Anika was nervous in Deshawn’s presence as soon as he arrived with his dimpled smile and charm. She was glad when Devon immediately pulled him and Cyrus outside to show off his new hunting rifle.
“Deshawn and you left about the same time last night. Did you guys get a chance to talk?” Chloe asked suddenly, as she pulled a tray of chilled mason glasses from the fridge for her fresh squeezed lemonade.
We did some things last night, talking wasn’t one of ’em.
“I told him we could talk today,” she admitted.
Chloe smiled encouragingly. “Does this mean you guys are going to work it out?” she asked gently, not wanting Anika to clam up with all the details.
Anika shook her head. “I’ll be honest, Chloe. Finding out that he slept with me for revenge hurt a lot. A whole lot more than I ever let on to you. I thought we fell in love with each other in New York. We never said the words but the feeling was there.”
“I understand.”
“We made love in New York and it was beautiful. It was good and it was sexy and . . . fulfilling.”
“Girl, I’m married to his twin. Trust me, I know.”
Anika smiled at Chloe and they did a little sista-girl high five.
“That morning when I overheard him telling Devon—”
Chloe held up a hand. “Told Devon what?”
“Devon asked him straight out what was his intentions toward me and did he come to New York just to get me into bed?”
“No!” Chloe exclaimed in drawn-out disbelief.
Anika released a heavy breath. “And Deshawn admitted it. I heard him with my own ears say it was true. Girl, all I wanted to do was get out of there. I felt, I still feel, so stupid.”
Chloe hugged her close to her side. “Is that why you left the way you did that morning?” she asked with obvious concern.
Anika nodded. “I loved that bastard and he used me.”
“So you do love him.”
“Past tense. Loved. As in no longer in love.”
“Maybe. Maybe not,” Chloe told her, wanting so badly to tell Anika that Deshawn loved her too. But she decided after the way he had acted in New York that this was a battle she would let him fight alone. He had to convince Anika of his feelings and she wasn’t going to help him. He made his bed and now the charming scoundrel was going to lie in it.
“Trust me. I don’t love Deshawn Jamison. ”
Chloe didn’t believe it, but she held her peace. “Well, I want to apologize for whatever role I played in helping that big knucklehead with his scheme. And Devon knew the whole time and didn’t say a word. He’s got a couple of cool nights ahead of him.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Just as sure as the sun will rise, you bet I will, or should I say I won’t?”
The ladies laughed together.
∞
Deshawn never got a chance to get Anika alone. After dinner, Chloe and she left to hit the shopping outlets on Hilton Head. He and Devon took Cyrus with them to play a little whist at Charlie’s, the local hangout spot for the men of Holtsville who enjoyed beer, liquor, and a deck of fifty-two. He was bombarded with so many slick and sly questions from the men there about his dealings with Anika that he wished he’d stayed home.
On top of it Cyrus pulled him to the side and threatened to whup his butt like he was a child if he hurt Anika. The elderly man even admitted that he had warned Anika against any dealings with him, but Deshawn didn’t get angry. Okay, maybe a little angry, but he didn’t show it to the old man. Instead he slapped his back heartedly and told him, “Stop worrying, Cyrus” in a friendly and cheerful manner, before walking away.
After they finished playing whist and he drove back to Dev’s, Chloe told Deshawn that Anika was sleeping and that she would like to have a word with him. He knew from the way Dev threw up his hands and smiled behind her back that he was about to be laid into by his sister-in-law.
He sat there for five minutes and let Chloe call him everything but a child of God for the stunt he had pulled in New York. What could he say? He had been wrong. Even though he wanted to tell Chloe to mind her business, he knew there was no way he would ever disrespect her like that. So he took the chastising like a man.
When she finally took a breath and ended her tirade she asked, “Do you have anything to say?”
“Yes, Mrs. Jamison,” he droned like a school boy to his teacher.
Chloe playfully swatted him upside his head where they sat on the porch. “Don’t play. I’m really mad at you.”
“I made a mistake, I admit that, but I’ll also admit that I fell in love with her in New York. I didn’t know how deep my feelings for her were until she came to Holtsville, but I do love her.”
Chloe sat down on the swing beside him. “I know you do.”
“You do?”
“Yeah, but I’m not the one you have to convince.”
“If she had just hung around she would have heard me tell Devon that I really like her and wanted to see her. I was willing to drive back to Jersey to visit her.”
“I know deep down you’re not a bad person. Women have you spoiled.”
Deshawn laughed huskily.
“I would love to see my best friend and my brother-in-law together—”
“So you’ll help me?”
Emphatically, Chloe shook her head. “You’re going to have to fight this one out alone. My name’s Bennett and I ain’t in it. But I wish you luck.”
Deshawn stood. “I don’t need luck I got nothing but love. I just wish we weren’t working out of town this week.”
“Aw.” Chloe sighed, her hands splayed on her belly. “I’m sure going to miss fixing a huge breakfast every morning.”
Deshawn raised a mocking brow. “Yeah, right.”
“Devon’s glad Anika’s here so that he won’t worry. Please don’t let him drive himself crazy.”
“I won’t. . . if you promise me something.”
“Shoot.”
“Don’t let these wolves round here get near Anika while I’m gone.”
∞
Anika couldn’t sleep. Every time she closed her eyes the dreams returned. Cloaked by darkness, she sat up in the middle of the bed. She was just about to turn on the television and find a good movie to watch when she heard a light tapping at her bedroom door.
Alarmed, Anika froze, thinking she imagined it Rap-rap.
“What the hell?” Anika flung back the covers and rolled out of bed. For the life of her, she didn’t know why she tiptoed. “Who is it?”
“It’s me, Deshawn.”
Anika turned the light on by the switch near the door, before she cracked it open. “Deshawn, what are you doing here?”
“We’re leaving in a little bit for Myrtle Beach—”
“And?” she asked testily.
Deshawn looked taken aback and then nodded in understanding. “So you’re back in your nasty mood, right?”
Anika’s thick frame blocked his entrance into her bedroom. “What did you think, because I got a little hot under the collar and gave you some that you got a ‘get laid when you want to’ card?”
“As bad as you were hollering I would’ve thought you’d been more than glad to give it to me.”
“Oh, and I guess you didn’t hit a high note your damn self?”
They were at a standoff in the doorway.
Moving suddenly, Deshawn pushed the door open with one hand and then swung Anika up into his arms before stepping into her bedroom. He closed the door with his foot.
“Put me down,” she yelled, struggling for freedom.
Deshawn placed her on the bed and dropped down on top of her, holding her hands above her head. “Say you don’t want me,” he told her throatily.
She fought against him freeing one of her breasts from her lavender nightgown.
Seizing the moment he dropped his head and began kissing her bosom.
Anika’s eyes closed at the feel of his mouth. “I don’t want you,” she
lied with a gasp.
Deshawn sucked at her taut nipple, cutting his eyes to look at her face as he did. “Liar,” he said against her skin, as he deepened the sucking motion.
Anika hated the way her body jumped to life at his very touch. Would it always betray her? “I don’t. . . want. . . you,” she repeated with much effort, as his warm masculine hands traveled beneath her short lavender nightie to massage her thighs.
Deshawn shifted his body until he lay beside her, his strong leg holding her legs down as he gazed at her body with pleasure. Anika eyed him, feeling immobilized by him as he tasted, licked, and kissed her nipple with languid moves. Her harsh, rapid breathing and flushed eyes revealed her arousal. As badly as she wanted to, Anika couldn’t fight the desire she had for him.
Deshawn kissed a trail to her chin, where he licked her mole before he captured her mouth in a kiss that made her chest feel light. His tongue licked the contours of her mouth, attempting to separate her lips, but she pressed them closed.
With a husky laugh, he moved his hand down to slip beneath her bikini cut panties to play in the slick folds between her thighs. His laugh was surprised and then victorious as the hot wetness engulfed his fingers with ease. He slipped first one and then another of his fingers inside her. “Why’s it so wet, huh?” he asked against her lips.
Anika’s hips arched off the bed and she gasped in pure pleasure.
Deshawn seized the moment and slipped his tongue deftly inside her mouth. She resisted futilely before she drew his tongue in deeply and suckled it for dear life.
Feeling her acceptance of their desire, Deshawn released her arms and his heart soared when they moved first to his back and then slid up to his head to press him closer to her. “Yes, Anika, yes.”
Her legs opened and she wrapped them around his waist as he moved to lay atop her fully. All reasoning was gone. Her brain was a blur. The only thing she cared about was the heated passion in his arms.
Deshawn wanted nothing more than to bury himself deep within her, but something nagged him. During the day there was anger and at night there was sex. This was not what he wanted from Anika. He wanted a relationship, dates, anniversaries . . . love.
With much effort he tore himself away from her lips and her body with ragged breathing. “Anika, this isn’t right,” he told her, moving to sit on the edge of her bed.
Anika looked at him with dazed eyes, confused by the sudden turn of events. “Huh?”
Deshawn tried to think of anything to cool his ardor: construction, tools, baseball, Cyrus. If he stayed in his current state of arousal he would climb back onto that bed and make love to Anika until the moment he had to leave for work.
“Anika, I love you. I want to go places with you. I want to share my day with you. I want to come home to you. I want to wake up to you. This isn’t about sex to me, baby,” he told her, turning on the bed to look down at her where she still lay. “I’m going to prove to you that this thing I have for you is nothing but love. I don’t want to make love to you right now. I want to be with you forever. I will gladly pass on sex with you right now to have you in my life, as my woman, tomorrow and every other day after that.”
Anika was stunned as she watched him and saw the conviction in his face as he stared into her eyes. “Deshawn—” she began.
“I wanted to see you before we left in the morning,” he told her, cutting off the negative words he knew she was about to say. Deshawn twisted on the bed to lean and kiss her fully on the mouth. “You gone miss me?”
“Nope,” Anika lied, closing her eyes to keep him from seeing how his words affected her.
He laughed as he stood and moved toward the door. “Liar,” he told her, turning to look over his shoulder one last time before he left the room.
Chapter 16
The Love I Never Had
The week that the twins were gone Deshawn made sure that he was still uppermost in Anika’s thoughts even if he was not physically present. On Monday she was sent so many silk floral arrangements and balloons that her bedroom resembled a miniflower shop. It seemed as if the deliveryman was ringing the doorbell every hour on the hour.
On Tuesday morning Anika donated the flowers to the church and burst each of the balloons with childish delight using a straight pin. That afternoon she discovered a huge basket filled with expensive fruit scented body washes and soaps, bath mists, shampoos, and lotions. The card attached read:
For a sweet lady. May you bless me with the pleasure of bathing your beautiful body and rubbing lotion on your skin with care. These are just two of the things I love about you. And I do love you, Anika Foxx, more than you know.
Deshawn
Anika balled up the card and threw it into the wastepaper basket with a swoosh. The basket of goodies? She kept of course. She was through with him but she wasn’t a fool.
That Wednesday Anika enjoyed a delicious steaming shower with a divine coconut and banana body scrub. She was determined not to let Deshawn’s constant calls and gifts get to her. “Nothing Deshawn does will bother me,” she told herself in the mirror as she dried off.
Once she was dressed, Anika headed out of the room as she planned breakfast. As Choe got further along in her pregnancy she had taken to sleeping later in the morning. Anika contemplated what to make as she walked outside to retrieve the local African-American-owned newspaper, The Community Times-Dispatch. Folding it under her arm, she retraced her steps into the house where she was surprised to find Chloe already stirring grits into a pot of boiling water.
“Good morning, Big Mama. You’re up early.”
Chloe looked over her shoulder, smiling. “Mornin’. I woke up craving grits and bacon. This baby doesn’t know what she likes. My cravings change every week.”
“Well, she or he will be out soon to take in his or her own nutrition,” Anika told her, setting the paper on the counter before she moved to the stove. “Sit down, I’ll cook this morning. Drink your juice and read the paper.”
Chloe did as she was told, putting both her feet onto the chair adjacent to where she sat. “I miss Devon, girl. I’m already counting the days ‘til they come back Sunday night.”
Anika thought of Deshawn’s handsome face and then immediately pushed the thought of him away.
She had to stay strong. Deshawn was not the man for her. Just in the past two days she had been told so many stories of his wild adventures with women, from people she didn’t even know, that she felt like an even bigger fool than she did when she first came to town.
“I wonder what Deshawn has in store for you today.”
“Something to get on my nerves, no doubt,” Anika said, as she placed the thick slabs of bacon in the cast-iron frying pan.
“I asked him last night when he and Devon called and he said it was a surprise.”
Anika just shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. There is nothing Deshawn can do to affect me today.”
Chloe turned a page of the newspaper with one hand and rubbed her lower back with the other. “You sure about that?” she asked, her eyes focused on the page.
“Positive.”
“Ahem. Anika... sweetheart. Can you come here for a sec?”
Anika wiped her hands on a dish towel as she crossed the tiled floor to stand beside Chloe. “What is—”
Chloe bit her bottom lip and dropped her head into her hand, to keep from laughing out loud.
Anika’s expressive eyes widened as she read the rather large one-page advertisement:
WANTED
Anika Foxx
CRIME
Stealing Deshawn Jamison’s heart
She stamped her foot in frustration. “Why does he keep torturing me?” she yelled dramatically at the top of her lungs. “He is the most insufferable, arrogant, manipulative—”
“Don’t forget persistent,” Chloe piped in, trying hard not to laugh. She thought the ad was adorable.
“You mean aggravating,” Anika snapped, pacing the floor with long strides as she gripped the
blasted ad in her fist. When she saw Chloe’s shoulders shaking, she froze. “Are you laughing?”
“No,” was Chloe’s strangled reply, just before laughter erupted from her lips.
Anika crossed her arms and raised one arched brow. “Funny ... I don’t remember laughing when a certain someone called me complaining about a big, angry country boy who was getting on her nerves.”
Chloe waved her hand dismissively, her eyes still filled with mirth. “I was just mad because he wasn’t in my bed . . . just like someone else I know,” she teased, looking over her shoulder at Anika, as she gave her some good old-fashioned sista-girl honesty. “You want my opinion?”
“Only if you agree with me.”
“I believe he really loves you.”
Anika hated that her heart double-pumped. “I thought it once too and look where it got me. Left with hurt feelings and a wet behind just like my Granny Bert always told me a man would.”
∞
Anika and Deshawn were already the talk of the town after the concert at the fair, but the ad made the gossipmongers’ tongues move at a fever pitch. Most thought it was just their lovable Deshawn up to his usual tricks to woo the ladies. Some thought he was serious and felt good knowing someone had finally slowed him down. Only a mere few didn’t care either way.
But everyone wanted to know: what about Poochie?
“That bastard,” Poochie spat as she crumbled the page into a tight ball within her fist.
“What’s wrong?” her coworker Alicia called over to her where she stood behind the register.
Screw you. She ignored her, knowing she probably laughed behind her back like the rest of the people in town. Some were even bold enough to mock her in her face about Deshawn wearing his heart on his sleeve for another woman.
The fury over the concert stunt was just beginning to die down when the florist bragged on how much money Deshawn spent sending Anika silk floral arrangements. Now the ad.
“I know how you feel, girl.”
Poochie definitely was not in the mood for a bonding moment with Alicia. It was well known that the childhood friend of Devon and Deshawn had fallen in love with Devon and set out to destroy Chloe by selling lies to a tabloid paper. In the end she lost her friendship with the twins, her nonexistent chance of a relationship with Devon and her job as their secretary. She was absolutely the worst person to offer advice, but Poochie turned to cast her hazel eyes upon her anyway. She kept the look on her face nonchalant, but the other woman continued talking.
Heavenly Match Page 18
