Chapter 14 #3
Royce’s strength was garnered from my words. Her spine straightened with a slight curve in the middle. I shoved her hand, occupied with my cellular device, to the side. Her slip lifted with a slight tug. I gripped her right breast. Her nippled disappeared in my mouth.
Chocolate.
She reminded me of my favorite Hershey’s bar. The left breast was just as impressive.
“Fuuuuuck.”
Royce was regaining her momentum. Her strength was evident in her core. When her body twirled around, keeping me inside of her, I was partly surprised. In all her glory, her ass greeted me. With her back arched and my cell pushed all the way to the end of the table, she pushed into me.
“Don’t do that. Don’t fuc– don’t do that, Royce.”
She was on a mission to end it all. I grabbed her hair, twisting until her eyes were on me.
“You trying to make my nut all up in this motherfucker?”
“Umm hmmm,” she groaned, thrusting her body into mine.
“Fuck.”
Smack.
Smack.
Smack.
Smack.
Her skin slapped against mine. Her wetness made us both sticky to the touch.
“Royce.”
My pleas fell on death’s ear.
“Fuck me back, Ishmael.”
Her eyes were still on me. Her hair was still in my hands. Her back was still arched. Her pussy was still suffocating me.
I stabilized her body with my left hand. Her right nipple was my anchor. I drove into Royce until her eyeballs disappeared behind her eyelids.
“Uhhhhh.”
Pleasure and pain mingled somewhere in her center. Retracting and reinserting myself, not halting until I was balls deep.
“Uhhhh.”
Royce was the culprit of her despair. She provoked everything that was coming to her.
“Uhhhh.”
I found my rhythm.
Back.
Forth.
Back.
Forth.
I plummeted. I retracted. I plummeted. I retracted.
“Fuck. I’m cumming. I’m cum– Uhhhhh!”
Me, too, my baby.
I released my seeds in her garden, hoping they didn’t result in growth. But, as our connection progressed, I was beginning to wonder which of us our daughter would favor and who our son would cling to most. Still, I wanted to respect her wishes and her womb. It was her body. Her choice.
“Go away with me.”
“The election is in three days.”
“I just need one, Royce. No cameras. No scandals. No phones. No media. Just you. And me. I’m tired of sharing you with Berkeley. I’m tired of you having to share me with Berkeley.”
“Where to?”
“Someone near… Secluded. I don’t want to spend all of our time in the air.”
Silence.
“I don’t mind tying your mean ass up.”
“You don’t have to.”
“So, that’s a yes?”
“That’s a yes, Ishmael.”
I dislodged from her pussy. Remnants of us fell onto the screen of my phone. I couldn’t wait to put that motherfucker back on my face. The call had ended and so did Royce’s reel.
I sat her down at the edge of the table. My body parted her legs.
“Are you okay, my baby?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
I smoothed her hair down.
“Good then. Let’s get dressed. We’re leaving. No need for clothes. You won’t have them on where we’re headed. We won’t be gone long enough for you to change successfully.”
Glorious.
Gracious.
Gorgeous.
Royce’s natural beauty was radiant. Refreshing. With the pencil pressed against the sketch pad, I tried my damndest to capture every detail of her essence. Rest was her wheelhouse. Her retreat was required to power her presence.
I admired her most when she was recharging. Women carried such heavy loads. No man could ever truly understand their inherent nature. And, though I didn’t understand the daily struggles of womanhood, I acknowledged them. I knew they existed and I refused to ignore them.
Royce could sleep for days and I wouldn’t wake her. I craved her rest as much as her body. She was better when exhaustion wasn’t altering her cognitive functions.
My cell vibrated against the cushion of the couch. I peered at the screen, finding my mother’s image filling the background. My heart expanded another inch.
“Good afternoon, Mother.”
“Ishmael.” She sighed.
I straightened my spine and lowered the pencil.
“Is everything okay?”
“Yes. Yes. Everything is fine. I’m just worried. I’m worried about you, Son. You’ve been so–so distant lately.”
“Not my intention. Never my intention. I apologize if it has been this way for you.”
“I’m just worried. I want to make sure this campaign isn’t getting the best of you.”
“Nah. Not the campaign.”
There was a long, pregnant pause.
“Ishmael?”
“Her name is Royce, Mother. She’s getting the best of me.”
“Son…”
I looked over the sketchbook, prayerful I hadn’t awakened my baby.
“Yes?”
“I felt it–”
“Felt what?”
“She’s lovely.”
“She is.”
“I knew from the moment Indie told me it was all a– I– Ishmael.”
I could hear the fluttering of her heart through the line.
“Yes?”
“She’s beautiful.”
“Inside out…”
“Yeah?”
“A little crazy, but–”
“Love makes you that way. If she isn’t a little crazy then you worry.”
I chuckled, rubbing a hand down my head.
“Is that right?”
“Yes. This is such good news, Son. I want to meet her.”
“I want you to meet her. She’s a little pissed off at me right now.”
“Don’t mess this up for me!”
“For you?”
“Yes.”
“Was Indigo with you when the news aired last night?”
My face was all over the stations, claiming I’d been assaulted with a deadly weapon. Their ignorance was comical.
I am the deadly weapon.
Aside from Royce, no man would be able to walk the same planet as me after firing his weapon at me. His bullet didn’t have to cut through me. Even an aim in my direction would end his entire bloodline.
“Yes.”
“Good.”
“This is all so much, son.”
“It was Royce.”
“Hm?”
“It was– who– Ishmael. What did you do that warranted a bullet to your body? And, you’d better be glad she didn’t kill you.
You can’t be playing with women’s feelings.
Not all of them will turn the other cheek or walk away peacefully.
I’m glad you’re okay. I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you. ”
I chuckled.
“And you’re laughing?”
“Because she’s crazy, Ma. And, somehow that makes me love her even more.”
“Well, good for you, I guess.”
“She just wants to make sure I win the election.”
Though I knew Royce had to do her job, that bullet had little to do with it. That was more personal than it was business.
“By shooting you?”
“By any means,” I quoted Royce verbatim.
I sighed, releasing my transgressions.
“She believes in me, Ma.”
Royce’s body was in full view. That’s where I wanted her forever.
“And, that feels good to me. She feels good to me.”
“Then do right by her.”
I nodded as if she was in the same room.
“I will. Hurting her hurts too much. I can’t do that to my baby.”
“Don’t.”
“Are we still scheduled for dinner.”
“Yes. That’s another reason I was calling. Are you still coming?”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
“I’ll see you then, Son.”
“I’ll see you then.”
“I love you and worry not. This is in God’s hands.”
“I love you, too.”
I ended the call.
My mother had raised us all on the same belief system.
We fully understood the importance of remaining neutral in matters of the heart.
Because, it didn’t matter how upset the partner of someone you loved made you, they wouldn’t stop loving them because you told them they should.
In fact, your opinion was more likely to drive them into their lover’s arms faster.
My mouth twisted rightward. I shook my head at the realization that it was hardly anything anyone could tell me about Royce right now.
She had my head so far in the clouds that I didn’t care what motherfuckers on the ground was talking about.
God, Himself, would have to tell me she was no good for me when she sent my Black ass to heaven.
Until then, I was fully invested in what we were becoming.
“Good morning.”
My body stilled. I searched for those big, wondrous eyes. I couldn’t find them. Not until Royce slid her arm down her face, revealing parts of her I obsessed over. The detailed sketch on my pad was proof of Royce’s reign.
“Good afternoon,” I corrected.
She sat up straight, glancing in my direction. Her hair was wild. My thoughts were wilder.
“Afternoon?”
“It’s nearing the one o’clock hour.”
“But–plans. We had plans. I’ve slept the day away.”
“No plans, my baby,” I assured her with a shake of my head. “I’m listening to your body, not a made up itinerary.”
“Ish.”
So much of our twenty-four hours had passed us by.
In five hours, we’d be on the boat. In five and a half hours, we’d be on the plane again.
I didn’t consider a second of our trip wasted.
We didn’t have to leave the room. The noise of the election was obnoxious.
Royce was the only one to quiet it. Being with her, no matter what we were doing, was enough.
“You needed rest.”
She pushed out a weighty breath and slid both hands down her face.
“I didn’t sleep.”
Sympathy was the catalyst for my disappointment. I had altered her in ways I never wanted to. My teeth pressed against each other.
“Me either.”
“You’ve been there all morning?”
I nodded.
“Keeping myself busy.”
I lifted the sketchpad. The woman resembled Royce though the picture was far from finished.
“You draw?” Her hand laid against her bare chest.
“When I’m inspired enough.”
Her nipples were like buttons. They hardened as her fingertips ran along her chest.
She took her eyes off me. A smile began to form slowly as she admired the sea life around us. Large turtles. Fish of all colors. Dolphins. Colorful coral reefs.
“And I thought it was beautiful at night.”
We’d reached the boat near midnight. The thirty-six minute ride placed us at the entrance of our villa by twelve-thirty.
“I can’t believe it’s all underwater.”
Royce stood up in bed and extended the hand she lowered from her chest. Her long frame stretched to meet the top of the tank. The bed’s height assisted.
“It’s so beautiful.”
She was a woman with everything… one who had witnessed so much in life. And, one who had experienced even more. Discovering a place she hadn’t meant a lot to me.