“Okay,” Pearl said. “He was so nice to pick up all this stuff for me.”
Ruby put the paint roller on the tray and sat down on the closed commode. Did her family think her dull? She didn’t have anything against bright, fashionable colors. She’d simply been so busy since their mother died trying to be a role model for her sisters that she hadn’t given much thought to being fashionable and to making a life with a man of her dreams. No wonder she hadn’t been able to please Luther. But she had no intention of withering like a rootless plant in the hot sun. She would always be grateful to Luther for teaching her her sexual potential, but now that she knew what she was capable of, she wasn’t going to be timid about exploring it.
Ruby pulled off the rubber gloves and brought the paint and roller to the kitchen. “Where do you want me to put—” She broke off when she saw her sister on the phone. “Who’re you calling? Are you talking to Luther?”
“Just a minute, Luther,” Pearl said. “I think Ruby wants to speak with you.”
“I do not. I didn’t say I wanted to—” Pearl shoved the phone to her face. “Uh…hello, Luther. Actually I didn’t tell Pearl I wanted to speak with you. I asked her if she was speaking with you.”
“So I heard. I never did find out why she called. Let me speak with her.” Ruby listened for a few seconds, long enough to realize that he wouldn’t say anything else, and handed the phone back to Pearl, who, with her mouth agape, nearly dropped it.
“I’m going to skip the quiche,” Ruby told Paige, since Pearl was still speaking with Luther. “I’d rather shower than eat. Tell Pearl I’ll meet her at Saks tomorrow at five.”
She couldn’t get out of there fast enough.
After Pearl’s wedding she told herself she’d take a nice long vacation. That would make it impossible for her sisters and their cousin Paige to pester her about her behavior during and after Opal’s wedding reception. Frankly, she was sick of hearing about it, because she was sure she hadn’t done anything dishonorable. She’d always heard it said that a person wouldn’t do anything when inebriated that she wouldn’t do sober. “I’m definitely counting on that,” she said to herself and walked into her house. Actually, it was the family home, and she’d give anything if her sisters would agree to sell it and share the proceeds. But no, they wanted to gather there on holidays and special occasions with her substituting for their parents. She didn’t mind, because she loved her sisters.
The phone rang as she walked in. She didn’t have to look at the caller ID; she knew she’d hear Pearl’s voice.
“Hi, Pearl,” she said. “What’s up?”
“Hi, Ruby. This isn’t Pearl. This is Trevor Johns. Pearl and Wade sent me an invitation to their wedding, and I…uh…would you allow me to accompany you?”
Well, maybe her life was about to become interesting. “Why, yes. I’d enjoy your company,” she said, seeing an opportunity to show Luther that he had nothing to fear from her, that she didn’t expect anything of him more than usual. “But I have to be there a little early,” she added.
“That doesn’t matter,” he said. “Just tell me what time to come for you.”
She told him, adding that she would look forward to seeing him. She didn’t plan to mention the date to her sisters. Oh, they’d have something to say, but she wouldn’t hear them. She hoped Luther would notice that she wasn’t without a date at the reception. He hadn’t even said goodbye to her when they spoke on the phone, so he wouldn’t ask her to go along with him. Let him wonder about Trevor Johns and what he was to her. She just couldn’t figure out why Trevor had asked her when Detroit was full of younger and flashier women. If he had an agenda, she’d know it quickly.
Chapter 2
Ruby went to meet Pearl and Amber at the famous department store somewhat halfheartedly that afternoon. Reasonably satisfied with herself, she saw no reason to remake herself to suit anyone, including her beloved sisters. But a kind of restlessness pervaded her, and she couldn’t put her finger on the why or what of it. Granted that, after what Luther did to her, an eagerness to discover more about sex and to make up for lost time seemed to have gotten a solid hold on her. Still, that didn’t seem to be reason enough to dress according to Amber’s sense of fashion. Or Pearl’s, for that matter.
She strode into the store and headed for the bank of elevators where her sisters waited for her. “Sorry I’m a little late, but the traffic was awful.”
“I thought maybe you’d decided to let us mind our own business,” Amber said.
“Don’t think it didn’t occur to me,” Ruby replied.
“I saw a beauty in last Sunday’s paper,” Pearl said. “I hope you’ll like it, ’cause I think it’s perfect for you.”
When they wandered into the section containing evening gowns, Ruby stopped at the first rack. “That one’s pretty.”
Amber rejected it. “It’s blue and doesn’t have a bit of sex appeal. Try living dangerously for once, and wear something that flatters your figure. If I had your height and figure, I’d dress like Halle Berry and Tyra Banks. Give ’em something to whistle at.”
Ruby couldn’t help laughing. Amber knew how to make a case for the ridiculous. Something to whistle at, indeed! “I’m not wearing anything that has my nipples showing. Half of these dresses don’t leave a thing to the imagination, neither above nor below the waist.”
“Put one of ’em on, and I bet you won’t leave that reception alone,” Amber said.
Ruby wasn’t going alone, but she didn’t plan to tell them.
“How about this one?” Pearl said, holding up another gown. “It’s dazzling, and you can wear it.”
“It’s red,” Ruby said, wrinkling her nose and making a face. “Attention is supposed to be on the bride.”
“Oh, I’ll get enough attention,” Pearl assured her. “I just want you to look great. Try it on.”
“Yes, indeed!” Amber said. “That dress is to die for. Go on. Try it.”
Ruby hated pulling off her clothes, and liked even less trying on clothes in stores. But she knew when to give in. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
“Uh-uh,” Amber said. “We’re going in there with you.”
Resigned, she found a size ten and a size twelve and took both into the dressing room. She tried on the ten first and let out a gasp.
“What did I tell you?” Amber asked in a voice that held more than a note of triumph. Superiority was more like it, Ruby thought.
She had to admit that she’d never looked that good in anything. “But what about my shoulders?” she asked, hoping to finding something wrong with the strapless, draped sheath in brick red.
“What about ’em?” Pearl said. “This dress is perfect on you. Wrap it up, girl, and let’s go. Wade’s waiting for me. We have a date tonight.” She winked at Ruby. “In this dress you’ll get one, too.”
On New Year’s Eve Ruby wore the same royal blue dress and jacket to Pearl’s wedding that she’d worn to Opal’s the week before, but with her hair up in a French twist and Amber’s “Jezebel earrings,” as Wade called them. She looked much better. Even she had to admit that last week the dress didn’t do a thing for her. Except get her into trouble with Luther.
After the ceremony, she rushed home to change into the red evening gown for the reception. She stood at the mirror admiring what she saw and appreciating, at last, her sisters’ pleas to stop looking so dowdy. From now on, she vowed, there would definitely be some changes made. She slipped on her black satin shoes, got the matching purse and added her perfume—something else she intended to change. After wearing the same fragrance for over ten years, she could use a different scent. Yes, indeed, she told herself as she walked down the stairs, anybody who expected the same old Ruby was in for a surprise.
She let Trevor Johns ring a second time before she opened the door. He stared at her, and she’d swear with her hand on the Bible that his eyes doubled in size.
“Ruby?”
She squelched the laughter, but a
grin broke out on her face nonetheless. “Hi, Trevor. Come on in while I get my coat.”
“You sure look pretty. Even prettier than you looked last week at Opal and D’marcus’s wedding. You ought to wear red all the time.” He handed her a bouquet of yellow roses. “I didn’t get red ones, because they’re supposed to be for intimate relationships, but I sure wish I had.”
She decided not to comment on that. If he was working up to something, she didn’t think she was ready to hear it. Not that he wasn’t interesting in some ways. He towered over her, and that was in his favor, as were his good looks. And the brother knew how to put on clothes; he looked almost as great in that tux as Luther did in his. Luther…She was not going to allow him to cross her mind. She put the roses in a vase on the table in her foyer and handed him her coat.
He helped her into her coat without allowing his hands to touch her bare shoulders—another point in his favor—and she let herself relax. The evening would be all right.
“I wonder what’s keeping Ruby,” Luther said to Opal and D’marcus, who had delayed their honeymoon in order to attend Pearl and Wade’s wedding. They stood near the door at practically the same spot where, only one week earlier, he’d kissed Ruby for the first time. It seemed as if years had passed.
“I think she’s with Pearl,” D’marcus said. “You know Ruby has to check everything out. I expect she’ll be out here in a minute or two. After all, she’s at the head of the receiving line, and it’s time for the reception to begin.”
Luther hoped they considered it normal for him to express concern about Ruby. He was worried about her; maybe he’d killed any chance that he could have a relationship with Ruby. He didn’t expect her to accept him as a lover, her behavior since rocking him out of his senses was proof of that.
What the hell! He stared in disbelief as Ruby—it was Ruby, wasn’t it?—approached them arm in arm with a six-and-a-half-foot turkey dressed up in a penguin suit. He shook his head in dismay. He wasn’t being fair, but he couldn’t help it. The knife stabbed his gut and then turned when she looked up at the guy and smiled.
“Hi,” she said airily, as if she hadn’t created a stir. “The place is lovely, isn’t it? And so romantic.”
“Hello, Ruby,” he said, struggling to keep his voice low and calm. “Well, I suspect you’re ready to begin receiving, so I’ll see you later.”
“Oh, Luther!” she said, as if he were an afterthought. “You’re supposed to be in the receiving line right after Amber and Paul. Where do you think you’re going?”
He wanted badly to tell her he was going where he wouldn’t see her, but instead, he said, “Where did you think I was going?” and headed down to where Amber and her new husband, Paul Gutierrez, shared a laugh with Paige Richards. He didn’t wait to be introduced to Ruby’s date. Indeed, he didn’t want to meet the man or even to remember what he looked like. And he prayed to God she wouldn’t drink any champagne. In all the time he thought about it, he hadn’t been able to figure out any other reason why she’d made love with him last week. She had appeared to be stone-cold sober, and he prayed that she had been, but then, why did she reject him? He shook his head. He wasn’t going into that again; he’d suffered enough about it.
“Who’s the guy with Ruby?” he asked Paul.
“Damned if I know, man. I hardly recognized her. Talk about a siren! She ought to come out like that all the time.”
“Tell me about it. Where are the bride and groom?” he asked Amber, effectively getting the conversation away from Ruby.
“They’ll be in as soon as the best man gives the signal, and he has to get it from Ruby,” Amber said. “Reminds me of Ford’s assembly line. Thank goodness Paul and I skipped all this formal stuff.”
Luther looked from Amber to his friend Paul, and for the first time that evening, a feeling of warmth and happiness enveloped him. When he’d sent his buddy to rescue Amber from Dashuan Kennedy—a no-good man if ever there was one—he didn’t dream that Amber and Paul would fall in love and marry. But as he thought of it now, it couldn’t have been otherwise. They seemed to suit each other the way pods suited peas. Perfectly.
He waited until Pearl and Wade entered, heard the toasts and gave his own toast as was expected of him. He was about to leave when D’marcus moved to the microphone.
“We have a little news for you,” he said with his arm tight around the waist of his new wife. “We hunted half a year for it, but today we found our dream house. I just wanted to share that with our families and friends and to let you all know that we’ll be staying right here in Detroit.”
“Well,” Pearl said when the applause died down, “congratulations, Opal and D’marcus. I’m happy you’ll be staying here, because I’ve decided not to audition for that record label in Nashville. I got a call from a label right here in Detroit, and I’m going for it. I can pursue a singing career and stay right here with my husband and my family.”
Luther gazed around him at the hugs and smiles of joy. The Lockharts had been a part of his life since he was a boy. They were grown now with men of their own, and they didn’t need him. His gaze locked on Ruby, dazzling in that red dress and those shimmering earrings, with her hair pulled back to expose her high cheekbones and sculpted face. Against the soft candlelight, she bloomed like an American beauty rose, her skin glowing above the strapless gown. He sucked in a breath. In his mind’s eye, he envisaged her escort with his mouth on her sweet breast. Damn! It was time he got on with his life.
He hugged Pearl and shook Wade’s hand. “Have a happy, you two. If you need me, you know where to find me.”
Then he thought twice about leaving so early, as anger stirred in him. He wasn’t an old shoe to be discarded with the advent of a new style. It was New Year’s Eve, three minutes to midnight. Damned if he’d let that guy kiss her at the stroke of twelve. He walked over to her and took her hand, delighted when her eyes widened and her lower lip dropped.
“May I have this dance?” he said. He didn’t wait for her to answer, and began the dance.
“It was a nice wedding reception, wasn’t it?” she asked him as they moved in the slow waltz.
“I dislike meaningless small talk, Ruby, just as I hate every other kind of superficiality.” She seemed to recoil from the blow of that comment, but he didn’t care. At least, she was still perceptive.
“Happy New Year,” someone yelled. Impulsively, he locked her to him, pressed his lips to hers, and when, in her shock, she parted them, he plunged into her. Caught off guard, she pulled him into her, loving him in return. His heart skipped a beat and then took off, as all of his blood seemed to head in one direction, straight to his groin, burning his veins with the heady heat of desire He stopped, almost pushing her away when fire roared through him. He’d meant to punish her with that kiss, but it was he who received the chastening.
He could feel the tremors that shook her, but no matter, he stepped farther away from her. “Happy New Year, Ruby.” Without looking at anyone or letting anybody catch his eye, he walked out. Not even the biting cold air sobered him mentally or tempered his desire. He got in his car and just sat there, listless, unable to will himself to start the motor and drive. He’d been alone plenty in his life, but he didn’t remember having been as lonely as he felt right then.
After nearly a quarter of an hour, he inserted the key into the ignition, revved the motor and headed home.
Ruby stood as he left her, catatonic, unable to move. What on earth had possessed Luther to do that in front of all those people? She looked around, expecting that she’d be the center of attention, that everyone would be staring at her, but it seemed that no one had noticed it, and she realized that others had been sharing New Year’s Eve kisses and hadn’t seen her exchange one with Luther. None, except Trevor Johns.
He strode over to her, took her arm and walked with her to the anteroom. “What was that about? What’s that guy to you?”
She didn’t like being questioned, although Trevor had escor
ted her to the reception and probably thought he had a right to know why she’d kissed another man in his presence.
“I didn’t expect that any more than you did,” she said. “If I ever find out why he did it, I’ll tell you. Right now I’d like to drop it. I’m sorry if it embarrassed you.”
“I’d been hoping that you and I might get something going,” he said, “but…Look, you kissed him back. I mean, you didn’t fool around.”
“Look, Trevor, I’ve known him since I was two or three. Think nothing of it.”
“If you say so. But can you kiss me the way you kissed him?”
Her face twisted into a frown. This man was too possessive. “I haven’t known you as long as I’ve known him,” she said and whirled around to go back to join her family at their table.
“Having a problem?” D’marcus asked her.
“Thanks. I can handle it.” If she’d driven her own car, she’d be on her way home right then.
“If you decide you want to go home, let me know,” D’marcus said. “This is what brothers are for.”
“Thanks, bro,” she said. “I’ll remember that.”
Later, after deciding that she didn’t know Trevor Johns well enough to trust him, she said to D’marcus, “Why don’t you and Opal drop by for a glass of wine or a cup of coffee on your way home?”
“I’m driving, so I’ll skip the wine,” he said, “but I’d love a cup of good coffee.”
Ruby had to tap Trevor’s forearm to get his attention. “I’m ready to go. Ruby and D’marcus are coming by for coffee. Are you ready?”
His expression of surprise suggested to her that he had either expected her to leave without him or that having her brother-in-law and sister for company had derailed his plans. “Is this some kind of family custom?” he asked her. “I mean…Well, hell. Let’s go.”
His response tempted her to tell him good-night then and there, but she restrained herself and forced a smile. “We’re ready, D’marcus.”
Forbidden Temptation Page 3
