Kiona's POV
+ not edited
I walk down the stairs in my pajamas, it was so early. I was only up because they were making so much noise.
"Haha! Have fun at school." I say childishly sticking my tongue out at Kiera. She glares at me putting her earbuds in.
"Why can't I tell my 23 year old and my 15 year old apart." My mom asks and I laugh. "Anyway, is he coming over for dinner later?" My mom asks.
"Who coming over?" My stepdad bellows out coming down the stairs.
"Damn you're loud as hell." My momma says annoyed. "Her boyfriend."
"Not exactly." I butt in. "And yes mom he is."
She claps excitedly and Anthony, my step dad, stares me down. I ignore him continuing to talk to my mom.
"Tell him 7. I'll be home later than I usually do but I will still make dinner for us." She says and I nod.
"And why the hell are you limping?" She asks so I make up a believable lie.
"I was practicing wearing heels and fell." I lie right through my teeth, but what was I to tell her that I basically got shot.
Thirty minutes later and they were all out the house. So, what better to do than go back to sleep with peace and quiet?
***
"That's so corny Jackson." I say.
"You don't think she'll like flowers?" He looks down at me. He picked me up from my house a little later and we went to the store.
"I mean she will but that's so typical." I say and he shrugs. "Get roses though." I mumble grabbing his hand and leaning against his shoulder. We walk around the mall a little more before heading back to my house for dinner.
"Why are you more nervous than I am?" He asks putting his hand on my thigh to stop it from bouncing. I stopped thinking about the dinner and started thinking about his hand on my thigh.
"I don't know, first guy I'm bringing home." I say.
"Oh yea, what an honor." He says grinning. "Anything I gotta know?" He questions and shit I didn't even know myself.
"Ok well, I'm not going to sugarcoat anything. He doesn't like white guys, he thinks black should stay with black and white should stay with white. He's going to be like that all dinner, but I have no problem with leaving early. My sister Kiera is very sarcastic and cracks jokes all the time, she's impulsive."
"Wow just like you." He laughs pulling into my driveway.
"Uh my moms nice, as you heard, that's pretty much it. I think?"
"You ready?" He asks switching his car o off.
"You're scaring me." I furrow my eyebrows. "Why aren't you nervous?"
"Babydoll, I'm not scared of anyone or anything alright?" He says kissing me really quick, then gets out. I get out taking his hand and leading him in the house.
"We're here." I shout out closing the door behind us. Our cat runs at us making me smile for atleast a little bit.
"Oh hi! You gonna introduce me Kiona?" My mom says coming out of the kitchen.
"Mom this is Jackson, Jackson this is my mom, Rose."
"Nice to meet you, I uh got you these roses." He says holding out his hand for her to shake. "Oh, I get it now." He says referring to why I told him to get her roses.
"That's so kind of you." My mom thanks him, pulling him into a hug. Ok then... She starts walking us to the dining room where everyone was soon enough to be.
"Mmm,I knew you liked white boys, cause shit me too." My sister says quietly.
"Girl I should knock yo ass out." I say pushing her head back while Jackson just laughs at us.
"I'm Kiera, the better sister." She says.
"Nice to meet you." He says. I argue with Kiera a few more minutes before she rolls her eyes and walks away. I look down at Jackson who was on the floor playing with Mya. That's so cute. She starts giggling and he starts to too.
Jackson gets up holding Mya in his arms placing her down so she could run around again. As soon as he does that Anthony walks in the room. Jackson stands up ready to shake his hand, but he ignored it. I glare at him, while Jackson shook it off and introduced himself.
"I'm Jackson Taylors, nice to meet you," he says politely. No wonder why I haven't brought anyone home.
"Anthony." He says sitting down and I frown. My mom tells everyone to come make their plates, so we head to the kitchen.
"You alright?" I ask looking up at Jackson.
"I'm fine babydoll." He says kissing my forehead.
"Ew." Kiera says.
"Damn, you always got somethin to say! Big ass head damn."
"I'd hate to whoop you for cussin' in my house." Momma butts in, shutting our bickering up.
"We all have big heads so you're insulting your family." She says and I shrug.
"Ok... and?"
"Stop arguing and let's eat." Mom says and we walk back to the dining room. We say a prayer and then the questions starts shortly after we start eating.
"So, where did y'all meet?" My mom asks. Oh fuck, kinda forgot about this part.
"In a club, on Mardi Gras." I say truthfully, just not the whole story.
"You went to the club?" My mom asks shocked and I nod. "Who forced you to go out the house,"
"Ziya snd Trece." I say truthfully and she laughs.
"Wait so, that wasn't Ziya's bathroom was it, liar." Kiera mumbles and I roll my eyes.
"So, Kiona tells me that you're up here for work, what do you do?" Anthony asks like he cares.
"I run a chain of businesses around America, Taylors, that's the name of mostly everything. The Taylors hotels, and Taylors resorts, things like that." He says and my mom nods. My dad keeps eating and doesn't say anything.
I knew he was going to be like that but damn lighten up.
"Oh that's nice,I don't why ya daddy being so damn stubborn, but I'm glad you brought him over." My mom says. I glance at her and then my dad.
I don't even know if I wanted approval from him, all that mattered was that my mom liked him. Or maybe she was just glad that I'm not sheltering myself anymore. Fuck, let me stop overthinking.
"I think we're going to go." I say getting out my chair and pushing it in. My mood changed so fast when he didn't look up the rest of dinner. He just annoys me.
"Well it was nice to meet you all." Jackson says following me out. My mom just smiles as my dad continues to read whatever he was reading. We take our plates to the sink rinsing them.
"Why didn't you say anything the whole time? You don't even know him and if you would've listened then maybe you would've gotten to know him. This is why she hasn't brought anyone home like ever!" I hear Kiera start talking. Thank you Kiera.
"You're not talking to me like that, go to your room!" Kiera gets sent upstairs. I pull her into a hug as her eyes slightly water.
"I love you Kiera, if you need me call me." I say squeezing her tighter.
"Never again." I mumble to myself getting in his car.
"I didn't think it was that bad, your mom's pretty cool."
"Yea and my stepdad's an ass." Jackson shrugs it off grabbing my hand. "We'll be fine still." He says kissing my knuckles.
"You know, I didn't sleep that well yesterday." I mumble looking at him drive.
"Awe, it was because you weren't with me." He chuckles.
"I slept perfectly fine without you before, just a bad sleep." I say playfully, rolling my eyes. I look at the time and it was close to 9.
"Let's go downtown cause why not." I suggest. He raises an eyebrow at me shrugging and saying ok. He parks at the building at his hotel and we begin to walk. I lean against his shoulder walking down the street. I just liked it being all lit up down here and the scenery. It may have been cold, but I was used to it. Jackson on the other hand was shivering.
"Now where should we go?" He looks down at me.
"Mmm a bakery." I say opening a shop door.
"Ew garbage food." He cringes.
"It's good, weirdo." We walk in and I get some snickerdoodle cookies and chocolate chip. "I will force you to eat it if you keep disrespecting my favorite cookies." I threaten.
He mocks me saying the exact same words back in a higher voice to which I glare at him. "That's an empty threat babydoll." He chuckles.
"Is it?" I taunt and he laughs even more.
"Is this your way of being scary?
I don't think it's working." He sticks his tongue out.
"Sir you've literally seen it all, you shouldn't be afraid of anything."
"Actually, I'm afraid of spiders." He shivers even more.
"Are you lying? Cuz I feel like you are, literally you could be afraid of anything else and you're afraid of spiders." I narrow my eyes.
"Yea they're ugly and fast and gross lookin'." He cringes. He greets the people working at the reception in his hotel getting a jet from them. He puts the key next to the 21st floor and we start going up.
"You own this too? You own like everything jeez." I say getting off onto this big ass penthouse type situation. I didn't even know what to call it.
"Welcome to my room at the Taylors hotel." He says turning on all of the lights. The walls that overlooked the city were made of glass. It was such a pretty view.
"The hell? Now why is it necessary to have a tv on your fridge Jackson."
"I thought it looked cool," he shrugged taking off his jacket. He comes behind me taking my jacket off for me and hanging it up. "So you're staying here tonight?" He says a little too excited.
"Yes I guess, jeez you're excited." I start smiling at his face.
"Yes! Luca, Adrian, and Liam came over yesterday and bothered me for hours and hours." He starts complaining as I follow him down a hallway.
"Shut up drama queen." I tease, remembering what he said to me when I was complaining about my shin. He walks into a bathroom turning the light on.
"Jackson, you're literally spending your money on pointless things now. That shower is bigger than my room at home." I laugh, walking around the bathroom. "Why do you have a TV in here?" I shout.
"Because why not?" He laughs, lifting me onto the counter. "Lemme see your shin." He says and I lift up my foot.
"Oh wow, it's actually healing after you started listening and stayed off of it." He takes the old bandage off and changes it. He washes his hands as I thank him. His hands rest on my thighs as he pecks my lips quickly.
"I don't care if your stepdad doesn't approve." He speaks genuinely. "I just care if you stay by my side. You keep me sane." I stay silent resting my forehead against his, with my eyes closed. I felt a sense of calm wash over me and around us.
"Ok," I whisper out intertwining our hands. He lets me down from the counter softly. He pulls me into a heated kiss once more taping my ass softly.
"And about staying off my feet, that was so fucking boring, I had nothing to do!" I exaggerate walking in front of him to his bedroom. He flicks off the bathroom light following after me.
"Wow I'm hurt, I was there with you." Jackson says turning the bedroom light off and flops on his bed.
"Yea, but you were always on the phone or typing something and you looked really focused. I didn't wanna interrupt." I say now straddling him.
"Should've told me babydoll." He says putting his hands behind his head.
"Oh well too late." I shrug.
"Oh you're gross." I say when he starts wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.
"Babydoll you like to be choked I don't wanna hear it." He laughs and my eyes go wide.
"You have a daddy kink that's foul as hell." I scrunch my nose.
"You got me there, call me daddy," he says laughing. I glare at him and he laughs even harder. I change the subject because I've been thinking about it a lot.
"I'm yours, you're mine. That's so cute." I say truthfully and he blushes. "You're blushing?" I ask grinning.
"No," He brings his hands up to cover his face. "Well I don't know how to make this work, like how do I make you happy everyday? How do I protect you from the evil everyday? How do I make you fall more and more for me everyday?" He stresses and his hands go to his hair running through it.
I pull his hands to me resting them on his chest. I held onto to them tightly. "Baby, I don't think I have to worry about the last part." I laugh lightly. "You don't have to go out of your way to do extra things for me, I'm happy. If you've kept me safe for almost two months, I'm sure you can keep it up too." I let go of one of his hands and run it through his hair.
"But I want to, the song you were playing a little while ago, Old Fashioned by whoever, I looked up the lyrics. You seemed to be in love with that song, that's how I want us to be. I wanna treat you that way." He chokes out. He wasn't crying, more stressed than anything else. I sigh heavily.
"I'm fine, you're fine. We'll be fine." I stress. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. His blue eyes swirl with different colors as he relaxes. I sleepily smile at him and place a kiss on his forehead. His eyes close at the action.
"You're so beautiful." He whispers and smirks when I don't respond. He knew I couldn't take compliments without being awkward about it.
"You can't take a compliment to save your life." He laughs and I make a face back at him.
"Yea cause it's weird or not true."
"Babydoll, people wouldn't give you a compliment if they didn't mean it." He says seriously and I frown.
"Ok ok..." I say and he mocks me.
"I'm serious." He says moving his hands to my waist.
"Okay Jackson."
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A/N:
I'm about to take a math test, yikesss but I was so set on updating, I didn't think it would take this long, lmao. I'm upset that we didn't have a snow day today! I was ready to sleep in but thanks for reading!!
It's crazy how yesterday I update and it got like 500 reads, so thank you!💜
Old Fashioned by Bruno Major
Y'all should listen to it, if you want, to kinda know what Jackson's talking about lol