Page 41 of Lost In London

“This is for you.” Handing her the tote of goodies, I remained seated on weak legs. While she excitedly pulled out everything I bought, I had to calm the anger boiling in my chest. Knowing that she allowed Olena to sit close to her, so close that she had both nostrils filled with the floral sweetness of her perfume, I was now jealous.

“Let me find out you’re stalking me on Twitter.” Her shoulders shimmied as she pulled out a slice of pizza and moaned immediately as a drop of cheese touched her tongue.

Sexy ass.

Getting comfortable, she kicked off her heels and sat cross-legged on the barstool across from me. To see her in this element, so carefree in her establishment stuffing her face with pizza, she was making it hard to not obsess over her.

“Stalking, not yet. Learning what makes you happy, absolutely.” When I got the alert that she tweeted something new I never ran to Twitter so fast in my life. Sadly, yes, I had my notifications set to alert me whenever she posted on any of her social media pages. Just so happened today she tweeted that she wanted pizza from Dominoes and gummy bears. Even enticing me more by ending the tweet by saying she’d be best friends with whoever brought the food to her for life.

She owed me now and I wanted my payment in the form of a forever yoke.

“To what do I owe the honor?” I loved how she gave me equal attention with the pizza in her hand. She wasn’t one of those shy eating chics. That medium pizza had at least six slices and there were only four left so far.

“I wanted to see you and hopefully put a smile on your face.” Her smile was about to be the reason I was going to see the pearly gates sooner than expected.

“Thank you, Quincey.” Her head tilted a little to the right, catching the beams of sun from the window making her skin glow.

“You’re welcome.”

I never witnessed something more angelic than her sitting across from me eating pizza and staring into my eyes like I was reciting the main subplot points of her favorite movie.

What made her so different?

Besides her beauty and heart for our youth, what was it about London Nicole that had me acting out in impulses and greediness? I tried to find one answer but there were several.

The biggest of them all is I found an odd attraction to her pain. I didn’t have mommy issues or had a history of being mistreated by women to feel like I needed to take on that ‘save her’ mentality. Nothing about me screamed fixer but I wanted to love her. Love her pain away. Love her scars to healing. Love her mind to self-discovery and awakening. From the first day, I saw her all I’ve been wanting to say to her was give me your pain and I’ll show you healing.

A woman being loved by the right man was a formula for creating a beast. A savage. A woman of confidence with high regard. I wanted to be the man who loved London back to life.

“I see it in your eyes, Q.” An arched brow of hers raised. “You’re going to get attached to me. For your heart's safety,” she licked her lips clean of marinara sauce. “Don’t do it.”

It’s interesting how she could read what I was feeling while at the same time giving me a warning.

The average woman who didn’t know me couldn’t read me that easily. Trust, many have tried and all have failed. But she was able to read me or maybe it wasn’t her that read me but her spirit. Her spirit whispered in her ear that I was her forever and out of fear she punked out and started warning me.

She gotta be slicker than that.

“You’re a little too late with the warning.” I finished my smoothie, needing its coolness to ward off the heat pumping in my chest. “I’m already attached to you. More intrigued and borderline obsessed. I’ve been enamored with you for a year now.” I shrugged, not at all caring how crazy I sounded. Masking my feelings has never been my forte.

I loved watching her breathing change to skittish breaths. Loved seeing her pupils dilate. Loved witnessing the war brew in her eyes, the push and pull of wanting to give into what she felt and trying to fight it.

“Next week is the big day. Are you excited?” Her changing the subject made me smile.

One day she was going to have to stop running from me.

“I am. Question is, are you? You’ve accomplished a lot in such a short amount of time.” That she did.

I won’t lie and say I hadn’t expected her to use her connections to get a lot of the sponsors she did. Everyone who knew good music knew who her brother was and that alone was enough to get access to a lot of perks. She didn’t go that route. Rarely, if ever, did she mention her brother’s name. When she reached out to the farmers, radio stations, and other resources she wanted to be involved in her grand reveal. It was all on the merit of her business alone and what she could do for the community.

I loved that shit.

It turned me on in ways I never experienced.

“Rolling this out right before the summer was a good idea. Thank you for that.” Another thing that I loved about her is that she’s teachable and open to learning. At first, I thought she’d fight me on every suggestion I’d make but she never did. She asked questions, wanting to know how it would benefit the kids and wanting to know what she needed to do to execute whatever I suggested.

Nodding my appreciation, I took inventory of the bar. The crowd was growing but no one seemed to be in demand for her. “Are you done here for the day?”

Pushing the empty pizza box to the middle of the table, she wiped her hands and shook her head. Damn, that was sexy as hell. She finished that entire pizza by herself not caring about counting calories or how she was going to work it off. Trust me, I’d be whatever gym equipment she needed to work it off and then some. “I am. Usually, I just sit around until I’m requested home.”

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