Total pages in book: 40
Estimated words: 40037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 200(@200wpm)___ 160(@250wpm)___ 133(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 200(@200wpm)___ 160(@250wpm)___ 133(@300wpm)
“I still. . .need time. . .to think about all of this.”
“You’ll get no time to think.” His mouth was at my ear.
I could feel his breath tickling the hair at my temple. “Santino. . .”
“Perhaps, I should stop talking to you with my words.” He rocked against my body. His erection pressing against my stomach. “Maybe, you need my cock to finish the conversation.”
The door creaked open.
A shocked gasp rose in the room.
With an annoyed groan, Santino backed away to see who was interrupting.
“Kashmere!” My grandmother’s voice roared. “Are you a whore now? Have you no respect for yourself or this family?”
Shock hit me. “Grandma, I’m sorry. We were—”
“Where’s your self-respect? Never mind. You have none.” Rage filled her eyes. “And in your brother’s office!”
Santino growled at her, “Don’t talk to Kashmere like that.”
Stunned, she stared at him with her mouth open. “Who are you to be talking to me?”
“Okay. Hold on, everyone.” I got up from the desk and straightened my clothes. “Santino, I need to talk to my grandmother. . .alone.”
He frowned. “I’ll be in the hallway.”
I brushed down my gown. “Thank you.”
Santino stomped off.
Grandma stared at me in disgust.
9
Bitch
Kashmere
I
was humiliated by how Grandma found us, but I knew I truly hadn’t done anything wrong. Her face was a dark thundercloud about to unleash a storm of rage.
Once Santino left and shut the door, dread filled my heart.
I watched in horror as she came closer and closer. Each step was steady and terrifying. The silence was deafening as I prepared for what I knew was coming. The air grew heavy.
And I had the sad, sinking feeling that I was about to be emotionally torn apart.
Stand strong, Kash. And don’t grab a gun and shoot her.
If Grandma was anyone else, I would have knocked her the fuck out for even coming into the office without knocking. But she was my grandmother.
Since a baby, I’d known to have the utmost respect for her.
I tried to appear courageous, but the pressure on my shoulders was becoming too much. I could feel my calm cracking.
She stormed my way. “Have you lost your mind?!”
“I didn’t.”
“He had you on your brother’s desk like a common $5 whore strolling around the street.”
I spoke through clenched teeth. “These are modern times, Grandma. There are no whores walking the street for $5 anymore.”
She jabbed her finger my way. “Don’t you play around with me or try to twist my words.”
“I’m not. I’m just trying to say that times are different.”
“So different that there aren’t any more morals left in this world?”
“Morals, grandmother? Where are our morals these days?”
She glared. “What?!”
“You helped the Board pimp me out to the first white guy with a bunch of guns. Then, you have the nerve to come in here and judge me, after I made the best of it and followed orders—”
“Follow orders!? You’re in here slutting yourself out before he can even put a ring on your finger. And Simon told me that you were disrespectful to him in the hallway!” She raised her hands in the air and came closer to me. “Following orders? Is that what you think you’ve been doing tonight?”
I touched my chest. “I have been doing my best.”
“Then, your best is not good enough.”
“Grandma, you’re not being fair. I—”
“Chanel would have never—”
“I’m not Chanel.”
“You sure aren’t.”
“And. . .I’m not Romeo either.”
She spat the next words at me. “And you never will be!”
I gritted my teeth. “I’m going to rule Killer Crows in my way.”
“You know nothing, little spoiled girl.”
“I know enough to be here. I am—”
“Nothing but a simple-minded whore!”
My bottom lip quivered with anger. “That’s not fair.”
“You were supposed to be in the ball room, eating and toasting to this new union, not half naked and on your brother’s desk with your legs open.”
My control crumbled. “This is my desk!”
“This is your brother’s desk! The one who died, defending himself for this family!”
“Oh that’s total bullshit.”
“Do you dare defame your brother?”
“I love him more than anybody, but tell the truth. Before Romeo’s killer came to him, Romeo was in a brothel waiting to get fucked by a guy and girl—”
“The devil is a lie!” She raised her hand to slap me. I tried to block it, but her hand was a blur of motion. Her palm cracked against my cheek. The sound of the slap echoed in my head.
The force of the blow made me stumble backward into the desk.
Oh, hell to the fucking no!
Rage tornadoed through me.
I gripped my hands together to hold myself back from strangling her. My nails dug deep into my palms, and I welcomed the pain, wishing it could be her neck instead of my hands.
“Look at me!” she yelled.
Don’t slap her back.
I could barely focus.
Listen. . .Don’t slap your grandma.
My emotions swirled like a violent vortex.
That rule is in the Bible or something. You can’t do it.