Chapter 14 #2
“I’m grown, Bird. I don’t even believe in that childish shit, man.
What you do with your pussy is your business.
Just let me know if you giving the shit away cuz I won’t make it my business,” he said.
It was a rude accusation, but Charlie felt butterflies.
His jealousy did something to her, making her stomach flip.
She just wanted him to close the space between them and kiss her, manhandle her, anything.
A man who didn’t trip over anything but tripped over her was the ultimate turn-on.
She didn’t even know what it was about this man that she liked, but she craved him.
His presence was the highlight of her days lately.
In the short time she had known him, he had become the best part.
“I’m not giving any part of me away unless it’s to you,” she assured.
“I lowkey don’t even want to give it to you.
I’m in a stage of my life where I want to be a little selfish with me, but you came out of nowhere making me love you and I can’t help it.
It’s you, Demi. I just...” she shrugged because it was hard to explain. “It’s just something about you.”
He stood there, staring sternly, facing off with her.
Charlie was one of the only people who didn’t shrink under his menacing eye.
He had met his match. Charlie’s young, free-spirited, unorganized soul had claimed his.
He was mated. He could pretend to reign, but she was queen, his queen.
He was just fighting it. It was so hard to contend.
“Say, man,” he said, sighing.
“Say, man,” she shrugged.
“Keep that nigga out of your house, Bird,” Demi said, sounding defeated like he was tired of thinking about it.
“You can’t make the rules in somebody else’s house,” Charlie said.
She shrugged and walked around him, heading to the table to eat.
Silence.
The rest of the night was filled with silence and Charlie was sick.
Fighting with him felt like grief, like she had lost someone dear to her.
Demi used silence as a weapon and she hated it, but she wasn’t in the business of begging a nigga.
If he didn’t want to speak, she wouldn’t force it, but when he was ready to drop it, she hoped he knew she wouldn’t be.
She was stubborn that way. Demi might have started this fight, but she would decide how, when and if it ended.
He spent the next three hours on his phone, texting, and stepping away for phone calls.
They hit a mall, walking in and out of stores without acknowledging each other.
Charlie didn’t even tell him what she liked.
She just threw whatever she wanted on the counter for him to pay for and he did, all the while, typing away in his phone and ignoring her.
His calm was the fuel to her anger. They both knew it and she hated it.
There was nothing worse than a passive-aggressive man.
If they were going to fight, she would rather they scream it out.
The ignoring and avoiding was torture. It was a prolonging of pain and manipulation of her feelings.
It was cruel and Charlie wanted to take his head off.
By the time they were done with the day, she had already decided they were done.
He can lose my number.
She had never had a worse date. The sex was bomb but the treatment afterward was trash and Charlie wouldn’t excuse that in search of an orgasm. As they headed back to Flint, she noticed he sped past her exit.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
He didn’t answer.
“That was my exit, Demi,” she said.
“I don’t need a passenger seat driver, Bird,” he replied, tone impatient and eyes straight ahead. It was the first thing he had said to her in hours.
She crossed her arms and pushed back in her seat in frustration. When they pulled up Downtown to the newly-built loft building, Charlie frowned.
“Who lives here?” she said.
“You do, get out,” he replied.
There was a woman waiting in the lobby.
“Demi! A little more notice next time would be nice!” she said, smiling as she hugged him.
“My fault. Virginia this is Charlie. Charlie, my realtor, Virginia,” he said.
“Well, Charlie, it’s nice to meet you. I hope you enjoy the condo,” she said. “I just need your signature in a few places.”
“What? Demi, what is going on?” she asked, perplexed as Virginia held out a pen for her.
“Sign the papers, Bird. I’ma be upstairs,” he said.
Virginia handed him a key. “One for you,” she said. Demi walked away.
“Oh, and one for you,” Virginia said, giving the second key to Charlie. “The furniture has all been delivered.”
“Furniture? What am I even signing?” Charlie asked.
“He bought you a condo. Congratulations,” Virginia said.
Charlie signed what felt like a hundred pieces of paper before she made her way upstairs.
She was stunned. She didn’t know what to feel as she used the foreign key in the foreign lock.
“Come on, Bails.” She walked inside and bent to take Bails’ leash off and he took off, to explore the new space.
Three thousand square feet of luxury was in front of her.
Brand new everything. It even smelled new.
She heard the shower running and she headed in that direction.
“What the fuck, Demi?” she shouted as she walked in on him as he climbed out of the shower.
“Bring that nigga in here and they gon’ have to zip him up and carry him out,” Demi said. “House rules, Bird.”
Charlie was floored. He bought an entire property just so he could be the man of her house.
“You ain’t got no slick shit to say?” he asked. He was soaking wet, thick brows bent in challenge, dick relaxing against his thigh. Comfortable. How had they gotten this comfortable around one another?
“I’ve got nothing,” she replied, smirking. The nigga wanted to kick up dust in her life, so she was going to let him. She knew when to shut the fuck up and listen. Certain men you just didn’t back talk to.
“I got something for you, though,” she said. She went into her bag and removed the envelope she had been holding onto. She handed it to him.
“What’s this?” he asked as he opened it.
“Negative for every single STD known to man,” she said. “I’m healthy, as you can see from my perfect PH balance,” she said standing on her tiptoes to point out the number. “I’m sweet. So, what you gon’ do about it?”
Demi scooped her up by her ass, growling in her ear, and scaring the shit out of her, causing her to scream and then laugh uncontrollably as he took her straight to the shower. Water on, ripping her clothes off, lust filled the room along with steam as Demi went down on one knee.
“She real pretty, babe,” he said, playing with her clit piercing. “You stay wet, Bird.”
“I been wet all day for you,” she moaned.
He lifted both legs over his shoulders and she leaned against the wall as he pulled her flower in his mouth.
Demi didn’t play with pussy. He demolished it, those full lips making love to Charlie’s clit, wrapping around it, kissing it, sucking, smearing his face in it, flicking it, as he moaned like crazy.
The sounds he made. Like he had been starving and she was a meal.
Charlie looked down at him, her mouth open in agony because he was torturing her clit, murdering it.
He was eating it so good that she felt like she was having an out-of-body experience.
Like she was watching a tape of some man doing something to a woman that she wished a nigga was skilled enough to know how to do to her.
She was dreaming... fantasizing, in fact, she had to be.
No way was this pleasure real. She gripped the top of his head as water poured down over them.
His hunger came from wanting to taste her from the very first time he had laid eyes on her.
“Just like I thought it would be, Bird,” he said, between kisses to her flesh.
“You fantasize about eating my pussy, Demi?” she asked, eyes fluttering in surprise. “You don’t put your tongue in anything wet. That’s what you said.”
“All day, baby. Every day, since I met you. A nigga lied,” he groaned, standing, coming face to face. His tongue entered her mouth. “That’s you. That’s how you taste, Bird.”
The test results were all it took to remove every reservation he had about her.
“Turn that ass around.” Charlie listened.
She would listen for the rest of her fucking life if he was buying condos and eating pussy like his name was the pussy monster.
Fuck it. She would submit every day of the week for this man.
Demi entered her from behind and Charlie’s hands went to the wall. She was flooded, dripping from the aggressive seduction. It was the stings from the slaps to her ass that took her over the top and she threw it back.
“Fuck, Bird, wait, wait, wait,” he said, breathing hard as he pulled out and rubbed her clit.
His dick was so damn thick and long that he reached her clit from the back, rubbing it, teasing her entrance as she closed her stance, squeezing his dick as he slid back and forth against her sex.
“Fuck, baby, I’m trying not to nut. Damn, girl. ”
Charlie reached between her legs and forced him back inside.
“Me tooooo, but I can’ttttt,” she cried, cumming. Charlie pushed out rapids as she grunted her approval. The sight of her cream all over him made Demi explode. He pulled her waist to his body and filled her with his seeds, grunting and stroking deep until he was empty.
“I’m not on birth control, Demi. Thank God I’m not ovulating, but I just thought you should know,” Charlie said, turning to him.
“I’ma need you to get on something, Bird, cuz I can’t pull out of that and I don’t want nothing between me and you,” he panted.
She nodded as he grabbed the brand new loofah that sat in the shower.
They showered, extra-long, talking, about least favorites this time. Food. Places they had been. Holidays. Every detail that was normally learned over time, they squeezed into this moment in their eagerness to know one another.
“How the fuck you hate Christmas?” he asked.
“I haven’t had a good one in a long time,” she answered, shrugging.
“I’ma have to change that then, Bird,” he whispered, trapping her against the wall.
He pressed his nose to hers and rubbed his forehead to hers.
So much touching. In the shower, Demi was normal.
When he was sure she was clean, she could see his relief.
He had no limits under the stream of water, even though it was running cold.
“Can we be normal and get out now? Look at my fingers,” Charlie laughed, holding up wrinkled skin. He bit one and a titter fell from her lips. Since when did she even laugh this much?
He turned off the water and they went to the bedroom.
He knew he wasn’t going home tonight. Probably not for a couple nights. He couldn’t. His new addiction wouldn’t allow it.
“Demi, why did you buy me a condo?” Charlie asked as she sat on the opposite side of the bed, applying lotion to her legs.
Charlie was surprised at the way he had moved her in effortlessly.
He hadn’t missed a single detail. It was completely stocked.
From her favorite foods, to the fragrance she wore, to the lotion bottle in her hands.
Her every need had been attended to. Demi stood and reached across the mattress, grabbing her ankles, snatching her across the short distance. Charlie yelped in surprise.
“Hand me the lotion,” he said. She did and he took his time rubbing her down, starting at her feet and working his way up.
“I never understood why people put this shit on their skin after getting out the shower. You wash the day off you and then put some shit right back on you. It makes me feel like I’m covered in dirt,” he said.
“Everything makes you feel like you’re dirty,” Charlie said. “I swear this shit better not be hereditary. I don’t want a bunch of dry-skinned, weird-ass babies.”
His hands stopped, mid-thigh. She felt the energy in the room change.
“That scares you? You don’t want kids?” she asked.
Demi’s son flashed through his mind and he lowered his head.
He knew he should tell her. It was the perfect opportunity to be honest with her, but if he told her about DJ, he would have to tell her about Lauren.
She would undoubtedly ask questions about the mother of his child and then everything they shared would change.
Even if it didn’t end, it would be different, and he just wanted more of what she had given him thus far.
I’ma tell her. Just not tonight.
“Kids ain’t a problem, Charlie,” he answered. “You moving real fast, though.”
Charlie felt the speedbump they had hit, and confusion wore her.
“Moving too fast? Really? Coming from the man who bought me a condo. You just learned my last name today!”
He shook his head and put the lotion on the nightstand, wiping the residue off his hands. “I can sell a crib. I can’t sell a kid.”
Charlie laughed, her bold voice filling the space between the walls, making it come alive, making it feel like theirs. He would remember that laugh one day, remember the smile, the sex, the girl because he knew it was only a matter of time before she was a thing of the past.
“So, why did you do it?” she asked.
“Because I want you around, Bird. I want the responsibility of killing your spiders and taking out your fucking trash and filling up your gas tank. I fuck with you. I want access without asking and I want every other nigga on freeze. So, I got to take care of you. Make you mine,” he replied as he climbed in bed beside her.
“Not because you’re in love with me?” she asked. “Shouldn’t that be a reason?”
“That’s the main one,” he replied, kissing her nose.
The bedroom door creaked open as Bails’ big, blocky head peered in.
“Come here, Bails,” Charlie said, climbing out the bed and picking up the dog as Demi’s face screwed.
“You bet not put his big ass in this...”
Before he could even finish his sentence, Bails was on the bedspread.
“You want me, you get us both. Ain’t that right, Bails?” she asked. She climbed under the covers, as Bails laid on top and Demi leaned against the headboard. Demi-0, Bails-2.
“Go to sleep, Demi,” Charlie said as she turned out the lamp on her nightstand. “I’m in love with you.”
He mumbled under his breath, talking shit, but he replied, “I’m in love with you.”