Fast Breaker: Black Family Saga, #2

By Chencia C. Higgins

What is a man to do after ending a vow of abstinence?

 

Three years ago, Lewis St. James vowed to abstain from sex in what was initially a show of support for his baby brother. The decision took him on an unexpected journey of self-realization that he never would have experienced on his own. His very understanding of intimacy and relationships was challenged, morphing into a new normal as he evolved into someone who was no longer interested in casual hookups for the sake of getting off—as getting off for the sake of getting off no longer interested him.

 

Now that the reason for his abstinence has disappeared, his status as a single man needs to be corrected and he has just the woman in mind to help him facilitate that change. Hopefully, the Toy he'd put on the shelf was still ready to be played with.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chencia C. Higgins
• Release date: Sep 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393172956

Book preview

1

Toy

Toys In The Trap

He was back.

He was fucking back.

Standing his ass in line with his arms crossed over his chest like he had every right to be here. I hadn't seen him come in, but I’d known the moment that he’d entered the café. That none too subtle feeling of being watched that I experienced almost every morning for the past eight months would crop up. It didn't matter if I was ringing customers at the register or making drinks behind the bar; I would lift my head and look around to see if I was tripping and my eyes would find him somewhere around the room with his quiet gaze trained on me each and every time.

He'd had me tied in knots from the first time I laid eyes on him. My brain had gone blank as if it had suddenly been wiped of all thought and my mouth fell open when I looked up and saw him standing in front of me at the register early one morning. His presence had my senses on fine nigga overload. Just height, skin, locs, eyes, lips, arms. My synapses shorted and I couldn't process what the fuck I was looking at. On autopilot, I opened my mouth and welcomed him to the café and then asked for his order, while thinking really hard about how fucking good he looked and how much I wanted to round the counter to get a full-body view.

Gahdamn, he's fine as hell.

The thought blared across my mind while I stared up into his suddenly amused, deep-brown eyes and waited patiently for him to tell me what drink he wanted us to prepare for him.

Toy!

My older sister, Tonya, yelled my name from her position at the bar and I jumped. I glanced at her with furrowed brows, not understanding why she was screaming my name in front of customers. Sure, there was only one person standing behind the toasted-walnut-toned Adonis, but still.

Propping one fist on my hip, I cocked my neck and asked, What?

Without looking up from the milk she was steaming, she said, Turn your horny down and be professional, or I'mma tell Mama!

Jerking my head back, I gave her a crazy look. Girl, what? Leave me alone, TT.

Turning back to the customer, I started to smile when I noticed him biting his luscious bottom lip –and seriously, how fucking dare he do that shit right in front of me without any warning or nothing – and holding back a laugh. My eyes widened and I glanced from him back to TT, who had handed off the drink she was crafting and stood facing me with a judgy look on that face of hers that was similar enough to mine that people often mistook the two of us and our baby sister, Natasha, for triplets.

Aww, hell, I muttered, lips twisted to the side. I said that out loud?

TT rolled her eyes and the Adonis nodded. Sighing, I rolled my eyes up to the ceiling for a moment and shrugged. Oh well. Clutching the edges of the register screen, I dropped my gaze back to him, once again staring into those captivating brown eyes.

I'm one thousand percent sure that you know you're fine. Matter of fact, I can tell from the way you're biting that juicy ass lip that you are well aware. Now, what beverage can we make with love for you today?

He chuckled and shook his head, not saying a word but looking at me like he had a notebook full of things he wanted to say. And I waited, because I wanted to hear his voice and desperately needed to know if he sounded as good as he looked. It was dangerous enough just looking at him, but if he sounded good too? Well, let's just say that I already had an unhealthy obsession with another man who I only knew by voice alone.

Finally, he blinked and shook his head, his lips curling into a resigned smile that made me curious enough to ask about it, but TT was right. I was at work and one thing I didn't do was flirt with men at work. I took his order, listening hard as he spoke in an even, deliberate tone, then offered him a pastry that he declined,. There was a slight rumble in his voice, but I couldn't get a good read on him because he clipped his words, almost as if he didn't want to share them with me. After typing his beverage into the system, I accepted his payment and waited for him to move down the counter where he would wait for TT to hand him his vanilla latte but surprisingly, he didn't move.

What is it? I asked after I passed the cup to my sister and returned to my position. There was something about the way he was looking at me that made my palms damp, as if I were a piece of art that he needed a great deal of time to decode. It was unnerving because if there was one thing that I, LaToya Black, was not, it was difficult to read.

Did you change your mind about that muffin?

He chuckled again, lowly this time as if the sound were more for his own ears than mine; and ooh, shit how that little rumbling sound touched something inside of me in a nasty way. I blinked at him, my lips twisted in consternation. Why did that sound suddenly seem so familiar?

Narrowing my eyes at him, I watched his face intently as I questioned, Do…do I know you from somewhere?

His eyes dropped to my chest where a wide oval pin with my name etched in gold writing across the front was located and he shook his head.

Nah, you don't know me. Have a good day, Toy.

He finally made his way down to the end of the counter and I watched as he lifted an arm to receive his drink as Tonya handed it to him. It had been a simple enough reply, but it was also weird because the way he answered my question almost felt like a non-answer. There was something about the way he said that I didn't know him that made me spend the rest of the day wondering if we might have gone to school together or seen each other somewhere before.

Maybe he was a friend of one of my cousins. I had so many damn cousins that it was definitely possible. My daddy was one of seven boys and all but one of those seven had sowed their oats generously. My paternal grandparents had left this earth with more than twenty-five grandchildren and a handful of great-grands, including my nephew Wisdom.

Multiple times throughout the day, I mentally shuffled through the roster of guys any of my cousins might have brought along to one of our kickbacks over the years, but I could never place his face among them. I hadn't asked for his name when I took his order, since there had only been one customer ahead of him, so I couldn't even use that to figure it out. I assumed that if he ever returned to the café, that I would get another chance to question him, but after that day he barely spoke any other words to me. He ordered the same drink whenever he came in, and after two weeks of him showing up at the same time five mornings a week, it got to the point that whoever was at the register would have his order queued and ready for payment before he even opened his mouth. He wasn't rude about it, always giving me a nod before he walked out of the door if I happened to be looking his way—and I was always looking his way—but it wasn't enough.

Because, despite our lack of communication, there was something there. Something electric and sizzling in the air between us whenever we locked eyes.

And I hated it.

I hated him.

God, but I loved it.

And…I didn't really hate him. Hell, I didn't know him to hate him. Not for lack of wanting on my end though, that's for sure. He just…never expressed interest in me beyond looking. Oh, baby but did he look. Truthfully, he didn't have to say a word—and he never, ever did, but—I knew he liked what he saw when he looked at me. There was never any casual flirting or suggestive eye-fucking, much to my disappointment. He was always respectful – which was also disappointing –but I'd been on this earth for thirty-one years and I knew damn well when I was being checked out.

There wasn't shit I could do about a man who would rather look than touch, so I let the shit ride. To keep it a buck, his unwavering – although, mild – attention was nice. It felt good to have an attractive man find me attractive as well, even if we never acted on it. It was the story of my life, really. While my sisters were out here getting proposed to by strangers or having fine as hell giants declaring their affections, I was in my own little corner riding solo dolo. No prospects, no potentials. I had a couple of dudes I could call on when I had an itch that my fingers couldn't scratch, but they never progressed beyond a few orgasms.

The near daily visits from the silent Adonis went on for eight whole months. He would come in, order his drink, and then stand off to the side of the lobby while he waited for his beverage. After picking up his drink, he would find me, offering me a nod of recognition before heading out. That was the routine that I had gotten used to, deciding that he was simply café eye candy and that's all it would be. But then one day something changed.

He came in and paid for his already ordered drink as usual, but when I expected him to move from in front of the register and wait near the condiment bar, he just…stood there. With my brows near the expertly plucked hairline of my lacefront, I leaned to the side to see that no one stood behind him. He always managed to come into the café during a lull in customers. Righting, I blinked and put my eyes on the register screen, quickly navigating to the list of pastries we had to offer.

Did you want something else today?

When he didn't answer me after a few seconds, I looked