Page 21 of Him Too
I didn’t say anything. I didn’t know how. Because she was right. But it wasn’t as simple as she was making it out to be. I wouldn’t be the way I am if I knew how to control it. But for her... for the promise of more nights like this, I was willing to learn.
She continued. “I need you to promise me something.”
I raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“Control your temper,” she said. “Promise me you’ll start learning how to breathe through that shit.”
“J…”
“If you want me to come back after mediation,” she said, brushing her thumb across my heart, “then you’re gonna have to meet me halfway. I’ll come back and stay one more uninterrupted month. Here. With you. I’ll stay. I’ll cook. I’ll lay up like this every night so you sleep all cuddled up like you like. But you gotta try, Ciarán. Even when I leave.”
I sat up a little, forcing her to lay flat against me. My hand slid under her top, spreading wide over her back.
“You bribing me with your presence and oxtail and shrimp grits?”
She smiled against my chest. “And cornbread. And that peach cobbler you liked.”
“No pussy?” I teased.
She pinched my side, hard enough to make me jump. “No pussy for a crash-out. Just control your temper.” She leaned closer, her lips brushing my ear. “Imagine it. A whole month. Just us. No distractions. No one touching me but you, but no sex.” She laughed.
I rolled, pinning her beneath me in one swift motion, caging her with my arms. Her eyes widened, but she didn’t look scared. She looked excited.
“Fine,” I said, dipping my head to nip at her bottom lip. “I promise.”
She smiled up at me, a real, triumphant smile that did something to my chest.
“Good,” she murmured. “But I was coming back anyway. Living with you has been like a little vacation I didn’t know I needed. But I’m definitely gonna need another month after dealing with Oak’s dramatic ass.”
She pushed me off. I lay next to her again, her body melted into mine. I smirked but said nothing. I didn’t want to talk about her husband, divorce or not.
Eventually, her breathing slowed, and I realized one, she’d drifted off and two, this was the first time sharing a bed on purpose. I let myself close my eyes, too.
fourteen-Oak
I couldn’t stop watching the TikTok of Jordin in the club with him. The way he was holding her hand, pulling her through the crowd after pummeling some fucker for touching her. He was doing my job. Protecting her. Touching her. That shit burned.
He was so cocky and confident—Jordin would love that. And to top it off, he seemed broken in a way that made people like her want to help. She was probably trying to fix him. That’s what she did. And knowing her, they were going to end up together because he wasn’t going to want to let her go.
The idea made my stomach twist. Before I could even think about it, I was slamming my phone down, face-first onto the table.
The screen cracked beneath the force, the sharp sound cutting through the low hum of conversation around me.
“What in the fuck, Oak?”Marcushissed from across the table.
I’d forgotten he was even there, forgotten we were sitting in the middle of my parents’ Sunday dinner. The noise bled back in, and when I looked up, twenty pairs of eyes stared back at me—judging me.
The long dining table stretched across the room, filled with my big Italian family. Aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings,nieces, nephews—all of them frozen, mid-bite, watching me like I was an animal.
I stood abruptly, the chair scraping against the hardwood floor. “Fuck this,” I muttered, storming out of the dining room.
“Real mature,”Marcuscalled after me, but I didn’t care.
I made it as far as the front door before he caught up to me, his hand grabbing my arm.
“You said you’d have a conversation with our parents before you left,” he reminded me, his voice tight.
“I changed my mind,” I snapped, yanking my arm free. They were trying to talk me out of reconciling with Jordin.
