“That’s all you had to say,” Jared added.
“I’m going to walk him to the car,” Hiram repeated. “If you couldn’t read between the lines, then evidently Falcon isn’t the only one who’s been dropped on his head.”
“Oh, man. That’s cold,” Falcon said, shaking his head.
The group dissolved into laughter and good-natured ribbing.
This was like old times and what Jai envisioned when he’d created a seat at the table for them, despite their murky past.
* * *
“Go get your woman and your child,” Hiram said again.
“Hiram, I hear you. I hear all of you. I was giving her the space she asked for.”
“For a man who has all those degrees and book smarts, you’re a little slow on the uptake. She wants confirmation.”
Frowning, Jai said, “I still don’t understand.”
Hiram let out a long sigh as they continued walking. “Are you with her because you have to be or because you want to be?”
“I—” With one hand, Jai rubbed the back of his neck.
“Her, not the baby,” Hiram amended.
Jai slowed his roll, stood near his car and gave it some thought. “Because I want her. I admire so much about her. Her smile, whenever she gives one. Her humor, even when it takes me a minute. That kind of strength. She’s no victim, no matter how much it feels that way to her. Every time I think about her, I get this feeling that …”
“Does she know that?” Hiram placed a hand on his shoulder. “Have you told her? Or do you assume she realizes how you feel?”
“This morphed into something I didn’t expect,” Jai confessed, leaning against the hood. “I wasn’t looking for love, or a ready-made family. It found me.”
“Go get your woman and your child,” Hiram ordered, pointing to his car. “Tell her how you feel. Don’t let her think a certain thing—she needs to know for sure. At least put forth the effort, so you can be at ease. And then you won’t be moping around here second-guessing yourself.”
Jai’s shoulders went stiff. “I’m not moping.”
Hiram raised an eyebrow.
“Okay, maybe a little,” Jai conceded. “Go get her? Even though ...”
“Yes. Bring her home. She’s family. We all took part in making sure she was all right.”
“When did you get so smart?”
“Always have been. Degree in Business Administration from Florida A&M before all that extra happened.” Hiram tipped his head toward the meeting room. “And, I have the added benefit of not being one of those nuts in there whose mother didn’t have a tight grip and knew which end was up.”
“Falcon’s going to kick your ass,” Jai teased.
“He’ll try. And he’ll fail.” Hiram shooed him toward the car. “Now quit stalling.”
CHAPTER 28
A late-night peal from the doorbell echoed through the house, snatching Jai out of a sound sleep. He glanced at his phone, wondering if something had happened. He had fallen asleep with his clothes on waiting for Daron’s text to confirm Temple’s location.
“I have it,” he called out so Sandy wouldn’t leave the comfort of her bed. They were both still on India’s schedule. Although she had her own house across the street, she sometimes preferred the peace and quiet that Jai’s home afforded. With three daughters, six grands underfoot, her place could become a madhouse at times.
He padded down the hallway, took the spiral stairs two at a time until he made it to the foyer and disengaged the alarm. From the sounds on the other side of his door, he knew who came to visit.
Temple stood at the threshold with India in her arms, wailing up a storm.
“She won’t stop crying,” Temple said in a hoarse whisper, thrusting the baby into his arms. “She wants you.”
“Come in out of the rain,” Jai said, cradling India and bringing Temple in with the sweep of his arm about her waist. He peered out to the driveway and didn’t notice a car or any other vehicle. “How did you get here?”
“I…” she shivered and her words were swallowed up in a haze of tears.
“Never mind,” he said, juggling the baby in one arm and helping Temple to shed her coat with the other. “Let’s get you out of these wet clothes.”
“Please don’t be so kind,” Temple whispered and her voice broke on those words. “She’s already giving me the side-eye.”
The baby’s cries had subsided to happy gurgles once she lay in Jai’s arms.
“She’s not giving you the side-eye,” he countered, chuckling. “I’m giving you the side-eye. You’re making this more difficult than it needs to be.” He held India and Temple close, relishing the feel of them in his arms. “You belong here with me. She belongs here, where she will be loved.” He laid his forehead against Temple’s. “You deserve to be happy and I thought you were. I deserve you and I deserve to be happy. You make me happy.”
She pulled her head back to ask, “Even with my craziness?”
“Especially with that,” he confirmed. “What’s life without a little crazy?”
She pulled away, went to sit on a sofa in the living room. “There has to be something truly wrong with you if your own mother can’t love you,” Temple whispered, then locked gazes with him as he sat next to her. “How can I trust that your love is real? How can I know that you’re not doing this strictly because of that saint-like obligation you seem to hold for others? For the Knights? For the Kings?” She placed a hand on his chest and his heart rate quickened. “How do I know if you really love me for me?”
Jai shifted India so she lay against his shoulder, and he brought Temple in closer. “Because I have never felt like this for anyone, ever. When you walked out that door, my heart … my heart stopped beating and it took everything within me not to run after you. It took every bit of my understanding that love does not hold on to people when they’re begging to be set free. Love doesn’t bind people that way. But oh Lord, did I find out that love hurts. It hurts.” He took her hand and placed it on his chest. “I never had a heartbreak, nor did I know it could be physical. A slash to the heart as though someone has taken a knife and plunged it straight in and left it there.” He tightened his hold on her hand. “I didn’t start loving until I met you. I didn’t start … living until both of you came into my life. I didn’t realize that I’d just been existing, doing everything I felt would earn my father’s approval. Well, the man I always wanted to be my father—Khalil Germaine. The man who is my father. I learned more from him in the short span of time he was my educator and mentor, than I had from the man I thought was my father.”
He traced her brow with one finger, then pleaded with her. “If you’re not sure about this love thing, then stay long enough to become sure. Stay long enough to figure it out. But don’t hurt me or her in the process.” He gestured to the house. “This right here, my home, in my life, is where you both belong.” Jai paused to let that sink in. “This much I know is true—no matter how we came together, no matter that it doesn’t seem like it should be possible, that’s not where we should put our focus. We are here.”
“Chief …”
He turned to focus on Sandy who wore a sheepish smile as she inched her way into the room. “Me and the little one are going to take a weekend trip to my place.”
“She doesn’t like being away from him,” Temple said, getting to her feet. “I learned that the hard way.”
Sandy whipped out her phone, slid the screen to a recording. The next sound in the room was of Jai struggling to teach Temple to sing India’s favorite songs. Even with the failures, an excited gurgle escaped India’s lips and it caused Temple to look away.
But Jai didn’t miss her smile.
“I wish I could sing,” Temple admitted.
“Yes, I wish you could, too,” Jai said with a chuckle that made Temple give him a playful punch in the arm.
“See, you’ve got jokes.”
“Let’s hold on to the fact that practice will make pe
rfect.” Then he gave her that poker face she found so funny. “Or at least something close to it.”
Sandy stepped in and lifted India from Jai’s arms, then tipped out of the room. “We’ll be back on Monday,” she tossed over her shoulder.
“Monday?” Temple squeaked, and her eyes went wide with panic. She was off the sofa and in the foyer in the time it took to blink.
Jai followed Temple, then stood in her way. “Giving the adults some time to figure life out.”
With wide eyes, she asked, “Do we need that much time?”
“That depends on you,” he countered, stroking the underside of her chin. “I know what I want. I don’t know how much time it’ll take to convince you that what I want is you.”
Temple looked at him for a long moment. “You have such a way with words.”
His lips twitched and he held back a smart retort, because to mention that words weren’t all he had a way with would not have been the right thing to say at this time.
“Jai, what are we going to do?” She searched his eyes for something, he didn’t know quite what. Reassurance? Sincerity?
He tipped her chin toward him with one finger. “We are going to figure our lives out, but first you’ll need to tell me what it is that is holding you back. I know some of your life’s experiences, but there has to be something that makes you so afraid to love me. Give me a few minutes.” He went to the foyer’s closet and helped Sandy into her overcoat and grabbed India’s bag to walk Sandy to her house. He also pulled out an umbrella.
“No, you stay here,” Sandy insisted. “My daughter’s waiting at my front door. We’ll be all right. Won’t we, India?” she crooned, and he leaned in to kiss the baby before taking her in his arms again. India cooed, which made him smile.
“One for the road,” he said, and Sandy chuckled as he cradled her.
“And don’t you start singing,” Sandy said. “We’ll never get out of here. She’ll prefer the live to the recorded.”
Temple stood by his side as they watched Sandy make her way across the street, though he would have preferred to carry India himself. The rain had let up, and the path wasn’t far, but still. When Sandy’s daughter gave a little wave and closed the door behind her mother, Jai secured his own home, guided Temple back to the sofa, and waited as she came up with the words she needed to say.
“I … I have never felt … safe,” she said sighing. “My uncle didn’t respect my right to say no. My mother let my stepfather abuse me …”
Temple shared what happened in that household when Sharon Liscell allowed all manner of ugliness to happen to Temple. Then she told of the night her brother and sister saved what was left of her life.
CHAPTER 29
The night had been filled with sharing secrets, and the close proximity led to intimacy that made Temple open to Jai in a way that almost took them past a sensual threshold that he swore they wouldn’t cross until they were married. After a heated session of kissing and exploring on the sofa, Jai pulled away, pacing in front of the first painting Temple had completed when she came to stay. “Jesus Christ, I’m trying to do the right thing here.”
“Don’t take God’s name in vain,” Temple warned.
“I’m not taking it in vain, I’m calling for help. Or should I say, I’m calling for Jesus to take the wheel because you’re driving this car off the cliff.”
Her lips pursed in disapproval.
“Temple, I want to do right by you,” he whispered.
“And I’m telling you this is what’s right for me,” she said, leaving the sofa and standing before him with her luscious breasts on display. The concavity of her belly begging for his touch, her kiss igniting a fire within him that nearly burned the house down, had him holding on to control by a fraying thread.
Temple huffed and folded her arms across her bosom. “See, you’re going to want your brothers to be involved, and this whole big wedding and all that. I don’t need any of that. The only thing I want is you.” She kissed him softly. “Everything you’ve done for me is like marriage already.”
“Doesn’t mean you give yourself to me as some type of reward,” he countered as he perched next to her. “Suppose I want to keep my virginity until my wedding night.”
Her eyes went as wide as she gasped, “You’re a virgin?”
“A used one,” he confessed and she gave him the stink-eye. “But that’s beside the point.”
“No, I’m just saying,” she shot back. “You’d better have some skills because I cannot strike out three times.”
“Oh, the pressure,” he teased, stroking her chin. “Those first two times don’t count. Those were not of your choosing. This will be your first time, and we’re going to do it right.”
“I really, really, have to wait?” She batted her eyelashes playfully, then kissed his lips before trailing a finger down to his chest.
“You are so wrong for that,” he groaned.
“I’ll have bragging rights for the rest of our lives that I seduced you.”
“No ma’am. I am not that easy.” Then he realized exactly what she meant and said, “I want to be the one man you can claim did absolutely right by you.”
Tears streaked down her face. “That’s so honorable, and so misguided.”
“Why wouldn’t you want to brag about the fact that a man wanted to honor you, honor your body by waiting to take that precious step?”
Temple gave him the side-eye. “I always thought that men these days were pushing for waiting because they were lacking in a ... um … certain package.”
Jaidev inhaled and let out his breath slowly, took her hand and placed it on his erection.
Her eyes widened and shot to his. “Oh my.”
“And I know exactly what to do with it,” he said, removing her hand and placing it on her lap. “Because that’s not all I’m good for. Sex is more than just about this piece of flesh, since the biggest organ is between your ears, not between your thighs.”
She let that absorb for a moment. “Pass me your phone.”
Jai complied and gave her the passcode.
“Daron, can you raise Dro?” she asked, when the call connected. “I need your help.”
“Why are you calling on Jai’s phone and not your own,” he asked. “You—never mind. Give me a few.” When he came back with Dro on the line he asked, “What can I do for you?”
“I’m trying to get married as soon as possible.”
Silence met that request and Temple stared at Jai, waiting.
“Well, see, the last I heard you had left my brother and I’m going to be real honest here … I’m not going to break my brother’s heart by helping you to get hitched to someone else.” Daron inhaled, then added, “If you need anything else, I got you, but I can’t do that.”
Jai smiled and Temple narrowed her gaze at him as she said, “So if I was marrying Jaidev, you would help me get a license, stand up with him for the wedding, and help pull a reception together … say, for next week?”
“Something like that,” Daron answered. “And since whatever dude you’re hanging with doesn’t have that kind of pull, you’re on your own, sister.”
Jai plucked the phone from Temple’s hand. “Brothers, make it happen for us. Today.”
Daron paused a second, then roared with laughter. “That’s what I’m talking about!”
“But you still have a problem.” Dro spoke for the first time.
“What?”
“The clerk’s office closes at five,” he answered. “They need to lay eyes on you to issue a license. Not sure we can get around that.”
“Hold up,” Daron said. “Those are only partial facts. The office is closed, and yes you have to apply in person. But, there’s always a way around things. Give me a second.”
Temple tuned her lips up for a kiss.
Jai obliged and said, “Play nice.”
“Okay, so can you tell me what’s the rush,” Dro asked. “It’s not like we can’t get this done tomorro
w, you know.”
Jai filled him in without whitewashing his words and added that they’d like the reception to happen today and not next week. Dro coughed as though clearing his throat. “Well, I did ask. But that first part was entirely too much information.”
A few minutes later, Daron came back on the line. “All right, here’s the plan, y’all need to hightail it downtown to the North Clark location. I have a contact who’s on her way back to meet us there.
“And there’s another problem,” Dro said.
King of Devon Page 18
