“I know this is a stressful week for you because of the championship games, so I wanted to do something nice to relax you. Help you clear your head a little bit. Plus, I thought you may have needed a bodyguard, so I popped up.”
“If you missed being around me then just say that. Teddy ass knows that I apparently have shootas now, and he ain’t coming this way.” When he laughed and licked those sexy-ass lips, all kind of thoughts ran through my head. Tessa was right, but I wasn’t going to let her know that it’d been over six months since I’d had any type of sexual attention. I’d been getting amazing head from my shower head but that’s about it.
“Bronx.”
“What’s up with you calling me Bronx?” I interrupted him. I wasn’t complaining because it sounded like it was made to come out of his mouth. The way he said it with his deep drawl sent chills up my spine. “Why did that stick to you more than Brianna?”
“I told you already that Brooklyn and Bronx sound good together. That’s gon’ be our first vacation together, too. Brooklyn and Bronx takes New York.”
“Oh Lord, I can’t wait for that day. If it ever happens. You may do me how you did that big mouf bitch.”
He twisted his grin into a smirk. “Stop it, you ain’t her. However I treated her is because of her actions. To be perfectlyhonest, I wasn’t a fucked-up person to her, until she started poppin’ off at the mouth at you for no reason. You can handle your own and I love that, but she still should have kept her mouth closed and just did her job.”
“I agree with you. My girl was already laid up in the hospital and at that time, we didn’t know why, and she wanted to come over there talking crazy. She just don’t know that we didn’t care nothing about our jobs at that moment.”
“Yea, we weren’t letting y’all fuck that up over her. I apologize again about everything from the first time she came at you wrong and the second time, too. You’re too cute to let a bitch bring you down to her level like that.” His hands gently cupped my chin, bringing an uncontrollable smile out of me.
“Now will you reply to what I said?”
“What's that?” he asked while pulling me towards him by the waist of the shorts I had on. Brooklyn’s massive hands roamed around my exposed stomach until he locked them in the back of me. Keeping me there, he kissed my forehead. A simple, intimate gesture was such a turn-on to me. I was five-foot-eight and still had to looked up at him to answer his question. My head only came to his chest. That alone, was attractive as hell.
On top of that, he smelled so damn good. My mind got lost in his scent, in his touch, and I knew then that I needed to stay away from this man, or we’d end up on that pallet for real but not sleeping. I was not one of those girls with a ninety-day rule. That’s all I’ll say.
I could tell by the way that I wasn’t pulling away from Brooklyn or concerned about him just popping up, that mentally things with Teddy and I had been over with. They say a woman leaves mentally first then the body follows. If I were still madly in love with him, I would’ve been a little more standoffish because I’d just gotten out of a four-year relationship. I wasn’t even a little bit worried about what someone would think. Theyhadn’t gone through the bullshit I went through with Teddy. So yes, if someone wanted to give me their time and come through for me in ways that my ex hadn’t then hell yea, I was with it, and I was for damn sure not running.
I’m not saying I was about to be head over heels already, but I wasn’t about to fight against nothing that he showed or offered me. I’d always been open and honest about how I love and the way I wanted to be loved; Teddy got a pass when he fumbled me. A huge one at that because we had history, and I didn’t want to kick him while he was down, but after he got the news about his health, there’s no way I could leave him after that.
So, I stayed longer than the welcome allowed me to. Even when the love was gone, I stayed. Even when he showed me time after time that he wasn’t in my corner, like a fool, I stayed because in my heart, it was just the hurt in him talking. I didn’t even realize that the hurt became his truth, and the picture was already painted on how we would end up, but stupidly, I would always paint a different picture in my mind.
“You gon’ tell me what you said, or sniff all of my cologne off me?”
My eyes popped open as I tried to ease out of Brooklyn's hold, but he wouldn’t let me go. I was so embarrassed.
“Boy, whatever, I was not sniffing you. I said if you missed me, then just say that because I know you didn’t think I needed a bodyguard. You already know that I would have called or texted you or shit, had PJ to call Zoo.” When I said that, he released me.
“Gon’ on with that shit, Bronx. If you have an issue, why call yo’ best friend’s man when you have one right here, unattached from anybody and telling you I’ll be that for you? Just on some friendly shit. I ain’t doing all of this for pussy because look at me. That shit ain’t hard to get, shawty, but that ain’t what I want. I wasn’t raised like that to jump from female to female. As your new friend, bodyguard, or whatever you want to call me, justknow you can count on me to come through for you. If I need Zoo or Sin, I’ll call them; not you.”
“It was a joke, Brooklyn dang. You can be my Superman, if that's the role you want to play,” I teased but was lowkey serious as hell. The way he came in guns drawn to protect me, I only imagined what he would do with my heart and feelings.
“I ain’t even gon’ front wit' you’, I’ve been craving you all day. Since that night, you’ve forcefully invaded my thoughts all day long. I literally sat up all night and morning, just thinking about you. Wondering if you needed me, were hungry, or if you needed to make a pallet on the floor again to sleep next to me just to feel safe. I couldn’t get you off my mind, and I didn't’ want to. I waited patiently for you to get up just so I could talk to you. Shit. Smelling your hair, holding you all night long, got a nigga craving you and not in a sexual way. I crave your presence.”
“How we met was a coincidence, but how we ended up being around the same circle of close friends and family was meant to happen. Even the night at the hospital, I wanted to instantly comfort you when you started talkin’ ‘bout your pops. It was something about you that intrigued me. You were sad but yet standing there talking to a complete stranger, seeming so open, vulnerable, and down to earth.”
“If it were me and my pops, I would have knocked you down and kept walkin’, not even giving a fuck if I spilled ya coffee, you feel me? Because at that moment, I would’ve been more concerned about him and not the person’s coffee I just spilled. You though, you still stood there and apologized, even asked to pay for someone else's food all because coffee spilled on the lid of it. That type of woman is truly something special and showed me that you have a good heart. It’s so many females who wanna be City Girls so bad but you got everything and to me, winning on every level.”
For a moment, his eyes hung on mine, and I was stuck.
When his hand caressed my face, it pulled me out of the daze I was in.
“What you gon’ do when I tell people we go together now?”
He cocked his head to the side, looking at me, “We go together now?”
“Real bad!” I had to laugh, trying to make myself sound like Caresha since he’d just mentioned City Girls. “‘Cause what you not about to do is have me all in my feelings then go be with someone else. So, either save the mushy stuff until later, or we finna go together and you ‘bout to be like Sin, on the sidelines. We gon’ have a special handshake and everything. So, if you’on want that, stay in a friend's place. Pick them feelings up and just be my bodyguard.”
“You’re forgetting that Whitney still ended up falling for her bodyguard.” The wink he gave me after that statement sent me to cloud nine and a bitch was floating. This man was finna finesse me out my panties faster than I could say, “Just pull them to the side.”
BROOKLYN
