Promises: The Next Generation (Bounty Hunters 5)

She stood close to him… very close.

“How tall are you, sexy?”

Six-one. “Tall enough to fix your smoke alarm,” he said with zero interest in wanting to answer any more questions.

She smiled broader and thrust her chest higher, still trying to draw his gaze lower. “Yes, you are. Muy guapo. Definitely tall enough for me. You could probably fold me over my own table, handle me however you please and—” She hurried and put her hands on his chest. “I know, I know. You already say no interesado. But, at least stay and let me feed you. Strong man like you has got to be hungry. Who’s taking care of your needs, tall, dark and beautiful? Hmm. Donde esta tu amor? A man like you should have a ride-or die chick by his side.”

Her accent seemed to get stronger as her desire rose. Before Ty knew it, he’d been cornered in her dining room. The wall at his back, her table full of forbidden fruits and food to his left and her big breasts the size of honeydew melons, against his front. She licked her lips and inched her tight skirt higher. “I can be that woman, yes?”

No.

He wasn’t trying to be rude, but he was letting her know that she couldn’t trap him there. He walked up on her, and made her retreat backward. Alejandra was used to dealing with weaker men. Ty was sleep-deprived, his warring mind still plagued with unanswered questions, but he was always woke. He wouldn’t lie with her. He felt no yearning, no temptation, not even from her vast array of foods she’d laid out as a lure. If his mind wasn’t stronger than his flesh he would’ve already had her skirt bunched around her waist and sprawled on her table, taking what he had. Then after he’d ’dicked her down, she’d loose her sweet nature and demand what Ty didn’t have to give. Her schemes would’ve worked on a lesser man.

He was not that man. He was his father’s son.

“Alarm is working.” Ty crowded her, towering over her slender pecan brown body. “Have a good day.” He left before she could finish her stuttered, ‘wait’.

“Cheddar, you know I don’t do any drugs or weapons.” Ty had already put the large, sealed package into his backpack. As soon as Cheddar handed him the name and address of his new customer, Ty’s hairs rose on his arms, and alarms sounded in the back of his head. Rock—known as Black Rock on the streets—was a notorious dealer and hustler around their hood. Getting involved with him was asking for trouble.

“Come on, T. You know I wouldn’t do you like that.” Cheddar grinned and gestured toward the bag. “It’s straight. Trust me.”

Ty didn’t trust anyone.

Cheddar’s sister walked by and gave Ty a long look as she moved toward the kitchen. She still had on her school uniform, her navy pleated skirt stopping just past her fingertips. Ty never understood school uniforms. They were supposed to make clothing less distracting while in a learning environment, but it appeared to do the opposite.

“That’s why I only let you in my crib, bro. Them other cats, I make them go around the back.” Cheddar glared at his baby sister as she sauntered by again with an ice-cold soda. “Sasha has walked by at least five times in the ten minutes you been here, offered you a drink twice and you done hardly glanced her way.”

Ty knew of the problems Cheddar had protecting his little sister’s virtue. But he didn’t have to work so hard when Ty was in the house. Ty knew his soulmate would be an adult, so why bother glancing a child’s way? She was only in eleventh grade, but the horny idiots around the way treated her like she was mature enough and ready to be a woman. Ty had thanked her politely for the offer of food and drink, but had declined.

Cheddar slammed his forty-five onto the wooden coffee table. “Had to put my piece to the back of some fool’s head the other day, T, thinking he can put his hands on my sister. But you. I trust you. You got respect for a man when you enter his house. I appreciate that.” Cheddar put his fist out and Ty bumped it with his own, then went back to counting the money Cheddar had paid him this week.

“You pulled your burner and didn’t use it?” Ty said seriously, tucking his money deep down into his jeans pocket.

“I didn’t need to. He knew I had it. That’s all he needs to know.” Cheddar stuck his thick chest out as if that motion put emphasis on what he said. His dreads hung down his back and touched the sofa cushion. He’d confessed to growing them since he was a boy. Ty wondered how a man could put that much dedication into growing his hair like that, but couldn’t put the same devotion into growing his mind.