Billionaire Alpha Romance: The Proposal (Mature Gentlemen Book 2) (253 page)
Read Billionaire Alpha Romance: The Proposal (Mature Gentlemen Book 2) Online
Authors: Maurice Bedard
After many years of happy marriage in Denver Colorado, African American, Tasheka, is devastated by the sudden death of her husband Jake. She has been content to be a homemaker – leaving all outside matters to Jake. Now, she is forced to learn to do all the things that were previously left to Jake. A further complication arises when the CEO of the mining company where Jake was an executive, asks her to fly to Africa where Jake had an office and apartment, to take care of the disposal of his effects, holding out a safari in a game park as an enticement. Tasheka agrees and looks eagerly to the offer of a Safari vacation.
Once in Africa, Tasheka discovers that Jake had a luxurious second life that she knew nothing about, including a mistress. The discovery spurs her to embark on a new life on her own, starting with an escort for an evening in Johannesburg and an entrancing experience of the African bush, and a hot torrid affair with her White game guide during the Safari holiday.
For the first time since Jake had been killed, Tasheka realized that she was looking forward to something. When she got the phone call from the company asking her to go to Johannesburg to sort out Jake’s personal effects, her first reaction had been to refuse. It was just too complicated, and she didn’t want any more complication. Just making the arrangements for Jake’s funeral here in Colorado had been stressful. And then taking over the reins of her life was even worse. Jake had always done everything. She had been a homebody – a traditional wife – at least that was the way she liked to think of herself. She’d been happy to leave all their financial and personal business details to him. She’d been forced to learn a lot in a very short space of time. When that was over, she had given a huge sigh of relief and tried to resume her quiet life, and found what had been comfortable with Jake wasn’t nearly as comfortable without him. And though inertia kept her from any new initiatives, when the phone call came, she was actually beginning to feel a bit restless.
Anyway, when the CEO of the company had emphasized how much they needed her to go and held out the incentive of an all-expenses-paid Safari in Kruger National park, she had reluctantly agreed to go.
It was the safari that caught her attention. She had watched incredible wildlife programs on the TV and enjoyed them a lot without any idea that she might actually go to Africa and see it first hand. When she thought about it, she was suddenly excited about doing that – especially as the company would make all the arrangements.
Though Tasheka wasn’t really aware of it, she had been a most unusual executive wife. She had been born in Denver’s small, close knit black community, gone to primary school a few blocks from her home, and attended North High, which had a largish proportion of black students, including almost all her friends. She’d never been out of Colorado. She and Jake had been childhood friends, and only been apart for any length of time when he had graduated near the top of his class and been persuaded by his counselor to apply for a scholarship to several prestigious universities. He had chosen the University of Michigan and done a BA in Business studies and then an MBA.
Even before he’d finished the MBA, he’d gotten a job with Millennium Mining Company based in Golden, Colorado with a subsidiary office in Johannesburg. They’d married immediately and been very happy together until he had been killed in the plane crash. The main disappointment of their marriage was that there had never been any children, but Jake busied himself with his work and Tasheka concentrated on being a model housewife, cooking special meals for him and keeping their house immaculate and welcoming. Even when he started making regular trips to Jo’Burg, they were happy, though she’d missed him when he was away.
They’d never bothered to find out why no children had come along. They’d had a very satisfying and varied sex life. Tasheka, like many African women who tend to store fat in their buttocks, had rather large ones, and was, in fact, well-padded all over. She had been teased unmercifully by the other children, including some black ones, at school. Jake had assured her that they were just jealous and that she was a “big beautiful black babe,” and that he, unlike many white men, had no taste for skinny, bony women, but she had never really believed him, until he made his relish clear in their marital bed, to which she had come hesitantly at first. When she and Jake were married, he displayed a skill and a versatility that had surprised Tasheka, who had only the most basic idea of what went on. He must have learned more things at the University of Michigan than Business Administration, she thought, and when she got up the courage to ask him, he didn’t deny it but gave her a rather naughty grin and said, “Of course! My counselor told me that I should develop life skills at university, so I did. All for love of you, of course, my dear.”
Their love-making had decreased in frequency in recent years, and had almost stopped the six months before his death. Tasheka wasn’t happy with that, but assumed that it was normal in most marriages. Her memories were still vivid, and remembering was almost as good as doing.
Tasheka remembered every moment of her deflowering, for instance, and often used the memory for comfort when he was away and, of course, after his death. Telling her truthfully that he was following the advice in a sex manual, several times before their wedding, he persuaded her to allow him to insert his finger and stretch her hymen in preparation for the real penetration. She was doubtful, because she really had believed in “no sex before marriage,” but he argued that everyone agreed that petting was allowed, that fingers and penises were different, and anyway, what he was proposing was just a hygienic measure to avoid physical damage and pain. She was only halfway persuaded, but trusted him and wanted very much to please him.
When the moment came on the evening after their wedding, he asked her to undress and lie prone on the bed. He himself removed only his suit, shoes and socks. He told her afterwards that he wanted no shocking revelation of his naked body but envisioned a much more gradual reveal, and he wanted her to be totally relaxed before genital sex began. He began by massaging. Sprinkling bath oil on her back, he began to slide his hands very gently over every exposed part of her body, telling her how beautiful each was, giving special reverence to her hips and buttocks. By the time he finished, she was awash in sensual pleasure, losing all anxiety. She remembered later that she had thought that if she had known what it was going to be like, she would have lost her virginity long before, despite her principles.
He finished up by licking and sucking on her toes and then told her to just lie quietly as he removed the rest of his clothes. When he told her to turn over, and she saw him for the first time naked, she was agog. Having done her own preparation for this occasion by looking at art books in the library stacks, she knew the basics of what he would look like, but she had assumed that the models in the art books had been chosen because they were exceptionally beautiful, so she was expecting a less stunning spectacle than she saw. He was, to speak honestly, magnificent. He was of only moderate height, but his muscles swerved around his body in graceful waves. Standing, his smile whimsical, enjoying her perusal, he deliberately posed like an ebony and less meaty version of Michelangelo’s “David.” His neck was long with his head poised gracefully on it, his face was noble, quite like the actor playing the young Kunta Kinte in “Roots.”
“Well,” he said after a long moment, “Will I do?”
“You’re beautiful,” she replied; “do what you will.”
” What I will, is do
you
.” He lay beside her and put his lips over hers in a long loving kiss and ran his fingers over her breast, scratching gently on her nipples with his finger until they began to swell, then sweeping his hand down her belly until it reached her bush, he rummaged in it until he felt the slippery skin within. There he treated what he found there as he had her nipples, until he felt her lips and the nubbin between them swelling under his finger. Finding the cavity at the center, he inserted his finger and moved it slowly in an out as in a caress. Intuiting that the time was right, he put his hands between her legs, spreading them until he could lie between them, and slowly and gently inserted his now erect and throbbing organ. Tasheka felt a moment of mild pain, but forgot it almost immediately in the rush of pleasure she felt as he filled her, a pleasure that mounted and mounted in towering heights, until it crashed like a Hawaiian surfer’s dream with a mighty roar in her ears. She cried out with the joy of it, and again as she felt his seed jetting into her. When she reached the point of coherent thought, she definitely felt this should have come much sooner.
Always, when she returned from her daydream to the real world, she was both bathed in comfort and disappointed that it hadn’t been real. There was one other very special occasion which she’d never forgotten. The first half hour had gone in a familiar direction, but then, as she spread her legs eager to receive him, she’d felt lips where she’d never expected to find lips, and a tongue where she’s never imagined a tongue would ever be. The feel of his tongue licking, penetrating, curling and shaking within her was incredibly exciting. She couldn’t believe it! She wanted it to go on forever, but in a few moments she was at the point of no return and with a triumphant cry of, Yes!” her whole body convulsed again and again as the tongue continued and continued until she was exhausted and spent. She grasped his shoulders and pulled him up to receive a passionate kiss before they finally laid together to fall asleep.
She had thought when he was killed that those memories were all she would ever have, but when the phone call came, she realized that she was ready for new experiences and wondered if her trip to Jo’Burg would provide them.
The preparations for the trip took a long time. Tasheka had never traveled abroad, so had to apply for a passport, which took several weeks to arrive. She needed a new wardrobe too. Although she was always immaculately dressed, she had never bothered about fashion and had worn most outfits until they began to wear out. Feeling that new and more stylish clothes would make her feel less insecure in a strange country and among people she’d never met, she approached her best friend, whom she’d known since high school for advice. The friend had become something of a fashionista and was more than happy to not just to give Tasheka advice, but to accompany her to the shops for a buying spree. Then she had to make arrangements for the care of the house. But finally, she was ready and with considerable apprehension boarded a South African Airways flight to Cape Town, where she would catch a connecting flight to Jo’Burg after a night in a hotel to rest.
The first few minutes of the flight were a bit scary as she’d never flown before. When she saw the ground dropping away from the plane, she gripped handles of her seat and closed her eyes, but after the ascent was completed and people began to move about in the cabin, she decided it was going to be OK and actually began to enjoy the view from her window. She’d seen aerial photographs, but the live version was fascinating, with the late afternoon bathing the prairie in a golden light, and she’d not known about the huge irrigation sprinkling making bright green circles in clusters almost all the way across the Midwest, and watched until it grew too dark to see out. After the evening meal, she slept most of the way, thankful for the empty seat beside her to make her more comfortable. As a big woman she would have felt awkward about encroaching on the territory of the person next to her, even in the relatively wide Business Class seat.
When the cabin attendant woke her for breakfast, she could see a thin line on the horizon that she thought must be Africa and felt a twinge of excitement. Africa! She’d never dreamed that she would actually go there. As they neared the land, Table Mountain became visible, and later she could see the layout of the city – surely one of the most beautiful in the world - poised between the mountain and the sea. Denver had mountains, but no sea, so she’s never seen it, and the sight of it thrilled her.
Once she was in the Arrivals Hall, a representative from the company took her under his wing and escorted her through Immigration and Customs before driving to her hotel and into a penthouse suite which had a panoramic view of the city and the ocean beyond. It was beyond beautiful, as was the suite. She had never experienced such luxury. She and Jake had stayed in some very comfortable hotels in Colorado, but nothing like this. Never with huge bouquets of flowers in the living room and bedroom, with satin sheets on the beds and a wall-sized TV's. When the rep asked her if she needed anything before he left her, she exclaimed, “No, nothing at all!” He told her that there was a very good restaurant in the hotel, but that there were many in the city if she felt adventurous, or, if she felt inclined, she could order dinner in her suite. But she felt she’d already had enough adventure for one day, and didn’t leave the hotel until she was collected the next day. The huge menu at the restaurant gave her some stress – Jake had always ordered for both of them – but she asked advice of the waiter, who recommended the fresh seafood platter, a salad, and crème Brule, which she enjoyed every bite of. The only shadow on the evening was that she was alone.
In the morning as she was being driven to the airport, she noticed the miles of shacks on one side of the highway that was called Kayalitsha. At first she couldn’t understand what these shacks, smaller than a one car garage in Denver, could be for. Made of all sorts of salvaged materials, including cardboard boxes and plastic sheets, they were so close together that she wondered how anyone could go in and out of them. When she saw washing spread out on their roofs, and understood that people
lived
in them, she was totally shocked. Her family had been poor by American standards, but that was something totally different from this. Until they reached the turnoff to the airport, she stared mesmerized, trying to imagine what life in them must be like. She couldn’t help but think of the luxury she had experienced in the hotel. How could a country exist with such extremes literally cheek by jowl?
The 2-hour flight to Jo’Burg’s Oliver R. Tambo Airport was uneventful. The view out the window looked much the same as she’d seen flying from Denver except that there were no green circles, and hardly any evidence of human activity. The contrast between the sardine tin conditions in Kayalitsha and this emptiness struck her. South Africa was a
land
of extremes, she decided.
At Oliver Tambo, she was met by a company chauffeur who ferried her in a limousine to Sandton where the company’s headquarters were. He ushered her into the Garden Court hotel in the Sandton City shopping complex, which looked out onto Nelson Mandela Square with its huge statue of the great statesman. He left her at Reception, telling her she had two hours to settle in before the company CEO would come and take her to lunch. As in Cape Town, the company had booked her into a suite – even more luxurious than the one in Cape Town.
Frikkie Pretorius arrived at her suite exactly on time. He was a rather short man with an enormous belly that poured out over his belt like dough in a baking tin, a feature that even expensive tailoring could not disguise. His suit jacket was wrinkled and his unbuttoned collar revealed that his shirt, even if had been put on fresh that morning, had picked up considerable grime from his neck. His red nose betrayed an excessive thirst for liquor as clearly as his belly did an excessive taste for food. With him were three business subordinate types, much more presentable than he, who nevertheless took pains to make their inferior status clear.
When Tasheka opened the door, Frikkie walked passed her into the room, but his three juniors introduced themselves, shook hands with Tasheka and greeted her affably by name. When all were seated, Frikkie introduced the other three men as “Hansie,” “Johan,” and “Rudi” and then asked Tasheka in a surprisingly thready voice, I hope you traveled well and that the hotel in Cape Town was satisfactory.”
Tasheka said that everything had gone well on the flights, and that the hotel had been wonderful, as was this one. It was clear that Frikkie had expected nothing else, and the greetings over, went immediately on to business.
“Tasheka, we are very sorry indeed that we have all lost Jake. He was of considerable value to the company, and for many of us, a close friend. So we offer our heartfelt condolences. We are also so very grateful that you have come to help us out. Jake left considerable personal effects with us, and we have no idea what to do with them. I hope that in the two days you’re here, you’ll be able to sort through them. Whatever you want done with them, we will do. All you have to do is ask. Hansie, here, will give you every assistance possible.”
It was hardly surprising that Tasheka took an immediate dislike to Frikkie. Every black growing up in America can sense immediately when they are faced with a racial bigot, and in this case it was abundantly clear. Aside from his failure to shake hands, or to bother to get her name correctly, his overt behavior was impeccable, but his body language spoke volumes. Jake had never told her a lot about his colleagues in Jo’Burg, but her memory jogged, she remembered that he had said that he had very little to do with the company CEO and thought it was deliberate on the CEO’s part. She could certainly understand avoidance on Jake’s part.
She gave no sign, however. She was sure that she too would see very little of him, and was not unhappy about that. “I’m very grateful for your concern.” Then there was a painful pause in which no one could think of anything to say. Finally Frikkie took a deep breath and apologized that an important matter that had blown up just that morning which demanded his immediate attention, so regretfully, he would not be able to have lunch with her, but Hansie, Johan and Rudi would prove to be entertaining replacements. “If for any reason you need to contact me, please feel free to do so. He then left the room without any further words.
Once Frikkie was gone, his three stand-ins came to life. Tasheka sensed that Hansie. had been embarrassed by the way Frikkie had treated her, and went out of his way to be affable and courteous. He suggested that they move to a very nice restaurant just across Mandela Square. As soon as Tasheka had taken Frikkie’s measure, she had been rather dreading the lunch, but once they were seated and the orders given, it was a congenial and pleasant meal. The three Afrikaners were interested in their life in Colorado, and she in her turn asked them about theirs in South Africa. They regaled her with stories about Jake in the office, where he had been quite popular, but it was clear that none of them had socialized with him elsewhere.
When they had finished, Rudi and Johan left them to hurry back to work, but Hansie escorted her back to her room, and made arrangements to collect her the next morning to go to Jake’s flat.
‘*
Tasheka had the afternoon free and thought about doing some exploring, but what she’d seen of Sandton didn’t seem different enough from Denver to warrant putting additional stress on her already tired feet. Besides, the smart dress she’d put on for the formalities of the morning seemed too uncomfortable to spend more time in, so she took a shower, wrapped the soft robe supplied by the hotel around her and sat with her feet up to think.
She had plenty of things to think about. Although sheltered and unsophisticated, she was far from stupid, and especially shrewd about people. She was aware that the four men she’d spent the morning with had been less than totally frank with her, possibly because there were things they had wanted to conceal, or possibly just because they hadn’t thought her important enough, or clever enough, or interested enough to bother with outside of what was polite.
She had learned, though, much more than they were revealing. She assumed that Frikkie’s racism extended to Jake as well as her, which meant that Jake was in all likelihood the token black in the organization. She knew from Jake that the South African government was under heavy pressure to put people of color in high positions in their firms, and tried to do that without yielding any significant control. She’d seen the same thing going on in the U.S. And, she thought, an American black would probably seem less threatening than a South African black to people falsely assuming that racism was a thing of the past in America. Jake had never talked about his work in South Africa, which could well have been because he would have been well aware of his insulting situation of holding a high office with very little power.
She also supposed from reading between the lines of what Frikkie’s three stooges had said that though he might be superficially popular in the office, as Takesha knew Jake would be, he had not been regarded as a friend. They actually knew very little about him.
Tasheka knew that Jake was a gregarious type and would have sought fellowship for his leisure time outside the office when it was clear that he wouldn’t find it in the office. She wondered why he had never mentioned it, but that did give her an inkling that what he did or whom he did it with might not please her. She thought she would perhaps find out more when she had his personal effects at her disposal.
After these musings, Tasheka fell asleep, and when she awoke she was hungry. She again considered lashing out on one of the exotic restaurants advertised in the hotel’s guest booklet, but instead opted for ordering a meal delivered to her room, and spent the evening there, exploring South African TV which was something of an adventure itself. She found the news very interesting. Like most Americans, she had assumed without considering it closely, that the dismantling of apartheid had cured South Africa’s race problems. So the news, full of violence and acrimonious arguments was a revelation. She knew the problem hadn’t gone away in the U.S., but at least it was under wraps, which she rather thought was better.
