Chapter 13 #4
As much as I wanted to laugh, I didn’t. According to Laike and Baisleigh, they were past each other.
But I didn’t know a man on earth that was casually purchasing a seventy thousand dollar watch for an ex that he hadn’t touched in years.
It didn’t matter how much either of them tried to bury their past, it was evident that their feelings for one another had the ability to withstand the test of time.
Even if they never explored them, they weren't easily hidden.
Even a blind man could see right through them.
We piled into our car, everyone on their way to their respectable dwellings.
My mother and father were the last to leave, Baisleigh being the first with Laike and I behind her.
When I pulled to the end of Luca’s street, I contemplated making the left turn instead of the right one that would lead me to Keanu’s place.
With my father at the wheel behind me, I was certain he was paying close attention to every move I made.
With good faith that my mom would keep him off my trail, I made the right turn with shaking hands and raised bumps on my skin.
Six minutes later, I pulled into Keanu’s driveway with a galloping heart of glee.
Aside from dinner, I hadn’t seen him since the early morning.
Missing him was an understatement, and being underneath him wasn’t good enough.
I wanted to be in his skin. But, first, I needed to pull my car into his garage just in case one of my brothers decided to come by.
I had no intention of going anywhere for at least the next forty-eight hours, so it would be there for a while.
My car filled the second stall of the four car garage. Keanu’s old Camaro that he’d given Kale was in the first. I smiled as I exited my truck, remembering the day that Keanu had gotten that car. I thought that he was the sexiest thing on earth behind the wheel.
“Still is,” I whispered, shutting the door behind me.
I entered Keanu’s home, which was now considered our shared living space, through the garage.
It was quickly becoming my only entrance being that I needed my car there for concealment.
There had been a few times I’d been bold enough to leave my car in the driveway and come through the front door, but I always knew that Keanu would move it for me, eventually.
“Babe?” I called out through the house the second my feet hit the floor.
“Ba—” I cut off after noticing the familiar tone in the background.
Too busy making sure that I locked the door behind me, I hadn’t realized there was music playing in the distance. There was no way Keanu would hear me. He was famous for blasting his beats so loud that the music felt more like it was in his head than coming through his eardrums.
I stepped deeper into his kitchen, where the garage entrance was, immediately irritated with whatever I’d stepped in on the way inside.
I could feel the imbalance as I took a step, alerting me that something was underneath my shoe.
I leaned over and rested my weight on the wall as I pulled a red petal from my shoe.
I held it closer to my face to examine it a bit more before concluding that it was indeed from a red rose.
I could hear my curls as they slid across the back of my coat when I turned my head.
The display of red rose petals was only a few steps away from the door which I was still posted by.
I took a few more steps, rounding the kitchen island and then the kitchen exit before the full bed of petals began to lead me up the stairs.
“Keanu.” I smiled. “What do you have up your sleeve?”
My mouth felt like it would split in two at any second.
I felt like one of the girls in the fairytales that had impossible things happen to them on their quest for love.
Keanu wasn’t exactly over the top yet because we were still working on publicizing our thing, but I had a feeling he’d do the impossible the minute we came clean about our dealings.
Lavish trips, surprises, shopping sprees, private dinners, private flights, private yachts, extravagant celebrations, and more.
He was that guy. Though I’d never seen that side of him, for me, I knew what was possible.
When the first set of roses ended, I stood in front of the bed of the master suite. On top of it, there was a lace teddy and a pair of boots that I was certain stopped somewhere on my thighs. They were both black in color and accompanied by a black blindfold.
“I guess it’s not bedtime,” I whispered, following the second trail where the first trail of roses left off.
When I entered the enormous bathroom, there stood Keanu next to the tub of running water. His pearly white teeth sparkled behind his smile. I couldn’t help but wonder why looking so fucking good hadn’t been made illegal because it was a damn shame.
“What are you doing, baby? What’s all this for?”
“For you,” he answered, never batting an eye and looking me square in mine.
He stepped to the side and it wasn’t until then that I noticed the display behind his shirtless frame. Crumbled petals lined a huge sign that sat on an easel. As my eyes glossed over, it became harder to make out the words. But, eventually, I did.
Be My Lady? It read.
Turning toward Keanu, again, but this time with a tear-stained face, I nodded my head.
“I’m already your lady! Aren’t I?”
I hated the validation I sought so often.
It almost made me cringe after certain questions were asked or certain responses were anticipated.
But as much as I disliked what I’d always thought of as a flaw, it was a part of me.
The fact that the people I love dearly recognized it from the time I was a little girl and validated me every step of the way, I didn’t seek it from outsiders.
They didn’t mean well, so their cents would never make sense in my world.
“Yeah. I just felt like you deserved to be asked. You know, for memory sake? Shit, for you to plan money-guzzling anniversaries and shit in the future. You know, a day that actually means something for us both.”
“Yeah?” I nodded, wiping the corners of my eyes.
“Yeah, baby.”
“I think you just wanted to mark an anniversary so you can have an excuse to spend money, not me,” I corrected.
“Aight, you got me. But, still. You deserved this too,” he told me. “Crybaby.”
He stretched his arms. Still fully clothed from head to toe, I ran into them. It wasn’t until I heard him wince that I realized I might’ve been a bit too excited. As quickly as I’d collided with his chest, I backed away. It was then when I noticed the clear patch over the left side of his chest.
“Oh God. What happened? Are you okay?”
Keanu nodded. “I’m okay, baby.”
“Then why… what happened?”
“I got a new tattoo,” he explained.
“Today?”
“Yeah, to kill time before dinner.”
“I had no idea.”
I made my way to the tub and turned the knob. The water was full and near overflowing. So lost in each other, we weren’t paying attention to it.
“You want to see it?”
Keanu moved closer. When I stood upright, again, he was already in my face.
“Uh, sure.”
Slowly, he peeled back the clear wrapping that actually made it pretty hard to see what was underneath.
Keanu’s skin was so dark and blended so well with ink that it was sometimes hard to tell that he even had so much ink on his body.
It was only in the beaming sunlight and when we were cuddled in bed that I was reminded.
Once the wrapper was off completely, he moved underneath the light and waved me over to join him. I stood on the tips of my toes to get a closer look and the moment it was clear to me what was written on his chest, my eyes bloomed from their sockets.
“Keanu!” I fanned my face, stepping away from him as I tried lowering my body’s temperature.
The coat was the first thing to come off as I walked toward the bedroom.
I needed to put some space between us because he was simply too good to be true.
He was too good to be mine. He followed me into the closet where I hung my coat and turned to meet his eyes, again.
“You like it?”
“I love it,” I admitted, “I just… I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say nothing. As long as you like it, I’m good.”
“I love it.”
I traced the letters of my name on Keanu’s chest. Softly and slowly, I followed the cursive writing that led to the small red heart that was just beneath the last letter.
“This doesn’t mean I have to get your name next, do it?” I asked, chuckling in the process.
“Nah. This is something I wanted to do for me.”
“Good because, I—" I began.
“Hate needles,” Keanu finished my sentence. “I know, baby girl.”
“You remember everything.”
“When it comes to you, I do.”
“The teddy and the boots on the bed? You have some explaining to do.”
“I’m not explaining shit. You know what time it is.
You must’ve missed the cuffs? I’m about to pin your ass down and suck on that pussy until you’re delirious.
Then, I’m going to fuck you like the slut you wish to be fucked like before I tuck you into bed,” he briefed me while wrapping his hand around my neck and leaning down for a kiss.
“Maybe needles aren’t all that bad, huh?”