The Friend

Alicia

No, she wouldn't have to return back home for Dezzi and work. Not when there was this. And before she knew it, one of Rodney's hands left her buttocks and trailed past her skirt to bare thighs. He maneuvered past the inside of her thighs and cupped warmth.

Her eyes widened at the feelings his touch evoked and quickly, her hand slid down to his forearm before she stopped herself from removing his hand away.

"What are you doing?" she asked breathlessly.

"Do you want me to stop?" he met her eyes.

Her words got caught in her throat from the look in his eyes. They were tender and aroused. She didn't believe she could look a man in his eyes as he was touching her, but she did and all that she got from Rodney was nothing, but trust for him.

He leaned in to kiss her neck again and she let him, all the while shutting her eyes and letting his hand cup her, compressing his hold until her legs were quivering with need. She's never felt, never experienced before, anything like this. It crossed her mind finally that they should go to his bedroom. If they could make it.

"Will anybody be home in a bit?" she asked, her voice stammering.

"Do you want to go to my room?" he asked, his voice low and raspy.

"Yes," she said, then added, "But will anybody be home in a few?"

"No one. My brother is out selling," he said.

She shut her eyes, content with the fact that no one was going to be home. That his brother was selling. As Rodney continued to massage her through her cotton underwear, his panting in her ears, her eyes snapped open a second later.

"Selling what?"

Rodney's hand froze between her thighs. His reaction had served that her worst nightmare was correct and before she gave it a second thought, she crawled off of his lap as he rose. Desire and confusion clouded his eyes and mirrored hers.

"Selling what, Rodney?" she asked again.

"I didn't mean to say that," he said after what felt like an eternity.

"...that's all you could say?" Alicia asked, "That you didn't mean to say that?"

"Alicia...it's nothing—"

"Don't tell me it's nothing when you know it isn't. Is this what you couldn't tell me the day we went to the bookstore that you promised to tell me another day?" she asked.

Slowly, he looked down, folding his lips together, unable to offer her an answer.

His brother was a drug dealer? No wonder he told her he never had any friends over. The siblings had to keep a low profile due to a life of crime.

With a pained expression, she gazed up at him for a long time. Silence filled the room. After a minute, he stared back, displaying the same expression that was all too familiar to her now. The one she saw on their first date when she tried to ask him about his life, the one she saw earlier today when they visited Professor Houston, the one she saw when they ran into his brother. It was a masked expression—he refused to let her in. He didn't trust her like she realized she trusted him just now. He only wanted to fuck her.

Granted, though she never believed that someone like Rodney could desire her and it turned out he did, that couldn't erase the fact that they were different.

Tears coated her eyes. Why mess around here with him when she was supposed to be home working on a project with Dezzi?

She shook her head and slipped on her shoes, heading for the door. Of course, Rodney followed her, blocking her path.