“You don’t want kids?” He wondered once we were alone in the kitchen.
“I have the unfortunate pleasure of going through perimenopause,” I confided in him as I poured more champagne into a fresh flute.
“Already at 43?” He queried, scrolling through his phone to look for somewhere to order food.
“Yep,” I lamented, and he sat the phone down giving me his undivided attention. “As much as I would’ve loved to have adaughter of my own, it clearly isn’t happening. Hence why I love being able to help Amill today. I always dreamed of doing these things with my own daughter.”
“Well, I think we do a good job with Amill. I’ll share her with you forever and always. She loves you,” he insisted.
“I love her too.”
“Are kids a dealbreaker for you?”
“Nah, my only dealbreaker is you,” he flirted, coming around to my side of the island where I was sitting on a high-back stool. His strong arms slid around my chest, holding me close. I relaxed in his embrace, happy that the conversation had gone the way it did. “Actually, I do have a dealbreaker now that I got you in my arms,” he clarified, nibbling on my ear.
“You’re going to be my wife as soon as you divorce that fuck nigga. Would you consider getting married again?”
“Only if it’s you. I wanted to be one of those women who spent a few years focusing on myself after my divorce, but then you came along.”
“I love you, Marissa.” The words rolling off his tongue shocked me, but the feeling was definitely mutual. “I fell harder for you when you opened up to me about your childhood and helped me see things with my daughter from a whole other perspective. Watching you get along with my family is some shit I didn’t even realize I needed until I witnessed it, and I can’t lose that. You make me feel some shit I ain’t felt since I was a teenager. I been feeling it since you pulled up on me ready to throw hands about Quincy. When you finalize that divorce, don’t even change your last name back, we just gone make it mine.”
He ended his statement with a kiss to my cheek. I reached back and pulled him to the side of me so I could kiss him again. My tongue danced around in his mouth, hoping to convey the feelings I was too afraid to voice.
“Get a room,” Vicky’s voice sounded a few steps away, bringing us back down to earth.
“I mean, I did pay for every room in this motha fucka, so I guess I have six. Y’all the ones that don’t belong here.”
“Boy hush, did you order something to eat or were you too busy trying to eat Marissa’s face?”
I giggled, beyond embarrassed. “I was too busy eating Marissa’s face,” he notified her before swirling his thick tongue around my lips like he loved to do my clit.
“Ewww, Yaseer!” She chastised him.
“Alright, now I can order some food. I’m just going to have food from Koto delivered. Is filet mignon and lobster good with everybody?”
“Perfect,” I cooed, still eyeing Yaseer.
“Oh lord, we are in a love nest. I do not want to hear y’all having sex in here,” Freddy joked, entering the living room.
“Man, y’all cockblocking harder than Amill,” he groaned.
“Just order the food. We are going back upstairs to lay down until the food comes. That drive was longer than usual on a Saturday. We would’ve drove up yesterday if we knew the roads would be disastrous today too,” Vicky complained, leading Freddy back up the stairs.
This was going to be an eventful evening with Yaseer’s parents.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Quinten Bentley Sr
Waking up in the bed next to Claudia wasn’t what I was used to. I was used to Marissa waking up and cooking breakfast for the entire house while we were still asleep. When I would go into the kitchen, Quincy and Quinten would be sitting at the table, talking shit or ignoring us with their heads buried in their phones.
Since I got back to Miami after getting into it with Marissa in Tampa, I was laid up at her crib because none of my family would be able to find me here. I met Claudia a few months back when I went into her tattoo studio for a consult about getting a tattoo on the back of my head. We flirted, but she shut me down when she saw I was still wearing my wedding ring. I went back without my wedding ring after learning about Marissa and that nigga she was fucking with. Claudia did my tattoo, and I fucked her that night. I didn’t hit her again until I was on my flight back to Miami after getting into it with Marissa. I planned to fuck her and leave her the fuck alone, but she was a soft place to land while I got my thoughts together.
I was living proof that you never know what you had until it is gone. All Claudia woke a nigga up to was loud ass music, by rappers I couldn’t tell you the names of if there was a gun to my head, and clouds of weed smoke. Climbing out of bed, I went into the bathroom to shit and shower before joining Claudia in the living room.
“You want some cereal?” She offered from her position at the dining room table with a bowl and spoon in front of her.
“Nah, I’m good.”
