His Marriage Demand

“Dinner is for family, twenty minutes won’t cut into your time. Why exactly do you have so much homework over the weekend, anyway?”

“Because Mr. Simonson is trying to make a name for himself by being a hard teacher. But he’s not hard, he just gives us more work that he doesn’t even always grade because he gives so much. Still, if we don’t do it and turn it in, then we lose points for not doing it. Kevin swears he turned in homework that was pure crap and it wasn’t even graded. He just got the points for it being done. If I were to try it, I know I’d get caught and lose the points. All the gifted teachers try to be hard, and since Mr. Simonson is new this year, he’s trying make a name for himself.”

“So is the work he’s giving you helping you learn more about the subject, or is it basically busy work?”

“I don’t know, it doesn’t feel like it’s helping. Especially when it’s not even stuff we go over in class. He tells us if we’re doing it then we’ll get it. It’s advanced calculus. I was doing calculus for the first time last year, but nothing like this.”

“So, you aren’t learning anything?”

“I honestly don’t know. Sometimes it feels like it but in class we just keep going over the basics, none of the stuff we do from the book is even in the book the school gave out.”

“Go get your homework and let me see it.” Justin comes back with his notebook for calculus and the book. Drake is looking through the pages intently, then he looks angry. “This is an advanced calculus book given to college students their final year to get their degree for engineering. Your homework, all the work you’ve done, you’re getting the basics, but—no, this isn’t right and he should know that. Whatever homework you have from him, don’t do it. I’ll talk to your principal on Monday.”

Justin’s eyes widen. “What are you going to do?”

“Don’t worry about what I’m going to do. You’re in the gifted program to learn and engage at a higher level, not to be a workhorse and kept busy. If he’s not going to actually teach at a higher level then he shouldn’t be there. Eat your dinner.” Drake closes the book with a thud and a shake of his head. “No wonder you were so close but didn’t pass. Maybe if you had a real teacher you would have passed.”

“How did you know how close I was?”

“I talked to MIT and the person who administered and graded your test, Lacy Dugan. She’s happy to know you’ll be able to attend next year. She was sure if she could have worked with you a little more, you would have had it. She’ll be one of your professors.”

“You’ve already talked to MIT?” I ask in surprise.

“Of course, I wanted to know how well he did on the testing and notify them he’ll be attending next year. I also wanted to know if there was anything he’ll be needing. Lacy put me in contact with a tutor who can get him where he needs to be. He’s advanced and learns quickly and easily, but he’s just short of where the school would like him to be. That’s why we’ll make the move as soon as possible after school ends.”

“How do you know all this about calculus and where the book came from?” Justin asks with interest.

“I had an earlier edition of it from Harvard. I did a double major in economics and in engineering to scare my dad. I was doing calculus at your age, I wasn’t a genius, I just learned quickly. Something similar happened to me in middle school, the teachers had no idea what they were doing. When my father found out, he pulled me out altogether. I had a governess until I was sixteen, and she had taken me as far as she could. I got into Harvard and off I went, it took a little longer for me to graduate because of the double majors. I came away with a masters in economics and a bachelors in engineering.”

“I didn’t know that. The bios on you mention Harvard and you were the fourth generation of your family to go. Nothing about how young you were or the double majors.” I’m startled to be surrounded by two men so much smarter than me. I had never gotten farther than Algebra in high school.

“That’s because my father didn’t want people to know I was on my own at such a young age, for security reasons. I didn’t look young, as far as everyone else at Harvard could tell I was eighteen. I’ve been tall since I was fourteen and started working out at fifteen when I started to get bored with the governess.”

“Wow, I thought a governess was someone rich people in England had in the eighteen hundreds.” Justin exclaims with excitement.

“No, not just in England in the olden days. My father wasn’t happy about me going off to school so young. He wanted to get me someone else, but I talked him into letting me go to Harvard instead.”

Dinner ended with Justin asking question after question about Boston and the area and our upcoming move. When we’ve finished the best ravioli and tiramisu I have ever had outside of an Italian restaurant, I get the tour of the house Drake had given Justin already. We leave Justin in the downstairs television room. It really was a room devoted to tele

vision with a fifty-inch projector set up for viewing. Justin made sure I knew it wasn’t even the movie room, which was downstairs along with the gym, bowling alley and had a movie popcorn maker in it. We said goodnight and warned him not to stay up late.

He called us grandparents for wanting to go to bed so early and we didn’t look at each other as we agreed with him. We both knew we wouldn’t be sleeping.

Chapter Seven

Drake points out the room he’d steered Justin to, which is four doors down from the master bedroom. He closes the door, leans against it and pulls me close.

“It’s only been seven hours since I was inside you, but it feels like an eternity.” He moans into my mouth and I groan in agreement as I tear at the buttons on his shirt. Pulling off my stretchy top in one movement his hands cup me in my black silky bra. “So fucking perfect. You get it, sweetheart, you fucking get it all. I love that. I went shopping for you, I was dying, remembering what you wore, and wondering about the dress. Thank god Justin waved me off without asking where I was going. Get undressed for me, sweetheart, while I get what I got you.” With a gentle push in the direction of the massive bed, Drake opens what appears to be a gigantic walk in closet.

I tear off my bra and push my jeans and panties down in one excited rush. Kicking off my flats, I pull back the sheets and get into bed. I’m about to get under the covers, when I see it and burn with embarrassment. It was the picture of Drake I had cut out of the newspaper last year, on what I can only assume is my side of the bed. I packed it this morning, not expecting anyone to unpack the suitcase. I wasn’t ready to get rid of it.

“Don’t blush, I loved finding it. It made me feel so damned good. Look on the other side of the bed.” Setting the bag on the bed, he’s as naked as I am. I love how beautiful and easy he is with his nakedness. I can see it’s a very large bag from the store I bought the negligee from yesterday. I’m wondering how many he bought as my bag had been a quarter of the size of his. Looking at the other side of the bed I see a beautiful silver frame with a picture of me. “Latisha, that bitch.”

“Don’t call her a bitch, I wanted to kiss her on the mouth when she sent it to me. I came in, sure I was nonchalant when I asked how things were going for both of you for the night, because she was alone at the desk. Her look told me that I wasn’t fooling anyone. She said you weren’t working, it was her and Reese. She asked me to confirm my cell phone number. When I got in the elevator she sent me the picture. The next day I had it blown up and put in the frame.”

“Oh, Drake, Latisha isn’t the bitch I am. She caught me cutting the picture of you out of the paper at work two days before she took it. She set me up, made it seem like she was checking out her new phone.”

“You have no idea how often I held that picture in my hand, wishing it was you instead.”