Tempest

by Shakir Rashaan

  “I don’t want Her in anyone’s court, Dom.” The anger rose as I thought about the turmoil she’d caused and how stupid I’d allowed myself to be. “I need for You to do some digging on our little co-conspirators. I want to know everything there is to know before we make the next move.”

  “Sounds like an extraction is in the works.” Dominic tried his best to hide the smile on his face. “Are we talking temporary extraction or permanent extraction?”

  “That would depend on the information You are able to come up with, Bro,” I answered, looking at my Mentor and stroking my beard as I thought about the next moves to make. “If there are no ties, as I suspect there aren’t, I believe a permanent extraction would be necessary, with extreme prejudice.”

  “Consider it done, Bro,” Dominic stated before leaving the room. That left the two of us alone with our thoughts for a few moments.

  “You know that bitch has to pay, right?” Amenhotep stated in a tone that made me do a double-take.

  “What happened to priorities, Sir?”

  “I know what I said, youngster, but I also know that what She tried to do…what they both tried to do…is worthy of a punishment that should send a message to never fuck with a union when it’s strong.” Amenhotep started to sound all fire-and-brimstone, which scared and amused me at the same time.

  “I didn’t know You cared so much.”

  “I always look out for My family, kid,” He stated. “You’ve always been the closest thing to a son I’ll ever get the chance to have. I make it My business to make sure You and the rest of the House are safe and taken care of.”

  “So, what do You suggest, Sir? Death is messy and complicated, and too good a fate for them, for what they’ve done.”

  “There are worse fates than death, youngster.” Amenhotep’s grin bordered on the sinister, but this time, I didn’t care what he was contemplating because I was already there. “We’ll get with the rest of the Society, put our heads together. If Dominic finds out there are no loose ends in the States to tie up, then God help them where they’re about to go.”

  NINETEEN amani

  “So, how are things going with Mistress Blaze?”

  With all the drama surrounding my Goddess and Sir, I had no chance to catch up with my boy, Jelani, to find out if his weekend had gone as well as I’d hoped. We were in the family cabin, out on the balcony enjoying a beautiful, tropical day. The sun was shining, but I felt like the storm within my D/s family overshadowed the weather.

  The grin on his face was worth the trouble it took to get him down there.

  “Man, D, She’s everything i’d dreamed about and then some,” he said, gingerly sitting in the chair next to me. I wanted to laugh because I knew how much of a sadist Blaze was, but he didn’t need to know that information ahead of time. “Serving Her over the past couple of days has been bliss, but did She have to blister my ass to where i can’t sit down for long periods of time?”

  I nearly fell out of my chair laughing. I tried to keep from laughing at him, but he couldn’t stop adjusting in his seat to find a good spot. “Sorry, dawg, but you see taking an ass whooping on line and taking a scene from one of the baddest in the kink world are two different things.”

  “Yeah, you’re the one to talk.” Jelani glared at me as he studied the bruises on his body. “I don’t remember you being all that bad-ass when we were on line, either, bruh.”

  “That’s easy; i figured out how to process pain, bruh.” I glanced at him for a moment, feeling the need to school my frat on a couple of things. “my Goddess and my Sir helped me to understand the mental aspects of pain. If you think of it in one way, that’s the way your body will react to it. After a really intense scene with them one night last year, at one point i couldn’t feel a thing, at least, it wasn’t a bad pain. Once i came down from subspace, i felt everything, but by then i’d already applied what they taught me.”

  “So, that’s why you were looking all high that night when you came to my fight party?” Jelani gave me the side-eye for a minute before memories began flooding his mind. He shook those images for the moment to try and finish his thought. “That must have been why i was so trippy last night, huh?”

  “Yes, felt like you’d gotten ahold of some MJ, right?”

  “Yeah, i wasn’t that high, but it was close enough.” He laughed as he thought about the comparison of the sensations. “i caught the munchies like hell, though.”

  “That’s why i usually keep something nearby after a scene. The endorphin rush burns calories and then some, and if you don’t have something to eat or drink to make up for that, you can wind up sick.”

  “So, let me ask you something, dawg.” Jelani found a sweet spot to sit to keep from hurting so badly. I tried again to keep my laughter to myself as best I could, but he wasn’t making it easy. “Has your Goddess ever given you some? i mean, have you two had sex?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “Because when we were in our scene, She kept saying how She needed to get some dick as soon as She was done with me,” Jelani recounted. “you know i’m down for the cause because She’s fine as fuck for a woman in her late forties, but as soon as She was done, it was lights out for me and She headed to take care of what She said She needed. What’s up with that?”

  “Okay, bruh, first rule of serving a Female Dominant: it ain’t about you,” I explained. “The minute you try to make it sound like you’re getting your rocks off without first thinking about Her is the minute you find yourself persona non grata in Her life.”

  “But, i’m saying, bruh, She’s been talking about how fine i am, how She would love to find out how well i can please Her, shit like that.” Jelani sounded frustrated, and it wasn’t as though I could blame him. Goddess put me through the same paces when we were first together.

  “Bruh, listen to me, and this is the most important piece of advice you’ll ever get from me,” I advised. I leaned back in my chair, feeling like I was looking at a reflection of my former self a year ago. “Don’t expect Her to fulfill your sexual fantasies, and don’t expect to handle all of Hers. Just be thankful when She chooses you to fulfill them, and when She does choose you, you make Her want to choose you over and over again.”

  A knock on the door startled us. I turned toward the front door and then back toward Jelani and asked, “Were you expecting someone?”

  “I was about to ask you the same question, bruh.”

  Not knowing who would be at the door, I cautiously walked and asked the person through the door, “Who is it?”

  “amani, your Sir requests your presence,” the young woman answered through the door. “He says it is of utmost importance and requests that i escort you to Him personally.”

  “I need answers, and I need them yesterday.”

  Stepping into the interrogation room with my Sir while not knowing the nature of his sudden need to see me had me on edge on a few levels. I kept my guard up, even while the slave who escorted me to the room remained in the room until he dismissed her. I had a feeling it would concern the events surrounding my Goddess, and more importantly, his Beloved, but I was not about to be summoned like some mongrel who was dying to have his master’s attention, either.

  “You requested my presence, my Sir?” I began as I kneeled beside the chair facing him at the table.

  “Yes, amani, I summoned you here because I need to know what happened, and I need to hear the truth, because for some reason everyone wants to give me versions of what happened.” Ramesses’s demeanor was businesslike, stoic and cold. This was the side of him I knew most people feared, and I understood why. Callous. Cruel. Unfeeling. I didn’t recognize him. “I know you won’t lie to Me, so give it to Me straight: did My Beloved cheat on Me or did you keep Her from being raped?”

  “With all due respect, my Sir, but why are You asking this question?” I was incredulous. I’d only known them to be upfront about everything, and I’d witnessed their unwavering belief and faith in each other. “You k
now the answer to this question, why on Earth would You need my answer?”

  “There are demons that unfortunately have not been exorcised that you might have a hand in eradicating once and for all with the answer to My question, amani.” Ramesses’s face showed no emotion, but I wasn’t about to show any fear. His eyes penetrated deeper as he moved closer to my face, making me rethink my original stance to not show any fear. “you are more than welcome to try and debate the methods of My madness when I’m in a better mood to entertain, but right now, a simple answer to My question will suffice.”

  “If You want an answer, then i will show You my answer,” I retorted. I stood from my kneeling position, taking off my shirt. His eyes widened as he observed the bruises, which had turned black from the reddened shade a few hours ago. The most glaring ones were around my ribcage where we’d taken the fall before I’d turned his face and torso into my personal punching bag. In a tone I wasn’t sure I meant to have or not, I stated, “Does this answer Your question, my Sir?”

  He never answered me, at least to say yes or no. He got up from the table, took one last look at my bruises, and said before walking out of the room, “Thank you, amani. you have given Me everything I need to know.”

  TWENTY shamise

  “That doesn’t sound like the Mercedes I know and love.”

  I relaxed in the cabin with Jay and Candy, finding myself in need of a break from the intensity of the day’s events. I’d never seen my Daddy that upset before, and there was nothing any of us could do to calm him down. I didn’t know how to deal with that, and it scared the hell out of me for the first time since I’d been with them.

  I lounged on the couch, enjoying the feeling of letting my body relax for a few moments while I tried to make some sense of things, and maybe finding a solution to set things right between my Daddy and my Goddess. I was their Alpha slave, and whether they wanted me to or not, I had a duty to help keep the House intact.

  Candy leaned against Jay on the bed, enjoying the teasing on her skin, cooing every so often when he placed his lips on her skin. I felt a twinge of envy, wanting to find my own pleasure and solace, if only for a few moments until my mind cleared. Jay looked up at me and said, “Scarlett, you know how Kane can get when he’s pissed off about something. You have to give him some time to process things. He doesn’t stay angry for long; he’s too measured and controlled to allow that emotion to take over.”

  “I understand that, baby, but it’s rare that the focus of his anger is Mercedes,” Candy chimed in, sinking deeper into Jay’s chest to get more comfortable. “This might last a little longer than usual; it’s never been this crazy, not since—” Her voice trailed off.

  “Not since what, Candy?” Jay and I were both at a loss, confused over her cryptic reference to the past.

  “Not since Kane cheated on Mercedes a long time ago.” Candy sighed as she thought about the situation. “That was a bad patch… a really bad patch. It was a miracle they survived and got things back on track.”

  Jay sat up from his spot and looked at Candy as though she’d revealed that she’d cheated on him. I had a similar “what the fuck” look on my face, too, trying to get an idea of what Candy really knew that I felt I should have known.

  Candy felt the eyes on her, and she exhaled and sat up on the bed to begin the story. “Kane wasn’t always the man you both know now. He was a selfish man, a player of the nth degree. He thought he was God’s gift to women, and had no problems telling anyone exactly that. I guess it was his overbearing arrogance that attracted us to him.”

  “Okay, so what’s so different? He’s still an arrogant man,” I quipped. My body reacted, and I cursed under my breath to calm down. Even when speaking about him in anecdotal, he got me wet.

  “Yeah, but he was a train wreck waiting to happen back then,” Candy soberly explained. “Between his arrogance, his narrow-minded outlook on women, and the mistake in the form of a woman by the name of Imani Taylor…I think back on it now and I really wonder if it was by the grace of God that things worked out the way they did.”

  “Okay, you’re being cryptic again, baby.” Jay was irritated, and I couldn’t blame him. I needed her to get to the point, too, but I forgot how much of my Daddy’s influence could be had on other people. “Get to the part where this makes sense to us, okay?”

  “Okay, okay.” Candy looked perturbed that she was being rushed, so she settled in again and recounted the incident. “Mercedes, Kane, and I were a threesome couple at one point in our lives, and Imani threatened to split us all up because she wanted Kane all to herself. She hatched a plan that nearly worked because he wasn’t as strong-willed or as sharp mentally as he is now, playing us and making it look like we were just another couple of tricks, saying that we had been fucking other dudes behind his back between parties.”

  “Wait, so, he wasn’t playing when he said you belonged to him and he allowed us to date?” I saw Jay’s ego deflate in the blink of an eye with that revelation. He tried to recover by focusing on the story at hand. “So, did Kane believe her over both of you?”

  “Yes, he did.” Candy wiped away a tear. “There was this other dude that wanted what Kane had, and at every party, he would find a way to sex one of us and then brag about how it was all our idea and one of us would come after him. He laid it on thick, telling anyone who would listen that either Mercedes or I would make humiliating comments about Kane, and his lack of skills while fucking him.”

  “But that’s crazy!” I yelled before realizing I never met the man when he was single. All I’d ever known of my Daddy was when he was married to my Goddess. “Okay, I have to remind myself that he was what he was before I met him.”

  “We were young and dumb back then, but we both loved him. Mercedes was the one who married him, but they kept me close the entire time.” Candy kept rattling off the details. “Imani had him convinced that his wife and his girlfriend were with him for the wrong reasons and that she was the one for him. He left us at a party to sleep with her at her house and then came back acting strange and accusatory.”

  It was all I could do to keep from tearing up. Whether she realized it or not, Candy was slowly tearing down the man that I worshipped. I knew he had faults, I wasn’t entirely naïve, but it hurt my heart to realize that he could be so cruel toward the women he loved.

  Candy trembled for a moment as the memories of that night threatened to overtake her own emotions. I wanted to comfort her; this couldn’t have been easy for her to do, and despite her strong feelings for Jay, her heart belonged to my Daddy. I couldn’t blame her; I was cursed with the same affliction, and sajira was only a nudge away from the all-consuming abyss, too.

  Hopelessly hooked…and I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.

  Jay felt like he was the odd man out for a moment. Fighting his way back into the conversation, he said, “Look, Kane is not that man anymore. He’s my boy, and we’ve been deep for a long time. He’ll get through this without a problem, and he will make things right.”

  Candy kissed Jay across his lips. “I know he will, baby. He has his moments when he loses his way sometimes, but that’s what makes him…well, him. We never gave up on him back then, and we won’t give up on him now, right, Scarlett?”

  I smiled for the first time since this conversation began. Yes, my Daddy had his faults. He could be stubborn, cruel, and that temper of his could make the devil himself quake in his skin. But there’s the side of him that only those closest to him are privileged to see, and I wasn’t about to give that up for anything. He was worth suffering for because the bliss that came after the suffering was so delicious, so decadent, one would think we were addicts who couldn’t get enough.

  “Yes, Candy, you’re right. He’s going to find his way back, I feel it deep down in my soul.” I sat up on the couch, feeling the storm clouds lifting. There was a shift in my attitude, like I had the energy to go for the next twenty-four hours without sleep. I felt my Daddy’s presence surrou
nding me again, and the peace of understanding that everything would be okay pushed me into a different zone.

  God, the things that man did to me even when he’s not around me should be considered illegal.

  I unconsciously touched my shoulder, welcoming the flood of fond memories of the things we’d done over the course of the week, and the fantasies of what I wanted him to do to me before we left the island, including a replication of that hot fire scene he did with keket. My legs instinctively parted, and soon nothing and no one else mattered except reconnecting with him in my own way. I mouthed the words, “Daddy, come back to me, please,” as I gyrated my hips and touched my skin as though every nerve was on fire.

  I forgot Candy and Jay were there, and I could only imagine what they could have been thinking in that moment. I looked straight through them and saw his image behind them, his eyes locking with mine, giving me the motivation I needed to stay right there with him in this space.

  I heard his voice in my ear, “I might be out of sight, baby girl, but I’m never out of your mind.” Soon, my mind delved deeper into my subconscious, placing me right where I wanted to be…kneeling at his feet.

  “Daddy, don’t leave us, please.”

  “I haven’t gone anywhere, baby girl. your Goddess and your sis, your brother…I won’t be going anywhere unless He deems it necessary.”

  “But the way You pushed us away, how were we supposed to help You?”

  “There are some things that even you are not able to fix, My precious shamise. Know that I am returning to you, and those that tried to take Me away from you will pay dearly for their treachery.”

  “What happened? Can’t You tell me anything to help the others ease the anxiety?”

  “I know you want to help, baby girl, but this is something that Daddy needs to put to an end, so that it doesn’t happen to anyone else again.”