Authors: Aisha Brooks
ROMANCE: Billion Dollar Question (BWWM Billionaire Bad Boy Romance) (African American Alpha Mail Order Bride New Adult) (11 page)
This deliciously dirty story is a part of Aisha Brooks’ super-charged, highly lewd collection of love and lust, written in 2015. Those who attempt to steal any part of this goldmine and take it as their own risk being a fiery, hot death from a hunk bearing copyright notices—and she’s not about to play with you.
This is a work of fiction—although we wish that people like this really existed, it’s nothing more than a figment of a very, very overactive imagination. Any resemblance to someone you know, a place you love or a thing you hold dear to your heart is nothing more than a craving in your heart that these carnal desires and actions were true!
It goes without saying that this book oozes with erotic sex appeal, and is filled to the rafters with a smorgasbord of acts that you certainly wouldn’t tell your grandmother about. Bodice-ripping, panty-dropping and glasses-steaming, the scenes contained herein are wickedly naughty!
Although all the saucy characters are flirting with forbidden desires and sometimes taking the naughty fruit they really shouldn’t be, all are consenting adults over the age of 18 and not blood-related. What they are is passionate and eager to explore their carnal desires all day long.
In short, this book is going to get you very, very hot!
© Aisha Brooks
All Rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any many whatsoever without the express permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental. The characters are all productions of the author’s imagination. Please note that this work is intended only for adults age 18 and over. All characters represented are age 18 or over.
Table Of Contents
Chapter 1: Bruised Beginnings
Chapter 2: The Beginning Of A Future
Chapter 3: Preparation Before Success
Chapter 4: A Man With A Mission
Chapter 5: Building A Career
Chapter 6: More Than A Meal
Chapter 7: Foregoing Boundaries
Conclusion
Chapter 1: Bruised Beginnings
To grow up in the inner city of Chicago was a challenge for anyone, let alone for Alicia. Her mother had given birth to her at the age of 16, and then her two brothers, both of which Alicia had basically raised herself from a young age. Her mother, self-proclaimed as a “strong, independent female” had taught Alicia at a tender age that most people would be out to hurt her, cut her down, set her back; that it was up to her to make her own future and success.
With these words, she would leave their run-down and cramped apartment, barely enough space between the walls to breathe, going to either her waitressing job or, her night-time shift as a dancer.
When Alicia was little, she thought her mother was a ballerina when her mother had told her that she was a dancer. Many of her friends at school had mothers who worked at the same club as Alicia’s mother, dancing. She had always wondered how her mother could pirouette in the high-heels that she wore and short dresses, but to Alicia, she was the most beautiful woman in the world. Her skin was the color of sweet caramel, her hair thick and curly, the color of a Chicago’s winter night sky.
She had been discussing her mother in class one day, stating how proud she was that her mother was a dancer, when a classmate had budged in.
“Your mama ain’t no ballerina,”the classmate had snickered.
“She is so. She dances every night.”
“She dances at The Cougar, right?” Alicia paused.
“Yeah.”
“So does my mama. She ain’t no ballerina. She takes her clothes off and gets money.” Alicia had felt the words hit her like a punch in the gut.
When she had gotten home that day from school, she had fed her brothers a snack and waited patiently for her mom to get off her waitressing job before going to her nighttime shift at the club.
Yvette, a mix of Latina fury and African American thunder, came in, threw some burgers and fries on the table and turned to look at her three children.
“Alicia, you make sure your brothers get their homework done. And you too. How was that quiz on the States today?” Her mother could always remember every test, quiz, crush and parent-teacher call; her mind was a steal trap.
“It went good, mama.”
“It went well, sweetheart,” Yvette corrected. Her mother, an extremely bright woman who had been given no other choice than to drop out of high school in order to make money to raise and care for Alicia. Her high school dreams of going to college were diminished when the two pink lines became clear on the test, and then vanished when Yvette’s father had claimed she wasn’t his and walked out.
Her father had been the “most handsome black man I had ever seen”, her mother would tell her, and the start of their high school football team, but a “scoundrel who left us to the streets.”
“Mama, do you take her clothes off for money?” Alicia blurted out before her brothers came into the kitchen for dinner. Her mother turned, shocked and hurt, her eyes stating all the words she had yet to speak. She turned back to getting the plates for dinner.
“Alicia…”she began slowly, choosing her words carefully, “what I do is not admirable or fun, but I do it so that we can have a roof over our heads, food to eat, and so that you can have your school supplies. If you ever remember one thing I tell you in this world, my love, remember that your education will lead you outside of this world that we live in now. This is why I push you in school. You must live a life better that this. Remember that always. Promise?” she asked as she sat down and placed her daughter’s face in her hands. Her big browns eyes penetrated her own. Alicia nodded.
“I promise,” she said softly. She felt proud to have a mother who would take on a job she hated in order to protect and provide for them, but felt disgusted and lied to as well. She didn’t want to think of her beautiful mother, naked on stage, under the watchful eyes of predators.
So, she had grown up under the hovering protective watch of her mother; eyes never really physically upon her, but woven within her, flowing through her like her blood, with the message that ran through her veins to do well. She joined sports and clubs at school, and excelled in her studies. She had applied to every scholarship there was and worked weekends at Subway, saving every penny for her college career.
When she had graduated high school with honors, her mother had wept like a young child. She knew she needed to be a role model for her younger brothers, and stayed on them as adamantly as her mother had taught her to.
At the age of 18, she had attended parent-teacher conferences when her mother couldn’t do so, had signed permission slips and even worked overtime for her brothers to attend field trips. She ruled the house with an iron fist, punishing Leo when he had gotten suspended when he was in ninth grade for sneaking off campus to smoke cigarettes. She had rifled through his room, finding a pack of Marlboro Lights, and, furious, made him finish the back, each cancer stick back to back. Drastic, she realized later, but he had thrown up so many times after her punishment that she knew it would make him sick to imagine another cigarette for the rest of his life.
There was a night, right before her high school graduation, that Leo had knocked on her bedroom door as she was reading in bed.
“Yeah, come in,” she said. Their walls were paper thin and she had heard him attempting to tiptoe down the hall.
“Hey…I just gotta say somethin’ to you,” he said, embarrassed and looking at the ground. She closed her book and sat up, patting her bed.
“Okay. Come on over.” He fumbled with his hands, nervous and anxious.
“I just gotta tell you how much you mean to me and Devon. I just don’t know what our lives would be like without you. You can be real crazy at times, but you’re alright. I’m going to miss you a whole lot,” he said.
Her heart folded into itself and she felt a warmth fill her body. She and her brothers did not discuss their emotions, but this sense of worth and acknowledgment for a brother she raised like a son, reiterated that all of her hard work was worth it all. She had missed out on a lot during high school; parties, boyfriends, even her Junior prom when she couldn’t afford the tickets and dress, football games, movies with friends…but she had kept a picture of her family as the background on her phone from the very first day she had bought it to remind her of her purpose and reason for being.
“Thanks, kid,” she said, a nickname she had developed for him as a child, as he was always by her side. She took in a deep breath, “You are kind and important; do not ever forget that. I would not have ever done these things for you and Devon if I didn’t believe in your own potential. When I leave, I will always only be a phone call away. But, you need to know that the brunt of the responsibility will fall onto you now, and you need to watch over Devon and take care of him as your own. This might, and most probably will, mean putting him before yourself.” She waited for the truth of this to sink in, and saw Leo nod slowly.
“I just get real mad at mama sometimes over it all.” She turned his head and looked him dead in the eye.
“Don’t ever say that and do not ever live your life with resentment in your heart. Our mother does what she can. We’re family. We pull our own weight. We do our best and then move on from there. Do you hear me?” He nodded again, slowly.
“But what if I wanna go out on a date?” Alicia laughed.
“Then you go, but you bring Devon with you.” He shuddered at the idea.
“I got you. I will make you proud.” And she knew he would. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.
“Get outta here, kid. I gotta finish reading this. But, you remember, to also make yourself proud.”
Two weeks later, she was packing up her small high school room, going to the University of Chicago months earlier than other incoming students to do an internship and begin a side job on campus.
The University of Chicago had been her first choice because it was only a few blocks from their apartment, and, an extremely prestigious school. She planned to major in Business and was truly ecstatic to begin her studies in the fall.
Chapter 2: The Beginning Of A Future
Alicia’s college career went as she expected. There were parties and football games she attended, but certainly not as much as her fellow coeds. She had devoted one year to a serious relationship with a boy who was studying law, so he was as devoted to success as she was. She had actually met Clinton at a college party. Alicia had given herself permission to go out and have fun one Friday night, something that was usually hard for her to do; letting loose seeming like a sin at times. She had sipped enough beer to quench her guilt and forget many of her inhibitions and sat outside with her friends and laughed uncontrollably, not truly remembering what it was they had originally began laughing about.
“You girls want to play a round of beer pong?” a handsome gentleman had asked from afar. She had jumped up, grabbing her friends’ hands, feeling dizzy at first, but agreeing. While they set up the table, she had walked over to the barbecue to grab a burger to help absorb some of the beer she had drank too quickly on such a hot day. The one gentleman she noticed from campus followed her over to the food.
“Will you play on my team?” he asked, sipping a beer himself. She was thankful on days like this for her vibrant, curly, short hair; naturally beautiful that looked its best short, she glanced around and saw most of the other girls sweating profusely, desperately trying to figure out what to do with their long locks and how to keep their makeup from sweating off their faces. Alicia was lucky enough, she knew, to have a natural air of beauty to herself; she never wore much makeup besides a bit of mascara.
“Sure. I’m Alicia,” she had said confidently as she extended a hand. He had taken it gracefully.
“Clinton. Let’s go win this.”
After winning their beer pong game, they had exchanged phone numbers. She was happy that he hadn’t gotten the impression that attending parties was one of her pastimes; in fact, many of their dates were spent in the library or at their local coffee shop, quizzing one another or writing papers. He was as refreshing as the tall cups of coffee they would order, a dark roast who always wore glasses and sweaters with collared shirts underneath.
She made sure to visit her family at least once a week, and found true solace in the fact that Leo had kept his promise to remain on the right path and guide Devon. He worked on weekends and had won a full ride to Madison for basketball. She had cried when, over for dinner one Sunday, he had told her the news. He was embarrassed and shocked, having never seen his older sister cry before.
“Oh kid, I am just so proud of you,” she had said and her mother had again, been a weeping ball of emotions, folded into herself as a young child does.
“I’m so lucky to have such great kids, despite our obstacles and challenges,” she had reminded them.
A few weeks later, when Alicia had brought Clinton home to meet the family, her brothers had been as reserved as she imagined a protective father would be. They had been polite, but not overly so, looking him up and down, until Clinton had called them on it. One aspect she had loved the most about him was that he was not only as devoted as she was to his future and studies, but as blunt and honest as well.
“Hey guys, I get it. I’m supposedly the ‘bad guy’, dating your sister and all…but I promise that I have the best intentions, and that I won’t hurt her.” Her brothers had loosened up a bit after that, and they had eaten home cooked meal of steak and potatoes, a luxury her mother must’ve saved up for, for at least a paycheck or two.
She was genuinely happy and content in her life, proud of her life and accomplishments. She hadn’t missed a class in all four years and while others looked forward to getting drunk on weekends, she sincerely looked forward to her classes. She enjoyed them immensely and one teacher, a calm and collected, strong, independent woman, had taken her under her wing the first few weeks at the school and showed her the ropes of the business courses and world.
During her senior year, she had done an independent study with her and Diane, as she had come to call her, even helped her land a job at a prestigious business after college. She hadn’t known how to thank her, really, except for inviting her to a meal at her mother’s apartment.
Her mother, again, had wept when she and Diane had told her the great news, and she could see the look of honor and admiration each brother had in their eyes, the emotion cloaked deep inside the dark brown.
“I cannot express to you enough how taken aback I have been with your daughter. She is truly going places,” Diane had said, helping herself to another dinner roll. She watched her mother think and ponder what she was going to say next and what followed was a true act of expression that Alicia herself had never witnessed, and that sat within her soul for the remainder of eternity.
“Diane, let me tell you my truth, and this is something my children have never exactly heard from my mouth, verbatim. I was a devoted child, devoted to my studies and boyfriend, Alicia’s father. When I became pregnant at 16, my mother kicked me out. I didn’t have anywhere to turn, so I turned to the man I loved…who, in essence, turned me away. So I moved in with an aunt and had no other option than to drop out of high school quickly and work. It was the biggest tragedy of my life; not Alicia’s father leaving, or any of the other men in my life, not the degrading jobs that I’ve had to take on, not even my own mother kicking me out…dropping out of high school, ‘quitting’, as it is called, broke my soul. I loved school. It was everything to me, and I tried my hardest to instill this into my children. I fell in love with Leo and Devon’s father, but he passed away at an early age, and I continued on, kept on keepin’ on and kept living life, just for the success of my children. So, now to see it all come to fruition, to see my daughter land a dream job and my son receive a scholarship to Madison, and to witness Devon do well in high school, makes my heart so filled with love and pride, it takes my breath away at times. There is no other mother in this entire world that is more proud than her children. It makes every horrible situation I have ever been in worth it…and then even more.” There was a silence at the dinner table, their small and old wooden table bringing all social classes together, all paths of life, bringing everyone together.
“You need to give yourself some credit too, mama,” Alicia pointed out, finally breaking the silence. Her mother threw up her hand.
“Let me give you each your credit,” she insisted. She smiled, her warm dimples lighting up her beautiful face; similar to the lighthouse that guides the way for sailors, her mother’s face had always guided her, being her beacon in the darkness when she felt lost or that she couldn’t achieve her goals or dreams.
“You did it, girl,” Diane said as she had leaned over and squeezed Alicia’s hand.