Page 1 of The Sweetest Return

IMANI

December 2018

The streetlamp outside Dre’s bedroom cut through the blinds in pale-gold lines, touching the wall, his dresser, the AWU Kings helmet beside a stack of playbooks, and the broad slope of his back as he moved over me.

“Best Part” played low from the speaker near his bed. His room smelled like warm skin, soap, and the last of his cologne lingering at his neck. I knew that scent. I had worn it home on my clothes, slept with it in my sheets, caught it on hoodies I stole from him and had no intention of returning.

Dre kissed me with his dick buried deep inside me.

Slow. Wet. His tongue moving against mine while his hips pulled back and pushed forward again, giving me enough time to feel every inch before he filled me all over.

My fingers tightened at the back of his neck.

“Dre.”

He smiled against my mouth. “What?”

“You know what.”

“Nah.” His hand slid beneath one leg and lifted it higher around his waist. The next stroke went deeper, and my mouth fell open. “Tell me.”

“I hate you.”

“You currently don’t.”

I laughed, breathless, and he kissed the sound right out of my mouth.

This was us too.

Dre could have me naked beneath him, wet enough that I could hear it when he moved, and still say something stupid enough to make me laugh. Then his eyes would change, and the laughter disappeared.

Like now.

He watched my face while his hips slowed, dark eyes focused on every response I tried and failed to hide. His thumb brushed my bottom lip.

“You feel good?”

I nodded.

“Don’t nod at me, Mani.”

“Yes,” I whispered.

His mouth lowered toward mine. “Look at me when you say it.”

I did, even though holding his stare with him that deep inside me felt like too much truth at one time.

I squeezed around him on purpose and watched his jaw tighten.

His eyes narrowed. “Keep playing.”

“What you gonna do?”

He pulled almost all the way out and pushed back in hard enough to make my breasts bounce against his chest. My cry broke somewhere between his mouth and mine.

“That,” he said.

I grabbed his shoulders. “You’re so full of yourself.”