Author Notes: SURPRISE SHAWTY. Shout out to everyone that lowkey bullied me into continuing this fic some three years later. I love y’all for that. I kept the same tag list as before so if you no longer wish to be tagged, just let me know.
Amaya felt like her whole world had come crashing down in a matter of seconds.
She’d had her life planned out from the time that she was a young girl, and now all of those plans had gone astray. She could understand that her mother’s job was having financial issues and there needed to be cut backs as far as employees went. What she couldn’t understand was why her mother needed to be included in that. She sort of knew that she was being selfish about her true reasoning for caring that her mother lost her job, but she couldn’t help it. Her entire world had just been flipped on its head.
She couldn’t afford school anymore. The financial aid she had been given didn’t cover the complete cost of her first year. Her mother was going to cover the difference so that Amaya didn’t have to worry about the financial strain of school and could solely focus on making sure she made the best grades that she could. She was even going to cut back on the hours she worked at the centre to give her all to her academics.
That wasn’t the case anymore.
She had to come up with the money in a very short amount of time and she had really only two options as far as she was concerned because deferring a year simply wasn’t going to work for her.
She could either work more hours at the centre to get the money to pay the difference or she could take out student loans. Honestly, neither of them were stellar options, but she was heavily leaning towards the student loans. It would give her the money she needed right in that moment and she could deal with the fall out to her credit score and paying it back later in life. All she wanted to do was go to law school. How she did it really didn’t matter to her anymore.
“Is everything alright, Amaya? You have been unusually quiet tonight?”
She looked up from the plate of food she had been toying around with the last few minutes, pushing around bits of mashed potatoes across the ceramic, and saw T’Challa looking at her. Concern was etched into his features, brows sitting low on his face and his full lips pulled down into a soft frown.
She really should have canceled their date but she hadn’t been able to bring herself to do that. It had been a few weeks since she had last seen him and she knew he was a busy man. Though, she supposed canceling would’ve been better than going and being in a sour mood the entire night.
“Yeah, everything is fine.” She did her best to put on the most convincing smile but the look that he gave her showed that it didn’t work in her favor.
“I do not appreciate being lied to.” The frown was still etched on his face but his voice was soft, almost as if he didn’t want to scare her.
Amaya pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and let out a small breath through her nose. She certainly hadn’t meant to lie to him but she wasn’t sure if they were at the stage where she could dump all of her issues onto him. Everything up until that point had been lighthearted and fun so it was hard to say if he truly even wanted to know. She allowed silence to settle between the two of them as she continued to push around food on her plate, lost in her thoughts. It might be good to talk to someone who could provide an outside prospect of things, and he might even have some sort of sage advice to give to her.
“No, really everything is fine,” she had every intention of leaving it at that but the way he lifted one brow let her know that it wasn’t going to fly a second time. “My mother lost her job and now I’m trying to figure out how to pay for law school.”
She hadn’t really said those words out loud. Other people might have said them to her, Charlie or her brother, and she might have thought them on more than one occasion, but the words had never once left her mouth. Not even when her mother had sat her down and told her the whole truth. Saying the words out loud would only make the reality of her situation settle in, making it that much harder for her to try and deny the truth. She had hoped that if she simply just remained positive then maybe things would work themselves out, but with each passing day, she could see that a positive attitude wasn’t going to work and that very same attitude diminished and made way for a more negative one.
When his hand moved across the table, she didn’t hesitate to slip her into his. Regardless of whatever mood she was in, her body sought out the physical comfort from him because there was something about his presence that had been nothing but soothing for her, even in the times he made her heart stutter in her chest.
“How much is your balance?”
“A lot.”
“How much is a lot?”
“$19,980. I gave them $20 so they would stop calling me for a few days but really I just think the lady felt bad for me when I started crying on the phone. Half of that needs to be paid by the end of next week.” Again, she had thought about her situation plenty of times but saying it out loud only made it that much more daunting for her.
“I will take care of it.” His tone was so final as he squeezed her hand.
“T’Challa, no. I can’t ask you to do that.” The very last thing she wanted him to think was that she had only told him in hopes that he would pay for it.
“It is a good thing you are not asking and I am offering.”
“I mean I get that but I’m still saying no.”
“It is also a good thing I am not seeking your permission on this.”
Amaya rolled her eyes and kissed her teeth. “Now is not the time to be playing that little game where you need to have control over everything. This is serious and it’s too much money for you to pay and I can’t pay you back,”
“You will not need to pay me back. Consider it an early graduation gift if that will help you feel better about accepting the money.”
“I don’t need you to do that. I can figure something out.” She made a face and could start to feel herself get defensive.
The logical part of her knew that he was only doing this out of the kindness of his heart and not because he thought she couldn’t do it on her own (which they both know that she couldn’t). But there was also some jaded part of her that felt like he was doing it because he expected something in return. Sex maybe.
Of course there had been indications that the two of them were sexually attracted to each other, anyone on the outside looking in could see that, but he hadn’t given her any reason to believe that was the one and only thing that he was after. It was yet another thing she had to remind herself that set him apart from the men she had dealt with in the past. Particularly Rod.
“Come here.” A frown had once again settled onto his face as she pulled her hand away from his.
“You can’t just distract me with whatever you’re going to try and do.”
“Amaya,” her name was a rough warning on his tongue that she felt right between her thighs. What was wrong with her that him being even a little stern with her was making her wet? “Come here. I won’t tell you again.”
She watched as he pushed his chair away from the table a little bit. Any other time she would’ve pushed the boundaries a little bit more, trying to see just how much she was able to get away with, but she didn’t have the energy. She mirrored his actions and stood up from her own chair, rounding the table to stand in front of him. She wasn’t standing long before she found herself being pulled down into his lap.
A shuddering breath left her lips when a large hand rested against the bit of thigh exposed by her dress. A distraction and damn if it wasn’t working.
“Why is it so hard for you to accept my help?” She could barely think with the way his thumb traced back and forth across her skin.
“Because I don’t want you thinking I told you so you would help me.”
“If you are going to be someone in my life then you should expect to be taken care of in all aspects of your life, Amaya.” She had to admit that he did have a way with words but she could tell that he wasn’t just saying them for show. He meant them.
“I don’t think I know how to let people do things like this for me.” Amaya prided herself on being an independent woman. Of course, her mother and her family were there if and when she needed to help but no one outside of that circle really did anything to take care of her.
“I can teach you.”
————-
The rest of the dinner had placed Amaya in much better spirits and a lot of that was due in part to T’Challa keeping her in his lap with an arm wrapped around her waist as he held her close. The two of them fell back into their usual back and forth banter with ease. It was nice to not have to worry about whether or not she was going to be able to attend school or not.
She had never been so grateful to be called into work on a random Tuesday morning. Without that, she would’ve never met him and she would currently be shit out luck, probably forced to drop out of school because Rod certainly didn’t have an odd $20,000 laying around to help her out.
She still hadn’t agreed to let him pay for her first year but she also wasn’t fighting him on it either. She would sleep on it for a few days, telling him she would give him an answer in a few days time. He had been reluctant but he agreed, albeit begrudgingly.
The night was coming to a close and she felt an almost loss at knowing that he would be leaving in the morning and hadn’t really given her a time frame on when he would be back.
Her key twisted in the lock of her front door but she didn’t open it. Instead, she cleared her throat and mustered up all of her courage, putting on her proverbial big girl panties as she turned to look at him. “Did you want to…I don’t know like come in or something?”
Even in trying to make it sound like no big deal, her voice cracked.
“I would love to but I do fly out early tomorrow morning.” She was happy that he sounded sad about the fact but she had no intention of letting up.
“I know I know. It’s just Charlie isn’t home and I really don’t wanna be home alone, Sir.” She rocked back and forth from one foot to the other, looking up at him with what she could only hope was a look of helplessness.
T’Challa made a soft sound like a hum as he hooked his finger underneath her chin. “You call me that and think I’m just supposed to give in to you whatever you want.”
“I do.”
“I could tell you no right now. Don’t forget that, Amaya.” Despite the half grin forming on his lips, he gripped her chin a little tighter.
“I know you could, but do you wanna know what I think?” His fingers left her chin in order for his hand to cup the side of her face. Her body wasted no time leaning into his touch.
“Enlighten me, beautiful.”
“I think you don’t want to say no. I think you want to come in as much as I want you to come in. You just wanna play hard to get.” She reached behind her and opened her front door.
“I’m playing hard to get?” He chuckled softly as his brows lifted.
“Mhmm,” she nodded. “You definitely are and you need to cut it out before it gets you in trouble.”
She took one step back and then another, finding that he was following her back into her apartment. The way kept his eyes on her as he pulled her keys from the door and kicked it closed before flipping the lock, had her chewing on the inside of her cheek. She found that she loved having his attention solely on her.
“You and your mouth.” His thumb ran across her bottom lip and it took every ounce of strength that she had to resist the urge to pull the digit into her mouth. “Always pushing your limits.”
“You like it or else you would’ve made it so I couldn’t sit down for a week by now.”
“The night is still young.”
Taking his hand from the side of her face, she wrapped her fingers around his wrist to guide him to her bedroom. The voice in the back of head was telling her that she needed to get herself under control. She hadn’t invited him up because she wanted to jump his bones. She really had invited him because she didn’t want to be alone for the night, and she wanted to spend what little time she did have left with him.
When she pushed open the door to her bedroom, she was grateful that she had cleaned up some before she left. Any other time, her room would have been in shambles with clothes and shoes thrown all over the place in her attempt to find something suitable to wear. Instead, it was just the small desk in the corner of her room that was a mess with books and papers haphazardly thrown across the top, and her bed that she had forgotten to make.
Her room was small and his large presence made it seem that much smaller.
“I’m gonna get changed but could you unzip my dress for me?” She could easily reach the zipper herself but that didn’t mean she couldn’t have a little fun. When she turned and pulled her braids over her shoulder, she felt his presence behind her.
T’Challa said nothing as one hand ghosted up her arm and the other wrapped around the small zipper and pulled it down slowly. Amaya swore her heart felt like it was about to explode out of her chest and it didn’t get any better when she felt his lips trail along the skin of her shoulder. She inhaled sharply. His fingers pushed down the thin straps of her dress and her hands instinctively came up to hold the dress in place before it hit the ground.
She talked a big game and had no problem teasing him but she wasn’t so sure that she wanted to drop her dress and stand in front of him in just a pair of panties just yet.
When his lips pressed the shell of her ear, her eyes fluttered and she let out a small sound despite her best efforts to remain calm. It had been far too long since someone had touched her, played with her body until her mind went fuzzy and she couldn’t think, and it showed.
“Go change before I forget that I would like to be a gentleman tonight.”
She wondered what might happen if she told him she didn’t want him to be a gentleman, but something was telling her that she wasn’t quite ready for that. T’Challa seemed like a man who knew exactly what he was doing with far more years of experience than she had. She didn’t want to write a check that her ass couldn’t cash.
“Right,” she nodded her head and stepped away from him.
She practically scurried out of the room with her pajamas in hand. She knew if she had stayed in her bedroom for one second longer, she would have easily given in to the x rated thoughts that had been swarming in her head. The magnetic pull that man had over her body was insane. Scary. Thrilling. And more than just a little erotic.
She had never wanted to fuck someone so badly in her life. It was to the point that if he asked, she would be hard pressed to say no, but she truly did what to take things slow with him. She wanted to be sure that they had something that went beyond just the very apparent physical connection and attraction.
And she didn’t want him to think she was a whore.
Amaya used her night time routine as a means to distract herself, probably taking far longer than she needed to, but she needed to give her body all the time that it needed to cool down. By the time she had gone through the steps, her body was still on edge but only just barely. She was sure she would be able to keep her hormones in check.
Or so she had thought before she stepped back into her bedroom to see T’Challa sitting up against her pillows with her civil procedures book in his hand. It would have been fine for her, nothing she wouldn’t have been able to handle if he hadn’t stripped down to his boxer briefs and nothing else. .
This man was going to be the death of her.
“You just made yourself right at home I see.” She gave him a pointed look before she shoved her clothes into her hamper. She just needed to distract and deflect so nothing got out of hand.
“Well, you can only leave a man to his own devices for so long before he starts to get bored.” The smirk he gave her when he looked up from the book had her grinning back at him like an idiot.
“I see that.” She rolled her eyes as she walked over to him and pulled the book from his hands. “I don’t think this is how you want to cure your boredom though.”
“Do you have any suggestions then?”
“I have a few, but you have to leave so early in the morning and I would hate to keep you up all night, y’know?” She pressed her lips together to keep from smiling as he laughed.
She dropped the book back off on her desk before she flopped down on her back onto her bed.
“Lay down before your mouth lands you into some trouble you can’t handle, Amaya.” He shook his head.
She had no doubt that she would find herself getting into some trouble at some point with him but tonight wasn’t going to be the night for that. Crawling into bed, she laid on her side with a hand curled underneath her chin so she could face him. He wasted no time in mirroring her actions minus the hand under his chin.
“Do you know when you might be able to come back?”
“Unfortunately, no I don’t. There are quite a few things back home that I will need to take care of before I can get away again.” His hand reached out and his thumb moved along her cheek.
She figured that he was a busy man but she’d had a sliver of hope that he would be back sooner rather than later. It was getting harder and harder each time to only have an afternoon or a few hours a night with him at a time before he disappeared for an extended period of times. Phone calls could only do so much.
She really did like having him around.
“Don’t look so sad,” she wasn’t aware that she had started to frown until he pointed it out. “I’ll still make sure to call you every day.”
“Don’t get me wrong, it is nice hearing from you every day but actually seeing you more often would be even better.” She shrugged her shoulders and toyed with the ring that hung from the chain around his neck. When she looked up there was something of a smug smile on his lips. “What?”
“If I didn’t know any better I would think you had a thing for me.”
“You’re alright I guess.” She rolled her eyes playfully.
“Oh I’m just alright? I guess I should go somewhere where I will be appreciated then.” He started to roll over to get out of bed before she caught his arm.
She pressed her body into his and buried her face into his chest, inhaling his scent gently. “Don’t go.”
His arms wrapped around her tightly, holding her close, as he pressed a gentle kiss to the top of her head.
So let’s say hypothetically one were to continue on with Learn Ya and Mad Love and ‘03 Bonnie and Clyde, who would want to be tagged in any future updates?
Asking for a friend and not at all for myself who plans on updating things soon
stormborns
kaledo-art
prguitarman
baratheonpilled
izzy806
areudirty
andulkaphoto
turnnoffyourmind
vaporwave