Loving Her In The Shadow- Sovereignty Read online

  “Fuck,” I growled in Italian. Either my eyes were playing tricks on me or she wiggled her ass.

  “Do it again,” I commanded, realizing that she had indeed clapped her ass cheeks together.

  “Like this?” she taunted, slowly winding her ass in circular motion. She spread her thighs further apart and leaned forward.

  I moved closer until my dick was an inch away from her slippery entrance. I glided the tip of my dick up and down her slit. I didn’t think I could get any harder than this, but I did. My balls swelled with a need to release into her.

  “Oh baby,” I moaned as I sunk into her velvety folds.

  “Give me all of you,” she moaned, receiving all of me in one thrust. She clenched her muscles around me with a tight grip.

  I leaned over to grab a fistful of her hair as I slammed into her. She yelped while I yanked her head back and began pumping into her. She met each stroke, pushing her pussy into me. I released her hair and placed my hand around her neck. I pushed her face into the marble tile, allowing her ass to rise up higher.

  “I’m cummin,” she moaned.

  A few more pumps and I was right behind her, draining all that I had into her.

  We collapsed onto the marble floor, each of us out of breath. I glanced over at her naked body.

  “Thank you,” she whispered softly a few minutes later. “I needed this.”

  Instead of responding, I just stared at her back. I became lost in her skin, finding peace in the darkness. Even as her breathing became deeper, I couldn’t force my eyes away. She rolled her sleeping body into me. I traced a finger over her lips as she slept. How was it possible that she looked even more beautiful after we fucked? Nothing had been pretty about the way we’d fucked. It was ugly, messy, and hard; even more of a reason why I wanted to fuck her again.

  As I rubbed my thumb over her lips, I imagined what her mouth tasted like. I can’t remember the last time I kissed a woman. It’d been years. It was the one rule I followed behind licking a woman’s pussy. Yet, I went down on her like her pussy always belonged to me. Like she was favorite meal and I couldn’t help but dive in. And I’d do it again. But kissing was too personal. I could never allow myself to get that personal or intimate with any woman. I pulled my hand away from her lips.

  She was another piece of pussy. Nothing more.

  I got up, pulled my slacks back up, and carried her body to the bed. After draping a sheet over her body, I left the bedroom and reentered the living room. I sat on the couch and stared at the area we’d just fucked in.

  A few minutes later, the sound of a vibrating cell phone caused me to shift my gaze away from the marble tile. It was my cell phone. I shoved my hand into my pocket of my slacks that hung loosely below my knees. I grabbed my cell phone just as it stopped vibrating.

  I glanced at the missed call. It was my father, Salvatore. Not since my training in the early days did Salvatore ever call this early in the morning. I looked back at the beauty sleeping on the bed. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. I probably would’ve woken her up for round two if my cell phone was not vibrating again. I shoved my hand into my pocket and pulled out my cell phone.

  It was Salvatore again.

  I reluctantly turned away from her and walked out of the bedroom. I closed the door behind me. I stored her away, compartmentalizing her in the safest part of my mind.

  “Hello.”

  “I need you to come to the house now.”

  That was all Salvatore said before ending the call.

  Reign

  “So, we’re just gonna pretend that you didn’t call me this morning and tell me to bring some clothes and shoes to the penthouse of the Skyview Towers? Oh wait, let’s not forget that you were in New York and didn’t even hit a sista’ up.”

  I knew Carter was not going to let the day go by without grilling me about my frantic call to her earlier. Thankfully, she didn’t ask any questions when she arrived at the penthouse suite two hours later carrying a bag with a gray Nike tech suit and iridescent white and silver Nike Air Max 97 inside.

  As much as I wanted to avoid this conversation, I knew she wasn’t going to let up until she drained me of all the details.

  “And don’t even think about telling half the story,” she warned as she reached for her mimosa.

  There was no point in lying to her. I reached for my glass of Old Fashioned that was next to my flute. If I was going to tell Carter what took place in the last twenty-four hours, then I needed something stronger than the complimentary orange juice and champagne mix.

  “So tell me…” Carter raised her flute to her lips. “How did you end up naked in the penthouse suite?”

  I took a generous sip of the bourbon mix and leaned forward. “I had a one-night-stand,” I whispered.

  Carter spat the bubbly gold fluid back into the flute. “You did what?”

  I whipped my head from side to side inside Crack-N-Egg’s trendy bistro in downtown Brooklyn. I looked back at Carter, narrowing my eyes as I whispered, “Shush!”

  “Un-uh, there ain’t going to be no shushing today. You got only a couple of minutes to gather your thoughts while I order what you’re drinking.” Carter looked around the room in search of the nearest waitress. With a wispy wave, Carter flagged down one unlucky fella. Before he could pretend not to see her, Carter hollered, “Excuse me! Yeah, you… Can I get an old fashioned? Thank you.”

  “There’s not much to tell.” I took another sip, hoping Carter wouldn’t make me go into detail. “I fucked up.”

  When the waiter returned with a glass of Old Fashioned, Carter raised the glass to her lips and asked, “Was the sex good?”

  I dropped my eyes away from her curious gaze and supressed smile. With a quick nod, I braced myself for Carter’s response. Her supressed smile had morphed into a silly grin.

  “Here you go, ladies,” a gorgeous dark-skinned waitress announced as she placed our breakfast platters on the table. “Do you need anything else?”

  Carter rolled her eyes upward as if disappointed that we’d been interrupted. Behind her tight smile, she managed to say, “Nope. We’re good. Thanks.”

  After thanking her, I turned to Carter and admitted, “I feel so guilty.”

  Carter smirked. “Feel guilty later. Spill the tea now.”

  “I shouldn’t have slept with him. Casual sex with strangers is your thing, not mine.”

  “You just had sex with one person.” Carter took another swig of her Old Fashioned before sitting it down beside her plate. “Besides, why should you be the only faithful person in your marriage? It’s about time you got that motherfucker back.”

  “I’m still married.” I exhaled.

  “Girl, the only person married in your marriage is you,” Carter shrewdly retorted as she blew on a spoonful of cheesy grits. “You got laid by a man who knows how to use his dick. That is unless you were disappointed.”

  “Far from it. He was great.” I shuddered at the memory. “I can still smell him all over me.”

  “Damn!” Carter peered over the rim of her flute. “I miss that feeling. And as much as you try to scrub his scent away—”

  “The smell is still there,” I finished.

  Carter’s otherwise self-assured, relentless, and carefree spirit now resembled a tortured soul. She was haunted by something that tugged at her insides. Memories? I couldn’t be too sure. But I knew that my words had reminded her of another time, maybe another life. I swallowed the invisible knot lodged in my throat and unconsciously prayed that I wouldn’t be haunted by this night of passion like Carter had been.

  “Well, there you go.” Carter clasped her hands together with a forced grin. “You have no reason to feel guilty when you’ve been sexually liberated. Now, let’s get down to the nitty gritty. Was he packing?”

  “Yes, he was.” Just thinking about his mouth, his fingers, and his dick sent chills down my spine. “It’s like he knew every sensitive nerve on my body. He was far from selfish. He knew that
instant penetration wasn’t going to get me off or ready to receive all of him.”

  Carter quirked hereyebrows. “All of him?”

  “Girl, all of him,” I repeated. “Don’t get me wrong, he gave off big-dick-energy the moment I saw him, so I wasn’t surprised that he was packing. But damn, I didn’t know he could put it down like that. I could hear my pussy squealing. He was long, thick, had veins, and a curved tip. Plus, he man-scapes.”

  “Big dick and groomed.”

  I nodded. “When I came, it felt like I was crashing into euphoria.”

  “Jesus.” Carter spooned out an ice cube from the glass of water that had been brought to us earlier.

  I tossed my hands up. “Now, I usually run to the dick. But when he let me pretend that I was in control. I flipped him onto his back and rode him. I was working my hips like he was paying me. And I knew he felt my walls clenching and massaging his length just by the way his eyes fluttered. Just when I thought he was on the verge of nutting, he adjusted his dick in a way where the tip pressed into my g-spot.”

  “And then what happened?” Carter asked when I paused and closed my eyes.

  “Sorry.” I opened my eyes again. “He took me from behind, slapping my ass and talking to me in Italian. I arched my back, shoved my fists into the tile and backed my ass into him, matching each thrust and going faster after each slap.”

  Carter spooned out another ice cube. “He was speaking in Italian?”

  “Hell yes. The man was talking. But I didn’t need a translator to know what he’d been saying. I knew he loved every minute of me because I was loving every minute of him. When he grabbed my hair, I didn’t even care. Hell, he could’ve done anything in that moment and I wouldn’t have cared so long as I reached my second climax.” I paused long enough to take a few sips of my Old Fashioned before I continued. “Girl, by the time we were done, my body was so sensitive. I couldn’t even be held. I needed at least two minutes to come down from wherever dimension he put me on.”

  “Sis, now that’s what I call rejuvenation,” Carter said, taking a sip of her water.

  “More like irresponsible and immature.” I wiped the corners of my mouth with a napkin. “I cheated on Keith. I was so impulsive and dead-set on revenge that I degraded myself in the process.”

  Carter rolled her eyes. “Now why do you have to mess up a good story with your moral convictions?”

  “Because that’s exactly how I felt when I woke up this morning. I felt cheap. And even though the sex was everything, I’m no better than Keith.”

  “Well take that shit to the grave. Chalk it up to a great night of sex.”

  I wish it were that simple.

  “He stole my shoes,” I whispered, still feeling embarrassed. “And not just any shoes. He stole my gold Giuseppe Zanotti heels.”

  Carter hollered. Tears were rolling down her cheeks as she held on to her stomach. Everyone, including me, watched as she laughed hysterically. Had this been anyone else, I probably would’ve joined in, laughing just as hard as Carter. But it had been me who’d gotten my favorite pair of gold strappy stilettos stolen by the same man who had made me experience the best orgasm of my entire life. I guess that was the price I had to pay for great sex.

  As her laughter died down, I released an exhausted breath. “Now, I gotta figure out a way to get them back.”

  “And maybe get some again in the process.” Carter’s eyes widened as if she had just discovered a cure. “It’s a win for both of you.”

  “What makes you think that I would sleep with him again? For all I know, he got a heels fetish.”

  “It certainly would not be the end of the world if you did.” Carter shrugged.

  “I swear, it’s safer to be faithful,” I retorted.

  Carter chuckled and shook her head. “Reign, you need to stop denying yourself. You and this man obviously had a connection, even if was just a sexual one. I say have your fun now because once you officially start your new job, you’re barely even going to have time to pay attention to Keith’s fuck-ups.”

  I stared at Carter in disbelief. “I can’t believe you’re telling me to have an affair. This is why they say do not take advice from your single friends.”

  “Newsflash, you decided to step out without my advice. And don’t forget I was married.”

  “Which is why I expect you of all people to tell me how wrong I am for cheating.”

  “So, you want me to lie to you?” Carter raised a bushy eyebrow.

  “You wouldn’t do that even if I asked you to.” I ran a hand down the back of my neck. “Honestly, I don’t know what I want.”

  “I say do you.” Carter took a sip of her Old Fashioned. “You already stuck your foot in the pond. You might as well dive in.”

  I shook my head. “Carter, you’re too much.”

  “No, I’m just enough and so are you. If Keith can’t see that by now, then someone else will.”

  “Are you really telling me to leave him?”

  “No, I’m telling you to put yourself first and think about why you’re still married to Keith. You’ve been sad and unhappy for a long time.”

  “I know,” I admitted. As much as I hated to hear my truth spill out of someone else’s mouth, I could always count on Carter to keep it real. “Things haven’t been the same since the—”

  “I know.”

  Even after all this time, I still couldn’t bring myself to say her name out loud. As much as I wish that I could forget that feeling of life growing inside of me, I couldn’t. Ever since her funeral, I haven’t gone back to her grave.

  “You know what hurts the most?” I tried to shove the cry down my throat. “I think about her every day, and the fact that he’d been the one to hold her while I spent nine months growing with her, makes me resent him. I don’t even know what she looked like—nothing but a belly that was there one moment and gone the next.”

  Flashbacks of the near fatal car accident two years ago flooded my mind. There were days when I could feel the impact of the car being slammed. My hands barricading my swelled belly. Just moments before Keith’s car flipped over, we’d been arguing about the same bullshit. Cheating.

  Last time, it was with his former assistant, Emily. I’d walked in on him and her sharing a passionate kiss in his office during his company’s annual holiday party. If I’d known how that night would’ve ended, I would’ve taken an Uber. Maybe then, my sweet baby girl would be alive.

  I shook away the memories, refusing to allow myself to go back to that dark period in my life two years ago. I wiped away my fallen tears and looked up at Carter who had been dabbing the corners of her eyes with a napkin.

  “I’m sorry. I thought that I’d be a lot stronger and not on the brink of tears at the thought of her.”

  Carter reached across the table and covered my hand with hers. With shimmery hazel eyes that reminded me of a Eurasian lynx, Carter said, “You’re my sister. Don’t ever apologize for being you. I’ve never been a parent, so I can’t imagine what you or even Kim have gone through. But just know that when you hurt, I hurt. And when you want to cry, scream, or even curse out God, I’m here.”

  “I love you.”

  “I love you too.” Carter grabbed the flute and brought it to her lips. “Now, tell me what happened this morning when you woke up and saw that the man who fucked you down was not Keith.”

  I shook my head and continued recapping my fucked-up morning. “The phone rings, waking me up outta’ my sleep. I looked over to find the other side of the bed was empty. I pulled my sore-ass body up and grabbed the phone. It was a woman stating that room service was at the door. It was only then that I heard knocking at the door. I jumped up, saying God knows what to the woman and hung up. I opened the closet doors and grabbed a robe, all the while wondering where he was. I opened the door and two carts of food rolled into the room.”

  “After all that work you put in, he needed your energy up for the next few rounds.” Carter smiled wickedly.
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br />   I looked around the restaurant and then back at Carter. “Girl, can you keep it down?” I scolded. “I don’t need all of Brooklyn knowing my business.”

  Carter waved her hand. “Oh please, Reign, half these people in here wished they had your kind of ‘business’ last night. I know I damn sure do.”

  I scowled. “Let’s see if you’d feel the same way after hearing how my morning turned out.”

  “It couldn’t have been that bad.” Carter tilted her head to the side. “You have that after cum glow. I love it!”

  I couldn’t deny how good I felt. But I was still reeling with confusion and anger about what happened, soon after I began digging into the different platters.

  “It wasn’t until I was walking around the suite, chewing on a piece of bacon, did I finally realize he was gone.”

  “Newsflash girl, that’s the third rule in a one-night-stand.” Carter stared at me like a disappointed parent before explaining whatever rule this was. “You always leave before the other person wakes up. It eliminates that awkward exchange come the morning.”

  “What rule—matter of fact, never mind.” I waved my hand.

  “Did he at least leave his number?” Carter lifted a brow with a look of skepticism.

  “Yeah, he did.” I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. “Only, I didn’t realize he wrote it on my inner thigh until I was in the shower this morning. I had to hop out the shower quickly with soap all in the crack of my ass to write his number down.”

  Carter began laughing again, taking pleasure in my misfortune. I tossed my napkin onto the table. I was starting to regret telling Carter about my night with him. While she was too busy laughing, I was still trying to figure out how I could file a police report against this asshole.

  “Ha ha, real funny.” I rolled my eyes. “Do you know how long it took to scrub the ink from my skin?”

  Carter placed the palm of her hand against her chest, trying to calm the giggles that loomed after. “Did you at least call him?”

  “To say what? Hi, I don’t know your name, but I’m the woman you slept with last night. Can I please get my shoes back?”