After Mr. Richton nodded at whatever Mr. Parker gave to him, he texted someone before he continued. “The legal team will draft the contracts as we speak, and the signing advances are also being cut in accounting.”
I thought I would faint when I saw the number that was set in front of me.
$100,000.
Thank God I was sitting down, or I would have needed a chair.
I could feel the excitement building in the room as Mr. Richton cleared his throat. “Ladies, welcome to the RP family.”
Cheryl had to speak for us because I don’t think any of us could really speak right now. “Mr. Parker, Mr. Richton, thank you for believing in my girls, I know they will live up to the billing.”
“I have no doubts that they will, once we get them packaged and ready to roll.” Mr. Richton agreed. “Derrick, do you still have the contact of yours out in Cali, the one that owns the beach house?”
“Yes, sir, I have it.”
“Very good, please let him know that we will need to occupy it for about a week.”
Derrick had a puzzled look on his face. “May I ask why, sir?”
“First, we’re going to need to do some digital prints so we can get the buzz going on the Internet sites. We’ll need poster shots for the girls to help with promotions in the stores, and they will be doing some recording out in L.A. also.”
Cheryl got a text message on her Blackberry, and after a brief moment, she replied, “I just received the contract, and I’m forwarding it over to our legal team now. Once everything is in order, we should be able to get back here to sign the originals so we can move forward.”
“Wonderful! Ladies, I can’t wait to see how everything turns out, and enjoy the start of your new journey.” Mr. Richton said, standing to shake our hands. “I think Platinum may be just around the corner for you.”
“I wanted to see you, first.”
The surprised look on his face was exactly what I wanted.
“I thought you would be out celebrating with the girls.” he said, eyeing me as if he hadn’t seen me in months.
“I know, and I will, but I needed to see you.” I cooed, sitting on his desk and crossing my legs. “I wanted to say thank you for helping to put all of this together.”
“Baby, I didn’t do anything, I just put the word in, and you and the group did the rest.” Derrick told me, moving closer to where I was on the desk. “Between you and the big men, I’m being given just a little bit too much credit.”
I kissed him deeply, wrapping my legs around his waist. “You are something else. Just accept the fact that you helped make this happen. In fact, I want to do something special for you when we get out to L.A. to express my appreciation for all your hard work.”
“Is that right?” Derrick’s eyes lit up when he heard that. “How will you be expressing yourself?”
“I’ll let you know when it happens, and no sooner, baby.” I replied, kissing him again. “You made my dreams come true, it’s only fair that I help make one of yours come true, too.”
“Cori, you just got signed, I don’t want you—“
He was interrupted with another kiss across his lips. “You don’t have a choice in this matter, Mr. Morrow. I’ll let you know when it happens, and not a moment sooner, do you understand me?”
Derrick relented, trying his best to figure out if he wanted to press the issue or not. “Okay, baby girl, I’ll wait. Now, go and celebrate with your girls, I’ll be home later tonight around 10, just in case you want to come by.”
Oh, I’ll do more than just come by, I said to myself. I’ll do much more than that.
But I had another idea in mind after a text came in from Cheryl. A grin spread when I realized where we would be later.
“We’ll be at the Velvet Room to celebrate. Come by after work so we can have a reason to come back to your place and cap off this night properly… please?”
I felt his body shift after I batted my eyelashes and flashed my eyes at him. A grin popped across his face as he replied, “You know by now that I can’t refuse you, so why would I try now. I’ll be there by 11.”
After leaving the studio, I got a text message that made me smile brightly.
Congratulations, baby, I told you! We need to celebrate properly when I get back in town.
I sent a text back in return, Yeah, I know, and I can’t wait to find out what you have in store when we do celebrate.
As I headed down to the main floor to get to my car, I couldn’t help but wonder about the possibilities that lay ahead.
One thing was for sure.
I couldn’t wait.
~Cori~
“Why the hell are you here?”
I was on a high all night until I heard those words come out of Kyra’s mouth.
I was having drinks with some of the other fans that were celebrating with us in the VIP section when I turned around to see the one person that I didn’t want or need to see when things were finally taking off.
Troy.
I hadn’t seen him since that incident at my apartment, and I had basically written him off as “out of sight, out of mind” so I didn’t have to worry about whatever hold he thought he had on me.
Seeing him with the rest of the group just made things even more complicated because telling him to leave without having to make a scene with the rest of their ghetto asses.
Why this fool had to steal my joy tonight of all nights, I’ll never completely understand.
“Relax, Kyra, we heard over the radio that y’all got your deal done with RP. Me and the fellas wanted to say congratulations and kick it wit’cha, shawty.” Troy smugly replied.
“Well, thank you, and now you can leave.” I coldly uttered, still sipping on my margarita. “I’m gonna enjoy tonight without you and your crew trying to fuck things up.”
“Damn, Cori, why you gotta be so cold?” Troy seemed to feel like he had every right to be there with us. “I thought making it to the big time would put you in a better mood than this?”
Tracie jumped into the mix, placing herself between me and Troy. “Please, Troy, you weren’t any more interested in Cori’s career than you were in the last presidential election. Do us all a favor and take your trifling ass back to whatever hoodrat you’re fucking now so we can get back to some real celebrating?”
“Oh, so you got bodyguards now, Cori? Is that how it is now, after all we’ve been through?” Troy looked as if he was really getting frustrated now, and the smirk on my face only fueled his irritation that he couldn’t have me alone to talk.
I didn’t see the point anymore. He wasn’t worth the effort, and I took pride in my new-found courage by tapping Tracie on the shoulder to silently tell her that I could take things from here. Tracie moved out of the way, but she stayed behind me as if she had a shank in her skirt ready to slice.
“Troy, I can’t tell you how much of a favor you’ve done just by being here right now. It makes it easier to say this to you face to face,” I said. I was thankful that the music wasn’t as loud in the VIP so that I didn’t have to shout. “There’s nothing left for you here, Troy… nothing. You can be a fan from afar now, but I’m not feeling you up close anymore. Goodbye.”
I turned to walk back to my seat, and Troy had the nerve to grab my shoulder to spin me around to face him.
“I’m not done with you yet, Cori. Do you know who I am?” he demanded, and I saw his jaws clench, which in the past would have made me pause, but that was when he had power over me way back when. “You don’t get to say it’s over, trick, I do.”
My eyes darted away from him for a split second, and a grin spread across my face. The rest of the girls must have seen it, too, because I heard a fit of laughter behind me.
“Oh, y’all think this shit is funny now? I’ll show you how funny this shit is.” Troy cursed as he tried to raise his hand back to hit me.
Too bad he never connected.
It was over before it even got started.
Derrick
looked like a man possessed, and this time I wasn’t scared of what might happen next. I was looking forward to it.
Troy didn’t realize that the bouncers had already whispered to his boys that they were causing a disturbance, and they had two options of leaving the club.
Needless to say, they left under their own power.
Troy was on such a power trip trying to put me in my “place” that he wasn’t aware that his backup had deserted him.
“Do you care to show the ladies just how funny this shit is?” Derrick spat as he caught Troy’s arm, which caused Troy to spin around to figure out who was talking to him.
“Oh lawd, it’s the off-brand nigga! What the fuck are you doing here, bruh? I thought you were at Fox Camera trying to get my pictures ready.” Troy laughed, until he saw that the rest of his group was nowhere to be found.
The smile soon faded, and Derrick’s got wider.
Bodyguards from RP flanked at his sides might have been the reason for the smirk on his face.
“Hi, baby, I’m sorry I’m a little late, I had to try and make Fox Camera before they closed, and I had to try and convince the staff in the lab that I wasn’t doing any print work for Animal Planet.” Derrick said, blowing a kiss at me to lay it on thick. “You know how hard it is to catch the good side of a subject.”
The stare that Troy gave him was hot enough to melt metal.
“You wouldn’t be wild’n out like that with the heavies behind you, partner.” Troy tried to flex. “You still a lame ass, off-brand corporate house nigga. I bet them manicured nails hardly ever get dirty, huh, punk?”
Derrick’s eyes narrowed, and everything happened at once.
The RP bodyguards stepped back about five feet.
Troy felt a punch to the gut, which knocked him to one knee.
Derrick dropped a knee right between his eyes soon after, knocking Troy on his back.
Derrick was on top of him before he could get up, keeping a knee to his neck. “Now, unless I missed my guess, I believe the ladies asked you to leave, including my baby. It would be in your best interest to honor that request.”
“Whatever, nigga, I ain’t going nowhere until your bitch and I finish things between us.”
“It’s already done, Troy.” I flatly stated. “It was over months ago, there’s nothing to finish.”
“You heard the lady.” Derrick told him as he lifted him off the ground. “It’s time to leave.”
The bodyguards and the bouncers escorted Troy outside of the club, leaving Derrick facing me with a quizzical look on his face.
“Any other crazy ex-boyfriends that I need to be aware of to couple with the crazy females in my life?” he sarcastically asked me. “We sure know how to pick them, don’t we?”
~Derrick~
I was in deep thought on the flight to L.A.
I usually did that when I was in business mode.
Having Cori sleeping in the seat next to me didn’t affect my ability to multi-task and figure out what I needed to do once we touched down.
I had the girls’ itinerary cross-referenced with the things that I needed to get done and the connections that I needed to follow up with also.
Anything after midnight was pure play time, regardless of where we were.
The beach house on the Pacific Coast Highway, with its view overlooking the ocean could not have been a more romantic locale for setting up some damn good shots. I haven’t had much of a chance to do something on this scale in a long time; most of the clients that I’ve had were male artists, which was fine, but there’s only so much you can do for a male artist outside of drape a lot of pretty women over him and let the camera do the work.
I get to really let my creativity flow, and it would be easier having my baby there with me.
Professionally this will be the first time that I would be using the house, and I was looking forward to finding the spots in the house that would distinguish each of the girls. Lord knows they are not carbon copies of each other, although it sounds that way musically.
I took my time to talk to each of the girls, one on one, since we had six hours before we touched down.
A moonlit stroll on the beach during sunset would be perfect for Candace; that was my vision for her, considering she’s the “sweet one” of the group. Taking advantage of her caramel skin tone against a raging orange sunset would be intoxicating to say the least.
I found out that Tracie had a thing for bubble baths, so it was easy to find the whirlpool tub in the master bathroom and have her covered in some very strategic places, just to get the men going.
Kyra, for all of her toughness that she portrays when the group is together, by herself I found out that she’s quite the sex kitten. A love of lingerie gave me the boudoir experience for her, complete with bedroom poses and seduction on levels that she wouldn’t have a clue about.
That just left my baby in the living room, lying out against a fire and a tiger skin rug that I remembered was still there. Seeing her in nothing but a leather coat and heels giving me pouty faces and giving me other ideas after the shoot was over definitely left me trying to figure out just when my body would betray me.
Oh, and of course a few surprises of my own just to shake things up.
The possibilities of this shoot were endless, and it was the type of shoot that could put me on the map on a variety of levels.
But first…
We have to touch down and make it all happen.
Ahhh, there’s nothing like L.A.
We touched down at John Wayne Airport, and as instructed, there were two vehicles waiting, a driver stationed and waiting at one of the vehicles.
The Lincoln Navigator limo and driver were for the girls to be chauffeured to the places they needed to go.
The Cadillac Escalade was mine.
I needed my space for my equipment, you know?
Well, that, and alone time with Cori, of course.
There was no need for a driver for me because L.A. might as well be a second home for me, as much time as I spend out here for shoots and other business.
The bodyguards rode in the limo with the group, and the driver already knew to head up the PCH to Malibu, which was a little over an hour’s drive, which would give everyone a chance to recover from the jet lag a little bit and make calls and things like that.
It would be a good few weeks chilling on the ocean, that’s for damn sure. I just wanted to see the looks on their faces when they got a chance to see the house that they would be crashing in.
As we were getting all of the equipment and the baggage into the trucks, Cori slid her arms around my waist and slipped in a few kisses.
“I take it you’re enjoying the journey so far?” I asked rhetorically.
The answer to my question came in the form of a deftly placed kiss on my neck. Cori whispered in my ear, “I hope I never wake up from this dream. I can’t wait to see what else lies in store.”
We finally got everything in and got ready for the ride up to the house.
“You know I love you, right?” I told her as she began to walk to the limo.
“Yes, and before this trip is over, I plan to show you how much I love you, too.” she teased back, blowing a kiss before disappearing into the SUV.
I got a phone call from Mr. Richton as soon as I got in the SUV, and I answered it as soon as I could after I started the truck.
“Yes, sir, we’ve arrived in L.A.” I stated, making sure to answer the first question that I knew was already on his mind. “What else can I do you for, Mr. Richton?”
“There’s not much that needs to be done at this point, my boy.” Mr. Richton stated through my earpiece. “Just do your usual bang-up job.”
“Consider it done, sir.” I replied, clicking my phone shut as we headed to the entrance ramp to I-405.
The weather was pretty good for mid-January; it felt like early May in Atlanta, not too warm, not too cold. I opened the sunroof and popped Cazhe’s demo CD in the disc p
layer, letting the girls’ voices give me further inspiration as to what to do with their shoot. It was a ritual of mine that has served me very well, and I had no intentions of breaking my ritual.
Hearing Cori’s voice on the lead of one of the tracks had me in a trance; I was glad that the chauffeur had the limo on GPS all the way to the house, because I probably would have gotten us lost if I took the point.
I couldn’t resist letting my mind wonder to what could happen once the album dropped later in the year. The media blitz would be insane.
Posters would be placed nationwide in every possible retail store that can be had.
The digital blitz would be amazing to say the least, with the cover being placed on an international stage. Once it hits the Internet, any and everyone would be able to view it and pre-order the album.
I have to be on my game; probably more than I’ve ever been, and there was the added pressure of making the woman in my life look like a superstar. They already had the sound; the rest would be on me.
I’m good with that, I live on pressure.
We finally made it to the Pacific Coast Highway coming off I-10, and having the ocean as the backdrop for the ride all the way to the house was just the serenity that I needed.
Well, I needed something else, too, but there would be time for that after work has been done.
My cell phone began singing to let me know text messages were coming in, and even though I knew I wasn’t supposed to answer while I was on the road, I picked up my phone to see what
came in.
Cori’s smiling face graced my screen first, in addition to other pictures of her kissing at the phone, acting a fool with the girls while in the limo. It was fun to see them finally enjoying themselves for a moment or two. Her naughty and nasty messages telling me what she couldn’t wait to do to me were worth the risk. Some of the things that she suggested would make a good girl blush.
Fortunately for me, I liked my girls naughty and nasty.
I texted back that I had some things in store for her, too, and she should be ready for whatever I had for her.
All I Want... Is You Page 13
