My personal security guard pops to his full height. His egg roll of a tail wags against his silky black coat. Hades comes inches from my face, head tipped in question why I’m still in bed.
“Because of your daddy,” I mutter.
All attempts to sleep in had ended in a painful lesson. Hades popped me so hard I almost swung back from reflex until I saw those black eyes. The weight of his paw would’ve concussed me if my braids hadn’t absorbed the blow. Benny had already gotten up to go wherever he went, leaving me face-to-face with a hundred twenty-pound Cane freaking Corso.
Hades nudges me until my bare feet hit the tile, warming from the rising sun filtering through the balcony doors.
“I’m up.”
I’m also naked.
I pull the blanket off the edge of the bed. God knows where my dress is.
My new companion bumps me with his massive build on the trip back to my room. There’s no privacy to pee, brush my teeth, or wash my face. He responds to non farlo, “Don’t do it.” Otherwise, Hades ignores all of my personal boundaries.
I grab my silk butterfly robe and kitten heel slippers to investigate the source of the divine scent. Hades zeroes in on the open window above the sink and a tray of brioche buns resting on the sill.
Gruff.
“I’m hearing you.”
My co-conspirator snatches two buns out of my hands before disappearing out of the open side door.
“Share with your brother!”
He didn’t hear a thing.
I grab a small plate and pack it with buns and fruit to take back to my room. This new peace calls for my morning ritual.
Fresh sun on a clean pussy is my kind of therapy. I rest my kitten heels on the railing, legs spread, lips free, and chin angled to the sky. My thighs part at the streams of light rolling over my breasts as heat seeps into the sunscreen I applied and travels up my neck. It kisses my jaw in a slow drag over my braids in a high bun.
A few days won’t recharge the battery I spent twenty years running into the ground. I count the time I’ve been with Benny. It hasn’t been days; it’s been weeks.
Time flies when you’re not running for your life.
I frown at a life without pleasant weather, bread, and him. I’ll miss Benny once I leave. All the more reason to enjoy my time left here, one with nature and these snacks.
Bougainvillea stirs above my crown of braids. I shift in the desk chair I brought out to the balcony and exhale.
Benny’s house is breathtaking.
Green hills.
The woman in the yard.
“The hell?” I push my sunglasses onto the bridge of my nose.
Sweat and curiosity prick my brow at the random lady seated in a chair. Her hands are in her lap, her mahogany face barely visible from a lace shawl covering her hair.
Like that damn woman who caused chaos in that family’s yard.
Alfred aside, only four people care for Benny’s house. The citrus grove on the other side of the property has more employees, but they don’t come over here. No one arrives before seven, least of all an apparition facing my balcony.
The figure’s head tilts in my direction, her gaze cutting through the distance.
That’s a damn ghost.
I scream, titties bouncing, ass clenched tight enough to hold quarters. Just hooting and hollering, naked on a balcony.
