Chapter Three

Lisa

 

The welcome party that greeted me when I exited the baggage claim warmed my heart. Jeremiah and Ja’mya stood together, holding up a sign that read “Welcome Home Ms. Sutton!” in bright pink letters with pictures of airplanes and masquerade-style masks glued onto it. You would think I had been gone for three months instead of three days. As soon as my baby girl saw me, she dropped her end of the sign and ran toward me, wrapping her arms around me in a tight hug.

“Hey, Mommy! Welcome home.”

I pressed a kiss to the cheek of my preteen, whose brown eyes I could stare into forever. “Thanks, baby. Did you miss me?”

She nodded and shifted to my side with one arm around my waist so we could continue moving forward and out of the way of the rest of the passengers coming out of the baggage claim.

“Yes, ma’am. Did you bring me anything?”

I laughed and pursed my lips briefly. “How can you say you missed me when the first thing out of your mouth is ‘Did I bring you anything’? How does that work Ja’mya?”

She smiled sheepishly and shrugged those slender shoulders of hers. “I was just asking, Mommy.”

Shaking my head, I squeezed her to me. “Mmhmm.” Of course, I’d brought her something. I was incapable of going anywhere without finding a gift that I thought she would love. This time, it was a collection of colorful bangles that caught my eye. They were a great way to add some variety to the navy-blue and white school uniform she wore daily. Although the bangles were in my carry-on bag instead of my suitcase, I would wait until we got home to present them to her.

We reached Jeremiah, and I smiled up at the man whose genes were so strong, my own family had questioned whether or not I had a hand in Ja’mya’s creation. His full lips were curved into a smirk as he watched me rake seductively over his body. Unless he was working, Jeremiah always dressed casually. He wore a black t-shirt with the Hawkins Realty logo printed across the front in red letters, dark gray cargo shorts and black and red canvas tennis shoes. The shirt stretched across his broad chest and hugged his biceps, revealing muscles that received regular attention, thanks to his thrice-weekly gym visits. The shorts stopped just above his knees, and I eyed his defined calves and smooth ankles. His feet were shoulder-width apart, and his arms hung at his sides with his hands hiding in his pockets. He just stood there, relaxed, as my greedy eyes drank him in. Good God, this man was so fine. When I finally lifted my gaze to his face, my eyes met his, and I bit my lip at the heat I saw in them. It was a powerful feeling, knowing I put that look there, that I could still put that look on his face, even after all of these years.

He removed his hands from his pockets, and I released the handle of my rolling suitcase and removed my arm from Ja’mya’s waist. He spread his arms wide, and I stepped forward into his warm, welcoming embrace. Jeremiah bent down and wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling my body flush against his. Without saying a word, he pressed his lips to mine and showed me just how happy he was to see me. His mouth and tongue moved against mine, slowly and intentionally, devouring my exhaustion and filling me with renewed energy.

The sound of someone clearing their throat behind me popped the bubble that had formed around Jeremiah and me. After one last kiss, I leaned back slowly, a satisfied grin on my face. This man was absolutely going to get the business when we got home.

“Hey.”

He dropped a hand from my waist and squeezed one of my rear cheeks. “Hey.”

“Okay, you two. We’re in public. Y’all can save all of that kissy face shit until you get home.”

I turned my head and glared at Trisha, who stood to my left with one arm wrapped around Ja’mya’s shoulders. She winked at me teasingly before acknowledging Jeremiah.

“Hey, J.”

Jeremiah smirked and lowered me back to the ground. He walked over and hugged my best friend to his side. “What’s good, T? Y’all have a good time down in the H?”

Trisha nodded. “Just barely. We managed to enjoy ourselves despite Candice’s raggedy cousin trying to ruin our trip.”

“Wait a minute.” Jeremiah frowned and glanced my way. “Tried to ruin your trip? What’d she do?”

Trisha exhaled loudly. “She just complained the whole time and was generally being an asshole.”

I slapped my hands on my hips. “So you’re just going to keep on cussing like my baby is not right there, huh?!”

Trisha looked down at my daughter and smiled. Ja’mya’s eyes were bouncing back and forth between the three of us as if she were watching a tennis match.

“My bad lil’ J. Unlike ya mama, I know you’ve heard these words before, but you better not let us catch you using them. Ya hear?”

Ja’mya nodded. “Yes, ma’am.

Trisha looked over at me with a smug expression on her face, and I curled my lip, mugging her in return. Jeremiah laughed and walked over, wrapping me in a bear hug and placing a kiss on the side of my neck.

“Don’t act like that,” he whispered in my ear.

I shivered at his proximity and the feel of his warm breath dancing against my skin. I couldn’t do anything but nod. That was the effect he had on me. He stepped back and grabbed my suitcase.

“Are we good to go?”

I looked around. “Trisha, where are Candice and Fallon?”

Trisha rolled her eyes. “Girl, you ran off the plane so fast that you missed it. Fallon got into an argument with one of the stewardesses. She was hollering and raising hell.”

My eyes bucked. “About what?”

With a shrug, Trisha shook her head. “I have no idea. One minute, I’m a person behind you; the next, I hear screaming and I turn around to see Fallon going off about only God knows what. Candice looked so embarrassed. She told me to just go ahead and let you know that she would see you tomorrow.”

My mouth hung open. “WOW. That’s crazy.”

“She’s crazy,” Trisha amended.

I nodded in agreement and the four of us exited the airport. While Jeremiah had dropped both me and Trisha off, Candice and Fallon had ridden to the airport together, so if Candice said she’d see me tomorrow, that meant I didn’t have to wait for her to come out of the terminal. Jeremiah opened my door and assisted me with stepping up into the raised cab of his truck.

Once we were all settled into Jeremiah’s pickup truck and on the road back to Pine Bluff, Mama Sari’s words flitted to the forefront of my mind. Jeremiah had switched on some music, and Ja’mya was chattering away about the sleepover she’d had with my cousin’s daughter, but I couldn’t focus on either because my mind had drifted to the backroom of that candy shop in Houston.

There is a tragedy on your horizon.

I lifted my hand to my neck and tugged on the collar of my t-shirt. I’d be a fool to listen to that woman. Everyone else’s reading had something to do with love except mine. Well, mine and Fallon’s, but I didn’t count her because she got on my last nerve. She’d even found something to complain about at the restaurant we went to after the palm reading. I told Candice that if she ever again tried to invite her cousin to go with us on another trip, that she (Candice) would be banned for life. Honestly, even Fallon’s read seemed to deal with love, wanting something that belonged to someone else automatically brought to mind a man. My reading was the only one that was scary.

Death looms near.

I shuddered.

“You’re cold?” Jeremiah reached over and switched the temperature controls from cold to hot and aimed the vents at me.

I couldn’t tell him the real reason that caused my shiver, so I murmured a “Thank you” and wrapped my arms around myself. Thinking about this mess was going to drive me crazy. I needed to just put it out of my head and pretend that it never happened. That stuff wasn’t real and even if it was, it was probably demonic. Nope. There was no room in my life for the confusion that reading had brought me. Like Trisha had said that night, Jesus was my homeboy and we don’t get down like that. It didn’t matter if my church visits were usually limited to Easter and Christmas and I kept my prayers to a simple thanks before eating.

“Did you have a good time?”

Jeremiah’s question thankfully pulled me out of my dark thoughts.

“Of course, babe. There was so much going on this weekend that we hardly spent any time at the hotel. Oh! And thank you for putting us in a suite for the game. I can’t believe you did that.”

He reached across the center console and grabbed my hand, threading our fingers and lifting it to his mouth to place a kiss on my knuckles.

“You’re more than welcome. I know you don’t really watch professional basketball, so I figured you would have a more enjoyable experience in private with all of the amenities.” He winked at me. “And I’m sure the food and wine didn’t hurt.”

I laughed. “No, that didn’t hurt at all.”

We fell into a comfortable silence, and I realized that Ja’mya hadn’t spoken for at least five miles. I glanced into the back of the cab and smiled when I saw her slumped over, her head in Trisha’s lap as she snored lightly. Trisha was leaning against the window and she seemed to had fallen asleep as well.

A half an hour later, we pulled up in front of the three-bedroom house that Trisha rented. I reached back and tapped her knee to wake her up. Her eyes flew open, and she stretched in her seat before gently sliding Ja’mya’s head off of her lap and onto the seat. She climbed out of the truck and took the suitcase from Jeremiah that he had pulled from the bed of the truck. I jumped out and rounded the front of the truck to meet her at her front door.

“See you later, T.”

Trisha waved at Jeremiah and allowed me to pull her into a hug.

“Despite the nonsense, I had fun this weekend.”

Trisha nodded and stepped back. There was a contemplative look on her face as her gaze drifted behind me then back to my face.

“Are we going to talk about the palm reading at all?”

My chest rose as I sucked in a breath through my nose. “I didn’t plan on it. Pretending it never happened seems like way more fun.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “So, when she said ‘the path of inaction leads to despair’, that shit didn’t mean anything to you?”

I exhaled sharply. “Not tonight, Trisha. We’ll talk about it later, but please, not tonight. I just want to enjoy my family and get some rest.”

“How the hell can you rest knowing that one of the people in that truck right now might die soon?! Are you serious right now?”

I glanced behind me to see if Jeremiah had noticed Trisha’s tone elevating. “Can you please shut up? Yelling isn’t going to fix anything right now, and honestly, what I really need to do is think this through. I have no idea what my plan is.”

Trisha huffed and turned her back to me, shoving her key in the lock and throwing the door open. I followed her into the house and as soon as I closed the door behind me, she whirled around and poked me in the chest.

“Let me tell you something. I’m not going to sit by and watch you do nothing except tell yourself that the reading wasn’t real. Those two people out there are my family too, and if one of them dies because you needed to ‘think it through’, I will never forgive you.”

“Trisha—”

“No! I will give you tonight, but tomorrow your ass had better give me the plan asaptually!”

I wiped the few tears that had fallen during her tirade from my eyes.

“That’s not even a word, Trisha.”

“Lisa, I swear to chocolate Jewish Jesus in the manger on a balmy September night, I will fight you!”

“Oh, really? And what are your plans concerning your read, huh? How convenient for you to focus all of your energy on me when you were given some very real news as well.”

She deflated right in front of me. “Unlike you, Lisa, I have no intentions of ignoring what Mama Sari told me. I just need to figure out how to go about living my truth. This isn’t the most progressive city.”

I sighed. Although I’d seen the city make strides since first moving here as a college freshman, I had to admit she was right. A large majority of the population was heavily religious and allowed their “faith” to color their opinions on almost everything.

“But,” Trisha continued, “despite that, I know that I have work to do and I plan on doing it. I don’t want to be alone, and I have plenty of love to give.” She gave me a challenging look.

I pursed my lips and nodded. I understood exactly what she was saying to me but that didn’t change the bone-deep fear that I felt. Still, there was no point in arguing with her further. I hugged her once more.

“Get some sleep; I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

Thankfully, she didn’t say anything else. She nodded and opened the front door, watching as I made my way to the truck, where Jeremiah hopped out and ushered me inside the cab. The drive from Trisha’s house to the one Jeremiah and I shared was only ten minutes long. Too big to fit in the garage, Jeremiah parked the truck in the driveway under a custom-built shed. He jumped out to retrieve my suitcase, and I assumed the task of trying to wake the heavy sleeper in the backseat. After a couple minutes of unsuccessful attempts, Jeremiah opened the back door and lifted Ja’mya out of the seat, draping her over his shoulder.

I unlocked the front door and stepped to the side as he carried her into the house. He toed off his shoes, and I did the same before removing Ja’mya’s sneakers from her feet and following him upstairs. He made a left at the landing, walking past the two guest rooms to deposit our daughter into her room intent on putting her in the bed. I turned in the opposite direction and entered the master suite, rolling my suitcase into the walk-in closet. I was not in the mood to unpack so it could sit for one night. By the time I had undressed and taken a quick shower, Jeremiah was already in the bed and under the covers.

The overhead light was off, but the room was dimly lit from the lamp on his nightstand. I crossed the room and crawled into the bed, sliding my naked body under the covers and scooting up against his side. I smiled as our skin touched, and I realized he was naked as well. His arm came from behind his head to wrap around me and pull me even closer to him so that our lips could meet. I moaned into his mouth and he reached down to squeeze my cheeks. I pushed up on my arms and threw a thick thigh across his body to straddle him.

Immediately, his hands reached for and cupped my breasts, thumbs playing with my nipples and bringing them to stiff peaks. I arched my back, thrusting them forward even more in invitation, and he responded by sitting up and capturing one nipple between his lips. I whimpered and ground against him as he laved the first one then the other breast with equal attention. Beneath me, his hardness throbbed against my slick heat. I needed him inside of me ASAP. Leaning back, I reached between us and grasped the base of his erection. As I slid it upright, the tip grazed my entrance, and we both moaned simultaneously at the contact.

Jeremiah abandoned my breasts and pushed my hands away, grabbing his silken steel with one of his and using the thumb on his free hand to play with my sensitive clit. My abdomen curved inward and my thighs instinctively tried to close, squeezing around his waist.

“Uh uhn,” he murmured. “Open up for me.”

Trembling, I forced my thighs back open, crying out when he increased the pressure on the bundle of nerves at my apex. His intent focus on my exposed center made me flush with wanting. He removed his fingers and used his dick to slap my clit a couple of times before continuing his ministrations. I cried out from the pleasure that zipped through me at his expert maneuvers, and when he pinched my clit, twisting the button between his thumb and forefinger, I threw my head back and moaned as my orgasm hit me full-on.

Swiftly, he rose up and came to his knees, grabbing me by my hips to keep me against him. He leaned forward, placing me in a missionary position at the foot of our king-size bed as my back hit the mattress, and slid effortlessly inside of me. Immediately, he began to work his hips in a rhythm that never failed to make my body dance. My back bowed off the bed as he repeatedly brushed his glans against the spot that made me unravel. My hips rose—to meet him or in an effort to keep him from that spot, I don’t know—and in response, he grabbed a pillow from behind him and slid it underneath my hips.

He next sat back on his haunches and used the heels of his hands to push my knees toward the mattress. When he was satisfied with the butterfly position he had me in, he jackhammered into me until I was in danger of giving myself a black eye with my free-flying breasts. I wrapped an arm under my ample bosom and used the other to reach for him. He came to me without hesitation, bending down while amazingly keeping up his fast pace. The kiss was ravenous and wild. Our teeth clanked and noses slammed into each other but neither of us was willing to slow down the pace or tame our movements. The urgency, the…roughness was necessary right now.

Not until my chest burned from lack of air did I turn my head to break the kiss, gasping in a lungful of air and exhaling quickly before pulling him back toward me. The kiss was shorter this time. I pressed my head against the mattress and opened my eyes to look at him.

“J,” I rasped.

His eyes popped open and those chestnut browns stared down at me with so much desire wrapped in love that I thought I might burst with the intensity of it all. I released my breasts and grabbed his sweat-dampened bald head with both hands, pulling his forehead to meet mine.

“Gimme my son.”

The heat in his eyes cranked up to one thousand degrees, but he surprised me by pulling out of me. With no time to process what was going on, he flipped me over onto my stomach and grabbed my hips, hiking my ass in the air. He shoved a second pillow underneath me and with my knees no longer touching the bed, I reached and grabbed a hold of the end of the mattress. I was twitching with anticipation. With those three words, I had unleashed the beast inside of Jeremiah Saul Hawkins.

In one smooth motion, he was back inside of me, causing me to mewl like a kitten. He dug his fingers into the flesh of my waist with one hand and grabbed the base of my braided bun with the other. With one firm tug on my hair, he forced my head back, lifting my chest and exposing my neck. He leaned forward and pressed his chest against my back. His lips trailed my shoulder before he bit down on my sweat-drenched skin. I cried out against the sharp sting of his teeth that was instantly replaced by the cool rasping of his tongue.

He pulled away from me but kept his grip on my hair as he started to move inside of me once more. The more he pulled my hair, the faster his thrusts, and I was almost lifted from the pillows as my body jerked back and forth like a ragdoll. I mumbled incoherently as I was inundated with a variety of sensations. The sting from him pulling my hair combined with the ecstasy from him repeatedly knocking against the front of my walls had my mind and body ready to combust. My skin was on fire and the heat of my second orgasm rushed from my toes to my ears in preparation for an explosion.

As Jeremiah neared his own release, his thrusts grew deeper and harder, and they sparked my blood. He released my hair and I fell forward, screaming into the mattress as I convulsed. My release triggered his own and he froze above me, groaning my name in a strangled voice. He dropped lifelessly onto the mattress beside me, pulling me from the pillows to hold me against his chest as we both came down from the highest of highs. When the aftershocks of my orgasm died down and I no longer spontaneously squeezed around him, I rolled over until we were chest to chest and placed a kiss at the base of his neck.

“So, hair pulling, huh? That’s new.”

He laughed and I felt it rumble through his chest where my head rested.

“I’d been thinking about doing that since the minute you came home with those braids. They just did something to me.”

I smirked. “Yeah, turned you into a sadist.”

He reached down and smacked my butt, eliciting a yelp from me.

“Well, you like that shit, so what does that make you? A masochist?”

I shook my head and rubbed my stinging rear. “What makes you think I liked it?”

I felt the heat of his gaze as he stared down at me, but I refused to look up at him. I did like the feel of him pulling my hair. In fact, I loved it. But I didn’t want to admit that.

“I don’t know. It could be how wet your pussy got when I wrapped my hand around those braids. Or how hard your nipples got. Or the sounds—”

“Okay, okay! I get it.”

Jeremiah gently rolled me onto my back and lifted my legs in the air, kneeling in between them and draping an ankle over each of his shoulders. I stared up at the gorgeous man I called my own.

“What do you get, Lee?”

I pursed my lips. Of course, he would make me say it. He wouldn’t be Jeremiah if he didn’t want total clarification.

“I get that my enjoyment of your barbarism was evident.”

He laughed loudly and shook his head as his attention dropped to my opening. I sucked in a breath and bit my lip as he rubbed his hardness against my slit.

“Your mouth is so smart, Lee.”

“So!” I shot back. “You love it.”

He licked his lips and my pulse quickened. “You damn straight.” He pressed forward until his tip slipped inside of me then he pulled back.

I exhaled. “So what’s the point in even saying it?”

Again, he pushed inside of me a couple of inches before, again, retreating.

“Just pointing out what I love about you.”

I whimpered as he left the tip in this time.

“What else do you love about me?”

He gave me half of his length.

“I love how ocean-wet this pussy always is.” He pinched one of my nipples and I moaned. “I love these juicy-ass titties.” His hands slid under my body and gripped my behind. “I love how fat this ass is, and I especially love these stripes you earned from carrying my baby.” Finally, his fingers trailed the faint stretch marks that covered my lower belly.

“All you love is my looks?”

He glared at me and pushed forward until he was fully seated inside of me.

“I’m not even going to acknowledge that shit.”

I gasped as he pulled back and thrust forward fully.

“I must have—ah—hit a nerve.”

“You know damn well that’s not true.” Sliding his hands under my butt, he lifted me a few inches in the air and begin moving at a steady pace.

“I—don’t know—mmm—a thing. Shoot, J!”

“Naw, I don’t wanna hear that shit. I don’t know why, but I love how you act like you don’t know much I love you. I get to show you over and over again and I love that shit.” He gripped my hips and increased his pace. I grabbed my breasts, once again in danger of self-injury. His voice became strained but he continued talking.

“I love how you carry yourself. You know you’re the shit and it shows. I love how amazing of a mother you are to my baby. I love that you’re mine; that you chose me back.”

Engaging abdominal muscles that rarely get acknowledged, I sat up and wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling his lips to mine in a frantic kiss. I don’t know where he got that crazy notion that I pretended to be unaware of the depth of his love for me, but everything else he said had the blood roaring through my veins. Jeremiah was the epitome of love in my eyes. To me, this man hung the moon and the stars. I had no idea what love was until he slid into my life with a corny pickup line. All of me was all of him.

The significance of my thoughts hit me with an inexplicable suddenness, and I gasped into his mouth as realization slammed into me. Jeremiah was the possessor of my heart. I gave it to him so many years ago that walking around without it was as natural to me as breathing air.

Jeremiah was who Mama Sari predicted would die if I didn’t leave him.

As another orgasm crested, tears poured from my eyes and I clung to him in desperation. Unaware that I was falling apart in his lap, he buried his face in my neck and cried out his own release. Several minutes passed of us locked like that, wrapped around each other, connected in the most intimate way possible and breathing in each other’s air. When Jeremiah scooted to the edge of the bed, instead of releasing him, I tightened my grip around his neck as he stood and walked us into our bathroom. He held me against him with one arm around my waist and reached into the glass shower stall with the other and switched on the spray.

After about thirty seconds, he stepped into the stall and turned so that the spray from the shower head didn’t touch my hair. I wanted to start crying all over again at his thoughtfulness. He grasped my hips with both hands and lifted me up until his now softened penis fell out of me. I unlocked my legs from around his waist and allowed him to lower me to the tiled floor. He turned around, presumably to grab the shower gel, but as soon as his back was to me, I hugged him from behind and placed my face against his damp and warm skin.

How was I supposed to turn my back on this man? How could I leave him and live to make sure that he did the same? It was impossible. Leaving him would kill me. I would be a mess. No good to anyone, including Ja’mya.

I pressed my lips to his spine and whispered, “I love you.”

He spun in my arms and tilted my head back, eyes roving my face intently. “I love you, too.” Then he leaned in and pressed a kiss that was devoid of heat, but full of emotion, to my lips. I sighed and gripped the defined wings of his back. I had no idea how many more times I would get to experience moments like this. Before the kiss could deepen, Jeremiah took a step back and that’s when I noticed that he held my loofah. He grabbed my body wash and squirted out way more than the quarter-sized dollop that I usually used. With a twirl of his finger in the air, he motioned for me to turn around. I did as instructed and sighed contentedly as he proceeded to wash me.

I felt movement in the air and glanced behind me to see that he’d crouched down. He ran the loofah over my legs and even lifted each of my feet to swipe across the bottom. With a gentle push at my hip, he spun me until I faced him so that he could repeat his ministrations on my front. He cleaned everywhere but between my legs, but when he held the loofah under the spray to rinse all of the soap from it and crouched down in front of me, I smiled. He tapped on my outer thigh and I spread my legs to allow him to swipe against my sore puffiness. Way gentler than I would have done, he brushed once, twice, a third time and pressed a kiss just below my belly button before standing up and rinsing the loofah once more and hanging it on a hook mounted on the wall.

I reached past him to grab his preferred soap and hand towel and proceeded to show him just as much care and attention as he had shown me. Dropping to my haunches, I started at his feet and worked my way up his body that looked as if it had been carved from onyx by an artist who was known for her attention to detail. I thought back on his words from earlier as we made love. I had chosen him but it was only after he chose me first. If he hadn’t made the first move, we would never have made it to where we were now. Now I couldn’t help but wonder if he hadn’t chosen me, would death still loom near?

And what kind of cruel irony required me to hurt this man—hurt myself—in order to keep him alive?