Chapter One
Two years later…
“Don’t tell me to calm down when that bastard is going to marry my wife and raise my children! I can’t let that happen!” Damon yelled in frustration.
“I feel for you, man, but there’s nothing you can do about it.” Paul touched his friend’s shoulder in a sympathetic gesture.
“So you say.” Damon hung his head in despair as the sheer sense of futility swept through him.
“Just because they’re engaged, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the marriage will happen. Brandi is a perceptive woman. She’ll soon realize what kind of man he is.”
Damon found those words comforting, but it wasn’t enough. He looked at his friend and sighed. In the short time they were Watchers together, the two men became close. They shared a lot in common. Both men heavily volunteered in their respective communities, and they each had dangerous careers when they were alive. Paul had been a firefighter and Damon a police officer. It was why they had been chosen to be Watchers. The living referred to them as guardian angels.
Some of the other angels had even commented that they looked alike, which Damon found amusing because other than them both being tall African American men, their physical similarities ended.
They were also, still madly in love with their wives, but all they could do was watch their loved ones from the other side.
Paul had been a Watcher longer than Damon and had more time to adjust to the fact that his wife moved on with her life which included a new husband and family. But there was no way Damon could get used to the fact that his wife was going to marry the man who murdered him.
He could remember that fateful night as if it just happened rather than two years ago. There wasn’t a day that he didn’t think about it, and he felt raw and empty inside every time the details played in his mind.
Now he was here, watching his wife at her engagement party. For nearly two years he had to sit back and watch Rodney ingratiate himself into her life, stalk her, and finally seduce her. It just wasn’t right.
Paul broke into his thoughts. “I sense your pain, but what’s done is done.”
“Why? My family doesn’t deserve this. Please!” Damon pleaded. If it were possible, he would have cried to release some of his pain, but he was spitting mad.
“I think I might know of a way,” Paul said hesitantly.
“What? Tell me!”
“I have to talk it over with Peter first but….”
“But what?”
“There are certain conditions you would need to agree to first.”
“You look beautiful tonight.” Rodney came up behind his fiancée, pulling her soft body against his. The smell of freesia and honeydew filled his nostrils. His pulse quickened. She’d always had this effect on him, from the first time he laid eyes on her.
Rodney found everything about her appealing: the way the corners of her eyes crinkled when she smiled, her soft husky voice, and the tiny cute gap between her front teeth. Her chocolate-brown eyes slanted upward, giving her an exotic, feline look, and her closely cropped hair accentuated her perfectly shaped head and high cheekbones. She was an ebony goddess in a pint-sized package. No woman ever made him react as strongly as she did.
He loved to watch her. It didn’t matter what she did; he enjoyed looking at her beautiful face while she slept, ate, and showered. Of course, Brandi didn’t realize that he watched her all the time, but that was just fine. He loved her, so that gave him the right. His love meant he could clip souvenir locks of her hair while she slept, to take articles of her clothing to hold close to him when he went to sleep at night. It also gave him the right to be with her by any means necessary. He would kill, and had killed, for her.
Rodney bent down to press a soft kiss on the nape of her neck, reveling in the feel of her silky skin beneath his lips. He felt as if he had waited forever to hold her in his arms like this. In his heart, he knew Brandi belonged to him and only him. He didn’t care that she was already someone else’s wife when they met. When she smiled at him so sweetly, he knew he had to have her.
New to the police force, his partner invited him to dinner at his house. He didn’t expect to fall head over heels in love. Brandi was waiting for them at the door with a huge white smile lighting up her entire face and encompassing him in the magic created by her very presence. She was a pocket Venus: gorgeous and tiny but curvaceous in all the right places. She had the darkest, smoothest skin he had ever seen, and more than anything he’d wanted to touch it.
The fates had dealt him an awful hand. For seven agonizing years, he had watched as she gave all of her special smiles and kisses to Damon, and he’d had to pretend that it didn’t bother him. Rodney endured the pain of watching her belly grow large with his partner’s children, children who should have been his. Instead, he’d played the doting godfather to the two brats.
As his love grew for Brandi, his hatred for Damon gained even more strength. Images of Damon holding, kissing, and fucking her gnawed at his insides until he could barely think straight. Brandi belonged to him! He knew her husband couldn’t possibly love her as much as he did. The final straw came the night Damon had the nerve to brag about the family vacation they were going on. Unable to take any more, Rodney did what he should have done from the start: he got rid of the obstacle standing in his way.
Now, holding her in his arms, her body so warm against his, he didn’t regret what he’d done to possess her. He would do it again, if only to see the shocked look on that bastard’s face when he’d pulled the trigger. Rodney only wished that he’d done it sooner so the children she bore would have been his. Better yet, had he claimed her in the beginning as he should have, there would have been no children.
He wanted her all to himself. As it stood, the little brats were monopolizing way too much of her time, but that was okay for now. He would pretend to care if that kept her happy, but when she was his wife, there would be changes. No one stood in the way of what he wanted. People learned that the hard way, some a little too late, just like Jeffrey. That was in the past though. Brandi was his future.
Brandi turned around in his arms and smiled up at him. “Thank you for the compliment, kind sir. You look pretty good yourself.”
His heart skipped a beat when she smiled at him like that. “What are you doing out here on the balcony and looking so pensive?”
She had the expression of a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar before turning her head away. His eyes narrowed. He didn’t like it when she got that far away look in her eyes, because it usually meant she was thinking about him.
“You can tell me anything, Brandi. You know that don’t you?” He lifted her chin with his fingers, and his gaze bore into hers.
“It’s just…I wonder if Damon’s watching us from heaven. I can’t help but feel his presence somehow.” She shivered.
“Of course, he’s looking down on us, and I believe he’s happy. Damon didn’t have a selfish bone in his body. He would never begrudge us our happiness. Before he died, he told me to look out for you and the children. I kind of suspect he wanted us to be together.”
“Do you really think so?”
“Knowing the kind of person he was, do you really need to ask?”
She paused for a moment, face uncertain. “I guess not. You have been wonderful to me and the kids.”
Rodney leaned down to kiss her full lips. Although she wrapped her arms around his neck to return his kiss, he could sense that she was holding back. He lifted his head. “Is everything okay?”
She sighed. “Yes, of course. I guess I needed some air. Could you do me a favor?”
“Anything for you, baby.”
“Would you mind very much if I have a few minutes alone?”
Unable to help himself, his grip tightened on her shoulders. “Why? This is our engagement party, and you’re standing out here like a recluse. People are asking where you are. You should be in there by my side.” Why did it always seem as though she was trying to find excuses to be away from him? This was supposed to be their night.
“Rodney, your fingers are digging into my skin. Let go.” She frowned at him, backing away when he released her. She rubbed her shoulders. “I have been by your side all night. I just need a moment alone, and I don’t really think it’s too much to ask considering you sprang this party on me at the last minute.”
Rodney steeled himself to present the very picture of contriteness, although he was bristling inside. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I was holding you so tight. Forgive me.”
Brandi pursed her lips to show her displeasure, but he knew she wasn’t the type to stay angry with anyone for long. “I forgive you, but you need to watch it,” she warned.
“Of course, baby, but you can’t hold it against me for wanting to show off my beautiful fiancée. I want the world to know that you belong to me.”
“I think they already know because of this huge rock you bought me.” She laughed, holding up her three-carat diamond ring.
“Okay, I’ll go back into the party, but if you’re not back in ten minutes, I’ll come out to get you.”
“All right, I’ll be in shortly,” she promised, turning around again.
When she heard him walk off she looked up to the stars. They were so bright tonight. Everything was perfect. The food was excellent, everyone at the party seemed to be enjoying themselves, the twins were on their best behavior, and she was engaged to a man who adored her. She should have been happy, but something didn’t feel right. She gazed at the stars.
“Oh, Damon, am I doing the right thing? I know you wanted Rodney to take care of us, but I guess somewhere along the line he and I became closer. He is so good with the kids and DJ needs a man in his life. You should see him now. He looks just like you, and he’s growing like a weed. He’s nearly as tall as I am. I think he’s going to be tall like you, and Mya is eight going on thirty. She’s so smart, but, boy, she sure has a mouth on her you just wouldn’t believe.” Brandi paused for a moment, tears filling her eyes again at the thought of her children growing up without their father. This same thought plagued her from the night she saw Damon’s lifeless body lying in the hospital emergency department.
When Damon was killed, Brandi had been devastated. They were college sweethearts. From the time they were thrown together as partners for chemistry lab, they’d found that the chemistry between the two of them was far more interesting. They got married after they graduated.
Her husband was her best friend, her lover, the father of her children, and the man she loved beyond all others. Their love had always been strong, and with the arrival of the twins four years into their marriage, their love had grown stronger still. Brandi was so proud to be seen with her strong handsome man.
Many women eyed her with envy whenever she was out with her hunky husband. She also missed the nights he would make her body sing as he stretched her pussy walls so forcefully with each confident stroke of his masterful cock. He would drive her wild when he talked dirty to her. It was one of her weaknesses where he was concerned.
Like most married couples, they shared their ups and down, but their love was the kind that made people wish for what they had. Their lives together were the best ten years she’d ever experienced. Damon was one of life’s givers, deciding to become a police officer for the city of Philadelphia to make a positive impact on people’s lives. Even without his uniform he had touched so many in their community with his warm, generous nature. His job had kept her up most nights with worry, but when the call came that fateful night, it still shook her to the core.
Leaving the children with a neighbor, she rushed to the hospital hoping for the best but expecting the worse. Ignoring the security guards and Damon’s fellow officers who tried to stop her, she’d burst into the emergency department as a team of doctors and nurses tried to revive Damon. A hysterical mess, she vaguely remembered being led to the lobby. It was her worse nightmare come true when they pronounced him dead.
Damon’s death left a hole in her heart that she didn’t think could ever be filled again. She didn’t want to go out, or to see anyone, and didn’t care how she looked anymore. If she didn’t have the children to look after, Brandi probably would have crawled under her bedcovers and never poked her head out again, but DJ and Mya were only six.
They didn’t understand why their daddy was never coming home again, and although she put on a brave face for the twins when they were around, she would find herself crying uncontrollably when she was alone.
“I miss you so much, Damon, but being the kind of person you were, I know you wouldn’t want me to mourn you forever. Rodney has been such a rock.” She knew that if she’d to, she would have been able to make it through, but having Rodney around helped a lot. She believed he would raise her children as his own, but it wasn’t the same. Still, she owed him so much.
“Please give me a sign, Damon. Tell me that I have your blessing.” Brandi waited, hoping to see a star twinkle or some unusual celestial arrangement, but there was nothing. She was torn because she cared very deeply for Rodney, and she supposed she loved him, but her feelings for him didn’t come close to what she shared with Damon. To be fair, she told Rodney the first time he proposed that she couldn’t imagine loving anyone as much as she loved Damon, but it didn’t seem to have bothered him.
It was Rodney who made her realize that Damon would not have wanted her to go on that way. As Damon’s good friend and partner, Rodney had become a fixture in their lives, but after Damon’s death he’d taken more upon himself. He came to dinner every night, went to all the kids’ school functions, and took them on outings. After six months, he’d proposed. Brandi had been taken aback because not only was it too soon, but she’d never thought of Rodney romantically. So, she refused him. Despite her rejection, he didn’t stop being a part of their lives, and Brandi appreciated that.
It was one weekend when the kids had been with their grandparents that they had drifted into a real relationship. Brandi wasn’t even sure how it had happened, but she realized that she could do a lot worse. Rodney made her laugh, he was good company, and he was a very attractive man by anyone’s standards. If she were to be completely objective, Rodney drew more stares from women than even Damon had.
Some may have even called him a pretty boy, but Brandi usually preferred dark-skinned black men to Rodney’s golden-brown skin and hazel eyes. She had nothing against light-skinned men, but Brandi found something very sensual about running her fingers along smooth coffee-colored skin.
Despite not being her type, Rodney made her feel good about herself again. He gave her the strength to move on with her life and for that she loved him. He asked her to marry her quite a few times, but something always made her say no. The last time, however, followed a night of partying and too much champagne. She’d woken up to find herself naked in bed with him. It was only when the twins burst in on them asking questions that she realized the enormity of the situation. Rodney had been very calm about it, reminding her that she consented to be his wife the night before. To drive the point home, he’d lifted her left hand to reveal the large diamond she wore.
There was no turning back. She made her bed, so to speak. Despite her one slip up with him, Brandi asked him to wait until they were formally married before they went to bed again. He had not been happy about it, but reluctantly agreed. From that moment, Rodney insisted that arrangements be made immediately, but Brandi wanted to give the children some time to adjust to the idea, so they compromised, deciding to wait at least a month to set a date.
She cared deeply for Rodney, but Brandi couldn’t help but think she was betraying Damon’s memory somehow. Some of Damon’s family hinted as much, but most of her friends and family were supportive. Rodney was a good man. She should have been counting her blessings, so why these doubts?
Furthermore, Brandi was a little annoyed with him. He sprung this surprise engagement party on her, but she figured his heart was in the right place and it was hard to be mad at someone who spoiled her incessantly. Her thoughts strayed back to Damon. Was it possible to be in love with two men when one of them was dead? She searched the stars again, but there was still nothing.
Rodney didn’t leave her alone. Instead, he stood behind some bushes listening to everything she said. She was still hung up on Damon. It tore him apart that no matter what he did, it always came back to Damon. If it was the last thing he ever did, one day he would be the only man she thought about. She needed a sign? He would give her one.
“Hey, Brandi, ten minutes are up.”
She turned around with a sheepish expression. “I’m sorry, I guess I wasn’t paying attention to the time.”
“If you give me one of those smiles, I can forgive you anything.”
“You’re a big flatterer.” She smiled at him.
“I’m only speaking the truth.” He pulled out his ace. “You know what? When I went back into the party, the strangest thing happened.”
“What?”
“I thought I saw Damon.”
Brandi’s eyes widened. “What are you talking about?”
“I know it sounds weird, but I think I caught sight of his spirit and he seemed happy. It was as if he was sending me a sign or something. Last night I even had a conversation with him.”
Confusion was etched on her beautiful face. This would be easier than he thought. “I know it sounds silly, but sometimes I talk to him. I know he’s no longer with us physically, but it’s like I feel his spirit now and then, and I always feel better when I talk to him.”
“Really? I feel that way too. Does…does that bother you?” She bit her lip.
It bothered him like hell, but he smiled down at her. “Of course not. How could it bother me when I’m guilty of the same thing? I loved Damon very much. He was like a brother to me. Last night I asked him for a sign because I wanted his blessing. I believe in my heart that he’s just given it to me.”
“What was the sign?”
He hesitated for the briefest of moment before, he said, “When I was watching the lottery drawing after the news, the winning number was Damon’s badge number.”
Brandi looked amazed. “Really? I don’t know what to say.”
“Just say you’ll be happy. It’s what Damon would have wanted. He wants us both to be happy.”
A tear slid down Brandi’s cheek. “That sounds like Damon. I’m sorry I gave you a hard time earlier. I hope you know that I’m committed to you and I will try very hard to make you happy.”
“You already make me very happy. More than you know.” He hugged her close to him.
Gotcha! That’s right, Brandi, just keep believing that I give a damn about what Damon would think or want. For all I care, he could be in hell, which is exactly where he deserves to be for being with my woman.
I hope you are watching us, Damon, and I hope you see that Brandi is where she belongs. She’s mine now!