More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
October 7 - October 8, 2023
Sweet potato latte in one hand,
Interesting
Orion met my gaze, no hesitation, unwavering. “You become my wife and I make sure Nectar never dies.”
!!!!!
thought it somehow didn’t feel like it.
*though
“This is the worst thing I’ve ever heard in my life. It’s like a shitty romance novel,” I whined. “Truth is much stranger than fiction, my dear,” Demetria said.
Wealthy, smart, fine, ambitious, slick at the mouth, thighs bigger than my head and an ass to match? A fucking unicorn.
“Of course you enjoyed that.” I laughed. “Find my future wife’s ring by this afternoon, please.” “I will get right on it,” she agreed. “Any stipulations?” “Whatever the requirement was, double it.”
“Just because this marriage might be convenient, you need to understand something right now; it ain’t fake. I’m gonna parade you in public, fuck you in private, and otherwise ignore you, just like most wealthy marriages.”
Y’all should talked to me!”
Typo
I knew better. The way the fabrics were cut, the way they hugged his thick frame, everything was designer, down to the chain around his neck, the glasses on his face, and probably that fucking nose ring. Inappropriate probably, for a man his age, but he was a billionaire.
that we would innovate and expand, prove his father wrong about Black folks wanting bougie groceries.
William Stark was exactly the kind of man I endeavored not to be—weak-willed, selfish, reckless, just to name a few. His mistakes in business aside, when I showed up in the Nectar offices, I’d hoped to find something I could respect about him, anything that made me view him in a somewhat positive light.
“Thank you, Shi. Go have a nice lunch, on me,” I told her, offering a smile she met with narrowed eyes. “I was about to do that anyway.”
I like her
You know… I thought maybe this was about protecting Nalani. Now that, I could’ve respected. I wouldn’t have moved, but I could understand you coming here to plead for me not to corrupt your daughter. Man to man, that would’ve showed me there was some molecule, just a modicum of dignity about you. But… no.” I shook my head. “You’re here to beg for a fucking job?”
He reminds me of Dreams dad from Demons Dream
“See… I’m speaking as if I know you, because I do… or do you think my father never told me about his coward ass ‘friend’ who married into the competition’s family because it was the only avenue he had to claw his way into making a name for himself?”
Despicable
You’re mad that even in death, he is still ahead of you? He had more money, a better business, a wife who actually wanted him, so there’s no question about the lineage of his son.”
It was something my mother and I used to do together. Even as a kid, I loved spending Christmas mornings like this. Sure, presents were waiting for Soren and I at home, but they’d always be there. This kept us firmly grounded in reality we wouldn’t have otherwise seen from our private schools and tutors and exclusive neighborhoods. My father hated it. But we showed up anyway.
My cousin Sheila was born the same year as me, Preston was born the same year as Soren, and we’d all been thick as thieves. Now though, it was just me, Aunt Lucy, and Soren. We’d lost the others. Gut punch after gut punch after gut punch. Losing
“Don’t call me that,” I countered. “I’m not wearing your ring yet.” He smiled. Letting me know I’d messed up. I just didn’t know how bad until he grabbed my hand to pull me to the front of the common room and then dropped to one knee of front me. “That whole… not wearing my ring yet thing?” he said, pulling a black velvet box from his pocket to lift before me. “Let’s fix that.”
“You won’t be the first or last woman to marry a man for reasons other than love. As women, we do what we have to do all the time, but the only way you’re going to make it through that is to never forget why you’re there, you hear me?”
“That man is handsome, rich, and intelligent. Those qualities make it easy to go blind. Especially if he starts slinging dick the right way.”
Period Auntie!
Asshole. For a week now, my father had been ignoring my calls, not responding to emails, pretending he didn’t see texts, all in what I could only assume was some immature effort to not be removed from his position. As if his lack of communication would put a damper on the process.
This man got some nerve!!
He shook his head, rolling up his sleeve to past his elbow. “You’ve got me all wrong, Nalani. I’m generous with mine. Which… you do realize that’s what you are now, right?” “I prefer to believe I belong to myself.” He smiled. “I’ll let you have that delusion. For now.” “You’re horrible.” “You’re beautiful,” he countered, slipping a hand into the semi-opaque water, where it disappeared.
“If I ever see another man that close to you…we’re all going to have a horrible day.”
What else did I not know? “Orion, baby you’ve gotta eat something…” Bree’s voice in my ear caught me off guard, her tits already pressing into my shoulder as she leaned around me to pick up my fork.
Wait a fucking minute...
“Nalani’s worth to me has very little to do with her father,” I said, choosing my words carefully. “The wedding will be just after the New Year, in Sugar Valley.” Immediately, Grandma Calli’s face lit up, and she leaned in a bit, eyes wide and excited. “Like your Mama and Daddy?” “Exactly.” I nodded. “I thought it would be a good way to honor their memories.”
Well… maybe not the same, considering the way it ended. But what they’d had until the untimely end was something to admire.
Hmm?
I didn’t want Nalani having to lift a finger in effort, since making it convenient would kill a lot of potential excuses or stalling.
Aww
A private smile crept across my face as I navigated to my “Wrong Bitch” playlist and started it up, cranking the volume to an obscene level. It was four-fifteen. Perfect.
I love her lol
“I can make sure it doesn’t happen. If I say it’s untouchable, it’ll be untouchable,” he said. “But it’s a move that will raise eyebrows I don’t want raised… unless it’s a move I’m making for my wife.”
Awww
I could probably get in trouble for it, since this was every bit of unofficial, but at this point… I didn’t give a fuck anymore. Sue me. I had a billion dollars behind me to buy my way out of misbehavior now. Zero regrets.
Period!
The tears I hadn’t been able to gather welled up in my eyes as soon as I saw the trio of smiling women waiting for me. I hadn’t talked to Morgan, Alexis, or my Aunt Lucy about this appointment, thinking it was better to get it over with sans fanfare with the absence of my mother being so acute. But seeing them… I’d never felt such relief before. “I’ll leave you all for a moment while I go grab a few dresses I think you’ll like,” the sales associate said as they stood to greet me. “And then we can get started.” “What are y’all doing here?” I breathed as soon as she was gone, trying valiantly to
...more
Awww he CAN be sweet
“I was instructed not to offer them to you unless you weren’t seeing anything that worked for you.”
!
just needed my Jeep, which had already been brought up for me, so I could make the short drive away from the little town of Sugar Valley to my family’s mountain cabin.
The truth was though, in that magazine spread where I first laid eyes on her, her hair had been in its natural, curly state, and that shit was sexy.
“Can we appreciate for a moment that this Black man loves and wants his Black woman’s natural hair? Bare minimum award, sure, but… I kinda like that he wants that.
Exactly.
She smiled at me, slinking my way in fuzzy slippers and a soft pink loungewear outfit that was more fit for meeting your man at the door than creeping out of my man’s room at two in the morning.
My man my man my man.... I heard that sis
“No, I haven’t. And I wouldn’t think… this… was in your job description as head of marketing,” I said. “The head of human resources isn’t there too, I hope?”
Clear this bihh Nalani...
but I was distracted from that by lots of deep caramel skin, and thick arms, and the fact that he smelled quite good.
“Right over here,” he said, tightening an arm around my waist as I stumbled a little in my heeled boots. His mouth was right against my ear. “That is mine.” This…could have been romantic. Would have been romantic, if that kind of connection existed between us. Instead I just felt… uncomfortably comfortable with his arms around me, a realization I quickly chalked up to the liquor I’d consumed earlier in the night.
Ares and fucking Bree, whose silly ass had dressed in black. Shiloh must not have seen
Who is Bree?
My grandfather saw Calli for the first time coming down the aisle. My father had seen my mother as his bride for the first time coming down the aisle. I would do the same.
A man of tradition. I love it :)
“You know you don’t have to do this on my account? You could take your time, make sure it’s right. I’m going to be here a good long time, you know?” I just smiled. She was much more certain about that than I was. “I promised you I would, didn’t I?” I reminded her. “I promised you’d get to see it and here we are.”
Awww
“With the blessing of our late mother’s legacy and our ancestors before us… I do.”
A fact I communicated, confused, to a wide-eyed Shiloh who explained to me that Breana was, in fact, not blood related to this family at all. She was Caspian Sterling’s widow. Some might say… Orion’s stepmother.
Ew
Calli nodded. “Mmmhmm. Larena, Caspian, William, Daneitha, that’s Orion’s mother, if you didn’t know. And there were a couple others in the little group, all friends. We’d do neighborhood potlucks whenever they came home from school for the summer and they were all inseparable. Until William decided he wanted to be separate. Took Larena with him.” I frowned. “Wait a minute… you’re saying our parents… were friends?” “I fed your mother right at my table more times than I can count. That was before any of y’all were born though. Like I said, they were kids themselves back then.”
“I used to wear his little ass out and I still will if I need to.” “I can outrun you now,” Orion said, unperturbed. “You can’t outrun a pistol.” “Damn girl, you shooting now?” He chuckled, kneeling beside her. “I thought I was the favorite?” She nodded. “You were… until you got married. I’m a girl’s girl through and through. Your wife is my favorite now.”
I LOVE her :)
he looked me dead in the eyes and shrugged. “It's yours now, Nala. Do whatever you feel.”
I swirled my tongue around him, lapping at a particularly thick vein on the underside of his dick with every inward pull of my mouth. As I did, I slid a finger behind his balls, putting pressure on that sensitive line of nerves. The instant tension in his hips, the tighter grip on my hair, let me know. That was the move that was going to make him crazy.
Fuck. There wasn’t anything I could do. There wasn’t anything I wouldn’t let him do to me, at that point.
The kind of eye contact that dared me to look away, at anything else, to close my eyes.
