Playing For Keeps

by Deborah Fletcher Mello

  Beneath him Cilla moaned and groaned and panted, murmuring softly. Her hips thrust upward, meeting him stroke for stroke and then she screamed his name over and over again as if she were in prayer. He filled her, the connection deep and intoxicating. She marveled at how her own body seemed to crave more and more of him, her inner lining hugging him intently. And then she screamed, her back arching with pleasure.

  They came at the same time, both falling together off the edge of ecstasy. As his body exploded Malcolm cussed, speaking in tongues as his words spilled past his lips in a rush of air. His eyes rolled back, light searing his view and his head spun, the vertigo like nothing he’d ever experienced before. He screamed with her and as his body spilled into hers, her taut muscles milked him dry, pulsing over and over again.

  Spent, Malcolm fell against her and Cilla drew him closer, her body melting like butter into his. In that moment both knew there was no turning back. They were linked forever and neither one would have it any other way.

  Neither Cilla nor Malcolm could get enough of the other. Their loving continued into the early morning hours, even sleep unable to keep them from each other. The sun was just beginning to rise when both their bodies surrendered, nature having finally failed them. Malcolm had curled his body around hers, nuzzling his face into her hair and neck as he finally drifted off to sleep. Cilla was still too wired to rest, every nerve ending in her body amped. That spot between her legs ached sweetly, a hurt that made her feel alive and invigorated. Malcolm had loved her with a veracity that she’d never known from any man. Just thinking about it, and him, moved her to tears.

  She shifted slightly and he threw a leg around her waist, almost unwilling to let her go. The gesture made her smile as she nestled herself closer to him, her hands gently caressing his arm and leg. Cilla loved the place she found herself in. There was nothing but love between them, the magnitude of it fueling every hope and dream she had for their future together.

  Their weekend excursion flew by. Malcolm couldn’t begin to imagine them ever having to leave but time had slipped by quickly. And he still hadn’t accomplished what he had initially intended to do. Seriously distracted he silently kicked himself for the failing.

  Cilla was sleeping peacefully. Since their arrival they’d spent more time in bed than out of it, stopping only for sustenance when the need had arisen. But food and drink didn’t begin to measure up to the bond that had completely sealed their fates. What he found himself feeling for the woman was immeasurable, which made what he needed to accomplish even more important.

  He slowly eased his large body off the bedside. Throwing a quick look over his shoulder to insure Cilla hadn’t wakened, he moved to his leather attaché and the small ring box hidden inside. Flipping the top open on the container, he stared at the diamond and platinum trinket inside.

  The engagement ring had been his mother’s, the one his father had put on the woman’s hand to proclaim his love and adoration. And Marcus Cobb had loved his mother with everything the man had in him. That ring symbolized everything the two had believed in and had fought for until the day a pulmonary embolism had taken his life. His father had replaced the original ring set a few years before his death but his mother had held on to the original band, declaring that one day it would be gifted to her future daughter-in-law.

  Malcolm had never understood her refusal to part with it when he’d married his first wife. Not until she’d slipped it into his hand the night before he and Cilla were scheduled to leave for their trip. That simple gesture had acknowledged her approval, Mama Claudette believing in the two of them as much as she had believed in his father and their love. She had never believed in him and Shanell and hindsight showed him he should have trusted his mother’s instincts.

  Malcolm saw proposing to Cilla as a simple formality, the next step to the inevitable. Every fiber in his being already saw her as his life partner, the woman he would grow old and cranky with. She had his heart like no other woman did and he knew that her carrying his name and partnering with him would be one of the greatest gifts life could bless him with. But he wanted the actual act of asking Cilla to marry him to epitomize his desire to make her his wife. His mother’s ring was just the beginning.

  An hour later Malcolm nuzzled Cilla awake. She slowly opened her eyes, the lids blinking rapidly as she focused. Seeing Malcolm’s smiling face was exhilarating and she felt her own smile widen brightly. She stretched her arms out, wrapping them around the man. Everything about waking with him was a sheer joy and Cilla couldn’t begin to imagine going back to the life she’d had without him.

  As she sat upright in the bed Malcolm set a wicker tray onto her lap. A single rosebud sat in a crystal vase, decorating a breakfast plate of malted Belgian waffles topped with fresh fruit, slices of thick-cut bacon, an oversize goblet of freshly squeezed orange juice, and a hot mug of coffee.

  “Mmmm, breakfast in bed!” Cilla purred. “A girl could get used to this.”

  “I hope my girl gets used to this because my girl deserves all this and more!” Malcolm gave her a wink.

  Cilla leaned forward and pressed a sugared kiss to his mouth. “Your girl feels very special.”

  Malcolm took a deep breath, his stomach suddenly flipping with anxiety. “I hope so. I hope you know just how much you mean to me. You’ve made such a difference in my life I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

  She gave him a bright smile. “Awww! That’s so sweet!”

  He suddenly set a box of Cracker Jack caramel popcorn onto the tray, his gaze locking tight to hers. Cilla looked from him to it and back again.

  “What’s this?”

  Malcolm blew a low sigh. “Let me tell you a story about Mama Claudette and my father. My mother came from a very small town in Georgia, right outside of Columbus. My father was born in North Carolina. Dad never finished school. He came from a large family. He had nine siblings and he was the only boy. By the time he hit his teens he had to help support the family so he went into the military. He was eventually stationed at Fort Benning and that’s where he met my mother. He and a group of his buddies had leave one Sunday and they went to her church to get the free meal after service. Dad said he knew the minute he laid eyes on her that she was going to be his wife. Mom said she wasn’t so sure. She was in school, studying to be a teacher, and she didn’t see herself married to a soldier. But Dad was persistent and every chance he could get he showed up at church to talk to her.

  “One day, they’d gone walking and Mom was talking about all her dreams and the things she wanted to do in life and Dad dropped down onto one knee and swore that if she’d be his wife he would make every one of those dreams come true. And my mother said no. Dad got a little prickly because he thought she said no because he didn’t have a ring when he asked her. But Mom told him she didn’t need a ring. She said no because he hadn’t come correct. He hadn’t asked her father for his permission.

  “So Dad regrouped, came back a few weeks later, walked her home from church, and asked to speak with my grandfather. And my grandfather gave them his consent with one stipulation and that was he had to ask my mother when he did have a ring to give her. Well, Dad didn’t have any money. He was sending the few dollars he was making back home to help take care of his sisters. But one Sunday they’d spent the afternoon together and Dad had bought them a box of Cracker Jack to share. Well, when they got to the prize in the bottom, there was a plastic ring and my father got down on one knee a second time and asked my mother to be his wife and he put that plastic ring on her finger. And he swore to her that if she said yes that one day he was going to replace that plastic ring with one that had a diamond in it. And he did. On their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary my father gave my mother another box of Cracker Jack and inside was her ring. He died three days later.”

  Cilla clasped her hand over her mouth as tears suddenly sprang to her eyes. “Oh, Malcolm!” she gasped. “Your poor mother!”

  Malcolm nodded as he reached for th
e box of caramel corn and tore open the top. Passing it to her he gestured for her to empty the contents. Cilla gently shook the filling out onto her empty plate. She’d emptied half the contents when a small velvet bag fell onto the tray. She gave Malcolm a look, her eyes widening with curiosity.

  Malcolm continued his story. “The day we buried my father my mother took off her ring and she put it away. She never wore it again.”

  “She didn’t want to wear it?” Cilla questioned.

  He shook his head. “She said that it was that plastic ring that best represented what she and Dad shared. We had it encased in acrylic and it sits on her dresser with their wedding photo. She said that one day she hoped to see that other ring on the hand of her daughter-in-law or her granddaughter. But when I married Shanell, my mother refused to let it go. She said it didn’t feel right to her and she stuck to that. And then you came into my life.”

  Malcolm pulled the drawstring on the bag and took out an exquisite princess-cut diamond in a bright white platinum setting that featured three rows of channel-set diamonds in an eternity band. Cilla gasped, the ring one of the most beautiful pieces of jewelry that she’d ever seen.

  Pushing the tray aside Malcolm grabbed Cilla’s hand and gently pulled her to her feet. Dropping onto one knee he extended the ring out to her, his eyes brimming with joy. “Priscilla Jameson, I love you with everything I have in me. I want to give you the world. To make all your dreams come true. Would you do me the honor of being my wife?”

  Cilla nodded, tears streaming over her cheeks. “Yes! Yes! Yes!” she said excitedly as Malcolm slid his mother’s ring onto her ring finger. She threw her arms around his neck, dropping to her knees with him.

  His kisses rained over her face, her cheeks, her nose, her lips. “I love you, Cilla!” he muttered over and over, his own tears mingling with hers. “I love you so much!”

  Cilla hugged him tightly, everything about the moment fueling her spirit with joy and happiness. “I love you, too!” she said. “I love you, too!”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Planning a wedding came with challenges Cilla had never expected, the least of which was the where and the when. It didn’t bother her to take things slow and simply be engaged for a while, to just enjoy the beauty of knowing they would eventually merge all aspects of their lives. Malcolm was on board with whatever, just wanting her to know that he would marry her tomorrow or be content with doing it months later if that was what she wanted.

  It was everyone else testing the solvency of their relationship, wanting to see them walk down the aisle sooner than later. Mama Claudette and the twins had already picked out their dresses. Every day with Bianca was a lecture on the merits of eloping versus a very traditional union with a hundred bridesmaids. From one day to the next Cilla wasn’t sure what Bianca wanted more: to see her married or on the Vegas strip celebrating the bachelorette party.

  Cilla sat on the end barstool as Malcolm poured drinks for a party of six on the other side of the room. The Playground was packed, the staff entertaining a full house. Romeo’s wife, Taryn Marshall, sat by her side, the two women bonding over cups of hot coffee. Since becoming acquainted the two had become fast friends and both women liked that they got along so well since their very favorite guys were best buddies.

  Taryn eyed Cilla curiously. “So, what are you going to do?”

  Cilla shrugged. “I don’t know. But I’m starting to feel pressured.”

  “By Malcolm?”

  “Oh, no!” Cilla answered, her expression incredulous. “Malcolm has been amazing. He’s said he’ll do whatever I want to do but that’s the problem. I don’t know what I want!” She tossed up her hands in frustration.

  “You do want to marry the man?”

  Cilla’s smiled was canyon-wide. “More than anything else in this world. That’s the only thing I’m sure of!”

  Taryn smiled with her. “Okay. I just want to make sure we got that clear.”

  “Malcolm is what I’m most certain of. I love him to death. I think it’s just all the hoopla surrounding the commitment that’s got me out of sorts. Everyone we love wants to have a say in how we get married.”

  “You just have to figure out what you want and do that. Nothing else. Romeo and I eloped.”

  “Yes, we did,” Romeo interjected, coming to join the conversation. “Taryn and I had gone away for an extended weekend and we just did it.”

  “We were in the mountains, in Brevard,” Taryn added.

  “We just felt like it was right for just the two of us. But it made a few people mad,” Romeo said, gesturing with his head toward Aleta and Odetta who were standing on the other side of the room.

  “That’s what I’m worried about,” Cilla said. “I want everyone to be happy for us, not upset about how we get married.”

  “But they will be happy,” Taryn said. “And you will be happier. I wouldn’t change a thing about our ceremony. We married on the shores of Lake Toxaway, with the waterfalls as our backdrop. It was gorgeous.”

  Romeo nodded. “And two strangers stood up as our witnesses.”

  “You didn’t want Malcolm or Aleta or the girls there?”

  “I wanted Taryn to be my wife and I wanted it to be perfect for just us two. We celebrated with the rest of our family when we got back. It was all good!”

  “What are y’all talking about?” Malcolm asked, leaning over the bar to join in.

  Cilla smiled. “We were talking about you!”

  The man laughed. “I thought I felt my ears burning.”

  “I was asking your fiancée if you two had picked a wedding date yet,” Taryn said, her eyes wafting back and forth between him and Cilla.

  Malcolm nodded. “I’m leaving all those details to her,” he said. He reached for Cilla’s hand, squeezing her fingers between his own.

  “You’re not going to be a groom-zilla?” Romeo said with a deep laugh.

  His friend rolled his eyes. “Boy, you know me better than that. I’m as easy as they come. Now my mother on the other hand . . . !”

  They all laughed.

  Cilla shook her head. “I love Mama Claudette to death but she is definitely trying to go all out for this wedding.”

  “Yeah,” Malcolm said with a low sigh. “I’m going to have to rein her in.”

  “She’s just trying to live vicariously through you both,” Taryn said with an easy smile across her face.

  “She can live through the twins when they get married,” he said. “Right now she’s starting to look like one of those in-laws from hell!”

  Laughter rippled between them all again.

  “She’s not that bad!” Cilla exclaimed. “She’s excited and she’s just trying to help.”

  “She’s that bad,” Malcolm said, grinning. “It’s okay, baby. You can say it. She’s my mother and I know how bad she is.”

  Cilla laughed. “Well, I don’t want her or the girls to feel left out of the planning.”

  Malcolm leaned over the bar to kiss her lips. “See why I love her so much!”

  Romeo wrapped his arms around Taryn’s shoulders. He leaned to kiss his wife’s cheek. “Well, my only suggestion is that you two do you even if that means just going down to the courthouse to tie the knot ’cause no matter what you do, it’ll all work out.”

  Taryn nodded in agreement. “And if push comes to shove just let Mama Claudette plan the whole thing and you two just show up.”

  Cilla laughed. “You might actually be onto something!”

  The last customer had closed down The Playground an hour earlier. Cilla had been sitting patiently in wait as Malcolm and Romeo tended to their last shred of business. Taryn had left earlier, needing to relieve the babysitter and put her toddler son down for the night. The other employees had followed on her heels. The room was quiet save the soft vibe of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” playing over the sound system.

  Allowing herself to fall into the sweet lull of the reggae beat, Cilla swayed easily in time wi
th the song. Her thoughts were muddled, so much on her mind that she could not focus and so she released it all by concentrating solely on the music. Minutes later Romeo’s deep voice broke through the stillness, him wishing her a good night.

  She tossed up her hand to wave as he exited the building, locking the door behind himself. She shifted her gaze to stare at Malcolm who was watching her from his seat across the room. His smile was easy and sweet, everything in the look he was giving her feeling like a cashmere blanket around her shoulders. He nodded in her direction and she smiled back.

  Moving onto his feet Malcolm strolled to the center of the dance floor and turned toward her. As she sat watching him he seemed even taller with his head lowered just so and his gaze skewering. With his wide shoulders, trim waist, and chiseled features, Cilla imagined that he would have made Michelangelo weep. His presence was commanding and he seemed to exude power from every pore in his body. Cilla thought she could sit there watching him for hours, fighting not to drool.

  He extended both of his hands in her direction, calling her to his side with the deep stare he was giving her. As she reached where he stood the last strands of Miles Davis shifted to the pulsating drumbeat of Sade’s “Soldier of Love.” Allowing the beat of the music to guide her, Cilla gyrated her hips from side to side as Malcolm eased his body against hers. He held his hands up as if in surrender, his own pelvis moving in sync with hers. Cilla slid her palms against his as Sade’s haunting vocals took them both to another place.

  Their sensuous connection as they danced was erotic and teasing, both moving with the music as if it were seeping out of their bodies. Malcolm felt himself harden in his slacks, a lengthy erection pulling taut between his legs. Cilla gyrating against that hardness soon had him ready for more. There was no denying the sheer magnitude of the desire they had for each other. Just thinking about the extraordinary woman raised his blood pressure. The barest touch moved his heart to beat as if it were trying to get out of his chest and each orgasmic ending when they made love was beyond words.