Page 102 of Are You Going to Love Me

“I’m almost scared to tell you,” Eden hummed, feeling his warmth wrap around her. “You know, there are cameras everywhere.”

“Fuck them, if I wanna touch you, I’m touching you.”

“Oh, Trae Way MB ain’t scared of looking soft?” Eden toyed.

“I ain’t scared of shit for real. Maybe two things.”

“What are those?” Eden quizzed.

“Peace leaving me for real, now that I got it. My momma dying in the streets.”

Eden didn’t need him to expound on that. She knew what he meant. No one wanted to lose a parent or someone who stood in that role. For Eden, it was both, her father and Poppi. The weight of that pain would never leave her.

“Well, I can’t fully control your peace, but I can try.”

“Eden, you fully control my peace, baby,” he shared, smacking her hips. “The house needs to look like you run that muthaucka.”

“Stop it, you’re still leaking out of me,” she shared just above a whisper.

“There’s a room in the back, we can do it again.”

Eden shook him off of her with a soft giggle. “Cut it out. Limited time, and I’m going to see you when I’m done with this shoot. You cannot live in my skin all the time.”

He laughed. “I’m going to find a way.”

“Can you choose a sample, please, and stop playing?” Eden huffed through her own mix of laughter and anxiety.

He caught it. When he was around her, Maximus readied himself to be whatever she needed. To pick up on her needs, because even with encouragement, she wasn’t going to voice them.

“Hold on,” the seriousness in his voice halted her. “What’s going on in there?”

Eden shrugged. “It’s no-”

“It’s something. Tell me.”

She moved over to the artwork and pulled in a deep sigh before releasing it. “This is my first brand shoot since being “cancelled” and I really don’t know how to feel. Do I celebrate because it’s work, and people see me? Do I go in with caution because it could be pulled?”

“Who’s it with?”

“BlkArtCo. They’re launching a new digital art platform and want me to be the face of it,” she shared for the first time.

“We’re going to work on that,” he noted.

Her brows fused. “On what?”

“You playing small and not talking about the new shit happening. That’s big shit, E. You deserve all the good shit coming to you. The hate don’t ever win, and the darkness can’t cancel your light. Now, tell me again, what you got going on?”

Eden allowed herself to lean into him, growing comfortable and used to him being inches away. “I am the official brand ambassador for BlkArtCo.”

“Big shit from a big bitch,” he rumbled, making her smile widen. “What else?”

“This deal is enough to settle any residual debt I had from MRA dropping me and what I owed past brands for the contract termination,” she shared.

He wrapped his arms around her shoulder. “You big, E. Like pressure. You think I’m about to take off, you’re already on the rocket.”

“You know what, I might keep you.”

“Like I’m gon’ let you get far.”

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