Page 5 of Ex- Factor
Then she blinked, straightened, pulled herself together, smoothing her hand down her braids.
“Damn,” one of the girls said behind me. I still didn’t look at them.
“Okay,” Eshe said. “You win that one.”
I grinned, proud and smug. I stood, pulling her up, and did a little victory dance, making her move her arms.
She snatched away. “Calm down. You kiss well. But still. I’m fresh out of a relationship—a toxic one at that. We can be friends. Friends only.”
I shrugged and stepped forward, crowding her space. Her body heat radiated into me. “That’s how Angel and Cassius started out,” I said. Then I sat down and dragged her into my lap.
She didn’t fight it.
Angel threw a napkin at us. “You’re being way too easygoing with him,” she told Eshe. “Don’t encourage him ’cause he’s cute and kisses well. He’s treating you different, which is scary ’cause I ain’t never seen or heard about him being this clingy.”
I looked over my shoulder and grinned. “Shut up, Angel.”
Eshe tilted her head back and frowned. “You tell her to shut up often?” she asked.
I smoothed my hand over her hip. “Not in a bad way. Only when she’s right. And I need her to be quiet right now. I can tell you’re a runner. I don’t need her scaring you off.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Roll your eyes, pretty. But I noticed you didn’t deny it,” I said, brushing my hand down her thigh like I had the right to touch her.
And in that moment, I kind of felt like I did.
Chapter four- Eshe
The rain had started in the middle of the game we hadn’t watched and hadn’t let up.
It had that steady rhythm that tapped the windows just soft enough to feel like ASMR and make me sleepy.
Everybody else—except Silas—had left a few hours ago. Angel packed up her man and her son. West and his girl left hand-in-hand, giggling like they were headed home to do some grown-up shit.
Silas had volunteered to help me clean up. I woke up and my apartment was immaculate, which I hadn’t expected from him. Then he helped me upstairs because I’d had too much wine and not enough water or food.
Now I was lying on my back in bed, wondering why I let this man stay over when he asked—claiming he came with Cassius and Angel and would drive their car back in the morning since they took an Uber.
I didn’t even pretend to object.
I was pulling a Donte all over again. Getting too excited, too fast, about a too-fine-ass man.
And I didn’t know shit about dealing with a white man, but then again, they were probably just like Black men and I was overthinking.
But then also… Silas felt different.
I can look back and see how it was my fault for forcing something with Donte that never really had a future. He told me that from day one and I hadn’t listened. I was trying to find comfort in chaos, hoping if I loved him enough, he’d become the man he wasn’t.
But Silas—he made the space feel lighter, and nothing felt forced between us. I could tell he was a fuckboy in the past, but he seemed like he wanted better for himself. And who was I to judge him?
I heard the bathroom door open before I turned to look. I had showered before him and was snuggled under the covers in a pair of tights and a t-shirt. No lingerie or cute little pajama shorts like I wore when I usually let a man stay over. I didn't need him thinking he was fucking tonight.
He came out with a towel slung around his neck, gym shorts hanging from his hips, no shirt, wet hair slicked back like he was auditioning for a movie.
And God damn—his body was everything.
He was toned, lean, and cut. My gaze drifted down. There were tattoos everywhere.
