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twenty-two

. . .

“Yours,” Eden shared. “The paps know where I stay, and that’s going to make them pop back up.”

Her voice was low as her mind played the events all over again.

She didn’t want to talk about it, at least not when there were listening ears and recording cameras.

Inside the JoyRide, she remained quiet. Maximus allowed her time, but the moment they entered his space, and she was settled on the couch, his voice broke their silence.

“I’m not trying to force you to speak on nothing you don’t want to. But if I'm standin’ in front of you, I’d like to know what I'm fightin’ for.”

As if she’d been waiting to cry since she left the arena, she dropped her head and released a breath accompanied by hot tears. “I never slept with him. I don’t even like him.”

Maximus hadn’t ever been a man to be sympathetic to tears, but for Eden, he couldn’t take it. He moved across the large living space and sat next to her, offering her comfort without her permission.

“Eden,” he groaned, his words muffled in her hair. “Them tears gon’ hurt me and I’m going to want to put lead in that nigga.”

Eden pulled away and swiped her tears from her made-up face. “Exactly. You shouldn’t be caught up in my bullshit. This is your time, and it shouldn’t be tainted by the bullshit associated with me.”

“It’s too late for that, E,” he replied. “I’m locked in with you.”

“You really shouldn’t be,” she huffed, diving back into the place Natavia and Rico wanted to keep her in.

He watched her push the hair out of her face while urging, “Tell me.”

Eden bit her lip, finding no reason not to trust him with her baggage.

“Rico is the boyfriend of my ex-best friend. They invited me out to a party, Rico got handsy, told her I wanted to fuck him and immediately after, I was dropped from my agency and lost almost all of my brand deals. They ran to the media, calling me everything but my name. For weeks. And again, you shouldn’t be involved in my shit. ”

“Come here, E,” Maximus directed her back to the seat she held prior.

Her tears were back as she muttered, “I worked so hard for everything I have. Four years and in four minutes, everything was gone.”

She plopped down beside him and covered her face. “I’m sorry. Still crying over this is so fuckin’ stupid.”

Again, Maximus wrapped her in comfort while pulling her onto his lap. Wiping her face, he groaned. “You know when I see that nigga, I’m popping him in his fucking mouth like the bitch he is.”

“That’s not what I want,” Eden huffed.

“It’s what that nigga deserves.”

“I’ve seen a lot of people get a lot of things they deserved. I don’t want that on my conscience. I don’t sleep as it is already. I just want to rebuild my life without the stink of scandal.”

“You’ve spent days talking life into me and never once showed that your crown was slipping. What kind of superpower is that?”

Eden shrugged, her head resting on his chest. She tried to remember the last time she didn’t have to be strong or have it all figured out. Staysha just started taking the load off of her recently, but before then, Eden walked around with the weight of the world on her shoulders and kept shining.

“Being Poppi’s girl, I guess,” she murmured.

“I’ve had to be strong since my momma left me and Staysha on Poppi’s porch.

When Poppi got sick, I had to be strong.

There wasn’t space or time for crying. When Mama snatched the business from Poppi and we lost damn near everything, I had to be strong.

Because I smile or I dress it up, people don’t think this shit gets fucking heavy.

I had to have a full breakdown for my sister to step in and help me. ”

Maximus lifted her face so he could take her in fully. He swiped another river of tears. “You gon’ let me help you?”

“Max, stop. You got-”

He placed a soft peck to her lips to silence her. “I got what?”

“Your own-”

He did it again. “What was that?”

“You got your own shi-”

Maximus hooked her chin, turning his soft pecks against her lips, into his tongue swiping over hers. “My shit ain’t never going to be too big not to stand in front of you.”

He kissed whatever response she could follow up with.

Eden’s hands found his shoulders as she kissed him back.

A simple gesture turned into a heated exchange.

Now straddling his lap, his hands in her hair, and massaging her waist. The growing attractions and sexual tension between them rushed heat to her center and hardness to his dick.

“Tell me what you need, Eden,” he directed huskily between the fusion of their mouths as he came alive underneath her.

Feeling him grow to size alerted Eden’s brain. She pulled back, fueled with temptation that battled against her sense. “I can’t give you sad girl pussy and I'm not taking sympathy dick.”

Pulling her body from his felt sinful. The coolness from the absence of his body was a shock to her system.

“Shit,” she lowly blew. “I should go home.”

She reached for her bag to order her JoyRide home.

Maximus calmed himself. He didn’t want her any other way than free and regretless.

As brutal as the excitement was, he respected her retreat.

But he couldn’t let her leave him. If she left, he’d go back to his initial course of action and beat Rico to a pulp for hurting the woman he’d silently deemed as his.

“Don’t go,” he rumbled, halting her midtap.

Eden’s eyes lifted from her screen to him. “I can’t promise I'd stay without wanting something more.”

“You hungry?”

“Do you want me fat? I can’t get brand deals or otherwise looking like a brick house,” Eden whined.

Maximus flashed a devilish grin. “I’d want you in whatever way you serving it up. I’ll do you one better...” Maximus stood up and moved to the other end of the couch. “That’s your side. If you need to move closer, move closer. So again, you hungry?”

Eden laid her phone down and tucked her legs under her butt. “Why do you want me to stay so bad? You think I’m going to retract on my self-control?”

“Not at all. That shit is actually sexy which is why I’m over here. You gon’ let me feed you, watch a movie, pick your brain?”

“What are you trying to feed me?”

“Not sympathy dick,” he spoke with a chuckle, lightening the heaviness of the mood.

“You know what I haven’t had in a minute?”

Maximus leaned forward. “Tell me, I'll make it happen.”

Eden bit a grin. “I want you to stop talking to me like that.”

“I’m not.”

Eden groaned. “This little kicking it situation is going to turn into something else. Cut it out.”

Maximus gave her a knowing smirk. “Tell me what you want?”

Eden trailed her tongue over her bottom lip. “Urban Crust.”

“What kind of pie?”

“Specialty. Extra banana peppers. Their house sauce.”

“What else? Their fried cheese and red pepper marinara?”

Eden groaned, falling into the cushions. “I’m going to be fluffy.”

“Nah, you’ll be taken care of.” Maximus stood and roamed into the kitchen to grab his phone and to find a space where the mere sight of her wasn’t accompanied by the need to fuse their bodies into one.

Eden needed the space too, so she could calm her senses as much as she could, but the scent of his cologne rested on her top, on her skin.

She unraveled herself from the couch and moved over to the large window.

Her arms wrapped around herself, and she inhaled deeply and slowly pushed it out.

Unaware of the time that had passed between Maximus offering her space and when his arms wrapped around her shoulders.

“I’m not gon’ kiss you,” he toyed. “I just want to offer you what you’ve offered me.”

“And what’s that?”

“Sanctuary.”

Eden’s brows fused as she turned to look up at him. “Sanctuary?”

He nodded. “Look at these on my face. Everyone else sees a Trae Way Gangsta, felon, murderer, and drug dealer. You see someone special.”

“Hmm,” she buzzed.

“They see you, they see a pretty little socialite. I see a light. So fuckin’ bright I can’t help but walk into it. You got to know evil shit can’t live where you are. And I won’t let it touch you. Hear me?”

“Heard you.”

Maximus picked up her hand and kissed the back of it. “Find a movie, food is on the way.”

“Are you going to sit on the other end of the couch?”

“If that’s where you want me.”

“Who taught you how to be a gentleman?”

Maximus smirked bitterly. “My mom. Indirectly. She chose wrong men, from my father to the nigga she got laying on her couch now. I wasn’t ever going to be like them, so I figured when I got a hold of something worth it, I'd be better than all of them.”

“I’m worth it?” Eden asked, trying to detect if he was running game or not.

“You lookin’ like a nigga been runnin’ game on you off the cuff.”

“It’s a norm out here.”

“Out there, not in here.”

“In that case, can I request something?”

“Damn near anything.”

“I know tonight was about you and-”

“What do you need, E?”

Eden chewed the inside of her cheek. “I like it when you hold me, could you do that again?”

“Heard you.”

Their personal pies came, they drank Urban Crust’s specialty lemonade from red solo cups, cleaned up, and watched a few movies, and Maximus offered her what she needed.

Unbeknownst to Eden, the way she held him back in her sleep was healing.

Hearing herself snort in her sleep, Eden popped her eyes open.

Movies were still playing on the streaming service, Maximus was snoring, his face resting in the crook of her neck and his hold still firm.

His hold was too much, this closeness too much.

It felt too real. Like if she were here when he woke up, there would be expectations.

There was a tug of war between what her heart craved and the pain her brain was making her recall.

Eden would find herself loving him, exposing her heart, and being devastated that it was mishandled.

“Get up,” her brain grumbled, making her limbs untangle themselves from his.