Chapter 4
KEEGAN
“So you think I’m fine?”
Chyna seemed to choke on her spit. I reached over and patted her back gently from the driver’s seat.
“Mommy okay?” Liam asked. Lil man was for sure a mama’s boy. Every time I saw them, he was up under her, both driving her nuts and making sure she was okay. It was always comical to watch.
“I’m fine, baby.” She coughed a few more times, and I rubbed her back. Honestly, any excuse to touch her pretty ass was one I would take. Finally, she asked, “What?”
“Icelynn said you told her I was fine. What? You thought I missed that?” I grinned at her. I thought it was cute how she squirmed.
“Uh . . .”
I chuckled. I swear, my face didn’t see so many smiles until she came into my life.
My mama would be the first to tell it. She’d been badgering me about this mysterious woman in my life.
What was crazy was I never mentioned Chyna to her before.
It wouldn’t surprise me if KJ had, but still, .
. . niggas weren’t lying when they said mamas knew everything, because although Chyna and I weren’t together, in my head, she was mine for sure.
It was only God Himself that steered her clear from dating while she knew me because He knew I would for sure crash out in the worst way if I caught wind of her going on a date.
“It’s cool, Chyna Doll. I think you’re cute too,” I replied as I turned left. I felt her eyes on the side of my face. “What’s up?” I asked without looking at her.
“How are you joking around right now after what you just did?”
“What I do?” I asked, knowing damn well what she was talking about.
I glanced at her just in time to see her brown eyes turn into slits. She looked back at the boys, who were no doubt listening to every word we spoke, before she focused back on me. “You know what I’m talking about, Kee. You ain’t have to do that man like that.”
I looked at her with a sideways glance. “Who didn’t? He was fuckin’ wit’ you, wasn’t he?”
“Mommy, he fuckin’ with you?” Liam asked.
“Doll, he fuckin’ with you?” KJ asked.
I grimaced because I knew without looking at her, Chyna was now mugging the hell out of me.
“Aye, man. Why y’all only pick up on the bad words?”
“Bad word, Daddy? Which one?” KJ asked.
I kissed my teeth. “Man, never mind. Y’all need to sit back there and mind ya business if you want ice cream after dinner.”
“I don’t have business,” Liam said.
I snorted. These lil niggas were a handful. I grabbed my phone from the dashboard and unlocked it.
“Here. Watch YouTube.” I handed the phone back to KJ, who eagerly took it. Their attention immediately shifted to the phone as they bickered about what to watch and who would hold the device.
I put my hand on Chyna’s thigh. It was nothing I had ever done before, but now that I thought about it, we hadn’t ridden in the same car before.
We were either at work, or I tasked myself with dropping Liam off to her.
She’d never even been to my house before.
Liam had for a few hours, here and there, but this was all so new for us.
Still, my hand on her thigh felt so comfortable and like an automatic response. “Is this okay?”
I mean, she thought I was cute and all, . . . so I wasn’t completely out of the realm of possibilities, was I?
“Y-yes,” Chyna replied.
She sounded nervous but not like she didn’t want me to touch her.
I squeezed her thigh and asked, “You gonna answer my question?”
“What question?”
“About that ni—man messin’ wit’ you,” I reminded her.
“Oh, that. I mean, he wasn’t messing with me, really. He was just being a dick.”
“Same thing.” I shrugged.
“Okay, but you didn’t have to . . .” She glanced back at the boys. “Do what you did.”
“Maybe not, but I bet he won’t mess wit’ you again.”
“Yeah, because I don’t have nowhere to live,” she said. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her rub her temples once again.
“Says who? You ain’t hear what I said? He ain’t got a choice but to let you live there, rent free, until you find somewhere else. I’ll help you look.”
She shook her head. “There’s no way he’ll agree to that on paper. Who’s to say he won’t call the police on you?”
I chuckled. She really didn’t know me like that. Not only did Jerome pluck me from the streets at the ripe age of eighteen, but he also got me into one of those prestigious all Black schools. I was friends with lawyers, judges, police chiefs, and more. She had nothing to worry about.
“By tomorrow, I’ll have an amended lease for you, along with an addendum about the broken pipe. All documents will have your landlord’s signature. I did what I had to do to make sure you were good. I don’t regret that.”
It was silent for a moment before she finally whispered, “Thank you.”
I squeezed her thigh once again, and we fell into a comfortable silence. The rest of the ride was pretty quiet, aside from Liam and KJ bickering over the phone.
When we pulled up to my home, Chyna spoke once again.
“This is where you live?”
My smile grew. For some reason, her being impressed by me meant a lot.
I never really cared about my status or the things I had just to show off to other people.
If I wanted something, I would get it for my own pleasure, and it was as simple as that.
But Chyna stirred up a whole new beast for me.
I wanted her to love my home and all the things I could offer.
It had been a long couple of years of respecting the boundaries Chyna put up, but that facade got harder with every day that passed.
Even the intimidation I felt with her seemed to diminish day by day.
I would be a fool to allow that to be the reason I didn’t make a move on her.
“Yeah, this is my home,” I replied as I pulled into the four-car garage and cut the engine.
“Did you build this home?”
“Yeah. Spent close to a year perfecting the blueprints.”
She unbuckled her seat belt. “Why do you have a four-car garage if you only have two cars?”
I glanced at the matte-black car sitting next to us.
For you. That was what I wanted to say, but instead, I said, “In case I ever get more cars.”
“It for my car, Doll,” KJ said.
She giggled as she got out of the car and opened Liam’s door. Both of them were practically bouncing out of their car seats.
“Hold still,” I said as I tried to unbuckle KJ. When he was finally free, he bounced out of the car and toward the door, with Liam right behind him. I grabbed Chyna’s and Liam’s bags and gestured my hand forward. “After you.”
I couldn’t help but look at her plump ass as she walked in front of me. She hadn’t changed from her work clothes from earlier, and that skirt fit her like a damn glove. I couldn’t believe her baby daddy fucked up with her. If I had her ass, I would never let her the fuck go.
I guess the same could be said for my baby mama.
I was looked at as a prize amongst men, I guess, even though most women found me intimidating and thought I was an ass.
And they would be right. I’d been unapproachable since I was a kid.
I just didn’t like people. I chose which women I wanted to spend time with, and they were always eager to oblige.
Teena, KJ’s mother, was no exception. She was pretty, but the lady was manipulative and wild as hell.
I didn’t know any better, and her good pussy trapped the hell out of me.
When she told me she was pregnant, I was pretty much done with her, because what the hell did she mean?
It was at that moment I learned not to trust a pretty face when she said she was on birth control.
I slipped up one time and didn’t use a condom, and here came KJ’s ol’ happy ass.
I loved my son, but damn. I got caught the hell up.
Needless to say, Teena found out pretty quickly that I was done with her.
I was there for my son from day one, but she and I were done.
She didn’t like that shit too much. It took her a while to move the hell around, but she was now chasing after some weak ass ball player and ignoring KJ 90 percent of the time.
I was cool with that because I didn’t want his young mind to be tainted with her whorish ways, anyway.
“Wow, Kee, this is beautiful.”
Chyna’s words pulled me out of my thoughts, as the boys ran ahead of us and disappeared up the stairs, no doubt to KJ’s room.
I smiled down at her. “Glad you like it. How about I give you a tour, and then we can order pizza and pick out a movie for the boys?”
“That sounds perfect. I’m exhausted.”
I nodded. “I’ll let you get settled in while I handle everything else.”
She seemed to think about something for a moment before she stepped into my personal space and wrapped her arms around my middle.
“Thank you for everything.”
If I had been a blushing-ass nigga, I knew I would be red as hell right now. Thankfully, I kept my cool, pissed that I still held onto her bags because I couldn’t hug her back and feel her softness.
“It ain’t nothin’, Doll. I got you.”
She beamed up at me, and I swore my heart did a funny tap dance inside my ribcage.
When she let me go, I immediately missed her warmth, but again, I kept my cool.
“Come on. This way,” I said, walking ahead of her so I could give her this tour. The quicker I got her settled in, the quicker I could see her get comfortable and admire her beauty in a relaxed state.
Sleep wouldn’t find me. It had been a long-ass day, and even after pizza and ice cream with the boys and a Disney movie, I was still wide awake.
One glance at the clock let me know it was one in the morning. My alarm was set for five so I could get a workout in before work, so I knew sleep wouldn’t find me easily tonight.
With a sigh, I pushed the covers off me and walked into the hallway. My goal was to grab my laptop from my office so I could do some work, but when I spotted Chyna in the hallway on the way back to her room with some pajama shorts on and the matching tank top, I halted.
“Pst,” I whispered.
KJ’s room was right across from mine, and both he and Liam were in there asleep. The last thing I wanted to do was wake the little terrorists.
Chyna jumped slightly and turned toward me. She had a bottle of water in her hand and relaxed when she realized it was me calling out to her.
She quickly walked toward me, and I ushered her into my room.
“You good?” I asked after I closed the door.
Her eyes bounced around my large room, landing on the king-sized bed. I had showed her the room earlier on our tour, but maybe it looked different in the dark. The way she looked at it, it was like she had never seen it before.
“Yeah, just got thirsty.” She held up the water bottle as she gazed up at me before she let her hand fall back down.
I studied her for a second before I asked, “Can’t sleep?”
She sighed and shook her head. “No.”
“Same.”
We looked at each other for several seconds before she asked, “Are you okay?”
Really, I wasn’t. Chyna Drayton always plagued my mind, but the shit was so much stronger having her under my roof. The need to hold her was almost painful, so I decided to be honest.
“Nah, I ain’t okay.”
She cocked her head to the side. “You want to talk about it?”
“There’s this woman I’ve been crushin’ on for a couple of years now. It’s to the point that I feel like I need to make a move now, or I never will.” I took a step closer to her.
I heard her breath catch in her throat as she peered up at me. “Why haven’t you made a move on her yet?”
Her voice came out in a breathy whisper that made my dick hard.
I placed a hand on her waist. “I kind of got the sense that she didn’t want to give her boss the time of day.”
“And what if you’re right? What if she doesn’t?” she muttered.
“I’d want to know why,” I replied as I stared at her juicy lips.
“Maybe she worries about the safety of her job. Maybe she doesn’t want to mix business with pleasure.”
“Her job is more than safe. She should know that, and I think it’s a little too late for mixing business with pleasure since she already called me her friend.”
Chyna looked down and murmured, “Maybe she was waiting for you to make the first move.”
Her words were so quiet, I almost missed them, but my ears were too thirsty for her voice. I picked up on every single syllable.
I didn’t verbally respond. Instead, I lifted her chin with my free hand and kissed her deeply.
Her arms wrapped around my neck, and I pulled her closer, so our bodies were flush against each other.
I knew she felt all my hardness, just like I felt all her softness.
My hands roamed all over her body as our tongues mingled for the first time.
All too soon, the kiss slowed down and then stopped. Our foreheads pressed together as I tried to still my beating heart.
Chyna’s hand found my chest. She patted it twice before she pulled away and stood on her tiptoes to kiss my cheek.
“I should try to get some sleep.” She turned and walked out of my room, the bottle of water still in her hand.
I stood there and stared at the space where she disappeared.
My hard dick wanted nothing more than to run to her and beg her to sleep in my bed, but I knew we wouldn’t sleep.
I knew, without a doubt, I would bury myself so deep in her it would be difficult to come out.
She’d already had a long day, so I would let her rest . . . for now.