Page 131 of Captivated By Danger

“But it’s the truth.”

“What do you do with those pictures?”

“I told you that I give them to you. If you don’t want them, I discard them. I have no interest in keeping them in my little black book.”

“Shutup. Can you set your camera up, so you can take a picture next to me on this bench?” She went sat on the bench.

“No.” I turned and waved Saul to me.

He approached me. “Yeah, boss?”

I took my camera off my neck and handed it to him.

“Press this button right here every five seconds, four times.”

I went and sat on the bench next to her and wrapped my arm around her.

“He doubles as security, too? I didn’t know that you had security. I didn’t know you were one of those type of rich folks.”

“What does that mean?”

I motioned for Saul to press the button.

“Wait. I’m not ready.”

“If you hush, you could get ready.”

She rolled her eyes at me and started posing for the pictures. I guess she and I had the same idea because we looked at each other at the same time and then we smiled. She leaned over and pressed her lips against the corner of my mouth. She held it there for a while, blinking slowly. When her eyes flicked up to mine, we stared at each other. The way we eyed each other, it seemed like time was slowing down. When the wind blew, she blinked and pulled away from me. I didn’t know what happened, but I was sure she felt it too.

“Boss. It’s not clicking anymore.”

I cleared my throat and stood up. “Yes. Thank you.”

She stood and fixed her hair for a few seconds. After a few awkward seconds of silence, she was the first to speak.

“So, what I meant was, not everyone knows who you are, say, like if you were Jay-Z or somebody, they have to have security. I didn’t know you had security like that. That’s all. I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“Yeah. I understand, and you’re quite possibly right. Saul is here because he carries a weapon, and I don’t. Make no mistake, Ms. Greysen, I wasn’t lying about being belted. I can protect myself if need be. However, I am in the company of a beautiful woman, so that changes things for me.”

She blushed. “That makes sense. Oooh. Somebody that is desperate enough can kidnap you for a ransom. How much you think your family is willing to pay to get you back?”

I looked down at her and laughed. “Is that a serious question, mama? They would pay whatever they had to pay to get me back. Shit. I should be asking you how much your folks would pay to get you back?”

“Honestly, my dad would move heaven and Earth to get me back. My mom, on the other hand, I don’t know. Her ass would put it in God’s hands day one.”

She laughed but it wasn’t that funny to me. Speaking of her mom, we’d been out here for a while, and we talked the whole way here, but she hadn’t said anything regarding whether she was staying here or not.

“So, what’s up with your mom? Why she act like that? And why does her mom act like that?”

She locked her arm in mine and laid her head on my arm. “She’s…” I paused.

“Don’t give me excuses Grey. I want to know the real. It pissed me off to hear and see them both yelling at you like that, and your father just standing there. What the fuck was that?”

“Grams is single, old, and miserable. According to my father, my mom’s dad is somebody husband she thought was going to leave their wife for her and she got a rude awakening. Perris’ grandfather was a different story. She drove him crazy, and he left her ass, and the baby. I think she never got over my grandfather not leaving his wife for her. To keep his wife, he couldn’t deal with my mom, and he didn’t. She wouldn’t even let him be in my mom’s life. He died before I was born. She loves Perris and her mom because they act just like her ass. It’s why she expects me to just be okay with her taking my ex-husband from me.”

“Damn, man. That’s tough. Still no reason for her to treat you like shit. So, she treated your mama like that too?”

She nodded her head. “She raised my mom to be uppity. To not need a man. To use them before they could use and leave her. Made sure my mom stayed thin. Kept her hair up. All that. Whenever my mom didn’t do what she said, she made her feel terrible. That kind of changed when she met my dad. He wasn’t having that shit, and him and my grandmother have had many words with each other. Andrea fell in love with Bobby when she realized that Grams couldn’t punk him. He even went so far as to make her choose and she knew no other man would ever put up with her shit, so she chose my dad. Of course, it didn’t fare well with Grams. They didn’t speak for a long time. Anyways, my mom had me and as you can tell, I took after my dad’s side. I could tell that my mom wanted to treat me differently than she was raised, but whenever my mom came around, she’d be different. Grams beat down on Mom, and in turn Mom beat down on me because she had to get her frustrations out somehow. I don’t fault her.”

---