Chapter 9 #2
“I don’t want to be out here wondering what if. I don’t want to hold back or play it safe ’cause I’m scared. I want you. All of you. Your laugh. Your hood side. Your quiet grief and your loud joy. And I know you got your own scars, your own reasons to keep a wall up, but, baby…”
I reached in my back pocket and pulled out my handcuffs, real steel and real weight, then placed them on the coffee table between us like I was setting down a truth too deep to ever snatch back.
“I’m not trying to be cuffed to nobody else but you, Deputy Gorgeous.”
She let out this soft little gasp, hand lifting to cover her mouth, but it wasn’t the sound that got me. It was her eyes, eyes that said finally. Eyes that whispered me too. Eyes that wrapped around me like a promise, saying you’re safe here.
“Elias,” she whispered.
“Nah, let me get this out, ma,” I murmured, sliding her onto my lap until we were chest to chest, soul pressing upon soul.
“This ain’t no lust phase. Not no rebound fairytale you jot down in a notebook and leave to collect dust. This right here is real.
Bone deep. Forever real, type shit. And I’m ten toes planted in it, you feel me? ”
She nodded, tears spilling down, but she was smiling too—the smile that only came when you felt seen, claimed, and wanted all at the same damn time.
“I feel you.” She breathed, pressing her forehead to mine. “I feel you so deep it scares me.”
“Good,” I murmured before kissing her slow like I had all night to prove it. “’Cause yeah, I’m scared too, but I ain’t going nowhere. I’m posted right here. Cuffed up, locked in, and crazy over you, my love.”
And in that moment, the weight of the past didn’t matter. The ghosts, the grief, and the guilt all faded into the background. All that existed was her in my arms, our breath in sync, and the way her name felt like redemption on my tongue.
The bedroom light was low, gold spilling over shadows like God Himself was trying to set the mood.
Her locs poured across the pillows, wild and perfect, a halo for a woman who didn’t even know she was the prayer I’d been mumbling in my sleep for years.
My prayer. My answer. My problem I’d never want to fix.
She was stretched out in one of my old tees, thighs bare, skin lit like she’d been washed in moonlight and draped in favor.
I sat on the edge of the bed, breath deep but heavy, chest tight like my ribs were holding back a storm, heart swollen with too much of her, but my hands?
Steady, always steady for her. Not ’cause this was new—we’d crossed that line before—but because this wasn’t about getting her.
This was about keeping her, claiming her in a way that made it clear there was no break-up, no falling back, no “let’s be friends.
” The claim where she could put her body in my hands and know I’d guard it like it was carved in holy text…
then take her apart so slow and so wild that the walls might start catching the Holy Ghost on our behalf.
She looked at me, her tongue dragging slow across her bottom lip like she knew she was playing Russian roulette with my restraint.
“Say the word, and I’ll behave,” I told her, my voice low, leaning in as my hands slid up her thighs slow enough to make the air feel thick.
Her breath caught, her voice barely a whisper. “What if I don’t want you to?”
That was it. The match on the fuse. I pulled the cuffs from my back pocket, the steel cold and gleaming like prophecy.
“You ready to be cuffed by a real one? I’m not talking about no ‘just for a while’ type shit, not talking short-term, not talking ‘til we get bored.’ I’m talking ‘ain’t-no-gettin’-rid-of-me’ energy.
You disappear, I’ll find you. You run, I’ll chase you down.
You are mine in every timeline, in every life, and I’m making sure the universe never forgets it. ”
“Yes.”
“You sure?” I asked, my voice low and jagged, every word landing with the weight of a promise carved in stone.
“’Cause there is no turning back. I’ve had you before, but this, this is where I own you in the places nobody else even knew existed.
I build with you. I guard you. I worship you.
I wreck anything that even thinks about harming you.
If I cuff you tonight, that’s it. You’re my forever.
You ready to be loved and devoured in the same breath, Deputy Gorgeous? ”
Her eyes widened, but not with fear. Nah, it was something deeper. She nodded, her cheeks flushing, her thighs parting like she’d already decided her soul could live here with mine.
She let it slip, a soft, shaky, “Yes.”
I leaned in, lips barely grazing her ear, my breath heating her skin. “Uh-uh, baby. Say it like you mean it. Say it like it’s the only prayer your pretty ass needs God to answer tonight.”
“Yes, Elias. Cuff me.”
Fuck. That right there cracked something wide open in me.
I climbed over her slowly, deliberately, seeming to stretch the seconds until they felt like foreplay, and slid her wrists above her head, clicking the cuffs shut with that gentle-but-firm finality, like I was locking in a promise I’d never take back.
“Good girl.” I growled, my voice low and thick, my lips claiming the curve of her neck. My jaw was tight from the restraint it took not to wreck her on sight. “Now… let me worship.”
Her mouth was mine first; deep, messy, tongues tangling like they’d been fighting and making up for years. Then her neck. Then the slope of her shoulder. She moaned, body arching into me like her muscles already knew I was the only home they wanted.
I kissed my way down her chest, my tongue circling her nipple until she cried out, wrists twitching in the cuffs like she’d forgotten she asked for this.
I looked up at her with that slow, dangerous smirk.
“Uh-uh… You said cuff you, remember? What my lady wants, my baby gets. So now you let me love on this pretty ass pussy like a man who know it’s his.”
She whimpered, legs trembling already.
“You wet fa me, baby?” I asked, my fingers sliding between her folds, slow enough to test her patience.
“Yes… Elias, fuck.”
“I’ma need you to say it clearer.”
“Yes, daddy,” she moaned, and my whole chest lit up from the inside.
I chuckled darkly, slid two fingers into her, and dropped my tongue to her clit at the same time. She damn near levitated, breath hitching like her soul was halfway out of her body.
“Yeah… that’s it,” I murmured against her, voice vibrating right where she needed it. “Stay right there. Take it like you was built for it.”
Her eyes rolled back, her hands yanking against the cuffs like she was fighting heaven itself.
“Who this pussy belong to?” I demanded, kissing my way back up until my mouth hovered over hers.
“You.” She gasped. “It’s yours, Elias. All of me, baby.”
I kissed her hard, rougher, hungrier, like her moans were oxygen, and I’d been holding my breath for years, letting her taste how sweet she truly was.
Then I gently slid inside her, and my whole damn face changed.
“Shit…” I groaned, eyes locking on hers. “You so tight, baby. You sucking me in like them damn waist trainers the old-head officers be wearing at the gym. Got me fighting for air and loving every second of it.”
Her laugh caught on a moan, her body squeezing me tighter like she was proving the point.
“Keep doing that.” I growled, my grip bruising her hips as my strokes got deeper, hungrier. “I swear you trying to take my soul and my stamina at the same time. This mine, right?” I asked again, my hand sliding up her throat as my hips moved with purpose.
“Yes, Eli. Shit, it’s all yours!” she cried, and I damn near lost it.
“Damn, baby,… you gripping me like this dick owe you rent and back pay.” I hissed, driving deeper. “Tight as fuck… mmm… I love this. Love you.”
I pressed my lips to her neck, my voice rumbling there like a promise laced with a threat.
“I swear, a nigga even breathe wrong at you, I’ll black out. I got no peace when it comes to you, Jonay.”
Her lips curled into a wicked smile. “You like that? You like this pussy taking all of you like it’s made for you?”
“Fuck yeah!” I groaned, easing my weight back just enough to pull her wrists forward from above her head.
I kept one hand locked around the cuffs, holding her restrained, and guided her onto her knees, keeping her face toward me.
“Keep these on… I still wanna see your pretty face when you cum for me.”
Her hair was wild, her eyes wide, her whole body trembling like the Holy Ghost had just walked in behind me.
I drove into her deeper, rougher, hitting the spot that made her scream like she was confessing to God and sinning at the same time.
And when she came again, screaming my name like it was the only one that mattered, I held her close, whispering filthy affirmations into her ear as my own nut tore through me, deep inside of her.
I uncuffed her, peppering soft kisses to her wrists, her lips, her soul.
“I wouldn’t want to be cuffed to nobody but you, Deputy Gorgeous. You mine. And I’m yours.”
I lay there for a second, watching my baby’s chest rise and fall like it carried every truth I’d been waiting my whole life to trust. Jonay’s skin glistened with the remnants of us; golden brown, rich like syrup, smooth like silk in warm hands, and soft like the hush of her breath spilling against my collarbone.
Her leg was draped across my thigh, her palm still flat on my chest like she was anchoring me in reality, like if she let go, I’d drift right out of her life.
Baby girl needed to understand leaving her wasn’t even in my DNA.
I traced my fingers along her spine, still feeling the imprint of her body wrapped tight around me, her whispers still echoing in my ear like soft threats and sweeter promises.
“You like that?” She purred earlier, mouth inches from my neck.
“Fuck yeah.” I groaned, jaw locked, hands full of them thick thighs like they were mine to pray over and misbehave with. “Damn, baby, you gripping my shit… tight as fuck.”