Taylor was different from any woman he had ever been with and it wasn’t just because she was funny and successful. She didn’t try to label their relationship. She gave him space when he didn’t even ask for it. Taylor was like a female version of himself.
The elevator opened outside his loft. He didn’t have to move toward the door because he had given Taylor an elevator key. Ephraim didn’t even have a key to his place, yet here he was giving the key to his heart to a woman. Taylor pulled open the steel door. Kalon stayed seated on his couch, flipping through the cable channels. He had to stand his ground with her, no matter how sexy she looked.
Taylor sat next to him. When she moved closer, he wondered if it was because she could tell he was upset with her.
Kalon turned toward her. “So is this what you do? Go AWOL for a few days and then show up thinking everything is okay?”
“Nope, babe. I told you I was busy.”
Kalon walked over to the mini bar to pour another drink. “So you were busy for a whole week?”
Taylor crossed the room and stood behind him. “I’m sorry, babe.” She snaked her hands around his broad chest, with nothing but a wife beater shielding her from his six-pack.
Tension crept through Kalon. “Don’t touch me.”
Taylor whispered in his ear, “Do you really mean that?”
Her embrace was not where he wanted to be right now. He moved away. “Taylor, don’t bring your ass up in here like you haven’t been blowing me off. You’ve been acting like a hoe.”
Taylor frowned. “Did you just call me a hoe?”
“No, I said that’s what you are acting like.”
Anger flashed in her eyes. “Damn, Kalon, what do you want from me? I give you space. I thought that’s what you wanted.”
“I never asked you for space.”
She poured herself a glass of wine and gulped down the contents. “I don’t have time for this shit. If you want me to leave, I will.” Grabbing her purse off the couch, she headed toward the door.
Kalon took her hand as she walked past him. “Wait, Taylor. I’ve been so horny for you I can’t think straight.”
Taylor threw her arms around his neck. “I need you to show me how horny you’ve been for me.”
Kalon took the purse from her hand and threw it back on the couch. Leading her by the arm, he took her to his king-size bed. John Legend’s “Tonight (Best You Ever Had)” played softly from a CD player sitting on the chest of drawers. Kalon sat on the bed and positioned Taylor to stand in front of him. He unbuttoned her shirt and pulled it off her shoulders. When he unbuckled her pants and pulled them down, he slipped her panties down too, then positioned one of her legs on the bed so he could rub her spot.
The melodies of John Legend’s voice floated through the air. “I’m not trying to brag, but I’ll be, the best you ever had.” As Kalon’s skilled mouth sucked and licked nipples that were covered by a sheer bra, Taylor reached behind her back and undid the hooks holding her breasts in placed. Licking his lips, Kalon took one breast into his mouth. Her head fell back. He stood up and laid her down on the bed. Flinging off his clothes, he got in the bed just as she reached out to run her hands down his chest. He took her hand and put her index finger in his mouth.
Kalon realized that he had given her his heart. He wasn’t ready to tell her but tonight he could show her.
“Open your legs,” he told her as he traced her lips with his tongue. This kiss was different from all the ones before. He made love to her mouth. Lying on top of her, he pushed forward to enter her. He went all the way to the hilt, withdrew slightly, then went in and out as he kissed her. His body moved in rhythm with his lips. Sweat started to form on both of their bodies. His pumps became shorter and she started to cry.
Kalon stopped and kissed the tears away. “Are you okay, baby?”
She couldn’t speak, so she nodded.
“Do you want me to stop?”
She shook her head but the tears continued to flow.
* * *
Kalon awoke the next morning and reached for Taylor. Instead of a warm body, he felt a cold sheet. He snapped his head around to the empty bed. She left without saying anything.
He lay back down and rubbed a pain in his chest he had felt last night when he was having sex with Taylor and now this morning. He no longer had to wonder what it was. He had figured that out when he didn’t see her for a week. He thought back to what Ephraim had told him that day in his office. “Love is out there and it’s on the hunt.”
What would his friend say now if he knew love had finally caught him?
* * *
Taylor had just hung up the phone from Ari. He had called that morning to ask if they could have breakfast. She told him about the DVD of him having sex with Maci. He denied that he knew of any such recording.
“Well, Ari, I’ve thought long and hard … and I want a divorce.”
He begged with her not to jump to any conclusions until he found out what the hell was going on.
“Ari. Ari,” she shouted into the phone. “I don’t want to hear it. I’m going to hang up now. Bye.”
She tossed the phone onto the couch in anger. She sat down in her media room, thinking about how her life was a mess. Now there was even an innocent man in this love triangle, a man who didn’t deserve to be hurt. Kalon didn’t even know she was married or that she was the daughter of the mayor.
Taylor found herself starting to lie and she didn’t know what was true anymore. That’s why she left Kalon’s house before the sun came up. The wall she built around her heart had started to fall. Could she trust this man? She felt something for him and she could tell his feelings were getting involved. Lust wasn’t in his eyes last night. Though he tried so hard to hide it, she knew the look of love when she saw it.
Stepping out the picture had come across her mind many times since she started seeing Kalon. Now she was in too deep and she needed him there to fill the void of loneliness. If their relationship was going to go any further, she needed to tell him the truth about who she was and her marital status.
And that wasn’t all. It was time for her to come clean with her family, and most importantly, with herself.
* * *
Patricia went to such great lengths to get Kalon to notice her, even recently going so far as to stake out his loft. The amount of time that he spent up there with Taylor had Patricia going ballistic. He had used her for one night and tossed her to the side; not this Taylor person. How could he be interested in Taylor and not her?
Sitting at her computer, Patricia typed Taylor Gallagher’s name in the Google search engine. Nothing.
She drummed her fingers on her desk a few times and typed in Dynasty Magazine. A few hits popped up on the screen. Patricia scrolled through until she came upon a site saying “Mayor’s daughter is the new CEO.” The rest of the words were cut off. She clicked on the link and there it was in a newspaper article. “Taylor Briggs, now married to Ari Gallagher, became the new CEO of Dynasty Magazine. Her father Mayor John Briggs says he is extremely proud of his daughter’s accomplishments.”
I knew I saw her from somewhere before.
Patricia hummed as she clicked on the envelope icon above the article, which opened Outlook and copied the article in the body of a blank email. In the subject line, she typed “What do you think of this?” Kalon’s personal email address wasn’t in her contacts, but it wasn’t hard for her to get it. The Angel Kids website had it. She cut and pasted his address into the email and hit the send button.
Chapter 17
Taylor greeted the old, fat guard posted at the security gate outside her parents’ half-million dollar estate in Naperville, Illinois. This was their vacation home when they wanted to escape the city living. “Hey, Mr. Balford. How’s it going?”
“Taylor! It’s been a long time since we’ve seen you around here.” He opened up the gates and Taylor drove up to the house, parking behind her brother’s Hummer. The license plates, engrav
ed in diamonds, said Ice Ty. When did he get a new car? She wondered.
She had finally agreed to come for Sunday dinner after so many calls from her mother. As soon as she went through the foyer and opened up the double doors to the dining room, her mother came up to her, blowing air kisses on each side of her cheeks. “Hello, Taylor. It’s so good for you to grace us with your presence.” Tammy Briggs could be very formal and dramatic at times.
“Hi, Mother.”
“Let’s get this dinner on the road,” Tyler said. “I have a date.” He was busy texting someone but stopped long enough to tell Taylor, “Hey, big sis.” She hugged her brother and reached out for Toni, who was stuffing her mouth with fried okra.
“Oh, you know I don’t do all that mushy stuff,” Toni said, waving her hands in the air to shoo Taylor away like a fly.
“I love you anyway,” Taylor said with a grin. Everyone took their seats at the table. Taylor and Tyler always sat next to each other and Toni sat on the other side of the table with Tammy. The seat at the head of the table was reserved for Mayor John Briggs.
Servers came out of the kitchen and placed collard greens, candied yams, macaroni and cheese, turkey and dressing, and cornbread on the table. Tammy was from Louisiana, and one thing she stayed true to was her roots of southern cooking. Mayor Briggs came walking into the room at the same time Tyler tried to sneak a piece of cornbread. “Put it back now, Ty,” Tammy said with a firm tone.
“Dang.”
Mayor Briggs took his seat at the table and looked around. “Where is Ari?”
Tammy followed his lead. “Oh, yes, we can’t eat without my only son-in-law.”
The moment Taylor dreaded was here. Toni glanced at her, then the rest of the family all turned to face her too.
“Why do we have to talk about Ari? Let’s eat.”
Mayor Briggs stood from his seat. “I asked you a question, Taylor.”
Taylor looked into the faces of each of her family members. “Dad, can you please take a seat?”
Mayor Briggs sat back down and watched Taylor closely.
“Ari is not coming because …” She rubbed a sweaty palm on her napkin before finishing what she had to say. “We’re separated. He cheated on me and fathered a child with another woman and I don’t want to talk about it.”
There, she said it. Ty grabbed Taylor’s hand and squeezed it for comfort. She looked at him and smiled. Her little brother would never push her to talk about it until she was ready; her mom and dad were another story. Taylor turned her head into the direction of her mom ready to be ridicule. Tammy narrowed her eyes almost to a slit as she tilted her head to the side. Taylor could have sworn she muttered something under her breath.
The base of her father voice drew her out of her daze. “So I assume you knew about this, Toni, because you’re the only one who doesn’t look shocked,” the mayor said.
“Yes, I knew.”
He started in on her. “And you didn’t think it was important enough to tell your father?”
“Wait a minute,” Toni said, throwing her hands up in the air. “You should be addressing your questions to Tay, not me.”
Everyone stared in Taylor’s direction once again.
Taylor’s voice was calm but forceful. “Like I said, I’m not ready to talk about it. Please respect that.” Everyone sat in silence for a few minutes. When Mayor Briggs opened his mouth to speak, Taylor panicked inwardly, thinking he was going to force her to discuss it further. But he simply said, “Ty, say grace.”
“Who? Me?” Tyler asked.
“Yes, you boy.”
After Tyler said his ghetto version of grace, the family ate in silence until Ty started to talk about the trip he had just taken to Europe. Although it seemed everyone was tuned into Ty’s story, Taylor could feel the heated stare of her father burning a hole into the side of her face. With no dinner chatter, the meal didn’t last long. In no time, Tammy was calling the servers out to let them know everyone was finished and the table could be cleared.
All in all, Taylor was glad she had survived the evening without having to divulge her entire story to them. They knew the important part. The rest she would sort out on her own.
Kalon had called her phone a few times while she was at dinner. She figured he wanted to talk about why she left so abruptly the other day. He normally never called back-to-back, but today he was giving her ringtone a workout. She switched her phone to vibrate and then a text message came in.
“I need to see you now.”
The family had gathered outside on the golf course her father had built a few years ago. They would usually take turns hitting a few balls around the property but today Taylor didn’t feel like participating. In the pit of her stomach, she had a bad feeling that something wasn’t right from the tone of the text she had just read. She texted back, “Having dinner with my parents, I’ll call you later.”
On the golf course, Tyler had skipped out on the last game, reminding everyone that he had a date. Toni and Tammy left much earlier, in the middle of the first round, to have tea on the sun porch. Not seeing anyone on the golf course, Taylor went out to hit a few balls—and to be alone. To get away and think, she drove the golf cart around the grounds for about two hours, until she was exhausted.
Afterward, she pulled her phone out of her pocket. Kalon had answered her last text. “Are you having dinner with your father Mayor John Briggs?”
Taylor ran into the house and grabbed her purse. How did he find out?
“Mom, Dad, I have to go. I’ll call you later.” She ran to the car and sped off the property. Her attentions had been to tell Kalon everything today but someone beat her to it. Was it Ari? No, there’s no way he could have known about Kalon.
Then, the worst thought of all came to her. If he knew about her family then he might know about Ari. Oh my God, please don’t let him know.
As she hoped onto I-294, she kept saying over and over again, “I can’t lose him now. I’m in love with him.”
* * *
Ari was fed up with Maci’s games and lies. He had no clue what sex tape Taylor was talking about. As far as he knew, Maci hadn’t ever recorded them having sex. Taylor was talking about a divorce. That was the last thing he wanted to hear.
Maci was a fling, not wife material. She had been skating on thin ice ever since that day she jumped Taylor in the parking lot. Today there was absolutely nothing she could say to defend herself.
Ari parked outside Maci’s condo and rushed up the steps. He banged on the door a few times and she opened it with a red robe draped around her shoulders. Before he could stop himself, Ari grabbed her around the neck. He forced his way into the house, backing Maci up until her heels hit the kitchen counter. She clawed at his hands and gasped between breaths.
“Let me go, Ari, I can’t breathe.”
His eyes darkened at the same time he tightened his grip around her throat. “That’s the point,” he said in an unfamiliar voice.
Maci scratched his face and he moved back, still choking her. Her eyeballs started to roll to the back of her head.
Just then, Ari felt a blow to the back of his head and he hit the floor. Maci fell right beside him. Ari tried to move, but someone’s knee was in his back. That person was shouting to someone else in the room, “Check the girl.”
A tall man bent down next to Maci’s limp body, and Ari saw him place two fingers on the side of her throat. The man looked up at the stranger pinning Ari down on the floor. “She doesn’t have a pulse.”
* * *
Kalon stared into the lying face of the woman he had given his heart to. He wondered if this was how most of his women felt when he didn’t call anymore or didn’t take their feelings seriously.
Is this karma coming back on me? He believed in the saying, “What goes around, comes around.” If this was what he deserved, could he even be mad that Taylor had lied to him?
“Why are you here, Taylor?” Kalon noticed the waterworks flowing from her eye
s. She looked vulnerable and weak. All he wanted to do was hold her and kiss away her tears, but he couldn’t.
Taylor walked slowly across the steel floors. “I came to tell you the truth.”
Running a hand through his Mohawk, Kalon sighed. “I already know you’re married. Is that the truth you came to tell?”
She paused a few steps away from him. “Yes, but that’s not all. I need to tell you what led me here.”
Kalon massaged the back of his neck. He felt himself becoming tense. There was nothing she could say to make him understand why she would get involved with someone knowing that she was emotionally and physically unavailable. But the love he had for her allowed him to hear her out. “Okay, what do you have to say?”
Taylor took off her coat and folded her arms in her lap. “My husband fathered a child by another woman and I still married him for my father’s sake and because I was too embarrassed to tell my family that he cheated on me. I thought if I didn’t acknowledge it, then it wouldn’t be true.” Taylor took a Kleenex off the coffee table and dabbed her eyes.
Kalon stood with his arms folded across his chest and listened.
Taylor continued. “The first time I saw you, I was immediately attracted to you but I knew I couldn’t act on it. This woman started to stalk me and I started to resent my husband. You were being persistent and I felt like if he cheated on me, I’d do it to him.”
“So you used me to get back at your husband?”
“At first yes but then everything started to change.”
His Betrayal Her Lies Page 16
