by Kiki Leach
"What kinda help are we talkin' 'bout here, darlin'?"
"The kind that if I don't get soon enough will have me on my ass by next semester."
He eyed her from head to toe and pinched his brows. "You need money?"
"I need more than money, Xavier -- I need a job to keep making it overtime. Nothing I've done out here pays enough, including working part-time on campus."
"Full-time ain't an option?"
"Not with my schedule. But nothing pays enough in either respect. And my skills are limited."
"You can do alotta shit--"
"With my mouth. That's not exactly the route I'm looking to take out here."
He sat down along the arm of her couch and shrugged. "What the fuck are you lookin' to get from me with this shit?"
She stepped directly in front of him and sucked in a breath. "The only job I've ever had that paid me enough to survive was dancing. If I could just get back into it for a few months to get me through this semester and the next--"
"Fuck, Mariah." He looked away from her and rattled his head. "You know that ACE'S is no longer bein' run by the club, darlin'. With Rockafeller ownin' that 51%, we got no official goddamn say anymore."
"You could still talk to Rocka as a favor," she said. "Ask him to hire me back."
"So could you," he shot back. "Which is what the fuck I'm guessin' you already knew 'fore spillin' this shit."
"I can't talk to him..." She turned on her heels and adjusted her skirt. "He realized we had been together that next morning -- right after you left for the club; he called me 'scum of the earth' and 'sloppy thirds' before burning every stitch of clothing I wasn't wearing at the moment in your front yard, X."
"Jesus Christ." A rush of anger boiled his veins like a motherfucker. "That asshole told me it was kids in the neighborhood fuckin' around with matches and joints that burned the grass."
"He was afraid you would choke him out in learning the truth. So was I in not knowing how the club would react to your actions against him as another member."
"The club wouldn't have been able to do shit in knowin' why the fuck I was after him, darlin' -- member or otherwise."
"You live by a code."
"Yeah. One that motherfucker was bound to die by had he not gotten the fuck out when he did. This rate, sounds like he woulda deserved that shit." He leaned forward and folded his hands, staring at the back of her head and pondering. "Rocka the reason you finally checked out on my ass without sayin' a goddamn goodbye that mornin'?"
"No." She whirled back around to him and shook her head. "I didn't say goodbye because I didn't know how the hell to feel after it was over, Xavier, not until I was gone. Regardless of what you thought you wanted to give me, I didn't know how the hell to tell you the truth after promising to take what we had done in stride.... For so long, I wanted what I had finally gotten from you and you were right, I didn't know how the hell to handle finally having it... I didn't know how the hell to let go of what I thought this could become." She maneuvered herself between his legs and placed her hand on top of his chest, soaking in the weight of his heartbeat as it bounced against the tips of her fingers. He straightened his back and stared directly into her face as a sudden wave of sadness softened his own. "I fell in love with you in a way I didn't think was humanly possible that night," she said. "The way you made love to me with everything inside of yourself -- with your entire body... with your mouth..." Her eyes dipped as she swallowed hard. He balled his fists to keep from sliding them around her waist; the attempt to pull her close again, the need to remember her taste on his tongue had now become an attempt to keep from falling into the same trap he was certain had once turned him into a weak ass motherfucker long after she was gone. "I knew in my heart that you had never been with another woman in the same way," she continued. "And I knew that once you had me like that, what I felt for you would never stop -- those feelings would never fade..." She gripped the fabric of his hoodie and frowned. He gulped. "I also knew that no matter your hope or promises, it would never be enough to keep you from doing what you did best with other women..." She caught his eyes as the whites of his own darkened. "You were right about everything."
"Yeah?" She nodded and dropped back, returning to the bar and pouring herself another shot of tequila. Xavier loosened his hands and exhaled, watching as she swallowed every drop, gnashing his teeth to suppress the excitement growing in his cock as each one splashed across the back of her throat. "How goddamn right was I on this shit, darlin'?"
"Too much." She lowered her glass back down to the bar and stepped back over to the couch, removing her shoes and placing them alongside her coffee table.
Xavier stood up and tugged at the neck of his hoodie. "You mind if I ask you somethin' liable to get you pissed?"
She lifted her eyes back to his and loosened her blouse. "What is it?"
"This place," he started. "It ain't the boonies or a shit part of town... How the fuck are you able to afford somethin' like it on half a goddamn budget?"
"Gabi's earnings from the University Center plus sparse financial aid and the little I got from my dad once he passed."
"Hm... None of that shit can help you stay in school?"
"It's only ever been enough to pay for books and housing if I stayed on campus. For tuition, I'd need an entire year's salary."
"Christ."
"Had I been thinking at the time, I would've saved more of what I earned from dancing... The little of what I kept is what managed to get me here in the first place, but can't keep me here--"
"FUCKIN' SHIT, BABE! FUCK!" Scooter blurted. Mariah brought her hand to her mouth to suppress a chuckle as his voice trickled down the hallway and slammed into the living room like the vibration left behind from the beating of a steel drum. "Jesus! That goddamn mouth -- SHIT! Balls are swellin' up on me like a motherfucker, bitch! FUCK! Drain my goddamn shit -- Fuckin' drain it! Jesus -- A motherfucker might not be able to walk tomorrow, fuck... me."
Xavier laughed aloud out of habit and rattled his head. "Sorry 'bout that shit."
"It's okay." She backed away from the couch and pointed to the kitchen. "But are you sure the water is all you're willing to drink tonight after hearing all of that?"
"FUCK, BABE! FUUUUUUUCK," Scooter continued. "Swallow me goddamn whole, bitch -- FUCK!"
"Jesus..." He chuckled again. "Nah, darlin', I'll take whatever kinda beer you've got in the fridge to help me drown out this asshole."
"Okay."
As she stepped into the kitchen, Xavier removed his hoodie and cut, tossing them into a chair near the bar. He lifted his hands to his waist before dragging them to his ears as Scooter hollered out for a third time, and sat back down on the couch, facing the television.
After snatching a beer from the fridge, Mariah traipsed back into the living room and returned to the bar. While pouring another round of tequila for herself, she noticed Xavier's clothes and dragged her fingers along the edge of his cut, circled them between the letters of his ENFORCER patch and closed her eyes in remembering how the words felt pressed against her bare skin.
They had gone four rounds that night; two of which included him wearing his cut.
"Darlin'?" She pulled back as the base of that word rattled her to the bone and finished pouring her tequila. Then she made her way back to the couch and handed over his beer while taking a seat alongside him. "Thanks." He cracked the lid and tossed it to the table; he drank back some of his beer and glanced at her as she took a few sips of tequila and settled into the cushions.
"What is it?" she asked him.
"Nothin', darlin', just... curious as fuck 'bout you tossin' that shit back without a goddamn chaser. Don't ever remember you bein' without one when it came to the harder shit."
"I don't know..." She looked behind him and shrugged. "Overtime, I think I've gotten used to the taste. Something acquired and all that."
"Mm." He swallowed more of his beer and tightened his fingers around the neck of the bottle. "Thin
k I can feel you on that shit."
"Can you?" She rolled her fingers between the curls of her hair and swirled her tequila inside the glass. "Because it would be nice if someone finally did," she said. "If someone actually felt me on something."
"Felt up?"
She dipped her head aside and laughed. "Not exactly, X, no. But you can still make me laugh." She took another sip of her tequila, then lowered the glass and leaned forward. "I feel like you want to ask me something else, but you're holding back from knowing my answer to the question."
"Could be some shit like that, yeah." His eyes dipped to her skirt as her legs shifted; he glanced between them as they slightly opened, then took a breath and redirected his attention to her face. She suckled her bottom lip to hide her smile in knowing he was now aware that her underwear matched the color of his cut, and gripped the rim of her glass to keep it from sliding to the floor. "That asshole you were talkin' to on campus when I showed up."
"What about him?"
"You were smilin' and talkin' like you knew him beyond all that shit."
"Beyond school? I don't." She rested her elbow along the head of the couch and dropped her chin inside her hand. "He's a classmate that I was thanking for catching me up on something I had missed in lecture two nights ago."
"Yeah?" He rolled his eyes back to the television and soured. "You seemed chipper as fuck around that asshole for somethin' like that to be the only goddamn thing."
"I barely know his name, Xavier -- I don't even think I would remember his face if not for the fact that we are in the same class."
"You knew his ass well enough to ask what the fuck you'd missed out on."
"Because I know that he takes solid notes." She pushed her brows together and bit the inside of her cheek. He was jealous as shit, even after all this time. She relished in knowing that truth. "Were you pissed in seeing me talking to him?"
"Darlin'--"
"Answer the question," she replied. "Yes or no."
He dragged his eyes back to hers and shook his head, drank back the rest of his beer and locked his jaw.
"Okay." She lowered her hand to her lap and nodded. "Do you mind if I start asking you a few more things now?"
"Curious 'bout somethin'?"
"I am. Like..." She looked aside and lifted her shoulders. "Are you seeing anyone these days, X?"
"As in fuckin'?"
"As in dating. Taking to a restaurant or a movie. Any place outside of your bed."
"Shit." He chuckled and leaned forward to place his bottle on top of the coffee table. "You know I don't roll like that."
"You've been single all this time." She grinned. "Still no desire to bring someone into your life on a permanent basis? No thought of what it would be like for someone to meet your mother if she was still alive?"
"My mother would hate anybody I ever fucked around with but you, darlin'."
She swallowed hard as a sudden ache filled her chest. She shook her head as an unexpected smile crossed her lips. "You're only saying that--"
"I ain't. My old man was a fan of yours -- you know that shit; my mother woulda been too... That bein' said, no other bitch I know would bother stayin' with my ass if I tried keepin' hers there; if I tried pinnin' it to the goddamn ground."
"I don't believe that."
"You should," he shot back.
"I don't..." Her eyes lowered to his lips as she exhaled. "Have you ever tried your luck with someone that you wanted for more than a single night, X?"
He crossed his arms and cleared his throat, refusing to answer as she eyed him with a smirk.
"You been on your own since skippin' out on the club?" he asked. She nodded and sipped more of her tequila. "No cock rollin' through here on a nightly basis?"
Her fingers tightened around the glass as she yanked it from between her lips; she laughed aloud and placed it near his beer. "I haven't been with anyone in that way for awhile."
"How the fuck long is awhile?"
"How long has it been for you?" she asked.
His eyes fell to her blouse, taking note of her breasts behind the fabric. Remembering how they felt inside his hands, inside his goddamn mouth as he rolled his tongue across and between each one, he grunted. "Been too goddamn long for my ass, darlin'... Too fuckin' long."
"Really."
"Yeah..." He dropped his hands to his crotch as his cock pushed against his jeans. She leaned forward while taking note of his intensely engorged erection and wrapped her fingers around the edge of her blouse, yanking until he could see the top of her breasts behind a set of silver buttons. "Darlin'--"
"Any particular reason as to why you've been without for so long, X?" she interjected, hoping the opportunity of this new moment shared between them would fail to fade. "Because as a man known for getting what he wants when he wants to have it from a woman--"
"Pussy," he started, "is somethin' I can get any goddamn time I wanna have it. Any hour of the motherfuckin' day."
"I know." She grinned. "That's still not an answer as to why you've been without it for, in your words, 'too goddamn long'."
He sank into the couch and sighed heavily; he swallowed hard and grinded his teeth. "I could ask you the goddamn same, darlin'."
"Are you so sure that you'd want to know the answer, Xavier?"
"Any goddamn reason as to why the fuck I shouldn't?"
"I don't know. But this isn't why you came here."
"No, darlin'... It ain't."
"Then why?"
He grunted again and wagged his head. "You needed that goddamn ride.... My boy wanted his cock sucked for the night and I needed to know how the hell to get inside your campus without bein' tossed on sight."
"What if I hadn't been there tonight?" she asked him. "What if I didn't need to be on campus or you had never seen me?"
"Don't know... Guess it was meant for me to roll the fuck up in there when I did, yeah? Somethin' like fate."
"Maybe." She tossed her hair behind her neck and gulped. He gazed at her blouse again, at the top of her breasts as she took in another deep breath, sharp enough to roll against the base of his own goddamn tongue, then lifted his eyes back to her face and peered. "Do you want to watch a movie for the time being?" she questioned. "Or just... fall asleep by yourself on the couch?"
His brows lifted as he chortled. "You think my ass is stayin' out here tonight?"
"You could go, and leave Scooter behind."
"I can wait around 'til his ass gets finished--"
"They're done. He's stopped screaming like a wild banshee which means they've most likely fallen asleep."
"Yeah? Well, uh... My ass can wait around 'til he finally wakes the fuck back up--"
"Then you can wait around for him all damn night." She leaned aside to reclaim her glass and snaked her fingers along the rim. "Your boy will be out for good until the morning, at least."
"You know that shit for a goddamn fact?" She rolled her eyes to the ceiling and nodded. He glared. "She slip him somethin' 'fore they fucked?"
"She doesn't have to. I don't exactly know what she does to men when they're intimate, but there's never been a time of one slipping out on her before the sun came up. That's just a fact."
"Shit." He laughed. "You think a motherfucker like Scooter is gonna be like the rest of these assholes when it comes to this bitch?"
"I don't see him being much different so far. If that changes, let me know. In the meantime..." She tossed back the rest of her tequila and stood up from the couch. "We can watch that movie OnDemand or I can go to bed and leave you out here alone. I'm fine either way."
"Yeah, darlin'... I can see just how goddamn fine you still are."
Her head dipped as she slipped her hand beneath her blouse and brushed her fingers across her stomach; she sighed as another smile warmed her lips and flushed her cheeks. "You still think I'm 'fine', X?"
He peeked up at her and slightly bobbed his head. A shock of heat rolled through him as he lifted his arm to the couch and s
ank his fingers into her pillows, quietly praying to the only God he had ever believed in for another chance of sinking them into her back, her ass, her thighs... her. "I ain't a blind motherfucker."
"No," she told him, the word rolling across her tongue like a sheet made from silk. "You're so much else..." She reached for his empty bottle of beer as her eyes lingered on his face and tossed it into a nearby trashcan, then stepped around the couch and headed back to the bar. "Do you want another one? Or some tequila this time...?" He thought for a moment about the consequences of drinking more around her than he should, of knowing what the fuck he was capable of doing in having too goddamn much of something he could no longer control, and looked straight ahead. "X?"
He glanced over his shoulder as the sound of his name rolled along the tip of her tongue like a goddamn sonnet. He swallowed hard and gradually nodded as his cock damn near spazzed the fuck outta control. "Yeah, darlin'," he replied, his voice low as her smile remained. "I'll take some of that tequila you got."
"Okay."
She refilled her glass and poured one for Xavier, then returned to the couch and slid it between his fingers.
"Thanks, darlin'."
"Sure." She fell into the cushions while watching him drink, her sex throbbing at the way his lips moved around the glass, as the tequila splashed across his tongue. "How does it taste?"
He lowered the glass from his mouth and rolled his tongue between his lips. "Warm as fuck," he muttered. She nodded before taking a sip for herself, then reached for the remote and flipped between channels. He gulped in watching her move, then stretched his legs beneath the table and dropped his head to the couch. He closed his eyes for a few seconds and sighed as she slid closer to him and brushed a line of hair from his face. "Shit."
"What is it?"
"Nothin'..." He shook his head and reopened his eyes. "Just forgot how goddamn good your hands could feel on my face like that, darlin'."
She chortled. "I forgot how good it felt too."
"Yeah?" She nodded and leaned closer, swallowing a breath as he dropped his hand to her knee, caressing her skin. "You ain't bullshittin' in sayin' you've been alone all this time?" he asked her.