Page 78 of Creole Kingpin
Magnolia
My clothes are in the closet next to Moses’s, my shoes lined up beside his much bigger ones. I even have an entire side of the bathroom counter. This living-together situation feels so ... domestic. It’s also something completely new to me.
Other than the two weeks Moses and I spent together after Katrina, I’ve never lived with a man. Not even when I was dating Rafe. He had his space, I had mine, and that’s how we both liked it. But with Moses ... it just feels right.
Except last time, he didn’t exactly have any clothes with him. We had to scrounge up shorts and shirts from the men’s clothes stashed in the other girls’ rooms. Since Moses was a big bastard even then, most of them didn’t fit right, but he made do. It wasn’t like either of us were trying to impress the other when we had no power and were just doing what we had to do to make it through until life went back to normal.
Except, as soon as signs of life restarting showed up in the neighborhoods around us, I knew Moses was going to move on. We’d met under fucked-up circumstances, and I was never under any illusion it was going to last forever. I just didn’t expect it to end quite so suddenly.
I still remember like it was yesterday.
* * *
Fifteen years ago
With every person who came back, Moses looked more and more tense. I saw him leaning against the window, watching the house across the street as a big truck drove through standing water in the road.
“Everything okay?” I asked him, coming up from behind to rub a palm over his shirtless back.
He turned and looked at me, his quick smile subdued. “People are coming back. I wondered how long it would take for the city to come to life again.”
For the eleven days since Katrina, the world had been unrecognizable. We were an island, the water coming up to the front stoop of the house and completely flooding everything down two streets. I’d lost count of how many times I’d sent up a prayer, thanking God that this house was on a little patch of high ground. Another foot of floodwater, and we’d be standing in it, but at least only the basement was full.
There wasn’t shit I could do about that right now, except be thankful I had flood insurance. The previous owner, Linnie, had it when she died, and I made sure to do the same. This was New Orleans, a town that sat mostly below sea level. I knew not everyone got it, but it just made sense to cover my ass on that front, because I wasn’t about to take chances with the one thing of value I owned. So the basement would be fine, eventually.
But right now, I was more worried about the man in front of me. I wasn’t stupid. I knew he couldn’t stay forever, but I hated to think about how fucking bad it was going to hurt when he left.
He’d brought up me going with him, but we didn’t talk much about it because I couldn’t leave. Not when I’d just gotten my hands on something worth a damn. The house was all I had, and the memory of being out on the street corner with no protection, at the mercy of a pimp, was still all too fresh in my mind.
This rickety house was my only security.
No matter how I felt about Moses, I’d only known him foreleven days.But then again, going through an experience like this with someone went far beyond the connection you’d make under normal circumstances. From the moment he stormed into the house ... we had something I’d never had with anyone else, and I didn’t want to let it go. But I was even more terrified to take a chance and leave.
For all I knew, he’d grow tired of me in a few months. Where would I be then?
“It’s good people are coming back,” I replied. “Maybe it means we’ll get power eventually. God, I miss hot water.”
He turned away from the window, his green-gold eyes locking on my face as if he was memorizing it.
I knew then the faster life went back to normal, the faster I’d lose him.
“Don’t worry about what’s going on out there. We’ve got plenty going on in here,” I said as I pulled him away from the glass. “Besides, you haven’t beat me at chess yet. I’ll give you another shot tonight.”
Moses laughed. “I’m gonna need a hell of a distraction to beat you.” A grin split his face right before he scooped me up into his arms. “And I’ve got an idea I think you’re gonna like. Alot.”
“If it involves your mouth on my pussy and me screaming your name when I come, then I’m all for it.”
* * *
Present day
The memory of Moses fades away as I hear him call my name.
He pokes his head into the room, catching me with my hand on the dresser, staring at the wall. “You hungry?”
I cut my unfocused gaze to his face, shaking free of the dreamlike memories. “Yeah. I could eat.”
“Good deal. I sent Jules out to handle the girls, and Trey moved his shit out to the pool house so he can blast music to help his searching.” Moses’s smile charms me when his head falls to the side and he adds, “So we’ve got the house to ourselves for the rest of the night.”
