Lighter Shade of Brown (Urban Fiction) BWHM

Lighter Shade of Brown (Empress 1st Draft)

AN: This is the first draft of Lighter Shade of Brown. Meaning, it has not been edited and it's ratchet as hell! Be warned. This is not my usual writing style. In this version C's doesn't have a POV. This account of the story focuses mainly on Cleo. If you like this and want to read more let me know. I will continue to update this version under it's WIP title, Empress. And because it's sooo explicit, the next updates will be private. You will have to follow me in order to read them. So without further delay...

Over the next six months Cleo moved in with C's. First it started with her spending the weekends at C's house. That had become their routine for about two months. Liberty refused to allow anything else until the night one of her Johns tried to force himself on Cleo. C's beat the man into a permanent residency at a long care health facility. After that Liberty kicked Cleo out. She claimed Cleo was beginning to mess up her business, but Cleo knew the attack on her had shaken her mother. Liberty would rather see her gone than to see her hurt by her fucked up lifestyle.

C's continued to teach Cleo the dope game, and like a prized pupil she soaked up everything she could like a sun dried sponge. She still didn't have her own clientele like Ant, but she knew eventually her time would come. During the hours Cleo wasn't in school she shadowed C's. But in her spare moments, C's allowed her to indulge her new found lust for firearms.  He even set every other week-end aside to take her shooting. Cleo coveted those days. She was able to have C's completely to herself. Not that anything ever happened. For the most part when it came to her C's still behaved like an inappropriate older brother. However, that didn't stop Cleo from craving his company or attention.

"Hey." Ant slammed his hand down on her History book. "Stop worrying about C's and this week's flavor...don't you have test on this stuff at the end of the week?"

Cleo turned to glare at Ant. He was right. She did have test Friday, but how could anyone expect her to study with C's touching all over a girl who was only a year older than her?

"Yeah...so?" Cleo snapped.

"Yeah...talk that shit now, Angela put that ass on lock down later."  Ant laughed and walked back into the living room, taking his place next to Shakeena.

Cleo tossed her pencil down in her book and rose from the table. She walked over to the front door and grabbed the knob.

"Hey, Trouble?" C's called. "You finished studying already?"

"Yep." Cleo opened the door.

"Yeah?" C's laughed. "Tell me what you learned."

She smirked. "The North won."

Cleo closed the door before C's could say anything else. She knew he wouldn't come after while he had company, but he would have a lot to say later. Laughter floated to her from across the street. Putt had started another dice game, and from the looks of the cheesy grin on his face he was winning. She crossed the street to get a closer look at the game.

"What's up, mami? C's let you out?" Putt asked glancing up at her.

"Naw, he must got a girl over there." A tattooed covered Mexican boy named Taz said.

Cleo smirked and pulled a wad of twenties from her pockets, "I got money."

Putt laughed. "My kind of woman."

The group of guys moved to the side to let her place her bet.

Taz held the dice out to Cleo, "you wanna blow on them for me, Mami?"

Cleo's eyes drank him in from head to toe. Taz had dark brown skin with short cropped hair. Tattoo's swathed seventy-five percent of his body and gold covered the entire top row of his teeth. Everybody knew Taz to be a go getter. His hustle game came only second to C's, and because they were so evenly matched they always stayed in a friendly competition of sorts. Their rivalry however had become somewhat strained since Taz had begun to take an interest in Cleo.