Betting On Love

by Hodges, Cheris

  “Maurice was just overreacting, but he’s straight now”

  “Because you threatened him.”

  “Quiet as it’s kept, I’m pretty sure my football-playing brother could beat my ass. So, my threats don’t matter much.”

  Jade kissed him on the forehead.

  He cast his eyes upward at her. “Jade,” he said, “I hope you don’t think that I’m violent and that I’m ever going to do something to hurt you.”

  “I don’t think that, but I don’t want you to get hurt or end up in jail because of this. I know Stephen isn’t going to let this thing go.”

  “He will, if he values ... Let’s just say Stephen and I came to an understanding, and he knows what he has to do tomorrow.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  James grabbed her hand. “Don’t worry about it. I know my mother, and she loves Atlanta. She may say she’d be happy with the Web site and moving to Charlotte, but she’s going to want to come back to her life here, and I’m going to ensure that she has one.”

  “How?” Jade asked, easing her hand out of his.

  “By finding her another building. I put in a call this afternoon and found out who holds the loan that Stephen got to get the property. Maurice and I can easily purchase the loan.”

  “I thought you two wanted this thing to be over?”

  “There are certain things that you don’t mess with, and a man’s mother is one of them.”

  “James,” she intoned, “what am I going to do with you?”

  “Love me.”

  Jade bent over to kiss him sweetly on the lips. Hungrily, James devoured her lips as they kissed with their faces oriented in opposite directions. Before they got carried away with passion, the doorbell rang. Reluctantly, they broke apart, and James bounded to the door, thinking that it was their dinner. Seconds later Serena, Alicia, and Kandace burst into the living room.

  “So,” Alicia said, “are you all right?”

  “And what are we going to do about that article?” Serena asked. Her voice was a lot calmer than Jade had expected.

  Kandace sat on the sofa, beside her friend, and wrapped her arms around her shoulders. “I’m glad you came to your senses.”

  “Why are you all here?” Jade asked, looking at them, confused by their presence.

  Moments later James walked into the room with two bags of food. “I didn’t order enough for everyone,” he said.

  “That’s fine,” Alicia replied. “We’re not going to be here much longer. I guess congratulations are in order.”

  “Where’s the ring, James?” Serena asked, with a smile.

  “The ring?” he asked.

  “Now, you know we know you proposed,” Kandace said.

  “I haven’t gotten her a ring yet, but it’s coming, ladies,” James said, grinning at them.

  “Nothing less than two carats,” Alicia said. “And the stone should have exceptional clarity.”

  James set the bags of food on the coffee table and folded his arms across his chest. “Do you have a picture of said ring?” he asked, half expecting Alicia to pull a picture from her purse.

  “No, but if you need me to go shopping with you, let me know,” Alicia volunteered.

  “Hey,” Jade said. “I’m hungry, and I’m tired of you all talking around me. Kenya and I are going to release a statement to rebut Stephen’s damned article, and that’s all we need to do.”

  “When is the work going to get started on the restaurant?” Serena asked. “I can go back to Charlotte with you and have a more hands-on role in the design process.”

  Jade looked up at her friend. She wanted to say, “I know what you want to get your hands on,” but she remained silent for a moment. “That’s fine,” she finally said. “Now, are we done?”

  James took the bags of food and headed into the kitchen, as if he knew the ladies needed some private time to talk.

  “You know, it’s all over town that James beat the living hell out of Stephen,” Alicia said.

  Jade peeked around the corner to make sure James was out of earshot. “Is he going to press charges?”

  “Not that I know of, but this is making it really hard to attract some investors for our venture. Thank goodness Devon Harris is still on board,” Alicia said, looking pointedly at Kandace.

  “Whatever,” Kandace said, rolling her eyes.

  “You can ‘whatever’ all you want. We have a lot of money tied up in this restaurant, and you three—including you, Serena—have seemed to be focused on other things. Can we please get back to business ?” Alicia asked.

  “What am I focused on?” Serena asked, pretending to be innocent.

  “Please don’t play me like I’m stupid,” Alicia said. “There’s no way you and that contractor have to talk on the phone that much.”

  Serena rolled her eyes and turned to Jade. “We’re going to leave now,” she said. “James, we’re done talking about you.”

  The women laughed at Serena as they headed out the door. They couldn’t remember when their friend had been so lighthearted; something was definitely going on.

  James walked into the living room with a steaming plate of rice and sesame chicken. “Everything all right in the inner circle?” he asked as he handed Jade the plate.

  “As all right as it’s going to be. Serena is sleeping with our contractor, and she thinks no one knows.”

  “So, is that why she’s been so nice lately? I’m all for it,” James joked.

  Jade popped him on the shoulder. “Serena could be making a huge mistake. We’ve got enough problems on this project as it is. She’s not going to make things easier if she does what she normally does when it comes to men.”

  “And what’s that?” James asked as he sat down beside Jade.

  “You know that old Hall and Oats song ‘Man-eater’? That’s always been Serena’s theme.”

  James dipped a fork in the food and held it up to Jade’s lips. “How about you eat this and we let Serena do what she does and deal with it later?”

  She took a bite of the food and silently agreed not to talk about Serena for the rest of the night. Still, she had to wonder if Serena’s relationship with the contractor was going to cause a delay in the restaurant’s opening. Taking a look at James, Jade decided that she needed to keep her thoughts to herself and contently eat her dinner.

  After dinner Jade gave James the tour of her home. He was struck by the way she’d decorated the place in rich colors, like reds, browns, and yellows. But it was her bedroom that reflected her personality the most. The walls were the color of green jade and trimmed in silver. A queen-size bed with oak posts sat in the middle of the room. The bedding was gold and trimmed in jade. It looked like a room fit for a queen.

  James smiled as he took a seat on the edge of the bed. “You sure you didn’t miss your calling as an interior decorator?”

  “I wish I could take credit for this place, but the walls were already painted when I moved in. There was a fire in the building on New Year’s Eve a few years back, and the prices dropped.”

  “Who owns this place?”

  “Jill Alexander. She’s some computer guru or something, with money, like Oprah. I read about her in Essence once. I was hoping some of her good fortune would rub off on me.”

  “Has it?”

  Jade sauntered over to James and wrapped her arms around his neck. “What do you think? I got you. Who cares about anything else?”

  He pulled her into his lap. “I hope you remember that when you’re getting up at three in the morning to feed James Jr.”

  “Our son is not going to be little J.J.,” she quipped. “Maybe we can name him Braxton. And if it’s a girl, we can name her something pretty, like Aisha.”

  “Well, if we do have a daughter, I hope she’s just as beautiful as her mother,” James said.

  Smiling, she leaned into him and planted a kiss on his lips. “I hope you’re not going to be one of those overprotective fathers, grilling all th
e guys our little girl dates.”

  “Of course not, because she’s not dating until she’s forty.” James lifted Jade from his lap and laid her on her back on the bed. “And I’m sure you’re going to be one of those mothers who cuts the girls our son dates a lot of slack.”

  “As long as they meet the standards that I think women who want to date my son should meet, then they won’t have a problem with me,” she said as she wrapped her leg around James’s waist.

  “I can see it now,” James joked. Then he leaned in and kissed Jade’s slender neck. “This bed has to come to Charlotte.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s so comfortable,” he said. “And it’s you. I want my house to be as much your home as it is mine.”

  “It already feels like home there,” she said, with a wistful tone to her voice.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing,” she said. “I just haven’t had a place that feels like home in my life, and with everything that’s going on, I don’t want to lose you and what we have.”

  “You won’t,” he said. “I love you, love being with you, and I can’t wait to make you my wife.”

  “James,” she whispered as he leaned in to her and kissed her lips gently.

  The kiss quickly became deeper and more passionate. It was as if they were becoming one in the embrace. With quick hands, James slipped Jade’s blouse from her shoulders, kissing each smooth section of skin he exposed. Jade unzipped his slacks as he moved up and down her body, tasting and teasing her with every kiss.

  She had some teasing of her own to do as she slipped her hands inside his open fly and stroked his manhood. James moaned as he continued to kiss her neck. Deciding to play her game, he slipped his hand between her legs and stroked her inner thighs softly before entering her with his index finger. He parted her wet folds of flesh, seeking her hot bud of sensuality. It was Jade’s turn to moan as he found her pleasure spot.

  “James,” she breathed as he inched down her body, his erection slipping from her hand.

  He replaced his finger inside her with his tongue. Jade gripped his head, urging him to give her more as he lapped at her juices. He wrapped his tongue around her throbbing bud and began to suck gently. Jade screamed his name in pleasure as she felt the edges of an orgasm attacking her senses. James didn’t stop. He wanted to taste her desire, and when she came, it was as if he’d been caught in a rainstorm. Pulling back, he looked up at her, his heart full of love, yearning, and passion for her. He needed her as much as she needed his love. Jade was his home, his love, and his life.

  He quickly kicked out of his slacks as Jade lifted his shirt and pulled it over his head. “I need you,” he said breathlessly.

  She parted her legs, granting him full access to her valley of desire. He plunged into her wetness, enjoyed the heat building there. She pressed her hips into his, crying out in joy. They ground against each other, sweat beading on their bodies as they danced their intimate dance. James held her close, brushing his lips against her forehead. Jade shivered and tightened her grip on him. He shuddered as the waves of an orgasm attacked his senses.

  “I love you,” she moaned over and over again.

  “My love, my love,” he repeated in her ear as he spent himself inside her.

  They lay in each other’s arms, gently kissing one another.

  “Yes, this bed is coming to Charlotte with us,” he said. “We’re going to make a lot of memories in it.”

  Jade smiled and stretched against him. “We just made one. I can’t wait to see what we do next.”

  Their next act was to go to sleep.

  CHAPTER 30

  The next morning James’s cell phone woke the sleeping couple. “Yeah,” he said after finding the phone on the floor.

  “It’s Stephen.”

  “What the hell do you want?”

  “The bank called me this morning, and it seems that someone purchased my loan.”

  James sat up in the bed. Maurice, boy, you work fast. “And this sounds like a personal problem.”

  “There’s no way I can buy your mother another building. My money is tied up in other things.”

  “I told you that you had twenty-four hours to make things right. But I’m in a good mood today,” James said. “And you have another choice.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Drop this thing with Jade, and go back to the paper and admit that you used her,” James said.

  “She sued me. She started this!”

  “And it’s time for you to be a man and end it,” James said hostilely. “I’ll make your life a living hell if you don’t. The whole loan thing is just the beginning.”

  “You and your piece of trash brother did this to me all for that—”

  “Stephen, you better choose your words carefully,” James said, cutting him off. “Jade is going to be my wife, and I’m not going to let scum like you take advantage of her.”

  “That bitch took advantage of me! That restaurant in Charlotte should be mine,” Stephen spat. “I’m not dropping a damned thing.”

  “You sure about that? I hear your restaurant is mortgaged to the hilt. Wouldn’t it be something if Jade opened a restaurant in Charlotte and Atlanta?”

  “You can’t do that,” Stephen growled.

  “Stephen, you’re one bill away from being bankrupt. I can make that happen sooner than you think.”

  “This is blackmail.”

  “No, it’s not. It’s a fact. Jade is willing to drop her lawsuit, provided that you give her what you owe. There’s no way a loser like you could’ve operated a restaurant without her help and money.”

  “You and Jade can go to hell!”

  “By the time I’m finished with you, you’re going to think you’re there. I’ll expect a decision by noon. Once we head back to Charlotte, all bets are off.”

  “I don’t have to take this shit,” Stephen said.

  “No, you don’t. You can keep trying to fight it. But Maurice and I have more than enough money to slowly buy everything you hold dear. Especially that shitty restaurant.”

  Stephen sighed into the phone. “Fine. I’ve devoted enough of my time to this mess,” he said. “You and that tramp win. But know this. If you’re filled with steam and you’re thinking about coming back to my restaurant to cause more problems, I will have you locked up.”

  “One more thing. If I go to jail, you’re going to lose everything. But as a show of good faith, I’ll never set foot in your damned restaurant again.” James ended the call and rose from the bed.

  “I guess that was Stephen,” Jade said sleepily.

  “So you heard that?”

  “Most of it,” she replied, sitting up in the bed. “Do you really think it’s over?”

  “It’s in Stephen’s best interest to let this stuff go,” James said as he took a seat on the bed, beside Jade. “We’ve got enough going on without having that bastard causing problems for you and your business venture.”

  “But what about your mother?” she asked.

  James pulled Jade into his arms. “Don’t worry about any of that. As a matter of fact, let’s get dressed and go have breakfast with her. Then we need to go shopping.”

  “Shopping?” she asked, with a gleam in her eyes. “You’re speaking my language.”

  “Great.”

  “But,” she said, snuggling closer to him, “before we go anywhere ...” Jade slipped her hand between his legs, and James was instantly aroused.

  It was nearly noon before Jade and James emerged from the bed, showered, dressed, and headed to Maryann’s bakery. When they arrived at the building, it was crowded with people, as if today were the last day the Sweet Auburn Bakery would be open. Jade and James pushed through the crowd and searched for an empty table. When they found one, close to the bathroom, James deposited Jade in a seat and headed to the counter to talk to his mother.

  “It’s pretty busy in here, isn’t it?” James said as he slipped beside her.

&n
bsp; “Once the word got out that I was closing this place, people just started coming and haven’t stopped. There was a line of about fifty folks when I got here this morning,” she said excitedly.

  “Are you sure you want to give this up?” James asked as he began to fill the orders his mother was passing his way.

  “What choice do I have? If I stay here, I can imagine what you’re going to do to Stephen. Besides, both of my sons are having babies. Do you really think I’m going to miss the chance to spoil two little ones?” Maryann slid some cash in the register as the last person in line placed their order for a slice of pecan pie and a half dozen cinnamon buns.

  As James fixed the order, he put a few buns aside for himself and Jade, since that was one of the reasons why they’d got out of bed. Maryann shook her head as she watched her son pilfer the sweets.

  “I could’ve made some more,” she said.

  “It’s all right,” he replied, then gave his mother a quick kiss on the cheek. “You need to get off your feet. Maybe you moving to Charlotte will be a good thing. You work way too hard, when you don’t have to.”

  “James, you and your brother have been trying to protect me since you were little boys. When are you both going to learn that Mama can take care of herself? Those wives of y’alls don’t know what they’ve gotten themselves into,” she said, with a chuckle. Maryann looked at Jade, who was sending a text message on her cell phone. “I really like her, so don’t take this the wrong way, but are you sure you want to marry her?”

  “More than anything else in my life,” he said. “I know we don’t have the history that Mo and Kenya have, but I love Jade more than I ever thought I’d love anyone.”

  “So, if she wasn’t pregnant, would you still marry her?” Maryann asked.

  James paused and pondered the question as he looked at Jade. In the few months that he’d known her, his life had been fuller, richer, and vibrant. He couldn’t imagine not having her at his side, not being able to touch her and feel her arms around him as they went to sleep together.

  Unlike so many other women he’d met since Maurice was drafted in the NFL, Jade didn’t want anything from him other than his love, and she had it today and forever.