Deshawn was deep in his thoughts of Anika. As much as he loved the sport of hunting, he would much rather be wooing Anika. He couldn’t get her off of his mind. Just when he was able to focus on another subject, any subject, Anika’s smiling face would return and conquer his thoughts with a sexy and impish wink a second or two later. And the thought of her, the scent of her, the taste of that smart mouth of hers would resonate uppermost until he forced himself to think of something, anything else.
He felt like a lovesick puppy and he didn’t like it one damn bit.
“Anika,” he said, finally answering his brother’s earlier question.
Devon’s deep-set eyes opened slightly in surprise and then filled with acceptance. He remembered that night they had danced at Mahogany’s. There had been plenty of passion and raw sexuality between them. But he had assumed it was just Deshawn up to his usual skirt chasing . . . until that next morning in New York when he confronted his twin. He had believed the sincerity of his brother’s words when he said he really liked Anika. Still, he thought whatever they shared in New York, however grand or minute, had begun and ended in New York. He hadn’t even mentioned his conversation with his twin to Chloe.
Deshawn turned to his twin with the utmost seriousness and said words that Devon doubted he would ever hear his brother say: “I love her, man. I’m in love with Anika.”
His voice was honest and his eyes revealed the song of his soul. Devon was taken aback, and his handsome face showed that. “Well, I’ll be damned,” he said, almost in awe as he lowered his rifle from his right shoulder.
“I love her,” Deshawn said again, savoring the sound of the words being said aloud, giving them truth and life. “And now she hates my guts.”
Deshawn’s eyes were troubled as he looked off into the distance of the woods that surrounded them. Shots of their club mates echoed in the air, followed by the cry of success as a deer was undoubtedly downed.
Devon was stunned, but now was not the time to question the validity of his brother’s feelings for Anika. “What’s the deal?” he asked, taking a seat on the bed of the old, battered truck they used for hunting.
After taking a deep breath, Deshawn told Devon about the biggest mistake he’d made in his life: losing Anika.
∞
Chloe securely covered the last steaming aluminum pan with foil. Anika was busy washing the last of the dishes. Both of the women had worked to prepare the feast of lima beans boiled down with smoked hammocks until the juice of the beans was thick and seasoned, and steamed fluffy rice, fried chicken, corn bread made from scratch, and banana pudding.
Anika thought the whole idea of men out hunting while the women slaved over the stove all morning to be out of date and sexist. But when in Rome . . .
“I’m gonna need you to help me drop off this food,” Chloe said over her shoulder on her way out of the open patio door, carrying the pot of lima beans to her SUV.
Anika raised a finely arched brow. Going to the hunting camp to serve men certainly was not her idea of fun, particularly since Deshawn would be there. She said as much when Chloe came back belly-first into the kitchen.
Chloe smiled indulgently. “They don’t want women hanging around anyway, trust me. We’re just gonna drop off the food and hightail it out of there.”
Anika bit back a retort. Marriage to a southern man certainly had relaxed some of Chloe’s views on equality of the sexes. It certainly wasn’t Anika’s place to meddle and try to convince her otherwise. To each his own.
∞
The camp for the Holtsville Hunting Club was actually an older double-wide mobile home sitting on half an acre of roughly cleared land that the club had purchased using membership dues and fundraisers. The twins and their crew had renovated the interior so that it was one open space with no walls. There were no frilly decorations or fancy furniture. No potted plants, no potpourri. Just a bunch of worn recliners, a couple of love seats, a large-screen television, and stuffed and mounted deer heads on the wall. It was just the way they liked it.
Anika’s eyes widened considerably when she first stepped into the club behind Chloe. The sparse and dust-ridden decor definitely spoke to its being the domain of men. A domain that was now empty. Thank God.
Chloe set the bag she was carrying on the bare counter. She laughed when she saw the look on Anika’s face. “Girl, I know what you’re thinking. A few of the wives came in once during the week and spruced the place up with curtains, matching chair covers, yadda, yadda, yadda.”
Right then Anika found that hard to believe.
Chloe raised a finely arched brow. “That very next Saturday when Lois came to bring the lunch for them she found it like this.” She waved her hands around with a grimace.
Anika laughed softly as she set the pot of savory beans on the stove, surprised that it was dust-free and clean. “Only men could be comfortable in here,” she mused, leaving the house through the side door. “Let’s hurry and get the rest of this stuff so we can leave before anyone shows—”
The rest of the words froze in her throat when she spotted the first of the men’s dirty battered trucks turn into the large dirt-packed yard. She immediately spotted the broad width of Deshawn’s shoulders, just before he parked and exited his truck. Their eyes met ever so briefly before Anika looked away.
She hated the hammering of her treacherous heart. Moving quickly, she went into the back of the SUV and removed the last pot. Suddenly the hairs on the back of her neck stood at attention. Anika knew before she even turned around that Deshawn was behind her.
“Let me take that for you, Anika,” he offered, his breath fanning against her exposed neck.
She shivered in sharp awareness of him, but she cloaked her reaction before she turned to face him, the pot still in her hand. “No, thanks. I have it. Excuse me,” she said frostily, looking at a spot over his shoulder.
“Anika, I need to talk to you,” Deshawn told her, his voice serious and earnest, as he stepped sideways into her line of vision.
Anika felt herself drowning in his ebony depths and she turned her head to break the hold, looking to the woods.
“This is all a misunderstanding. If you’d just let me explain—”
“’Scuse me. How ya’ll doing? Is Shawn in there?”
Even over the incessant barking of the hunting dogs locked in their cages on the back of the trucks and the mingled voices of the men loitering in the yard, the woman’s voice was clear as a bell in Anika’s ears.
Deshawn swore, as he looked over Anika’s shoulder and through the SUV’s passenger window at Poochie’s car parked in the driveway.
Anika pushed past him. “Don’t let me keep you,” she told him frostily, before climbing the stairs into the house quickly. She set the pot on the counter and hated that she looked out the window at Deshawn walking over to the woman in the car.
“So that’s Poochie,” she said to herself, unable to tear her eyes away from the light-complexioned woman’s long acrylic nails. “So that’s the type of woman he likes, huh?”
Her grip on the counter tightened until the skin over her knuckles thinned as she watched Deshawn bend over to look into the window. “Trifling,” she muttered.
Chloe walked up behind her, following Anika’s line of vision before she had a chance to look away. “There’s nothing going on between them,” she said lightly.
Anika turned away from the window. “Huh?” she asked, pretending confusion.
“I said there’s nothing going on between Deshawn and Poochie.”
She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter to me if there is or there isn’t.”
Devon walked into the house and immediately pulled Chloe to him for a brief kiss. “Thanks for the lunch, but it’s time to go, kiddo.”
“Yes, I know. It’s no place for womenfolk in this here manly man clubhouse.”
Anika laughed at them before grabbing the car keys and heading for the door. “Enjoy your lunch, Dev.”
The men began to file into the house t
hrough the front door. All eyes were immediately on Anika. “What we got here?” a booming voice asked, beginning the barrage of questions.
Chloe grabbed her elbow. “Just smile, wave and don’t look back,” she whispered into her friend’s ear, as she steered her toward the side door.
∞
Deshawn knew that if he didn’t get rid of his fiery ex-girlfriend, she would cause a scene for sure and that was the last thing he wanted in front of Anika. Briskly he strode to her car, aware of the open stares and jokes of the men loitering in the yard.
“What you want, Poochie?” he asked, keeping his irritated voice low as he bent over to her driver-side window.
“I called you last night. Thought we could hook up, you know, for old times’ sake,” she purred, licking her lips as she reached to caress his face with her hand.
Deshawn moved back from her touch easily. “Nah, I’m straight”
Poochie looked shocked. “Oh, so you saying you don’t want any more of this good thang right here?” she asked, opening her legs to lightly pat the mound between them.
“I don’t do rewinds,” he told her coldly.
“You son of a bitch,” she gasped, moving to open the door.
Deshawn easily moved until he was leaning in toward her and placed his knee against the door, blocking her exit. He smelled a scene coming. “Just go home, Poochie.”
“I ain’t got to beg you for no sex, Deshawn. Plenty of men want to get some of this,” she spat, nudging his face with her taloned finger.
“Plenty done had it already.”
“What?”
“Could you let us out please?”
Deshawn turned and looked over his shoulder, directly into Anika’s hostile eyes from behind the wheel of Chloe’s SUV. “Anika, listen—”
Poochie’s hazel eyes sliced between Deshawn and the women driving Chloe’s SUV. “Anika?” she asked with attitude.
“Move out of the way, Poochie,” Deshawn ordered.
Anika rolled her eyes heavenward.
“Anything you say, lover,” Poochie purred, looking pointedly at the other woman, instantly smelling something between her ex and this woman who was his next.
As soon as the car eased up, Anika accelerated forward, barely missing Deshawn’s foot as she did.
Chapter 12
You Gotta Believe
“You want to talk about it?”
Anika looked up at Chloe, a little startled by her sudden appearance on the porch. She raised a questioning brow at her friend’s softly spoken question. “Talk about what?”
Chloe wrapped a shawl around her shoulders as she moved to sit down on the swing beside her friend. She cleared her throat before she tilted her head to look at the sky. The moon was large and luminous against the velvety backdrop.
“Talk about what, Chloe?” Anika asked again, using her foot to push off and send the porch swing gliding in a fluid back-and-forth motion.
“Deshawn and you.”
Anika released a heavy breath.
“You’ve been upset ever since we left the camp today.” Chloe gave Anika a meaningful look. “He’s not with Poochie, you know.”
“Why would I care who he’s with?” Anika asked, almost snapping as Chloe hit the nail on the head.
Chloe turned to face her, grabbing her round face firmly. She looked her directly in the eye. “Because you love him,” she told her softly.
Anika turned her head out of Chloe’s grasp, breaking her knowing gaze. “I do not.”
“Yes, you do,” Chloe insisted. “I saw it in your face today when he was outside talking to Poochie. Stop lying to yourself. Whether you want to or not, you love Deshawn.”
Anika rose from the swing. “Leave it alone, Chloe.”
“I remember you made me come to grips with my love for Devon. It was one of the best things you ever did for me as a friend.”
Anika closed her eyes against a wave of pain, wishing, hoping, and praying that Chloe would leave the topic alone. She ignored her, or at least pretended to. Coming to Holtsville was a mistake, she thought.
“I still remember the words. How could I forget them?” Chloe asked, laughing softly with a smile on her face as she continued to swing. “Let’s see, you said, ‘You, my compadre, are so deep in love with Devon that it’s just too late to try and fight it now,’ and then you said, ‘So you better accept it and swim with the current or keep denying it and drown.’”
That was exactly what she had told her friend all those years ago and she was touched that Chloe remembered her words so clearly.
“It’s not the same, Chloe,” she told her softly.
Chloe released a heavy breath. “Yes, it is. If you love him, you love him. That’s all there is to it.”
Anika swallowed over a lump in her throat. “It’s not . . . the same,” she insisted, her voice rising.
“I can’t tell.”
Tears filled Anika’s wide-set eyes as she turned on her friend. “You . . . you can’t tell?” She laughed mockingly.
“Anika—”
“Did Devon woo you just to prove a point?”
Chloe rose with effort, stunned by the rare instance of deep pain Anika was showing. She looked over at her. “He what?” she asked, her voice incredulous.
Anika laughed, mostly at herself. “Yup, and my dumb ass believed all of his lies.”
“Anika, I—” Chloe began.
She waved her hand. “I’m going for a walk. I don’t feel like talking about it right now, Chloe.”
So she said nothing as Anika made her way down the stairs and out of the yard, her lone figure eventually disappearing in the distance. Chloe was steamed. She wished Deshawn was there groveling down her food instead of working late, so that she could strangle him. “Just wait until I lay my eyes on you, Deshawn Jamison,” she shouted to the stars, before entering the house with a slam of the front door.
∞
Anika definitely did not take to the country like Chloe had, but she couldn’t deny the beauty of the Carolina night sky framed by the tips of pine trees and the silhouette of flying night creatures. Even as the temperature dropped and she wrapped her arms around herself for warmth and comfort, she looked up at the beautiful constellations while she walked.
Desperately, she wanted to find inner peace over her tumultuous choices in men, past and present.
Why couldn’t she seem to get it right? What was wrong with her? True, Deshawn was still not nearly as bad as him, but he had hurt her with his deceit.
Anika saw the top of a country-style three-story house. Deshawn’s house.
Why do I still love him?
She would admit that to no one but herself as she stood there in the road, cloaked by darkness, looking at the warm and inviting structure that she could have very well pictured herself living and loving. Days swinging on the porch as Deshawn worked in the yard. Tending the flowers in the garden and at the boxes of each window. Frolicking in the thick emerald grass with their children.
“Lawd, quit.” She sighed, totally enchanted by the sprawling country home framed by the moonlight and the yard lights.
In one short week she had fallen as deeply in love with him as if she had known him a lifetime. And it had felt so right and so perfect that Anika felt like they were destined to meet and be together. Silly, right?
Overhearing his conversation with Devon had shoved her back into reality with a quickness. Anika took one last long at the house before turning to head back home. She had to get over Deshawn in her heart and that was all there was to it. She had lots of loving family, a true best friend, a godchild on the way, and a career in which she was dedicated.
Twin circles of bright light shadowed her figure on the road ahead of her. Curious, Anika looked back over her shoulder. Her heart double-pumped at the sight of Deshawn’s truck turning into his paved driveway.
She continued walking forward. Seconds later the lights returned to surround her as she heard the gears shift into reverse
on the truck. Knowing she couldn’t outwalk or outrun him, Anika stopped and turned slowly, squinting her eyes against the glare.
As the lights were switched off and the truck slowed to a stop in front of her, Anika steeled herself for anything.
∞
Deshawn’s heart hadn’t stopped pumping furiously in his chest since he first saw Anika walking in the road. And he had known it was her instantly. Who else moved with such subtle sexuality?
No one.
The sight of her shapely hips, buttocks, and legs in her form-fitting cords made him think of that one night they had shared. How beautiful, open, and alive she had looked as she sat astride him, surrounding him with her warmth and wetness, her back arching to expose her glorious breasts to his eyes, hands, and mouth.
I love this woman.
He took a deep, steadying breath and left the truck. His eyes stayed on her as she turned and faced him. He felt nervous. No woman had ever made him feel unsure and unconfident.
As he walked to her he glanced up at the star-emblazoned sky. Suddenly he felt a sense of strength and determination fill him. The words Nana Lil had spoken to him in that dream replayed in his head: All right, Shawnie. She’s the one, you hear me? Speak from your heart and make her believe.”
Deshawn paused. He felt as if the words surrounded him like the wind.
“Hey, Anika,” he said softly as he reached her, pushing his hands deep into the pockets of his loose- fitting jeans.
Only the light from the brightly beaming moon highlighted their features in the darkness. If there wasn’t such resentment and misunderstanding between them it would be quite romantic.
“What do you want, Deshawn?” she asked softly, hoping to hide the regret in her voice.
I want your love. “I want to talk to you about why you hate me,” he said, gazing down into her upturned face. He felt himself getting lost in the moon and the stars reflected brilliantly in her eyes.
“Don’t do this, Deshawn,” she begged, literally begged. “If you had any idea about what I went through that morning in New York, you would not do this.”
The obvious anger and pain in her eyes tortured his soul. He wanted to gather her body close to his own and replace it with pleasure. But instinctively, he knew physical contact between them right now would send her fleeing from him.
Heavenly Match Page 14