Page 48 of The Prodigy

A groan rumbled in my throat.

I never got the words out because she pressed the back of my neck, pulling me down, smashing my lips to hers.

If she fucked as passionately as she kissed, I was in trouble.

As our tongues tangled, I let my hand wander. It touched the delicate skin on her neck, and I thought about what it might feel like to choke her. It drifted down to squeeze her breast before my fingers found her nipple—it was already hard. I teased it for a minute, and she moaned into my mouth. My dick throbbed at the sound of it, and that basically put an end to my tour of her body. My hand dropped straight down, and I inched it between us until my fingers found the promised land. I rubbed her clit through the thin fabric, and her moan turned to a whine as her nails dug into my back.

I couldn’t take it anymore.

I eased the fabric to the side and lifted my body so I could line my dick up. As soon as she felt the tip, she yelled, “Wait!”

I sighed, more disappointed than surprised.

She pushed me off of her and sat up. “I’m sorry. I want to, I just—”

“I know you want to.”

I stared between her still-open legs. Even in the dark, I could see the big wet spot on her panties. My eyes moved up to her shirt and the wet spot my precum had left there.

“It’s cool,” I said. “You might wanna change though.”

Her eyes followed mine, and she let out a quiet sigh. “I don’t know what it is. I’m so turned on right now. There’s like…a mental block or something.”

I didn’t bother to ask why, because I already knew the answer.

“We ain’t gotta talk about it,” I said. “I’ma try to go back to sleep.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t even worry about it.”

She got quiet on me. It was weird how I could feel the tension in her. I knew she was wrestling with something. I waited, and sure enough, she came on out with it.

“Why did you move to Atlanta? Because of your dad?”

I closed my eyes and breathed in, slow and deep. Part of me wanted to tell her it was none of her fucking business, but the other part of me wanted to tell her everything, because I’d never talked about it. Shit was still weighing on me heavy, especially now that I was home, but…fuck. I couldn’t talk to her. Not about this. Not with her still basically being a stranger to me. That piece of paper in my safe, and that rock on her finger, made her my wife legally, but she wasn’t my wife in the most important way. The kinda way where you can trust that person with the shit that’s way down in the depths of your soul. That’s what my mama and daddy had. But me and Malika didn’t have that yet. If we ever would.

“Nah,” I lied. “That ain’t why.”

She didn’t respond, and a few minutes later, her soft, slow breathing told me she had drifted off.

I never got back to sleep.

Thenextday,Idragged my tired ass into the study to lead the meeting I’d called. It was just me and my brothers today. Some shit needed to be hashed out, and it couldn’t wait much longer.

But first things first.

“Anybody talk to Jaz? She didn’t come to brunch yesterday,” I said. “I wanted to talk to her about that nigga Terio.”

Nay shrugged. “I can’t keep up, man. I got my own shit to deal with.”

That was an understatement. Two baby mamas, secret meetings with Gray Hightower.

I’d get to that in a minute.

Eris downed his bottle of Gatorade. Nigga showed up in a blue onesie and shit. It was his workout gear, but he looked like a damn fool.

“So supposedly he got some stripper pregnant,” I said, bracing myself for their reactions. They didn’t disappoint.

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