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As the phone screen turned black, Eli set it down to his stomach, then his eyes continued staring up to the ceiling.
He had to remember that he and Frances were sleeping downstairs in the den of the family home. And this den alone was 3/4's the size of the apartment he grew up in with his mother.
This was the home his father, Montgomery Carter, turned his life around to own. Here, Montgomery raised his daughter, Hope, and his son - whose name seemed to have also been Elijah.
This was the house Montgomery spent his last year living with his wife before being sent to a medical treatment center for his cancer.
And now, it had been a house in which his children - or rather most of his children - had inherited.
Sleeping in here for the last few days left a reminder to Eli that another person had left him for something better. And even though a large sum of money had been bequeathed to him in the will. Eli didn't think $50,000.00 was enough for the 28 years lost and conceived as a mere statistic of his environment.
For a while, he took in the silence of the bedroom as Frances remained in the shower. With what little time he had, Eli took it to wonder just why Greta would call him now after weeks.
What killed him most was how much he realized he missed the sound of her voice. Even with all of the uneven pitches she spoke from through the phone, she still had a way of compressing his heart to the mere yearning he seemed to have when it came to her.
But he knew he had to cut all of that out. Eli was in Georgia now; he had the means to restart his life here. He could let Frances go back to Seattle and try her luck with a man that wasn't so much damaged goods like him.
Eli could send money to Alex to start the bakery, maybe even gain partial ownership from afar. Kelly and Marcus could even share whatever he could offer. It would be the last act of him taking care of the ones he cared about before he wandered off to figure out how to care about himself.
Then, Frances made her presence known from the open bathroom door. With nothing but steam and a towel adorned around her, she smiled wondrously at her friend. "Okay, that was the best shower I've had in years. Is that like a Georgia thing? Or do I just need to make better plumbing decisions with my water pressure?"
And Eli laid there, looking on at her as he only wore his boxers. And ruefully, he grumbled out, "Think that's a rich people thing."
"Well, they're definitely living on a much higher tax bracket than you and me, that's for sure. Starting to think we should just marry our way into this family to make things easier."
But his face showed but a stony expression, which left Frances to grin worriedly. "It's a joke, babe."
"Mhm, sure. Just as long as you know, we ain't stayin' in this house with these people."
Then, Frances grimaced. "You can't hate them; they're your family."
"They his family."
"And had they known you existed..." Protested Frances. "If Hope or Elijah-"
"See, but they didn't." He scowled. And ultimately, he stood to meet her. "That nigga went and named another baby Elijah! Motherfucka basically replaced me and my moms like we ain't shit! They been callin' me Malik like they've known me all my life or some shit!"
But Frances only fell anxious in his newfound rage. And urged to speak to him softly, she grew timid. "Alright, just please don't yell at me!"
"I-" He then sighed, looking away from Frances altogether. "I wasn't trying to yell." He claimed. "I'm sorry."
"It's fine, just... I just wanna be here with you. I want to be here for you. So let me, okay?"
Carefully, Frances bawled her thin hand into a tiny fist, pressing it firmly up against the ridges of Eli's abs. Touching him had a way of soothing her, even if she wasn't the one that needed soothing tonight. But it was late. And after enough awkward and tense interactions between Eli and the family he never knew he had, she only wanted to bring him back to something familiar.
So she leaned up to hug him, then instantly, the boulders he called arms wrapped themselves around her as well. "Can I ask you something?" She spoke up from his chest. "What's going to happen after all this? Are you still flying back with me?"
And Eli only stared down at her with a puzzled look on his face. Conflict had become of him now, enough so that he couldn't help but find his way back to the edge of the bed. And from there, he sat, only to have Frances follow as she stood over him. "C'mon, you promised. It's why I came down here. So I can make sure that you're on that plane with me."
"I'm still tryna figure out why you care so much."
"You know, for a sensitive and caring guy, you're not that perceptive, are you?"
"The hell does that even mean?"
Rolling her eyes, she softly tapped him on the back of his head and stepped away. "I would've thought that after these last few days, it was pretty fucking obvious that I'm into you. And you're into me too; otherwise, you wouldn't have let me come with you."
"Right, well, after everything you've learned about me, I woulda figured that you'd give up on that shit by now."
"Why?" She scoffed. "Because you think you think you're destined to be alone?"
"Because shit don't work out with me."
"Because of Greta?"
"It was never just because of Greta, c'mon..." He huffed. "I moved out to Seattle because I've sunken into the pattern of fucking everything up around me. We're living in exhibit-fuckin-A! And I know that somehow, someway, if I get close enough to you, I'm gonna sink into that place hard. Then things will change. And you'll wanna find something better than Eli Clayton."
She turned back around. Arms crossed and eyes focused, she looked to Eli from the limited distance setting them apart. All of what he said only frustrated her more rather than cleared the air as he had intended to.
"You're not the only one scared of being left alone again. And fuck you for thinking so little of me." Then, she stormed back over to meet him. It was with an immediate clasp; did Frances grab him by his face, forcing the combination of their gazes.
"I flew to another end of the country to support you. And I wanted to support you because I like you. I've liked you for a Goddamn month, and you've been too stubborn to see it. So you listen to me and you listen good, Eli or Malik, or whatever the hell you want to call yourself after all of this... I'm not letting go of this, and you're not getting rid of me that easily."
Eyes and hands quickly found Frances as he pulled her down to straddle his lap. Rushed in with nothing more than bursting affection, he kissed her lips deeply, and Frances couldn't help but rejoice.
She was tossed further across the bed, her towel unraveled in disarray as her limbs were sprawled across each end. He crawled over to her, and she took his face back in for another kiss. Their lips moved fluidly and were unyielding to release.
It was eventual when he kissed down to her neck. And Frances moaned outward to the ceiling. Her legs remained open, her pussy too wet and needy to not go without something being inside of her. In an instant, she urged him out of his boxers, leaving both of their bodies naked to the evening air.
He pierced his way inside, and she hitched a sharp breath amid the entry. "Y-yess..." She crackled like soft lightning through the night. Inch by inch, she shuttered her eyes to the sensation. Then with a whispered, she claimed him in a way no one else ever had.
"Malik, please..." A whisper to his ear was all she gave him. Then Malik obliged her, and Frances clung tightly as the way his dick stroked inside of her grew longer. She felt him go deep again, so much so that she couldn't imagine taking anything as big as this ever again.
He rolled his hips over hers, savoring all the ways she soaked his hard cock.
But then, he pulled out of her, leaving Frances to whine in bewilderment before reaching up to him. "Fuck..." She shivered. "P- put it back in, please?" And before he did that, Malik snatched her body in his grasp.
Dragged over, she was forced upon her front. And just before she prepared her hands to grab the sheets, Malik snatched her arms as well, binding them to her back before he returned his cock into her pussy once more.
Frances reeled before him. Absorbed by his groin and its heavy thrusts, she moaned all her pitches into the sheets. There was an absolution taking over her. This man, in all his brute strength, reveled in how easy he could drag her back and forth on his manly cock and force her to take it all in.
He made her feel like she belonged to him in these deep and passionate strokes. It made the argument they had moments before fall to as much obscurity as all her past heartbreaks. Tonight, she belonged to him, in his hands, over his cock, and within his heart.
As those girthy inches made a home bursting in and out of her flat stomach, Frances rejoiced. "I LOVE YOU!"
And immediately after her lustful confession, Malik made one last heavy pounding to her fragile ass, then stopped mid-grunting. "The fuck you just say?" He snarled.
She tried as hard as she could to look back. And with the sloppy affection strewn across her face, she confessed once again. "I- I love you... I had to say it... I don't care anymore. If you hate me- AH!"
She shrieked as soon as his fingers grabbed her wet hair and tugged her back. With her hands partially freed, they reached to touch his warm, firm skin. She was frightened but invigorated all the same. No one had grabbed her by her hair before. But then again, no one had ever made her feel the way she felt until now either.
Frances felt herself to be at his mercy. And she adored every bit of it. One slow pump after another, and she knew that all must've been well. "I love you..."
"Yeah?"
"I do!"
Suddenly, fingers found their way to her neck now. And Frances knew that all of herself had been relinquished. Tonight, she was had in a way she'd never been had before. He was a force against her, his dick ravaging all the corners of her cunt until she wouldn't remember how tight she was until now.
He pounded through her pussy from behind, and the grinds made against her clit sent her squirming against Malik's torso. And with a choked-out whimper, it was as though all she knew how to do was cum against his rough treatment.
She could feel the droplets of her nectar free themselves from the tiny cracks between his manhood and her flower. But she didn't care if they'd sleep in the mess of their own making. Satisfaction was still waving over her, enough so that she weakly pried herself from his insertion and fell to the sheets.
Frances's body compressed itself in its own sticky pleasure. But she immediately took notice of Malik's fallen body as he lay next to her, coated in sweat.
She reached her lips over, giving his skin a taste through small kisses. Then, her fingers ran down to examine the massive erection still pitched so high below his waist. "You're still hard?"
Tiredly, he chuckled. "Nah, you just came quick this time." With that, she giggled with him.
"No one's fucked me like that before," She admitted. Slowly, she stroked him some, using as much of her own pussy juice as a lubricant before hearing him mutter out.
"I love you too."
Her blue eyes glanced upward at his face, and she smiled softly. "Come back home with me, then. Give me a chance to choose you."
And with labored breaths, Malik nodded, only to watch as Frances climbed him. She carefully sat herself down on his dick, groaning as it only felt like he went much further in her pussy than before.
Now, she was bouncing over his body. And with eagerness, Malik clung tight to her hips. "Will you make me cum again?" She asked him.
At first, he nodded. But that wasn't enough.
"Mmm, make me cum again." She elaborated with a much more silky voice. "Fuck me like you really love me." It was after that, did whatever control she assumed she had, had been suddenly relinquished the moment he began controlling her movements.
It didn't take much for Frances to recall just how strong he was. He bounced her hard, lifting her and dropping her down over the length of his dick. She was forced to match the motions his hips took underneath her. As their rolling became more fluid, she kissed another moan into his lips.
"Harder." She pleaded, soon making him burst his way back into her.
The wet claps of their skin grew more volatile, and her hands fell into a frenzy as she tried to find something sturdy enough to grasp. Ultimately, she gave in to press them both onto his chest. And rocking her body back and forth, they both seemed to be careless of the damage they were giving to the bed.
Mewls and grunts matched in rhythm, and she stared down at him lovingly in preparation for her wish. "Will you cum in me?"
"I got you!"
"Do it, please?"
"I'll cum," He snarled. "I'll fill you up, I promise!"
"Mhmm, fill me up. Give me all your cum!"
And with a final hard pounding, he gave her just what she truly wanted. The immense warmth oozing deep inside of her forced Frances's eyes to roll back as she trembled back down to reality. She stayed on top of him, keeping his creamy finish soaked inside of her cunt until it had nowhere else to go.
After a while, she found herself lying back down, kissing her way up to Malik's lips. "I can feel it." She murmured.
And he murmured back to her. "Feel what?"
"Like we were meant to be."
With that, he kissed her back, and she caressed his bearded face, enveloped in all the satisfaction she could possibly receive. For now she knew that she had him right where she wanted him.
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