Page 13 of Rah
His expression stayed blank, but the way his jaw twitched gave him away.
“Do you assume I had something to do with it?”
“Of course not,” he repliedtooquickly. “That’s not what this is about.”
I laughed bitterly. “Right. Because it’s just a coincidence that a few days after the worst day of my life—a day where I had agun in my faceand Carl died right in front of me—I’m suddenly not ‘up to standard.’”
“I’m sorry, Solae. This is out of my hands,” Frank said mechanically, like he was reading from a script.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I muttered under my breath, though my eyes stayed locked on him.
“I’ll give you the opportunity to gather your things. Please turn in your ID before you leave,” he said flatly, dismissing me.
Scoffing, I stood. I defiantly slammed the door behind myself after leaving his office. But as I walked away, I remembered that I was only working here because I had to, not because I needed to. Luckily, I had a man who worked hard to take care of me and our kids, whose hustle kept a roof over our heads and food on the table.
At least, that’s what I believed. The thought alone eased some of the sting, but soon, I would learn what kind of man Itrulyhad, and absolutely nothing would be able to ease that blow.
AALIYAH
Now that Rah was gone to the bar, I had the opportunity to clean up the house a little bit. He’d come in at about seven in the morning, after leaving the studio. Between cooking breakfast for him and tending to the baby, I was beat. I had only been home from the hospital for a few days. But I liked to keep a clean house for Rah. I took good care of him – feeding him, fucking him, sucking him, and keeping a clean house – because he took good care of me.
I was barely making it as I vacuumed the living room, though. My stomach was killing me. The post birth cramps were a bitch. I decided to finish up vacuuming and take it easy. I needed to make sure that I felt good enough that weekend to party for Moses’ birthday party at Billboard Live.
As I pushed the leather couch away from the wall in order to vacuum behind it, I was startled by the sight of a Gucci duffle bag. I had never seen this particular bag before. I knew damn well that it wasn’t mine, so I instantly turned off the vacuum and went for it. When I opened it and saw all of themoney inside, I figured that it must have been Rah’s. But where he got the money from was news to me. From what he told me, the money he made at the bar wasn’t likethat. It looked like about fifty thousand dollars inside that bag.
Once again, I was startled, but this time by the sound of someone coming through the house. I tried to quickly zip the bag back up, drop it and push the couch back against the wall.
“What up, Aaliyah?”
Luckilyandunluckily, it was Rah’s brother, Fabe. I still didn’t want him to know that I knew where Rah’s stash was, though. I hoped that he hadn’t seen me behind the couch as he entered the living room.
I left the back door open a lot. Rah, his brother, or one of his friends were always coming in and out. We lived on a nice block on the southwest side of Chicago, in Beverly, so I felt safe enough to leave it open.
“Hey, Fabe. What are you doing here?” I tried to act nonchalant as I wrapped the cord around the vacuum. “Rah just left.”
“I saw him leave,” he told me as he walked towards me. “I came in to check on you.”
The closer he walked towards me, the further I backed into the couch. Eventually, I had to sit on it. He sat snugly beside me with his arm draped on the back of the couch. Instantly, my heart started to race.
After a year of being around him, Fabe still made me nervous.
He was so fine. I adored my man, and he was fine as hell too, but Fabe had a sophisticated, romantic swag about him that did something dangerous to me just by sight. He had that same strong jawline and full beard as Rah, but his features weremore polished and chiseled. His deep brown skin caught the light in a way that made it look like silk stretched over muscle. His eyes were beautiful and framed by perfect brows, and he wore his hair in a clean, tapered cut that made his gold studs and thick chain gleam even more. The fullness of his lips, the way they rested naturally as if he was seconds from smirking, was unfair. Everything about him, from the broad set of his shoulders to the subtle scent of cologne, spoke of the kind of danger you couldn’t resist.
That’s why last year, around the time that Rah and I first met, Fabe was able to talk me out of my panties and had me bent over in his Benz truck giving me the business. I had just met Rah, so he and I weren’t officially a couple yet, and I assumed that Rah wasn’t taking me seriously. I never thought we would become official. That night, we were all drunk and leaving The Black Room. Rah told me that he would meet me later that night at my apartment. After he drove off, Fabe pulled up next to my car. He looked at me as if he dared me to deny the chemistry between us. I abandoned my car and slipped into the passenger side of his truck.
An hour later, I had cum four times.
Once I sobered up, I never heard from Fabe again, and Rah started to put in real work to court me. I felt guilty for having slept with his brother behind his back, so I tried to avoid Rah, but the more I pushed him away, the more he chased me. He spoiled me so much that it was hard to deny myself of him because I’d made that mistake. So, I vowed to never do it again and to pour myself into Rah.
Fabe avoided Rah for weeks after we slept together. I assumed he felt guilty too. When he eventually started to come back around two months later, I was deep in love with Rah. Therefore, it was fairly easy for me to ignore the way Fabewould attempt to flirt with his eyes when Rah wasn’t looking and whisper sweet nothings into my ear when Rah wasn’t around.
Though Fabe and I had only slept together that one night, the passion between us since then was something I couldn’t ignore, no matter how hard I tried. It was more than just physical, more than the memory of his hands on me or the way he said my name. Somewhere in the stolen glances, the lingering conversations, and the moments when we didn’t even have to speak to understand each other, a deeper connection had formed, one that went beyond lust.
But that connection was dangerous. It could ruin Rah if the truth ever came out. So, I did what I had to do. I ignored Fabe. I ignored the way his eyes found me in a room, the way my body reacted when he stood too close, the way I wanted to tell him things I’d never told anyone else. I buried it all, kept it short when I had to speak to him, and pretended like what happened between us never did.
But the simple sound of Fabe’s voice made me leak with memories of his mouth against the nape of my neck as he told me to cum.
“How you been?” His eyes stayed on me, as if they were searching, and I could feel the unspoken question behind them. He wanted to know if I thought about that night as much as he did.
