The Golden Chalice Read online

  Michelle placed her hand to the curve of her hip. This place had been her home for a little over a month. Flowers, old and new, were in vases. He had her clothes brought in and even picked out some things for her to read. Those items remained untouched in the spot where he’d laid them. Her thick lashes lowered. Her head slowly turned, to him this time, and she fixed him with an icy glare, the coldest he’d received yet. A suffocating sensation tightened his throat. She made not a move. She just stared.

  He pushed the door open and stepped inside.

  Michelle stood motionless in the middle of the room. She felt him before he made his presence known. Watching her, as he’d done for weeks, looking for an opening to deceive her again. She was tired of their game. Wanted it to end. But she was powerless to do anything but play it with him.

  “Packed and ready to go?” he asked.

  “I’m done.” She gave an impatient shrug.

  “With?” he half-joked, and approached her.

  She turned. Poised in her heeled boots, with a hand to her hip, she emphasized the word: “You.”

  “Too bad I can’t say the same. We aren’t over.”

  “I say we are. I’m tired, Lee. I don’t want to fight with you. Not anymore.” She drew in a deep, unsteady breath and stepped back. He came forward, moving in front of her. Wow, he reminded her sometimes of her father. He carried himself with a commanding air of self-confidence. Though Pops was a drunk, men respected him every time he entered the room. Lee had the same air of control over others, over her. She absorbed his attractive male physique. His suit had been tailored precisely to fit his broad shoulders and muscular frame. Lee stood about six-two, maybe three. His dark, silky brows and clear blue eyes were a startling contrast to his pale skin and raven-black hair. She could barely stand to look at him without wanting to be comforted by him. “I gave you what you wanted, Lee. No, actually I gave you more than you wanted. Don’t you understand, we’re on empty now? There’s nothing left for you to have.”

  He advanced on her. Michelle had rehearsed this moment from the start of the morning. Her hope to escape the facility before he arrived had been dashed. How far could she run? Eddie had to be out there, still on his hunt for revenge. She could trust no one, and she had three dollars in her purse and eighty-seven cents in her checking account. Lee had taken the cash she’d stashed at his place when he’d whisked her away from Chicago.

  Lee’s square jaw tensed with visible strain as he stood before her. Drops of moisture clung to his brow. She wanted to be unaffected. She struggled hard to not care, to ignore the torment and pain reflected in his penetrating stare. The truth hurt. She loved him today as much as she loved him when she had been just sixteen. The loss of their child would always bind them. A baby with his stubborn streak and her smile would have changed them both. Michelle never envisioned motherhood; now it consumed her nights and days with regrets. Why did their baby have to die? Did God punish them both because of their sins?

  “I’m empty.” She repeated up into his face. “So what now? What do you want?”

  “What I want is to stop your pain. If I could have my wish it would be…I’d want our child to have lived.” His expression stilled and grew serious.

  “Let’s be honest, Lee. Any child you and I have we’d destroy, after we destroyed each other.” She made to move around him and he stepped with her, blocking her pass. “Lee, move.”

  “Take it back!” He frowned with cold fury.

  She adjusted her smile. “Why?”

  “Don’t you ever dismiss our child’s death. Take it back!” he said through clenched teeth.

  Michelle, shaken by the threat in his tone, had to lower her gaze. “Okay.”

  Lee’s voice dropped an octave when he spoke again. “We lost our baby. It’s my fault. I should have protected you, trusted my instincts.”

  “Lee, please stop.”

  “I’ll make them pay. I’ll kill ’em all—”

  “Stop it, dammit!” Lee blinked at her, confused. “Stop, okay? No more violence. I can’t take it.”

  He touched her and she shrugged off his hand. Lee persisted and she was forced into his arms. Soon hers, of their own accord, were circling his waist. He kissed the top of her head. Stroked her hair.

  “My first priority is you. I had to make sure you were okay, Michelle. Now that you are, we’re starting again. Nothing has changed between us.” He relaxed his hold on her and brushed her cheeks with the backs of his fingers. She tensed over how soothing his touch was. With mild force, Lee grabbed her face in both hands. He brought his forehead down to hers until their skulls met. Michelle winced over the burn it drove through her brow, and gripped his wrist, trying hard to free herself. But his lips covered hers before she could manage the break. A crushingly needy kiss followed. She softened under its weight.

  “Forgive me.” He breathed into her mouth, trying to pry her lips apart for another kiss. “Damn it, Michelle, forgive me, baby. Don’t make me beg.”

  Michelle lowered her hands from his wrists. The caress of his lips inspired a trickle of love, sparking forbidden desires for him in her heart. What the hell was wrong with her? How could she even stomach the thought of them, together, now? Yet she could. It would be her secret truth. She loved him so badly, the truth hurt.

  “Stop fighting me. I’ve been so lonely for you.” His voice cracked with emotion. “I’ve suffered without you,” he said as her lips finally parted to object and he stole her breath. His tongue eased between her teeth, bringing to her the bitter taste of his morning cigar and whiskey. She imagined his days and nights had been filled with drinking since this began, or had it been so for him always? Who would take care of him if she did escape? Who would care for Lee, but her?

  “Thank you, babe. I need you so much.”

  She pressed her open palms to his chest. She could feel the racing beat of his heart vibrate into the spaces between her fingers. He groaned once as his tongue swept across hers. Warm and wet, the kiss returned the tenderness that had been missing between them for weeks. Lee’s passion drove her head back. His hands lessened their hold. One slid to the curve of her neck. His fingers wrapped around her nape, keeping her head firmly in place. The trembling of her limbs kept her locked in his embrace. He deepened the kiss, and the last of her resistance melted.

  Michelle rubbed her hands up the strong definition of his tight, muscled arms. She hooked hers around his neck and returned his kiss. With everything in her, she kissed him, wanting to comfort him and be comforted. It felt good to hold him again. She hadn’t touched him since the shooting, the lies, the loss of their child. This would be the first time she’d felt anything besides all-consuming sadness. She chose to savor the feeling. All the while, she kept one eye on the door.

  If he knew of the deception behind the reasons for her submission, he didn’t care, because his feverish lips broke from hers to sear a hot-wet path of light kisses across her face and neck. She closed her eyes and let a tear drop. In her mind, she saw it, just as she did every time she’d closed her eyes since that fateful night.

  “Don’t!” She shoved him off.

  Lee let her go.

  “I can’t breathe when you force things on me. Step off, Lee. Now.” She turned from him, wiping her lips. Her chest burned at the spot the bullet had pierced her skin, a phantom pain she’d become accustomed to. “Don’t touch me again, please. I can’t now. I won’t. Just stop.”

  She looked back, ready to strike if he tried. To see if he’d challenge her, force himself on her. Give her a reason to break his jaw for the hell of it. But he didn’t. Instead, he crossed the room and collected her luggage.

  “Have it your way, Chocolat. You know how this works. It’s not over until I say it is,” he mumbled, unable to shield his hurt from her. He stepped aside for her to lead the way. She picked up her jacket and grabbed her purse. Their gazes met and locked for just a brief moment, before lowering. He was right. She knew the game. And loving him was never p
art of the deal.

  Chapter Three

  “Kumar, wake up, sweetheart. My sister comes home today.” Sasha brushed her lips across his cheek. She rolled under the sheet to escape the bed, but his arm hooked around her waist. Immediately she was drawn in.

  “Mmm, morning.” Sasha dropped back to the bed. The sheet slipped, revealing her breasts.

  “Morning,” Kumar mumbled in a hoarse whisper. His dark, curly head lowered and he swiped his tongue over her nipple.

  Sasha smiled. She combed her fingers through his locks and spread each digit through the silken thatch of hair at the top of his head. Kumar drew her nipple into his wet, heated mouth. He licked and sucked with such sweetness her back bowed from the bed. His breath was both warm and moist against her skin, his tongue masterful. His body moved over hers, hard and firm. My lord, he has a magnificent body. Sasha parted her thighs and scooted down a bit. He was so tall. She let her lids flutter shut to the delicious current his semi-erect length stirred as it rubbed and slipped along the folds of her pussy.

  “Kumar, I miss you, baby,” she moaned, rotating her hips. She bit down hard on the inside of her cheek. If he were to slip in, she’d rock his world. She hoped he’d do so soon. He’d denied her sex for weeks after their big fight. And the brief encounters they shared had been fraught with frustration. She wanted her sweet, gentle lover again. Suddenly, he was in the mood.

  Kumar’s head lifted. He hovered and stared with eyes as dark and beautiful as black satin. He had olive-brown skin; born of East Indian descent, his curly fro was almost blue-black. His features were sharp and strongly chiseled. He possessed a courageous masculinity. To Sasha, he appeared like a tribal warrior from an exotic land.

  She blinked away her disappointment over his hesitation and summoned her teasing, sex-kitten voice. “C’mon, baby, what you waiting for?” It used to work, when he thought her pure, and misunderstood. Now that he knew all her sins, their bond had weakened.

  Sasha ran her hands up and down the sides of his chest. Her fingers splayed before gripping his clenched buttocks in an attempt to drive him forward. He really did have a gorgeous body in a this-guy-can’t-be-real kind of way. Kumar Suresh had been her fantasy, from the day he rescued her to now. The first real love of her life.

  “I’m sorry,” Kumar whispered.

  “Sorry? For what?” Sasha froze.

  “For using again. The way the job went down when we stole the Chalice could have gotten your sister killed, or worse. We haven’t talked about it. We need to.”

  “Now?” Sasha groaned, her body on fire for his touch.

  Kumar dropped on her. His dick remained painfully erect, pressed hard against the warm lips of her core. He wanted to make love to her, but for weeks he’d been unable to do so without anger and jealousy driving his emotions. He had to let go or he’d use again. Already he had that itch to do so. He lifted and forced himself to look her in the eye when he spoke.

  “Let me finish.” He brushed away stray strands from the left side of her face. He kissed her nose, and the small wrinkle between her perfectly arched brows. Sasha, and what they shared, surpassed sex or companionship. She had become his nirvana. It burned his gut to know Lee had touched her, hurt her. Even now the chambers of his heart weakened over the mere thought of her vulnerability. After the score, Lee had been consumed with Michelle’s recovery. Her release meant business would begin again. Well, it would have to go on without Sasha. He planned to make sure of it.

  “What happened between you and Lee happened before we knew each other,” he continued. “I had no right to treat you the way I did.” A soft sigh escaped her when his lips brushed hers. “I love you, Sasha Dixon. I’ve never loved a woman as much. I got crazy, but I’m not using that shit anymore. I need you to believe in me again.”

  Sasha had to fight her own battle of personal restraint against exclaiming with joy over his profession of love. She felt astonishment over the sense of fulfillment Kumar brought to her life. How had she become so lucky? After her sister’s shooting, they all moved through the days pretending they hadn’t changed. Kumar busied himself with work. He’d watch TV with her, fight with her over a dinner choice, and never mention the source of his pain. She even feared he’d started using again. But if he said the worst had come and gone, she would believe him.

  “I’m sorry, too, Kumar. I love you. Only you. I never had sex with Lee. That’s the God’s honest truth. You do know that, right?”

  “I do.”

  For long, breathless moments, neither of them moved. She lay in the drowsy warmth of their bed with his cock pressed into her throbbing center. Desire bloomed in her pelvis and filled her channel with wet heat. She couldn’t part her thighs wide enough to remind him of the invitation. With slow precision, he plunged into her deeply; he claimed her. A soft sob shook her slender frame. Long, hard strokes sent him so far she felt sure he had lodged himself in her heart.

  “Yes, baby,” she breathed, running her tongue over her top lip to the feel of the delicious thickness that filled her, stretching her channel without mercy.

  Kumar’s rapid thrusts drove him in and out so her legs were tossed upward. Lifted to a V, her ankles rested on the outer curve of his shoulders. He gripped her under her butt cheeks, parted them, and kept with the hip thrusts once she opened wide enough to receive him. His testicles slapped at the seat of her ass, and she dug her nails into the mattress. Sasha rotated her hips against the ensuing pressure and let pleasure rip through her.

  “So good, so good,” he grunted through clenched teeth.

  Sasha felt her climax mounting, waves of pressure starting from her tender sex, and spread outward in a burst of sensations that forced her to arch up into him.

  “I want to taste you,” Kumar said. He lowered her legs and came down hard on her, thrusting his dick in and out of her as he ran his tongue under her neck, sampling her sweat. They found a shared groove that made the mattress squeak. The sound of wet flesh smacking against wet flesh, along with pleasured moans and groans escaping them both, created a sweet symphony that flowed throughout the room. She released and a galaxy of stars burst under her closed lids. She gripped his sweaty shoulders. She shook hard through her orgasm as he kept going, riding her toward his long-awaited climax. He pumped a release that had him repeating her name over and over until every drop of his seed was spent.

  He collapsed on her, wheezing out deep breaths. Sasha smiled. She ran her hand down his spine. “I got a good feeling about us, sweetheart. Things are going to be okay. We’re going to be okay.”

  Kumar nodded. “I feel it, too, beautiful. We are going to be just fine.”

  She floated on a cloud of contentment.

  ***

  “Stop pacing, babe.” Kumar looked up from his laptop.

  Sasha worried. The frown lines deepened across her brow as the seconds ticked into minutes. “Can you put that up, please?”

  “Why?”

  “She’s on her way in. Home. Well, I guess this place is home. I mean I miss Chicago, yes, but this place is just as good. The ocean is here. I know she loves the ocean. And it’s so peaceful. Do you think she will be happy here? Maybe. Maybe not. Oh hell, I don’t know.”

  Kumar lowered the lid to the laptop and smiled. “You want a celebration? A parade, I know. How about just a big ole Welcome Home sign? Streamers. Balloons?”

  “Very funny. I’m so nervous. It’s been so long since this nightmare began. I just don’t know how she will react to me.” Sasha turned from him, wringing her hands. Michelle heard us. She knows our secret. No matter the excuse, she’d hurt her sister again, deeply.

  “Hey.” Kumar had risen. He dropped his hands to her shoulders. She lowered her gaze and relaxed. “She’s your sister. It’s going to be okay. We’re okay, right?”

  “Right.” She quickly pulled her drifting insecurities together and straightened. Michelle was her blood. Pops had taught them family first. Michelle believed this. Even if disappointed, Michelle
would never truly abandon their sisterhood. She needed to be confident in the bond they shared.

  Turning, she slipped her arms around his narrow waist and pressed the side of her face to his chest. “I’m so happy it’s over, and she’s coming home. So happy.”

  ***

  The limo door opened and the morning chill called for her. Michelle switched her gaze from the scene outside the window over to Lee. He remained near despite her request for space. For a brief moment, she felt gratitude. Facing her sister and everyone after nearly dying had her questioning her own strength. Her eyes burned, dry from sleeplessness. Her whole body seemed engulfed by tides of weariness.

  “You okay?” Lee’s voice was soft and concerned.

  “I think so.”

  A hand appeared, which she accepted. She eased out of the open car door. The new place looked like the others. A fortress to keep her locked away. She didn’t bother to wait for him. He’d be on her again soon; of this she had no doubt. Michelle needed to buy herself enough time to take her heart out of the equation. To deal with him the way she’d planned.

  Michelle walked through the front doors. She stopped abruptly. Sasha stood there with Kumar a step behind her. Abahti lingered near the stairs. The three people she wanted least to see.

  “Welcome home, Michelle!” Sasha hurried over and threw her arms around her neck. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I would have visited, but Lee…well, I’m glad you’re out of that place. How do you feel? You look good.”