15. Sametra #2
As we said grace and began to eat, I watched Malik with his mother and felt my heart swell.
This was where he got his warmth, his kindness, his ability to make people feel at home.
Yolanda had raised an incredible man, and sitting at her table, surrounded by laughter and love, I felt like I was exactly where I belonged.
Night fell, and it seemed as if everything cooled down a little.
I’d showered and prepared to study when I received a text from Malik to come out back.
I laughed because he was hellbent on figuring out how to sleep in the same bed as me.
I was going to respect his mother’s house whether he liked it or not.
I wasn’t bending on that. I’d want the same.
Samaj would get the same treatment; nobody was hunching under my roof but me.
Take that right on to the hotel, motel, Holiday Inn.
And if you couldn’t afford a hotel room, you had no business having sex anyway.
“Sit down with me, baby.” Malik said patting the blanket he had laid out.
I took a seat on the blanket under a tree that looked like it had been there as long as I’d been on earth. “Here.”
Malik handed me a bag of sweet tarts without the yellow ones and winked at me.
“I’m sleeping in my room tonight, end of discussion. Don’t try and bribe me with my favorite candy.”
“I respect that,” he smirked, tossing his arm around my shoulder as I leaned into him. After sitting in silence for five minutes, a beautiful show of fireworks began to light the sky in brilliant bursts of red, white, and blue.
“They do this every year for our family reunion. My aunt and cousins live on the other side of that tree line. When she wanted her house built, she wanted to be near her sister and brother. So that’s what I did.”
“It’s beautiful,” I said, watching the colors dance across the darkness. “How does it feel to be home? Should I worry about any exes popping up?”
He laughed, pulling me closer. “Nah, baby. I wasn’t really the dating type when I lived here. Too focused on football and taking care of Mama after her accident. And since I moved to St. Ambrose?” He shrugged. “Nobody worth bringing home to meet her. I don’t play about her.”
“Until now.”
“Until now,” he confirmed, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. “You’re the first woman I’ve ever brought here, Sametra. And being home feels good. I missed that little girl in there.”
The fireworks continued their display above us, but I was more focused on the man beside me. “Your mama loves you so much. Her little face just lights up. It’s the cutest thing.”
“She does. I had to be both parents for most of my life. Made a lot of sacrifices so I could have opportunities she never had.” His voice grew thoughtful.
“That’s why what we’re building means so much to me.
I’ve always had this vision of what my family would look like.
A few kids, a beautiful wife, a nice home, family dinners, vacations.
The whole nine. I think it’s closer than I ever imagined. ”
“Baby...” I loved it when he got all vulnerable and mushy on me.
“I never had this before. Wasn’t sure if it was me being picky or if I was just difficult to love.” He shrugged and popped the top off his beer, taking a long swig.
I turned in his arms to look at him, the fireworks reflecting in his dark eyes. “Malik Jerome Holloway, you are the easiest man to love I’ve ever met. Don’t let your doubt trick you out of your position.”
“Keep talking like that and I might have to carry you to my room, Mama’s rules or not.”
“Try it and see what happens,” I challenged, laughing as he tackled me gently onto the blanket. His body pressed into mine, and the second I felt that weight, that warmth, the flooding began. My thighs clenched around the ache he always stirred up.
“You know what you’re doing,” I breathed, heart thudding beneath his chest.
“I ain’t did nothing yet, LT,” he whispered.
But that didn’t last. His mouth found mine, cool lips brushing soft at first, until instinct took over and I opened for him.
Our tongues clashed and danced together.
We’d done it a thousand times before but tonight felt different.
We kissed under the crackle of the night sky, each boom above matching the pulse between my thighs.
His hand slid under my shirt, fingers warm as they traced the slope of my waist. He stopped just beneath my breast, not quite touching, but close enough to steal my breath. I arched into him, my hands running down his sides until I found his waist and gripped him tight, needing more.
“You feel that?” he murmured, lips dragging down my jaw.
I did. His dick was thick, pressed right against the soaked fabric of my shorts, grinding slow, deliberate. My clit jumped at the pressure. I squirmed, making my shorts bunch up around my ass. They were doing nothing to hide how ready I was for him.
“You sure you wanna do this out here?” he asked, but his hand was already sliding between us.
“Do you?” I fired back, just as he eased two fingers inside me.
“I do. I missed you, baby,” he murmured, pulling them out only to lick them clean and slide back in.
My moan gave him his answer. I was drenched and pulsing around him.
His eyes darkened, jaw clenched, like he was fighting the urge to take me right there.
I knew that look. It’d been a few days, and the no-sex rule only made him want it more.
Malik was a grown-ass man, but the second you told him he couldn’t have something, he found a way to have it and then some.
I sat up on my elbows, locked eyes with him.
“Do you feel that ?” I asked, rolling my hips into his hand as I rubbed slow circles on my clit.
A devilish grin, spread across his face.
He loved it when I let my freak out. I tossed my head back the sensation was driving me crazy and close to the brink.
“Hell yeah I feel it… but nah, look at me.”
My head snapped back up, eyes locking with his. He removed my hand from my clit and made me grab a hand full of dick, my eyes fluttered. “Do something with it for me.”
I reached down and pushed his shorts and briefs down. His dick sprang free, heavy and full, and I gripped him just long enough to guide him exactly where I needed him.
His lips crashed into mine as I pulled him inside me, inch by inch, until he bottomed out and I gasped into his mouth. My fingers dug into his back, hips arching to meet his. Full. That’s the only word I had. I felt full…in body, in soul.
Each firework above mirrored the spark building between us.
Malik moved inside me slow, deep, steady, like he had nowhere else to be but here, claiming me under a blanket of stars.
I was so damn glad that tree was shielding us because he ripped my pajama shirt up, exposing my breasts to the night air.
“Sss… baby,” I whimpered, toes curling.
“What? You know I like them pretty titties out,” he whispered against my lips.
“I love you, Malik,” I breathed, rolling my hips into his rhythm.
His forehead pressed to mine, eyes never leaving me. “I love you too, LT. Ain’t nothing more true than that.”
And when the grand finale lit up the Alabama sky in gold, purple, green, blue, and silver, I clenched tight around him, stars bursting behind my eyelids as I came. He followed seconds later, moaning my name into the crook of my neck.
“Thank you for coming with me,” he whispered.
And just like that, I knew, I wasn’t just in love. I was home . This man, this feeling, this messy, sacred, beautiful family we were building…it was everything. With him, it didn’t just feel possible. It felt real… like something I could bet on, not just wish for.