Page 4 of Mr. Blackwood

“Ohhh, Nick!” I moaned as he filled me and stretched me wide.

My tightness welcomed him, expanding to wrap around his familiar steel. Nick thrust deep inside of me as his hand made its home at the nape of my neck. He slowly worked his way up, tangling his fingers in my hair.

“Is this what you’ve missed?” he asked as he pumped up inside of me with slow measured torture.

“Ahh, yes! Yes, Nick!”

“I’ve missed you, too, beautiful. You feel so good, . . . like coming home.”

He kissed me and slowly dragged his lips to my neck where he bit before his mouth found its home on my nipple. I held him close not wanting it to end, but in time it did. After three orgasms where his mouth once brought me to a release and his dick did twice, we lay side by side in bed.

“This will never work.”

He sighed and replied, “I know. We’ll go to the lawyer’s in the morning.”

2 – JABARI BLACKWOOD

SIX WEEKS LATER

“I don’t give a shit what they said. I told you what needs to happen!”

“Mr. Blackwood, with all due respect—”

“If you can’t make it happen, Wes, what the fuck do I need you for? Huh?” I got up from my seat at the head of the conference table.

I was sick of people telling me what I couldn’t have and what they couldn’t do for me. I was tired of the excuses. Get the shit done or get the fuck off my ship was my motto.

This corporate takeover of Ventura Assets, a financial investment firm, was never supposed to be a hostile takeover, but because Wesley Stokes, one of my investment bankers had fumbled the ball early in the process, we were at this point.

I looked around the table at Wes; Sebastian Chambers, the other investment banker; Colton Webster and Peter Calloway, my mergers and acquisitions attorneys; Elian Jacobs, my COO; and Francesca “Frankie” Porter, my executive assistant and right hand.

“I said I wanted a muthafuckin’ dream team at this table, and y’all sitting here killing the dream. Do I need to dismantle the team and build one from scratch? Because if so, it’s going to hit y’all’s pockets hard.”

There were a series of muttered “no’s” around the table. My team was used to my cantankerous nature, so I wasn’t sure why they’d given me so much pushback on the deal. I didn’t take no for an answer in anything that I did. I could also be the most professional person I knew, but when people started acting an ass and like they didn’t understand my requests, I would go straight back to the hood on them.

I owned and was the CEO of Blackwood Realty, a commercial real estate company and Blackwood Investments, commercial banking and investment banking firms under JCB & Co. As the CEO, I delegated a lot of things to various people, but some things, like mergers and acquisitions, I kept my finger on.

I hadn’t always been a CEO, nor did I always have a five-bedroom, seven-bathroom Mediterranean style mansion. I also didn’t always have six vehicles housed at my home: a motorcycle, Bentley, Range Rover, Mercedes Benz S Class, Cadillac Escalade, and Subaru BRZ. The Subaru was strictly for racing. That was the only thing about me that hadn’t changed much over the years. I had always had a fascination for fast cars and fast women, but it had been a long time since I raced cars.

My fascination with racing came when I realized I had nothing left to lose. I lost everything that mattered in my twenties. Though I was a billionaire with national companies at forty-two, none of it really mattered. Without anyone in my life who cared about me now, nothing else made much difference. As hard as I worked to climb up from slinging dope in Carver Homes to where I was today, all of it could be lost tomorrow. I’d be fucked up, but not as fucked up as I was over losing my family.

Money was nice to have; power was even better in measure. Yet, none of that could replace the love of having family around you to enjoy it, share it, and keep you humble and guide you. There were few people in my life who I completely trusted. Sure, there were people I trusted with parts of myself, but there were only three people who knew the real me.

I didn’t even have a woman in my life that I could trust with anything, especially not my heart. Only two women held that privilege, and I would never give it to another one. Shenobi Quarterman, was the woman I vowed to marry. We met at eighteen, and she was by my side until twenty-two. I hadn’t meant to push her away, but my grief wouldn’t let me fight for her. She wanted the old me, not the person I was becoming.

The next woman who gained my heart, came years after I thought I was healed. Jessica Monroe, was my woman for three years between the ages of thirty three and thirty six. I thought we were on the same page with living life, building our empires, and having a committed relationship. When she changed her mind about wanting marriage and kids, I knew it was over. Those weren’t things that fit into my life. I gave her everything that I could possibly give; unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. Since then, there was nothing but a string of meaningless affairs. I found companionship in North Carolina at Club Prestige or in Miami at Kings and Queens.

Both were exclusive members-only adult clubs that offered a variety of options to please its members sexual appetites. They were the perfect fit for me because I didn’t have to put too much into caring for someone’s emotions or trying to navigate the requirements of a relationship. I was free to appease my body’s desires, and I could move on freely after the encounter.

“What needs to happen to make this deal go through?” I asked.

“We’ll structure a feasible financial offer they cannot refuse and one that makes sense to your bottom line,” Sebastian stated.

I turned to Colton and Peter next. “We’re reviewing securities regulations and antitrust requirements to make sure that we’re covered on our end,” Peter declared.

I nodded and as the discussions went on, I paced around the office trying to calm my temper. I needed a cigar, but I didn’t smoke in meetings or around my staff, unless we were having the rare team outing.

I took a seat after a while, but I still was agitated. My glance bounced around the room and then to the security monitors on the wall. No matter which one of my buildings I was in, I could see an image of everything that was taking place in and around the building at any given moment. I had monitors in my offices across the city because I didn’t take protection lightly, and I never wanted my bodyguard or myself to be caught off guard.