Chapter Four #6
My feet froze to the floor. Baby? He never mentioned being in a relationship.
Not that it was any of my business because our arrangement was professional, but he didn’t have to go around volunteering lies either.
But the way he touched me last night had me feeling like this was all personal, or was I tripping?
“Nah, it ain’t like that,” he continued, and I could hear the smile in his voice. “You know you’re my favorite girl.”
Something sharp twisted in my chest. It was raw jealousy.
I had no right to feel this way. He’d been clear from the beginning about boundaries and about not catching feelings.
I’m his client and our relationship is strictly transactional.
I should’ve walked away and gone outside and pretended not to hear anything or I never did, but instead I found myself leaning closer, trying to hear more.
It caused my heart to pound so loudly I was sure he could hear it down the hall.
“I’ll be home soon,” he said. “Just give me a couple more weeks and then—”
I shifted my weight, trying to get closer to the door, and my elbow knocked against a decorative vase in the hallway table. It happened in slow motion. The vase teetering and my hand reached out too late because as the crash hit the hardwood floor, it shattered into a dozen pieces.
“Shit,” I hissed, dropping to my knees to gather the broken ceramic, but not that it’d do any good.
“Let me call you back,” I heard Syx say quickly, and then footsteps approaching.
I put on a show of casualness, hoping to seem like someone who had just wandered by and caused a mishap, a far cry from the reality of me having been caught eavesdropping on his intimate phone call to a woman he called "baby.”
The office door swung open, and Syx appeared, his eyes immediately taking in the scene—me on my knees surrounded by broken vase, my face flushed and my sundress riding up my thighs.
“You good?” He asked, with concern etched on his handsome face as he crouched down beside me.
“Yeah, I’m sorry. I was just—” I gestured vaguely toward the front door. “I was going to get some air and knocked it over. I’m so damn clumsy,” I lied, trying to act like I really gave a damn about the vase instead of his intimate conversation. He could buy another damn vase.
His eyes narrowed slightly, and I realized he was studying me…
really studying me. My hair was down my back, swaying past my ass.
My sundress hugged my curves. I didn’t look like someone who’d just woken up and stumbled downstairs.
I looked like someone who’d been awake for a while…
someone who’d been standing in the hallway for a minute too long—long enough to hear shit.
“How long you been up?” he asked casually, but there was something knowing in his tone.
“Not long,” I lied, standing up with a handful of broken ceramic. “I was just going to to grab something to eat. I’m starving,” I giggled nervously.
“You hungry?” He took the broken pieces from my aid and placed everything in the trash and swept up the rest. “What you in the mood for?”
“Conch fritters,” I retorted, grateful that he changed the subject. “I was on TikTok last night looking up things to eat and this was most raved about.”
A slow smile spread across his face showcasing his Colgate white teeth. “My treat.” He offered.
I led the way, not bothering to let him because bitterness swooned over me. Part of me don’t know why I was so bothered. Then another part of me didn’t want to care because it was nothing and I shouldn’t be in my feelings over a nigga with hot potato dick.
“It’s beautiful out here,” I muttered to myself, still in disbelief at everything around me.
Everything was so colorful and beautiful. The sun beamed directly on us, making me appreciate the fact I hadn’t forgotten to put on sunscreen today.
“It is,” He agreed from behind me. “It’s snowing where you from ain’t it?” He mentioned, making me think he was listening to my phone call too.
“How you know?” I glanced up at him as we walked on the cobblestone.
“My mama told me, she’s pissed off about it too,” he chuckled.
My brow rose. “When did you talk to her?”
“Just then,” he nodded his head toward the beach house as he stuffed his hand in his pockets. “You were ear hustling.”
My cheeks felt heated with embarrassment. “You heard me?”
“I did.” He nodded with a playful grin. “It’s cool though.”
“I thought you were talking to someone else,” I admitted shamefully.
“Nyne, I told you I’m not dating any one. I wouldn’t lie about that.” He retorted with a hint of annoyance etched in his tone.
“But the way you were talking—”
“Huh,” he chuckled again once more. “What part did you hear?”
Mimicking his deep voice and grit, I said, “I know baby, I miss you too. You know you’re my favorite girl.” That got a loud, heart felt laughter out of him.
“That’s how you sounded,” I continued.
“Mane, what the fuck!” He chortled once the heavy laughter subside. “I ain’t sound like that.”
“That’s exactly how the fuck you sounded.” I spat.
Before crossing the street, I looked both ways, until he grabbed me and wrapped his arms around me, looking deep into my soul.
As I stared deeply into his coffee bean colored eyes, I felt something…
something that I hadn’t felt in a long time.
Syx was torturing me and making me forget the contract that kept us from forbidding the rules.
It was all so simple, until it wasn’t. Emma didn’t mention this being the hard part—not being able to pull away when your mind tells you too.
Instead, she raved on and on about good dick, like nothing else existed.
Syx was the specimen that had me fighting my sleep last night—too busy thinking about him as I grazed my hands over my body imaging they were his.
Looking into his soul now, I felt it. He was toxic—all of this shit was toxic, because only a womanizer would think of some shit like this.
His bushy brows, Jackson 5 nose and his kissable lips, were all a part of God’s gift to humanity.
Shit, it was also a curse. I know women, who’d push pride to the side and bow down.
Hell, I know a few who’d give him a piece of their refund check.
Syx was just that damn gorgeous and staring at him now, I was realizing that I’d be making the mistake of a life time if I got too close to the deep end.
“Remember everything I said?” He asked me with his forehead pressed against mine. We were so close I could smell the minty mouthwash on his breath.
Magnetically, my arms cloaked around him too. “I don’t need a reminder,” I mumbled.
For a brief moment he stared back at me, looking over my internal wounds that hadn’t healed yet. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You can’t do something that’s been done before?”
“I can’t give you what you’re looking for?”
I chortled. “How do you know what I’m looking for when I haven’t told you anything?”
“You’re easy to read. I see right through you Nyne. You love hard—real hard.”
“You make it sound like it’s the worse thing in the world.”
“It’s not, but that person needs to be willing to reciprocate that energy and if they can’t they don’t deserve you. Everything you feel is normal because you’re human but when it comes to your heart you have to detach yourself away from me.”
Our eyes didn’t rip away from one another.
I let everything he said soak in, because he was right.
He didn’t have shit to offer me and I’d be doing myself a disservice by falling for a man with nothing to give.
I didn’t come on this island looking for love and I didn’t need to leave with it when time permitted itself.
“I hear you,” I grinned, though I was torn to shreds inside.
Then I pulled away to continue trotting along, leaving him behind to approach the food truck that read, “Island Bites” painted on the side. The smell of fried food and spices made my mouth water. I’d never skipped breakfast or went this long without eating on something.
While looking over the menu, I ordered a bit of everything—conch fritters, oysters, shrimp, fried pickles—everything! Syx ate off my plate like a bird.
We sat on the a nearby bench overlooking the water. For the most part he was silent like he was in deep thought until I spoke up.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Wassup?” His head shot in my direction as he leaned back on the bench extending his arms. His ivory knitted shirt was unbuttoned giving me and every other girl who walked by a fish eye shot.
“What do people do when they leave here?”
His bushy brows furrowed in confusion. “Whatchu’ mean?” he asked as he adjusted the tinted Dior shades on his head.
“What I mean is what I asked? Do you do follow ups?”
“Nah, ‘cause I make sure they’re fully satisfied when they leave.”
“I thought you said you have other people here who work for you?” I inquired.
“I did and before they board, they see me. It’s sort of like a one on one.”
“Are they around here now?” My head snapped in every direction, looking for a sea of guys who mimicked his build.
“Nah, everything goes down in a club, that’s more secluded.”
Hinting at what he was putting down, I nodded my head as I bit into another fritter. “Ohhhh, so it’s like some Pandora’s Box type shit?”
“If that’s what you want to call it,” he shrugged as his pink tongue escape his mouth to graze over his lips. “It’s invite only.” He added on.
“Why hadn’t I gotten an invite then? Were you planning on keeping me trapped in the beach house.”
“Not at all Nyne. I pulled your profile. Had the other guys did it, you’d be with them, doing whatever, letting them suck and lick on you whenever.”
“Why’d you choose my profile then, if you’re the boss and you have the option to toss me to the side?”
Syx studied me for a second, withholding back a response that might’ve sounded critical until I forced him to say what was on his mind.
“I’m listening.”