Page 16 of The Sweetest Devotion

“Do you have somewhere in the city you need to be? I can drop you off,” I offered as I regarded Kennedy.

She smoothed out the material of her designer dress—the “Valentino” dress. “So I had to sleep with you to get a ride?”

Despite my hurry to get out of this, I managed to smile. “Nah, I was tryna get you a cab, remember? Besides, it’s the least I could do now.”

“I have a friend I was going to go see. She lives off Queen Ave on Magnolia,” Kennedy explained. She soon thumbed a finger over her shoulder. “First, can I use the restroom?”

I nodded. “It’s right out the way you came. Can’t miss it.”

She slipped out of the room and I tidied up the office as best as I could. The smell of sex hung in the air, dragging me back to our encounter. That was probably one of the best fucks I’d ever had. If notthebest. I loved the way she took me, how she kept moaning my name. How I fit inside her like she was built exclusively for me.

Shaking my head, I straightened Rod’s desk and focused on getting out of dodge.

Following Kennedy’s lead, I made a pit stop in the men’s room before going out to the dumpster and tossing the trash. Knowing Unc, he’d probably beat me here in the morning, but I’d do my best to get in early enough to fix Kennedy’s car and make sure the coast was clear.

There was a chance Rod wouldn’t care about this, but I didn’t want to push it. My uncle took his shop seriously. He worked hard to own this place and to build his clientele, and I’d be damned if I fucked it up because I couldn’t control my urges.

Kennedy met me by the front door, her movement not as swift as it once was. It stroked my ego knowing she could feel me in every step she took.

It had been way too long.

I took her out to my Tahoe where I opened the passenger door for her, but not without giving her one good warning.

I leaned in to whisper, “Don’t touch the station.”

Kennedy only grinned up at me. “Play something nice and I won’t.”

Brat.

I resisted the urge to smack her ass as she turned and got into the SUV. Instead, I settled on curling and uncurling my fingers to release the tension.

Tugging the brim of my baseball cap down, I took a moment to breathe and compose myself before rounding the car and getting in behind the wheel.

Kennedy recited the address where her friend stayed, a familiar area that wasn’t too far from Rod’s Repair.

I put my Tahoe in gear, backed out of the spot, and soon took off for the exit. Not feeling the silence between us, I reached down and turned up my favorite radio station and let the hip-hop beat fill the ride.

Half a minute later, Kennedy sat up, flinching just a little as if still sore.

She angled her head at the stereo. “This sounds familiar.”

I smirked, a little surprised she’d know Westside Connection.

I didn’t bother educating her on who was playing, and she didn’t kill the mood by switching the station. She even seemed to like it, despite their rhymes being not too far off from King Von’s. I credited it to their singsong chorus making their song easier to digest.

Not too long later, I pulled up to a little house on Magnolia Ave, in behind a white Volkswagen. A few lights were on and as I faced Kennedy, I found her heaving a sigh of relief.

She turned to me, taking me in that way she’d done back in the office. Long gone was her fear of getting dirty.

“I guess I’ll see you in the morning,” Kennedy said. The rise and fall of her chest told me just how affected she was here and now in this car with me, with what we’d done.

When her hooded eyes settled on mine, I shifted my attention to her lips before nodding along. My grip on my steering wheel tightened, keeping me in place in my seat. One-off or not, I really wanted to taste those lips.

“Yeah, I’ll get right on it first thing,” I said calmly.

Kennedy bobbed her head and undid her seat belt. She grabbed her purse and was out of the car. Once she was on the front walk, she looked back at me over her shoulder, those eyes of hers stilling me in place until she was safely inside the house after knocking a few times.

Blinking, I let the moment go and headed home.

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