Page 24 of A Million Boss Kisses

CHAPTER TWELVE

Yaseer Haynes

W e piled onto the PJ a few minutes ahead of schedule and I claimed the seat next to Marissa in the back. She leaned her head on my shoulder again, and I slid my hand into Marissa’s. She tensed up like it was foreign.

“Why you acting shy and shit?” I questioned, looking down at her.

“Your daughter is here now,” Marissa whispered.

“What that got to do with anything? You leaving me alone or something?” I lifted her knuckle to my lips and planted a soft kiss on it.

“No. You sure you don’t want to abandon ship after what happened earlier?”

“Hell naw. That was the second most fun moment I had all year,” I grinned.

“Well, what was the first?” She pried. Her curious eyes glanced up at me now.

“When you sucked that cheesecake off my dick this morning.”

“Shut up,” she giggled, burrowing her head into my shoulder.

“Shit, you asked. I’m just keeping it real. You can have all the credit for the two most exhilarating events of my year.”

“Hand holding is fine. No kissing while she’s looking at us though.”

“I respect that,” I nodded.

“Marissa, would you like to play Uno with me and Gina?”

“Sure,” she bubbled, popping out of her seat, abandoning me without a second thought.

I didn’t mind them getting to know each other because Marissa wasn’t going anywhere. If I thought she was, she wouldn’t even be catching this flight with us. Zay’s super tall ass came to the back and took a seat.

“Man, what the fuck you got going on?” He pried.

“What you mean?”

“Bringing shawty around us. Or better yet, Amill. What got into you?”

“Shit, I don’t know. What I do know is I’m fucked up about her. I got into a shootout with her soon to be ex-husband earlier.”

“What?” Zay fretted, causing everyone to divert their attention to us.

“Chill nigga,” I laughed.

“I’m just saying. You went to anger management and shit, so I thought we were in a better place.”

My face fell, and I had to scratch my scalp at the mention of that bullshit.

Last year I pummeled a drunk motha fucka for coming at me sideways in a parking lot.

That wasn’t usually my style. Normally, I’d pay a motha fucka to touch people who played with me.

A random ass whooping during your morning jog or a little hit-and-run while you’re riding your bike in the evening was more my style.

I had a business to protect and an image to uphold.

However, he crossed the line by yelling some sexual shit at Amill, who at the time was only seventeen, and I blacked out.

Next thing I know, I’m getting scooped up by five different security guards, arrested, and he’s in the hospital with three broken ribs, a busted lip, and his front right tooth gone.

The shit was all over the local news for weeks.

It was around the same time my dad found out I was doing some business with questionable people, so I took a plea to make the shit go away without a record upon completion of the anger management classes.

I could still hear my dad’s lectures ringing through my head.

“See you doing business with them mafia motha fuckas got you thinking you in one!” My pops started the moment I got in his truck outside of the jail. “We run a family business that I built. Brick by brick!”

I burst out laughing, and he slammed on the brakes in the parking lot, providing me with his undivided attention.

“Enlighten me. What’s funny about this situation?”

“Nah, it’s just you lecturing me while quoting Snowfall,” I laughed a little harder. “At least quote something that doesn’t include illegal activities.”

“I’m dead serious, Yaseer!”

“I know, Dad. I’m not doing business with them anymore. Sit with Zay and let him go over that shit. I respected your request. They are no longer clients.”

“I will be sitting with Zay to double check that. You are going to send me to an early grave,” he huffed.

I was honest. They were no longer official clients of Legacy Wealth Management. However, I did work with a few families out of central and north Florida off the books.

“Anger management actually worked out great,” I nodded. “I didn’t beat this nigga’s ass for taking Marissa out on a date last night. I improvised to get him out of her face in a crowded restaurant to avoid a new charge. Growth,” I added, then bowed my head.

“You were mad at the man for taking his own wife out on a date?” He sputtered, eyebrows pinched.

“Nah, not her husband. Some scary ass nigga in cheap ass loafers.”

“So you had to get through two niggas to get to her? Gina told me that’s the one who slapped the fuck outta you in front of everybody during the party.”

“Yeah, my lil firecracker might need a little anger management too.”

“What she think about you shooting at her husband?”

“Shit, she here ain’t she?” I shrugged. “Besides, the nigga was trying to big dawg me. Had us pushed off the road and into a secluded area demanding her and shit.”

“Maybe Mr. Haynes was right. You do think you a part of the mafia now that you did some work with them,” Zay joked.

“Nah, if I thought I was part of the mafia, I’d have her husband murdered. He is a part of the Bentley Family out of Miami though, so I’ll be beefing up security until further notice.”

“This is exactly why I gotta get Gina the fuck away from you.”

I ran my hand across my scalp again. “Don’t even remind me of that shit. I’m not looking forward to finding a new assistant.”

A loud squeal sounded from the front where the women were, and I grinned, seeing how well Marissa blended in with Amill and Gina. She was definitely here to stay. My phone rang and it was my father calling.

“It’s my dad,” I informed Zay.

“I’ll give you some privacy. Looks like they opened the charcuterie board, let me go tap Gina’s hands because she knows she can’t be eating that deli meat,” Zay hopped up, ready to go regulate.

“Hello,” I accepted the call.

“Why did you send extra security to post up outside of our house? What the hell did you get yourself into now?”

“Damn, no good morning or nothing?”

“If you wanted a good morning you would’ve come in here and woke us up instead of calling Amill and telling her to come outside. I saw that shit on the cameras. Now answer my damn question.”

“I had a little scuffle but nothing serious. This is just out of an abundance of caution. Somebody will leave the house with you guys as well for the time being.”

“YASEER!” He scolded.

“Forget the extra security!” My mother screeched in the background.

“ My cheesecake is gone! I just looked at the cameras. You bought that woman in my house and let her eat my cake, and you took her the leftovers? I’m going to kill him!

How am I going to make it through the week without my nightly slice? ”

“Tell mom I’m sorry, but another cake will be delivered tomorrow. He said that’s as soon as he can get it done. I love y’all. I gotta go,” I sputtered and ended the call.

Marissa’s eyes landed on me and she shook her head. “Now your mom probably won’t like me,” she pouted, coming to sit next to me with a plate of cheese and grapes.

“Nah, she’s going to love anybody my dad brings home,” Amill called from the front. “She has been telling him to get out there and date for years. I’m not a baby anymore, but he still uses that as an excuse.”

“You’ll always be his baby.”

“You’ll always be my baby.”

We said at the exact same moment at the same rate. Her voice was full of warmth, but mine was laced with vulnerability. I glanced at Marissa and she was already staring at me.

“Speaking in unison already,” Gina noted with a smile, her eyes slanted towards Zay. “They might already be in love. I believe in instalove.”

“Shit, we might,” I commented. The need to taste her lips was heavy, but I was respecting her boundaries since Amill’s eyes were staring at us.

“Y’all actually look good together,” she complimented with a cheesy grin before refocusing her attention on her phone.

“Sounds like Amill just gave us her blessing,” I flirted, leaning in for that kiss I’d been dying for.

Marissa cupped my chin and kissed me a second time before collapsing in my lap.

I ran my hand through her hair while she ate her food with her head in my lap.

The comfortable silence wrapped around us, and I reveled in it.

Planting a kiss on her forehead, I was going to hate to separate when we landed in Tampa.

Marissa’s hands wrapped around my waist as we stood in the private terminal entrance where all of our cars were staged.

Amill got in the car with Zay so he could drop her off at school on his ride home.

Gina climbed into the truck that came to grab me and Wayne, ready to head to the office.

Marissa’s ride was waiting just two cars over.

“We could’ve taken you wherever you needed to go. You didn’t have to summon a ride,” I huffed. “Now you cut our time short.”

“I know, but you have to get back to your life, and I have to do the same. My younger son has been at home alone for two days, which wasn’t the plan at all,” she explained.

“I need to make sure my house is still intact. Plus, I left my car in the garage of her building, so I have to go back over there before going home.”

“I’m going to send somebody by your crib to post up, just to be on the safe side.”

“You know where I live too?”

“I do.”

She shook her head. “That’s not necessary. I’m not worried about Quinten doing anything to me. You just stay on your P’s and Q’s.”

“Always,” I affirmed.

“Okay, I have to go. My ride is pregnant and I don’t want to keep her waiting long.”

“See, you got a pregnant woman up here for nothing,” I shook my head.

“Hush,” she chirped, placing her hands on my chest. “I gotta go. It’s getting hot in these joggers.”

I leaned down, cupping Marissa’s chin before I pressed my lips to hers. She melted into me, her fingers grasping my shirt while I took my time kissing her slowly, trying to commit this moment to memory for our time apart.

WHEW-WHEW!