Chapter 19
Jayme
I shifted slightly and pulled the dress I was wearing down for what felt like the hundredth time even though I’d only been on my feet for about half an hour.
I did my best to make sure I looked calm and at ease, like I belonged in the room.
I tried to focus on whatever the stupid painting in front of me was depicting.
I hadn’t been a huge fan of art or really paid much attention to it until Dyani but I could admit some of the pieces I’d seen recently were beautiful.
I looked over at Dyani. She was in her element and looked fucking beautiful in the dress she’d picked out. She was holding a champagne flute and smiling while she spoke to a small group of people, networking and making it look good.
I looked back at the painting in front of me and slowly gravitated to the one beside it.
I’d been a little shocked when she asked me to come to an art gallery with her but I was honored too. I liked peeking into her world and felt like it made sense considering she’d also come to my job and met all of my work associates.
It had also been three entire days since shit had hit the fan with Darryl and I just wanted to support her in any way I could.
Arris was at work in his apartment but on standby to get Blake from kindergarten.
A woman with a tray full of champagne flutes slid past me and I spun around to grab one.
I tilted my head back and took a long sip then walked to the next painting.
I read the full note beside it then went to the next and the next and the next.
I’d made it halfway through the exhibit before I felt two little hands on my waist.
I looked back in shock then smiled when I saw it was Dyani. She grinned at me and I leaned back just a little so our bodies pressed together. Dyani kissed my cheek and came up beside me. She left her hand on the small of my back.
“How are you holding up?” she asked.
“I’m good. How are you holding up?”
“Good.” Dyani’s smile stretched over her face. “I think I’ve gotten some really good contacts tonight.”
“Yeah?” I smiled. “Congratulations. You deserve it.”
“Thank you.” She exhaled. “I was worried, but I’m happy we came out tonight.”
“Me too.” I nodded. “I was a little bit worried too, but this is nice.”
Dyani cut her eyes at me. “You were nervous?”
“Yeah. Is that hard to believe?” I lifted an eyebrow.
“Yes,” she deadpanned, then broke into a smile. “You always look like the most confident woman in the room.”
“I’m good at faking it,” I admitted. “Trust me, I was extremely nervous.”
“Over what?”
“Making you look bad,” I admitted.
Dyani pursed her lips. “That should never be a fear of yours, Jayme.” She ran her thumb over the back of my hand. “You look too damn good to ever make anyone look bad.”
“Are you trying to get in my pants?” I joked.
“Yes.” Dyani didn’t even pause to feign thinking about it. “Is it working?” Her hand slid a little lower from the small of my back .
“It doesn’t take much for you to get me going.” I winked at her.
Dyani gripped the space right above my ass and pulled me in closer to her body. I watched her look around before she leaned into me.
“Do you want to take a private tour?” she asked.
“Sure. I would love that.”
“Let’s go.”
Dyani stood up straight and set her champagne glass on the first surface we walked by as she dragged me through the art exhibit. We walked quickly, hand in hand.
Dyani plucked her phone out of her purse, sucked her teeth, and dropped it back in.
“You good?” I asked.
“Yeah. It’s Darryl,” she scoffed.
“Baby.” I gripped her hand and paused, halting us. “Do you want to take it?”
“Nope. Not today. I’m not ready.”
“Okay.”
“Okay. Come on.” She started walking again.
We stumbled through a few different halls before we ended up at a little door labeled staff only. Dyani looked around and I followed her lead before she pushed the door open, yanked me inside, and locked it behind us.
I didn’t even have time to take in the room before Dyani’s hands were on my face and her body was pressed against mine, pushing me into the wall.
My hands went to her hips automatically.
I let her lead the kiss. My hand trailed from her hips to her ass.
Her tongue slipped into my mouth. We bunched each other’s dresses up at damn near the same time.
The entire thing was rushed and clumsy and we laughed against each other’s mouths while fumbling to get our hands into each other’s underwear.
I groaned when my middle finger slipped between Dyani’s thighs.
She was already wet and feeling how soaked she was made me even wetter in response.
Dyani softly rubbed my clit and I let my hand drift further between her thighs so I could slide two fingers inside of her.
We panted against each other’s mouths while we kissed sloppily, focused on getting each other to the end while still chasing our own pleasure.
I came first. My legs shook in my heels.
My eyes slammed shut. My head fell forward onto Dyani’s shoulder.
She gripped the back of my head while I gasped against her throat and circled her clit with my thumb while my other two fingers were still buried inside of her.
I licked up her throat and planted a wet kiss before lightly biting her skin.
Her body shook and she gripped my biceps as she came. We stared at each other while I drew her orgasm out.
We could hear the people in the exhibit. It sounded like someone was making a speech, then scattered claps and cheering.
We just breathed against each other while we came down and pulled our hands free. We held each other’s gaze while we sucked our fingers.
Then Dyani pecked my lips and dropped to her knees. She pushed my dress up and pulled my underwear down. I held my dress above my waist while Dyani hiked one of my legs up. I braced myself on the wall behind me while I stood on one leg in my heels.
Dyani gripped my hip with one hand and kept my leg hoisted with the other while she buried her face between my legs.
I looked down at her while she tongue fucked me.
She had beautiful eyes and glanced up at me looking as innocent as ever, even with her mouth latched onto my clit and frantically rubbing her tongue over it like she was trying to devour me whole.
When I came, stars shattered behind my eyelids and Dyani held my hips while she kissed the inside of each of my thighs.
She let my leg go and I dropped to my knees to grip her face and kiss her.
I licked around her mouth to taste myself then sucked her bottom lip into my mouth and ran my tongue over it.
She moaned against my mouth and gripped one of my breasts.
We paused and jumped apart at the sound of a crash near us. We froze and slowly the sound traveled away from us. I looked at Dyani. She looked at me. We looked at the door. Then we both giggled and crawled our asses off the floor.
We did our best to get ourselves together. Dyani helped me make sure my dress was laying the way it was meant to. I fixed her slightly disheveled hair.
We kissed each other again quickly then snuck back out of the room and headed to the main room of the exhibit. A couple approached us almost immediately, asking Dyani a series of questions.
“I can actually walk you to that piece,” she offered.
She looked back at me. I gestured for her to go.
“I’m actually going to run to the ladies’ room,” I said. “Go ahead and I’ll come find you.”
“Okay.” She gestured for the couple to go ahead of her. “Right this way.”
I hadn’t lied. I went to the family restroom so I could be alone, peed, and cleaned myself up. Then I checked my phone for what felt like the first time in hours. I did a double take when I saw Arris’s text message.
Babydaddy: OMW to the tattoo shop. We got footage.
I called him immediately. He picked up on the first ring.
“What’s up, baby girl?”
“Do you need us to come to the shop?”
“Nah. You’re good. I’m gon’ view the shit and keep it pushing. I’ll grab Blake on time and see y’all when y’all get home.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m positive, baby. No matter what that shit shows, I can’t make a move on it today.”
“If anything changes, let me know.”
“You already know.”
“Alright.”
“How’s shit on your end?”
“Dyani is killing it.”
“Yeah?”
“Hell yeah. It’s insane seeing her in her element.”
“Ain’t it?” Arris laughed. “She’s a fool with it.”
“She really is.”
Arris chuckled. “Well, look, I’m turning into the parking lot. I’ll update y’all when y’all get home. Don’t worry about it or me. Just keep Dyani afloat.”
“Alright. I will.”
“Cool. I love you.”
“I love you too, A. Be careful.”
“Always.”
I hung up and tucked my phone back into the little pocket of my dress and headed back out to the exhibit. I found Dyani and three more people with her and just fell into the group. She introduced me to them and we walked through the rest of the exhibit.
Each of them took Dyani’s business card and she was damn near on cloud nine while we walked to the car. I kicked my shoes off as soon as we reached it then collapsed into the driver’s seat.
We’d already left the parking lot and were on the freeway toward home when I glanced at Dyani briefly then back at the road.
“Arris has the footage from the night the vandalism happened.”
“What?” Dyani did a double take in my direction. “Who was it?”
“I don’t know. He said he’d update us when we got home.”
“Of course he did.” Dyani rolled her eyes with fake annoyance. “How’d he sound though?”
“Well, I talked to him before he actually saw it but he seemed like he was excited and ready to take care of business.”
“He’s always ready to take care of business,” Dyani said.
I shrugged. “True.”
“I hope whoever it was is ready for whatever hell that man is ready to release on them.”
I whistled and shook my head. If Dyani thought the fight Arris had with Darryl was bad, she didn’t want to see what would go down when Arris caught someone who had targeted him and the way he made his living.
Arris prided himself on being a provider for not just Blake, but me as well, and anyone who tried to stop his bag was someone he had no respect for and never ending beef.
Shit was going to get crazy with the Bedford Boys and something about that put me on edge. The gangs were supposed to put shit aside and be neutral for the streetball tournament and shit and I wasn’t sure what that would look like if Arris called himself going to shoot up the block for disrespect.
When Dyani and I got back to my place, Arris was already there with Blake. He hopped up to meet us at the door and hugged us both.
“Well y’all look beautiful.”
“Thank you, baby.” I kissed him quickly and slid out of his hold to kick my shoes off and get to Blake.
I collapsed onto the couch and held my arms open to Blake. He walked over and I hugged him and kissed along his face until he squealed and pushed away from me. I let him go and smiled when he went over to Dyani to hug her too.
“Blake,” Arris said quietly. “Do you want to show Dyani the picture you made in class today?”
“Yeah.” He grabbed Dyani’s hand in his. “Come on. It’s in my room!” he said excitedly.
“Okay.”
Dyani let Blake lead her toward his room and Arris walked around the couch to collapse beside me.
“Did you just send Dyani off on purpose?” I asked.
“Mhm.” He pulled his phone out and tapped the screen a few times before handing it to me.
It took a few seconds for me to realize I was looking at security footage. It took me three times as long to realize who was breaking into the tattoo shop.
Fucking Reena.
“You’re kidding?” I scoffed.
“Nah.” He took his phone from me and locked it.
“That bitch thinks I beat her ass the last two times?” I chuckled darkly. “When I see that hoe, I’m going to cave her face in.”
“No,” Arris said. “You’re not. I don’t want you to get involved. I don’t want you to say shit to her and I damn sure don’t want you to beat her ass. I want you to just keep shit business as usual. Keep focused on Blake, Dyani, and work and I’ve got the rest.”
“Arris—”
“Promise me you’re going to let me take care of this shit as I see fit.” I rolled my eyes. Arris gripped my jaw and turned my head toward him. “Jayme,” he said softly. “I’m serious. Let me do what I do.”
I looked up at him. He locked eyes with me. I deflated and nodded.
“Alright, Arris. I’ll stay out of it.”
“Thank you, Jay.” Arris leaned in and kissed me quickly.
Then we both looked back when Blake came out of his room squealing.
“Yani said we can all color pictures and play games tonight,” he announced.
“And if Yani said it, it’s true,” Arris said and climbed to his feet.
I watched him circle the couch to get back to Blake. I let my head fall backward and resisted the urge to groan or let this shit ruin the amazing day Dyani just had. I plastered a smile on my face and hopped up to join Blake, Dyani, and Arris talking about our plans for the night.
Reena was going to get hers, but tonight, luckily for her, the bitch was safe.