Pairings: Elijah "Smoke" Moore x Annie Moore (Sinners)
Warning(s): Mentions of Hoodoo, Explicit Sex, Supernatural Elements, Romance, Some Violence, Angst, Smoke's POV, Pre-Sinners movie.
Summary: Smoke Moore has returned from WWI with his twin brother Stack and meets Annie for the first time. Smitten immediately by the young Creole beauty, Smoke longs to make Annie his own. But he has to get past his brother and another rival suitor first.
A.N.: Dedicated to all the Smoke x Annie fans, writers and readers!
His kiss is more passionate (grabbing her face) in this version. More heavy breathing from him too lol It’s shorter but it’s still intense and passionate. Especially the close-up of him behind her (with her hand touching his face).
And...you hear him grunting and groaning with her. Especially when she grabbed that {redacted}. I see why they edited it the way they did because the sounds of the intimacy is extra spicy. The music cue is different because the guitar doesn't match the beats of her striking the match anymore in this one.
Warning(s): 18+, Explicit Sex, Unprotected Sex, Adult Language, Speculative Elements
Summary: Annie has been asked by her estranged husband Smoke to provide hot food for the opening of his new juke joint in Clarksdale. After seven years apart, their passion and love for each other hasn't waned, but Smoke learns the hard way that leaving his wife alone for a long stretch of time doesn't mean other suitors haven't been chomping at the bit to be with her in his absence.
Word count: 7.2K
"Somebody take me
In your arms tonight, alright
Somebody take me
In your arms tonight…"
Miles Caton – "I Lied to You"
Oh, he was mad.
Big mad.
Full lips all bunched up in a pout. Eyes more narrow than a sewing needle stitching a hemline back in her house. Fingers gripping the rolled tobacco cigarette tight.
Annie Moore watched her estranged husband Elijah "Smoke" Moore pretend to act unbothered on the second-floor, looking down at the mighty fine juke joint he and his twin Stack cobbled together in a day.
That big nigga was fuming up there, all on account of Beau Willie approaching her for a plate of fried catfish, and her mama's red rice recipe carried all the way over from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
There was plenty of fish to fry, pots of greens to stir, fried potatoes to season, and plenty of people to buy plates and eat them in Club Juke.
Annie wiped her brow with a folded towel next to the fryers and pretended not to notice her man hawking her from above. She gave Beau Willie two big slices of white bread with hot sauce, and pointed out the Irish beer, and Italian wine available to purchase with it. Her best friends Millie and Alberta helped cook and serve, and they all tapped their feet to the music swirling throughout the transformed sawmill. Two of Millie's older daughters stood nearby, watching and learning, and every now and then, the women would let them cook a batch of fish and sell some plates. Grace Chow the grocery store owner, also helped serve and sell liquor while gossiping with them.
"That man keep starin' at you, he gonna have his eyes fallin' outta his head," Millie whispered.
Grace giggled. Annie rolled her eyes and popped the cap of Beau Willie's beer with a bottle opener for him. Handed him the drink.
"There ya go, Beau Willie. You enjoy all that and come back for more when you ready," she said.
"You know I'll be back for your cookin', Annie. Every time," Beau Willie said with a voice deeper than the Mississippi River.
Brawny and handsome, Beau Willie worked the cotton fields like most of the colored people inside the juke. He was her first boyfriend. The first boy to ever kiss her, because of Smoke being too chickenshit to tell Annie that he wanted her first.
Delta Slim belted out some tunes on his harmonica and tickled the piano keys, and Lloyd Allen played the lead guitar. The dancing crowd added the extra percussive beats. Preacher Boy Sammie stood next to the legend and played along with his guitar respectfully, not trying to outplay his elders, just keeping the rhythm steady with his strumming. A fiddler and two sibling banjo players waited offside for their turn to perform.
Annie served a few more plates and propped herself next to Grace against the counter filled with liquor bottles and high-priced hooch. She rightfully assumed Smoke and Stack stole all that shit. Smoke came to her house with pockets so fat and full of cash that she knew he'd been up to no good again. Wasn't no need to question or fuss with him about his criminality. He was going to do what he wanted.
A soft shiver went up her spine.
Lord, that man put it on her earlier that day! Twice. It was like old times with them. Argue and fight, and then fuck the disagreement away.
An undercurrent of disappointment simmered in her blood for his abandonment of their marriage after the loss of their baby. He begged her to run off to Arkansas with him after they robbed several banks in Clarksdale, and she refused to leave their baby behind in the ground they buried her in. That gravesite was holy, and she didn't want to leave her kin behind either. Smoke grew bitter about his pain. Selah, their baby girl, had meant everything to him. He couldn't wait to be a father and the first time he held her, the tears wouldn't stop flowing. They never stopped flowing after her death.
Annie did all she could when Selah grew sick. Asked every ancestor she knew by name and then some for help, wrung her hands with High John the Conqueror root as she beseeched God to grant her one holy favor: save her daughter from a too soon homegoing.
It wrecked Smoke.
He turned bitter, surly, and prone to drinking all day and night. The resentment in his eyes when she could cure ailments in other people, but not her own child, festered like an infection full of pus in his spirit. He said not one word to her, even though she sensed that negative energy clinging to him.
Her sorrow buried itself in her chest and she stumbled around each day numb for many months. They were not good to each other. He got it in his head to leave, like going away would banish Selah from their collective memory. She cursed him out. Beat her hands on his chest. How could he up and leave their child? Who was going to take care of her grave? Talk to her? Let her know they loved her beyond the veil of life?
He didn't skip off in the night when he left. That big gorgeous man looked Annie straight in her face and told her he couldn't stay. If he did, he feared he would turn into his father. A sullen, abusive man.
"Go on then," she said, "You scared to handle your feelings like a man, then leave. I'll stay and honor her and make a life with this pain."
He winced, and she turned her back on him, prepared an herbal remedy for a customer who was due to come by that day.
Smoke left her.
She had the community's support and sympathy. Built a business using the conjuring and medicinal skills she learned from her grandmother and Smoke's mother, Taiwo, both Hoodoo women. Taiwo nurtured her growth of knowledge until her passing two years ago. Annie stayed rooted in her power and fierce determination to keep her people thriving in Clarksdale.
She snuck a sip of the good hooch and squeezed her eyes shut from the burn that scorched her throat.
"Ooh, wee! That is some strong corn liquor," Annie gasped, patting her chest.
Millie cackled and sipped it like a pro, the moonshine sliding down her gullet like water.
"I don't know how you do that," Annie said with wonderment on her face.
"Y'all can't be drinking up the supply," Smoke said.
Annie jumped at the sound of her husband's voice. He'd moved in stealth down from the top floor to the main one. Grace wandered off to check on her husband, Bo.
"You ain't paying enough to be worried about me taking a drink when I want one," Annie joked.
"Thought I paid you in other ways that ain't got nothing to do with cash money," he teased, sliding his tongue across his top lip.
Millie smirked and lifted freshly cooked fish from the fryers and dumped them on some paper to drain. Annie wiped her hands and called one of the teen-aged girls over from the back to take over her spot.
"Where you going?" he asked.
"Going to mingle and let people know we got a hot batch ready. Why you stressing me?"
"As long as you're doing that and not flirting with customers."
"Flirting with who?"
Annie put a hand on her hip. Eyed him up and down.
Smoke glanced around. The crowd wasn't paying attention to him.
"Summa these menfolk might have some amorous intentions toward you that they shouldn't," he said.
She slanted her head and waited for him to continue. He snuck a glimpse of her chest. Annie wore her good bra tonight. Her breasts sat high like mountain peaks and looked voluptuous in her new velvet green dress with the few sparkly sequins she sewed into it. She gave enough cleavage with her beads falling down the center of her breasts guiding inquisitive eyes to the Promised Land. Green was Smoke's favorite color on her. Every man watched her work the floor all evening looking like a Hoodoo queen.
Her heavy hips and high riding backside cast spells on other men as she passed them by, and that worried Smoke in that sexually charged environment. Just because they made love hours ago didn't mean he had her safely tucked in his pocket. And he knew that. He'd been gone much too long to think other men hadn't plotted to scoop her up. It was one thing for her to be out of sight/out of mind while he was up north and not faced with other suitors pursuing her. Quite another to witness it full on in person. That's why he chased the back of her dress every chance he got when she went to wandering in the juke.
His reconciliation with her was still tenuous. By his facial expression, she knew he was having flashbacks of sticking his thick dick in her deep, gushy pussy, and he worried that some other man would dare to wet his dick in it, too. It kept him on his toes. Territorial. He'd already shot two men who tried to steal his liquor when he first arrived in town. If a man tried stealing his wife's pussy…there'd be a funeral in the morning.
Smoke didn't answer her question any further about flirting and cut his eyes away from her face. She slunk around him, draped her arms across his shoulders from the side, and stared up into the brown eyes he once gave their baby girl.
"What you worried about, Elijah?" she purred playfully.
"Ah, woman, get on and handle your business."
He tried to act nonchalant, but his eyes darted back and forth to clock anybody waiting to approach her when she moved away from him.
She kissed his cheek and sauntered off, glancing back to catch him watching her. Sure enough, three other men did the same, grinning at the seductive way she swung her hips. They looked elsewhere when Smoke turned their way, going in the opposite direction of her.
"How you folks doing? We got some fresh fish hot and ready. Some Creole potato salad, too! Don't be shy about getting seconds or thirds…hey Earline! I love that dress on you! Shake it, sis! Casper, let some other fellas get a chance to dance with her…hey Ora Lee! I ain't seen you out in a long time, girl!"
Annie circled the extensive building interior. Smoke's twin brushed past her on swift legs with Mary tailing him in her expensive pale satin dress. The juke stayed turned up, with Delta Slim leading the charge. People drank, ate, and had a damn good time.
Smoke stayed watching her, and she decided to ruffle his feathers.
"Oscar, don't you owe me a dance?"
She tapped a man's shoulder, and he showed all his teeth, so happy to hold her hand and swing her out on the floor. Her left arm casually rested on his slim shoulders, and he loved the feel of her near him.
"Aw, Miss Annie, I been waiting all night for a chance to dance with you."
He was only a couple of years older than her, searching for a wife, and he'd been pestering her to go out even though she told him she was still married…for seven years straight. With no word from Smoke, she started keeping company with Oscar briefly two years ago, but the bones she threw after their third picnic date told her they were not evenly yoked. They also told her Smoke wasn't dead. And if he wasn't dead, he was bound to come home someday. She let Oscar down easy, but he never gave up hope. He dated around, but yearned for her still. It showed in the way he held her while they danced. Annie kept it short and chaste.
"Thank you," she said.
"Why you running off, Annie? You think I'm scared of that runaway husband that showed up out the blue?"
She grinned.
"I got more fish to cook and some money to make," she said.
"Don't be shy coming my way again," he said, winking at her.
His buddy had a different idea.
"Nigga, you oughta be scared. Them Smokestack twins ain't to be tested if you want to stay healthy. You ain't hear about them fellas that tried to steal from Smoke today?" his buddy said.
Annie slipped away from the conversation and checked on Smoke, who still stood up high overlooking the railing. Lips poked out again, but he wasn't taking the bait.
She returned to her post after using the privy outside and washing her hands. Stack's trickster self found himself caught in the middle of a heated conversation within a circle of young women who didn't look happy with him.
"What I miss?" Annie said.
Alberta nodded over toward Mary, who sipped a glass of wine at the far end of the food table, watching Stack like he'd vanish into thin air if she didn't keep her eyes glued to him.
"Stack called those ladies field bitches, and they heard Mary say she'd beat up every one of them over him," Alberta said.
"Oh, Lord," Annie sighed.
One woman wagged her finger in Stack's face and spoke loud enough for Mary to hear.
"Her mama was a field bitch too!"
Millie went over to help get the argument under control. Stack looked somewhat remorseful, but maybe it was because the darker Black women were lighting his ass up. They didn't play that shit.
Alberta inched closer and lowered her voice.
"You see that gal right there? The one fussing the most? She's Grace Latimer's niece. Her sister Jessie left town seven months after Stack left. He was messing with her and Mary at the same time. They say she had two of his babies. Twin girls. Her people carried her off to Pittsburgh and got her married up quick. They were too scared to confront Stack about it. Now that's a rumor, so don't go telling folks you heard that from me."
Annie studied the young woman cursing Stack out.
"Does he know he has children by Jessie?" Annie said.
"Like he would care if it's true. He a rolling stone, that one. I wouldn't be surprised if he got a heap of babies all over the states the way he sweet talks women out they drawers."
Annie glanced over at Mary again. She stayed watching her great love with twisted lips and heat in her eyes. Annie felt bad for her. It made her wonder about Smoke. Were there babies out there in Chicago with his last name attached to them? No, she would've known. Felt it. Her small bag of bones would've told her as well. She prayed for that man to come back home safe, and he did. Took him a long time, but she had him back for herself.
Stack smoothed over the argument, apologized, let the women have free drinks on him, and they rolled their eyes and went about their business partying. He shuffled away to join the rougher men gambling with their Chinese guests in a back room, his gold-rimmed teeth gleaming. Mary huffed loudly, then flounced off into the crowd.
"Whew, I don't want that kinda love coming after me," Millie said, "She sticking to him like a haint in the graveyard."
"She shouldn't even be here," Alberta interjected. "He keeps telling her to go, but she won't leave. What if that sheriff come 'round here to check this place out and they see her? Ain't enough bribery money in this world to keep them crackas from killing him or us if they think she white. Her too. God rest her mama's soul, but she ain't doing us no good being here," Alberta said.
"She knows, but she don't care," Millie said.
Annie fixed plates quietly.
"Annie, maybe you should talk to her. She listens to you. She your play cousin anyway," Millie said.
"Ain't nothing I can say to her that will change her mind. Y'all know I'm married to Stack's other half. I loves me some Smoke, so I know what she's feeling inside. Can't explain it to y'all what it's like being in love with a Moore man. They cut from a different cloth."
"Oh, so they be up in them guts having y'all speaking tongues then," Millie teased.
Annie guffawed and grabbed onto her friend's arm to hush her. The women laughed together and Annie sighed afterward.
"All they got is this one night," Annie said. "We're safe enough in here with our people. Stack gotta decide what he gonna do with her on his own is all I'm saying. I'll talk to her in a little bit. But we got work to do."
Annie supervised the cooking, fanned herself, and chatted up the patrons buying liquor. She couldn't stop grinning at everything and everybody. The festive atmosphere hadn't been in Clarksdale like that for years. People needed the release from toiling in the fields and their troubles.
She took another walk to cool off. The sweat between her breasts and thighs got to her. She fanned herself down in a corner and gazed at the dance floor where folks stomped feet and threw hands up in the air.
The scent of tobacco wafted near her nose.
Smoke found his way next to her. He handed her a small mason jar half-filled with wine. He held another for himself.
"For a job well done," he said.
They clinked the jars together, and she sipped the white wine. He did the same after tossing his cigarette. The sweet liquid tasted good. Not too dry, nor overly sweet.
"You look beautiful, Annie. I meant to tell you that before we got here…but we got busy and…"
"Thank you," she said.
He took their empty jars away and handed them to a young man walking past and asked him to drop them off over at the liquor table to be washed.
"Would you like to dance, Mrs. Moore?" he asked her.
"I would love to, Mr. Moore."
A faint perceptible smile turned up one side of his mouth. She delighted in the rare sight of seeing his dimples. One would think only Stack had them with the lack of smiles Smoke gave freely. So stingy.
He threaded his fingers with hers and purposely walked to the center so everyone would see they were together. The strut in his step gave away his pride at having her by his side. If other men didn't take the obvious hint that she was back with her husband, the gun openly displayed on Smoke's side would deter them.
When he pulled her in close for a down home slow drag, her breasts rested on his wide chest where they were meant to be. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and those muscular ones of his circled her waist. He'd taken off his tweed jacket and the heat from him gripped around her as tight as his arms. They rocked their bodies together and his eyes latched onto hers.
Smoke didn't need words to speak what he felt. He snaked his hips and pressed into her tight.
Love looked right into her eyes through him. So raw and intimate. She almost had to turn away from his intense gaze.
"Baby, you're the finest woman in here," he whispered in her ear.
He let the tip of his tongue swipe the shell of her ear and spoke her name slowly, like an incantation. The hair of his mustache tickled her face the way she remembered, and he rubbed on her Rubenesque shape. Smoke loved him some full-figured women and although she had been a slender teenager when they first met at a church revival gathering, he took one look at her mother and saw the future of what Annie would become. It probably helped that she'd grown plump round titties already, but he'd zeroed in on her like a hummingbird to nectar.
His prediction came true. She filled out in the hips and rump. Her breasts turned buxom. He became an ass man and a lover of big tits.
Smoke liked how snug they were against him in that moment because his dick already poked at her through his trousers. She slid a hand down and palmed that third leg.
"Hey, now," he said, looking around.
"You think your dick the only one hard out here?" she said.
He lowered his hand on her waist and slapped her ass.
"Play around with me, woman, and I'm liable to take you in a room upstairs and bend you over again. You want me to make another big mess inside you?"
Annie covered his mouth with her hand, shushing him.
He pulled it away.
"What? You can talk dirty to me, but I can't give it right back to ya?"
She threw back her head and beamed, feeling tingles all over from the raspy tone of his voice. He gently placed his lips on her neck and sucked on it while stroking her bare arms. His fingertips ignited her flesh and when he finally kissed her, she didn't hesitate to slide her tongue against his. Her heart thumped with the excitement of their lips touching and fired off sparks everywhere on her body. When the man started lifting and separating her ass cheeks, kneading them like he had biscuits to make, she had to shut him down, or else he'd take her right there on the dance floor.
"I gotta get back to work, Elijah—"
"Mmm hmmm."
She pulled his hands away from her backside reluctantly. He slapped her rump again playfully.
"When we get back home, I'll get them big legs around me again," he teased.
He grabbed onto his dick and showed her the bulge ready for her. She waved a hand to shoo him away, but he held her from behind and pressed his temple against hers, swaying to the music. He gently tugged on the soft abundance of her belly and held it while putting his tongue in her ear again.
"You my woman, understand? My wife."
"Yes."
He patted her rump, and she meandered over to the food, playing with her protective haint blue beads, and giving herself time to collect her thoughts about Smoke. She grinned until her cheeks hurt; her husband's touches still lingered over the skin of her arms and midsection.
"Love looks good on you, Annie," Millie said.
Annie patted her friend's hand and calculated the amount of food left to cook. Plates were moving, but the liquor not as quick while folks danced. They would have to lower prices on the booze. Smoke wouldn't like that. The man wanted to make a profit, not break even…or worse. Surveying the crowd, if Club Juke could maintain its current capacity week after week, they would be alright.
She checked the trays of uncooked fish left. Not enough. Millie and Alberta noticed it, too. There was a tub of extra fish on ice in Smoke's truck.
"We need to get the rest from the truck…Hampton, come help me bring the fish in," Annie asked a young man standing idly by the table watching the dancing.
"I can get it for you, Annie," Beau Willie said.
He tossed a bottle of Irish beer into a waste bin.
"That's alright Beau Willie, Hamp can help me—"
"I got it," he said.
He headed out the side door, and Annie followed. She paused at the door's threshold and glanced over her shoulder. Smoke and Stack spoke to each other on the landing of the stairs leading to the second level.
She slipped outside and the balmy fall air felt hot and sticky on her skin.
"The truck's over there," she said, pointing.
He ambled over and she followed behind him.
A crow sat on the truck. Annie stared at it. The bird's eye shine announced its presence. It was odd to see a lone crow like that at night. Normally they did communal roosting hidden away. They preferred safety in numbers, and the anomaly of seeing one crow wide awake and watching her sent Annie's intuition into overdrive.
A pale white moon attracted her attention, and she turned to look at Club Juke in its entirety, surrounded by dense trees. The music bubbled out from it, and so did all the laughter inside. They were isolated from everyone in Clarksdale. The sawmill was the perfect property to buy.
The crow kept watching her.
It stretched its wings with a couple of loud flaps and then settled into observing her and Beau Willie. She touched her beads. The crow seemed familiar to her, like from some dream she had recently, one that woke her up in the middle of the night panting. Smoke had been in the dream with her. It had been so real that she could smell his skin and the cigarette smoke on his clothes. The crow spoke to her like a friend in that dream and told her not to worry. Her man was coming home soon.
Annie shook her head. Focused on the task at hand.
"It's up in there, Beau Willie," she said.
He pulled the tarp back and climbed onto the truck. He picked up the heavy tub of fish Smoke bought from Bo Chow and left it on the edge before jumping down on the ground.
"Thank you for helping me," she said.
"No problem, Annie. Always happy to help."
Beau Willie peered at her with softness in his deep-set eyes. Recently widowed, he cared for his four young children with his mother's help. His grown face still held the boyish charm she fell for as a teenager.
"Annie, can I ask you something personal?"
"What?"
"Is he staying for good this time?"
Annie wiped the back of her neck and turned to head back. He clasped her hand and held her in place.
"I'm not tryin' to be disrespectful to your husband. We both know who he is and what he does. You deserve better, Annie. Someone who won't run out on you when things get tough or even when bad things happen. I loved you first. He stole you from me—"
"Nobody stole me, Beau Willie."
"Then why him? Huh?"
"You and I were so young when we dated. You had plenty of girlfriends after me and married a good woman—"
"They weren't you, Annie. I've had you in my heart for a long time. If he doesn't stay this time like he didn't before…then give me a chance to rekindle us. I can give you a family already. I work hard…look after my kin. I ain't never stopped loving you. Even when you chose him over me, I held you here…"
He touched his heart.
"He's my husband. What you want, Beau Willie, is what I caint give. Maybe…maybe if Smoke never came back…maybe if he'd been killed or thrown in prison and stuck on a chain gang for life…maybe if something like that happened…our bond would be broken. But that man is a part of me and planted so deep in my soul that there ain't nothin' that you or any other man in that juke can say to change my mind different. I would walk through hell with him. Do you hear me?"
"He already put you through hell, Annie. Left you all alone, for all those years—"
"But he back now," she said, shifting her weight onto one foot.
She hated Beau Willie in that instant. He had the audacity to bring out the niggling twinges of doubt into her mind about Smoke.
The click of a revolver behind them snapped them to attention.
"You heard her, Beau Willie. I'm back now. I suggest you take that fish into the juke and stay the fuck away from my wife," Smoke said.
Beau Willie blinked rapidly and stepped back from her.
"No need to have that out, Smoke," Beau Willie said.
"Why not? I come outside and see another man propositioning my wife to leave me, and what am I supposed to do? Let that shit fly? I should blast holes in you right now, but I got a business to run. Pick that fish up, nigga, and go."
Beau Willie glared at Smoke. He didn't dare look at Annie again. Smoke aimed the gun at the man's head.
"I can take you out clean or painful. Your choice," Smoke said.
Beau Willie lifted the metal tub of iced fish and trudged back into the juke.
Smoke holstered his gun and faced Annie.
They stared at one another in silence.
"How much you hear?" she asked.
"Everything."
Her tongue worried the roof of her mouth as her eyes welled up.
"You really staying, right?" she said.
"You let that nigga get in your head?"
Annie closed her eyes. Tilted her head back slightly so no tears would fall.
"I'm staying," he reassured her.
She nodded her head once, afraid the knots in her stomach would find a way to take root in her chest.
"You believe me, dontcha, baby?"
"Like you told me back at my place. I believe what I can see," she said.
She left him outside and returned to the makeshift kitchen to oversee the cleaning of the fish. Smoke did his rounds on the floor, and she fought the anxiety of worrying about him and his plans. Her grandmother always told her people showed you who they were, and she could believe in what Smoke did. Not what he said.
Delta Slim beckoned for Sammie to take center stage with pride in his voice. The young man was finally getting his chance to sing.
"Tell them who you are…" Delta Slim said.
Sammie shyly and sweetly introduced himself, and Annie couldn't help but smile at how precious he was to the Moore family. He was her family, too, and he glanced at her briefly. She nodded her head for him to show the world his gifts and Sammie started singing something he never shared before and the hairs on her neck and arms raised up.
Immediately, a tunnel vision warped her reality and Annie pushed out her breath to keep herself from having a panic attack and passing out.
Sammie.
His guitar.
Annie stared at the walls as Sammie wailed out the blues with Delta Slim perched on stage like a proud Poppa. She could see the people shouting and encouraging Sammie to let loose, and when he held a long note, his voice ripped through the ceiling and Annie sensed there were more people in the sawmill than the ones she could physically see. Some unseen entity darted past her skin, touching her like bird wings fluttering in the air. High above, perched on a rafter, the crow from outside gazed down at her. The surge of power in the room engulfed the entire juke.
Smoke looked in her direction, just as shocked by the music and Sammie's voice and also by the triumphant way the people danced. Grace and Bo also twirled in time to the blues music that wrapped everyone in a cloak of revelry and freedom to be who they be.
Annie gasped, wildly overstimulated by the unseen. She touched the top of her head, feeling the sensation of an overwhelming presence.
It freed her.
She locked eyes with Smoke far across the room and he strode forward, zigzagging through the crowd on a direct path to her. The weight of Sammie's music slowed everything in her mind down and her husband's movement seemed even slower. She moved from around the counter and lunged for him, pushing through sweaty people, needing to get to her man.
Smoke reached for her, and she cradled his face.
"I need you. Here with me," she said.
"I ain't going nowhere."
Their lips crashed together, tongues battling to subdue the other in a frenetic exchange of energy and desire. He entwined their fingers and pulled her through the crowd, heading for the stairs. The music had risen to a crescendo that vibrated on her skin with an intensity that should've burst into flames.
Smoke pulled her up the stairs and into a room that he used for himself, that he planned to make his office if the juke proved profitable. He slammed the door shut behind them.
He spun her around and helped her take off her dress, unhooked her bra, and pushed her onto an old cot covered in a coarse blanket. Smoke undressed quickly, and the music rose through the floor.
"Somebody take me…in your arms tonight…!"
Sammies mature voice thundered below them.
The only thing Smoke had on was the mojo bag she made for him and his metal dog tags from the war. His dick pointed at her and dripped pre-cum. He barely gave her time to pull off her panties before his erection parted her slick labia and sank into her.
"Oh…Jesus!" Annie shouted.
Her man was down in that bottom.
He cradled her breasts and stretched his mouth around her areola, sucking to his heart's content. She wrapped her thighs around him and he gave her more of the deep dick she'd been craving for seven years.
"This is my pussy," mumbled into her ear.
The weight of him smothered her in scorching heat and his steady heartbeat.
He dropped to his knees and spread her legs, licking his wide tongue against her labia, giving extra tender care to her clit. Daddy was hungry and made her a sopping wet mess. He took his time until there was nearly a puddle under her.
"Turn over," he said, helping her move into the position wanted.
She placed herself on her hands and knees. He plunged his tongue inside her entrance and she squealed. Rubbing on her ass, he stood and inserted that thickness between his legs back into her, grunting and cussing up a storm. Her pussy felt exquisite to him by the sounds he moaned out. She was as hot and gushy as he wanted. He angled himself so he could watch her titties hang and smack together with each powerful thrust. Annie was so wet that her pussy sounded like it was having its own conversation taking his dick in the small room.
He climbed on the cot with Annie and pulled her onto her knees. She spread her thighs wide. He took back shots, holding her arms behind her, and Annie's tits bounced like crazy, forcing throaty moans from him. The pounding of the rhythm below them matched the pounding Smoke gave her pussy. The frenzy of his dick going in and out pulled lustful cries of pleasure from her lips. He palmed her breasts and rolled his fingers across her big nipples.
"You coulda been getting this pussy all the time," she said.
He clutched onto her tits, squeezing them, before gripping her arms tight, delighting in her titties shaking and arousing him more.
Annie squeezed her walls around his girth and he shouted her name.
"Pussy so good…Annie…"
She took control and pulled away from him.
"Whatchu doing? I need that shit…" he gasped.
She pushed him onto his back and climbed on top of him. Her thighs spread and wedged against his hips. Her breasts rested on his chest. He fondled them and stared up at her.
"I love you, Elijah. I never stopped loving you. All these years…I never once wanted any man the way I wanted you."
He thrust up, and she snapped her eyes closed. He stretched her like no other, and it felt incredible.
"Elijah…"
He thumbed her clit, allowing the slick wetness from her pubic hairs to coat the button every man wanted to push on her since Smoke had been away. She lowered her head and kissed him. His lips were so fluffy and soft against her mouth. The taste of her pussy there pleased him. He licked his lips as she tasted herself.
"I love you…hear me, woman? I love you. Don't let one of these niggas get killed tryna take you from me."
"No one can take me from you."
"You sure?"
She stopped moving.
"You think I'd want anyone else?"
She spread her hands on the wide planes of his chest. Traced two fingers down the path below his belly button of soft hairs that led to the wild pubic bush surrounding his dick.
He didn't answer, trusting the sincerity in her eyes.
"All I ever wanted was you…just you, Elijah. And when you left me…"
He lifted himself to face her and held his hands around her waist and backside.
"Shhh…shhh. Don't cry, Annie. Baby, please…I don't ever want to make you cry again. I promise."
He kissed away each teardrop that fell from her eyes. The soft pecks built up her confidence in him and she breathed easier. His voice stayed soft.
"I told you I missed you and wanted to be with you…I also want us to try for a baby again. Build our family," he said.
"You do?"
"Yes. That is…if you want that, too."
She hugged him tight.
"I do…I do!"
She wept so hard her eyes blurred. Smoke gave her one of his rare smiles, and her heart nearly burst with joy.
Annie rocked on him, pleasuring herself and him. Smoke held her breasts and sucked on her nipples.
"Oh…damn…Elijah…you're making me…oh Jesus!"
Annie came hard, and it rocked her world. Smoke massaged her breasts and watched her face transform with the rapturous climax. He grazed his teeth across a nipple and she shuddered, exalting in the sensations cascading all across her skin.
"We can try for a baby right now," he said.
He flipped her back over onto the small cot and she yelped as he tossed her legs over his biceps.
"Will you let me put another baby in you, Annie?"
"I sure will," she gasped, nearly out of breath.
His dimples melted her. He got down to business, too. Touching her skin all over, kissing her throat and whispering words of love in her ear. He licked on her nipples and stared at her fullness.
"Touching you is like touching the beauty of the night sky, Annie. You my jewel…my most precious thing in this world. Without you…I ain't fit to live."
"Hush now…"
"Nah, I want you to hear me."
"I want you to show me."
He grinned and pumped that thickness into her slowly, letting her feel every inch. Her mouth parted, and he pressed his forehead against hers.
"Ooh…Elijah…baby…"
Her pants came faster, and the groans from him aroused her to new heights. He hunched over her and every muscle flexed for her. Their sweat mingled and his strokes curled her toes. He lowered her legs and thumbed her clit, watching his dick go in and out. His lips poked out and his face carried a serious expression.
She recognized that look.
He was about to cum.
"Annie…baby…I'm getting close…"
She fondled her own breasts, and it created more tension for him. His eyes darted from her pussy to her tits. The way his eyes narrowed, she knew it was going to be a big load.
"Annie!"
"Yes!"
"I'm cummin'!"
He threw his head back and roared her name, his thumb faithfully rubbing her clit until she spilled over into a new release. His dick throbbed inside her and she matched the pulses squeezing her walls around him to milk every drop of cum.
"Fuckkkk!"
His hoarse cry drowned out her whimpers of pleasure. Her pussy kept throbbing around him until the last surge of her orgasm quieted down enough where she could move again.
"Elijah?"
His eyes watered. Tears fell down on her. The tone of his voice trembled.
"I'm sorry, baby…for everything…"
"My love…it's okay…you're here with me…we're here together," she said.
"I can't give you back those seven years…"
"Shhh…stay with me here…in this moment… in the right now."
He twisted his head to the side in shame. She pulled it back to look at her.
"We here," she said
He kissed her forehead.
Smoke snuggled around her until they were in a tight spoon together. He played with a breast and listened to her breathing calm down. The music below them kept going and Annie didn't want to leave his arms ever again. She shifted her position, and Smoke rested his head on her breasts. Stroking his hair gently, she snatched that tiny moment of peace for themselves, forgetting about everything and everybody in the juke.
Annie cleaned herself up as best she could with the buckets of water Smoke brought up from a well out behind the juke. No one paid attention to him or questioned why he needed to tote water and clean rags upstairs. He cleaned himself up, too, and they rejoined the dancing below.
She floated.
Making love to him grounded her and pushed away any doubt.
He was going to stay with her.
She hoped they had conceived a little one. Lord knows he put enough semen in her over the course of a day to open a whorehouse. She laughed at the thought.
Smoke made his rounds, checking in on everything before he slipped his hand over hers to dance one more time.
She nuzzled her face against his cheek, pulling an open smile from his face. It was such a shock that even Delta Slim had to look twice to make sure it was real.
She hooked her arms around her husband's neck, swayed with him in time to the music and their own internal rhythm. Part of his mojo bag peeked out from his vest. She touched it. Early that morning, she had fed it, prayed over it, recharged it with her love and that of her ancestors to protect him.
"Blood of my blood…bone of my bone…," she whispered.
"You putting a root on me, woman? I told you… I'm home for good. Forever," he said.
"Forever ever?" she teased.
"For always."
"Ashe," she affirmed.
"What that mean again?"
"And so it is."
"I like that."
"Me too."
"Annie?"
"Yes, Elijah?"
"I love you."
He kissed her softly. Kissed life back into her.
The music played on, and for a few hours, it did seem like forever.
A.N.:
Wanted to put out a short Smoke/Annie fic to practice getting Annie's voice for another fic. I plan to write more about these two. How they met. Had their first child etc. This short is connected to my "Choose One" longer fic. You may recognize a speculative figure lurking in the story if you've started reading "Choose One."
Enjoy!
Just thought about Vampire Stack saying “you gone let her get in between us AGAIN(???)” when he was trying to get Smoke to let him out of the room. I need the backstory so bad y’all, I’ll take a mini series
THIS is why it always felt like I never got to enjoy the black characters in blockbuster movies. when theyre lit like this theyre vibrant, interesting and lively. when theyre lit like this: “The Maze Runner” (2014):
you can barely see all the work the actors putting into it.
germansingergirl
romaincrisis
origamiaround
turnnoffyourmind
jbbartram-illu
vaporwave
kianamaiart
