Chapter 17 #3
Two could play the game Loyal had started. They walked side by side, and Ellie allowed him to guide her to the blackjack table.
“Doesn’t this include counting? I’m not the girl who can add numbers up in her head at the drop of a dime and calculate the probability of the next card. I went to Vegas once and lost all my money,” Ellie said, grimacing in shame. “This requires skill.”
“I’m very skilled with numbers. I’ve got you covered, I promise,” he chuckled.
She sat, and he stood behind her chair, reaching over her to place her wager. Ellie sipped her drink, long and hard because she felt the pressure as he placed a large stack of chips in front of her.
“Rich, are you sure?” she asked.
“I think you’re lady luck,” he whispered in her ear.
Five other players sat beside her, and the dealer began.
“Why am I so nervous?” Ellie asked.
“That’s natural. Everybody else is just playing it cool,” he chuckled, leaning over her. “You can’t let the house intimidate you.”
“But I’m so intimidated,” she exclaimed, giggling as she sipped her drink. The alcohol was an instant anxiety reliever. She noticed his hands were tattooed as he reached over her to stack more chips in front of her.
Oh yeah, he’s sexy, she thought.
“Good luck on your Ace,” the dealer told her as he flipped the first card over in front of her.
Rich leaned down and whispered in her ear, “I’d hit that.”
Ellie blushed, and then her heart galloped as Loyal stepped up in place of the dealer and said, “It’ll be the last card you ever play, my boy. Nice try, though. She’s taken.”
“Of course she is. I thought I’d gotten lucky. No disrespect,” Rich said, laughing as he stepped back. “Let me get that chair, beautiful.”
Ellie didn’t move. She looked at Loyal in challenge.
“I mean, how would he know? You’re pretty preoccupied, and from the looks of things, you have your hands full,” Ellie shot back.
“Yo, E, you supposed to be risking chips, not lives,” he stated. “Come dance with me, gorgeous, so I can make it clear for you.”
Ellie sipped her drink and then took it with her as she lifted from the table.
She sipped it once more, and he took it from her hands, placing it on the tray of a passing waiter. He led her to the heated glass atrium.
Christmas lights illuminated the space, and she looked up at the stars through the glass ceiling.
“Nice event,” she said curtly.
“It was about to get ugly if you kept flirting with my mans,” Loyal said, brow bent. She reached for his forehead and smoothed the lines from it with soft hands.
“I’m surprised you noticed,” she said. “You seem happy with the date you came with. You didn’t even come speak to me.”
“I didn’t see you, E,” Loyal said, honestly.
“You didn’t come looking either,” Ellie shot back. “And the hand on the small of her back? Can we not do that again?” They stood in the middle of the room. They were supposed to be dancing, but he just stood there, in front of her, body to body, staring down at her.
Loyal wrapped one arm around her body and placed his hand on the small of her back. He pulled her into him, and she felt his natural affinity to her presence.
“Yes, ma’am, it won’t happen again,” Loyal stated. “You in that dress. It’s…” He shook his head as if he had no words. “…a problem.”
She smiled.
“It makes niggas think about what’s under the dress, E.
I been doing business with Rich for ten years, and tomorrow, I’ma find a new bank.
You can’t be flirting with niggas in here.
Your jealousy leads to pouted lips. My jealousy leads to much, much worse,” he stated.
“Nigga thinking about fucking you, and I ain’t feeling it. ”
“It’s just a dress,” Ellie snickered, taking her pointer finger and touching his lips. The pressure of her body against his— the way his dick reacted to her and the way he made sure she felt it. “It doesn’t have that much power.”
“It’s the body in the dress…” He shook his head again. He backed her against the wall and devoured her lips. “You taste so fucking good, E,” he whispered as he raised one thigh.
“What’s going on with you and Tisa? It feels like we’re sneaking away in empty rooms, so we don’t get caught,” Ellie said.
“I’m just being respectful, E,” he said.
“To her,” Ellie said, eyes narrowing in disbelief as she eased from beneath him and began to walk away. He pulled her hand, forcing her back to him.
“Loyal, just go back to your party.” She was disappointed as she rubbed her arms.
“Loyal? Baby, are you back here?”
Ellie was mortified as Tisa walked into the secluded room, eyeing them suspiciously.
“There you are,” Tisa said, looking back and forth. “What’s back here?” Tisa asked, eyes never leaving Ellie.
“Tis, this is Elliot. We’ve been spending some time together,” Loyal introduced, taking a neutral step away from Ellie. “E, this is my son’s mother, Tisa.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be rude, but I just sweet-talked the building commissioner of Macomb County for you. I know you’ve been trying to get a meeting with him. He wants to meet you. I sat him at our table. You need to stop hiding in corners and get in there,” Tisa suggested.
“Nah, I’m good right here,” Loyal stated. “I’ll catch up with him another time.” Loyal answered, looking at Ellie. “I’m busy. I’m trying to enjoy my night. Tell that nigga to grab a shrimp cocktail or something and enjoy his, too,” Loyal said.
“Loyal, if you impress him tonight, that’s hundreds of millions of dollars in construction jobs secured,” Tisa said under her breath.
Ellie interjected, “No, please. I’m a big girl. Go handle your business. I’ll be here.”
She wanted him to stay, but she didn’t want to make it seem like he had to babysit her all night.
Loyal walked off with Tisa, and Ellie lingered in the private room to admire the art.
She wasn’t too thrilled to watch Tisa work the room on Loyal’s behalf, so she opted for the more private experience.
When Tisa reappeared, she caught Ellie by surprise.
“You’re Cassidy’s sister, right?” Tisa asked as she passed Ellie a champagne flute. There was a smile on Tisa’s face that Ellie couldn’t decipher. She didn’t know if Tisa was being nice nasty or willfully obtuse.
Ellie wanted to bite back, “No, Loyal’s girlfriend,” but they hadn’t decided on titles, and girlfriend sounded childish when speaking to the woman who had given him a son.
She wanted to follow Loyal’s lead and keep this thing between her and Tisa positive.
She respected him enough to not blow up his relationship with his baby mama— at least she was trying to.
She wasn’t a young girl anymore. In her 20s, she would have been ready to take it wherever it needed to go over that man, but she was supposed to be grown.
She was supposed to come into his life and bring peace, not spark a war.
For lack of a better introduction, Ellie responded, “Yeah, Cass is my brother.”
“I’m sorry about everything you’ve got going on.
That little thing with your husband. Yikes,” Tisa said, gritting her perfect veneers.
“Loyal is always in a charitable mood. Glad he was able to give away those tickets to your daughters to make them feel better. I wasn’t feeling too welI.
He knows I hate those games. Glad they went to good use. ”
Ellie frowned. Here we go, she thought, knowing that Loyal had been too optimistic about how this night would go.
“Yeah, it was great. My girls loved sitting courtside, but I didn’t see much of the game.
Loyal was so nice that he showed me the suite.
Robert and Tracy were nice enough to keep the girls on the floor.
Everybody had a memorable night,” Ellie’s subtle jab landed with precision.
She didn’t have to say too much. One thing a woman was going to do was fill in her own blanks.
Ellie hadn’t even slept with Loyal that night, but Tisa was running a movie in her head.
Tisa sipped from her champagne glass.
“He’s a gentleman that way,” Tisa said affectionately, giggling.
“I remember the first time he asked me for a threesome. I was so nervous to try something new. Scared he would like it too much. I asked myself a hundred questions.” She smiled sheepishly as she listed them off.
“What if he sleeps with this girl behind my back? What if I’m expected to go down on her?
” She shrugged. “Although, I quickly got over that. I truly overthought it. He’s found girl after girl; we’ve done this many times.
He’s never doubled back for any of them, and the orgasm is top-tier.
Give a man a fantasy, and he’ll maintain your dream. ”
Ellie played it cool on the outside, but her mind was going haywire. Was Loyal grooming her for an indecent proposal? He’s met my kids. He knows this can’t be casual for me. He wouldn’t do that.
“We even kept one around for almost six months. Took vacations and all, but at the end of the day, he and I only need one another. We’re just having fun before baby number two arrives, and I’ll need someone to relieve my stress when those hormones are going crazy.”
Ellie felt like Tisa had wrapped her hands around her neck.
“You’re pregnant?”
“Not yet, but actively trying. That’s why we were late. Something about Loyal and car sex before a big event,” Tisa said giggling. The revelation made Ellie sick to her stomach. “We want to be pregnant within the next few months.”
It was the actively trying that fucked Ellie up.
She knew that Loyal had been intimate with Tisa, but she had just given her body to him the night before.
She had assumed his intentions with her were pure, but to hop out of bed with her and inside another woman was hurtful, to say the least. It was fucking nasty and irresponsible, to say the most. Ellie was sick to her stomach, and everything in her wanted to cuss this bitch out.