by Kiki Leach
"You need to trust that anything foul would send me running for the hills," I told him.
"If he were anybody but who he was, Cheyenne..." He pulled back from me and stared straight into my face, eyeing me with worry. "I trust that you'll be smart about this muthafucka, baby girl; what I don't fuckin' trust is him keeping you that way."
I lowered my eyes as Green returned to the room with my keys in hand. I stepped over to him and dropped them inside my pocket, then turned back to Nix and rested a hand along my waist. "I'll call you once I'm completely settled in here; you can relay the message to Snake after the fact."
He stared at me for a long while and grit his teeth. "You're fuckin' sure on this shit?"
"Positive." I looked to Green and smiled. "I don't mind waiting alone for him. As a matter of fact, I think it might be for the best."
Nix shook his head while strolling out of the room, then stopped near the staircase and latched onto his cut. "This shit is never gonna sit right with my ass, Cheyenne."
"I don't expect it to."
He dropped his shoulders and headed straight for the front door.
Green followed, grabbing his coat from a rack near the banister and tossing it across his arm. "Goodnight--"
"Is there...?" He stopped and turned back to me with a smile. "Is there anything else I should know before he comes home?" I asked. "I mean, I don't... I only know what I've seen from him on the inside. Who he is beyond that--"
"Is not much different," he replied.
"That's absolutely terrifying for me; maybe not in the way that it should be."
"Christ." Nix reached for the doorknob, clutching his fingers around the metal as he yanked it back. "You call me once he shows the fuck up here tonight--"
"I'll call you about him in the morning," I said.
He glanced at me one last time, then mumbled something under his breath and headed down the stairs, back to his bike.
After watching him take off, Green stepped in beside me and looked to the street. "Are you certain that you'll be alright in waiting for him alone?"
"No. But I'm certain that I want to be alone in seeing him again."
Another small grin crossed his face as he nodded and shuffled down the stairs to his car.
Once he was gone, I closed and locked the door behind myself, then dropped back and looked toward the stairs.
"Oh boy."
After a few deep breaths, I made my way up, passing the guest bedroom to stop in front of Nikko's door.
As my heart nearly leapt from my chest, I dragged my fingers along the center and pushed back until the door opened completely. While making my way inside, I flipped the switch to give the room some light and dragged my eyes from corner to corner with a sudden smile crossing my face.
An array of vibrant colors filled even the smallest spaces of his room, from bright white walls to the dark red nightstand alongside his double-king sized bed. When a light breeze shot through one of his windows like a raging silver bullet, forcing a set of homemade curtains to rattle against the base of the sill, I stepped forward and pulled them back to see if the window itself was still closed and locked.
Once I was sure, I moved to the edge of his bed and swiped my fingers across his charcoal colored, silk made comforter before crawling them to his pillows made from the same fabric. I wondered for a split second how many women had shared this same bed with him, and in what ways he had been planning to share it with me since our last meeting, then shook the idea from my head and crossed to his dresser.
Plain white and topped with a giant oval shaped mirror, it was dust free and glossy with nothing but the crinkled, 7X5 slightly torn picture of a young white woman with bright green eyes and giant brown curls, plump red lips with rosy cheeks and freckles draped along the corner edge. I sucked in a rattling breath and picked it up to get a better look at the tiny features of her face, realizing all too quickly that she couldn't have been anyone else but the woman Nikko had spoken about being with for the first time, Rebecca. My stomach flipped as I chewed the inside of my lip, seeing in more ways than just inside my head how opposite we truly were to one another.
After placing it back down, I returned to the bed and dropped back with a thud, sinking into the comforter like a pebble to sand.
While eyeing the ceiling, I shook my head in wonder of what the hell I was still doing despite knowing the answer, then quietly kicked off my shoes and began removing my clothes.
Chapter Sixteen
Naked Ambition
Nikko's POV
The thoughts swirling inside his head that night were abundantly unforgiving.
It was nearly 3am and he felt like pure shit after being forced to sleep in a bed free tank without the chance of a shower before leaving Rikers just hours before.
After sinking into the soft grey leather cushion of his car seat and swiping a hand across his mouth, he shifted his eyes toward the Brownstone his old man had purchased for him as a favor for keeping quiet about the dope deals being made in the back rooms of his casinos, and wondered where the hell his life would be at this very moment had he just snitched on the motherfucker when he first had the chance. Then he quickly realized that his soon to be wife, who was now most certainly waiting for him somewhere inside, would have never come into it otherwise.
At least not like this.
The idea of never meeting Cheyenne, never hearing the sound of her voice on the phone that night or having a taste of the sweetest chocolate chip cookies that had ever been baked especially for him, twisted his insides in a way that almost made him feel sick enough to puke on the goddamn floor of the car, which is exactly what he would've done inside his own instead of the one ordered by Chino to pick him up from jail.
"Yo, buddy." He casually rolled his eyes toward the driver's seat as the pale, sweat covered, balding asshole with a set of pirate tatted arms and knock-off Cuban cigar tucked inside the corner of his mouth peeked at him in the rearview mirror around a giant puff of greyish-white smoke. "Your old man said this place was the only stop for your ass tonight."
Nikko sighed as a range of unspeakable emotions filled his chest at the unnecessarily enraged tone of that motherfucker's voice, and nodded. "It is."
"Okay? Then you should probably start heading the fuck outta here and inside already before he comes out making a ruckus. I don't need any of that Italian shit you people are known for going off about happening inside my car."
"Italian shit? What the fuck are you talking about?" he snapped, his voice deepening, hardening as he all but spit daggers into the back of that asshole's head. "My old man doesn't live here, this is my place."
"Whatever." The driver lifted his round, heavy fingers from around the wheel and waved his hand toward the window. He shook his head, sweat flying from right to left of the car, and shifted his pale blue eyes from the mirror. "Just get the fuck out and head inside already. I've got other folks I gotta pick up before sunrise and my shift is done."
Nikko gulped in an attempt to remain outwardly composed despite the blood boiling though his veins, and pushed the door open to hop out of the car. After slamming it shut, the driver called out to him in a sturdy voice; he stepped in front of his door and stared down into his face. "What the fuck is it?"
"Tip," he said.
"What?" His head jerked as he slipped his hands inside the front pockets of his slacks and snickered. "What the fuck--?"
"The tip, motherfucker, tip!" The driver tossed his hand out the window palm side up and grimaced while slapping his fingers against himself, indicating an overall need for further payment. "Your old man didn't include that shit for the ride out here."
"For good goddamn reason." His jaw locked as his nostrils flared in growing fury. "You know why I was locked up out there in the first goddamn place? For taking out a motherfucker that looked, sounded and acted just like you for pissing me the fuck off. Same goddamn reason I nearly didn't get the fuck outta there tonight when it came to a set of three of th
ose assholes that fell to my feet in their own fuckin' blood." He paused. "I'm not tipping for shit unless one includes slamming your head against the goddamn wheel 'til you bleed out all over this piece of shit you call a fuckin' ride."
"This piece of shit that got your ass here--?"
"Fuckin' barely."
The driver pulled his hand back into the car and grumbled; he pushed out a rattling breath while staring into Nikko's face in terrifying awe. "You just got outta there and you're already making threats to a stranger in the middle of the fucking street? Bold move." His face burned red as his teeth chattered and clinched. "I could report this shit to send your ass right back -- maybe even get you sent back to the goddamn island where the fuck you belong."
"I'd like to see you try that shit on me, motherfucker." His tone lowered as the threat between them heightened. "And I'd like to be part of what the fuck happens once you do."
"Nothing's gonna happen to me, kid. Not like it would for you."
"Then let's test that theory. Even if it's well-known that motherfuckers with flaccid cocks sagging between the crack of their balls always manage to say some stupid shit like this right before it does. I will break them in half with my bare goddamn hands and feed 'em to whatever bitch you're currently fuckin' on a shit filled platter made from stone out here -- are you feeling me on this shit? 'Cause if not, we can make that happen just as much." A chill snaked through the driver's body as Nikko gradually stepped back from the car like a looming cloud hanging over the bleakest of sunsets, and coolly nodded down the street as if he had nothing more to lose that night but himself. "You better get the fuck outta here before this 'Italian shit' makes due on his promise in a way that can't be taken back with more simple jail time."
"You mean this shit wasn't it?"
He grinned and shook his head while narrowing his eyes and muttering, "No."
The word was filled with enough venom from a snake meant to kill.
"Crazy fuck." The driver's eyes expanded to the size of tiny plates as the whites of them darkened before he finally switched gears from 'park' to 'drive' and sped down the street in a loop without ever a thought of looking back.
Nikko watched the smoke from his sagging tailpipe curl through the air like a genie escaping from its bottle before crossing the street to his Brownstone, snatching the keys from his pocket and heading inside.
After closing and locking the door behind himself, he started making his way through the foyer, but was stopped when he heard what sounded like water pouring out in buckets from directly above his head.
"Shit." He reached for the railing and raced upstairs, nearly bypassing his bedroom for the bathroom at the end of the hallway, only to be pulled back at the sight of a pile of clothes strewn across the floor in front of his bed. His brow lifted as a smirk arched the corner of his lips. After moving inside, he stepped over to the pile and dropped to a squat, then reached for a pair of silk blue panties with a matching bra and bright white tank. "Jesus Christ." He brought each one to his nose and deeply inhaled, then locked his jaw and gulped. Everything smelled like her -- the scent of a goddamn angel; she was a motherfuckin' dream come to life just for him.
As he rolled his tongue along the length of his bottom lip and sucked it between his teeth, a tightness filled his chest that quickly traveled to his pants.
"Nikko?" He stood up at the soft, sweet sound of her voice and turned to face her as she waited in the doorway of his bedroom. Jesus, she was beautiful, so much more than he remembered, and especially right goddamn now. Wrapped in nothing but a bright blue bath towel as water dripped from the tips of her fingers and curls of her hair onto the floor, she folded her arms across her chest to hide the wildly erratic beating of her heart, and gulped while lifting her attention to his perfectly chiseled face.
"Goddamn." He stared into her eyes with parted, wet lips and flared nostrils before clamping his teeth back together and swallowing hard enough to make her feel that shit from clear across the room. He grunted. "Hey there, baby."
A flutter filled her chest as he spoke; she inhaled his taste from where she stood. "I'm sorry for all that--"
"No need to be sorry for a goddamn thing with me tonight, Cheyenne. No reason at all."
A beat passed as she grinned and lifted her hand to point. "I meant that I'm sorry for leaving my clothes on your floor, and for getting water everywhere from the bathroom--"
"I know, baby. You just get outta the shower?"
"Yes."
"Mm. Couldn't fuckin' wait for me to get here before you took it? Let me wash your back?"
"I tried waiting as long as I could for you to show up, but... not in that way."
He snickered. "Fuckin' ouch, baby--"
"Either way, I didn't know what time you had planned to actually show up here tonight."
He nodded and stepped closer to her as she leaned against the frame and lowered her arms.
His eyes dipped to her full breasts as they sat high behind the towel; her nipples hardened and pushed against the fabric. She crossed her ankles to press her thighs together as desire for him reached a damn near boiling point she'd yet to control from within.
"You think about me while being in there?" he questioned. She squirmed and shook her head. "I bet the fuck you were. I thought about you all goddamn night before getting outta there."
"What exactly did you think about?"
"Too goddamn much," he replied. "That sweet, wet pussy spread across my goddamn tongue; me tasting you -- making you scream and come all at the same goddamn time as I sucked your lips between my own..." She whimpered. "You wet for me right now, Cheyenne?"
"No..."
He chuckled, his eyes moving across every visible inch of her body; even those she was determined like hell to keep hidden from him. "Always fuckin' lying to me, baby... always goddamn lying about what the fuck I can see."
She sank her teeth into her bottom lip and gradually shook her head again while thoughts of changing the subject filled her mind. "What time did they officially release you tonight?"
"Around 7."
"Really?! Why did it take so long for you to come home?"
"Come home?" he questioned. "To what?" He leaned his head aside while stepping further into her space. He rested his free hand against the wall, directly above her head, and smirked while eyeing her from head to breasts. "You thinking about this place in that way now too?"
"I only meant that..." She nearly choked on the words coming out of her mouth as he shifted forward, and diverted her eyes while attempting to exhale. "I only meant that this your home -- not ours together."
"Yeah, okay. Even though I don't mind the 'our' in that sentence with you living here too, Cheyenne."
"Temporarily."
"You keep saying that shit for now."
"I'll keep saying it far beyond tonight because it's the truth. No matter what my body might be feeling--"
"What your body is gonna be feeling soon enough is me, my cock, my tongue."
"I..." She lowered her eyes to his pants, and gulped while taking in the size of his bulge as it pressed along the corner of his zipper.
She wanted a taste of him for herself.
She was almost too damn desperate for it.
"You know that me thinking about you did this shit to me, baby," he said. "Just like it did the day you came out there to see me with those cookies. Every thought of tasting you in the same goddamn way has got me so fucked up--"
"Did you cut your hair?" she asked him through a another hard gulp; she lifted her eyes back to his and exhaled.
"What?" He chuckled and lowered his hand.
"Your hair, did you cut it?"
"Yeah, baby, I did." He closed his eyes for a few seconds while continuing to laugh, then reopened them and peered. "Just now taking notice of that shit?"
"I noticed when I first walked in, but you were also holding onto my underwear; that was a distraction."
"Not as much as it could've been with you still
wearing 'em, waiting for me on the goddamn bed or something." He dropped the clothes inside her hands and cleared his throat.
She examined them before folding the underwear and bra inside her tank, and stood away from the frame. "Why did you cut your hair, Nikko?"
"You don't like it?"
"It's different; I like it shorter; the curls are still present and just above your ears, but... I'm only curious as to why you did it?"
"My old man." He combed his fingers through every strand and grimaced. "Motherfucker said it would be the best--"
"For what?"
"Us..."
She made a face at him and shrugged. "I don't understand."
"He told me that leaving it the way I had before now would've meant a higher chance in nobody on the outside believing what's between us to be the real deal. Appearances mean everything to that asshole." He paused. "The shit would mean I didn't give a fuck about anyone but myself, and part of giving yourself over to another person means you care about 'em too, or at least that you should."
"He said all of that to you?"
"The first part, yeah... not the second." He lifted his hand to her face and dragged his fingers across her skin, grazing her pulse before stopping at the base of her throat.
She gasped. "What are you doing?"
"Tryna see if there's more behind everything you've already shown to me, baby."
"What does that mean?"
"What the fuck I just said." His eyes darkened as his fingers lowered to the rim of her towel. "You gonna let me see what's behind it all?"
"Not tonight--"
"Yeah? That means you're planning on it sometime soon? My 'welcome home' gift?"
"It's not a gift."
"Tasting you, Cheyenne... that's a goddamn gift to me, baby. The only one I've wanted since we first met."
"I thought you said you wouldn't beg me for it on the outside?"
"I'm not the one out here begging for it, baby." Her stomach flipped as her heart felt on the verge of shattering through her chest. "You wet for me right fuckin' now?"