Page 124 of Kentrell

“What?”

“I never said dick.” I looked her dead in the eyes.

Her gaze sharpened as her mind replayed what I said. I could see her tryna find the part she swore she heard but couldn’t. She shook her head, lips twitching.

“I mean, the dickcome with it, but you know?—”

“Shut up!” She giggled, melting into me like sugar.

She didn’t have to say how she felt—I could feel it. In her breathing. Her body heat. Her grip on me like she finally had something solid.

Aside from her mama, auntie, cousin, and two best friends, Zoe ain’t have nobody else. And if you really broke it down, blood was supposed to ride for you. That meant the only people she truly had were Mars and Stacia.

And yeah, I’d seen them go hard for her. But she needed me in her corner now.

To lift her when the world tried to dim her.

To shut shit down before it ever reached her.

To protect her.

Toseeher.

And I did.

Every inch.

Every flaw.

Every beautiful, frustrating part of her.

“Where yo lil friends at?” I asked as I pulled her down with me, sinking back into the pillows like the bed was claiming me all over again. She came willingly, body warm and soft against mine.

She propped her chin on my chest, hazel eyes staring up at me, close enough to make a man forget what the hell he was saying.

“My lil friends are downstairs,” she chuckled, voice still husky from sleep. “They’re not gonna leave until we come out of this room.”

I heard her—but my hands had already found her ass again, kneading it slow. I wasn’t paying attention to nothing but the way her skin responded to my touch.

“Shit, we can stay in here all day.”

She shivered, biting back a smile as I massaged her deeper. Then she tucked her head sideways, laying it across my chest like she was trying to pull herself away from the moment.

“No, we got so much to do,” she said, wiggling her hands under my back like she needed to hold on to something. “I have to pack.Youhave to go back home and pack. I need to call my mama and come up with a believable lie?—”

“Why you gotta lie?” I cut in, knowing damn well why—but not liking it one bit.

“You grown. Tell her you finna give that pussy away.”

“Kentrell!” Zoe popped me in the chest, half shocked, half laughing. “I donottalk like that to my mama.”

“Why not?” I smirked, brushing it off like it was nothing. “She tell you to wait until marriage?”

I already knew the answer. Knew the story Zora fed her—the fairytale about some man who loved her mama so much, she never looked at another man again.

That man was supposedly her father.

A ghost in dress shoes and a tailored suit. Perfect. Polished. Dead and gone before Zoe even had a chance to meet him.

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