The Ramseys Boxed Set

by Altonya Washington

  Jahzara Frazier didn’t awaken and Jo was glad for it gave her time to study her sister’s features which were so changed, but in many ways still the same. She and Zara were only separated in birth by a mere ten months, but Zara had always been the beautiful one in Jo’s opinion. Zara was the one with the beautiful dark caramel complexion instead of the freckles, pale skin and unusual red hair Jo felt she’d been cursed with.

  Cursed, Jo thought about the word. Clearly, Moses Ramsey hadn’t shared that opinion she acknowledged recalling how stunned she’d been when she first caught his attention. Johari continued to stroke her sister’s hair, but her thoughts were focused on Moses.

  What it’d been like with him! She thought, remembering the intensity that was so exciting. She hadn’t met a man since whose mere presence could arouse her. Moses Ramsey could make her orgasmic without removing a stitch of her clothes. Then, once he’d allowed her to see beyond the intensity and the unsettling coolness to the core of him…there she’d seen the pain that had shaped him.

  Zara began to stir, drawing her sister’s full attention then. “Z?” Jo whispered, leaning down to brush a kiss against her cheek.

  Slowly, Zara’s lashes fluttered and she frowned when her eyes focused in on her sister’s face. She appeared confused-vaguely frightened. Then, she focused in on the mane of sandy-red hair.

  “Jo?” Zara shuddered.

  “Yeah Z,” Jo whispered, her silver stare sparkling with fresh tears. “It’s me, it’s Jo.”

  Zara was still uncertain, backing away and flinching from the contact. She was certain it was another dream.

  Jo kept a firm grip in her sister. “Look at me Z. Feel me?” she said, squeezing Zara’s hands. “This is real. I’m real.”

  “Jo?” Zara spoke again, her own tears sprouting then.

  Laughter eventually set in and the two sisters hugged tightly, shedding the years they’d spent apart. Their embrace tightened each second.

  Zara pulled back to stare at Jo. “I never thought I’d see you again,” she said, reaching out to touch Johari’s face in wonder. “I told myself I wasn’t worthy enough to see you or anyone else I’d ever cared about.”

  “No Z. No, that’s not true.” Jo swore, pressing kisses to her sister’s forehead. “Don’t talk that way.”

  “But I was a whore Jo,” Zara went on as though the words were pouring out of her. “A slut, prostitute-“

  “Honey please, that’s not important now.”

  “I was in bed with Marc Ramsey when Moses found us,” Zara went on, before her brown eyes snapped to her sister’s face. “Where is he? Moses? Where is he?”

  Jo blinked. “He should be here soon,” she said, her features tightening for a split second.

  Zara eyed her curiously, but made no comment. “He was so great. I’ve never been so happy to see anyone-so surprised and-and confused,” she confessed giving a quick shake that sent the clipped locks of her bob flying into her face. “Jo why-why in the world would he come looking for me when his father was the one who…”

  “Sweetie, let’s not talk about this. Not now, okay?” Jo urged.

  “But I need to,” Zara argued, clutching Jo’s hand. “Talking is all I want to do-I want to talk about it all and it’ll damn well do some good. I’m gonna testify.”

  Jo stilled. “Honey are you really up for that?”

  Zara nodded, her expression determined. “I swear I am. I have so much to pay for-all those girls, what happened to Yohan and Mel.”

  “Don’t Z. Now none of that was your fault, you hear? No one blames you for anything but if testifying is what you want to do we’ve got your back. No one’s gonna threaten you ever again. Especially the Ramseys.”

  “So how long have you been in love with Moses?” Zara inquired in a soft tone, smiling when her little sister gasped. “I’ve become an expert in reading expressions, ‘Hon,” she said when Jo just watched her in dumbfounded amazement. “People rarely need to tell me what they’re thinking. I can see it all over their faces.”

  Johari nodded after several seconds. “I um, it-it’s been over for a long time-a very long time.”

  “So, in essence, you’ve been miserable all this time?”

  Jo tilted her head back and groaned. “Honey we really shouldn’t be talking about this now.”

  “Then when?” Zara mused, her expression bright. “Need I remind you baby sis, of all the things we’ve missed out on sharing? -who you wanted to go to prom with, what college you wanted to go to, who you lost your virginity to…I’ve learned not to waste time in getting answers to your questions-no matter how trivial. You’ve no idea what could happen next.” Her smile widened and she leaned back against the pillows on the bed. “Now tell me about Moses and don’t you dare stop talking until I fall asleep.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Johari couldn’t believe her sister’s stamina. They’d talked for two hours and were still going strong when their parents came in to check on things and when Melina stopped in to see her cousins. Finally, the floor nurse came in at the onset of the fourth hour to insist on the patient getting her rest.

  Jo couldn’t recall when she’d felt more refreshed. It was as if some of the weight had been lifted. Zara didn’t judge or criticize when she’d told her about the baby and how finding Moses in bed with a stranger sent her life on a downward spiral that resulted in the loss of her unborn child. Moreover, Zara didn’t judge when Jo admitted the miscarriage had made her happy.

  Her parents had insisted she come with them to Mel and Yohan’s, but Jo wasn’t ready to leave the hospital or relinquish the hotel suite she’d secured in the city. She took refuge in one of the spacious hospital waiting rooms where she camped out on a sofa before the TV. Stretching languidly, Jo smoothed her hands across the flaring sleeves of the gold silk charmeuse blouse she wore. It felt like she was walking on air once the heartbreaking dramas of her life had been shared. To be sharing those events with her sister made the moment even more unreal.

  She was massaging her shoulders; left bare by the drape of the blouse, when she realized she wasn’t alone. Turning to look behind her, she found Moses leaning against the arched doorway of the room. Jo stood, her calm expression fading into one of apprehension.

  “Is Z alright?” she asked.

  “She’s fine,” Moses assured her, stepping father into the room. “Nurses have her sleeping-no visitors,” he emphasized, a knowing smirk sparking the deep dimples on either side of his mouth. “Apparently she wore herself out talking to her baby sister.”

  Jo’s silver gaze widened. “Wore herself out?” she cried, “The girl could’ve gone on for at least four more hours before even feeling a little tired.”

  “How’d it feel to talk to her?” Moses asked, loving the sight of Johari’s own tiny dimple which flashed the instant she smiled.

  “I still can’t get over how unreal it was,” Jo confessed, pushing both hands into the back pockets of her jeans. Soon, the memories of what they’d discussed doused the light in her eyes. “She wants to testify. Do you honestly think that’s wise?”

  Moses folded his arms over his heather gray shirt and sat on the arm of a chair. “I’m no psychiatrist Twig, but it might be good for her. Lord knows, it’ll be good for everyone else to get Marc and Houston off the streets. “What?” he asked, spotting the look she flashed him.

  Jo shook her head, sending loose tendrils from her chignon flying about her face. “I just can’t believe you feel this way about Marc when he was the parent you always seemed closer to.”

  “Lesser of two evils, or so it seemed,” Moses said, his fierce features taking on a more sinister element.

  Jo was entranced by the transformation. “I don’t want to lose my sister again,” she said quickly, hoping to dismiss the emotion swelling within her. “These people are dangerous. Do you think they’d try to take her again? Silence her?”

  “I won’t let that happen,” Moses promised without hesitation. “My men and I are dam
n good at what we do. No one’s going to take you from me.”

  Jo swallowed, deciding not to correct his misspeak. “I don’t want you using all your men on us. You’ve still got a business to run-other cases to solve.”

  “This is my top case, until my father and uncle are in prison.” Moses informed her, just as his expression grew guarded. “But there is one other case I’ve been asked to take. Just came to me this morning.”

  Jo tilted her head certain he was telling her this for a reason.

  “My services have been requested by LuJoReese Photographe.”

  The curiosity on Jo’s face was now disbelief. “What?” she breathed, moving closer to Moses. “I assume you won’t make me guess what this is about?”

  Moses did no such thing and quickly filled her in on Lucas Tamlyn’s call regarding Kennedy Shaw. By the time he was done, Jo was reclining on the sofa again. Her mouth formed a perfect O and she appeared motionless. Moses sat quietly as well to judge her reaction. He didn’t have long to wait.

  “Do you really think I’d help you or anyone put one of my dearest friends behind bars?” she asked.

  “Your partners think there’s a case,” Moses pointed out, while stroking his smooth jaw. “There’s a money trail and that was enough to have a judge issue a warrant for his arrest.”

  “I won’t believe it,” Jo decided, standing from the sofa. “I know him. I’ve known him for a lifetime it seems.”

  Moses felt the muscle clench along his jaw bone. “How well do you know him?” he asked, hoping she’d not guess at what he really wanted to know.

  “He’s a loyal friend,” Jo was saying as she paced the waiting room. “Dedicated worker, talented photographer… Did Luke tell you he came to us with his own very impressive and lucrative portfolio? He had top notch clients before and during his employ with us.”

  “So why would someone like that come to work for anyone?”

  Johari lost her patience and whirled around to face him. “Dammit Ram, have you already convicted the man?!” she snapped.

  Moses blinked at her use of the nickname she’d only used when they were in bed and enjoying one another in the most erotic ways.

  Blinking uncontrollably, Jo increased the distance between them.

  “I haven’t convicted Shaw,” Moses continued, hoping to keep them on the subject at hand, “but my job is to find him and I will.”

  “Moses wait,” Jo called when she turned to him again. “Will you come to me when you have him? When you have Ken in…custody? Moses please let me talk to him before you do anything? Please?” she begged, smoothing suddenly sweaty palms across the seat of her jeans.

  Moses’ black, piercing stare raked Johari’s body with blatant want, but the look was quick and cursory. It ended before she could really notice the intensity of it.

  “Alright. Two conditions,” he said.

  Relieved, Jo clasped her hands and waited.

  “Not surprising, your friend’s cut off phone contact. Lucas is sending some files that might help us locate him with little upset. Help me go through them? Tell me if anything jumps out at you.”

  Jo was obviously hesitant, but eventually nodded. “And condition two?”

  “Have dinner with me tonight?”

  Expecting to hear anything other than that, Jo blinked and immediately began to shake her head. “I um, I can’t…Zara, I have to be here for-“

  “No visitors for the rest of the night, remember?”

  Jo bowed her head. “Moses, I can’t.”

  He grinned. “Alright,” he replied in a sing-song tone.

  Jo quickly surmised that the non-threatening response meant she could forget him granting her earlier plea.

  “Why?” she whispered.

  “Why?” he whispered back, faking confusion.

  “Why dinner,” she clarified with a shrug. “We haven’t seen each other in years.”

  “There’s something I need to say to you,” he confessed, stepping closer.

  “So?” Jo prompted, hoping he’d go into it.

  No such luck.

  “I don’t want us interrupted,” he said.

  Johari felt her heart lurch. No interruptions with Moses Ramsey? She’d be on her back inside of a minute. Stop it Jo!

  “Twig?” Moses called, noticing the look frozen on her lovely oval face.

  “Can’t you just go on and tell me what it’s about?” Jo urged, subconsciously backing away as he approached.

  “Tonight,” he insisted.

  Running out of room to retreat, Jo began to nod. “Alright,” she verbally agreed when he continued to advance. “I said yes.” Her voice began to lose its firmness. “Wait. Don’t do this. Moses please,” she murmured, once he held her trapped between his powerful form and the wall.

  Her hands literally ached with the need to mold to his chiseled chest and abs, but she resisted. Moses was resisting as well. Just barely, did his nose trail across her jaw and the graceful line of her neck.

  Not yet, not yet, he told himself. Not until she knew the truth. Then he could have what had tortured his memories for over a decade. “Tonight. Seven,” he spoke against her ear and felt her nod.

  “Should I meet you there?” she managed to ask.

  He was already pulling keys from his trouser pocket. “I’ll pick you up.”

  “You don’t know where I’m staying,” she called when he was on his way out of the room.

  Moses turned. The look he gave Jo told her what she should’ve already known. He knew exactly where she was staying. He’d probably known every move she’d made since they’d parted ways.

  ***

  Michaela was busy scribbling away on a pad, when Quest walked in and found her sitting in the middle of their bed.

  “How long’s she been out?” he asked, peeking over at their baby girl who was asleep in the bassinette across the room.

  Mick looked up, smiled and glanced over at Quincee’s bassinette as well. “About twenty minutes ago, right after she finished eating,” she told her husband.

  Quest finished rolling up the sleeves of the midnight blue shirt he wore, and then leaned across the bed. He pulled the pad from Mick’s hand and forced her down on the bed. Without ceremony, he opened her blue and green paisley print robe and filled his hands with her breasts.

  “These off limits?” he asked, already hiding his very handsome face in the deep valley between her cleavage.

  “Mmm,” Mick purred, losing herself in the sensation and letting him have his way with the nipples that pouted for his attention. “These aren’t off limits, but what you really want is. You’ll only frustrate yourself more because of it.”

  Quest trailed his mouth across the sensuous rise of her breasts and along the line of her collarbone. “I can’t be more frustrated than I already am,” he grudgingly admitted, curving his hand beneath her bottom to press her into his mounting arousal. Without another word, his mouth crashed down on hers. A lusty kiss followed. Mick made no move to issue further reminders to her husband that she was ‘off limits’.

  “Damn,” Quest growled and eventually pulled away.

  “Told you,” Mick sang, laughing when he told her to hush.

  Quest lay back, massaging his eyes for a while before focusing in on the pad he’d tossed aside a few moments before. “What are you working on?” he asked in a weary tone.

  Mick reached for the pad and kissed the sleek line of his brows. “This’ll only frustrate you more.”

  Quest glanced at her gaping robe. “Can’t possibly frustrate me more than looking at something I can’t have,” he told her. The look in his haunting gray gaze grew darker in the wake of his worsening mood.

  Clearing her throat, Mick pressed her lips together and trailed a hand through her onyx curls. “I’ve been working on the guest list for the get together after Quin’s Baptism.”

  Quest’s eyes narrowed and he propped his weight on one elbow. “Guest list?” he repeated.

  Mick chewed
on her bottom lip and remained mute. Finally, she met his gaze and her brows rose in an innocent look.

  “No,” Quest said, reclining back on the massive pillow-laden bed.

  Michaela sighed.

  “Save your breath,” he advised, eyes closed. “Now is definitely not the time to subject me to a get together with my family.”

  “Well baby we have to have some type of gathering after the baptism.”

  “Who says?” Quest challenged, folding his arms behind his head. “Show me the chapter in the book of etiquette that says we have to.”

  Mick shook her head again. “This isn’t in the book of etiquette, but in the one entitled “What Wives Slash New Mommies Want and How to Get It From the Mister,” she teased and lowered her scantily clad form atop his athletic frame.

  Quest couldn’t resist gracing his wife with a left dimpled grin. “Would you please elaborate on the how?” he requested.

  Mick leaned close and suckled on his earlobe while undoing the belt, fastening and zipper of his black trousers. “Oh I intend to elaborate Mr. Ramsey. I intend to elaborate quite convincingly.”

  ***

  Johari decided to hustle downstairs before Moses could get upstairs to her hotel suite. He’d told her seven, so at six forty-five, she was whipping open her door to hurry out-desperate not to be alone with him inside that room.

  Of course, Moses was a step ahead of her. Jo found him leaning against the wall right across from her suite.

  “Hungry?” he asked, spotting the flustered look on her face.

  “I didn’t want you to have to wait,” she explained, briefly appraising the way the chestnut brown shirt he wore only enhanced the licorice tone of his skin.

  “You got everything?” Moses asked, pushing himself off the wall and approaching her.

  “Mmm hmm,” Jo responded quickly while pulling the door closed. She ignored the look on Moses’ face that said he knew what she was doing. Grimacing, she tugged on the single button fastening of the mauve blazer dress she’d chosen for the evening. She tried not to pick anything too alluring for the mysterious date. Sadly, that had never been easy for the leggy, café au lait beauty.