Page 12 of Riot

She was doing the most—gagging, slurping, letting spit trail down her chin and drip onto her tits. Her hair was wild, makeupsmudged, lipstick faded. She looked like a porn fantasy, and still… I felt nothing.

Just tension in my shoulders. Weight in my chest. Pressure behind my eyes.

Running the business with Creed had me under pressure. He played the clean CEO, press-friendly and polished. I handled the grit. The black-market connections. The contracts we couldn’t file on paper. Add in the vineyard, and I was balancing the future of our empire on my back.

And then there was Mama. She’d fallen apart after the truth about Pops came out. Couldn’t eat. Couldn’t work. Just wandered the house like a ghost haunted by guilt. Said she needed time, before she would return back to the company. Looking after has been a full time job in its self. Her mind seemed like it was going, so the siblings all agreed that we would hire her a nurse.

I tried not to carry it all, but I always did.

And now here I was, in a luxury suite, with a woman who would’ve done anything for me—on her knees, trying to make me forget.

But she wasn’ther.

My mind kept going back to the girl Boaz calledThe Virgin.

That scent. That face. That energy.

She didn’t speak a word to me, but I felt her in every cell of my body. She looked at me like sheknewme. Like she wanted out. And I couldn’t stop thinking about getting her free. I needed to create a plan. But I needed to get back on the compound. I didn’t see as much of it as I’d like. Security was tight. He had enough guards on the compound but me and my people can take them out. The problem is getting to them before they could prepare. I didn’t know what security system they used. It definitely isn’t the one we provide. I’d figure it out because I needed to free her. As well as those other girls.

Shari sucked harder, deeper, making little whimpering noises for my ego. She thought she was pulling something out of me.

She wasn’t.

I looked down at her, slid a hand across her jawline, and said nothing. Just watched her work while my mind stayed stuck on someone else.

Someone I hadn’t even touched yet.

And somehow, she had a hold on me that this woman never would.

It was early afternoon by the time Shari finished. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, still breathing heavy, proud like she just put in real work. I stood up, stretched, and walked over to the window with my cigar, looking down at the city like it was mine. The suite smelled like sex and smoke, but the tension in my chest hadn’t eased one bit.

My phone buzzed on the nightstand. When I looked over I saw that it was my brother Creed.

I picked up on the third ring.

“What’s good?” I said, voice still rough.

“You didn’t forget, did you?” he asked.

“Forget what?”

“The tailor, bruh. Two hours. We’re getting fitted.”

I grunted, dragging smoke into my lungs. “Damn. That’s today?”

“Yes,nigga, it’s today,” Creed snapped. “We’re getting married in a month. You act like this shit’s not real.”

I smirked. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll be there.”

“Don’t be late.”

He hung up before I could respond.

I sat back down on the edge of the bed, tapping ash into a tray as Shari crawled up beside me. Still naked, still glowing like she thought she had a real chance with me.

She looked over, brushing hair out of her face. “Let me go with you to the wedding.”

I laughed. Hard.

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