6. Draco
I knew when we walked into Dr. Prentiss’s office that Taelyn would think the worst. Most women did when they met Emma. I would never take anything away from her. By society’s standard, her body was perfect. The fact that it was natural was an added plus. She went to the gym more than me. She also was sure of who she was as a person, and it exuded from her pores.
When I thought about who I would refer Taelyn to, I had to be very strategic. A man was not an option. It wasn’t that a man couldn’t do the job. However, no man outside of myself and her family would have that kind of access to her life or mind. That left a woman. I never wanted my baby to feel as if I fucked or would fuck any of my counterparts.
Dr. Emma Prentiss was a hardcore lesbian and had always been. I have witnessed men who most women would give their soul to approach her with hopes of bagging her. She would shut them down so smoothly and casually and tell them that their girl, mama, or sister was more her type. She was a married woman as of last year to a gorgeous woman named Elsa. EE is what everyone referred to them as. Elsa was also a therapist. However, she worked with children. Maggie was a patient of hers.
Taelyn texting me that bullshit the other night had me blown. There was no way in hell, heaven, or earth that I would alter how I moved when it came to pursuing her. If she’s the wife that God intended for me, then she’d know what it was. I was taking Mega’s advice on this one.
Croy gave me the lowdown on what happened with my woman’s bitch ass ex. I’d never met him because I didn’t do his pre-employment evaluation. There were only three psychologists within the organization that completed the pre-employment evaluations. Me, Dr. Prentiss, and Dr. Norman… All three of us had been in the field before, so we were able to relate to those who potentially had trauma from the field. It happens.
When it came to missions, if I were called for one, it was generally an on-the-ground solo mission. That meant it would be me and the person in my ear. I made great money in my clinical therapeutic role with Christianson Enterprises as well as with my outside clientele. I was an in-network doctor for three health systems as well as a contracted therapist for two large companies. My income from sitting in an office listening to issues and diagnosing mental illnesses had me well into the upper six figures. I also had a plethora of investments that included stocks, Bitcoin, and rental properties.
Mission fees varied depending on what was needed. I opted for the less volatile missions because I knew how killing could affect the mental overall. There was no way that my mental could be fucked up if I planned to treat others.
I was a complex man. I could admit that. I was that complex man that was created at one point in time for Samantha Nicole and now for Taelyn. When I knew that she was meant for me, I did my research. She was a girl that posted on social media, had a Pinterest, and did vlogs about technology. Her social media told me a lot without me having to talk to her.
I knew that she had a love for theater, the beach, seafood, and traveling. I appreciated that her photos weren’t overly provocative. Some were sexy but not in the manner that she was trying to be sexy. She just was.
When I pulled up to Washington Circle, I was not surprised to see Taelyn’s dad, brother, and brother-in-law standing on the porch. This was what my baby was worried about. She was scared that her people would run me away, but little did she know, that was not possible. I needed her to understand that I was a man who wasn’t easily swayed from the things that belonged to me.
When I climbed out of my Aviator, I took my time to make sure that I was together. I would not rush for anyone, except my baby, parents, and children when I had them. I was the constant that people adjusted their time around. Jeans and a casual Polo shirt under a blazer was my fit for tonight. I made sure to get the flowers and my gift from the passenger seat. I discovered that Taelyn had an affinity for ladybugs, so I bought her a pretty ladybug charm and necklace from Tiffany’s. I planned to ask her about it during our date. I strolled onto the porch in all of my coolness.
“Mr. Smith, Mont, Brandon, how are you all doing?”
Mont was the first to speak. “This is how you decided to tread, my dude?”
“Not at all. I’m walking.” I returned my attention to Mr. Smith. I extended my hand to him. “I don’t believe we have officially met. It’s nice to meet you, sir. I’m Carlton McMasters. However, outside of the professional setting, most call me Draco.”
His head tilted down toward my hand. It stayed there for a second before he lifted his head then clasped his hand with mine.
“We’ll see about that. You can come in.”
Niggas is funny! There was no need for me to be offended. When Taelyn popped out my daughter and it was time for those little boys to come sniff around, I planned to act the same damn way. When Taelyn came downstairs with her mother, my heart sped up to her beauty. I loved that our outfits seemed to match vibes.
Our dinner theater began at 7:30 p.m. I knew, at the least, her father would want to have a word with me. For that reason, it was 6:15 p.m., and here I was. Mr. Smith led the way out to the back deck of his home. Taelyn told me during a phone conversation that this was her childhood home and that her home was on the same property. This was my first time on the property.
After being given the option, I accepted his offer of a Corona. We all sat down on the deck. It wasn’t until we all had taken a few sips of our beers that silence was broken.
“My son tells me that you’re my baby girl’s therapist. I didn’t think it was ethical for a therapist to date his patient.”
I knew that would be the first place they went. “You are absolutely correct. It is highly unethical for a therapist to date their patient. Taelyn is no longer my patient.”
Mont’s face contorted. “Who is her therapist?”
“That is information that you can get from her directly.”
If he wanted to know, he would need to ask her. It would never be my place to tell her business unless it was life-threatening.
“How old are you, Draco?” It was Brandon’s turn to ask questions.
I wonder if they have a predetermined list of questions. It would have been easier to send then to me ahead of time.
“I’m thirty-six years old.”
All of these questions, Mont had the answers to in my file for the organization.
Mr. Smith shook his head. “I don’t like it. You know my baby girl is only twenty-eight years old.”
It wasn’t my intention to blankly stare at him.
“Sir, you said that as if she was a teenager. We are two very grown, responsible, consenting adults. Her age is not a problem for me, nor is mine for her. What exactly about it do you not like? The age gap alone is not valid enough for there to be a real problem.”
“The problem is that you have far more experience than my daughter. Your age, the fact that you’ve been married, as well as your profession tells me that she could be a prime target for you to take advantage of.”
Is he serious?
My head dropped. I took another sip of my beer before I responded. “Mr. Smith, with all due respect, that is a foolish premise. Any man of any age can take advantage of a woman, not just your daughter. As far as my profession, it sounds like you’re saying that your daughter is either unintelligent or insecure enough to be taken advantage of. I hope that is not what you’re insinuating because that is highly offensive to not only her but me. This is my future wife that you are speaking about.”
Mont leaned forward, putting his forearms on his thighs. “You going real heavy on this whole wife shit.”
“Yes, I am. This behavior should be familiar to you all, especially you Smith men. From the stories I’ve heard, y’all took no prisoners when it came to getting your wives. Do you really think I’m wrong for doing the same? I understand that this is your daughter and sister. How can you trust me with something as crucial as taking lives for your company, but not your daughter?”
I literally kill people when needed for a living. I could have us all up under the jail. If anything, she had more opportunities to take advantage of me than I did her.
Mont scoffed. “You working for the organization has nothing to do with my damn sister. That last nigga worked for the organization, too, so what that mean?”
“It means I’m not that nigga. Don’t hold me to the faults of another man. My life experience as well as my parents have taught and shown me how to treat people. My father specifically taught me how to reverence and love the woman that I’m with. My marriage taught me a lot about compromise, protection, exception, respect, and unfortunately, in the end, loss. There are things that your daughter, my future wife, can teach me as well. I respect all of y’all perspectives, reservations, and anything else, but none of it will pull me up off my wife. Understood?”
I didn’t know much about Taelyn’s past dating history outside of her recent ex. I really didn’t give a fuck about it either. The only thing that mattered at this point was where we were now.
“Look, we’re just trying to make sure another fuck nigga doesn’t slip by. You can’t fault us for that. Protecting my daughter is everything.”
I nodded. “Mr. Smith, I hear and understand your intention and heart. Now, I ask that you hear mine. I have no plans of intentionally hurting your daughter. You may not like the idea of us being together, but respectfully, I don’t care. All I care about are the feelings of Taelyn. I expected the pushback, and all I can say is you can’t push a brick wall that’s layered with metal.”
“Might not be able to push that bitch, but we can blow it up,” Brandon quipped.
My shoulders lifted to my ears. “If you want to risk the shrapnel, that’s cool with me.”
Mr. Smith shook his head. “All that shit sounds really good, but I’m not going for it.”
“How exactly do you plan to stop me?” I challenged him.
“What y’all out here doing with Pretty Girl’s man?” Mrs. Smith came on the deck with Taelyn and who I knew to be Tana trailing behind her. Her lucidity was gone based on her referring to my baby as Pretty Girl.
I had talked to Taelyn every day, multiple times since we confirmed our date. We covered a lot of ground in a short time. When she came fully into my view, my cheeks peeked at the sight of the ladybug necklace hanging from her neck.
Mr. Smith went to his wife. “No one is doing anything to that man. We just wanted to make sure Pretty Girl was good.”
She put her hand on her hip. “Trell, I already cleared him. You don’t trust my judgment?”
Ah shit!
He may have wanted the problems with me, but it was evident that was not the case when it came to his wife.
“I will always trust your judgment. If you say he’s good enough for Pretty Girl, then he’s good enough.”
His lips were moving, but his eyes on me told me that was all they were doing—moving. After I glanced down at my watch, I saw that it was almost 6:30 p.m. It was time for us to head out. It would take almost thirty minutes to get to the theater from where we were in Mount Pleasant. The doors opened at 7:30 p.m., and the show started at 8:00 p.m.
“Baby, are you ready to go? I want to get there so you have enough time to relax before the show starts.” I was done with the extra conversation.
Her smile showed her beautiful teeth.
“I’m ready to go.”
I walked over to her, then wrapped my arm around her waist.
“Let’s go.”
“This is so nice. You didn’t have to get a private balcony.”
My annoyance was high when she downplayed what she deserved. I leaned toward her in my seat.
“Lyn, I want you to stop with the you didn’t have to bullshit. Anything I do for or to you is because you deserve it, and I want to do it. Not sure if you realize it, but you deserve the universe. Do you understand?”
“Yes, I understand, Draco.” Her cheeks turned that light shade of red that I admired. “Thank you for this. How did you know I loved the theater?”
In all of our conversations, I had yet to tell her how I knew all the things I knew about her.
“Your social media tells a lot about you if a person pays attention. Your Pinterest page was a gold mine.”
My father always told me as a man it was our responsibility to continuously study our women from their likes, dislikes, moods, fears, goals, motivations, ambitions, spirituality, and anything else that was important to them. If the woman that you were with was who was meant for you, she would do the same. The accomplishment of those things could look different, and that was fine. Different methods could yield the same results.
She didn’t say anything. She just smiled. The waitress came over to take our order. There was an option of salmon, chicken, steak, or vegetarian. She asked me what I planned to order. I told her that I was ordering steak. When she told me she was going to order chicken so she could have chicken and steak, I laughed. She can have whatever she likes.
The show started promptly at 8:00 p.m. All of the tables had notepads to take notes if they wanted to. My baby utilized her notepad. There was a fifteen-minute break between each act. We discussed the previous acts during the breaks. On the third break, I asked the question that I planned all night.
“Tell me why you like ladybugs so much.”
When she smiled and leaned forward on the table, I saw the sparkle in her eyes. I noticed on our video calls that when she spoke about something she liked, her eyes had a twinkle. It was attractive as fuck.
“Their lifespan represents a lot to me. They start out in egg form, which to me represents the planting of a dream or idea. After that, they move to the larva stage. In that stage, the temperature is the determinant on how fast the egg hatches. For me, that represents what you are willing to put into the dream or idea. The pressure that you put into it determines how long it will take to come to fruition. Once they get past that stage, they go into the pupa stage.
“Ladybugs stay in that stage for a month. That to me is the implementation of that dream or idea. You’ve mapped out the plan and did the work to get to this point. Now, it’s time to put all of those things together to put your preparation to the test. Finally, you have the adult stage. In that stage, the ladybug finally spreads its wings to fly and their permanent color is established. That’s just the cycle of project management if you will.”
She took a sip of her water before she continued. “Once that dream or idea starts to show success in whatever way that you deem successful, it’s the same as the wings spreading and permanent color setting. Now here’s the thing, adult ladybugs only live for about a year. Most would think that that means the failure of the dream, plan, idea.” She shook her head with a cheesy smile. “Nope. It simply means it’s time to reanalyze the dream or plan to see how you can make it even better, because once a ladybug is in its adult stage, it immediately begins to lay eggs. At the height of your dream, whether you realize it or not, you’re laying eggs, so in essence, that dream keeps recycling in different forms, played out through different people.”
Amazing. That was the only way I could describe what she just told me. All of my life, I just thought ladybugs were hella annoying.
“So, now I have the answer to why my wife loves ladybugs.”
She touched the ladybug charm hanging from her necklace.
“Yep, you do. Thank you for this beautiful necklace. As much as I love ladybugs, this is my first piece of ladybug jewelry. I own tons of figurines and décor.”
“Well, we have to change that. Don’t we?”
The play had a final act before it was time to guess who did it. Unsurprisingly, my baby guessed correctly that the murderer was the granddaughter. It was almost 11:00 p.m. when we left the theater. I wanted her to come see my lake. When I asked if she wanted to come sit by the lake with me, she agreed.
When we got to my property, I opted not to bring her through the house. I didn’t want her to feel pressured into anything other than just sitting by the lake.
“Is that your house? It’s very nice.”
“It’s actually my parents’. It was a Father’s Day gift for my dad about five years ago to match his fishing boat.”
We sat on a lounge chair together near the dock. She turned in her seat facing her body toward me.
“Wait. Let me make sure I understand. You bought your father a matching house and boat set?”
“I mean, yeah. I did. He loves to fish. Sometimes, he would go on fishing trips for a week at a time. I wanted to give my mother the option to be close.”
When she pointed at the boat tied up to the dock and asked if that was the boat that I bought, I told her yes.
She leaned in closer to me. Her lips were close to mine. “Sir, that’s not a fishing boat. That’s a yacht.”
Her lips this close to mine could not be ignored. My hand went to her neck with a light squeeze. Her moan invigorated me.
“And this is a kiss.”
I used my teeth to pull on her bottom lip before I kissed her sexy, full lips. I smirked when her tongue smoothly slid into my mouth. It didn’t feel right to not suck on it. My hand left her neck to go to her waist with my other hand. When I pulled at her waist to lift her, she assisted by willingly moving to my lap. My hands went to her ass once she settled there. My lips went to her neck.
“I want you so bad,” she mumbled just above a whisper.
I pulled back from the kiss. The lust was heavy between us. I might have to replace the zipper on these damn jeans because my dick was at a level of solid that I didn’t think was possible.
“You got me, love. Trust me, from this moment on you got me, and I have you. Do you understand?”
She shifted on my lap. “Um, yes. I do.”
The confidence didn’t come through in her answer.
“No, that didn’t sound like you understood, but I will take fault. My communication was ambiguous.” I deeply kissed her lips, then pulled back again. “Let me be 100 percent clear. From this moment on, we are in a monogamous relationship. You are mine, and I am yours. That means that as calm and levelheaded as I have been, I want you to understand that I will go slaughter anyone that thinks it’s alright to fuck with you.
“I’m not possessive, love. I will never control your movement. However, I want to be informed of your moves the same as I will inform you of mine. While I may not be possessive, I’m territorial as fuck. Anything you need, you come to me for it. I don’t give a fuck if you need tampons from the fucking store. You call me.”
She giggled. “Draco, what if you are in a session or something? How would that work?”
“I’ll tell you exactly how it works. You call, I tell my patient to hold for an urgent call, and then I answer. You tell me that you need tampons, and I tell you that I will get them to you. I go over to my intercom and tell my assistant to Doordash you tampons, amaretto cherry ice cream, sour cream and onion potato chips, and Fanta orange soda. Then I would resume my session. You will always take priority, the same as our future children.”
Her widened lids gave room for her bucked eyes. “Wow! You really did go through my social media. Most people assume I just like orange soda. They never get that it’s only Fanta orange.”
“You’re my never-ending research. Is there anything that you need or want from me within this relationship? I want you to be clear and upfront about what you want and need from me.”
From her silence, I could tell that she had never thought about what she really wanted from her man.
“Um, I-I never had anyone ask me that. I-I guess… I?—”
There was panic in her voice. I didn’t like it. My hand went to the back of her neck.
“Hey, hey, you don’t have to answer right now. When you know, I want you to tell me. I don’t care if it’s 2:00 a.m., I want to know. Do you understand?”
She nodded. “Yes, I understand. I do want to tell you something that I think you should know.” She sat up and fidgeted with her fingers. “I’m a virgin.”
“You said that as if it’s a problem. Is that all you had to tell me?”
Her head tilted. Her pointed, oval-shaped eyes showed her confusion. “That doesn’t bother you? A lot of dudes don’t like virgins because they say that they’re clingy.”
Now, my head leaned toward my right. “First, I’ve already told you that I am not a dude. Second, clingy is not a problem for me. I prefer you to be clingy because I’m going to be on your fucking ass. There will never be a time that I don’t answer my phone with the exception of me being on a mission, which is far and few between. You will know when I am on a mission. I don’t expect you to answer your phone every time that I call, but don’t keep me waiting too long.
“I get a little beside myself when I can’t get my woman.” That was something that I would have to work through. “I want to be honest. This is the first relationship that I will have been in since the death of my wife. You are not her, so I won’t navigate this relationship like I did that one. I will admit that I may be a little overprotective or overbearing. If that becomes a problem or I’m doing too much, I need you to tell me. Do you understand?”
“I understand. Can I ask you a question?”
I nodded, giving her the okay to ask.
“What did you, my dad, and brothers talk about?”
I laughed then responded. “I see my woman is nosy. That was man talk, love, which is none of your business. If they want you to know, then they can tell you. Just know that I don’t give a fuck what they think when it comes to us being together.”
Her bottom lip stuck out to form a pout. My baby is spoiled. I smacked her ass.
“Come on, big baby. Let me get you home.”
“I want to spend the night with my man.”
My brow arched. “You can do that, but we’re not having sex yet. Cool?”
There goes that pout again.
“Why not?”
“You’re not ready, Lyn. Plus, I want the first time to be a little more planned out. Don’t worry. You’re going to get the dick.”
It was my parents’ lake house. However, I did have a place there. When I purchased the home, I added a two-bedroom apartment on the side of the house for myself when I wanted to stay. Yes, I could have bought my own house, but that was not economically responsible in my eyes. My parents said that I could just use a room. I declined knowing that I still needed my own space.
When we got into my apartment, I gave my baby a t-shirt and told her if she wanted to take a shower she could, and I would take one after her. She went into the bathroom and closed the door. I had to resist the urge to get in the shower with her. I was surprised to hear that she was a virgin. In this day and age, you don’t meet too many of them at her age. Although I was surprised, I was appreciative. I would be her first and last.
It took her about twenty minutes to take her shower. When she came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel, my dick instantly bricked. I chuckled, then said, “I see you’re not playing fair.”
With her best imitation of innocence, she shrugged. “What I do? The lotion is out here.”
She pointed at the lotion and oil that was on the dresser. Her hips swayed as she walked to the dresser. I got something for her thick ass. I walked over to my dresser and stood behind her. Her body tensed at the feeling of my dick on her ass.
“Yeah, you see what you do to me? Don’t let this hard dick fool you. I’m a man that has practiced self-control and celibacy for almost seven years. It’s not going to be that easy, love.”
I grabbed her neck and pulled her back. That moan sounded again.
In her ear, I whispered, “I determine when you get this dick this time around. After that, you can get this dick whenever you want. Do you understand?”