“Chesteria?” I asked in disbelief, wondering what the hell she was doing up here and with a nigga at that.
I lowered the gun just enough to look her beautiful ass up and down. She wore a fitted cream sweater, leggings that hugged every curve God personally crafted, and some fuzzy socks that made her look softer than she wanted to admit.
For a second, my thoughts went somewhere freaky… then I yanked it back to the moment.
“In the flesh,” she answered. “Now again, what are you doing here?”
“No, the question is, what the hellyoudoing here?”
“Bryce, you know I hate it when somebody answers a question with a question and you do that shit like it’s your love language,” she fussed, voice sharp but dipped in that sexy-ass tone that used to have me doing damn near anything she wanted. “But I’m visiting. This is my month.”
“Your month?” I repeated, low and slow.
Hermonth?
I stood there, jaw flexing and mind ticking. Then I started running the numbers in my head.
Shit! Had I slipped?
I’d been so buried in work, stress, and bullshit that I convinced myself December was my first month starting over in the three-month rotation.
“Fuck!” I rubbed my forehead and exhaled. “My bad, Chess. I ain’t even gon’ lie… I thought this was my month,andthat somebody had broke in.”
I holstered the gun but kept my eyes on ol’ boy, still sizing him up like a problem I wasn’t done solving.
“And honestly…” I nodded at him, “I stillkindathink somebody did.”
“Well, clearly he didn’t break in, ‘cause if he had, I’d be standing over his body, not explaining his presence,” Chesteria quipped.
That told me everything I needed to know: the nigga didn’t just show up; he’d been invited.
I stepped toward her, mad as hell, fists clenched, breathing tight, but the closer I got, the more it fucked with me.
Fuck.
Chesteria was so damn fine, it threw my whole approach off. It was like my anger showed up ready for war, but my body forgot how to fire the first shot. Her skin was glowing, her lips appeared soft and full, and she had that fierce fire in her eyes that always made me want to dominate and kiss her in the same breath. And her scent? It hit me the second I got in her space—warm vanilla, a trace of soft cashmere, and that signature sweet shit she always wore that stayed on my tongue long after I’d had my face buried between her thighs.
I swallowed the heat in my chest, forcing my face to stay hard.
“So, if he’s not an intruder, then who the fuckishe? Cause I knowdamnwell you didn’t bring a nigga toourshit?”
Chesteria’s mouth opened, then closed, the lie dying before it could be born. Before she could recover, ol’ boy spoke up, clearly under the impression I’d given him a pass to jump in.
“Wait… y’all shit?” He looked at Chesteria with his head cocked and brows drawn.
It was clear that clown didn’t know much about me… or that the cabin was shared property.
“C Baby, what the hell is going on?” he further pried.
C Baby?
My nostrils flared so hard the air felt hot.
Not only does she have another nigga in here, but she’s letting him “comfortably”call her the nickname “I”gave her? The same one I used to growl in her ear when I had her face buried in pillows and her body locked under mine. That name was created in the middle of moans, soaked sheets, and back-arching tension, now she just handing it out like party favors, letting some random-ass nigga rehearse lines he ain’t earned? It don’t even sound right coming out of another nigga’s mouth.It feels like hearing somebody else sing my song off-key.
And right there, right in that moment, I feltexactlyhowMariofelt in his song How Could You.
That was “our”thing… my word… my energy.
