The Blackbirds (14 page)

Destiny diverted her eyes. “She's not taking any cases right now.”

“The family friend is a CEO of a company and got himself in some serious trouble.”

“My mom's not available.”

Nancy rolled over on her back, pulled her knees to her chest, stretching. “Oh. Okay. This case would bring in a lot of revenue and I wanted to give her first right of refusal, since you and I are new best friends.”

Destiny said, “Eddie sure has a big one.”

“What?”

“His magic stick. It's a big one. Looks like it could jump up and bite you.”

“It's harmless now. I sucked all the venom out.”

“A girl has to do what a girl has to do.”

“I heard you in there riding the Big Wheel. Eddie says you sound sexy when you moan.”

“I'll make a point of keeping down the noise.”

Staring at Destiny, Nancy held up her fingers, made a square director's lens, said, “Kismet, your face looks familiar. Wow. I just realized that when I look at you straight on like this, and block out your hair and just look at you from your forehead to your chin, you look familiar.”

Doing her best to be kind and suppress irritation, Destiny turned the ceiling fan on.

Eddie jerked awake, pushed up on his elbows. He took a sharp breath, then stood up, still naked, and staggered toward the bathroom. Nancy stood up, also nude and unashamed, and went to the kitchen. Eddie had paused at the doorframe. While Nancy was getting Eddie a beer, Eddie smiled at Destiny. Nancy smiled at Destiny. Both smiles felt like an invitation to an impromptu party.

Eddie disappeared into the bathroom that was inside of Hakeem's office. He left the bathroom door open, began to urinate, and it sounded like he was a racehorse.

Nancy opened two beers, opened them, put them on the end table, on coasters.

Destiny asked, “For you and Eddie?”

“For Eddie.”

“That's his secret? That's how he is able to go all night long?”

“He takes a pill that make him stay hard for about a week at a time.”

“Viagra?”

“Nah. He buys some pill at the Chevron across the street. Some red herbal pill.”

“Does he have any extras?”

“We only had one. Cost almost fifteen dollars. He picked it out and I paid for it.”

“You're getting your money's worth.”

Nancy said, “You can stay out here with us if you want to let Hakeem sleep.”

“And what would I do out here?”

“Take a break.”

“No thanks. I'm sure Hakeem wouldn't appreciate me keeping his friend company.”

“I meant we could play Scrabble.”

Destiny yawned. “With our intelligence and vocabulary, we'd embarrass Eddie. We would embarrass Hakeem too. It would be the private school girls slaughtering the LAUSD boys.”

“Or some drinking game.”

Destiny shook her head. “I'm done drinking for the month.”

“I think Hakeem has a Monopoly game too. Want to play one game?”

“Nah. Maybe some other time. When Hakeem is awake and I'm not half past delirious.”

“If he wakes up, we can play spades.”

“What's going on with you?”

“I need a break from Eddie, if you know what I mean.”

“Oh. Thought you were having the time of your life out here.”

“Sometimes I wish he would let me watch
The Real Housewives of Atlanta
for a while.”

“Well, be careful what you wish for.”

“I'm going to be sore.”

“You bought the pill. The rocks come with the farm.”

“And the rock stays hard and Eddie keeps farming me all night long.”

“You've got a good thing. Enjoy it.”

Nancy yawned. “Yeah. Guess I shouldn't be jealous of you and Hakeem.”

“I will be careful what I wish for too.”

Destiny went back to the bedroom, and pulled the door closed behind her.

Hakeem sat up on the bed, yawning. Destiny sipped the water, and then handed it to him.

He said, “I heard you and Nancy talking.”

“She kept looking at my body.
Awkward.”

“Uh-oh. Do you like hers?”

“Don't even think about it.”

“Me and Eddie could get some popcorn and watch.”

“If anything, I'll get popcorn and watch you and Eddie do protein shots.”

“That's gross.”

“So now you know how I feel when you said me and Nancy.
That's
gross.”

Hakeem laughed and squeezed her bottom. Destiny laughed too.

She said, “Nancy is smart, yet naïve. Educated, yet ignorant.”

“You don't like her?”

“I like her. I like her because she reminds me of me years ago, but I wasn't in some random guy's condo on the floor getting screwed six ways to Sunday three or four days a week. I wasn't having sex, but I was naïve. I was too trusting. She has book sense, can kill a differential equations exam, but Eddie has street smarts, and book smarts will never be better than street smarts after five
P.M.
Eddie has finagled himself into her drawers.”

“She's been sheltered. She went to an all-girls Christian school until she started university, and finally has herself a taste of freedom.”

“I can tell. Her parents have protected her, and now she's exploring.”

“Everything about L.A. is new to her.”

Destiny said, “Eddie is new to her. She's impressed by what I find unimpressive.”

“She finds black men very exotic. She told me that. Getting attention from Eddie, a man built the way he is, and I'm just keeping it real because the girls at the gym be all over Eddie. I guess him giving her so much time, well, that would be like a brother getting attention from Scarlett Johansson. He'd have to try and swirl. She's getting her swirl on, so to speak.”

“Seeing a black man, she's just being a rebel. It will wear off.”

“Bet she's never had dick like that.”

“Not many women get dick like that.”

“You like my dick?”

“When it's hard and inside me.”

“You want me to put it back inside you?”

“I never asked you to take it out.”

“So you want it back in?”

“I always want you to put it back in me.”

“Never would have thought you were this sexual.”

“I never would have thought I was this sexual either.”

“I do this to you?”

“Guess I am having an awakening.”

She wished Hakeem would lick up and down her spine, suck her toes, get on his back, and pull her to his face, wake up the Jamaican in her blood, make her dance until she came, make her go dance hall as she sent up moans that rivaled every orgasmic utterance Nancy had ever made. As Destiny lay on her belly moving her butt side to side with her restless thoughts, she watched Hakeem stare at her eyes. She tried not to smile. She felt so damn happy.

She wanted him back inside. She wanted him to give her what Eddie gave, what Nancy was complaining about. But Destiny didn't want to come across as just another Nancy.

Intellect over lust. She told herself to think of this as extended foreplay.

She moved her ass, made soft sounds, licked her lips, bit her lips like that lady in that popular sex novel, gave the proper cues to be taken, but she would endure the flames and wait.

Hakeem said, “Wish I had met you when I was still in high school.”

“Me too. I really do. I'll bet we could've had fun kicking it here and there.”

“You have pictures of yourself on your phone from back then?”

She hesitated. “No. There are no pictures on my phone. I told you that a dozen times.”

“Why won't you let me take at least one selfie of us together for my Facebook page?”

“No. Stop asking.”

“My uncle Stephan and aunt Chante keep asking what you look like.”

“Hopefully one day I will meet them in person. In the meantime, feel free to sketch my image from memory. Be creative. Use adjectives to paint the picture of me how you see me.”

“Something is off. I can't figure it out. Are you married?”

“No, I'm not married.”

“Nancy thinks you're married.”

“She's wrong.”

“I want to see where you live and meet your friends and family, is that too much to ask?”

“No. No, it isn't. It's reasonable.”

“Well?”

“Right now this is all you need to know, Hakeem. This right here. Come
Eddie
me.”

“
Eddie
you? Oh, he's a verb now?”

“
Eddie
me. Do to me what Eddie does to Nancy and make me moan like that.”

Hakeem put the water down, moved his body next to hers. Destiny rubbed up against him. He reciprocated. Then they were kissing, touching, making out under the covers until Hakeem once again became aroused. He moved away from her. He rolled on another condom.

He was hard, but not hard enough.

Destiny asked, “What's wrong?”

“Just give me a second.”

“Nancy says Eddie takes some sort of pill.”

“I don't need a pill. I just need to get back in Vulcan mode and groove like it's pon farr.”

She was about to tell him they didn't have to go on, but he pushed, opened her. She felt him finally get sufficient girth, length, and firmness. He crept inside, and then fell inside her. She hummed, put her nails in his skin, and marked him as he sucked on her neck, as he marked her.

Then they were kissing, stroking, rolling, in sync, in rhythm, heat rising with moans.

He said, “I'm in love with you, Kismet.”

“You know I'm in love with you.”

“Since when?”

“Since the night I met you. I felt this connection. You have my heart.”

He moaned, then asked, “So, Kismet, are we officially a couple?”

“Do you want to be a couple? Just tell me what this is we're doing.”

“I gave you a key. I thought we already were a couple, Kismet.”

She moaned. “So did I. I assumed we were a couple a while ago, after all the nice dinners, but you never said and I didn't want to assume, and was kind of afraid to ask.”

“If you think we are, and I think we are, I guess that means that we are.”

“We are a couple. Wow. I'm officially and not assumedly in a relationship.”

“Can we do it bareback? I stay hard, get much harder when I ride bareback.”

“I want to feel you too, but I don't want to make any mistakes.”

“Can I take the condom off this time?”

“I'm not trying to be your baby momma, Hakeem.”

She heard Nancy moaning again. Eddie was back at it, back in it.

Destiny asked, “Can't she blow Eddie and let Eddie blow her back out somewhere else?”

“Eddie's my boy. We go way back. It's just until he gets his own spot.”

“Doesn't she have a place to take Eddie? She pays for everything else, why not a room?”

“She said if her folks saw the hotel charge on her credit card, they'd have a fit.”

“Then tell her to rent an SUV and park by the airport or down by the beach.”

“Eddie called earlier. I thought I'd be gone. I told him he could use the living room.”

“Oh, I didn't know he had made a reservation. Should I make one for us to be alone?”

“Kismet, I had already promised. Didn't know you were coming by. You just showed up.”

“I just showed up? You texted me all day long and said you wanted to see me, and now you say I just showed up? I'm tired, but I made sure I put in some time with you.”

“No, I'm happy to see you. I'm always happy to see you, you know that.”

“And you were going to be in bed while they go at it half the night?”

“I would've gone out. New spot called the Club is the business.”

“But you didn't leave.”

“Had a long day. Was too tired to go out. And they were already here. Nancy cooked. She always buys groceries and cooks for Eddie. Eddie says he's hungry and she buys a bag of food, turns the kitchen into a restaurant, and feeds him like a king.”

“I'm calling bullshit on that one. She feeds him like he's at a homeless shelter.”

“She cooked, made his plate, and then she was nice and made me a plate. I sat down with them and ate, then came and got in bed, started streaming classic
Star Trek
.”

“They were going at it like chipmunks on cocaine when I got here.”

“I know. They were going at it froggy-style as I closed my bedroom door.”

“They start to sound obnoxious.”

“They sound loving. Nancy loves Eddie. She's not ashamed of how she feels about him. She will do anything to make Eddie happy. That's what I hear. I hear people in love.”

“Eddie does do a pretty thorough job; at least it sounds that way.”

“Your nipples are like bullets. Does listening to Eddie make your nipples hard? Are you fantasizing about Eddie?”

“You turn me on, Hakeem. Other men do nothing for me. I'm a loyal woman.”

“You're mysterious.”

“But I am loyal. This is yours. All I need is in this room. You're all the man I need.”

“I feel the same about you, Kismet Kellogg.”

“You have no idea how special you are to me.”

“You really love me?”

“I'd be your ride-or-die, no matter if you're right or wrong.”

Destiny turned him over, put him on his back, took him back inside, rocked the boat, made the headboard
bup-bup-bup
against the wall,
showed him ride-or-die, made moans evolve from guttural sounds to lip-biting expletives, to louder uncontrollable excited utterances and passionate confessions. Destiny felt his energy when he told her that he loved her.

He moved with her, tried to match her groove, failed.

So she told him to stop moving, to be still and let her get him where he needed to go.