Page 9 of Mahogany 1

“Next time, okay?”

I could have waited for Mahogany to get out of the tub to give her the roses. That’s what Sparkle wanted me to do. But I needed to see her. Despite the tension, I missed my wife every time I was at work. I looked forward to seeing and feeling her, regardless of if her face would be frowning, or she would be distant. She wasmy other half; I wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t see her beautiful face within the first few minutes of being in the crib.

“Okay, daddy,” Sparkle continued to pout.

Because she was my baby, I kneeled and pulled one single rose from the bouquet. “And for my princess.”

She excitedly jumped up and down again, with a smile spread wide across her pretty little face. “Thank you daddy! Thank you.” She put the rose up to her nose, closed her eyes, and inhaled with a smile. “Mmmh.”

I lightly laughed, kissed her on the cheek and told her I loved her.

“I love you too, daddy,” she said before running off downstairs to show her sisters. “Honesty! Aubry!”

I shook my head, wishing I would’ve gotten them roses too. But today wasn’t about the princesses; it was about the queen.

Upon entering the room, I sat my phone and the bottle of wine on the dresser and crept towards the bathroom. Lightly, I pushed the cracked door opened and walked inside. Her eyes were closed so she didn’t notice me. For a moment, I just stood there watching her. She was absolutely breathtaking. The most beautiful woman in the world to me. The way the plethora of bubbles sat against her Hershey Kiss, chocolate skin. The way her natural hair sat, dampened, resting on her slender shoulders. Full, pouty lips moving, elegantly as she mouthed the words to India’s, The Truth, subtly swaying her head from side-to-side.Ireallywas the lucky one.

Kneeling at the tub, I softly ran my fingers along the side of her face, startling her.

She gasped. “Oh God, you scared the hell out of me, D!”

“My bad,” I said with a laugh before leaning forward to kiss her on the same cheek I’d caressed. “I was on my slow creep, trying not to.”

“That’s exactly how to scare somebody… creeping,” she said with a light giggle.

A giggle. Might’ve been because the glass of red wine, she went for, sitting on the bathtub tray-table. Regardless of the reason, I got a giggle. Arealone.

I reached over for her phone and lowered the volume on it before pulling the roses from behind my back. “Congratulations, NeNe.”

Her jaw dropped and she sat up to wrap her arms around my neck with a hug. Think I gave a fuck about the water dripping from them? Shit no. I wrapped my arms tighter around her, embracing her in a way I hadn’t in a minute. Today her hug was filled with something other than ‘here nigga’. I could feel the appreciation. However, appreciation, when I did something nice, was always felt. It was love I was looking for. But because I got a giggle and a hug I could feel, I was grateful.

Pulling away a little, I kissed her on the lips. “Twenty-three instead of twenty-four because I had to bribe the little one.”

Mahogany laughed. “Always gotta bribe that little one.”

“Hell yeah,” I said before leaning over to sit the roses on the vanity. With my bottom lip pinched between my teeth, I lowered my eyes down to her breasts. “You gone fuck around and make me climb in there with you.”

With a smile, she shook her head. “No sir. You ain’t climbing your dirty butt in my bubble bath.”

This was us. We didthis. It came naturally. Joking, laughing… shit like that. It was the other side of us that I missed. Intimacy. Real, rawromanticchemistry. We lost that. Never lost theusaspect of our relationship. The bond was a bond and would be regardless of where we stood in life.

“Yeah, okay,” I dismissed, my eyes still traveling her body, really tempted to climb in.

But… respect. A nigga had been working all day, and construction always left me a little dusty. However, that didn’t have shit to do with my mouth. Reaching into the water, I ran my thumbs over her hard nipples.

She lightly groaned, “Ducati.”

“Mahogany,” I countered, lightly tugging on them.

Slightly panting, turned on just that quick, she asked, “What I just say?”

With a tug, I bit down on my bottom lip. “You said I couldn’t get in. Ain’t say I couldn’t eat tho’.”

The sexual chemistry was there. Crazy as hell, right? I could eat, fuck, suck, lick… do whatever but when it was over? We were usually right back to that awkward tension. The distance. The pulling away.That was because despite whatever hangups Mahogany had with a nigga, she was a freak.Myfreak. And because I’d known her most of her life, turning it on was a cakewalk for me. The nipples did it every single time.

Lifting her breasts out of the water, I leaned forward and took one of her nipples into my mouth. Think she stopped me? Hell naw she didn’t. Think she ‘pulled away’? Put that wall up?Fuckno. She grabbed the back of my neck and urged me to suck harder. I didn’t. Teased her a bit, ran my tongue over the little bud and then softly tugged on it with my teeth.

I carefully took the bath tray down and sat it on the floor, before turning the volume on her phone up to drown out what I knew would come next. She moaned. And it was like music to my ears. Soft, sultry… sexy. My dick instantly bricked at the sound of it coming from her supple lips. I kissed them, sliding my hand down her body. She invited me to her middle, allowing her knees to fall open. Against my lips, she moaned when I found that pretty little puffy clit.

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