Something in me snapped tight and then gave out. My body answered before my brain could catch up. My vision blurred, my back arched, and my nails dug into his shoulders as I came in his lap.
“Hasheem,” I cried, the sound echoing off the stone. “Oh my God?—”
“I got you,” he murmured, holding me through it, keeping me grounded as everything inside me came undone. “That’s it. Make a mess for me, Lowe. I’m right here. I’m not going nowhere.”
I shook around him. Every nerve lit up, every fear and doubt drowned out by the way he held me, the way he kept the pace under me, the way his eyes never left my face. Somewhere in mybeautiful orgasm, I heard him groan, felt his body tense, felt him pulse inside me.
“I want this when we leave Zanzibar too.” I agreed, answering the promise he’d put in the air. “Yes.”
“Then you got it,” he said, voice rough, forehead pressed against mine. “You mine, even after we leave. You understand?”
“Yes,” I whispered, riding the last waves of pleasure. “Yes.” When we left Zanzibar, I still wanted this. I wanted him. And for the first time, I wasn’t running from that.
This wasthe first Monday in a minute that I wasn’t posted at the fire station playing 2K waiting on somebody to burn something. Valentine’s Day had damn near taken me out in a good way. Every detail I’d planned for Harlowe had hit. After a rooftop dinner with Duality, we’d gone back to the villa and fucked all night. Now she was laid up on somebody’s massage table, and I was killing time at the bar, nursing a drink and trying not to think about how bad I already wanted her back in my space. I was just starting to relax into the shit when my phone screen lit up with Marcus across the top. I almost let it ring, then I thought about all the shit I’d been putting off and hit accept.
“What’s up?” I answered.
“So.” He exhaled. “You and Harlowe, huh?”
“Damn. No hello?” I blinked.Shit.
“Fuck a hello,” he said. “You her man now? I saw that lil viral flowers in the pool shit.”
My grip tightened on the glass. I had already planned to sit down with Marcus on some man-to-man shit when I got back, but it looked like that conversation was pulling up early.
“Yeah,” I said finally. “I’m with Harlowe. I love her, and I’m not apologizing for it.”
Marcus went quiet. For a second, all I could hear was him breathing on the other end. I’d been running an apology speech in my head the last couple of days, ready for him to be pissed. But it didn’t feel like something I should be sorry for. Me and Harlowe had happened, and nothing about it felt like a mistake.
“Good,” Marcus said finally. “It’s about damn time.”
“You good with that?” I asked, a little thrown off by his reaction.
“Nigga, everybody with eyes knows Harlowe’s been your person. Y’all always worked. You never played about her. I was the one out here bullshittin’, chasing hos. It wouldn’t be right for me to stand in y’all way.”
That was all I needed to hear from him. Pressure I ain’t even realize I was carrying loosened in my shoulders. I’d been ready to stand on business about me and Harlowe regardless, but having my big brother say out loud he approved of us . . . That hit different.
“You don’t know the way you just took a weight off both of us with that, Bro,” I said. “Harlowe been acting like I’m stealing something.”
“Nah,” he said. “Ain’t nothing to steal. She been yours for a minute.”
A smile tugged at my mouth before I could stop it.
“I just want to do right by her,” I said. “I think she the one.”
“That’s real, nigga,” Marcus replied. “Shit,” he added after a beat. “Harlowe fit you better than Simone ass.”
“Funny you bring her up,” I said. “You know her ass on this trip.”
“Who?” he asked, like he was impersonating an owl.
“Simone,” I said. “She works for the brand that invited Harlowe out. Been acting a fool all weekend, trying to snatch up Harlowe and shit.”
“You lying.”
“I wish I was.” I shrugged.
“Man . . .” He blew out a low whistle. “That girl always been a piece of work. Pretty as fuck, but messy as hell on the inside. I should have told you that sooner.”
