“Why would she feel that way?” To his own ears, his voice sounded like it was coming from far away.
“Key, you idiot. Don’t you know anything about women? We are not going to hang around to watch a man we love with someone else.”
“She’s not in love with me! And I’m not with Nina!” he yelped.
“Maybe not now and not Nina. But one day,” Shonté said in a knowing voice. “I’m telling you this because I love her like a sister and I don’t want to see her hurt.”
“I’m not going to hurt her. And she doesn’t have a thing for me.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“Trust me, Shonté. There’s no thing.”
“We’ll see,” said Shonté before saying goodbye.
He stood in his living room, holding the phone in his limp hand.
* * *
That night Crystal found herself remembering Monica. Key had loved that girl deeply until she dumped him so coldly. Since then he’d never dated a woman more than a few months. She recognized it as a way of protecting himself. While she hadn’t thought it particularly healthy, she hadn’t thought it was any of her business. Until now.
She had apparently joined the ranks of Key’s flings. She should be flattered by being included in the lineup of beautiful, accomplished women. But now he’d moved on to Nina.
She gritted her teeth and rolled over in bed, thumping her pillow. Dammit, she was going to forget about him!
* * *
“Hi. This is Bernard Wayne. We talked at the wedding last weekend.”
It took Crystal a moment to put a face with the name and voice on the telephone. The call had been forwarded into her office.
She’d danced with him at the wedding, hadn’t she? He was one of Alyssa’s friends, someone she ran into now and then.
“How’d you get my number?” she asked, annoyed.
“I remembered you saying you worked in HR at the hospital.”
“Oh. Okay.”
Why had he tracked her down? She must have been pretty rude to him that day at the wedding. In fact, she didn’t even remember speaking to him while they danced.
“Did you enjoy yourself that day?” he asked.
“Kind of. I wasn’t feeling too well.”
“Crystal,” Bernard went on, “I wonder if you’re busy tonight. I’d like to take you out to dinner. We can talk, get to know one another.”
“Oh.” For a minute, her mind blanked. She had no feelings for this man. But what the hell? Her only alternative was to go home to an empty condo and torment herself with thoughts of Key. And Nina.
The prospect made her stomach clench. She had been in a fog since the wedding and she hadn’t heard from Key.
“Yeah, I’d like that,” she heard herself answer Bernard. “Should I meet you somewhere?”
They agreed he would pick her up about six that evening and said good-bye.
She dropped her head back on the headrest of the chair as she sat at her desk. She already felt tired. She had worked long hours for the last few days in an attempt to keep her mind off Key. She didn’t want to go out or make conversation or get to know someone new. All she wanted was her old friends back and life the way it had been.
Shonté popped into her office. “Gotta go, boss lady. I’ve got rehearsal.”
“Are you doing anything later tonight?” she called out. She could still call Bernard back and cancel.
“I’ll be late,” Shonté called over her shoulder on the way out.
Crystal slumped back in the chair. Probably seeing Trevor. God, Shonté was seeing someone, and Key probably was, too. She should do the same. What the hell, she thought again.
* * *
Bernard was a nice man with a little boy eagerness about him. As the evening wore on, she had to admit she found his attention flattering.
She had taken pains with her preparations. She showered, shaved her legs, sheened her hair, put on makeup, and perfumed herself. Her denim dress fit her body like skin, leaving little to the imagination, except perhaps the color of her panties. Her legs extended about a mile below the short hem, while her spike-heeled Pradas whispered indecent suggestions. Crystal stared into the mirror in shock at the voluptuous woman with twisted tendrils of hair falling into her eyes in a flirtatious peek-a-boo.
Bernard’s dark face broke into a wide, admiring grin when she opened the door to him.
“Wow. Excuse me for staring, but you look—”
She laughed and let him take her out to his well-kept car. Dressed in casual business clothes, Bernard was fun and attentive at dinner. In a past life, she would have thought him exactly the kind of man she wanted to meet. She should have enjoyed herself a lot. She told herself that she was enjoying herself. All she had to do was stop thinking about Key and wondering what he was doing.
After dinner, Bernard asked if she wanted to go to a movie or something. She hesitated before saying no.
As she sat in the passenger seat, letting him drive through the night, she looked at the bright moon shining above the city. Then she spotted a single shimmering star and the cold loneliness of it chilled her soul.
They stopped in front of her house and he turned to her.
“Well, I had a nice time. Thanks,” she said. This was the part she hated.
“I had a great time too. I’d like to see you again, Crystal.”
“Well, call me,” she said in what she hoped was a cheerful but neutral tone. She pulled the door handle.
“Oh, let me get that.” He scrambled to get out of the car and come around. Then he walked her to the door. She unlocked it and turned to him again.
“Thanks again. My roommate should be home any minute,” she added.
“Would you like me to keep you company until then?” he asked with a wide smile.
His directness caught her off guard. But he had been a perfect gentleman all evening. She had never heard anything against him from their mutual friends. And Shonté would be home soon.
“Well, you can come in, have a cup of coffee.”
She dropped her coat and went straight to the kitchen, flipping on all the light switches she passed.
“Decaf?”
“Whatever you’re drinking. This is a nice place,” he commented.
“We like it.”
She started to tell him how long they’d lived there and about Shonté’s acting.
In a few minutes they were chatting at the kitchen counter over two cups of herbal tea. He asked about her job and told her about his as a systems analyst for a large corporation, a job that required him to travel a lot.
“I’m going to San Diego next week. You’d like it. Would you be interested in going with me?” he asked with his wide easy smile.
She was thrown off again by his direct way.
Before she could speak, the doorbell rang. Relieved by the interruption, Crystal jumped off her stool and scurried for the front door.
“Oh, Shonté must have forgotten her key.”
She flung the door open. Key stood there, one hand on the doorjamb, waiting for her with a half-hooded gaze.
She was speechless.
“Hi,” he said. He took a step toward her. She didn’t back up.
“Shonté’s not here.”
“I’ll wait.”
“I have company.”
“You won’t know I’m here.” His mouth quirked in a challenging curve as he brushed past her.
Bernard stood in the dining area. Key strode toward him with his hand out.
“Key Emerson. My sister is Crystal’s roommate. I think we’ve met before, though.”
After Bernard acknowledged the introduction, the three of them stood in awkward silence. Out of Bernard’s line of sight, Crystal made a face at Key. He gave a half-smile and moved his chin in a slow circling motion that could have been interpreted any number of ways. He folded his arms and tucked his hands beneath his armpits, giving the impression he could wait all night. He continued to half-s
mile at Bernard.
Finally at a loss, Bernard cleared his throat. “Well, I’ll talk to you later, Crystal. Thanks for a great evening.”
Crystal said good-bye as he collected his coat and went out the door. Closing it, she whirled around, indignation spitting from her mouth.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Key shrugged. “I was tired of waiting in the parking lot.”
He tested the temperature of the water in the carafe on the counter and pulled a clean cup from the shelf above.
Crystal gaped at him in shock. “You were watching me?”
“Just coming by to say hello. Didn’t look like lover boy was leaving any time soon.” He dropped a tea bag into the cup and poured hot water into it. He swished a moment and then looked up at her with feigned innocence. “Oh, did I interrupt something?”
“Get out!” she yelled, launching into furious motion. She strode across the room and smacked him on the arm. “Get out of my house this instant and don’t ever let me catch you spying on me again.”
Key moved back and sipped his tea. “Can’t do that, Shortcake. I have to watch out for you.”
“Watch out for me?” She pressed both hands to her chest. “I’m not your child, Emerson!”
“I want to make sure you don’t let some guy take advantage of you.”
“I think I can take care of myself!”
“If you keep running around looking like that, you’ll get more than you bargained for.”
“You are disgusting!” Why did he always think the worst of her? She’d be damned if she’d let him see her vulnerability.
His eyes burned into her while his hand kept dunking the teabag rhythmically up and down in the cup. “You’re running around here in your short skirts, your hair begging me to grab it, that perfume you wear making me drunk—”
Her heart started a slow, heavy thud in time with the plunging of his hand. Heat flushed her entire body, pooling in her belly.
“What are you saying?” she whispered in a strangled voice.
“You know what old Bernard was probably thinking when I walked in here? I’ll bet he was thinking how he’d like to kiss you and put his hands under your dress and touch the silk of your panties over that round soft ass. What kind of panties do you wear, Taylor?”
She was mesmerized by the sound of his voice, seduced by his words. “J—just regular.”
“You should wear thongs. Let that ass be free, so when a man cups it with his hands he feels the heat and he can let his thumb slip under that strap and touch you where it’s dark and tight.”
She remembered to breathe and sucked oxygen noisily. “Emerson, why are you talking to me this way?”
His expression closed again. “Because I want you to know that any man, any man, can be tempted by you. They’ll lie and betray you later, but they’ll promise you anything to get what they want now.”
She hugged her arms around her body, shivering, confused. “Is that what you’d do?”
“Not to you. We’re friends.” His voice was a harsh rasp. He dropped an unseeing stare into the cup where the label of the tea bag had slipped. He dabbed for it in the hot liquid with thumb and forefinger, then let it go. As if without thinking, he lifted the wet finger to his lips, sucked it into his mouth for a thorough, unhurried taste.
Crystal’s female core clenched in a sexual tsunami. Panicked, she lashed out. “We both know what you do with your friends when you get drunk!”
He slammed the cup on the counter and crossed the room so fast, she gasped and rocked back in momentary fear. He loomed over her, so close she could smell his body sweat, feel the heat of his anger crackling off his skin. A vein beat a violent pulse in his neck. “I’m not drunk now,” he said between gritted teeth. “And neither are you.”
He grabbed her hand and forced it against the hard swelling between his legs. “Feel that? That’s not for anybody but you, dammit. You!”
He flung her away from him, turning his back, putting his hand to the top of his head. “I don’t know what you’re doing to me, Taylor. I can’t be around you without burning to touch you. The thought of another man with his hands on you…I wanted to kick the door down and smash that bastard’s face in.”
Crystal inhaled slowly, carefully, feeling the heat building in her body as she watched the flex of his shoulders underneath the jacket he wore.
Unable to stop herself, she leaned against his back, letting her hands slide up and around, fingering his chest. He groaned and drew one hand upward to nuzzle his mouth into her palm. Shivering with need, her blood raced through her veins.
He turned and caught her against his chest, pressing his face against the top of her head.
Stroking the side of her face, he muttered, “Crystal, don’t do this unless you’re sure it’s what you want. There’s a limit to how much I can take.”
“Shh…” She placed a kiss in the middle of his chest. “No more talking, Emerson. No more thinking. Come with me.”
She twisted out of his hold to pull him toward the stairs. A giggle of wild recklessness escaped her throat as they padded upstairs. She knew she was out of her mind, but she didn’t care any more. In a couple of minutes, they were inside her darkened bedroom, lit only by shafts of moonlight coming through the shuttered windows.
She turned to him, her heart pounding in expectation.
He waited motionless near the shadowy door. Crystal closed her eyes, trying to slow her tumultuous breathing, order her thoughts. She had tried to deny it, but she wanted him with a desperate hungry yearning. Knowing he wanted her as much made her dizzy with desire. Her nipples grew stiff with need. She knew he was waiting for a sign from her.
She unzipped the front of the dress, pulled her arms free and pushed it down to her feet where she stepped out of it.
Key moaned and swayed toward her. In a flash he stripped off his clothing and stood naked and powerful against her.
Crystal cried out, clinging to him in a desperate effort to merge herself into his body. His hands, trembling, slid down her body, forcing her to slow down, to relax. He unhooked her bra with gentle, sure fingers and dropped it to the floor. Leaning back, he ran his hands down her sides and back up to cup her breasts.
She tried to bite back the moan that escaped as he rolled the ball of his thumb over her stiffened nipple, but it escaped with a shudder.
“My God,” he murmured. “These are so beautiful. So beautiful.”
He pushed her back onto the bed and reached for her panties. When he stopped, Crystal held her breath. She could make out his expression in the dim lighting, saw it change from surprise to wonder as his fingertips skimmed her naked pelvic bones and the bare skin of her yielding buttocks.
“Yes!” he whispered, triumph trembling in his voice.
He peeled the thong panties off with one fluid motion, his lips following the path the lingerie took. She dug her fingers into the bed as his mouth placed kisses along her abdomen, her downy mound and then back up, holding his body poised over hers while the warmth of his breath stroked her skin.
“Please,” she whispered, aching to have him inside her.
Lowering himself next to her, he captured her mouth with his. His tongue stroked and teased hers in rhythm with his exploring hand. Pushing her legs apart for easier access, he took possession of the hidden warmth of her womanhood.
Caught up in the magic his mouth was working, Crystal relaxed as he began to stroke her. Easing her legs farther apart, he slipped his finger inside.
She squirmed as the heat in the pit of her stomach whirled into a red hot spiral of fire. Her body cried out for more. Another whimper escaped.
Rolling her head from side to side, her breathing shallow, she clutched Key’s arms, digging her nails into him.
He kissed her mouth, cheeks, neck, and suckled on her breasts. When he paused, she opened her eyes and saw that he was fumbling with a foil packet. Gratified that he’d remembered, she sat up to take the la
tex from his fingers. Putting it on him became an erotic dance of foreplay.
She stroked him with her hands and lips until he quivered on the brink of control.
“Key,” she whispered. “I need you. Now.”
“Not yet.” His voice was a barely audible wheeze. He slipped down her body, leaving a trail of fire with his lips. Crystal convulsed with anticipation and almost came off the bed when his mouth nuzzled in her wet mound. Key held her down with his big strong hands on her thighs, manipulating her nub with his tongue, a well-mastered tool. Time grew meaningless, swirling her up into a vortex until she exploded. Before she could recover, he was back over her, guiding his surging erection into her.
“Take me, sweetheart, take all of me.”
She was half-aware of massive size and strength penetrating, breaching her with unleashed masculine ardor. The deep well of her femininity opened to enfold him in a perfect mating. Thrusting deep inside, he captured her cries with his mouth.
Wild to take more of him, Crystal heaved against his body. He captured her knees with his arms and thrust deep into her, then set a deliberate pace which Crystal met with fervent impatience. Her knees pressed high against his sides, she pushed him into a faster rhythm. With a low moan he paused, then pumped harder and faster.
“Open your eyes. I want to see your eyes.” His breath was hot on her face.
Opening her eyes, she saw Key’s face come into focus as he moved on top of her.
The moonlit room swirled around her and her breathing was short and rapid. “Oh, God,” she cried. “Key!” She squeezed his shoulders tight as her muscles contracted convulsively around him.
He shouted and his body shuddered and shook. “Oh, God,” he moaned, then lay still, his chest heaving with his breathing. Holding onto her, he rolled over onto his back, taking her with him.
There was nothing but the sound of their breathing for a few minutes. Awed, Crystal grew aware of a swelling between her thighs again. She lifted her head to gaze at him in laughing disbelief. Key flashed her a grin and undulated his hips.
She felt like a queen. Moving with deliberation and watching his face, she ran her hands over his lightly furred groin and belly. He shivered. “Oh, Crystal, please,” he begged in a hoarse whisper.
Who's That Lady? Page 14