by Love Belvin
“Anything I can help with?” Bilan asked with heavy, red eyes. Her eyeliner smeared.
With a contained grin, Camille shook her head. “Not at all. Enjoy that shower. I have a great leave-in conditioner I brought with me if you need it.”
“Kimmy packed one, but if it doesn’t agree with me, I’ll take you up on that offer.” Bilan moved to the doorway of the kitchen.
“I’m gonna take a meeting with Rory,” I announced to Bilan after following just behind her.
Her brows dropped. “Tonight?”
“I’ve been blowing her off since we’ve arrived. Lots of pertinent shit I’ve tasked her with I need to hear her update on. We’ll probably stop by the bar.” I brushed my thumb under her chin. “We’ll be on the property. I won’t be far at all.”
Bilan snorted. “Okay.” Then she reached up and kissed me sweetly. “In case we’re knocked out when you get back.”
I lowered my tone for only her to hear. “You need me to wake you?”
Her lips spread and eyes narrowed into smiling slits. “Tomorrow. Tonight’s for little Sadik.” She kissed me again and rubbed my abdomen affectionately.
“Should I heat up your food?” Camille asked when Bilan turned to take off again.
Bilan turned to face Camille first, then her eyes raked over to me. She ducked her chin. “Yes, please.”
I smiled, head bounced back slightly. My girl was full of shit. She wasn’t thinking past that little boy upstairs.
“Your ass better eat something, Nalib.”
Then I was graced with another kiss. “I’ll try.”
“What about your dinner, Mr. Ellis?” Camille addressed me.
“I’ll pick up something while I’m out.”
When Bilan began to walk out again, I was sure to slap her ass. She jumped before giggling. I watched her take to the stairs then headed back out again.
Rory was waiting in the jeep. I stepped inside and closed the door behind me.
“He there,” she informed.
Her big ass bug-eyes peering at me through the rearview mirror.
My attention went out the window to nothing in particular. I sat back in my seat, face hard, mood darkening as we pulled off.
∞6∞
“You ready?” Jamil’s subterranean deep cords asked on my screen, though he was out of view. When I nodded, he rang the doorbell to the single-family home in Maplewood, NJ. After about a minute or two, the door opened. “Jason?”
After a moment of hesitation, I heard a feeble, “Ye-yeah.”
Then there was a cacophony of sounds before the screen showed inside the home.
“What the hell?” Jason yelped.
“Goddamn,” Jamil singsonged, clearly annoyed.
“What are you doing?” Jason shouted. “You can’t—”
When I glanced up at Rory, she rolled her eyes as she twisted around, whispering into the mic on her headset. “Don’t fuckin’ be so brolic. You know he a bitch, my nigga!” she whispered harshly.
Amidst Jason’s protests, Jamil shoved the phone to his face. “Somebody wanna word with you.”
It took a few seconds for Jason to hold the device upright. But when he did, I smiled with my eyes, delighted to have his attention.
“You don’t look as happy to see me as I am you,” I began.
“I knew it had to be you, barging up in my parents’ home. What the fuck, man?” he croaked.
“Your parents are on a quick road trip to Delaware. They’re undisturbed at the moment. Nonetheless, now you know how it feels to have an unwanted person at your doorstep.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Jason was panting hard.
His pulse beating at the side of his neck could be seen.
Lovely…
I scoffed. “Oh, you know exactly what I’m talking about, Mr. Anderson.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” he cried like a bitch. “Please! Just don’t kill me!”
Jason wasn’t convincing. There were several levels of fear in a man when accosted. I could recognize when a man instinctively knew he was soon on his way to the afterlife. That’s not what I was reading from Jason, which made him more of a concern. It didn’t matter that I had no intention of harming him tonight. While he feared me to a degree, Jason thought he was smarter, as though he was in the lead on the chessboard.
I sat up in my chair and rested my elbows on the desk of a vacant office the resort manager offered for my last-minute request. “I have no desire to hurt you, young Jason, and I’d never send my men to do it for me.” I shrugged with my mouth. “I learned you showed up to my home unexpectedly, and unfortunately my fiancée nor I was available to make your acquaintance.” I opened my palms, observing Jason’s eyes blossoming when the revelation hit. “I’m here now. What can we do for you?”
“I didn’t come for you, Ellis. I came for Bilan, and you know it!”
Last night, Jason showed up to my high-rise, asking to be directed to Sadik Ellis’ apartment to visit Bilan Asad-Yasin. When they determined he wasn’t expected—as he wouldn’t be since we’d moved out indefinitely, though I still owned the place—he was told she was unavailable and he could not go up. Desperate as the fuck he is, Jason left a note for her instead.
“Well, what I know is I’m her fiancé and the father of her child. Whatever business you have with her can be run by me.”
The corny motherfucker gritted his teeth. “It cannot!”
“But it can. And to prove it, I’ll read to you that bullshit ass letter you left her.” I grabbed my other phone from next to me where a photo of the letter was stored.
Jason’s eyes widened even more. “I didn’t leave that for you to read! It ain’t addressed to you!”
See…
There was more terror in that yelp than it was when he asked not to take his life. Jason was a fucking coward, the scum of the goddamn earth. He was the type to call the pigs on another Black man for building a fence in the yard that wasn’t in compliance with the development’s rules.
“See, this is what you don’t understand, son. It was left at my high-rise for my fiancée. This makes it my business. Even the part here,” I tapped and scrolled until I came upon the passage that struck me the most. “where you say you can protect her and her baby if she wanted to leave me.”
“Don’t read that!” he screamed.
“I don’t care to read the other unrequited crushin’ bullshit.” I pushed my phone away. “I’m coming here to tell you explicitly to leave her the fuck alone. Stay the hell away.”
“Let her tell me that!”
“She hasn’t?” I asked.
“She hasn’t said anything. She upped and left…stopped returning my phone calls, texts, and emails. How do I know she’s safe? And the baby—”
“Don’t fuckin’ speak about my son.” My delivery was as calm as I was capable under such circumstances.
“He’s her son, too! I just want to be sure they’re fine.”
“If I texted, called, and email a woman to no avail, I’d get the hint of her not wanting to be bothered.”
“What are you doing to her, Ellis?” His face enflamed, freckles darkened.
I sat back in my seat, tossing my head in a shrug. “All the shit you wanted, but couldn’t get. Fuckin’ her right, making her a mother, giving her the world, and making sure she’s so happy and full of me, she doesn’t have the time to take calls from boys like you.”
“And you don’t expect for me to just take your word, do you—”
“Don’t ever try to reach out to her again,” I spoke over him, yet keeping my voice calm. “From man to man. I’m asking you to never attempt to contact Bilan again.”
“Or else what?” Jason’s face tightened with indignation. “You going to send your father’s assassins after me again?”
“My father has nothing of what you speak. Neither am I issuing any threats tonight. Please check in on your parents, though. Their trip has been delaye
d due to car issues.”
“Wha—what?” he croaked just before the phone was snatched from him. “What did you just say, Ellis?” I could still hear him from a distance. “Ellis!”
Jamil’s footsteps out the house could be heard, though the screen was dark. “Muthafucka pee’d his fuckin’ pants,” he muttered, annoyed.
The call with me was disconnected, and Rory continued talking with Jamil from her phone as he got in the car and pulled off.
A deep breath expelled from my belly, awakening me somehow. I rolled from one side to the other, keeping my eyes closed. The riveting sounds of the ocean’s waves breaking at the shoreline immediately brought Sadik to mind. The flutter in my belly brought Sadik to mind—the other Sadik.
My baby…
My eyes burst wide. Right away, my bladder cried. I shifted off the bed and took long lunges into the bathroom. The baby slept with us last night. As his father slept hard, I was up and down with Sadik, feeding and changing him, or simply adoring him as he slept in his bassinet. He was truly a beautiful baby, and I enjoyed taking care of him. Having a nanny had huge benefits, but there was nothing like meeting the needs of the creature you created.
I guessed being up and down during the night caught up to me at some point this morning, because I obviously slept so hard, I didn’t hear either Sadik awake, or when they left. That concerned the over-achiever-mom in me. After washing my hands, I went to the deck and peered over the railing.
There they were, Sadik and Sadik, on the beach, relaxing under the overcast sky. Sadik cranked classical music from his device as they gazed toward the water. The sight eased something inside me. Peace. It’s what I felt. It’s why I decided to go back into the bathroom to shower and toss on a bikini for the day.
I did just that and headed downstairs to say good morning to the Ellis men properly and feed Sadik as his father fed me. We sat out there for hours, talking, listening to Sadik’s instrumental tunes, and enjoying a break from the reticent sun. I couldn’t think of time better spent.
I ambled out on the beach after putting Sadik down for a nap. He’d stayed awake all morning before finally crashing. Then I checked my emails and edited the last page of the final paper of the semester while indulging in a few tequila shots. Tomorrow, I’d go through the entire paper with a careful eye before sending it off, completing my first year of grad school.
Now, as I skipped down the warm sanded floor to the sexy orange man in the lounge chair my belly fluttered. I could see the billows of smoke over his head. Sadik was enjoying a cigar. My nipples tingled and feet moved even faster. When I reached him, I sat across his lap and grasped the stogie from between his fingers. In haste, I took a deep pull and nearly choked to death.
“The hell are you doing?” he cawed while stifling laughter.
I fought to breathe through constricted lungs, coughing until tears tracked down my face. When I was able to, I howled in laughter myself.
“How do you smoke these things?” I asked.
“For starters,” he thumbed the tears from my cheeks. “by not inhaling. Cigars aren’t cigarettes.”
“Or weed,” I managed while clearing my throat.
Then I tried again without inhaling. This time, I didn’t choke, but my throat felt raw.
“What do you know about weed?” Sadik asked.
I giggled, readjusting myself so I could straddle him. “That it makes me paranoid and doesn’t get me half as horny as your golden-skinned head does.” I kissed him.
At first, it was a peck. Then his submission to the kiss made me want more. I kissed him again, this time pushing my tongue between his soft lips. They parted for me easily and the warmth of his palm on my hip aroused me even more. Our tongues slid over one another, lips brushed back and forth, and before I knew it, I was thrusting against his erection.
With closed eyes, he pulled away and rasped, “Your period come?”
I shook my head and leaned in again for more of his oral pleasure. My taut nipples pushed against his hard, inked chest. Sadik’s grip on my hip pushed up to my cheek and his torso lifted to meet my face as though he was just as hungry for me.
He pulled back again, this time with opened, narrowed eyes and panting. “Unless you want to get fucked in front of our staff, you better stop.”
Flustered myself, I climbed off of him with a puddle in my bikini bottoms and settled onto the lounge next to his. I planted myself practically beneath his hard frame, wanting to be as close as possible. This was frustrating. I didn’t know how to reconcile my inherent attraction to him against the fighting we did, and the colored history we’d accumulated in no time. Being in a real, sexual relationship felt overwhelming.
Sadik pulled the lounger close to his with me on it. Then raptly, I watched him light his cigar. He pulled and blew a puff into the air, all the while his attention was back to the water.
Watching those simple things were captivating to me.
“How have you been enjoying your time in St. Justin, Nalib?”
I ripped my eyes from him. “Well, you allowing me to sleep late two days in a row, and not barking at me while working out…” I took a deep breath. “Sex with orgasms—and one I thought would kill me because it wouldn’t stop…” My eyes flashed wide. “Ooh! And that romp yesterday behind the waterfall…” I nodded with a wide smile and narrowed eyes. “Just fine, I’d say. Mighty fine, Ellis.”
Sadik laughed. “You’re so damn silly.”
I knew my smile was goofy and didn’t care. I reclined more in my chair, my legs stretched out as I admired the roaring water. It was cooler outside today. The sun rested above the clouds. The breeze was relieving and humidity low.
“Yesterday, I thought you were going to miss the bullseye,” I snickered.
“Pardon me.” I heard the rumble in his chest and that tickled me.
“When you bent me over, I thought since you were being so covert, you were going to poke in error.”
“Poke in error?” Sadik chuckled. “I’m too old to be missing the target.”
I reached over and nuzzled into his neck, feeling prickles from the stubble on his cheek and chin. “I was hoping you would.”
I felt his frame steel. After a beat, he asked, “Wished I’d what?”
I shrank, suddenly embarrassed. “You know.”
“Do I?” His words reverberated in my chest, halfway splayed over his. “What? Fuck your ass?”
My butt cheeks squeezed and I nodded. Then my brazenness dwindled, I rolled back on to my lounge fully and scoffed, “You’re probably too big for that anyway.” My volume faltered as I turned away.
For the next minute or two, Sadik and I sat in silence. I regretted my liquid courage. It was a topic I should have held onto for a little while. It’s what I got for reading so many romance novels with erotica. I rolled my eyes, careful of how heavy I breathed. I was shrinking by the second.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!
“I’ll answer your every desire, Nalib,” his smooth alto awakened me back to the conversation.
Those kaleidoscopic-hued marbles were on me, thick brows wild and narrowed. Sadik was as earnest as I’d ever seen him.
“You have,” I muttered sheepishly.
He turned away, taking another puff from his cigar. My thoughts traveled. Being on vacation was new to me, too. The only concerns I had were finishing up the paper for school and deciding where we’d settle into as a family. The apartment in New York City, though contemporary and chic, was too small and not fitting for an active child. It wasn’t even fitting for a larger-than-life persona like Sadik’s. And there was that other issue of my period. It had been long overdue.
Then there was the Ellis family. Something felt off about them. Yes, the two eldest men of the family were down with ailments, but a shift had happened. The Ellis family’s cohesiveness as a unit felt…weakened.
“Have you heard from your parents?”
Sadik nodded. “I speak to queen every day.”
; “How is she? I need to call your father today. Maybe Facetime him with Sadik at dinner.”
“You won’t be having dinner with Sadik tonight. You’ll be with his father.”
Ohh…
“Then I need to go to the store.” I lay back on the lounger.
“For what?”
“A few things. No biggie. You think Rory can drive me?”
I felt his hand on mine, and I peered over to him. “We’ll get you there.”
That simple acquiesce gave me an emotional rush and I jumped him again. My mouth was on his, my arms and hands framing his head and shoulders. The pulse in my neck didn’t concern me, neither did the clenching of my sex as I rolled over him. What did alarm me was my willingness to engage in public copulation with my fiancé.
“Marry me,” Sadik asked between tongue laves in my mouth.
His heavy-lidded eyes held me captive. I wanted him so bad my body trembled as I rolled over his tight frame. His hand slipped beneath the band of my bikini bottom. The other stroked down my spine, causing me to shiver.
“Yessss…” I expressed with a sibilant at the end.
“Now?” He pulled my bottom lip in between his and roved his tongue over it.
I nodded, wanting him inside me immediately. Willing him to make it happen.
“Mr. Ellis, Ms. Bilan, your guests have arrived.”
My head whipped toward the thick-accented voice and found three bellmen placing a wide coffee table and loungers next to us, and placing trays with drinks and food on it.
But the most surprising find was Julius and…
“Keisha?” I shrilled, halfway confident of getting her name right.
The Richards strolled hand in hand down the beach, smiling our way.
“Goddamn, Ellis!” Julius shouted. “And here I thought you were a dominant.”
I clambered off of Sadik faster than I knew was possible, my mouth wide open and eyes not much different.
Keisha nudged her husband. Julius ignored the scolding and continued our way. They were intercepted by more staff members of the property, running in chairs and towels. I squatted on the opposite side of Sadik.
