“I love you, but I’m not no nigga’s second option. You choose Kaylee, and now you gotta live with your choice. I’m intelligent. If this was for paperwork to protect Reaper, you should have said that. But you didn’t. You kept it from me because…I’m just the pretty girl who needs to focus on school so niggas like you can chase the money and fuck the girls like Kaylee. No!”
Sitting up, I placed my hand on his chest. His heartbeat was steady.
“I’m Pearla Rinaldi. I can and will have any nigga I choose. But I need you to wake up so you can witness this shit. When it’s all said and done, you will feel this shit in yo’ chest!”
Leaning down to his face, I planted a kiss on his chin since his lips were taped. Now that I was closer to him, I could see atattoo on his chest right where my palm had been. Unlike the other spots on his chest, this one didn’t have a wound. It was a clam—a clam with pearls dangling from it. “Prettiest Pearl in the Clam” was underneath it. That broke something in me.
Using the back of my sleeve, I wiped my face. “You gone regret the day you hurt me. But when you wake up, you better divorce that hoe faster than you can blink. Find another bitch to be happy with. She ain’t the one.”
Turning my back, I walked out of the room. P was leaning against the wall, looking up at me with his brow raised. P and Bella both paused their conversation. I walked over to P, pulled him into my chest, and kissed his lips. He was caught off guard, but he didn’t pull away.
“You aite?” he asked when I let him up for air.
“Yeap. Where is your girlfriend?”
He licked his lips, my lip gloss now on his tongue. “She packed up and left me a while ago.”
I wasn’t expecting him to keep it real. I was so used to niggas selling me a dream that it was refreshing to hear the truth.
“You still love her?”
“I do. You still love him?” He jutted his chin in the direction of Grind’s room.
“No.”
He smirked, knowing I was lying like hell. I’d probably never stop loving Grind.
“I completed the dare. Can I at least know the boy’s name that I just ended my relationship for? I know it’s not just P.”
He licked his lips, and the sight of him licking my saliva off caused a thudding in my panties that only Grind had produced.
“It’s Price, baby.”
“Price…”
He pulled me by my jacket until my front was pressed to his, the gun still on his waist and poking me in the stomach.
“Two muthafuckas that’s still in love with their exes. Sounds toxic, baby.” His voice was so sexy, and the adrenaline was still coursing through me, along with the emotions I was feeling from what had just happened in Grind’s room. I was ready to jump his bones at this point.
“I’m not in love?—”
He cut me off, his grin broadening. “You ain’t gotta lie to kick it, Claressa.”
Biting down on my bottom lip, I grabbed him by the arm so that we could leave. I wouldn’t be back.
Price.
Pearla and Price had a nice ring to it.
Fuck Grind.
Chapter 21
Solana Damita Ledesma
Ihadn’t slept in two days. I knew because Italian had brought me two breakfasts, two lunches, and two dinners, and I had yet to close my eyes. A normal person would have hardly been able to open their eyes by now. But I wasn’t a sane person. I was actually the opposite of sane. Yet, insane wouldn’t be enough to describe what I was feeling right now. With my back pressed against the wall, the bathroom had become my solace. In here, there was water, and the floor stayed chilled. As my skin shifted from itching to burning to agony, the water was the only thing that could soothe it. But today, I wasn’t feeling pain on my skin. Today, I wasn’t feeling pain at all. As a matter of fact, I was in such a state that it was hard to focus on exactly what I was feeling physically.
But mentally? Mentally was where the chaos lay.
