13. Daylin
THIRTEEN
daylin
ONE WEEK LATER . . .
Opening the laptop, I logged into my shop to check the stats and sales. Everything looked good, and like Morgin had said via email, I’d done an amazing job getting Delicacies running to the point where I didn’t have to monitor it so closely.
Being away from my business made me realize that I could take more time off to do other shit or even just take a nap or read. I didn’t have to work fifteen-hour shifts, sometimes six days out of the week.
Looking over the laptop screen, I noticed Rakim was busy doing something that required a screwdriver. Watching the way his muscles bulged and tattoos danced was like porn, as he studied the object with his brows bunched and sexy lips tucked in.
I still remember the way my clit throbbed for fifteen minutes straight after he massaged my feet and a little bit of my calf. To go from being happily celibate to a bitch in heat was surely something.
I typed in Rakim’s full name and clicked videos, scrolling past the ones about his murder trial and conviction until I hit some of him in the ring.
I thought he was cut up now, but back then, it was something crazy.
He was sexy then and now, but I enjoyed how lean he looked in the present.
He wasn’t skinny or anywhere close to it, but he also wasn’t a damn meathead.
Muting the laptop, I watched a few videos, my eyes bouncing back and forth between the screen and making sure Rakim was still focused on his little project. After watching a few, impressed by his technique, I exited out of the web browser and shut the laptop.
“I’m finished,” I announced, jarring him from what he was focused on, prompting him to set whatever the contraption was down on top of the desk.
“How far you into this one?” He pointed to the book beside me as he grabbed the laptop.
I didn’t know why I found his interest in what I was reading to be a green flag, but it was.
“I’m in the four hundreds, and it’s seven hundred pages, so I’m pretty far. I’m actually enjoying it a lot.” I smiled up at him as he moved around on the laptop, I assume to turn it off.
Thankfully, I’d closed down all the tabs.
“Damn, I just gave you that book two days ago. Thought it would take you some time, but shit, you not doing nothing else so.” He shrugged, smirking cutely with his cute ass.
“Exactly, but a book still has to be good for me to get that far, no matter if I’m busy, kidnapped, or what. ’Cause if it’s boring, it’ll still be a struggle.”
“True.” He bobbed his head.
“You were a really great fighter, Rakim.”
“Thanks.” His brows furrowed, making it clear he was wondering how I knew and what brought this comment on.
“I usually hate watching sports, but the little bit I saw, I was thoroughly entertained.”
“Thank you.” He chuckled and sat down on the bed with me, laptop in his lap.
“Do you miss it?” I queried.
“Sometimes, but I long ago accepted that, that part of my life was over, so it don’t bother a nigga as much.
” He ran a hand down his beard as he eyed me.
His eye contact made me nervous. “I let myself sulk for a bit once I got out of prison—some delayed depression ’cause that’s when it for real hit me—then I made myself get over that shit. ”
“How long did you go to jail?”
“Prison, baby, big difference,” he corrected, looking off for a moment. “I got three and a half years with time served of four months, so about three years and two months, but they let me go a little early.”
I watched his side profile as he stared off while talking. He smelled so good that it made no sense.
“Do you regret what you did since she fucked you over and with your damn brother? I really don’t like her ass,” I had to tack on, and he laughed. I loved his laugh and his beautiful teeth.
Nothing like a dark-skinned man with a beautifully white smile.
For a moment, he was silent as if he were thinking on my question fully.
“Nah, because I chose to do what the fuck I did. She didn’t ask or convince me to.
In fact, she wanted me to let the shit go.
” His eyes landed on me, giving up his undivided attention.
“I couldn’t though.” He shook his head. “Seeing how violated she felt and . . . yeah, I would’ve done it regardless of the aftermath, because at the time, I was her protector. ”
I nodded, understanding and admiring him, even though I felt LaMia didn’t deserve it.
“Did she break your heart?”
“Daylin, got damn.” He smirked, shaking his head at me as we locked eyes. I loved looking at him.
“Did she?”
“She broke something in me, but I can’t be sure if it was my heart.
I ain’t been right since though, so maybe she did.
I wasn’t in love with her though. Would’ve given my life for her—obviously—treated her like gold, was loyal, and never took a shortcut on how I handled her.
She had a lot of power over a nigga, and she used it. ” He nodded, making me do the same.
“So you don’t love her, but do you want her back?”
“I don’t.”
Sitting up and squinting at him, causing him to smile, I asked, “So if she showed up right now and professed her love to you, you’d send her back to your brother?”
“In a heartbeat. If I were to ever be in a relationship again, I’d have to trust my woman. Loyalty is a big thing to me, and she lacks that shit in the worst way. I’m good.”
“Well, Rakim, you shouldn’t be alone for the rest of your life just because of one terrible relationship.”
“I won’t be alone. I just won’t be in a relationship.
I love women and wouldn’t ever want to live a life where they weren’t involved in it, but as far as becoming invested and all that shit, nah.
” He shook his head, and I wasn’t sure why his aversion to relationships bothered me when I was a taken woman.
“So use them for sex like most of these niggas then, huh?”
Chuckling, he replied, “Not use, baby. It’ll be a mutually beneficial situation and not always just sex.
I like simple companionship too. Sometimes, though rare as fuck, having a conversation with a beautiful woman over dinner is enough.
Other times . . .” He rocked his head from side to side.
“Yeah, I just wanna put my dick down her throat. Just depends.”
When his whiskey brown eyes latched onto mine, I felt a heat travel right down between my legs, causing the heartbeat to revive itself from a few nights ago.
I’d never met a man like Rakim, and it was affecting me in the worst way. He was so intelligent and thought differently than most men I’d encountered. He was a little crazy but loved hard at the same time too.
“I see,” I damn near whispered.
“How you see my fights?”
“Looked them up just a moment ago on the computer.” I smirked.
“So instead of trying to secure a rescue, you was looking up my old matches?”
“What would be the point of wasting time trying to secure a rescue? I don’t even know the damn address to this place. I’m pretty sure it’s nowhere on the house because I looked when we returned from your father’s party.”
He laughed again, and my goodness.
“Good eye.”
“So what do you do now since you don’t box?”
“Kidnap nosy, pretty girls.”
I giggled at the comment and the compliment.
“Hmm, was LaMia the only relationship you’ve had?”
“Is Shaun yours?”
“No. I had a high school boyfriend up until last semester of senior year, and then another my freshman year of college before I met Shaun years later.”
Smirking, he said, “Just answered that shit quick than a muthafucka, huh?”
“Yep. Now, your turn.”
I usually never cared about the next person’s business, but I was bored, and this man was so intriguing that it was hard not to. So instead of coming up with my own assumptions, I figured I would ask the source.
“She was the only for real relationship. Every other woman was just on some friend with benefits type shit.”
“I figured.”
“That nigga don’t seem like a good fit for you,” Rakim admitted, taking me in for a bit.
“How? He’s a handsome man, makes his own money, and he can be smart on occasion.” I chuckled, and Rakim joined me at the sound of my last comment. “That’s most women’s type.”
Nodding as he glanced off for a moment, he regained eye contact with me, then said, “You’re extremely beautiful and sexy on top of that.
Not to mention you got a lil vibe about you.
The way you walk, talk, and carry yaself.
When you enter a room, it’s like a fucking magnetism you possess without trying,” he expounded, and with every word, the sound of my heart became louder and louder.
“By saying that, a nigga gotta be ready to turn the fuck up ’bout you ’cause niggas gon’ look, and niggas gon’ try some shit.
Shaun don’t seem like he really on that.
He’ll do a lil bit to check a muthafucka’s temperature, but he not gon’ send a nigga’s teeth through his cupid’s bow for simply licking his lips at you. ”
Rakim kept very strong, unwavering contact with me the entire time he spoke, and no matter how much I tried, I didn’t possess the brain power to look away as I listened to him speak. I didn’t realize he was done, and we were just staring at one another for a while.
“Is that what you thought when you first saw me?”
“You asked me why I took you instead of ya sister when she’s your pop’s favorite, and that was definitely part of the reason,” he answered, and I didn’t know what to say.
I didn’t want to say too little and make him think he wasn’t worthy of the feeling being mutual—especially when he was—but I also didn’t want to let him know the feeling was mutual out of respect for my relationship, so I kept it mute.
“I don’t wanna kidnap nobody for real. The few times I have, they ain’t live past a day.
But the least I can do, if I gotta hold somebody, is make sure she’s beautiful. ”
I tried my best not to react to his words, but the simple smile broke through my face unwillingly. He took my hand in his, caressing the back of it with his thumb as he stared down at it, seemingly in thought.
Deciding to break the ice with a joke since I couldn’t think of anything else appropriate to say, I asked, “So since I’m beautiful, do I get some dinner and conversation?”
“We’ll see.” He smirked, releasing my hand, and oddly, it felt wrong for him to. “What you wanna read next so I know where to look?” he questioned, rising from the bed.
“Oh, umm . . .” I had to snap out of it. “I can get with fantasy sometimes, so long as it’s not too intricate.”
He paused for a moment, big hands sunken down into the pockets of his joggers and his brown eyes sparkling some. I watched his tongue glide across his full bottom lip in slow motion, or maybe slow motion in my head.
“Aight. I got you.”
Then, he swaggered off toward the door to exit, leaving me to thoughts that had me smiling for no real reason.