CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Later that night, after all three of them had taken long baths in each of their separate ensuite bathrooms, Janita cooked a dinner for them that they all enjoyed.
Then Hawk retired upstairs to his bedroom, Von retired upstairs to his bedroom, and Janita cleaned up the kitchen and handwashed the dishes: she never cared to use dishwashers. Then she made her way upstairs too.
But before she went to her bedroom, she walked in the opposite direction, and around a corridor, to Von’s room.
When she opened his door and peeped inside, she saw him sitting in a chair, in front of the TV, playing a video game.
And when she saw her baby brother acting like the kid he still was rather than this whole grown-up he always had to be around her, it made her heart sing.
They’d been through so much heartache together.
Everything they tried seemed to fail. Was this their turning point?
“I see you,” Von sang without looking away from his game.
Janita smiled and opened the door wider. “I was just making sure you were okay.”
“Dinner was great, sis. Hawk said so too. He loves your cooking. He was eating like there was no tomorrow.”
“I don’t think it was my cooking. I think it was because it was the first homecooked meal he’d had in a while.”
Von stopped his game and looked at her. “Why do you always sell yourself short? He loved your cooking, Nita. Period.”
“Okay. Dang. It’s not that serious.”
“But he is,” said Von as if he knew the least thing could tip his joy over to the wrong side. “Right?”
“What do you mean?”
“You think he really meant it?” Von asked.
“Do I think he really meant what?”
“Two for one? And that we belonged to him?”
“Oh that.” She smiled to reassure him. “He meant it.”
Von smiled too and slung his braids out of his handsome face. “When’s the wedding?”
His question slapped that smile off of Janita’s face. “What wedding? They postponed his half-sister’s wedding the same day we found Hawk half-dead, and as far as I know they haven’t rescheduled it yet.”
“I mean your wedding, Janita. You know what I mean.”
“My wedding?” She wished. “There’s no wedding and you know it.”
“But you said he was serious.”
“About us working for him, DeVontay. About us living with him.” Then she felt a sense of panic. She didn’t want him ever getting his hopes up high concerning her and a man. He knew her track record! “We work for him, Von. That’s all. That’s it. Okay?”
Von understood what she meant. He could be another dead-end for them too. But he was just hoping. He nodded his head. “Okay,” he said.
Janita smiled, said her goodbye, and left his room. She walked around the corridor again to her room. But just as she opened the door of her bedroom, which was next door to Hawk’s bedroom, she heard his voice. “Janita, come here.”
It didn’t sound like an order, but it sure felt like one. She hurried to his bedroom and stood at the open door.
“Close the door and come here,” Hawk said to her. He was lying in bed, on his back, and staring at her in her shorts and t-shirt as she closed his door and made her way to his bedside.
“You’re doing alright? You don’t feel bad or anything, do you?”
It was his time to reassure her. “Actually, I feel great. It’s been a long day and I’m a little tired, but other than that I’m good.”
“Oh good,” Janita said with relief in her voice. It was as if she thought his wellbeing was now her responsibility. And in some ways, that was exactly how she felt.
“Dinner was excellent,” he said.
Just like Von had said, she thought. And instead of making excuses or minimizing her abilities, she took it in stride. “Thank you.”
But then he removed his covers halfway off of his body and revealed a very fit, very bronze, very muscular, naked body with a very muscular, aroused penis.
Just as he had hoped, Janita’s eyes went straight for the penis.
Which, Hawk knew, gave him permission to keep going.
“Get out of those clothes and hop in,” he said.
Janita had never met a man as forceful and certain of himself as Hawk. She’d met plenty of jerks who thought they were being forceful and certain but were really just being jerks. But nobody like Hawk.
And to prove that point, she did what she wouldn’t normally do on any given day and got out of her clothes and got in bed with him.
Delighted that she didn’t argue with him or insist she do it her way or none of that, he pulled her on top of him.
Which made her smile. “I forgot how big you were,” she said as his arms engulfed her.
When he smiled proudly, she added: “I don’t mean down there.
I mean up here,” she said as she pointed out his barrel chest and huge biceps.
“Oh,” he said. “I thought you meant--”
“Oh, I know what you thought I meant,” she said, and they both laughed.
But when the gaiety died back down, she laid her head down on his chest and he held her tightly in his arms. But the longer they laid there, and the tighter he held her, the more they felt every inch of each other.
So much so that when Janita looked up, his eyes were already showing his need for her.
And since her need could rival his, she moved her mouth closer to his mouth and kissed him.
It nearly broke Hawk when he felt her sweet, tender lips on his lips for the first time since his ordeal. And he lost himself in her taste. They kissed with a thirst that both of them had to quench.
But Hawk’s thirst was desert-deep and he had to go much further than she was going.
That was why he laid her on her back, still kissing her on her lips, until he began kissing her all the way down her body until he was right where he wanted to be.
And as soon as he got started, Janita was arching and squeezing the sheets and trying with all she had not to cry out. He was masterful.
And when he finally moved back up, got on top of her, and entered her, it was with a thrust that took her to a place of euphoria that she’d never been before. Not even with him. And they made love slowly, deliberately, sweetly.
Until they moved one time too many and suddenly, as if he rubbed her in just the right spot, and she moved at just the right angle for him, their need became their urgency. And their sweet lovemaking became a pounding.
They were going at it so hard that the bed was squeaking and jumping and going hard too.
They were going at it so hard that Janita had to nearly bite her tongue to keep from screaming.
They were going at it so hard that when Von made his way around the corridor from his bedroom to make sure his sister was in bed and okay, he heard them before he even got near her door.
But he knew that sound wasn’t coming from her bedroom, but from Hawk’s. And all he could hear was the bedsprings squeaking and Hawk letting out such guttural grunts and groans that it sounded as if a mega-experienced man like him had never experienced anything like it.
And instead of just leaving them alone, Von pumped his fist in the air, said yes! in a silent scream, and then left them alone.
Hawk Webster was the best thing that ever happened to him and his sister, and he was going to do everything in his power to make sure his sister understood that too.