Saint looked over at me. “You coming in?”
“For a minute.”
He nodded and thought nothing of it.
I’d always found Ava attractive. She was pretty in that soft, pure way. She had that innocence that made you want to get close just to see what she sounded like when she was unhinged with a dick in her. But she was a few years younger than me, and she was family to the Cartiers. My relationship with the Cartiers was still fairly new. I wasn’t about to be the nigga who came around and caused drama in a family that were cool enough to give me a seat at their table. I wasn’t trying to mess up business over a pretty face. And I knew myself. Ava was a good girl. She would want a real relationship. She would want consistency, stability, and intention. And I was a proud hoe. I didn’t settle down. I liked my freedom and having options.
I didn’t do relationships or kids because I knew what it felt like to be left. My father never fucked with me and my mother dropped me off with my grandparents like I was a bag they didn’t feel like carrying anymore, then disappeared. My grandparents didn’t raise me with love. I wasn’t a grandson to them, I was a check. Food, a roof over my head, and the bare minimum came with reminders that I was in the way. So, when people talked about building a family, that shit never sounded sweet to me. It sounded like a trap. Life don’t promise you forever. It don’t promise you, you won’t get killed, won’t die on your kid, won’t wake up one day and realize you don’t even like the person you laid up with. And I already knew I could never live with myself if I brought a child into this world and ended up abandoning them, even by accident. I stayed away from love because I never learned it, and I wasn’t about to fake it and ruin somebody else with my emptiness.
Still, there was something about Ava’s innocence that made my dick hard every time I saw her. It was her naivety and softness. The way she looked like she still believed men could be decent. That kind of energy made you want to ruin it, just to see what she did when she couldn’t keep that nice-girl mask on.
As soon as we stepped inside, we could hear the women in the den. Zahra and Livia were on the couch, holding wine glasses. Aria was sitting between them rubbing her belly. Ava was on one of the stools at the bar, scrolling through her phone.
Saint walked in and announced himself. “Y’all in here talking shit without me?”
Livia and Aria rolled their eyes as he walked up to Zahra and kissed her.
“Don’t be coming in here interrupting our girl time,” Aria argued.
“This is my wife. I can do what I want.”
“But this ismyhouse.”
Ignoring her, Saint went straight to the bar and started looking at bottles like he was in a store. “This shit weak. Who bought this?”
Livia sucked her teeth. “Drink it or don’t.”
Saint turned his head toward Ava like he just noticed her. “Ava, why you sitting over here all quiet?”
“Why are you always fucking with somebody?” she asked, giggling.
Zahra cut in quick. “Stop bothering her.”
Saint playfully muffed Ava, causing her slicked ponytail to mess up a bit, and she screamed. “Saint, stop!”
“Baby, leave her alone!” Zahra spat.
Ava pushed him and he laughed as he jogged away from her and sat on Zahra’s lap. Aria and Livia just shook their heads, giving Zahra sympathetic glances.
I walked over to Ava and asked her, “You want me to beat him up for you?”
“Please?” she asked with a smile that made me want to hear her say that with my dick in her.
Ava was the kind of pretty that made you pause even when you didn’t mean to. She had rich brown skin, and that was my weakness every time. Brown-skinned girls with long hair, real or fake, had always been my downfall. Ava had all of that feminine energy wrapped up in one quiet package. Her hair fell long and full, framing her face in a way that made her look even more innocent than she probably was. But it was her eyes that really did it for me. They were light and uncommon, the kind of eyes that made her stand out even in a room full of pretty women.
I leaned in closer, close enough that my voice stayed between us. “You look pretty tonight.”
Ava blinked like she didn’t know what to do with the compliment. “Thank you.”
Every time I flirted with her, it either went over her head or she acted like she didn’t hear it. Ava had a way of making you work for her attention without even realizing she was doing it.
“That’s it?” I asked. “Just ‘thank you’?”
“What else am I supposed to say?” she asked, lifting a brow.
I decided to stop playing around her nice-girl filter. I let my eyes move down her face slowly, then back to her mouth. “You’re supposed to say you’re looking pretty on purpose for me.”
Ava’s face changed fast. Heat rushed up her cheeks. Her brown skin darkened like she was blushing hard and trying to hide it.
