Page 42

Titan

B ailey looked so damn beautiful on stage, and she knew how to control the room. She was confident, knowledgeable, and witty, and I was so damn proud to be her man. Although I was honoring her wishes and giving her space, that shit ended today. I was getting my woman back.

I was staring at Bailey, and I knew she was purposely not looking at me once she saw me sitting next to Devin, Giada’s fiancé, but I wasn’t tripping because I loved looking at her.

My eyes devoured her curves in that tight ass dress and those red sky-high heels she was wearing had me thinking about how they would look in the air as I gripped the bottom of them to keep her legs open while I fucked the walls loose in her pussy.

The thought of being inside of Bailey again had my dick ready to bust through my pants, so I adjusted my posture in my seat to relieve some of the pressure.

“You a’ight?” Devin whispered.

“Yeah, I’m good,” I answered quickly, my voice sounded rough, so I cleared my throat and repeated myself.

Devin looked at me for a few seconds and then shrugged.

I focused back on the panel, more specifically, Bailey and then felt my face frown at the sound of Eva’s voice speaking some bullshit.

When I saw her walk out on the stage earlier it took everything in me not to throw my size 15 shoe at her ass.

“…I believe as women, especially Black women, we need to stick together in this business. For example, I want to host a tech event with some of my company’s biggest clients at one of Giada’s clubs.

I’m sure the event would bring plenty of new business to her struggling business.

” I shook my head at Eva’s cattiness when I saw the look Giada gave her.

The applause from the crowd was light because I’m sure they caught on to Eva’s shady ass comment too.

Eva was about to continue when Giada cleared her throat to speak.

“Oh shit.” I heard Devin and Giada’s cousin Kiara, who was on the other side of me, say under their breath. Then they positioned themselves in a way that looked like they were ready to spring into action depending on what Giada was about to say.

“I think as women in this business, it’s important not to hide being a bitch behind the falsehood of working together.

I think one of the best currencies in business is knowledge, that is why we have to be knowledgeable about the business and the people we choose to align ourselves with.

That is how I know Evilene…I mean Eva… didn’t research me or my businesses.

Because if she did, she would have had the knowledge not to make that comment.

” Giada finished and gave Eva a cold smile that sent shivers down my spine, and I smiled at Eva’s discomfort as the audience clapped loudly.

“I meant no disrespect,” Eva said once the applause died down.

“You did,” Giada replied quickly. “But I know you’re smart enough to know that will be the first and only time.” My smile grew bigger when Eva swallowed hard as Giada stared her down. Next to me I heard Devin exhaling slowly.

“Thank God my baby pregnant ‘cause Giada want to dog walk whoever that woman is,” Devin whispered, and I chuckled because he didn’t know “that woman” was my ex-wife.

“But I also wanted to extend the invite to promote my event to Paisley Henson, to help network and bring business to her company as well.”

Eva’s ass just wouldn’t let up with the bullshit.

She knew damn well Bailey’s name wasn’t no damn Paisley.

Looking at her now, I thank God I wasn’t with her anymore.

and I couldn’t wait until Torrence drew up the paperwork to get her and her husband, who I still haven’t heard from, away from me and my company.

I felt myself standing up to go up there and get Bailey off the stage because my baby didn’t deserve the disrespect from my past. I wanted to protect her any way I could, but I paused when I heard her words.

“My name is Bailey and there’s no reason for you to be so unprofessional toward myself and my colleague,” she said, gesturing to Giada.

“But like Ms. Morretti just said, you should do your research before aligning yourself with different companies. If you done your research you would know I was in a relationship with Titan Browning.”

“You ARE in a relationship with Titan Browning.” I called from my seat. The hell she thought this was? Wasn’t no past tense in this bitch.

“I know that’s right!” I heard a woman shout from the crowd.

“You heard him,” Bailey said with a smile. “So, why would I work with his ex-wife? Especially one who’s been nothing but rude?” Bailey said as if she were offended. I knew Bailey well enough to know that if she wanted to, she could whoop Eva’s ass, but she wouldn’t give her the satisfaction.

“Your relationship with Titan—” Eva started.

“Time for questions from the audience.” Giada interrupted and the moderator took the hint. The relief on her face showed she was grateful for the hard pivot.

For the next thirty minutes the panel answered questions. Most of the questions were to Giada and Bailey. Suddenly an idea popped in my head, and I raised my hand.

“We will take our last question from the gentlemen in the front row.” When the light shone on me, and someone handed me a microphone, the moderator’s eyes widened. “Oh, Mr. Browning I didn’t know that was you. What’s your question?”

“It’s ok, tonight is not about me anyway, I had two questions actually.

My first question is for the beautiful Ms. Bailey Henson.

” I cleared my throat, suddenly feeling nervous.

I had this planned to be more private, but this felt right.

Bailey finally looked at me and my heart felt like it wanted to leap out of my chest. I took a deep breath, here goes nothing.

“I never thought I would be open to love again but Bailey, I’m so damn happy I decided to give love another chance when I met you.

I know right now is the first test in our relationship, but I’ve always aced every test I was given, because I always put in the work and was always prepared.

Bailey…baby, it may not seem like it now, but I promise you I have put in the work to prepare myself for you… to earn you.”

“Ayo, is he doing what I think he is?” I heard Anthony’s voice.

“Will you hush?! Let him cook!” Kiara admonished him, and I held back my laughter. My eyes remained on Bailey, who had tears running down her face.

“And while preparing myself for you, I came to the conclusion that the one thing I know I’m most prepared for is to make you my wife.

I don’t know who said it but there’s a quote that says you don’t marry the person you can live with; you marry the person you can’t live without, and Bailey Henson this past week has shown me that I can’t live without you.

” I slowly got down on one knee and reached into my suit pocket, pulling out the ring box I had in there.

I was clearing my throat trying to rid the emotion clogging it.

I watched Bailey stand up and bend over to rest her hands on her knees, like she was trying to catch her breath.

“Bailey Henson, you are the love of my life. Will you marry me?” My voice was hoarse, and I couldn’t stop the tears that were falling from my eyes, and I promise I could hear my heartbeat echo through the room because it was so quiet.

Suddenly, Bailey was running, and I stood up just in time to catch her as she leaped off the stage and into my arms. I grunted as I steadied my feet so both of us wouldn’t fall.

“YES! YES! I’ll marry you!” She shouted and everyone started screaming and clapping.

The loudest scream was from her friend Marlow who had come in just as the panel started.

I was so damn happy as I kissed Bailey’s wet cheeks before I kissed her soft lips, which quickly turned into us tongue wrestling.

I was trying to put her legs around my waist while palming her soft ass, but her dress was too tight.

“Aye, I don’t care if y’all engaged now, I don’t want to see you fondling my fuckin’ sister.”

“Chill out, you would probably be doing the same thing if you just proposed to your fiancée,” Kiara remarked .

“I guess we’ll find out then, won’t we, Kiara?” Was his reply.

“Negative.” All I heard next was his laughter before the moderator yelled over the microphone.

“Wait! Wait! You said you had two questions!”

I gave Bailey’s ass a gentle slap before finally putting her down slowly. I made sure to put her in front me so she could feel my erection against her.

“Oh, my second question was to Giada. Do you happen to know anyone who owns a nightclub that can host a private engagement party?” I smiled at her.

“I happen to know someone very well who owns four of the best nightclubs in this city for you to choose from and would be honored to host your event, because, you know as Black people, we need to stick together in this business,” she said laughing, using Eva’s words from earlier and then laughed louder as she looked over at Eva who looked like she just swallowed a lemon soaked in vinegar.

I would be lying if I said I didn’t take pleasure in Eva’s bitter ass face trying to hide her contempt for me now being engaged, but shit. Didn’t she move on and marry the man she had an affair with? So, fuck her and her feelings.

“I don’t think we could have ended this panel any better!

Thank you so much to all the women who took time out of their schedule to be here and thank you the audience for being here.

Let’s give another round of applause to congratulate Mr. Titan Browning and Ms. Bailey Henson on their engagement!

” The room thundered in applause, and I kissed Bailey’s neck before she turned around.

“Where’s the ring? I didn’t expect to jump off the damn stage! I’m so glad your reflexes were quick, and you caught me,” she said laughing.

“I’m always gone catch you, baby.” I gave her another kiss on the lips and opened the ring box.

I knew purple was her favorite color, so when she gasped when the light from the ring box shone on the five-carat, tear drop shaped amethyst stone surrounded by small diamonds, in a platinum setting I designed, I knew I did right.

I laughed as she quickly shuffled her feet, causing her body to shimmy as I slipped the ring on her finger.

“Bittttttttch! You’re engaged!” Marlow screamed and hugged Bailey as soon as I finished slipping the ring on. Then she took her hand and pretended to faint as she looked at the ring. “Titannnnn! You did good! Congratulations!” She screamed and gave me a hug.

“Congratulations, Titan.” I felt a harder than needed pat on my back before Anthony stepped in front of me and shook my hand and then pulled me into a hug and whispered, “She deserves the world. I’m trusting you with one of my hearts in human form, handle it with care, understand?”

“I promise on my life I’m gone take care of her,” I said, patting him on the back as hard as he did me.

There were more congratulations from people, including Devin and Giada before they left, with the promise to reach out to me to plan the engagement party.

“You ready to go home, my love? I know we have so much more to talk about.” Bailey cut me off with a kiss that had my semi hard erection now back at full attention. All I had to do was be in the same room with Bailey and my dick was on go.

“We’ll get to that soon, but let’s go to your house and enjoy tonight, Mr. Browning ,” she said, smiling up at me.

“Whatever you want to do, soon-to-be Mrs. Browning,” I said, giving her a quick kiss before grabbing her hand and leaving the auditorium.

I had a new pep in my step now that my love was back on my arm.

I know we had a lot shit to discuss, but like she said, we were going to enjoy tonight and then we’ll handle our shit tomorrow.

I was going to show her the footage from Eva’s visit to my office and explain the plan of what will happen next because like I told her, I put in the work to prepare myself for her and communication was part of the work.

I loved this woman, and I was going to show her just how much, starting tonight. I hope she’s been stretching because she was in for a long ass night.