from her place on my couch to me. She wraps herself around me like a damn monkey and inhales deep, relaxing as I take her weight, holding her to me. I’ve never felt this way before. While I don’t know what to do with it, I know I damn sure don’t want to be without it.
She leans back just enough to lift my sunglasses from my eyes. She pulls the black frames off my face and throws them to the floor. “I want to see you, Koa,” she whispers, gazing deeply into my eyes.
“Window to my soul, Teineitiiti,” I whisper before pressing my lips to hers. Our tongues dance as our souls connect.
Talia Peppertree is mine. Fate gave her to me as a gift, and I’m not letting her go. While I want to fuck her senseless right now, I want to do so without Caleb’s blood between us. Pulling away, I say, “Gotta shower, you gonna join me?”
She nods with a smile. Fuck yes, she’s strong enough to handle the life I live. Talia Peppertree was made for me the way Kalini was made for Arthur. Some things are simply meant to be.
Chaos and Bash walk past us to the door. “Doc says she’s gonna have a bump for a few days, but no signs of a concussion. You got there before he did anything other than whack her in the head,” Bash explains.
Chaos smirks in a way that I can see through his beard. “That means she’s gotta take it easy. Maybe give it to her soft, brother.” He winks before the two of them take off.
I never put Talia down, carrying her with me to the bathroom where I’m very careful with every inch of her body in the shower.
I’ve never wanted something so much in my life, but at the same time, I restrain. While I want to have sex with Talia, I also want it to be the kind of memory that remains untainted. An orgasm in the shower, another in the bed, but I have yet to be completely inside the woman who has shown me there is someone out there who can see me for me and accept all of it.
The good.
The bad.
The ugly.
The undesirable.
The broken.
She takes it all without hesitation.
With Talia, there are no games. She’s lived a life on the streets where, just like me, she knows when it’s good, you hold onto it like a fucking lifeline.
Lifeline.
Talia is my lifeline.
Twelve
Talia
“You’re always one decision away from a totally different life.” Line on a business card for a life coach. – Could I actually have something real with him? I’m falling and it’s scary as much as it thrills me, Talia
One Week Later
I could seriously get used to waking in Koa’s bed. As I begin to stir, I find him missing. This is unusual. Immediately, my chest tightens, missing him.
This can’t be healthy.
Or is this what falling feels like?
Every day, we learn something more about each other. It’s interesting to see a different view on family. I look to my backpack where my sister’s bracelet was safely hidden in the seam. Moving to it, I sit on the floor and pull out the tattered Bible that has gone everywhere with me. The Bible that I once thought doomed me to a life of misery, but over time and studying on my own, I find God to be someone completely different from whom I once thought.
I was raised to believe no one outside of our family would understand our faith. The life we live here on Earth isn’t about our life, but about our connection. Family is faith. The larger the family, the larger one’s faith. For the life we are building here on Earth is only to be multiplied in Heaven. As long as we follow the foundation and the principles of our faith, we will be heirs to a kingdom in Heaven.
Johobe Jacobs is the founding father to our faith. According to the Bible, God called upon his people to live in a manner here on Earth that would only glorify the Heavens more. Johobe also happens to be my mother’s uncle. My mother, who married my father, a cousin some ways down the line. It’s all so very overwhelming when I sit down and try to draw our family tree.
All of it based on Johobe’s translation of the Old Testament of the King James Version of the Bible.
From as early as I can remember, one phrase resounds louder than them