Once inside they took the elevator to the fourth floor and went to room 416. “Here we go.” Lucky slid the key card down the strip, opened the door, and let Secret enter.
“Hold up right there,” Secret said, dropping her bags and walking past Lucky as he stood at the door, holding it open for her. She walked inside and went straight to the bathroom. She pulled the shower curtain open and looked behind it. She then went and looked in the closet, under the beds, and anywhere else she thought could hold a warm-blooded body. She felt that it was safe to say that there was no one else in the room besides her and Lucky. “Okay; we good.” She picked up her bags and carried them into her king suite with a kitchenette.
“What the hell was all that about?” Lucky snickered.
“I had to make sure nobody was up in here who isn’t supposed to be.”
“See, I knew I was right about you. You are different. You sweet, innocent, and smart and all, but you got some street smarts about you, too,” Lucky said. “Something tells me you done dealt with enough knuckleheads to know what’s up.”
Secret wasn’t sure how she felt about that last comment of Lucky’s. She cringed at the thought that he even thought she had experience with lots of other guys. That wasn’t the case at all, so it was time to set him straight.
“Well, you have Shawndiece to thank for that,” Secret admitted, plopping down on the bed. “In all honesty. I don’t date. I don’t really deal with dudes at all. I live vicariously through my best friend.”
Lucky set down the bags he was carrying and went and sat down next to Secret. “You serious or are you just trying to make me think you ain’t fast?”
“I’m serious.”
“So you mean if I have a gang load of friends, I don’t have to worry about you having had smashed the homies?”
Secret pulled her head back. “What are you talking about?”
Lucky just sat there and stared at Secret like he’d never seen anything like her in his life. Truth be told, he hadn’t. Girls like Kat and Tanesha: a dime a dozen. Girls like Secret: priceless. If the fellas ever caught wind of this ripe princess, they’d make it their business to try to get at her. That’s why he knew now more than ever that Secret would be just that: his little Secret.
Chapter Nineteen
The sun was bound and determined to get Secret’s attention by forcing its way through the small slither of a crack in the hotel room curtains. Secret had to admit, though, that being kissed by the morning sun was a great thing to wake up to.
She sat up and realized she was on the king-sized bed. She was under the cover but fully clothed. She sat and thought for a minute, trying to replay the final moments of the wee morning hours before she’d fallen off to sleep. A smile crept across her lips the same way the sun’s ray had crept into her room.
“Lucky.” The word slipped through her lips like chocolate sliding down a chocoholic’s throat. She lay back down as a smile took over her very being.
She remembered Lucky helping her get her things from Walmart situated and giving her the security of knowing he’d booked the king room for an entire week. “Hopefully you and your moms will get stuff straightened out by then, but if not, just know I got you.”
Secret had never met anyone so kind, caring, and giving toward her in her life; not since her grandmother. Not that she’d ever really made it a point to get out there and mingle and get to know folks like Shawndiece did.
“Shawndiece.” Both that word and Secret shot up like a rocket. Secret excitedly looked to her left and then to her right in search of a phone. She went to pick it up but was interrupted by a knock on the door.
Secret got up out of the bed with a peculiar look on her face. Who could be at the door? Nobody knew she was there except for, “Lucky,” her lips formed to say as she picked up her pace and raced to the door. “Who is it?” she decided to ask for GP as well as look through the peephole.
“Room service,” the Mexican woman she was staring at through the peephole replied.
Secret opened the door to find the woman standing behind a cart full of food.
“Just like the mister requested. Breakfast served at eleven,” the woman said to Secret as she positioned the cart to enter the hotel room.
Secret stepped aside and allowed the woman to wheel the cart in. She eyeballed fresh fruit, a glass of orange juice, apple juice, and what was either pineapple juice or grapefruit juice. There were waffles, pancakes, crepes, and French toast. There were scrambled eggs, an omelet, and quiche. Secret’s mouth watered at the country potatoes smothered in onion with hunks of polish sausage. The biscuits covered in sausage and gravy looked tasty, too. There were a couple choices of cold cereals and a small pitcher of milk, as well as a mini coffee pot and a miniature-size kettle with hot water and a variety of teas.
“When you are finished, you can just place the cart in the hall and someone will get it. I do hope you enjoy.” The woman went to walk away.
“Uh, ma’am, this all does look delicious, but I, uh, didn’t order it.” Secret felt embarrassed. “And I kind of don’t have the money to pay for it either.”
“Like I said, the mister ordered. It’s been charged to the credit card on file at the front desk. Gratuity has already been added as well.” The woman nodded and left the room, the door closing and locking automatically behind her.
Secret stared at the delicacies for a moment before pinching herself and then laughing at her own lame gesture. “What, oatmeal too?” she noticed. “That boy is too much. Or should I say man; real man,” she said almost mocking Lucky.
Secret picked up a waffle that was smothered in melting butter and took a bite as if she were eating a slice of pizza. She’s planned to sit down and indulge but had to go to the restroom first.
After using the bathroom, she couldn’t wash her hands fast enough and get back out there to all the food that awaited her. Just as she was halfway into the sitting area, the hotel room phone rang. Her smile lit up the room. She knew it was Lucky because he was the only one who knew where she was. “Right on time,” she said, figuring she needed to thank him for the room service. “You’re right. I’ve never been with a real man before, not like you,” Secret said, falling back on the bed and twisting the phone cord like she was in la-la land while talking to her high school sweetheart.
“Bitch, how you gon’ be sounding all like you in heaven and shit and I’m over here worried sick, ’bout to sic Rashad and his boys on Lucky?”
“Shawndiece?” Secret’s sweet, lovey-dovey mood was instantly shattered.
“Uh, yes? What? You wasn’t gon’ call a bitch and let her know where you was at? I called your house after I got in and my mom told me you’d been by the house looking for me. Your mom was cussing and fussing talking about she put that ho out. Blah blah blah. I didn’t know what to think. I kept calling your house, pissing your mom off. Me and her ended up having words. I was worried sick about your ass. Ain’t slept all fuckin’ night. Then I gets to thinking how you called Lucky from my phone. I gotta go through my call log and shit. That nigga answered the phone; I’m so on edge that a bitch just go in on his ass. I’m telling that nigga I’ma fuck his shit up and his mama gon’ report his ass missin’ if my girl don’t turn up in an hour. Then this nigga tell me you chillin’ out in a hotel somewhere like you’s fuckin’ Paris Hilton or some shit and ain’t bothered to call me, knowing I was gon’ be worried sick about you.”
There was a few seconds of silence. “Hello to you too,” Secret finally spoke, realizing Shawndiece had finally decided to take a break from cursing her out.
“Bitch, don’t play with me.” Shawndiece sounded genuinely upset.
“Aww, boo-boo, you was really worried about me like that?” Secret teased, while at the same time her heart was touched. She’d bet her firstborn her mama went into work like normal and didn’t think twice about her.
“Ain’t nobody playing with yo’ ass, Secret.” Shawndiece was much too hard to allow her sensitive
side to show, but Secret could hear in her voice Shawndiece really had been scared for her.
“Look, I’m sorry. I really am. My mom went off on me; I mean literally tried to kill me, Shawndiece,” Secret began to explain. “You know you all I got, so I came straight to your house. But you weren’t there. I even tried to call you after that.”
“I made a couple stops since I had my mom’s car,” Shawndiece said in an apologetic tone. She’d calmed down some.
“I figured that,” Secret said. “I didn’t have anybody else to call but Lucky.”
“I’m just glad he came through for you,” Shawndiece said, exhaling for the first time, sounding like she was ready to have a normal conversation with her best friend.
“Girl, he came through like you wouldn’t believe.” Secret began telling Shawndiece about how Lucky stopped her off at Walmart, to him getting her the hotel room for a week, right down to the buffet of breakfast foods that awaited her in the next room.
“Well, did you give him some pussy for all that?” Shawndiece spat out.
“Girl, no. He didn’t even try to go there with me.”
“Well, trust and believe that nigga will be back through to collect. So get yo’ ass off the phone with me, go eat up some of that food, then get your ass in the shower and go put on them Tweety Bird pajamas you got from Wally World.”
Secret laughed. “Girl, they ain’t no Tweety Bird pajamas.”
“Well, whatever they are, make ’em sexy. Have your ass smelling good and spread out like his smorgasbord. Bam! Next thing you know, you calling that nigga in a couple weeks talkin’ ’bout ‘you are the father.’”
“Girl, bye,” Secret said, planning to take heed of Shawndiece’s instructions no matter how undiplomatic she was in relaying them.
“Bye. Call me after you do him.”
“Girl, bye!” Secret hung up the phone and took another bite of her waffle. She sat there for a minute just smiling and thinking about her bestie. She was so touched that Shawndiece had cared so much about her that she’d called around looking for her. Secret knew one thing for certain: she and Shawndiece would be friends for life . . . no matter what.
For the next hour, Secret watched television while sampling almost every food and beverage room service had brought to her. Afterward, she took a shower and got herself smelling good with some of the products she’d bought from the store last night.
She was going to call Lucky but decided she would just wait for him to check in on her. She didn’t want to seem all clingy. A couple hours went by and she hadn’t heard from him. That was a little disappointing to Secret because he seemed like the type who would have checked in on her by now. This was a sign that Secret was falling for this guy and his chivalry from the night before really cemented that. But now that he hadn’t called, she was getting nervous that he didn’t feel the same way about her. As she began to question whether perhaps she was more into him than he was into her, she had to remind herself of what really mattered: him ultimately being into the child growing inside her stomach.
He could be busy at work for all I know, Secret told herself to appease her anxiety of not having heard from him. But when another couple of hours went by, she was feeling almost abandoned.
Was this guy a joke, just putting on a show, saying what he thought she wanted him to say and doing what he thought she wanted him to do? For all she knew, he could be another Rolland from back in the day and have a family he was taking care of somewhere. Her stomach turned at the thought that she really would, in fact, be living her mother’s life. At six o’clock, there was another knock on the door.
Butterflies fluttered all through Secret’s stomach as she jumped up off the couch. She knew this had to be Lucky. If she would just be real with herself, baby or no baby, she was excited about just simply being in Lucky’s presence.
“Finally,” she said under her breath as she padded in bare feet to the door. Before opening it, she patted down the Jersey-like short nightgown that had the number twelve in hot pink written across the front. She’d put her hair back in a slick ponytail, but patted it down as well to make sure not a hair was out of place. “About time,” she said in a teasing voice as she flung open the hotel room door.
“Sorry, ma’am. The ticket said six o’clock. It’s six o’clock.”
This time it was a white man standing behind a cart full of various types of food.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Secret apologized, feeling stupid and slighted by her so-called Prince Charming. She stepped to the side and opened the door for the man to bring the cart in.
He pushed the cart in, giving her the same instruction with this cart as the Mexican woman had given her with the cart that held the breakfast foods.
“Yes, I’ll be sure to put it out in the hallway,” Secret assured him as she followed him to the door and closed it behind him.
She didn’t even race over to the cart to see what edible delights it held. She didn’t have an appetite. She was almost starting to feel like she was in prison, cut off from the rest of the world, being fed three meals a day. Of course they didn’t get served food like this in prison. Still, Secret felt as if her fairytale was already ending. No, she wasn’t being held hostage or anything. Surely she could leave the walls of the hotel room, but then she’d risk missing Lucky. She had it bad.
Before she could flop down in a pout on the couch, there was a knock at the door again. Secret sighed and stomped her feet back to the door. She figured room service must have forgotten to leave something. “Yes,” Secret said, yanking open the door.
Secret had to fight back tears as she saw Lucky standing there with three dozen red roses.
“You didn’t think I was going to let you eat dinner alone, did you?”
Chapter Twenty
By the time Secret realized what she had done, it was too late. She’d already moved the roses out of the way, flung her arms around his neck, and shoved her tongue down his throat. Lucky couldn’t even speak. He couldn’t even breathe. Secret was so deep into him that she was breathing for him; thank God!
Lucky backed her into the room, still kissing her. Once the hotel room door closed, after Lucky gave it a little assistance by kicking it with his foot, he dropped the flowers and wrapped his arms around Secret.
The two stood in the middle of the hotel room kissing as if Lucky had been away at war for years and was just returning home. From the outside looking in, no one would have been able to tell that the couple hadn’t even known each other for a week. They were so intertwined they could be mistaken for one.
Once the two finally decided to come up for air, they just pulled apart from each other and stood there eyeing one another. No words were spoken but enough was being said, enough for Secret to lift her nightgown over her head and stand there in nothing but some lavender lace-trimmed panties. Her perky nipples stared at Lucky, beckoning him to caress them, and then moisten them with his lips, which was exactly what he did.
First Lucky cupped her breasts in his hands and then one by one teased them with the tip of his tongue. Secret allowed her head to fall back and just take all of his touch in. Next, she took him by the hands and walked backward, escorting him to the king-sized bed. Once they reached the bed, looking him in his eyes, Secret slid the panties down her hips and allowed them to land at her ankles. She stepped out of them and right into the bed. She lay there, wide open, her womanhood calling for Lucky to enter her walls.
Licking his lips and forcing himself to take his time, Lucky began to disrobe until he was naked on top of Secret, and then inside her.
“Ooooohhhhh.” Secret’s moan was a cross between ecstasy and pain. Her body wasn’t quite used to being entered like this. Slowly but surely, though, it accepted Lucky’s vessel into its body of water. “Ummmmmm.” It was becoming more enjoyable with each rock of the boat.
“You feel so good,” Lucky whispered in her ear as he slowly dipped in and out of Secret. She just lay there and allowed him to do most of
the work, but he didn’t mind. She was open for him and greeting him with a warm welcome. He got lost inside of Secret. It wasn’t the sexy, off-the-chain, “do whatever you want to me” sex Lucky was used to having, the last hood rat trying to outdo the next. This was different. Everything about Secret was different. He couldn’t tell himself that enough.
It was still daylight outside. It was light inside. Secret didn’t care. She didn’t care that Lucky could see every inch of her body and anything he might deem as a flaw. She had no cares in the world right about now. She’d never dreamed of experiencing what she was experiencing with Lucky. Yes, she had been genuinely attracted to him that day at the clinic. Yes, she might have decided to give him a call for selfish reasons, but at the end of the day, Secret could honestly say that baby or no baby, Lucky was someone she wouldn’t mind having in her life. So not only was that like a bonus, but it was also good for her conscience as well.
As Lucky thrust himself in and out of her secret hiding place, he lifted Secret’s legs so that with each thrust, the heels of her feet tapped his ass cheeks. Faster, quicker, deeper until they were both moaning and they both finally exploded. Lucky just lay there, his sweat dripping onto Secret’s body that rested under him.
“Girl, you are dangerous.” Lucky finally removed himself from inside of and off of Secret and lay beside her.
“Why you say that?” Secret asked, staring up at the ceiling.
He turned and looked at her. “You could have a nigga catching feelings and shit,” he admitted.
“Quit playing,” Secret said as she turned and looked to him. “You know you already feel some kind of way.” She looked into the area where the food cart sat. “Or do you do this type of thing for every girl you just meet?”
Lucky put his hands behind his head. “Hell no. These bitches out here is thirsty, scandalous. They begging and asking for shit before you could ever get a chance to even want to do something nice. They got this level of expectancy or something like that.”
Keeping Secrets Page 11