Page 153 of Captivated By Danger

“Even a public defender could get me off for being under duress. You don’t know what your pussy feels like.”

I rolled my eyes. Anyways, how often do you come out here?”

“Honestly. Not nearly as much as I should.”

“What made you come out here today?

“I wanted to get you out the house, take your mind off everything for a little while. I know it doesn’t take the pain away, but…”

“Honestly, Diesel, if you didn’t get me anything past the flowers, I would have been okay. All those flowers, then Elle, my photoshoot, and this boat ride, and you fucking me the way you did, Diesel, I don’t think you know how much all of this means to me. I will never ever forget this day as long as I live. It’s what my daughter would have wanted, honestly.”

“In my research, I didn’t find a name. You never named her?”

“Diesel. No. I was so out of it, I couldn’t. We had her cremated. Some of her ashes are at home on my shelf. Well, hopefully my mother wasn’t vile enough to throw away her granddaughter’s ashes.”

Once my mother realized I was for real about not coming home, she gave most of my things to the goodwill and had a garage sale with the rest. My grandmother made sure to broadcast it on Facebook. It was the single most embarrassing thing she could have done besides be okay with her granddaughter dating her other granddaughter’s ex-husband.

“I didn’t mean to bring the mood down.”

“You didn’t.”

The wind started to pick up as we sailed closer to the dock. He’d had a jacket on board and wrapped it around my arms. As we pulled into the dock, a worker came over and started tying the boat up.

Diesel got off the boat first and then helped me off. He wrapped his arm around me as we headed toward his car.

“So, now that I’m like your man for real, tell me who jet you were on?”

I looked up at him and grinned. “Is that the only reason why you made yourself my man?”

“Now you know…”

“Anyway, since you must know, Elle was doing that new R&B singer Tweety’s hair for her tour. We flew to Cali.”

I watched as the air released from his chest.

“Oh, girl. I’m not going to lie, it was fucking with me.”

I couldn’t stop laughing. “Why was it fucking with you? You couldn’t just use your technology degrees to find out.”

His face twisted up and then his jaws clenched. “As painful as it is for me to admit this, Ms. G, I couldn’t find a damn thing. My degrees failed me in that instant. I was too embarrassed to ask Dymon, who, as you know, is light years ahead of me in tech, to find out for me. It was fucking with me because I hate when I don’t know shit, and can’t find out shit… and plus, I like you, Grey. I’m just selfish as hell and just wanted to know what nigga you fucked with that had a jet.”

I shook my head. “Anyways, I really can’t get over this night, Diesel. Thank you so much. You might need to go get you some Mississippi water every other month, if it’s going to make you be this nice.”

That made him laugh. “Girl, shutup. You like my woman for real now, kinda. I gotta spoil you even more.”

“I like the sound of that, but with QT and stuff like that and flowers and handwritten notes. I think that is so special because it’s thoughtful, and—”

“Oh! You must be his new slut!”

I looked ahead to see a woman pacing in front of Diesel’s car. I looked up at Diesel and his jaws were clenching tight. It wasn’t a well-lit area, but I could see that she was a slender built woman.

“Diesel, who is that?” I whispered.

“Nobody,” he snapped.

My heart started to race. I’d only been in two physical confrontations and each time it was me, Elle, and her other friends jumping another group of girls, so I didn’t really know how I’d fare in a one-on-one. I clutched Diesel’s waist tighter.

“I wasn’t good enough for your fucking boat, but I was good enough for you to get me pregnant and throw me the fuck away!” she yelled as we got closer.