“You didn’t tell me everything. Waking up in a strange nigga’s apartment ain’t unusual. Women do it all the time.”
“Not me!” she thunders.
“Yeah, that’s what you’d tell me anyway, I guess.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Just that your story ain’t gelling, pretty mama.”
“I don’t know what you want from me, but I don’t have time to make you feel good about my story. I must go. Please let me go. I just need to use your phone to order a ride; my phone is dead. I didn’t drive to my location so . . . I’m stuck.”
“Baby girl, you’re not going anywhere until I get the answers that I want.”
“I’ve told you everything! What more do you want from me?” she asks hysterically, throwing her arms out at her sides. Fear is alive in her eyes like a flame licking at the oxygen.
I walk toward her, and she backs up until she hits a brick wall between two floor-to-ceiling windows. The way her breasts heave up and down and how she keeps biting that plump bottom lip reminds me of how she used to look underneath me. I remember every moan, hiss, and plea that fell from those gorgeous lips whenever I plundered her. The soft curve of her thighs wrapped around my back are as alive in my memory as if she were doing it right now.
“I want you to make up for every gahdamn thing I lost today.”
“T-t-today?” she stammers.
I grip her chin and lift her head back. Those upturned, russet-brown eyes stare into mine with a thousand questions she won’t dare answer.
“Unlike you, sweet girl, I didn’t stutter my words.”
“What did you lose today?”
“I was about to get my dick sucked so hard and so good by five beautiful women, and later, I was gon’ do some spine tapping,” I whisper, getting a kick out of the fear and envy that mingles in her eyes.
“What’s that got to do with me?” she mumbles.
I chuckle. “Everything. Had it not been for you showing up, I’m sure I would’ve bust three or four nuts by now.”
She shakes her head and closes her eyes. “I don’t remember you ever being this crass.”
“And I don’t remember you ever being this jumpy. You used to love the way I made you feel. Them tears in your eyes used to be because you were begging me for more, to go harder, deeper. You remember that? You think you’re too good for me now?” I ask, tilting her chin back even further.
She doesn’t pull away, but our gazes clash. “I have a man.”
“What the fuck that’s got to do with me? Where the hell was ya man when you were running scared up into my bar looking for help? Huh?”
“Please, just let me go home. I swear that I won’t bother you again or come into your bar. Please, just let me go. I have something very important to take care of.”
She keeps emphasizing that, and I can’t help but wonder what it is. Charisma always used to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders, making sure her mother was good when her mother didn’t give a fuck about her.
Before I can respond, my phone rings. I pull it out of my cut and narrow my gaze at the name on the caller ID. I don’t believe in coincidences.
I take several steps away from Charisma and head toward the kitchen, but I keep my eyes trained on her, which is easy to do with my open floor plan.
“Wassup?”
“That’s what I want to know. You’re just getting your ass back in town, and you’re already harassing that girl?” Chrishanna asks.
“Is that anyway to greet me?”
“Don’t try that bullshit with me. Why are you bothering her? I thought I asked you to leave her alone before you left the country. You dip out on her for several years after fucking with her mind, and now you want to come back and be chill? That’s not right, Shon.”
“Listen, don’t call my phone tryna tell me how to handle mine.”
