Her laughter colored the room. “Why?” She countered.
“Wr-wrong...”
“Why?” She sighed the word and continued the stunning act.
Liam’s verbal skills failed him, but he fought through the exquisite pleasure to share his answer. “W-wife,” he gasped and fumbled beneath the covers to lose his fingers in her onyx tresses.
Athena withdrew after a time, her lips leaving a quiet ‘pop’ as they left his shaft still erect.
Liam’s resulting groan of disappointment, curbed into one of pure approval when she seated herself, taking his sex into hers.
“Yes,” Athena purred while sheathing him, taking him deep. She moaned, moving with relish, her concern then for no one’s pleasure save her own. “Yes, this is much better. I do like sucking your cock, though. But...” she sighed, her back bowing sharply as pleasure throbbed throughout her core. “I suppose that’s a more appropriate use for that black bitch you’re keeping in Brooklyn.”
Liam’s next gasp had nothing to do with pleasure.
Athena went on as though she’d said nothing outrageous. She flexed her walls around his erect length and moaned again.
Liam’s shock mingled with satisfaction so intense it was close to painful. Questions stirred, but he was incapable of verbalizing them.
Athena didn’t need him to be vocal. “Did you really think I would never find out? You had no reason to tell me and who am I to be angry anyway after all I’ve done.” She slowed her rotations above his pelvis. “You’ve given me three beautiful sons...so far. The least I can do is to allow you your... dalliances,” she paused to shudder out another approving moan.
“If what I hear about black cunts is true,” she sighed, nails curving into Liam’s sleek chest, “it takes a powerful cock to satisfy one,” she cried out softly then and tacked on a fierce curse as she was ravaged by another wave of intense sensuality. “Does she think she’s the only one? Surely you’re not limiting yourself to just one piece of chocolate, hmm?” She clenched her muscles fiercely around him, her resulting gasp entwined with soft laughter.
Her hips swept his in slow circular motions that beckoned countless sighs and groans from Liam’s throat. Even as they coupled in an ageless rhythm, Athena kept her next words firm. “Tell her I’m willing to share as long as she remembers her place. Will you tell her that, Liam? Will you?”
“Liam? Will you tell her?” Her lilac eyes sparkled with insistence. “Liam?”
“Goddammit! Yes Thea, whatever you want, whatever you want...”
With her husband lost in the throes of erotic elation, Athena cast her focus to her surroundings. The porcelain wash basins, linen sheets, suede comforters. Everything was of the highest quality. The drapes looked like they’d been spun from heavy silk and were drawn to reveal a snow-capped landscape.
She wanted this. She wanted this life-this immaculate life. She knew the man she seduced-the man no one and nothing could take from her-she knew he would be the one to give it to her.
~24~
Brooklyn, New York~1952
Athena studied her husband’s face as though she couldn’t quite believe it was him she looked at.
“You’re serious,” she didn’t sound as if she really wanted an answer. She shook her head and moved deeper into the kitchen. It was hard to believe this was the place they had moved into with such hope so many years ago. It now felt as cramped as a matchbox. The light had gone right out of their home, same as the hope that had once radiated like a beacon.
Liam watched his wife as if he were just as bewildered by her. “I thought you’d be pleased,” he said. “This is something you’ve wanted for years.”
“And you denied it to punish me, didn’t you? Or did your reasons change somewhere along the way?” Her tone matched the accusation in her violet stare. “Have we wasted away here this long so you could stay closer to your black beloved?”
“Athena-”
“I wanted you to want it because I wanted it!” Her still beautiful face was even more striking in the wake of fury when she turned to him. “Because I wanted it, Liam. Not because it would ease the worry of one of your sluts!”
“Her name is Erica.”
“Very good, Liam,” she looked angry enough to spit. “A man should know the name of his whores.”
“I won’t do this with you, Thea.”
“Why? Because I’m not worth it? Because I’m just another slut?!”
“Thea, the boys.”
Athena stilled, the reminder an instant mechanism for reigning in her emotions. She’d always told her boys a lady never yells. She was discovering that sometimes a lady should.
“How could you do this?” The question was quiet on her lips.
Liam didn’t look at all remorseful. “You know about Erica. You told me so, yourself. You gave me your blessing to be with her,” his voice was glacial then.
Athena’s glare was so rabid it could’ve spewed daggers. “I gave you my blessing to fuck her, not to have a bastard with her.”
“He’s my son,” Liam maintained an admirable calm. “He’s coming here to live with us and you will welcome him.”
She blinked. “Coming here?”
“It’ll be some time before the house is ready for us to move in.” Liam spoke of the property he’d recently acquired. The Campbell Christmas party the previous year had been about more than Tesano Textiles business, but securing one of Matthew Campbell’s numerous residential properties.
“And why can’t he stay with his mother until the great day is upon us?” Athena continued to rage. News of the stellar Upstate home she’d always wanted had been cast to a far off burner.
“He just can’t,” Liam said simply. “We would only be here a matter of months-if that.”
Athena smoothed both hands down her robe where it protruded over her belly-over the child she and Liam conceived last Christmas amid the luxury of the Campbell home. “Why now? Why right now, Liam? All these years. I begged and you wouldn’t budge. First it was money, then the workers needed you to stay. You wouldn’t even leave when our lives were in jeopardy. Now you’re ready to abandon our lives in squalor for a big house in the Upstate? Why? Your black-” she stifled the slur when Liam sliced her with a look.
