Duke (11 page)

“Kiyah,” he whispered, and not only her body but also her heart sparked. She tried to stymie it and separate the two, to make her conscious understand this was a physical act between two adults and nothing more. Her emotions jumbled, but she refused to back off. After some time, he stopped her hand and pulled it away. He looked into her eyes. “If I don’t stop you there, I’m going to come. Your touch is killing me.”

“You should have let me finish,” she teased.

He shook his head. “Oh, no. The best pleasure is when I’m inside you. There’s no real satisfaction with a hand job.”

He set her hand above her head and had the other join it. Then he went to work on her blouse. When he had the blouse opened, he paused to stare down at her breasts. Tracing along the edges of the bra, he studied her body. She began to pant, her nipples growing tighter with his teasing.

“Duke.”

“Let me look. I want to memorize every curve. I want to taste every inch.” With those words, he dragged her bra downward, exposing one breast. His thumb grazed her right nipple, and she trembled. “Mm, you like that, don’t you, baby?”

If he would just stop calling her baby. She got such a damn thrill every time he said it. He probably knew the affect he had on her, the bastard. She arched her back, driving her breasts toward him. He rewarded her by sucking the nipple between his lips and laving it with his tongue. She cried out his name and grabbed hold of his shirtsleeves.

“Duke, I want it.”

He moaned against her breast and planted gentle kisses all around the mound. “What do you want, baby?”

She whimpered and tugged at her pants. The sooner she could get the stupid clothing off, the sooner she’d feel his hot skin against hers. He stilled her hand and raised it a second time above her head.

“Patience,” he murmured. “I’ll give you all you want.”

Patience was the last thing she could exercise. Her body was on fire. She reached for his cock and stroked it, squeezing just enough to elicit a tortured sigh from him. There, now he saw how much she had to have him.

The stubborn man worked his length with his hips, sliding it between her fingers. He didn’t mind tormenting himself with the need for more. She watched with slitted eyes as he tilted his head back a little, just feeling what she did to him. After a few moments, his lips parted, and she imagined herself kissing them.

“Stop.” He shuddered. “I’m on the edge again.”

“You like being tortured.”

He grinned. “Don’t you?”

“No.”

“Aw, too bad because I have every intention of doing so.”

She protested halfheartedly when he stripped her of all her clothing and spread her legs. For a crazy second, she thought of pushing his shoulders back when he tried to go down on her. Sanity returned and she let him. Just as before—no far better—he satisfied her body. Duke parted her pussy lips and began eating her wetness. She howled and wriggled all over the place, begging, pleading, insisting he stop, then demanding he continue.

He hoisted her thighs over his shoulders and dragged her ass off the floor. The sounds he made with his mouth, the moans as he feasted, she had to bite her tongue to keep the neighbors from knowing the pleasure he gave her.

“Duke, I can’t take it!”

“You can and you will.” His gaze was dangerously dark when he raised his head to look at her. She shivered, half frightened of him and yet drawn beyond reason. What if she became addicted to the feelings he made her experience? She laughed inside at the ridiculous thoughts and squeezed her legs around his head. He reached up and shoved her hips down on the floor. Following, he devoured her, licking up every drop of her essence.

An orgasm played at the edges of her core. She willed it away. Not yet. If she could feel this way for the rest of the night, tomorrow, and on and on, everything would be right. The skill Duke used with his tongue made her wish impossible. Her body responded to every flick until she burned from her core out to her limbs and to every part of her body.

“I’m going to come.”

“Say my name,” he ordered.

“D-Duke.” She couldn’t have helped crying out his name if she tried, but she didn’t attempt to hold back. He had to know what he did, his cruelty to play her body until she lost all control. He covered her clit with his lips and sucked hard. She screamed and then shoved the back of her hand to her mouth.

“Oh no, you don’t.” He dragged her hand down. She chewed her bottom lip. When he went back to her clit, she came undone. The orgasm roared through her, shattering all resistance. This time, when she screamed, he replaced his mouth with his fingers and moved like lightning up her body to cover her mouth with his. With expert movements, his fingers worked her clit all the way through her orgasm, and he muffled her screams with his mouth.

Panting and exhausted, she dropped her head back. Duke sat up. She watched him heavy-lidded as he knelt to undress. She loved the show he gave her of uncovering his sexy body. Her gaze followed every movement and anticipated the reveal of his taut skin and tight muscles.

Without realizing it, she moaned a little and wondered at the fact that his entire family was built so fine. Other men must weep with jealousy. She wished she could see the parents that had produced such incredible specimens as the Marquette men. Then she forgot all about genes when Duke began to roll on a condom. He was so big and stiff. Was he that thick the last time? She couldn’t recall, but she liked it. What woman wouldn’t like a man with such a fat cock? She’d had a baby, and she wasn’t delusional to think her snatch wasn’t as snug as it had been before giving birth. Duke’s dick might not be a hard fit, but she’d feel him big time.

“Ready for me?” he asked.

She blew out an amused breath because the last time, he had just come on in, barreling his way. That was Duke, and she liked it more than she wanted to. “I can take you.”

One of his eyebrows rose. “Why does that sound like a challenge?”

“Because everything anyone says is a challenge to you.”

He sat back on his ass and drew her up and onto his lap. With strong fingers, he raised her. She let out a small squeal of delight because she was chunky, and he acted like he didn’t even notice her weight.

She came down on his cock, and just like she hoped, the fit was nice and snug. He wasn’t painful. In fact, it felt so good to be filled with Duke’s cock she had to grab hold of his shoulders a minute just to gather her senses. The fact that they weren’t on a bed this time meant his body and hers didn’t sink to ease the impact. He felt harder and thicker, more like an amazing invasion.

“Yes,” she moaned. “Yes, it feels so good. Duke, make me scream again.”

“Oh, I will, baby. Hold on.”

His flattened hand ran up her back and he pressed her forward so she had to lie on his chest and cling to his shoulders. He rocked her body, guiding her movements. All she had to do was go along with whatever he did. His dick slid in and out of her, drawing cries and whimpers to her lips. Her head dropped forward, and her eyes shut. His rough breathing and soft grunts drove her desire higher.

“Damn,” he growled.

“What’s wrong?”

“Shh.” He worked her faster, bouncing her on his cock. She knew for a fact her pussy muscles were loosened after coming, yet it seemed like the fit was snugger. This man had swollen even more. He confirmed it with his next words. “You’re turning me on like crazy, baby. I can’t hang on. Your breasts, your pussy, all of this soft body. Damn it, I’m going to come too soon!”

She was driving him insane, and she grinned with her nose against his shoulder. His hold tightened all of a sudden, and he drove her down hard so his cock slid deep inside her. He held the position, and she felt it, even through the condom—a pulsating, hot sensation. Far too soon, he reached his release.

The hand on her back slid to her nape and then into her hair. He tugged gently. She raised her head, and he claimed her mouth. After a long while, they parted but only by an inch or two. He stared into her eyes, and she looked back. Something powerful came over her. Fear followed, and she stuffed it down as she lowered her gaze.

“Don’t be disappointed,” he said. “I’ll take you again.”

“How can I possibly be disappointed? I—” She gasped. Out of nowhere a second orgasm hit. She wiggled on his lap until it worked its way through her core. Afterward, he raised her up and set her on the blanket. She stretched, getting the kinks out of her muscles and grinning like a loon.

Duke popped off the condom. Although she had her eyes closed, she couldn’t believe she heard him unraveling another condom so soon. Maybe he was just getting it ready for when he was hard enough again.

She rolled onto her stomach and tucked her hands under her head. A moan of satisfaction slid out, and she tried to stifle it.

“No, don’t do that.” His voice came from nearby. She opened her eyes in time to see him sliding up behind her. A strong hand settled beside her head, and then the weight of his solid body came down on her.

“Let me turn over, Duke.”

“You stay exactly the way you are. All I need is for you to open your legs for me. Can you do that?”

She was blown away by the feel of his dick, hard as a rock, sliding across her ass. Arching with delight, she mumbled, “Oh, yes! I can do that.”

D
uke woke
up to some kind of incessant ringing. He wanted to swat it away, but it kept coming, disturbing his rest. By the time he opened his eyes and scrubbed a hand over his face, the ringing had stopped. He gazed around him. Takiyah lay in front of him, and his body was sealed to hers from behind. His cock was still inside her, and he swore. He should have pulled out and taken the condom off.

As he did so now, he watched her beautiful face, illuminated by the moonlight. A memory washed over him of how many times he’d made love to her tonight. He had lost count. Each time she or he came, they had taken a short break. She teased him, or he teased her, and before he knew it he was hard again. Being multi-orgasmic, she could come as many times as she was stimulated. He hadn’t come more than two or three times, but the sensations were there, the pleasure, which made the night unbelievable.

Even as he watched her sleep, he started to want her again. After scrounging around for his phone, he discovered it was three in the morning. No, he wouldn’t try again. She needed rest, yet already he was thinking about when he could make another date with her. They didn’t often have their evenings off from work, but maybe afterward. He knew it would be a challenge because of her son. She wouldn’t want to neglect him.

Duke rose to go to the bathroom. He cleaned himself up the best he could, realizing he hadn’t supplied the house with towels or anything. He’d have to make sure to remedy that for her sake.

“Whoa, bud.” He looked at himself in the mirror. “What are you thinking here?”

He searched himself. Love? Romance? He gulped. A relationship? The idea of having one had never occurred to him before. There were a string of women in his past, most as beautiful as Takiyah. Some even had her sass. What made him start thinking stupid when it came to her?

He considered his cousins. Insanely, all three of them were married to black women. Creed had finally broken down and married Shada a month or so ago. To his brothers and Duke’s disappointment, it hadn’t been the big affair that Damen and Heaven’s marriage was. Duke figured Creed agreed just to get Shada pinned down or vice versa. He couldn’t recall right off what the problem had been.

Duke questioned himself. Did he have some crazy notion that he needed to get a black woman as well? Jeez, how much more of a sensation did the Marquettes have to create? He came to the conclusion that wasn’t so. Odd circumstances moved his cousins, but for him, he hadn’t wanted Takiyah in the first place. He’d been after her girlfriend. In fact, he was pretty sure if he stopped seeing Takiyah, he would go back to his old preferences.

He pressed a hand against his chest in annoyance. The thought of giving up Takiyah brought a pain there that startled and pissed him off. Hell, he didn’t even know her. He burst out laughing. No, he knew her all right. That body… For a few lustful minutes, he closed his eyes, reliving the sensations of being inside her. His dick belonged in her pussy. He craved to be on top of her again and again, making her cry out in pleasure for him. The thought of it almost overwhelmed him to the point that he started for the bathroom door.

He stopped with his hand on the knob and breathed. “Calm down, Duke.”

A woman shouldn’t have this effect on him. That kind of thing was dangerous, and it could get a man in trouble. He could almost see her leading him around by the nose, demanding his attention. Cringing, he shook his head. No way in hell. The next thing he knew, he saw her in his mind’s eye with a baby on her hip, one that looked suspiciously like a Marquette. He gave a small shout of horror.

“Duke?”

He stiffened. Pounding his chest with a fist to get his heart to calm down, he waited a beat before leaving the bathroom. By the time he reached the living room, his easy smile was in place. When he saw her, he knew it could be true. He could give her his baby and keep her.

Damn it all to hell!

She sat there on the blanket, rubbing her eyes. Her hair was wild and tangled, and she was naked. She’d never looked so incredibly beautiful. “Did I just hear you yell? Did you see a bug or something?”

Her voice was deeper from being asleep. The sexy tones rolled through his being, setting him on fire. Fuck it, he was going to have her one more time tonight. Then he would let her rest.

“You were dreaming,” he lied.

He started toward her, but as soon as he reached the blanket, her cell phone rang. She grabbed it. “Damn, I forgot to tell Mama I might be out really late. What time is it anyway?”

Duke sank to the blanket in front of her but didn’t answer. He was near enough to see it wasn’t her mother calling but Ed. Jealousy rose in him. Did her ex-husband call her often at this time of night? Then he recalled her son was staying with Ed, and he tensed. Hopefully, everything was okay.

“Ed, what’s wrong?” she said. “What the hell do you mean you can’t find Keen?”

Her voice rose until it cracked, and Duke stabbed the speaker button so he could hear.

“He told me he was going to Jessica’s house to study,” Ed said. “That was at seven.”

“What’s Jessica’s number?”

“Uh…”

Takiyah surged to her feet and paced. “You mean to tell me you don’t have her number? Did you even meet her or her parents?”

“He’s a little old to be running behind him like that.”

“You’re his father, you idiot! Kids don’t always make good choices. You have to be the responsible one to help them, and Keen is only thirteen. I can’t believe you! Did he give you any other information?”

Ed whimpered like a child. Duke began getting dressed and turned on a light to help Takiyah find her clothes. While they dressed, she berated Ed for his lax parenting. Duke didn’t know much about raising kids, but he was pretty sure he wouldn’t have let the kid go like that. Then again, he probably would have gone to the opposite extreme. Likely, he would have detected the lie Keen told him. Then he would have tailed him to find out the real story.

“Did he have any money?” Takiyah asked Ed.

“I gave him twenty dollars.”

She rubbed her forehead. “Okay, listen. I’m going to go look for him. You stay by the phone in case he calls or comes home. Let me tell you this, Ed. If anything happens to my baby, I will kill you!”

She dragged up the phone where she had set it on the low table. When it looked like instead of disconnecting the call she would throw it across the room, he nabbed it and did the deed himself.

“I’ll drive you,” he said.

“That’s not necessary. Just take me home.” Her voice was tight and filled with anger and fear.

“I said I’m taking you. Period.” He grabbed his keys. “Let’s go.”

They left his house, and Duke drove while casting glances her way. She sat in silence, her hands bunched in her lap. He had the feeling she was close to breaking, so he laid a hand over hers.

“It’ll work out.” He’d never felt so awkward. Encouraging people in such a straightforward way wasn’t his style. He usually joked around and insulted them until they came out of their funk. Something told him Takiyah wasn’t the type of woman to appreciate his humor at a time like this. “Any ideas about where we should start looking?”

She perked up. “Yeah, I’m thinking he didn’t go to any girlfriend’s house. He probably didn’t even stay in Ed’s neighborhood. Let’s go look around the area by my house and by his school.”

He nodded. “Good thinking.”

A short while later, they cruised the dark streets on the side of New Orleans where Duke wouldn’t just walk along at night. Even though he could handle himself, he had better sense. He hoped a scrawny innocent kid like Keen hadn’t been so stupid. Yet, he doubted the boy had that much sense. In a way, Takiyah had sheltered him, and Keen didn’t know the depths of trouble he was getting himself into.

Down one particular street, as Duke drove at a snail’s pace, he spotted a mural that was pretty good. He didn’t frequent these streets, so he had no idea if it had been there for a while. What caught his eye was the portrait of the woman in the center of the mural. Unless he missed his guess, that woman was Takiyah. The likeness was incredible.

Duke pulled to the side of the road and turned off the engine.

“What are you doing?” She scrambled to follow after him as he climbed out of the car. “Did you see him?”

He pointed. “That’s you, isn’t it?”

She spun to look where he pointed and gasped. “It is. Who?”

“Is your son an artist?”

She frowned. “This’s graffiti. I can’t stand the font those words are written in.”

“Kiyah.”

“All right. I don’t know. I can’t think straight. I’m so worried about him.”

Duke strode over to the wall and touched it. The woman’s face was dry, but a spot near the edge of the mural was still damp. The paint came off on his fingers, and he cleaned them on his jeans. “There’s no way he did all this tonight. He’s been sneaking out when you didn’t know. You live what a half mile from here?”

Tears welled in her eyes. “Less. I could have bought him drawing paper.”

Duke started down the alley past the mural. “My gut tells me a lot more than painting is going on tonight. Go get in the car.”

“Like hell I will.”

She followed him, and rather than fight her to go back, he let her tag along. They hadn’t moved more than a few steps down the dark passage before he picked up a few shouts and the unmistakable thuds of someone hitting someone else. His heart rate increased, and he broke into a run.

A group of boys came into view. They crowded near the crumbling wall of an abandoned building. The closer Duke drew, the more he could make out that one of the boys lay on the ground, and the others were kicking him—in the gut and in the head.

Takiyah screamed. “Keen!”

Tears flooded her face, and she tried to pass him, but he shoved her back. He reached the group first and began sending the boys in every direction. Sure enough the one being attacked was Keen, and Duke dragged him up off the ground. Takiyah threw herself at her son, sobbing and holding him. He weaved side to side, almost falling. She caught him, and the two of them sank to the ground.

“Stay out of this, man,” one of the boys ordered. “This has nothing to do with you. He has to get initiated.”

Duke rounded on him and grabbed his collar. “How about I initiate you—
all
of you?”

Takiyah looked up from her son, but she didn’t let him go. “No, Duke. They’re kids.”

“He’s starting this,” Duke bit out. “I’m finishing it.”

“Please,” she begged, and moonlight illuminated her sweet face, highlighting her tears and the vulnerability and pain in her eyes. “Let’s go to the hospital.”

He couldn’t ignore her. After he shoved the kid away from him, he turned to help Takiyah and Keen to their feet. Someone grabbed his arm from behind, a hold much stronger than the kid he had held before. A fist came flying at his head, and he deflected it.

“You think you’re big and bad, asshole?” This new guy wasn’t a child. Duke put him at eighteen or nineteen. A flash of steel caught the moonlight. “Let me show you what happens to old guys who think they can get in our way.”

He lunged at Duke, and Duke caught his wrist and threw a punch. The blow glanced off his opponent’s side. The guy wasn’t new at fighting after all. Duke needed to get serious. When the guy backed up a little, Duke followed. He had better sense than to get too far from Takiyah and Keen, or they might be used as leverage for his enemy. However, he needed a little fighting room.

Two of the kids came at him. He shook them off without any trouble. Four came at him, and then five. His frustration mounted because Takiyah didn’t want him to hurt them. She should have hated them so much for hurting her son that she ordered him to kill the idiots. His guess was she feared the repercussions a lot more. If they were thrown in to jail, there would be no one to care for her son and mother. She was always thinking of others before herself.

All five assailants dog piled him. Duke figured they had gotten the message that he wasn’t going to do any permanent damage to them. Once they hung from his arms, dragging him down, the guy with the knife came at him again. He swung. Duke got his free and blocked the attack. An odd sensation started in the back of his forearm, but he ignored it. The group of kids jumped him again. His enemy moved in.

Duke raised his foot and kicked hard enough that the guy tumbled head over heels several feet away. The knife went skittering across the ground into the shadows. When the kids saw that their champion was down and wouldn’t be getting up anytime soon, they scattered.