“You taking up astronomy, love? Buying an observatory?” I wrapped my arms around him and put my head against his back. My face fit directly between his shoulder blades and I could feel how tense he still was. Normally he melted when I touched him and I wondered if I’d offended him with my joke. When he finally turned to me I saw that he looked troubled which immediately set me on high alert.
“I’ve thought of a million different ways to do this but none of them seem to be right.” He ran a hand through his hair and I couldn’t understand why he looked so upset. The tips of his ears were flushed and he looked like he was going to pass out. I was panicking because I’d seen this man cuss out the mayor, the chief of police and a host of so-called important members of the Dallas elite when they touched the wrong nerve with him. I’d twirled on his dick when he did it because it was sexy as fuck to watch him in go mode. But for him to be standing here looking like the world was falling apart had my heart breaking.
I drew in a breath that was so sharp it made my lungs hurt. He’d talked about cleaning house at the stadium and he’d gotten rid of his family. Was all that supposed to be a hint that he was getting rid of me too?
“Parker Sebastian Phillips, I know like hell you’re not about to break up with me on Thanksgiving. Not with my mama and daddy and my fresh out the womb godson a hundred feet away! We got all this food in the house and you’re about to ruin my favorite eating holiday? You have the game entirely fucked up.”
The only emotion I could reach for was anger. I was angry at the thought that he was trying to leave me after all the shit I’d gone through to be with him.
Immediately his eyes snapped up to mine and they were filled with confusion. “Break up with you? Wait, what does our godson have to do with anything?”
Yep, now I was going to have to co-godparent with this man because Stew wanted to name him the godfather of all three boys.
“Because you’re trying to break up the mental health of his godmama when he needs me at my best. Are you really sitting here trying to leave me? I had to break my golden rule for you!”
“What, no white boys?” He was grinning and I wanted to wipe the smirk off his face because why the hell was he teasing me at a time like this?
“No! Not to fight a bitch over a man. But I surely dragged that girl from hither to yon because she tried me. And she never would’ve been in my face if it weren’t for you!” I was still pissed about that prissy bitch who approached me at my job trying to have a woman to woman conversation about Parker. She thought cause she’d used her throat a few times that she’d marked her territory. The slurs pissed me off but when she put her hand on me I tried to send that ho straight to hell. And when the cops tried to arrest me, Parker came in on the scene like Superman with his entire security team ready to fuck shit up.
I guess he’s gotta see the crazy side of Tay Tay now.
“You told me that you beat her ass for disrespect.” Why he thought it was a good idea to be throwing my words back up at me right now was beyond me. The fact that he no longer looked upset was also pissing me off. Just like a man to feel better once he’s offloaded his emotions onto you.
“I lied!” My eyes were filling with tears because I couldn’t believe that the best relationship I’d ever had, no matter how surprising the partner was, was ending like this. Just out of the blue with no reason.
“Why you do it then, Princess?” He took a step toward me and took my hand and even though I should’ve pulled back my body was still too used to the magnetism that existed between us.
“Because wasn’t nan bitch gone run up on me trying to claim what’s mine.”
“I’m yours, Tiana?” Parker’s smile was soft and his eyes looked slightly glassy as he stared down at me.
I did a hard blink because I was not about to cry in front of him. “You were. But now you’re being all weird and I guess you’re trying to leave me.” I prided myself on being tough but fuck I thought this man was my soulmate. The person I’d been dreaming about my entire life. Yeah, the shell he came in was taken out of the oven a little soon when God was baking him, but I’d gotten over that because the added accessory pack that came with the man were just superb.
Got dammit, am I dissociating? The man is not a fucking GI Joe.
“I never want to leave you.” Parker’s softly stated intentions broke the ramblings in my brain and now I was focused back on him. God why did he have to be such a beautiful man? Why couldn’t he be ugly with a small dick so I could talk shit about him with Ray while I drowned my sorrows inChunky MonkeyandHalf-baked?
“Then what’s this about?”
“This is about me being so overwhelmed with the amount of love I have for you I don’t know how to express it.”
My brain froze and all thoughts seemed to evaporate instantly. It felt like my last thought was echoing in the cavern that had been my mind.
“Wait…what?” I knew my confusion was clear on my face but his Clark Kent-looking ass was smiling now.
“This is me, asking you a woman who is so far out of my league I wonder why you bother dealing with me at all—”
“—You’re handsome as sin, my people vouched for you and over the last two years you’ve shown me that their loyalty to you was well earned and well deserved.” That interruption happenedso fast it couldn’t have been nothing but the Lord. And it was the truth so…
“Nothing about my money or my dick, Tay?” His smile shifted to an arrogant smirk and I wasn’t going to lie on a dick I was clearly going to continue to have access to. Although it could give him a little more motivation…
“I mean that money doesn’t mean shit but Pinkie is definitely a bonus I didn’t expect.” Can’t lie; I was worried like hell when we first started fooling around. I just knew I was going to have to get creative but this man showed me that he wasn’t just well-versed in how to make a team successful. He set a goal and committed to it no matter what it was. Crazy how this man had turned my ass every which way but loose and his dick was definitely a gift from the minorities in his bloodline for not being a piece of shit.
“Calling him Pinkie is crazy and even worse you got me doing it. But that’s just one of the reasons that you’re absolutely everything to me, baby. The staid, boring life that seemed destined for me. A wife I could only tolerate, kids that would grow up thinking they were better than other people despite how I would want them to be raised. You’ve opened my eyes that life could be so much more than how I was living.”
“Baby, you’re acting like you were slumming it in the trailer park.”
“When it comes to enjoying life then yeah I was. But then you brought me out. Made everything that people thought I had actually match my reality. I think I’ve smiled more in the last two years than I have my entire life. I’m happy and I owe all of that to you.”
