CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
By the time Hawk got out of the tub and wrapped one of her beach towels around his naked body, Janita had already gotten his clothes, put them in the washing machine, and taken a bath herself.
He found her in the kitchen. She grinned when she saw him.
“You take longer baths than most women,” she said.
He smiled too. “It felt so good I kept dozing off.”
“I know what you mean. I could have stayed there all night too.” Then she saw what he was wearing. Or not wearing. “I have an oversized bathrobe hanging on the back of my bedroom door. Why don’t you go get it?”
“No robe of yours is going to fit me,” he said, and Janita laughed. She knew it too. “But I’m good,” he said. “This big beach towel is enough coverage for me.”
Janita ignored that little comment. “Your tracksuit is in the dryer. It should be ready in about an hour.”
“Damn, Nita,” he said as he sat down at her small kitchen table. “You’ve been a busy bee.”
“Always,” she responded. She loved the way he called her by her nickname.
“What are you cooking? It smells good.”
“I’m heating up my dinner from yesterday. I figured you might be hungry.”
“You figured that right. What’s the dinner?”
“Neckbones and rice.”
Hawk hesitated. “Neckbones?”
Janita looked at the brother. “You’ve never heard of neckbones before?”
“Of course I’ve heard of them. I work in the music industry. What do you take me for?”
“That’s a strange answer.”
“How is it strange?”
“You have a white father. I understand that. But your ass got a black mama. She never cooked you no neckbones and rice?”
“My mother? Are you serious? When I was born she was still a young black girl from the other side of the tracks doing everything in her power to fit into her new husband’s lily-white world. And she wanted me to fit in too. And my siblings after me. Neckbones and rice wasn’t a thing.”
“But from what I read about you on the internet every woman you be dating is black. Didn’t they school you on soul food?”
Hawk’s jaw tightened. That damn internet was the bane of his existence. “Don’t believe everything you read about me,” he said.
“Meaning?”
“Many of those women they claim I’ve dated? I’ve never even met.”
Janita stared at him. “You don’t date?”
“Certainly. And yes, my preferred dating partners have been black ladies. But it wasn’t any of those ladies they love to put me with in the blogs and tabloids.”
Janita was stirring her pot in more than one way. “Are you dating anybody now?” She said it and then looked at him to see his reaction.
She didn’t see any change in his expression. Which was welcomed. “No,” he said. Which was even more welcomed.
She smiled as she continued to stir her pot.
“What about you?” he asked her, which surprised her. Most guys never wanted to know much about her. “You dating anyone?”
There was a hesitation from her. Not because of his question, but because he cared enough to ask it. “No.”
“Sure about that? You hesitated.”
She smiled. “I’m sure.”
“When was the last time you had a boyfriend?”
She didn’t have to think about it. She knew. “Seven months ago.”
“Damn girl. Why the drought?”
“Guys haven’t done right by me,” she admitted as she continued to slowly stir her pot. “I got tired of being abused.”
Hawk frowned. “You mean physically? Some joker laid a hand on you?”
“A couple of them did. But I laid a hand right back on them,” she said, and Hawk laughed. “But I don’t mean physical abuse,” she added. “I mean emotional abuse. They played with my emotions way too much and I got tired of it.”
Hawk nodded. “I know what you mean.”
That surprised Janita. She looked at him. “Women play with your emotions too?”
“No,” he said. “I’ve never allowed it to get to that.”
Janita knew what that meant. He didn’t care enough about them to let them hurt him. Which, she also knew, said a lot about how he treated women who “joined” him in those bathtubs. Which made it clear to her to stay clear of him.
That was why she stopped talking and plated their food.
When she sat his plate in front of him with a glass of water, and sat down at the small table with her plate, he inwardly smiled. He’d never ate in such a modest environment in his life. And he found that he liked it.
“So these are neckbones,” he said.
She laughed. “Those are neckbones, yes sir.”
He was moving them around with his fork. “Might I ask which animal’s neck did these bones come from?”
It was such a strange question to Janita that she found herself laughing so hard that she couldn’t stop.
“What’s so funny?” he said. Her laughter was contagious and he was laughing too. “I don’t get it. Why are you laughing like that?”
Janita finally settled down. “Nobody’s ever asked me that question before.”
“Really? They just eat these things on faith?”
The evoked even more laughter from Janita. He was one of a kind!
But when he started eating them, he couldn’t stop. “Damn they’re good. And I don’t care where they came from either,” he added.
It was a great time for both of them. An escape from a reality they couldn’t escape from. Especially when, after dinner, Hawk called his father again to see if there was any news. And there still was none. Not even a ransom demand.
When Hawk ended the call, he looked over at Janita as she washed those dishes and placed them in her dish rack.
He couldn’t take his eyes off of her ass.
He couldn’t stop himself from thinking how wonderful it would feel to be deep inside of her.
He couldn’t stop his penis from getting harder and harder.
And he realized in that moment that he didn’t just need any stress reliever. He had to have her. He needed her. In the worst way.
He got up just as she was putting the last dish in the dish rack. He walked up behind her and pulled her into his arms.
Janita’s first reaction was to resist his pull. But that only lasted a good second. Because his arms felt too good around her. And his aroused penis pressed against her felt too good too.
When he began kissing her neck, she lifted her head and allowed it. And when his hands made their way beneath her shirt and began to squeeze her breasts, she leaned back against him and allowed that too.
But it wasn’t until he turned her around to face him, and removed that towel. What she saw was a penis so big and aroused that it aroused her to a point where she knew there would be no return. There was no backing out of this.
Hawk knew it too when he pulled her into his arms and began kissing her in a way that bordered on desperation. But as soon as their lips touched, and she tasted him, she was as desperate for him as he was for her.
He pulled her even closer as they kissed. She could feel him expanding even more against her thigh, if that was even possible given how huge he already was. But that was how drunk on him she felt.
And then he removed her blouse and began ravaging her breasts. And when he pulled down her shorts, she stepped out of them, and he lifted her into his arms. She wrapped her legs around him as he carried her, as they continued to kiss, all the way to her bedroom.
He pulled the covers back, got in bed with her, and continued to kiss her all over.
But when he got between her legs, he knew he couldn’t stop.
He had her in a vice grip that was past-feeling now.
That was past reason and good practice and anything else that was sensible.
He was beyond sensibleness. He had to go all the way with her and he was going raw.
He moved up her body, kissing her flat stomach and her fully-aroused breasts, and then he entered her with a thrust that took them both over.
Janita knew it was going to come to that.
And she knew he was entering her raw. But she couldn’t stop it.
That was the crazy part. She trusted this man that was practically a stranger to her.
But she instinctively trusted him. There was no other reason for it.
She’d never been this careless with any man before ever!
But when she felt the full force of his entry, she forgot about anything and anybody else. All she could think about was the feeling. It was unparalleled in her entire existence. She’d never felt this way before.
Hawk had never felt this intense before. Not with any other woman. And that was shocking to his senses.
They made love that bordered on cum the entire time.
And when they finally went all the way over, it was so real to them that they could hardly contain themselves. They went from one side of her big bed to the other side. And he was pounding her. And that was exactly what she wanted him to do. She wanted him to pound harder.
And he did. Until he had poured all he had into her, and she had given all she had to give to him.
They were too high. They knew they were going to crash. And they did. They collapsed onto that bed and into each other’s arms.
After several seconds of just getting their breath back, Hawk rolled off of her with her still in his arms, and laid on his back.
She was now on top of him. And that was where they stayed as reality set back in.
The fact that his mother was still out there with no word whatsoever overtook their existence.
But having each other, and being there with each other felt so good that they both found a way to fall asleep.