Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
TAKIRA
I did ask for this.
I told Naz I wanted to have trouble sitting down, and for days I’ve been walking like I had a stick up my ass because I basically have.
More like a tree trunk. I’m still getting used to him, but damn if it’s not the best sex of my life.
I would not change one thing, one moment, but I’m just starting to walk with no twinges of discomfort.
He’s abandoned his cabin completely and has spent every night over the last week with me. Why front? He brought me here, and we can’t get enough of each other. I’m glad we’re on this yacht with a bunch of couples who also can’t get enough of each other because we’d be pretty obnoxious otherwise.
He’s rich as hell and could shower me with material things.
And he does. At every port, I find some keepsake from the local shops he’s left for me in the room—an ankle bracelet, clips for my hair, diamond earrings.
There has been no shortage of gifts, but the real gift has been his attention.
The way he cares. The man bathes me. He wraps my hair up at night.
He washes my face. I don’t know what this is, but I feel spoiled.
Doted on. Adored. At first I was like…is this cringe?
Is it weird? But then I recalled all those times when I didn’t feel valued in a relationship.
All those times a guy disrespected me by looking at other women all night.
All those times I didn’t feel this almost embarrassing amount of single-minded focus from a man who’s determined I’ll know how much he enjoys me.
How much he likes me. Cherishes me, even.
He’s constantly pulling me onto his lap.
We sneak away from the group anytime the mood strikes us.
Last night at dinner, he fed me from his plate.
From his plate.
Who am I right now?
I’m that girl, living out a fantasy on a half-a-billion dollar yacht floating on dreams along the coast of Italy. Forget Black girl magic. This is pure sorcery, and if it’s a spell, we’re both under it.
“I would love to know what’s going on inside that head right now,” Lotus says, chuckling and setting aside the sketches we were reviewing for her Carnival-themed summer line.
“What?” I bite into a smile. “Sorry. I lost my train of thought.”
“Hmmmmmm,” Lotus hums. “Wild, wild thoughts, judging by the way you and Naz have been acting.”
“Oh, my god.” I cover my face and peek through my fingers. “Am I that obvious?”
“Is that a serious question?” Lotus leans back in her chair on the deck and tips her face to the sun. “He’s down bad.”
“So am I.” My smile fades. “This feels like paradise, but there’s a lot of real world waiting for us when we get home.”
Lotus pushes oversized sunglasses atop her head and sets a sobering gaze on my face.
“I don’t know the full history of your past with Naz, but I saw parts of that awful documentary SportsCo aired that mentioned your brother.
They showed clips of that game, and I know that kind of brought Naz attention he hadn’t gotten before, at least in basketball. ”
“Yeah. My brother resents Naz for what happened.”
“It was high school. A really long time ago.”
“It was, but that’s the point where my brother’s life started falling apart. In a lot of ways, he’s still there.”
“But that wasn’t Naz’s fault.”
“It’s irrational, but Cliff’s been through a lot. Most of it because of his own bad choices, but he’s just getting back on his feet and…” I swallow the emotion, the remembered panic of Mama’s frantic call when Cliff overdosed. “I don’t want to do anything that would derail him.”
“And you’re afraid your relationship with Naz would?”
“It wasn’t supposed to be a relationship. It was supposed to be a fling because I’m attracted to him. I have been since the day we met. I’ve wondered more than once how things could have been different for us, had they been different for Cliff, but it’s all tangled up. You can’t separate the two.”
“And now?” Lotus asks. “No one seeing the two of you together would think this ends when we leave this yacht.”
“I know.” I close my eyes and release a troubled sigh. The thought of losing whatever Naz and I are building together, even at this early stage, stirs a pang of loss.
“Hey.” Lotus reaches across the table, her eyes compassionate. “You still have a few days. Enjoy. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“We?” I laugh and lift my brows.
“Yeah, we.” Lotus winks. “You’re Naz’s girl. You’re one of us now.”
Naz’s girl.
That sings in my head and lights me up inside. I’m still processing the implications of what that could mean if it becomes true—if I let it be true—when Lotus’s business partners, Yari and Billie, walk up on deck.
“Hey, bitches,” Lotus says, her smile easy and loving. “I barely recognized you without your guys attached to your hips.”
“They have real jobs and couldn’t stay the whole time.” Yari sighs, flopping into an empty chair at the table. “And look who’s talking. You got a whole baby from your man.”
Lotus rubs her little stomach, oiled up with sunscreen in her bikini, and beams. “He got me!”
“I really like these,” Billie says, her green eyes widening as she studies the sketches on the table. “Is this for the Carnival theme next summer?”
“Yeah,” Lotus says. “Takira’s giving me the inside scoop. She’s from Trinidad and goes back all the time for Carnival.”
“That’s so cool.” Yari scoops her dark, curly hair into a messy bun, her arms even browner now from the sun than when we started our trip. “Can you teach us how to wine?”
“How to what?” Billie asks, peeking at us from beneath the wide-brim hat offering her fair skin shade. She’s a classic redhead and has been careful with the sun.
“It’s dancing.” I laugh. “And I’ve never tried to teach anyone how to do it. It’s just…in me. I grew up watching my mama and aunts, cousins, sister—it’s something in our blood, and as soon as the music starts, it catches me.”
“I actually think I’m pretty good.” Lotus makes a show of brushing her shoulders off. “If I do say so myself.”
“I’d like to see that big belly wining,” Yari teases.
“Sun’s out.” Lotus scrapes her chair back, stands, and smacks her ass. “Buns out. You got anything we can wine to?”
“Anything we can…” I giggle. “Oh, my god, Lo.”
“Music!” Her hands go to her slim hips. From the back, you can’t even tell the girl is six months pregnant. “Gimme a beat.”
Laughing, I look through the playlist on my phone and pull up some Soca to dance to. Within ten minutes, the four of us are lined up on deck in our bathing suits in various states of wine.
“It’s not twerking,” I tell them. “So put that out of your mind. And I don’t wanna see no hula hoops.”
I bend my knees a little, roll my hips to demonstrate, and immediately feel good. It’s like serotonin to my system, the mellifluous motion of my limbs, my torso and hips, and the beat that pounds through my blood.
Lotus actually is decent. She jokingly claims she learned from watching Rihanna.
At least, I think she’s joking.
Yari says she’s Dominican and can dance to any beat under the sun. Also, decent.
That Billie, though.
If there’s a stage that is pre-beginner, that’s Billie.
But she’s trying, and we’re laughing, the spray from the sea kissing our faces and the sun warming our bare skin.
“Now you pelting waist, gyal,” I shout over the music, nearly losing the flow because I’m laughing so hard at Billie trying.
My hips are still swimming in the balmy air, the delicate body chain draped over my neck and around my stomach glinting in the sun, when two large hands bracket my waist from behind. I look up to see Naz towering over me, an indulgent smile shaping his lips.
“You gonna teach me?”
The thought of this huge man—six feet, seven inches of athletic grace, but dancing awkwardness—bubbles laughter out of me.
“Them hips weren’t made for wining,” I tell him, turning into his hug and tipping up to kiss his chin. “How was volleyball?”
“Intense. You’d think the ballers would be the most competitive, but Jared’s a savage.”
“I can actually see that, but then, you hear him FaceTiming with Angela every night, reading to her in Spanish…major heart melt.”
“True. One of his clients, a soccer player, owns a villa in Positano. We’ll stay there for a couple of days when we dock for Kenan’s birthday party.”
At the mention of Kenan’s party, my smile dims. After the party, we fly home, and I’ll continue with Naz and hide it…or continue and tell Cliff…or not continue at all. Each of those options holds a promise of some heartache.
“You okay?” Naz frowns and searches my face, my eyes.
I don’t want the cloud that’s hanging over me hanging over us, over the time we have left, so I set the worry aside.
“Yeah.” I slip my hands around his waist and smile up at him. “I’m fine.”
“Did I miss the lesson?” Banner asks, sidling up beside us. “The wine sesh?”
“You did.” I laugh. “But I can give you a private lesson later.”
“Awesome,” she says, her eyes alight with excitement. “Maybe at the villa. We’ll be docking soon, so pack a bag!”