7. Do you feel that Anthony was mentally abusive to Monica during their marriage? After he found out she was stripping, do you feel that he had every right to try to take the girls? If they had gone to court, who do you think would have won?
8. How would you feel if you found out your best friend was bisexual? Do you think Monica would have been more accepting if Reyna had just been honest about her feelings for her? How would you have handled that awkward situation?
9. Trey was pissed that Robin starting seeing Halo again. Should she have been honest with him? Do you feel that she has trust issues when it comes to relationships?
10. Monica believed she had no choice but to sleep with Greg. Do you agree? When it comes to men, does she come across as weak or a survivor?
11. Was Tremayne wrong for ending the relationship when he discovered how Monica was really earning a living? If you were Monica, would you have just been honest in the first place?
If you enjoyed Scandals, don’t miss
Taking Care of Business
by Lutishia Lovely
In Stores Now!
Turn the page for an excerpt from Taking Care of Business ...
1
All was quiet on the West Coast front. And all was cozy in Bianca Livingston’s world as she lay cuddled up next to Xavier Marquis, her husband and the love of her life. Had it been only seventy-two hours ago when she thought she’d go crazy?
Just three short days before this moment, Bianca had stood in the center of TOSTS—her pride and joy—ready to pull the hair she’d decided to grow long again right back out of her head. The chic, quaint eatery on Los Angeles’s west side, formally named Taste of Soul Tapas Style, was two days away from its one-year anniversary celebration. The place had been in chaos. The truffle, caviar, and special champagne shipments had all been backordered, the cleaners had destroyed the new waitstaff uniforms, and the chef had been called away due to a death in his immediate family. The stress had brought on the unexpected arrival of Miss Flo, Bianca’s monthly, complete with bloating, cramps, and a pounding headache. What was a sistah to do?
Put on her big-girl panties and make it happen, that’s what. What other choice was there?
Forty-eight hours ago, Bianca had huddled with her assistant and the sous-chef, who’d then called all over America until they found last-minute supplies of truffles, caviar, and bubbly. After reaming the cleaners a new a-hole, Marquis had called in a favor from a designer friend and had ten new uniforms whipped up posthaste. Finding a selfless bone in her weary body, Bianca had had flowers delivered to the funeral home that housed her chef ’s brother and had quieted Miss Flo and Company with some prescription-strength pain pills.
Twenty-four hours ago, Bianca had finished her day at the second L. A. Livingston Corporation establishment, the increasingly popular soul food restaurant, Taste of Soul. She’d spent two hours on a conference call with her brother, Jefferson, and the finance department at corporate headquarters, overseen a fiftieth birthday luncheon for a party of twenty-five, and soothed the soul of a hapless vegetarian who’d been losing her mind because she’d eaten the cabbage and then realized that this particular selection was seasoned with smoked turkey legs. Bianca had found it convenient that sistah-girl had eaten the entire plate before making this observation, demanding her money back and threatening lawsuits. Not to mention that she’d somehow missed reading the ingredients to the Chaka Khan Cabbage side dish clearly listed on the menu. Bianca was furious but had too much work and too little time to argue. She’d given the emoting customer a gift certificate for two free dinners and a menu to take home so that she could study it before placing her next order. With a bright smile to hide her frustration, Bianca had asked Ms. I-Haven’t-Eaten-Meat-In-Twenty-Years to pay particular attention to the items with a small v beside the name, identifying them as vegetarian dishes.
Eight hours ago, Bianca had linked arms with her husband and officially welcomed the guests to TOSTS’ one-year anniversary. Tickets for the evening’s event had been steep—two thousand dollars—but the price included an all-you-can-eat buffet, a champagne fountain (filled with the double-priced bubbly that had to be rush-ordered and FedEx’d to the event), and an intimate evening with the night’s entertainment, Prince. As if pleasing the palate and the auditory senses weren’t enough, the tickets were also tax deductible, with part of the proceeds benefiting a soup kitchen. Following in the footsteps that the Taste of Soul founders, Marcus and Marietta Livingston, had set, the establishments Bianca managed did their part in making the communities around them a better place.
An hour ago, Bianca had kicked four-inch-high stilettos off her aching feet, slid a Mychael Knight designer original off her shoulders, separated herself from a Victoria’s Secret thong, and eased into the master suite’s dual-head marble shower. Seconds later, Xavier had joined her.
“Mon bien-aimé de chocolat,” Xavier murmured as he eased up behind Bianca and wrapped her in his arms. “You are the chocolate on the menu for which my heart beat all night long.” He took the sponge from her hand and began soaping her slender body from head to toe.
“Mmm, that feels good,” Bianca said. She leaned back against her husband’s wide, firm chest. Moments before, she’d been dog tired, but now her husband’s ministrations were filling her with new, lusty energy. She wriggled her soapy body against his and was immediately rewarded with a long, thick soldier coming quickly to attention. They made quick work of the cleaning process before Xavier lifted Bianca against the cool marble wall and joined them together in the age-old dance of love. The contrast of the cool marble, hot water, and even hotter desire swirled into a symphony with a melody known by Xavier and Bianca alone. This was their first time together in almost seventy-two hours. Ecstasy came quickly, and then they climbed into bed for an encore.
Five minutes ago, Bianca had screamed in delight as her body shook with the intensity of a seismic climax. Xavier, the quieter of the two lovers, had shifted rhythms from second to third, before picking up speed and heading for his own orgasmic finale. He hissed, moaned, squeezed Bianca tightly, and went over the edge. Too spent to move, Bianca had kissed Xavier on the nose, turned herself to spoon up against him, and vowed to take a shower first thing in the morning. She smiled as Xavier kissed her on the neck. That man knows how to rock my world, she thought as she looked at the clock. It was early morning: 4:45.
At 4:50, a shadowy figure crouched along the buildings on Los Angeles’s west side. He stopped, looked both ways, and walked purposefully toward a door on the other side of the alley. It was the back door to TOSTS—Taste of Soul Tapas Style. In less than one hour, Bianca Livingston’s world would get rocked again.
DAFINA BOOKS are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
119 West 40th Street
New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2012 by Sasha Campbell
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the Publisher and neither the Author nor the Publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
Dafina and the Dafina logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.
ISBN: 978-0-7582-7799-2
Scandals Page 26