I'd been awake the whole time he was gone. Didn't sleep. Just laid in that bed staring at the ceiling thinking about what could be happening right now. Thinking about whether he was safe. Thinking about the fact that I cared whether he was safe, which was crazy considering he'd kidnapped me less than forty eight hours ago.
But I did care. And that was the problem.
I’d given him the information he needed to possibly kill a man, and I did that all for my gain. Now, I was worried and hoping that Kaseem didn’t want into a trap himself.
I heard him moving through the house. Security checking in with him, him responding in short answers like he was tired but alert. I got out of bed and went to my door, cracking it open to see if I could catch a glimpse of him walking past.
The guard posted outside my door immediately put his arm across the frame, blocking my way.
"Orders are for you to stay in the room," he said. Not mean, just matter of fact.
I started to protest but I heard Kaseem's voice cut through the hallway.
"Let her out," he said. Simple as that.
The guard dropped his arm and I moved fast before he could change his mind. I followed Kaseem down the hallway toward his room, staying a few steps behind him because I didn't know what I was about to walk into or what he was about to say.
He didn't say anything. Just went straight into his bedroom and started pulling his shirt off.
That's when I saw it. Blood on the fabric. Not a little bit. Enough to tell me that whatever happened at that address tonight was exactly what I thought it was.
He pulled the shirt over his head and threw it on the floor and I watched his whole chest and stomach come into view. He was all muscle, defined in a way that told me he didn't just run an operation, he stayed ready for any situation that required physical capability.
Then he unbuckled his pants and I felt my eyes widen without my permission.
He slid them down and stepped out of them and suddenly he was standing there in nothing but black boxer briefs and I couldn't look away. His print was so visible that my mouth literally dropped. I was staring. Full on staring like a lil ass girl who'd never seen a man's body before. That’s how serious his shit was.
He was saying something to me but I wasn't hearing it. My brain had shut off everything except the image in front of me.
"Ayo," he said, and his voice cut through the fog I was in. "What's up with you? What did you want?”
I blinked and looked up at his face.
"I just... I came to check on you," I said, and my voice sounded different. Smaller. "Make sure you were okay."
He looked at me for a second like he was trying to figure out if I was serious. "You never gotta worry about me being okay," he said, and he was already walking toward his bathroom. "That ain't your job, and just for future reference, ima always be okay. I make sure of that.” He cockily said, as if he couldn’t be fucked with.
"I’m sure, but when you left you looked angry. Hell, real angry. So I just wanted to make sure you were... I just wanted to check," I said, and I sounded stupid as hell but I couldn't stop the words coming out.
He was rubbing his hand over his head out of stress, moving toward the bathroom. "I'm about to take a quick shower. You can wait in here."
He closed the bathroom door and I stood there in his bedroom like I didn't know what the hell I was doing. The smell of him was everywhere. Whatever cologne he wore, it was all over his room and all over me from being this close to him. He naturally smelled good as hell and that was one thing I remembered about him since day one.
I didn't sit down at first. I just stood there processing what I'd just seen. Processing the fact that I'd followed him like some damn puppy and stared at him like I'd never seen a man before. I didn’t know what it was, but I was definitely feeling and acting different.
The exhaustion from staying up all night finally caught up with me though. I sat down on the edge of his bed, then I laid back just for a second to rest my eyes while he was in the shower.
I was asleep before the water even cut on.
---
When I woke up, he was standing over me tapping my leg. He was shirtless now, wearing just grey shorts that hung low on his hips. His hair was wet and he smelled like soap and whatever he used to clean up after killing people.
"Move over," he said.
I was still half asleep and confused about where I was for a second. Then it hit me that I was in his bed and he was about to get in it with me.
"I'm just gonna go back to my room," I said, sitting up.
