Chapter 24
24
Now…
I needed a fucking camera, a fancy paparazzi one because I was sure the one on my phone wouldn’t adequately capture the beauty of my current view. As I sat on the lounger situated on the beach, I watched my wife’s naked form wade into the ocean. I’d long ago memorized every curve, dimple, and scar on her body, but I never got tired of looking at it. We’d finally reached a goal I set for us long ago—marriage. It took longer than I could’ve ever imagined, but I kept my promise. I was hers, even if she believed she didn’t want me when I knew she did. I also understood her hesitance. I understood why she didn’t trust me anymore, and I was willing to spend every second of the rest of my life proving to her just how much I loved her, that she was all that mattered to me, that I would raze the entire world for her.
On everything, I would.
I didn’t like most people. Many days, I couldn’t even stand myself , but this woman reached into my chest and grabbed my heart that day at the restaurant, never letting it go. I loved her.
I loved her.
I truly did.
She left the water, the sun kissing her pretty brown skin as she made her way back to her lounger, or at least I thought that was her destination. Instead, she approached mine, lifting one shapely leg to straddle me. I moved to sit up, but she pushed against my chest, stopping me. Water rolled off her body onto mine as she leaned in to kiss me.
Once our mouths parted, I murmured, “You just don’t know how much I love you.”
She sat up, her naked pussy resting right on my erection, the fabric of my swimming trunks the only barrier between us.
“I think I believe you,” she admitted.
Reaching up, I laid a hand on her cheek and felt my dick twitch when she leaned into my touch. “I finally convinced you, huh?”
“No, I convinced me. I realized you never stopped. You’re just…I don’t know. It’s hard, Bo. I mourned us for years. It’s hard to believe this will last.”
“I’ma make it last. I’ll die before I lose you again. I’ll self-dispatch before I let that happen.”
Her eyes widened. “Bo…”
I shook my head. “I ain’t say that to be dramatic. Shit is the truth. I mourned, too. I never got over losing you. Never stopped wanting you back. I didn’t bother you, stopped myself from killing those dudes you messed with. I was tryna do right by you, but I can’t do that shit again.”
My wife wasn’t one for crying, but she did show emotion in other ways. In this instance, she showed it by damn near ripping my trunks off me and sheathing my dick in her snugness, making me moan from the bottom of my ass. She felt so good that I swear I could feel my mind leaving me. Closing my eyes, I grasped her hips, holding her as I slammed up into her. All the time I spent in the fucking gym and paying a chef to cook healthy shit paid off when it came to this. I had the stamina and strength to fuck my wife every hour on the hour. I also had the desire to do it because what she had between her legs was divine, mystical, and magically delicious.
“Ohhh, fuck!” I groaned. “Get up, baby.”
“I don’t wanna stop,” she whined.
“I know,” I panted. “I want you in the sand…on your knees.”
Without another word, she sucked in a breath as she lifted from my body, allowing me to ease out of her. Seconds later, her knees and elbows were in the sand, her ass in the air, and my dick was leaking like I’d just hit puberty. Joining her in the sand, I gripped her ass and slid into her.
“Got damn! Don’t nothing in the world feel as good as this!” I declared, and I wasn’t lying.
She whimpered in response, the smooth skin of her back calling on me to kiss it. So, I did, my stomach quivering as I moved inside her. Her heat, her pussy’s grip on my dick, and her wetness worked together to make me prematurely bust, but I managed to stave off an unwanted ending by pulling out intermittently to lick her asshole and finger her pussy. With a thumb in her ass, I fucked her until I was sure the only logical conclusion would be a heart attack for me, and when it was all over, I collapsed onto my back and tried not to hyperventilate.
“You’re gonna get sand in your ass crack,” Memphis said, her voice baring a lazy, post-sex tone.
“Mm-hmm—shit!”
Out of nowhere, her mouth was on me, and all I could do was mewl like a damn bitch.
“Married?!” Lilith literally screamed into the phone. “When? How? To who? Where are you? What?!”
“You married Kylo Ren?” Umber inquired; her voice was much calmer than Lilith’s.
“Shiiiid, I didn’t even think this was possible. Is it that Moteezosket boy?” my daddy asked.
I’d decided to call Lilith and have her conference in Daddy and Umber while Bo was in the shower, but I was now regretting it.
“Yes, Daddy. It’s Bo,” I said.
“I don’t even know what the negro do for a living and you done married him?” Daddy complained.
“He has a very good job working for a tech company,” I informed him.
“Well, I knew he had to be special to deal with your hateful self. You happy?” Daddy probed.
“Yes,” I admitted because at that moment, I was.
“Wow! Damn, I’m the only single King sister left,” Umber said.
“Uh, congratulations, but I feel some kind of way about you not inviting us to the wedding,” Lilith said.
“Wasn’t much of a wedding. Happened in my living room, and it was very spontaneous.”
“Uh-huh. We gotta have a get together to celebrate y’all. You say you on your honeymoon?” That was Daddy.
“Yes. On an island. It’s beautiful,” I said as I watched Bo towel off while entering the bedroom. He smiled when his eyes met mine and walked over to where I lay on the bed to kiss me.
“You know his family?” Umber asked.
“He got family?” Ray interjected. When did his ass get on the phone?
“Yes, and yes. Look, I’ve gotta go. I’ll talk to y’all later.”
After ending the call, I placed my cell on the nightstand and stared at my husband’s body. In truth, he was far from average. He was fine as hell, and the aging process had been very kind to him. Shit, at fifty-four, he was healthier than men half his age.
“Damn,” I muttered under my breath as he turned to face me, towel discarded. Every chiseled muscle of his chest and abdomen taunted me.
“What?” he asked, his eyebrows furrowed. He was so damn handsome—smooth mocha skin, deep-set eyes, luscious lips. He gave Denzel a run for his money.
“Oh, I didn’t say anything,” I lied.
He chuckled and shook his head as he pulled his black briefs on. “For such an efficient killer, you’re a lousy ass liar, King.”
I tossed my middle finger up at him and had to smile at the way he burst into laughter.
My guard was all the way down for the first time in years, probably for the first time since my mother passed. No, I felt like this when I was with Bo before…until I didn’t. Until the bond we so swiftly built was destroyed.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I leaned into him as we swayed in the moonlight, my toes digging in the sand. There was no music, just Bo’s soft humming as we danced. He had a nice singing—or humming—voice.
It was our last night in our private paradise, and I honestly didn’t want it to end. We’d eaten the best food, meals full of exotic dishes. We made the best love. We lived with no thoughts of anything but us. It almost made me wish this could’ve been our past, but I can admit I was happy it was our present.
“Bo?” I whispered, my voice so soft and demure that it actually startled me.
It must have taken him aback as well because he stopped moving, backing away a little to look into my eyes. “What’s wrong, baby?”
“I need to know something.”
He nodded, reaching for my hand and leading me to the villa’s massive back patio. Once he’d taken a seat in a chair, he pulled me down onto his lap and said, “What do you want to know?”
“If you love me, why would you let my sister die? You say you’ve loved me all these years, so why didn’t you cancel the order and put the word out without me having to negotiate with you?”
He tried to squeeze me close to his chest, but I resisted. “No. Tell me because if Ray hadn’t fallen in love with her, she’d be dead!” I was trembling at that point, a mixture of pure anger and frustrating confusion.
“I honestly didn’t know at first. You know I have staff that handles the parts of the process that aren’t automated. I don’t know about every single target unless they think I need to,” he explained.
“You know about all of my targets. You say you’ve been watching me since day one.”
“You’re the only thing I care about. Of course, I know all your targets.”
“Then you should’ve been keeping tabs on the people I love, too! You should’ve known I wouldn’t want anything to happen to them!”
“Okay, I’ll admit that my loyalty is extremely myopic. When I say it’s only you that I care about, I mean it. I don’t even give a fuck about my own family, but know this: as soon as you contacted me about it, I kept my eye on the situation. I didn’t contact the client because I knew they’d just move on and hire someone else, but I looked into it, figured out Ray was protecting her. So, I knew she was safe.”
“But you reassigned her hit!”
“Yeah, I did. To me! It was my way of working around the systems built into the company. You know all cases that aren’t handled in a timely manner automatically get reassigned. I preempted that. Then, I put out the word that she was off limits…before you asked me to.”
“You…what? I don’t believe it.”
“I can prove it. I can show you the database, the records, everything I have access to. I can give you the fucking passwords and you can see it all. Hell, it’s all yours anyway…wife.”
The first tear fell unbidden, the ones that followed, too. The only thing I did purposely was kiss him, fall into his arms, and utter words that had been bottled up inside me for damn near three decades.
“I love you,” I whispered.
This man actually gasped as he squeezed my body so tightly, I was sure I’d be sore later. “I love you too damn much, King. Too damn much. The negotiating was fucked up and I know it, but I would’ve done anything to get us to where we are now. My bad on that shit, though. For real.”
“I know. I believe you, and I’m glad we’re together. I’m glad. I’m…happy.”
“Me, too, baby. Me, too.”