“That sounds good to me. Always have the people who have you.” Delightful smiled when she joined her in her brother’s lyric.
“All right, give me a hug. I’m sleeping all the way back to Berkeley. Then it’s nothing but writing. Sadiq wants this screenplay finished right away.” She held out her arms to her sister for a tight squeeze.
“So you’re heading out?” FADE’s quiet inquiry spoke volumes as she stood in the foyer waiting for the driver came around. His eyes said what he wouldn’t. She could sense his longing, and she shared it. But. But. But! How could they possibly go forward? She all but blamed Justice’s death on him. Not to mention she’d just done the very opposite of what he’d asked and relayed to her parents everything he’d told her about Justice’s death. She didn’t trust he’d truly forgive that. Hell, she sure wouldn’t.
“Yes.” She knew she took the coward’s way, looking everywhere but at him. Her resolve to speak the words that would make sure he never spoke to her again burned to ash. She bit the inside of her cheek, forcing the emotions that threatened to spill forth down as far as she could push them. Guilt racked her. Fear raced across her spine like a careening chariot. What she’d done was unforgivable, but she couldn’t say she wouldn’t do it again. Her parents finally had some sense of closure. They were owed that. The rest she’d deal with in good time.
“I have to go check-in with Creative Chaos because Ghadi is holding everything down by himself now that Flower is on sabbatical.” He stepped toward her and grasped her chin, tilting her head up so she had no other choice but to face him. “After that I’d like to come see you. Will you let me do that, Didi?”
She swallowed. What they’d shared the other night. Then on the beach. He’d come to her baring his soul. Could she turn him away? Her heart squeezed. Was this real? She’d spent so much time running from him. Was it even possible for them to forge a future? Not likely after what she’d done…
“FADE…” She stepped back, shaking her head slightly. He followed her. She was pressed against the door. There was a hairbreadth between them, but his arms hung loose at his sides.
“Don’t do this, Delightful,” he gritted. “Stop. Fucking. Running.” His eyes blazed with want.
The door pressed open, pushing her slightly into him. He pulled her close.
“Miss Howard, are you ready?” The driver asked, picking up her bags.
“Yes, I’ll be there in a moment.” She smiled at the man before she turned to finally face the one before her.
“Okay.” She looked into his eyes. “I am going to be super busy writing the screenplay.”
“Well, it’s good that you will have its subject on hand in case you get stuck won’t it?” He smiled and pulled her to him, taking her lips. She closed her eyes to allow herself this one thing, basking in the adoration with which he claimed her. Lost. In. Him. His lips were everything girls wished and hoped for. His tongue delved, captured, and claimed her down to her soul.
He swung his arm around her shoulders. Kissing her neck before he tucked her into the car.
Relaxing back into the cool confines of the town car, she daydreamed about that kiss between her two naps on the way home.
Delightful got up to stretch. It had been a solid four hours since she’d had a break, but she could say she was pretty much done. The words had flowed from her like fire after the weekend she’d had. Her entire world was FADE at the moment. Everything she’d experienced with him last weekend had gone into the screenplay she’d crafted and after the feedback she’d gotten from the Al Rasheed’s production team including Lovie-Belle, who’d somehow finagled a producer credit, she was totally pumped feeling like she was on the top of the world. She had to admit her work had improved since JUST US, whether it was maturity growing as a writer or FADE as her inspiration the final result was something she could hold her head up with pride and present to the Academy again.
She knew there needed to be tightening around some of the dialog. She’d caught the essence of FADE, his soul spoke to her so how could she not? Lovie-Belle told her of the promising unknown actor they’d found to play young FADE and the after seeing his pictures she knew that this guy, Chisom was something special. They all thought he’d be prefect for the part.
Walking over to the desk she never used, she picked up her phone looking at the overwhelming number of calls she’d gotten since she’d sat down for her second writing session for the day. Her brow crinkled, there’d been none earlier. She’d silenced her phone as she normally did when she got to this little getaway cottaged she rented whenever she had a deadline. This was her spot. Lovie-Belle was back, and she was just noisy. She couldn’t help it. She just was. When Delightful needed to really buckle down, she had decided to come out to this little bungalow near Tilden State Park to get her work done. If she were lucky she’d get reimbursed by the studio. If not, she’d claim it on her taxes. There was nothing cheap about the upfront cost of being a writer regardless of the genre or format one wrote.
Her phone began buzzing as soon as she turned it on. It was one of her many cousin’s from Birmingham, Kaia.
“Hey,” she said, not bothering with any preliminaries.
“Delightful? Girl, have you seen all this stuff about FADE being a snitch all over the blogs? Well, it did not come from any of us just FYI! I know how you hold a grudge and nobody wants you mad with them.” She nervously rushed through everything so fast it took a moment for the news to register.
“What are you talking about?” A dead weight settled deep in the pit of her stomach. The FUCK. She quickly scrolled through the texts and calls on her phone.
“It had to be one of the other Loves. You know their country asses can’t hold nothing,” Kaia huffed. Yes, everyone called her a grudge holder because she’d cut FADE out of her life. Family loyalty had made a great many of her kinfolks do the same. Some may have even leaked the story she’d told her mother, which she said not to share by the way, to exact some type of retribution. She should have known her mother would not keep this just to her and daddy. Kicking her own ass mentally as dread flowed like acid in her veins, her mind scrambled and immediately lit on FADE.
“Kaia, thanks for the heads up. I have to go.” She hung up before her cousin could launch into anything more. This was a mess of her own making.
She covered her forehead and close her eyes. Scrolling back through messages until she came to the top. Her heart had stopped looking at a message from several hours ago.
FADE: I’m boarding the jet.
Then
FADE: I can’t believe you.
She looked at her phone then and she had over a dozen missed calls from him and half that many from Lovie-Bell with one message saying for her to call as soon as she took her break. She was taking her break but there was no way she could call anyone with this being the result.
Scrolling back through the messages, she tapped on more of her sister’s later messages.
LB: OMG. FADE is here… What should I say?
LB:???
LB: I told him you only told mom and dad.
LB: He wants to know where you are. Do you want me to tell him?
Just then her phone buzzed again. She closed her eyes. She knew her sister wouldn’t tell him unless she said it was okay. She turned off her phone. What could she say? She told her parents. They told the rest of the family. It was that simple. He’d asked her not to. She felt her parents should know. She pushed him. There was nothing for it.
Like a robot, she splashed water on her face. The only thing she could do was move forward with the screenplay and pray that he didn’t ask for her to be replaced as the writer and Lovie-Belle as director. This was a primary breech of the Nondisclosure Agreement they’d signed, not to mention the moral clause that the Al Rasheed’s insisted on. She could count her career over after it was found out that one of her knuckled-headed extended family members was the thumb-thug behind this viral attack on FADE’s reputation and integrity. Street cred gone
. Name mush. There was no coming back from a slur of being a fucking snitch, not ever in the rap game. Deuces.
She didn’t know how long she sat there staring at her now blank screen. Shaking herself, she sent a quick email to her sister along with the final draft of the screenplay. Maybe they could salvage something.
She got a glass and poured some Sofia Rose’ and sat back on the little bungalow couch. There wouldn’t be any more work tonight, maybe never. She should have left well enough alone. She should have told FADE when she had the chance that she’d told her parents. Now that it was out they probably were in danger even if her big mammoth of a cousin, Rafe-Leroi, who was part of the elite CRU, like SWAT but tougher lived in the city with his six sisters and could protect them if need be.
The knock almost sent her flying off the couch. Her heart was beating like it wanted to jump out her chest. She looked at her clock on the wall over the tiny fireplace. It was past midnight. No one should be here at this time. This wasn’t even the prime season for people to visit the national park.
She debated commando crawling over to the kitchen and getting a butcher knife. The wood door shook under two hard thumps.
“Delightful, open the door.”
Her breath stuttered. It was definitely FADE. There was no mistaking his voice, though muffled through the door. Two more hard thuds. Her eyes darted around even though she knew she had nowhere to go.
“Delightful.”
There was so much expectation behind those words. There would be a reckoning, he promised with every syllable uttered. She tripped over to the door. She wasn’t tipsy, just nervous. She’d have words with Lovie-Belle before she strangled her. To her credit, she thought of FADE as a brother and thought he would do nothing to harm her. She hadn’t heard the cold clarity of how he’d spoken, of how he’d handled reprisal for Justice’s death. She knew he left things out about how he’d handled the situation. He didn’t have to say she knew how men like FADE operated in this world. They got shit done. Period. They rarely let people slide on a slight, let alone the type of betrayal he now knew her capable.
She noticed the way her fingers trembled as she turned the locks. She jumped back as the door flew in front of her and banged loudly against the wall. The flimsy doorstopper was nothing compared to the force of him thrusting open the door.
He turned to close the door and locked it with a decisive snick of both of the locks.
Facing her, his face florid with rage, he walked her back to the wall in front of the door. She felt her hair snag on the wood. He slapped his hands on the rough panel, preventing her from moving an inch.
“I fucking trusted you, Delightful. I told you how serious this was. Then what? You go to these trash-ass wannabe news outlets about me?” He ground out, his face inches from hers.
She winced shaking her head a huge piece snagged, but that alone wasn’t why she felt tears smart her eyes.
“No. No, I’d never do that. I’ll give you my computer, and phone, you can have your IT people do a search. I wouldn’t. I know how much it meant to you.”
“You knew how much it meant to me and still you ran your mouth? You want me to believe you didn’t leak it? Then who did you tell?”
“M-my parents. Look, I told you they had to know.”
“You made me a promise,” then he laughed bitterly. Ugly. Shook his head and stepped back and turned back to the door. “Yeah, another fucking promise.”
“FADE, wait.” Reaching back, she tried to untangle herself enough to follow.
“What are you doing?” He stopped and frowned, watching her struggle to get free.
“My hair is stuck in this panel,” she muttered, trying to no avail to detach herself.
“Be still.” He walked back over and looked behind her. “A fucking mess. Ease up on your tiptoes.” She did with a promise to herself she’d keep her hair tied up after this. Nobody had time for this. Her eyes rounded when he took out a Gerber pocket knife and before she could say, STOP, he snipped the hair lodged in the crevice. A full two inch lock of a snarled curl forlornly hang out of the wall.
“You did that on purpose.” She rounded on him.
“So did you. Do you know what you’ve cost me with this little stunt of yours? My WHOLE FUCKING CAREER. Everything Ghadi, Flower and I have worked our asses off is probably gone. Did you think of them at all in your petty plot to crush me? The movie is dead. No one is going to come see a movie about a sellout ass rapper. You fucked me and then you really fucked me over. For what?” His voice was hoarse with desolation. She could feel it in the very air she breathed.
“I’m so sorry, FADE. Let me explain.” She let her hands hang at her side. She’d not been around him long and never heard rumors of him being violent, but if there was a cause to be, it was now. She stepped away from him into the living room but not letting her eyes stray away from him.
“So you fear me now?” His face hardened so much that he could give the bronze statue of Dr. King in Kelly Ingram Park back home a run for its money.
“You, destroyer of everything good, have got to be kidding me,” he scoffed. Taking the path opposite her to come around to sit in the recliner opposite the couch. It swiveled so it could face the fireplace to its right. That and a table was as much furniture as the small cottage allowed. There was an eat-in kitchen where she sometimes worked. Then one bed with an ensuite bath.
She took her place back on the sofa and faced him. “My parents needed to know. They’d gone all this time not knowing what happened or why. The police were not that forthcoming. Now we know why. They were protecting your family. I get it. Now they can have closure.” She clasped her hands in front of her, pleading with him to understand.
“That sounds so perfect and your motives to pure but you’ve forgotten that you stood out on that beach and said you wouldn’t do that. I should have known, but it is obvious that your word means nothing to you nor do I. You knew when I walked you back to the house you would tell your parents.” He was gripping the leather so tight it squeaked. She hoped he wasn’t wishing it was her neck.
“I do care about you.” She slid forward, catching his hand. “I’m sorry I went about this all wrong.” She swallowed back tears. She knew she had no right to them and would not weaponize them against him to use to her advantage in this situation she’d brought on herself. “I was wrong. I broke your trust. I wanted to tell you before I left. I put it off once you asked if you could visit. I thought you’d be too mad then you’d be done with me before I had a chance to explain. Before we had a chance…” She bit her lip, turning away from what look like hatred rolling off him in waves.
“A chance at what?” No emotion, only icy disdain greeted her when she turned back to face his amber eyes that had once burned so hot for her. Now they looked like a Siberian tundra.
“To be together,” she whispered.
He was slow to blink. He turned his face away from her so she saw his chiseled jaw working. When he once again met her gaze his eyes were ablaze with amber heat.
“Show me.”
Chapter 9
Just Beg
“Stand up.” The command burned through the air like a California brush fire. Inside, she knew this was not making up for her actions. They were unforgivable. She didn’t expect his forgiveness. She maybe didn’t even deserve it. He wanted her that was more than clear with his spread legs not hiding anything. She stood.
“Take your clothes off.” She didn’t hesitate, only stripped out of her pajamas which she’d long ago found were the most comfortable thing for her to write in. She kicked them aside.
“Come here.” She took one step, then he raised his hand.
“Is that how you show contrition?” His eyes narrowed as he watched her kneel, then beckoned her forth. She’d heard it whispered he had Dom tendencies. She was so wet she could feel her essence slicking her thighs.
When she reached his sprawled legs, she knelt like a good girl awaiting her next instruction.
“Take me out.”
Rising, she unbuckled, unzipped and gently maneuvered him out of his jeans. His dick stood, long and hard in all of its magnificent glory with just enough curve encased in smooth skin to keep it interesting and it was already pearled. She licked her lips and leaned forward. His hand snaked out like a viper and fisted her hair, stopping her cold. “You forget yourself,” he chided, menace dripping from every word.
Silence beat between them until she realized what he wanted.
“FADE, may I taste you?” Like magic, his hand loosened just enough for her to take him in her mouth. His breath whooshed out in a rush as his thighs flexed under her hands as she used them for leverage. The angle was tricky as she tried to take as much as she could the way he’d showed her he liked. She had a little less than a third on her descent. He was just too dang big. Too hard. She snuck a peek at him underneath her lashes, seeing how he watched her every movement. Their eyes met. She knew her eyes were as soft as his were hard. Ever so slowly, she eased up until only the tip remained. She swirled his tip. Over and over again her glided her tongue over him before sliding down one side then the other and lower until she sucked his sac deep into her mouth and rolled him around her tongue.
His breath caught as he tried to hold himself still. His back arched anyway. Their eyes locked again. His jaw ticked. She released him, came around the side and draped herself over the arm of the chair. He held her by the small of her back to steady her as she took him in deep long sweeps to the back of her throat. Pleasure and a tightening pain closed around her throat as he surged up to meet her every stroke. She fucked him with her mouth and he groaned every time he hit the back of her throat. Again and again she took him. His hips pumped hard. He gripped her bottom, smearing her wetness all over her arching ass. “Didi,” he gasped as he shot ropes of come down her throat.
Rapper's Delight: The Mogul Series Book One Page 7