The Other Side of the Pillow

“Then can you do me a favor and at least come drink at my fountain?”

I pulled my fingers out and sucked on them, one at a time.

“Um, you don’t know what you’re missing.”

“Oh, I know it very well. I would know it anywhere.” He chuckled and walked toward me. “That’s my pussy.”

“Damn right it’s your pussy. And you need to stop neglecting it. It’s going to get a complex. Pussies can have low self-esteem. We don’t want to have to put her in therapy.”

Tevin laughed and kneeled beside me. I took my leg off the table and placed it over his left shoulder.

He stared at my pussy like it was a rare diamond.

“God has made a lot of beautiful things in this world, but you are a masterpiece.”

Whenever I was intimate with Tevin, he made me feel so unique and special. Other men in my past had never done that. Sure, they made me feel like they cared, but they never made me feel like I was one-of-a-kind. Tevin did that for me, and I loved him all the more for it.

“You make me feel so . . . exceptional,” I said, running the fingers from my other hand through his hair. “You always make me feel so damn special.”

He gazed up into my eyes. “That’s because you are. You’re everything to me, Jemistry. Everything. Sure, I’m passionate about my career. I’ve accomplished a lot in my lifetime and still have a long way to go, hopefully. But what good does it do a man to prosper if he loses his soul in the process. You are my soul.”

Not sure how it happened but I was crying. He wiped my tears.

“I’m so glad that you decided to finally allow me the honor of becoming your husband.”

“Tevin, I never had any doubts about marrying you. That’s not what it was about. I just—”

He placed three fingers over my lips. “Shhhh, it doesn’t matter whether you had any doubts or not. All that matters is that it’s really happening.” He moved his hands down over my stomach. “Everything is really happening. I’ve always wanted a family. A woman to come home to, a child to play with, and a legacy to leave behind.”

I pulled Tevin’s face to mine and kissed him intensely. We must have kissed for a good ten minutes. It had been a while since we had shared a kiss so full of unspoken words and feelings. I was still crying but it was all out of joy.

When we finished kissing, Tevin lowered his head and drank from my fountain.

TEVIN

Chapter Thirty-two

“When we are in love, we seem to ourselves quite different than what we were before.”

—Blaise Pascal

Even though I had been married before, taking Jemistry as my wife had an effect on me that was foreign to me. We got married at a small church in Northeast, DC, with about thirty people present. It could have been three, three hundred, three thousand, or just us and I would have been ecstatic.

Courtney and Floyd were there with their children, several of Jemistry’s coworkers and their spouses, including Lilibeth and her husband, and both of my sisters came with their families and both of my parents. My father flew in from Sweden and I was not the least bit surprised.

It was interesting seeing my parents interact. Even though they discussed their offspring from time to time, they had not actually seen each other in several years. Daddy was happy for me but I could tell that he was also sad about ruining the one good thing he ever had: his connection with my mother.

What happened between them was the main reason why I would never, ever cheat on a woman. I watched the pain Mom had endured at the hands of my father and there was no way that I could ever do that to another individual, much less someone that I loved. Too many men did the exact opposite. They followed in their fathers’ footsteps and made a mockery out of marriage. That could never, and would never, be me.

Jemistry walked down the aisle in a stunning, off-white, floor-length gown. Two of the students from the school choir—a male and a female—sang a duet for her entrance: “After All is Said and Done” by Marc Nelson and Beyoncé.

Both of us cried during the ceremony, along with everyone else, even Floyd. We had a reception on a chartered, pr

ivate yacht and sailed up and down the Potomac River for three hours. It was an amazing day.

I got Jemistry the suite she’d requested at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel—the Presidential Suite. The suite had three bedrooms and it was more than 3,500 square feet. No, we did not need all of that but Jemistry was worth every penny.

We actually made use of most of the rooms, though. We made love like we had never made love before. After speaking to Dr. Horton myself a few days earlier, he had not only assured me that it was fine for us to have sex, but he also told me that Jemistry was “sexually frustrated” and had asked him to call me to discuss, one medical professional to another. She tickled me.