Chapter 3
The nap Cashmere had earlier didn’t do much to improve her mood. After she greeted Marcellus and Cassydie, Marcellus told her that her new head of security was there and ready to meet her.
Cashmere rolled her eyes to the dark sky before she followed Marcellus. When she realized who they were walking toward, her footsteps faltered. The man was fine. Embarrassed, she tried to play it off like nothing happened.
Still, her eyes roamed over him. He had caramel-colored skin with a fresh cut.
The waves in his head were subtle, but they were there, and he looked like he smelled good.
And tastes good. She shook her head and silently scolded herself for the thoughts.
It had been a long time since she let a man between her legs.
When she first started making money and could relax some, she went through a ho phase where she would fuck a nigga and then leave him right where he was at.
Power was a mothafucka, and it went right to her head.
Somewhere along the line, though, she eased up on all that.
She never had the chance to be wild when she was young, and now that she made up for lost time, maturity seemed to smack her right in the face.
Dick wasn’t what she truly craved. It was a deep connection.
The problem was, no nigga ever seemed worthy of seeing her vulnerable side, so her hardened exterior stayed intact, and she focused on stacking her money and creating generational wealth, if not for her own children, then for Ivoree’s.
Her eyes found the man’s pink lips that were now turned up into a smirk, as if he was mocking her. Her frown deepened.
“Sav, this is Cash. You’ll basically be living at her house. As head of security, you’ll have your own wing in her home. Cash, this is Savio, your new head of security. Be nice,” Marcellus instructed.
Cashmere cut her eyes at him. “You are so not the boss of me.”
“I’m older, so yeah I am.” Cashmere opened her mouth to argue, but Marcellus interrupted her. “Aye, don’t try it in this bitch tonight. Just be nice and try not to scare the nigga off.”
Before Cashmere could respond with a smart remark, Savio’s deep laugh vibrated her eardrums. Her brows pulled in as she glanced at him. “What’s funny?”
“Cell knows I don’t scare easily, ’specially not from somethin’ as pretty as you.” He laughed through his words, which pissed Cashmere off. She didn’t know whether to be offended or flattered. She decided to be offended.
After a slow, deliberate look from his head all the way down to his toes and back up, she said, “We’ll see about that.”
Savio’s brows hiked at the challenge, and he grinned, showcasing his deep dimples. “Guess we will.”
Instead of standing there and getting lost in his handsome features, she opted to leave the conversation without a word. She turned on her heels and searched for Ivoree, who was not where she left her. Cashmere walked toward Cassydie, who spoke with Karma and Nyx, the other women in the council.
“Hey, Nyx. Karma.” Cashmere greeted them with a head nod. “You seen Vee anywhere?”
“She’s with Twizz,” Cassydie responded.
“Who?” Cassydie’s face screwed up. The hell kinda name is Twizz?
“Her new bodyguard.” Nyx pointed shyly to the corner of the boat.
Nyx was alright in Cashmere’s book. The girl was shy as hell, but her mind was out of this world.
She was smarter than any person in the room at any given time.
She was the chemist in the council. Any drugs that ran through the streets were created by her.
Cashmere appreciated a woman who held that much power but stayed out the way.
Cashmere turned and spotted her sister ducked off with some tall, skinny nigga. The way her face kept screwing up since she got on the boat, it should have permanently stuck that way by this point.
“Excuse me,” Cashmere mumbled as she stepped away from the group of ladies.
“Let the girl have some fun,” Karma shouted with a giggle.
Cashmere stuck her middle finger up but didn’t turn around.
She kept her eyes focused on Ivoree. Everyone in the council knew she didn’t play about her baby sister.
It didn’t matter how grown Ivoree was. Cashmere wasn’t a cock blocker, but she did make it her business to vet the men Ivoree decided to keep time with.
A few years back, she went through a bad breakup that had Cashmere ready to gun the man down.
Ivoree was left questioning her worth and sulking for months.
Since then, Cashmere had been a bit too overprotective in that department.
When she reached them, she heard Ivoree giggling. Aw hell.
“Vee, what’s goin’ on? Who’s this?” Cashmere asked.
The two of them looked at Cashmere with smiles. Before Ivoree could speak, Twizz held his hand out. “I’m Tyler. Most people call me Twizz. I’m Ivoree’s new bodyguard.”
Cashmere was taken aback by his charm. She reluctantly shook his hand as she eyed him. He was handsome. She couldn’t lie, but he definitely screamed bad boy. She wondered how on earth he landed the job with Marcellus. Her play brother knew how much she loved Ivoree, so he must be legit.
“Yeah, you can call me Cash. So, you’re goin’ to be makin’ sure my sister is straight, huh? The last one quit because he said the job was too boring. That gonna be a problem with you?” Cashmere asked.
Ivoree fidgeted. Cashmere knew she made her sister uncomfortable, but she wasn’t willing to ease up on the handsome young man who oozed danger.
Twizz glanced at Ivoree and showcased all of his pearly white teeth. “Definitely don’t think that’ll be an issue.”
Cashmere’s lips balled up, but before she could say anything, Ivoree asked, “And who’s your new friend?” She looked behind Cashmere.
Cashmere frowned and turned around, ready to tell her sister she didn’t have any new friends. Her eyes widened when they landed on Savio, who stood just behind her as quiet as a damn mouse. She didn’t even know he had followed her.
With a groan, she turned back to her sister and childishly gestured behind her. “Savio, my new head of security.”
Ivoree’s eyes lit up. She shook Savio’s hand, which caused him to step forward so he was in the social circle they’d created instead of outside of it.
“Really nice to meet you. Twizz told me you two are close?” Ivoree asked.
That was news to Cashmere. She wondered how they knew each other.
Savio nodded and then playfully punched Twizz on the shoulder. “Yeah, this my lil nigga. Basically raised him.”
Twizz shooed him away playfully. “Yeah, this my OG.”
“That’s so cute.” Ivoree gushed before her eyes landed back on Savio. “That mean you’re going to move in?”
Savio shrugged. “Guess so. Heard I got my own wing.”
“You do. It’s really nice. Cash made sure she laid it out perfectly, but I don’t really know why. She hates all her security, so I don’t know why she wanted to make the head of security so comfortable—”
“Girl, shut up,” Cashmere snapped. She didn’t need the girl telling all her business.
Cashmere wasn’t a damn menace. She wanted her guests and the people that worked for her to be comfortable while they stayed with her.
She knew all too well what it was like being uncomfortable, and she would never knowingly do that to someone else. That didn’t mean she had to like them.
“Sorry.” Ivoree clamped her mouth shut and looked at the floor.
Cashmere instantly felt bed, but for some reason, she also felt really stressed. She knew it was because of the fine ass man that stood next to her, so instead of apologizing to Ivoree, she turned on her heels. “I need a drink.”
She moved through the crowd. There weren’t many things she hated more than crowds. The deeper she moved into the boat, the louder the music got. She squeezed through a small group of people before she reached the bar.
“Gin and tonic, please.” The bartender nodded, but before she could make Cashmere’s drink, a deep voice sounded behind her.
“Whiskey on the rocks.”
Cashmere turned around with a mug on her face. “Why on earth are you following me?”
Savio grinned down at her. “I’m on duty.”
“What? I didn’t think you started until tomorrow or something.”
“You thought wrong, Precious.” Savio shrugged.
“Precious? Don’t call me that.” Cashmere wanted to push him away, but the smell of his cologne kept her body planted in place, praying for a few more moments to inhale the scent.
“Why not?” he asked. He leaned a hand against the bar behind her, effectively trapping her in.
“Because that ain’t my name.”
“Ever heard of a nickname?”
“Of course, but ain’t that what people call a baby that’s ugly? Precious?”
Savio tilted his head back and laughed, which only made Cashmere frown harder.
“Man, I don’t know about all that. I just know I’m paid to keep you safe. Precious cargo, if you will. Precious.”
Cashmere’s mouth opened and closed as she searched for something to say to that. The small voice deep inside her screamed that it loved the nickname. The hardened part of her rejected it.
“Yeah, so Cash or Cashmere will do.” She turned back toward the bar and did her best to ignore him, but he wasn’t letting her off the hook that easily.
“Cash sounds like some shit you have other niggas call you. Cashmere seems to formal. I like Precious.”
Cashmere rolled her eyes to the ceiling and kept them there for several seconds as she tried to find some patience. Finally, she turned to him and asked, “You aren’t going to let go of this shit, are you?”
He shook his head with a dazzling grin. “Nah.”
She didn’t respond. The bartender placed their drinks on a couple of napkins, and she immediately asked for another one before she chugged the one in front of her.
“Oh, you tryna get turnt tonight? Maybe I’ll lay off the drinks for the night so I can be on point since you won’t be,” Savio joked.
“I can hold my liquor, nigga.”
He took a step toward her and invaded her personal space. “You can call me Savio or Sav. A few other things, too, but we’ll get to that in due time. I ain’t ya nigga or a nigga. Talk to me correct, Precious.”
Cashmere would have taken a step back if the bar wasn’t already pressed against her back.
She wondered if audacity was on sale that night.
Nobody ever told her what to do. Her whacked out ass parents never even told her what to do.
Marcellus and Cassydie were about the only people who tried that shit with her, but they did it out of love.
She didn’t know Savio to know what his angle was. This was new for her.
Not knowing what else to say, she muttered, “Whatever.”
Savio eyed her for a moment before he threw her for a loop. “You ready for me to move in?”
It seemed like he had already figured out how to press her buttons because that shit eating grin spread across his face again like he enjoyed watching her be flustered.
“Uh . . . I mean . . .”
“Because I was thinkin’ I’ll just handle that tonight. What you think?”
Cashmere didn’t know what to think anymore. Marcellus hadn’t warned her that her new head of security would start that night, so she felt thrown off-kilter. She worked best with a structured plan, and something told her that Savio was about to shake a lot of shit up for her.
Finally, she pulled some coolness up out of her and shrugged. “If that’s what you want to do.”
His smiled seemed to take on a different meaning as he looked down at her. When he licked his lips, she knew she wasn’t trippin’.
“I do,” he said. With that, he walked away and posted up on the wall opposite the bar.
He didn’t go too far away to where he couldn’t see her, but he finally gave her some much-needed space.
She exhaled a deep breath just as the bartender placed her second drink on the bar top.
She sipped that one slower as she eyed Savio, who watched her like a hawk.
Something in her spirit told her that Savio was about to shake things up for her, and she didn’t know yet if that was a good thing or a bad thing.