Wutless
An excerpt from The Pleasure is Mine
We are nearing the end of Carnival, here in Antigua, but for some people the last few days are what Carnival is all about. The following excerpt from The Pleasure is Mine, a steamy, contemporary Caribbean romance, which is available in print and ebook through Amazon features one of the highlights of Carnival in a small island.
Fuchsia. Aqua. Purple. Brightly coloured fabric clung to brown skin that varied from almost white to the deepest of black. Rivulets of sweat coursed down bodies that gyrated under a fierce afternoon sun. Countless bodies made their way up High Street, the heat a distant memory as Machal's big tune pounded in alcohol-infused vessels of true wutlessness.
"Ah who yuh a look fah?" his fingers dug into Kailah's hips as his words vibrated against the back of her neck and crept their way into her ear.
It was only then that Kailah realized that she and the faceless man were not in the same rhythm. She was rolling her hips at a quicker tempo than his slow grind. A grind that had his erection tight against Kailah's backside.
When he first came up behind her, Kailah chose not to look back and she was rewarded with a man who knew how to use his waistline. Why look back? To see a man who on any random day, she would never give a second look? Or to see a man who she either worked with or went to school with, a man she would never misbehave with? This was Carnival. This was T-shirt Mas and all she wanted to do was let loose. And let loose Kailah did until he asked that question.
Pulling away, Kailah turned around, expecting to see a man who was average at best. What she found was a tall, black man, the hem of his aqua blue T-shirt was pulled up and behind his neck exposing a body that was not created in a gym during the last 6 months. This man either lived in the gym or did hard labour. His eyes met Kailah's gaze before he brought his flask of rum punch to his lips. A tiny stream of sweat curled its way down his broad chest and along the ripples of his stomach before disappearing down his low slung shorts. Shorts that barely contained his thick hardness.
From what Kailah felt, the man with hair cut low and beard grown long had something to brag about. And by the way his hips moved, he knew how to use what God had blessed him with.
Now looking at him, Kailah saw someone worth considering. He wasn't Kevin. He wasn't Theo. He, at this moment, was a complete stranger with so much possibility. Why bother with the past? Why bother with complicated? Why bother with forever?
She stepped forward. This was Carnival. His erections snug against her. He smiled and Kailah returned it as she let the music fill her. She let the possibilities fill her mind. Kailah wrapped her arms around his hard body. If they weren't in the middle of High Street, the middle of St. Paul's. If...
Pale skin in a sea of dark skin. She saw just a little of it out of the corner of her eye and Kailah's head snapped to the side.
As she scanned the crowd, she heard a tsk, before she felt a fingertip under her chin. He pulled her face to his. "Ah who yuh a look fah?" he looked at her, his patience draining away. When no response came, he pulled away.
Kailah watched the stranger with so much to offer walk away. She pulled her gaze away as he saddled up behind a light-skinned woman who had turned her fuchsia T-shirt into a one-piece bathing suit that was more pieces that suit.
Ah who yuh a look fah? Although he was gone, his hips rolling behind someone else, his question remained. Kailah shook her head, refusing to answer it, even to herself. Turning around, she joined the crowd as it trailed up the street. She tried to let the rum punch dull her senses. She tried to let the music pulse through her body, but now that her inhibitions were loosened all she wanted was to feel his arms around her. His hands on her hips as he rolled his hardness against her backside.
Kailah came to an abrupt stop when she realized that the 'he' of her desires was not the stranger who had just left her, but... Theo. Standing in the middle of the street, the crowd streamed around Kailah with only the truly drunk bumping into her.
Then she appeared in front of Kailah. Her neck rolled as her body jerked about, she was nowhere close to catching the rhythm. Then she saw Kailah and an oily smile oozed across her freckled face and puddled on her lips as she came to a stop.
"He's mine," she slurred. Kailah smelled the alcohol on her breath and took in the sweat that clung to her hairline.
Despite her bravado, Amber flinched when Kailah glared back at her, then she clamped back on her mask of superiority. Then Amber looked over her shoulder and flipped her red hair at her, Kailah looked to see what the cunt/whore was looking at. A few yards away Kevin was approaching with Theo close behind.
Amber bumped past Kailah and with barely a glance, Kevin followed. Paying him no mind, Kailah studied Theo as he got closer. He was en route to Amber, but his gaze was on Kailah. Then he stopped in front of her. As he opened his mouth, a horn blared from up above and when they looked across, a truck pulling a sound system was almost on top of them.
Flores's Throw Down Something filled the air as Theo pulled Kailah to the side of the road. Leaning into her, he yelled, "I have to keep..." the rest was lost as the revelers grew thick and the speakers on the truck passed in front of them.
Thinking she had heard all that he said, Theo dove into the crowd and cut a path through it in the direction Amber and Kevin had gone. Kailah followed trying to keep sight of the purple shirt he was wearing, but it soon disappeared. She thought she had found him again, but when she reached out and pulled him back, she came face to face with an older man looking down at her in confusion.
With an apologetic smile, Kailah waved her hands and stepped back, letting the crowd swallow her. Frustration consumed her as people in fuchsia, aqua, and purple shirts jammed around her. Not one of them was the man she was... the man she was looking for.
Who was she kidding? Sobriety had fully kicked in and with it came the facts. Theo was with or was following Amber and he had no time for Kailah. Closing her eyes, Kailah clawed back the emotions that arose from these facts. When she opened them, the crowd had passed with a few stragglers bopping up the road.
Looking around at the people at the side of the road who had come to watch the T-shirt Mas, Kailah didn't feel like jumping up. The plan was to go to the end, but now all Kailah wanted to do was curl up in bed and forget.
With a sigh, Kailah walked to the nearest intersection and cut through the crowd onto the side street. Walking through St. Paul's to the edge of the city, Kailah tried to forget the look on Kevin's face as he followed the red-haired cu... young woman. She passed through the revelers of Madness and tried to forget Theo jumping into the crowd, following... Amber.
It took ten minutes from the heart of St. Paul's to Princess Margaret's Highway where Kailah had parked her vehicle. I should give up, she told herself as she unlocked the SUV. Amber said it herself, he was hers.
Jamming the key in the ignition, Kailah growled and hit the steering wheel. The hell he is. The only way she would accept that is if Theo told her that himself.
Reaching into the slot under the steering wheel, Kailah pulled out her phone and opened the Whata'gwan app. She opened the chat and typed up a message before hitting the send icon. Then she looked out the windscreen.
She had parked facing west and now she was gazing at the sky now a rosy pink with wisps of golden clouds. Why let that little incident rain on her parade? Even when it had rained in the past, it had never stopped Kailah from enjoying herself on the streets of St. Paul's.
Chucking the phone back into its hiding place, Kailah pulled the key out of the ignition. She got out the Rav4 and locked it back before retracing her steps back to the parade.
For now, she would be Destra's Lucy. For now, Kailah would be wutless. Somehow she had found the Eros troop and as she joined the crowd, she saw the man who had walked away for the woman in the one-piece suit.
With a new spirit of wutlessness, she came up behind him, wrapping her arms around him and reaching for his flask. He whipped around, clutching the flask, but when he saw her, a small smile formed but a question lingered in his eyes.
Leaning into him, Kailah yelled in his ear, "Just the one I'm looking for."
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