by Kiru Taye
They tumbled to the ground, and he tried to pin her.
She shifted, the mud and rain making her slither.
Ebuka was larger, bulkier. He took advantage and bore down, wrestling her until he grasped her hands. He yanked them back and sat on her, trying to catch his breath.
Her head was pressed to the grass, wet hair plastered to her face. Eyes closed as she panted.
Leaning over, he spoke into her ear. “Obele, do you yield to me?”
She said nothing and didn’t try to struggle.
He stroked his right hand down to the fleshy bum cheeks. He caressed slowly before bringing his hand down in hard swats.
She jerked as each smack thudded against her smooth skin. But she didn’t cry out or fight.
He stopped after five and asked again. “Do you yield to me?”
“Yes, boss,” she replied, her lips curled in a smile.
Somehow, he didn’t mind her use of the term.
“Climb and kneel on the step.” He shifted, allowing her to move.
She moved like a languid cat, getting into position, knees on the lowest rung while her body was prostrate on the rest.
She did wondrous things to him, presenting to him like this.
The rain ran down their bodies in rivulets, washing away the mud and grass.
He parted her bum cheeks, stroked his tongue down the crack to her pussy.
She moaned and bucked.
Grinning, he swatted her. “Don’t move.”
He returned his attention to her opening, licking, and prodding with his tongue. Her essence in his mouth was delicious. Occasionally, he would sink his teeth into her ass cheek, and she would jerk, resulting in another smack. He worked continuously until her moans turned into whimpers, and finally she begged.
“Please...”
“Obele, are you asking for something?”
“Yes. I want you inside me.”
He swatted her ass hard.
“Please, boss.” Her tone was more whimper than words.
“Grab hold of the top step.”
She obeyed, curling her long fingers around the edge of the stone slab.
He grabbed her hips, lifting her bum to the correct angle. Seeing her unguarded and almost powerless made something clamp in his chest.
Her head remained pressed to the stone. Her bum presented to him. Damn. She was beautiful and sexy. Hot in her submission.
His body was wound tight, his dick hard enough to pound concrete.
Unable to restrain himself any longer, he gripped her hip with one hand, guided his cock to her opening with the other. With a forward press and short jerk of his hips, he was encased in her tight, slippery channel.
She moaned, eyes closed, her expression blissful. She clenched around him, gripping him snugly.
“Obele,” he groaned, pausing to catch his breath, not ready for it to end. He leaned forward and pressed a kiss between her shoulder blades.
Then he pulled out and slammed in. Hell, he wasn’t going to be slow. Not for this first time. This was the victory fuck. The spoils to the winner of their little tussle. This was proving he could be the man she needed.
Out here with the rain drenching them, he wanted to own her. Her body. Her heart. Her life.
A crazy thought. And considering their situation, something that would never happen.
But he could own her for tonight. Right here.
So, he fucked her, one hand gripping her nape, the other on her hip, holding her in place as he rammed in continuously.
Her moans got louder, her body writhing and her insides rippling around him.
She was close to climax.
“Your orgasm is mine. Don’t come until I give you permission.”
“Yes, boss.” She sucked in heavy breaths, and eventually her body relaxed.
Her obedience was his undoing, pulling his release out of nowhere, nearly making him lose control.
He slammed into her, held still and reached for her clit. He couldn’t wait much longer, and he wanted to reward her compliance. He leaned forward, pressing his lips against her warm skin as he stroked her.
“Obele, nye m ya.”
Another tug on the hard nub and she let out a long moan and clenched in waves around him.
He pressed lips one last time to her skin before letting go and thrusting into her almost mindlessly. Heat rushed to his extremities as his balls tightened.
“Fuck, obele,” he grunted as the climax ripped out of him.
His knees gave way. He slumped on top of her, rolling to the side and tugging her over him. They stayed that way until he’d caught his breath and some strength back.
“Was that good for you?” he asked, concerned he may have been too hard on her.
She smiled. Her expression filled with admiration as he stroked her back gently. “It was perfect. You were perfect.”
The constriction in his chest eased. He swiped the wet hair off her face gently. “Good. We’re going to stand and let the rain wash away most of the dirt. Then we’re going inside to shower. Afterwards, I’m doing whatever else I want to do to you for the rest of the night.”
Her eyes sparkled, and her smile widened. “Whatever you say, boss.”
Chuckling, he pulled her head down and breathed against her lips. “You’re right about that.”
He kissed her intensely and smiled when her breath hitched.
EIGHT
BIRDS CHIRPED as Xandra peeled her eyes open. Dawn’s grey light streaked through the windows. The rain had stopped.
Inside, the fire had died, the embers low and crackling.
Under her ear, Ebuka’s chest rose and fell with each breath as his healthy heart pumped blood around his arteries. His warmth seeped through her skin, and she didn’t want to move.
A new day meant work on the ranch. Completing her mission. Moving on. Her chest contracted.
She wasn’t ready to move on. She was enjoying being Allie the farmworker a little too much.
But would it be so bad to have a few more days out here?
Most kill contracts took over one week anyway to allow time to arrive at the location, mount surveillance, plan the kill method and execute.
This was her third day on the job.
Granted, she’d done the first two things in the checklist, but she hadn’t started thinking of the kill method yet.
Yesterday, she’d been consumed with proving she could work on the ranch and then focusing attention on Ebuka last night.
He’d been the centre of the universe.
Being with him had been different from anyone else.
The times with Osagie, the focus had always been to cleanse her guilt with pain before she could enjoy the pleasure that followed.
But with Ebuka, she felt no guilt. Yes, there had been some pain. But nothing on the scale she’d endured previously.
And the pleasure had been out of this world.
Ebuka had discarded the respectable farmer. In his stead had stood a man whose dark and dominant desires had pushed all her needy buttons.
The way he’d chased her and taken her outside, with the rain and dirt and grass and mud.
So primal. So freaking sexy.
The memory would be on playback for many months to come.
She was wet and clenching already just thinking about it. She shifted, and her thigh grazed his dick. He was sporting morning wood.
Sliding a palm down his abs to his groin, she calculated how long they had before they had to get up and dressed. The sun wasn’t fully up.
They could fuck and then get dressed before anyone came to look for them.
She shifted until her mouth hovered over his cock. Leaning down, she swallowed the head in her mouth. The taste of man, tang and salt exploded on her tongue.
Fingers wrapped around her hair and tugged.
She looked up. Ebuka’s dark eyes were glazed with sleep and lust.
“Come here,” he said, the corner of his mouth curled in a smile
.
Abandoning his bobbing erection, she crawled up his body.
He pulled her head down and kissed her, the taste of him and her mingling as tongues tangoed. He kissed with as much passion as he fucked, and it took her breath away.
Breaking the kiss, he said in a low voice, “It’s a new day. We have to get back to the house.”
She sighed, not bothering to hide her disappointment. The deal had been sex for only last night.
He was a man who kept his word, and she respected him for it.
He kissed her briefly and swatted her bum. “Move. Someone is probably on the way to check on us.”
She rolled out of the sofa bed. “You’re probably right.”
He scrambled to his feet. “Of course, I am. Ginika will send someone out to make sure we’re okay. She would worry since we didn’t return last night.”
He pulled dried clothes from the chair and started dressing.
She tugged her clothes on. They’d opted to sleep on the sofa bed in the lounge instead of the bunk beds provided in the bedroom. They were single units and not much room to move.
Fully clothed, she helped Ebuka fold the blankets away and put the sheets in the laundry basket. The dirty laundry would be taken to the main house for cleaning.
They’d just about straightened the place out when an ATV pulled up outside the cabin. Ebuka raised his brow in an I-told-you-so expression as he went outside to greet the man. He introduced the darker-skinned man as Hector. He was probably in his mid-forties and stood shorter than her and Ebuka.
Ebuka let her ride the ATV back to the ranch while he took Chocho.
Afterwards, Ebuka disappeared into his office, and Ginika took her to a bedroom upstairs. The male workers stayed in an annexe.
A quick shower and a meal and Xandra went out on the range, this time working with Hector. They made sure the cattle were fed, checking on them every couple of hours and then tagging and vaccinating the calves. That became her job for the next few days. She didn’t see much of Ebuka except at the dinner table. He didn’t spend any more time with her than he did with the men.
He was back to being a respectable businessman. It was as if their night in the cabin hadn’t happened.
She shouldn’t be bothered—wasn’t worried. They’d agreed it would be for one night only. And despite the disguise and alter ego, she was still Xandra, here to do a job. He would be dead, whatever happened.
That was what she’d thought until Thursday afternoon. She was in the kitchen with Ginika helping to clean up. They’d just had lunch, and Xandra volunteered to hang back so she could have a chat with Ebuka’s sister. This had become a routine she enjoyed.
Wanting to bump into Ebuka on the way out. To see if something would spark. If he thought about their night together.
The sound of tyres on gravel announced a new arrival. She didn’t bother to check who it was as the ranch had regular visitors, whether it was the vet on a scheduled visit or delivery vans.
“Are you expecting groceries?” Xandra asked.
Ginika ordered online and had them delivered. It saved on the two-hour round-trip to the nearest town.
“No,” she said as she headed out through the side entrance.
They rounded the house when Xandra saw Ebuka talking to another man. The man stood beside a low-slung sports car that looked out of place.
“Ralph,” Ginika said.
Ralph Nweke. The man who had taken out a kill contract on Ebuka’s life was here chatting with Ebuka as if they were acquaintances.
Xandra sucked in a breath as her heart slammed in her chest. She tried to retreat, but the man had already seen them.
“Gigi,” he said as he strode towards them, Ebuka walking beside him.
“Ralph,” Gigi said before he kissed her on the cheeks. “What are you doing here?”
He leaned back with a smile. “I came to make sure you will be at the party on Friday night. Your brother is being a bore as usual, but I’d love the pleasure of your company. Please say yes.”
If his car looked out of place at the ranch, the man himself was an anomaly too in his flashy fitted black suit and white shirt and the black leather derby shoes. Even his haircut was designer and coiffed to perfection, and his teeth were too white.
Such a contrast to the rough and ready Ebuka who lived in t-shirts, jeans and scuffed brown boots.
Ginika glanced in Ebuka direction before turning back to Nweke with a smile. “Of course I’ll be there.”
“Fantastic. I look forward to seeing you there.” He kissed her on the cheeks again.
“I’ll walk you to your car,” Ebuka said, interrupting them.
Nweke gave Xandra another quick look before heading back to his car. He shouldn't know who she was as she hadn’t met him face-to-face before. It didn’t seem as if he recognized her, which was good. She worried, nonetheless.
What was this party? Surely Ginika wasn’t planning to go by herself. Nweke was a crooked State Attorney General and had his fingers in so many crime pies. He was the last person Gigi should be getting involved with.
Xandra didn’t know why it bothered her, but it did.
Maybe she’d developed a fondness for Ginika like the feelings she had for Zoe Himba, whom she looked upon like a sister of sorts. But Zoe grew up in a crime family. She was a capo, capable of handling her business, and she could deal with the likes of Nweke.
In contrast, Ginika appeared to have led a sheltered life. She would be a lamb among wolves at that party.
She headed towards the house.
Xandra followed and stopped her by the door. “You’re not serious about going to the party, are you?”
“Of course, I am. It’s just a party,” she said nonchalantly.
Xandra had seen what could happen at parties. Women drugged and made to perform sexual acts they would never have agreed to. Some even abducted and sold by human traffickers.
She was thinking worst-case scenario. Still a possibility.
“Do you even know what goes on at that kind of party?” she asked and placed a hand on Gigi’s shoulder.
“How do you know what will happen at the party? Have you been to any of Ralph’s parties?” She walked into the kitchen.
“No,” Xandra bit out. “But I know his sort. He looks like a dangerous man.”
She laughed. “He’s the State Attorney General. He’s one of the good guys.”
Xandra wanted to shout that she was so wrong, but Ebuka walked in then. “You’re not going to let her go to this party on her own, are you?”
He looked at her quizzically for a moment before replying. “Of course not. I’m going to the party too.”
“Good. The more, the merrier,” Ginika cheered and kissed her brother on the cheek. “Now, I have to go and shop for an outfit and find someone who will deliver it by tomorrow.”
She disappeared under the archway leading into the hall.
Neither Ebuka nor Xandra moved. The air in the space seemed charged with something she couldn’t decipher.
“Why don’t you want her going to the party alone?”
Her cheeks heated as if he’d caught her doing something she shouldn’t have. “I care about her and that Nweke doesn’t look very honourable to me.”
“He looks all suave in his expensive lawyer suit, but he’s no good. Certainly not good enough for my sister. I’m going to be there to keep an eye on her.”
“Good,” Xandra said. “Because if you weren’t going, I would’ve gone there myself.”
His eyes darkened, and he took a step towards her. “You are fond of my sister. It seems you’re trying to get close to her.”
Only because she was attracted to her brother.
Why was she caught up in their domestic situation? She had a mission to complete.
“I like your sister as a friend. Perhaps as a sister. I never had one.”
She didn’t have a sister or friends. In the cartel world, there were no friends. Just associates and b
osses and enemies.
Not to mention that for the first time in her life she was amongst people who seemed to genuinely like her. She didn’t feel like a freak.
The admission made her uncomfortable. She had never admitted that to anyone before. Ebuka’s mouth hung open, his body frozen to the spot.
Temptation sizzled in her veins, made her fingers itch. To move close, caress his lips and feel his warmth.
Balling them into fists, she swivelled and walked out of the kitchen before she did something that she’d promised she wouldn’t do again.
NINE
FRIDAY NIGHT, Xandra went to the city with Ebuka and Ginika.
Ebuka hadn’t explained why he’d invited her along, but she wasn’t going to argue.
He drove them in the blue double-cab Toyota pickup that Adiele had washed and buffed so that it gleamed like a new car.
Xandra sat in the back, and Ginika sat up front, chatting excitedly about the people who would be at the party.
Ralph Nweke was a big shot around here, and the movers and shakers of Bakili would grace the event, supposedly.
The evening Commissioner Nweke came to the ranch, Ginika told Xandra about the animosity between Ebuka and Ralph. They’d been best of friends while they had been at university together. But something happened between that made the two of them fall out. She didn’t know what. Both men refused to discuss it.
Xandra didn’t say much on the drive. She enjoyed listening to Gigi talk with such enthusiasm about life. She had so much exuberance. So much joy.
In contrast, before she came to the ranch, the only thing that made Xandra excited was her visits to see Osagie. Those moments after her penance when she could finally enjoy the pleasure of sex had been the closest she came to joy.
Until she’d met Ginika and her brother.
The night with Ebuka had been the most bliss-filled of her life. Neither of them had spoken about it since.
Ebuka pulled into the parking lot of the hotel he had booked. He didn’t want them driving back to the ranch in the middle of the night.
At the reception, they checked into individual rooms and took their luggage up.
Xandra’s room was suitable for a mid-range hotel with off-white walls, a double bed against the accent wall painted in gingerbread colour, coordinating curtains, bedspreads and carpet. A small sofa and a tea table stood by the window overlooking the city. A TV screen sat on a long table opposite the bed. There was also a chair next to the table.
