Music…
As much as she hated to separate, she was grateful when he pulled back and brought the blunt to his lips. Instead of sharing, he tilted his head back and expelled the smoke above their heads. She watched the way his throat moved from the action. When his eyes were on hers again, they were intense.
“Tell me a secret, Mari.”
“I don’t have any worth sharing,” she said with a slight smile that made him grin lazily before he pulled from the blunt again and brought her mouth to his. His hand was still pressed against her neck. After she accepted the smoke, his eyes dropped to her lips then slowly moved back up to her face.
“I want whatever you have because I have a feeling all that shit holds weight and has value. Tell me a secret.”
It took a minute of contemplation before she decided to give in and what she told him was so raw and pure that she almost regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth. “I’m afraid if you keep chasing me, I’m going to let you catch me.”
Asao’s expression slid to a place that was heavy before he spoke. “I’m not chasing you, Mari. I’m running from my own demons.”
“Why not fight them?”
The blunt met his lips again then his mouth was on hers. When she had her fill, he pulled back. “Because if them muthafuckers win, everybody around me is gonna suffer, and I can’t let that happen. I gotta carry this shit until I know I’m ready to go to war.”
Samari smiled, feeling something heavy in his abstract words, but she chose to lighten the mood. “Now who’s gaming who?”
Asao chuckled, letting his head drop back against the sofa. She had no idea how serious he was. Shit in his head was fucked up and twisted. There were days when he couldn’t get a grip on his thoughts.
Them shits were so fucking thick that his mind felt like it was swimming. Suffering a loss like the one he’d experienced was hard to survive. It was senseless and unnecessary. A beautiful soul had been lost, and even though he wasn’t the one who’d pulled the trigger, he might as well have been because he wasn’t there to block the shot or deliver one of his own to keep her alive. The only way he could keep his head above water was to stay in constant motion, which meant missing the important shit. Samari was making him slow down and take notice, but that came with a price.
Falling…
“I don’t gotta run game on you, Mari. Running game is reserved for wanting something you can’t have, only when you’re not equipped with the skills to secure it. Nothing I want is out of reach, even you.”
Her stomach dipped dangerously low and her mind raced, wondering if he could feel the thump of her pussy. His eyes were hooded while his voice was controlled and smooth, telling of how confident he felt delivering the words he’d just spoken.
“I’m not on the market.”
Asao nodded and pulled from the blunt before speaking his thoughts out loud. “Nah, you’re not.”
As far as he was concerned, he possessed ownership of everything she had to offer, so no one else could have her. Samari was his.
He tapped her thigh, signaling for her to get up. His dick was feeling greedy and the longer she was on his lap, the more at risk she was of becoming intimately acquainted with him. After she was safely seated in the corner of the sofa, putting some distancebetween them, Asao leaned down and removed a notebook from his backpack. A pen was clipped to the spiraled spine which he removed with one hand, extending the blunt toward Samari with the other.
“Put that out for me.” She accepted it and moved to the kitchen. When she returned, she placed the blunt next to her mug and pulled her knees into her chest.
“Aight, run them lyrics back so I can put my touch on it. I want to record both of these.”
She smiled, watching Asao with his head down flipping through the pages. The chaotic scribble of his words on the page fit exactly what she expected. “How do you know I want you on my shit?”
He smiled without lifting his eyes because he was writing something. “You gonna pretend like you didn’t write that for me?”
“Are you really going to be that arrogant?”
When Asao lifted his eyes to hers, the smile he delivered was too damn sexy and she couldn’t help the descent of falling under his spell; so she decided to grant his wish to distract herself from how fine he was.
She sang and he dropped his eyes and bobbed his head to her lyrics, scribbling his own. By the time they were done, she knew they had something good.
Better than good…
12
Asao walkedaround Track Killaz nodding as he inspected every inch of the building that belonged to him, Niles, and Dom. It took three weeks to get everything set up. There were still a few renovations that needed to be completed but most were cosmetic. The heart of what was going to make them millions was ready for them to put in work.
The building they’d purchased from Cap had been a hole in the wall club back in the seventies and renovated in the early two thousands. Cap had it set up to be a low budget way for street warriors to spit lyrics and record their mixtapes, but his set uphadn’t been much more of an upgrade than recording in project bathrooms.
