A Kiss of a Different Color

by Bettye Griffin

  He did notice. “I see you have a few admirers,” he remarked as he poured the remainder of his Coors into his pilsner.

  “Are you jealous?”

  “No. As long as they realize you’re with me.”

  “I know that, even if they don’t,” she replied with a smile.

  As Miranda and Jon interacted at the bar, she noticed that while most of the players seemed to forget about her, one seemed to be continually giving her the eye. She figured her ethnicity had caught the eye of the African-American players, a perfectly understandable reaction, but the others had gotten over it. Why did this one man keep staring? Didn’t he see she was there with Jon?

  Fortunately, Jon didn’t notice, and Miranda forced herself to stop checking. The last thing she wanted was to encourage him to continue to stare…but she had an uneasy feeling when Jon excused himself to go to the washroom.

  She took a sip of her wine and looked up at the screen, where the game was being re-broadcast. She sensed movement behind her, and her shoulders stiffened at a light touch of a hand across her upper arm.

  She wasn’t surprised to see the same man who had been staring at her. He sat, uninvited, on the stool Jon had just vacated. “Hi. I’m Royce, Royce Henderson.”

  He spoke as if he were mesmerized, and the scent of alcohol hung about him like a cloth over a table. It put her on edge.

  “Miranda Rhett,” she replied.

  “I haven’t seen you around before. Do you live in the area?”

  “Yes. We’ve been to your games before, but this is the first time we stopped in here afterward.”

  “We?”

  “My boyfriend and I.”

  “That white dude?”

  “Yes,” she snapped, making no effort to disguise a sharp tone.

  At that moment Jon returned, a quizzical look on his face that relaxed at the reassuring smile she flashed him.

  She reached for his hand. “Jon, this is Royce, one of the Wizards. He just came over to say hello. Royce, this is Jon.”

  The two men warily shook hands, and Miranda could tell that Jon was as suspicious of Royce’s motives as she was, although he made an effort to be pleasant.

  “Good game tonight,” Jon offered.

  “It’s been a rough season for us,” Royce admitted. “Glad to give the fans a win.”

  Royce made no move to vacate the barstool, and the situation was rapidly becoming tense under the polite exterior. Miranda felt a disaster coming on.

  “It was nice to meet you, Royce,” Miranda hinted, “but we’d like to finish our drink, so if you don’t mind…”

  “I appreciate your keeping my date company while I stepped away for a moment,” Jon said, standing by expectantly to reclaim the barstool.

  But Royce remained seated. “It seemed like the right thing to do,” he drawled, “since I have more in common with her than you do.”

  Miranda held her breath, unsure of how this would all play out but not seeing anything good happening.

  “Only on the surface,” Jon said, his voice full of hostility. “And I’ll thank you to vacate that stool. Because if I have to remove you, your ass is gonna be on the floor.”

  Royce turned to Miranda, pointedly ignoring Jon. “You’re wasting your time with him. You said he’s your boyfriend, he said you’re just his date. What does that tell you? All he wants is—”

  She gasped as Jon grabbed Royce’s collar. “Listen, you. You don’t know a damn thing about my relationship with Miranda.”

  Jon’s aggressive action had caught the attention of the bar patrons, and the bouncer quickly made his way over, as did one of Royce’s teammates. Royce was trying to break free of Jon’s chokehold, finally succeeding, and was clumsily climbing off the stool when his teammate rushed to his side. “Royce, you need to chill. I told you to leave her alone, that she was here with somebody.”

  “Yeah, well, it ain’t right, man.”

  The player appealed to the bouncer. “Just let me get him outside. He’s had a little too much celebration. He really didn’t mean to start anything.”

  “Yeah, but he did,” Jon spat out. “And I’ll be happy to finish it for him.”

  Royce made an attempt to break free, but his friend held him back, and the bouncer stepped between Royce and Jon to assist.

  “C’mon, man, help me get him in the car,” Royce’s teammate pleaded with the bouncer. I’ll bring him home. He won’t come back here until he’s sober. You know he doesn’t act like this normally.”

  “All right, Lateef, we’ll do it your way. Let’s get him out of here.” The bouncer took a firm hold of Royce’s arm. With his free hand he slapped Jon’s shoulder. “You got a lotta guts, man.”

  “Sorry for the trouble, folks,” Lateef said apologetically over his shoulder. “Thanks for supporting the team.” Then he caught Jon’s eye. “You’re a lucky man. Try not to blame Royce too much for wanting to be in your shoes.”

  Miranda and Jon looked at each other, and she reached for his hand. “The bouncer was right. You do have a lot of guts.”

  “Yeah, well, I didn’t like what that dude was suggesting.”

  She could feel the tension in his demeanor. “It’s over now, Jon. “Why don’t you sit down and finish your beer?”

  He grudgingly took his seat, then took a long swill from his pilsner.

  Miranda knew the fun had gone out of the evening. They wouldn’t be able to talk about anything except the incident that just occurred. She made an attempt to make light of it. “Royce reminded me of a kid in grammar school who used to yank my braids. Unfortunately, sometimes kids who are jerks grow up into adults who act like jerks as well.”

  “He sure as hell did.” Jon drained his beer with one last gulp. “Let’s go.”

  Chapter 25

  He was unnaturally quiet on the drive back to his place, and Miranda wondered if he was upset with her. Surely he didn’t think—

  “Jon, you seem angry, and I’m not sure if it’s directed at me. I hope you don’t think I did anything to encourage Royce.”

  “No,” he said without hesitation. “You went out of your way to send him signals that you were with me.”

  “Then why are you still so upset?”

  He blew out a loud breath. “Miranda, I see a pattern forming here. When Monthani’s son saw you on Thanksgiving he came onto you, even though you were at Brian’s with me. When Garrett saw you he came onto you, although at least he backed off the moment he found out you were with me. And now this ball player takes my place next to you the minute I go to the john.”

  “As much as I like to think of myself as irresistible to men, it’s a regional thing, Jon. There just aren’t many black women in Bismarck, or in Eden Prairie, either.”

  “Yeah, I guess. But it’s annoying. It never happened to me in Minneapolis.”

  Miranda looked at him curiously across the console. “Have you dated black women before?”

  “Yes. One was biracial, the other wasn’t.”

  Two. They’d never discussed it, but somehow she’d gotten the impression that this was as new for him as it was for her. “So what happened to them?”

  He shrugged. “The same thing that happens to everyone I dated. We had some fun together, and then it ended and we went our separate ways. For all I know they’ve done what some of the others did, packed up and moved to the Sunbelt.”

  “And you only spent a season with each of them?”

  He took his eyes off the road for a moment to look at her. “Why the curiosity about them? It’s not like you’re asking me about the Scandinavian-Americans or German-Americans I spent time with.”

  “Maybe,” Miranda said in a deliberate low-pitched, sexy voice, “I wanted to be your first.”

  He smiled at her, the first sign of genuine warmth she’d seen since before he returned from the washroom to find Royce sitting on his barstool. “I don’t care if you’re my first or my fiftieth…I’m just really glad I met you, Miranda.”

&
nbsp; Her breath caught in her throat. Jon had shown her he cared for her in his actions…the way he’d stuck up for her, the way he’d comforted her after that terrifying flight. He was also generous with his affections, placing an arm around her, feeding her a taste of what he’d just cooked, planting kisses at the base of her throat…but affection was one thing. Expressed tenderness was something else, and it was something he had never done until now.

  “It doesn’t matter that I spent a summer with Suzy or an autumn with Annie,” he continued.

  “I sure hope those aren’t their real names,” she teased. Then she grew serious. “But seriously Jon, speaking of seasons, you said something when we were on line earlier tonight that I’ve been curious about. When I said I was a little nervous about being out in public with you, you said we had to think about what we were going to do when the weather warms up. And I said—”

  “I remember what you said,” he interrupted. “And to tell you the honest truth, it surprised me to hear that come out of my mouth, too.” He operated his remote control, and the garage door rose as he pulled the Equinox into his garage. He shut off the engine and turned to her. “I hadn’t realized myself that I see you and I being together beyond the winter, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.”

  “And what did you come up with?”

  He took her hand. “Miranda, part of the reason my relationships fell apart was because the women I was involved with and I didn’t like a lot of the same things. I love being outdoors, even in the winter, and they would be saying they’re fed up and either planning a trip to South Padre Island or arranging to move to Florida. But with you it’s different.”

  Miranda held her breath, knowing how important this was.

  “You have more in common with me than anyone I’ve ever known, and that makes a huge difference,” Jon said. “I can honestly say that this has been the best winter of my life, and I just don’t see us fading away like the last of the snow on the ground.”

  “Or expiring, like a bottle of salad dressing?” she prompted with a smile.

  He laughed and squeezed her hand. “This is all new to me, Miranda. I don’t know what’s going to happen any more than you do. For all I know, you’ll get tired of me…or get swept off your feet by a secondary professional athlete or a big shot with the power company, or even a software developer who’s not a friend of mine.”

  Miranda knew he meant Royce, Lance, and Garrett, respectively. “That first time we went for a drink, you told me that whatever woman you’re with has your full attention. That’s something else we have in common, Jon. As long as you and I are together you’ll be the only man in my life.” Her eyes held his. “I can’t stop other men from flirting with me, but I can promise you, as long as things are good between you and me I won’t be interested in anyone else.”

  “That’s good enough for me.” He leaned in close, and they kissed sweetly across the console.

  “It’s cold in this garage,” he said when they straightened up. “Let’s go inside and, uh, get warm.”

  Once in bed, they came together quickly, with a minimum of foreplay, partially because they were both tired after a long day that had included work, dinner, the game, and drinks; and partially because they needed to find emotional release in each other, Jon from having realized that this relationship was different from all his others, Miranda at learning she’d been successful in getting him to change his mind about a pre-set duration for their affair.

  Miranda lay on her back, Jon kneeling before her, her ankles resting on his shoulders. As her passion built, she felt Jon’s hands slip below her back and lift her into a nearly upright position. They looked into each other’s eyes as their hips continued thrusting toward each other, smiling foolishly like teenagers, then his expression seemed to change to something she couldn’t identify, didn’t recognize, but yet she sensed that it meant her dreams were on the verge of coming true.

  When he felt her body erupt in pleasure, Jon began to lower her back to a reclining position, giving her the marvelous sensation of floating as she crested. Jon hovered over her, and his own body began to contract. He kept his hands locked under her neck as his orgasm built, finally letting out a loud cry of satisfaction, and after their bodies stilled he continued to hold her close, his face buried in the crook of her neck.

  Miranda hooked her arms around his neck, and she opened her eyes, expecting Jon to raise his head and roll off of her…but he didn’t.

  She enjoyed their physical proximity for a few minutes, and then Jon finally stirred, lifting his head to gaze down at her. His blond locks were damp close to his hairline and tousled in the back, and she could only imagine what her own hair looked like. But the fond look she saw in his eyes, bordering on awe, told her that it didn’t matter.

  Her eyelids fluttered shut as he moved in to kiss her, a long, slow, and deep kiss that was made even more special because it didn’t come before they made love, but after.

  Jon ended the kiss and reached downward to remove his condom, tossed it into the wastebasket at the side of the bed and, without a word, rolled onto his back and pulled her into an embrace.

  The only sound in the room was their breathing and the hissing of the heat. Miranda comfortably nestled against him. She wasn’t sure what had just transpired between them, only that something had changed.

  Within minutes she fell asleep on her side, facing Jon, under the warmth of the heavy down quilt—the mercury outside had dipped below zero. Jon rested his hand on her thigh and breathed in the intoxicating scent of their union. It hadn’t been an entirely pleasant evening, but it had been enlightening. He’d been angered once Miranda told him why those pedestrians kept cutting in front of her as they stood on line, and again when Royce implied that his interest in Miranda was based purely on sex. But Miranda clearly liked the way he put a stop to people cutting in—”my hero,” she had called him—and she’d sent Royce loud signals that she wasn’t interested, and if he hadn’t been such a jackass he would have picked up on them. Jon had always been in her corner, and it felt good to know she was in his.

  It was fairly dark in his bedroom, for his curtains, although not lined, were dark and heavy. When drawn, as they were now, they kept out the majority of light from the sun as well as the moon. But there was enough light to allow him to see Miranda clearly. She had the covers pulled up to her neck, and he could only make out an outline of her head and her hair fanned out spontaneously against the shimmery fabric of her trademark satin pillowcase.

  He stared at her barely discernible form, listened to the sound of her breathing, and suddenly heard his mother’s voice saying that she believed he had special feelings for Miranda. How could she possibly have known, when he had no idea himself at the time?

  His eyelids were heavy with the need for sleep, and he closed his eyes. As he fell asleep holding Miranda, he wondered…

  Was this what love felt like?

  Miranda stretched lazily in her sleep, then opened her eyes. It was four-thirty a.m., too early to get up. Jon had apparently opened the bedroom door at some point during the night, and Stormy rested at the foot of the bed, just inches from her feet, providing more warmth.

  Her body felt all tingly, and she remembered the hungry way she and Jon made love just a few hours ago. They deserved a night of rapture after a difficult evening.

  She loved the way he stood up for her, stopping people from cutting in front of her at the Civic Center. He was certainly learning a thing or two about being black in America, she thought with a smile.

  She made a face as she remembered the incident with Royce. She’d seen pictures of him in the newspaper, happily surrounded by young, attractive white women celebrating one of the Wizards’ rare wins this season, yet he saw the need to interfere with her date with Jon. What a hypocrite.

  But Jon had been ready to take Royce on, a man both taller and younger than himself, in a bar that was full of Royce’s teammates, also young athletes. What had he been thinking
? Thank heavens it all worked out well, and that Royce’s teammate, Lateef, had been attuned to Royce’s behavior and done his part to diffuse a potentially dangerous situation.

  One thing for sure. She and Jon had better stop finding themselves in the center of anything newsworthy. They were lucky no one from work reported seeing them in that news clip after that turbulent flight to Minneapolis. Now that everyone had seen them dancing at the corporate Christmas party, they’d have to be extra careful. If Jon and Royce had come to blows in the bar, it would have made local headlines, her name would have been in the middle of it…and it wouldn’t take much for anyone to put two and two together.