Page 37 of Welcome to the Table

I didn’t know if she was playing, but if she was, she was playing with fire.

I watched her slide into her skirt and sit at her vanity.

She used a comb to part her hair and some curler-looking shit to curl it.

I watched like my favorite movie was on.

Low music played in the background as she twerked in her seat while doing her hair.

I noticed that she didn’t put any makeup on.

“Oh, that’s my shit.” She seductively stood and turned the radio volume up, then went back to sit and finish her hair.

I knew I shouldn’t have, but I walked further into the room because I wanted to see all of her.

She was everything I wanted in a woman, but she had some growing to do.

Her time in New York wasn’t enough. She was walking in dangerous territory, and I knew I was, too, but I had self-control.

Fucking with me, she would have to choose between her family and me.

If I acted on my feelings, the whole world was gon’ shake.

Jaci turned to me, eyes searching my soul.

I knew I should have turned and walked out of the room, but my feet were cemented to the floor.

Numb. Curious. Tempted. Willing to stay and see what she had up her sleeve.

I should have stopped her thick ass before she even stood up, but I didn’t want to.

Something in my gut and curiosity got the best of me.

Deep down in my bones, I knew I wanted her, and this little cat-and-mouse game that she was playing was going to get both of us burned.

She was like a fucking need that I just couldn’t shake, and I didn’t want to.

I didn’t want to fuck around and find out or play Russian roulette with my life or hers fucking with her brothers.

“Yeah, I love me a tall ass hood nigga, long dreads, thick dick, know how to think, drug dealing ass nigga, but also a healer. He and my brother were best friends, but I don’t give a fuck cuz I still want him.

They both bad and both some killas.” She was fucking up Glorilla’s lyrics, but I didn’t give a fuck because her rapping voice had me hypnotized.

I never knew she had it in her. She was always the princess who used proper English and never got into the business unless necessary.

That shit was sexy. She rapped the lyrics as she made her way closer to me, walking seductively.

She continued to rap as she stood in front of me and turned her back.

I hovered over her as she moved her hips like a snake against me, and I knew she felt my dick brick up.

Her hips moved seductively to the beat, and all I could do was stand there and let her do her thing.

“Loooovvvee, never knew what I was missing,” she continued to sing.

Jaci grabbed my hand, wrapping it around the front of her throat.

She turned around with my hand still in its place and her ass poked out and started to grind on me, driving me crazy.

Jaci wasn’t playing fair, and I was taking that ride with her.

She was playing, but I was ready to fuck her soul out of her body.

I grabbed her hips, pulling her closer to me, damn near inside my skin. I leaned down to whisper in her ear, “Where the fuck is all this coming from? You are dancing on a nigga and shit. You must be trying to get fucked, huh?” I licked inside her ear, and she shivered.

My mouth lingered on her cheek, and I felt her smile, but her body tensed. I backed away from her while I had self-control. She felt the cool air that lingered from our bodies separating and turned to face me.

“You think I don’t know that you been watching me in New York this entire time? I have had a crush on yo’ ass since middle school, but I knew you and Hellcat’s bond wouldn’t allow it,” she told me, but my face remained stoic. I wasn’t admitting to shit.

“What changed between then and now?” I licked my lips, looking at her.

“Age and time, unless you scared of my brother. I’m a grown ass woman and can fuck whoever I want to,” she said with her hand on her hip.

“So, why not fuck with one of those Wall Street niggas?” I asked her with a smirk.

“Because I was waiting for you. I don’t want to share that experience with nobody but you, Grove, and you know that.”

I was fucked up when she said that. She was a fucking virgin. I couldn’t do that because I knew I would break her.

“You ain’t got yo’ cherry popped yet?” I had to ask for confirmation.

“Didn’t you just hear me say that I was waiting for you, but I know you scared of Hellcat. I know one thing, outside of Athena, I am both my brothers’ weaknesses,” she said, and I knew it was the truth.

I walked back into her personal space and grabbed her chin.

“Let’s get some shit straight. I don’t fear nobody. There is a big difference between fear and respect. My loyalty is to this family, and I will not fuck that up. Hellcat fucks with me the long way, as I do him, and I’m not about to fuck that up,” I said.

I picked her shirt up off the bed and handed it to her, but she wouldn’t take it. I chuckled because she was a fireball just like her brother.

“Well, I suggest you get your affairs in order. You know just as well as I do that I always get what I want, and I want you,” she said. “Now, since you got my shirt in your hands, put it on me.” She raised her arms in the air like a child and laughed.

I tucked my top lip in, showing my diamond grill. She shook her head, giving me a serious look.

“Why now? Why bring me back to New Orleans after all these years? I know about someone in the family being a snake, but wouldn’t I be safer in New York?” she asked, like she pulled it out of the sky.

“You need to be where all of us can touch you. We don’t have anything solid right now. With Melph gone, everybody needs to be in close proximity,” I told her.

I would never lie to her if she asked me anything. They had kept her in the dark too long already.

“And you showing out today. Got the grills on and shit. Yeah, you want me to slice a bitch’s throat. You keep forgetting that I am my brother’s keeper,” she told me.

I really laughed because I had forgotten that was her secret weapon as well. She stepped closer with her breasts pressed against me, so I could put on her shirt. She was doing that shit on purpose,

“You gotta back up so I can put this half ass shirt on you,” I told her, and she backed up.

I eased the shirt over her head, touching her silky skin all the way down. Her shit was so soft, and I bet it tasted even better. I kept my comments to myself because I knew she would say some slick shit, and we both would be in trouble. I turned to look at the closed door.

“You ain’t gotta be scared to touch me. They know better than to barge into my room without knocking first. I don’t give a fuck who in here with me,” she said.

I kept quiet. I knew my potnah, and he didn’t give a fuck either. Once she put her arms through, I pulled the shirt down, and it stopped just above her belly button. I knew Hellcat would send her straight to hell for that.

“Hellcat gon’ fuck you up for this shit you got on,” I told her.

She went back to her vanity and started to put her lip gloss on.

“And that’s where you step in and handle it.” She didn’t bat a lash as she looked at me through the mirror.

I shook my head at her. I knew this mall trip was gon’ be a bunch of mayhem and bullshit. I walked over to the side of her bed and grabbed her shoes. She turned around, and I kneeled before her. I slid each foot into her Gucci slippers.

“And you say you not fucking with me? Boy, please. You on that with me.” She blushed as I put her other slipper on.

“I’ll always be a gentleman, sweetie. This ain’t shit,” I told her, and her smile went upside down.

“You do this for every bitch you fucking?”

I heard the attitude in her voice. I wanted to play with her, but I realized we had already spent too much time in her room alone.

“I ain’t fucking nobody, but if I was, it wouldn’t be your business anyway,” I told her, pissing her off even more.

She pulled her hair to one side and stood over me. “Yeah, you might wanna get yo’ bitches in order and let them know that whatever they had, the shit is over because I’m home now. I have no problem slicing a bitch’s neck or dropping bodies. I’m here now,” she said with confidence.

I held my laugh in because I knew she had to be kidding.

“Where the fuck is this conversation coming from? You ain’t never fuck with me like that, so I suggest you stop that shit. I am fucking bitches, but I ain’t fucking you, so you ain’t got shit to worry about.” I stood to my feet

“Don’t fucking play with me, Hollygrove. The monster in me is asleep, not fucking dead,” she said, and I was confused.

Jaci and I had never held a conversation like this.

Fuck, we never even talked like this. I didn’t know what fucking courage she had to even come at me like that.

Shit was diabolical. Jaci was always quiet and to herself.

She got older and bolder, but she could play that game by herself because I wasn’t fucking with it.

I remember her as a little girl, trying to run with the big boys and crying because she couldn’t.

I didn’t know what the fuck New York had turned her ass into.

She was soft spoken and followed every rule put in place by the family, so what the fuck changed is beyond me.

“Where the fuck is all of this coming from? Since when did you get this aggressiveness about you and this so-called crush on me all these years?” I asked as she grabbed her purse and phone.