Cleo stared down at the car scared that if she moved it would disappear. The Chevy honked twice. Without so much as a glance at Liberty, she swallowed her nerves and descended the stairs. Slowly she approached the car, thinking about what she was going to say. Damn baby, you must be wrecked, because you been crashing my head all day. She gave herself a mental bitch slap for that corny ass line. If she said that bull, he'd probably crank the Chevy up and leave without saying a, damn, thang.
Out of time and damn near out her mind, Cleo opened the passenger's door and slid in, the velvet seats kissing the backs of her thighs.
C's gangsta leaned in the driver's seat like he was sprawled out on a throne. "What's up, Trouble?" C's said, his voice causing every nerve ending in her body to spark to life just to say hello.
"Nothing," Cleo said in a breathless whisper. "What you doing here?"
"I told you, I would see you later?" C's leaned closer to her and ran a finger over her recently healed eye. "Girl, you knew I was coming. Just couldn't stay away any longer." He inhaled, his nostrils slightly flaring, as his eyes slid closed.
A sheen of sweat coated her head where her forehead met her hair line. "Yeah, but..." She ran out of words and god given sense as his eyes reopened to capture hers. Damn. She was done. Just done.
"But what?" He asked, teasing her with a knowing grin that dragged her attention to his mouth.
An impulse to press her lips to his took root so deep in her, it made her mouth water. "I don't know?" She swallowed. "I thought that was just something to say." She finished weakly, trying to look anywhere else, but at him and his tempting mouth.
"Damn, baby. Who you been running with?" C's laughed. "I don't just talk to hear myself. If I say something then that's what it is. No jokes. No games." Slowly, he dragged a finger up her upper arm, leaving goose bumps in its wake. "Especially when I'm dealing with you." Two intense chocolate brown orbs penetrated her skull, searing her to the brain and mind fucking her good and proper. "You feeling me, baby. Holla at me." His fingers encircled her arm in body blistering heat. In a, too smooth for the humbug fashion, he pulled her closer.
Cleo fell in to his arms without fight to the first. Her usual defenses were down and they probably weren't coming back up anytime soon. Hook, line, and sinker, he had her. He wanted a friend, she could be that. It wasn't nothing but a thang. Hell she'd be the best friend he'd ever had as long as he kept her in his space.
"What you want me to say?" Cleo asked, her voice cracking.
He drew his eyebrows together. "What you mean, 'what I want you to say?'" Sliding his arm around her shoulder, he pressed her closer to his side. "Say whatever's on your mind. Let me know what you want. 'Cause I can't lie. I'm diggin' the shit out of you. And yeah, I know you young and thangs, but I ain't trying to take it there yet. I'm patient. I can wait for that." He waved a hand back and forth between them. "I wanna see where this goes. See if it can potentially be something. You get what I'm saying?" He stroked her collar bone with an index finger.
Her breathing slowed until it eventually came to a stop, while time kept right on ticking away. He was waiting for her to say something. The problem was, she seriously didn't know what to say. All of those feelings and sensations he provoked within her were new. Hell, everything he'd said dangled somewhere over her head just out of reach. She opened her mouth, but indecision and the inability to string together a sentence snapped it closed again. When his body stiffened, and tension compromised his flawless features, she realized her time was up.
"I think I do," she said, cutting her eyes up at him to peep his reaction. "This is my first time around the block. You asked me who'd I been running with, truth is, nobody. Ain't no dude ever came at me like this. You're the only one." She stopped speaking to let her admission sink all the way in. When his gaze widened, she nodded her head and continued. "I'm not like these girls from around here. Don't expect me to have a ready-made comeback to whatever you spit, 'cause you think since I'm from the Ninth I've heard and did this all before. It ain't the case. Not even close." She covered his hand with hers. "Now aside from or in answer to-I'm not really sure at this point- to what you had to say, I'm liking the mess out you too. And I'm down for whatever. Whether it's friends or maybe more than that. I don't know. I'ma leave that up to you."
C's backed up off her a little, his expression guarded, while still keeping her enfolded in a loose hold. His silence made her nervous. Had she been too bold by letting him in this soon? Given out too much truth about herself, more than he actually wanted to handle. Yeah, she knew she was young, but her soul and mind was three times her physical age. Growing up trife in the Ninth with Liberty as a mother didn't allow for much of a childhood or playtime. She had to be mentally on a higher level than the sharks that swam around her on a daily basis. Predators didn't see age, all they saw was meat.
"Look baby-," C's opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by a tap on the driver's side window.
Cleo rolled her eyes, releasing a harassed sigh. Liberty stood on C's side of the car with her arms folded, while a cigarette dangled from between her brown stained fingers. Damn. Why couldn't Liberty mind her on business at least half of the time?
"You know her?" C's asked, while shoving a hand in his pants.
Cleo scrunched her face up like she smelled something foul. "Yeah. That's Liberty."
"Your moms." He pulled his hand from his windbreaker pants. Settling back into his slouch, he lowered the window. When the window was down halfway, C's plastered an innocent grin across his face. Liberty tooted her lips up in response, letting him know off rip she wasn't buying anything his, golden brown sexy self was selling. "Que pasa?"
"You tell me what's up, Ese? Where the hell you think you taking my daughter?" Liberty crouched down until she was eye level with C's.
C's laughed and held up is hands in defense. "Nowhere crazy."
"Um hmm." Liberty nodded, while her expression declared she didn't believe not even a letter of what he'd said.
"For real." He flashed another all white smile. "We were just going to bend a few corners. If that's okay with you." He added when Liberty shifted her weight to one foot and planted a hand on her hip. "I promise I'll bring her back safe and sound."
Liberty's gaze narrowed. "Get the fuck out of here. Like you did last time?" Liberty smacked her lips, while waving a hand to swat his words back at him. "My baby looked like she went ten rounds with Roy Jones Jr."
"Sorry about that." C's expression changed to one of contrition, his hand slid across the seat to cover hers in a silent apology. "I promise you that won't happen again. Not while she's with me." The muscle in his jaw twitched.
She tore her gaze from him to look at Liberty. "Can I go?"
"Wait a minute, damn." Liberty drilled her with a look that said, shut the hell up. She then returned her gaze to C's. "I'm assuming you from the Circle, huh?"
"Born and bred." He agreed, pounding his chest with a fist.
"Um hmm. I know lil' something, something about how y'all get down out there." Liberty straightened from her crouch and dropped her cigarette. After she stomped out the waning blaze her glare swung back to C's. "So who yo' peoples in case I have to come through and set shit off? Humph. With that big ass kool-aid smile, I bet you Mateo's seed."
C's sat up in his seat, all humour and charm quickly disappearing from his features. "You knew my padre?"
A slow smirk eased across Liberty's lips as she held her hand up to study her fingernails. "Didn't I just say I know a little something, something about yo' block? I ain't playin' with you, hombre. If my girl roll out with you, then yo' ass better bring her back the same way she left here. 'Cause if she come back looking all jacked like she did the last time...," she let her voice trail of for emphasis, while leveling him with a cold empty glare, that Cleo had never seen before. "I'ma come through and light that bitch up like its New Year's-fuckin'-Eve. Comprende papi? And if you still not feeling me, you better ask Bruno and Alejandro how the fuck I get down."
C's locked gazes a while longer before finally nodding his agreement.
Liberty looked at Cleo, "If shit go sideways and you need a ride home catch a cab. There's money in my night stand." Without another word, she slapped the roof of the car and turned back to head upstairs.
C's rolled the window up and shook his head. "Damn. Where yo' moms get her balls from? She trealler than most, hombres I know." He put the car in reverse, and the crowd that had begun to gather in the street split to clear a path for the Chevy. "She don't play does she?"
Cleo shook her head. If he only knew some of the changes she went through with Liberty, he wouldn't be so quick to laugh that shit off. "Not even a little bit." She settled back into the passenger seat ready to let the subject of her deranged, ass, mama drop.
At the front entrance, the off duty police officer opened the gate and waved them through. Out the corner of her eye Cleo watched C's. He looked so dog on good all she wanted to do was reach out and touch him. Make sure he was real. For two days she'd fantasized about being with him like this. Riding and chilling, while taking advantage of whatever came to mind. She allowed her gaze to travel over him on the sly. A smile flirted shamelessly with her lips. God, she loved his style. Today he wore a red and white, you can do it, Nike t-shirt with white translucent wind breaker pants, and a pair of red and white high top Jordan's. The entire outfit probably cost more than everything she owned in her closet. Insecurity polluted her thoughts, with dribble about her not being good enough for him. She tugged on the bottom of the black tank she wore. He probably thought she looked a mess in her hand me down cutoff dungarees and worn out four stripes wanna be Adidas.
"You know I missed you right?" C's eyes left the road to drink her in. "You looking good as hell to me right now." He inhaled deeply. "Smell even better. I thought about waiting 'til tomorrow to see you, but..." A grin dimpled his right cheek. "I was like hell naw. It's been two days I need to connect with my chick ASAP."
"Is that who I am?" Cleo asked, cutting her eyes at him.
"What?"
"Yo' chick?" Cleo asked.
His hand reached up to stroke the wayward curls at the nape of her neck. The sensation caused an involuntary tremble to run through her body all the way down to her toes. A smug expression set up shop on his face. "Is that who you wanna be? 'Cause I'ma tell you right now the title is yours if you want it, bae."
"For real, for real?" Cleo asked, turning in her seat to angle her body so that it faced his.
C's hand slipped from her neck to drift down to entangle with her fingers. "For real. Like I said before, I wanna see where this goes. We can figure out the titles and thangs as we go. Shit, 'cause a title don't mean shit if the feelings isn't there." He dropped her hand to turn on Massachusetts Avenue.
Cleo glanced out the window, while she wrapped her mind around what he'd said. Of course she wanted be his. She knew that the first time she'd got lost in his eyes. And yeah, like him, her curiosity about a future for them had her choosing team C's all day long, but she wasn't trying to be his play thing either. What if he was running game just to get the drawers, not that she'd be giving them up anytime soon, still when the time was right she didn't want C's to have her open, and then choking with his ass nowhere in sight. Oh yeah. Liberty had put her up on all the tricks being played by the fellas.
C's turned on the Circle. Cleo scanned the neighborhood and spotted the guy covered in tattoos who'd talked mad mess on her first visit. He sat on the hood of a funked out Supra with a cordless house phone pressed to his ear. As they passed him he pumped a fist in the air. "Look at this snake ass dude here." C's muttered under his breath. Grudgingly, he bumped the horn and threw up a peace sign. When he pulled into his driveway he cut off the car. His hand found her thigh, and gave it a quick squeeze. "Come on let's go in for a minute."
Cleo climbed out of the car and joined C's on the driver side. He pulled a black pager from his pocket. As if on cue the screen lit up and the beeper began vibrating. She leaned against the car and watched him check various numbers on the monitor, his forehead creased in concentration. Without taking his gaze off the pager, he slid his arm around her waist, casually inching her tank top out the way to caress the bare skin at her side. The heat from his palm seared her deep enough to singe her soul. Damn. Being that close to him was habit forming. Mind numbing.
Ignorant to her surroundings Cleo didn't notice the approach of the bald headed dude from across the street. He nodded at her as walked up in the yard, his gaze holding hers at least two seconds longer than he should have. It was like he recognized her, but he couldn't remember from where. Reluctantly, his gaze left hers to swing to C's.
"C's, what you know good?" The guy asked, while standing in a wide leg stance with his arms crossed over his chest.
C's glanced up from his pager, pulling her even closer. "Que pasa, hombre." His attention returned to his pager. "I already know what you want." Shaking his head, he clipped the beeper back to the waistband of his pants. "Ain't nothin', brother. I'm drier than nun."
"Man damn..." Putt wiped his face with his hands. "Alright, folk. Just holla at yo' boy when you get ten. 'Cause it's a drought out this bitch, and I'm missin' paper left and right."
"I hear ya," C's rested his chin on the top of her head, and she burrowed deeper into his chest. "I should be good later on tonight...if not tonight then for show tomorrow morning."
"Bet." Putt chanced another glanced at her before slapping hands with C's. "I'll holla at ya later."
"Do dat shit, holmes." Not interested in further interruptions, he snatched her hand and pulled her to the front door of the townhouse.
Once inside, C's wrapped his arms around her from behind. Pressing wet kisses to the side of her neck, he guided her up the stairs. Between sloppy smacks bubbles of nervous laughter damn near strangled her. She knew what time it was. Yeah, brother man claimed to be patient, talking about he could wait, but it was funny how stories changed when the right situation presented itself.
They came to a stop in front of his bedroom. Pushing the door open, he gestured for her to go in before him, waving his hand towards the room like an English butler. Butterflies got off the fucking chain in her belly. Their wings flapping back and forth over her stomach lining as if someone had put a match to their asses. She swallowed to push down the knot in her throat and walked into the room. C's let the door close behind him, the loud clap making her jump. Before she could whirl around and face him his arms reclaimed her waist, in a possessive hold. Once again he resumed planting body shaking kisses on the column of her neck.
Her eyes rolled closed as her head dipped to the side to allow him more access. "Where's Ant?"
"Hell if I know." He nipped at her earlobe, tiny sparks of light exploded behind her eyelids. "Probably chillin' with one of his brizzas. Don't worry. Ain't nobody coming up in here. It's just me and you." Turning her around in his arms, her eyes floated open to find a deep brown soulful stare watching her. "You don't have to do anything you don't wanna do. Okay, baby?"
Lost and spinning, Cleo nodded. Once he'd given her the power to draw the line, his thug seduction resumed in full swing. Using his body weight, he slowly backed her further into the room and she had a sneaking suspicion that his bed was the final destination. When the mattress collided with the back of her knees, her beliefs were confirmed. He withdrew from her neck to stare down at her in question. Standing on her tip-toes she answered him with a soft brush of her mouth against his. Was she sure? No she wasn't, however she wasn't ready to stop either. She wanted to ride this wave as far as she could without crashing.
Gratitude burned mega-watt bright in his stare, before he tumbled them onto the bed. Landing in a tangle of arms and legs, he used his knee to part her thighs. Fear licked at the edges of her mental, but she ignored the pointless emotion. She was tired of being a slave to it, for years she'd played the game safe and by the book. Now she wanted to get a little buck wild, lose the chain for a while at least. Relaxing, she allowed her body to be manipulated. He watched her face as he settled on top of her. When she didn't trip about his new position of power, he adjusted himself so that the lower half of her bore his weight, while his elbows carried the brunt of his upper body. Once situated, his hands went to her head, and pulled away the elastic that bound her hair in a ponytail.
Cleo opened her mouth to object, only to have his cover hers, and his tongue shoved into her mouth. The foreign invasion made her forget about him messing up her hair. No. There were other territories to be explored and this new one had just knocked her head back. After taking a moment to learn the unusual technique of kissing she began to match C's moves, stroke for stroke. By the time they broke apart, they were both panting like dogs.
"Damn, girl." He gasped, still raking his fingers through her hair, untangling her curls and spreading them out to fan the mattress. "You pick up fast." He dipped his head to nip at her bottom lip.
"I just try to keep up. Liberty say you can't win the race if you sprintin' a pace behind," she said between gasps.
"Keep this up and ya gonna be winnin' real soon, bae." He rolled off of her and pulled her into his arms. "Let's chill out for a minute. If we keep goin' like this I won't be able to pull back. And I think we both know you're not ready to go there yet."
"No. Not yet." She admitted, while burying her face in his t-shirt.
"It's cool, Trouble. I'm on yo' time." He worked his finger between her face and his shirt, moving it around until he found her chin. When he'd made contact, he lifted her head so that he looked down in her face. "What I look like pressin' you before you're feelin' it?" He shook his head. "Nah. That ain't me."
"I know." Cleo rested her hand on his chest with her fingers splayed wide over his heart.
"Yeah?" C's jutted his chin up, the side of his mouth hitching in a smug half smile. "How? For all you know I can be runnin' major tech."
"Could be." She paused, liking the sensation of his heart pounding into her hand, almost as if it was beating just for her. "But you're not. Yeah I know they say you got a gang of-,"
C's cut her off. "They say?" His eyebrows crashed together. "Who's they?"
"Dudes from around my way." She used an elbow to prop her up so she could look down at him.
He tucked a hand behind his head, and his face morphed into a hard unit. Warm brown pools transformed into dark murky chips of ice. Damn. What the hell had she said to bring on this change?
"I thought you said you didn't deal with the dudes from around your way?" His glare cut deeper than a Samurai sword.
She backed off of him a little, unsure about this side. Was this the C's, Tech had tried to tell her about? "I don't, but after you brought me home all raggedy in the face, Tech rolled through to check on me. He wanted to make sure you didn't put yo' hands on me or try to take something."
Just like that, murky chips of ice were incinerated by two twin flames that blazed hotter than hell fires. His eyes burned so bright his normal warm chocolate brown eyes transmuted in to two amber hellholes spattered with dark gold flecks. Aside from his twisted gaze, he appeared to be cool and nonchalant, like they were talking about the weather and thangs. But something in Cleo's gut screamed that this dude was off da meter in that mug.
"He asked about me, huh?" His hand slithered under her hair to grab the nape of her neck. The hold wasn't punishing, but it did let her know not to get wrong. "What else did hombre, wanna know?"
"Nothing, really," she said, trying to ignore his nails biting into her skin. "He just wanted to know if you'd hurt me. I told him no. That someone else did and you would handle the situation, and that he could just stay his ass out of it."
Even though the color of his eyes still sparked amber gold, C's loosened the grip on her neck. "What else did that puto say when you told him to stay the fuck in his lane?" He asked through clenched teeth.
"Nothing. Just started telling me stuff about you being a hell raiser, and thangs. He said that I should stay away from you, because you wasn't gonna bring me nothing but hard times." Cleo watched as the muscle in his jaw twitched. "That I should stick with my own, because that's what you would do when it all came down to it." Tears of anger blurred her vision, but she would drop dead before she allowed even a single one to fall. "He said you weren't my kind. But I wasn't hearing him though. Uh unh. Not even a little bit."
His fingers released her neck to cradle her face in the palms of his hands. "And you shouldn't. He don't know what this is between us. How could he? He on the outside lookin' in. Assumin' and shit." Veins stood at attention in C's neck. "Yeah you black and I'm brown, so what? And yeah I have some homeys around the way that like to creep on da low with sisters from around yo' way, and probably would take two to the head before ever bringing them home to meet the fam, but who cares? That's not us either." He waved a hand between them. "I'm in to you for real, girl. You got my ass trippin' hard. Even my boy see it. What we're doin' right now..." he shook his head. "I don't do this. Take time out with a female I ain't about to get in to. Shit I been on the grind since I jumped from Juvie eight months ago." Pressing a kiss to her lips, he stroked her cheek with the pad of his thumb. "Not slowin' my roll for shit. Force mode all day every day. But then I run into you the other day, and you make my ass wanna stand still." His hands left her face so that his arms could snake around her waist and haul her on top of him. "That's all I've been thinkin' about since I dropped you off. Standing still with you, even if it's just long enough to get to know you and put you under my arm."
"Stop. You messin' with my head," she said, biting her bottom lip at the corner to stop herself from smiling.
"Why you do that?" C's tapped the corner of her mouth.
"What?"
"Try to hide your smile. I earned it, it's mine. Give it up." He pushed her hair from her shoulder, and nipped it with his lips. "Stop looking so mean all the time. Ain't no tellin' what you can catch if you put out a little bit of the honey."
"Puhlease." She laughed, swatting his chest. "What I gotta smile about?"
"Me." He whispered, his lids hanging low in true bedroom eyes fashion. "Because I damn sho' haven't been able to stop cheesing since I met you."
Damn. The butterflies had escaped her stomach and flown straight to her heart. Flutters attacked the poor defenseless organ one after the other, making the damned thing stall and stutter like an old beat up Pinto. Man, he had her going harder than his Chevy. And he knew it too. The arrogant expression he wore put all his business in the streets. She prayed that he wasn't playing with her. For the sake of the very thing that was now pounding her rib-cage like f-in sledgehammer. For the love of his next breath, he'd better not be selling her dreams.