Four
Kema
I woke up with a headache. An arm around my waist. And something hard poking me in my ass. I kept my eyes closed. Maybe if I didn’t open them, I could pretend I was still asleep. Because the second I woke up, thoughts of last night hit me in waves.
Ace bringing me home. Us sitting in my kitchen eating sandwiches. Him admitting he’d always thought I was attractive. Me kissing him. Him trying to stop me. Me assuring him I was sober. Then… Jesus.
I squeezed my eyes shut tighter. I’d never experienced blacking out during sex, but when that man made me squirt, I saw white spots and apparently went straight to sleep afterward. Damn. Ace had some good dick.
Like hide in his bushes good. Dick was so good I told him to nut in me. He had the kind of dick that made you wake up the next morning reconsidering your morals. After last night, I was sure my mama raised a HOE. Unfortunately, my morals weren’t the problem.
The problem was that this should’ve never happened. And it damn sure couldn’t happen again. I slowly lifted Ace’s arm from around my waist. “I’m up, Kema.”
I froze. Shit. Now this was going to be awkward.
“You good?”
“Ummm…yeah.” I cleared my throat. “I was just getting up to shower.”
“Okay.”
Okay? That was it? I slowly turned my head.
Ace was lying behind me with his eyes still closed, looking entirely too comfortable in my bed.
The sheet rested low around his waist. His locs were messy from sleep and he had one arm tucked underneath the pillow.
A smug little smirk tugged at his lips. That told me he knew damn well I was staring. “See something you like?”
I averted my eyes, “nope.”
His eyes opened. “Damn. So we lying first thing in the morning?”
“I wasn’t looking at you.”
“You turned all the way around.”
“I was checking to see if you were awake.”
“I told you I was awake.”
I hated him. I sat up and immediately regretted it when my head started pounding. “Ooh.”
Ace sat up. “You good?”
“Just a headache.”
“That’s what happens when you drink lemon drops like water.”
“Please don’t start.”
“I was just saying baby girl.”
Now why did he have to call me that? Did he think because we slept together we all of a sudden were going to be a couple?
He laughed. And because God clearly had a sense of humor, the sheet shifted lower. My eyes followed it, immediately. I snatched my eyes away, and Ace chuckled. “What’s funny?”
“You.”
“What about me?”
“You trying real hard not to look.”
“I’ve already seen it.”
“And?”
I looked at him. He lifted an eyebrow. I hated that I didn’t have a comeback because that was exactly the problem.
I’d seen all of him. Experienced his dick.
Shit I enjoyed it. I slid out of bed and grabbed the first thing I saw off the floor.
His T-shirt. I pulled it over my head, and Ace watched me. “What?”
“That’s my shirt.”
“I know.”
“You got a whole closet of clothes you can put on.”
“And?”
“And you put my shit on.”
I looked down at myself. “Well, you can have it back when I get out the shower.”
“Nah.”
“Nah what?”
“Keep it.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not keeping your shirt.”
“Why?”
“Because this isn’t that.”
His expression changed. Not dramatically, but enough for me to notice. “This isn’t what?”
I sighed. Here we go. “Ace.”
“Kema.”
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Repeat my name like that.”
“Then say what you mean.”
I crossed my arms. His shirt barely covered my ass, which probably wasn’t helping me establish the serious tone I was going for. “Last night was…”
I paused. Ace waited. “A mistake.”
There. I said it. His eyebrows lifted. “A mistake?”
“Yes.”
He stared at me. I stared back. Then he nodded. “Aight.”
Why did that piss me off? I frowned. “That’s it?”
“What else you want me to say?”
“I don’t know.”
“You said it was a mistake.”
“It was.”
“Aight.”
There he went with that shit again. I narrowed my eyes. “Why do you keep saying aight?”
“Because I’m agreeing with you.”
“You don’t have to agree that fast.”
Ace stared at me for a second. Then a slow smile appeared. Oh, fuck him. “You wanted me to argue?”
“No!”
“Sounds like you want me to argue with you and fight for you? You want me to fight for you Kema?”
“No, I'm not saying that... I don’t want you to argue. I’m just saying you could’ve…” I stopped.
“Could’ve what?”
“Nothing.”
He winked at me, “mhmm exactly.” I turned toward the bathroom. “Kema.”
I stopped but never turned around because I was pissed off. “What?”
“For what it’s worth, I don’t think it was a mistake. And if it was a mistake I would make it with you again.” I looked back at him. His expression wasn’t playful anymore. “But if that’s what you need it to be, cool.”
Well. Fuck. Why did that make my chest feel weird? I did not need to catch feelings for this nigga. “I’m going to shower.”
“Go shower.”
“And when I get out, we need to talk.”
“About?”
“Last night.”
He looked around my bedroom. “Thought that’s what we were just doing.”
“You know what I mean.”
“No, I really don’t.”
I rolled my eyes. “We need rules.”
“Rules?”
“Yes. Because last night can’t happen again.”
Ace stared at me like he was waiting for the rest. “You already said that.”
“Well, now it’s official.”
He laughed. “Aight. What else?”
“Nobody finds out. Especially Markel.”
His face changed at the mention of Kel. “Why you keep bringing that nigga up?”
“Because you’re his best friend.”
“And you’re his ex. Neither one of those things got shit to do with what happened between us.”
“It has everything to do with it.”
“To you.”
I opened my mouth to argue but stopped. He wasn’t completely wrong, but I damn sure wasn’t about to tell him that. “Whatever. The point is nobody needs to know. And we go back to how we were before.”
Ace looked at me. “How were we before?”
“Normal.”
“We barely talked.”
“Exactly.”
He laughed. “You fucked me and now your solution is pretending I don’t exist?”
“When you say it like that, it sounds bad.”
“Ain’t no other way to say it.”
“Fine. We can talk. But no flirting. No touching. No sex. And definitely no acting weird around everybody else.”
Ace nodded slowly. “So basically you want me to act like I didn’t have you—”
“Ace!”
“My bad.” He laughed, holding his hands up. “Anything else?”
“No. Those are the rules.”
“Aight.”
“And stop saying aight.”
“Aight.” I flipped him off and headed toward the bathroom. “Kema.”
I turned around. “What?”
“You forgot one.”
“One what?”
“Rule.”
I frowned. “What rule?”
Ace leaned back against my headboard. “What happens when you want to fuck me again?”
I laughed. “That won’t happen.”
“You sure?”
“Positive.”
He looked entirely too confident for a man sitting naked in my bed. “Aight.”
“I hate you.”
“No, you don’t.” I rolled my eyes and turned toward the bathroom, but before I made it inside, the reason I had been at Ace’s last night popped back into my head. Cancún.
I still needed a plus one. I stopped. Ace was single. Fine. He already knew Sierra and Stephen. He knew most of the wedding party. And most importantly, Markel knew him. Very fucking well. Oh, this was a terrible idea.
“Kema.” I turned around. Ace narrowed his eyes. “Why you standing there I thought you were going to shower?”
“Do you have a passport?”
His eyes closed. “Hell nah.”
I frowned. “I haven’t even asked you anything.”
“Don’t need you to. Whatever you thinking, no.”
“You don’t even know what I’m thinking.”
“I know you.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I know enough to know that look means bullshit.”
I smiled. “Just hear me out.”
“No.”
“Please... It's just seven days...” Ace opened his eyes. I smiled wider. Got his ass. “You already know Sierra and Stephen. You know everybody who’s going. Your schedule is flexible because you own the bar, and the resort is already paid for. All you need is a flight.”
Ace stared at me. “You want me to go to the wedding with you?”
“As my plus one.”
“Why?”
I shrugged. “Why not?”
“Probably because you just spent the last ten minutes telling me fucking me was a mistake.”
“That has nothing to do with Cancún.”
“It has everything to do with it.”
“No, it doesn’t. We have rules now.”
Ace laughed. “Rules?”
“Yes. We’re not having sex again.”
“Right.”
“And you need a vacation.”
“Do I?”
“Yes.”
“How you know?”
“I can tell.”
“You don’t know shit about me.”
“Then Cancún gives me seven days to learn.”
His eyebrow lifted. Shit. “That came out wrong.”
“Nah, I think it came out exactly how you meant it.”
“It didn’t. Are you coming or not?”
Ace stared at me for a few seconds before shaking his head. “This is a terrible fucking idea.”
I grinned. “Is that a yes?”
He sighed. “Yeah, Kema. I’ll go.”
Well, shit. Four days to find a plus one, and somehow I had managed to choose the one man I had absolutely no business taking. My ex-boyfriend’s best friend. The same man I’d just fucked. Well this should be fun.