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Right before they exited, Malik stopped and nodded toward a little touch tank where kids were feeding stingrays. “You tryna touch a stingray?”

“Hell no,” she said quickly. “I’m cute, not crazy.”

“You scared?”

“No, I’m smart. You don’t see Steve Irwin memes?

Malik cracked up, head thrown back, hand over his chest. “Yo, you really got no filter.”

“None. And I meant that shit.”

They left the aquarium still laughing, the night air warm and soft around them. Her heels clicked slower now, his hand never let hers go - their energy at ten.

And neither one of them said it out loud, but they both felt it.

Aku dropped her bag on her living room console table and kicked off her heels with a relieved sigh, standing tall again in bare feet and quiet anticipation.

Malik leaned against the door after closing it, watching her with a look that saidI been patient long enough.

She turned slowly, meeting his gaze. “You gon’ keep lookin’ at me or you gon’ come get what’s yours?” her voice came out like a smoke signal.

That was all the permission he needed. He never needed to be told twice.

He crossed the room in a few easy steps and scooped her up with one arm under her thighs, the other cradling her back. She laughed, wrapping her arms around his neck as he carried her to the bedroom.

“You so extra,” she whispered against his neck, smiling.

“I told you, I do everything,” he murmured. “Now shut up and let me make up for that note.”

He laid her down on the bed like she was breakable, but the look in his eyes said he had no intention of handling her gently for long.

She pulled him down by the collar of his tee and kissed him—deep, slow, messy. Her hands moved to his chain, feeling the cool weight of it against his chest before she tugged it just hard enough to make him groan into her mouth.

Clothes peeled off in pieces. Her top slid up over her head, his shirt went next. Then her pants…then his. All that was left was skin and want and that wild heat that had been simmering between them all night.

Malik knelt between her thighs, his grill glinting, tattoos crawling over his arms like inked warnings. Aku didn’t flinch, she opened her legs wider.

“This how you say sorry now?” she asked, breath hitching as his fingers ran over her slit.

“This just the prelude.”

When he slid inside her, slowly…She felt his thickness, she gasped—hips arching into him, eyes fluttering.

“Aku…” he groaned, the way her name sounded, slipping from his mouth like prayer and praise.

She reached up, cupped his jaw. “You feel me?”

“Hell yea.”

Her nails pressed into his shoulders as he started moving, deep strokes that made the whole bed creak. His eyes stayed locked on her face, watching every change—every little tremble in her lip, every flutter of her lashes.

She started talking him through it, voice low and syrupy between moans.

“Just like that, baby…mmm…don’t stop…right there.”

His jaw clenched. He gripped her thighs tighter and picked up the pace.

“Yes,” she whispered. “That’s it. You hittin’ it perfect. This what I needed…”