Calla #2
I gave a low laugh. “Caught me. No. Coffee and nerves.”
“Mm.” She tapped the wheel, eyes forward. “Well, I got mints in the console and trail mix in the backseat if you need to fake having your life together.”
That made me laugh again, real this time. She was easy to talk to, which made her all the more dangerous. I watched her hands on the wheel. Noticed the way her forearms flexed, tattoos peeking beneath the cuff of her blouse. And when we hit a red light, she looked over at me again.
“You and James… y’all work together before?”
The question was smooth. Not invasive. Like she was just making conversation.
I kept my expression calm. “No. This is our first project.”
She hummed. A small nod. Like she didn’t quite believe me. Or like she knew better than to press.
“Interesting,” she said softly. “You two just have… a kind of energy. It’s hard to explain.”
That gave me pause.
Energy?
I studied her out of the corner of my eye, but she just smiled, eyes on the road now, lashes long and low.
Something in her tone wasn’t accusatory.
It was teasing, daring even, as if she wanted me to claim him outright, but not in a possessive, “I’m taking my ball and going home” way; no, it was flirtatious.
Subtle, skilled, further letting me know that there was so much more to her than met the eye.
Which made me pause again, because now I was wondering if I had completely misread the vibe between her and James.
The long looks. The private smiles.
Maybe she was looking at me.
“Is that right?” I asked, letting my voice dip just a bit, testing the waters.
She glanced at me with a grin that told me she wasn’t oblivious to the shift.
“Mmhm. I’ve got a good sense for people. Especially the ones who pretend not to want what they want.”
That hung in the air like smoke—sweet, slow, and hot at the edges.
I turned toward the window, pretending to watch the road, but the corner of my mouth lifted into a smile I didn’t bother hiding.
This was going to be an interesting day.
Maybe very interesting, and I wasn’t sure yet how good or bad that was.
This was my first time on an active construction site, and the sound of backup alarms, heavy equipment, and the occasional shout of a foreman over the clatter was new to my ears.
Dust and diesel hung thick in the air, heat radiating off the gravel and steel, was a beautiful reminder of the successful payoff we’d earned at BlackSphere when we decided to branch out into infrastructure technology.
We’d brought in some of the best developers and Civil Engineers to kick off a new branch.
Cadence Samuels was right when she told us we should have PPE with us, since we were likely to walk the site after the meeting.
We slipped on our safety boots, vests, and hard hats as I began to walk the alignment beside Amiyah, James walking ahead, and our teams trailing behind us, taking notes and snapping photos.
Her shoulder brushed against mine more than once.
Too close to be a coincidence, sending a jolt straight through me every time.
She moved with quiet authority, pointing out equipment staging, tapping her tablet, and asking thoughtful questions about sensor placement, as if she already had a grasp of my technology. The way she spoke, sharp but playful, had me watching her mouth more than the words.
At one point, she bent to inspect a settlement marker staked into the ground, noting it wasn’t automated and should be removed and replaced with our tech.
Her curls spilled forward. I knew the contrast of her gorgeous skin against the deep richness of mine would feel like the finest silk.
Her perfect smile and the shirt pulling across her curves that I was now jealous of made me realize I was gawking, so much so that I had to turn my head just to breathe.
I could vividly see myself lying my head on her plush stomach while I played with her pussy.
She glanced up, a smirk tugging at her lips. “You checking my math… or my form?”
I froze for half a second, caught, but she didn’t wait for an answer. She just stood, dusted her palms, and winked like she knew damn well what she was doing to me.
The chemistry between us crackled. Still, I couldn’t ignore the way she and James worked together, the shorthand, the easy flow of communication.
He didn’t have to say much; she anticipated it.
He trusted her judgment, gave her room to call shots, and she delivered with a kind of loyalty you couldn’t buy.
They moved like two halves of the same machine.
If you’d only ever experienced James professionally, you’d think nothing of their relationship.
Still, I’d brought him to his knees and looked his desires straight in the face, I knew beneath the professionalism there was an unanswered wanton between them.
In this moment, it hit me that I wasn’t jealous or scared of losing him to Amiyah; I was jealous that I wasn’t a part of the ticking time bomb of passion and pleasure that was sure to detonate between them.
What confused me more than anything was that I wanted to be.
I’d never been with a woman before. Never even thought about it past the occasional curiosity and watching lesbian porn.
But this one? This woman with dimples, tattoos, and a walk that kept stealing my breath?
She had me wondering things I shouldn’t be wondering in the middle of a job site.
Like how her lips might taste. How she’d look on her knees next to James, with a matching collar around her neck.
Whether her softness would melt or fight against me.
Would she break for me or fight to maintain control if she met The Black Dahlia?
When the walkdown wrapped, our teams were saying their goodbyes as they headed back to their respective offices, and I caught both of their attention. “You two hungry? There’s a spot about ten minutes from here that I’ve heard nothing but good things about, my treat.”
Amiyah perked up instantly, dimples deepening, the jiggle of her breasts making me lick my lips. “Food? Always.”
James chuckled, shaking his head. “I’d love to, but I’ve got another meeting downtown in an hour.” He pulled his wallet from his back pocket and thumbed out a couple of crisp bills, handing them to Amiyah like it was the most natural thing in the world.
“Go eat. You two will be working closely on this project, so might as well get familiar,” he said, his deep voice laced with a calm authority that left no room for debate.
Then his gaze slid to mine, lingering just long enough to remind me that he saw me.
“Don’t let her talk you into something wild, Calla. ”
Amiyah laughed, pocketing the cash, and looked at me with that same sly glint in her eyes. “No promises.”
And just like that, James headed off, leaving me standing with a woman who radiated temptation and danger in equal measure.
Lunch suddenly felt like the riskiest part of the day.
But I wasn’t about to back down.
Not when the tension between us promised something far more interesting than food.
The soul food diner sat just off the highway, new and sleek with black-framed windows and a glowing neon sign that read “Soul it was knowing, heated. “Neither do you.”
The words hung between us, sticky and heavy. I shifted in my seat, crossing my legs under the table, suddenly too aware of every inch of my body and hers too.
I’d never imagined what it would feel like to be this close to a woman and want to close the distance between us, but Amiyah made it feel like the most natural thing in the world.
She leaned back against the booth, one arm stretched along the top, her fingers drumming idly. “So, Calla Black,” she said, her voice dropping lower, “what do you do for fun when you’re not running empires and making men twice your age sweat in meetings?”
I smirked, but my throat was dry. “Depends. You asking professionally… or personally?”
Her gaze dipped to my lips and back up, slow, deliberate. “Personally.”
The air thickened. My chest rose and fell too fast, and I had to grip my water glass just to ground myself.
Was I imagining this? The pull? The flirtation? The way her eyes traced me like she was already undressing me in her head? Or had I misread entirely what I thought was between her and James?
Because sitting here, now, the buzz of the lunch crowd moving through the diner as gold light radiated off her curls, I couldn’t shake the thought that the real spark wasn’t across the site earlier.
It was across this booth.
And it was about to set me on fire.
I cleared my throat, trying to reel my thoughts back to safer ground. “Actually,” I said, circling back to the question she’d asked earlier at the site, “this project is the first time James and I are working together, but we do know each other, sort of.”
Her brow arched in curiosity.
“James is… uh, good friends with my nephew,” I explained carefully. “And his brother, Maverick? He’s married to Ajaih, who’s, um,” I paused, heat climbing into my cheeks, “in a polycule with my brother Caleb.”
The words tumbled out faster than I wanted them to, like a string of dominoes I couldn’t stop once they started falling. I wasn’t used to saying it out loud in a business context, and I wasn’t used to trying to distill my family’s complicated dynamics into one neat sentence.
Amiyah blinked, then burst out laughing—not mocking, but warm, full, her dimples cutting deep. “Wow, okay, that’s not what I was expecting.”
I tried to wave it off, but my face was hot. “It sounds more complicated than it is.”
“No,” she interrupted, leaning forward, eyes gleaming. “It sounds amazing. Honestly? A polycule sounds like a dream come true.”
I froze, fork halfway to my mouth. My brain hiccupped, and I just stared at her.
A dream come true?
Her words echoed in my head, drowning out the clatter of dishes, the hum of conversation around us.
Because I hadn’t expected that.
And for the first time in a long time, I stopped eating.
Stopped moving.
Just sat there, staring at Amiyah across the booth—her smile soft, her eyes unflinching—while something dangerous and new unfurled inside me.
Her words hit me like a slap and a caress at the same time.
A dream come true.
I set my fork down, staring at her across the table, unsure if she was joking. But Amiyah didn’t look away. Her chin rested in her palm, dimples deep, eyes shimmering like she’d just let me in on a secret.
“You should see your face right now,” she teased, voice low, playful. “You look like I just confessed to robbing a bank.”
I blinked, trying to gather myself. “I just… wasn’t expecting you to say that.”
“What?” She grinned. “That I like the sound of a bunch of grown, consenting people being honest about what they want? Sharing, loving, not hiding? Calla, that doesn’t sound messy to me. That sounds… free.”
Her tone softened on that last word, and I felt it slip under my skin.
Free.
I shifted in my seat, my throat suddenly dry again. “Most people hear the word polycule and run the other way.”
“Mm.” She leaned forward, eyes locked on mine. “I’m not most people.”
My stomach flipped, and I had to look down at my plate before I forgot where I was. The heat between us was thick enough to taste.
“You ever think about it?” she asked, tilting her head, curls brushing her cheek. “That kind of arrangement?”
The question was bold, teasing, but there was curiosity threaded through it too, like she wanted to know if I’d let myself imagine it.
I smirked, knowing she had no idea she was sitting with The Black Dahlia, and I fully intended to bring her to her knees and worship her the same way I’d done her boss just a week earlier.
Her phat, round ass jiggling as I swatted it until it was the rosiest shade of red, her pussy leaking and creaming down her thick ass thighs.
I exhaled slowly, fingers drumming against my water glass. “More than I’d like to admit.”
Her lips curved into a slow smile, and it was almost too much. I had to break the tension before I did something reckless.
So I blurted, “My brother Caleb and his wife, Yanna, are hosting a cookout this weekend. My family’ll be there. Ajaih and Maverick, too. You should… come.”
Her brows lifted in surprise, but then that sly grin returned. “You inviting me to the family function already? We haven’t even finished lunch.”
I rolled my eyes, as a smile crept on my face, trying to cover my nerves. “It’s not like that. It’s casual. Burgers, ribs, potato salad… maybe some spades if you’re brave enough.”
“Oh, I’m brave,” she said, dimples flashing as she speared a piece of chicken with her fork. “And I never turn down good food or a good ass time.”
The way she said good ass time made my pulse skip again. I reached for my water just to keep my hands busy, but I couldn’t stop the thoughts circling in my head.
What the hell had I just invited into my life?