by Noire
Malisha climbed in her car and put her head down on the steering wheel. She was ready to fall out from stress and exhaustion. She hadn’t been sleeping at night because every time she closed her eyes her mind either took her toward the horror of reliving the accident, her money problems, or the shame of getting caught stealing from her job.
If she had just gone home the usual way! If only she wasn’t in such a damn rush! In all that rain, why in the hell had she been driving so fast anyway?
Part of her wanted to get mad at Jamel for leaving her and Trey alone with no life insurance, but she forced herself to squash that noise in her head. It’s your damn fault you have to raise Trey alone! Malisha chastised herself. Jamel wanted to be here! You had a damned good man!
And it was true too. Jamel might not have been able to leave them a phat insurance policy or nothing, but at least he had taken care of them while he was alive. Her husband had been a do-right man. The kind of black king who rode a big white horse and made sure his queen and his castle were protected every single day.
And Malisha really missed that. She missed having a man to hold her close and slay life’s dragons for her. She needed her a warrior. A battle buddy. A combat soldier who would just bust up in the joint and blast all her troubles away. Malisha need a man who could help her stop reliving the past and show her the way to a future. A man who could be a father to her son. She needed another do-right man who would get up and check on Trey in the middle of the night. Someone who would drive her baby to his music lessons and pay for them too.
A man like Noble Browne.
8
It was the last day of a long workweek when Noble looked up and saw a familiar face from his past. Friday afternoons were always the jump-off for his weekend. He had no problem putting in city work for five days straight, but his weekends were all about mentoring high-risk little boys and showing them how to become a good black man, or chilling with one of his honeys and showing her how she was supposed to be treated by a good black man.
Noble had a full weekend ahead of him, and he wasn’t gonna be neglecting nobody. Tonight it was gonna be all about sexy Kiki, and since tomorrow was Saturday, he’d promised to take Zsa baby to a merchandise fair down in the garment district, and later on in the day he was planning to take little Trey uptown to his Saturday music lessons, and then chill with Malisha for the rest of the night.
Standing in the middle of his grid, Noble mentally reviewed his game plan. His body was waving traffic through and nodding at pedestrians, but his mind was definitely on his three chicks. Noble was imagining the freaky lap dance he was sure to get from Kiki, when he spotted her: Sissy Tarver.
Fine ass, sweet-titty, gangsta booty, Sissy Tarver.
Sissy was a number one stunna. Tall, and lumped up in the front and in the back, she had caramel skin, hazel eyes, and long, thick hair.
The last time Noble had seen her he’d just lost his leg. Sissy had been working at the hospital and had recognized his name on a medical chart. Noble had been too doped up and out of it to really talk to her then, but looking at her now brought his adolescent years flooding back to his mind.
Noble and Sissy had gone to Thomas Jefferson High School together, which was located deep in the heart of Brooklyn. Back then, the student body had consisted mostly of rowdy kids from Brownsville and East New York, and over the years the rate of crime, dropouts, drug use, and assaults had soared sky high.
Noble had been one of those kids who managed to straddle the fence and ride the line in high school. He’d rolled hard with his manz and got down with multiple honeys, but he also got his work done in class and studied hard to get into college.
Back in those days Noble had been tall and good looking, but on the skinny side. He wasn’t a basketball star, or a standout on the football team or nothing hot like that, but he was chill and well-liked and smoove with his flow game. Popular with the girls, Noble had snuck his hands into his fair share of cookie jars. But the one chick that he’d really wanted—the chick that every swinging dick nig in the entire school wanted—had been way outta his reach.
And now, the sight of Sissy Tarver making her way across Noble’s intersection brought back all of those old horny-young-dog memories. Sissy had been the typical around-the-way girl. She’d lived next door to Noble’s favorite aunt in the projects of Brownsville, and as a young girl she had come up fast and loose.
Raised by her alky father, Sissy had a rep for giving it up hot and dirty. Dozens of nigs claimed to have gotten some of that, and dozens more were on a waiting list trying to get some.
Noble had been one of them dudes always waiting on the list.
Sissy was crazy-fine back then, and she had a way of moving her grown woman’s body that made the rest of the girls at Jeff look like preschoolers. Just like all the other young dicks, Noble had been bent on her. He’d spent hours fantasizing about banging her up against a locker, on the school staircase, or up under his fuckin’ bed, if he could.
The juicy sex Sissy was rumored to lay down on a niggah was exactly the kind of freaky shit that Noble’s sixteen-year-old hormones were raging for. But between the star athletes and the corner thugs, Sissy’s shit had stayed locked up. A regular dude like Noble couldn’t even get close to her, because Sissy was a choice piece of ass, and only ballers with high status or mad doe to spend were invited to step up in her grill.
It was during their senior year that Sissy had fallen off. First her father had died, and her uncle moved in to take over the apartment, and then Sissy upped and dropped outta school with only six months left to go. Word on the ave was that she was pregnant by a local drug dealer, and not too much after that Sissy got knocked by the blue boys and sent upstate for transporting drug money for her baby’s daddy.
But Sissy’s life troubles didn’t cast no shade on Noble’s game. He’d graduated from Jeff, and gone on to college and forgotten all about Sissy. At Morehouse there had been plenty of chicks with banging bodies just like hers, and Noble had slapped bellies with as many of them as he could.
It was sometime later when Noble’s aunt told him that Sissy had served a two-year stint in prison before her lawyer got her out on some kind of technicality. But even though Sissy had come home to the projects and started getting her shit together, the daughter she’d had while in prison had already been placed in the foster system and was lost to her.
And now, watching Sissy Tarver move toward him stoked up some real old feelings in Noble’s gut. She still looked good, and she still moved her body the same way, but after more than ten years her lumped up parts were more like puffed up now. She was in no way fat, but she wasn’t high-school tight, neither. All that long curly hair that used to catch Noble’s eye was gone too. She had a shoulder-length cut that was a’ight, but it didn’t even come close to looking as sleek and glamorous as Noble remembered it.
“Noble Browne!” Sissy yelled, waving as soon as she peeped him.
Noble stepped out of the grid and met her on the corner.
“S’up, Sissy,” he said, leaning over to give her a friendly kiss on the cheek. “Good to see you again.”
“Nah,” she grinned, flashing that cute dimple that used to drive boys like Noble wild. “It’s good to see you. So you’re up on your feet and back at work, huh? It was crazy hearing that you’d got shot. I came by your hospital room one day but you were asleep. The next time I came back, you were gone. Discharged to a rehab facility, somebody said.”
She held her arms out and looked Noble up and down appreciatively. “It looks like whatever therapy they did for you in there really worked.”
Noble grinned and nodded. “Yeah, the rehab was pretty tough, but I made it through. I’m just glad to have a job and be back in the swing of things.”
Sissy nodded. “Oh, I knew you’d be up and at it in record time. You were one of those real determined dudes when we were growing up, Noble. Always pushing and striving. I wish I had been more like you back then.”
; “Hey, it’s all about finding a way to pull ourselves up when we get down,” Noble said, then smiled real bright. “And it looks like you did that for yourself, Sissy. You still wearing scrubs, so that means you’re still working at the hospital, huh?”
She nodded. “Yep. I passed my boards, and now I’m officially a nurse. I just landed a job at the hospital up the street, and it’s good to be working and filling in wherever I’m needed.”
It was Noble’s turn to nod. “Cool. That’s what’s up. You seen my aunt Cathy lately?”
“I see her every day,” Sissy said. “She’s been real sick over the past few months, so I try to get over there early in the morning, and then I usually call her at night to check on her.”
“You still living in the apartment next door to her?”
“Yep. I sure am. With my uncle. You should swing through and see her sometime. She’s always talking about you. I know it would mean a lot to her.”
“I’ma do that,” Noble said firmly. His aunt had been one of his biggest cheerleaders when he was a kid. She was a constant in his life, and even though she was sick and couldn’t get around too tough anymore, when he got shot she’d sent his favorite homemade sweet potato pie to the hospital to cheer him up.
“Yeah,” he repeated. “I’ma do that.”
Noble was shamed to learn that Sissy had been spending time and taking care of bizz with his fam, yet he hadn’t even remembered to drop his Aunt Cathy a phone call.
A car horn beeped and Noble glanced toward his intersection, and then kissed Sissy’s cheek again and told her good-bye. The sight of her had just thrown a curve ball in his weekend plans, and a couple of his honeys might have to get bounced around a little bit on the schedule.
“I’ma swing by this weekend,” he called over his shoulder and assured Sissy as he headed toward his grid box. He watched her hips sway down the block. “Yeah. I’ma definitely do that.”
9
Noble’s first stop on Saturday mornings was always the barbershop. His father Bam had started taking him to Baldy’s when he was three, and after staying up half the night putting in work with Kiki, Noble got up bright and early and spun his fresh Mercedes 550 GL down the streets of Brooklyn.
He thought about his sweet little white girl as he sat in Baldy’s chair. Their sex thang had been scrumdeelicious, and he couldn’t imagine where the innocent, soft-spoken honey had learned to move her body like that.
“Damn,” he’d said as Kiki stood in front of him on one leg and raised the other one almost straight up in the air. After using her lips and tongue to roll a condom down over his dick, she had stood up to model her crotchless thong and fishnet stockings. Noble could only moan as her toned legs scissored sexily, and the soft blond hairs on her pussy peeked out from between her split thighs.
“You real flexible, baby,” he said admiringly as she threw her head back and curved her spine in a backward C. Her luscious hair was so thick and long it actually touched the floor behind her.
Grinning, Kiki had wound her spine in a counterclockwise direction as she slowly lowered her leg and raised her upper body. Standing straight up again, she danced to some imaginary beat that seemed to be banging through her soul. Her eyes fluttered closed as she gripped her milkshake-thick titties and played with her strawberry-colored nipples.
“Let Papa handle that for you,” Noble panted as he reached out and encircled her taut waist with his big hands. He guided Kiki closer as she wriggled and gyrated and got both of them all worked up.
Noble pressed his lips to her breast and sucked her erect pink nipple onto his tongue. Kiki moaned and squeezed her thighs together as a jet of hot cream leaked from her pussy. Still licking and sucking, Noble cupped her soft mound and tangled his dark fingers in her silky pubic hair. He rubbed her juicy clit for a moment, then he slid his thick middle finger up inside her wet pussy and bit down on her nipple.
“Oh, yeah,” Kiki moaned. Her hips rocked deliciously as Noble thrust his long finger in and out of her with a steady, erotic rhythm. Her pussy leaked pure sugar, and pretty soon the palm of his pumping hand was full of her sweet cum.
Removing his finger from her slurping wetness, Noble pulled Kiki closer, then held her by the waist and lifted her straight up in the air. Kiki was extra cooperative as she held her legs out and then straddled his lap. Noble positioned her pussy over the head of his rock-hard dick, and Kiki gasped as he entered her and filled her slit with eight inches of throbbing black dick.
Using his strong arms, Noble raised and lowered Kiki over his lap. The muscles in his arms and chest flexed and rippled as he controlled the rhythm, pace, and speed of her ride. Kiki held on to his shoulders and enjoyed the thrill. She felt a little off balance due to his missing right leg and thigh, but she compensated by pressing her big toe to the floor and using it for support.
With her pussy getting thoroughly soaked and scuffed, Kiki leaned back so Noble’s dick could pound her from a different angle. She looked down between their bodies and saw all that big black wood going up in her gut, and just the contrast between their skin was enough to make her lose it. She pressed his face to her breast and guided her aching nipple into his mouth, and then she came hard. Bucking like a bull. Hard enough to rock them on the chair. But Noble had her. He held her tight as her body shook and shuddered with pleasure.
And he kept right on holding her as she leaned forward and slipped her tongue between his lips. Noble was almost there too. He slid his hands under her jiggling ass and pumped up into her with greedy, demanding strokes. His dick felt so hard and swollen he was scared he was gonna bust out of the condom. Instead, he bucked crazily three more times, then exploded like a bomb and filled the thin piece of plastic to the brim.
It was a damn good thing Baldy had a smock over him because just thinking about how good he’d fucked Kiki had Noble’s dick rock hard and aching in his pants. The girl was a beast with her body, and Noble could see himself wanting to stay up in those guts for a good, long time.
But there were other chicks who were demanding of his time as well.
It was like Zsa Zsa had a lo-jack on him or something. Noble’s dick had gone down, and he had just gotten up out of Baldy’s chair and laid a twenty on the old man when his cell phone rang with Zsa Zsa’s special ringtone.
“If a bitch get a attitude, pop it like it’s hot!”
Noble snatched the phone off his waist.
“Hello?”
“So since Baldy’s finished, are you ready to come to get me?”
Damn! This chick was on it!
“How’d you know he just got done? You sitting outside with some binoculars on me or something?” Noble couldn’t help it. He looked over both his shoulders, then ran over and peered out the front plate-glass window.
“Where are you?”
Zsa Zsa laughed. “I’m at my crib. Where do you think?”
“I don’t know,” Noble said half seriously. “For all I know you camped out on a rooftop somewhere with a tracking device on my ass.”
“Noble Browne!” Zsa Zsa laughed again. “You play too much!”
“Who said I was playing?”
“You better be. Are you on your way, or what?”
Noble lifted his chin at Baldy as he pushed through the door and headed to his car.
“Yeah, baby. I’m coming. I gotta run back to the crib and shower real quick, then I’ll be on my way.”
“Noble!” she whined in her sweet, sexy voice. “That’s gonna take too long! Why don’t I just meet you at your place? I can clean up while you shower, then we can leave from there.”
Whoooa, hell no! Noble almost shouted. Zsa Zsa was a spontaneous free spirit and that’s what he dug about her. But the girl was trying to do too much, and lately she’d been exhibiting some real questionable traits. It was bad enough that they both worked for traffic control and she knew a lot of his boys, but Zsa Zsa was nosy as hell too. She was always asking all kinds of questions, and sometimes she tried to clo
ck his moves like she was the chosen one and they were already married.
The last time she’d spent the night with him Noble had busted her going through his contact list on his iPhone. He could have sworn she was using the share contacts feature and sending herself some treasured information. He had started playing her real close after that, and the next time he took her to the crib he’d peeped her trying to clock for the code on his security system!
As much as he was feeling her, Noble had almost dropped Zsa Zsa’s ass. He couldn’t be with no chick he couldn’t trust. And one of his favorite sculptures had turned up missing around that time too. Noble couldn’t swear it was Zsa who took it ’cause he’d recently run his other two babes through the bat cave too, but Zsa had been the only one who was overly interested in the sculpture, and she had asked him all kinds of questions about it.
“You got a lot of nice stuff in here, Noble,” she’d complimented him, holding up his prized granite sculpture of a roaring black panther. “Why is this one your favorite?”
“I don’t know.” Noble had shrugged and told her, “Maybe because when I was little I always wanted to go on a safari. I used to imagine myself climbing trees and slaying prey and shit like a black panther. I asked my pops one time if he could take me on an African safari, and he said yeah. I shoulda known he was just bullshitting. I didn’t have no mother, so Pops had to work every day. We didn’t have time for no foolishness like that. But I’ve always had a thing for panthers. Safaris too.”
Noble had shut the conversation down after that, letting Zsa Zsa know with his body language that he was through talking about it.
“That’s really sad,” she’d said, ignoring his posture and his silence. “I bet if your mother had been alive you woulda been able to go on your safari. Or at least she woulda figured out a way to bring the safari to you. I’m sorry you never got that, Noble.”
