“They can wait. We good?” he asked me.
“We’re good,” I said, meaning it.
“Let me get a kiss then,” he bribed. I was still feeling a way about the news, so I sat up, and I only offered him a quick peck on the lips.
“Kissing me like that makes me feel like we’re beefing. I want the one you gave me this morning,” he said, taking his time, not giving a damn that someone was out front, waiting for him, needing him to go back, and finish coordinating up front.
Not wanting him to hold them up any longer, and because I genuinely wanted to kiss my man, I slipped my tongue to him, allowing him to softly suck on it, and for well over thirty seconds, we made out with each other.
“Alright. Baby, go. They’re waiting for you.” I breathlessly said to him, picking my hand up, so that I wipe away the excess lip gloss that I left on him.
Once he was good, he stood up, and he helped me up as well. Instead of allowing me to sit in here, and get in my head, thinking about so many things, he pulled me out, so that I could leave out of the room with him.
The second we were out the door, they were pulling him because they needed him on air right away. While they took him, I went and took my place in the back, where the producers and everyone else was. I crossed my legs over each other, and I paid attention to the set.
Steel was back in his seat with the rest of the men, and a woman from the hair and make-up crew had come over, so that she could touch him up before they started. I watched her as shedid that, and my eyes drifted over to the left of me, where I could feel movement.
Caprice was standing over there with a few other women, and they were laughing, and joking amongst each other. I really hated that that bitch fucked my man. Truly hated it because as I’m sitting here, I couldn’t stop the voices that were in my head, telling me to go over, and tackle that bitch.
Chapter 3
Zion ‘Steel’ Perkins
CUT THE CAMERAS
“Steel, stop! Your hands!” Toni snapped, putting her hand back on me, slapping it out of the way.
She was holding Zaylani in her arms, and I walked in the room, just to hug her from behind, and during that, I tried to slip my hands inside the black leggings that she was wearing, but she stopped me from doing it. We had a whole camera crew in our house because we were back in Miami and were back to filming our reality show. The whole reality show thing was cool to me, mainly because we got to control the narrative, but on the downside, I hated that I was limited to what the fuck I could do when we were filming, especially when it came to Toni.
I was handsy as fuck when it came to my fiancé, loving to stick my hands in her pants, under her shirt, shove my tongue down her throat, but when the cameras were rolling, she would want to hold back, telling me that I needed to keep shit PG between us, but I couldn’t help myself.
“This shit going to air, and they going to feel like you hate a nigga,” I replied, slapping her on her ass, and then I sat down at the foot of the bed. She laughed at what I said as she stood there,patting our daughter on her back, as she was dozing off. Lani was so spoiled. She loved being patted or rocked to sleep.
“A blind man can tell that I don’t hate you. Where’s Zayne? I told him to come in here so that I can plait his hair,” she said, never missing a beat when it came to anything that involved either of the kids.
Toni knew how to multitask like a motha fucka, and she was so hands on, always feeling the need to take care of everything on her own, barely giving me the space to get anything in. Even right now, she had papers that were spread across the bed that she was grading, Zaylani on her shoulders, putting her to sleep, and now she was asking for Zayne, so that she could finish with his hair.
Brooklyn was home from dance practice, and she’s already been in the room with her, checking over her homework, and finding out from her how her day in school was. Mind you, dinner was cooked. The kids wanted spaghetti, so that’s what she made. My woman didn’t have to be superwoman though. I didn’t mind stepping in right now, taking the baby from her, so that she could focus on one thing at a time, but I already knew how she was, so I would let her hold onto Lani for a little while longer.
Before I could answer her question, and tell her where Zayne was, he was swaggering in the room, holding onto his Nintendo switch. Brooklyn washed his hair, and blow dried it for him, so all Toni had to do was style it. My son had so much hair on his head. These days, it has grown out to his waist. I was still in his ear, trying to bribe him to cut it because it entailed too much work, and he hated to sit and get his hair done, but he didn’t want to cut it. I told him years ago when he was a little boy that when his mama was pregnant with him, she would say how she wanted our son to have long hair like hers, so that she could keep it styled in braids, and till this day, he was living by that. He kepthis braids in honor of Sapphire, and I couldn’t do anything but respect it.
Knowing that Toni had to do his hair, I reached for Zaylani, and she passed her to me. I cradled her in my arms, looking at her with so much love in my eyes. She was my twin, but she had some features of her mother. Big ass hazel eyes like Toni, moody as fuck like her mommy, naturally arched eyebrows, full lips, and the same button nose as her mom. Her little ass was spoiled rotten too. When I’m home, I like to walk around the house and hold her. I was the daddy towards my little girl that I knew that I would be.
“Come here, man. What’s that you got on your face? Am I seeing a little peach fuzz on you man?” I asked Zayne, motioning with my free hand, that wasn’t holding his sister for him to come over to me.
Zayne was six, and he was getting so big. He was tall, and because he liked to be in the gym with me, this lil nigga was walking around here with an eight pack, and muscles. Still scrawny as hell, but the muscles were there. For him to be so young, he worked so hard when it came to football. He was enrolled in all kinds of private lessons, he was in the gym with me, and he didn’t play that shit when it came to being to practice on time.
He’s always been headstrong when it came to football, but a couple of months ago, Rico Briggs, one of the biggest college wide receivers in Miami, signed with the Patriots, and that shit motivated my son, and damn near every other young football athlete out here, so Zayne has really been putting in that work.
“You see it, pops. You don’t have to squint. It’s right there in your face,” he responded, sounding like a grown ass man, making Toni laugh.
The camera crew was inside the room, filming this moment. I was holding Zayne by his arm, squinting, trying to see if it really was a peach fuzz that I saw on his upper lip.
“Nah. Never mind. That ain’t a peach fuzz,” I said, fuckin with him, and he sucked his teeth, and then turned his head, so that he could look up at Toni.
“Toni, don’t I have a little mustache coming in?” he asked her, and I knew she would agree with him because she was his biggest cheerleader.
“You do, baby. I told you the other day that I saw it. Your daddy is just hating. When he turns 40 in a few years, he’s going to start balding, so he’s just hating on you,” Toni told him, putting her hand on the top of my head for emphasis.
