muscle began to twitch in his cheek.
“Hmm,” was all he said before he lowered his head and sniffed my shoulder and neck.
“What is this stuff you’re rubbing into your skin? It’s smell like chocolate butter.”
I laughed. “That’s ‘cause it’s cocoa butter.”
He frowned at the little stick I held in my hand. “It comes in a stick?”
I nodded. “The good kind does.”
He began to kiss me on my neck and my eyes drifted shut as my already thoroughly loved center hummed in anticipation of his touch.
“I like the way this cocoa butter smells.” He whispered putting his hands on my waist turning me around so that I was facing him. His head was buried in my neck and he was open mouth kissing my throat. I wrapped my arms around his neck surrendering to him, knowing what was getting ready to happen. Jo’s big hands came up to the front of my towel, opening it and letting it fall to the ground. And then he was lifting me up on the sink in front of him.
When he entered me, I cried out as a shiver ripped through my body feeling like it was cutting me in half. In minutes he had me panting and biting my lip to keep from screaming. He had never made love to me like this. It was hard and aggressive. I felt like I was one stroke away from shattering into little pieces. I lost feeling in my face and once again, there were tears coming from my eyes.
“I don’t want you to leave me.” He whispered as he took me with a force that pressed my back up against the mirror. I wrapped my legs tighter around his waist.
“Say you won’t leave me, Journey.” My toes curled as I bit my lip, trying not to explode, he was going to kill me, I was pretty sure I was about to die. It felt like it was too much, like my body couldn’t handle it, like I was going to lose myself to never be found.
He took my chin in his hand bringing my face to his. His kiss was savage, it robbed me of my last ability to reason.
“Say it, Journey.” He continued as he drove into me relentlessly.
“I’ll never leave you.” I gasped, really meaning it at that moment. Jo was master of my body. He could get me to agree to anything when he was doing the things that he was doing to it.
“Say it again.” He growled as he increased his tempo.
“I’ll never leave you!” I screamed as my world came apart. I clung to him whimpering, feeling as if I’d been fractured.
“Shh...I got you, baby; I’ll never let you fall.”
He held me close, calmly and gently bringing me back to this time and place after taking me somewhere with his love making I had never been before.
Chapter Seven
Weather the Storm
Joseph
Journey has cast a spell on me. I didn’t even recognize myself. The more I discovered about her, the more I wanted to own her. And yeah, I know that sounds sick as f***, but I did. She was like this rare gift that was way too good for us mortal men. But yet, I somehow ended up with her within my grasp. And the more I got to know her, the more I didn’t want to lose her.
After we got Ayana dressed and made our way to the kitchen to grab some breakfast, Journey walked to the fridge and after seeing the little pink post-it taped to it, hit her hand against her head.
“What is it?” I asked coming up behind her wrapping my arms around her waist pulling her into me, needing to feel her soft curves pressed up against me. I couldn’t get enough of her. I had taken her several times this morning and already I wanted her again.
She pointed at the post-it that read: Don’t forget to take your pill.
“I am horrible at remembering to take my birth control pills. If not for this little paper, I would forget I even had them. Hold on, I’ll be right back.”
She turned and jogged back up the stairs. I stared at that little paper before my eyes went to Ayana who sat in her little swing looking at me. I put my finger on my lips signaling for her to keep my next action a secret. Then I reached up and snatched the paper off the fridge, balled it up and then tossed it in the garbage.
And before you guys jump on my case for what I just did, let me remind you of what I just said.
JOURNEY HAS CAST A SPELL ON ME…
She was my woman, she should bear my children. Maybe if we gave Ayana a brother, their mother won’t be so quick to try and leave me all the time. I went back upstairs to grab my wallet and came up short at the sight of her standing in front of her bathroom mirror with her hand over her head spraying something in the air. Holding her head back with her eyes closed she opened her arms and just stood there as whatever it was she sprayed rained down around her.
Once again, I found myself spellbound by her beauty as I walked towards her. Whatever she sprayed smelled like citrus.
“J, what are you doing?” I asked in a low voice, not wanting to frighten her.
She took a deep breath. “Taking a moment to just be.”
After standing that way for a little while longer she turned to me and smiled.
“Ready?”
I studied her before I spoke. Everything about her seemed brighter. But it was her gaze that held me captive. She had the same look in her eyes she had when she opened them after an orgasm. What the hell did she just do to give her that feeling?
“Yeah, I think I am.”
********
For the first time in my life I went shopping with a woman. I actually enjoyed myself. So much so I came to the realization that Journey was the only human being in my life right now that did not cause me stress, which was crazy because a few weeks ago she was the leading cause of my stress. But now that I had her back, it seemed as if I could breathe easy.
The entire day I struggled to understand this side of me that I was just meeting. This side of me that wanted to cuff a woman up. Hell, if I was being honest with myself, I’ve been this way for the last year. Why else had I not let her go?
I don’t know why I spent nearly a year searching for her without cease. I don’t know why her taste is the sweetest to ever touch my tongue. But I did know that my thoughts of her have become a huge complication. When she was just going to be my mistress for a year, things were fine. Now…
Now, things were complex. There is no way she would be out of my system in a year’s time. I can’t see myself ever getting tired of the feel of her. She felt like home to me.
Damn, complicated…
After we finished shopping for bedroom furniture I took them out to lunch. It was during lunch that I received the urgent call from my father’s assistant saying my dad needed to see me right away. I exhaled wondering what the hell he’s gotten himself into now. It was a full-time job making sure he kept his hands clean, especially since he didn’t know how to keep his dick to himself.
“Hey, I’ll be back a little later. I need to run by my father’s office.” I told Journey as I pulled up in front of the house.
A look of concern crossed her face. “Is everything okay?” Her question surprised me.
“Yeah, why do you ask?” Carefully I took the baby’s car seat out and walked to the door using my key to open it.
“I don’t know, your whole mood has changed.” I chuckled, my girl was observant. My mood changed anytime I had to deal with my parents. I didn’t hate them, but I can’t say I loved them either. And I know that sounds horrible, but my family isn’t the loving type. We didn’t do things like that.
“Yeah, well my parents have that effect on me.” I told her. And for the second time it seemed as if there was something she wanted to tell me but changed
her mind.
Before I left, I pulled her to me and tasted those lips that have tempted me all day. She moaned in my mouth submitting in that sweet way that she does. And hell… the rest was history. I took her against the front door.
I tried to tell myself to be gentle with her, seeing as to how I had already taken her three times today, she had to be a little sore. But for the life of me, it was something about the feel of her warm heat stretching to accommodate my hardness that caused me to lose my ability to tame the beast.
After making her come apart twice in my arms, I left her sleeping on her couch. I prayed Ayana stayed asleep for a little while and give her mommy a chance to nap and regain her energy. She was going to need it when I got home.
Hmmm… Home…Damn this thing was getting extremely complicated.
********
“Great, it’s an ambush.” I muttered when I walked through my father’s office door to see him and mother waiting for me.
“Joseph dear, how are you?” My mother asked from where she stood in front of the window looking out on Capitol Hill. My mother in all her illustrious elegance had dreams of becoming the next black first lady. But thanks to the many scandals my father has gotten himself involved in, must now settle for being the mother of a president.
I don’t know who was driving this harder, her or my father, who was seeking to find his redemption in the eye of the people through me.
“I’m fine, mother. Why would you assume something was the matter?” I sat down in the chair across from my father.
“Quite naturally your mother was worried once we heard that you had put in for a vacation.”
I chuckled shaking my head. “Me taking a vacation caused you to worry?” I waved away their answer, I was ready to get this over with, the longer I spent here, the less time I had with Journey.
“Gerald told me you needed to see me and that it was an emergency. What’s happened now?”
“You left the convention really fast, we didn’t even get a chance to say bye.” My mother said coming to sit next to me with a counterfeit wounded expression on her face. I exhaled, in no mood for her theatrics.
“My job was done, I didn’t see why I had to linger.”
“Son, we were hoping you would officially announce your candidacy for the Florida Senate seat in the up and coming election.” I didn’t even blink.
“Why would I do that, seeing as to how I’m still undecided?” My mother collapsed back in her chair, always the over dramatic that one. My father growled.
“Dammit, Joseph! How can you say that this late in the game? Everything you’ve done in your life has prepared you for this moment. There are a lot of people depending on you—”
“Cut the sh*t,” I said interrupting him. “You forget I was raised behind the scenes of this hypocritical astonishment called politics. When you say everybody is depending on me, who do you mean? Macon Cooperation and your other deep pocket investors, are they who you speak of? Yeah, I’m sure they are depending on our family, who for a few bucks will guarantee them impunity from all the lives they destroy.”
My father, who was now red with anger opened his mouth to no doubt berate me for my words, but I continued to speak, not letting him.
“You forget father, that I know who really runs the show.” I chuckled. “And it ain’t the people.”
My mother made a sound in her throat. “Ain’t Joseph? Really? Please don’t be crass. What has gotten into you?”
Leave it to her to find me speaking slang the only offense. God forbid I sound ethnic in any way.
“Perhaps it’s his new mistress that he’s set up in a little bungalow hidden from the prying eyes of his parents.” My father sneered. I lifted my head to look at him, but my mother was not done with her theatrics.
“Please tell me it’s not the little girl with the dreadlocks?” My father chuckled before he reached in his drawer and withdrew pictures, tossing them on the desk in front of us. I didn’t reach for them, I could see them from where I sat. It was pictures of Journey and I out today. The picture on top showed me with my arm wrapped around her neck pulling her close so that I could whisper something indecent in her ear.
My mother reached for the pictures and looked at them all as if she was looking at a murder scene. I chuckled shaking my head again…My parents.
“Jo, what are you trying to do? Ruin your whole life? She has dreadlocks for Christ’s sake!” The last my mother yelled as she slammed the pictures back on the desk.
“When were you going to bring our grandchild by so that we can meet her? Or had you planned on keeping your little secret family stashed away forever?” My father asked. I leaned back in the chair resting my head against it and rubbed my hands down my face.
Stress…
“Joseph, do you hear your father speaking to you?”
“Yes mother, I heard him.”
“Well?”
I sat up. “I don’t know, eventually.” Both of my parents wore an expression on their faces as if I had slapped them.
“And what about Chloe?” My mother asked.
Sh*t, I had forgot about her.
Knowing I was cornered, a grin spread across my father’s face. “How do you think your fiancée is taking the news of your new mistress? As we know, there is only a matter of time before she finds out.”
As if to confirm my father’s words, my phone vibrated at my hip. Sure enough, the screen read Chloe.
Damn! Chloe was easily forgotten. Our marriage, like most marriages of the elite had been arranged in a boardroom when she and I were in grade school. She had been raised to be a first lady. My mother adored her and my father gushed over her, but I could barely stand the sight of her. There was nothing spectacular about her. She wasn’t a yellow dot in a sea of grey. She was just the grey.
“Alice, please give me a moment to talk with my son alone.” My mother didn’t like being dismissed, but with the air of a queen she nodded and quietly left the office. Once she was gone, my father stood and came to lean on his desk to the side of me.
“Listen son, man has had wife and mistress since the beginning of time. But now that there is a child involved, I worry that more of your feelings will get involved than what is wise.”
“Don’t worry, I have my feelings under control. I know what I have to do.”
“Do you?” He reached back to pick up the pictures. “Because this looks like a man in love to me.”
He held up a picture that showed me chasing a laughing Journey after she’d stolen the apple I was eating, then another of me catching her and scooping her up in my arms.
“If it was this easy for me to get these pictures, how much easier would it be for the media to get wind of this? You were very messy today, son, you can’t let this happen again. You know more than anybody that there are always eyes watching us.”
It was crazy having him give me this talk, when it was generally me getting him out of a sticky situation. My father fancied himself a lady’s man and didn’t see anything wrong with sampling all the ladies. I had one lady… And Chloe. And here he saw fit to give me this speech.
“How about you stop spying on me.” I drawled.
My dad got up from his desk chuckling as he walked back around to his chair, he reached into the golden box on his desk and took out a cigar. He looked at me as he lit it, the flame reflected in his eyes for just a moment, making him look like the damn devil.
“I’m sorry, son, I can’t do that. Too much has been invested in you.” For a moment, he looked sad. “If only you knew how much. This thing is bigger than both you and I. You have been chosen to fill this position, your destiny has already been mapped out for you, and there is nothing either you or I can do to change it.”
Journey
A sharp pain in my stomach woke me. I balled up on the couch clutching my stomach.
“Ahhh!” My period was coming. And judging by the cramps I was having, it was going to be a bad one.
Okay, so you
guys remember when I told you how crazy my period can be? Well, I may have left out a few details. Sometimes I got cramps that felt worse than child birth. And I know because I’ve experienced them both.
I stumbled up the stairs to my bathroom and ran me a hot bath. Heat always helps. I soaked until I heard Ayana start to fuss. I didn’t want to get out the tub, but I had no other choice. By the time I fed Ayana and got her changed and back into her crib, aunt Flo had made an appearance.
Miserably I crawled back into my bed, lifting the rose gold phone to shoot Jo a text.
Me: Hey Jo I am so sorry but I’m going to have to cancel our plans for tonight, something came up.
I put the phone on the bed next to me, but no sooner had I pulled the covers up over my head did it ring.
“Hello.” I mumbled into the phone trying not to sound as miserable as I felt.
“What’s the matter?” I closed my eyes as his deep voice washed over me. Jo was the kind of man that fixed things. So much so that when I heard his voice it tricked my brain into releasing endorphins to numb the pain in my stomach just a little.
“I don’t feel good.”
“I’m on my way—”
“No!” I cut him off, not wanting him to see me like this. “You can’t come over.”
“Why not?”
“Because, Jo!” I didn’t mean to whine those words, but I was in misery.
“Because what, Journey? Talk to me, tell me what’s going on.”
I exhaled, in too much pain to argue. “I got my period. I’ll call you when it’s over.”
I hung up the phone. The p word was like the plague to men. And since I couldn’t fulfill my end of the contract right now, I didn’t have to worry about Jo. I drifted off to sleep, but woke up when another sharp pain shot through my womb and up my spine.
“Ahhh!” I yelled balling up clutching my stomach.
“Baby, you alright?” Jo asked coming out of nowhere.