Page 100 of Roulette: The Madam

Overly critical.

Secretively comforting.

She forked the final string bean on her plate. Princess wasn’t a shy eater. She cleared ninety percent of her serving and kept her words at a minimum as she did so. Talking with a mouth full of food was a pet peeve of her mothers that had become a pet peeve of hers, she’d expressed.

The silence gave me the time I needed to gather myself. I was unraveling at the twirl of her index finger. The room grewwarmer with each statement she made. Suddenly, the AC pushed cold air through the private yacht and provided me with a more tolerable body temperature.

She pulled the glass of water toward her before lifting it from the table. Her throat expanded and then imploded with each sip. I closed my eyes, trying to rid my thoughts of the visuals she’d created the first night I experienced her in ways I had never imagined I’d experience her.

I clenched my jaw, causing a slight pain inside my mouth. My composure was harder to maintain control of than a pack of young niggas with empty bellies and financial responsibilities at home. At the sound of the glass colliding with the table, I reopened my eyes to find her staring back at me.

“Have you finished your meal, Israel?” She inquired, never taking her eyes off me.

“I am. Are you?”

Slowly, her head lifted and fell. Her tongue swiped across her lips as they parted. I waited, anxiously, for her to release the next set of words. They were at the tip of her tongue, where I wanted to be. I sipped from the cup of water in my hand.

“I am. I’ll have you next.”

Her statement took me by surprise. I failed to get the water down the right pipe. Still, I held myself together as it threatened to choke me to tears. When the chaos happening down my pipes subsided, I stood from the table.

Talking was no longer necessary. She’d made herself clear. She was ready for my dick to touch the same places her food had. She wanted me for dessert. And, whatever Princess wanted, Princess would get.

With the linen spread, I cleared the table completely. Dishes spilled onto the floor. So did her red roses. She watched with patient eyes as they tumbled onto the floor.

“Roulette.”

“I liked them,” she admitted.

Her deflated chest and wrinkled eyebrows that gathered near the center of her forehead led me to believe it was much deeper than the roses. Impulsively, I pried.

“Have you never received roses, Princess?”

Slowly, she lifted her gaze to meet mine. Those big, pretty eyes mirrored her feelings. For the first time, I could read her like a page from my favorite book. My heart broke in half. I rushed to the floor.

My knees hit the carpet before I could stop myself. I flipped the linen and found the flowers in the wreckage. I collected each loose stem that had slid from the kraft paper as they fell to the ground.

They weren’t as perfect as they had been, but they were presentable when I stood again. The heaviness in my chest exposed my truth. I felt something for Roulette. Something different. Something suppressed. Something inexplicable. It wasn’t as deep as love, but it surely wasn’t as surface-level as lust. It was right in between.

“I apologize.”

“Deposits. Wires. Cars. Businesses. Bags. Clothes. Shoes. Jewelry.” She chuckled, but there was so much more laced in the sarcasm falling from her lips. “Homes. Vacations. Flights. Anything I’ve ever asked for.”

“But you’ve never asked for roses?”

“Never knew I wanted them.”

“Well, Princess, now that you know there won’t be a time you’ll have to ask for them again. In addition to whatever else you want, you’ll have roses. Always. Fresh roses. Straight from the field if I can go collect them motherfuckers myself.”

Her face lifted with a smile.

“Yeah?”

“Yes. As a matter of fact, I’m going to keep one of these for myself. I need to know when your roses are wilting and preparing for their demise. Before their short life ends, I’ll have another bouquet in your hands. As big as you want. As many as you want. How many do you want, Princess?”

“One. Just one, Israel.”

“Then one it is.”

---