Page 16 of The Plus One

“Uh-huh.”

The rest of the ride to her house was quiet. She turned toward the window, but I could see her smiling in the reflection. And my dumb ass was smiling too. This was dangerous. Not because Kema was drunk. I wasn’t touching her tonight. That wasn’t even a question. I pulled into her driveway and put the truck in park. “We here, Kema.”

She didn’t move. I looked over to see she had fallen to sleep. Actually she was knocked the fuck out. I stared at her for a few seconds. Long lashes rested against her cheeks. Her lips were slightly parted, and that little hoop in her nose caught the light from the streetlamp.

Kema was beautiful. And completely off-limits. At least she should’ve been. I got out, walked around the truck, and opened her door. “Kema.”

She stirred. “We home?”

“Yeah. You're home.”

“Mmm.”

“Cmon.”

She held her arms out and I stared at her. “You serious?”

“I’m sleepy Ace please," she responded in a sing songy voice.

“So walk.”

“Ace.”

“What?”

“Please?”

Fuck my life. I reached for her. Kema wrapped her arms around my neck as I lifted her from the truck. And this right here? This was exactly why I needed to get as far away from Kema Anderson as possible.

I had spent years respecting a line I had no business crossing. Kel had been my boy. Kema had been his woman. That should’ve been enough to kill whatever attraction I had to her. But now? She wasn’t his.

Three

Ace

When we made it to Kema’s door, she mumbled the PIN for me to put into the keypad. I punched the numbers in, waited for the lock to click, then pushed the door open and carried her inside.

Kema was thick, but a nigga was in the gym for a reason. Lifting her ass was easy. What wasn’t easy was pretending I wasn’t enjoying having her wrapped around me. She opened her eyes and tapped my chest. “You can put me down.”

“You sure?”

“Yes, Ace.”

I lowered her until her feet touched the floor. Kema immediately kicked off her shoes and sighed. “Thank God.”

I closed and locked the door behind us while she walked further into the apartment. I’d never been inside her place before. I’d dropped her off once or twice when she left the bar, but she’d always been sober enough to get herself inside.

Tonight was different. I followed her toward the kitchen and immediately regretted it. Because Kema walked in front of me. And that ass… Jesus Christ.

My eyes dropped before I could stop them. I watched her wide hips swaying with every step she took. Shit all I could hear in my head was “in those jeans baby girl tell me is there any more room for me.”

I’d never seen a pair of jeans fit anybody as perfectly as her jeans fit her. I was wondering if they were custom to fit her thick ass. Niggas noticed a lot of things and I noticed how most women had that lil gap in the back in their jeans. Kema didn’t have that.

While I was staring at her ass, Kema suddenly turned around and looked over her shoulder. She caught me. I didn’t even pretend that I wasn’t looking. A slow little smirk spread across her face. “You want some water, Mr. Ace?”

See. That was that shit. I nodded and swallowed because I didn’t trust myself to say anything. She knew exactly what she was doing now. Had to.

Kema opened the refrigerator, bent over and pulled out two bottles of water. She handed me one before taking a long drink from hers. “ Are you hungry?”