Strong Loving

by Niobia Bryant

  He was the master at it. Slow and methodical. Deep sucks. Soft flickers. Kisses. Hot words of praises. All of it. The best. Just the best.

  A true candy licker.

  “Ah,” she sighed, pressing her feet against the edge of the sofa and gripping the back of his head with one hand as she slowly rocked her hips back and forth against his mouth.

  “It’s gonna cum. Oh, God, Kaleb. I’m going to cum,” she gasped as she felt her climax building in her core until she quivered in anticipation of the ultimate high.

  “Cum in my mouth,” he moaned before sucking her clit so deep until his mouth and face were buried between her lips.

  “I’m going to cum in your mouth,” she promised.

  He released one thigh to ease his thick middle finger inside her to tickle her g-spot.

  And that sent her over the edge.

  Zaria took a deep inhale that sounded strangled as she climaxed. “Yes!” she screamed.

  Kaleb locked his free hand around her thigh to lock her in place as he continued to suckle her to a long, wonderfully torturous explosion as he eased his finger from her core and down inside her other hole.

  Her tears flowed and she quivered as she gave in to the pleasure, reaching under her shirt and bra to tease her own nipples. She cursed. She hollered. She didn’t care. It was good but one thing could make it better.

  “Put it in,” she pleaded. “Now.”

  She felt him jerk his jeans and boxers down around his hips a second before he used his strong hips to guide his hardness inside her with one strong thrust.

  They both cried out.

  He bent down to suck a taut brown nipple into his mouth as he pumped away between her thighs. His pace was fast and furious.

  Deep.

  Heart pounding.

  She locked her feet around his waist and let her hands grip his head and his back. The sweat beading his muscled body slickened her touch. She felt his dick swell even more inside her.

  “You came?” she asked looking up at him with dilated eyes.

  “A little bit,” he admitted.

  She licked his mouth.

  He cried out.

  She did it again. And again. And again.

  “Shit,” he swore. “You nasty, baby.”

  “I am?” she asked feeling emboldened.

  And his ebony eyes darkened because he knew what was next. They were familiar with each other. Knew the kicks to please each other.

  “Stand up,” she ordered him.

  She moaned at the feel of his hard inches sliding out of her as he did. She eyed his dick, still moist with her juices, as she looked up at him with her head tilted to the side to take his smooth thick tip into her mouth.

  “Oooooh shit, Zaria,” he gasped, his knees buckling.

  She sucked him so deeply her cheeks caved. Taking more of him into her mouth she enjoyed the feel of his hardness against her tongue. Opening her throat, she took in more inches.

  Kaleb gave her two small double pumps of his hips as he pursed his lips and released a low howl.

  She swallowed, tightening her throat down on his tip.

  He squealed.

  Smiling, she pulled her head back to free his inches before ending with a circle of her tongue around his thick tip. “Again?” she asked.

  “Wait. Wait. Wait. I’m trying my best not to cum,” he begged off, putting a hand to her forehead to prevent her from taking him into her mouth again.

  She knocked his hand away and dipped her head.

  He stepped back and grabbed his curving length. “I want to get back inside of you. I don’t want to cum yet,” he said. “Turn over.”

  She shook her head. “Sit down,” she said, pointing to the low-slung ottoman.

  He did.

  Zaria stood and pulled her t-shirt over her head and then reached behind herself to unsnap her bra, letting it fall down her arms and to the floor.

  Following her lead, he removed all of his clothing until he was naked as well.

  She straddled his legs as he held his curving hard inches upward for her to slide down on. “Yes,” she sighed with a small laugh of contentment at his thick hardness pressing against her walls and filling her. “You feel so good.”

  “I do?”

  “Yessss,” she moaned.

  Kaleb grabbed her buttocks, massaging the softness as she gentle bounced up and down on his lap. “You playing but that right there is gonna make me cum,” he warned her with his eyes smoldering before he lowered his head to press kisses to her cleavage.

  “It’s like my pussy is molded to your dick,” she said, licking her lips. “Like a perfect fit.”

  He looked up with a glint of humor in his eyes. “You couldn’t take it all at first,” he reminded her.

  “I said molded,” she countered with a little smile.

  “A perfect fit,” he said.

  “Absolutely,” she agreed, wrapping her arms around his neck.

  “That’s my pussy,” he told her.

  “Completely,” she promised him softly as she lowered her head to kiss him as they rocked back and forth sending his hard inches in and out of her with a delicious pace that sent their hearts pounding, pulses races, and climaxes on the rise.

  Hotly they panted into each other’s open mouth. Lost in each other. High off their passion. Eyes locked. Limbs entwined. They rode each other to an explosive nut. Together. Shivering. Sweating. Crying out. Clutching at each other. Free-falling into the abyss.

  ∞

  Nearly an hour later they sill lay atop the large ottoman with one of the throw blankets over their nakedness. Laying together in the stillness. Surrounded by the quiet.

  “I love you, Kaleb,” she said as she lifted her head from his chest and looked into those deep and dark eyes of his.

  “I love you, too. Always,” he promised, his hand lightly stroking the small of her back.

  She took a breath because the next words were not easy, but definitely necessary. “This was not reconciliation,” she began.

  His body stiffened beside her.

  Zaria sat up, letting the blanket drop around her waist. “I need to make sure of what I want and that takes time. And you may not think so but you need time to decide if this is what you want, too.”

  He remained silent but his eyes were locked on her.

  “You didn’t trust me to tell me the truth about the business troubles and that is a sign of a bigger problem, Kaleb,” she said. “Whether you want to admit it or not.”

  He sat up and rose from the ottoman, shoving the blanket away. “You still want a divorce?” he asked, his eyes squinted and his voice hard and unrelenting. “What was the purpose of telling you the truth if you’re going to leave anyway?”

  “You didn’t tell me the truth,” she said, rising as well. “I overheard you telling your father.”

  “But we’re a team?” he asked in sarcasm before he strode away with the muscles of his legs flexing as he moved.

  “Kaleb,” she called behind him as he continued towards the hall.

  He stopped and turned to her; his inches swinging back and forth across the tops of his thighs as he did. “You want to go? Then go,” he said, pointing towards the door. “Get the hell on. I don’t want to put too much on you. Jump ship while it’s sinking, right?”

  That hurt. That her husband thought so little of her and her loyalty to him. To their family.

  His words took what little fight she had mustered for their love right on out of her. Like sails without wind. Deflated.

  She quickly picked up her clothes and got dressed before she walked to the door and left without looking back at him or the life they once shared.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  One month later

  “Payroll made?” Kaleb asked his brother Kaeden.

  “Payroll made,” he answered with a nod.

  “Good,” Kaleb said, sitting back in the chair before his brother’s desk in the renovated brick home that housed his Walterboro
office. “I’ll write the checks when I get back to the farm.”

  Kaeden nodded and leaned back in his office chair. “The dairy store is your lifeline right now,” he said, looking down at the printout for the records for KS Dairy Farm. “Income strictly from the sale of milk on a large scale is steadily on the decline. You’re in the red.”

  “One thing I will say is stopping the drinking and really thinking this thing through with a sober head I realize I need to expand my farm-to-table relationships with local eateries. Really focus more domestically until the tariffs are lowered and the market shifts for better export potential. Maybe even expanding the creamery just to tide me over. Hell, to keep me from completely sinking,” he said, sitting forward on the leather chair as he eyed his brother.

  “It's definitely time for a shift or least for a little while,” Kaeden agreed.

  Kaleb nodded but he began to squint as he tilted his head this way and that as he eyed his brother. “You really should wear your glasses,” he finally said.

  “Yes, I know I look like Kahron. I look like Kahron. I look like Kahron,” he repeated with his deep voice. “I’ve been hearing that my whole life.”

  “Sorry but sometimes I have to remind myself who the hell I’m talking to,” Kaleb said.

  “I’m the one with the MBA. So, focus,” Kaeden drawled.

  “Okay.”

  “What’s the plan?” his brother asked.

  To stop missing my estranged wife.

  “What was that?” Kaeden asked, pointing his favorite pen at him.

  Kaleb held up both hands. “What? What was what?”

  “That face you just made. You looked sad for a minute. What were you thinking about?”

  Zaria.

  He did feel sad. He missed her.

  “Nothing,” he lied.

  “Look, I’ve seen some farmers take their own lives in less financial turmoil than you,” Kaeden said, tossing the pen down atop his cluttered desk. “Are you okay?”

  “What?” Kaleb asked with a grimace. “Look, money is tight. I catch all kinds of hell patching to pay my bills and make payroll for thirty employees who rely on me to be able to feed their families, but I love my kids and my family—even you’re goofy sometimes four-eyed ass—so no, I’m not going home to meet The Maker at my own hands. Thankyouverymuch.”

  “Good, I love your mean ass, too,” Kaeden said. “But what was that look?”

  “What do you think it was? My wife left me,” he said in exasperation. “Come on. Stop playin’ and leave that alone.”

  “Go get here. She right in Summerville.”

  She left me when I needed her most. So let her stay in Summerville then.

  “Leave that alone,” Kaleb repeated.

  “Fine,” Kaeden said simply, rising to begin packing his briefcase. “I’ll just lock up for the night. Go home. Eat dinner. Play with my kids. Then... uhm... play with my wife, if you know what I mean.”

  Kaleb had a hot flash of the last time he “played” with Zaria. She had drained him and left him thirsty for more. He shivered at the thought of that swallow.

  Je-sus!

  Kaeden turned off the desk lamp and came around the desk. “You, on the other hand, stay in your feelings, keep your stupid pride, and go home to play with yourself,” he finished with a shrug.

  Kaleb glared at him as he rose from the seat. “To hell with you,” he said, not really meaning with it.

  He followed his brother out of the office and down the short hall to the living room that served as a waiting room. It was the end of the day and it was empty.

  Kaeden opened the front door and held it for him. “I can’t wait to get home to that warm meal, put my kids to bed, and snuggle up to my wife’s warm body,” he continued to taunt his brother.

  “Will you shut up?” Kaleb snapped as they left the office.

  “Man, you are a fool,” Kaeden emphasized as he locked the entry. “A cold and lonely fool.”

  Kaleb stopped by his brother’s luxury SUV before continuing to the street where his Ford-450 pickup was parked. He looked on at Kaeden’s smugness as he unlocked the vehicle’s rear door and set his briefcase on the back seat before opening the driver’s door. “Do you think the creamery and the farm-to-food ideas are good?” he asked, trying to steer the conversation back on a business track.

  “Yeah, I do. As a matter of fact, I have a few restaurant owners as clients here in Walterboro. Summerville and Charleston, too. I’ll gladly get some connections together for you...on one condition,” Kaeden said.

  Kaleb slid his hands into the pocket of his dusty Dickies uniform pants. “What’s that?” he asked, pulling out his key fob.

  “Admit it’s going to tear you up if another man scoops up you’re woman—your wife—while you letting your pride win, fool,” he said, before climbing into his vehicle and soon reversing down the drive.

  Memories flashed.

  Zaria’s face lit by sunlight as she smiled at him in the morning when they woke up together in bed.

  Zaria softly singing to the twins as she held them both in her lap trying her best to get them to peacefully go to sleep.

  Zaria cheering on Kasi as he rounded home plate in a softball game and then turning to jump up and down excitedly before kissing him with all her happiness and enthusiasm.

  Zaria laying out one of her homecooked meals for him. Her collard greens were better than his mother’s but that was his and Zaria’s secret.

  The smell of her body after the shower.

  The feel of her body against his at any time.

  The purrs from the back of her throat as he stroked deep within her kitten.

  And the smile she used to give him each and every time he walked through the door after a long day of work.

  The last month, with the kids at his parents’ and Zaria in Summerville, the house was cold and lonely.

  You never miss your water ‘til your well runs dry.

  Kaleb admitted his well was dry as dust and he missed all the water.

  “Fool.”

  ∞

  Two weeks later

  Zaria was tired.

  She was back working as a bartender. This time she avoided clubs and nightlife and worked during the day at a seafood restaurant that was part of a chain. The pay wasn’t great. The tips were better. And she missed her kids.

  And Kaleb.

  But she was determined to work.

  Two weeks ago, he sent her a check and she’d sent it right back.

  Her intention was twofold. She wanted to prove that she did not need him to survive like some entitled reality TV wife. Secondly, if the farm was in straits, she wanted him to focus his resources on saving the business. Still, she didn’t explain all that to him. She just sent it back.

  Fatigued or no, she was ready to see her kids and on her way to Holtsville.

  As she drove her Range Rover up Highway 17 and passed the road that led to Kaleb’s spread, she picked up her phone. “Call Lisha,” she instructed Siri, the virtual assistant on all iPhones.

  “Calling Lisha.”

  It began to ring.

  “Hello.”

  “Hi, Pops,” she said at the sound of Kael’s voice. “I’m on my way to see the kids.”

  “Oh, good. We’re right here. I got ‘em four-wheelers.”

  “Four-wheelers!” she exclaimed.

  “The little kiddie ones. Nothing big. And Kaleb is showing them how to ride ‘em safely,” he said.

  “Kaleb?” she asked, her heart racing.

  “Yeah, he just got here not long ago. It will be good for the kids to see both of you. Right?” he asked, his expectation of them doing just that very clear.

  “You’re right,” she agreed although she became anxious.

  “Knuckle up and come on,” he said. “A little birdie told me we might even have some peach cobbler coolin’. I heard. Maybe. Who knows?”

  He knew she loved Lisha’s peach cobbler that was the perfect mix of buttery
sweetness.

  “And is the little birdie my Kaliya with her terrible sweet tooth?” she mused.

  He chuckled. “Every parent knows their child. She’s more excited ‘bout the cobbler than the four-wheelers.”

  “That sounds ‘bout right,” she said, smiling at the thought of pressing kisses to her kids’ neck—even Kasi who pretended he didn’t want them because he was a big boy.

  “See you soon,” she promised.

  “Good.”

  She ended the call and slowed down her vehicle. She needed a moment to get her head right. She hadn’t been expecting to lay eyes on Kaleb.

  Six weeks.

  That was the last time she’d seen her estranged husband. Neither had called the other and she stopped coming to the family’s ritual Sunday dinners on the Strong Ranch. Although everyone called and insisted that she was expected to attend, she declined.

  Instead, she made the trek to Holtsville every day after work to see her kids. She still met the ladies for lunch and they’d been to her house for drinks. Her only intention was avoiding Kaleb not the rest of the family.

  But that would soon come to an end.

  Sooner than I’m ready.

  Just last night she had a three-hour-long gabfest with Chanci and Hope where she’d admitted to sometimes sleeping in one of Kaleb’s old T-shirts that still held his scent and having to fight the urge to call him for a no-strings-attached quickie for the good old days. Cold showers and Lifetime movies at night were her new pastime. Even talking to her friends had lost its luster because they seemed centered on making her accept that a relationship like hers and Kaleb was not to meant to last.

  She released a long exhale as she gripped the steering wheel with both hands as she passed the Family Dollar and made the left before reaching Cyrus’ storefront and gas station. She frowned a bit to see all the lights out.

  Hmmm. It’s too early to be closed.

  Her thoughts were still filled with concern for Cyrus Dobbs as she pulled her car to a stop in front of the house. Kael and Lisha were sitting on the porch in their rockers sipping on lemonade. In the distance, Kaleb stood by with his arms crossed over his muscled chest as he watched the kids riding in circles on their four-wheelers. She smiled as she climbed from the SUV and waved to her in-laws before continuing around the vehicle to walk over towards her children.