6:11am

Sugar’s internal clock awoke her, but she fought hard against it as she moaned softly in protest and snuggled her cheek against her pillow. However, her pillow was quite warm, felt more like flesh than a 5,000-thread count magenta-hued pillow cover, and was covered lightly in hair—chest hair to be exact. Her eyelids snapped open in a groggy confusion before she cocked her head up slightly to see Chef’s slumbering face. The corners of her lips twitched upward for a moment as she observed quietly, soaking up every detail of his bearded face as if she were truly seeing him for the very first time. Her analyzing brain made a list of all his perfections and flaws that were perfect in their own way. She carefully lifted a hand to his face and gently caressed the strong slope of his nose with her index finger before hovering the digit just barely over his lips, but she didn’t have the courage to touch them. Instead, her mind concocted a montage of all the times his lips dominated hers, which in turn sent a chain reaction of goosebumps across her brown flesh and rising heat through her veins.

“I ain’t gonna bite,” Chef replied tiredly, a hint of amusement in his voice while his lips quirked upward into a slight smile.

His eyes were still closed as though he were slept, which her wonder how long had he been truly awake.

“My gut is telling me that you’re lying,” she returned, a soft smile of her own easing across her lips.

His close-mouthed grin widened a smidgen. “I would never.”

Deciding to take his word, the tip of her index finger lightly graced the crease of his closed lips before Chef suddenly bared his teeth at her, growled like a wild dog, and lunged his head forward to bite her. Sugar snatched her hand away in the nick of time, a surprised laughter bursting out of her.

“Chef,” she protested through her mad giggling, playfully slapping his cheek.

He plopped his head back down onto the pillow with the look of a satisfied trickster.

“What happened to ‘I would never’,” she asked, providing a poor imitation of his deep southern voice.

He winked at her. “I can be a hell of a liar.”

“Keep up with the lying and Hell is where you’ll be going,” she said with a roll of her eyes.

“I’m lucky to have experienced a slice of heaven,” Chef replied, “so I’ll gladly take my fall to eternal damnation with grace.”

“And what exactly is your definition of ‘a slice of heaven’, Miles,” she asked, arching a delicate eyebrow.

“Bein’ with you,” he replied as he grinned at her charmingly. 

She rolled her eyes, huffed out a short laugh.

“That’s the cheesiest thing I’ve ever heard,” she said, which was true yet his words made her feel warm and gooey like melting cheese. God, she hated how he was making her feel. All he was doing was talking to her and her heart was pitter-pattering wildly like a schoolgirl getting a mere glance from a crush. It made her feel pathetic, desperate, and starved for masculine attention.

Just then, she heard her cell chippering on her nightstand. She crawled halfway over him on all fours and retrieved it. She pretended to ignore the pleased rumbly sound that Chef made at the back of his throat. It was a text message from Odette.

Ettie: Breakfast is pushed back to 10:00.

Ettie: Helena has a hangover and I gotta revive this chick with electrolytes and shit, but I really want to electrocute her. *annoyed emoji*

Though Sugar was slightly relieved that her scheduled interrogation with her sisters was pushed back an hour, she was less than thrilled about being surrounded by nosy women who were going to probe her about every single detail about her Friday night thing with Chef.

She put the phone down and went to move back to where she was originally, but Chef rested his hand on the back of her bare thighs. “Slow your row, darlin’.”

“Am I hurting you,” she asked.

“Only my feelings if you won’t let me admire what I’ve got sprawled across my chest like a goddamn Christmas gift,” he replied.

Sugar peered over her shoulder in confusion and realized he was referring to her ass covered in plum panties that was laid across his chest. She rolled her eyes and shook her head, fighting back a smile.

“Well, this is a Christmas gift you won’t be opening anytime soon,” she assured him. His hand slid up the back of her thighs before he slipped a finger past her panties’ edge, crooked it, and made the elastic snap against her left ass cheek. Goosebumps prickled across her skin at the action.

“Don’t be so sure, honey,” he returned as he removed his finger and smoothed his hand over the curve of her ass in a slow appreciative way. She closed her eyes and savored the attention like she was starved for some.

“Gimme your phone,” he ordered, breaking her from her trance.

“Why?”

“I wanna take a picture,” he replied.

Her heartbeat doubled in pace and her eyes increased in size. “I’m sorry. Can you repeat that?”

“I’m takin’ you up on your offer,” Chef said. “Now, gimme your phone.”

She gasped as he gave her a good smack on the ass and the vibrations from it went straight to the spot in between her legs.

She shot him a look over her shoulder and he grinned right back, winking at her. Sugar hesitantly reached for the device and crawled from over him, passing it to him. Not wanting to provide him with an opportunity for the snapshot of her ass he desired to take, she laid back down beside him. He took her bashful refusal with grace and a widening grin, finding her camera app with a few clicks of his thumb. Deciding to sit up, Chef leaned his back against her pillows and headboard, aiming her phone’s rear camera lens at her shy face.

A familiar ‘snapshot’ sound filled the air and the right corner of his lips tugged upward as his gray eyes gazed at the screen. “Perfect.”

She let out an unladylike snort and rolled her eyes.

“Very far from it,” she assured.

He cocked her phone away from his face to stare at her carefully for a moment. “Then I suppose I’ll need to gather photographic evidence to prove my point.”

“I think one picture is enough, Miles,” she replied in light protest as she went to grab the phone from his possession, but he playfully moved the device out of her reach.

“And I think one picture is just the beginning,” he returned.

Sugar gave him a look of annoyance and crossed her arms over her chest, lolling her head away from him. The fact of the matter was Chef armed with her phone as a camera meant he would no doubt use it to peel back her defenses and reveal a side of her she sometimes showed him a peek of but honestly feared wholeheartedly: her vulnerability.

“Aw, come on, honey. Don’t be like that,” Chef chuckled softly as he leaned down to kiss her temple before he pulled back. “Let me take a few photos before you kick me out of your bed.”

“Do I have an option of kicking you out earlier than scheduled,” she queried humorlessly as she brushed his face away from hears and yanked her bed sheet over her head, swallowing herself in darkness, hiding herself away in a safe cocoon. Immediately after that moment, she felt Chef’s weight remove itself from her bed and a bout of panic hit her hard as she feared that she might have pissed him off. She opened her mouth to speak as she laid hidden underneath the safety of her bed sheet, but the words never came as the bed sheet was suddenly pulled back to reveal only her pedicured feet.

“What are you doing,” she asked in utter confusion.

“Takin’ a picture,” he answered.

Her eyebrows scrunched together. “Of only my feet?”

“Of every inch of you, darlin’,” he said, “and I’ll start with these adorable toes I love suckin’ on.”

A snapshot sound streamed into her ears.

Chef leaned onto the bed slightly and kissed her toes before he drew her big toe into his mouth and suckled for a few moments, earning an airy sigh of pleasure from Sugar. The bed sheet slid up her legs and stopped just above her knees.

“You’ve got legs for days, darlin’. I love starin’ at ‘em, touchin’ em, and bein’ in between ‘em,” he complimented with a slight chuckle as he eased onto the bed and took another photo before he widened her legs, causing the bed sheet to ride up a little further. He licked a trail from along her left calf’s side and up to her knee, his head halfway disappearing underneath the bedsheet as his lips rained savoring kisses around her knee. Sugar squeezed her eyes shut and tilted her head back, tingly sensations spreading across her sensitive skin like wildfire.

“And these thighs,” he said followed by a wolfish whistle—that made her smile as she bit her bottom lip—as he wedged his bare shoulders in between her legs, making the bed sheet rest just above her panties. “They’re so damn thick and soft…”

He snapped another picture of her thighs before he leaned in, planting a kiss on her panty-clad pussy—directly on her pulsing clit. He took the time to lick at it through the thin fabric of her panties. She shuddered at the sensation and moaned.

“So sweet and pink,” he said in a husky appreciative voice against her pussy. “Mind if I have a taste?”

“Just a small one,” she consented breathlessly.

He chuckled a little at her response as he pushed her panties aside and didn’t waste any time tasting her. He probed her wet folds with his tongue, exploring and savoring the most intimate features of her. He gave her a long lick from bottom to top before he swirled his tongue around her clit and pampered it with lazy flicks. She arched the small of her back and tilted her head back against her pillows, moaning loudly. He licked her slit again much more appreciatively before the tip of his tongue teased her opening in tight circles before he trailed his tongue back up to her clit, licking the underside of the swelling bud before he drew it into his mouth for a careful rhythmic sucking that drove her absolutely insane and all of pleasurable sounds that came out of her mouth let him how much.

Then he stopped suddenly and gave her clit a farewell kiss.

“Why did you stop,” she panted as she gazed down at him after unveiling her head from her bedsheet.

“I was only permitted a small taste,” he replied, his warm breath fluttering against her clit as he spoke. “Plus, I need to finish gatherin’ my evidence…unless, you wanna try somethin’ that kills two birds with one stone.”

Sugar arched an eyebrow at him, still catching her breath. “And what’s that exactly?”

“I’ll eat your sweet pussy like it’s my last supper and you can record it,” he replied.

Sugar’s eyes widened and a shocked kind of laughter burst from her lips, but the determined look in his eyes was all the proof she needed to realize that he wasn’t joking. He wasn’t joking at all. The laughter died in her throat and immediately, she felt vulnerable. She bit her bottom lip as her mind raced with her options—options that were dwindling rapidly as Chef kissed and trailed his tongue along her inner thigh. In the end, she decided what in the hell did she have to lose?

“Okay,” she agreed in a soft breathless voice. His lips busied themselves with her inner thigh as he laid her phone on her belly before he gripped the underside of her thigh and tilted it wider as he journeyed back to her pussy.

Sugar grabbed her phone and brought it towards her face to switch the mode from camera to video. A flashing red dot appeared in a corner of the screen that mirrored a live scene that unfolded beyond her phone. Through her phone screen, she witnessed Chef deliver his end of the bargain and she immediately reaped the benefits of it. However, it proved difficult to keep the phone steady, but it became even more so when Chef slid a hand up the landscape of her body that rested underneath the bed sheet to yank down one of her bra cups to toy with her nipple. Her body was on fire now and there was a growing tightness in her belly that was ready to snap as he tormented her drenched pussy with his devilish mouth while his hand rolled and tugged onto her hard dark nipple. She rocked her hips in response, grinding her pussy into his face.

“Fuck,” she cried as he paused to blow cool air onto her clit.

Though her phone blocked her face, Miles gazed up at her intensely as if the device wasn’t there at all and all he could see was her. She gasped sharply as he tugged her clit into his mouth with his teeth while he slid two thick fingers inside her, thrusting the digits inside of her hard and slow. He curled his fingers as he pumped them into her, rubbing his fingertips against her G-spot over and over and over until she couldn’t think straight or breathe. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head as she climaxed, crying to the ceiling and trembling all over.

When it was all over, she opened her eyes as she felt her phone get plucked from her grasp. Chef licked his lips as he lifted his head.

“You look so fuckin’ gorgeous when you cum for me, Sugar.” After a few clicks of his thumb, he aimed the phone’s rear lens at her as she laid there utterly spent and took a photo. “You sing out the sweetest notes for me too.”

Pushing the bed sheet upward, he revealed her belly button and bent his head to circle his tongue along the edge of it before dipping it inside. She arched her back a little and bit her bottom lip, a groan vibrating deep in her throat.

He snapped a photo of her belly before he kissed his way up to her breasts and nuzzled his head between the valley as if he were trying to make a home there. Sugar ran her fingers through her hair. She sighed in pleasure as he lapped at her nipple lazily—the one atop of her breast that he had yanked the bra cup from. “Mm, your breasts fit so perfectly in my hands. I can’t deny I love squeezin’ ‘em and playin’ with ‘em. Tastin’ your sweet nipples are just the cherry on top.”

After he took a picture of her breasts, he finally reached her face.

“You have such soft plump lips and sweet tongue,” Chef commented with a slight grin as he hovered over her face, capturing her lips and slipping his tongue inside. He swallowed her moan as their tongues became a deep tangle of passion. She tasted a hint of herself on his lips and it surprised her how much she loved it. He pulled back, earning a disappointed whimper from her. He chuckled a little in reply and kissed both of her cheeks.

“I love the dimples in your cheeks when you smile,” he said before he kissed her nose. “I love your button nose.”

“And those big brown eyes of your slay me every damn time you look in my direction,” Chef said as his lips planted light feathery on her closed eyelids. When he was finished, she peeled back her eyelids and gazed up at his handsome face. His descriptive words of her body made her feel like a walking masterpiece even though she had an ongoing tally of all her flaws nagging her in the back of her head.

“Are you satisfied with your little photoshoot,” she asked in a soft teasing voice.

“Not quite,” Chef said with a twinkle of mischief in his eye. “I have one more thang to take a picture of.”

In moments, she was flipped over onto her belly by Chef’s doing.

“There we go,” Chef said with a satisfied grin as he took a picture of her ass.

Sugar shook her head and laughed, a sound which died in her throat and was replaced by a lengthy moan as Chef leaned down to kiss the sensitive nape of her neck before he gave her a love bite there.

{}{}{}{}{}

10:32AM

The sound of white noise clogged Sugar Wallace’s ears as she sat at the diner table with her elbow propped on the table and her chin resting on her first while her free hand swirled a silvery spoon in her coffee absentmindedly. She reminisced about how she woke up beside Chef, their steamy photoshoot fueled by his determination to prove to her that she was some sort of masterpiece to him, and the searing kiss he gifted her before he left, leaving her alone in bed to miss him—to ache for him. God, she hated this. A pink sugar packet smacked her cheek and she blinked her eyes wildly as she brought herself back to the present.

“Oh, hello! Welcome back,” Odette said sweetly as she batted her eyelashes innocently. “How was your trip to the clouds?”

Sugar straightened up in her seat and rolled her eyes at her baby sister.

“Haha,” she said humorlessly, “very funny.”

“What’s funny is that you’ve clearly forgotten why you’re here,” Helena said groggily before she forked some cheesy scrambled eggs into her mouth. The young woman looked like she was barely alive due to her hangover.

With a mouthful of eggs, Helena then questioned, “Now, let’s stop tiptoeing around the question we all know needs to be answered: Can bruh throw down or now?”

“Helena, forreal,” Reid huffed before she took a sip of her tea, shaking her head at the overtly eager young woman.

“Actually, I agree with Helena,” Rochelle chimed in, which earned her a chorus of surprised looks all around the table. In which, she cleared her throat as if she were in court presenting her side of a case and further added, “Her misguided approach aside--"

Helena blew Rochelle a kiss and tossed her a wink.

“That’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me,” Helena interjected and Rochelle rolled her eyes sharply in return and continued on with her speech.

Rochelle resumed, “We’re not here to drink coffee and eat eggs, and sausage—”

“We’re here to eat sausage and talk about Chef’s sausage,” Helena cut in once more loudly, garnering unneeded attention from other patrons and waiting staff in the busy diner. Sugar gave a passing waitress who overheard the outburst a week smile even though her face burned with embarrassment.

Katrina closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Maybe, I should plate up my breakfast and eat at work.”

“I second that notion,” Sugar agreed anxiously as she brought her coffee mug to her lips and took a deep sip, wishing the beverage was spiked with something stronger.

Odette sighed, “Just answer the question, Shug.”

“I don’t kiss and tell,” Sugar said.

“Hopefully, the two of you did a lot more than kissing,” Reid returned.

Sugar clicked her manicured nails against the coffee mug she cradled in her hands while a smile accidentally curled across her lips as memories from the last few days played through her mind like a movie. The women around her caught it immediately and hassled her through a chorus of proud smiles, I-knew-it’s, and of course, Helena’s ‘yasss, queen, yasss’.

“So?” Rochelle asked in a sing-song voice, gesturing for Sugar to spill the beans.

Sugar gave them a defeated look before she started to fumble over her words. “It was amazing. The date, I mean. No, I mean the thing. The thing was amazing.”

All the females gave each other confused looks.

“Why are you calling it a thing. It’s a date. You two went on a date,” Rochelle said with a frown. “You two are dating each other.”

Sugar opened her mouth, prepared to admit the fact that she and Chef weren’t dating, but Chef’s proposal blew into her mind like a breeze.

“How about this, darlin’? Let’s go to this little gettogether and play pretend. You pretend to be my mine and I’ll pretend to be yours. It will be a little dirty secret of ours,” Chef proposed in her ear. “What do you say?”

“You’re right. It was a date,” Sugar chuckled nervously. “It’s been so long since I’ve had one that I don’t even know what to call it anymore.”

Odette began, “Semantics aside—"

“How big is he?” Helena asked. Katrina had been in the middle of sipping her tea when the question had been posed and began to cough as the beverage went down the wrong pile. Reid reached over and patted the woman on the back as she went through a coughing fit.

“Really, Helena,” Odette hissed.

“It’s a legitimate question,” Helena replied innocently.

Rochelle narrowed her eyes. “It’s not like she brought a ruler with her.”

“What’s wrong with bringing a ruler,” Helena asked.

Katrina’s hand shot up in the air as she tried to wave down their waitress. “I can’t do this anymore. Check, please!”

“Yup, whipping out a ruler on a guy is a real turn on,” Reid said, rolling her eyes.

Helena pursed her lips together, slightly irritated that the women around the table couldn’t understand her ways. “Okay, I’ll put it this way. On a scale from Lance’s little worm to Ginuwine’s 2016 leaked dick pic, how big is he?”

There was an intense silence fell upon the table and everyone’s eyes were on Sugar. Even Katrina abandoned her attempt to escape this twisted breakfast to hear the confession.

“If I answer this question, can we please have a normal breakfast before we all head off to work,” Sugar queried, arching an eyebrow.

“Yes,” Odette and Helena said in unison.

Sugar casted her eyes to the ceiling and sighed heavily.

“Ginuwine is pretty big, right,” she asked, a thoughtful look on her face as she hadn’t seen this leaked picture of Ginuwine nor did she want to.

“Yes,” Odette, Helena, Reid, and Katrina said in unison.

Rochelle, being the lawyer that she was, arched an eyebrow at the quartet of women. “Seriously? Invasion of privacy much?”

“Then he’s a…Ginuwine,” Sugar said hesitantly.

Jaws dropped around her.

Rochelle asked, “How are you walking?”

Odette also asked in that moment, “How are you alive?”

Reid’s eyebrows scrunched together. “Are you sure he’s that big?”

“Of course, I’m sure. I slept him with three times,” Sugar admitted with a frown before she couldn’t filter her thoughts, which opened another can of worms.

“You slept with Mister Chef three times,” Helena said with a cheesy grin and she stood up a little, leaning over the table to present Sugar with a high-five. “I only heard about one.”

Sugar left Helena hanging as she heard the young woman’s final words to her statement. “What?”

Helena’s proud face transformed into her ‘oh shit, I fucked up’ face.

“Erm, a little birdie might have tweeted in my ear,” she admitted, “about something regarding a…code blue.”

All of the other women at the table glanced between Sugar and Helena at the mention of a code blue, but said nothing.

Sugar narrowed her eyes. “And by little birdie, you mean Mallory Hartwell, my gossiping little brother who’s going to get his head knocked in when I see him? That little birdie?”

Helena chuckled nervously. “Wrong birdie. I think my little birdie flew south already for the winter.”

“It’s summer,” Sugar said deadpan.

“He got an early start,” Helena returned in a slight panic as she stood up from her seat, shrugging on her backpack. “Look at the time, I need to get to class.”

Odette shook her head disappointedly at her sister-in-law and said, “You rode with me.”

“I’ll take the bus,” Helena said, shooting Odette a fake tight smile. “Bye, queens.”

She blew everyone a kiss and hightailed out of the diner.

Rochelle arched an eyebrow at Sugar. “Code red?”

“Yup,” Sugar nodded curtly as she took a deep gulp of her coffee, clenching her jaw tightly as she concocted fantasies of how she was going to beat the hell out of her baby brother.