Chapter Six
Zadie
TheentiretimeIwas preparing the veggie lasagna for the boys, I held my breath, waiting for Amir to trash it. But, aside from letting me in the house and barking at me to change the sheets on his bed and vacuum the living room, he’d left me alone. From time to time, I caught a glance of him on the porch through the window, but he never came inside. I’d been so tempted to play his piano, but all I could bring myself to do was run my fingers over the keys.
Now, dinner was baking, and I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to leave, so I set up my laptop on the kitchen island and started writing a paper that was due next week. The house was surprisingly quiet. If I hadn’t been on edge, I would have found it comfortable. It didn’t feel like how I imagined a typical college rental. The floors weren’t sticky, the furniture didn’t have tears, there weren’t any Solo cups strewn about.
I’d changed Amir’s sheets as quickly as possible, pausing only to gawk over the fine quality and obviously high thread count. And, god, his warm spice smell was everywhere in his bedroom. It was like walking through a cloud of his essence. His scent was the very best part of him. Being in that room, completely immersed in it, staggered me so much, I had to breathe out of my mouth so I could finish the job.
“Yo, yo, it smellsgoodin here.”
“Yeah it does.”
Marco and Julien strode into the kitchen. Marco opened the oven to peek at what was cooking. Julien stopped at the island, popping a couple green grapes into his mouth.
I’d only met Marco once, last weekend when he’d helped Julien escort Elliott and me to Amir. His presence was darker than Julien’s, more like Amir’s, but not as scary. No one was as scary as Amir.
Like Julien, Marco was tall and lanky, built like a basketball player. Like Julien and Amir, he was unreasonably, intimidatingly attractive. Marco had a rich, dark-brown complexion, tightly cropped curls, and lips worthy of really good poetry. And when he came to stand by Julien, swinging his arm around his friend, he grinned at me, and I was sunk. There was no way I’d be able to have a normal conversation with this beautiful man, so I really hoped he didn’t try.
“I can’t believe you came back after the bullshit Amir pulled on you last night,” Julien said. “You should’ve seen my tears when I had to eat pizza instead of your pasta.” He dragged a finger down his cheek.
“I don’t think I really had a choice.” I shrugged, giving him a wobbly smile. “It wasn’t a big deal. I can always poison his food next time.” I covered my mouth in disbelief I’d let that slip. Being around two very attractive men apparently wasn’t good for my brain.
Julien chuckled, and Marco almost smiled. “I like it, Princess Z. And I do think it was a big deal. A big, shitty deal.”
Marco turned serious, giving Julien a nudge. “You need to stop talking. What Amir does with this girl is up to him. You don’t question that—especially not in front of her.”
Julien shrugged him off. “That’s you. I call him out on his bullshit always. The day I have to hold my tongue is the day I walk away.”
“Who’s walking away?” Amir strode into the kitchen, his heavy, dark brow pinched into a straight line.
Marco clucked his tongue. “No one, man. I was just reminding this kid to keep his opinions to himself.”
Amir braced his hands on the island, pointedly ignoring me even though he was standing so close, I caught a whiff of his spice and had to stop myself from leaning in closer for more.
“What opinion?”
Julien rolled his eyes. “I already expressed to you how uncalled for it was for you to trash Zadie’s food yesterday. Marco disapproves of sharing my displeasure with the girl herself.”
“Property.” Amir stroked my hair like I was his pet. “This girl is my property. She doesn’t need to know your feelings. They don’t concern her. If I want to throw away every dinner she makes, I will, and she’ll come back for more. That’s how this works.” His fingers tangled in my hair and made a fist, tugging my head back so my face was pointed up at his. “Right, Zadie? You’ll keep coming back.”
“Yes,” I whispered.
“See?” Amir gestured to his friends. “Zadie’s on board. She doesn’t have any problem with our arrangement. Why the fuck should you?”
Julien’s nose twitched. “Because it’s not cool, man. Another girl, I wouldn’t say shit. But not her. She’s not part of this. It was all on her idiot boyfriend. She’s a nice girl, and you’re—”
In a flash, Amir had my head cradled in the crook of his arm and his thumb hooked on my bottom teeth, keeping my mouth open.
“This nice girl would get down on her knees and blow me if I told her to. You know who she won’t blow? You. Get the fuck out of here with your high horse. It’s not gonna happen for you.”
Julien’s face flushed. His eyes darted from me to Amir. “Nice, man. I’ve had your back since we were kids, but I guess none of that matters, huh?”
Amir shook my head gently and stroked the side of my face. “Not when you’re standing inmykitchen, openly disrespecting me in front ofmygirl.”
He unhooked his thumb from my teeth, pushed my jaw closed, and wiped the saliva from my bottom lip. Then he ran his hand over my hair like a lover instead of a captor.
Julien’s nostrils flared as he glared at Amir. Marco folded his arms and gritted his jaw, frowning furiously at me, like this was somehow my doing. And Amir continued treating me like he was the villain, plotting the end of the world, and I was the fuzzy little cat in his lap.