He brought her a small gift every day. A way to say thank you, but also to see the smile that lit up her face when he walked through the door.
Single father? No, they were a family. His family.
CHAPTER 18
A few days later, the Kings and the Knights had now been closeted in the space within the Castle that Jai had pressed into service for a few hours. After further clarifying what he expected from them, Jai paced the room, pausing when Hiram spoke.
“There’s one thing I need to know.” He glanced at the other Knights in turn. “Why us, man?”
Jai frowned, then asked, “What do you mean … why?”
“You could’ve brought in dudes coming straight from college or something,” Hiram explained, with a pointed look at the rest of the Knights situated around the table. None of whom had degrees; only some specialized medical training that Jai had a hands-on part in developing. “You chose ex-cons to work at the Center and now to be Knights and have all the benefits of the Castle. So, I’m asking … why?”
Jai settled on the leather chair at the head of the table. “Real talk?”
“Real talk?” Hiram laughed, nudging Michael in the side. “Look at him, trying to sound all Black and what not.”
“Not Black,” Jai countered, realizing that their lingo was sort of rubbing off on him. “I’m testing the waters to see how far you’d like me to go.”
Hiram quickly pulled out a chair between Dwayne and Dro and settled in.
“I looked at what you’ve done, but I also took into consideration why you did it.” He nodded to Kevin whose glasses nearly covered the top half of his face. “Kevin shot the man who was constantly beating on his mother. Everyone in this room can appreciate a man trying to protect his parent.” Jai tapped an index finger on the table, filtering through his memory bank. “The downside was the fact that she never reported all the times the man had hurt her—despite several visits to the hospital. If she had, that alone, would’ve changed the outcome of Kevin’s case.” His gaze fell to Hiram. “That fight you had with the guy who attacked your girlfriend at the nightclub. I read the transcripts. I believe the man wasn’t honest about the fact that he had a weapon or that he passed it off to a friend before the police showed up. The Judge went hard on you because of your martial arts training.”
Hiram locked gazes with Jai, ignoring the movement of the other men around him. “You knew all of that?”
“I made sure to research each and every one of you. I started with nearly nine hundred and whittled it down to nine,” Jai confessed with a pointed look at all the men watching him. “Some of you have stories that are similar—or even caught charges for weed, which is now legal in several states because the government finally figured out a little weed isn’t hurting anyone. Which is why all of a sudden everybody’s growing it. Including little old Caucasian ladies.”
“Puff, puff, pass,” Hiram said with a chuckle. “Even Betty White knows the rotation.”
The men laughed at his reference to the feisty actress, who was known for juggling two to three boyfriends at a time.
“Those mistakes you made early in life shouldn’t define the rest of your lives.” Jai swiveled in the wide leather chair, the way Hiram liked to do. “The one thing I made certain of, was that none of you had any domestic violence or sexual assault type of offenses. That was a big factor. I made a mistake early in life and didn’t say something that could’ve saved my sisters and other girls in the family a world of pain and grief.”
That admission was met with silence as both the Kings and Knights held any comments, probably realizing that being this open and transparent was hard for him.
“While it wasn’t anything I witnessed personally, it was something I felt,” Jai confessed, taking in the sober expressions and solemn atmosphere of the room. “The thing about it is, even though it was based on my feelings and not concrete proof, it would’ve carried more weight in my family than hearing from the girls who were too afraid to speak up about what was happening to them.” Jai folded his arms across his chest, trying to still the sadness within him. His gaze drifted to the wall, then he sighed. “I regret it to this day. Strangely enough, my cousin met a woman, who not only turned the family upside down because she was a little older, and she was Black, but she blew the lid off the entire family secret because she refused to let her children anywhere near my uncle. That’s when my cousin, Devesh—”
“Wait a minute. Devesh Maharaj? The Devesh Maharaj?” Hiram perked up and so did everyone else, except Vikkas who also bore that surname. “That’s your fam?”
Jai grinned. “Yes, my cousin has a gift, but he didn’t find that out until he went after Reign. Though he had been trying his hand at acting for years, she recognized that his voice would be the thing to put him on the map. Then she sent him for dance lessons and acting lessons, too. Despite the fact that he already thought he was good in that area. And he was for India, but not for the American audience he was trying to capture. She changed his whole outlook.”
“Almost the same vibe as you’ve been giving off lately.”
Jai narrowed a steely gaze on Hiram.
“Never seen you smile so much since Temple and the baby came along.”
Shaz smirked, and Reno gave Grant a pointed look and they smiled.
Jai lowered his gaze to the set of folders spread out before him, uncomfortable at the thought that he’d perhaps been too transparent. “There’s nothing going on between us.”
“Yeah, you keep telling yourself that lie,” Falcon said with a taunting grin.
“I admire her strength and her courage. I don’t look at her …” Jai’s voice trailed off as his thoughts kicked in. He didn’t realize he’d been silent for far too long. He looked up to find an array of sly smiles and smirks that spoke volumes.
“The fact that you have to think about it, says something’s going on. You just don’t want to admit it,” Hiram said.
Jai scanned the faces of his brother Kings and each of them seemed to agree with Hiram.
Falcon left the table and rested a hand on Jai’s shoulder. “You know it’s something when you have someone to come home to and there’s a family waiting on you. You put in a hard day at work—and there’s a woman who puts a smile on your face, and a little one smiles up at you like you’re their whole world. There’s no better feeling.” His grin widened. “Ask me how I know.”
“We see you. The same way you look at your patients, you look at us — the whole human being.” Hiram nodded. “That’s church, man. And we see you, too.”
Jai’s thoughts went to Temple again and he wondered what else he could do to make things right in her world. Maybe—
Hiram snapped a finger in front of Jai’s face. “Now we’re going to need you to look at your whole self and quit trying to block that love thang and listen to what’s going on around you, man.”
“And we’re going to need you to do that with a quickness,” Hiram said, hooking an arm under Jai’s and bringing him to his feet. “Because we have to get back to work.”
“Yes, indeed,” Kaleb chimed in from Jai’s other side as he ushered him toward the door.
“Wait a minute,” Jai protested, planting his feet to halt their movements. “Are you kicking me out of a meeting I called?”
“You know what they say,” Dwayne said, giving him a mega-watt grin.
“You don’t have to go home,” Hiram finished, ushering him across the threshold. “But you got to get the hell up out of here.”
CHAPTER 19
“You make a scrumptious meal for us every morning,” Temple said to Jai, sliding the silver breakfast tray toward him as he sat up in bed. “I wanted to do something special for you.”
“You didn’t have to do this,” Jai said, scanning the contents of his plate. French toast, crispy strips of turkey bacon, vegetable omelet, fresh fruit, fresh squeezed orange juice, grits with salt and butter. “This is a serious spread. How did you get Sandy to allow you to
take over her domain?”
“The same way you do,” she replied, laughing. “I ask nicely.”
“That never works for me.” He gave her a playful scowl. “I’m beginning to think she likes you a whole lot better than me. I have to practically bribe her to let me do my thing.”
Temple perched on the side of his bed and inhaled. “Jai, I need to start making some plans. I can’t just lay up in your place like the Queen of Sheba and let you spoil me like this.”
“Says who?” he countered. “Makeda, The Queen of Sheba, already had her entire life together when Solomon fell in love with her, then lavished all kinds of gifts upon her before she left him with a little human going away present in her womb.” Jai gave her a smile. “And every woman deserves to be pampered and spoiled.”
“Oh, I love the way you think,” she said, making herself more comfortable. “But at some point, I need to do something other than lounge around, eat up all this good food, and take up space in your life.”
“You’re not taking up space. You belong here,” he said. “You and India, this is your place. I kind of don’t remember what it was like before you came. All I can recall was a lot less laughter and joy.”
Temple grinned. “And a lot less noise too.”
“I don’t mind that at all.” He sliced the French Toast and dipped it into the pure maple syrup.
The moan he let loose had all kinds of thoughts running through her mind. Sinful thoughts. She should not think of Jaidev Maharaj in that manner. Not at all. She was his guest, and she wouldn’t dare pounce on him like a desperate panther onto prey. But good Lord, with the way the man was savoring his meal she could only imagine how meticulous he was when it came to … “I’d like to do some painting while I’m here.”
“Well, I guess the living room could use a coat or two,” Jai teased around a mouthful of food. “Sandy practically lives in Home Depot.”
“Not that kind of painting,” she said, laughing and handing him a white napkin.
“I know.” He leaned forward and she dabbed the cloth at the corner of his mouth. “I’m just busting your chops.”
“Oh, see.” She laughed. “You want to play like that?” Temple adjusted so her feet were stretched out, and her back was against the pewter and wood headboard. “I could try my hand at becoming a Cuddle facilitator.”
Jai’s fork paused midway to his mouth. “A what?”
“A person who gets paid to cuddle people for a specified amount of time.”
He blinked twice and shook his head. “With total strangers?”
“They wouldn’t be so strange after a while.”
“Temple …” He inhaled and let it out slowly. “There are a lot of newfangled things happening in the world, but for the life of me, I will not understand how you would open yourself up to attaching so many different energies to you that way.”
She didn’t say anything to refute it.
“It’s a legitimate business,” she countered. “And I can make my own hours and still see to India’s needs.”
“I get that,” he said. “But right now, your focus should be on your own emotional, mental, and physical needs—not on trying to anticipate what others need.” Jai adjusted his body on the California King Palladian bed, reached under the pillow on the far side and extracted his wallet. He extended a credit card her way.
“American Express Black? And it has my name on it?” She shook her head and tried to give it back. “I can’t accept this. I’ve taken enough from you already. I need to have a lawyer unravel my life and untangle me from my mother and my ex.”
“You can accept it,” he insisted. “And you will. Shaz and Vikkas are already on finding the lawyer who put your father’s estate plan together. They’ve had Dro’s people combing through law offices in Virginia. Don’t worry about any of that. The loft on the upper level is all yours to do with as you will.”
Jai glanced down at the bacon and then to Temple and grinned.
“Oh, so you want me to feed it to you as well?” The thought put all kinds of ideas in her head.
“I mean, since we’re talking about spoiling people and everything,” he teased.
Temple complied and he snapped at the bacon in her hand, pressing a kiss to her fingertips that caused her to tremble.
She scanned the bedroom that had the barest minimum of furniture. A huge bed covered in purple and gold linen, a rug with a Arabic pattern that matched the purple draperies. No night stand, dressers or anything that cluttered the view and made the space seem massive. The entire house was done this way. Every piece of furniture or artwork mattered. Nothing extra. Understated elegance without overdoing the opulence. A man who did not have to prove himself to anyone.
Temple glanced at the card and then to him. “Why are you so good to me?” she whispered. “You don’t even know me.”
“I know enough. And why wouldn’t I be good to you?”
She sighed, long and hard. “Because that’s not how my life has been.”
“Maybe it’s time for your expectation for your life to change.”
“What if pain is all I know?”
Jai put the tray aside, cupped her face in his hands. “Then at some point, you’ll need to become open to the idea of pleasure. Life tends to rise to your expectation or go in the opposite direction, if you feel strongly about it.”
“Pleasure,” she whispered the word as if she’d made a wonderful discovery.
“Yes. In simple things,” he added. “Breakfast in bed tops that list. And this is some good stuff. A swim in the ocean. A child’s laughter.”
“Ziplining in Jamaica?” she prompted, and his eyes widened to the size of saucers.
“All right, I can see that.” He nodded slowly. “Although, I’ve never aspired to be Tarzan, I can see the appeal of swinging through the trees at top speed and—”
“On second thought, I’m not Jane, so scratch that.”
Jai burst out laughing. “Afraid of heights?”
“I’m not telling,” she shot back, and he laughed even more. “And tonight, I prepare dinner and then I get to pick what we watch. The Kings of Comedy, followed by the Queens of Comedy.”
“A double-header. And no Kevin Hart.”
“He’s not a king,” Temple scoffed. “He’s a court jester.”
Moving his head back and forth, Jai said, “Oh, that’s brutal.”
“It’s truth,” she countered. “I think it was … Hiram and Falcon who were debating on whether to play him or Bernie Mac one day in my room at Chetan. Hiram called it right. And speaking of calling it right, finish your breakfast, young man.”
Jai slid on a bite of French Toast and presented the fork to her. She opened her mouth, accepting his offering, but kept her gaze squarely on him. “Oh, that is pretty good.”
“Simple things. Simple pleasures.” Jai placed the fork on the side of his plate, then tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear.
She trembled the moment his fingertips made contact with her cheekbones and traced the delicate skin all the way to her chin. Her lips parted of their own accord and Jai tried, truly tried, by pulling back, then suddenly moved in as thought he couldn’t resist tasting her lips and teasing to the point where he elicited the type of moan that signaled the beginning of a pleasurable time to be had by all.
Moments later, her breathing hitched as her head tilted back and kissed his way across the smooth curve of her shoulders and trailed back to her mouth and sampled another taste.
“Ohhhhh,” Temple sighed and trembled so hard she had to grip the sheets to stay upright.
She slid off the bed; the rise and fall of her chest signaled that she was trying to control her body’s response to him.
So many times, he caught her watching him, sizing him up only to realize that he was doing the same. She didn’t know what it was about this particular man that aroused feelings inside Temple that she never believed she’d ever experience. Being with him like this was dangerous and t
he wise thing would be to escape now that she was still in control of her wits.
Temple inched away from bed. “I … I … I need to see about India.”
His gaze never left hers as he said, “Yes, I totally understand.”
She bolted from the room as if she’d suddenly became an Olympic champion.
CHAPTER 20
Hiram slammed Victor against the living room wall. He had shown up at Marilyn’s house without any warning, barged in and went off about their youngest daughter. Wanda had gone to her father, spreading all manner of lies that escalated with her adding that Hiram had filled Marilyn’s head with accusations that Victor may have molested his daughter.
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