Page 24 of Suleem and Yahzi (D-Ville Projects #1)

Yahzi

As soon as she closed the door, Aunt Mae’s hands were on her hips as she stared at me. “What did he do?”

Mae knew her nephew. There was no hiding the man he had become.

She was his mother but the streets were his father figure.

They groomed him to be a menace with a heart of gold which loved hard and fierce.

He never tried to hide from the choices he made but I also wouldn’t be the one who hand delivered the intimate details of how he’d pistol whipped a man in the park today.

“Nothing.”

She sucked her teeth and rolled her eyes. “ Nothing doesn’t have you here with me instead of upstairs with him. Let me get us a shot, something strong because it sounds like you need it to loosen up them tight ass lips of yours.”

I grinned while Mae left me in the living room, heading to the kitchen.

She returned with a bottle of tequila and two glass tumblers.

She filled the bottom of both and handed me one, taking the other for herself.

I was about to sit down but she shook her head.

“You know I love you but I gotta make this quick. I have plans that don’t include that weak ass attitude you have right now over whatever the hell he did. ”

I laughed, watching as she tossed her shot back then stared, waiting for me to talk.

I sighed and drank mine before I confessed my issue. “Suleem is stubborn and a hothead who acts without thinking about the consequences...”

“But you love him anyway.”

I nodded and put her tumbler on the table before she took mine and placed it next to hers.

She shook her head, smiling in a way that almost felt sympathetic.

“Even if you wanted to, you couldn’t change him, baby.

Trust me, I’ve been trying for years and you see how that’s worked out.

The only thing you can do is love him. More importantly, pray for and over him.

You don’t get to choose how this works. Your heart chooses for you and yours made the decision to love him a long time ago, same as his did to love you.

Unfortunately, the love you have and the man it’s attached to isn’t easy.

Like you said, stubborn, hotheaded, and reckless.

He’s also one of the most loyal and protective people I know.

As hard as that is to accept, you’re not willing to let go of either of them. ”

The man or the love he provides…

She was right. I wasn’t willing to let go but that didn’t mean seeing things like what happened at the park today didn’t have me worried that what Suleem put out in the world wouldn’t come back to him. It had before and that left me terrified that I could lose him.

“I’m not.”

She pulled me into a hug, squeezing me tightly before she let go. “Then there’s your answer. I love you, sweetheart. Now go on upstairs and tell him not to do that shit anymore. I have a date and I need to get dressed.”

I frowned. “You’re putting me out?”

“I damn sure am. I just gave you tequila. You’re not about to be out here snitching on me hollering girl code while you’re telling all my secrets.”

I dropped my mouth open but she didn’t so much as blink before she grabbed my arm and tugged me to the door. “Yeah, he told me you can’t hold water. Now go on upstairs and work that out so I can find something short and tight to put on.”

After she opened the door I was not so gently shoved out. She blew me a kiss and slammed the damn thing in my face. I removed my keycard from my purse to gain access to the tenth floor. As soon as I stepped off the elevator, I smelled whatever Suleem was smoking.

It was faint in the hallway but lingered thick in the apartment as soon as I walked through the door.

I tossed my purse on the sofa and followed the cloud of smoke onto the balcony where I found him sitting in one of the patio chairs.

Instead of going to him, I leaned my back against the railing across from where he was seated.

He kept his hooded eyes on me, allowing a cloud of smoke to seep through his lips before he spoke.

“You ready to talk to me without using your hands?”

I grinned and nodded. He inhaled from the blunt. “Come here.”

My feet moved even though my mind was telling me to be defiant. I straddled his lap and he inhaled from the blunt while using his free hand to grip my neck and bring me to him so he had access to my mouth.

The smoke passed from his lips, seeping between mine, and I let it settle. “You want another one?”

I nodded and he pulled from it again but took his time with a slow drag before he shared it with me, ending with a kiss once the smoke was completely transferred. “Say what’s on your mind, Yah.”

“I know you love me but your love will always be divided.” I brushed my fingers over the DP inked on his hand.

“You asking me to choose?”

I shook my head gently.

“Then tell me what you want because DP is the blood that flows through my veins and you’re the heart that pumps that shit. One doesn’t exist without the other. I need both to survive.”

“I know.”

“Then tell me what you want,” he said again. “I’ll give you whatever the fuck that is with one exception.”

Letting me go…

“I want you here.”

“I’m here but I have to show up the only way I know how.

” He gripped my neck, brought my mouth to his, and kissed me.

“I fucked up once. It won’t happen again and I know what went down at the park today makes it hard for you to trust that I got you.

I swear on my life I do but you gotta let me be me. ”

I let the pads of my fingers drag over the disruption in his beard from where the bullet entered his face three years ago.

It was a reminder that no matter what, it was his life for mine, but that wasn’t my fear.

My concern was losing him. Opening myself up to being loved by this man who had no fear that meant accepting his recklessness.

You don’t choose, your heart chooses for you…

“I want you to be you, but I also want you here, with me and one day with us…”

“There’s an us ?” His eyes dropped to my stomach before they lifted to my face. He kept his expression neutral and I leaned in to kiss him.

We lost something precious and nothing could replace that. But we could try again, start over and accept that God had a different plan for us back then.

“No, but I hope that’s something we’re considering in our future. It was only ever gonna be you, Leem. I tried other things…”

“Bruh, don’t fuck up my mood,” he mumbled and I kissed him again.

“I’m making a point. We both tried other things…”

“Nah, I didn’t try shit. I fucked for a nut to keep my head clear. That shit was me biding time until you brought your ass home. Not me trying other things…”

“Will you let me make my point?”

“Yeah, if you can do that without pissing me the fuck off.” He pulled from his blunt, connected his lips with mine, and expelled the smoke.

“It’s hard feeling like you might not be here.”

He gripped my neck again and brought me to him, planting kisses along the curve of my jaw. “I know but you gotta trust that I know what I’m doing. I’m not out there chasing shit like I used to. I pulled back because I knew when you came home I had to be on a different type of time.”

“When I came home?” I arched my brow and he smiled arrogantly.

“You were always coming back to me, Yah, because if you didn’t, I was coming to you.

I respected the time you needed and gave you that.

I know what it’s gonna take to keep you here but I also will never ignore problems. Doing so is just as dangerous.

Niggas gotta know what lines they can’t cross with you.

That’s all it was today. It ain’t that fucking deep… ”

I narrowed my eyes and he grinned sexily. “But I also respect how you feel because I learned some shit while you were gone.”

“What did you learn?”

“That I’m gonna keep my baby happy by any means necessary. We’re gonna be alright, Yah.”

“I know.” My eyes moved to the bullet wound in his jaw again and he kissed me.

“Calm them crazy ass thoughts down. I said we’re gonna be alright. I’m here and I’m not going anywhere. You trust me?”

I nodded because I did trust him. I also knew he was being honest about the man he used to be in comparison to who he was now. At the core, Suleem was still Suleem but I wouldn’t dare discount the maturity he worked to achieve.

“I’m still mad though.”

He smiled lazily. “I know but you also want some dick so you gotta pick a struggle.”

I grinned, lifted off his lap, and slipped my shorts off before I found my place again. My hands worked to free his dick from his jeans before I stroked him a few times then lifted enough to pull my panties to the side and sank down on him.

The depth and fullness of him had me dropping my hand to my stomach where I felt him at the same time I began circling my hips. I moved right to left before moving in the opposite direction then touching back and forth which had me groaning when the motion made him angled differently.

My hips lifted and rolled, allowing my pussy to slide up and down his dick, not caring that we were outside and visible.

I fucked him so good and he stretched and imprinted himself in me in only the way he could because I belonged to this man.

Each time I dropped down hard and his thick, meaty head tapped the base of my lungs, I inched closer to destruction.

“Claim this muthafucker, Yah. Ride that shit, baby.”

The more he encouraged me, the harder I worked to do just that. My thighs tensed and ached from the effort and my core blazed from the promise of a blissful release that took flight seconds before his dick jerked and pulsed inside me.

He grabbed my chin and brushed his lips over mine.

“You good now?”

“I’m better.” I smiled lazily and he chuckled.

“Aight, come on then. Let me get you inside so I can suck on that pussy until you’re good.”

I grinned and hissed lowly when I lifted off of him.