Tasha’s words from earlier still echoed in my mind. “We need a plan in case Gold Ventures doesn’t follow through, Naima. You keep talking about faith and energy, but we need dollars and cents. What if this fitness idea doesn’t work out? What then?”
I wanted to defend Lennox’s role here, but I couldn’t. Not fully. She wasn’t wrong. We couldn’t afford any more risks—not if we wanted to keep the lights on.
A sound drew me back to the present. Lennox stood a few feet away. His hands were tucked into his pockets, a soft smile on his full lips.
“You always this deep in thought?” he asked.
“Only when there’s work to do.”
He nodded, his gaze sweeping over the garden, then back to me. “Mind if I help?”
I hesitated but nodded. “Sure. Gloves are in the shed.”
He moved past me, his body heat brushing against my skin. I took a breath to center myself. I wasn’t some girl with a crush. I was Naima—strong, focused, in control. But when he came back, his sleeves rolled up, revealing sinewy forearms, his hands now clad in worn gardening gloves, I felt a shift in the air.Naima was hungry.
We worked side by side, the quiet rhythm of weeding and turning soil settling between us. Occasionally, our hands would brush, and each time, a spark jolted through me. He didn’t seem affected, his expression relaxed, but I caught the way his breathing deepened, the way he’d wet his lips when he thought I wasn’t looking.
“You know a lot about plants?” he asked, breaking the silence.
I nodded. “My mom taught me. She always said that every plant has a purpose. Some heal, some nourish, and some just bring beauty into the world.”
He paused, his eyes darkening with something more than curiosity. “Which one are you?”
My hands stilled in the dirt. His question hung between us, heavy and loaded. The way he looked at me, the way his voice dipped, it felt like he wasn’t just asking about plants. I swallowed, my pulse thrumming under his attention.
“I’m just me,” I said softly. “Sometimes a bit of it all.”
His tongue flicked over his bottom lip, and heat flared between my thighs. “It’s definitely all, from what I can see.”
My breath stuttered, my nipples tightening against the thin fabric of my top. When his hand brushed mine, lingering a moment longer than necessary, I didn’t pull away, and neitherdid he. The garden, the dirt, and the world around us faded, and all that was left was this slow, pulsing throb of want between us.
I tilted my head, letting my thick curls fall over my shoulder, exposing the line of my neck. His gaze followed the movement, and I saw the way his jaw flexed, the way his fingers tightened around the handle of the spade. I liked seeing him like this, barely holding on, his control fraying at the edges.
“Maybe you’ll find out,” I murmured, the words slipping free before I could catch them. But I didn’t want to. I wanted him to catch them, to hold them, to holdme.
His breath hitched, a soft, dangerous sound, and I felt it everywhere. “You sure about that?”
“Yes.”
The word hung between us, ripe and ready, a promise waiting to be plucked. And boy did I want to be plucked.
6
LENNOX
As much as I wanted to let go, to sink into this place, and into Naima, I couldn’t. Not completely. A week later, my father's voice still sat in the back of my mind, a reminder of why I was really here. He called me yesterday, his tone clipped, every word a hook meant to reel me back into his world.
"I need numbers, Lennox. Not justvibes. Can they scale? What’s their overhead? Are they turning a profit or just breaking even?"
I’d promised him I was working on it, that I’d have something concrete soon. But the truth was, every time I tried to focus on the business side of things, I got distracted. By the smell of lavender and citrus in the air. By the quiet murmur of the creek behind the cabins. By Naima.
I’d never been the type to get caught up over a woman. I liked things simple, clean—pleasure with no strings attached. But there was nothing simple about the way I felt when I was around her. Nothing clean about the way my thoughts tangled up with images of her—bare feet in the dirt, her hips swaying gently as she moved through yoga poses, her lips curving into that soft, knowing smile that made my dick thicken with desire.
And it wasn’t just physical. Sure, I’d noticed her body—the fullness of those soft, round tits, the curve of her ass, the strength in her shapely thighs. But it was more than that. It was the way she made space for people. The way her presence felt like sunlight filtering through the leaves—warm, patient, unyielding.
Still, all three women had their own kind of appeal. I wasn’t blind to Selena’s polished beauty or Tasha’s bold, untamed energy. Each of them had a look in their eyes, a spark that hinted at hunger—the kind that wasn’t easily sated. The kind that lingered.
If I were younger, more reckless, I might’ve been tempted to sample them all. Hell, one night I did—in a dream so vivid it left my skin damp and my sheets twisted. I could still feel it: Selena drawing me a bath, her fingers tracing the bubbles across my chest as her lips brushed my ear, whispering soft promises. Tasha, bold and unfiltered, fed me grapes with a wicked smile, her mouth following the trail of juice down my chin before she sank to her knees, taking me deep and slowly into her mouth until my fists clenched the silk of the sheets.
