DRASTIC (Book 4 of the Soundcrush Series)

Chapter 46: Smart Girls Choose Their Alter Ego

Marley has a choice to make in this chapter. There's no turning back for her now.

The song:  a rap by an OG...Common. "The Light". The flow is not like today's rap but the words are amazing and so many syncs to Bodie and Marley's story...it's really kind of freaky, and I just found the song today

Marley

I don't why the hell we bought a house with a five minute drive to Darius' school.

Ten minutes is not enough time to brush your teeth, shower, shave your legs, tame your frizzy hair from said shower and apply mascara.

Okay, it's maybe enough time, but it's not enough time to shave without nicks.

Thank god I have no bikini wax issues to deal with. Mac is sometimes a handful but she's amazing about sharing her spa technician services when she has them out to the house.

I'm desperately trying to stop half a dozen spots of small blood flow when Bodie returns from school drop-off, calling "Jasmine!" from somewhere below.

For so long, I was afraid of that name. But I love the way he says it—with a heavy rolling Jaz and a clipped men. It feels familiar. Intimate. Even when he shouts it across the house.

"Still up here!" I yell back, frantically trying to stop the bleeding.

Bloody legs are not sexy.

They won't stop oozing. Damn triple blade razors. I decide as a last resort to try to blow dry my nicks, in the hopes that Bodie will stop to make coffee before he comes looking for me.

Then again, if he stops to make coffee, I guess the moment for doing the no pants dance has passed.

Because of said hair dryer, I don't hear him when he stops at the bathroom door. I jump as I catch site of him in the surround mirrors, pressing his fingertips to the frame and he leans in, watching me.

I pretend like I was drying my hair. Which only makes it more frizzy, of course.

He smiles the smile that has bereft a horde of fangirls of their panties.

Like he knows what I'm thinking, he comes to the vanity and wraps his arms around me, smiling at our joined reflection.

"You know what I think?"

I hold onto his strong forearms wrapped tightly over my shoulders. "What?"

"I think it was a good thing Darius interrupted us."

"Why is that?"

"Because it gives me a second chance to do it right."

I heat as I stare at him. "It felt pretty right."

His hand raises to stroke my jaw. "The sex couldn't be anything but right, between you and me. I've known that for a long time, because in the last decade and half not much has compared to my first time with you. But I'm talking about more than that." He walks around in front of me and takes my hands. "I'm talking about...treating you like my woman. My girlfriend." He wraps around me, and begins to move me in soundless dance. "I'm talking about taking you out, showing you a good time, romancing you."

I'm feeling like Jasmine so much lately, it's really hard to stop her sass from coming out of my mouth. I want to say, Boy, you already gotta girlfriend. I'm just your sidepiece.

But there is enough of Dr. Watkins left to recognize saying that would be self-sabotage. One more way to put tension between us, just like all my tears this week.