Loving Adonis: A Scandalous Love Affair

By Jessica M.

What happens when both love and loyalty are put to the test between the ones you call family? When it’s all said and done, is blood indeed thicker than water?

Karmen Howard vowed early on no one, and she meant no one would run her life. She lived her life how she wanted, not worrying about what others thought about it. Amongst those people who wanted to call the shots in her life was her religious father who only drove her further away. Then there was her husband, Adonis, who she had been with her entire life. 

Adonis, every women’s dream man, came from the hood and was never seen as the type a “Howard” girl should be with. However, being with Karmen made him want to change his ways and become a better man. While he strives to be what she needs, his wife’s wounds run deeper than he’ll ever know. Just when doing all he can to be what she needs began to weigh him down, his sister-in-law moves in with them which takes their lives on a rollercoaster in a completely different direction.

While both girls were raised in a Christian home under strict rules and demands, Kashae knew it had to be more to life. Unexpectedly, being able to move in with her sister and brother in law she was ecstatic, but what she didn’t bank on was what was to come. Realizing her sister and brother in law didn’t have the picture-perfect marriage threw her for a loop. They always seemed happy and so in love but being under the same roof with them proved differently.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Royalty Publishing House
• Release date: Jan 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9781637181706

Book preview

Kashae

T ake care of our baby, Karmen, my father spoke firmly to my sister as he hugged me for the millionth time as he and my mother were headed to Knoxville, Tennessee where he would become the leading pastor of Upper Shady Baptist Church.

I know right. That shit sounded crazy as hell. I had no idea why anyone would name their damn church shady, but anyway. My father’s long-time friend died and in his will it stated he was leaving his church to my father. The only thing about it was the church was about three hours from where we currently lived in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

See, my father was already a pastor, but his congregation was small. Maybe a hundred and fifty people attended at the most, but now he was heading off to lead a congregation of about a thousand. He saw it as a blessing and if it’s what he wanted, then that’s what I wanted for him. All in all, he was a good man, but like everyone else, he had his ways. He was deeply religious. I mean that insane religious type. I respected him, but some of the things he required were just downright ridiculous.

For instance, I couldn’t be with the opposite sex alone. Yea, even at twenty, he still expected me to be chaperoned on dates. There was no showing of affection, not even kissing on the cheek if it was from the opposite sex, unless it was him, of course. I had to attend every bible study and Sunday service. My dresses or shorts all had to be knee length, only a small amount of makeup was permitted, if any at all, and the list of bullshit could go on and on, but you get my drift.

So, when they suggested that I live with my sister and her husband Adonis, who we all called Don, I was all for it. My intent was to never be fast or no shit like that, but damn, I did want to live a little and actually look and dress like a twenty-year-old.

When I was roughed up and almost raped by some low-life boys one night a year or so ago, it messed me up in the head pretty bad. It had me questioning everything. I questioned God and how he could allow something like this to happen to me. I questioned myself and how I could barely fight back when they tried to take my most prized possession, and I questioned my sister as to why she would send me to her car that time of the night by myself to get her cell phone that she had left behind. My life was in shambles, so when they suggested I move in with my sister Karmen and her husband Don, I was all for it, especially since that meant I could keep my therapist and at the same time I could find out what this world that I was shielded from had to offer.

Oh Daddy, she will be just fine. She’s a grown up now. Karmen rolled her eyes in our direction.

My sister loved me, without a doubt I knew that, but I think in a small sense she despised me too. I was Daddy’s heart and she knew it. Don’t get me wrong, my father would lay his life down for both of us, but he and I had always just clicked. I couldn’t explain it. I was his favorite and Karmen was our mother’s favorite. Did I care? Of course not, because in the end I knew my mother would do anything for me.

She is grown in age, but she will always be my baby. He kissed the top of my head.

Let’s go Harvey. My mother hugged my sister once more before making her way to where my father and I stood in an embrace.

Give your mother a hug, baby, so we can get out of here. I’m going to miss you honey. She wrapped her arms around me, gently squeezing.

My mother and I had never been close, but we got along. I would for sure miss her and her good cooking. She had so much to offer, but she always just did as my father told her to. Maybe that’s why we weren’t as close as I would like for us to be. I always viewed my mother as weak. She had the potential to open up her own bakery or alteration shop. People told her that all the time, but all she did was smile and brush it off. Her main goal in life seemed to be running behind my father like a little puppy, waiting for her master to tell her what to do next. I hated feeling like that about her, but it was the truth.

My mother was beautiful inside and out. She put me in the mind of Lynn Whitfield with her stylish ways and caramel-colored skin. Now if only she had a backbone like the real Lynn Whitfield. Nope, don’t know Lynn personally, but she didn’t look like the type that would put up with someone’s bull. My mother could be sassy, but you barely saw that side, due to my father. He didn’t like a sassy female. He claimed females should be seen and not heard.

My father was indeed the true definition of a pastor and he played the part to a tee. He was always in his Sunday’s best. My daddy was fly. People always said he looked like he could be Idris Elba’s brother. With his low fade, neatly trimmed beard, chocolate skin, and nice physique, my daddy could for sure pass for Idris’ older brother. He carried himself well and everyone noticed, especially the females. You think it bothered my mother? Hell no! Kalissa Howard was the shit. Maybe weak when it came to my father behind closed doors, but when it came to the church and the chicks in it, you couldn’t tell my mother shit. She always had her head held high, and her strut in six-inch heels were on point. Any room she stepped foot in, she was a show stopper. Men envied my father and women wanted to be my mother.

I’ll miss you too, I responded as she let me go.

Alrighty, call when you guys make it in. My sister smiled and waved as our father opened the passenger door of his new black Bentley for our mother to get inside.

The church had already sent him plenty of money so that he could look the part when he arrived at his new church home. Not only did he have enough money to get him a new Bentley, but he had paid off our old house that was getting rented out starting next week, and my sister’s house too, even though she and Don had plenty of money of their own. He called it a gift for looking after me since I’d be living with them.

Both my sister and I stood in her driveway waving and smiling at our parents as they backed out headed to their new adventure.

You are so damn selfish!

Me! Selfish! No, that’s all you Don!

The screaming and yelling woke me up from what I thought was a bad dream until I rolled around in the extra comfy bed that now belonged to me. My sister had good taste and I guess that’s why she’s one of the most sought-after interior decorators in the Carolinas. Karmen had always been into fashion and decorating; therefore, I knew she would one day make it big with her expertise, but our father viewed it as a hobby. He felt like we should be lawyers, doctors, nurses, teachers, and maybe even preachers or community activists. He said the Lord made us to do big things. So, unlike Karmen, I yielded to being a teacher. Not saying I didn’t love kids, that’s not it, but if I had my way, I’d probably write books about love. Secretly, I’d write love stories about romance when no one was at home. See, even at twenty, my father still had a right to enter my room and go through my things at his leisure. He always proclaimed it to be for my own good, but I felt like his ass was just controlling and nosey. Like I mentioned earlier, we were close and we clicked on many levels, but deep down, I felt like we only clicked because I did what he requested of me. In a way, the things I hated about my mother were the same things I did when it came to my father. What I hated the most was what I was becoming.

Anyway, my father didn’t pay one cent for Karmen to attend design school. Well, leave it to my big sis to say fuck Daddy and his money, because she went to school, worked two jobs, and paid her own way. That’s the one thing about Karmen that I envied. She didn’t allow our father to dictate her life. She wore what she wanted to wear. She talked how she wanted to talk and she married who she wanted to marry.

Karmen and Don were high school sweethearts, but according to our father, he wasn’t good enough for a Howard, as he often put it. Don came from the projects on the Southside of Spartanburg and my father thought he was poor trash and would only be on street corners selling drugs his entire life. After realizing that my sister would not back down and stop seeing Don, he had no choice but to accept him. Now they got along, but that was it. Cordial was how I would put it.

Don defied the odds. After being born to two crack addicts and becoming a drug-dealing teenager to make ends meet, he just stopped and began to make better decisions. I always said it was thanks to Karmen because I never saw her being with a bad boy like Don. Instead of leaving him, she pushed him to be a better man, so here we are today with the Mr. Adonis Nash that was a financial advisor for one of the biggest law firms in South Carolina. Don, to me, was the definition of a come up, as many would say. His mother and father were crack addicts, so he often spent nights with friends and other family members so he could bathe and eat. For many years, I had an infatuation with Don. He and Karmen were both six years my senior, so I envied their relationship. She was the so-called good girl with the money, as I heard people say, while Don was the bad boy ready to turn her into a bad girl.

Don was sexy as hell with his six-feet, slim build, low fade covered in waves that would damn near have you drowning in them, and let us not talk about his smooth, mocha complexion that mirrored a newborn baby’s ass. It was safe to say I had a few wet dreams about my brother-in-law, but of course, none that I would act on. He was just a fantasy since I had never had the real thing. You heard me right. At twenty, my goodies had not been tampered with. At least not with the real thing anyway.

I snuck and bought a few sex toys when I would hang with my secret best friend, Meesha. Meesha was from the Southside like Don, and we met in college. She was everything that my ass was not. Meesha was outgoing, witty, funny, and spoke her mind. I loved hanging with her because she brought this spontaneity into my life that I had been missing. She was short with a dark Hershey bar complexion, a nice curly fro due to her being on her natural thing these days, a fat ass, and boobs like a thirty-year-old. She wore it well though and she had the niggas going wild. I heard from more than a few that Meesha was a lil’ freak, but hey, to each its own. Who was I to judge? Of course, my parents banned me from ever seeing or hanging with her again when they caught me with Meesha having lunch after one of my classes. My parents did little shit like that, that made me hate them. They would pop up in the student center or cafeteria of the college I attended, pretending that they were checking in on me like they hadn’t seen me just that very morning before I left for school.

Anyway, one particular day, they barged in the cafeteria and caught me eating with Meesha and a few guys and practically drug my ass out of there like I was ten. From that day forward, they said they never wanted to see me with Meesha or those guys again because where the Lord was taking me, I couldn’t deal with folk like Meesha. Their words, not mine. Little did they know, I was back linked with Meesha the very next day after classes. She and I just learned that we had to meet in other places and sometimes, we even met at her off-campus apartment. Meesha taught me a lot about niggas and sex, and I was grateful for her friendship. If not for her, I’d be real lost in this big ass world.

Well, leave then Don!

Snapping me back to reality, I could still hear Karmen screaming and yelling, so I reached over to flick the lamp on that was next to the bed. I was still fully dressed in what I had on earlier today. The move was hell. I had so many clothes and personal belongings that it took Don, myself, and Karmen hours to get it all in, but nevertheless, we did it and I passed out right after. I must’ve been tired as shit to not even change my clothes or pull the nice, soft comforter back that was on the comfy sleigh bed.

Sitting up on the edge of the bed, I checked my phone and like I already knew, there were numerous texts and calls from my father