by Velvet
“Oh, like a spa?” Naomi asked, raising her voice a decibel, so that she sounded like a ditsy Valley Girl.
Tyler shook her head. “No, it’s not a spa. It’s an erotica club.” She put her elbows on the table and leaned in closer to Naomi. “You know, a place where women go to have sex,” she said, putting emphasis on the word sex.
Naomi put her hand to her mouth, as if shocked. “What? You’re kidding?”
“No, I’m not kidding. So, you’re saying that you had no idea where you were?” she asked, cocking her head again in disbelief.
“God no!” she exclaimed. “Kennedy and I were uptown to visit a friend of ours. Obviously we got the addresses mixed up. You know how all those brownstones look alike,” she said with a straight face, thankful that they had taken off their wigs before leaving the club, otherwise she’d have more explaining to do.
“Ump,” Tyler grunted, as if she didn’t believe Naomi’s lame story, but since she hadn’t actually seen them inside of the club, she had no proof as to whether they were members or not. “Okay, that explains why you guys were on the front steps of the club, but it doesn’t explain why you ran away the moment you saw me,” Tyler said, refusing to let Naomi off the hook so easily.
“We didn’t mean to leave so suddenly, but we had tickets to a Broadway show, and you know that once the curtain goes up, the ushers won’t seat you right away,” Naomi lied, and then turned the tables on Tyler before she had a chance to ask any more questions. “Now that I think about it, what were you doing there? Are you a member?” Naomi pinned Tyler with a penetrating stare.
“No, I’m not a member. I work there,” she said with indignation, as if being a member of a sex club was beneath her.
“What do you do there?” Trey mentioned that Tyler worked for him, but he never mentioned what she did.
Tyler hesitated a moment. She had promised Trey that she would keep her assignment a secret, but now that she had halfway let the cat out of the bag, she was stuck. She didn’t want Naomi thinking that she actually worked inside of the club, so she had no choice but to tell her the truth. “This has to remain just between the two of us, and you can’t tell Kennedy,” she said, giving Naomi a serious look.
“I promise, I won’t say a word.”
“The owner, Trey, hired me on a freelance basis to design masks for some of the members.”
“Oh.” It was definitely confirmed. There was no way on God’s good earth that she could join now. Since Tyler was designing masks for members, she would eventually see Naomi’s name on the roster, and she could never let that happen. Now Naomi’s only alternative for constant sex was her husband. He was her first choice, but obviously she wasn’t Jacob’s. With him constantly denying her sexual pleasures, Naomi was beginning to think that he was having an affair. His early-morning meetings, late nights, and constant business trips were a little too suspicious. Once Jacob gets back from London, we’re going to have a serious talk, she thought.
By the time they got back from dinner, Jacob was home from his trip, but Naomi didn’t have a chance to confront him because he was snoring louder than a drunken truck driver.
“SO TELL ME, Ms. Thang”—Rio perched himself on the edge of her desk—“what’s got you so preoccupied?” he asked, ready for an earful.
Even though they were buds, Naomi wasn’t about to tell him about her visit to the Black Door. Knowing Rio, he would want to know more about the club, and if gay men were allowed to join, and she wasn’t up to an inquisition. “Nothing serious, just thinking about life in general,” she lied.
“Whatever you say, Ms. Thang.” He smirked and rolled his eyes. “But if you want to talk, I’ll be in my office,” he said, pinning her with a knowing look.
Rio was such a queen and his facial expression—mouth twisted to one side and bulging eyes—was more than comical. “If I feel a confession coming on, I’ll be sure to knock on your door, Dr. Phil.” Naomi chuckled.
“I’m glad you find my concern funny.” He snapped his fingers, jumped up, and strutted off in a dramatic huff.
Once he was gone, she got back to cataloging the artwork for the Jacob Lawrence exhibit next month and was up to her eyeballs in slides when Rio came bolting out of his office a few hours later.
“You gonna spend the night here, or are you going home?” he asked sarcastically, with his manicured hand resting comfortably on his slender hip.
Naomi looked at her watch and realized that it was after five o’clock. “I’m almost finished with these”—she held up a slide—“then I’m outta here. These pieces are amazing. I didn’t realize what a dynamic force Jacob Lawrence was in the art community.”
“This exhibit is going to be a major coup, especially once I secure a few rare pieces from a private collector.” Rio leaned over and air-kissed her on both cheeks. “Ciao. See you in two weeks,” he said, making a swift exit.
“Ciao.” He probably has a hot date tonight, she thought as she watched him switch away.
Forty minutes later, Naomi was in her car speeding along the LIE on her way home. When she pulled into the driveway, she was shocked to see Jacob’s car. Naomi could count on one hand the number of times in the past year when he had arrived home before eight o’clock. As much as she wanted to know the truth, a confession of adultery wasn’t what she wanted to hear from her husband, but since he was home at a decent hour, this would be the perfect time for their much-needed heart-to-heart. Naomi exhaled nervously and unlocked the door.
Soft music greeted her the moment she stepped into the foyer. That’s unusual, she thought. Whenever Jacob was home either he was locked away in his study or upstairs under the covers. The music seemed to be floating from the dining room, so she walked in that direction. Naomi’s jaw dropped the second she reached the entryway. The table was formally set, almost identical to the way she set it, the only difference being a beautiful bouquet of white roses—her favorite—in a leaded crystal vase as the centerpiece instead of the antique candelabrum. Jacob wasn’t much of a cook, so she was surprised to see steam wafting through glass-topped Pyrex serving dishes.
“Hey, beautiful,” Jacob whispered into her ear from behind, “welcome home.” Before Naomi could say a word, he began kissing the back of her neck and nibbling on her earlobes. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close to him. “I’ve missed you, Naomi, and I promise I’m going to cut back on my work hours and spend more time at home with you and Noah.”
Naomi inched away. “Jacob, I’m glad to hear that you’re going to be spending more time at home, but—” she hesitated. Naomi didn’t want to pour water on the evening, especially since Jacob was being so sweet, but his behavior was that of a guilty person, which made her really want to pose the question of him cheating. “We need to talk. I don’t know how to say it, so I’m just going to come right out and—”
Before she could ask if he was having an affair, Jacob swung her around and began kissing her passionately. He fed Naomi his tongue with an erotic urgency that she hadn’t felt from him since their hedonistic London trips. Her body automatically responded with an urgency of its own, as she wrapped her arms around his neck and returned his hungry kisses. She had also planned to talk to Jacob about the seed money for her business, but he had totally distracted her. At the moment she wasn’t thinking about adulterous affairs, or business plans, just making love to her husband.
Jacob swept her up in his arms and carried her upstairs, all the while never taking his lips off of hers. The feel of his soft lips was making her hot, and she wanted more.
When they reached the bedroom, he laid her down on the comforter, took off her clothes, buried his head between her legs, and munched her out. Naomi pushed his head down farther, so that his tongue was directly on her pleasure point. He responded by sucking and licking her clit.
“Oh, baaabby, yes!” she cried out in ecstasy.
After Jacob ate his wife out, he made love to her like never before. His renewed appetite for her
was a direct result of the guilt he was feeling from screwing a hooker. In his mind, making love to his wife canceled out his nasty indiscretion, and now he felt vindicated, as if the London affair had never happened.
After their lovefest, Jacob held her close, and Naomi totally forgot about confronting him about cheating.
Good dick could make a woman forget about nearly anything, and that was exactly what Jacob was counting on.
29
JACOB AND Mira were wrapping up their meeting, and it was business as usual, except Mira had a burning question. She had been dying to ask Jacob what had happened in London, but Nina had also been in the meeting. As soon as she left, Mira whispered, “Well, was she all that or what?”
Jacob blushed. “Yeah, she was all that and a firecracker. But I tore up the number,” he said, stacking the numerous FACEZ folders.
“Why’d you do that?”
Jacob turned toward the door, making sure it was closed, and said, “Between you and me, I’ve fucked around occasionally, but never with an escort. Don’t get me wrong, it was a night I won’t soon forget, but . . .” His words trailed off, as if he were deep in thought.
“But what?” Mira asked, inching closer to him so that she could hear better.
“When does it end? At first, I started messing around with women at bars when I was out of town, but then that got old. Now I’m flying to another country and hiring drug-addicted prostitutes,” he said, thinking about how the redhead needed to pop some X before having sex. “If I don’t put a stop to this now, I’m afraid the bar will keep getting raised, and at some point, I’m bound to get busted. My family is too high of a price to pay for my pleasure. Besides, Naomi and I used to have a healthy sex life and I plan to get that back on track.” Having the experience with the hooker, and being outside of himself for that moment, made Jacob realize that lust was a dangerous emotion. If he didn’t snap back to reality and understand that just because a woman bore a child it didn’t mean that her vagina was now sacred and untouchable, then he would lose his wife and the family he cherished. And after the heated sex he and Naomi had the night before, he was convinced that he could erase the picture of her giving birth from his mind once and for all.
“Good for you.” She smiled. “Most men would order from the take-out menu, as well as eat at home.”
“As appetizing as the take-out menu is, I now prefer a home-cooked meal. Besides, I’ve scheduled a session with a sex therapist to make sure my libido stays focused on my wife,” Jacob said, like a man with a renewed sense of purpose.
The conference phone rang, interrupting their conversation.
“Mr. Reed, Nigel Charles is calling for Ms. Rhone,” said Jacob’s assistant through the speakers.
“Do you mind? I’ve been expecting his call for the past week. I’m anxious to hear the outcome of his latest report. Put him through,” Mira instructed.
“Hey there, Nigel, tell me something good.”
He was silent for a few seconds, and then said solemnly, “In that case I have nothing to say.”
“So, you’re telling me the lab didn’t yield the results from the shea pods that we were looking for?” She leaned back in her chair. “Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”
“Basically,” he said matter-of-factly. “I thought we could salvage the formulas that we had already worked on for the new line, but we’re going to have to start over from square one.”
“That’s exactly what we were trying to avoid.” She exhaled loudly. “If we start over, the product won’t be on the shelves until next year at the earliest and by that time BOD E.’s children’s line will be off and running. And I don’t plan on playing catch-up. What happened to salvaging the initial formula? At our last meeting, you told me we were looking at a week, two tops. What happened to that time frame?”
“What I told you was that I wouldn’t know what we were dealing with until I reanalyzed the formula. And now that I have the lab results back, I can say unequivocally that we have to scrap the old formula and start over.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“I wish I were, but the truth of the matter is, in our haste to rush to market, we overlooked one crucial element.”
“And what might that be? You said the line tested well in the lab; now please tell me, Nigel, what crucial element did you overlook?” she asked, in measured tones.
“The shea pods that we shipped in from Ghana are incompatible with the base formula. Their acidity level is too high for the children’s line.”
“And why is this fact just coming to light? Those pods should have been analyzed and approved months ago!” she yelled into the speaker sitting on the conference-room table.
“The junior chemist that we hired last quarter mistakenly tested the pods for the adult line, which, when combined with that formula, yielded positive results,” he explained.
“Now I’m confused.” She shook her head back and forth in frustration. “How could you give an assistant that type of responsibility?”
“I was traveling and as per your request, you wanted to get a jump-start on the new line, so I delegated.”
“Nigel, this is totally unacceptable!” She pounded the desk. “Who is this new chemist anyway? I don’t remember approving a new hire,” she said, refusing to take any of the blame for the snafu.
“His name is Henry Bishop and you not only interviewed him, you raved over his credentials,” he reminded her.
She waved her hand in midair. “That’s neither here nor there. From this point on, I want you to personally oversee this project and not delegate, not even the smallest detail to anyone. Is that understood?”
“Understood.”
“So what’s this blunder going to cost in terms of time?”
“Mira, I know your plan was to beat BOD E. to market, but the most we can hope for at this point is to meet them at market. In other words, our product debut will probably coincide with their new line.”
“There’s time left on the clock and with any luck we’ll still beat them to market,” she responded optimistically, refusing to concede to the competition.
“I wouldn’t count on it,” Nigel said with certainty.
“Why are you being so negative? Don’t you want to beat BOD E. to market, or do you still have a sense of loyalty to Rob Sherr?”
“Rob Sherr?”
“Yeah, your old boss at BOD E. I’m sure you remember that asshole.” Mira despised Rob. She had suspected him of trying to infiltrate FACEZ with spies to steal their trade secrets, but she never could find concrete proof. “If you’re harboring some type of secret devotion to him, you can hit the road and hightail it back to that second-rate company!” she shouted, without mincing words.
“I’m hurt that you could even think that,” he said in a low register, barely audible through the speaker. “Have I ever given you any reason to doubt my loyalty?”
“No, but—”
“No buts,” he cut her off. “Mira, either you trust me or you don’t.”
“I’m sorry. Nigel, I didn’t mean to offend you,” she said, harnessing her anger. “I’m just upset that’s all. GG had faith in you and so do I.”
“Does that mean I have total autonomy over the new line?” he asked, knowing full well the answer.
“You know the control freak that I am. I could never relinquish total control.” She chuckled, lightening the mood. “Take care of this R & D issue and I’ll try to be patient and not hound you every day.”
“Just every other day,” he joked.
“Ha, ha. Very funny,” she said without cracking a smile. “Just keep me in the loop and I won’t have to bug you.”
“Consider it done. I should have an updated report on your desk within the next week.”
“Thanks, Nigel,” she said, depressing the end call button. “This entire process is taking far too long.” She exhaled. “Though he’s a gifted chemist, I’m beginning to doubt Nigel’s abilities,” she said, telling Jacob her
true feelings. “We should be in the final phase of development instead of reinventing the wheel. The thought of BOD E. beating us to market, with their inferior line, makes me want to rupture a vessel.” She rubbed her temples. “For years, FACEZ has been the forerunner in the cosmetics industry with BOD E. a distant second. Now for the first time in decades, they’re in a position to take the lead, and I just can’t let that happen. I won’t let that happen!”
“Don’t worry, I’m sure Nigel will come through for you,” Jacob said, trying to comfort her. “Sounds like you could use a drink.”
“You’re right.” She suddenly looked exhausted.
“Why don’t you call Tyler? I’m sure she could use a night out as well. Every time I come home, she’s up in her room working. That girl never seems to get out.”
“That’s a good idea,” Mira said, pushing the buttons on the speakerphone.
“Hello?” answered a female voice.
“Naomi?”
“Yes.”
“This is Mira. How are you?”
“Hey there, Mira, I’m fine, and you?”
“I’m good, thanks.”
“Well, I certainly hope you’re not calling to cancel the book club meeting. I’m really looking forward to it,” she said in a cheery voice.
At the sound of his wife’s voice through the speaker, Jacob perked up and listened closely. Judging from her upbeat tone, he surmised that Naomi was still swooning from their heated lovemaking.
“No, no, the meeting is still on. Actually I was calling to speak to Tyler. Is she in?” Mira asked.
“Hold on. She’s right here.”
“Hello?”
“Hi, Tyler, this is Mira.”
“Oh, hi!” She seemed thrilled to hear from Mira.
“I’m calling to see if you want to meet for a drink?” she asked.
“I would love to, but I can’t tonight. I have a deadline looming, and don’t want to fall behind.”
“Well, I wasn’t necessarily talking about tonight,” Mira lied. She didn’t want to seem desperate. “Maybe one day next week.”
