“I trust him,” the girl said defensively.
“I know, I know.” Crystal put her hand out in a soothing gesture. “Just think about it. That’s all I’m saying.”
“I know I’ve been stupid,” said Jalessa, her jaw clenched. “But we love each other. I want to spend the rest of my life with him.”
“You’re what—sixteen?” Key said gently. “The rest of your life is a long, long time. I know you think right now this is what you want, but things change.”
“What do you want?” Jalessa lashed out. “You want me to give my baby away? Stay away from Marcus?”
Crystal winced and shot a surreptitious glance at Shonté. Shonté’s creamy skin flushed a little and her head dropped as she bit her lip.
Key glanced at Crystal when she remained silent. Then Crystal spoke slowly. “Nobody can make that decision for you. There are people you can talk to, though, who’ll help you decide. In the meantime, why don’t you stay here and chill a couple of days. I mean—” she looked at Shonté again, “if that’s okay with you, Shonté?”
“No problem,” said Shonté. She got up and started to gather the dishes.
“Okay,” said Jalessa in a small voice. She blinked rapidly and hugged her arms around her rounded belly.
“A couple of conditions, though,” said Crystal. “Marcus doesn’t visit unless one of us is here. And, we call your mother and get her permission.”
Jalessa started an instinctive protest.
“Don’t worry,” said Shonté with easy assurance. “Crystal will convince her it’s okay. She’s as upright as a deacon’s woman.”
Crystal’s gaze inadvertently clashed with Key’s before they both looked away. Her breathing sped up.
Shonté went on. “Why don’t you two go on in the living room and sort out the details. Key, you want to help me with the dishes?”
In the bustle of cleaning up, Key gave a lingering look at Crystal before he followed Shonté into the kitchen. Crystal was terrific with kids Jalessa’s age. Her college major had been psychology, and she’d even interned with a counseling center before she began to specialize in business. But it wasn’t simply her intelligence. She always seemed to know exactly what a person needed, and then she arranged it, putting her whole being into her efforts.
His blood stirred as he remembered how she’d given herself last night. He still had trouble thinking about it without starting to tremble. Fantastic, soul-rousing, toe-curling, chest-thumping, out-of-this-world, incredible sex. While the details were a little blurry in his mind, he knew nothing like that had ever happened to him before. If he didn’t get a chance to talk to her about last night soon, he was going to lose his mind. With an effort of will, he focused on what Shonté was saying.
“Don’t worry, Cee will handle Jalessa. I need to talk to you about something important.”
“Yeah? Are you okay with her staying here a couple of days?”
“No problem,” said Shonté in a breezy tone. “She reminds me of myself when I was young and stupid.”
He grinned at her and tugged the braid hanging down her back. “What are you saying? That you’ve changed, little princess?”
Shonté wrinkled her nose and punched his arm. “Smart aleck. Pass me the dishes.”
He brought them over as she turned on water in the sink.
“This is serious, Key. Do you know Crystal was out all night with some man and came in completely hung over at dawn?”
Key heard his pulse pound in his ears. “What did she tell you about it?”
“Nothing. She crashed and didn’t wake up until right before you got here. I haven’t had a chance to pump her yet.”
“Maybe it’d be a good idea to let her keep her privacy,” he said, compelling his voice to sound neutral.
Shonté rolled her eyes. “She doesn’t respect my privacy when it comes to my love life. You know how bossy she is, Key. I can’t get over her, lecturing me when she’s doing stuff like this.”
“What’s so terrible? You were the one who spent the night out before that.”
“But this is not Crystal! You know it isn’t. She’s always so buttoned up and traditional. I don’t know what to think.”
“Maybe it’s not what you imagine.”
“I’m not stupid, Key.”
He decided it was time to divert the subject. “Well, what about you? She says you’re hanging out with some scumball who’s cheating on his wife and kids.”
“Crystal’s such a prude. Well, she used to be.”
“Is she wrong about him?”
“I’m not serious about the guy,” she muttered, using more force than necessary to deposit a handful of spoons in the dishwasher rack.
“That’s good, because you know you can’t trust him if he’s already a cheater. And I hope you’re using protection.”
His sister flushed, her eyelashes fluttering, a sure sign of embarrassment. “Yeah, yeah.”
“And what about Graham?” he demanded, warming to the topic. “Does he know about this?”
She glared at him. “You’re as bad as Crystal. It’s not like you’ve been so pure yourself.”
“I never dated a married woman, Shonté, or lied to one,” he said with some sharpness. “Never! Can you imagine what Mom and Pop would say about something like that?”
Shonté’s bravado evaporated. She became a confused little girl. “It’s not like he’s happily married.”
“If his marriage is messed up, he needs to handle his business before he gets involved with you.”
“I’ll think about it, okay?” She scrubbed the countertop fiercely with a sponge before throwing it into the sink. “But in the meantime, you’ll talk to Crystal about last night, won’t you?”
Key seized his opportunity. “Don’t worry, I will. I need a few minutes alone with her. Why don’t you take Jalessa upstairs and get her settled?”
Shonté grunted agreement before leaving the kitchen. Key lingered behind to get ice cream from the freezer and fill two bowls with Rocky Road.
He entered the living room as Jalessa and Shonté clattered up the stairs.
“How about some dessert, Shortcake?” he asked, holding a bowl out to her.
Her full, dimpled smile rewarded him.
“Umm, just what I needed.” She held out both hands for the dish.
Her smile was wide and infectious, involving her entire face as well as her bright, molasses dark eyes. He had always liked Crystal’s looks. He knew she complained about not being skinny like a magazine model or like Shonté, for that matter, but she was soft and curvy in all the right places, with skin of pecan pie brown, a yummy armful of woman.
Even back in high school he’d thought so, which had led to their dating for a short while. He shied away from the memory of the disastrous ending to that period. Eventually they’d learned to be friends again. Since then, he’d put her in the same category with his sister. Fun sometimes, irritating sometimes, and he’d always been careful to keep things friendly. That had all changed last night. When he looked at her now, his hormones went into overdrive. All he wanted to do was enfold her in his arms, kiss her, stroke her, and make her scream with pleasure.
He almost dropped the bowl when Crystal’s fingers brushed his as she took it. He plunked into a chair angled next to the couch and they both concentrated on the nutty, marshmallow-gooey concoction.
“This is part of my nutrition plan,” she chattered, talking very fast. “Each day I try to eat something from each of the four basic food groups: the chocolate group, the salty snack group, the caffeine group and the whatever-the-thing-in-the-tinfoil-in-the-back-of-the-fridge-is group.”
He lifted his gaze with the beginning of a laugh and choked at the sight of her tongue lapping the underside of the spoon. He had never before noticed what a lush, rosy mouth she had, the generous Cupid’s bow curve, and her long, supple tongue. He set his bowl down hastily on the coffee table and drew his knees together. It didn’t help the swelling ac
he between his legs.
A moment of awkward silence passed.
Key rubbed one hand back along his straight corn-rowed braids. “We need to talk about last night, Crystal.”
Stirring her ice cream, she wrinkled her forehead. “Last night? Oh, that! You’d better be glad I’m not desperate enough to take you seriously. That was pretty blood warming.”
He glared at her, annoyed that she was going to try to play this off. “Is that all you have to say? We did the wild thing, the humpty-hump. We got our freak on. We—”
He paused, struggling for words.
She filled in helpfully, her eyebrows lifting. “Knocked boots? Did the horizontal tango? Push and pull?”
He was startled for a moment, but felt his blood heat in response. “Did the dirty. Slid the slick. Cleaned the windshield wipers,” he retorted, watching her face.
Crystal didn’t back down. “Put the hole in the bottle. Wonked the willie.”
His gaze held hers. “Hit a home run. Jacked the beam.”
She tapped her spoon on the bowl before nodding. “Toasted the marshmallow?”
He held back before stating, with great precision, “Put the beef in the taco.”
They stared at one other. Her mouth trembled. Then they broke up, folding over to keep from laughing too loudly, wheezing with glee until they recovered.
He shook his head in bemusement. “It’s not funny, Taylor. If this had happened with any other woman—”
“I know, Emerson. It was crazy, stupid. We had too much to drink.”
“And I took those painkillers on top of all the alcohol. I think I must have been psychotic there for awhile. I’m still trying to sort out how much of what I recall was real and how much was fantasy.”
He looked her up and down, still amazed at the woman he had discovered last night. Under his look, she squirmed, obviously uncomfortable. Key cursed his body’s sizzling response, telling himself she had every right to be wary of him.
“I owe you an apology, Shortcake. I should have stopped it before it went so far.”
“Oh, no, Key. I was a willing participant.”
Willing. The word echoed with sensual meaning. Their glances met and skittered apart.
“And one more thing, Key.”
“What?” he grunted.
Crystal took a deep breath and attempted to sound detached and clinical. “I’m sure you’re usually careful and all, but it would be a good idea if we both had a checkup with our doctors in the near future and found out if there was, you know, any significant news we need to pass on to the other one.” She stopped to breathe again, watching him.
Key shook his head, puzzled, then angry, then patently horrified. He didn’t say anything for a minute, just stared at her with stone-faced blankness. Then he slumped over his knees with a prolonged groan and stomped his feet a couple of times.
“Oh my God! Pregnant? You’re afraid you might be pregnant by me! Oh Geez, Crystal!”
“No, I don’t think so,” she reassured him quickly. “I’ve been using birth control since I was sixteen.”
He issued a shuddering groan in response. With his head still down, he said, “So you’re afraid I’ve given you an STD. I can’t deal with this, Shortcake.” A sigh hissed between his lips.
“This is not an indictment, Emerson,” she protested. “It’s just the way life is nowadays. I mean, neither of was a virgin.”
“I know, I know.” He sat up with a sigh and spread his hands in appeal. “But you’re my little Shortcake. And now we’re talking about STDs. I had a few drinks and I was like a dog in heat.”
“We both lost control,” she admitted. “But it was just the alcohol. The point is, I don’t want a momentary loss of control to come between us, Emerson.”
“Me either. But…” He fingered his upper lip where silken fuzz grew. “But maybe we should think about moving our relationship in a new direction. You know?” He waited uncertainly for her reaction.
Crystal jerked her attention back from the fantasy of tracing his shadowy mustache with the tip of her tongue. I have it bad! she thought in despair.
She pushed up from the couch and paced around to the back of it. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Emerson. We tried the love and romance routine once and it almost ruined our friendship. Don’t you remember?”
He froze, the memory coming in unpleasant clarity, causing an uneasy feeling. “Yeah, I had almost forgotten that. But we were only high school kids then.”
“We were old enough. And it was bad enough that I don’t want to risk it again.”
“What makes you so sure it would end badly?” he demanded.
Crystal took a few more steps and seated herself in a chair at the computer desk, clear across the room from him. “I don’t think love and friendship mix, Emerson. The personal dynamics are all wrong in our case.”
She took a moment to order her thoughts. “People have subconscious expectations of what an ideal lover should be. That’s only natural. In most relationships, there’s an on-going give and take as each partner weighs whether the rewards they’re getting from the relationship are worth the cost of what they have to give up. If they’re successful they achieve balance, what we like to think of as happiness.”
Key frowned at her. “Are you saying we can’t do that?”
She leaned forward with a gesture of appeal. “We know each other too well. I know I’m not your ideal, Key. No matter what you say, the knowledge is going to cause me continual frustration and I’ll end up being a bitch.”
He folded his arms. “How do you know what my ideal is?”
Crystal tilted her head with an indulgent, bittersweet smile. “I’ve been your home girl for thirteen years, Emerson. I’ve seen you with beautiful, sophisticated, adoring women. And, sweetie, that is not me.”
Key chewed the corner of his lower lip in ferocious denial. He knew there was a flaw somewhere in her logic. There had to be. No way could his body respond to her as it had if there wasn’t something going on. But she was so articulate and so convincing—
The chattering voices of his sister and their guest at the top of the stairs heralded an imminent interruption.
“Shit!” he exploded. He bounded out of his chair and stalked in the opposite direction. He flung a pointing finger at her as she sat there with a sad little knowing smile on her face. “This is not the end, Taylor. We’re going to talk about this again.”
* * *
A half hour discussion among the group settled the details concerning Jalessa’s stay. When Key left, he told Crystal she’d better check her messages because her cell phone had been off all day.
Jalessa and Shonté were getting along like old friends so Crystal went to her bedroom with her phone. She found four messages from Key and five from Graham, all increasingly frantic.
She closed her eyes with a silent groan. After her call Saturday morning looking for Shonté, Graham must be concerned. What had Shonté told him since then?
She took a deep breath, willing herself to sound calm and collected so she could assure him that he had nothing to be concerned about. Picking up her phone, she dialed his number.
He didn’t even say hello. “Crystal, what’s going on? Why were you looking for Shonté at that time of the morning?”
Deep, calming breaths. “I’m sorry, Graham. It was a-a misunderstanding.”
“Wasn’t she home?”
“She was—at the grocery store. I guess I panicked a little bit when I realized she was gone. Should have thought first.” She gave a rusty chuckle.
“Are you lying to me? Because she’s been acting strange lately. Tell me the truth, Crystal. If she’s messing with someone else, I want to know!”
“Graham, this is between you and Shonté. Have you talked to her?”
He grunted. “Yes, a little. But I’m not sure anymore what to believe.”
“I’m sorry, Graham.”
“Just talk to her, okay. Tell her I really care about
her and I want to work it out if there’s a problem.”
Crystal hung up, her stomach cramping from guilt and stress. This demonstrated exactly why she didn’t want to get involved in a sexual relationship with Key. She was afraid she would end up being the needy, begging one, like Graham. Just like her mother had always told her she was. Just like she’d been since she met the Emerson siblings.
* * *
When the Air Force transferred Crystal’s mother to Pope Air Force base in North Carolina, Crystal began the adjustment to yet another school and neighborhood. Sergeant Alicia Taylor was outgoing and energetic, just the opposite of her daughter. She had long since stopped asking Crystal why she didn’t have any friends and spent so much time in her room.
Crystal’s mother worked long hours while a new boyfriend took up much of her off duty time. To kill time, Crystal often stayed after school, watching teams practice or reading in the library. One day as she got off the activity bus and started down the street toward her house, a huge, hairy dog bounded up to her. The dog snorted and drooled from his enormous teeth.
Crystal was about to scream when someone shouted, “Grab the dog!”
She looked up to see a teenaged boy racing from the other end of the street, pointing at the dog. The dog saw him too, gave a deep bark and took off in the opposite direction.
“Masai! Stop! Come back here!”
The guy slowed when he neared her, spreading his arms with a plaintive, “Why didn’t you grab the dog?”
Then he was gone again. Crystal watched him running, moving like a rocket, powerful arms and legs pumping, his open shirt flapping.
She shook her head and continued down the street. The truth was that she was a little nervous around dogs and certainly wasn’t going to confront a massive beast she didn’t know. As she reached her yard, the beast came streaking in her direction again with the guy still in hot pursuit.
She swung her book bag at the dog. He dodged and snapped at the straps, catching one and giving it a tug.
“No!” she exclaimed and pulled back on the bag. With a bark, he let go, but so did she.
Who's That Lady? Page 7