Page 5 of Loving a Libra (BLP Signs of Love #7)

After the best shower sex I’d ever had, we bathed and climbed into bed. The light from the television illuminated the room just enough for us to see each other. There was a lot we needed to discuss, and no time was better than the present.

“I’m moving out,” I told Tariq.

“Okay. Where to?”

“I spoke to a realtor this afternoon about buying a house.”

“Oh, really? How soon are you trying to make this happen?”

“I work the next three nights, which gives the realtor a few days to find some houses that meet my requirements.”

“When do you plan to tell Maurice?”

“I don’t plan to. He’ll get the picture when all my shit is gone.”

“Damn.”

“What? You said I could make a scene or walk away with my head held high. I’m choosing to do the latter.”

“It sounds like you got it all planned out, and I’ll help you any way I can. Do me a favor, though.”

“What’s that?”

“Don’t forget about me.”

“I could never forget about you. In fact, maybe you should buy a house next door to mine.”

“You’re funny.”

“No, I’m serious. Then, when I’m having problems in my next relationship, I can come to you.”

“Nah, that won’t work.”

“Why not?”

“Because I refuse to sit back and watch you with another man when I’m the one you should be with.”

I laughed because Tariq couldn’t be serious. He and Maurice had been friends for almost fifteen years, and they owned a business together. Surely, Tariq wouldn’t let me come between their friendship, because if Maurice found out about us, it would be over. Besides, how would that make me look?

“Tariq, what we’re doing is for a good time, not a long time. I can’t?—”

“Nah, you got me fucked up.”

I sat up and shouted. “Excuse me?”

He sat up too. “You heard what I said, but I’ll repeat it just so we’re clear. You got me fucked up if you think you’re not mine. I wasn’t talking shit last night and meant every word I said. I’m in love with you, and I want a future with you.”

“I heard you loud and clear, and as I said last night, you can’t be in love with me. We can’t be, Tariq. It wouldn’t look right, and?—”

“It wouldn’t look right to who? Your one friend, Ginae, who can’t stand Maurice?

The only coworker you talk to, Thomasina, who told you that Libras and Aries were a relationship nightmare?

Your estranged father, who only calls when he wants money?

Who wouldn’t it look right to, Devyn? Because that shit you talking sounds like an excuse. ”

He was right, my circle was small. Before my mother suddenly passed away from a pulmonary embolism when I was thirteen, she advised me to keep my circle small, stressing that friends and associates weren’t the same.

I never forgot what she said, and I was content with the handful of people in my life because it was easier to navigate and had a lot less drama.

A plethora of thoughts raced through my mind, but suddenly, I couldn’t speak. Tariq rarely raised his voice, and it was never at me. The fire and passion behind his words, the tone of his voice, and the valid points he made had me stuck . . . and made my nipples hard.

“When you talk to me that way, it?—”

“Shit! My bad, baby. I didn’t mean?—”

“No. Don’t apologize. It makes my nipples hard, and . . .” I pushed him onto his back and straddled him. “My pussy wet.”

It seemed just the mention of my pussy made his dick stiffen underneath me. He smirked as he grabbed the back of my neck and pulled my face to his. He kissed me as if he were starving and kissing me gave him the nourishment he needed to make it to the next minute.

While our tongues became tangled in the throes of passion, I lifted my ass, reached between us, and guided his dick to my throbbing hole. I tore my mouth from his and slammed onto his thick, veiny third leg.

“Fuck!” he grunted through clenched teeth.

“Ahh!” I screamed in ecstasy.

He gripped my hips as I planted my hands on his solid chest and rode his dick like a champion equestrian. The firm bed made the experience even better when he began to fuck me from the bottom. His dick went deeper than I thought possible.

As a thirty-five-year-old woman, I’d had some great sex, even with Maurice. However, he didn’t have shit on his best friend. Tariq’s size and girth alone ran circles around my soon-to-be ex man.

“Riq! Oh God, Tariq! I’m cummin’!”

The throbbing of my walls and the pulsing of his dick was a combination sent straight from the heavens.

My pussy juice gushed over his dick and leaked onto his stomach as his seeds shot to the furthest part of my uterus.

For the first time in twenty-four hours, I remembered I wasn’t on birth control.

“Shit!” I hopped off his dick like it was on fire. “Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God.”

“What’s wrong?”

I ran to the bathroom and sat on the toilet, contracting my stomach, trying to push his semen from my body.

“Devyn, what the fuck is the problem?” he questioned, leaning against the doorframe with his dick pointing in my direction.

“I’m not on birth control, and I let you cum in me . . . multiple times. Shit!”

“Oh. That’s it?”

He turned and walked away. I pulled a wad of tissue off the roll and wiped between my legs, repeating the action two more times before getting up.

I didn’t even bother washing my hands because I was too focused on his nonchalant attitude about what I’d told him.

“What do you mean, that’s it?”

“I mean, that’s all you’re worried about. I thought it was something serious.”

“Nigga, this is serious. What’s today?”

“The thirteenth.”

“Fuck! Oh fuck! Oh fuck! Oh fuck! I’m ovulating.”

I began scurrying around the room, looking for my clothes, forgetting I’d put them on the chair when I undressed earlier.

“What are you doing?”

“I need to go to the pharmacy to get a Plan B. I think I have up to seventy-two hours, so I still have time.”

I didn’t bother with my panties and slipped one leg into my sweats. Suddenly, I paused. The closest twenty-four-hour pharmacy was blocks away, and I’d taken an Uber here. I used the service occasionally, but I wasn’t a fan of it. I damn sure wouldn’t be taking it at this time of night.

I shook my head and flopped onto the bed, with one leg in my sweats and still naked from the waist up.

“Changed your mind?” I could hear humor in his voice.

“I took an Uber here, and I don’t feel comfortable taking one this late. The closest pharmacy is too far for me to walk alone at this hour, and based on your demeanor, you won’t be volunteering to take me.”

“Maybe God is trying to tell you something.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m cheating on my boyfriend with his best friend. God ain’t doing shit but shaking his head in shame.”

“You might be right. This ain’t the most ideal situation, but I prefer to look at the bright side.

I love you, and even though you haven’t processed and accepted it, you love me, and I’m not talking about as a friend.

We want the same things out of life, baby.

You’re ready to get married and start a family, and so am I.

If you want to take a Plan B, I won’t stop you, but you’ll have to figure out how to make that happen without my assistance. ”

“What makes you think I love you?”

“What makes you think you don’t?”

I took my sweats off and tossed them back onto the chair, not bothering to ask Tariq to take me to the pharmacy.

He’d made it clear where he stood and was okay if I were pregnant with his child.

Although I wanted to be married before having children, I wasn’t foolish enough to terminate a pregnancy at this age.

My first instincts caused me to panic, but I was actually glad Tariq didn’t follow my lead.

Last night, I slept with him as the ultimate get-back because I knew when Maurice found out, he’d be sick.

However, at my core, that wasn’t the kind of woman I was.

I was loyal and enjoyed committed relationships.

Even in my younger years, when I was more willing to have casual sex, I’d only had a handful of one-night stands.

I knew Tariq intimately, even before we had sex. During our time together, we shared our deepest thoughts, desires, and dreams for the future. The more I thought about it, the more I realized how compatible we were. The Sagittarius in him connected with the Libra in me.

His optimism about damn near everything gave me a different perspective, while my need for stability and balance did the same for him.

We enjoyed having fun, and I found it intriguing how our idea of what we considered fun shifted around the same time.

Tariq enjoyed the social scene as much as Maurice, but being in the streets didn’t appeal to Tariq as much it did a few years ago.

I’d been sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at the wall, and he gently pulled me back to the middle with him. We returned to the position we were in before I straddled him, lying next to each other with my head on his chest, my leg draping his and his arms around me.

“What were you thinking about?” he asked after my long bout of silence.

“Connecting the dots to how we ended up here is wild, but the signs have been there for a long time.”

“I know exactly when I realized I was in love with you.”

“Tell me.”

“It was probably two years ago. The shit Maurice was doing behind your back started to piss me off. Don’t get me wrong.

I never agreed with it, but it wasn’t my business.

I started telling him how wrong he was, and one day I said a little too much.

We almost came to blows, and he accused me of wanting to fuck you.

He wasn’t wrong, but what I share with you has never been about sex. ”

“Wow. He’s never mentioned y’all getting into about me.”

“That doesn’t surprise me. He’s too cocky to think you’d ever step out on him, especially with me.”

“Me not stepping out on him ain’t got shit to do with him. It’s just not who I am.”

“ I know that, and it’s fucked up that he doesn’t. I can tell you when I knew you’d fallen for me.”

I shook my head. “That’s impossible because I just realized it myself.”

He smiled. “Oh, so you’re admitting you’re in love with me?”

I ignored his question. “Tell me when you knew.”

I was more intrigued than I wanted to admit because I couldn’t pinpoint when my feelings for Tariq changed.

The guilt probably prevented me from acknowledging them, because what kind of woman allowed herself to fall for her boyfriend’s best friend?

I didn’t think I was that kind of woman, . . . but clearly, . . . I was.