“Well I lied! I just said that so you’d take me home!”
Laughing angrily, I looked off for a moment and shook my head.
“So you lied.”
“Yep. Just like you lied about where that condom went! Just like you lied when you told me you were only sleeping with me and that you loved me.”
She gasped when I hemmed her up against the brick wall, glaring down at her stupid ass.
“Don’t you ever say I lied about loving you. I ain’t never in my life told any woman I loved her, not even my damn mama. You’re the only one that I’ve ever felt anything for. I lied to you about that stupid bitch from Ace because I fucking love you. I knew you’d be crying and shit, getting all in yo’ feelings thinking I cared about that hoe,” I gritted. She was scared but still trying to frown which was comical.
“That makes no sense! If you loved me you wouldn’t have done it, and you would have been honest if you did!” She wiped the lone tear that traveled down.
“I didn’t tell you because I knew you’d do this shit! I knew you’d try to leave! And for what? I don’t care about that bitch!”
“I didn’t try to leave, I did leave!”
“Let’s go. You’re going home. I can see everything in that little ass dress, and I’ll be damned if you’re chilling around all these niggas, letting them look at you.”
“I’m not going with you!” She looked me up and down and laughed.
“Go get in the car, Laine,” I stated calmly.
She knew I wasn’t fucking around.
“I want you to leave me alooooone,” she cried as we crossed the street to my car.
“You should have thought about that before you decided to get with me. You knew I was with the shits and you still fucked with me. This is what happens when you let a nigga get some of that good pussy.”
“You’re fucking crazy!” she barked as she slid into the passenger seat of my car.
“You knew that already.”
I slammed the door in her face and then rounded my car. When I got inside, I texted Nuzi that I would be back in about an hour, and he told me he should be done recording by then so that was perfect. Cranking my car, I busted a bitch… a U-turn, and then sped off.
“Tell me what I need to do and I’ll do that shit, Laine. You not about to leave me in the dust like that bitch nigga from Chicago.” I glanced at her and admired how beautiful she looked.
The yellow dress looked perfect against her deep caramel complexion. When I saw the necklace that I gave her still hanging around her neck, I smiled. Nigga still had a chance.
“There is nothing you can do.”
“So you don’t love me? You’re ready to go fuck that nigga you was kee-kee’ing and shit with? I wish the fuck you would,” I mumbled the last part.
“We’d be even if I did, right?”
Chuckling, I shook my head and said, “Get that nigga murked. On bloods I will kill that nigga if you fuck him. I swear.”
“I love you so much, Shai, but I can’t let you treat me any kind of way.”
The fact that she was trying to push me away was aggravating as fuck. But if she thought she was about to Tarik me, she had the game twisted and fucked up for sure.
“All because of that one bitch? Come on, Laine. I hit her one time in the back of the club and that was it! I ain’t thought about her since I busted!”
“Why couldn’t you have just kept it in your pants, Shai? How hard was that? Was she worth this? Was she worth seeing me cry and you having to act a fool tonight?”
“You know she wasn’t.”
“And look!” she snatched my phone from the cup holder. “All these bitches texting you! I know one of them is that stripper! Which one is it?” she hollered loudly as hell as I dipped through the light traffic on the 101 freeway.
Fuck!
“You need to chill and quit yelling in my damn ear. So what if she’s texting me? That don’t have shit to do with us. I love you more than a lot of shit, I swear. I admit I made a stupid ass mistake, baby, but I’m promising you it won’t happen again.”
I had never had to do some shit like this ever in life. Last bitch I gave a fuck about was my childhood dog, Brownie, and after her ass croaked, my give-a-fuck-about-a-bitch meter had depleted. I had even tried to love my aunt Doreen because she raised me, but the fact that she swept my mother’s issues under the rug and acted like it was no big deal made me hate her just as much as my parents low-key. Only reason I still fucked with my aunt was because she did take care of a nigga until I basically moved myself back to Compton.
“I need time away from you to figure out what I want to do. In the meantime, you need to think about if you even want to be in a relationship. Maybe I forced you into someth—”
“You didn’t force me. Nobody forces me to do shit. Yeah, you put the pressure on but I needed that. I don’t need time to think, I already know. I want you and I want you to have my baby.”
“Don’t talk to me like that,” she sniffled.
I pulled up to the mansion and threw the car in park. I locked the doors back since they automatically unlocked when I changed gears. Leaning over into her seat after unbuckling myself, I kissed her collarbone, inhaling her sweet scent. She let her head fall back against the headrest and moaned softly with her eyes closed. My hands caressed her buttery thighs, as I pecked her lips. Shit was sticky but I wasn’t tripping.
“I need space, Shai,” she whined as I pecked her repeatedly.
“Aight,” I sighed, falling back into my seat. “Just know that I love you and I’m sorry as fuck for busting down that bitch.”
She nodded and then pulled on the lever to get out of the car. I watched her walk up to the door, and once she was inside, I peeled off, headed back to the studio with Nuzi.
When I got there, Cassie, Rita’s hoe ass, and that other girl that I saw Nuzi coming from the bathroom with were gone. There were still some females inside, two of them passed out from popping pills or snorting coke most likely.
“Sorry about that, had to handle something,” I told Nuzi as I sat next to him at the soundboard.
“Nah, it’s cool. So that’s your girl?”
I noticed Rico was on the edge of his seat waiting for my answer damn near.
“Most definitely. I’ll break a nigga’s neck for even looking at her.”
Laughing, Nuzi replied, “Shit, I know the feeling.”
I glanced at Rico, letting him know I’d take his moist ass out if I ever caught him pushing up on Laine Loren. Hopefully, he got the picture; if not, I’m sure this 40 glock in my waist would send the message.
Chapter Two: Cassandra “Cassie” Reid
“Yay, I won!” Melody threw her little arms in the air.
“Nah, you cheated!” Kordell scooped her up and started tickling her tummy. She was screaming and laughing so loudly that I had to tell them to stop.
“It’s time for her bath now,” I chuckled, watching Melody breath heavily from the tickle session she’d endured.
“Nooooo!” Melody whined as I picked her up and kissed her soft bouncy cheek. “Pwwease nooo!” she started to cry. I chuckled at her inability to pronounce please correctly.
“Hey, baby girl. The quicker you take your bath and go to bed, the quicker tomorrow will come and we can all go to Disneyland,” Kordell promised, making me almost snap my neck to look his way.
“Is that fun?” Melody questioned, still pouting and fidgeting with her small fingers. She’d never been and had never heard of it.
“Hella— I mean real fun, baby girl. So go ahead and go to bed so we can have fun tomorrow.”
“Yay!” she giggled, wiping her face to remove the tears.
I glared at Kordell who smiled and plopped down onto the couch before grabbing the remote. Nobody was going to Disneyland tomorrow.
I took Melody to the bedroom to gather her pajamas and stuff while the bath water ran, and then brought her back into the bathroom. After dropping her toys in,
I removed her clothes and put her hair into a bun on top of her head so it wouldn’t get wet. Placing her inside the tub, I kneeled down onto the soft mat placed next to it, and watched her play with her bath toys for a little bit.
“Daddy will like Delly,” she blurted, filling her rubber ducky with water and squeezing it out. I wished she could forget about her father, but I knew that was highly unlikely. She was too advanced for her age to forget.
“You want them to meet?” I rubbed one of her flyways and she nodded.
“Delly is my best friend.”
“He is?” I laughed, pouring some of her baby soap onto a washcloth.
She nodded before saying, “Yes. Tell Daddy to come tomorrow.”
“Melody, would you be sad if Daddy couldn’t come around for a little bit longer?” I began washing her and she nodded sadly. “I will see if he can come tomorrow so he can meet Kordell, okay?” I lied.
“Yay!”
“But you have to promise me that you won’t mention it to Kordell, sweetie. This has to be a surprise, and if you mention Daddy, Kordell will know.”
“I can keep a secret!” she yelled, and I laughed before placing a finger to my lips to tell her to be quiet.
I finished cleaning her, and then helped her brush her teeth before giving her a small cup of hot chocolate with too many marshmallows. My mom always said I should have her brush her teeth after that, but the hot chocolate put her to sleep. The last time I did it my mother’s way, Melody beat her sleep while brushing and I was up all night.
“Kordell, come on!” I called him from Melody’s bedroom.
He came in with a big ass storybook that contained a whole bunch of fairytales. He and I sat down on the pink plush rug, and he began reading to Melody. As usual, after the first few pages, she passed out and we left her to snooze.
“She says you’re her best friend,” I said to Kordell as soon as we stepped out of Melody’s bedroom.
“Of course I am. That’s my best friend too. I just have to teach her how to roll a blunt and we’ll be good.”
I hit him in the chest as we laughed, and he yanked my body into his before kissing my neck gently. My middle immediately responded, but so did other parts of me. I was getting way too close to this man, and I wasn’t feeling it. The thought of him being with someone else angered me, no matter how much I’d tried to pretend it didn’t.
“You can stay if you want. My mother went to San Diego with her man friend, Ned, and won’t be back for two days.”
My mom didn’t want me meeting her boyfriend, but I refused to allow her to travel with some man I’d never seen.
“I feel like a damn teenager,” he chuckled.
“I know. As soon as my live-in contract is up, I’ll get my own spot and this won’t happen.”
“Or if you just bring Melody to my place some nights…”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“You don’t have the things she needs and I can’t ask you to accommodate her. You do enough already that you shouldn’t be doing as my fuck buddy. Disneyland, by the way, is not happening. I have a meeting in the evening.”
“I’ll just take her to the Disney store then. It’s just as good for right now.”
I got up from the couch, slipped my hand into his, and then led him to the bedroom. He helped me out of my clothes so that I just had on my bra and panties, and then he stripped down to his boxers. Picking his clothes up, he placed them nicely in my mom’s armchair, before fixing his eyes back on me. There was so much lust there and it turned me on.
He rounded the edge of the bed, and once he made it to me, he started to remove my undergarments. He then led me to the bathroom, turned the shower on, and helped me in so we could get started. We were always so silent when we were about to have sex, and I guess it was because this was such a serious thing to him.
Under the water, we kissed hungrily and heavily, as his hands ran amuck all over my drenched frame. Pulling away, he kissed down my body until he was below my waist, and then placed one of my legs over his shoulders to start eating.
***
Middle of the night…
I felt the bed moving, so I glanced over my shoulder to see Kordell getting out of the bed. For some reason, my heart started to beat quickly because I didn’t want him to leave. And most importantly, why would he leave in the middle of the night without even saying anything?
I was about to speak up, but I watched him slightly stumble past his belongings into the hallway, and then close the bathroom door. He was just using the bathroom, Cassie. I needed to get a fucking grip.
I wasn’t sure how much longer I’d be able to act like I didn’t have feelings for him and want more. I guess I just didn’t want to want more from someone like Kordell. I knew what I wanted from a man, and I also knew that was something he could never be. Yet, like most, I still found myself unbelievably attracted to his ass.
“What the fuck,” I mumbled to myself as I pressed my head back into the pillow.
Just as I did, I heard Kordell’s phone buzzing. I shut my eyes tightly in order to ignore it and drift off, but it kept pausing and going like someone was sending a plethora of texts messages. Sitting up, I stared at his phone lighting up and fading out constantly. My mind kept switching back and forth, wondering if I should snoop.
This feeling wasn’t new either. For the past week and a half that he and I had been spending together, I’d been intrigued by what was in his phone. He was always on it, not to a point where it interfered with our time, but to the point where it was always in need of a charge.
Just check, maybe this is what you need to be off him, I told myself.
Peeling back the covers, I slowly crept to my mother’s chair and picked up his phone. I’d watched him out the corner of my eye on many occasions, type his code in, so I knew the area that the numbers lied, but I didn’t know the code exactly. The sound of him clearing his throat in the bathroom made me jump, but I could still hear his pee hitting the toilet. After two tries, I finally got in, and I don’t know why but I went straight to his pictures.
“Oh my gosh.”
I almost gagged seeing countless pictures of girls who had sent him images of their pussies and breasts from all angles. Some were even videos, but I passed on pressing play. He had pussies of all colors, shapes, and sizes.
As he flushed the toilet I went into his text messages, and kind of scrolled through as many female conversations as I could. Only males were his family members anyway.
He had 88 unread texts, which was more than I’d ever seen on anyone’s phone. Most of the conversations were sexual, with him barely replying sometimes, and them sending him photos and videos that he’d only asked some of them for. Other girls just willingly gifted their goods over text. A few of them thought that they and Kordell were serious, but that’s when he would reply late or not at all, and if he did, it wasn’t what they wanted to hear.
When I heard the bathroom door open, I damn near jumped out of my skin. Dropping his phone back into the chair, I hurriedly climbed into the bed. I almost didn’t make it, so when he entered the bedroom, I was pulling the covers over me, pretending to dust something off.
“You good?” he got in behind me, wrapping his large arms around my body as he kissed the nape of my neck gently. I loved this feeling so much and I didn’t need to.
“Yeah, I just got hot so I took the covers off and then I got cold,” I sighed. I was about to ask him something, but the way his body relaxed let me know that he’d dozed off.
I knew his ass was freaky but damn! I felt like I needed to wash my hands after touching that nasty ass iPhone. He and I were not gonna work.
Laine
One week later…
“Laine, Laine,” someone shook me and when I opened my eyes, it took me a minute to remember where I was exactly. Covering my eyes to improve my vision, I dropped my hands and looked up to see Jude standing over me, holding a big colorful arrangement.
&nb
sp; “Jude, what…” I couldn’t even finish as I sat up and realized it was a huge basket of fruit, cut up and shaped to look like flowers.
“Morning, this was delivered for you.”
“Thank you.” I watched it closely as he set it on my nightstand and started towards the door of Cassie’s and my bedroom.
“Don’t forget you have a meeting today at 3pm.”
“I know, Jude. Thanks.”
“Well, who is it from?” Cassie questioned. She was on her bed in her robe, rubbing lotion all over her legs.
“Let’s see.”
I was super confused on who could have sent something like this. I hadn’t talked to Mischief in a week, and he didn’t do things like this randomly. I finally found a white card after turning the arrangement in a circle, so I yanked it off. The fruit looked good though, so before I read it, I untied the plastic and picked a stick to munch on. Grabbing the card, I flipped open the top and read the small message. When I saw who it was from, I almost choked on this bomb ass fruit.
I miss you - Shai.
“Damn, who is it?” Cassie came over and sat next to me.
“Shai. I can’t believe he sent me something like this.”
“He said he loved you, didn’t he?”
“Yes, but he doesn’t do romantic things like this. It’s rare.”
“But the difference is now he’s trying to get you back. He can’t be the same guy, he has to tweak some things.”
“Well a fruit basket won’t help him. It’s nice, and the fruit is really good, but no.”
Cassie stood up and grabbed a piece before biting it and staring down at me. She gave me that look that she always gave when she wanted to say something.
“So what will help him?”
“Nothing.”
“So you don’t ever want to be with him again? You’re ready for the two of you to be apart forever. He’s coming up, which means you’re gonna see him with other girls, Laine.”
“No, I wasn’t ready for us to be apart, but he made that decision when he decided to sleep with that girl and— lie about it.”
My Baby Is a West Coast King 2 Page 3