Chapter 9
Jade
Spending the day with my new boyfriend’s daughter was not on my bingo card this year.
But then again, having a boyfriend in the first place wasn’t on my bingo card either.
Like, I literally had a man in my life who was willing to mess up his whole routine for me.
A man… A real man who made me feel seen and felt every time he looked at me.
Things felt like they were happening fast, but I didn’t want to slow down. I just wanted to be with him.
“Ms. Jade, do you like my daddy?” Aja asked from the back seat of his car. Yes, he made me drive his car today since mine was at my place.
“Yes, I do. Is that okay with you?”
“Yes. He’s happy. I like when he’s happy and not sad. When he first came back to Chicago, he used to be sad,” she volunteered in normal kid fashion. Kids had absolutely no problem telling all of their parents’ business.
“Well, I’m glad he’s happy.”
“I am too because I’m happy too. Are you going to be around a lot more?”
“Umm, I hope so.” I was completely caught off guard by her question but answered as honestly as I could. When it came to Oden, I hoped to be around for a while.
“Good, so we can go get our nails done and have girl time, just me and you. Tete always has the babies and she just had another one. But you, you don’t have any kids, do you?”
“Nope. I don’t.” I shook my head.
“Good.”
I didn’t respond, just looked in the rear view mirror and caught her smiling, which warmed my heart. Not only that, I read between the lines. Aja was looking to be the only kid somewhere, to go back to how I assumed things were when it was just her and her parents.
When we returned to the condo, she told me all about school and the little boy she liked that her uncle didn’t like.
I must admit that part was funny since Oden had told me some of it.
She admitted to me that she liked him, and I, of course, had to be an adult and let her know there would be plenty of boys in life that she’d like, but she was too young for a boyfriend or anything like that.
Then she got me into a new show on Netflix.
We watched that and ate popcorn until her father interrupted us on episode four of season one.
I was grateful that he’d come in with food because popcorn wasn’t filling up my stomach.
“Damn, y’all just in here cooling, huh?” he asked, eyes moving from the TV to his daughter.
“Yeah Dad, me and Jade had a girl’s day. Do you like my toes?” She then hopped off the couch and showed him her feet.
“I do. I’m glad you enjoyed your day off from school. You know you gotta go tomorrow, but I’ma pick you up and we’re going to the lake house for the weekend. You cool with that?” he asked, while my hungry ass started going through the cartons he brought in.
“Are you coming too, Jade?”
“Yeah, I’ll be there.” I didn’t look in either of their directions. I was too busy salivating over the lamb chops he brought in that I found in carton number one.
“Okay.”
“Okay? No teeth pulling or begging on my end? Yo, who are you and what have you done with my daughter?” Oden asked with amusement in his tone.
When I turned around, he was laughing and so was she. “I’m right here, Daddy. I’m gonna go call Tete. I wanna see the baby.”
“Aight. I’ll call you when your plate is ready,” he assured her before I felt his attention on me.
“Okay.” She ran off, feet pattering down the hall until she reached her bedroom.
“I take it y’all enjoyed yourselves.” He moved toward me, a handsome grin on his lips, heat in his eyes.
Oden was so handsome I often had to do double takes, because no man looked as good as he did all the time.
Shit wasn’t possible. Even now, after working all day, this man looked good.
His black jeans and white T-shirt had me wanting to see and feel everything underneath.
“Did you think we wouldn’t? Um hello, I’m cool, like, the kids dig me.”
He chuckled, hands finding my hips as soon as he was close enough. “They do? Well, I kinda dig you too.” He placed my body on the counter like I was featherweight. Then he stepped between my legs. Apparently, that was his favorite place… between my legs .
“That’s good to know. Do you dig me enough to feed me, Chef?”
He chuckled before a kiss landed on my forehead, then my lips. “That and more. Stay right there.”
I did just as he said, watching his every move.
He removed his hoodie and began taking out cookware to reheat the food in the cartons because this man really didn’t own a damn microwave.
First, he put the lamb chops in a pan then the mashed potatoes into a glass bowl.
I guess it withstood heat well because he put both into the oven.
About ten minutes later he was back between my legs.
“Did you get any of those calls today?”
“Probably, but Caya taught me how to block unknown calls from getting through. The only problem is if I forget I might mess around and forget a delivery or something. The setting stops almost all calls coming from numbers that aren’t saved in my phone.”
“That’s good shit. How was work today? I hope she wasn’t too much of a distraction.”
“No, she wasn’t. Once we got her an iPad charger, lil mama sat there and spent time with Chauncy. Speaking of, can we pick him up from Ava before we go to your house this weekend? I miss my dog and I hate that I’ve been away from him so much.”
He nodded. “I told you to bring him here with you. You didn’t have to leave him, love.”
I nodded. “Well, now I need my baby with me.”
Oden laughed. Then he moved to grab the food from the oven.
I never understood how he never needed mitts or a towel to get things out of the oven, but my grandmother never had either.
According to her, when you cooked for as long as she did, you didn’t burn yourself.
Yet every time I called myself getting in the kitchen, I burned myself… every time!
A few seconds later he was holding a lamb chop out in front of me, his eyes going from me to the piece of meat.
He then extended it to my lips, eyes locking on mine, and I gladly accepted, taking a bite and finding myself in pure ecstasy from the taste.
Food didn’t just feel this good, not just any food.
From his hands to my lips, food always tasted like sin.
“You gonna open your eyes and tell me how it tastes or no?”
When I finally opened my eyes, I was done chewing and food wasn’t what was on my mind.
“It tasted delightful, but you knew that already.” A heavy smirk overtook my features.
“Now are you gonna plate this food and feed Aja, so you can fully feed me?” I knew exactly what I was saying, and so did he, because the next words from his lips had me cracking up.
“Aja, come eat, baby girl. You know it’s bedtime in a few.”
I cackled and watched him as Aja re-entered the kitchen a few seconds after her father made her plate.
“Are we gonna do s’mores when we get to the house?” Aja asked, sitting at the island eating her food.
I looked at Oden who had his arms crossed, watching his daughter intently. I could tell he loved her, it emitted from him. There was something else too, need or maybe guilt he carried after her mother left.
He nodded. “I mean, if you want to.”
She then directed her attention to me. “I do. Ms. Jade, have you ever had s’mores?”
“No, I haven’t. Have you?”
“Yes. My favorite part is the chocolate. When Daddy took me camping, I didn’t like the graham cracker that much.” She made an expression to say yuck which made me laugh.
I nodded. “See ,I haven’t been, but I love graham crackers so I think that would be my favorite part.”
Aja shook her head. “I don’t see how. They’re so nasty. They taste like cardboard. Yuck.”
I laughed. We talked for a while longer before Aja was finished eating. After telling both me and her father goodnight, she retreated to her room to shower and sleep.
“She is so sweet and polite,” I complimented.
He laughed. “That’s because she likes you.”
“Oh, she does, huh?”
“Yep.” He held a spoon of potatoes to my mouth.
I accepted, opening my mouth as always. The potatoes were thick, so thick I just knew he’d mashed them without the skin. They tasted so good. I could go for a whole plate of them with nothing else. If I stayed like this with this man, I was gonna be screwed.
“So, about me feeding you fully… What does that entail?”
I swallowed the potatoes, eyes tracing his frame. “What do you think?”
He nodded. “I think you need to tell me when you’re finished eating, so we can take this to the back.”
“Okay.” I opened my mouth for more potatoes, him between my legs, scooping them from the plate next to me before he fed them to me. “Now.”
I made it to his room before he did because he checked on Aja to make sure she was good. I assumed she was knocked out when I looked up and he was standing in the doorway shirtless.
“I take it she’s asleep.”
He nodded. “Been that way since a baby, she eats then sleeps every time. I’ll wake her up early to shower in the morning.”
“Cool.” I pulled my shirt off, moving toward the master bathroom, knowing he’d follow.
“You call yourself teasing me, Jade?” he asked, my back still to him as I leaned into the shower room to turn the water on.
“No, I didn’t think you needed an invite to shower with me.” I was about to unclasp my bra but he was so close behind that he did it for me.
“I don’t.”
As a matter of fact, he took it upon himself to help me undress. Seconds after my bra fell, he turned me around, pulling my body into him by my jeans. He unbuttoned them, then dropped, pushing them down my thighs.
“Tight ass jeans.”
I giggled, my hands resting on his shoulders. “They’re form-fitting.”
My jeans were pooled around my feet when he reached up and looped his index fingers into my underwear. Getting those down was easier as they just dropped.
“I fucking love looking at you.” He kissed up my abdomen before he picked me up.
“You do? What’s your favorite thing about me?” I asked, now looking down into his eyes as we stepped in the shower.
“Why do I have to have a favorite part? I can’t just like looking at the entirety of you?” He kissed my flesh again before we stepped under the water.
“You could, but that’s not the case, is it?” I arched my back, pushing my body forward into him when I felt the cold wall behind me. The mixture of hot and coolness created a molten need within me. I needed to feel him.
“It’s your eyes. From the moment we locked eyes in the restaurant, I’ve been obsessed with them. In them I see a sense of belonging like no other. I see home.”
My hands found the sides of his face as I stared down into his eyes, feeling every word from his lips. It was funny that he’d said belonging because that was exactly what he gave me. Belonging.
An aggressive moment later he was feeding himself into me while I burned with the most withering caresses.
Trails of fire traveled my being while he once again passionately splintered me in half.
I willfully splintered for this man, feeling small specks of stretching aches dissolve into pleasure like no other.
Shit, I wanted this forever… Fuck wanting, I needed it.
We lay in bed hours later, like always, my head to his bare chest and mind running a mile a minute. Right here with him was where I wanted to exist, where for some reason everything felt still and perfect in a world full of imperfections and motions.
“I know it’s too soon, lord knows it’s too soon, but I think I’m falling in love with you.”
His grasp tightened around my body, pulling me closer into him before he spoke. “Then keep falling cause I’ma catch you every time.”
“Yo, I swear ain’t nothing more inconsistent than a motherfucker getting some sex.
I mean, you used to be on my line every day talking about let’s go get something to eat or asking me to come do those uppity experiences with you.
Now you got a nigga laying between your legs and you don’t even answer your phone.
” Reminisce’s voice made me turn around.
I laughed. “If I remember correctly, your ass was just out of town. And my phone didn’t ring.”
“How is it gonna ring when you forever have that motherfucker on silent?” His face was drawn up and he mugged the hell out of me.
“Um, you haven’t called me either way. And also, why the hell did you just quantify sex? What the hell is some sex, Reminisce?”
He laughed. “You knew what I meant. And why didn’t you tell me that you’re messing with Kinga’s brother?”
I laughed. “And what would that have changed?”
“Not a damn thing except I gotta have that heat in my hand when I tell him to empty those pockets.”
More laughter ensued. “How are you anyways?”
“Apparently better than you, huh sis? Who the fuck is stalking you? Got motherfuckers sending videos of you moving through buildings and shit. When I leave here, I’m about to go see your condo people.”
“For what, Reminisce?”
He sucked his teeth. “Just because you’re letting them motherfuckers play in your face doesn't mean they’re gonna play in mine.”
I shook my head. “Don’t get me put out of my building, Reminisce.”
He laughed. “You own that condo, right? They can’t put you outta shit. But I’m only about to ask a few questions. G is gonna meet me over there.”
“Oh, okay.”
“Yo, you talked to Karim?” he asked out of the blue, which had me narrowing my eyes in his direction.
“No, not recently. Life has been a little fast paced. Why?”
He shrugged. “I’m just asking. I ain’t heard from her since she had that rapping nigga in her face.”
With my head tilted to the side and hands on my hips, I asked, “Since when have you two been talking? I wasn’t aware you two conversed like that.”
“That’s because you don’t know everything.”
“Apparently. I just might call her, considering that is my friend and I don’t understand why you, one of my brothers, thinks it's a good idea to talk to and or date my friends.”
“Nah, it ain’t like that.”
I could tell he was holding something back, but I didn’t badger him. For once I just let it go and stayed in my own business, considering right now I had a lot of it.