Page 26 of Only You

I swiftly made my way through the crowd nearly to Sin before I was stopped by a hand on my chest. I looked down to find Ivy pressing beside me like she belonged there.

“Hi, Brice. I’m sorry, Dr. Washington,” she said seductively as she smiled at me. I took her hand and gently removed it from my body. Suddenly, another set of hands wrapped around my middle and up my chest, hugging me. I could tell by the sweet smell of her perfume that it was Tay. My chest deflated in a sigh of relief. Her arms dropped down until she was standing beside me. Once there, I looked down at her in question before she lifted to kiss my lips. I grabbed underneath her chin and pushed my tongue into her mouth. We warred with one another in a passionate pull of give and take before we moaned into each other’s mouths. After showing her how thankful I was for her being beside me again, I broke away from the kiss.

“Hey, Baby. You want to introduce me to your ‘friend’,” Tayla said, emphasizing the friend. At that moment I could give a damn about Ivy. I wanted to know why she’d vanished, then appeared out of nowhere, asserting her dominance.

“Baby, this is Nurse Ivy Smith. I work with her on some shifts at the hospital. Nurse Smith, this is my everything, Tayla Washington. She looked down at our fingers in search of a ring. We quickly shifted them out of her sight. Her brows furrowed in confusion before she smiled. When I told her the other night that I was married, I could tell she didn’t believe me. She wasn’t put off by me calling Tayla my wife or the fact that I could potentially be married. All she saw was competition.

“It was nice meeting you, Tayla, is it?”

“It is! But you can also call me Mrs. Washington,” Tayla replied snidely.

“Brice, I’ll see you at work,” she said before walking off. I felt Tayla tense beside me. I knew that she was pissed.

“Did you fuck her, Brice?” She spoke under her breath, low enough not to draw any attention to her growing irritation.

“No,” I answered with finality.

“Well, I didn’t like the way she was looking at you like she didn’t give a damn that I was there.”

“Yeah, I noticed that too. I’ll handle it,” I said, because this was the second time she’s gotten too bold.

“You think I want you making time for her? No, I’ll handle it,” she said. I had no idea what handle meant, but I was sure it would be far worse than I’d seen her do when we weren’t in a relationship. It didn’t help that I wasn’t sure she trusted me. I pushed that to the back of my mind as I glanced at my watch and saw it was almost ten. The movie was set to start soon. I took Tayla’s hand and threaded my fingers through hers. I wasn’t about to let her out of my sight again.

“The movie is about to start. Come on,” I said as I ushered us inside. There weren’t as many people as before, as most people had found their way to their theater. As I stood waiting in the concession line, I glanced around the room at all the posters that lined the walls. I was trying to decide whether I wanted to know where she went and if it’d piss me off, that she’d done it solo.

“Are we going to act like you didn’t disappear on me? I don’t like that shit, Tay.” I spoke. We had reached the front of the line. I requested several boxes of candy and a large drink from the attendant and paid.

“I thought I saw Nina,” she said. Her body tensed when she said her name.

“You thought? Hmph!”

“Brice, I can take care of myself.”

“I know you can, Tayla. I’m not trying to diminish your ability either. But I did lay eyes on Sin, and you know how I feel about his ass. When I didn’t see you, I began to think the worst. I lost you on that operating table, Tay,” I said, swallowing hard and taking a deep breath. I wasn’t trying to revisit that memory.

“I’m sorry, I just want to finish all this. I hate looking over my shoulder, Brice.”

“We will, trust me,” I said. She nodded, but I could tell it was hard to accept, considering I’d previously hidden so much from her. I leaned to kiss her lips.

“Come on, so we don’t miss any of the movie, I think the trailers are almost done.” She locked her hand with mine and we headed inside. What Tayla needed to understand was that if Jourdan pulled a gun on her now, it would get messy quick. Anyone else, for that matter. That shit would never happen again.

CHAPTER 16

Tayla

Sitting in the house was not an option today. Bryson and I needed some sunshine. I checked the weather app and saw it was warm and sunny, so we hit the road. It was mid-morning, and the sun caressed my skin as I soaked in the rays. I loved days like this when I could just be. And today, that would be done outside the four walls I’d stared at for the last two months. I understood Brice's concern about me staying inside until I was fully healed, but Nina wasn’t about to have me scared to come outside. She should have made sure I was dead the first time. I was The Lynx, and that just wasn’t how I operated.

I’d taken Brice’s Mercedes AMG GT63 when I left the house. He would flip once he figured out I’d taken it because I wouldn’t let him drive my Chevelle this morning, he’d all but begged.

“Tayla, you don’t trust me to drive your car? Come on, be nice.”I told him I was finding it! He wagged his finger a couple of times before he walked off. To rub it in, I had been aimlessly using allhis gas. I trusted Brice with my life, but it was my heart that I was hesitant about. After about forty minutes of driving around, I decided to call Jourdan. We’d missed so much time in the last three years that I was ashamed of how we were now. We still had things to work on, especially the trust, but we needed to move on. I spoke into my AirPods and told it to call her.

“Hello,” she answered. I paused before responding because I hadn’t spoken to Jourdan in this capacity in over a year.

“Hey, JoJo,” I said, pausing again.

“Are you doing anything right now?” I asked.

“No, Angel and I are just sitting around the house.”

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