11. Cemone

NBA FINALS…

It was game seven, the final one, and the game that would determine what team would take home the championship. The Bulldogs were ahead by fifty points, so it was a no-brainer as to who was taking this shit home. And them niggas on the opposing team, Boston, were salty as fuck at the moment.

The arena burst into applause and cheers as I made another three-pointer for the night. At this point, a nigga had lost count, but I was sure them niggas about to lose hadn't.

As I jogged back down the court, Ward Hewitt, the point guard for Boston Eels, bumped the shit out of me and on purpose. I knew the nigga was hot due to the fact that I crossed his ass over, making him fall on his ass, but that'd happened at the beginning of the game. Muthafucka took forever to retaliate.

"Watch where the fuck you going, nigga," I warned him, making sure our eye contact was strong.

"Or what? Everybody ain't scared of you, nigga." He stopped moving, so I did the same.

"I don't need you to be scared, muthafucka. I actually prefer that you not be scared so I can get the opportunity to knock you the fuck out."

Hewitt started toward me, so I did the same, mimicking his moves.

"Compton!" Coach Yoder shouted for me, and if I hadn't gotten a glimpse of Yolani sitting there watching, I would've ignored his ass.

Realizing I was about to fuck up everything for myself and my team, and possibly give Yolani's ass another reason not to fuck with me, I threw my hands up. But when Ward and I made eye contact again, I pointed at him, letting him know this shit right here would only be over for the moment.

We continued whupping on the Eels like a team of niggas trying to get drafted, and finally, we were named the winners of the NBA Finals.

As confetti flew through the air, all of the LA Bulldogs' fans celebrated as our families and shit came to the floor. At the moment, I only had Yolani here since the game was out of town, but that was perfectly fine for a nigga. And my family always showed support, so I wasn't tripping in the slightest.

We exchanged smiles but didn't do too much since she was still catching flack for being around me. Additionally, shit between us was still up in the air, and kissing in front of everybody right here would solidify shit. While that was perfectly fine with me, Yolani wasn't with it, and everything went at her pace. I understood her hesitance with me and with regard to her career, so I wasn't gon' push it.

Honestly, I was just happy she let a nigga be around her, touch her, lay up with her, kiss her, even if only in private. Yolani wasn't the type of woman to give her time away freely, especially since she didn't have much of it, so I wasn't about to fuck myself up out of my spot. But I'd fuck a nigga up for trying to get to that spot though.

I did my interviews and everything else I needed to before meeting Yolani at the hotel. We were gon' eat to celebrate, and I was praying she let me eat something else. She almost made a nigga bust in his pants when she let me touch it the other night. Any other woman would've had to top me off to get a moment of my time, but everything I had to give, I would give that shit to Yolani without her having to even look my fucking way.

We cleaned up, changed, then dipped once the driver I'd hired out here in Boston let me know he'd arrived.

As we stepped out the hotel and into the driveway, I noticed a couple niggas who didn't look like they belonged in the area. I wasn't exactly familiar with this city, but I knew enough to know I wasn't in the fucking hood, where these niggas came from. Checking my waist, I made sure my heat was concealed but ready under my Burberry shirt, before gesturing for Yolani to stay back and inside.

"What's happening?" she asked, doing what I'd instructed her to, as she did.

Like I figured, them niggas made it obvious they were hanging around the hotel for me because as soon as I came into view, the three of them mobbed my fucking way.

"Cemone Compton, you tough, boy. Just know you ain't the only NBA player with hitters," the front runner said, positioning his fingers into a gun.

"Nah, but I'm the only one who don't need 'em," I reminded him. "Whoever the fuck you riding for, make sure he give enough of a fuck about you to come to ya funeral," I assured, strategically patting myself to let them muthafuckas know they were fools if they thought I went anywhere unarmed. Shit, I'd made headlines from doing so.

Sneering, they continued on, and once I saw they were piling into a car to drive off in, I waved for Yolani to come on and opened the door for her.

I helped her into the back of the truck waiting for us, then joined her in the back seat, pulling her close to me and kissing her mouth.

"Who were they?" she questioned.

"Some random niggas that one of them players sent to scare me, I guess." I chuckled it off. Whoever did it, most likely Ward Hewitt or Dane Hill, didn't know a nigga too well. I wasn't easily scared. Shit, I didn't think I could get scared.

"Yeah, they looked like they get into trouble." I felt her watching me as I stared straight ahead, trying to see if I saw them niggas anywhere as we drove down the street.

"That interaction would've gon' a lot different if you wasn't with me," I spoke truthfully. "I think you good for me in more ways than one, baby."

"You would've actually fought them just now?"

"I would've been on whatever they was on. They seemed like they wasn't with all that, though, and just trying to be a scarecrow crew, but still. I kept it calm 'cause you was here."

Old Cemone wouldn't have given a fuck about who I was with, but I felt the need to protect Yolani at all fucking times. I wasn't about to get into a shootout knowing I had precious cargo with me.

"I'm happy I was here then." She smiled.

"I'm gon' find out who the fuck them niggas are, though, before I dip."

"Don't," she said with enough finality to make me look at her as she nuzzled against me. She was so fucking pretty and soft, and she smelled good as hell. My dick was hard twenty-four seven in her presence, but the feelings she gave a nigga were deeper than a nut. I got the same satisfaction from just being around her ass, listening to her talk, that I did from releasing, and I never thought I'd see the fucking day. "You have too much to lose, and you shouldn't let bums like them get in the way of what you're doing. You are an NBA champion. Don't let anything else be your focus right now." She kissed my face.

I nodded, taking her words in.

"You right. I just ain't never been like that. I don't let shit slide. I don't let niggas press me. I don't even joke with niggas unless they're my brothers. The mere thought of a nigga trying to punk me pisses me off." I stroked my beard as she listened intently. "I wish I was like that sometimes though, able to let shit slide off my shoulders. Only muthafuckas I ever let slide got the last name Compton, couple St. Thomases, but that's it. Same time, I know them niggas mean me no harm and would die for a nigga like I would them."

"I get that. I had to learn to ignore things, too, and now I'm so used to it that it's easy. You're a legend in the making, and these little niggas are not worth it." She steered my face to hers and pressed her soft lips to mine. They had some sticky shit on it, but I couldn't have given less of a fuck. "Some people are jealous and want you to lose everything so you can be down and out like them." She watched me then asked, "You heard me?"

"I did. I just thought you was gon' follow that up with another kiss."

"You already have gloss on because of me." She thumbed my bottom lip, cheesing.

Cupping the back of her head, I kissed her, slipping my tongue into her mouth.

"You know a nigga obsessed with you. I don't give a fuck 'bout no gloss. Niggas ain't crazy enough to comment on it anyway."

She giggled.

"Obsessed, huh?"

"I am." I took her small hand in mine, eyeing it. "What kind of ring you want?"

"Cemone." She smirked.

"I'm serious. Tell me so I can know ahead of time."

"Hmm… okay. For an engagement ring, I want a pear-shaped diamond, and I want the band to have small diamonds along it. The wedding band should have diamonds too." I nodded, so she smiled. "I feel stupid telling you this."

"Why? I'm gon' marry you." Her smile shifted into a serious expression. She didn't immediately respond, so I knew she believed me. By now, I could read Yolani's ass like a book. "Told you I love you. You better outlive me too."

Laughing, she replied, "I can't control that, but I will do my best."

"That's all I want." I watched as the driver pulled up to the restaurant. "I don't wanna go back to what life was like without you, ever. So do me that one favor, aight?"

"Aight." She nodded, looking into my eyes once mine locked back onto her.

" o ne of wun" by Gunna bumped from the speakers of the club as the place filled up with patrons. Tonight, the team was celebrating our win and the end of the season. Usually, I would be feeling some type of fucking way, ready to get back in the game as soon as possible, but this time, I couldn't wait to be with my kids how much I wanted, and Yolani.

Knowing her tour was wrapping up made the timing even more perfect. I wished she was here right now, but she was doing her second to last show and, therefore, was out of fucking town.

I would be on my best behavior, though, which was easier than I assumed the shit would be.

Baby girl consumed my thoughts so much I couldn't even think about getting my dick wet nowhere else. The groupie bitches and even some famous ones didn't impress me. Yolani had an aura that I was attracted to above everything else, and it was some shit these other females couldn't match, even if they paid for the shit.

"Oh, shit," Woody, my teammate, said before inhaling on his blunt.

"What?" I tried to follow his eyes before they landed on Milaysia.

Celebrities always attended these end of the season parties, and mixing that shit with the regulars always had the shit lit. It usually made me no never mind when Milaysia would be where I was at, but tonight it did. I didn't wanna be fucking bothered, and I didn't want these gossiping muthafuckas to make this shit look like something it wasn't. I didn't get this damn far with Yolani for Milaysia to ruin the shit by being parched as fuck.

Yolani's fans were insane and watched me like a fucking hawk, waiting to report any of my wrongdoings back to her in the comments. So the last thing I needed was to be photographed even in the same vicinity as Milaysia or anybody on some groupie shit.

"You think she gon' try to come up?" Brian, another teammate, quizzed.

"She bet' not," I said, feeling slight relief as she went to a section across the big ass club and sat down.

"I feel you. Shit, if I had even a piece of Yolani, I would be on my best behavior." Woody nodded.

"Watch ya mouth, nigga," I warned him, remembering I needed to keep my behavior intact, so hitting my teammate across the face at our celebratory party wouldn't help me at all.

Woody threw his hands up in mock surrender as I pulled my shit out that I'd rolled earlier, putting it to my lips and lighting it.

The party went on for the next hour or so, and right when I got ready to dip, figuring Yolani would be back at her hotel by now and could FaceTime, I spotted Milaysia. I guess I was too cross faded to notice when she had infiltrated the section of the players.

I tried to slip past her and out, which should've been an easy feat considering it was a whole bunch of fucking people in between us, but she saw me.

"Dang, you're leaving?" She cut off my path. "Congratulations, by the way, even though I knew y'all were taking it home." She grinned widely.

"Mhm," was all I said, not wanting to even say two words to make it look like I was up here conversing with her ass.

"Wait." She put her hand on me, and I removed it just as fast. "Let me give you a present for all your hard work." She licked her lips.

"It's not just me who won. I got a whole team back there you can suck off instead," I replied, and her jaw slacked in surprise. "Night, bruh." I patted her shoulder, giving her the familial title.

"Let me guess. You don't want the little princess to find out?" She barked at my back.

"That's exactly why, but mainly because I got tired of pounding ya throat a year ago."

"Fuck you, nigga! Yolani already told me she would never fuck you! So good luck with your fuckboy ass!"

Laughing, I said, "How you mad I won't let you suck my dick, love? Do better."

I could hear a few giggles and comments from people who'd heard what I said, but I didn't look back as I kept it pushing out the club. I was sure Milaysia was embarrassed though. It seemed like the bitch had a fetish for humiliation because she kept pestering me to suck me off every time she saw me, no matter what I said the time before.

My driver had never left, and I'd paid for him to be able to stay right in front, so I hopped right in as soon as my feet hit the pavement.

By the time I got to my hotel, it was midnight, so I knew for sure Yolani was back in hers. Shit, she had better been. I hoped she knew what the fuck she was getting into because once she was mine, shit, even now, I wasn't letting no nigga get in her space.

"Just in time. I'm finally laying down." She smiled into the camera.

"Good. I was hoping you wasn't out at the club. I ain't wanna have to come out there."

"You'd come out here and do what?"

"Do the shit and you'll find out."

She laughed.

"Didn't you go to the club?"

"Nah, I went to a work event. And before people tell you, Milaysia's muthafuckin' ass was there, and she did try some shit. I wasn't friendly at all," I explained, remembering how Yolani told a nigga if I even looked like I was flirty or extra friendly, she would never deal with me.

"I believe you." She half smiled. "I trust you now, so you don't have to report things to me anymore."

Lying down on the bed, I asked, "Damn. So that means you taking me serious now and shit."

"I am, yes, more than usual. If stuff is the same by the time I come back from Mississippi, then we can progress even more."

"What you mean if things are the same? Why wouldn't they be?"

"Because I will be away from you for a long period of time, and we will see how you act during that time."

"I'm gon' be the same as I am right now, Yolani."

"That's what I'm hoping, but things happen when you're separate for a while. That's how shit always happens. Niggas can only front for so long, so the real usually comes out during that prolonged separation."

"You think I'm fronting? I seem like that type of nigga to you?"

"No, I don't mean fronting like that. I mean you may get into something."

"I'm gon' be with you in Mississippi anyway."

"So you're really coming?" She beamed.

"I am. The day you told me you was buying a ticket, I got my shit. I got my kids' tickets for a few weeks after I come. I should be there a couple days after you." Staring at her face as she chewed on my words, I added, "I just wanna be around you, love. Whenever I can, all the fucking time. Having feelings and shit is new for me, so I know it ain't going no fucking where. You gotta know not every nigga operates the same."

"No, they don't. My daddy is nothing like the men I've been with, but it's rare to find." She fidgeted some. "Every man that I have given my time and energy to has fucked me over. Even starting back in high school. My boyfriend back then got me pregnant, using an old ass condom, and we agreed to get rid of it. While I was recovering from that, he was with another girl. And even worse, she wasn't the last time he'd done something like that.

"Then years later, I dated Dwayne Shaw." She lifted her eyebrows. I knew him. He was an actor I'd met through Unique at an event. "He was jealous of me, and I didn't know it until we were official. And then when I caught him cheating, too, he decided to slap me across the face." I kept my reaction inside, not wanting to interrupt her, but if I saw that nigga again, I was gon' press him. "It was just once, because I left him after." She thought for a second. "Then the last guy was regular because I figured regular guys would be better, but then because I was too busy, he got his homegirl pregnant. So when I say that I have a hard time trusting what niggas say to me, I'm not just being difficult, Cemone."

"I know that, baby. No need for the explanation. I ain't going nowhere."

"You promise?"

"On my mama, and I love the fuck out of my mama."

"Okay." She smiled, cheeks red as shit through her caramel complexion.

"None of them niggas are me though."

"That's very true, but they at least pretended to be nice." She chuckled softly. "I know what you're like with women."

"You don't think I'm nice?" I frowned. "I mean, I ain't, but I am to you."

"I think you're sexy, charming, and blessed with the gift of gab, making it easy for you to get any woman you want and to get any woman where you want her."

"Every woman but you."

"That's because I'm a bit guarded now. Old Yolani would've been pregnant by you by now."

"Where she at?" I asked, and she chortled loudly, making me smirk.

"Anyway, so you're gonna really come and meet my family, huh?"

"I am." I nodded. "No way I can go that fucking long without seeing you."

"I hate you." She covered her face so I wouldn't see her blushing.

"This the longest I don' gone without sex though."

Giggling, she asked, "How does it feel? I bet your mind is clearer."

"Nah, it's not. I feel fucking horrible. We lucky we won the fucking championship with how off I been feeling and shit."

We guffawed together before she replied, "I haven't had sex in three years, and I feel just fine."

"That's 'cause the last nigga wasn't in it how he should've been. When I get it, though, you might wanna get that muthafucka insured 'cause I'm gon' do some damage. I told you, get that oil change package now. We 'bout to up them fucking miles."

She cracked up.

"Shut up with that! Now all I think about is sex whenever I pass a mechanic shop."

"Good."

"Well don't come to my people's house trying to get some 'cause I'm not giving it to you. Southern folk don't play that."

"You are."

She laughed again.

"You're a bit confident, don't you think?"

"I am but not on no cocky shit. We falling in love; it's natural we gon' make love and shit. You think we gon' be like this, in each other's face for weeks, and not be fucking?"

She pondered for a minute, then responded. "We can't be fucking in my family's home."

"I'll save the fucking for when we come back then, and just make love to it out there. I wanna take my time with it anyway at first," I spoke truthfully.

"Hmm." She looked me over, and I recognized the lust in her eyes that I doubted she knew I noticed, or else Yolani's ass would've erased the shit expeditiously.

She couldn't wait to give the pussy up, and I couldn't wait to get it.

"I'm coming to get to know yo' people but to also get you pregnant."

"Like baby mama one and two?"

"Nah, that was an accident. This gon' be on purpose."

"I'm not having a baby until I'm married."

"That works. I already planned to marry you any fucking way." I smiled as she chuckled again.

"You'd marry me just to get a baby, Cemone?"

"Nah. I'm gon' marry you because I want you. I want you to have my last fucking name, and I know you got the type of pussy I ain't gon' wanna crawl up out of." I watched her as her eyes seemingly sparkled and shit. "I know you my one. I can feel it. I don't feel shit usually, but I got feelings for you."

"I have feelings for you too." She simpered.

Shaking my head, I said, "You so fucking pretty."

She blushed again, shaking her head.

Like always, we talked well into the night before dozing off on video call.

COUPLE DAYS LATER…

"There's daddy." Ananda beamed, but it quickly turned to a deep frown once Blakely had her back to her, racing toward me.

"Is that the princess?" I bucked my eyes, scooping her small body up as she squealed and nodded. "I don't wanna talk about whatever the fuck you about to say." I turned from Ananda and began strapping Blakely into the back seat, handing her a book one of her many aunts had bought her.

"Well, you won't respond to texts and hang up on me anytime I mention it, so I have no other choice. But how you did me at the concert was fucked up. Bitches is still talking shit about it." When I didn't reply, making sure my daughter was secure in her seat, she asked, "Did you fuck any of them? They claim you did."

"None of ya business," I replied simply, shutting the door. Even though I didn't, I wasn't about to confirm or deny shit for Ananda, because it would give her the impression she had the right to press me. "I don't care who you fuck, so I need that same shit back."

"You don't care? So I can fuck your teammate, and you wouldn't give a fuck? Yeah, right."

"I would prefer you fucked my teammate, actually. Let another nigga have to deal with yo' ass for a while."

"So these other random bitches can get dick, but I can't. What type of sense does that make!"

"A lot, and since you like to receive and exchange gossip, let the rest of yo' ho ass friends know I ain't fucking nobody. I'm with Yolani."

Ananda's mouth opened and closed repeatedly like she wanted to speak but was too shocked.

Laughing, she finally spoke. "So you're what, a one-woman man now?"

"I am." I checked my watch.

"How—"

"I'm gon' be leaving to Mississippi in a couple weeks, but I'm gon' come back and grab Blakely so she can come with me too."

"Why?"

"Keep up all the stupid ass questions and prying, and you gon' end up on the same side as yo' stupid ass homegirl, Ananda."

"Fine, but how long will you have her?"

"My usual amount of time. If shit changes, I will hit you." I rounded the front of my car and hopped in, speeding out before Ananda could attempt to stop me.