Safe Place Series: A BWWM Small Town Romance (Dangerous Bonds Book 2)

by Shani Greene-Dowdell

  I pulled into the empty parking lot with a lot less enthusiasm for the day. I unhurriedly found it in me to pull myself out of the car and made my way across the lot and into the club doors. Rochelle was already there with a couple of staff members going through pre-business prep. My mood was flat as I said a dry “hello” to everyone and walked to the hallway leading to my office.

  “Eventful night?” she asked as she glided past me and into the bar area to pour her a glass of Henney.

  “A tad bit early to be drinking, don’t you think?” I shot back.

  Rochelle took a sip of the brown liquid and sighed. “It’s never too early for a drink.”

  “Well, make sure you write it down on your tab,” I told her then progressed past the bar, not taking the time to chit-chat. I went into my office after hearing her gasp and make a comment about her not having a tab.

  I probed my messy desk looking for my keys, so I could lock my office door behind me. I spotted them underneath a few pieces of unopened mail as I heard Rochelle walk in. She shut the door behind her and turned the lock.

  “Open my door, and get the fuck out,” I declared sternly.

  Being the trifling person that Rochelle was, she ignored me and promenaded towards my desk like she was auditioning for the number one spot at a strip club.

  “Don’t be so rude, Jeb. I’m just here to make sure this new partnership between you and Trey gets off to a great start,” she said as she used her arm to slide my stapler, tape dispenser, and file holder over to one side, so she could plant her newly voluptuous ass on my desk.

  “I don’t need you for anything, Rochelle. The deal will go through with or without you,” I said with confidence.

  “Oh, but are you sure of that?” she questioned with a raised brow. “Trey’s a powerful man, but for the past year I’ve earned his trust, so my word goes a long way.”

  “Does he know I used to fuck you?” I asked, testing her theory of Trey’s trust.

  “No, and he doesn’t need to know that. Bringing it up at this point will make the deal sour for everyone involved.”

  “You’re not as smart as you think you are, Rochelle. Do you think a man like Trey would ask you to work beside me to check out the innerworkings of this club without knowing that we used to be together? Or, better yet, do you think he won’t notice you drooling over me every time you look at me?”

  For the first time ever, Rochelle looked sincerely stumped. “He doesn’t know,” she said as more of a reassurance to herself.

  “I’m only allowing you to be here because Trey wants you here. But I suggest you walk a fine line and keep it professional,” I said. “I’m getting married in a few months, and my fiancée comes here a lot. Plus, I don’t need any fucking problems with Trey Cox. Do you understand that?”

  “So you’re really marrying that black girl? I thought people were lying when I heard about you dating her,” she said with a look of disgust on her face.

  “It’s no lie. I’m happy to make a woman who knows how to keep other men out of her panties my wife,” I said.

  Rochelle slid down off my desk with a scowl on her face. “I guess it’s simply business then,” she said. “Thursday nights are soul nights featuring the singer Alise, correct?” she asked.

  “That’s correct,” I said and waited for her to promenade out of my office with the same energy she walked in with. Instead, she stood there looking at me as if she were hoping for our conversation to take a different turn.

  Rochelle’s presence at the club was tap dancing on my last nerve, but Trey wanted her here so he could get a better insight of how we operated. She was trouble, major trouble, and I wanted to avoid her until the end of the week.

  “Come on, Jeb. You don’t miss me, even a little?” she asked, looking at me with the intense glare that used to turn my world upside down. “I missed you like hell,” she said, and her voice cracked exposing that she might’ve been being honest for once.

  “No, I didn’t miss you. Not even a little,” I said firmly as I headed for the door to see her out.

  She walked behind me, but when she reached the door, she touched my chin and tried to pull my face to hers like she used to do when I loved her. For the slightest bit of a moment, I went back to a place where Rochelle was the lady of my life. A wave of sadness hit me as I remembered both where I thought we would be now and her betrayal.

  She held my chin in her hand looking at me with the sincerest look I’d ever seen from her. I could feel her breath and smell the Hennessey she was sipping earlier. I watched her watch me as I tried to figure out the reason I hadn’t moved from that spot since she touched me.

  “Leave, Rochelle!” I said finally. “And I mean leave the building, and don’t come back! I’ll call Trey—”

  There was a knock on the door that interrupted the tirade I wasn’t done having.

  “Jeb, your wife is here, and she brought you lunch,” Renee said and stood in the doorway looking from me to Rochelle.

  “How sweet?” Rochelle said. Her hands fell to her side as her eyes registered the hurt over hearing Renee refer to Tameka as my wife. She walked away from the door and back toward the club’s main floor. “I’ll get back to work now,” she tossed over her shoulder.

  Major trouble, I thought as Renee walked away but not before looking at me with suspicious eyes. I gathered my thoughts before I headed out front to have lunch with Tameka. Something had to give. Rochelle being here was too close for comfort, and I knew she wasn’t about to give up.

  ***

  “That was delicious, baby. You know what would be the perfect dessert?” I asked as I leaned in to capture Tameka’s soft lips that I’d wanted to taste since I walked into the dining area and saw her setting the table for our lunch. It didn’t help that she chose an inconspicuous corner of the club that gave us a little privacy.

  “Hey…” Tameka leaned away from me to avoid another kiss. “After I left the doctor’s office this morning, I ran into your father at the mall. I was shocked when he waved at me,” she said, and frankly I was shocked to hear that too. Waving was a small gesture for most people, but for my old man to wave at Tameka, it was huge, so huge that I sat in silence, not knowing what to say. “Do you think he’ll come to the wedding?” she asked, breaking the silence.

  “We’ll send him an invite. If he doesn’t come, he doesn’t come. All we need is us,” I said, doubting my father would ever accept my relationship with Tameka but the hopefulness in her eyes gave me some too.

  “I have no way of knowing what my father is thinking or feeling because I haven’t talked to him in months,” I admitted.

  “But that has to change. I won’t feel comfortable until you and your father at least sit down and discuss this again. He’s the only parent you have left, and life is too short to not be speaking to each other,” she said adamantly.

  I leaned away from her, thinking.

  “It’s not that simple, Tameka. You don’t just change generations of hatred with a conversation. My father’s attitude is baked in, and while he’s a quiet, even-tempered man, he’s hardcore stubborn.”

  Sadness covered Tameka’s beautiful Nubian features. I hated to drop something like that on her, but the power of hatred was so deeply rooted in some people that even her gorgeous smile and contagious personality couldn’t pull it out.

  I had witnessed men throw their children away when they wouldn’t declare white supremacy and agree to pass the torch on to future generations. Women went to their graves not speaking to their daughters who had chosen to marry black.

  Our union wasn’t a small deal for my family. To them, deciding to have an interracial family was the highest form of treachery against the white race. I explained all of this to Tameka, so she would understand how my family worked, and so she wouldn’t keep having so much hope for them to come around.

  “How will you feel if you never have a relationship with your father again…because of me?” she asked with sorrow in her voice. />
  “I love my father a lot. I also knew the day I fell in love with you that I would be worse off losing you than I would be from losing relationships with people simply because you’re black.” I tilted her chin up so that she was looking at me. “I choose you, Tameka. I choose to denounce my family’s standard of hate. I don’t want to have hate in my heart for anyone, anymore. There’s always more hate required, more people to cast aside just because of the skin they’re born in.”

  “Jeb, I admire you for changing your thoughts and your life. Not many men would have had the courage,” Tameka said, and the way she looked at me made a man out of me. That look alone made every sacrifice worth it.

  “I appreciate what you’re saying, but I feel like I don’t deserve any special treatment because I decided not to be hateful like my family. It’s a low bar. If you’re raised a certain way, you just go that way until you know better.”

  “When you know better, you do better,” Tameka agreed with a smile.

  “Yep, and I know I will love you ‘til death, Tameka. I will die doing better for you.”

  “Awe, I love you too, Jeb.” Tameka pulled my face to hers and soon our lips were latched together in a caress meant for us.

  “That’s the only reason I wanted to get married in Hawaii with only the people that matter around. I don’t want my father, old friends, or anyone to get in the way of our special day. But knowing how important it is to you…to us, getting married right here for all to see is the only way.”

  “Yes, babe, and I dare anyone to try to mess up our special day. Do I need to get a holster sewn into my wedding gown?” she teased.

  I chuckled and squeezed Tameka tight as she sat close to me. “Just leave the protection part up to me. I’ll make sure we don’t have any issues at our wedding,” I said easing Tameka onto my lap and kissing her deeply.

  “Jeb, we’re at your job.” She looked around, trying to see if anyone saw us as she eased back down out of my lap.

  “I’m the boss, so I can do whatever I like,” I responded and scooted closer to her in the booth and pinned her against the wall.

  Tameka tapped my arm as if that would deter me, but her attempt to deny me her succulent lips only made me want them more, and her taste was worth the struggle.

  “Jeb—”

  “You taste so good, Tameka. Can I taste you again?”

  “Can’t you see she doesn’t want you kissing her like that? Why force yourself on the woman?” Rochelle’s screeching voice cut into the sweet sound of a moan that was about to escape Tameka’s throat.

  Tameka and I looked up at my ex who had appeared out of thin air and was standing over our booth with her hand on her hip scowling at us as if she were my mother.

  “What do you need, Rochelle?” I growled out like a hungry lion ready to pounce on its prey. She didn’t know how close I was to chewing her head off.

  “I need you to stop with the PDA. You’ve been over here for an hour, and you have a business to run. It’s inappropriate to be out here kissing…her,” she had the audacity to say nastily.

  “Hey…what’s your name?” Tameka asked her, but before Rochelle could answer, she turned to me with so many questions in her eyes. “Who is this woman, Jeb?”

  “I’m Rochelle, and I guess you’re Tameka,” Rochelle said in a nonchalant tone.

  “You guessed right, and I think the first thing I should let you know is the kiss Jeb and I were about to share.” Tameka leaned forward and licked my top lip, and the heat from her breath both shocked and aroused me. My lips parted, and I received her tongue inside of my mouth, and we did our tongue tango until that moan did finally flow from Tameka.

  My mood had gone from feeling deeply about my father’s rejection to being ready to make out with Tameka to ripping Rochelle’s head off and back to ready to take Tameka to bed. I forgot about Michelle…Rochelle, whatever her name is, and I lived in this spicy ass moment that Tameka seized upon. That was why I fucking loved her.

  When Tameka broke away from the kiss, she swiped her finger down my lips with a smile. Then, she looked back at Rochelle.

  “Our kiss is consensual. There’s no hashtag MeToo about this moment, so I don’t need saving from my man,” she said sternly. “So back off!”

  “Excuse me then!” Rochelle said with an attitude.

  “You heard my woman,” I said, unable to keep my eyes off Tameka. She looked so sexy to me at that very moment that I wanted to take her to my office and bend her over and spank her. “I can’t keep my hands off my future wife, and I don’t have to,” I clarified my feelings for Tameka so that Rochelle would have no further confusion as to how Tameka felt about me or how I felt about Tameka.

  “Glad you found someone you could express your feelings for in public,” she said, her voice freefalling into her throat and choking up as the words came out.

  “You’re new here, so you may not know this, but we are madly in love,” Tameka said, smiling. “Still, I understand your concerns about the PDA in the club. We want his employees to respect us fully, so we’re usually professional when we’re here. We just have our moments, but usually they’re in Jeb’s office.” Tameka gave her a knowing look, and I couldn’t have enjoyed the moment of my beautiful, strong woman putting Rochelle in her place anymore.

  “That’s good to hear,” Rochelle shot back. “I’ll pass that along to Trey. I’m sure he’ll be glad to know that. I guess I’ll let you two love birds get back to being professional,” Rochelle added. I could see the undeniable hurt in her eyes as she glanced at me one last time before she stormed away heading to the bar for another drink.

  I refused to let her have an advantage over me, and to make sure she didn’t, I decided it was time to tell Tameka about the extent of our past relationship.

  “So how long were you two together?” Tameka asked as soon as Rochelle made it to the bar. “And don’t tell me she’s not your ex, because if she’s not, then you’re giving her the D now.”

  “Really, Tameka. I’m not giving her the D,” I said and laughed.

  “I’m not joking. What’s up with her?”

  “I was about to tell you about it, but it’s that obvious, huh?” I sighed.

  Tameka looked over to where Rochelle was standing behind the bar watching us talk. “Yeah, she’s screaming for your attention and her jealousy is extremely hard to miss. I just want to know one thing. Do you still have feelings for her?”

  “What? No, of course not.” I grabbed Tameka’s hand and held it.

  “I believe you, but I had to ask,” she said.

  “Baby, you’re the only woman I can imagine myself with. Since the first time we made love, I’ve been ruined for all other women. I look at other women differently because none of them are you,” I confessed.

  “Why is she here though? She mentioned Trey; is she here because of your deal with him?” Tameka asked.

  “Yes. She’s Trey’s girlfriend, and he wants her to watch the day-to-day operations and report back to him how smoothly we operate.”

  “So you used to date her, and now she’s dating Trey?”

  “Yeah, a recipe for disaster, I know.”

  “Well, I just know you’d better stay faithful to me, Jeb. She’s walking around up in here like she owns the place and trying to start some shit with me, and I don’t want to go there with her, but you know I will. Then, the deal will be dead, and it’ll seem like I’m your crazy girlfriend that ruined the future of Club Elite.”

  “It’s not going to get to that, Tameka. As soon as I talk to Trey, I’m going to let him know Rochelle is out. If he doesn’t want to work with me after that, then that’s on him. I’ll find another way to expand.”

  “Don’t do that, Jeb. It’s not—”

  “That’s not up for debate, Tameka. You come first. Everything else is secondary.” Tameka smiled and looked at me as if she had some doubt about her place in my life, and that made me feel like I had more to prove. “I know that when we were talking
about having kids I said the business is like our child, but I didn’t mean it comes before you. While I’m still trying to grapple with my relationship with my father, work on the deal, and get ready for the wedding, I thought it would be best not to add another kid to the mix.”

  “Fair enough.” She smiled.

  “But don’t get me wrong, baby. You will be filled with my babies soon. We’re going half on some babies. And when I get the baby fever, you’re going to want to give me Tylenol,” I let her know then leaned over to kiss her soft lips once again.

  As our lips connected, a current of electricity shot through me. Tameka looked at me with slanted eyes, bitten blanched lips, and tiny dimples that were only visible when she smiled seductively.

  “Keep looking at me like that and I’ll toss my business goals aside and speed up the baby making plans,” I whispered against her mouth before our lips locked together one final time.

  “I should get home and let you get back to work. Besides, the kids will be home in an hour,” she said as she worked to even her breath.

  “We can do a lot in an hour. Let’s go in my office right quick.”

  “No. Too many people are here; they’ll hear me.”

  I licked my lips. I wanted her oh so badly. But she was right. There were too many people roaming around today, and we didn’t make love quietly. I looked at Rochelle who was still seated at the bar watching us and wished she would disappear.

  “I guess you’re right,” I digressed. “I’ll be home for dinner tonight before I come back in for soul night.”

  “Hey, I was thinking about coming to support Alise tonight.”

  “That would be great! We can ride back together,” I said as I reached my hand out to help her out of her seat so that I could walk her to her car.

  “Alright, see you at home,” Tameka pecked my lips. “And make sure you handle the situation with your ex. She should know that she can’t just step up to us and check us whenever she feels like it.”