Chapter 18 #2
“The pouted lips when you’re upset is sexy as fuck.” He pulled her to his face and planted soft kisses to those lips. “Come here,” he directed as he patted his lap, giving her a cue that he wanted her there. Ellie straddled him, arching her back as his hands rested on her ass.
“Tell me what’s on your mind,” Loyal coached.
Thoughts of Sloan brought tears to her eyes.
“My friends are my world. They have literally been the constant in my life since I met them at 13. Sloan is my best friend. Like, she’s the one I would save if I had to make a choice.
She knows everything. I’ve trusted her with every chamber of my heart, and she knows how I feel about my brother.
She knows my rules. She knows how people have always stepped over me to get to him, and she does the same thing. It’s hurtful, and I feel betrayed.”
Loyal rubbed circles into her shoulder as she settled into his lap. She clung to his collar, pouring her heart out, and the comfort he brought was so settling.
“Before I answer, I need to know what kind of response you want in this moment. Are you coming to me for my opinion, or are you coming to me so you can vent? Those are two very different responses.”
“For now, just let me vent. I don’t want my feelings to be discredited just yet,” she admitted.
“Okay,” he replied.
She loved that he was such a man. If only all men knew to assess the need in that way, the world would be a much better place. Loyal knew when to be dominant and when to fall back. It made him easy to follow in times when leadership was non-negotiable.
“Anything else on your mind?” he asked.
“You and Tisa,” she admitted. His hand stopped moving once he realized he was in the hot seat.
“Care to elaborate?” he asked.
“For one, she said she fucked you tonight in this car,” Ellie snapped.
“You don’t even believe that shit, or you wouldn’t be in my lap right now,” Loyal said.
“I mean, you do like car sex,” Ellie mumbled, rolling her eyes like a brat as she pouted. “She might have been telling the truth.”
“She was trying to scare you off, and it looks like you’re letting her,” Loyal replied. “Stop.” His answer was simple, and Ellie sighed in uncertainty.
“I was jealous of her tonight,” Ellie admitted.
“You don’t ever have to be jealous of anyone or anything,” Loyal stated firmly.
“It just felt so intimate between you two, and I felt out of place,” she admitted.
“She has my child, E,” Loyal stated. There was sympathy in his tone but also a firmness that told her he didn’t really negotiate about the reality of his situation.
He had love for Tisa. He would always have love for Tisa.
Ellie would have to deal with that, and if she was honest, she respected a man who acknowledged a woman who had given him children.
She wished Cairo had operated under the same code.
It was still hard being the new woman in the situation, trying to decipher the dynamic.
“It’s always going to be a little intimate between us.
We share something. I can’t erase that. You’re who I want, though. ”
“It feels like a competition. She basically told me she wasn’t coming up off you,” Ellie whispered.
“And where is she now? Where are you? She’s in a car on her way home, alone. You’ll be in my bed,” he said, resting his head against the headrest, as he feathered her cheek.
“She said you’re grooming me for a threesome. That this is what you do. You finesse women, and then y’all have them for a while, you get bored, and then you move on to the next,” Ellie said, her stomach tightening in anticipation of his response. “Is that what I’m here for?”
“Just because something has been true in the past doesn’t mean it’s true now,” Loyal responded.
Her heart sank. She hadn’t expected him to admit this. She would have preferred it not to be true.
“So, she’s not lying?”
Loyal shook his head and he sighed. “This is the type of night we’re about to have?” he asked, impatiently. His irritation was not to be missed.
She sat up in his lap so that she could see his eyes.
“I just need to know what this is. You’re persistent and direct and passionate, and this is moving so fast. I don’t want to be another notch on your belt.
I have too much at stake to play games and to fall victim to false promises all so you and your baby mama can make me your new toy of the month. ”
“She’s not lying about the threesomes.” His words deflated her, and she shook her head, scoffing.
“I knew this wasn’t real,” she mumbled, trying to move out of his lap. He placed his hands on her hips, keeping her in place.
“Tisa and I have threesomes. Every woman don’t get the same version of a man, E. That’s not what I’m trying to do with you,” he clarified. “But I won’t lie. You got the visual of her eating your pussy in my head, so you might want to stop bringing it up.” He snickered.
“It’s not funny,” Ellie whispered. She was worried. This new revelation bothered her. “I’m not into that, and if that’s what it takes to keep you satisfied…”
“Tisa loves women, E. She loves every part of a woman. She enjoys courting women. She enjoys spoiling women, tasting women, fucking women. It’s her thing.
Hell, Tisa liked you until I told her how I was moving with it.
The threesome thing was her need. I’m a man, so I’m with it, but she initiated them.
I don’t need that from you. Now, if you ever want it, I’ve seen her do some things with that tongue that I’d love to watch her do to you, but it’s not required.
I don’t require much at all from you. Just you. Don’t let anybody play with your head.”
“I’m trying not to,” she said. “But it feels like that’s exactly what you’re doing.”
Loyal lifted the center console and pulled out a black box.
“How’s this for playing with your head?” he asked. He flipped open the box and a brilliant VVS square-cut diamond ring rested inside.
“Loyal,” she gasped. “I cannot accept…”
“Before you get on your soapbox, know I ain’t returning it.
It can mean as much or as little as you want it to,” he answered.
He was so damn cool as he stared up at her with hooded eyes.
The effects of the champagne relaxed him.
He smiled a lazy smile, dimples pinning his cheeks as he took the ring out of the box.
He took her dainty hand and slid it onto her left ring finger.
“To replace the other one,” he said simply. “You don’t have to decide what it means now. Take a month, take a year, take five years. Either way, it’s yours.”
“I’m so scared of what the next chapter of my life looks like,” she said.
“I can tell,” he answered. “That’s why you’ve been stuck. Can’t go backward. Afraid to move forward, so you holding in place. If you gon’ hold, at least get your pussy ate in the meantime.”
He ran a finger along the edge of her panties, and she tensed as he reminded her of the power a man could yield over a woman.
She was made to react to him, and she did.
His thumb found her clit, and she looked down at herself as he pushed up and then down.
Loyal drove her mad. He was the type of man to say the sky was green and she would believe him.
His ability to completely persuade her into bending to his will was scary.
It removed the control from her hands and forced her to exist at his mercy.
“Loyalll,” she moaned. She was out of control.
She was out of her body. She was his. To play with.
To tease. To love. To fuck. To hurt. To please.
To reward. To punish. To attend to. To ignore.
To hinder. To fulfill. He had all the cards; all the options, and she was in a state of anxiety, trying to guess which one he would play.
That was the thing about love and relationships.
They required a vulnerability that allowed someone the space and opportunity to ruin you.
“I ain’t gon’ do too much, E, we ain’t alone. I just want to see how wet she gets for me,” he whispered. He took his thumb to his mouth like he had a little barbecue sauce on it, and he was cleaning it off. He slid her panties back in place, leaving her flustered and bothered.
She leaned forward and kissed him. “I wasn’t sure if this was real because it’s happening so fast, but the way I felt when I saw you with someone else…” She shook her head. “I’m falling in love with you.”
“That ain’t a bad thing, E,” Loyal stated. “If the bond is this strong at first sight, imagine what it will be like in six months, or a year, or three, or when I change your last name, or when you give me a baby.”
She knew her head was gone when she didn’t correct him because having another baby at her age was unfathomable, but if the love remained, in due time, she wouldn’t tell a man like Loyal no.
“Is that something you want? A wife? More kids?” she asked. “These are the things you learn over time, and we’re just hitting fast forward.”
“I do,” Loyal stated. “With you. Nobody but you, E.”
“How can you know this already?” Ellie asked, befuddled by his certainty.
“I told you we been here before,” Loyal answered, reaching for the champagne bottle that sat in the ice bucket. She followed suit and grabbed the glasses as the rock on her finger sparkled flawlessly.
“This is a whirlwind,” she sighed as he popped the top on the bubbly and filled one glass. He took his straight out of the bottle and then sat it back in the ice bucket as she sipped hers slowly. “I can’t believe I’ll have to say goodbye to you in a few days,” she whispered.
“I thought we settled this.” He said it so simply, but he didn’t realize that it was easier said than done. “I did my part. I ended things with my baby mama. The rest is on you.”
“I know, I know,” she sang. “My part is just going to take a little more time and planning. I’ve got to hire a lawyer…”