“I don’t know.” She shrugged and then looked him over. “Maybe a…skirt or something.”
“I’m going to pretend that you didn’t say that. Do I look Scottish to you?”
“Hey, don’t snap at me. I’m trying to help.” She folded her arms. “Nobody told you to leave clothes downstairs for a Great Dane to play with.”
“I was a little preoccupied…and I don’t remember you complaining about me taking my clothes off last night.”
Jalila snapped her mouth shut because she wasn’t quite sure if he was hurling an insult or a compliment at her.
“Ms. Goodwyn?” a male voice filled the house.
She gasped. “They came into the house.”
“Great.” Keenan huffed.
Jalila once again rushed toward the door.
“Wait,” he called after her. “What are you about to tell them?”
“I’m going to tell them that I’m about to jump in the shower. They won’t come up here for that. That should give us some more time.”
Keenan had another thought. “Nitara.”
“What?”
“Is Nitara here?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t see her.”
“She’s going to recognize my car.” He started panicking again. “I’ve got to get out of here before she shows up.” Keenan darted toward the window. “Is this ledge sturdy out here?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never had the compulsion to go out there and try it out.”
“Okay. Uhm. Give me your robe.”
“What?”
“Your robe. I’ll wear the robe.”
Following his irrational thinking, Jalila stripped out of her robe. At the sight of her naked body, Keenan experienced another erection.
Jalila’s eyes bulged. “Stop that.”
“What do you want me to do?” He gestured toward his hard-on. “Sometimes it has a mind of its own.”
“Well, hurry up and put the robe on and cover up,” she ordered.
Keenan slid an arm through the sleeve, but there was no way the short robe was going to fit. “Oh, just forget it.” He tossed the robe down and then hurried into the bathroom.
“What are you doing?” she hissed.
Keenan quickly returned, wrapping a towel around his hips. “This is just going to have to work,” he said.
“You know, we could just go downstairs and tell them.”
“Yeah, that should go over well with the network.” He went to the window and pulled it open. “It’ll look like I’m running some kind of scam.”
“Are you sure that you want to do this? What if you break your neck?”
“It’ll make one hell of a story on the six-o’clock news,” he joked. “I’ll call you later.” He gave her a kiss and then swung one leg through the window.
“Keenan, I don’t know about this,” Jalila said worried.
“I gotta think.” He paused. “Look, just go on with the taping today and then we’ll think of something later.”
“Ms. Goodwyn?” the cameraman called out.
“Yeah. I’ll be right down,” she yelled and then returned her attention to Keenan. “I still don’t like you going out on that ledge.”
“I’ll be fine.” He kissed her again. “But thanks for worrying about me.”
“But what about my date tonight?”
“Go. But I forbid you to have a good time.” His eyes held a stern warning.
“Forbid?”
“No kissing—and no bikinis.” He swung his other leg out the window. For a second, if anyone was looking, they would’ve had a great peek at Keenan’s big package. “I’ll come see you after taping. Eleven o’clock.”
Jalila smiled. “Eleven o’clock,” she repeated. However, she felt guilty about seeing Tion tonight. She hadn’t gone into this expecting to lead men on.
Keenan slid out of the window and down onto the ledge.
Jalila watched him for a few seconds and then shut the window.
Nitara was running late.
She’d experienced some car trouble after her husband left for work and had to call around for a ride out to Jalila’s place. She’d tried to locate her M.I.A. business partner to no avail. He’s probably sleeping in late with a booty call. In the end, she had to settle on convincing Dee Dee to pick her up. With the crew settling in to their shooting schedule, it wasn’t really necessary for her to be on set every day, but she’d always liked to stay on top of things whenever she and Keenan had a production in the works.
“I really appreciate this,” Nitara said. “I owe you one.”
“It’s not a problem,” Dee Dee said with her usual sunny disposition.
“You don’t have to stay out on the set all day. I can get a rental car delivered out here later.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m actually curious to see how everything is going.”
“It’s going pretty well. The first date went well, but I gotta tell you, it feels like the show is missing something. I dunno. We need a ‘wow’ factor or something.” She shrugged. “Jalila is a fascinating girl and all, but what distinguishes our show from any other reality show?” Nitara stroked her chin in contemplation. “We need to kick it up a notch—a plot twist or something.”
Dee Dee slowed the car down. “What’s that?”
“What?” Nitara followed Dee Dee’s line of vision and tried to assess exactly what the young assistant was looking at. Before she could ask, her gaze finally zeroed on something moving on Jalila’s roof.
“Is that a man?” Dee Dee asked.
Nitara squinted, hating that she didn’t have her contacts in. She reached for her purse and then pulled out her rarely used eyeglasses.
“It is a man.” She leaned forward. “And if I’m not mistaken, he’s just wearing a towel.”
“Oooh,” Dee Dee said. “I thought you told me she said she hadn’t had sex in two years?”
“I guess the streak is over,” Nitara said. “Hold up.”
Dee Dee pulled over.
“Is that who I think it is?”
“Who?”
“It can’t be.”
“It can’t be who?” Dee Dee asked, impatient.
“Your boss.”
Dee Dee did a double-take. “Keenan?”
Nitara reached back into her purse and pulled out her camera phone. “The camera crew is probably inside the house and Keenan is on the roof naked. Suddenly things are starting to make some sense.”
“What are you doing?”
“Getting some footage.”
“For what?”
“For the show. I think we just found our plot twist.”
Chapter 17
“It’s hard out here for a single girl,” Martina announced into the camera. “A lot of that has to do with the fact that times have changed since our parents and grandparents hooked up. Women are more empowered and able to do things for themselves. Technology has made the world a lot smaller. Men—and women—have a lot more options.” She shrugged. “Frankly there just isn’t the same need to get married.”
“I don’t know about that,” Jalila interjected. She and her two best friends were settled around a table at their favorite restaurant, Las Brisas, dishing with the cameras—and therefore America—about the perils of dating in the new age.
“I do,” Martina continued. “The whole point and need for marriage is no longer valid. Women have changed—for the better We once leaned on the opposite sex for protection, stability and security. Men needed someone to feed them, clothe them and force them to ask for directions.” She chuckled.
“Oh, don’t listen to her,” Fantasia chimed in. “You can probably tell that she’s never been a real fan of marriage.”
“And why should I be?” Martina challenged. “The only true reason that men and women need each other is for sex.”
“See what I mean?”
Jalila laughed and shook her head at her friends. “See what I have to put up with?”
“Well
, what are your thoughts on love and marriage?” Jon Krammer asked, sitting behind the frame of the camera.
“Well.” Jalila hesitated. “I don’t agree with my friend Martina.” She glanced over at her. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. You’ll learn sooner or later.”
Jalila waved off the comment. “I think that marriage is more than the sum of what one individual can get out of it.” A soft smile touched Jalila’s lips. “Don’t get me wrong. I do agree that sex is important—and with the right person even…magical. The right man can help free you from all your inhibitions. It’s wonderful to feel free to do and share your innermost fantasies.”
“What she means is, a woman needs to get her freak on every once in a while,” Martina clarified. “I’m sure a lot of women out there know what we’re talking about. You’re a lady in the streets and a freak in the sheets.”
Krammer laughed.
Martina’s words hit closer to home than Jalila wanted to let on, but that was exactly what she was experiencing with Keenan. Their feverish and wild lovemaking left her feeling like a lady and a sex freak all at the same time.
“Oooh.” Martina elbowed Jalila. “What’s that smile all about?”
“Huh?” Jalila suddenly realized that she’d spaced out in the middle of her interview. “Uh, nothing. I was just thinking.”
A knowing twinkle flashed in Martina’s and Fantasia’s eyes, and to Jalila’s great relief, her two best friends didn’t drop dime on her on national television. Of course, she hadn’t had a chance to tell the girls the latest development between her and Keenan—which was probably a good thing.
Her thoughts roamed. What exactly is my relationship with the philandering television producer? During all that heavy panting and caressing there hadn’t been any words of love or even a serious case of like. Hell, they hardly even knew each other, come to think of it.
Jalila’s smile slowly evaporated as she contemplated the situation. Here she was participating in a reality TV show in which her lover-slash-TV producer was fixing her up with other men to help her find her soul mate. She was dating different men during the day and then screwing Keenan’s brains out at night. Why did her life suddenly sound like one of those twisty romantic novels by Adrianne Byrd?
“Is sex an important factor for you?” Krammer asked.
The cameras zoomed in for a close-up.
“It’s uh…sure. I mean, everyone wants to have that great chemistry—and forever is a long time.”
“How important—say on a scale from one to ten?”
Martina jumped back in. “Shoot. It’s a twenty.”
The girls giggled.
“What about you?” Krammer asked Fantasia.
“Oh, I don’t know.” She blushed. “Maybe a five.”
“Five!” Jalila and Martina echoed in disbelief.
“Yeah,” Fantasia defended. “If you love the guy then sex doesn’t matter.”
“Then your man ain’t hittin’ it right,” Martina accused.
“Martina!”
“What? If her husband is watching then I’m just helpin’ her out.”
Jalila squirmed, wanting to get off the topic.
“And what about you, Jalila?” Krammer asked, returning his attention to her. “Given that you haven’t had sex in two years.”
Jalila’s face heated, remembering the lie she told yesterday.
“Two years?” Martina echoed. Her eyes bulged. “I thought…” She suddenly remembered the cameras. “Oh, yeah. I forgot,” she said unconvincingly.
Fantasia suddenly got busy pushing the ice cubes around her glass with her straw. She clearly didn’t want any part of confirming or denouncing Jalila’s lie.
Jalila continued to squirm. “Well, sex is still important to me,” she said. “I’m not saying that I don’t believe in sex before marriage or anything. It’s just hard finding that right person to connect with.”
“It’s not that hard,” Martina mumbled under her breath.
Finally Krammer showed Jalila some mercy and changed the subject.
Of course, Jalila couldn’t stop thinking about what Keenan would say once he watched that bit of footage in the editing room. But what was she supposed to do—admit that she’d lied to Dontrell and America yesterday or confess that she got her freak on last night?
What a tangled web we weave.
Nitara and Dee Dee scrambled around the office, setting up a few personal cameras. There was no way that they could use any of the professional equipment for what Nitara had in mind, but this was better than nothing.
“Are you sure that this is a good idea?” Dee Dee whispered.
“Of course not,” Nitara said, rushing around the room. “I’m making this up as I go along. It’s not like we can just confront him and think he’s going to confess. Keenan keeps things too close to the chest for that. Do you think that he’ll be able to see this camera over here on the shelf?”
Dee Dee cocked her head. “You’re probably going to need to put something up there to cover up the red light when you hit Record.”
“Oh, good point.” No sooner had Nitara rearranged the leaves of a potted plant beside the camera than Keenan waltzed into their private office.
“Afternoon, ladies.”
Nitara and Dee Dee gasped, jumped and spun around.
Keenan frowned. “What’s going on? Did I interrupt something?”
“You know,” Dee Dee said, her voice cracking. “I think I better get going. I have a lot of filing that needs to be…uh, filed.”
“Oookay,” Keenan said, his gaze bouncing between the women.
“Bye.” Dee Dee waved, inching toward the door. “If you need anything I’ll, uh, be right out here…uh…”
“Filing?” Keenan filled in for her.
“Yeah. Yeah.” Dee Dee rushed out the door.
Keenan turned toward Nitara. “Maybe we should go back to drug-testing our employees.”
Nitara laughed—a little loudly as she hit the record button on the remote in her hands behind her back.
Keenan’s frown deepened as he settled in behind his desk.
Nitara stood in the center of the office, trying to think of a way to get Keenan to open up about his love life. It was something he rarely did. “So, uhm, how’s everything going with editing?” To Nitara’s amazement, Keenan’s face flushed.
“Oh, about that. I had to head out of there early last night.” He shrugged. “It’s no big deal. The guys there are doing a great job. I just, uh, had something come up.”
Nitara hid her smile. “Oh? I hope nothing serious.”
“Oh, no. No. Everything’s fine. I, uh, just had to go and see someone about something.”
“Sounds…mysterious.” She eased into the chair in front of his desk. “So everything’s fine?”
“Oh, yeah. Everything is great,” he said, avoiding eye contact.
“Well, you know, you don’t have to keep checking up on the guys down there. I’ve seen some of what they’ve been able to put together. They’re doing good.”
“Are you sure?”
“Reality television is turning out to be a lot easier than the scripted stuff.”
Keenan bobbed his head. “Is that why you’re not on the set today?”
“Yeah. Wolfe pretty much has everything under control. We should’ve jumped into this reality stuff a lot sooner. Low-maintenance.” A thought suddenly occurred to her. “Unless you want to go. You haven’t been on the set yet…and Jalila is scheduled to go on her first date with bachelor number two—Tion Johnson, I think.”
Keenan’s face darkened. “I think I’ll pass.” He tried to smile, an action made difficult by the fact that his back molars were grinding together.
Nitara found his reaction amusing. “You know, if I was a betting person, I’d say that Tion will win this thing hands-down.”
Keenan’s head snapped up. “Why do you say that?”
“Oh. Little things.” She sighed. “The nigh
t of the party I saw a little spark there between the two of them. I guess I could be wrong.”
He cleared his throat. “Did Jalila say she liked this, uh, Leon guy?”
“Tion,” she corrected. “She had to like him. She chose him, didn’t she?”
A twitch now etched along Keenan’s jawline. “I guess.”
“Plus, I believe that he works at the governor’s office. They say that he’s a rising star in the world of politics.”
“A politician? Ha.”
“What’s so bad about dating a politician?”
“Let’s just say that there’s one time to trust them.”
“When is that?”
“When they’re not breathing.”
They shared a laugh before Keenan turned his attention to his computer.
“Soooo.” Nitara searched for an opening.
“Soooo?” Keenan stared at her.
“So you’ve been busy lately,” she said, and then wanted to kick herself.
“No busier than usual.” He shrugged. “I had a talk with Sam over at Creative Artist Agency. He’s sending over a few potentials for the winter lineup. Comedies. One of them was passed over by Will and Jada’s production company. Rumor has it that they’re getting out of television and sticking with the big money in movies.”
“Then you want to go back to scripted material?” she asked with mild surprise. “I figured that if this reality thing was a hit…?”
There was a visible shift in Keenan’s expression.
“You know,” Nitara hedged. “Maybe next season we’ll get a bachelor on the show—call it King of Hearts?”
“Humph. We’ll see,” Keenan said noncommittally.
Nitara nodded, frustrated that she wasn’t getting anywhere. “Maybe you’re right. It’s more difficult for these types of shows to produce a match when it’s the guy who’s choosing.”
“That sounds like a sexist thing to say.”
“It’s true. From The Bachelor to that God-forsaken Flava of Love crap, the men are just looking for a little arm candy. None of them have gone on to have any successful relationships. Once the cameras are gone so is the love.”
“Don’t be glib. Men aren’t as hard to figure out as women think.”
“Really?” She folded her arms. “You’re not such an easy nut to crack. Here you are, divorced for five years and I don’t see you diving back into the cesspool or as some call it, the dating scene. I mean, sure you have a few one-nighters, but nothing serious. I don’t get the sense that you even think about it.”
Queen of His Heart Page 13
