Chapter 54
Chapter fifty-four
Xoey
“You think you can take these damn cuffs off now?” I asked Gift from the back seat. He glanced at me through the rearview mirror, smirked, then shook his head. “But why?”
“Because you gave me permission to put them on you,” he answered, and I rolled my eyes.
Flirting with Gift Blackmon was probably the worst decision I’d ever made in my life.
It wasn’t that he wasn’t attractive because he was fine as hell.
It was more that he scared me. I knew he wouldn’t physically hurt me because no warning bells were going off in my head when he was around.
And that’s what scared me. I learned a long time ago to notice those subtle clues that my body gave off.
There were very few men in my life whom I trusted easily.
The few I allowed to get close to me didn’t scare me because I treated them like family.
Gift was different. He made the voices in my head stop talking.
He made me relax and feel safe, something that had never happened before.
“I gave you permission while at the cemetery,” I corrected him, and he shrugged. “Gift Blackmon, take these damn cuffs off me.”
“I’ll think about it,” he said, laughing. “For now, sit back there, look pretty as fuck, and just enjoy the moment.”
“The moment?” I questioned him, and he nodded. “You’re acting like this is a date.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” he said, and I reared back. “Yeah, let’s call this a date. One of many we are going to have.”
“Um excuse me?” I stared at the back of his head. “This is not a date.”
“Yes, it is.” He turned on his blinker and then switched lanes. “We can use this time to get to know each other.”
“I don’t want to know you,” I quickly said.
“That’s a damn lie.” He looked at me through the rearview mirror and gave me a lop-sided grin. “You can’t marry a stranger now, can you?”
“Marry?” My eyes damn near jumped out of my head, and this crazy nigga just nodded. “I am not marrying you.”
“Yes, you are.” He turned and pulled into a drive-thru.
“What do you want to eat?” I slowly blinked as I watched him.
“Xoey?” He turned around to face me. I hated that he was so damn attractive; dark skin, full lips, and pretty ass white teeth made my heart slam into my chest. But it was his dark eyes that held me captive whenever I stared into them.
They were the only thing that I thought about since our first meeting at Hood and Legacy’s engagement party.
“Xoey?” he smiled, and his open-faced grill sparkled in the sun.
I slammed my legs together to try to calm my pussy down. “I don’t eat meat,” I quickly answered, shaking my head.
“I know,” he said, nodding. “This is a vegan spot.” I quickly turned and looked at the menu board, and my mouth dropped open in surprise. “Now, what do you want to eat?”
“Umm, I don’t know,” I said, shaking my head.
“I’ll order for you then.” He turned back around, rolled the window down, and waited.
“Welcome to Come’On, what can I get you?”
“Let me get two number sevens, one with strawberry lemonade and the other with peach,” Gift ordered.
“Anything else?”
“Nah, that’s it,” he replied, then pulled up to the window. He swiped his card, then relaxed into his seat. “Alright, so tell me about you, Xoey. What do you like to do?”
The window opened again, and a woman handed him two drinks. He put straws in them, then put them in the cup holders. “Oh, hey, Mr. Officer,” she said, smiling. “I thought that was you. It’s been a few days. How have you been?”
“I’m alright,” Gift said, taking the drinks. “How much longer on my food?”
The woman was damn near eye fucking him, and he barely gave her a second look.
“Not long,” She leaned into the window and smiled at him. “Maybe five minutes or so.”
“Alright,” he said, then leaned back in his seat and gave me his full attention as he watched me through the mirror. “You gonna answer my question?”
“Mr. Officer?” the woman in the window said, trying to get his attention. “You been okay?”
I cut my eyes to her, and annoyance crept up my spine.
Before I could stop myself, I leaned forward so she could see me.
“I like killing people, Gift,” I answered him.
The woman’s eyes cut to me, and her brows went up.
“If my doctors knew how many people I actually killed, they’d label me a serial killer.
” I watched the woman’s mouth drop open, and she backed up from the window.
“Shit, me too,” Gift smirked.
“You would call me a serial killer, too?” I turned my attention back to him.
“Nah, Xoey,” he answered. “They’d label me a serial killer too.”
The woman returned to the window, handed Gift a bag, and slammed it shut. He checked over the food, which smelled good as hell, then closed the boxes and set them on the passenger seat. He eased out of the drive-thru and turned right, in the opposite direction of the police station.
“Um where are we going?” I asked as I sat back.
“You trust me, Xoey?” He kept driving as I stared at the back of his head. “I’m going to need you to trust me, baby. That’s the only way this is going to work. I operate completely on trust and trust only. If you can’t handle that, then let me know now so I can turn this car around.”
“I don’t know you to trust you,” I said, shaking my head. “You’re asking for a lot from me, and you’re a stranger.”
“That’s what this date is for,” he chuckled as he continued to drive. “It’s just getting to know each other.”
“You arrested me,” I countered, and he shrugged. “I’m in cuffs.”
“You agreed to that,” he replied. “And all you gotta do is say you trust me and they’ll come off.”
“I--”
“But you gotta mean that shit, Xoey,” he said, cutting me off.
“Don’t say shit to me that you don’t mean because if you do and I find out, this relationship is over.
” He shook his head. “I don’t do the lying shit.
Always tell the truth, no matter what.” He looked at me through the rear mirror.
“If you can’t handle that, then don’t say shit.
I’d rather you sit in silence than be lied to. ”
I kept my mouth closed because I didn’t know what to say to that.
I didn’t plan to lie to Gift, but I want to give him the satisfaction of thinking he was running things between us.
He got to a stoplight, put the car in park, got out, opened my door, and held up the key to the cuff.
I turned around, and he quickly took them off.
“Thank you,” I said, and he nodded. He closed the door and got back in the car. “Where are you taking me?”
“Your parents’ house,” he answered, and my face twisted in confusion.
“You know my parents?” I asked, and he nodded. “How the hell do you know my parents?”
“It’s a lot you have to learn about me, Xoey St. Thomas,” he laughed and shook his head. “I ain’t the cookie-cutter nigga you thought I was.”
The sound of his voice washed over me, and I felt my nipples harden.
The voices in my head that usually screamed for me to run were eerily quiet.
I stared at Gift through the rearview mirror as he drove.
When he looked up at me and smiled, I knew I was in for a rude awakening.
He was right, I had no clue who he really was, and surprisingly, I was excited as hell at the thought of getting to know him.