He Who Is a Protector (Sadik Book 3)

by Love Belvin

  “No matter the length of time Earl needs,” Bilan stated firmly, “we’ll be here supporting him along the way.” Then she righted herself in her seat and grabbed her teacup.

  Before I uttered a word I’d possibly regret, I addressed Joan, Stacy, and Candy. “The rooms, food, and communication details for our guests will be ready shortly?”

  “Yes,” they spoke in unison.

  “Fine.” It was time to close this meeting. I felt like the fucking White House press secretary. “If anyone has questions, now is the time to ask. Otherwise, go through Rory.”

  Over the mumbles of the room, I heard a clear query. “So, what do you want me to do?” Tiffany asked. “Do I have my things brought here?”

  “I don’t see why that’s necessary.” Bilan’s assertion was not a friendly one.

  That comment jarred me momentarily speechless.

  “Excuse me?” Tiffany asked her.

  Bilan took a sip from her mug before speaking again. “We don’t know that you’re in danger for sure.”

  Tiff’s face screwed with agitation. “How do you figure?”

  “Earl said you told him the incident with your club happened this morning before Iesha’s near-tragedy. Sadik is now saying it happened this afternoon, after the attempt at the girls’ school. They’ve both said the stores aside your club were shot at, too. There’s no reason to believe the threat involves you.”

  Someone in the room made a sound of scandal in reaction, inciting drama.

  “I don’t owe you shit in details,” Tiffany began. “And I damn sure ain’t asking you if I can stay at my godfather’s place while I’m in danger just like the rest of our family.”

  “Danger, wanger. Wooh!” Bilan fanned her fingers in the air.

  Several uncontrolled snickers sliced the thick air of the room.

  The woman was in rare form. It was one thing to behave with jealousy, but to undermine me in the same setting wasn’t Bilan’s typical persona. That’s when it dawned on me: her state of mind.

  Tiffany’s head whipped over to me. “So, you gone let her talk to me like this?”

  “Bilan, sweethe—” I recognized the error in my words before her eyes cut over to me.

  “Make the fuckin’ call, Sadik!” Bilan demanded through clenched teeth, nose red and chest rising as she was prepared to burst into tears. “Now!”

  I took a deep breath. “Tiffany, Rory will arrange a hotel suite for you until we have definitive answers.” Ignoring her gasp, I addressed the room. “That concludes this meeting. I’ll keep you all abreast as our status improves.” I stood, dismissing the room.

  Quickly, the room began to clear out. Only a few lingered. The table had emptied but for Bilan, who sat with her head bowed over the tea cup setting, face contorted, fists balled. Her shoulders heaved. A commotion near the door shifted my attention there. At least a half a dozen people had descended upon Rory, likely with questions and concerns they were afraid to ask during the meeting.

  Taaliba ambled toward me, her hands expressive already. She, too, was visibly upset by the events of the day. I couldn’t deal with her and my uncontrolled erection at the same damn time.

  “Not right now, Leeb,” I warned her while en route.

  “Wait, Deek,” she squealed, face still distorted. “Don’t you think we need to go over—”

  In my peripheral, Bilan rose from the table, hands still clenched tight. My fucking belly rolled in somersaults, dick fucking pulsing.

  “RORY, CLEAR THE FUCKIN’ ROOM NOW!” I shouted so loud, Taaliba stumbled backward and the room silenced.

  Rory glanced back at me. My regard shifted to Bilan, who stood curled over the table, body trembling.

  “A’ight!” Rory barked, forcefully nudging people back with urgency. She reversed in her journey, and grabbed Taaliba by the arm, pulling her toward the door. “Everybody, outside now! I can talk out there!”

  They were just at the door when Bilan lifted her head exposing her glossed face and belted, “Sadik!”

  ∞12∞

  The door closed as Bilan charged my way. I met her in the middle within three large strides. She leaped onto me, her soft, shaky hands pulled my face toward hers until our mouths collided. She shivered in my arms and against my chest. Her moves hysterical and urgent, and my body responded to it with strange familiarity. She clung to my torso as I marched her to the table, shoving chairs to the floor to make space. I lay her on her back and quickly, Bilan released me to undo her dress pants. She kicked off her heels and kicked her legs until she was freed of every piece of clothing, including her panties.

  She lifted to yank my jacket off, and I knew if I didn’t unbuckle my belt and free my dick myself, she’d possibly hurt it. We worked together until my cock sprung out. Her eyes seemed to dilate at the sight of me, rolling to the back of her head as she grabbed cock, stroking. She brushed the head of my dick against her silken slit.

  Fuck…

  She was wet already. This was her alter-ego. The unpredictable, crazed woman who appeared when my Nalib wanted to escape her mind, perhaps. I didn’t know for sure. All I knew was how to respond, and that I had better respond in the fashion she preferred if I wanted to keep her madness contained. This was my way of protecting my wife.

  When she dipped my erection in her sweet pond, my shoulders shivered. With desperation, Bilan scooted up the table taking me deeper.

  “Please, Sadik,” she cried in a whisper.

  She wanted me to fuck her. Pulling her closer to me, I did just that. I plunged into her with force. Sadly, I wanted to shock her, wake her from this frenzied state. How did I miss this? Why did I not see this coming? When Bilan felt threatened, she’d go into an aroused frenzy. Why did I have her sit through a meeting before addressing this? How could I be remiss on seeing about her first? How much of this episode had been my fault?

  “Harder!” she demanded through clenched teeth.

  Without a moment of faltering, I delivered, diving deeper, harder, pounding into her soaked pussy. I palmed her ass at the neck and fucked her hard, going balls deep. I fucked her for embarrassing me in front of my family and parents’ staff. I fucked her for the threat she posed to me about leaving with my child without batting an eye. I pounded into her for forcing my goddamn hand publicly. I fucked her hard for the fear I felt of losing her for good.

  When I saw her eyes roll to the back of her head again, her jaw collapsing, something in my mind broke, bringing me out of my own fury. That’s when I felt her pussy contracting around me. Bilan was receiving her medicine. She was climaxing. Her hands clenched at my waist, the hem of my shirt balled in her fists as she lifted herself to me for a beating.

  And I couldn’t stop if I wanted to. My body took over, delivering the thrusts the way she needed. It didn’t matter that my mind couldn’t reconcile fucking my wife on my mother’s dining room table. In the moment, it was Bilan’s medical bed and she was demanding what she needed to pull her from this manic state.

  I delivered thrust after thrust, losing myself in the task, ignoring drops of sweat from my head and face falling over her naked body and the table. Before I knew it, Bilan had rolled over into another orgasm, and then another not too long after the second. I didn’t stop my drives until she let go of my shirt and the tension in her body abated.

  When I slowed to a halt, my baby girl’s body went listless beneath me. Her heavy eyes rolled to the side along with her head, her breathing still wild. I pulled out of her, ignoring my erection. My need was of her wellbeing. Bilan looked sedated and I would be okay with that if I was assured she was safe and satisfied.

  Something in my chest ripped and I reached over her, brushing my lips against hers. I kissed her brows, cheek, and neck, grateful for her pulse. As my sweat coated her skin, she lay unmoving, eyes to the side of the room.

  “Nalib—”

  “I lo—ove,” she hiccupped, a tear slipping from her eye. “you, Sadik,” she murmured with little movement of her mouth. />
  With a pounding chest and vibrating frame from such hard drives, I wondered if she meant that or, if in the moment, what she wanted to convey was the need of protection from the woes of mine and my family’s sordid lifestyle. She came so close to one of Popov’s men when she accepted that tray of food. I would have been just as complicit as him had she been murdered. I didn’t protect her, didn’t prepare her for such invasions.

  So, yes. I was angry at Bilan for reacting to my neglect, and I fucked her into oblivion for it.

  My body, wrapped in his suit jacket, throbbed and pelvis ached deliciously as he led me out of the dining room. Sadik’s strong arm enfolded me, tucking me at his side so close I could feel his heartbeat. I felt protected, even if temporarily. The tears had stopped, but my lungs continued to labor violently rigid and I sniffled successively and audibly under his arm. I felt empty, too, and completely drained. All I wanted was my baby and a bed.

  The moment we crossed the threshold, I heard contentious mumbling. My heavy eyes lifted to Rory a couple of yards away, barricading the door from Monica and Taaliba. The sisters were angry with Rory. When Taaliba saw us sauntering out, she moved past Rory and charged our way. Monica was on her heels. I wasn’t prepared to have my anxious state returned, couldn’t endure another episode.

  “Is everything okay?” Taaliba demanded under no guise of pleasantry.

  Her eyes bulleted into her older brother.

  “Yes,” Sadik answered, irritated. “Of course, it is.”

  “Are you sure?” Taaliba asked me.

  When her regard landed on me, I felt sympathy. Monica’s mirrored hers, and then I knew.

  “Bilan, are you okay,” Monica blurted.

  I felt Sadik’s frame tense at the implication.

  I hiccupped, unable to control my diaphragm. “Ye—yesss.” My face felt stiff, swollen from anguish. “I’m oh—kay,” I tried to assure them, tucking myself into Sadik’s frame even farther.

  “We heard you scream in there,” Monica pushed.

  “Yeah,” Taaliba followed. “A lot. And you, too,” she addressed her brother.

  “And?” Sadik growled threateningly.

  The last thing I needed was his temper to flare. The day had been too long.

  “I’m just saying. It didn’t sound good in there.”

  “Couples’ fight, Taaliba.” His rumble further rattled me. “Grow the fuck up.”

  I tightened my hold on his tapered waist, not wanting him to attack her.

  “I am grown, big brother. And I’ve seen the thin line of violence occur between couples.”

  “No one knows that as well as I do,” Monica tried chiming in with a calmer tone. “We’re just worried. That didn’t sound good in there, and we understand the stress today has put on the family. We just want to know you’re good.”

  “You’ve got to be fuckin’ kidding me.” Sadik’s full lips tightened, that cupid’s bow more prominent than ever.

  “That’s what we thought when we heard Bilan scream like she was being attacked. And your toy Rottweiler wouldn’t allow us to do our due diligence. We thought she was going to die for standing up to you or not fucking you, from the sounds of some of those screams!”

  His brows narrowed. “Have you ever known me to lay a hand on a woman?” Sadik challenged.

  “I’ve never known you to be a married man until tonight,” his sister countered with lifted brows. “This day has been filled with discovery.”

  “And it’s time for us to end it.” He urged me to move with a soft push. “I need to put my wife to bed. As have you both, she’s had a traumatic day.”

  We took off, leaving them standing there spooked.

  “Weh—we’ll talk in the morning, ladies,” I promised.

  Sadik led us at a speed uninviting to further conversation.

  Ameliorated…

  Under the blanket of the late night, feeling the signs of life from the people I’m most responsible to, I felt a needed period of peace. The faint yet strong heartbeat I felt over my own as I lay in bed assuaged my rampant contemplations. As Sadik lay asleep on my bare chest, I could feel his soft breaths hit my skin. He’d been picking up weight, but not too much to soothe his old man with his full trust to sleep restfully on top of me. The cool night air flowing from the ajar door of the balcony was welcomed on this unusually warm May night.

  What an eventful day. Popov had made his displeasure on being cut out as my father’s arms distributor known today. I learned after speaking to my father’s men earlier how Popov had been trying to contact my father and Palmer since my father’s heart attack. However, with losing Palmer so soon after the general went down, the Ellis organization shut down in disarray. My father hadn’t named a successor to Palmer until recently. Recently was too late.

  Their world of illegal goods was small. Popov learned there was a new distributor in town when he reached out to Danny Lopez and was informed his services were no longer needed. It didn’t take long to piece together he’d been replaced, and that made Popov a very salty Russian. My father was insistent on meeting with him, but I planned on arguing against it. He wasn’t strong enough. Double E Bags never showed fear or weakness. Now wasn’t the time to start. Iban’s selfish actions at my high-rise put my father at greater risk.

  I had my own shit to hold. Jefferson informed me two days ago, Jason reported to the FBI the visit I arranged to his home and his parents’ car accident that night while on their way to Delaware. The FBI hadn’t struck but were gathering up as much information as possible before deciding on charges, according to Jefferson. My lawyers assured me their pursuit was baseless, and I agreed. But I didn’t trust being investigated.

  Sadik’s leg abruptly kicked out like an irritated horse, snapping me from my thoughts. He grunted as he stretched on his stomach then let out gas inside his little pamper. My chest vibrated with amusement as I counted down the seconds before I’d smell it. In the meantime, I stroked his little back, no longer than the width of my hand.

  His mother stirred to my right. Her silky naked skin rolled over to me as she moaned softly in her sleep. Her hiked thigh brushed up my leg, her knee stopping near my groin. Her folded arm lay on my shoulder. She breathed a sigh of contentment against me. That soothed me, too. Bilan was safe. No matter how peril her day had been, she’d survived.

  “You didn’t cum,” she mumbled.

  My brows met. Maybe she was talking in her sleep.

  “Sadik,” she whispered.

  “Yeah, baby?”

  “You didn’t cum.”

  “When?”

  “In your mother’s dining room.”

  “I didn’t need to.”

  Her head lifted slightly and her eyes were upon me. “Why didn’t you?”

  My brow line narrowed even more. “Because it wasn’t about me or my needs. It was for you, what you needed.”

  “I need you.”

  “You have me.”

  Laying down again, she snuggled beneath me. “You and this family are all I have.”

  “You have Sadik and me…and the baby you’re carrying. We’re all you need.”

  I felt her head shake against me. “You all are Ellises. The Ellises are a unit. I don’t get to pick and choose.” She yawned. “I want you all.”

  On a huff, I rearranged Sadik and my phone in my arm while gaiting out of Irene’s office from a conference call with the administrative staff at Ellis Academy. We developed a tentative plan for my schedule for, at least, the upcoming week. My role required traveling to several schools a day to review mandated paperwork. Apparently, with the Ellis family on lockdown for the foreseeable future, I wouldn’t be able to travel. According to Sadik, the more we were out assuming our regular activities, we were at risk of being attacked by Earl’s unnamed nemesis. The risk doubled for the women in the family, as we were an easier target.

  Sometime in the early morning, Irene contacted her executive assistant at Ellis Academy and requested the staff work with me
to create an alternate method for my duties to the academy. The call took close to an hour to list all of the documentation I’d need for the schools to gather and send to me electronically for my review. We agreed to take it week by week until I was able to resume being out in the field.

  Oddly, I felt unusually hungry. Or was it strange? This morning, when Sadik had awakened with the sun, I followed him into the shower. While our son slept soundless, I dropped to my knees and pulled him into my mouth. I stroked him with my lips, tongue, and hands until he exploded in my mouth. It was medicinal for me, considering my meltdown in his family’s home last night. Having him exposed and needy for me may have been a showing of that sexual manipulation Sadik had accused me of in the past. I would take it just to be sure I could still affect him in a way that wasn’t with disgust or embarrassment.

  When he was done emptying into my mouth, I gave Sadik a minute to regain himself. Then I stood and fell into his arms, apologizing with invisible tears underneath the showerhead. He tried to assure me there was no need for the regrets, he would take care of me. But I still felt needy. The feeling of sickness had returned because here again, I saw violence in this family and yet had no desire to leave. I didn’t want to leave Elliswoods Palace. It now felt like a tower of protection for my baby and me. We needed that protective covering from Sadik.

  I still can’t believe I’m married…

  It took pilgrimage to make it to Irene’s breakfast room. I could appreciate why she’d serve this particular meal in a room like this. The skylight ceiling illuminated the space better than any electrical lighting could, especially on a particularly sunny day like today. The room was sparsely empty this morning. Monica was alone at the oversized table, and behind her, a kitchen staff was at the buffet table replenishing a dish.

  As we passed her for the buffet, I noticed Monica typing into her phone, completely engrossed. I took my time deciding on what to load my plate with. There was every American breakfast item I could think of before me. Another strange occurrence was how most of it appealed to me. I plucked a spoonful of scrambled eggs, home fries, and what was visibly labeled as turkey bacon. A stainless-steel chaffing bowl of Sadik’s grits were nestled next to creamy oatmeal. Content with the little I selected, I carried the plate with one hand while Sadik quietly rested in my other arm. On the way to the table, I stopped for utensils.