Breeze asked.
Zyir became silent. A lot had happened in Breeze’s absence, and it had slipped his mind that she was unaware of her mother’s death.
Breeze noticed the look of uncertainty in Zyir’s eyes. “Where is she, Zyir? Where is my mother? I need her,” she said in a pleading tone.
“She’s gone. She died after you disappeared,” he said, giving her the news as gently as possible.
Breeze reached out and gripped Zyir’s shirt tightly as her head fell onto his chest. Her vision was so blurry with tears that she couldn’t see as she cried silently. She could not even form the words to express the sharp pain that radiated through her heart.
“I know, B… I know,” Zyir soothed as he rubbed her back.
“It just hurts so bad. I wasn’t even here. I missed everything,” Breeze cried.
“Nah, ma, everything missed you. Nothing has been the same since you’ve been gone. You’re home now, and I’m gonna take care of you,” Zyir assured. Zyir picked her up and carried her back into the guestroom.
“Aghh!” she whimpered as he lay her down. Even the thousand thread count sheets felt painful to her. She gripped his hand as he watched over her sympathetically. “Zyir, please… this hurts too bad. I need you to help me. Please just give me a little bit to make me feel better.”
Hearing her beg him for dope broke his heart. He would do anything to take her pain away-anything except what she was requesting of him.
“I can’t do that, Breeze. You don’t need that, ma. I’m going to help you through this, but you’ve got to be strong,” he said.
Breeze began to shake as a chill set into her bones, and she squirmed uncomfortably.
Tears of rage rushed Zyir, but he held them back, refusing to let even one fall. He dipped the sponge on the nightstand into a bowl of cold water and wiped it across her forehead. “What happened to you, ma?” he asked. “Tell me who did this to you. Who took you, Breeze?”
Breeze closed her eyes, because she knew that once she admitted what had occurred, Zyir and her family would never look at her the same.
“Talk to me, Breeze. You can tell me,” Zyir urged. He was ready to pop off on anyone who had played a role in kidnapping Breeze.
“It was Ma’tee. I was trapped in Haiti with Ma’tee,” she replied. Images of the constant rape raced through her mind as she shook her head from side to side, her eyes still closed from fear of the look that Zyir was giving her. “He raped me every day Zyir, and no matter how hard I try, I can’t stop feeling his hands on my body.”
Her revelation would not allow him to remain strong. He cried at her bedside as he gripped her hand and kissed her face repeatedly. “I’m going to murder that nigga, Breeze. You hear me? I’m going to-”
“He’s already dead,” she whispered. “The earthquake killed him. It was how I got away from him, but I only went from one hell to another.”
It took everything in Zyir not to explode, and he turned away from Breeze so that she could not witness his grief.
“That’s why I didn’t want to tell you. You don’t want me anymore,” Breeze said.
Zyir cleared the tears from his face and gained his composure before turning around. “I’ll always want you, Breeze, and you never have to talk about it again. You are home now, and that is all that matters. I’ma stick with you through it all, B, and I’ll body anyone who ever hurts you again. All you have to do is promise me you’ll try… try to kick this shit, Breeze. That’s the one thing that I can’t do for you. You have to want that for yourself.”
Breeze nodded and replied, “I will, Zyir. I promise you I’ll get clean.”
As Illiana’s prying ears eavesdropped on the conversation, she felt reassured. She had seen the effects that heroin could have over a person. Breeze was hooked, and Illiana was going to make sure that she stayed that way. Illiana’s infatuation with Zyir was so strong that she never even considered how evil her actions toward Breeze would be. She was out for self; nobody else mattered.
Dawn came too early for Leena as the rising sun shone brightly through the floor to ceiling windows of Mecca’s penthouse. She knew that she had stayed too long, but being wrapped up in Mecca’s arms felt so good that she did not want to let him go.
She slid from beneath him and walked out onto the large balcony. She wished that she could stay there forever and just move forward without ever looking back, but her son kept her rooted with Estes. Estes was security, and although she did not love him, she knew that he had the means to provide her child with everything.
The purple and orange hues that blended in the sky relaxed her, and she sighed as she thought of how complicated her life had just become.
“Why did I come here?” she asked herself, knowing that she had just opened Pandora’s box.
She felt Mecca walk up behind her, and her shoulders tensed as the hairs on the back of her neck rose in fear.
“Don’t fear me, Lee. I’m trying to show you that I’m not a monster,” he whispered into the back of her neck with his eyes closed as he inhaled her natural scent. He wrapped his arms around her waist and she relaxed.
“I know, Mecca. I’m trying. I just have to get used to this new you. You have to be patient with me. My trust in you isn’t something that can be restored overnight.”
The feeling of Mecca’s lips on the nape of her neck caused her love box to throb in anticipation. It had been so long since she had been pleased. She wanted to slow things down, but the spot between her thighs had a different agenda. She gasped as Mecca’s hands caressed her thighs, moving higher and higher until his fingers found her clit.
Without speaking, he moved with expertise as he spread her legs and removed his manhood. She felt the girth of him as he rubbed his thick head against her voluptuous behind. She dripped in anticipation. Nothing had ever felt so forbidden, yet she still craved it. She wanted him to put his thing down. The bedroom was the one place where his aggression never scared her.
Bending her over the thirty-five-story balcony, he parted her glistening southern lips and entered her from behind.
“You want me to stop?” he asked as he paused inside of her. He wanted her to be completely comfortable with what was about to go down.
“No,” she replied. “Psst,” she sighed as she felt every inch of him dig into her from behind.
Mecca’s hand gripped the sides of her ass. Her wetness was like heaven to him. Her juicy peach fit snugly around his shaft as her muscles pulled him tighter and deeper with every stroke.
“Oooh, Mecca,” she moaned as she bucked back on his dick, loving the mixture of pain and pleasure that he was giving her. Her head spun from orgasmic intoxication as she took in the scenery below. She could feel herself being sucked back into Mecca’s world, but at that exact moment, she did not care.
The morning air caused her nipples to harden as Mecca turned her around. She mounted him as he held her up with one hand and palmed her perky breasts with the other, all the while their tongues intertwined. It had been so long since a man had been inside of her. Estes had expressed his interest, but she could never bring herself to sleep with him, and now all of the sexual tension that she had built up was about to come down.
“I’m cumming,” she whispered feverishly. “Ooh, Mecca, right there.”
Mecca increased his pace as the tip of his dick swelled, and a tingle ran down his spine. “Me too, Lee. Shit, ma.”
Mecca cried out in pleasure as he shot his load into her, but he did not stop pleasing her until she creamed all over him.
Exhausted, she fell into his chest. Her labored breathing filled the air. She didn’t know what her next move would be, and she hid her face to avoid reality.
“Lee,” he said as he lifted her chin. “I want you to leave him.”
“I don’t know if I can,” she admitted honestly. “I owe him so much. He has been nothing but generous and
