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Present day
It was chaos.
Zaria locked her knees to keep from turning and fleeing the scene. The questions were endless and all eyes were on them. She had to clench her hand into a fist to keep herself from reaching for Kaleb’s.
They shared a look.
“Okay. Hold on everybody,” he said, his voice deep and booming under the high ceilings of their home.
‘His home,’ she corrected.
Just that morning when he’d finally gotten home from his parents’ she had told Kaleb she was filing for divorce and begun to pack her and the kids’ clothes for the move back to her house in Summerville. Never had she imagined she would move back into the home she once shared with her first husband and the twins but it was her home. She finished paying for it alone and allowed the twins to live in it once she married Kaleb. With the twins’ married and in their own residences the two-story structure set empty, waiting to be her haven from yet another broken marriage.
“This is what’s best for us right now and perhaps this will make us better or it will make us realize that we weren’t meant to be together, but either way we need your support and understanding,” Kaleb said.
Zaria looked up at him. This was the talk she gave him that morning and now he was carrying some of the weight of their marriage ending even though it was she who was moving forward with the divorce. It seemed odd to be partners in a divorce when they failed at being partners in their marriage.
Kael rose from his seat. Lisha gently tugged his hand to pull his broad frame back onto his seat. He looked down at her with a stern eye and Lisha held up both her hands giving her husband free rein.
Everyone knew Kael was putty in his wife’s hands but there were times when he made a stand as a man who led his family and would not be deterred. He picked his moments.
This was one of them.
He faced Kaleb. “This is your house where you lead so out of respect for you, son, I ask that I be allowed to speak on this,” he said, leveling his eyes onto his son.
“Of course, Pop,” he said, waving his hand in an offer to take the floor.
“I’ll speak for myself,” Kael began. “I support your decision and respect it but I can’t pretend to understand. That’s just honest truth. This is a tough one for me. I love my family and, Zaria, you are that. No one’s perfect. That’s impossible. But in my opinion, I think you two are perfect for each other. My nickel.”
Zaria closed her eyes and hung her head as her eyes filled with tears at his heartfelt words. She truly loved the Strongs. They had been welcoming, kind, and generous to her and the twins.
“I don’t want to force two people who are not happy to be together but I do want to encourage two people to not take the easy route—”
“Pops—”
“No, let me finish,” Kael said coming around the sofa to stand before his son and his wife.
Zaria's heart ached because she knew this strong, wise, silver-haired man whose good looks had only deepened with time was who Kaleb would look like in the future and she wouldn’t be there to see it. Pain that seemed to run as deep as a century-old well settled in her soul and she fought like hell not to show it.
“Everyone celebrates couples with thirty and forty and fifty years together but no one reflects on the ups and downs it took to get there,” Kael said, his eyes shifting back and forth between them as he spoke. “There’s not too much a couple in love can’t come back from. I promise you that. Trust me.”
Zaria released a shaky breath as a treacherous tear fell and raced down her cheek.
“Oh Zaria,” Kaleb moaned as if pained by it.
It was Kael who reached up with a weathered hand, still strong from tens of thousands of days of hard work, to brush the tear away as he smiled down at her. “This shit ain’t easy. Right, Lisha?” he asked, turning to extend his hand toward his wife.
She brushed away a tear of her own. “No, not at all but it's worth the good fight. That’s for sure,” she agreed, her voice shaky with her emotion. “I wouldn’t trade any of it. Not the blessings nor the lessons to be here.”
Kael turned back to them to place a hand on his son’s heart. He held up his other hand and waited for approval from Zaria to do the same, balling it into a fist to respect her body.
“Do you love my boy?” he whispered to her, his eyes soft and imploring.
“Pops, please,” she begged, shaking her head for him not to ask that of her.
“Momma, tell the truth,” one of the twins said.
She glanced at her daughters. Their eyes were wet as well. They already knew about the divorce but she could see from the torn looks on their faces that it was not their wish for it go forward.
She looked back to her father-in-law.
Kael waited. Insisted.
A glance at Kaleb showed his profile seemed to be carved in stone as he looked at some spot in the distance.
Love him. I adore him. Even now he takes my breath. I will love him always.
But she didn’t speak those words, protecting them and holding them close to her heart. Instead, she nodded.
Kael smiled and then turned to Kaleb. “Son?” he asked.
“I will always love her,” he admitted in an instant.
Kael gave him a wink and a pat of his hand against his chest. “As long as there is love there is hope,” he proclaimed before stepping back and clasping his hands together. “If you pee standing up join me on the porch. Now.”
And with that he turned and walked between them to open the front door and leave the house, leaving it open wide.
Without question or hesitation, each of the Strong men rose and filed out of the house. Kahron, Kade, Kaeden and finally Kaleb. He gave her a look before leaving and closing the door. Moments later it opened and Kael stuck his head in with a frown on his face. “Quint, Armstrong, and Dane. Y’all didn’t hear me or y’all don’t care?”
Armstrong sat up straight. “Oh, us too?” he asked.
The woman all hid smiles that hinted they knew this moment was coming.
“Y’all pee sitting down?” he asked, clearly judging them if they did.
Dane, Quint, and Armstrong all rose and made their way out of the house as well.
Zaria smiled, glad for the moment of levity. There was a lot she was feeling and the desire to sleep crept up on her again. She was no therapist or psychiatrist but she knew it wasn’t emotionally healthy. Like a depression.
“What’s the plan, Zaria?” Lisha asked.
“I’m moving back into my house in Summerville,” she replied. “Me and the kids.”
“Zaria, why didn’t you talk to us?” Bianca asked, sitting up on the edge of the sofa. “Even now you’re not saying much.”
“It's hard when everybody else in the family is so dang on happy,” she said, her voice rising in frustration.
Bianca made a face. “No. That’s ridiculous. Kahron and I have been together for thirteen years. And, honey, that ain’t all happy. What Pops said is true. There are a lot of pitfalls and slips and misunderstandings and arguments and doubts and sleeping in separate beds and not speaking that happens on the way to that fiftieth wedding anniversary and beyond.”
“Separate beds?” Garcelle asked.
Bianca nodded. “Absolutely. Not often. Sometimes? Yes. Y’all are not going to make me ashamed because sometimes we’re just not in the mood for each other.”
“I’m not going to leave you out there alone. Kaeden and I have argued before and slept apart,” Jade offered, very nonchalant.
“Who knew?” Zaria asked.
“No one,” Bianca shot right back. “But I love him and I don’t want to share a week, and definitely not a lifetime, without him in my bed.”
“I know that’s right,” Jade added with a sassy snap of her fingers.
Lisha smiled at them before offering the same to Zaria. “Trouble don’t last always,” she assured her.
“Sometimes people just grow apart. That does happen,” Zaria said, looking to her twins and her nieces, Kadina and Lei, who were listening and inadvertently learning about the expectations in relationships. She wanted to ensure their goals in love were realistic. “And it’s okay to realize that and move on.”
“True,” Lisha agreed.
“I’m sorry Kaleb and I are going to be the first Strong family divorce and I hear everything you all are saying, but in the end, it’s about a mutual respect, desire, and love. And sometimes there is no coming back, or fixing it, or great makeup sex to heal it. That’s where we are.”
The women fell quiet with solemn looks on their faces.
“Zaria, I want this all to work out but if you and Kaleb are intent on separating then can I offer for the little ones to stay with us,” Lisha suggested. “It’s summer. You and Kaleb can implement their new normal without them in the midst of this. Seeing it. Feeling it. Being affected by it.”
“I agree, Momma,” Meena said, ever the teacher with an innate concern for the welfare of children before she became a mother herself. “Just in case y’all reconcile. And if you don’t then we all are just going to have to accept how it is going forward.”
Neema nodded in agreement.
Zaria wrapped her arms around herself and hugged as tight as she could.
“Oh no. You don’t have to comfort yourself,” Lisha said rising to come over to her and remove Zaria’s arms just to replace them with her own.
She settled her head on the older woman’s shoulder, thankful for the loving hug and the sweet scent of her perfume that was so familiar. Soon she felt the presence of all the women, her daughters and nieces included, surround her as well.
She wondered if they knew they were helping to keep her upright.
∞
As his father, brothers, brother-in-law, and step sons-in-law all took their positions on the porch of his house, Kaleb jogged down the stairs and walked around to the rear of the MULE he drove from the farm yesterday. On the back was a cooler and he withdrew a bottle of beer from the ice and water still inside it. He held the bottle up in offer to anyone else.
All declined.
He removed the cap and took a deep satisfying swallow as he made his way around the utility vehicle and back up the steps to take the empty seat on the bench next to his father. The look on Kael Strong’s face was severe. He glanced at the faces of the other men and none of them looked any more pleasant.
“This is for the best,” Kaleb said, bending at the waist to set the bottle down by his booted feet before he rested his elbows atop his knees.
“What the hell happened?” Kade asked.
He was the eldest, the tallest, and the most demanding of all Kaleb’s brother—and the one he respected the most.
Kaleb paused. Both he and Zaria knew the questions would come. It’s why they decided to make a family announcement in the first place. To handle it all together.
But these were his brothers. His father. And men who two women in his life had chosen to wed. He loved each one. Their bond was good. Solid. He didn’t want to lie.
Not anymore.
He barely felt like himself anymore.
How could he fight his wife’s desire to leave when he no longer felt like he correctly fit into the picture anymore? Not the way that he was. The pressure was major.
“It’s not cheating or nothing like that,” he began, casting his eyes out to the front lawn of his property. It felt as if he could see the very heat radiate and blur the image. “I don’t have anything going on with the journalist lady. It’s nothing like that. There’s no other woman for me—there was no other woman for me—but Zaria.”
“Was?” Kahron asked, removing his ever-present aviator shades from the front pocket of his linen shirt to slide onto his face.
“She’s done and in time I will have to move on. Eventually,” he said with reluctance, feeling his heart pound a bit harder at the thought of his wife doing the same with another man.
“With the journalist?” Kahron followed up.
Kaleb shook his head. “I don’t know what the fixation is on Greyson Locke. She has nothing to do with this,” he stressed, reaching for his beer. “I sent her home early last night because the ladies let me know it was bothering Zaria. Hell, it had them all stirred up talking ‘bout we don’t know the effect we have on women.”
Kaeden, the brother that was closest to him in age and friendship, sat up a bit straighter as he pushed up the glasses he rarely wore. “That explains Jade jumping on me last night about nectars not being nectars and paying attention,” he said.
“The cashier was flirting, and you missed it,” Kaleb explained.
“Because I wasn’t trying to catch it,” Kaeden said, raising both hands and shrugging.
“Focus, gentleman,” Kael inserted.
Kaleb nodded. “Greyson is not an issue,” he continued. “Although it was nice to have someone other than y’all and my workers to talk farming with. I’ll admit that. She would jump right in and work the farm right alongside us and that was nice.”
The men all shared looks.
Kaleb held out his hand as if to stop them. “No. I didn’t want it from her. It made me realize I want it from Zaria. I want the Zaria that worked the store and asked questions and gave a damn about what was going on with the farm. And that Zaria disappeared,” he said, admitting the truth to himself. “I want my wife in every part of my life and farming is a big chunk of me.”
“Did you tell Zaria that, son? Did you explain that?” Kael asked.
He shook his head. “No. I didn’t recognize the loss I was feeling until Greyson started shadowing me on the farm,” he said. “I just felt like I couldn’t talk to Zaria about farm stuff.”
“So, you never told her the truth?”
Kaleb stiffened at the sound of Kaeden’s question. He turned to give him a scowl. This brother knew the whole truth. There was no way to avoid him knowing.
Tell her, Kaleb. Tell her the truth.
Kaeden returned the glare through the lens of his spectacles.
“Told her what?” Kael asked with that manner his sons all recognized from childhood.
It meant: Answer me.
It was the same demeanor they now demanded from their own children. Respect.
“It’s nothing,” Kaleb said, taking another sip of beer as his truth hit him and made him feel like a tidal wave was rising high above his head, pulling him below the depths to a place where he could not break free.
Capsizing. Sinking. Drowning.
The feeling of helplessness used to come and go with bright spots and levity to lift that dark cloud, but with each passing day it was his new normal. A constant.
He took another drink before pinching the bridge of his nose and releasing a heavy breath. “Shit,” he swore as dread rose in him with a quickness.
A hand settled on his shoulder and he looked up at Kaeden standing beside him, his face filled with concern. “Hey, don’t carry this alone anymore,” he said. “It can destroy you.”
“Kaleb.”
He looked at his father when he spoke his name.
Kael’s eyes searched his before they filled with concern at whatever he saw.
If it was anything close to the turbulent storm brewing inside him—what he fought so hard to hide—than his father had every right to be worried.
Kaeden threw up his hand. “Hell with it. The farm is—”
Kael held up his hand stopping Kaeden’s words as he kept his eyes locked on Kaleb. “Let him tell me,” he said. “Tell me, son. Talk to me.”
“I got it, Pops. I’m going to fix it and I don’t want help,” Kaleb said with passion. His eyes were intense. “I’m a man. I’m a grown man. KS Dairy Farms is mine and it's all on me whether it sinks or soars. It’s on me.”
Kael nodded as he reached to press his hand to his son’s shoulder. “Is it sinking, son?” he asked.
This was the moment Kaleb dreaded for the last year. He hadn’t wanted anyone to know. His family was all about succeeding. And he had failed. For that he was ashamed.
Deeply so.
“Is it sinking, son?” Kael asked again as if needing him to say it aloud and acknowledge it.
“Yes.” Kaleb looked away from his father because he didn’t want to see his disappointment in him. “The farm is failing.”
Kael grabbed his chin and turned his head back to look at him.
Kaleb kept his father’s eye and refused to buckle beneath the pressure of losing his life’s work.
Kael’s eyes became steely as if willing more fight into his son.
His father was a farmer. He raised his sons to be that as well. Kaleb knew he understood the gravity of doing everything right and still not being able to succeed.
“How bad is it?” Kade asked from behind him.
“Bad,” Kaeden offered with gravity.
“Shit,” Kahron swore.
“I took a loan out to modernize the milking equipment but the contract with the chocolate company fell through when they closed,” he admitted.
“That deal happened two years ago,” Kahron spouted in disbelief. “Have you been struggling all that time?”
“The last year has been the worse. The market is horrible. Hell, just last week I started to apply for a night job at a factory in the Industrial Area that’s hiring,” he admitted, feeling some relief to admit it all.
“Kaleb, why didn’t you say something?” Kade asked, his face incredulous.
Movement in his peripheral vision caused Kaleb to look to the door to find his wife standing there with a stunned expression on her beautiful face.
“Now if only you had told me the truth, Kaleb,” she said, her voice hurt.
Tell her, Kaleb. Tell her the truth.
He broke his gaze with her and reached for his beer.
Kael jumped to his feet and grabbed the bottle from his hand to fling over the railing and to the ground. “That ain’t gonna fix the problem, son,” he roared. “It damn sure didn’t help your marriage.”
“Kael,” Lisha called to him, easing past Zaria to stand by his side.
Kaleb dropped his head into his hands, feeling the weight of his financial ruin and his family’s concern.
A soft and familiar hand stroked his neck. He looked up as Zaria came around to squat down in front of him and caress the side of his face.
“All of this can wait a day. Let’s leave them alone,” Lisha suggested. “Uhm, Kadina and Lei, go get all the kids and we’ll all go back to our house.”
Kaleb allowed himself to get lost in his wife’s eyes as the men all offered his back or shoulder a conciliatory pat before they left the porch and climbed into their vehicles with their wives and children.
Kaleb and Zaria separated long enough to kiss and hug Kasi, Kalel, and Kaliya before they ran with the sweet abandon of children to climb into the Mercedes Benz Sprinter with Kael and Lisha.
When all were gone and it was quiet, they looked to each other.
“So now we really talk?” she asked.
He nodded and waved his hand towards the still open front door in an invitation for her to enter first. She did and he followed, resolved to reclaim who he was at his core by being honest with his wife once again.
∞
Zaria sat across from Kaleb in the living room. She on one end of the sofa and he on the other. Even at that moment, she took note of how they both accepted the distance between them. His eyes—those eyes—landed on her and she locked them with her own. She saw him for the beautiful man he was but wished he hadn’t stopped revealing more of his inner self to her. She foolishly thought they shared everything.
That hurt.
She shifted her eyes away and they landed across the distance onto the new kitchen. She shook her head, remembering the huge fight they had about its cost. “Is that why you were so angry about the budget for the kitchen?” she asked.
At his silence, she turned her head to look at him again.
“If I’m being honest—”
“Please,” she insisted.
He worked his head as if to free a crick from his neck. She now knew that move was his way to free himself of his annoyance of her. Seeing him on the video surveillance that day had revealed that.
“Redoing the kitchen at all was an issue for me,” he admitted. “To me, the savings—money we needed—was just gone. There was nothing wrong with the kitchen we had.”
“But I didn’t know about the money,” she said.
“And I wanted to do that for you because you wanted it,” he admitted. “I want you to be happy.”
“But then you resented me for it,” she said, splaying her hands. “What have I done to make you believe that my happiness lies in material things and not in you. Simply having you. Loving you. My kids. Our life. Where did I go wrong that I didn’t convey that we could live in an apartment with a damn used car and as long as that raggedy car was getting me home to you and my kids than I was good.”
Kaleb looked down to the floor.
She could tell he was holding something back. “We’re talking, Kaleb. Talk to me.”
“You like nice things,” he said.
“Yes, I do, but I don’t require them. It is not a stipulation for me to be with you,” she assured him. “Is that how I made you feel?”
He paused as if carefully selecting his words.
“Do you know how it felt to not give you a huge gift or surprise for your birthday? That shit tore me up. Its why I was drinking. I felt like the dinner and the flowers weren’t enough,” he said fiercely.
“My birthday?” she asked. “I have no complaints except the drinking and even that didn’t stop us from making love in the car. I loved my birthday night because we spent it together. Just you and me. That’s all I needed, Kaleb.”
His eyes searched hers. “It's my job to provide for my family,” he insisted.
Zaria moved over on the sofa closer to him. “And you are a provider. Even with all the money troubles, nothing went lacking. Not one damn thing. But we’re a team and you had to tag me in on this.”
“I felt like a fucking failure,” he admitted, rising to his feet to pace. “This is a six-figure or better profiting farm but over the last year, I was steadily in the red. The candy contract fell through. The loan payments were high. The weather. So much stuff. No matter what I did, no matter what gains I made, I just couldn’t fix it. It was just one step forward and three back. It was like running a race backward. That’s never happened before. I usually can figure it out. Do research. Plan. Plot. Devise. Fix. And I just couldn’t this last year.”
He released a growl of frustration as he stopped pacing.
She remained quiet, knowing at that moment he had to do what he hadn’t done over the last year. Talk. Reveal. Expose.
“No one knew but Kaeden,” Kaleb said, looking up to the ceiling. “He’s the accountant. The money man. Of course, he knew. He knew before me. And he told me to tell you months ago.”
Zaria fought the urge to go to him.
Kaleb turned to her. “Tell her. Tell Zaria the truth. That’s what Kaeden said, and it kept playing in my head. And every time I would hear his voice in my head, I felt...I felt,” he paused as if searching for the right words. “I felt horrible. I felt like a liar. I felt other than me. I couldn’t let you know that I failed you. Failed my kids. I couldn’t admit to that shit. I swore with time I could fix it. Even the article was a chance to speak to how critical the life of dairy farming across the country is right now but also to just get some free press for KS. Straight up. Shit.”
That made her smile a bit but she covered it with her hand.
“There is nothing Greyson Locke can do for me but write that article and put it in that damn magazine,” he said, striding over to bend down in front of her. “I’m a man, Zaria. And everything this year has made me feel like less than that. It didn’t put me in the right headspace to make love to my wife.”
“I thought I was too old for you,” she finally spoke, admitting to her own self-doubt.
“Too old? Look at you. Are you serious? I almost knocked a few dudes out last night for checking you out in the white dress,” he said, getting on his knees between her open legs as he reached for her hips with his hands and pulled her forward on the couch. “There are women half your age that can’t touch you.”
Zaria settled her hands on his shoulders, enjoying the feel of the muscles beneath her touch. “I missed you. I missed us,” she admitted.
Kaleb hugged her body close as he pressed his face against her neck and suckled a spot there with a deep moan.
She shivered. “Kaleb,” she moaned in a weak protest even as she arched her back and let her head fall back.
There was so much more to unpack. To correct. To discuss.
But at that moment as the all too familiar kinetic energy between them rose it was hard to think and focus on anything but the passion.
“Kaleb,” she whispered.
“I need you,” he moaned against her neck, taking one of her hands to slide down between them to feel his hardness.
She gasped and let her fingers stroke him before she rushed to undo his pants and free his inches until his heat was warming her hand in her tight grip. “Damn,” she swore.
So hard.
Kaleb brought his hand up the front of her body to lightly grip her neck and press his splayed fingers against her chin and cheek before pushing her until she was leaning back against the sofa. He dragged his hand down her body, pausing to stroke her hard nipples pressing against her lace bra and thin shirt, before lowering his head to bury his face against the seat of her jeans.
Her hips arched up off the sofa. “Take them off,” she begged in a hot whisper, hating the barrier it provided from his mouth being on her.
He did.
Button. Zipper. Undone. He worked her pants over her hips and buttocks with the material locked in his grip as he stood and pulled them down her legs before flinging it over his head. He fell back down to his knees, grabbed her tiny little silk panties and tore them from her with one rough jerk.
She cried out at his strength. His intensity. His passion.
He looked at her clean-shaven, plump mound with a wolfish lick of his lips. “It's pretty,” he told her, looking up at her for just a second.
Zaria gave him a smile of thanks at his appreciation.
Kaleb dipped his head again and suckled the top of her plump vee into his mouth. He lightly growled. “Always fresh,” he moaned, his words breezing against her skin. “Always.
She laughed softly as she stroked the silver hairs of his hair. When he grabbed her knees and pushed them back until they were on each side of her body, she gasped as he opened her core.
“Always,” he repeated, before pursing his lips and blowing a cool stream of air against her quivering clit.
“Oh, my Lord,” she cried out spreading her arms wide and gripping the pillows into her fists as she circled her hips.
The first feel of his tongue licking her from the tiny space just below her opening and up to flicker against her core, her plump lips, and then her swollen clit was wicked.
“Kaleb,” she sighed, closing her eyes and letting her head fall back over the top edge of the sofa as he sucked her deeply. Endlessly she called his name between licks of her parched lips as she felt a heat flood deep with her core and across her body.
He was the master at it. Slow and methodical. Deep sucks. Soft flickers. Kisses. Hot words of praises. All of it. The best. Just the best.
A true candy licker.
“Ah,” she sighed, pressing her feet against the edge of the sofa and gripping the back of his head with one hand as she slowly rocked her hips back and forth against his mouth.
“It’s gonna cum. Oh, God, Kaleb. I’m going to cum,” she gasped as she felt her climax building in her core until she quivered in anticipation of the ultimate high.
“Cum in my mouth,” he moaned before sucking her clit so deep until his mouth and face were buried between her lips.
“I’m going to cum in your mouth,” she promised.
He released one thigh to ease his thick middle finger inside her to tickle her g-spot.
And that sent her over the edge.
Zaria took a deep inhale that sounded strangled as she climaxed. “Yes!” she screamed.
Kaleb locked his free hand around her thigh to lock her in place as he continued to suckle her to a long, wonderfully torturous explosion as he eased his finger from her core and down inside her other hole.
Her tears flowed and she quivered as she gave in to the pleasure, reaching under her shirt and bra to tease her own nipples. She cursed. She hollered. She didn’t care. It was good but one thing could make it better.
“Put it in,” she pleaded. “Now.”
She felt him jerk his jeans and boxers down around his hips a second before he used his strong hips to guide his hardness inside her with one strong thrust.
They both cried out.
He bent down to suck a taut brown nipple into his mouth as he pumped away between her thighs. His pace was fast and furious.
Deep.
Heart pounding.
She locked her feet around his waist and let her hands grip his head and his back. The sweat beading his muscled body slickened her touch. She felt his dick swell even more inside her.
“You came?” she asked looking up at him with dilated eyes.
“A little bit,” he admitted.
She licked his mouth.
He cried out.
She did it again. And again. And again.
“Shit,” he swore. “You nasty, baby.”
“I am?” she asked feeling emboldened.
And his ebony eyes darkened because he knew what was next. They were familiar with each other. Knew the kicks to please each other.
“Stand up,” she ordered him.
She moaned at the feel of his hard inches sliding out of her as he did. She eyed his dick, still moist with her juices, as she looked up at him with her head tilted to the side to take his smooth thick tip into her mouth.
“Oooooh shit, Zaria,” he gasped, his knees buckling.
She sucked him so deeply her cheeks caved. Taking more of him into her mouth she enjoyed the feel of his hardness against her tongue. Opening her throat, she took in more inches.
Kaleb gave her two small double pumps of his hips as he pursed his lips and released a low howl.
She swallowed, tightening her throat down on his tip.
He squealed.
Smiling, she pulled her head back to free his inches before ending with a circle of her tongue around his thick tip. “Again?” she asked.
“Wait. Wait. Wait. I’m trying my best not to cum,” he begged off, putting a hand to her forehead to prevent her from taking him into her mouth again.
She knocked his hand away and dipped her head.
He stepped back and grabbed his curving length. “I want to get back inside of you. I don’t want to cum yet,” he said. “Turn over.”
She shook her head. “Sit down,” she said, pointing to the low-slung ottoman.
He did.
Zaria stood and pulled her t-shirt over her head and then reached behind herself to unsnap her bra, letting it fall down her arms and to the floor.
Following her lead, he removed all of his clothing until he was naked as well.
She straddled his legs as he held his curving hard inches upward for her to slide down on. “Yes,” she sighed with a small laugh of contentment at his thick hardness pressing against her walls and filling her. “You feel so good.”
“I do?”
“Yessss,” she moaned.
Kaleb grabbed her buttocks, massaging the softness as she gentle bounced up and down on his lap. “You playing but that right there is gonna make me cum,” he warned her with his eyes smoldering before he lowered his head to press kisses to her cleavage.
“It’s like my pussy is molded to your dick,” she said, licking her lips. “Like a perfect fit.”
He looked up with a glint of humor in his eyes. “You couldn’t take it all at first,” he reminded her.
“I said molded,” she countered with a little smile.
“A perfect fit,” he said.
“Absolutely,” she agreed, wrapping her arms around his neck.
“That’s my pussy,” he told her.
“Completely,” she promised him softly as she lowered her head to kiss him as they rocked back and forth sending his hard inches in and out of her with a delicious pace that sent their hearts pounding, pulses races, and climaxes on the rise.
Hotly they panted into each other’s open mouth. Lost in each other. High off their passion. Eyes locked. Limbs entwined. They rode each other to an explosive nut. Together. Shivering. Sweating. Crying out. Clutching at each other. Free-falling into the abyss.
∞
Nearly an hour later they sill lay atop the large ottoman with one of the throw blankets over their nakedness. Laying together in the stillness. Surrounded by the quiet.
“I love you, Kaleb,” she said as she lifted her head from his chest and looked into those deep and dark eyes of his.
“I love you, too. Always,” he promised, his hand lightly stroking the small of her back.
She took a breath because the next words were not easy, but definitely necessary. “This was not reconciliation,” she began.
His body stiffened beside her.
Zaria sat up, letting the blanket drop around her waist. “I need to make sure of what I want and that takes time. And you may not think so but you need time to decide if this is what you want, too.”
He remained silent but his eyes were locked on her.
“You didn’t trust me to tell me the truth about the business troubles and that is a sign of a bigger problem, Kaleb,” she said. “Whether you want to admit it or not.”
He sat up and rose from the ottoman, shoving the blanket away. “You still want a divorce?” he asked, his eyes squinted and his voice hard and unrelenting. “What was the purpose of telling you the truth if you’re going to leave anyway?”
“You didn’t tell me the truth,” she said, rising as well. “I overheard you telling your father.”
“But we’re a team?” he asked in sarcasm before he strode away with the muscles of his legs flexing as he moved.
“Kaleb,” she called behind him as he continued towards the hall.
He stopped and turned to her; his inches swinging back and forth across the tops of his thighs as he did. “You want to go? Then go,” he said, pointing towards the door. “Get the hell on. I don’t want to put too much on you. Jump ship while it’s sinking, right?”
That hurt. That her husband thought so little of her and her loyalty to him. To their family.
His words took what little fight she had mustered for their love right on out of her. Like sails without wind. Deflated.
She quickly picked up her clothes and got dressed before she walked to the door and left without looking back at him or the life they once shared.