Page 17 of Certified Pressure 2

He glanced over at me, the corner of his lips pulling up. “You good just like that. Don’t need to do nothin’ else. You look fine as hell already.”

Heat rose to my cheeks as I looked away, because he meant it. I could hear it in his voice.

When we stepped out, I watched him tuck his gun into his waistband before reaching for me, pulling me close to his side as if that was where I belonged.

The way he smelled—his cologne mixing with his deodorant—wrapped around me, and my body relaxed even though I still felt shy about walking in here dressed how I was.

The waitress led us to a booth in the corner, and once we sat down, Pressure ordered a drink like it was nothing.

I thought about playing it safe, but then I thought about how much I’d missed him, and I decided to order one too.

If he was here, if this was real, I wasn’t going to waste a second worrying.

The place was known for steaks and seafood, so we picked our plates, and when the waitress walked away, the silence that fell between us felt heavy but good at the same time.

I looked at him, and damn near melted right there. His eyes caught mine and held them, and I swore it felt like he was pulling me in without saying a word.

“I can’t believe you’re here with me,” I whispered, my voice soft and full of everything I’d been holding inside these last few days.

He leaned back in the booth, licking his lips slowly before reaching across the table for my hands. His thumbs moved against my skin, warm and rough, and he stared at me in a way that made me feel like I was the only woman alive.

“I missed the shit out you,” he said, his voice low and certain, and my whole body trembled from how good it sounded.

The way he was looking at me, the way his love came down in that moment, I knew he wasn’t just saying it. His eyes were different with me, softer and deeper, like I was something he never wanted to lose. I swallowed hard because the feeling rushing through me was too much to keep inside.

I asked if anyone else had been eliminated since I left, but when I brought it up, he shook his head like he didn’t even want to entertain it. “I ain’t talkin’ about that right now,” he said, his eyes still locked on me.

I rolled my eyes a little, but I let it go.

I had missed him too much to start an argument about something that didn’t matter in this moment.

Kashmere and the rest of the women might have gone back and forth with him, pushed him just to get a reaction, but that wasn’t me.

I wasn’t about to waste the time I had with him.

The waitress brought our food and drinks, the table filling with plates of steaming steaks and buttery seafood. We ate slow, talking between bites. He asked me how Zurie was holding up, and my smile faded as I told him she was overdue for her surgery.

“What’s takin’ so long?” he asked, his tone firm like he was ready to solve it right there.

I sighed, picking at the food on my plate. “We don’t have the money. Her insurance covers some, but not enough. They want thirty to forty thousand for the rest, and we just don’t have it.”

Pressure leaned back, staring at me for a second before he nodded. “Bet. I got you.”

I froze, my fork slipping from my fingers.

My chest swelled so hard it hurt, and I had to swallow just to stop myself from breaking down at the table.

He was basically saying he would save my sister’s life, and it was too much for me to process.

Even though I went into his mansion, hoping to achieve that goal, my feelings became too real, and I lost focus on what I came to do.

Asking him for the money no longer felt like an option once shit became complicated.

My eyes filled before I could stop them. I tried to hold it together, but the tears fell hot and fast down my cheeks. I didn’t even care that we were in the middle of a restaurant because in that moment, it was just me and him.

Pressure pushed back from his side of the booth and came to sit next to me. He grabbed my face with one hand, his palm warm against my cheek as his fingers squeezed gently. He kissed me over and over, soft pecks against my lips like he was determined to make me feel better.

I let out a shaky breath as his mouth found every tear, kissing them away as if he refused to let them stay there. My arms wrapped around his neck, holding him tight, my tears wetting his skin as I buried myself in him.

“I told you I got you,” he murmured against my lips, kissing me again until I felt like the world could finally let me breathe.

Being in his arms in that moment, feeling the way he loved me without even having to say the words, it was enough to make my heart break and heal all at the same time.

And all I could think was how lucky I was to be the one sitting next to him, wishing the moment would never end.

After dinner, Pressure paid and we left the restaurant.

As we moved through the parking lot, he never let my hand go.

His palm stayed warm and sure around mine like he wasn’t about to let me drift too far from him, and that alone made my whole body calm down.

When we got to the car he walked me to the passenger side and opened the door, guiding me in with that quiet authority that always made my body listen before my mind could.

He closed me in gentle, then circled to the driver’s side and slid in low.

I didn’t ask if he was taking me home, because I already knew better.

With him, you didn’t question the destination—you just felt where he was taking you and trusted it.

Even though I didn’t like leaving Zurie at that apartment with my mama, at least she wasn’t there by herself, and that gave me a little peace to breathe.

I pressed the thought down because I knew if I let it sit too long it would swallow the night, and I needed this.

Pressure had this way of pulling me into his world where everything outside of him faded into a blur, and it scared me sometimes how easily I let him do it.

The car moved smooth when he pulled off with the music low in the speakers and city lights flipping over his face like a slideshow.

He didn’t talk much and he didn’t need to.

He reached across the console and dropped his hand on my thigh, sliding his thumb slow while his eyes watched the road, and every pass of his skin over mine sent sparks climbing higher inside me.

By the time he curved into the hotel drive I wasn’t even surprised.

One thing about Pressure, he wasn’t laying his head just anywhere.

If he brought me somewhere, it was going to be nice enough to make me forget where I came from for a second.

We checked in and I watched the front desk girl try to keep it cute while her eyes kept finding him.

I didn’t blame her though. Pressure’s presence was loud even when he wasn’t saying anything, and that cologne wrapped around the whole lobby the moment we stepped in.

Everything around us glowed—marble floors, gold accents, fresh flowers sitting pretty like they’d been waiting on us.

My hand stayed in his as we moved, fingers laced, and even though we had already been intimate before, a low nervousness kept running under my skin because I knew what this man did to me, and I knew what I was about to let happen again.

The elevator doors closed and the ride up felt quiet but full in a way I couldn’t name.

When the doors slid open, he walked out first and tugged me along, his grip firm enough to keep me close but gentle enough to tell me I wasn’t being dragged—I was being chosen.

He slid the key card into the door, his back all broad and calm, and in that split second I thought about how unreal it still felt to stand behind a man like him and know he wanted me here.

The door opened into a room that looked like money—tall windows dressed in heavy curtains, low lighting, clean linen, a bed big enough to swallow the both of us.

I didn’t get to take in all the details because he shut the door behind us and turned to me like he’d been holding something back all night and finally let it loose.

His arms wrapped around my waist and pulled me against him, and my spine arched into his body before I could think.

Then his mouth found my neck, and everything inside me fell open for him.

His tongue traced over my skin warm, wet, and patient, like he knew exactly how to make my whole body answer.

The first pass of his tongue had me struggling to catch my breath, the second had a hum rolling out my chest, and by the time he started working the spot he liked, low and deep near the curve of my shoulder, I was tilting my head all the way to give him more.

It felt like he was tasting every nerve, like he was learning me again and reminding me that I belonged right here with him.

The pull of his mouth marked me. It was a sweet ache pushing through soft heat until I knew he’d leave me with a red passion mark I couldn’t hide, and I didn’t want to.

It was too much and not enough at the same time.

His mouth continued to suck at my sensitive spot until I felt the pressure of his lips marking me in another spot, branding me in a way I couldn’t hide.

The sting and pull of it mixed with so much pleasure that my eyes rolled back, crossing as heat shot through me.

My mouth watered uncontrollably, and I didn’t even realize drool was sliding from the corners until his tongue caught it, licking it up.

My eyes were so hazy that my mouth parted further, and he kept kissing like he wanted to catch everything I gave off.

I tried to say his name and it came out thin, because he had me floating and sinking at once.

The room smelled like his cologne and the hotel’s clean linen, and I could taste liquor and mint on him all at once when his mouth finally came back to mine.