by Briann Danae
“Shiiit, baby. Yes, Papi. Ooooh,” she cried, earning her deeper strokes for calling out his name so sexily.
Watching her eyes flutter, Lano promised to get his shit together for Anika. Right there in that moment as her face contorted into the most beautiful scowl before announcing she was about to cum, Lano piped her down with the same amount of passion she was giving him. In and out, sounding like he was mixing a pot of spaghetti, he made unspoken promises to himself to forever hold her down and put her first. The street shit wasn’t worth it.
“Anika,” he called out.
The sound of his deep baritone voice made her eyes peel open. He sounded so sexy as he hit her with a deep stroke that snatched her breath away. He called out her name again, and their eyes connected this time. His heartbeat increased from just staring at her. Lano wanted to give Anika the world and everything she wanted in it. He just prayed she stuck around while he mapped out the details of getting it.
“I’ma fix this.”
Tears pricked her eyes, and he leaned forward as she closed them. He needed her to open them, connect with him. Lano placed kisses along her neck and whispered softly in her ear as their fuck session turned into passionate, toe-curling, spine-tingling, sweat dripping, lovemaking. Cupping her ass cheeks in his hand, Lano went deeper, desperate in his pursuit of making Anika feel how sorry he was, in case words weren’t enough. As of late, Lano knew his words didn’t mean shit because the actions behind them weren’t matching up.
His lovemaking was out of this world, and Anika never wanted to come down. On his dick in the clouds and beyond is where she’d prefer to stay. Down here on Earth was shitty. As she climaxed, all senses fled from her being. Had she not felt the throb of his large dick inside her, Anika would have bet money the sex paralyzed her.
“Fuuuck,” Lano hissed, resting his sweaty forehead against her breast. That nut had drained him.
Lovingly, protectively, Anika stroked his back as his heart beat wildly inside his chest before evening out to a steady pace. Silence filled the room next. Anika stared at the ceiling fan, picturing it as her life the last few months. Round, and round at warp speed, collecting unwanted dust that could only be cleaned once stopped. She wanted to clean her life up but the closer it seemed she was on the right track, someone flipped the switch and there her life went again spinning out of fucking control.
“You still riding with me?” Lano questioned as Anika felt herself drifting into a good afternoon nap.
She kissed the top of his head as his hands caressed her curves. “Always. You know that.”
And, Lano did, but right now he needed to hear it. The reassurance did something to him. It made him a believer in things working out for the better and sooner rather than later. If one more incident happened that was out of his control, Lano knew he’d lose it. Right now, he couldn’t afford to lose anything. He needed all wins from here on out.
“Our best option is to take a plea deal, DeLano,” his lawyer, a black man, Seth stated.
Loosening the tie around his neck, Lano gritted his teeth and sat back in his chair. It wasn’t what he was trying to hear, but if pleading guilty was going to grant him a lesser sentence, he had no choice. Anika’s eyes skirted over to her man’s strain-filled face, and she sighed. He looked dapper as ever in his black suit, she’d pay good money to see him in again.
“Is that the only option?” Anika asked.
Seth shook his head no. “No. It’s not the only one, but it’s the best. If he tries to take this to trial, I’m telling you now, you’ll have much more time than pleading guilty.”
Lano squeezed his eyes shut. He was really pissed because he knew that damn gun wasn’t his. It’d only been a day since he was released, so he wasn’t any closer to figuring out who or why he was set up, but he wished he was. Taking a deal wouldn’t just benefit him, but his family as well. If shit was this stressful already, he knew once the ball really got rolling, he’d need all the support he could. Anika would too. Lesser time meant he’d be back to her and could look back on this day and be grateful for making it through. No matter how rough shit got, Anika wasn’t going anywhere.
“But this is all hypothetically speaking, right? Once we go to court in a month, I’ll know for sure what the sentencing is.”
Seth nodded. “Yes. A month from today is your court appearance. The charge was a misdemeanor, so I’m sure it won’t be anything outlandish, but we have to be prepared just in case. Since this is your first offense, I’ll see if we can just get probation.”
“Do whatever you gotta do. The lesser the punishment, the better, seeing as though the shit was planted anyway,” he scoffed, still in disbelief at how things were playing out.
“Let’s hope for the best. Stay out of the way until your court date. Now that you’re in the system, they won’t hesitate to bring you in for the smallest of issues.”
Lano heard him, but he couldn’t make a promise not to act out before then. An entire month was such a long time to catch a body; preferably Giran’s, had the nigga showed his face again. He’d been ducked off since all his people were killed and though Lano couldn’t blame him, he wanted that nigga to stop being pussy and catch these bullets. With his freedom on the line though, he’d try to remain on the straight and narrow.
Seth wasn’t trying to preach to Lano, but he needed him to stay out the way. Too many times had he seen his clients get in worse trouble than they already were before sentencing, and it never ended well. Lano nodded his head and stood to his feet with Anika right by his side not missing a beat.
“Good looking,” Lano said as he shook Seth’s hand. “I’ll be in touch and try to keep out of trouble.”
“I’ll make sure he does,” Anika chimed in, wrapping her arms around his waist.
She would’ve given Seth a smile for being on top of his business, but Anika had not a damn thing to smile about. Her man was about to go to court on a charge that she knew for a fact he shouldn’t even be dealing with. They would’ve had to take his car apart to get to the compartment in his car where his gun was, so there was no way the gun was his.
Walking out the building, Lano tossed his arm over Anika’s shoulder. “Quit frowning, baby. We good.”
“We’re good, but everything else is stressing me out. We should just move back home.”
Opening her door, Lano sighed. “We can’t. Not right now. Once this is over with and I get this punk ass probation, everything will be good. Nik, look at me,” he commanded, moving closer to her.
Anika cut her eyes his way and poked her lips out. Yes, she was pouting, and for good reason. Lano kissed her lips and rubbed his hand up her thigh.
“We gon’ be straight. It’s my first offense. Yo gon’ come visit a nigga if I go to jail?” he smirked, and Anika shoved him in the chest.
“That’s not near funny DeLano. Move,” she fussed.
His hands ventured up her thighs, over her hips, and at the sides of her neck before capturing her face. She didn’t want her worries to bother him, knowing he needed a peace of mind about the case, but it was hard when he said things like what he just said. Lano was being optimistic about it all. It’s all he could do because stressing about it wasn’t going to get him nowhere, but to the drugstore because of a headache.
“Boy, if you go to jail, I’m sliding in there with you. They might as well charge and cuff me too,” she said making Lano crack up because he knew she was serious.
“Nah, baby. None of that. Now, where you want some food from?”
Licking her lips, Anika gave him a genuine smile this time. “Ruth’s. Her fried chicken is off the chain.”
“A’ight. We can slide through there,” he said about to close her door but stopped when she threw her hand up. “What’s up?”
“Where were you coming from when you got pulled over? You never said.”
Lano had never lied to Anika since they’d met, but he knew if he didn’t today, all hell would break loose. Technically, he had le
ft Stefon’s and dropped by Samia’s crib for all of five minutes if that, but Anika didn’t need to know that. She was under enough stress, and the last thing Lano wanted to do was have her tripping on a woman who meant nothing to him anymore.
“From Stefon’s crib.”
Anika hummed and reached for her door handle. “Okay. Just thought I’d ask.”
When the door closed in his face, Lano stood there for a second, chuckled and tugged at the fine hairs on his chin. When a woman asked a man a question about his whereabouts, nine times out of ten, she already knew the answer. Rarely did that one time out of ten happen. Anika had been keeping it cool and her hands to herself, but she promised the next time she saw Samia’s ole rat faced ass, she was punching her in her shit.
“You good? ‘Chu frowning for?” Lano asked once he was in the car and pulled off.
“I’m hungry,” she said evenly looking his way. “You know I’m riding with you DeLano. I love you, but there ain’t enough love in the world for me to look like a fool.”
He scratched at his head and kept his eyes on the road. “I’m making you look like a fool?”
“Nope, and you better hope you never try to. You ain’t the only person in this car with a few screws missing. Try me if you want to, nigga.”
Thoughts of cutting his hair, hiding his guns and some other silly shit crossed Anika’s mind as he hopped on the highway headed to Ruth’s. She shook her head to rid all of them because surely Lano wouldn’t make her go there, but that woman’s intuition she had before when dealing with Samia had crept back up.
Lano’s dick was hard as a missile. “Ain’t nobody trying you with your fine ass. Now, you sure you want Ruth’s?”
“I’m positive. Why did Rylee just send me a baby picture of you? Oh my god,” Anika gushed, staring at baby DeLano.
He had a head full of hair then, the cutest button nose, brown skin a shade lighter than an acorn and bright, curious eyes. Even at a young age, he was attentive and paid attention to detail. Lano always had to be on the up and up with anything he was interested in. His cousin was shot out for sending her the photo.
“Ry know she wrong as hell,” he chuckled. “Let me see which one she sent you.”
Holding the phone over in his view, Lano smirked. She had sent a good one, ‘cause boy there were some Lina kept tucked away. He wasn’t always a handsome baby but thank goodness he had grown into his looks and large ass head.
“My mama had me flyer than a hoe.”
Anika laughed and nodded her head. “You had a gold bracelet and necklace on at what… one year’s old?”
“Shit, before that too.”
“You were so cute, bae. Let me send this to Solai.”
Lano came to a red light and said, “Just show her when we get there.”
“Get where? We’re going home?”
The excitement in her voice made him smirk. He’d do anything to make Anika happy and right now, seeing a smile on her face is what he needed. She’d been down and in the dumps for weeks, and now with his pending case against him, Lano could tell everything was getting to her. She was much more irritable, snapped on him in a snap of a finger and would be zoned out for minutes at a time. She needed to be around her family and friends, and truth be told, he did too. His niggas knew how to lift his spirits, even if they were on some dumb shit.
“Yeah. Let’s vacation for a minute. Get the fuck up out of California before this court shit. You ever been to Greece?”
Anika started bouncing up and down in her seat. “Now, you know I ain’t been to no damn Greece. You for real right now, bae?” she asked, leaning over the console.
“Yeah. Gon’ head and look up flights, hotels and all that. I’m not trying to go back to KC right away, but we can touch down after we spend some time together. It feels like we’re drifting apart, and I don’t like that shit,” he said with a shake of his head. “Nah, I don’t like that shit at all.”
“Me either. I hate it. As bad as I wanted to come out here with you, I kind of regret that I did,” she said speaking her true feelings.
Her words twisted Lano’s heart and stomach. Anika didn’t hold her tongue, and if that’s how she felt, then he could only make a way to not ever regret being with him. He knew she meant because of the situations that had occurred, but the heaviness of her words didn’t soothe him any.
“Well, let's change that. I need a new country to make love to you in. Fuck you real slow so you’ll never forget,” Lano said smoothly as if his words weren’t going to form a puddle in the seat of Anika’s panties.
“Bae,” Anika called out breathlessly. Her hand grazed his dick, and he smirked.
“Hmm?”
“You so nasty,” she kidded, placing a kiss at the corner of his mouth.
Nasty was putting it lightly. Lano sucked Anika’s toes, ate her ass, freaked her in public and showed no mercy when he was deep inside her gushy walls. He couldn’t get enough of his boo. Stroking the hairs on his chin, she breathed in his intoxicating smell, and her eyes fluttered. He looked so good gripping the steering wheel, with his fly ass suit on, looking like a corporate thug. Something as simple as his muscles flexing and showing off his masculinity turned Anika on so bad.
“I get it from you.”
Grabbing a hold of her hand, he kissed the inside of her wrist. The endearing move made Anika’s heart flutter. As gangster as her man was, that loving side never wavered with her. His impromptu trip out the country was mandatory to ease both of their minds. There’d been far too much bloodshed and a mental break had to happen. Whenever he left a place, it seemed folks got their minds right, and he was hoping that would be the case this go around. He couldn’t afford to get any more blood on his hands. Not right now, but there were a few bullets with Giran’s name on them when the smoke cleared. Him and whoever else had a problem could get it.
Chapter 9
“Did he kidnap you?” Daiya asked making Anika’s face frown up.
“What’re you talking about Dai?”
Looking up at her with those smoky grey eyes the same color as Erica’s, and a face that was a perfect blend of her parents’, Anika grinned. Daiya was the cutest six-year-old and smart as a whip. Nosy too.
“Lano. Did he kidnap you? That’s what Juvie told Lai,” she replied, long lashes fluttering with each blink of her eyes.
After being out of the country for three weeks, Lano and Anika’s last trip before heading back to California was KC. Their pop-up visit for a few days surprised everyone, but they were happy to see them both. Overhearing Juvie tell Solai that Lano had kidnapped Anika had Daiya wondering what it meant and where she had been.
“No, I wasn’t kidnapped little girl,” she snickered. “Do you even know what that means?”
“No, but it’s about time you came back.”
Anika’s head drew back at Daiya’s comment. “Girl,” she laughed. “You are too much for me. Where’s your little brother at?”
Skipping away, Daiya shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know.”
With a shake of her head, Anika made herself another plate and walked out of the kitchen. Inside Sen and Neicey’s massive family room, the entire crew sat around laughing, drinking, eating, and playing 5 Second Rule Board Game. Whoever didn’t answer the question asked of them on the card within five seconds correctly, had to take a shot. Lano and Sen were up to compete against each other, and Anika cheered for her man.
“Let’s go, Papi!”
“Girl, y’all been cheating the whole fucking game,” Neicey said massaging Sen’s shoulders. “You got this baby.”
Amiya laughed and picked a card from the pile. Covering the question with her hand, she looked back and forth between the two.
“Y’all ready?”
“Yeah, come on so this nigga can take his shot,” Sen grinned.
“I don’t even drink like that. Put some money up, hoe,” Lano shot back.
With ease, Sen reached into his pocket and pulled out a fa
t knot of money; all hundreds. “Fuck is you sayin’?”
“Take that nigga’s money since he wanna stunt!” Anika yelled out, and Neicey tossed her middle finger in the air.
“Bitch, that’s my money,” Neicey said making Anika laugh.
“Okay, get ready, go! Name three orange fruits,” Amiya called out.
Everyone sat on the edge of their sits as Lano and Juvie quickly called out their answers. The thing about the game was you had to be swift with your answers and quick on your toes.
“Peaches, oranges, mangoes,” Lano said.
“Oranges, tangerines, carrots,” Sen hollered out, jumping up like he had won the lotto.
Tossing her hands in the air, Neicey flopped back into the couch and groaned as everyone busted out laughing.
“Sen, you gotta take a shot,” Amiya laughed.
“And hand me over that money too, with yo’ punk ass,” Lano added with a smirk and his hand out.
Sen sucked his teeth. “Man, what? We answered at the same time. Y’all buggin’.”
“Boy, a carrot is a damn vegetable. Daiya even knows that shit,” Neicey fussed as everyone continued to laugh. Sen really thought he had gotten up there and done some shit.
“The shit is still orange. Man, y’all some haters. Don’t ever want to see a nigga win,” he griped.
“Yeah, we hear you. Gon’ head and take that shot and hand me that money, my nigga. Nah, matter fact. Hand it to Nik. Bae, come collect our funds from this bum.”
Lano was talking good shit and looking fine as hell doing so. He and Anika both had good tans from their vacation, and his two crisp braids to the back made Anika’s mouth water. He was dressed down for the night in a pair of sweat shorts from Amiya and Maliya’s line they had dropped, one of their signature V-neck tees for men, and some Reeboks on his feet. Anika was styled identical, only she was rocking the biker shorts from their line.
The way her ass was sitting up in those shorts, with her thick thighs on display Lano couldn’t help but lick his lips when she stood and moseyed over to him. As promised, he took her out of the country, let her shop until she was exhausted, made love to her on several different balconies, and professed his love only the way DeLano could. They had tuned the world out for three weeks, and their love was sturdier than ever.