Her frown deepened. “You know I ain’t ever played with you a day in my life, Moolah Brooks.” The fire in her tone made him chuckle once again. He grabbed her hand, but she snatched away from him before she took a step back. “No. We aren’t doing this. I’m not doing this. You . . . you don’t get to do this to me.”
Confusion filled him. “Do what? Fuck you actin’ like I’m about to break you or somethin’?”
She looked at him incredulously. “Because that’s exactly what you do. You break me. You leave.”
Moolah couldn’t say anything to that. He clamped his mouth shut and stared down at her. Emotions filtered through him.Iskyiah Nathans. His first love. His only love. It felt impossible to wrap his head around the fact that she stood in front of him at the moment. The pain in her eyes caused an ache in his heart. Only fuckin’ Iskyiah Nathans could throw him off-kilter like this.
“Come sit down.” He turned and moved toward the seat he had previously occupied.
When he sat, he was glad to see Iskyiah had reluctantly followed him. Good, because that hadn’t been a question or an offer. It was a demand. It made his dick twitch to know that she still knew how to take orders.
Slowly, she lowered herself into the seat across from him. “I’m working, you know?”
He cracked a grin and then frowned at the unfamiliar action. “A flight attendant, huh? How long you been doin’ that?”
“Over a decade. Today is my first day with this company, though. I really don’t want to mess it up?—”
“What are you doing?” The high-pitched male voice caused Moolah’s frown to deepen. The flight attendant, Jake, judging by the name tag attached to his black button down, looked at the ground where the glass had fallen before his eyes landed back on Iskyiah. “Mr. Brooks, I am so deeply sorry for the actions of our newest employee. I assure you I will have a stern talk with her right away?—”
Iskyiah stood, which made Moolah stand, dwarfing them both with his height. Before Iskyiah could open her mouth to apologize to dude, Moolah spoke. “Aye, nigga. Why you worried about what the fuck we got goin’ on? Go do yo’ job and leave us the fuck alone.” Jake looked bewildered as he glanced at Iskyiah. “Fuck you lookin’ at her for?”
“Moolah!” Iskyiah hissed.
With his eyes on Jake, he said, “Iskyiah,” in a similar tone that she had used.
“I-I was j-just?—”
“You still talkin’?” Moolah cut Jake off. “Scram, nigga.”
Jake’s eyes grew wide when Moolah took a step toward him, and he turned quickly and disappeared back behind the curtain.
Iskyiah made a move to follow him, which pissed Moolah off. He grabbed her wrist, and she turned and looked up at him. “Moolah, seriously. I need this job.”
The pleading in her tone softened him some. He wasn’t trying to come off as an asshole. Not toward her. He just wanted to talk to her and bask in her presence, and she acted like that was the last thing she wanted to do.
He dropped her wrist and grabbed at the back of his neck. Not allowing his frustration to get to him seemed like a task, but he could and would do anything for Iskyiah.
Once he was calm enough, he gazed at her and said, “How much you get paid?”
“Excuse me?”
He clenched his jaw before he spoke again. “Sky, for the love of Big Homie, tell me how much you get paid.”
She shifted her weight again. “I’m salaried?—”
“Man, look. Whatever you make, I’ll triple it. Quit this fuck ass job and work directly for me. I do a lot of traveling. You would have plenty of work. Trust me.”
Iskyiah eyed him. “I . . . I can’t.”
“Why not? You wanna work with Jake? That why?” Jealously flared through him so suddenly that he had to take a seat. He looked up at her, doing his best to wait patiently for her response.
“What? No. I don’t even know him. I can’t because . . . because I have a daughter to think about, and I can’t risk you dippin’ out on me again and leaving me high and dry. I can’t just quit this brand-new job because you asked me to.”
“How old is she?” Moolah asked. Hearing that Iskyiah had a daughter had done something to him. What, he couldn’t be sure. The thought of a mini version of the only woman who held his heart running around was bound to turn him into putty.
Iskyiah frowned at his lack of response to everything she just said. “Ten.”
“She mine?”
