Chapter 23
Creed
“Are you sure you do not want to come with me?” I signed to Nakyra.
I tried to use it as much as possible when we were home to get better. So far I wasn’t doing too bad. There were still times I might mess up a word or two, but it wasn’t frequent. I was leaving for a few days to go back to New Haven. Since we were working on expanding our clientele and services, I needed to be onsite. Plus it had been almost three months since I’d been here. While my staff was more than capable, I needed to still check in physically.
“You know I cannot.”She gave me a sympathetic look. “It won’t look right if I go out of town with you when I’m still…” Nakyra’s words trailed off and she glanced down at her left hand, still empty of her engagement ring. Neither of us had mentioned her taking it off since that night or what would happen when Rome woke up. We knew it was the elephant in the room we both chose to ignore.
Her hand lifted and ran over my jawline. I grabbed it and pressed my lips against her wrist. “Fuck what it’ll look like. You don’t owe anyone shit.”
A reserved smile split her mouth. “I’m sorry it’s like this.”
I shook my head. “No need to be sorry. The situation is tricky no matter how you look at it.”
“I’m gonna miss you while you’re gone.” She leaned into me, pressing her forehead against my chest. Wrapping my arms around her waist, I hugged her securely and kissed the top of her head. “Don’t go home and get friendly at your club.”
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
She tilted her chin up to face me. “Do you miss it?”
“The club?”
Her head bobbed.
I thought about it for a second. “It’s not something I necessarily have to have.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
I smirked. “Yeah I do. Not even the fucking part but just the scenes in general, it relaxed me.”
Nakyra was quiet for a second. “Is that why you and your ex broke up?”
My face balled up at the random question. “Where’d that come from?”
“You mentioned you two broke up because you had different interests and eventually they clashed too much. I’m assuming this was the interest.”
Chuckling, I released her and turned to move to my bed so I could finish packing. “Yeah that was part of it. Aimee didn’t mind when I tied her up, but she didn’t care for the toys and play that came with it. Like I said, it’s not something I need, but it does calm me and bring a sense of control. Eventually we just realized we had too many differences and decided to call it quits.”
I glanced over my shoulder at her. Her teeth sank into her bottom lip. “Can we go one day?”
“Go? To the club?”
“Yeah. You found one here, right? I would like to visit and see what it’s like.”
I paused from filling my suitcase and spun around to face her. “You don’t have to offer to go just because of what I told you.”
Nakyra shook her head. “That’s not it. I think it’ll be interesting. I told you I’m not as experienced when it comes to going outside the box with sex. While whips and all that don’t excite me, I think it might be fun to experience it once.”
I studied her. Nakyra was a pleaser, she had been programmed since she was a kid to go along with what she felt would make people happy. My brother had further influenced this, causing her to agree to things she didn’t care for.
“Okay. When I get back, we can make it happen. Just make sure you keep an open mind.”
The thought of bringing Nakyra to Onyx with me had me excited already. There were so many things I wanted her to see and possibly try with her. I knew I had to slowly introduce her into the life I enjoyed, but it brought me joy knowing she was open to it all.
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“Do you know when you’ll be back for good?” Ken asked as I finished up some paperwork. I got back in New Haven last night and made my priority this morning to come to the warehouse to check things over. Just like I thought, Ken had been keeping everything running smoothly. The trucks were all up to date with maintenance, the cargo ships were on schedule for the few imports waiting for transport.
