Wives and Champions (24 page)

She smiled. That gave her an
idea.

Chapter
Twenty-Seven

Desmond stepped into a quiet home at
approximately 6:30 p.m. There were no babbling baby noises. No
sounds from the family room TV. Just silence. Sherita’s jeep was
out front, so where were she and the kids?

Well, they could’ve been upstairs in
the master. With such a huge home, he wouldn’t necessarily hear
them if they were upstairs, so he jogged up the stairs but there
was no sign of them. No noise.

“
Sherita, you up
here?”

Silence.

He frowned, glanced around the room
briefly before removing his cell phone from his pocket. He was just
about to dial Sherita’s number when he spotted a note on his
nightstand. He walked over near the bed, picked it up and read
it:

Am I here or am I not?

Find your next clue where I keep my
socks.

He smiled big. “Seriously Sherita,” he
said out loud, and couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped his
mouth. “All right. I’m game.”

Desmond took off his suit jacket,
tossed it over to the bed and sauntered over to her dresser. She
kept her socks in the second drawer so he opened it and sure
enough, there was another note, or as she called it, a
clue.

You’re the best husband in the whole
world.

Thanks for giving me an adorable, little
girl.

“
Celeste,” he said, walking
down the hallway to Celeste’s room and saw another clue taped to
her crib. “I know where the next clue’s going to be,” he said,
heading for Nolan’s room while reading the clue he just took from
Celeste’s crib:

Stop walking, you’re moving too soon.

The next clue is not in Nolan’s room.

Desmond stopped reading to laugh at
himself. “Okay. You got me.” He continued reading:

Why don’t you head back to our room?

Put on
those
jeans and I’ll see you soon.

“
Those jeans?” he said,
thinking out loud. “What jeans?” Walking back into the master
bedroom, he went to the closet and saw that she had already laid
out an outfit for him to wear – dark stonewash, distressed jeans
and a black, long-sleeved shirt.

So, taking off his suit pants, necktie
and shirt, he pulled the jeans up his legs, then quickly put on the
shirt and a pair of Nikes. “Okay, so where’s the next clue?” he
asked out loud, patting the pockets of the jeans and feeling a
piece of paper in the back pocket. “There’s the next clue,” he
said, smiling. He pulled out the paper and read:

Now that you’re dressed, Mr. Champion, it’s
finally time to go.

I’ll sit behind you and hold on tight while
we speed down the road.

His lips curved into a smile. She
couldn’t be talking about a motorcycle ride, could she? He jogged
downstairs, exited out the garage door and there she was, sitting
on his Ducati with a helmet in her hand. When did she buy a helmet
and motorcycle jacket for herself? He wanted to get those items for
her, but with life happening so soon, it got pushed to the
backburner. And he hadn’t ridden his bike not once after the babies
were born.

“
You found me,” she said.
“Grab your jacket, gloves and helmet. Let’s go.”

He didn’t move. Just stared. Sherita
looked like herself again. Like the woman he’d fallen in love with.
The woman he flirted with. The woman who was and would forever be
his kryptonite. His coffee shop girl. His everything.

“
Des?”

“
Okay. You have to forgive
me. I’m somewhat in a state of shock,” he said while taking his
jacket where she had left it for him – on a hook by the back door.
He put it on, zipped it up. He threaded his fingers into gloves and
walked towards her with the helmet in his hand. Goodness, she was
hot. She’d had her hair flat-ironed, silky straight, wore makeup
and that red, smudge-proof lipstick she liked to wear occasionally.
They made her lips look juicier, more delicious than they already
were.

Standing next to the motorcycle, he
lowered his mouth to hers, taking a kiss, then he looked at her and
smiled. “You are something else.”

“
Why do you say
that?”

“
You just are…playing this
little game with me, sitting on the back of my
motorcycle…”

“
You haven’t ridden it in a
while…thought it would be nice if we went for a drive.”

“
Your mother has the kids?”
he asked, peeling off his gloves so he could run his fingers
through her hair and along the side of her delicate
face.

“
Yes. All night,” Sherita
said. “And we have each other. All night.”

Desmond smirked, but a small
disturbance flashed in his forehead that Sherita hadn’t expected to
see.

“
What’s wrong,
Des?”

“
Nothing.”

“
No, tell me. Do you not
want to go anywhere?”

“
I do. Did you have
somewhere in mind?”

“
Not really. I’ll go
anywhere you want to take me.”

“
Anywhere?” he asked, his
eyes flooded with desire.

“
Yes. Anywhere.”

“
In that case, let me help
you get off of the motorcycle.”

“
Why?”

“
Because I want to take you
upstairs and make love to you until we’ve made up for the last six
months. That’s where I want to go.”

Sherita swallowed hard. After all, it
had been over six months since she and Desmond had made love. Now
he wanted six month’s worth of her? The thought made her
shiver.

“
Are you okay with that?”
he asked, unzipping his motorcycle jacket.

She nibbled on her lip.

“
Sherita?”

She blinked, looked at him, seeing
desire ripen in his eyes. “I told you I’d go anywhere you wanted to
take me,” she said.

Without notice, Desmond sealed her
mouth with his, plunging into the warmness of her with rapid fire,
in expectation to connect their bodies in another way – in a way
that they hadn’t connected in months. She moaned when he
effortlessly lifted her from the motorcycle while still claiming
her mouth. Her trembling hands released the motorcycle helmet to
the concrete garage floor. He walked to the door with her legs
wrapped around his waist, opened it and wasted no time climbing the
stairs.

In their bedroom, he hurriedly
unzipped her jacket and nearly ripped her blouse trying to get it
off. Once successful, he tossed it across the room. Then, he stuck
his index finger in the waistband of her jeans.

“
Des, wait.”

“
What’s wrong?” he asked,
breathing heavily.

“
I—um, can you let me get
underneath the covers first?” she asked, worried about him seeing
her post-baby body. She’d kept it hidden for a reason.

“
Sherita, are you serious?”
he asked, studying her.

“
Yes. I am,
actually.”

“
Then the answer is, no. I
love you, I love your body, and I don’t see a thing wrong with it.”
He lowered himself to his knees, felt her legs tremble as he
lowered her pants. He kissed her stomach, right above the scar left
by the incision of the C-section cut and said, “You carried my
children inside of you for nine months and you think I would be
turned off by the fact that you’ve gained a little weight?” He
cupped her backside with his large hands and nuzzled into her
flesh. Then he stood up, wrapped his arms around her and said, “I
want to devour you, princess.”

She smiled shyly, looking away from
his powerful eyes.

He nudged her chin up with the bend of
his index finger so she would look at him again. “Do you want me,
Sherita?”

She smiled, felt her heart skip a
beat. “Yes. I want you.”

He kissed her lips again
while she helped him undress and tumbling onto the bed, flesh
against flesh, he sank deep into the hotness of her, feeling her
fingertips claw into his back as he made love to her like he’d been
starving for this. He
was
starving. He hadn’t had this intimate connection
with her in a while and he needed it. Needed her with a voracity
that sent blood rushing through his veins, pumping through his
heart and pooling at his middle.

“
Oh, Sherita, you don’t
know how much I needed you, baby.”

A soft moan escaped her lips when she
connected her eyes to his darling ones.

“
I missed making love to
you.”

“
I missed making love to
you, too, Desmond.”

“
Then let’s make up for
lost time. I want you to make love to me. Keep up with me. Take me
the way I’m taking you. Don’t hold anything back. That’s what I
want.”

“
Okay,” she said softly,
wrapping her legs around him while he established a rhythm – one in
which she matched stroke for tantalizing stroke, closing her eyes
tight when it became too much for her senses but forcing them open
again to fully take him the way he wanted her to.

She screamed, fell apart but managed
to hold on to him until his body locked and released all he had to
give while a groan ripped from his throat.

He released more breaths, slumped down
on top of her and took kisses from her lips. “You okay?”

“
Yes.”

“
Be honest, because I’m not
done.”

Sherita laughed through rapid pants
then said between breaths, “Good because I’m not ready for you to
be done.”

And they made love again, feverishly
mating as a couple in love who had found that spark, the romance,
the passion in their marriage again.

Chapter
Twenty-Eight

Dante tapped Dimitrius on the shoulder
and used head gestures to point to Desmond. The brothers were
sitting at the table at Desmond’s house in the dining room playing
cards, well, supposedly playing cards, but Desmond was staring at
Sherita whenever she came into sight – like he was ready to kick
everybody out of the house and take Sherita up to their
bedroom.

He looked her up and down, thinking
about how they’d made love every night since Tuesday. How they’d
fed the babies together at night, read to them, rocked them to
sleep and then returned to their own bedroom and literally rocked
each other’s world before falling asleep sated. He was already
looking forward to doing it again tonight.

“
She ain’t going nowhere,
Des,” Dante teased.

Desmond looked up at his brother and
smirked.

“
Boy, I remember a time
when my lil’ brother didn’t want anything to do with love,” Dante
said. “Now look at you. Whipped.”

Desmond grinned. “If I’m whipped, then
we all are.”

“
Then, I guess we all are,”
Dimitrius said. He grinned.

After the food had been cooked, some
reheated, the women brought dishes to the table while the men
rounded up the children.

Dimitrius held Grace in his
lap.

Dante scooped up Ezra.

Desmond held Celeste while Sherita
bounced and kissed on Nolan.

After Melanie and Emily sat down,
Dante proceeded to pray over their meal. Afterward, he said, “Now
let’s eat.”

“
Eat,” Grace
repeated.

Emily smiled. “She’s so smart,
Mel.”

“
She thinks she’s grown,”
Melanie said.

“
She’s not grown, but she
sure has grown quite a bit,” Desmond said. “I remember when my lil’
Gracie used to fit into Uncle Des’ hands.”

“
Yeah,” Dimitrius said,
taking two pieces of fried chicken from a large glass dish. “Now
you have two of your own to fit into your hands.”

“
While we’re on the
subject, Dante and Emily, spill the beans,” Sherita said. “Are you
having a girl or a boy?”

Emily smiled, looked at Dante and
said, “You tell ‘em.” She fed Ezra a half tablespoon of potato
salad.

“
Okay.” Dante cleared his
throat and said, “It gives me great joy to announce that Emily and
I have managed to make another beautiful baby with a healthy,
strong heartbeat. You should’ve seen the ultrasound
pictures—”

“
Come on, Dante,” Melanie
said. “The suspense is killing me.”

“
Okay, okay. Settle down,”
Dante said, amused. “We’re having a boy.”

“
Another boy,” Emily said,
glowing.

“
Yay! Another playmate for
Nolan,” Sherita exclaimed.

“
Congratulations, guys,”
Melanie said.

“
Yeah. Congratulations,”
Dimitrius said.

Desmond congratulated them,
too.

“
I love how, over the last
few years, we’ve created this beautiful family,” Dante said. “And
while we’re on the topic of family, as you all know, we recently
found out that we have half brothers and sisters living in
Wilmington, North Carolina. I reached out to Harding and we’re
planning a meet and greet in the next few months. I know this is
not ideal, and I’m not going to judge my father or speculate on why
he did what he did. What I
do
know is, I love him and my mother and the way I
feel for them will never change. With that being said, I want to
know the rest of my family, no matter who they are.”