JT rolled to the side of her. “You have got to be the most amazing woman I’ve ever met.”
“Oh yeah?” she said. “Well, let me tell you…that’s nothing compared to all the other tricks I plan on showing you before you leave here tonight. That is, if your little young behind can handle all of them.”
Diana was incredible, to say the least, and strangely enough, JT had known from the first day he’d laid eyes on her, one year ago, that he had to have her. He’d known she had to be at least in her early to middle fifties, especially since she had a daughter who appeared to be the same age as him, but she looked not a day past forty. She was lively and vivacious and her perfectly shaped body, youthful skin, and erotic smile had lit a raging fire right under him—the kind of fire that simply had to be put out. And he’d let her put it out five nights later at this very same condo out in Oak Brook, which was one of the many properties Diana and her real estate tycoon husband owned in the Midwest. They were multimillionaires in their own right and by far the wealthiest members of his congregation.
JT had originally seen Diana, her daughter, and her husband one Sunday at church and had spent days trying to figure out how he might be able to connect with her. He’d known he couldn’t just simply walk up to her during one of their services, but as luck would have it, he had run into her at an Italian restaurant not far from where he lived. He’d been dining with his two assistant pastors and a couple of other church officers, but then he’d seen Diana, dressed to the hilt in some vogue-style, cream-colored suit and looking over at him. Shortly after, he’d spotted her heading toward the restroom, so he had quickly excused himself from his table and followed her. It had only taken him seconds to catch up with her and when he had, she’d smiled seductively and handed him a small piece of folded paper with an address and what time to meet her but never said one word. She’d then walked away, and less than twenty-four hours later, JT had found himself in bed with a fifty-five-year-old cougar who could run wide circles around just about any woman he’d been with.
Diana propped herself onto her elbow and caressed JT’s chest. “You really gave a wonderful message this morning. I mean, you always give great sermons, but this one was another winner for sure.”
“I’m glad you liked it.”
“I did, and I’m always so proud to sit and listen to you. I’m so proud of who you are and who I know you’re eventually going to be.”
“Your support means everything because I never got that when I was a child.”
“Meaning?”
“I know I’ve never told you much about my childhood, the same as I haven’t told most people, but my years as a child were flat-out pitiful. My father spent most of it telling me how I was never going to amount to anything and how I was going to end up just like him: working myself to death for just a few dollars more than minimum wage and living my entire life in shame. He pounded those words into me every chance he got and for a long time I believed him.”
“Oh, sweetheart, I am so sorry, and why haven’t you ever shared that with me?”
“Because I try my best not to think about my father and the horrible person he was. He practically ruined any self-esteem I might have had back then and by the time I turned ten, my mother passed away from uterine cancer and he turned to alcohol. He drank himself into a complete stupor seven days a week, and after a couple of years of dealing with it, I ran away.”
Diana frowned. “At twelve years old?”
“Yeah, but thankfully my aunt was willing to take me in. She was my mom’s older sister, and she treated me like her own child. Which was fine until I started my senior year in high school and she passed away from the same kind of cancer my mom did.”
Diana slowly shook her head in disbelief. “You poor, poor thing.”
“Okay, that’s enough of that,” JT said, refusing to release tears that had suddenly filled his eyes. “Let’s talk about something else.”
“No, we have to talk about this, because I can’t believe what you went through. And looking at you now, no one would ever guess it in a million years.”
“I know. I’ve definitely come a mighty long way, and it’s all because of how wonderfully God has blessed me. He took care of me when I wasn’t quite able to take care of myself, and then one night about six years ago when I was at my lowest, He set things up so that this ended up being the same night my now father-in-law was on television, preaching this awesome sermon. At the time, I had never even heard of anyone named Reverend Curtis Black, but he still had my attention from the moment I flipped through the channels and saw him. Then, when he finished, I got on my knees and asked God to forgive me for all of my sins and to use me in whatever way He saw fit.”
“That’s really profound, and you know, I think it would really help if you started telling your life story to a lot more people. Especially to our congregation, because they’ll certainly feel a lot closer to you once you do. People like knowing that their leaders, or that any man in power who they look up to, is just as human as they are. They like knowing that you haven’t always had the success you have now and that you had to work very hard to get to where you are today.”
“Well, they already know I wasn’t always this successful in ministry because I’m always mentioning how I started out with only a few members but now have more than five thousand.”
“Still, they’ll sympathize with you a whole lot more if you tell them about your childhood. They’ll listen to you a lot more closely, and they’ll tell others what you’ve been through, which in turn might bring in new members. At the least, it might get new people to come and visit New Life to see how they like it.”
JT sighed deeply. “Maybe.”
“Just think about it. I know it’s not an easy story to tell but having any real success in this day and age means putting your heart and soul into every aspect of what you’re trying to do.”
JT smiled at Diana. “That’s what I love about you the most. Well, it’s one of the things I love about you, anyway.”
“Yeah, right,” she said, chuckling, “because we both know what you love more than anything else.”
JT reached toward her and caressed the tip of her chin. “You’re right about that. But seriously, what I love about you is the way you constantly encourage me to be the best person I can be and how you always have such strong faith in all that I want to do. I mean, I have so many plans and goals till I can barely think straight. I want to double the size of the congregation within the next five years, and my biggest dream of all is to begin televising nationally.”
“And, sweetheart, you will. You have everything it takes, and as long as you continue satisfying me the way you have over the last twelve months and you keep spending a respectable amount of time with me, I’ll do whatever I can to help you financially, emotionally, and otherwise.”
“Hey. You’ll always be my girl and nothing will ever change what you and I have together.”
Diana’s face turned serious. “Not even the fact that you have a new little wifey? That sweet young thing who’s only twenty-three years old?”
JT sighed; he hated having this particular discussion with Diana because he knew she still wasn’t happy about him getting married. “Now, baby, you know I didn’t have a choice. You know when a pastor doesn’t have a wife, it opens the door for loads of ridiculous rumors. As it was, people were starting to gossip and whisper about a couple of other women in the church they thought I was sleeping with, and that’s when I knew it was time to get married again.”
Diana looked at him but didn’t comment one way or the other. JT wasn’t sure what he should say next because he could never tell her his other reasons for taking a wife: that he’d had the opportunity to marry the Reverend Curtis Black’s firstborn child, that he could already see how becoming Curtis’s son-in-law would eventually do great things for his career, that he wanted to have a couple of children who would be able to carry on his legacy, and that deep down there was a part of him that
really did love Alicia.
“So, do you love her?” Diana asked, almost as if she could hear what he was thinking.
“I care about her,” he said, not wanting Diana to think he loved anyone more than he loved her. He didn’t want her even considering the idea that what the two of them had together really wasn’t love at all and that their relationship was purely based on the rough and very passionate sex they regularly engaged in and, of course, based on the money she didn’t mind providing for him. He cared about Diana, but love had nothing to do with it.
“Well, if you don’t love her, then I don’t see why you had to up and get married,” she said, shifting rather forcibly away from him and onto her back. JT knew he needed to explain things a lot better.
“Baby, come on now,” he said, pulling her back toward him so they were facing each other. “I care about Alicia, but I love you. Plus, it’s like I keep telling you, I only got married because I knew the congregation would be happy about it. And of course with Alicia being Curtis Black’s daughter, they love her.”
“Yeah, I could tell that today, but if you ask me, that’s just plain silly. I mean, who decides to like someone just because their father is famous?”
“Well, for whatever reason, lots of people are obsessed with having even a remote connection to any celebrity, and to prove it, our membership increased by two percent within a month after he served as guest speaker.”
“But according to you, he’s not all that thrilled about you marrying his daughter in the first place.”
“Yeah, but he’ll come around. He’s just a little hesitant right now because of all the rumors and lies floating around about me, but I’ll eventually gain his total trust. Before long, he’ll love me like his very own son.”
“I hope you’re right, because there’s nothing like a father-in-law, especially someone as powerful as Curtis Black, who despises the man his daughter is married to.”
“Everything’ll be fine. You’ll see. He’ll change his whole tune before you know it. Plus, even if for some reason he doesn’t, I have you, right?”
Diana smiled in a captivating sort of way. “As long as you keep up your end of the deal, I’ll give you all the money you need to promote both New Life and yourself throughout the entire city of Chicago. And I’ll also do whatever necessary to help you go national. But there is one other condition.”
JT wasn’t sure he liked the tone in her voice but said, “And what’s that?”
“With the exception of me, you’re to have no other mistresses. Your wife is one thing, but I don’t ever want to hear about you being with anyone else. Not ever.”
“You have my word,” he said. Then he rested his body on top of hers and kissed her more ravenously than he had earlier. He did what he had to do. For the sake of his ministry and its future.
Chapter 3
Alicia sat up, stacked a couple of pillows behind her back, glanced over at her husband, who was still slumbering peacefully, and smiled. Right after leaving church yesterday afternoon, the two of them had gone to this quaint little Chinese restaurant, and then around five P.M., JT had left for a couple of hours, well actually four hours, to go visit a family who was losing a child to cancer, and also so he could drop by the home of another family who had a sick relative. Alicia had wanted to go with him but since she was still working on a few revisions her father’s literary agent had asked her to make and she wanted to get the manuscript shipped back to her in a few days, JT had told her she should stay and work on that instead. He was so supportive of her dream of being published, and she was very thankful for that. He encouraged her to write and do whatever was needed to get her work acquired by a major publishing house, and she was happy to say she was well on her way toward doing just that.
JT quietly breathed in and out, and Alicia scanned every section of their master suite. First, she looked at the thick, royal blue velvet drapes covering the huge picture window, and then she eyed the lavish-looking, king-sized mahogany bed, dresser, and matching nightstands. Next, she glanced at the forty-inch flat-screen HD television, two winter white chaises, and all the royal blue, black, and gold accessories. The entire setting reminded her of something she’d seen in a recent issue of Architectural Digest, and Alicia was impressed at how good a job JT had done as a bachelor. Although, he had told her that because his wife had died before the house was completely built, he’d hired an interior decorator to help him make quite a few decisions.
Alicia continued admiring all the expensive beauty that surrounded her and whispered, “Thank you.”
“You’re quite welcome, beautiful, and good morning,” JT said, stretching both his arms toward the headboard and smiling at her.
Alicia leaned over and kissed him. “Good morning, baby. And while I hate saying this, I wasn’t really thanking you…I mean no offense…but what I was doing was thanking God for giving me everything I’ve ever wanted. I was thanking him for bringing you into my life and for allowing us to have so many wonderful things.”
“There’s not a single thing wrong with that, and I’m glad you’re happy.”
“I am. Actually, I couldn’t be happier, and not many people in this world can say that.”
“That’s very true, but in all honesty, I want to give you even more than what we have now. You grew up in a very wealthy household, and I don’t ever want you feeling like you have to live with any less than what you’ve always been used to. That’s why I took you on that little shopping spree when we got back from our honeymoon.”
Alicia stared at JT, and tears rolled down her face.
“Baby, what’s wrong?” he asked, drying her face with the back of his hand and then stroking her hair. “Why are you crying?”
“Because I spent the majority of my first marriage trying to explain to Phillip how wrong it was for him to expect me to settle for less than what I’d become accustomed to. I do admit that there were a few things I could have handled a whole lot better, but regardless, Phillip never understood any of what I was saying and he always made me feel bad about who I was.”
JT positioned his back against the pillows the same as Alicia had. “Well, now that you’re married to me, you don’t ever have to apologize or feel bad about anything. I’m not nearly as well-off as your father but if you decide you want a pair of five-hundred-dollar shoes on a Monday at ten A.M. just because you like them, then I want you to get your five-hundred-dollar shoes and not think twice about it. Okay?”
“I love you so much, JT,” she said, kissing him again.
“I love you too, baby, and I promise you, this is only the beginning. Your happiness is very important to me, and I’m very blessed to have such a loyal and loving wife by my side. When I lost Michelle in that horrible car accident, I thought my life was over, and I wasn’t sure I’d ever find the right person to marry again.”
“I’m still so sorry about that,” she said. “I’m so sorry you had to experience such a tragic loss. The entire thing is unfathomable, and I can’t even imagine how you must have felt.”
“It literally was the worst thing I’ve ever encountered, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone I can think of. I mean, it was terrible enough losing my wife, but then finding out after the fact that she was three months pregnant—well, that made the entire ordeal even more devastating.”
“I remember you mentioning that before, but I wonder why she hadn’t told you about it.”
“Well, when I spoke to her doctor, she told me that Michelle had taken an at-home pregnancy test the week before and had just come into her office the morning of the accident to confirm the results. So, I guess she never had a chance to tell anybody.”
“Gosh.”
“Yeah, but unfortunately, that’s life. And thankfully, you and I will have our own babies, just like we talked about. I know right now you want to focus on getting your writing career off the ground, but in another year or two I want us to start trying.”
Alicia nodded, pretending to agree, becaus
e while she did want to have a baby, she’d been hoping they wouldn’t even make their first attempt at it until maybe five years from now. It was true she wanted to focus on her writing career, the same as JT had just mentioned, but she also wanted to spend as much time as possible with just him before starting a family.
“So, what do you have planned for today?” he asked.
“Not much except more writing. I have a few more scenes to add and a few more to revise, but I should be finished by the end of this week and ready to do my final read.”
“I’m so proud of you, and how wonderful that your dad’s agent wants to represent you.”
“I know. At first, I wanted to find my own agent because I didn’t want publishers and reviewers showing interest in my work just because of how successful Daddy’s books are. But after I received back all those rejection letters, I sort of changed my mind about that.”
They both laughed and JT said, “Hey, there’s nothing wrong with taking advantage of all the contacts your dad is willing to connect you with. You should consider it a blessing to even have a father like Curtis.”
“Yeah, I guess. But I just want my work to sell because people really like my writing and not because Curtis Black’s daughter wrote it.”
“I hear what you’re saying, but I’m sure the publishing business is the same as any other. It’s more about who you know than what you do.”
“Yeah, I’m sure it is.”
“Still, though, you have a really strong story line, and this will be your main driving force when it comes to sales. Your dad’s name will help you get more publicity than most new writers would ever get, but trust me when I say your story is what will make all the difference. When people read your first novel and see how great it is, they’ll automatically pick up your second one as soon as it’s published.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“I know I am.”
“So, what about you?” she asked. “What are you doing today?”
Be Careful What You Pray For Page 2
