Page 90 of Dope Boys: Most Wanted
“You ate since I’ve been gone?” he questioned, inhaling the scent in her hair and on her neck. “Don’t even tell me. Sit down.”
“I’ll make it.”
“Mm mm, nah. I set a standard. I can’t undo that now. Sit down before you’re the one on the plate.”
Reign giggled and moved away. “Now that’s how you walk in here moving forward. Kiss me first, be mad second.”
“Oh, she likes me?”
Reign rolled her eyes. “We could revert.”
“Hell nah. We not doing that shit. Never again.”
“Speechless,”Markus muttered into the lingering fog of the bathroom. His voice, a rumble, and his shoulders, tight, as she oiled his back down. “I can hear your thoughts. I thought we agreed to let it go.”
They did in the steam of the shower as they washed each other, stealing soft kisses and glances, they whispered an agreement – whatever happened in their past, they would let itgo for the sake of moving on. However, each wore weight and each wanted to exchange it – trading the weight of what was for what could be.
She stopped briefly and watched him turn to her. “That’s not what I’m thinking about.”
“What are you thinking about?” he posed, studying her. Ringlets of hair slowly dripping water over her bare shoulders, the towel wrapped around her and tucked under her arms, her eyes free of secrets.
“My mother. The prayers she whispered when she thought I wasn’t listening. All her warnings of what life would be if I weren’t under her roof. And while she chose that man over me, she wasn’t wrong. I just…I want more, you know?”
“More like?” he quizzed as he swiped a wet coil from her face.
“More than what I was given and more than what was taken from me. I’ve never felt like this before. Secure. Seen. Respected. This is real, right? The way I feel is real? You’re not going to build me back up and drop me, are you?”
Markus closed the small space between them and tenderly cupped her face. “Nah. You like sunshine. Warmth on a niggas face reminding me that life ain’t so cold. You got me making all my plans around you. Two days away from you felt like I was unraveling.”
Reign rose to her tiptoes and pressed her lips against his. In one swift move, Markus picked her up and wrapped her legs around his waist. Compared to how he entered hours ago, Reign was anticipating his force, silently telling herself that he wouldn’t do anything to hurt her. As he handled her like a gem, she knew his words were the truth. She was his sunshine, the light he couldn’t capture in a bottle but could marvel over. And he did. Every kiss, touch, lick, and thrust was one of care of rooted emotions – beyond the physical connection they had.
She whimpered in his ear, pulling the subtle sweetness of her yoni from his tongue and lips. “So good, Emilliano.”
The croon of his name made his strokes heavier, combating the rising tide of her ocean and the grind of her hips against him. He moaned into her mouth, pushing her leg up so he could watch her body squeeze and cover him. Reign’s hands glided over his body and hers, finding herself slipping into the abyss without fear or worry.
“Speechless,” he groaned. “Eyes up.”
She fought to open her eyes.
“You’re mine,” he declared with a shuddered breath. “I’m yours. Ain’t nobody taking you from me, and a nigga ain’t coming off of you. Hear me?”
“Yes,” she breathed. “I hear you.”
Reign reached up and pulled him back down by his chains, nipping at his lips. “It’s us.”
“It’s us,” he groaned as she used her legs to change their positions. Now riding him, she looked down into the cognac hues of his eyes and chuckled through the ecstasy of their forming soul tie.
“Look at you, glowing and shit. Wrapped around me and blooming. You so fuckin’ beautiful, Reign,” Markus declared.
“You are, too.”
They rose and fell together, tangled in the sheets, listening to their pants morph into even, relaxed breaths. The pads of Markus’ fingers lightly caressed her bare skin, hers tracing over his scars and tattoos.
“My mother used to pray, too. Sometimes that shit haunts me in my sleep, and it shouldn’t. It’s like my demons warring with the angels she summoned from heaven to protect me,” Markus shared, and Reign was sure to take in every word. “Got to be because there’s no other reason I’m not in a grave yet. I neverslept a full night without liquor, weed, and then the pills before you. I see every face of every soul I snatched from niggas bodies.”
“Does it make you rethink all of this?” Reign asked in a raspy tone. “Make you reconsider the space you’re in.”
“I’ve been doing this shit for a long time. It’s the first one – my pops. The rage, like I was watching it happen outside of my body. All the blood, Nia’s cries. It echoes and then, like a chant, that prayer. Protect my children, God please,” he paused to still himself. “It’s like the spirit of her is my warrior. You remind me of her. Soft, quiet but not weak. To answer your question, no. I’ve never known anything but this. Hustling will always be in my blood. I’m a product of it. It’s just time not to be so close to the front line.”
