Chapter 17 #2
My voice came out low in sort of a warning wrapped in softness. But instead of easing up, he leaned in again, pressing closer like he hadn’t heard me at all. Or worse, like he had heard me and chose to ignore it.
His hand moved higher, and he grabbed hold of one of my breasts and gave it a light squeeze as he kissed me.
Something in my chest tensed in a way that had nothing to do with nerves and everything to do with discomfort.
That wasn’t what I agreed to. That wasn’t what I wanted.
And the more he continued, the more that feeling settled in my body, spreading from my chest down to my stomach.
I pulled back a little more that time and turned my face just enough so that his lips brushed past mine instead of meeting them again.
“Cornelius, chill,” I said, much clearer now as my hand came up between us.
I didn’t push him away yet, but I did create space.
For a split second, I thought he was going to listen.
But then his hand pressed into my thigh again, like he was trying to pull me back in.
Like he thought I was just being shy. Like this was part of the game.
And that was when it hit me, he wasn’t paying attention to me. He was moving based on what he wanted.
I pulled back fully, and then my hand pressed against his chest firmly this time. I was creating real distance between us as I looked at him, my brows pulled together slightly.
“I said chill,” I repeated, my voice was no longer soft and no longer something he could misinterpret.
I was letting his ass know that I was not okay with this.
There was a pause, a brief one. But it wasn’t enough.
Because instead of immediately backing off, instead of recognizing the shift in my tone, the seriousness in my expression, he hesitated.
Like he was deciding if I meant it. Like he was weighing whether to stop or keep going.
And that hesitation? That was all I needed to know.
My stomach dropped, not in fear, but in disappointment so sharp that it almost made me angry.
Because I had given him a chance. I had let him in, even just a little, and somehow that turned into him thinking he could take more than what I was offering.
He grabbed me by the shirt and then started kissing my neck while rubbing between my legs.
“Cornelius, stop.”
That time, there was no softness in it. But he still didn’t fully get it.
It made something inside me close completely.
And right there, at that moment, I realized something I couldn’t ignore, no matter how much I wanted this to work.
Trying to move on didn’t mean forcing myself to accept something that didn’t feel right. And this didn’t feel right.
“I said stop.”
At this point, we were tussling a bit. I was trying to close my thighs tighter so that he couldn’t get under my panties. I hated that I was wearing a damn tennis skirt.
“Cornelius,” I tried again, but my words got caught somewhere between frustration and disbelief.
If anything, his grip tightened, his hand pressed harder against my thigh like he was trying to keep control of the moment.
His weight shifted closer, crowding my space, and that uneasy feeling in my chest turned into something that frightened me.
Something that made my heart start beating faster for all the wrong reasons.
This wasn’t happening. Or maybe it was, and I didn’t want to accept it.
I pushed against his chest, harder this time, trying to create space, but he leaned right back in like he was determined to close it.
His hand moved again, careless now, and that was the moment everything in me snapped into something sharper.
Panic didn’t hit me all at once. My hands came up, and nothing about them was gentle anymore.
I shoved at him with real force as I twisted my body away from him.
“Get off me!” I snapped.
My voice broke through the tight space of the car, louder than I intended but not loud enough to match the way my pulse was racing. The car shifted slightly under the movement, rocking just enough to make everything feel even more chaotic. But he still didn’t stop.
“Why are you acting like that?” he muttered.
Irritation slipped into his tone like I was the one doing something wrong. Like I was the one confusing him. That made something in me burn. Because I had been clear. I was clear.
“I said STOP!” I shouted, my voice cracking now as I pushed against him again.
This time it was harder, and my nails were digging into his arm as I fought to get him off me.
The car rocked more that time, the movement was sharp and uneven as I twisted away.
My back was pressed against the door. I was trying to put as much distance between us as the small space would allow.
My breathing turned uneven. My chest was rising and falling too fast as frustration mixed with something that felt dangerously close to fear.
“Cornelius, get off me!”
TRIGGA
I shouldn’t have been there. Out of all the places I could’ve gone, out of all the ways I could’ve spent my night, I ended up parked outside Whip N Dip.
I guess a piece of me wanted to feel close to her.
Closer to Maliah. It didn’t make sense. Not when I knew staying away from her was the right decision.
Not when I had spent the last two months convincing myself that distance was the only thing that would work.
It was the only thing that could erase what I had done.
The only thing that could right my wrongs.
But knowing something and feeling it were two different things.
And tonight, feeling won. I sat back in my seat, one hand resting on the steering wheel, the other tapping lightly against my thigh as my eyes drifted toward the shop.
People came and went, laughing, talking, living like life wasn’t complicated.
Like love didn’t come with consequences.
My jaw tightened slightly as her name crossed my mind again.
It was her special day, and I didn’t even bother to reach out to tell her happy birthday.
I was standing strong on that distance, still, everything about her still sat heavy on me in a way I couldn’t shake, no matter how much I told myself to let it go.
So much had happened in two months that I wanted to share it with her.
I had moved out of Ms. Gia’s house and into my own little one-bedroom apartment that was in a way better neighborhood.
I hadn’t been talking to Ghost at all, and I had even enrolled in a trade program for automotive technology.
She was missing out on me leveling up, and I hated the shit.
I missed her more than I was willing to admit out loud, missed the way she looked at me like she saw something in me worth being attached to.
And that was exactly why I had to let her go.
Yeah, I had cleaned myself up, but it was on her father’s dime.
She would be so heartbroken if she knew that I was the one behind those robberies.
That didn’t need to be anywhere near that kind of shit.
My gaze shifted to the left, landing on a white-tinted Benz a few spaces down.
For a second, it didn’t mean anything. Then it did.
My eyes narrowed slightly as I looked at it a little closer, something about it pulling at my memory.
When I looked harder, I realized that the car was just a Volkswagen.
Yeah, my mind was playing tricks on me for sure because every white car I saw, I just thought it was a Benz.
That was the kind of car Maliah drove. And I hoped that she was behind the wheel of every single one I laid eyes on.
But this white car wasn’t hers. I exhaled slowly while leaning back in my seat, trying to shake the thought before it turned into something else.
That’s when the car moved. Just slightly, but enough for me to notice.
My eyes locked back on it, my brows dented as I leaned forward a little, trying to see past the tint.
At first, it looked like nothing. Then it moved again.
But sharper this time, nothing about the movement was subtle.
My expression hardened instantly. something instinctive had kicked in.
I squinted, trying to make out what was going on inside, and that was when I saw it.
It was too much damn movement in that car, kind of like a struggle.
That was all it took. I didn’t think, and I didn’t hesitate.
I was out of my car before the door even fully closed behind me.
My steps were quick and purposeful as I crossed the short distance between where I was parked and where the white car was parked.
I saw a male on the driver’s side and went straight to that side.
My hand reached for the handle, and surprisingly, it was unlocked, so I yanked it open without warning.
And the second I did, everything snapped into place.
This nigga had to be beating this girl’s ass, so I grabbed him first. I didn’t ask questions, and I damn sure didn’t give him a chance to explain.
My hand fisted into his shirt as I dragged him out of the car with force.
I pulled him back like he weighed nothing.
“What the…” he started, but the words didn’t even finish before I shoved him away from the door.
Then I looked inside to check on the girl.
“Hey, you good?”
And everything in me went still for half a second.
Because I was looking dead at Maliah. Her hair was disheveled.
The curls she wore were falling out of place like she had been fighting to keep herself together.
Tears streaked down her face, she was breathing unevenly, and when my eyes dropped just slightly… her shirt was ripped.