A Love to Remember

by Angela Weaver

  Sasha threw Darwin’s ball for a fifth time. Wagging his tail, he raced away, jumped, caught it in midair and then trotted back toward her. She repeated the gesture over a dozen times and once her arm began to feel the strain she bent down to pat him on the head.

  “Good boy,” she praised. “One last time and then we go for a walk.” She stood up and came up against something solid and unmovable.

  She glanced over her shoulder, past a hunter green jacket to Trey’s dimple and upturned lips. She meant to step forward, but almost stepped on Darwin and moving back she lost her balance and fell against his chest. His hands grabbed her arms, locking her into place. For an instant, she wanted to struggle, but her body did otherwise. Instead, she stayed nestled in his embrace, feeling the warmth of his body along her spine as the spice of his cologne heated her senses.

  “What are you doing here?”

  He leaned forward a little. His breath along her throat as they were cheek to cheek.

  “Rescuing you from the evil tangled leash.”

  “Get him, Darwin,” she urged the dog.

  “Siccing the dog on me Sasha—not nice.”

  “He doesn’t bite, Trey.”

  His hands moved to her stomach, his thumb absentmindedly stroking. Sasha’s shiver had nothing to do with the forty-degree weather. She almost felt like breaking a sweat because she was hotter than she’d ever been. Not even during a two-week stint in the Australian Outback. She turned around still in his arms. His hands moved up her arms, and put her bangs behind her ears. His fingertips brushed against her neck, causing Sasha to inhale softly. As every muscle in her body clenched, she asked, “What are you doing, Trey?”

  “Showing Darwin that I’m not a threat to his owner.”

  “I’m sure he knows that by now.”

  “You can never be too careful. Dogs can be very territorial.”

  Sasha’s gaze narrowed. “It’s not only the canine species that exhibits that behavior. It’s a male instinct.”

  “Exactly.”

  Sasha glanced around the park, but it didn’t seem like any of the guys were paying attention. Then again, she noted that a high percentage of the men were with other men. “I don’t think that I’m in any danger. So what are you doing here?”

  “Just taking a quick jog before heading into the office.”

  “It’s Saturday.”

  “Yep, and that’s when most of our emergencies come in. Working owners can’t bring them in during the week, so they come on their day off.”

  From the feel of his muscled arms and flat chest, Sasha could feel the benefits of the time Trey spent keeping in shape. “I would have pegged you for a gym rat.”

  “Nope. Then again, I never saw you as a Starbucks kind of girl.”

  “This is a rare indulgence. I’m seldom in areas that have American coffee shops.”

  Troy leaned down and patted Darwin on the head. “You know Darwin is very well behaved.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “That German shepherd is the third large dog that’s passed in our vicinity.”

  “And?”

  “Small dogs usually bark like crazy when they see big dogs. It’s that I’ll-get-you-before-you-can-get-me syndrome.”

  “Ahh, a mixture of Napoleon and Hitler complexes. I’m sure Uncle Camden had Darwin enrolled in canine academy at a young age.”

  “No matter. So when were you planning on telling me the good news?”

  “What news?”

  “Kenneth couldn’t wait to brag to the director that he sweet-talked you into working on the tamarin exhibit.”

  Sasha let out an exasperated breath. “I should have known.”

  “You know I could be upset that he took the credit, but I’m just happy that we’ll get to see each sometimes during the day.” He paused, and then lowered his voice. “And at evenings.”

  The nervous butterflies that had started in her stomach moved to her chest as Sasha gazed into his twinkling brown eyes. “Stop flirting with me, Trey.”

  “Get used to it. I’ve just started.”

  “That’s the problem. You don’t seem to finish what you start.”

  He ran a hand over her arm, neck, cradled her cheek. “I’ve always finished what I start. It’s just with you I plan to go real slow.”

  She shook her head. “Not if the end of the line equals commitment. And I’ve made no secret of my wishes. I want a committed relationship and that’s not something you can give me.”

  “What? I’ve changed.”

  “Since when?”

  “Since I met you.”

  As his attention seemed to shift, her eyes narrowed. Like a movie scene, she watched as his eyes left her face. She turned to check out what he was looking at. A tanning-bed, bottle blonde with D cups, tight sports bra and spandex was jogging along the path. Other men’s heads turned, as well.

  Sasha bent down and furiously gathered her things. She clipped Darwin’s leash on and began to walk away. She barked, “Goodbye, Trey.”

  “Look, why don’t we talk about this over breakfast?”

  “I’m not hungry.”

  “Coffee?”

  Uncaring of the empty paper cup in her hand, she lied. “I’m giving it up.”

  “Tea?”

  She looked over her shoulder. “Makes me tired.”

  “How about we head over to the pet store? Grab a fresh dog treat for Darwin.”

  “He’s on a diet.”

  He jogged after her. “Come on. Give me a chance to explain.”

  “Bye, Trey,” she yelled over her shoulder and broke in to a slow run.

  “What now?” he yelled.

  Sasha sucked air through her teeth and stomped back toward the parking lot. It was the wind that made her eyes smart, not the stab of self-pity as her eyes glanced down at her own girl-next-door B cups. Then she looked over at Darwin. Thanks to the medication, he was back to his normal self and he was equally curious about male or female, animal or human. “Too bad all males can’t be neutered,” she growled.

  Chapter 12

  With one hand on the steering wheel and the other impatiently tapping the gearshift, Trey inched closer to his destination. The Platinum Club, downtown Atlanta’s newest and most popular strip club, was packed. Bachelor party. He shook his head and wondered what had possessed him to agree to come to Steve’s big night. Party was a gross misnomer. It was more like a death row inmate’s last meal. A last stand; the last time his friend would be able to hang out with the boys with without checking in with his wife.

  After tonight, the banking executive wouldn’t be able to look at another woman for the rest of his life.

  Trey shook his head. He was glad the man was getting married in Hawaii sans friends and family. Trey never liked weddings. In his life he’d been a flower boy, errand boy, ring bearer and groomsman. He’d sworn after the last all-weekend event that he wouldn’t set foot in a church for a wedding unless his little sister or female cousins were walking down the aisle. And the only reason he’d show up in his tuxedo was to make damn sure that the brother who was lucky enough to marry a Blackfox sister realized how hellish his life could become if he messed up.

  When he was finally able to get his car valet parked, Trey pulled a ten-dollar bill out of his pocket.

  “Park it out front and keep an eye on my car. I’ll introduce you to Hamilton’s twin when I leave,” he said, handing the young man both his keys and the money.

  “Yes, sir,” the attendant said and eagerly took the keys and the cash.

  Trey stepped out of the car and onto the sidewalk. He watched as the valet drove his SUV into one of the only two remaining spaces in the closet parking lot. Just last week he’d taken a day off to have a tracking device installed in his vehicle.

  He shoved his hands into his leather coat pockets while trying to summon some enthusiasm for the party. Instead, his thoughts turned in the direction of one person he’d vowed not to think about—Sasha. Trey rubbed h
is chin as a grin sprang to his lips. Damn, the woman could kiss. Her mouth made him hotter than an August afternoon on the topless French Riviera beach. He’d been kissing since the fourth grade and if he really thought hard he’d probably be able to recall the girl’s name, but nothing could compare to the thrill that shot through his body when the tip of Sasha’s tongue flicked across the roof of his mouth.

  He entered the club and after telling the concierge that he was here for Steve’s bachelor party, Trey was escorted down a winding hallway and found himself on the main floor of the club. Trey wasn’t sure how or why but he kept his eyes trained on the back of the hostess’s neck and thus avoided the temptation to glance at the dancers on the stage. Even so, his eye encountered dancers dressed in a wide variety of risqué lingerie, stiletto heels, skimpy bikinis, school girl skirts, tiny cutoff tees, thigh-high boots and more.

  He let out a sigh of relief as they entered into what he guessed was the VIP room. While separate from the main seating section, the space provided an excellent vantage point of the entire club. He took a seat in a black booth separate from the main seating. The table was filled to capacity with a spread catered for men: buffalo wings, cheese sticks, pizza, salsa and chips, calamari, potato skins and more. Yep, everything a man could want.

  “Trey, glad you made it,” Jared called out. “Have a seat. You pretty much know the rest of the gang.”

  He nodded to the other brothers in the midst of eating or drinking. “Wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Where’s the guest of honor?”

  Jared laughed before pointing toward a thirty-foot secondary stage. “He told us he was going to the bathroom, but we all think that he’s on the phone with the future wife. Order a drink and sit back. If everything’s going to plan, the Steve’s-last-night-out show will be on in thirty minutes.”

  “What?” Trey practically shouted over the thumping bass music.

  “I pulled some strings and donated a nice tip to get Steve a starring role in Platinum’s soon-to-be-released DVD Brothers in Bondage.”

  Trey hooted with laughter. “You’re joking right?”

  Jared shook his head and grinned, a sight of pure glee that mixed with the howls of laughter coming from the rest of the bachelor party participants. “No, man. He thinks he’s getting an extra special dance.”

  Sure enough, Steve, the husband-to-be returned with cell phone in hand. It was fifteen minutes, two beers and thoughts about how his mother would kick his butt down the driveway and back if she discovered the combination of money spent and women’s clothing taken off at their table that Trey recovered his senses. With all the seductive music and seminaked women from the tiny and petite, to lanky and statuesque, all natural to all implants, all of them came up short in Trey’s mind. Feeling relaxed with the slight buzz from the beer, Trey sat back in the booth with his eyes lowered. He would have given the clothes off his back to see Sasha Clayton standing in his bedroom dressing in black lingerie.

  Steve’s friends kept coming and so did the drinks.

  At the same moment Jared looked at his wristwatch, the light dimmed and the spotlights came up on the main stage. “All right, guys. Here’s the main attraction we all paid to see.”

  Trey watched as the Steve was led onstage and tied to a pole by four scantily clad women. The uptight executive looked as though he wanted to pull his way loose and run out the room. During the first song, the women danced while stripping his clothes.

  The second song started with the girls stripping him to his underwear. At this point, the girls then begin beating him with his own belt. Then they tied the belt around his neck, and started walking him around the stage like a dog. Steve didn’t look like he was having fun, but Trey was.

  At that point, the cartoon angel on Trey’s right shoulder choked on his own spit and the devil on his left shoulder stabbed him through the chest with his pitchfork. He reached for a barbecue wing and sat back, and began to thoroughly enjoy himself.

  “Trey.”

  Someone kept calling his name. He opened his eyes and a murky fog seemed to hover on the edge of his vision. Trey turned his head to the left and realized that he was in his bed. He closed his eyes at a stabbing pain in the back of his skull and tried to remember what had happened. He’d been waiting on his car, watching two guys arguing about their cars, and he’d been thinking about the color of Sasha’s underwear, and that he wanted to invite her to dinner at his place and—

  “Trey?” Caleb, his older brother said, leaning over him. “Bro, can you hear me?”

  “Stop shouting,” he groaned and rolled over.

  “How many fingers am I holding up?”

  He narrowed his eyes and watched as the finger multiplied, divided and quadrupled before coming into focus. Trey blinked, then answered, “Three.”

  “Good.” He turned to the nightstand and picked up a white bottle. “I stopped by the hospital before picking you up and got a prescription in case you have headaches. How’s your head?”

  His head felt like a cracked coconut. “Hurts like hell.”

  Caleb opened the bottle and pulled out two pills. “You want to take these lying down?”

  “Not possible. Give me a hand?”

  His brother leaned and slowly helped Trey sit up in the bed. He pushed up against the headboard and when he was finally in an upright sitting position, he let his head hang down in the hope that it would help soften the lightening strikes raining down on his skull or quell the bile in his throat.

  Trey swallowed a couple of times. “Thanks. You can go and let me die in peace.”

  “Here,” Caleb said, and then placed two of the pills in Trey’s hand and gave him a glass of water.

  Trey took the pills and gulped down the water. As soon as he was sure that they’d made the one-way journey to his empty stomach, he laid back down. “Was I in a car accident?”

  “No, you’ve got a slight concussion.”

  “How’d I get that?”

  “What’s the last thing you remember?”

  “I went to Steve’s bachelor party at an upscale strip club named Platinum. I had a couple of beers, ate some food, watched strippers tie the groom to a fireman’s pole and strip him down to his flannel boxers. Steve passed out before the party ended and I helped Jared take him to his car.” He frowned. “Then I handed the valet my ticket.”

  “That’s it?”

  He could have added that he clearly remembered standing there imagining Sasha Clayton in a high school cheerleader’s uniform, but he held his tongue. “That’s it.”

  “Well, let me fill you in on the missing pieces of your exciting evening. Apparently there was a fight brewing in the parking lot and you decided to play the Good Samaritan and stepped in between two drunk strip club patrons feuding over who dented the other’s car. Somebody started throwing punches and by the time the police arrived, you’d managed to get yourself hit upside the head. The police took you downtown and I drove down to bail you out.”

  Trey felt the pills kick in as the pain receded against a wave of sleepiness. “How did you know I was in jail?”

  “You called me.”

  “Oh.” Trey focused on Caleb’s grin. “I did?”

  “Yep, I still have the message on my phone. You sounded like a freshman at a busted fraternity party.”

  His brother mimicked his voice. “Caleb, I’m going to jail and I need you to get me out. Don’t let Mom know. Damn right, I’m not going to let Mom know. She’d flip if she knew you’d been arrested at a strip club. You had just better pray that the press doesn’t get hold of this. The last thing we need is a scandal right before Grandfather’s birthday.”

  Trey winced as the jackhammer against his skull started again. “Sorry.”

  Caleb shook his head. “You better pray.”

  “I will when I wake up. You sticking around? I’ll be up in a couple of hours.”

  Caleb shook his head. “Can’t. I’ve got the early shift in the ER tomorrow so I’ve got to head b
ack. You’ve got plenty of pain medication. Just follow the instructions and try not to overdose. Get some rest and call me later.”

  “Thanks again, bro,” Trey said sleepily. “I owe you.”

  “Nah, that’s what older brothers are for.”

  “You didn’t tell Marius, did you?” he asked, half-asleep as Caleb prepared to leave the room.

  “Yep.”

  Trey closed his eyes and cursed under his breath. His eldest brother would never let him live this down. If he’d been arrested for fighting, that would be okay. But being at a strip club would guarantee that he’d be the target of Marius jokes for the rest of his life.

  “I’ll let myself out.”

  The sound of Caleb’s chuckles followed him into sleep.

  Chapter 13

  Sasha had more than her share of misgivings today. Earlier that morning when she’d pulled into the zoo parking lot, she’d entertained canceling her appointment. Everything in her life had changed and it felt as if by accepting this newest task, she would be accepting that the end of the life that she’d once had. She’d spent her childhood and most of her adult life studying animals in their native habitat. Now she was being asked to use her knowledge to recreate Mother Nature in the middle of a metropolis.

  Yet, the second Sasha walked into the project room, she could tell that the team was serious about building a native like environment for the Golden Lion tamarins. The room was filled with research and material as photographs lined the walls, drawings sat in piles on the tables, plants sat scattered on the windowsill. Sasha stared at a lifelike replica of the squirrel-size monkey with long, silky reddish-brown fur. A lion like mane framed a bare face with pinky purple skin. While in captivity its large round eyes and a snub nose would guarantee its popularity with the zoo’s human patrons. Sasha understood that the monkey’s features enabled it to find food and avoid predators.

  Sasha reached down and picked up a newspaper article announcing the upcoming release. Off the left hand side, her eyes focused on a familiar face in the midst of a group photo. Trey Blackfox was in the picture of the zoo staff. Try as she might Sasha couldn’t seem to shake off emotions he stirred up. The man’s warm demeanor and smooth confidence was like a magnet, pulling her in and not letting go.