“Kevin’s the man I choose to spend the rest of my life with. If you could meet him, you would understand why. I don’t need protection. What I need is your love and support.”
“You have both and so much more. I’m sorry for overstepping.”
“And I’m sorry for pushing you out of my life, but I think we’ve both emerged the stronger for it.” Ashlyn held out her hand, strolling to Kevin. “I love you and I’ll talk to you in a few days.”
“I love you, too…send me a picture!” Makayla laughed into the phone, respecting the decision Ashlyn had made for herself and Kevin. “I forgot to ask. What type of shoes are you wearing?”
“They have red soles.”
Kevin asked, “Who’s screaming over the phone?”
“I told you about Makayla my best friend…she has a fetish for designer stilettos, and I just told her about the pair I’m wearing.” The racket was ear-piercing. Ashlyn held the phone away from her ear, happy about eliciting this type of response from Makayla. “She feels about shoes the way I do about baubles,” she said, holding her engagement ring up, letting it catch the last rays of the sun.
“She’s stopped screaming. It’s time for us to go inside.” He wrapped one strong arm around her, letting it rest atop her bottom. “Have you changed your mind?” He’d wondered as he watched her from afar. It had seemed as if she were arguing with the person on the other end. If a simple conversation could get her to change her mind, then their marriage would never stand a fighting chance.
“My mind has been made up from the beginning. Take a picture with me, so I can send it to Makayla.” Then, into the phone, she said, “Kayla, I’m sending you a picture. Give my baby a kiss from me. Did you get the last package I sent to Fancy?”
“You know I’m not going to kiss a dog, and yes, we got the organic dog food. Please stop sending so much. You’re like the guilty mom who works twelve hours a day. You’re going to end up raising a spoiled brat who has to come live with Auntie Kayla to get the discipline she needs.”
“Bye, Makayla.”
“Bye, Ashlyn, have fun on your honeymoon, even though I know you’ve already had one. Hold on.” She looked at the photo Ashlyn had sent. “Ash, you didn’t tell me you were marrying such a tasty brown biscuit…no wonder you’re in hiding. Your mother’s going to have a bite-her-tongue fit! Don’t get me wrong, he’s fine, damn fine, I mean real fine, crazy fine.”
“I know how fine he is.” Leave it to Makayla to get to the crux of the matter.
“His suit is spectacular. Who did the tailoring?”
“I have no idea.”
“She gives me a compliment with one hand and an insult with the other,” Kevin said. Actually Makayla wasn’t insulting him, only saying how Ashlyn’s mother would react. Was this why she kept him apart from her friends and family? “I don’t want to come between you and your family and friends. I’ll show them the proper respect, but I won’t be looked down on.”
This was the exact situation she wanted to avoid. “Our life will be our own, but you have to understand, I’ll forever be a part of my family, and their views differ from ours. But that shouldn’t diminish our life or our future.”
Ashlyn spoke into the phone and watched Kevin. “Makayla, you have to understand I’ll never read a fashion magazine like it’s the Bible and I’ll never view New York fashion week like it’s the Holy Grail. Every man is not out to strip away our independence, impregnate us, and have us chasing kids while wearing neon Crocs.
“My family has to understand that while I do value education and culture, I don’t believe in adhering to a specific class system. If a person is successful and obtains wealth, it shouldn’t matter if he obtained it one hundred years ago or today. The person I’ve discovered in the last five months is the person I truly am. Only Kevin seemed to see it. Now, I have to go. I love you, but I have to go.”
She placed her arms around his neck, her hands smoothing down the back of his head. “You’ll have to tolerate being married to a woman with a clingy, at times overbearing and protective best friend, a woman with a mother who’s going to give you the third degree, a father who’s going to do a background check and let you know he’s certified to carry a sidearm, and an extended family full of wild Irish nationalists who sing songs of rebellion while drinking Guinness. On the other side, a family of proud African-Americans, who live on such a grandiose level that a majordomo answers the door. The family estate consists of four separate wings, twenty bedrooms and twenty-two bathrooms.
“We can trace our lineage back to one of the first black families to own property after the Civil War. These are my roots. It won’t be easy, but I’m telling you up front and giving you the opportunity to walk away now.”
“I don’t plan on walking away. I just want you to be open about your family. The woman you just described is the woman I love. If you’ll still have me, I would love to become your husband today.”
“You are mine, and I’ll trample any who say otherwise.” Ashlyn arched her feet, raising herself higher. “Now give your wife-to-be a kiss.” She was insanely happy, so much so that when their lips touched, she lifted one of her satin-clad feet backward toward her knee, like a scene from an old black and white film.
* * *
“Aaron and Vlad, lift your mugs and give a congratulatory toast to Ashlyn and me! We just returned from Vegas, where we got married!” Kevin watched Aaron chug his beer down straight as if it were a forty-ounce, instead of a fine import from Belgium. The back of Vlad’s shaggy head touched his plaid covered shoulder blades as he downed his beer.
He gazed at Aaron. “You awright with this latest development?” Kevin held up his hand and halted Aaron. “I already called Pops, and he put in an order for grandbabies.”
“If you awright, I’m awright. Besides, Ashlyn is good people. I don’t think you could have done better. Congratulations, big brother. I’ll try and find a way to let grandma know.”
Kevin gave Vlad more time to digest this major turn of events. Had Vlad believed they would bar-hop indefinitely? Of course he had, because Kevin had never alluded to anything different. He’d known that he would eventually settle down, but he had not anticipated Ashlyn’s impact. She sought to protect him from her family, protection he didn’t need. She wasn’t clingy or needy; she gave him his space to work and paint. But the same was true for him as well. She spent hours walking around Philadelphia snapping random shots. And hours more in her darkroom. They coexisted harmoniously, respecting each other’s individuality.
“Does your wife know you’re sitting in the Half Moon Restaurant drinking beer with the boys while eating a wild boar burger?”
“Don’t even go there. You’re starting off a conversation with sarcasm.” He guessed he had drama to deal with on his side as well. Marriage had such a negative connotation associated with it.
“I can see you hiding it from Aaron and your dad, but why me?” Vlad indignantly asked.
“Hey, I’m his brother, and he doesn’t have to hide a damn thing from me!”
The problem was Ashlyn and Kevin’s lives were so entangled with others that bringing the varying personalities together was beyond difficult.
The only two who truly mattered were Ashlyn and Kevin. But they didn’t want a marriage that excluded their family and friends.
“We decided to wait to tell anyone. It’s not about you. It’s about Ashlyn and me. We want you to continue to be a part of our lives, but I will not tolerate you making snide comments about her.” Kevin eyed both Vlad and Aaron.
“What do you mean, you won’t tolerate snide comments? I have a right to my opinion. You’re not talking to one of the kids at your skating park,” Aaron responded.
Kevin felt his phone vibrate, and he recognized Ashlyn’s cell number on the caller ID. He knew if he answered he would appear whipped to his friends, but it didn’t matter what they believed; he wanted to talk to his wife. Earlier that evening she’d practically pushed him out the door
because he was having second thoughts about going out. Kevin was still in honeymoon mood.
“Hello.”
“Are you enjoying yourself?”
“Breaking the news was harder than I thought,” Kevin told Ashlyn.
“Do you need to relieve a little stress?” she asked, the tone of her voice dropping.
Kevin automatically perked up. “What did you have in mind?”
“I know the way you want me most.”
“Oh yeah, what way is that?” Kevin prayed that his idea matched hers.
“You watch my mouth when we eat, watching my tongue swipe food, and your thumb traces my lips when we caress.” She’d been building up to this moment, driving him wild. She’d gone shopping earlier, purchasing a crisscrossing lace teddy in black. The crisscrosses worked from her mound to under her chest. It left her sides nude. The lace covered only her honey pot and her breasts. “How fast do you think you can get home?”
Kevin gazed down at his watch, wishing he possessed Usain Bolt-like speed. He completely ignored the taunts and snickers from the others; he was a man on a mission. “Kev, is that your keeper on the phone?” Vlad asked.
“I’m on my way.”
“Please hurry. I don’t know how much longer I can wait. I guess I could make use of the new toy I bought.”
Kevin turned his back on his company, swallowing hard. “New toy. What new toy?”
“Kevin, I thought you would know this.”
“Know what?” he asked, damn near on the verge of excited hiccups.
“That a woman has more than one place to be entered and pleased.”
His phone slipped out of his hand and plopped into his Belgian beer, sinking to the bottom. “Damn, damn, damn! Someone please give me a phone, fast!” He jumped up and snatched a phone from Aaron, who waved it above his head, out of reach.
He dialed her number. “Don’t start without me!” he screamed into the phone. He disconnected. “Fellas, dinner is on me, as always.” Kevin threw bills on the table. “Have another round, I’m out.”
“She tell you to come home early?” Vlad asked, cynical to the very end.
Smiling lightheartedly, he said, “I’m going to tell you guys a secret. When you find a wife, find one who will fulfill your every desire, the cerebral as well as the physical. God is good and it is indeed possible to have both. I’m living proof of that.”
“That may be true, but you still have to go home early tonight,” Aaron pointed out, thinking he had the last say.
“Yes, I’m going home early. But to a wife who has just called and promised to fulfill one of those desires I just mentioned. Keep up, I’m lecturing here, and I’m not even going to charge you. This one is free because I love you.”
* * *
She could now make love to him without need of barriers, experience him on an earthy, sublime level. She would play out a fantasy with him that evening. She dressed the part. When she was in the privacy of her home with her aficionado, there was no shame. He was her soul mate, and she would lay open for him, all her secrets revealed. She had nothing physical left to hide. Her passion for life, work, and love had returned.
At the beginning of the year she was leaving for the Gulf Coast to produce a photographic essay on the multi-dimensional area. She wanted to capture the culture, a combination of Spanish, French, Native American, Portuguese, and African. She wanted to convey how race played second fiddle to the economy. She had been offered a ten-page spread, generous compensation, and basically carte blanche.
Her marriage was by no means traditional, which suited the two very well. Kevin knew her career took her abroad, but his did as well. They were both willing to accompany the other when the time permitted.
Ashlyn lit candles and turned on music. The sentiment was perfect. She bathed and oiled, waxed and plucked. She placed her feet in five-inch heels with thin leather thongs wrapping her legs to her knees. She resembled a dominatrix. He was good to her, so she would be good to him. She would give him his “whatever you like” moment. He catered to her, but she wanted a night of role reversal.
Ashlyn wound her hair into a bun before placing the long, straight wig on top. In for a penny, in for a pound. Cherry red lipstick covered her mouth. They would play their very own mature version of the lipstick game. Ashlyn possessed a tendency toward the more Gothic. She cast deep dark red rose petals along the stairs, black magic roses. In a darkened room they appeared black or shadowy purple.
She reclined on the chaise in their bedroom, her head perched on the rolled arm of the chair. Her body was already anticipating their encounter. She was so aware that if he touched her with a single digit, she would come. She heard him slowly climb the stairs, his tread lingering on each step.
* * *
Kevin dropped his coat and shoes as he climbed upward. The atmosphere she’d set made him want to dash and dawdle at the same time. When he climbed the last step and entered their room, he found her balanced like a black cat, waiting to pounce on him. The satin mask she wore ended at her high cheekbones. Her movements were feline; she wanted to be petted.
Her creamy skin was in sharp contrast to the black teddy. He could just make out her rouged nipples through the lace of her top. His feet felt as if they were planted in cement. He wanted to touch her, but the vision held him spellbound.
Ashlyn’s head tilted to the side, elongating her elegant neck. “Come a little closer.” She summoned her husband closer by crooking one glove-clad finger. She was both his wife and his sexual fantasy.
“Let me help you out of your clothes.” Her fingers lazily unbuttoned his shirt, kissing and licking each inch of exposed skin. “You smell divine. I would recognize your scent anywhere.”
He was speechless, so he stood still and let Ashlyn have her way. “Have I told you how much I love and desire you?” she asked. She didn’t wait for an answer. “I hope I didn’t pull you away from anything too important.” Ashlyn pulled his shirt from his shoulders, letting it drop to the floor. She kneaded his golden skin, feeling his heat through her hands.
Kevin finally found his voice. “Why the wig?”
“I’ve heard blondes have more fun, and I wanted to see if that were true.”
“I have a weakness for redheads,” he said as he gently pulled the wig from her head, dropping it to the floor, alongside his shirt. His large hands pulled her bun apart, scattering hair pins. He massaged her scalp. “I like you a little mused and wild.”
“Tonight’s not about me, it’s about you. Let me have your lips,” she demanded. Her mouth tasted of cinnamon. She poured her soul into a kiss. Her tongue touched his palette and grazed across his teeth. Ashlyn unsnapped his pants, rubbing his tight bum along the way. She pulled him closer, then she playfully pushed him away. Still on the chaise, Ashlyn slowly lowered his pants and boxers, and Kevin kicked them away. The indentations along his pelvis drove her to distraction.
Kevin lowered his head, watching her. Never had he been more turned on. This was a fantasy he could recall when she left on business trips. She nuzzled his pubic hair, breathing in his manly scent.
He stood before her in naked splendor. “I want to taste you, sample your burst.” He was a golden god, athletically fit. “Before we begin…” She used her teeth to pull the gloves from her fingers. “A lady never eats with her gloves on.” She laid them at her side and pulled her hair over one shoulder. Her slender hands ran up his thighs, her nails raking his skin.
The image of her before him, on her knees…he didn’t know how much more he could stand.
Her fingers ran around his manhood and her hands hugged him.
He gripped her scalp, guiding her.
Her tongue reached him first. He was full, blessed in size. Ashlyn would never be full, never have enough. She drew him into her mouth. She felt empowered with the control she had over him. She took him subterranean, the cave of her mouth scalding, her cheeks squeezed.
His hips bucked, he fed her, his hands in her hair.
Ashlyn began to bring her hands into the mix, planting them at his base.
The combination of touch and sight brought him too swiftly to peak. Kevin hurriedly pulled away and grabbed her around the waist.
Ashlyn touched her lips. “I wanted you here when you came.” She found herself carried across the room and turned around.
“Grab the railing,” he gruffly said.
She did as he asked, gripping tightly, and gazing at him over her shoulder.
His large had grasped her waist and the other forcefully pushed her lace lingerie to the side.
Ashlyn screamed when he thrust forward, demanding entrance. He held her in place as he brought them closer to fulfillment.
She tipped higher on her heels, pushing back into him.
His hand ran around her pelvis, seeking her center, her pearl. He flicked it with his middle finger and then squeezed. Kevin never stopped moving, riding the wave of Ashlyn’s climax.
Her body stiffened as he emptied himself and filled her with life.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Ashlyn snuggled closer to his side, warming herself with his body heat. He smelled like home. She buried her nose into his neck, nuzzling him. They’d stayed out late the night before so she wasn’t surprised with it being so late in the morning. She was grateful for waking with her queasiness gone. At first, she’d believed she had food poisoning, but her period was extra late, and she was as regular as the rising tide. She had yet to tell Kevin her suspicion; she wanted to wait until after her doctor’s appointment. On the mornings she fell ill, Kevin held her hair, wiping her brow with a cool dampened cloth. She told him it was something she ate, but that excuse was wearing thin. She caught him worriedly gazing at her, thinking of his mother. She called her physician that morning, in front of him.
Ashlyn turned to watch the snow and shot straight up.
Painted Passion Page 16
