by A. C. Arthur
“Mmm-hmm, but something did happen?”
Lying to Tacoma was useless. He’d eventually get it out of her, if he had to come to her apartment to do so. “Yes, something happened.”
“What? Did they say something to you? ’Cause we can go out there. I’ve got my knife right here,” Tacoma said seriously.
Shaking her head, Reka couldn’t help grinning. “Put your knife away, Rambo.”
“Oh please,” he clucked. “Sly’s got nothing on me. And all that sweat and dirt, uh uh, that’s not attractive at all.”
“We were talking about me and the Franklins, not how attractive or unattractive Sylvester Stallone is.”
“Definitely unattractive as Rambo. Now Samuel L. Jackson as Shaft, that’s another story entirely.”
“Tacoma!”
“What?”
“Can we stay focused here?” Crossing her legs Indian style, Reka sat in the middle of her bed and glanced at the clock. They really should have been at the mall by now.
“All right. You’re the one taking forever to get to your point.”
With a deep sigh Reka switched the phone to her other ear and told Tacoma about Sonya and Naomi. She told him about the rest of the Franklin family and the house in general as well, but, of course, Sonya and Naomi took precedence.
“You mean some skinny heifer had the audacity to show up uninvited? She must be whipped.”
“More like mentally disturbed to me.” Reka picked at a hangnail. “Anyway, Khalil and I talked about it on the drive home and she’s not an issue, although I don’t think she’s gotten that message yet.”
“We can make sure she gets it,” Tacoma suggested.
“Hush, these are not those types of people. If we bumrush this woman, she’ll have us locked up so quick the judge will get called out of his sleep to come get us.”
“We don’t have to do it ourselves.”
Reka grinned. “Nah, I’m going to handle her personally the very next time she crosses the line. I kind of liked the war of words instead of my normal smack first and ask questions later.”
“My, my, my, we sure have changed.”
“Whatever. Are we going shopping or what? I need some new lingerie.” Her feet dangled from the edge of the bed now as she was closer to getting up for the day.
“Lingerie? What do you need? Oh no, you didn’t!” Tacoma exclaimed.
Reka laughed, picturing his bony honey brown legs pacing the kitchen with his black kimono skimming his thighs. “Meet me at the subway in an hour.”
“You better not hang up!”
“Come on, Tacoma, if I tell you everything now what’ll we have to talk about at lunch?” Besides, she did not want to talk in the apartment about what she and Khalil had done last night, Grammy was liable to be on the other line listening at this very minute. She really had to do something about her living arrangements.
“All right, hurry up. And I’m not waiting until lunch either. You’re telling me on the train.”
“Whatever.” Reka laughed as she hung the phone up. Standing, she stretched until she thought her bones would break before meandering on into the shower. Fifteen minutes later she was slipping into jeans and a t-shirt. As she pulled a NYU sweatshirt over that, she glanced at the phone and wondered if she should call Khalil.
Deciding against it, she went to her dresser and put on sterling silver studs, then pulled her hair back into a ponytail. “No makeup today,” she said as she wiped moisturizer onto her face. It was now eight-thirty and she was just walking into the living room when the doorbell rang. A cursory glance around the room told her Grammy wasn’t in here, and for a moment she wondered if she’d stayed at Sunny Days with Cletus. Wouldn’t it be a blessing if Cletus and his shriveled up penis could get her to go back for good?
Reka smiled at that thought as she answered the door. That smile quickly faded.
“Mornin’, beautiful.” Donovan leaned over and kissed her cheek before waltzing right past her into her apartment.
He smelled good and he looked good but he had no business in her house at this time of morning or at any other time, for that matter. Still holding the door open, she turned to him. “I think you must have the wrong apartment,” she said icily.
“C’mon girl, don’t start that again. You told me not to come to your job so I didn’t.” He plopped down on her couch.
“Actually I told you it was over between us so seeing each other again was pointless.”
Donovan scrunched up his face as if he were trying to remember. “I don’t recall you saying all that.”
Waving an impatient hand, she quieted him. “All right, there’s no need to go over exactly what I did or did not say. I’ll say it again, one last time. We are no longer a couple. I’ve moved on, as I’m sure you have. Therefore, there is no reason for us to see each other, at my house, at my job or anywhere else for that matter. Is that clear enough for you?” She hadn’t closed the door and now made a motion with her arm telling him to leave.
Instead, Donovan stood, walked over to her and stood very close. “Can you really say that you don’t want to see me again?” He took another step forward, making her breasts rub against his chest. He cupped the back of her neck and pulled her to him even as he lowered his head to kiss her.
Instinctively Reka turned her head and his kiss landed on her cheek. But Donavan didn’t seem to mind. He kissed her jaw, her neck and was steadily moving downward until she pushed at him with all her might. He stumbled backward with a questioning look on his face.
“What’s up, Reka? Why you actin’ like you don’t remember what we had?”
This time she slammed the door closed because she had no desire for her neighbors to know all her business. “Oh, I remember what we had, Donavan. We had a lot of hot nights. Yes, the sex was truly off the chain with you and me.” Taking a step closer to him, she pointed her finger as she spoke. “I also recall that you were so proud of your sexual prowess that you felt the need to share it with anything with a split between the legs.” She continued jabbing at his chest until Donovan had taken so many steps back he was now up against the wall. “I also remember getting pulled over in your car because of the false tags. And I also remember finding some of your stash in my nightstand drawer. Shall I go on with the memories?”
Donavan sighed. “It’s not like that anymore. I’ve got this new business, so I won’t be hustlin’ no more.”
“I don’t give a damn what you have now. Like I said, we’re finished.” She turned to walk away from him but he grabbed her by the waist, pulling her back roughly against his chest.
“Oh, it’s not over. You think ’cause you hangin’ with that pretty boy now you can just kick me to the curb?”
He kept one arm firmly around her waist while the other hand went to her breast. “Mmmm, you remember how I used to suck on these?” he whispered in her ear.
Reka tried to pull away, repulsed by his touch. “Any boy can suck a breast, Donovan. That doesn’t make you my man.”
“You know I did more to you than that. And you did much more to me in return.” The more she squirmed, the more aroused he became. He’d come to see her this morning because he’d missed her, and even the wild night he’d shared with Sonya didn’t begin to measure up to being with Reka. He could sleep with a million women and not get that same feeling. He needed her back.
When he moved his hand down to rub between her legs, she elbowed him hard in the ribs, then spun around and sent one powerful punch to his groin. Donovan leaned forward, mouth open, eyes bulging, quiet pain soaring through his body. Reka hurried to the door and swung it open. “I don’t give a damn what we did in the past. It’s over now! You can either leave on your own or I’ll call the police to escort you out!”
Staggering, Donovan made his way to the door but found enough breath to look up at her one last time. “You’re gonna be beggin’ me to take you back,” he gasped. “Soon.”
“In your dreams,” she said as she shoved
him through the door and slammed it.
* * *
Putting the phone down for the third time since ten o’clock this morning, Khalil looked out onto his busy street, wondering where she was. It was close to one now and he hadn’t spoken to Reka since he’d left her at her door at about two this morning.
He’d wanted her to stay the night, to wake up in his arms this morning, to share breakfast and conversation with him. But she’d declined.
“This is the first time I’ve actually been in love and I don’t want to mess it up by moving too fast. I have a feeling we’ll be spending lots of nights together soon, so this one isn’t a big deal.” She’d stood on tiptoe and kissed him as she said this in the shower.
He’d obliged. Whatever made her happy he was willing to do. Still, he’d wanted to spend the day with her, maybe go shopping since he knew she loved to do that. And, no, he wasn’t going to try and buy her; he simply wanted to be with her. But she wasn’t there.
Holding her in his arms last night had been beyond anything he ever imagined. She was so different from what he was used to, so pleasantly unexpected. He loved her sharp wit, her energetic spirit and her loyalty. She was loyal and devoted to Cienna and Keith for the roles they’d played in her life, for their believing in her. She was strangely loyal to Tacoma and the friendship they shared, the friendship he was just a little bit jealous of from time to time. Tacoma knew her in a way that Khalil was afraid he’d never be able to understand. Yet they shared their own closeness, their new bond forged last night in his bed.
He wasn’t going to crowd her, wasn’t going to push. A woman like Reka needed her space. But dammit, he wanted to see her or at least hear her voice. Leaving the window, he headed towards his room to shower and dress. He was going to stop by her apartment and if she wasn’t there, he’d ask Grammy where she was. They were a couple now, and spending time together was imperative, or at least he told himself it was.
The ringing phone stopped him before he progressed any further. Hoping it was Reka, he lunged for the receiver, snatching it up before its second ring. “Hello.”
“Well, hello. Did I interrupt you?” Sonya asked.
Not bothering to mask his disappointment, Khalil sighed heavily. “All your phone calls and all your appearances interrupt my life. Now what do you want?”
“Are you still angry about yesterday?”
“No. I’m not angry. I’m disappointed in you and in my mother. I thought you were a mature woman, one who could walk away when things were over and done with. I see I was wrong.”
“That’s just it, Khalil, I don’t believe things are over and done with, as you put it. Just because you are sleeping with that woman now doesn’t mean a thing to me.”
He laughed incredulously. “Then you’re worse off than I thought. If I’m sleeping with another woman that means I’m involved with her, I’m committed to her. I don’t sleep around meaninglessly, Sonya.”
“But apparently you did with me,” she said.
“No.” Pinching the bridge of his nose, he tried to remain calm. “What we had was not meaningless; it just wasn’t going in the direction everybody assumed it was. I wasn’t in love with you, not the way a man should be when he marries a woman. I thought you’d appreciate me being candid with you about that.”
“Please, Khalil, we both know the best marriages don’t have an ounce of love in them. The union between you and me will be for profit, a stable merger of our families. It would make our parents extremely happy.”
“It would make me miserable.”
“And that little hottie you’ve got won’t?” Sonya chuckled. “What do you really know about her, Khalil? She doesn’t run in our circles, so why is she so appealing to you? Is it the sex?”
This conversation was quickly getting on his nerves. “That’s none of your business.”
“Then it must be the sex. That’s explainable. I’ve heard she’s quite good.”
Taken aback, Khalil looked at the phone, then asked, “What are you talking about?”
“Oh, I didn’t tell you I knew Reka, did I? Or I guess I should say know of her?”
“I’m too old for games, Sonya. This conversation is over.” But before he could hang up her words stopped him.
“Ask her about Donovan Jackson, her ex. Or should I say her ex-ex, since they seem to have rekindled their affair.”
He did hang up then, not only because the sound of her voice was grating on his nerves but because the name Donovan Jackson was familiar to him. He’d gone to court with Reka that day last week that she’d had marked on her calendar. Actually, he’d followed her because she never mentioned the court date to him.
Donovan Jackson was named as the owner of the car she was arrested in and, while all the charges against her were dropped, he’d sensed there was a connection between her and this Jackson person. So calling back to his office, his real office, he’d asked an assistant to run a check on the name. The report had come over his personal email on Wednesday, but he’d pushed it to the side. After Tyrese had left his office and he’d gone to see Reka, his attention had been focused solely on finding the source of those emails so he wouldn’t feel that he was betraying Keith and Cienna by being involved with Reka.
Khalil moved into the bathroom, thinking his day now had a new focus. Instead of going to see Reka he would be visiting the offices of Page & Associates, where there was a file on his desk he needed to read.
* * *
Reka had spent the entire day yesterday with Tacoma while thinking about Khalil. He hadn’t been home when she’d called and, just as she’d thought about stopping by his apartment later that evening, Grammy and Janell had come in and she’d been coerced into going to the movies with them.
She’d dreamed of him all night, though, of his touch, his kiss, his whispers in her ear, and couldn’t wait another minute to hear his voice. Rolling over in her bed, she picked up the phone. Before dialing his number she glanced at the clock. It was a little after ten; that wasn’t too early to call.
“Hello?” he answered gruffly.
“Mornin’ baby. I missed you so much yesterday I had to call you before I even got out of bed this morning.”
Khalil had gone through a really hectic day. The Friday he’d imagined that he and Reka would spend together, followed by making love that night, had vanished the moment Sonya called. He’d gone to the office and read the report on Donovan Jackson. Then he’d called his office to get clarification on some points. And all the while in the back of his mind he’d willed himself to believe that Sonya was wrong. Just how she knew Donovan or of Donovan’s past relationship with Reka, he wasn’t quite sure. After his initial doubts and urges to question Reka he’d finally resolved himself to the fact that she had a past and that past had nothing to do with them now.
He’d fallen asleep believing without a shadow of a doubt that he was in love with Reka Boyd and that she was in love with him. And he’d awakened, thankfully, to her voice.
“Hey you, I missed you too.” Settling back against his pillows, he tucked one arm behind his head and relaxed. She was his woman now, and that was all that mattered.
“I take it you had as busy a day as I did yesterday since I didn’t hear from you.”
He thought about his day again. “Yeah, you could say that. So are you ready for tonight?” Determined not to think about Donovan Jackson or Sonya anymore, he changed the subject.
“Hmph. I’m as ready as can be. But I have to say I’m not looking forward to it.” Twirling a strand of hair between her fingers, she thought about Sensuality, Inc.’s launch party tonight.
“Why not? I hear Mr. Peterson throws a great party. I know that Cienna and Keith are looking forward to it.”
“That’s because Cienna wants to hurry up and get it over with. And I don’t blame her. Maybe with the release out of the way those emails will stop.”
At the mention of the emails and the infamous Jack another thought worried Khalil. “You have
n’t gotten any more personal emails, have you?”
Reka heard the concern in his voice and instantly warmed. She had a man who cared about her and sexed her like crazy—she’d hit the jackpot this time! “Only if you count the ones I received from KJF.” She smiled as she remembered his last message.
Khalil couldn’t help feeling good. She liked his attention as much as he liked giving it. “You know I’m not talking about his messages.”
“I know, but they’re the ones I look forward to.”
“Really? And why is that?”
She cuddled under the warmth of her blankets, wishing he were lying beside her. “I don’t know. It’s just this feeling I get when I see his name in my Inbox.”
“A feeling, huh?” Her voice had lowered and came through the phone like a sultry melody. “Explain this feeling.”
“Mmmm, I don’t know if I can.” She wasn’t sure about explaining it but she was feeling it right now, the warmth spreading throughout her body, the tingling of her skin in anticipation of his touch.
“Try. I’m really interested in hearing it.” Bare-chested, Khalil adjusted the sheet at his midsection, spreading his legs to accommodate his growing arousal.
His voice had grown husky and Reka sensed he was interested in hearing something else. Biting on her lower lip she wondered if she should do it. With anybody else she wouldn’t hesitate, but how would Khalil perceive her if she did? Hell, he was practically begging her to do it. Besides, they were in love now. Anything goes when you’re in love!
“I get all warm inside,” she began in a soft whisper. “I start to smile even as visions of him appear in my mind. I instantly remember his last kiss, his last touch and I hurry to open to the message to see what he has to say this time.”
“Go on,” Khalil insisted, his eyes closing to the sweet sound of her voice.
“I read the message as if he’s right there speaking to me, his voice whispering in my ear, sending tingles down my spine. I read it again because it makes me feel closer to him. Then I rub my fingers over the keys on my keyboard, wishing they were moving over his strong arms instead.” Because she was really getting into this, Reka liked her lips, and rolled onto her side with the phone cuddled between the pillow and her ear.
