Chapter 5 #2
I waited for more, but Smoke took a drink and looked back at the movie like that had answered everything. “That’s all I get?”
“You asked if I was ever in one.”
“You know what I meant.”
He smiled a little. “Yeah, I had relationships, Lacey.”
“Relationships? Like plural?”
“Why you sayin’ it like that? It’s been eight years.”
“I know how long it’s been, Sherrod.”
“Then what the fuck you expect me to tell you?”
I looked down at the popcorn. I wasn’t sure what I had expected, but hearing him confirm that there had been women important enough to call relationships bothered me more than I wanted it to. Smoke glanced over at me.
“You want a nigga to lie to you?”
“No.”
“Aight then.”
I reached for my drink and took a sip. “How serious were they?”
Smoke was quiet for a second before answering. “One was serious enough that we was together almost three years.”
I turned toward him before I could stop myself. “Three years?”
The jealousy that moved through me was completely unreasonable, but knowing that didn’t make it disappear.
Three years meant birthdays and holidays.
It meant somebody had known his siblings, probably spent time in his house, slept in his bed more times than I wanted to imagine, and had been part of his life long enough for people in Bellhaven to know her as Smoke’s woman.
“What happened with y’all?”
“Shit didn’t work.”
“That tells me nothing.”
“It tells yo’ ass we ain’t together no more.” I gave him a look, and Smoke laughed quietly before reaching into the popcorn. “We wanted different shit,” he said. “She wanted to move eventually, but I didn’t and don’t make this shit ‘bout you.”
“I wasn’t.” I looked toward the screen. He knew me too damn well.
“She wasn’t you, Solace. It wasn’t the same situation.
” His voice stayed matter-of-fact instead of turning the conversation into something heavier than it needed to be.
“She knew I wasn’t leavin’ Bellhaven when we got together.
After a while, she decided she wanted somethin’ different so we ended it. ”
“Did you love her?”
Smoke looked at me for a second before replying. “Yeah, I did.” I wasn’t prepared for how much I hated that answer. He must have seen something on my face because his eyebrows lifted. “Fuck you want me to say?”
“Nothing. You answered the question, Sherrod.”
“I know you ain’t in yo’ fuckin’ feelings when yo’ ass was engaged to another nigga. Sittin’ there lookin’ sick over another female.”
“Shut the hell up.” I reached into the popcorn and threw a piece at him. Smoke caught it against his chest and laughed before eating it, which only irritated me more. “I really did love Tyler,” I exhaled deeply.
His smile faded slightly as he leaned back in his seat. “I figured that if you was ‘bout to marry the nigga.”
I looked at him for a moment before turning my attention toward the movie again.
“I just kept trying to convince myself that the way I loved him was enough. I mean, we had a good life. We traveled. We had friends together. Our careers made sense together, and we wanted a lot of the same things. There wasn’t some huge problem I could point to and blame everything on. I think that made ending it worse.”
“How long y’all was together?”
“A little over four years.” Smoke’s jaw tightened, and I noticed immediately. “What?”
“I’m cool.”
“You sure? You look a little sick.” He turned his head slowly and looked at me. I immediately laughed. “What? That’s what you said to me.”
We went quiet for a minute, but it wasn’t awkward.
We had both been with other people during those eight years, and some of those relationships had been serious.
Smoke had loved another woman, and I had loved Tyler enough to almost marry him.
We had both moved on with our lives, and I wouldn’t have expected Smoke to spend eight years waiting for me.
I just hadn’t expected hearing that he had loved somebody else to bother me as much as it did.
“Anybody else get close?” I asked.
Smoke gave me a look. “You bein’ nosy as fuck now.”
“Just making conversation.”
“I dated and had another relationship that lasted a year, then just fucked on bitches when I felt like it. Nothin’ I was plannin’ my life ‘round.” He reached for his drink before looking at me. “And you? You fucked ‘round before ol’ boy?”
I almost choked on my drink. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
“That is none of your business.”
Smoke laughed. “Oh, now shit ain’t nobody’s business.”
“You could’ve asked if I had other relationships like a normal person.”
“I don’t give a fuck ‘bout them relationships. Was you out here gettin’ crazy?”
The way he said it irritated me even though I couldn’t explain why. We stayed staring at each other, emotions jumping off of us. “No, I wasn’t. I had one other partner besides Tyler. So, how many women were you out here slanging dick to?”
“You sure you want the answer to that?”
I immediately regretted asking. “That many?”
He laughed. “I ain’t give yo’ ass a number.”
“You didn’t have to.” I tried to focus on the movie, but Smoke was still smiling beside me. “You’re cheesing a little too much.”
“‘Cause you jealous.”
“I’m not jealous.”
“You been askin’ ‘bout other females for the last fifteen minutes.”
“I’m curious about your life.”
“Mhm.” Smoke smiled and reached over for the popcorn.
At some point, his arm stretched across the back of my seat.
Later, my hand ended up resting on his thigh without me remembering when I had put it there.
The movie kept playing through the windshield while our conversation slowed, and Smoke’s hand eventually came down from the back of my seat and settled on my thigh.
I looked at his hand, but he kept his attention on the movie while his thumb moved slowly against my jeans. My body reacted immediately, and I crossed one leg over the other. I turned toward him. “You know exactly what you’re doing.”
Smoke finally looked at me. “My hand on yo’ leg?”
“Yes.”
“That bother you?”
“No.”
“Then what we talkin’ ‘bout?”
I should have moved his hand. Instead, I leaned across the console and kissed him.
Smoke’s hand slid around the back of my neck, and he kissed me harder.
I grabbed the front of his hoodie and pulled him closer while his other hand moved higher along my thigh.
The movie disappeared from my attention as soon as his tongue slid against mine, and I moaned softly into his mouth when his fingers tightened against my leg.
I pulled back enough to glance through the windshield. “Smoke, there are people everywhere.”
“My shit tinted as fuck. Ain’t nobody worried ‘bout us.”
“That is absolutely not true in Bellhaven.”
He laughed against my mouth before kissing me again, and I tried to hold on to the little common sense I had left.
Smoke’s hand slipped beneath my top and flattened against my stomach before moving higher.
His thumb brushed the underside of my breast through my bra, and whatever argument I had been preparing disappeared.
When his eyes came back to mine, I already knew what he was thinking.
“No.”
“You don’t even know what I was gon’ say.”
“Yes, I do.” I bit the inside of my cheek, but it was too late.
Smoke reached down and slid his seat back as far as it would go before looking at me again. “Come here.”
Every sensible thought in my head told me this was ridiculous.
We were grown as hell, sitting in a public parking lot surrounded by people who had known us most of our lives, and I had spent the entire afternoon trying to make sure nobody in Bellhaven figured out anything was happening between us.
Still, I climbed over the console anyway.
Smoke grabbed my waist and pulled me onto his lap.
I barely had time to get comfortable before he kissed me again, and when I shifted over him, I felt how hard he was through his jeans.
His hands went straight to my ass, squeezing before he pulled me down against him harder.
I moaned into his mouth and wrapped my arms around his neck while he kissed along mine.
One hand slid between us and unzipped my jeans. I lifted my head as he lowered my zipper, and Smoke looked right at me while he slipped his hand inside my panties. The second his fingers touched my pussy, I sucked in a breath. “Oooh…”
He pushed two fingers inside me, and I grabbed his shoulder as he worked them deeper. His thumb rubbed my clit while I rocked against his hand. I had been sitting beside him all night trying not to think about how much I wanted him, and now I was wet as hell in his lap with his fingers inside me.
The windows were already fogging up, and there were cars full of people all around us, but I didn’t give a damn. I reached between us and rubbed his dick through his jeans. Smoke groaned into my mouth and kissed me harder while his fingers curled inside me.
My body jerked against him. “Right there.”
“I know.”
He kept rubbing my clit while fucking me with his fingers, and I buried my face against his neck when I started getting close.
My thighs tightened around him, and I came hard against his hand, moaning into his neck while my pussy clenched around his fingers.
Smoke kept going until I was shaking in his lap.
When he finally pulled his hand out of my jeans, I watched him put his fingers in his mouth and suck my juices off them.
My pussy clenched again just from watching him.
“Been thinkin’ ’bout tastin’ you all fuckin’ day,” he grunted. I kissed him and reached for his jeans. I got them open, and the second I wrapped my hand around his dick, he dropped his forehead against mine. “Fuck, Lace.”
He was hard and thick in my hand, and all I could think about was how good he had felt inside me yesterday. We pushed my jeans and panties down far enough to get them out of the way and climbed back over his lap. Smoke grabbed my hips as I positioned myself over him.
I looked at him and lowered myself onto his dick. “Fuck.”
“Goddamn…”