“Wait. Stop and fuck me!” I begged. He came up for air, looked me in my face and laughed.
“Nah baby. Slow down. You gotta wait til later for all that,” he smirked and went back to eating. He did his best shit until I had wet his bed and his face up and was shaking profusely.
As soon as he was done, he smiled at his work. He told me to go clean myself up and to get dressed. He went into his bathroom then walked out the room leaving me there. I had made a big ass mess so I took his sheets off his bed and placed them in a pile so I could wash them today when I cleaned his room. Yes, he had people to do that, but as long as I was here, I’d do my womanly duties too.
I showered and got dressed as I was ordered, and before I could leave the room to go find Kaseem, he was walking into my room with my laptop and my phone.
“You know what to do, and what not to do. I’m gone trust you til I can’t. I programmed my number into your phone so you’ll have it if you need me while I’m gone. We are about to have breakfast, then you have an appointment this afternoon at 1:00pm. You don’t have to do nothing but be ready to leave the house. Come down for breakfast when you done in here.”
He handed me my things and walked off like it was hard for him to do. He wanted to be strict so damn bad but the nigga was getting soft for me and he didn’t know how to take it. I placed my laptop on the bed, and kept my phone. The first thing I did was text my group chat letting my girls know I had my phone back.Even texting them that felt crazy. It was like I was a kid just getting off of punishment and getting my privileges back. Kaseem was strict as hell. I could only imagine how he’d be as a father.
As I walked out the room and down the hall, they started flooding me with messages. They acted like we hadn’t talked orspoken in years. When I walked into the dining room, Kaseem was already seated at the table but he stood up and walked over to pull my seat out. My head was so deep in my phone that I didn’t immediately sit down. When I looked up, he had a serious look on his face.
“No phones at the table. If you wanna keep it, put it up. Now.” He voiced. This nigga really thought he was my damn daddy or something. But the way he said it, I had to respect it. I put my phone down and sat my ass in that chair allowing him to push it in for me. The energy he had about himself damn near made me want to apologize.I’d never met a man whose demeanor kept me wet like him. The man didn’t have to do nothing but look at me, or speak and he had me soaking.
—
The breakfast spread was sitting in front of us. There was shrimp and grits with honey butter crescents on the side and some fresh fruit. Everything was hot and smelling so good. I was actually starving after last night and this morning. Kaseem sat down across from me after he’d just checked my ass.
I watched him as he bowed his head. It was quiet, just him with his eyes closed, his lips moving silently like he was saying something to God that only he could hear.
"Do you mind praying out loud?" I asked him. "Saying grace for us both?"
He opened his eyes and looked at me. Really looked at me. Like I'd just asked him to do something nobody else had ever asked him to do.
"Nah," he said, shaking his head. "My talks with God are private. That's between me and Him."
I set my fork down and looked back at him. This man was too stubborn and set in his ways. He had come and changed my whole life out the blue, but didn’t want to compromise for me.
"If you're gonna lead," I said, and my voice was steady, "then you gotta be okay with praying over us both. That's what a man does."
He didn't argue. Just picked his fork back up and started eating while ignoring me. But I could see something shift in him. Like he was hearing what I said and fighting with himself on it.
I decided to do it myself. I bowed my head.
"God, I'm thanking you for everything you've done and everything you will do for me and my husband," I said, and I kept my eyes closed. "I don't understand how we got here, but I'm trusting you because you've never steered me wrong. I'm praying that you keep Kaseem protected whenever he's away from me. I'm praying you guide me in all the ways I need in order to be a good wife and woman of this house. And most importantly, I'm asking you to bless this food and the hands that prepared it. Amen."
When I opened my eyes and looked at him, he was staring at me like he couldn't believe I was real. Like I was something he'd probably dreamed about but didn't expect to actually appear.
We ate quietly for a few minutes. Just the sound of forks on plates and the house around us. I was thinking about bringing up what we'd talked about last night - the baby requirement, the twelve months - when the front door slammed so hard it echoed through the whole house.
Zuri came walking into the dining room like she owned the place, her face twisted up with anger.
"Kaseem Amari Carter," she said, and her voice was sharp as a knife. "Who the hell do you think you are, making those kinds of calls and keeping things from me? Did you really think I wouldn't find out that my son got stabbed up because of some shit you stirred up? You're lucky he's alive!"
Kaseem set his fork down slowly. Deliberately. Like he was taking his time before he responded.
"I gave you orders to let me handle it," Zuri continued, stepping closer to the table. "I let you handle things and look what happened! This is exactly why I wasn't sure about giving you control in the first place!"
It took everything in me not to stand up and check her right then. We were eating breakfast. I'd just finished praying. The disrespect was crazy. And her energy was so negative it was literally draining the peace right out of the room. Yes that was his mother, but she was too comfortable overstepping and being disrespectful. This would have to stop.
Kaseem stood up from his chair slow and calm, which somehow made it even more intimidating than if he'd jumped up angry.
"First," he said, his voice ice cold, "you need to learn how to knock. You can't keep barging into my house unannounced. If you can't respect that, I'm gonna need that key back."
Zuri's face tightened but she didn't say anything.
"Second," he continued, "as the head of this family right now, I'm making the decisions. What happened to Zaire is messed up, I know that. But he's alive. That's all that matters. This war was already brewing before I took over, and the Carters have never run from nobody. So what exactly did you expect me to do? Roll over? Hide? And if I would have done that, niggas wouldhave took us for pussy, and tried to get away with whatever else they could. Hell nah! They killed one of ours, unprovoked and delivered him to our doorstep. I think you forgetting or missing that part!”
