Epilogue
The sound of the ocean, along with the gentle sway of the hammock, and Jacobe’s body curled up behind her, nearly lulled Danielle to sleep. Even being mostly naked except for the sheet wrapped around her, on a balcony in a villa in the French Riviera wasn’t enough to keep her eyes open. Moonlight created shadows around them, she was thoroughly sated, completely happy, and absolutely lazy.
After leaving Malawi, Jacobe surprised her with a quick weekend in a villa along the French coastline. Tonight was their last night. She looked forward to getting back to work. Debra had kept her abreast of what was happening, and her parents were excited to see her. Well, maybe looking forward to wasn’t the right phrase. Didn’t dread was more suitable.
Jacobe tightened his hold around her. “I told you there is a definite perk to a vacation where all you do is have sex.” His deep voice washed over her in the quiet night.
She smiled and snuggled closer into his warmth. “I wish it could last longer.”
“I thought you were ready to go home.”
“I miss my parents, and my friends,” she said. “At the same time I never want to leave.”
He kissed the top of her head. “Why?”
“Because I never want to forget how happy I am here with you.”
“You won’t. I’ll make sure of it.”
“Oh, really,” she said in a low, pleased voice. “How are you going to do that?”
“By giving you something that will always remind you of tonight.”
Danielle’s eyes opened. Curiosity bubbled up inside of her. “You got me a gift?”
“Wait. I’ve got to get up.” He slid her out of his embrace and got out of the hammock.
Danielle tightened the sheet around her chest and frowned. “Why? I liked laying here with you.”
Jacobe grinned at her and wrapped the other sheet around his waist. “Just wait.”
She let out a fake groan of annoyance. He went over to where his pants were folded over a chair. Danielle begrudgingly got up from her comfortable position to sit and let her legs hang off the side. Even though she wished he hadn’t moved, she did enjoy the view of his muscular body in nothing but a sheet and moonlight.
Jacobe returned with a hand behind his back. He awkwardly lowered to one knee. The sheet around his waist hindered his movements. Danielle’s throat constricted, and her heart danced.
“Danielle, will you do me the honor of marrying me?” He brought his hand from around his back and opened a small black box that held a beautiful diamond ring.
Danielle sucked in a breath. Tears stung her eyes and happiness burst in her chest. “Yes!”
Jacobe got up and came to her. He took her hand in his and stared into her eyes. “Are you sure? I mean, I know this may seem sudden, but I love you, Danielle. I don’t want anyone else, and I know I never will. I’ve wanted you since that first study session in college and nothing’s changed. After all these years, I only want you more.”
Tears slid down Danielle’s face, but her smile couldn’t be suppressed. Jacobe slid the ring on her finger then wiped away her happy tears. “Are you sure?” she asked. “Really sure. I love you, too, Jacobe. There’s no one else for me, but you’re going to be on the road. You’re going to be giving up a lifestyle most men dream ab—”
He kissed her softly. “I’m completely sure. I’ve lived that lifestyle. I don’t want do to that anymore. I want you with me at as many away games as you can make. There’s no other woman I need by my side. In fact—” He leaned down and got his cell phone off the table near the hammock. “Hold up your hand.”
She did and he took a picture of her with her hand up. The flash temporarily blinded her. After several blinks she watched him do something on his phone.
“What are you doing?”
“This.” He held up the phone so she could see the screen. Her jaw dropped. He’d posted the picture online, thankfully of just her hand—diamond ring shining—next to her smiling face, with the caption: She just made me the happiest man alive!!!
Danielle laughed and snatched the phone from him. “I can’t believe you did that.”
He cupped the side of her face in his hand. “Let the world know I’m officially off the market. I’ve hid from relationships for too long. I won’t hide this. I want everyone to know we’re together. That I’ll never leave you behind. That I love you.”
Her heart filled with so much emotion, she couldn’t speak. Tears came again. Jacobe leaned forward and kissed them away. Instantly her body responded. The masculine strength of his body pressed against hers, and she eased back in the hammock. His cell phone buzzed in her hand.
Danielle broke the kiss and looked at his phone. A text from Kevin popped up. Without her glasses, she squinted and read the message.
You owe me a G!!
“Why do you owe Kevin a thousand dollars?”
Jacobe grinned and looked at the message on the screen. He took the phone from her, which was now chiming with tons of responses to the picture. He silenced it before tossing the phone to the side. “Kevin told me from the start I was going to fall in love with you. He bet me. I lost.”
“I would say I’m sorry,” Danielle said grinning. She wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Don’t.” Jacobe pulled at her sheet until her body was naked beneath him. “That’s a bet I’m happy to lose.”
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from FEEL THE HEAT by Cheris Hodges.
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Feel the Heat
by Cheris Hodges
Chapter 1
Mimi Collins pressed the post button on her blog and all she heard was her best friend, Michael Jane, affectionately known as MJ, screaming.
“You have officially lost your mind,” she said. “This is worse than my mother misspelling Michelle and naming me Michael! You do realize that Fast Love is going to come after you when they read this.”
Mimi shrugged as she read over her post about the horrific dating event she’d attended the week before. Fast Love billed itself as the last site singles ever needed to log on to in order to find love.
What a bunch of bull. The Fast Love Mix and Mingle, which was held at SkyLounge in Atlanta, turned out to be casting call for “let’s have a one-night stand
.” The first two men who’d approached her held conversations with her breasts; the third man just came out and asked her when she planned to get naked for him, then he’d flashed her a wad of cash. She’d been offended and confused, so Mimi approached some of the other women who’d been invited to the event. Their stories had mirrored hers.
When Mimi had headed to the bar, she’d noticed a man sitting alone nursing a whiskey sour.
“Did you find what you were looking for?” she’d asked as she waved for the bartender.
He rolled his eyes at her and grumbled no. “This isn’t what I expected from the email Fast Love sent,” he’d replied, then took a long sip of his drink.
“What was in your email?”
“Hot girls looking for action.”
“Seriously?”
Nodding, he’d opened the mail app on his smartphone and showed her the Fast Love email. Mimi’s mouth dropped at the image of half-naked women underneath the headline: Hot Girls Willing to Do Whatever... Fast Love Dating Event.
“What in the...” Mimi waved for the bartender, again. She needed a drink. She asked the man to forward her the email.
“What’s in it for me?” he’d asked as he wiggled his eyebrows.
Narrowing her eyes at him, Mimi asked him if his wife knew where he was, then nodded toward his left hand and the telltale tan line on his ring finger.
“Whatever,” he said, then agreed to forward her the email. After downing her single-malt scotch, Mimi headed over to a group of women who looked as if they were about to leave. After introducing herself as a relationship blogger, she asked them if they would share their thoughts about the event and why they’d signed up for Fast Love.
Two of the three women agreed to talk, and her story was born.
“Mariah Danielle Collins!” MJ said, breaking into her thoughts. “Are you listening to me?”
“Nope,” Mimi replied. “And the post is already getting hits.” She turned her computer screen toward MJ. “Look! Five thousand hits in ten minutes. This is going to be epic. Let’s go celebrate.”
MJ shook her head. “As a brand manager, I know that Fast Love isn’t going to take this sitting down. And you have to think about your own brand! Hello, you are a New York Times bestselling author and we’re in the middle of contract negotiations. You can’t have this kind of publicity. This is going to be so ugly. So ugly.”
“Nothing I said was a lie. They should’ve done a better job marketing this event. It was like a one-sided meat market. I’m doing the world a favor by exposing this nonsense. Too many people exploit single women to make money, and Fast Love is just another one of those companies. Like that obnoxious radio host who has been married four times but is supposed to be a relationship expert.”
MJ cleared her throat. “And some people have labeled you the same, and I don’t see you saying that you aren’t an expert.”
Mimi threw up her hands. “I’m a lifestyle blogger and author.”
“And when that cable news network asked you to speak about dating in the digital age, I didn’t hear you tell Bianca Norman that you weren’t an expert.”
“Listen,” Mimi said, “that was the producer’s job to get her straight. And I’m not an expert.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” MJ quipped.
Mimi glanced at her computer and saw that her post had reached ten thousand views. “Guess who’s about to go viral! Come on, let’s go.”
The two friends headed for the Buckhead Saloon, one of Mimi’s favorite bars. She could always depend on the bartenders to hip her to the latest drinks and celebrity gossip in the city. She even had her own drink there, the aptly named Mimi Collins—a fruity version of a Tom Collins. Mimi’s book, Dating in Atlanta: The Mis-Adventures of Mimi Collins, had given the place a huge buzz because many of the dates she’d written about had started there. And when one of the reality stars from the city had talked about Mimi’s book and the bar in a popular magazine, the place became a bona fide hot spot. The owners knew they had Mimi to thank for that. This afternoon, though, MJ and Mimi were going to celebrate with some hot wings.
“Mimi,” MJ said as they walked into the bar. “What if Fast Love doesn’t take to kindly to your viral post? You have a lot going on right now. You have the movie and second book deal in the works, and this could derail all of that.”
“You worry too much.” She waved to her favorite bartender as she and MJ took their seats at the end of the bar.
“Mimi, girl,” Lydia said as she poured two drinks. “You’re blowing up today! I was going to sign up for Fast Love, but after reading your blog I’m glad I didn’t. I can meet creeps right here for free.”
Mimi turned to MJ. “I did a public service. Now, what was that you were saying about Fast Love coming after me?”
Before MJ could answer, Mimi’s cell phone rang. “Oh my goodness, it’s World Wide News,” Mimi said, then answered her phone.
* * *
Sweat poured from Brent Daniels’s face as he and Jamal Carver, his best friend, lifted the sofa from the back of the moving truck. “Tell me again why you didn’t hire movers?” Jamal asked as they maneuvered the sofa up the stairs of the condo complex.
“Because the movers were booked up today and I need my furniture,” Brent grunted.
“So damned impatient! If I didn’t like this sofa, I’d drop it on your feet.”
“We’re strong enough to do this. Besides, you could use the exercise.”
“You know I can drop it and go home.”
“All right, all right. Dinner’s on me.”
“That’s a given.” The men climbed the three stories and made it to Brent’s front door.
“Why did you decide to move anyway?” Jamal asked.
“Tired of yard work,” Brent joked. “Besides, I moved out to the burbs because I thought I’d be starting a family.”
Jamal dropped his head. “I tried to warn you. Denisha Tate wasn’t worth your lifestyle change.”
Brent sucked his teeth. “Are you ever going to let that go?”
“Nope. Because you keep dating these paper broads.”
“Here we go,” Brent said as he unlocked the door.
“You want these women who have all of the right papers. The Spelman graduates, the PhDs from Yale, the Links sisters...”
“Stop it.”
“You need to stop it. You’re so busy trying to craft a perfect life that you’re not living. You’re a litigating machine, but when you crawl out of your work hole, you’re boring.”
Brent shook his head. “I’m far from boring. I just choose not to run the streets like a college student looking to score.”
“Hey, I resemble that remark. Dude, we’re living in the land of plenty. Plenty of booty, plenty of breasts and plenty of women who are down for whatever. You’d know that if got out of your law office every now and then. As a matter of fact, we’re going out tonight.”
“I’ve got briefs to prepare.”
“After all of the work I’ve just put in moving your bed and desk, we’re going out tonight to have a good time.”
Brent relented because he couldn’t deny how much help Jamal had been in moving his stuff. There was a part of him that knew there was a lot of truth in what Jamal said. But he had to craft his life this way; being the son of one Georgia’s most notorious lawyers who fell from grace made everything he did subject to scrutiny.
Did he push himself too hard? Maybe. But he never wanted anyone to ever mistake him for his womanizing father. So, he had a type, and if she stepped out of line, his next step was out the door. Brent couldn’t help it that he needed someone who kept her business private to go along with the image he’d created for himself. But lately, the women he’d met wanted nothing more than to be the next housewife of some reality show.
And his ex-girlfriend Denisha Tate had almost sucked him into her plan. Who knew the contract attorney wanted their relationship to play out on TV?
“Yo,” Jamal said, snapping his fingers in Brent’s face, “we’re done, right?”
“Yeah. I’ll unpack this later.”
“All right then, we’ll meet back here in an hour and I will show you the beauty of Buckhead nightlife.” Jamal headed for the door, then turned around and gave his friend a stony look. “Now don’t let me come back in here and find you’re buried in a law book or a brief. Give it a break for a few days.”
Brent chuckled. “Okay. I’ll try. I will give you tonight because you had a brother’s back with this move. No work.”
Jamal nodded and headed out the door. Once he was alone, Brent walked over to the bay window looking over the city. Maybe this was the change that he needed.
Copyright © 2017 by Cheris Hodges
ISBN-13: 9781488013515
Full Court Seduction
Copyright © 2017 by Synithia R. Williams
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