“I wanted to talk about what we’re doing.”
“Hiking?” I tease.
“No. I’m starting to count on having you in my life. It scares me.”
“What are you asking me, B?”
“Where we stand.”
“I been wondering the same thing myself.”
We pause and walk off the main walkway closer to a cliff. Eroded away by water like a master sculpture with clay, the reddish-orange land structures are a work of art.
“My life is different from anything you’ve ever known. It’s fast-paced, crazy, but structured and loyal. We have rules that keep us all on track.”
“Are you breaking one by being here with me?”
“No, but my President is going to ask where we stand soon, and I need to know what to stay. People in our lives have to be trusted to keep their mouths shut about what they might see.”
She licks her lips, and I wonder if I’m losing her. My heart lurches.
“And what else?” she asks.
“There’ll be things you won’t understand or know everything about, and I’d need you to trust me. If I tell you to do something, it’d be to keep you safe. I’d keep certain things to myself for the same reason.”
“Jagger, this is scary.”
“It can be.” I nod my heads.
“Would I be in danger?”
“Now? No, but I can’t say what might happen in the future. I can tell you our women are protected.”
“No one can do that every second of the day.”
“No, but we’d do our damnedest. Our woman mean something to us.”
“And in their eyes, I’d be yours? Your woman?”
I step closer and cup the back of her neck. “Aren’t you already? I’ve let you call the shots every step of the way. Believe me that doesn’t happen often with me. So when I say you’re special to me, trust I mean it. Our friendship is unlike anything I’ve ever had before, and every day it’s growing, morphing into something that won’t fit into that nice and neat box we first placed it in.”
She tilts her head back and licks her lip.
“You want this as much as I do, don’t you, baby?”
“Damn you. Yes, I do.”
“Then let me give it to you.” I trace her lips with the tip of my tongue. “Open up and let me in.”
Her lips part and I plunge my tongue inside. She moans, and I nibble, tease, and taste her until her body is flush against mine and we’re both breathing heavily.
“I’m nowhere near done with you, B.”
“I want you to come to my condo and have dinner with me, Jess, and my daughter, Whitney. I want to…move this forward.”
“Yeah? You know I ain’t the meet the parent’s type, right?”
“Good thing mine are in Tennessee.”