First and Ten

by Michel Prince

  Rome’s lips froze around Dani’s nipple and his hand slowly retreated. She didn’t know if her body could take much more. If he didn’t get her off in the next few seconds she was going to be set back a decade at least.

  “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” he howled. “This is not happening.”

  But it was. The woman continued pounding and yelling.

  “I remember where your key is hidden, Rome. I doubt you changed that.”

  Rome’s head fell against the wall next to Dani.

  “Either open this damn door or I’ll open it for myself, Jerome,” she drew out his name in a nasally way that could kill any erection. Or so Dani assumed by the fact Rome’s hardness that had been pressing against her was softening. Oh Dani would be having to get a release from somewhere before the end of the night and sadly, her Tuesday Treat would not be served by Jerome Speed and between her thighs.

  “Don’t move and inch,” he commanded.

  “I can honestly say I don’t think I have the core strength to pull that off.” No longer on a tiptoe and with her leg unlatched from around his waist, she let out a sigh.

  “Give me two minutes, I’ll get rid of her. This is going to happen.”

  She loved his optimism, but if this woman could kill his arousal through a door, she assumed the night was a wash. Dani did stay against the wall, more to find out why the city of Chicago didn’t want them to sleep together.

  “‘Bout time,” the woman snapped when Rome opened the door. She tried to walk in but he put his hand up to stop her. “That’s how it’s gonna be. Fine, tell me what this shit is all about, Jerome.”

  Papers flew at his face and Dani knew it was time for her to at least get out of earshot. Down the hall, she saw a kitchen and figured it was as good of a place as any to camp out. Although Jerome’s home was in a classic Chicago brownstone and she’d caught a glimpse of original craftsmanship on the spindles of the stairs, the kitchen was fully renovated. The glass tiled backsplash was a mix of a turquoise, khaki, and frosted white rectangular pieces. With a subzero fridge, double oven and an island in the middle of the room, the kitchen could be in a design magazine. Not quite the warm earthy tones of her parents’ home, but still Dani could tell Jerome used the room. Abandoned dishes were in the sink and she couldn’t help peeking in the fridge. It was full of healthy food, but toward the back she saw a glimmer of orange that stood out.

  Pushing aside a gallon of milk, Dani grabbed the orange soda and cracked the seal. The fake citrus smell brought her back to days on the campground. Her family went every summer and they had an old pop machine with glass bottles. Maybe it wasn’t the time, but she was parched and needed something to calm down the hormones rushing. Being reminded of grade school did the trick.

  Resting her arms on the soapstone counter top, she looked out into his fenced backyard. There was a nice deck and a small swing set. Dani could hear the woman at the door screeching about how horrible he was, but Rome didn’t seem that way to her. He had a kid and although she hadn’t seen any pictures or toys around the house, the swing set made a statement. It was new with a yellow plastic slide and two green swings. She could tell it had never seen a winter.

  Retrieving her phone, she turned it on and messages pinged. Rubbing her eyes, she wondered how people could be so needy. At what point did how you dress take over the world?

  Shaking her head, Dani clicked on the Uber app and called for a ride. She’d almost finished the pop and there was no sign of slowing in the tirade from the front door. Luckily, the app said a driver was close by. Now to retrieve her bag from Jerome’s car and she would head home. Smoothing out her clothes, she studied herself in the reflection of the glass in the window. Her hair wasn’t a total disaster, but it did need a bit of styling.

  The only way out was through the front door. Past a woman Jerome had not only been with and was still in the picture. Who would always be in the picture. What was Dani thinking? Dating an NFL player that could have and probably has had every woman in this city and the next. Dani would be just one of many who’d passed through that door.

  With a buzz from her phone, Danika steeled herself and made sure whatever came about she could handle. She was William Albright’s daughter, which gave her an iron will…no that wasn’t it, but that’s what people assumed. What it really gave her was a home that always accepted her, even when she might not deserve it.

  “Um, Rome,” Dani said as she placed her hand on his shoulder. He was in mid argument that Dani was trying to block out. “My ride is here.”

  “Your ride?” he growled as he turned his head and shoulders just enough to see her. His jaw twitched and flexed as he cut his eyes back to the woman who stood with her hands on her hips in irritation. Between the two women, Dani thought she had the bigger right to be irritated. “I’ll be done with this—”

  “This! This!” the woman exclaimed sending her hands flying as gold from the rings covering her fingers caught flashes from the streetlights. “Don’t treat me like a this because you got some Becky at your house.”

  “Becky?” Dani questioned, but Rome put his hand up to silence her. “Right, well that’s my Uber so could you let me get my bag out of your car?”

  “Candi, stay here.”

  “Oh, baby, you know I’m not about to leave any time soon.”

  “Call me baby one more time, Candace,” he warned with a tone that had Dani’s skin prickling. “Stay on the porch.”

  Dani nodded to the driver and placed a finger up to let him know she’d be there in a minute as she followed Rome to his garage. Jerome didn’t have his keys with him so he punched in a code and the door opened. After retrieving her bag from the SUV, he held it to his chest.

  “You don’t have to go,” he said. “Candi will be out of here before you know it.”

  “It’s been over fifteen minutes and she’s still at an eight. Something tells me you won’t be down to a calm level for awhile.” Dani reached for her bag, but he stepped back like a kid on a playground. She couldn’t hide her smile. “Rome.”

  “Dani, you weren’t supposed to move from the wall.”

  “It’s easier when you’re holding me up.”

  He stepped close and Dani’s heart sped up. “Do I at least get a kiss good-bye?”

  Dani smiled as he leaned down and claimed her lips. If it wasn’t for the loud sighing and complaining coming from the porch she could have actually enjoyed it.

  “How about Tuesday I pick you up?” she said as she reached for her bag only to be rebuffed again.

  “You’re going to make me wait until Tuesday?” he whined.

  “Jerome,” Candace called and shattered their moment further. “If you don’t get rid of that Becky I’m gonna get rid of her for you.”

  “I can’t hit a woman,” he said. “But you can.”

  “It’s not my fight,” Dani said as she finally got her bag and walked toward the car only to turn back and call. “At least, not yet. Five-thirty. Workout clothes.”

  “You haven’t given me your number yet.”

  “We know the same people, if you need me before then you can find me.”

  When she got in the car, she told the driver where to go and looked up at the woman on Jerome’s porch. She waved her manicured claws at Dani with a snarl of satisfaction on her face. Now it was Dani’s fight.

  Chapter Six

  “You want to ruin my life, I’ll be more than happy to ruin yours,” Candi snipped when Jerome returned to the porch. Nothing more than the top step with a few pillars, but it at least kept Candace out of his home. “Why do you suddenly want DeMonte?”

  “It’s not sudden by any stretch of the imagination,” Rome said as he watched Dani being driven away by a stranger. He reached for the extra key he had hidden behind a small part of his door trim. “Thanks for reminding me, the last thing I want is you coming in my house.”

  “Oh, you loved when I came in your house,” she purred as she stepped close and grasp
ed his shirt. “I bet I taste so much sweeter than that white little Becky over there.”

  “Candace, your soul is darker than any I’ve ever seen.” He looked in her eyes so black he couldn’t make out her pupil verses her iris. Her skin was a flawless, deep caramel, and she had thick lips and hips to match. At one time, Candace had actually found his heart. He’d been warned to not try to take a girl out of Roseland, but his neighborhood in north Omaha hadn’t been much better growing up. “Why don’t you answer my first question? Where’s my son?”

  “He’s with my mama. You have a problem with that?”

  “She still live in that row house?”

  “So what if she does?”

  “Then yes, I have a goddamn problem with it.” Rome stood his ground. “Because I’m pretty damn sure the subpoena we sent for you was all the way in Naperville.”

  “It’s just a rental. Those pennies you drop on me once a month aren’t enough for me to buy my own house let alone move my mother in with me.”

  “Pennies,” Rome roared. “Pennies are what you were picking up at the strip club when I found your ass. Never try to turn a ho into a housewife. Waitress my ass. I can’t believe I fell for that shit.”

  “What does Ms. Becky do?” she sniped. “She looks like a cleaning lady.”

  “She,” Rome said and pointed down the road for emphasis, “is none of your damn business. You and I have only one thing to discuss and that’s my child. Get all self-righteous about how I wasn’t there for you all you want. You took my seed and ran. Filing petitions out of state to get money when you didn’t even have a permanent address. That’s my boy. That’s my blood you have and Candace, I’m getting him back.”

  Rome slammed the door and left her to stand in the cold. His hand flew in frustration and caught the edge of the glass dish he used to catch his keys. It shattered into a million pieces and he heard Candace cackle outside his door. Fucking bitch, he hated her. Crushing the glass more, he stomped into the kitchen only to see an empty bottle of orange soda sitting on his kitchen island.

  Anger that coursed through him melted at the fact of all the things in his fridge, Dani picked his favorite. He wasn’t even upset. She was who he belonged with, not the creature that he stupidly tried to save from itself that had been at his door a moment ago.

  Pulling out his phone, he remembered her challenge. That would be too damn much for his pride to track down her number and call her to come back. Fuck if he didn’t want to. He’d have to wait until Tuesday. Seven days until he could see her again. The thought was agony. OTAs weren’t for another two weeks so he couldn’t even distract himself. He had two options. Workout every damn day like he was a rookie at OTAs or set up a tent on Northwestern’s Evanston campus and pray he could see Dani before she sees him pathetically waiting for her. Then again, how bad would it be to call his agent for her number?

  “Why do I think this isn’t about needing fashion styling?” Randall roared with laughter. “I’m not sure if I should give her number to you.”

  “What’s that clause in your contract that lets me talk to the Speilman agency?”

  “I’m blanking, but I’m texting you Dani’s cell. If I remember correctly, you’ll have to wait until morning.”

  Jerome didn’t wait. It wasn’t in his nature. In fact, he spent very little time waiting and now would not be the time he’d start. After hanging up, he stared at the text from Randall with Dani’s number. His stomach turned as he tapped the number and the options came up. It only made sense to save it as a contact first. If nothing else, it added a layer of acid to his belly so he could spend three hours burping. And damn if a woman wouldn’t want that from her man.

  Setting the phone down, he decided he should sweep up the glass shards and set his place right. Not like she could see his home, but it helped him rid himself of Candace and the negative juju she’d dropped on his home. The house had been cleansed like at the end of Poltergeist, if only he could find the voice of that little old lady…oh he could. Hitting the internet, he found the clip and blasted it through his sound system.

  With the phone at the ready, he pulled up her number and stared.

  Dani scheduled a session at Hot Spot Yoga and Fitness for the following Tuesday. She had a feeling she’d need the stretching if she planned on anything with Rome the next week. She spent most of her ride back to her car responding to texts and voicemails from her clients. Breaking her own rule, but how else would she be able to quell the quaking in her core. The worst part was she could smell him. His cologne and musk. It covered her hands and even leaning down she could smell him on her shirt. He’d taken her to a place she’d forgotten. She was already lost in her own world, but add that to her confusion over what she would do once she graduated. Go on to get a PhD? Start a business? Apply to work at her daddy’s firm? At least she had one less option.

  “You’ve been avoiding me,” Esme accused as she met her Thursday morning for their study group.

  “Have I?” Dani feigned innocence without looking up from her laptop.

  “You’re lucky I didn’t call the police.”

  “Why?” Dani laughed.

  “You get into an SUV with a man I don’t know and won’t answer my calls for a day.” Esme’s eyes sparkled. “Please tell me it was because you were tied up being teased sexually until your body could no longer produce adrenaline and you passed out from sheer ecstasy.”

  “How long does that process take?” Dani asked as she twirled her hand. “For scientific purposes. I mean, I know you were pre-med for a semester or two, right?”

  “I was pre Edmond Washington.”

  “The third right?”

  “Yes, Edmond Washington the Third.” Esme let out a little sigh then plopped into the chair across from her. “Don’t try to distract me.”

  “But it’s so easy,” Dani said as she flipped her laptop around and had a webpage up with men only wearing jeans that hung low on their hips.

  “Not this time,” Esme warned, half closing the laptop, then popping it back up before the screen dimmed, and finally closing it with a shake to her head. “Unless it’s a picture of him taken by you pre or post coitus, I don’t want to see it.”

  “Damn,” Dani said as she picked up her phone. “Guess I have to erase my sex tape.”

  “Don’t joke. I thought you’d need a sex tape to remember how to even do it.”

  “I’m hurt, crushed even.”

  Dani turned her laptop back on and pulled up their power point project.

  “At what point did I stop being your best friend?” Esme asked. “You tell me about every guy you’re with.”

  “No, you tell me about every guy you’re with.”

  “Only because you’re a self declared nun.”

  “I’m adding that to my list,” Dani joked. “Nun. For after I graduate.”

  “You seriously left with that specimen of male perfection and came back still chaste?”

  “English Lit?” Dani guessed Esme’s one time major.

  “Maybe you should open a joke shack. Drive up, get a bad smart ass remark for only fifty cents to make it so your friends go away.”

  “My test market isn’t performing very well,” Dani countered as she raised an eyebrow at her friend. “Plus, I’m worth more than fifty cents.”

  “Fine, keep him your little secret.”

  “For now. Right now it’s just a few chance encounters and a boat ride.”

  “Boat ride? Like a dinghy?”

  “No.” Dani let out a sigh, looked down and then back up. “Like a skyline, Lake Michigan tour…alone.”

  “Not Jack’s boat?”

  “Yes.”

  “He bought out Jack’s boat. Do you have any idea—”

  “I do and then he was emasculated when he found out who my dad was.” Dani’s phone buzzed and flashed up the words message and she let out a low groan. “I swear you’d think Van didn’t know how to tie his own shoe let alone a bowtie.”

 
Swiping her pass code on the screen, she pulled up the message and her heart skipped a beat before it set off at a pace reserved for Olympic sprinters. She pulled in on her lips as she tried to search for moisture only to come up dry and wanting. It wasn’t wetness she wanted. She wanted to taste Rome again. To still have his musk on her hands and clothes. It was embarrassing that she hid her shirt in her closet so the maid wouldn’t accidentally gather it for the wash. Now all she could do was hold her breath as she read the message on her phone.

  Couldn’t wait for Tuesday. Meet me tonight.

  Dani’s face flushed with heat. Esme snatched her phone, then ran across the room.

  “Trying to hide his number by not putting his name on the contact won’t fool me.”

  “I’m not trying to fool you.” Dani didn’t even get up from her seat. What was the point? The cat was out of the bag. “As you can see that’s my first message from whoever it is. Probably a wrong number.”

  “Fine, so you wouldn’t want me to reply I’ll be naked at the first place we met.”

  Dani’s stomach flopped as she tightened her jaw to keep the sick feeling down and her face stoic enough that Esme wouldn’t figure out her feelings.

  “How about typing Aunt Becky with a question mark behind it,” Dani suggested as goosebumps ran up her spine.

  “Fine. Sent.” Esme smirked.

  “You really sent it?” Dani laughed.

  “This isn’t some secret code you have is it?”

  A second text came through and Esme’s face crinkled.

  “Okay, this might actually be your Aunt Becky. That is if you had one.” Dissuaded, she passed Dani the phone and finally pulled her work out.

  It took all Dani had in her to not burst into a wide grin as she read, My place. You bring the orange soda.

  “Dani, any chance…”

  “Not in hell,” Dani replied and began reviewing the research she’d done the night before.

  After completing the fourth part of their project, Dani and Esme went their separate ways. Esme had a management theories class while Dani had advanced statistics for the third time. She hadn’t flunked or anything, nope, she cut out and dropped the class before that could happen. No longer able to put off the inevitable, she made her way to Dr. Foster’s class after responding to three urgent texts from Van. None of which were for styling advice at least. Love life, as if she had time to help him with his when she couldn’t even understand her own? Then again, his is a bit more complicated. Do you let the paparazzi know you’ll be somewhere or keep it casual? Then there’s the trust issue which she understood all too well. Where money is concerned you have to question every motive from the person you’re with.