Page 128 of Own It

“Good?” His brow lifted, and I nodded, staring up into his brown eyes and unable to look away.

“We’ve unlocked a new level with you wiping me.” I smiled, locking my arms around his neck once he picked me up, flushing for me.

“I’ll be ready sixty years from now, just in case.” He pecked me, carrying me into the shower.

“You would still love me if I needed you to wipe me?” I cocked my head, feeling the warm water rinse me off.

“I love you right now and just had to.”

“I mean permanently, not temporarily.”

He regarded me for a moment, then said, “I love you, Daylin. Yo’ spirit and heart could be in a handicapped, cross-eyed bitch’s body, and I would still love you. It’s just the cherry on top that you fine and can wipe ya fucking self.”

I cheesed, feeling my heart race at his words. I never knew a love like this, and I didn’t think I would ever find it. That was why he needed to stay alive and free for me. But as foolish as I thought women who held niggas with life sentences down were, I would become a fool in love right with them if it were Rakim.

After showering, I cooked us some dinner which consisted of crispy, cheesy, shredded chicken tacos with a homemade salsa along with beans and rice. I ended up having to make a few more tacos for him, which he claimed was my fault for forgetting how big he was and only making him four.

“Thank you. I ain’t even no taco type nigga, but this might be my favorite thing you ever made.” He shook his head, staring down into his plate after taking a bite.

I leaned on the counter, eyeing him with a half smile.

“Welcome, baby.” I cleaned up a bit to stall for time before saying, “I want you to meet my family, mainly my parents. My brother doesn’t care what I do romantically⁠—”

“First brother in history,” he replied, making me chuckle.

“Yeah, Cairo was always too wrapped up in his own shit to truly be overbearing. It was nice though. But if I told him someone fucked with me, he would handle their asses.”

“Good. I wasn’t trying to have to fuck yo’ brother up.” Rakim chomped down on his food, a smirk lingering on his sexy face.

“You would do that?” I asked, amused, and he nodded subtly.

“I wouldn’t want to, but shit, I ain’t gon’ let him get outta pocket. I try to keep my hands to myself because most niggas ain’t worthy opponents and fight like females, only they got egos and try to come back with guns ’cause they lost. But if a nigga start asking for it, I’m gon’ give it to his ass.

“Yo’ brother would get a few more passes before I knocked his ass out, ’cause a nigga love you. Real shit, I’ll knock yo’ pops out, too, if I had to.”

We both guffawed, even though that wasn’t even close to being funny.

“Shut the hell up, Rah. You knock my daddy out, I’m gonna knock you out.” I rounded the counter to near him.

He turned on the stool to welcome me between his legs before he kissed my neck while grabbing at my ass.

“I better chill out then. I ain’t trying to be looking like Tarin. She hot ’cause you knocked her bottom side tooth out.”

“I did?” I gasped.

“Yep.” Rakim snickered and I joined, dropping the napkin in his now empty plate. “Yo’ sister gon’ be cool?” He got back on the topic at hand.

“She can be, but she has her moments. I’m not worried about her though.” I locked my arms around his neck, and he stared down into my face. “I want you to meet them and not tell them who you are exactly. You can tell them later.”

“Not to tell them who I am meaning that I’m the nigga who kidnapped you. He gon’ look me up once he get my name, Day.”

“Correct and I know. He said he tried to find out who you were through Talid’s records but couldn’t locate anything and was too afraid to keep looking. But I want this because the whole time I dated Shaun, he and my father were beefing, and it was stressful. No matter how much I begged Shaun to just be chill for me once, he never could.”

Rakim nodded.

“I got you. I won’t say shit for the first meeting, but at some point, I gotta keep shit a buck. I’ll do my best to keep it respectful, always, if it come down to it and he can’t fuck with a nigga. So long as he don’t say shit to you that’s out of line or disrespectful, I can be cordial.”

“Okay.” I leaned up on my tiptoes to kiss him. “Thank you.” Recalling something, I asked, “When you caught me outside of my warehouse the night of the kidnapping, why did you check my ID if you already scoped me out?”