For the Night (Sun)

by Rae Lyse

He thought he’d been making love to DeeDee, but he hadn’t. Venus was teaching him—slowly and passionately, like she did with everything else in her life she loved. Love?

promises sounded too good to be true. Tiny gasps of air flew from the back of her throat while he bounced her up and down…and up and down. His name got sandwiched between them while she thrust her head back and begged for him, even though she already had him.

He stood between her legs with his throbbing dick inside her—watching her get off like she was still alone in the world—like she didn’t belong to him. He took note of the tiny nuances that came with making love to Venus Thibodeaux. Her crinkled pert nose, wild hair, and most importantly, the way she could feel again.

“Stay right there.” He’d live right there if he could. “See how I listened to you and I’m fixing us? You should want a wife that’ll always be willing to work things out with you.”

“You not fuckin’ leaving me tonight,” he whispered. Or ever.

“I’ll never get a perfect man,” she’d tell Ginny. “If I go out searching for a perfect man, I’ll drive myself crazy. I…I wanna try and make it work. We’re gonna go to counseling.”

“I wasn’t pillow-talking last night. Go take a shower and put on some clothes. We been waiting for you to wake up.”

Sundays weren’t supposed to be like this. The possibility of them ever being like this vanished, just like Trey did as soon as he fell in love with somebody else.

“Tell Trey I pay the cost to be the boss around here. We don’t do that fifty-fifty shit.” He smacked his lips. “Why none of your grown men ever act like grown men?”

“We can’t sit around while you mull over whether we’re right or wrong about this shit. I only got you for the day, so let me have you.”

I woulda straight folded

Josiah wanted to marry Jade.

Anthony had told him it was a dumb ass thing to say. There was nothing he wanted to watch the same woman do for the rest of his life. At least he didn’t think there was until he met Venus.

“You.” She smiled around her finger and chuckled. “You said you hadn’t ate since yesterday morning, so eat…boss.” He shook his head, smirking. He wanted her bad,

“What am I supposed to wear for this football thing today? I don’t have anything here.” She sighed, sitting in the chair to his left. “And I need coffee.”

“Whose fault is that? If you would’ve came home after the first night, you’d have clothes and a coffeepot here.” “Behave.”

How could they go back to normal after Venus left?

or do I have options for that too?” “You always got options when you with me.”

Being on her knees had never felt so satisfying and she’d been on them plenty of times before to please Trey and other unworthy men.

“Hang up,” she said, pressing her hands on her thighs. “Now.”

You better let him know

“And you expected me to let you leave?” he gasped out, laughing. “Fuck no. You ain’t ever leaving me.”

“Why you so concerned about trivial shit? Your age… your clothes… who gives a fuck?”

“How you feel when I make love to you?” “Like the sexiest woman in the world,” she exclaimed without hesitation while tilting her head. “Like I don’t even recognize myself.”

“So why you don’t feel that way now?” “Because we’re not making love, Ant. We’re…we’re doing domesticated shit.” She huffed and fluffed her hair. “And I still can’t figure out if I feel sexy because of you or because of me.”

can’t feel sexy, doing domesticated shit? And what’s wrong with me making you feel sexy?” “Listen, I’ve spent a significant amount of time unlearning a lot of shit, and not basing my worth or sexiness on the opinion and actions of a man is one of them.”

“If a nigga don’t wake up and obsess over the little breaths you take when you sleeping after he makes love to you or fawn over the way you toss your hand on your hip when you cooking him breakfast, then that’s a fuckin’ problem. Nobody on that jet knows how old you are or what you wore last night, but what they do know, is that I stepped on there with the sexiest woman they ever seen.

You a fly ass bitch when I’m making love to you, when you cooking my breakfast, when you doing my baby’s hair, and when you wearing yesterday’s clothes, Venus. Own that and forget all that feminist therapy shit for a minute. Ain’t nothing wrong with a man making you feel sexy in and outside the bedroom. It’s what I’m supposed to do. I’m supposed to make you feel untouchable.”

He leaned in closer to her lips, but she pulled back with a teasing smile. “Why you always got me in some shit, huh?”

What she really meant was why did he always make her feel so fuckin’ good, but he needed to get out of her head for a minute. It was dangerous there.

“You ain’t go nowhere with me. I don’t go nowhere with a bitch that ain’t mine.”

“Jade…call his girl and tell her that her

nigga is in his feelings. I guess they’re still on the outs.” “Call her for what? Shit, she sitting right across from you. That’s who you need to be talking to—not me.”

She was buzzing with Anthony’s taste still flowing inside her mouth, so all of her fucks went out the window when he pulled his bottom lip into his mouth and cocked his eyebrow up to give her a nudge.

“You’re arguing with somebody that’s told you in several ways they don’t want to engage. That’s one-sided.”

“I remember sitting around having this same conversation with my friends. I wanted a lifetime commitment with a man who showed me in so many ways that he didn’t see himself spending a lifetime with me—let alone a moment. We’d breakup, and I’d go searching for attention in weird places. We’d make up, and I’d lose sense of my worth and then we got married just like I wanted and you know…”

“I don’t like giving advice, but I think you should go where you’re wanted and enjoy this lovely outing your best friend invited you on. She didn’t have to invite you anywhere, but she did and you’re causing havoc. Jealousy doesn’t look good on you. You’re too pretty for that.”

“Oh, you pillow talking like that?” “Overly.”

“Is she the type of woman that’ll get on a stand and lie for you if you need her to?” he asked.

“It won’t last past the weekend,” he muttered, gripping the seat in front of him. “She know that.”

“Oh, that’s the lil’ lie y’all been telling each other?” “Ain’t ...

“You know, the funny thing about life is how much we rely on ...

“Your future Mrs. Nunez, will not be a prison wife. You got too much life to live to be talking about killing no good cheating ass niggas.” She

tsk’d. “My angsty, angsty baby boy—don’t talk like that, baby. I’m the feds, remember?” He smiled, thinking about Lola.

“I said you couldn’t leave me,” he whispered. “Why you not listening to me?”

God, he was so angsty that it made her want to make love to him for an eternity.

“I’m sor⁠—” Dre’ looked at her with that piercing stare. “You good.”

“You know he a lover boy, right? He just don’t know it,” Dre’ said, cocking his head to the side.

There was that stupid, stupid word again. Love.

“Would DeeDee have known best?” He smiled until he chuckled and shrugged. “She turned your man into a lover boy and left him with a baby that ain’t his. What you think?”

“Anthony…” Venus let out a sarcastic laugh, shaking her head. “I just want you to know I hit back. I will beat her ass.”

“I know you will, and I promise you I won’t let you. You a ‘work in progress,’ remember?” he yelled over his shoulder as he pushed out of the car with Tori in his arms.