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I couldn’t quite figure out his tone. It was sort of questioning as well as derogatory, maybe. Whatever it was, I knew he hoped I’d say no. “He is. He and I are together every night.”
“Oh, he lives with you, that’s right. I forgot.”
“No, he doesn’t but we are together. I hate to cut this short, but I have to run. Have a good evening,” I quickly told him.
He tried to say more, but I gave him a fake smile as I waved, then rushed to finish grabbing what I needed before checking out. The whole way to the car, I kept checking over my shoulder to make sure he wasn’t following me. I didn’t see him but I couldn’t shake the feeling I had eyes on me.
During the short drive to my place, I thought of my two conversations with him. What was he after? Surely, he wasn’t interested in me. Before Blade, I’d had a few guys act like they might be flirting, but I never paid much attention to them. Heath was much blunter about it. Even when his words sounded innocent enough, his body language, expressions, and tone said something else.
I got my groceries into the apartment and then locked the door as fast as I could. I didn’t want to chance running into him a third time. After changing my clothes, I got to work on doing laundry, cleaning the bathroom, then I planned to start dinner.
Over the weekend, I found out Blade’s favorite meals. They were diverse as they were from a variety of different types. They were a mix of American, Asian, Middle Eastern, Mexican and Indian mainly. One of them was a personal favorite of mine. It was a Thai recipe that was called Thai Basil. I made it with chicken and it had spicy Thai basil leaves, onion, hot peppers, and other spices in it. You put it over rice. I hadn’t told him, but I planned to make that tonight along with a fried corn fritter thing I’d found in a Thai cookbook which I loved. I was hoping he’d like my version.
As I worked, I thought about whether I should mention to Blade my latest run-in with Heath. A part of me thought I should, but the other said not to stir things up. He’d been upset the first time he met him, simply for borrowing sugar. I didn’t want to give him a reason to confront Heath or possibly get into something more. Sure, he was friends with Jake, but that didn’t guarantee he wouldn’t get arrested if they caused a scene or Lord forbid, he hit him. After debating with myself, I decided I’d keep it to myself. If he kept it up, then I’d tell Blade like he asked.
As the basil mixture slowly simmered on the stove and the rice cooked in my rice cooker, I freshened up. I wanted to look nice for him. He told me I was beautiful no matter what, but a woman liked to think she was at her best. This morning, I’d barely opened my eyes, and he was smiling at me. With a terrible bed head, morning breath and sleep-filled eyes, he told me I was beautiful and kissed the hell out of me. That had led to an intense session of sex before we got ready for work. The man knew his way around my body and what would turn me on in an instant. He knew me better than I did.
I was working to learn the same about him, but he tended to focus on my pleasure before his. He told me that seeing me enjoying what he was doing to me gave him pleasure and got him off. I was praying he was telling me the truth.
After being with Reuben, and every encounter was him forcing his will on me, I loved being able to participate as a partner in our sex life, not as an unwilling participant who prayed for it to be over as quickly as possible.
Blade didn’t know it, but when I found time alone, I’d been researching ways to satisfy my man. I read articles and watched videos. I didn’t have an intimately close female friend to ask, but I was thinking I might get to that point with Neriah and Bryony. They were fast becoming my friends. The other Warriors’ old ladies were extremely nice, and I hoped they too would become my friends. I’d never had a real friendship other than Neriah when I was small. My dad had discouraged me getting close to any of the other girls at the Converts’ compound and Reuben had forbidden it.
My one attempt at making one had backfired harshly when she told her husband about the plants I used to prevent pregnancy. To this day, I was torn over that. On one hand, it lost me my baby which I wanted, even if I didn’t want it to be raised in that place. On the other hand, it gave me the opportunity to escape and start a new life. In the end, maybe she did me a favor. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have met Blade.
The rattling of the door caught my attention. A couple of moments later, it opened and Blade walked in. I’d given him a key to my place. I took in his appearance and appreciated it. No matter how many times I saw him in his sexy biker gear, he made my heart jump and my panties get damp. He oozed sex appeal. A vibe of danger also clung to him, but I wasn’t afraid of him. I knew he wouldn’t hurt me. He didn’t waste time. He came right to me.
“Hi, how was—”
He cut off my question by kissing me. It wasn’t a brief peck on the lips. It was an intense, sexually charged bomb. He put his all into it. All I could do was melt and respond to it with my own hunger. His hands cupped and squeezed my ass as he kissed me. I did the same to him to see what he would do. He groaned and kissed me harder. By the time the kiss was over, we were both panting.
“Hello, Boo. I missed you. My day was fine but now it’s wonderful. How about yours? And what is that delicious smell?” He took my hand and walked to the stove.
“It was a little weird. And that’s Thai Basil chicken. I hope it lives up to your standards. I found a great recipe a while back for this. It should be done in about ten minutes. Just waiting for the rice to finish. Why don’t you sit and relax while I fry the corn cakes?”
“Wow, I had no idea you knew how to make this. I'm sure it’ll be awesome. Tell me what weird means for your day.”
He went to the fridge to grab himself a bottle of water. I already had a drink. He sat at my tiny table. I went to work on the corn. I had the mixture already prepared. I dropped a spoonful of the batter into the hot oil and let it sizzle and brown it.
“It was Jan. She was acting all upset and angry about last week. I got tired of her not answering me when I asked her work-related questions, so I confronted her about her attitude.”
“Good for you. What did she say?”
“A bunch of stuff about how you were using me and I’d be dumped soon. That you must have lost a bet, and that’s why you’re seeing me and introduced me to the club. She’s spiteful. She wanted you for herself and can’t figure out why you went for me and not her. I told her that she better straighten up with the attitude around customers or I’d have to tell Ian. She asked me what I thought Ian would do about it. Or was I thinking when you guys buy it, she’d be fired. She threatened that if that happens, she’ll sue. I got tired of her shit and went back to my kitchen.” I was careful not to mention Heath.
His brow was furled. He didn’t look pleased at all. “What is that bitch’s problem? Just because I didn’t take her up on her blatant offer to screw her, she thinks she can get me that way? She’s in for a rude awakening, isn’t she? I don’t intend to let you get away. Ever. In fact, I wanted to talk to you about what I mentioned over the weekend.”
I put the first batch of corn cakes on a paper towel to drain and dropped the second batch. “We talked about a lot over the weekend. Which one?”
“The one where you move to the compound and we live in the apartment until we build our house. I was dead serious about that, Cassia. I want us to be together and to be working toward our future. What if you’re already pregnant? There’s not enough room here for a baby. Your bedroom is barely big enough for your bed and dresser. We’ll never get a crib in it. Also, the compound is way safer than here. You’ll never lack company and our baby will grow up with other kids close to his or her age.”
I gaped at him. He was really pushing for this. His talk about a baby scared me and excited me. We’d have a couple of misses on the condom front and it was a possibility, even though we’d remembered to use them the last few times. I was scared not only at the thought of him maybe leaving me but more so at the thought of losing another baby. I was worried that after last time, I wouldn’t be able to get pregnant or would have trouble carrying one.
“Well? What do you think?”
“Can we eat first, then I’ll tell you my thoughts? This is ready and I don’t want it to get cold.”
I could tell that wasn’t what he wanted, but he was gracious enough to nod. We worked together to get everything to the table. He moaned after he took the first bite and praised me. I was happy. I had to admit, I thought it tasted pretty good. We ate in silence, just enjoying the food. The way it should be. After we were done and settled on the couch, he turned to me.
