Chapter 16 Mekhi
She tasted sweet. Three days after that unexpected kiss in my kitchen and my mind still wandered to that night.
I still maintained that Farrah wasn’t my type, but I had enjoyed kissing her.
She was so soft—her lips, her skin, her body, everything.
I liked touching her, holding her. Too bad I wasn’t supposed to like her.
She had surprised me, but she had surprised herself even more.
I could tell because she’d been avoiding me as much as she could.
She left early in the mornings for her internship and, according to Steel and Jarell, when she didn’t have class in the evenings, she went to her campus library.
They no longer let her out of their sight, and I was cool as long as I knew where she was.
She came in late every night and damn near ran to her room, like she was scared I was going to bring up what had happened. Shit was funny to me.
“Khi?”
Texas’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts.
“What?”
“This Trell nigga is incognito. I ain’t heard nothing in the streets, nothing really in the police gang databases, and I haven’t found anything in other databases I can tap into.
I’ma send you a couple of pictures to show your girl, but they sound nothing like her description.
We gon’ have to draw him out some kind of way. ”
Frustrated, I rubbed a hand across my face. Texas was ex-military, had worked in intelligence for a while. If he couldn’t find anything, then this shit was worse than I thought.
“How you think we gon’ do that?”
He hesitated for a minute, so I knew he was about to say some shit I didn’t like.
“Just spit the shit out,” I snapped.
“We might have to let him get close to your girl—”
Shaking my head, I cut him off immediately. “Hell, no. We not doing that. That defeats the whole purpose of me watching out for her.”
“If we could just make him think she’s alone—”
“Tex, that shit is a no-go. I’m not risking her.”
Once I said it, I realized I meant it. I wasn’t willing to take a chance with Farrah’s life. She was my responsibility, and I was going to protect her until this shit was over. He sighed and held up both hands.
“I’ll keep looking and listening.”
“Do that. We—”
I stopped when I heard the doorbell ring. Grabbing my phone, I looked to see who it was. I was surprised to see Farrah—she hadn’t come back this early since she’d been here.
“You got anything else for me?” I asked Texas.
He shook his head. We stood up from the couches and strolled toward the door. I opened it and Farrah walked in.
“Hello,” she said, her voice cool.
“’Sup?” Tex said.
I didn’t respond to her little dry ass greeting. Tex stepped over the threshold.
“I’ll let you know as soon as I know something,” he said.
I nodded and closed the door behind him. By the time I turned around, Farrah was already almost out of sight. I shook my head.
“Ay, when you gon’ stop running?” I asked.
She froze for a minute before slowly turning around to face me. “What are you talking about?”
I refused to play that game with her.
“You gon’ act dumb right now?”
Narrowing her eyes to glare at me, she crossed her arms over her chest.
“I’m not running. I’ve just been busy. I thought you’d be happy since you think I’m so annoying,” she popped off.
I smirked at her, letting her know without words that I saw through her lie.
She huffed and spun around to start walking toward the stairs again.
Man, fuck that crazy ass girl, I thought.
I wasn’t about to stand here and be worried about a broad who shouldn’t mean shit to me.
Jarell had taken the last shift watching her, so I called Steel. He answered on the first ring.
“Ay, you busy?” I asked.
“Nah. What’s up?”
“Can you come keep an eye on the house for me for a couple of hours? I need to run out, and Farrah is here.”
“Be there in fifteen,” he said with no hesitation.
I was going to owe him big when all of this was over.
Steel arrived right on time, and we exchanged a few words before I rolled out, with no particular destination in mind.
Farrah’s pretty face kept flashing before me, and I wondered what that was about.
I mean, yeah, I was finding myself attracted to her and I liked how hard she went after her goals, but that was nothing…
was it? Suddenly, I knew I needed to get her thick ass off my mind before I drove home and did something I regretted.
Ten minutes later, I pulled up to Samaria’s complex.
I punched in her gate code and drove slowly to her building.
I parked and got out before jogging up to the second floor.
I had barely finished knocking before she was at the door.
“What are you doing here?” she asked with a pout.
I looked down at her and shrugged. “You don’t want me here? Cuz I can—”
Immediately, she started shaking her head. “No, no. I didn’t say that. I’m just surprised. Come in.”
She stepped back and I walked into her place.
My eyes covered the room as she locked the door behind me.
As usual, everything was in its place except for a throw that was on the seat of her couch.
I guess she had been curled up watching TV or some shit.
I sat at the end of the couch, and she settled back into her spot, her eyes glued to me.
“Long time, no see,” she said.
I knew she was waiting for an explanation, but I didn’t give those. Instead, I offered her a small smile and reached for her remote. I flipped through the channels silently until I came up on an episode of “Law and Order: SVU.” I watched for a few minutes until I felt her eyes on me.
“What?” I asked.
“Wondering if you’re going to tell me what you’re doing here. You don’t come here just to watch TV, Mekhi.”
“Oh, yeah? Why do I come, Samaria?”
She threw the cover off and slid over until she was right next to me.
“It’s usually something related to this,” she said, brushing a hand over my denim-covered dick.
“Why you think it’s something different this time?”
“Because you didn’t get straight to the point. What’s wrong? You got that bitch from the ballpark on your mind?”
My eyes narrowed. “Don’t call her a bitch.”
The words surprised even me, hell. I had called Farrah that plenty of times when she was on her most bougie behavior. But the idea of someone else using that term for her didn’t sit right with me. Samaria looked up at me.
“Is that how it is?”
“Yeah. That’s how it is.”
“What’s going on with y’all, Mekhi?”
“All you need to worry about is what’s up with me and you.”
I could tell she wasn’t happy with my answer, but I didn’t care. She knew some parts of my life were off-limits to her, and Farrah was in that category.
“What is up with me and you?” she asked.
Not this bullshit, I thought. Samaria was looking for me to stroke her ego, to give her more of a commitment than I was ready for. Shit wasn’t happening and if she couldn’t deal…
“I’on wanna do this, shorty. Can we just chill?”
“But that’s all we do, Mekhi! I want—”
I started to stand up, but she put a hand on my shoulder. Before I could move, she straddled my lap and grabbed my face.
“I’m sorry, baby. I don’t mean to stress you out.”
She leaned forward and started to kiss my neck while her hands went to the hem of my shirt and slid under. Stroking my abs, she gyrated in my lap. I grabbed her hips, guiding her motions. She lifted her head for one minute.
“Let’s go to my room,” she whispered.
Shit, I didn’t have to be told twice. She wrapped her arms around my neck as I stood up.
Her legs hugged my waist as she continued to kiss my neck and chin.
She kept trying to slide her lips against mine, but I moved my head.
I wasn’t big on mouth kissing. You didn’t tell Farrah that, my conscience prodded.
I ignored it. With my hands under Samaria’s ass, I walked toward her room.
Halfway there, my phone buzzed in my pocket. She groaned as she felt it.
“You gon’ answer, aren’t you?”
Instead of answering her, I pried her legs from around me and set her on her feet. Pulling out the phone, I noticed a missed call from Steel. Farrah, I thought. Had something happened to her? Was that nigga Trell around? I called Steel back.
“What’s wrong with her?” I asked as soon as he answered, ignoring Samaria’s frown.
“I don’t know. She just left the house and I’m following her.”
“Where she headed?”
“Moving north. Maybe she’s going home.”
That pissed me off. Farrah was so fucking hard-headed that I almost wished somebody would snatch her ass to teach her a lesson. But that thought bothered me more than I wanted to admit. She was my problem, and I was going to handle her.
“I’ma head that way,” I told Steel. “Let me know if she goes somewhere else.”
He agreed and I disconnected the call. Samaria was glaring up at me, but I didn’t give a damn. Somehow, Farrah had become my first concern.