Chapter Six

 

Cain

 

 

Once upon a time, Ahmalee told me her body was a temple. I won’t worship in it until it’s mine – until I own it. It’s why I slept on the sofa last night. I couldn’t be next to her. She wanted me to stay, but I couldn’t. The temptation was too strong. For Ahmalee, I’m a new man. A different man. I’m still me – still Abel – but she knows me as someone else. I think I’ve slowly evolved into that person she loves.

Since this is the case, I made the decision last night that she doesn’t need to know who I really am. Abel Wesley – the arrogant millionaire – has to take a backseat to Cain Wesley – the humble, broke man. I guess I should’ve thought that through before I arrived rocking a five-thousand-dollar suit, genuine leather shoes and driving a Maserati. Ahmalee hasn’t questioned me about it. She’s so into me, she hasn’t noticed.

 

* * *

 

It’s morning. I’m laying on her bed, facing her, watching her sleep. She looks peaceful like she doesn’t have a care in the world. Like, if she died today, it would be fine because her life is complete.

She’s sleeping in a cropped t-shirt and panties. I finger her waist beads. I love that she wears those. Along with her locs and that deep chocolate skin tone, they give her a provocative look. Earlier this morning when I first came in here, I slid the ring I bought on her finger, anxious to see how it looks on her hand. Looked so good, I let it stay there. I’m so ready to make this woman my wife.

This from a man who never wanted marriage…

I can’t explain how it hit me so hard. I think it was just her. There’s someone for everybody, and she’s my one. My hope is, she’ll make me the happiest man in the world and accept my proposal. We’ll work out all the logistics later.

For now, I need her to belong to me.

She stirs. Moans softly. She blinks, adjusting her eyes to the light. She sees me and smiles. “Mmm,” she moans again. “Good morning, Cain.”

“Good morning, sweetheart.”

She reaches to touch my face, stroking my beard. I feel my heart race. “Did you sleep good?” she asks.

“I did. I’ve been in here for the last few hours watching you.”

“You have?”

“Yeah.”

She yawns. “What time is it?”

“It’s a few minutes after eight.”

Another yawn comes as she stretches. Beneath her nightshirt I watch her breasts rise as she extends her arms up in the air. It’s at that point she sees the ring. She frowns, brings her hand closer to her face and examines it, then looks at me.

“Cain?”

“You know I love you.”

Her body trembles. I lower to my knees beside the bed and I say, “I know this isn’t normal but it’s real. I feel it when I’m with you, felt it when I left you and now I want to feel it for the rest of my life. I love you, Ahmalee Hayes, and I can’t go another day without doing something to ensure you belong to me so I can love you forever. I want you to be my wife. I want to be your husband. I want us to be together forever. I—oh, baby you don’t know how much I want you. I crave you. I don’t want you in a way where one night would be sufficient for my appetite. I want you in a way where no other man could ever touch you. I want you to belong to me and only me. Ahmalee, will you marry me?”

She’s in tears when she slides to the edge of the bed where I am. She brings her hands to my face and says, “You know I love you.”

“I do. Will you marry me?” I ask again.

She nods and says, “Yes. Yes. Yes! I will marry you! Yes! I love you so much, Cain. You don’t know how much I love you.”

She wraps her legs around my torso, her arms around my neck and cries tears of happiness. She tells me this is one of the happiest days of her life and she can’t believe this is happening. Says she can’t wait to tell Jamie and Sonji.

I’ve decided I won’t tell anyone until we’re married. If I call my parents, they’ll attempt to coordinate everything concerning our wedding and I don’t want all the fanfare, the partying, months of planning and the stress that comes when most people plan their weddings. I just want her. I want my Ahmalee.

“You’re going to be my husband?”

“I am. And you’re going to be my wife.”

“I like the sound of that,” I tell her. With my hands submerged in her locs, I take all the kisses I want, slowly crawling over her until she’s flat on the bed. She’s moaning, lying still while I cover and love on her. Her body feels like a heater – she’s hot. I love how she feels. It’s just how I remember feeling her.

I end the kiss to say, “I have to be the luckiest man in the world.”

“No, I’m the lucky one,” she says. She looks at me in a way that I feel she can transfer into my body if she wanted. Like she’s high and I’m her drug of choice. It blows my mind how she’s able to give me this energy.

I take a swipe across her lips with my tongue. I’m stimulated. Enlivened. Everything in me wants to make love to her here and now but I’ve waited this long. I don’t expect we’d have a long engagement. Leave it up to me, we’ll get married today and she’d be pregnant by tomorrow.

“I have another confession to make, Ahmalee,” I tell her.

“What’s that?”

“Back home in Charlotte, I would be at work sitting behind my desk thinking about you and I would get furious at the thought that you may have moved on and had some other man over here cutting your grass, taking care of you and making love to you.”

A slight smile forms in the corner of her mouth. “Really?”

“Yeah.”

She touches my face. I love it when she does that.

“That’s interesting because I used to think you found some woman in Charlotte. Somebody you met at work and y’all were in love and happy and I was over here sad, lonely and missing you. I was jealous of a woman I didn’t know if you had or not, and I used to tell myself there was no way I could love another man as much as I loved you.”

“Wow.”

“It’s true.”

“I know,” I say. I know it’s the truth because she is an honest, truthful person, unlike me. That bothers me but I can’t let it take over. I just have to start over with her, be the man she needs and settle into my new life of being her husband.

“Oh, and you’re the only man I ever wanted to make love to,” she whispers.

Sounds like music to my ears. I lower my lips to hers and devour them again. I don’t think I’ve ever had a morning so sweet.