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Try as I might, I couldn’t tear my gaze from the massive rock Max had placed on my finger just hours earlier—a rock that had the entire room in awe. Seemed like the more I dissected it, the more its luster blinded me.
Deep down, I felt like he knew exactly what he was doing. He finessed me in a room full of people, knowing that I wouldn’t make a scene. See, Raven was all for decorum, moving with the type of class and elegance that commanded respect the minute she blessed folks with her presence. That Raveniesha, though? Shit, she was a whole different story. No matter how much Raven held it together and maintained that composure in a room full of sucka shit, Raveniesha was always bubbling right under the surface, ready to pull up with that “S” on her chest because she stayed with the shits and wanted all the smoke.
Even as I saw Max’s lips moving with a proposal that would have reduced me to tears in any other situation, I felt Raveniesha pulling the hem of my skirt, begging to show up and show the fuck out. She was dying to knock all that elegant shit off the table and leave a mess up in those folks’ ballroom.
My skin was still ablaze, blistering from the wrath I planned to unleash on Max the minute he bent the corner and made his way into our master suite. A flurry of calls to his cell pulled him away before I got a chance to dig in his shit back in the ballroom. Just as I was pulling him off into a private corner to let loose, he made a rushed exit and left me feeling even more frustrated than ever, so he promised to meet me at home as soon as he handled whatever emergency couldn’t seem to wait.
The closer I got to our palatial home in The Heights, the more Raveniesha was talking my head off, begging me to let her get at Max for just thirty seconds. She didn’t win, but I was definitely in fight mode, because damn if I’d flee the mess Max was making of my life with each passing day.
Fresh out the shower, I was just wrapping up with working an almond oil mixture into my skin when I heard the security system announce there’d been an entry at the garage door. I had no idea what I was about to do, but I figured I should be comfy and opted to dress down in some yoga tights and a racerback tank.
“Sorry for the delay, love...lotta crazy shit goin’ on.” Max blew an exasperated sigh as he slipped out of his suit blazer and tugged to loosen his tie.
“Crazy shit is an understatement, dear fiancé of mine. Wanna know what’s crazy?”
My face must have said it all because Max paused his current state of undress, eyes locked on me, brow furrowed as though he was downright confused.
“Crazy is finding out ya man has been playin’ in yo’ face all this time like you’re a damn fool. Crazy is finding out ya man ain’t no better than the same dog ass dudes that stay tryna fuck every day. Crazy is finding out ya man ain’t ya man because he done hid a whole fuckin’ family up under ya nose for years!”
Zero to a hundred is what I did, lunging at Max with everything in me. I promise I tried not to snap, but I ached. I literally felt like something had been severed right in the apex of my chest. Felt like something snapped in my head because this type of shit was not supposed to happen to me. I had a plan, kept a plan, and this shit was not part of the plan!
“Rae—”
“Shut up! Just shut the fuck up!” My chest hiccupped with each breath I took, breathing ragged from my inner battle to fuck this man up or let him breathe.
“What the fuck you starin’ at! Answer me!”
“I wasn’t aware you asked a question...” this clown had the nerve to mumble, having reclaimed his composure. One foot after the other, he stepped out of his slacks. “You ask a question and I’ll answer it, but this? We don’t do this. Leave that hood shit in The Hills with that bird ass friend of yours. You’re better than that.”
“Boy, fuck you—”
“You can calm the fuck down and act like a lady, or you can stand here and have a temper tantrum alone. You want to talk? Let’s do it. Otherwise, go take another shower and cool the fuck down.”
Is he for real? I swear I felt like I was being punked because when did the tables turn with me being chastised like I was the one in the wrong?
“Boy, stop fuckin’ with my head. I saw you! Multiple times! Don’t stand there and act like she’s not your damn kid!”
“I never said she wasn’t mine,” fell from his lips as he breezed past me on his way to our massive walk-in.
“Excuse me?”
“You never asked me shit about a kid, Raven. Had you asked, you’d have your answer.”
I know I looked at him like he had a dick on his forehead because I was thoroughly confused.
“How the fuck am I going to ask about some shit I don’t know about?” I hissed.
“My point exactly. You didn’t know because you didn’t need to know. But now that you do know, yes. I have a daughter.”
And with that, Max removed the last of his clothing, ending with the Balmain boxer briefs that fought a daily battle to tame all that thick delectable dick he was blessed with. I was beyond livid in that moment and, as usual, my girl down low was disloyal as fuck, throbbing and puckering her lips like she’d been invited to kiss the same thickness that bobbed as Max made his way to the shower.
“When I’m done, we can talk this shit out or we can fuck. Or both. Your choice.”
This man had finessed, checked, and dismissed me in a matter of minutes. I wanted to fight him, fuck him, and ride the shit out of his face all at the same time. As I stood there watching the steam fill our bathroom, I felt an invisible blow to my gut, so powerful that I doubled over right there, forcing me to tear my eyes from Max’s sexy silhouette behind the tempered glass.
Right there, doubled over in pain as my pussy leaked in eager anticipation of a dick that I worshipped like no other, I knew my life would never be the same...and shit was about to get real ugly before it even teased the border of beauty again.
***
The fuck did this man mean ‘break baby?’
“...her mother is the past and not a factor in my present, and that’s where she’ll stay,” Max affirmed, downing the last of his Fiji before dropping the empty bottle into the recycling bin.
“On what planet? How is a woman you’ve had a kid with not a factor?”
Confusion lacing my brow, I still wanted to fuck some shit up, but I also knew that doing so would push Max to his usual means of coping with my tantrums: shutting down and ignoring the shit out of me. But I needed answers, so I tapped into the patience of my ancestors to hold it together.
“Because I said she’s not.”
“So you’re raising a kid...with the mother...but she doesn’t exist to you...”
“She very much exists...she’s just not a factor. She knows her place, stays in her place, and knows that stepping out of her place isn’t an option.
Max was all alpha, all the time, and the same controlling streak that irked the hell out of me also aroused the fuck out of me. So there I stood. Fuming. Flustered. And ready to fuck, all at the same time.
“And you expect me to just be okay with the fact that you have a whole kid you’ve kept hidden for years? How?”
“I never hid her. You didn’t ask and I didn’t mention her.”
“How the fuck am I supposed to ask about some shit I don’t even know exists?” I hated repeating myself, and Max knew it, yet I saw that he was determined to push the envelope today.
“Have I ever asked you about how many dicks you devoured while you were doing you?” Brow furrowed but tone still even, his energy shifted, tugging at my core. This man was pissed, highly, and the shit had me so turned on.
“Had you asked-” His jaw flexed as he cut me off.
“I didn’t ask because I don’t give a fuck. It didn’t concern me and doesn’t affect what belongs to me. You know where you belong; fuck all that other shit.”
I hated when he got like this, when he did this. Truth be told, it made me uneasy...even a bit afraid of whatever was bubbling right under the surface of his forced calm. Max had this darkness about him that disappeared just as quickly as it teased its arrival. Still, it peeked out long enough to make a bitch act right, or risk being knocked left.
“S-so now what?” Technically, he had a point about the dicks in my past, and I knew that was a can of worms I didn’t want to open.
I would always have love for Coral Hills; those blocks, corners, alleys, cut-throughs, and traps were what raised me and taught me a game that no one prepared me for. But I promised myself that my future would bloom far from my past, so the minute I crossed that stage a conferred MBA graduate, I popped smoke and started a new life in Mahogany Heights. I gave Max an ultimatum back then: leave the game and join me, or get left behind.
Max was always the type to give orders as opposed to taking them, which meant it was a solo move to The Heights for me. The things that occurred during our “break,” yeah, let’s just say they were stones best left unturned. So as I stood across the kitchen from him, ready to fuck the world up because this man had effortlessly clowned the shit out of me, I had a choice: open the door to my own dirt, or find a way to take this break baby shit like a G.
Max’s sudden movement caught me off guard, causing me to jump in my own skin, but his palm at the curve of my jaw dealt a gentle finesse that almost made me forget the fuckery of the entire situation.
“I don’t waste my time, and I don’t do shit if my heart ain't in it. You’re here, you’re my heart, soon to be my wife, and ain’t shit else to debate.”
It felt like truth, like he was keeping it a buck with me...but was it all a lie?