Naughty 3: It's Juicy, No Matter How You Slice It

by Brenda Hampton

  I nodded, kissed Daisha on her cheek, and then jetted. Before I left the hospital, I looked in the empty incubator where my baby had been. I held back my tears until I got in my car because I didn’t want anyone to see how much I was really hurting inside. I knew everything happened for a reason, but why did bad things have to keep on happening to me? Especially when it came to my children.

  The house was cozy and quiet. Everyone was asleep. Having a banging-ass headache, I took two Tylenol and went downstairs to be alone. I sat in one of the soft leather chairs and turned on the theater-size TV. It blasted loudly, and I quickly lowered the volume.

  I was almost an hour into checking out Bad Boys II when I felt a wet tongue licking my ear.

  I closed my eyes. “Umm, Barbie, get down girl,” I joked.

  “No, my dear, I am not Barbie,” Scorpio said in a seductive voice. “I am the woman who loves you.” She kissed me on the cheek and laid a red rose in my lap. “Who will do anything for you.” She kissed my other cheek. “And I am here for you whenever you need me.” She moved face to face with me, looking into my eyes. “However, we still need to have our talk about why you felt the need to walk out on me and not call. I don’t want for us to disrespect each other like that, and the next time you get that angry, just go to one of the guest rooms, okay?”

  I nodded, but she pushed. “You look tired, so this conversation is over for the night. Let me know when you’re ready to have a real discussion about what’s been going on between us.”

  I nodded again.

  Scorpio got some blankets from the closet and spread them out on the floor. We rolled ourselves in them together and crashed out on the floor. My mind was a little more at ease, as I thought about Scorpio’s and my baby. I was going to be there for her every step of the way to make sure nothing happened to her or to the baby. I thought deeply about my son, and the memory of seeing his handsome little self would stay with me forever.

  8

  SCORPIO

  This lie I lived was killing me! I planned on telling Jaylin everything the other night, but he never came home. And when he called to tell me about Daisha’s baby, how could I tell him about my baby? No doubt about it, I was losing my mind. Since Daisha had lost their baby, he’d been waiting on me hand and foot. He constantly asked if I needed anything, and if he left the house, he’d come right back. There were no more late nights, and he took me almost every place he went.

  Feeling so badly about the situation, I’d been losing sleep. My eyes looked tired, and when Nanny B questioned me about not gaining any weight, I didn’t know what to say. She had a look as if she knew something wasn’t right, and I knew if there was anybody I could talk to about my situation, it was her.

  Jaylin asked if I wanted to celebrate Stephons’s birthday with him, Shane, and Ray-Ray. I wanted him to have a good time without me, and I definitely did not want to see Shane because of my previous bedroom encounter with him, so I declined. I figured it would give Nanny B and me a chance to talk.

  I lay across the chaise in the bedroom with Mackenzie and Barbie, as Jaylin got dressed to leave.

  “How do I look?” he asked. I laid my book on my lap, searching him over from head to toe. Mackenzie looked him over too, and tilted her head from side to side.

  I wet my lips. “Turn around so I can check you out from the back.”

  He turned around and stood with a confident smile on his face. I picked the book back up and covered my face with it. “You look a’ight.”

  He walked over and took the book from my hand. “A’ight? That’s all the credit you can give me, and you’re the one who picked out this suit?”

  “You look sharp, Daddy,” Mackenzie said, holding her hand up to give Jaylin a high five.

  “Thanks, baby. I knew I could always depend on you for the truth.” He puckered up and Mackenzie gave him a kiss.

  There wasn’t any doubt in my mind that my man looked spectacular. He had on a single-breasted pin-striped dark brown suit, and a silk cream-colored shirt with an oversized collar. Having no buttons on it, it showed the thickness and smoothness of his chest. As for his hat, it really set him off. It was a silky brown with stripes on the band that matched his suit. He wore it slightly to the side to show his neatly trimmed curly hair and thinly shaven beard. As for the goatee, well, that always spoke for itself. I’ll be the first to admit, Jaylin was banging. GQ magazine didn’t know what they were missing. After he sprayed on his cologne and covered his gray eyes with his tinted brown shades, I knew I’d better set a curfew for him tonight.

  When the doorbell rang, Jaylin ran downstairs to get it.

  I heard the fellas loudly coming up the steps and quickly lowered my head to pretend I was all into my book. When they all stepped into the bedroom, I looked up and smiled.

  “Hello, everybody,” I said. They all spoke back, and Stephon made it his business to walk over and personally say hello. He lifted my hand, kissing the back of it.

  “Hey, lovely lady. How have you been doing?” he asked.

  “Watch it, nigga,” Jaylin said, walking into the bathroom. “Don’t be getting too damn friendly with my woman.”

  They all laughed.

  “I’m fine, Stephon. How about you?”

  “I’m fine too, but never as fine as you.”

  Jaylin pushed him in the back and tried to nudge him away from me. “Back off, bro. You getting too damn frisky for me.”

  Stephon straightened his jacket and smiled at me. “Woman, you are lucky—”

  “Chill out, Stephon,” Shane said. “Why you all up on Jay woman like that?”

  “Shane, don’t say nothing to him,” Jaylin said, putting on his shoes. “When his ass laid out on the floor from this blow I’m about to give him, don’t y’all be mad at me.”

  They all laughed again, and when Ray-Ray mentioned the last time Jaylin and Stephon had a fight, the room got pretty noisy. I wasn’t paying attention to what Ray-Ray said at all. My attention was focused on St. Louis’ finest men that I had standing in my presence. These brothas looked flawless and would definitely be considered what I called metrosexual men. If Stephon’s to-die-for smile, his hazelnut eyes, or his ocean blue casual linen pant suit didn’t catch my attention, Shane’s thick and cut muscular body dressed in a black fitted V-neck ribbed shirt and black wide-legged slacks damn sure did. His twisties were freshly done, and bedroom eyes were bound to get him laid tonight. I’d been there before, of course, and could only think about the licks he gave me between my legs.

  As for Ray-Ray, well, he needed some more work to keep up with the fellas. His outfit didn’t even come close to theirs. My baby, though, looked the best. I couldn’t stop staring at how fine he was. I dared any woman to put her hands on him tonight.

  Either way, they were all groomed to perfection: fresh haircuts, beards neatly trimmed, and cologne lighting up the whole room. Jesus! was all I could scream silently to myself.

  When they bragged about whose outfit cost the most, I had to tune them out. Nobody could even afford to look like Jaylin and he knew it.

  “Baby, would you tell these fools how much this suit cost?” he yelled.

  I rolled my eyes. “Totally irrelevant, but if they must know, it cost almost two grand.”

  “See, I told ya. And that don’t even include the shirt, the shoes, the hat, the jewelry, or my underwear.”

  “Man, quit trying to perpetrate,” Ray-Ray said. “I saw that motherfucking suit at Tesse’s Thrift Store in Pawn Lawn last week for seventy-five cents.”

  “When you was there picking up your suit, right? Nigga, please. If you saw this suit there you should have bought it your damn self instead of coming out in that tight-ass motherfucker you busting out in.”

  They all fell out on the floor and on the bed, cracking up. Not being able to keep quiet, I chuckled as well. Quiet as it’s kept, though, Ray-Ray’s suit was a little snug.

  Shane sat on the bed and wiped his tears from laughing so hard. When he caug
ht my eye, he blinked and looked away. I was a little uncomfortable with seeing him, but I’m sure he knew Jaylin and I were happy together and the past was the past.

  Before they left, Jaylin came over and gave me a nice, long, wet and juicy kiss. Knowing they were about to get their clown on, since Stephon was turning thirty-five, I reminded him of all the strippers I knew and suggested they not take a ride to East St. Louis. When Ray-Ray yelled, “Strip clubs, here we come!” I gave Jaylin a stern look, as if he’d better not go there.

  “Baby, you know I ain’t going to no strip club tonight.”

  “No, I don’t know. But be careful and call if you’re going to be late. You know I worry about you.”

  “Aw, ain’t that so sweet,” Stephon said sarcastically.

  Jaylin turned around and gave Stephon a devious look. He pecked my lips again and they all left.

  Once I tucked Mackenzie in for the night, I headed straight for Nanny B’s room. She was in bed reading.

  “That is really an excellent book,” I said, taking a seat.

  “I know. So come back in an hour or two after I’m finished.” She smiled, closed the book, and looked at me with many questions on her mind. “Out with it, Scorpio.”

  I sighed, unable to give her eye contact. “Well, first of all, you do know how much I love Jaylin, don’t you?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Well, with that being said, I . . . I’ve been keeping something from him and I don’t know how much damage it’s going to cause if I tell him the truth.”

  “The truth about what? You losing the baby?” I immediately looked up at Nanny B. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out you’re not pregnant, Scorpio. And it’s going to be just a matter of time until Jaylin notices you’re not gaining any weight. You look as if you’re losing it. Since I do the laundry and take out the trash around here, it’s hard to keep something like that from me.”

  “But I didn’t lose the baby, Nanny B. I had an abortion.”

  She frowned and shook her head with major disappointment in her eyes. “Oh, chile. Now, why’d you go do that?”

  My eyes watered. Nanny B told me to come sit by her. She wrapped her arms around me and squeezed me tightly. I wiped my face. “The baby wasn’t Jaylin’s baby. It was a man named Rick, who I met in Denver.”

  I shamefully dropped my head again, but Nanny B lifted my chin and pointed her finger at me. “Listen, people make mistakes all the time. But continuing to lie and hurt the ones you love is unacceptable—on your behalf and Jaylin’s. If you love him as much as you say you do, then don’t keep anything like that from him. He’s running around here excited about a baby that doesn’t even exist. Deception can hurt a person more than anything. And if you lose him for telling him the truth, then deal with it. Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be.”

  “But I don’t want to lose him. He means everything to me, and I could never see myself being without him again.”

  “Chile, you remind me so much of myself. But when God brought you in this world, you were without Jaylin. And trust me, when He takes you away, you’ll still be without him. You have only known him for less than two years, and if you made it before, you can damn sure make it after he’s gone.”

  “I know you’re right, but you know more than I do that Jaylin is going to act a fool. He was so hurt about losing his son, and I don’t want to hurt him again.”

  “He’ll get over it. He always does, doesn’t he? And so will you.”

  I thanked Nanny B for listening to me, and before I left the room, I told her I needed more time before telling Jaylin the truth. She promised me she wouldn’t interfere, but warned me the longer I waited, the more damage it would cause. I felt the same way, but as smooth as things were going between us now, I didn’t want no fuck-ups.

  9

  JAYLIN

  I wanted to make sure that I came in at a decent hour, so Shane and I rode in my car and Ray-Ray and Stephon rode in his BMW. If I let Stephon drive, I knew Scorpio wouldn’t see my ass until early morning.

  We were on our way to the Eagle Crest Mansion, a place where the most extravagant and rich folks partied. A friend of mine owned the place and let me rent it out for $15,000 a night. Normally he’d charge $30,000, but since we were cool like that, he cut the cost in half.

  It was Stephon’s thirty-fifth birthday, so I couldn’t help but go all out. He had no idea where we were going, until we drove up a long, curvy road near Eureka and parked our cars. The place was already packed, and having been here on another occasion with me, Stephon already knew what was about to go down.

  “Man, no you didn’t!” he yelled after we got out of our cars.

  “Only the best for you, cousin.” Stephon gave me a hug and we all stood for a moment, looking at the bad-ass mansion in front of us. From the outside, it looked like a castle. There was a swimming pool at the side of the house that stretched around to the back. On the inside, the room where the party was going down had craps, blackjack, and poker tables. A buffet with food for days was in another room, and it had a get-down-and-boogie dance floor with a DJ that kicked it down so loudly that you could hear music nearly a mile away.

  Inside, I was surprised to see so many ladies, because at midnight, they all had to go. That’s why I didn’t mind asking Scorpio if she wanted to come along, because the real party wasn’t going to start until after the women were gone.

  When I tilted my hat to the DJ, that was his cue to change the music. He blasted “Happy Birthday” and everybody came out of the woodwork to sing to Stephon. Needless to say, he was touched, and when the singing was over, I saw his sensitive come down. I punched his arm.

  “Don’t be acting like no bitch, man.” I laughed.

  “Thanks, y’all,” he said, nodding to everybody, and then looking at me. “Suck my dick, man. You ain’t even have to do this shit.”

  “Aw, you gon’ get your dick sucked tonight,” Ray-Ray said. “And then some.”

  We laughed and gave each other five.

  The dancing room was overcrowded. I didn’t even know about fifty percent of the people there. I wasn’t trying to, either, because it seemed as if some of the brothas were checking me out harder than the ladies were. Jealousy was a motherfucker, I thought, but tonight belonged to Stephon and me.

  I was kicking up a sweat on the dance floor. When I looked around for Stephon, I couldn’t find him. I saw Shane at one of the blackjack tables, with this light-bright chick sitting on his lap.

  “Are you winning any money, man, or what?” I asked.

  “A li’l bit.” He looked at the chick sitting on his lap. “Jay, this Stacy. And Stacy, this Jay.”

  She spoke and I spoke back.

  “Have you seen Stephon?” I asked.

  “The last time I saw him, he was on the dance floor. Things looked as if they were getting pretty heated, so ain’t no telling where the brotha at.”

  I patted Shane on his back. “All right, I’ll be back.” I looked at Stacy. “Nice meeting you, and enjoy yourself.”

  I walked off and continued to look for Stephon. I could barely make it from one room to the next without all the females throwing themselves at me. Pussy was everywhere and nearly every woman that I came in contact with had made herself available. I tried to stay focused, and after a while, I had to sit down and have myself a drink. I couldn’t even do that in peace, because ladies surrounded me.

  Just as one chick slid her number into my pocket, I caught a quick glimpse of Stephon on the dance floor and excused myself to go talk to him.

  “Where in the hell have you been, fool? We ’bout to do this shit in ten minutes, my brotha.”

  “Man, I’ve been everywhere.” He leaned over and whispered in my ear while still dancing. “Did you see that cold-ass gal out there by the swimming pool?”

  I shrugged. “Shit, which one?”

  “Uh-uh. This one is in a category all by herself, trust me. When I say cold, I mean put on all three of your fur c
oats cold. When you get a minute, go check her out. She got on a white sheer two-piece bikini with tiny strings on the side. Body just . . . damn! And them titties,” he said, shaking his head.

  “Please don’t have a heart attack on your birthday.”

  “Just go look, would you?”

  I left the dance floor and walked over to the tall glass doors that led to the pool area. I looked around, and not seeing anyone like Stephon had described, I put my hands in my pockets and stepped outside. I scoped the set for a while, and just as I was about to go back inside, I saw her get out of the swimming pool. Instantly, my dick shot up. I was so stunned by her beauty I had to take a triple look. I rubbed my goatee, licked my lips, and watched her dry off with a towel.

  When she caught my eyes, she smoothed her long wet hair back and placed the towel on a lawn chair. Things seemed to be moving in slow motion as she showed her pearly whites and headed my way. Her skin was a silky caramel brown, thighs were thick. Her hips had a hell of a curve, waistline was tiny, and titties were poked out right at me. I’d already peeped her plump and smooth heart-shaped ass when she got out of the pool. There was no doubt this sista was a vixen, straight from a rap video.

  It was obvious that the look on my face said what I was thinking, but I couldn’t help myself. When she walked past and ignored me, I grabbed her hand.

  “So, you gon’ ignore me like that, huh?” I said, displaying my charm.

  She laughed and squinted her slanted eyes. “See, you thought I was coming to say hello, didn’t you?”

  “I was hoping that you were coming to do more than that.”

  “I was—until I realized who you were.”

  I pointed to myself. “Aw, so you know me?”

  “Very well. Besides, who doesn’t? Jaylin, right?”

  “In the flesh.”

  She held out her hand for me to shake it. “I’m Mercedes.”

  “Mercedes? I like to ride my Mercedes every chance I get—or I just might like the way it rides me.”

  “We do ride so well, don’t we?”