Page 7 of Krist and Moanie (D-Ville Projects #3)

Then he pulled back and looked at me. “You got all my fucking attention, Moanie. Be aware of that.”

“That was solid, Krist. Send it though again for me. I’m gonna lower the beat so you can whisper it in that same sinister tone,” Saheed, his engineer I had been introduced to the moment we walked into the studio, said.

Krist nodded, offering no rebuttal.

Then the beat started again and he was doing what he did best, even on one of the most arrogant, cocky songs.

“My crown heavy, but I wear it like it’s stitched into my dome

I’m undisputed in the booth, nah I’m no king

It’s just my throne

Every bar I deliver, the equivalent to a body

Type to leave your whole legacy gone.”

He whispered the last line into the mic creating a nice, raspy, guttural theme for the verse.

The entire time he dropped those lines, my eyes were attached to him. He was so creative, so prolific that I couldn’t help but look at him.

He was staring back at me, probably wondering why I was looking at him so intensely. I had been doing it all night, my entire being obsessed with his raw and unfiltered talent and how it oozed from him.

“That’s it, Krist. Unless you have something else you wanna record, I’ll hit you up with the final sounds for this in a few days. Now we just need that last song,” Saheed mused as I watched Krist hang up the headphones and exit the booth.

When he reentered the production room, his body was immediately against mine. His chest to my shoulder and arms around me.

“You hear me, Krist? One song, bro, and this mixtape will be a work of complete fucking art.”

Krist nodded. From what I observed being around him, he wasn’t the type to take compliments or praise well.

It was because of how he grew up, festering a feeling of unworthiness.

No, he wasn’t the type to hide his head or look down, because he was far from that. He just didn’t believe he had talent.

“You wanna hear what I have so far?” Saheed offered.

I looked to Krist who was skeptical at first but nodded a few seconds later.

Saheed moved a few things around and clicked a few buttons before Krist’s voice filled the speakers on playback.

Though some work had to be done, I loved everything about it, from the natural rasp of his tone to the way, in most moments, he allowed the beat to overshadow him.

When we finished listening to the playback, Krist said a few more words to his engineer before he and I left hand in hand, headed to his truck.

“You staying with me tonight?” he asked during the brief walk.

“Do you want me to?” I quizzed, knowing damn well I wanted to stay with him tonight.

But I liked being stubborn and wanted to hear him ask me to stay.

He opened my door and I got in, then he closed it and rounded the truck.

My eyes were on him the whole time, wondering if I should stay with him or take my hot ass home.

“You must like fucking with me?” he asked as soon as he was inside.

“I do. Now, I’ll ask again…” I paused for dramatics, peering at him.

He didn’t look at me, but the knowing expression on his face while he pulled out of the studio lot and merged into traffic was sending me. The man was so cocky he didn’t respond, he knew I was coming home with him.

“Do you want me to?”

He grinned and nodded. “Yeah, Moanie, I want you to stay with me. Shit probably wasn’t implied when I asked your difficult ass, huh?”

I laughed. “Then I guess it’s settled. I’m staying with you.”

“Bet.” A comfortable silence filled the car. His hand rested on my thigh, every so often gripping it firmly before letting go. He was thinking, about what I wondered. I couldn’t be one of those “what are you thinking about” hoes, so I had to ask in a different way. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I’m wondering what this next song is gonna be. I feel like I gotta flow different.”

I nodded. “Understood. Let it come to you. I didn’t know you were working on a mixtape. That’s so dope.”

“It wasn’t my intention, but when the work started to come together after ‘1of 1’ , I couldn’t let it pass me by. I feel like I’m supposed to be doing this, you know?”

“Because you are and I am so happy for you.” I smiled, genuinely excited about his journey.”

He nodded and grew quiet again, eyes focused on the road. “I can’t help but feel like I’m missing something. Like, I got plenty of tracks I could throw on it, but I need that one outlier. That one song.”

“You have a love song on there? Like some lover boy shit?” I quizzed, knowing damn well nothing about Krist said lover boy. It would be different for him if he did something like that. In my opinion, he could pull it off.

He looked at me like I was crazy. “I look like a lover boy, Moanie?”

I couldn’t help but laugh at his expression as he zoomed through traffic.

We weren’t that far from his place, but he still felt the need to loop around every car not driving his desired speed.

When we pulled into his parking lot, he made no movement to get out of the car, but instead turned his face in my direction for me to keep talking. “Do I?”

“No but why not write a love song?”

“Cause I’on know shit about love, Honey Bun.” He gazed at me, eyes never leaving my face as he turned the car off. He was studying me and my reaction to him saying he had never been in love.

“Most of us really haven’t, but I imagine if you meet the right person things happen and sparks fly.” At this point I was speaking out of my ass, because he was staring so intensely at me.

“That don’t help me, Moanie.” That was his last statement before he got out of the truck to come around.

When he opened the door, I turned my body and just looked at him.

He was waiting for me to get out, but not for the words that came out of my mouth.

“I guess I gotta make you fall in love with me then.” I didn’t know where that cocky ass statement came from, but it was out there now. I had to stand behind it.

“You mighty fucking confident.” He chuckled, stepping between my legs when he realized I wasn’t moving yet.

“I’m supposed to be.”

He chuckled, extremely taken aback but intrigued. I could tell this much from his eyes and the fact that he was so giddy. “That’s your word, Honey Bun?”

“Yeah, that’s my word.”

“Then we’ll see.” He scooped me up out of the seat with one hand, prompting me to wrap my legs around his waist. With his free hand he closed the door and popped the locks.

I for sure thought he’d put me down and let me walk the rest of the way into his building’s lobby, but he didn’t.

Krist carried me all the way to his apartment, his hand squeezing my booty with each step.

When we made it in, he put me down and moved around cutting on the lights. I heard a TV in the distance which I assumed was his brother in his room.

“Jru, I’m home. You good?” he called out after grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge.

“Yeah, I’m good. I bee— Damn you fine.” A much younger, lighter version of Krist limped into the kitchen, eyes definitely locked on my face. They were damn near twins, just different forms. Jru was a little bit taller and lankier than Krist.

“Ay, watch that shit. Moanie, this is my brother Jru who’s about to get fucked up. Jru, this is Moanie.”

Jru grinned charmingly, cutting his eyes between me and his brother. “Nice to meet you Moanie.”

“How does your ankle feel?” Krist asked, rounding the island to look it over.

“Like I tweaked it, but I can stand on it and it didn’t give out on me during practice today,” Jru said, subconsciously looking down at it.

I glanced down, having seen many injuries like it before.

“Ice and soaking it a few times with some elevation will get rid of the fluid. Lay off the salt too, because the excess sodium in your system could be adding to the inflammation. The fact that it’s not discolored and you can stand on it are good signs. ”

He looked at me confused, but before I could speak, Krist did.

“She’s a doctor. Now listen to her and stop eating that salty ass food your girlfriend’s mama gives you. I told you that lady be throwing pounds of salt in her food.” Krist laughed and pulled me in the opposite direction of his brother.

“So, Doc, how did you meet my brother?” Jru asked as I was being tugged away.

“Minding her damn business.” He dragged me out of the immediate space with his brother into his bedroom.

It was plain, but neat and clean for a man.

In the middle of two windows rested a king sized bed with a blue sheet set and a storm gray comforter.

The bed was made up. On the sides were two dark wood nightstands, a lamp on one side and a charging station for his phone on the other.

Directly in front of the bed, left of the corner entrance door, a massive TV was mounted on the wall.

It was indeed a man’s room, no character or anything, just functionality.

“Did I tell you how good you looked tonight?” he asked, emptying his pockets into the bowl on the stand beneath the TV.

I giggled. “I looked like a little boy and you know it. You’re probably used to the girls who do the absolute most. Lashes, nails, hair, makeup, and all that good stuff.”

“Probably, but I’m trying to get used to you. Can I do that?” He stepped into my space, cupping my ass with his hands. He was getting real comfortable grabbing and squeezing my ass.

“Yeah, you can.” I smiled as he ducked his head and pressed his lips against mine. What started out as a quick peck turned into more. Me sucking on his bottom lip and him picking me up.

“Good, because that’s all I’m on.”

Seconds later my back was against his cool sheets.

“I wanna taste this muthafucker. Can I?”

I looked down at him and nodded, knowing damn well I should’ve been trying to locate some dignity.

His hands wrapped around the bands of my shorts and underwear before he helped me out of them. Once he had them off, he dropped them and pulled my body to the end of my bed.