The child would not have his last name, but he would support said child until it was an adult.
Apparently Shelly accepted all of these terms along with one million dollars that had already been deposited into her account.
“Bastard!” Shelly screamed, flinging the papers violently across the room.
She’d taken him to court, of course, but the document was legal and binding and sure, she could try to find loopholes, but that would be near impossible and expensive, her attorney had advised.
“Just take the money, darling,” Eloise Shipton had counseled in her Southern drawl, “and start a new life. Forget about him.”
It was easier said than done, but she’d done it.
Shelly moved to the West Coast and went back to school. She threw herself into learning and into raising her child. It wasn’t until a professor pulled her aside to praise a short story she’d written that Shelly even considered writing as a career.
“You should really think about expanding on this story and submitting it,” he’d urged.
And she did just that. Poured all of her love, hate and frustration into that one story.
But as good as her professor claimed her story was, the publishing houses begged to differ, and so she’d gone the self-publishing route.
At first just one hundred copies, which she carried around in her backpack, hawking them to her classmates.
When she sold out of those she had two hundred more copies printed and started leaving those at local bookstores, handing out free copies during rallies, leaving them in conspicuous places.
She received e-mail after e-mail congratulating her on her tantalizing story and inquiring when the next one was coming.
Inspired, she dove into a prequel and then a sequel. All were received well.
A year later, the big boys came knocking, offering her a six-figure book deal. Shelly snubbed her nose at them and they hiked the offer up to seven figures.
It was pure coincidence that she’d ended up living right across the street from Claude. She’d been on the West Coast for nearly fifteen years, but their daughter had made up her mind that she wanted to attend a creative and gifted boarding school in Delaware and so Shelly had packed up and moved back east.
After a stint in New York, she’d finally settled in Plainfield.
Claude came a year later. But due to their hectic travel schedules, neither one knew the other was living on the same street for some time.
In fact they hadn’t laid eyes on each other until just a few weeks before Crystal and Javid arrived.
Shelly had laughed herself silly at the look of shock, surprise and anger on his face when their eyes met.
She saw his lips form the word “Fuck!” and all Shelly could think of saying was, “Now is that any way to greet your first wife after all of these years?”
“You were my second wife,” he’d hissed at her before climbing into his expensive car and screeching away.
She was surprised to find that his words had stung, even after so many years.
One day, she’d sent her daughter—their daughter—over to return a magazine the postman had mistakenly put into her mailbox.
Shelly knew she should have just tossed the magazine away or given it back to the postman, but she was feeling particularly ornery that day and just wanted to see exactly what Claude would do when he came face to face with his daughter.
Claude swung the door open, took the magazine, and thanked Amber as if she was some stranger. As if they didn’t share the same bloodline.
His eyes hardly swept her face before he closed the door.
31
“Omigoooooood!” Geneva squealed after flinging the door open and looking out to see Noah, Zahn and their daughter, Destiny.
She ran into Noah’s arms and they squeezed each other tight. “I-I can’t believe it’s you,” she blubbered, as she wiped the tears of happiness from her cheeks.
Geneva pulled back and then fell into him again.
“I guess you and I are just chopped liver, Destiny,” Zahn quipped in his British accent.
“Oh no, no, of course not!” Geneva announced as she released Noah and went to Zahn, embracing him in a bear hug and then leaning down toward Destiny.
“Aunt Geneva, not so tight this time, okay?”
Geneva waved her hand and scooped the child up into her arms.
It had been more than a year since Geneva had seen them.
She, Noah, Crystal and Chevy had grown up together in the Manhattan projects. They’d been inseparable up until a few years ago. Noah had started the trend, living part time in London with his lover, Zahn, and then moving there completely after he found he’d fathered a child during the year he’d come to refer to as his year of “madness,” when he’d spent twelve full months sleeping with women.
The mother of his daughter was a really nice woman whose life was being torn apart by MS.
“Where’s the little woman?” Noah asked as Geneva gave them a quick walk through the new place.
“With her daddy.”
Noah was hinting about moving back to the States.
“… even though it’s a shithole of confusion with that damn Bush!”
“Yeah, well, this is his last year and I’m voting for Obama!”
“Me too!” Destiny looked up from her bowl of grapes and yelped.
“Too much BBC and CNN,” Zahn whispered.
Destiny, just six years old, was as smart as a twenty-year-old, in Geneva’s opinion.
They settled themselves down onto the matching sofa and loveseat. Noah ran his palm across the upholstered material and his face shone with approval. Geneva felt a wave a pride rush through her.
“So you said you didn’t tell Crystal you were coming to town?” asked Geneva.
“Well, I told her we were planning to come soon, but I didn’t give her an exact date.”
Geneva rubbed her hands together. “We should surprise her!”
“My exact thought,” Noah concurred. “I really want to meet this man … What’s his name again, sweetie?” Noah turned to Zahn.
Zahn shot Noah a bored look as he brushed a lock of blond hair from his face. “It’s Claude. How can you forget? She starts every sentence with ‘Claude.’ ”
“It’s true.” Geneva snickered.
“Yeah, well, she makes him sound like he’s God’s gift. So do tell, Geneva.” Noah folded one leg beneath him and slipped his pinky finger in the corner of his mouth. “Is he?”
Geneva shrugged her shoulders. “Haven’t had the pleasure.”
“What?”
“I’ve seen Crystal twice since she’s been back. We met for lunch in the city a few times and the other time I went out to her place, but Claude had taken the kids to the Bronx Zoo.”
Noah’s eyebrows climbed.
“Interesting.”
Zahn waved his hand dismissively. “Enough about Crystal’s God’s gift … Where is yours hiding?”
Geneva’s sunny mood clouded over. “On tour for a month.”
Noah slapped her knee. “Well, I guess that means you’ll need extra batteries now, won’t you!” he cackled.
“Extra batteries for what, Daddy?” Destiny asked.
“Never you mind,” Zahn said as he threw Noah a wicked look.
32
Karma’s hands were shaking, so she shoved them deeper into the pockets of the trench coat she wore.
“Hello,” she said as she approached the front desk. “CJ please.”
The front-desk manager, a middle-aged Asian woman, gave her a once-over and then smiled knowingly before picking up the phone and calling Claude’s suite.
Of course she knew. It was eighty degrees outside and Karma was wrapped up tight in a navy blue trench coat.
“It’s the Cual Flor Penthouse,” the manager said, and handed Karma a key.
“Stick this into the slot on the elevator and it will take you straight up.”
Karma didn’t even offer a
word of thanks. She hurried across the floor, her stilettos clicking loudly against the marble as she went. She felt as if the entire hotel could hear her and knew what naughty deed she was off to commit.
“Fuck,” she murmured, once inside the safe confines of the elevator. “Karma, girl, you have lost your entire mind,” she scolded herself.
The elevator doors slid open, exposing the palatial penthouse suite, which was decorated in different shades of cream and chocolate.
“Hello?” she called as she took a hesitant step into the room. “CJ?”
Beethoven’s Symphony no. 5 was gliding from speakers she couldn’t see and vapors from a sumptuous scented oil enwrapped her, instantly melting away her anxiety.
She walked toward the glass table, where a chilled bottle of champagne, two flutes and a bowl of chocolate-covered fruit waited.
Karma was about to unknot the belt of her trench coat when CJ’s voice floated from the right of her. “No, I want to do that.”
Karma swung around.
CJ had changed his mind about greeting her in his birthday suit. Instead he had wrapped himself in the plush terry-cloth robe provided by the hotel.
He started toward her, taking long confident strides.
“So glad you came,” he said, resting his hand on her shoulder and pressing a gentle kiss onto her lips.
Karma swooned.
CJ reached over and plucked a strawberry from the bowl. “Do you like strawberries?” he whispered.
Karma’s voice had left her. She nodded her head.
“And chocolate?”
Again she nodded her head.
Claude grinned as he slid the tip of the strawberry along her trembling lips until they parted. He took that opportunity to slowly move the strawberry into her mouth, teasing the tip of her tongue.
Karma’s eyes fluttered closed and desire swept through her body, causing her to sway in her stilettos.
CJ had no pity for her; he glided one piece of fruit after the next over her lips, across her collarbones, down the center of her neck, deep into her cleavage.
Finally, he undid the belt of her trench coat, parting the panels; he was extremely pleased with what he saw. Removing the coat, he tossed it to the side and slid the thin straps of the teddy off her shoulders.
Karma wanted to be an active participant in their foreplay, but when she raised her arms, he gently moved them back down to her sides.
CJ rolled down the bodice of the teddy, exposing her breasts. He gasped in awe of her pert, full nipples. “Beautiful,” he whispered before taking the left, then the right one into his warm mouth.
Karma moaned, and pressed her hands against his shoulder blades.
He sucked with abandon, and the silky seat of her teddy went wet.
CJ reluctantly pulled himself away from her breasts and slid the teddy down, down, until it lay in a silky mound at her feet.
Karma didn’t know when he’d disrobed, but when she opened her eyes he was naked and it was her turn to admire him.
CJ’s body was flawless, from his smooth chiseled chest to his washboard stomach and muscular thighs.
“Oh my,” she gasped as her eyes devoured the gleaming, dark stallion that reached out to her. It’d been a long time since she’d seen a dick that beautiful.
Karma, unable to contain herself, dropped down to her knees and began gently sucking the tip of his manhood.
CJ grunted with pleasure and grabbed hold of her hair.
Karma sucked and licked and rolled her tongue around every inch of his cock, and then she pulled back and leveled a wad of spit on his manhood.
CJ made a sucking sound with his mouth and moaned, “Oh fuck, baby, that shit is so hot.”
She swallowed him again, wringing his penis between her palms as she worked her magic with her mouth.
CJ’s eyes rolled up into his head and his knees began to falter. No one had sucked his dick like that ever, and even as the thought raced through his mind, he felt the pressure building up in his groin and before he could pull away from her, his back stiffened, his toes curled and he heard himself cry out as he came gushing into her mouth.
He was about to apologize. He was, after all, a gentleman. But when he looked down, Karma was grinning happily up at him, her lips glistening with his seed.
33
Crystal was staring at the door, well, really, at the lock on the door.
It couldn’t be picked, because it was a combination lock and digital at that.
She’d pressed a number of combinations into the pad … his birthday, her birthday, his daughter’s birthday, Javid’s birthday … and still the knob refused to turn.
Crystal knew exactly why she was suddenly bothered by Claude’s locked office.
She’d been in that house for three months, passing this very door a hundred times a day and rarely giving it a second glance, but Crystal had had a disturbing dream and woken this morning in a foul mood. She couldn’t quite remember the content of the dream, but she did remember that it had involved Claude’s office.
That dream, coupled with a comment she’d thought she’d heard Shelly mumble under her breath, explained why she was standing before it now, not even dressed and company barely thirty minutes away.
She grabbed hold of the knob once more, giving it a violent yank; of course nothing happened. In fact, the door—the knob as well as the combination keypad—seemed to mock her.
“Mommy,” Javid called to her from the second-floor landing.
“I’m coming, goddamnit!” she screamed back, before turning and climbing the stairs.
She never spoke to her child that way and she could already hear Javid whimpering in his room.
“How did you two get here?” was all Crystal could think to say when she swung her door open and found Geneva and Karma standing there.
They were supposed to call her when they arrived at the bus stop.
“I can drive, you know,” Geneva whined as she tossed a set of car keys from one hand to the next.
Crystal smirked at her. “Whatever,” she said, and then looked at Karma and said, “Hey, girl, nice to see you again.”
The two women stepped in; Crystal pushed the door forward on its hinges and it bounced back.
“Surprise!” Noah screamed.
Crystal was dumbstruck for a moment. Her eyes went wide, and then her hand came up and covered her mouth in surprise. From where Noah was standing he could clearly see the tears welling up in Crystal’s eyes.
“Oh, Miss Thang,” he sang, his voice choked with tears. Then when Zahn and Destiny stepped in, the waterworks really got started.
Karma, Zahn and Destiny watched as the three old friends embraced each other and wept.
Eyes red and still sniffling, they gathered in the kitchen.
“I just can’t believe you guys are here!”
Crystal had a tight grip on Noah’s hand. It didn’t seem as if she’d ever let it go.
Looking down at Destiny she exclaimed, “You are getting so big, young lady. You and Javid are making me feel old.”
Kayla lurked nearby, clutching her doll and sulking. She didn’t quite like it when she wasn’t the only pretty little girl in the room.
Noah hoisted himself up onto the wrought-iron stool and lifted Javid onto his knee.
Tweaking his little nose he asked, “Do you want to come to England and stay with your uncle Noah?”
Javid nodded his head enthusiastically.
“Javid, you’d leave me to go with Uncle Noah?”
Javid thought about it for a while and then asked, “Can Mommy come too?”
“I’ll have to think about that.” Noah laughed before setting him down again.
“Crystal, I know ya’ll got a kiddy room for these three to entertain themselves while we talk grown-up,” Noah said slyly.
Crystal grinned. She was looking forward to some grown-up talk, some happy reminiscing.
“Ya’ll go downstairs to the playroom,” Crystal ordered.
“I’ll bring some sandwiches and juice boxes down in a minute.”
Geneva frowned. “Where’s your maid?”
Crystal cringed at the word “maid.” “She’s off sick. Pneumonia, the flu or something like that.”
“Well, I know I didn’t come all the way out here to eat sandwiches—”
“Don’t worry, Geneva,” Crystal calmly assured her, “I fried some chicken, made some potato salad and honey-kissed beans.”
“Ah, sookie-sookie now!” Geneva squealed with delight.
“So,” Noah began, after Crystal rested a loaded plate of food down before him, “where’s the man of the house?”
Crystal smiled broadly; the arrival of her friends had sent the dream, the lock and Shelly’s words up in smoke. Now she was nothing but happy.
“I expect him shortly,” she said as she set Geneva’s plate down before her. “He was in California for a few days and should be climbing into his private car right about now.” She glanced at the digital clock on the double oven.
“Oooooh, private car,” Noah mocked.
“Must be nice to be married to a rich man,” Geneva managed between bites of her chicken.
Zahn’s head flew up. “You got married?” He turned to Noah. “You said they were shacking up—”
Noah raised his hand, halting Zahn’s words in their tracks. He turned and looked at Crystal. “Well, Miss Thang?”
Crystal shook her head in dismay and swatted Geneva on her shoulder. “Of course I didn’t marry him—well, not yet. Do you really think I would go and do a thing like that and not say a word, and not invite you to the wedding?”
“I’m saying,” Geneva sputtered after taking a large gulp of her Pepsi, “might as well be married. The two of you are living like man and wife.”
“So is he as glorious as you’ve been making him out to be?”
Crystal eased herself down into her chair and blanketed them all with a dreamy look. “He’s a wonderful, wonderful man. You know that song by Kimberly Locke … he’s like that!”
“Kimberly who?” Noah asked.
“Oh, oh … I know,” Geneva shouted excitedly. “The American Idol girl!”
Lover Man Page 11