Chapter Two
OLD HEAT, NEW RULES
The second Lennox stepped into KC and Cadence’s backyard, he knew he’d fucked up.
Not because he was late as hell or because he was responsible for the design of the ridiculous vinyl-shaped cake perched like a centerpiece on a wedding table.
Not even Nova and Cadence glaring at him on her behalf affected him.
He knew he was going to come face to face with Lane Sanders, and he knew from KC by way of pillow talking with his wife that she wasn’t fucking with him.
There she was, sitting there like she owned the sun with her rose-tinted shades perched on her nose and a glass of cucumber lemonade in her hand with her legs crossed like the world was beneath her.
His pulse stuttered because even though he’d been bracing himself for the sight of her, nothing had prepared him for the way his chest tightened when their eyes met.
She was looking at him like he was a stranger instead of the man who’d had her thighs shaking in his palms as he ate her like she was the most delicious mango.
He’d been the man who’d stayed up all night whispering secrets into the curve of her neck and now?
She looked at him like the fool who promised her the world but panicked and distanced himself when he felt his heart filling with a need only Lane could fulfill—the same heart he promised to never give to anyone.
The nights they spent together afforded him the pleasure of learning just how multifaceted she was.
Not only did she manage Nova but she also started her own talent management agency where she was currently managing several up-and-coming women in various industries, including Cadence who had become the face of Black women in STEM.
If you had talent, Lane could get you a lucrative deal for it, she was truly a force to be reckoned with.
After the business side of Lane, there was her heart of gold.
The Full Plate Project was her labor of love—a food bank and hot kitchen that prepared hot meals daily in addition to sending families home with groceries on a daily basis.
Lane had shared bits and pieces of her upbringing with me, leading me to do a secret deep dive into her life where I thought about burning her mother’s section 8 housing down with her in it several times.
After they’d come back stateside, he’d tracked her down one night to a poetry open mic and stood in the shadows as she let her heart bleed on the stage.
Lane Sanders was the definition of resilience because everything meant to break her made her stronger.
He was in love with Lane and was too cowardly to stand in those feelings, and now his stomach was in shambles as she looked through him like he was something to do and discard like trash.
“Yo, you good?” Tariq asked, knowing the answer as he nodded toward Lane.
He dropped his hand from the small of his date’s back, his jaw flexing.
Suddenly he was aware of how fake the whole performance was, and how unaffected it left Lane.
His plan failed, and now he was stuck with a woman he didn’t even like—hell, he couldn’t recall if she worked in marketing or PR, and he had to keep calling her beautiful because he couldn’t remember her name.
She was cool enough and of course easy on the eyes, but she wasn’t Lane.
She didn’t make his pulse skip and she wasn’t the reason he’d been losing sleep.
Lane was HER. Lane and that smart-ass mouth that brought him pleasure whenever it was on him.
Lane and that dangerous glint in her eye that said she could dismantle him and stitch him back together in the same breath.
Lane, who’d let him worship her body before leaving him gasping and grateful as she rode his dick backward while cupping his balls.
Lane who loved reaching back and sliding her own finger in her ass as he hit her with deep back shots.
The time they spent in St. Barts had baptized him in her filth and her fire, yet here they were with Lane sitting ten feet away from him pretending he didn’t exist.
His date tugged at his arm, laughing about something he hadn’t heard.
He nodded anyway, but his gaze drifted back to the gazebo where Lane sat like a queen.
He was zoomed in on her when she slid her tongue along her straw and looked straight at him, causing him to lose his place in the conversation.
She smiled deviously when she noticed his lack of movement for a beat.
It was a smile that told him she knew exactly what she was doing to him, and she hoped he was choking on every memory.
Lennox shifted his weight as he tried forcing his eyes away from her, attempting to laugh too loud at his date’s joke, though he hadn’t caught a damn word she said.
Internally, he was unraveling as he wondered why he’d let his pride convince him it was smart to show up with someone else, and his common sense concluded he’d just made the biggest mistake of his life.
A baby shower was the last place he wanted to sit in his ugly truth, realizing he hadn’t ghosted Lane to get over her; he’d ghosted her because she was the first woman to ever make him forget who the hell he was supposed to be—heartless and noncommittal.
After going back and forth with Lane like they were an old married couple, they both paused for the cause when KC and Cadence announced they were having twins and he and Lane would be the Godparents to Baby B.
They were both shocked and honored to know Cadence and KC trusted them to love their babies and protect them if it ever came down to it.
Once the shock had worn off, the celebration continued while Lane excused herself and headed inside the house.
Lennox followed her, deciding he wasn’t ready to end the conversation they were having.
He stood outside the bathroom where a soft glow crept from under the door that had just clicked shut, leaning against the opposite wall with his arms folded, trying to fight the urge to pace.
When the door finally opened, Lane stepped out as she adjusted her sunglasses on top of her head. She froze when she saw him waiting.
“You’re blocking the way,” she said coolly, but her voice had that low husk he remembered too well.
“You really weren’t gonna say a word to me all night?” Lennox asked, his own voice rougher than he intended.
“What’s there to say? You disappeared, remember? You’re the Ghost of Vacation Fuck Past haunting me at a baby shower. That about cover it?” She snapped back sharp as glass, letting her gaze flick past him toward the noise of the party before.
He gave a slow nod as he responded, “Yeah, I disappeared. I can admit I panicked. I messed up, Lane. But don’t act as if nothing happened between us.
You can ice me out all you want, but I felt it, and you did too,” he sounded off deciding honesty was his best bet as he let his eyes linger on her gorgeous, round face.
Lane was the color of warm honey, and her short lavender pixie cut made her stand out everywhere she went because it looked fucking amazing on her.
His gaze traveled down her curvy, plush body.
Lane was a plus-size beauty with a waist that wasn’t narrow, but the wideness of her hips made it seem barely there.
Lennox remembered how perfect her hips felt in his grip as he stroked her senseless with an ass that had him in a trance as it moved like water from every angle—front, back, and side-to-side.
Lane’s breasts sat perfectly whether they were bare or fully covered, but her plush belly was his favorite playground, especially when he was driving her into orgasmic bliss with his tongue.
His statement caused her composure to crack and a tiny flicker in her expression let him know she did indeed feel it too. With a quick catch in her breath, she brushed past him again, but this time she moved slower and was deliberately close enough that her shoulder grazed his chest.
“Whatever you thought you felt,” she said with a softer tone and her lips mere inches from his as she leaned in like she was about to kiss him, “you forfeited it the second you walked away. Go back out there with your date, L. I know Doormat Barbie is looking for you by now.”
His body reacted to her closeness as he chuckled, watching the sway of her hips as she started down the hallway.
Every part of him screamed to let her go and continue to casually date women who didn’t stir up the type of feelings in his heart that Lane did.
The memory of her skin beneath his fingers and the sweetness in her laugh when he said something silly was his drug.
He’d squandered the chance to be wrapped up in the wholeness of her, and he didn’t know if he could live with that.
He pushed off the wall, making his way back to the party.
This wasn’t over by a long shot, but before he could go after her, he needed to decide if he was ready to get out his own way.
Lennox had to decide whether he could watch her find happiness with someone else and be okay with it.
He also had to factor in her personal and professional relationships with Cadence and Nova.
Lane would always be around; the question was, could he handle her being around with any man other than him?
His heart and mind were telling him absolutely fucking not.
Lennox knew he was wrong, but that didn’t stop him from refreshing the alert log on his laptop.
He sat at Cadence and KC’s kitchen island with his hand curled around a mug of coffee he had yet to touch and the other hovering over the trackpad while his eyes moved across strings of encrypted activity that were supposed to keep people safe, where the word ‘supposed’ was doing a lot of heavy lifting.