Lickin' License (18 page)

After they were done, they headed to the front of the
shop. But Candy doubled back to get the first-aid kit in case Chanel needed it. “She's not
our enemy,” Candy told Vanessa. “She wanted a fair one and she took a loss. She'll get over it.”

Vanessa, unsure if she was ready to speak to Chanel, entered the
front
of the shop.

“You okay?” Leah asked.

“Yeah,” Vanessa said as she sat down.

Meisha was talking to Chanel in the corner furthest from Vanessa. Chanel was pacing
back and forth, shaking her head and frowning. The look in her eyes told Vanessa there would be no peace between them any time soon.

“Fuck this shit!” Chanel yelled and charged at Vanessa. Vanessa ran at her and the two
women collided, fists swinging.

Candy was stepping from the back of the shop, as Vanessa and Chanel pulled and swung
each other around, knocking over hair care products. Chanel rammed Vanessa's head into a
mirror, shattering it.

“Ahhh, hell nah.” Candy ran over and pulled Chanel from Vanessa and slammed her on the
floor. Vanessa and Candy both were stomping Chanel.

“Stop!” Meisha screamed, as blood began leaking from Chanel's nose and lips.

Vanessa suddenly realized that Chanel was severely hurt. She

stopped and tried to pull Candy from
her. “That's enough, Candy.”

Meisha and Leah raced over and helped pull Candy off Chanel.

Chanel scrambled to her
feet. She stumbled back down, dazed. She shook off the beat down and stood up, staggering for a few seconds.

“Get the fuck outta here and don't never come back!” Candy barked.

Meisha grabbed Chanel's Prada bag and helped her leave. Candy looked at the mess in the shop. “I'll clean this up tomorrow.”

“I'm sorry,” Vanessa said. Aside from the physical damage done to the shop, Vanessa wondered how much financial damage her fighting that night had caused. She knew that turning
the shop into a battleground was not good for the customers. Chanel would not be coming back,
and there was no doubt that the night's fights would have a negative effect on Leah and Meisha. The future of the shop as a viable business was in jeopardy and Vanessa faulted herself for that.

Rich was lying in bed when Vanessa and Candy came home. They
flopped down onto the mattress on each side of Rich, resting their heads on his bare chest and stomach.

“I had two fights with Chanel,” Vanessa said.

“Me too,” Candy added. “But just one.”

Rich put his hands on each of their faces. He noticed the scratches on Vanessa's neck.
“Y’all all right?”

They said, “Yeah,” in unison and began telling Rich the details of the night's action. Rich knew that Chanel had been provoking Vanessa for a while. In his eyes, Chanel deserved what she got. But he was worried about how the fights would affect the shop.

“Come on, Candy. Let's take a shower.” Vanessa kissed Rich, then pulled Candy off to the bathroom.

Rich closed his eyes and dozed off. When he awoke, he
headed for the kitchen. Stepping inside, he saw Candy propped up on the
counter and Vanessa licking between her legs. Both women were naked, their bathrobes strewn on the floor. Rich assumed that their lust had gotten the best of them after they showered.

“Ahh,” Candy moaned. Her eyes were on Rich as she gripped the edge of the counter.

“Damn,” Rich mumbled. He felt an erection coming on. His dick climbed through the
slot of his boxer shorts. He grabbed his dick and gritted his teeth each time Candy licked her lips and closed her eyes. Facial expressions always turned him on. When his eyes shifted down to
Vanessa's firm butt cheeks, he lost control. He stepped out of his boxers and slid into Vanessa
from behind. He gripped her waist, pounding inside of the slippery slit between her legs.

She bounced her butt back, while slurping away between Candy's legs.

Rich looked into Candy's eyes, feeling the hot juices inside of Vanessa. The clapping of her butt cheeks and Candy's moans were driving him insane.

“Eat me,” Candy whimpered. She moaned and groaned until she climaxed and her body went limp. Candy laid back on the counter, trying to regain her composure.

Rich pulled out of Vanessa, as he was about to cum. He quickly turned her around, lifted
her against the refrigerator and slammed into her. He stroked faster with each pump. She
screamed, clawing into his back. He gripped her ass tighter as he came. He slid her
sweaty body down the refrigerator.

Rich stepped back until he felt Candy's body against his. Her tongue began roamed his
neck. He stood still, helpless to her overwhelming affection. He watched Vanessa pull a bag of
ice from the refrigerator. She ran a piece over her nipples, while fingering herself.
I love her little
freaky ass.

Vanessa screamed, as she slid a piece of ice inside of her pussy and crossed her legs. She
rubbed her legs back and forth, until the ice melted while she fondled her small breasts. She
grabbed another piece of ice, put it in her mouth and dropped to her knees while chomping on the ice.

Rich watched her walk toward him. She grabbed his dick with both hands before,
sucking the head. “Shiiit.” Rich closed his eyes, inching back. The small pieces of crushed ice
circled his dick along with Vanessa's warm tongue. She removed her hand and began working the shaft of his dick.

When the ice melted, she stood, smiling. Candy eased from behind Rich. She grabbed his
dick and guided him on top of the rectangular dinner table in the dining room. She slowly climbed on top of him and eased her pussy into his mouth, while deep-throating him.

Rich palmed her large round ass, lapping his tongue between her legs. Soon, he felt
Vanessa's hands on his. She leaned over him, parting Candy's butt cheeks and diving in between them face first.

Candy quaked, soaking Rich's
face. She continued bobbing up and down, sucking Rich into a second climax.

Rich opened his eyes as Candy slid off him. Leaning up from the table, the reality of
what had just taken place set in. Once more, Vanessa and Candy had taken their sexual encounters
to another level. It was the first time that the kitchen and dining room became as useful as their
bedroom. It was the spontaneous nature of their sexual episodes that helped make lovemaking
with them special for Rich. He looked at Vanessa and Candy, wondering what they had in store for him next.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

C
andy rose from bed with Rich and Vanessa. Their episode that spanned from the kitchen
to the dining room the night before was fresh on her mind. Then the madness at the shop hit her.
She did not know what to expect when she opened the shop.
Candy was sure the rumor mill had circulated the news, but she hoped it would have only
minimal damage on her business.

After driving to the shop, Candy and Vanessa walked inside.

“Sorry,” Vanessa said, looking around at the mess she created during her melee with
Chanel. Bottles of conditioner and shampoo with specks of glass from a broken mirror littered the floor
.

“Chanel needs to be apologizing.”

“Won't be seeing anymore of her.”

“You right about that.” Candy put her Gucci bag away and began cleaning up. She was upset over losing Chanel. Candy had grown attached to her over the years as a friend and an
employee. She was a person who brought life to the shop and kept it real with Candy on personal
issues. But all that became irrelevant once she violated Vanessa. Chanel was the enemy.

Vanessa began helping Candy clean up. “It's sad that it had to come to this,” she said.

“Shit happens.”

“It did feel good to beat her ass on my own, though.” Vanessa giggled. “I know you thought I was gonna lose.”

“Chanel's a street chick. Been fighting all her life.” Candy put her hand on Vanessa's shoulder. “I just can't see myself letting nothing happen to you.”

“I know.” Vanessa smiled. “It really makes me feel good to know you're so protective of me.”

“You're like my little sister.”

“Little sisters don't make their big sisters cum.” Vanessa licked her lips and smiled.

Candy kissed her and continued sweeping up.

Shortly after they finished cleaning the shop, Leah stepped inside. She hugged both of
them. “I was thinking about y'all all night.”

“Yeah?” Vanessa said.

“Yeah.” Leah nodded. “I was mad because y'all really fucked Chanel up. But the more I
thought about it, I couldn't front. She deserved it.”

“For a long time,” Candy said.

“I think y'all destroyed the Chanel Legacy.” Leah laughed. She began setting up her
station. “So I guess it’s replacement time.”

“Yeah.” Candy thought of how the last replacement had become one of the two most
important people in her life. She glanced at Vanessa, remembering the day she walked into the shop.

Meisha stepped through the door. She stopped, just a few feet deep inside of the shop.
Her eyes beamed at Candy. “That was some bullshit last night and you know it.”

“When people keep pushing buttons, they'll eventually get a reaction,” Candy said.

“That's what go down in the shop. Talk shit all day, brush it off ya shoulder at the end of the night,” said Meisha. “When did we start jumping each other at the end of the night?”

“She practically called me and Vanessa hos. Then she asked to fight, got her ass beat
and couldn't handle it.”

“You was outta control, though. We supposed to be family up in here, but you damn near
stomped Chanel to death.”

“Family fight, then they get over it. They don't go crazy because they lose a fight. I was
coming in here with a first-aid kit to make sure Chanel was okay 'cause that's what family
do. But what do Chanel do? Go for round two and tear apart my business in the process.”

“Business? That's what this is about?” Meisha was silent for a few seconds. She looked at
Vanessa, then at Leah, before focusing back on Candy. “Well, I came to tell y'all that I'm gone.”
She shook her head. “I can't work here knowing that I can get stomped out at any minute. Ain't
no love lost. I just don't pump like that.” She turned and walked out.

“You know she was mad close to Chanel,” Leah said.

“Yeah.” Candy huffed. “Life goes on.” At least she hoped
it would. The
record high of two employees lost in less
than twenty-four hours began weighing on the businesswoman in Candy. The fact that they were old friends was affecting her personally. Although Candy knew Meisha was biased because of her closeness to Chanel, Candy was forced to question her own actions.
Did I go overboard when I was stomping out Chanel?

Shortly after Meisha left, her first scheduled client walked into the shop. Candy tried to
reschedule the woman, but the woman was not interested. She wanted her hair done only by Meisha. By the end of the day, each of the clients who had entered the shop looking for Chanel or Meisha left after learning the women were no longer working at the shop. Candy had gotten
on the phone during her lunch break and tried to reel in the list of clients she had scheduled for
Chanel and Meisha. Some were comfortable with working with the remaining hair stylists. But
they could only be seen by Candy, Vanessa or Leah when their scheduled clients canceled.
Most of Chanel and Meisha's clients were unwilling to wait on a list. Candy was left with the task of quickly finding new, qualified beauticians. It was the only way she would be able to keep her salon alive.

Vanessa still could not believe it. Two weeks after her fight with Chanel, Candy found
out she was pregnant. It was now a week later and Vanessa stood in the bathroom of the penthouse
with a positive pregnancy test
. The test was the third she had taken in the last half hour.
Undoubtedly, she was pregnant. The more Vanessa thought of the countless times she and Candy sexed Rich at the same time, unprotected, it made sense that they were both pregnant.

But Vanessa was not ready for her own child. She wanted to bear Rich's seed, but the timing was off. She was a best-selling author with book tours and interviews scheduled. She
needed time for her career. She had dropped some of her college classes and was anxiously
waiting for Candy to hire a replacement for her at the shop. But Vanessa would have to find a
way to balance her pregnancy and her career, because she wanted to have Rich's child and that
superseded everything.

Vanessa walked into the living room. She smiled, staring at Rich on the couch with
Candy. Her shirt was pulled up and Rich was rubbing her stomach. That had been part of his daily routine since he learned Candy was pregnant.

“You gotta stop this,” Candy said, as Vanessa walked over. “Get him, Vanessa. I ain't even showing yet and he still carrying on.”

Vanessa sat beside Rich and pulled up her shirt. “Feel mine, baby,” she said, clutching the pregnancy test in her hand out of sight. “Feel it.”

“You gotta let me fill that thing up, first.”

“Look.” She handed Rich the pregnancy test.

His eyes lit up and he passed it to Candy. “Vanessa, don't tell me that's Candy's test from last week.”

“Oh my God.” Candy covered her mouth with her hand.

“I just took that test,” Vanessa said. The third one in thirty minutes.”

Rich jumped up, smiling. “Stop frontin’. You serious?”

She nodded.

He sat down and kissed her. “I can't believe this.” Rich put his ear to her stomach and began rubbing it.

“Now you can keep him away from my stomach,” Candy said with a smile.

Rich got up and started pacing. “We gon' have two kids that's the same age,” Rich grinned.

Vanessa watched the happiness on Rich's face. His life was complete. He had skated past jail, skipped over death, ducked out of the game with riches, and claimed two beautiful women as
his. Now he had two children coming forth to carry his legacy. Vanessa was happy to make that a
reality for him.

She reflected on when she first met Rich and how she was intrigued by his mystique
and image of power. She remembered how he stripped all of that away to reveal to her his true
self. Vanessa loved everything that she learned about him. She knew he would make the perfect
father. He had the benefit of street knowledge and corporate insight to help him as a parent. He
could warn his children about the perils of the streets and show them the importance of work
ethic. He could teach them through experience.

“Y'all know we having a boy and a girl, right?” Rich said.

Candy countered, “Two girls, Rich.”

“That's right,” Vanessa said.

“This the thanks I get? I bless both of y'all with babies and y'all don't know how to act.” Rich chuckled. “Can't give y'all nothing.”

“Two beautiful little girls that's gonna grow up and be women that will change the world,” Vanessa said.

“Pretend that we know one is going to be a boy,” Rich said. “What would you name him?”

“Richard,” Candy said.

“Nah, baby.” Rich shook his head. “I got that name from a hustler. My son is gonna break that cycle of selling drugs. Only drugs he gonna know about is Viagra.”

“How 'bout Jamel?” Vanessa added. “That's your real name.”

“Nah. That's still hustling backwards,” Rich said. “If he gonna be three times better than his pops, his name gotta be next level.”

“See, that's why we having two girls,” Candy said. “Boys is too much damn trouble. Gotta go through hell just to name 'em. Imagine after they born.”

“I got it.” Rich smiled. “Future.”

Candy squinted her eyes and turned up her nose. “Future?” she mumbled, as if the word hurt her coming out of her mouth.

Vanessa said, “Explain that, Rich.”

“Our son is the future. It's a whole lot of throwback and old school shit going on, but our
son gonna be the next level. That's where we at as a family. Baby, people say a woman can't
raise no man. That's not us. They say that same sex couples can't raise a child. That's not us
either. Our son is gonna have a father and two mothers. That's some futuristic shit right there.”

Vanessa thought Rich had a point. They were bringing children into a world where the love their parents shared was not the norm. As far as Vanessa was concerned, the norm was the
past. They were the future. Their children would be the finishing touches of a family that
transcended regularity. “You're right, Rich. If we have a son, we should name him Future.”

A month had gone by. During that time, Rich had learned that Candy would be having the son
he wanted. The trio agreed that the baby's name would be Future. It was too soon for doctors to determine the sex of Vanessa's child.

Rich felt reborn with just the thought of having children. Each day brought him new
visions of all the things he wanted to do for his children. He vowed that he would never allow
them to be placed in danger. The memories of his mother renting him out to be sexually
exploited always lingered in his mind. Rich would die before he allowed anyone to do anything
remotely close to that to his children.

Rich was sitting in Candy’s Shop reading a
Forbes
magazine.
The shop was about to close and he was waiting on
Vanessa and Candy. He had planned to take them to see the movie
Brooklyn's Finest.
Just as he put the magazine down, he
noticed Chase walking through the door. It was the first time he had seen Chase since the shootout. Desperation was plastered on his face. Chase did not greet anyone in the shop. He had the same creepy eyes and frown that he had when he stood on Rich's terrace the night he convinced Rich to risk everything that mattered to him.

“Let me holler at you, homey,” Chase told Rich.

Rich stood and walked behind him.

“Rich,” Vanessa called.

Rich turned to her, detecting the fear that oozed from her eyes.

“I'll be done in a minute,” she said, while braiding a client's hair.

“I'll be waiting outside,” Rich responded.

Candy walked over to Rich and whispered in his ear, “Please. Not again.”

He thought of the night Candy and Vanessa had begged with him not to risk his life and freedom for Chase. He winked at Candy and kissed her. “Don't worry.” He stepped outside, catching up with Chase.

“I need you to make a move for me,” Chase, said.

“I ain't see you in months since I got shot and risked my freedom for you. And that's the first thing you got to say to me.”

“I ain't trying to argue with you, Rich. Bottom line is the connect went sour and I need you to plug me in with somebody.”

“I know your eyes and ears work, so you see it in my swag and you heard it out my mouth and in the streets. Me and the game ain't got nothing in common but old memories.”

“Come on, homey. I ain't asking you to go cop no bricks. But you gotta make a call or something. Let somebody know I need ten of them thangs.”

Rich shook his head. “Just get on the phone and talk myself into a conspiracy charge,
huh?” He noticed Vanessa step out of the shop. She was gazing at him.
“I’ma be with you in a minute. Get in the truck.” He tossed her the key to a white Hummer parked feet away.

“When you start giving bitches the keys to the whip?” Chase asked.

“You gotta curve your tongue. That ain't no bitch. That's wifey,” Rich said, as Candy stepped out of the shop and walked over to Vanessa.

“Wifey?” Chase's face wrinkled like a prune. Rich had never referred to a woman as
wifey before. Chase looked at Vanessa and Candy. “That's what the fuck this all about? All this game over shit is about some pussy-eatin' bitches? Motherfuckin' hos got your nose open like a line of coke? I knew it.”

Rich clenched his fist, holding back the urge to hurt Chase for disrespecting the two
people who mattered most to him—the two women who were bearing his seeds. He turned to
Vanessa, who stood beside Candy in shock. Leah and a couple of clients were nearby. Rich
turned back to Chase. “I'm a let that bitches comment slide. Matter of fact, I'm gone.” He turned to walk away.