The Essential Jagged Ivory (Jagged Ivory Boxed Set)

by Lashell Collins

  Chapter Eight

  She crawled out of bed slowly, trying her very best not to wake him. And then she stood for a moment looking down at his perfect body, barely covered by the sheet. His light brown skin and those chiseled muscles. He was beautiful.

  She smiled to herself as she pulled on her short, fleece robe and secured the tie in place as she walked to the bedroom door. She stopped first in the bathroom to pee. Then she washed her hands and ventured downstairs to the kitchen. She could smell the coffee before she reached the bottom step.

  “Didn’t expect to see you this morning,” she said as she entered the kitchen and reached for a coffee mug.

  “It’s not ready yet,” Shelly said of the coffee. “And I know you didn’t expect to see me because you have a rock star in your bed!” The words were spoken with a lot of excitement and Brooke laughed at her sister’s goofy expression. “I want details!”

  “Well you’re not going to get any,” Brooke exclaimed. “Except …”

  “Except what?”

  Brooke hesitated for a moment. “Except that I like him, Shelly,” she said softly, almost feeling embarrassed. “I really like him!”

  “Aww! I’m so happy for you,” she gushed, squeezing her sister’s hand.

  “I’m happy for her too,” Otis said as he entered the kitchen wearing nothing but his jeans, and wrapped his arms around Brooke from behind, startling her. She blushed as he kissed her temple.

  “I thought you were asleep.”

  “I was until you left me,” he answered, kissing her ear. “I got lonely.”

  Brooke blushed again. She didn’t know why she was feeling so shy and embarrassed this morning, but she couldn’t shake it. Maybe it was because they had an audience.

  “Any chance I can get some of that coffee?” he asked.

  “Absolutely,” Shelly answered, taking the empty mug from Brooke’s hands and turning to pour the steaming liquid.

  “Oh, for me it’s not ready, but for him it’s ‘absolutely,’” Brooke said with a playful attitude.

  “He’s our guest,” Shelly explained, handing the cup over to him. “Cream or sugar?”

  “Just sugar, please,” he smiled. And Brooke rolled her eyes at both of them. “I’m a guest,” he said, smirking at her.

  “You’re a jerk,” she snickered.

  “I’m your jerk,” he countered with a shrug of his shoulders. And Brooke felt herself flush.

  “You guys are too cute,” Shelly squealed.

  Otis smiled as he took a sip of his coffee and watched Brooke. He found it difficult to take his eyes off of her. She was so beautiful, even first thing in the morning with no makeup and that sexy, rumpled bed-hair. If Shelly hadn’t been around he would’ve been tempted to pull her to the kitchen floor right then and there.

  As Shelly busied herself at the kitchen sink Brooke and Otis stared at one another with probing eyes and lustful smiles, each of them replaying their evening and wondering if they had enough time for a quick morning romp. Brooke reached out and took the mug from his hands and brought it to her lips, taking a sip of his coffee.

  “I need to get a shower, or I’m going to be late. My first class starts at nine on Tuesdays. Can you run me, Shell?”

  “Sure.”

  “No,” Otis spoke up. “I’ll take you to work.

  “You don’t have to do that,” Brooke protested.

  He reached out and took the mug from her. “I’m taking you to work. No arguments, Feisty,” he said, taking another sip of coffee.

  She smiled at him. And then she turned and left the kitchen, motioning for him to follow.

  Otis set the mug down and followed after her. And once they were back in her bedroom, he closed the door and grabbed her by the arm, gruffly pulling her to him, and she yelped.

  “Manhandling me this morning?” she whispered.

  “You seemed to like it a little rough last night when I had you on all fours,” he said softly. “But I would never manhandle you, baby. I hope you know that.”

  She smiled at him. “I do know that. And I did like it rough. But I liked it sweet too,” she said, looking away bashfully.

  He smiled at her as he caressed her face. “I like it that you tell me what you like in bed. Don’t ever stop doing that,” he said, kissing her forehead. Then he kissed her lips tenderly.

  Brooke shook her head as if trying to clear it from a fog. “I have to get ready,” she said, pulling away from him and rushing to her chest of drawers. “What are you going to do today, Mr. Rock Star?” she asked as she gathered a clean pair of panties and a bra.

  “Well, after I send Mike this text about the test you mentioned last night and I get you to work,” he said, glancing up from his cellphone, “I’m going to run home and change and then I’ve got a couple errands to run. And I promised a little boy another visit, so … I have a full afternoon. But I’ll be back, so you won’t have to take the bus, okay?”

  “Otis, that’s not a problem,” she said, protesting again. “You don’t need to schedule picking me up from the studio into your day. I can take the bus.”

  “You’re going to be late,” he said, glancing at his watch and smiling at her. She rolled her eyes at him and dashed to the bathroom, and Otis laughed as he hit the Send button on his phone. He was tying his shoes when his phone rang. He picked it up expecting it to be Mike, and he frowned slightly when he read the caller ID.

  “Mom?”

  “Morning, sweetie!”

  Kay Ivory’s voice held the same happy, easy lilt that it always did, and Otis couldn’t help his grin.

  “Hey. What’s going on?”

  “I didn’t wake you, did I?”

  “No, Mom. You didn’t wake me. What’s up?”

  “Well, you have a birthday coming up next week,” she answered. “We need to make some plans.”

  “Oh. Mom, no. We don’t …”

  “Now, I know you said you don’t want a party or anything,” she said, ignoring his objections, “and that’s okay. But I thought, why not just have a family dinner or something?”

  “Mom, no party means no party,” he said.

  “Well, a family dinner is not a party, honey. And you don’t want to disappoint your dear old, elderly mother, do you?”

  He snorted softly and rolled his eyes. Kay Ivory was in her mid-sixties, and still as vibrant and beautiful as she was when he and Noah were teenagers. “I don’t have an old elderly mother,” he smiled.

  “Aww, you’re a good boy for lying,” she smiled. “But it’s not enough to get you out of dinner next Friday. Now, it’s just going to be us, okay? Just me and your dad and your brother. And Mercy, of course. But we’re doing it at their house because our kitchen won’t be done in time,” she said, referring to the kitchen renovation going on at his parent’s home.

  “Why are we doing it at all?” he sighed.

  “Because I’m your mother and I said so,” she responded sarcastically. “My first born is turning thirty and I want to celebrate that with my family. And after 37 hours of labor, if I want you to rob a bank for me you damn well better do it!”

  Otis burst into laughter. He couldn’t help it. Their entire lives, she had always pulled that labor card whenever she wanted to guilt him and Noah into things. And 99 percent of the time, they let her.

  “Fine, Mom,” he sighed. “We’ll have dinner next Friday. But I’m bringing a friend.”

  “Oh, that’s right,” she exclaimed. “Your brother told us that you really like this girl you’ve been seeing. The one you brought to Buzzy’s wedding. What was her name?”

  “Her name is Brooke.”

  “Yes. Brooke. Such a pretty girl, honey,” she gushed. “And you two looked so great together. I watched you while you were dancing at the wedding.”

  “Mom,” he sighed.

  “I insist you bring her with you. I can’t wait to get to know her. She’s not a vegetarian, is she?”

  “What?” he asked, with a puzzled frow
n.

  “Well, I want to make sure we have something the poor girl can eat,” she said.

  “No. She’s not a vegetarian,” he sighed. “Look, Mom … I’m on my way out the door, okay? Can I call you about this whole dinner thing later?”

  “Sure. As long as you promise to bring your girlfriend.”

  “I will ask her, okay? But I can’t promise that she’s going to want to spend time with my crazy parents,” he replied.

  “We’re not crazy. We’re free spirits,” she countered, sounding happy and impossible. And Otis couldn’t help but smile to himself.

  They hung up then, and he continued to dress. And when Brooke rushed in wearing nothing but her bra and panties, he had to fight the urge to undress and make her very, very late. He watched as she rushed around the room pulling on white tights and a pale pink leotard. Then she pulled a pair of lightweight athletic pants on over the tights and slipped into a pair of sneakers. She grabbed her bag and looked at him expectantly.

  “Ready?” he asked, smiling at her.

  He held her hand as they drove to the De Luz Studio, and Brooke couldn’t wipe the smile off her face as she stole glances at him.

  “So … I, uh … I got a call from my mother while you were in the shower.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yeah. She wants to have a family dinner next Friday,” he said. “She insisted that I invite you.”

  “She insisted?”

  “Well … I agreed to dinner, but only if I could bring a friend,” he smiled.

  “Oh.” Dinner with Otis’ parents? Well, it wasn’t like she would be meeting them for the first time since he had already introduced her to them at the wedding. So maybe it wouldn’t be such a big deal. The thought still made her nervous though.

  “That is, if you want to come,” he added anxiously, glancing at her as he drove.

  “I’d love to,” she answered.

  He breathed a sigh of relief and gave her hand a light squeeze. “Um, Noah and Mercy will be there too, so … it won’t be too unbearable.”

  “What’s the occasion?”

  He rolled his eyes slightly. “My thirtieth birthday,” he answered.

  “It’s your birthday?”

  “Next Friday,” he answered.

  “Oh, my gosh! Well, now I really would love to come,” she smiled. “Why aren’t you excited?”

  He rolled his eyes once more. “I’m just not feeling the whole big 3-0 thing, I guess.”

  She hesitated for a moment as he pulled into the dance studio parking lot. “Well, what if I promised you something special for your birthday?” she said softly. “Would that make you more excited?”

  He cocked an eyebrow and looked over at her. “Like what?”

  Brooke shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. What would you like? It’s my turn to please you,” she said softly.

  Otis smiled at her and ran a finger across his lips as he thought about her offer. “Okay,” he agreed. “Anything I want?”

  “Anything,” she said without hesitation as she stared into his eyes.

  “I want a lap dance,” he said softly. Then he reached out and ran his thumb across her lips. “And then I want to fuck your mouth.”

  The crude words shocked her a little, but they also turned her on. “A lap dance. I can do that,” she whispered. “But the other thing?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You don’t have to wait for your birthday for that.”

  “Oh, no?” he asked with raised eyebrows.

  “No,” she breathed, wishing they’d had time this morning.

  Otis smiled at her. “That’s damn good to know.” He leaned in and kissed her lips chastely. “I’ll be back.”

  “Okay.”

  *****

  Three hours later, Otis had been home to shower and change, and he was just pulling out of the car dealership lot when his cellphone rang. He hit the button putting it on speaker.

  “This is Otis.”

  “Otis. Mike.”

  “What’s going on Mike?”

  “I just wanted to give you an update. I had a conversation with Lenny Walsh about that non-invasive paternity test your friend told you about. Turns out it’s not only legitimate, but it’s being used to determine paternity after a rape, and it’s even been used in a murder case. The best part is it’s just a simple blood test; all that’s needed is a sample from you. Then they compare that to fragments of the baby’s DNA that can be found in the mother’s blood.”

  “Sounds easy enough,” Otis stated.

  “I sent all the information on the testing over to Ms. Hill’s attorney, along with our assurance that we will pay for it. It’s a little pricey, but I figured it was a drop in the bucket compared to shelling out what they would ask for in medical expenses. We should hear something back by the end of the day, I would imagine. Or tomorrow at the latest.”

  “Thank you so much for looking into this, Mike,” Otis stated, feeling hopeful all of a sudden.

  “Hey, you need to thank that new girlfriend of yours,” Mike replied. “You might want to think about keeping her around. She sounds like a smart cookie.”

  Otis smiled at his comment as they hung up the phone. And when he pulled into the parking lot of the dance studio and got out of the car, he felt like he was floating on air. He strode into the studio with his ever-present shadow in tow, and walked up to the desk at the front. There was an attractive woman in her early fifties with graying blonde hair behind the desk, and she looked up and smiled at him.

  “Well, if it isn’t the flower bandit,” she said, and Otis looked caught off guard.

  “I’m sorry?”

  “Mr. Ivory, I presume?” she said, still smiling at him.

  “Yes,” he smiled.

  “I’m Cleo De Luz,” the woman said, offering her hand.

  “Ah, Ms. De Luz,” he smiled, taking her hand. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

  “And I you,” she replied. “I don’t mind telling you that our mutual friend has been much happier this past week than I have seen her in a long time.”

  Otis was surprised by the woman’s bluntness, but he couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across his face at the thought of Brooke being happy because of him.

  “I also don’t mind telling you that if you hurt her, I will personally hunt you down like a dog and then feed you to the wolves,” she said.

  There was a hint of humor in her eyes, but Otis easily understood that the woman was very serious in her sentiment. She obviously cared a great deal about Brooke. He liked that.

  “I understand,” he said. “Is she around?”

  “She has a class that should be ending in just a few minutes,” Cleo answered. “You can peek in that door there if you’d like.”

  She pointed to a door to their right, and Otis thanked her before taking the few steps across the hallway. The door was partially opened, and when he peeked inside he saw a fairly large studio occupied by a small group of pre-teens. Young girls, and a couple of boys, all dressed in tights and leotards and ballet slippers as they lined the mirrored walls of the studio and practiced their movements at the barre. They were listening to Chopin’s Nocturne No. 2 in E flat Major, and Brooke stood in the center of the room, surveying their posture as they practiced. Otis smiled as he leaned against the door frame and watched quietly.

  “Much better alignment, Jessica,” she called out. “That was a very graceful line, sweetie.”

  Brooke suddenly heard hushed voices and a few giggles and turned to see two of the girls whispering to one another and looking to the door of the studio. She glanced to see what was causing the commotion and was met with Otis’ amused gaze. He was leaning against the door to her classroom, smiling at her, and Brooke’s heart summersaulted into her belly.

  She flashed him a bashful smile and attempted to turn her attention back to her class, but her concentration had instantly gone to hell. Luckily, the chime sounded, indicating that class time was over anyway.
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  “Thank you everyone,” she said as the children began to scatter. She moved to the table to turn off the music as Otis walked in, smiling at her. “What are you doing here?”

  “I told you I’d be back,” he answered. “And I wanted to come in and see what you do.”

  “You’ve seen what I do,” she smirked, and they both knew she was referring to her night job.

  Otis shook his head. “That’s just how you pay your bills. This is what feeds your soul.”

  Brooke smiled at his simplification of her two jobs, and she realized that she liked the way he seemed to see the world. Everything was very clear to Otis Ivory. Something either brought pleasure and meaning to your life or it didn’t.

  “Ms. McKenna?”

  She turned to see the two girls who’d alerted her to Otis’ presence standing in front of them, still unable to contain their giggles.

  “Yes?”

  “Um … Sharon and me were wondering …”

  “Sharon and I,” Brooke corrected.

  “Yeah, Sharon and I were wondering if we could have Mr. Ivory’s autograph?” the girl asked, clearly about to burst from the excitement.

  “Of course you can,” Otis spoke up, smiling at them and making their day. And Brooke stood by with an amused smirk on her face as she watched him sign slips of paper for them.

  “Ms. McKenna, I heard a rumor that he’s your boyfriend,” the girl said excitedly. “Is that true?”

  Brooke was stunned by the question. Not surprised so much as completely stuck on just how to answer it. The smile froze on her face as she stared at the girl, and then at Otis.

  “Well, don’t look at me,” he said, smiling at her. “I’d like the answer to that question myself.”

  She gave him a look of total shock, and Otis couldn’t help the small laugh that escaped him. The girls giggled and walked away reluctantly as their mothers called to them.

  “I don’t believe you,” she said to him when they were alone.

  “What? It’s a legitimate question,” he smiled.