by Blue Saffire
“Hey, mommy,” I chimed trying not to sound upset.
“Liyah, hi Baby,” she beamed and gave me a hug.
“How you doing Miss?” Victor said as he walked over to where we were standing. I looked at him and rolled my eyes. I didn’t want her to meet him.
“Mom, this is Victor.” I wasn’t giving any explanation further than that. If he didn’t like it too bad, we were over anyway.
“Hi,” she replied looking Victor up and down, not making the effort to suppress her frown.
I really didn’t need him to be anywhere near her. I was so annoyed. He was being persistent too. He wrapped his arms around my waist as my mother looked at him.
“I love you, Tali,” he whispered in my ear.
“Victor stop,” I said and pushed him away. He refused to let go and my mother was watching with hawk eyes. Victor went to kiss my face and I quickly mushed him away. I didn’t realize I had pulled my hand from behind my back to do so. As Victor grabbed my hand to hold it, my mother’s mouth dropped open once she saw the ring on my finger.
“Liyah, I need to talk to you,” she said through her teeth.
“Okay.”
“I’ll see you at home,” Victor said with a satisfied look on his face. I knew instantly it was his intentions for her to see the ring on my finger. “Alex will wait for you.”
“You wish Victor.” I was not going anywhere near that apartment unless it meant I was getting my things. I was furious. My mother would have never known about him if he didn’t just do what he did.
“I’ll see you in no less than three hours Ma-me or I’ll come get you myself,” he called over his shoulder as he went to get back in the truck.
“Don’t hold your breath,” I called back at him.
He got in the truck and Juan peeled off. My mother was giving me a look I knew too well. She was not happy. I wanted to beat the snot out of Victor. He started this mess and just left me to deal with it.
“Taliyah, what is that on your hand?” My mother started.
“It’s a gift from Victor.” I felt like such a little kid. I was going to be twenty soon, but my mother still makes me feel like a baby.
“A gift?” she snorted. “Where have you really been all this time?”
“Mommy, I’m not about to air my business out in front of this building.” I could feel the ears pressed to the windows for gossip. She knew better.
“Well, you need to get your butt upstairs now.” I felt like I was five all over again. I let out a puff of air and followed her into the building.
We went upstairs, but Alex stayed in front of the building this time. I wanted the buffer, but my mother was too upset for me to try that one. When we got in the apartment she went in the kitchen to get a glass of water. I sat at the table playing with the ring on my hand that started the real trouble.
“Where have you been, Liyah?” she demanded slamming the glass on the table.
I jumped a little as the glass hit the table. “I live with Victor.” My voice sounded so small to me.
“So, that’s your roommate. Liyah, what are you doing? What are you doing with him?” I just blinked at her as she screamed at me. This was so much more than I expected. She was really mad.
“I don’t know,” I murmured.
“Taliyah, what kind of gift is that? I’m not stupid, I know what he does to give you a gift like that. Or are you just that stupid not to know?”
“Mom-.” She cut me off right away. It was like I wasn’t even speaking.
“No, I thought maybe, just maybe you were being somewhat straight with me. I figured you were moving in with your boyfriend, but I thought it was the one you brought here with you. I could see you dating someone like that, but that Victor. I can look at him and tell he’s no good.”
“Mom,” I sobbed.
“I can’t believe this. Liyah, you are going to stop seeing him.” She was in ultra-mom mode now. This was not looking good at all.
“Mom, that’s not fair. I’m not a baby, I know what I’m doing.” I threw my hands in the air. I didn’t care that I didn’t want to be with Victor anymore. I thought she was going a bit overboard.
“Oh really, do you? Cause you just said you didn’t. Liyah, you are going to stop seeing him and you’re moving back home or I refuse to pay another dime of tuition and I’m closing your account.”
“Mom, are you serious?” School is all I have. I can’t believe she would go there. What good would stopping me from going to school be?
“As a heart attack.” Her jaw was set. She was still standing over the table with her arms folded across her chest. “I raised you better than this. That boy is not what I want for you. I worked too hard to see you throw your life away with him.”
“That’s not fair. Mom, he is not like you think, he cares about me,” I whined.
“Girl please, give me a break. He cares about what he can get from you.” She was pointing her finger at me as she yelled.
“It’s not like that.” I wanted to explain it to her, but I wasn’t sure how or if there was a need to.
“So, you’re telling me you didn’t give anything up for that ring on your finger. He looked like he is getting a whole lot from you the way he was draped across you downstairs,” she hissed at me.
“I’m not doing this,” I sobbed and got up from the table. I ran out the door and straight to the elevator. I was so mad that she would threaten me with school. She was treating me like I was ten, instead of nineteen going on twenty. I stormed out of the building to find Alex waiting, leaning against his car. I ran over and buried my face in his chest.
“What happened?” he asked anxiously as he wrapped his arms around me.
“I need to get out of here. I’m not ready to go home.”
“Okay,” he replied and opened the door for me to get in the car.
I couldn’t stop crying. I had so much going on in my head. I just kept hearing everything my mother said and seeing everything I had been through today. I wasn’t even sure Victor was worth all of this anymore. Everything seemed like a big mistake.
Alex just drove not saying a word. He drove to this lot that looked out over the Hudson and parked. He turned the car off and reached over to pull me toward him to hug me.
“What happened?” he asked softly. He was rubbing my hair the way he does when we watch TV.
“She hates Victor. She thinks I should be with you or someone like you. She threatened to stop paying my tuition if I don’t move back home. My tuition is due next week. If she doesn’t pay they’ll boot me from my classes. I won’t get to take my finals.”
“Oh man, Tali, it will work out. Victor will pay for school.” He was so sure about that. Like Victor would just come to save the day. This was his mess in the first place.
“I don’t want him to. I don’t want anything else from him. He already threw what he’s given me in my face,” I whined. I was crying all over Alex’s shirt. He didn’t seem to care.
“Yeah, Mama, but that was just him being mad. He don’t mean none of that. He loves you.”
“This is crazy, how did I end up here? My mother is right. I should be with you. That’s what I wanted,” I sniffled and pulled away from him.
He looked me in the face and that hurt look he gets appeared. “Tali, that’s what I wanted too. But Victor is my family, I couldn’t hurt him like that. You mean too much to him.” He sounded as if he had been trying to find a way to fix this problem all along.
I wasn’t asking him to hurt Victor. It was just becoming plain to me that things were out of control. “That’s the other crazy part. As crazy as he makes me and as nuts as I know he is, I think I’m falling in love with him too. I’m so confused.”
“He is just scared of losing you,” Alex said as he reached to rub his hand across my cheek.
“Why? I haven’t gone anywhere. Why doesn’t he trust me?” I have been trying hard to understand Victor, but it is like walking through a maze, there is always another wall
blocking the way.
“He does trust you. That’s not the problem,” Alex murmured. He was looking out of the window past me as if the answers were there.
“Then what is?”
“Karma. He feels like he should’ve stepped out of the way. He thinks he is going to lose you because you weren’t his to have.” Alex’s face looked so sad, but I was not getting what he meant.
“I don’t understand,” I said looking at him trying to figure out what he was talking about. “What do you mean?”
“Victor is my best friend, we tell each other everything,” he shrugged as he explained. “I don’t want to live this way forever. It’s too dangerous. We have plans to quit next year. My plan was to make it through this year and then I could live the way I want to.
“I used to tell Victor about this girl. I thought she was too special for this life. I didn’t want to bring her into it. I always prayed that she would wait for me. If she was meant to be mine, she would be there when I was done. She was all I talked about, especially when I would have problems with Yesenia.
“The night you walked out of the bathroom in the warehouse I felt like someone had stabbed me. It was like a cruel joke. I could see in Victor’s eyes that whoever was in that bathroom was special to him. I always wanted that for him. He never gets to be happy, but not you. I didn’t want it to be you. I was almost out, one more year.
“I had planned to start trying to make you my girlfriend. That’s why I broke up with Yesenia. That night after you left, I told Victor who you were. I told him you were the one I was getting out for. He was willing to let you go, but he kissed you. I saw that, I saw how happy it made him and I saw the pain he had when his moms left and when we lost my moms. I couldn’t do that to my brother. I figured you made your choice.
“But when your so-called friends went to Victor and told him why you came to that party, that crushed him. He felt like he stole something from me. But he was already in love with you and he didn’t know how to let you go. So now he feels like he is going to lose you because he has to, because you don’t belong to him.”
I was heartbroken. Not just because Alex was telling me that he had feelings for me like I had for him. That part had its own unbearable pain.
The part that was really hurting was that Victor was really in love with me. He was so uncontrollably overprotective and controlling because he didn’t want to lose me. I was the one thing he had that he loved as much as his best friend and he felt he had hurt his best friend to get me. I was the one thing that made him happy and he didn’t think he deserved me.
“Alex, can we go home?”
“Yeah Ma-me, Victor needs you,” Alex said softly. My heart was torn in half once again and this time for good. I could hear how hard saying that was for Alex.
Alex had been hurt a lot too. That much I knew as well, but Alex would handle it. He would cope much better than Victor would. I knew Alex would be okay. Somehow it would work out and he would be happy too. I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. I knew that kiss was my promise that he would be okay too.
When we got home, Victor was laying in the room in the dark. I walked over to him at the foot of the bed and nudged his leg with mine. He sat up placing his face in my stomach. I placed my hands in his loose hair and ran my fingers through it.
“What did your moms say?” he said in almost a whisper. I’ve never heard him sound so vulnerable.
“She wants me to come home.”
He reached to place his hands on mine, that were still combing through his hair. “Are you going?”
“She threatened to stop paying my tuition. I won’t be able to finish school.” I had a lot to think about to stay with him. I wasn’t sure what to do.
“How much?” He was holding one of my hands and placed a hand on my back, holding on as tight as he could, as if the moment he let go I would disappear.
“How much what?”
“How much is the tuition?” he murmured.
“I have to pay twenty-five hundred next week to stay in my classes.” I had just gotten the statement from my account advisor. I had tucked it away because my mother puts the money in my account for me to pay. I never worry about it.
“Do you want to stay?” he asked with a strained voice.
“Yes,” I answered as I let my hand brush against the side of his face. I did want to stay with him. I really did care for him. All my mother had said made me realize that. She made me really think about how I feel being with him.
“I love you, Tali. I’d give anything to keep you with me.”
“I love you too, Victor.”
He stood with my words and kissed me. He was holding me so tight, I thought I was going to stop breathing. I wanted to make him happy. Victor did so much for everyone else I wanted to do for him. It needed to be his turn to be happy. I pulled his shirt over his head and he went to undress me.
I took my time showing Victor how much I did love him. I needed to show him that I wasn’t going anywhere. I slide to my knees and helped him out of his jeans. His erection sprung free from his boxers and I marveled at it. I’ve never been face to face with it like this.
I licked my lips with thoughts of the next step I planned to take in our relationship. I was still such a novice at sex. I’d only done what Victor had shown me. Making the decision to take the initiative, I dipped my head and kissed his thigh.
Victor brushed a hand against my cheek as I placed another kiss higher. I crossed to the other side and kissed his other thigh. I reached for his stiff dick and gave it a gentle squeeze.
I looked up to find Victor looking down at me with his mouth open. His chest heaved as his eyes blazed. I bent my head and gave him a tentative lick. A groan fell from his lips.
“Yes, Ma-me,” Victor encouraged as I wrapped my lips around the tip.
Hearing him only pushed me forward. I let him glide in and out of my mouth. He felt so nice against my tongue. Hard and firm, but soft and silky, with the flavor of something salt and sweet.
I hummed in surprise of how good his tasted in my mouth. Victor’s hand wrapped in my hair as he groaned and started to flex his hips up into my waiting mouth. On instinct, I twirled my tongue around him.
Victor growled and groaned. My mouth was watering, so I started to slur and that seemed to send him over. His restraint broke and hips started thrusting harder. His hot seed filled my mouth and at first, I wasn’t sure what to do with it.
I looked Victor in the eyes as I swallowed it. He rushed me, grasping me under my arms and tossing me on the bed. I gave a little yelp and moved back as Victor stalked me onto the bed. Grasping my outer thighs, Victor dragged my body back to him.
Settling between my legs, his eyes locked on mine. I swear it was like he was looking into me. My head fell back the moment he bent his head and took his first lick. His tongue slid up through my folds and I whimpered loudly.
This was a different kind of pleasure from having him inside me. The feel of his tongue on my most sensitive place had my eyes crossing. When he twirled his tongue into me, I convulsed against his face.
My fingers found their way into his hair and I held on for dear life. I squeezed my thigh and rocked my hips chasing something, but not sure how to get it. When Victor’s mouth latched onto my clit, I took a trip to a new bliss. I turned to goo beneath him.
Victor climbed my body as I laid there panting for air. His lips met mine and I could taste my juices on his full lips. He wrapped my shaking legs around his hips and sank into me slowly.
“I love you so much,” he groaned and took my lips again.
He was extra gentle and passionate with me. In that moment, it didn’t matter that Victor was all wrong for me. We worked together in our own way. He was what I wanted now and he was the one I loved.
“I love you, too,” I moaned back against his lips.
Victor continued to take his time making slow, sweet love to me. Our bodies rocked together in sync. I had never felt so one with Vict
or.
This was yet another side of him. As he lifted my hands above my head and locked our fingers together, I felt the difference. Something changed and I knew whatever it was I had made my decision, be it good or bad, I had chosen Victor.
chapter thirteen
The Expected
Victor was trying hard to make me happy and to stop being so controlling. I was doing my best to do what would keep me safe. I was just happy Victor was going to give it all up. I didn’t tell him I knew, but Alex told me all about their plans.
How he had invested their money so they’d never have to worry about anything. The money I saw them counting in the warehouse was the money they were getting ready to clean that week.
They had real estate and private investments all over the city. Victor was also good with stocks and he had put together a few portfolios that were doing great despite the market. They were sitting on millions that they never touched.
Victor had paid my tuition and I was able to finish out my classes. I was so happy. I had gotten my grades and I had straight A’s. Alex had done really well too. We had both gotten our grades the same day and I was making a big dinner to celebrate. I had Alex take me food shopping. I also needed to pick up some other things.
I was sure I was late by now. It had been over a month since I moved in with Victor. I hadn’t said anything to him, because I didn’t want to get his hopes up, but I was pretty sure I was pregnant.
At first, I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I loved Victor so much and I knew he would take care of me. I also knew how much he wanted a family. I was happy as long as I could finish school.
I talked to Alex about everything, but I didn’t want to tell him about the baby either. I wanted to be sure before I went around hurting people’s feelings. Alex wanted to help out with dinner, so while he was washing the chicken I locked myself in the room to take the pregnancy test.
