Page 22 of Blind Spot
“Do you have to be so crass?”
He shrugged. “Mind the bizness that pays you, Shortcake.”
I ate my ice cream in silence until I finished it. He had already finished his, and he grabbed my container from my hands. I watched as he stood and took the ice cream containers to the kitchen to trash them.
When he returned, he lifted my legs, dropped onto the couch again, and then placed my feet in his lap. He removed my sock and then massaged my foot. My head dropped back, and I moaned.
“Mmm, . . . that’s it. Right there. Feels so good.”
Dominic stopped long enough for me to pop my eyes open to find him staring at me.
“Stop that shit.”
“What?”
He mugged me and resumed massaging my foot.
“Dom?”
“Hmm.”
“Why didn’t you ever let me write or visit you while you were locked up?”
“I didn’t need the distractions. People get caught up in what folks back home are going through, and it tends to weaken you, and you let your guard down. There was no way that I could fight against that shit. The minute a nigga sees an ounce of vulnerability in you, they take advantage of your weakness. There was no space or room for me to worry about what y’all were going through outside of them walls because I couldn’t do shit about it. And you know how I am about my family. I’ll kill a nigga over y’all.”
“I know. I just . . . I just missed you so badly.”
“I missed you, too, Shortcake. You know that. But sometimes you gotta sacrifice for the greater good of others. If I had let you write or visit me, you would’ve had an even harder time than you already did.”
“No, I wouldn’t have. I would’ve felt good, because at least I knew that you were safe.”
He chuckled and pressed deeper into the sole of my foot.
“Mm,” I moaned. “Feels so damn good.”
My foot rested in his lap, and I felt it the moment that his dick jerked. My eyes flew open, and I looked at him. He chewed his bottom lip slowly, and a full smirk was on those sexy, confident lips of his.
“Told ya ass about making them noises.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re just nasty.”
“Yeah. Whatever.”
“Why did you have to get caught up in that fight in the first place? I mean, it was just some random niggas arguing. If you knew you had that weed on you and that gun, you should’ve justleft. You’ve never done anything like that before, and it never made sense to me.”
Dominic’s jaw worked overtime as he stared at my foot and exchanged it for the other one.
“Why did you pull out the gun?”
He glanced at me and then looked away. But he remained silent.
“You never told me about the details of that day.”
“I did what needed to be done, and that’s all you need to know.”
I closed my eyes and rested my head on the arm of the couch. My eyes flew open after several seconds, and it dawned on me. I recalled the area of town that he got locked up in, and it was near the college, the university apartments to be exact. That wasn’t a place where Dominic usually hung out, but Ramon did because he had a girlfriend in that area. I remembered that because we had gone to a party at her apartment once before. I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t figured it out before now.
“Did you take the rap for Ramon?” I asked, sitting up.
