The Pleasure Trap

by Niobia Bryant

  Graham felt like he’d been pushed back into that closet nearly twenty-five years ago when he didn’t understand that he was being violated. He was not to blame. All he knew was he didn’t like it. He didn’t want it.

  I shoulda made you my fuckboy when I had your little soft ass in that closet.

  His hand tightened around her neck.

  “Graham, let her go. Graham.”

  He heard Jaime, but her words barely registered as he felt trapped back in a time in his life that had forever changed him.

  “Graham. Please. For me. Please, Graham, for me.”

  Jaime reached out for him, and before her hands even landed on his bare back and upper arm, the fine hairs on his body stood on end. And when her touch landed, goose bumps raced across his skin in awareness.

  No other woman had that effect on him.

  “Please,” she begged again.

  And for no one but Jaime would he honor such a huge request.

  He kicked the knife away and released Quinn to shove her away from him roughly. “Call the police,” he said, his voice still tight with anger.

  Quinn collapsed against the back of the torn sofa as she fought to take in large gasps of air. She slid to the floor and lay there with her chest heaving, looking up at him with malice still in her eyes.

  “You’re lucky you look like a woman,” he said, knowing he was being crude and snide.

  “Look like a woman?” Jaime asked, coming over to wrap a blanket around Graham’s waist.

  “It’s a long story,” he said, sitting back down on the chair and leaning into Jaime as she came to stand beside him to stroke the side of his face. He never once took his eyes off Quinn, just waiting for her to make a move and give him a reason to send evil straight back to hell.

  The Postlude

  Two Weeks Later

  Graham stood on the rooftop of the apartment and looked out at the Hudson River through his aviator shades. Taking a deep breath, he shifted back and forth in his shoes and shook his head at having to leave everything behind.

  Last week professional movers had already packed up his entire penthouse apartment and moved everything into storage. He hadn’t stepped foot back in the apartment since the moment the police restrained a screaming and kicking Quinn and escorted her out of it. He’d said good riddance to both Quinn and the apartment filled with haunting memories of her crazy. She was charged for her crimes, denied bail, and placed on a psychiatric hold. Bye, you delusional bitch.

  In the last two weeks, he had met with Dr. Templeton on six different occasions. He couldn’t deny he needed to be able to talk it through with someone skilled and equipped to guide his steps through a mental minefield. They were currently addressing his anger at his mother, whom he blamed for taking him to the place where he was abused. A place where he should have been safe—a church. With the ultimate person to keep him safe—his mother. Yeah, we’re getting through all the bullshit in me.

  And there was more.

  He turned at the sound of heels against the pavement surrounding the rooftop pool. He smiled at the sight of Jaime looking exquisite in a flowing one-shoulder pantsuit with a slight breeze blowing her bangs back from her face before she brushed them aside as she did by habit. His heart swelled with love for her.

  “Hello, Graham,” she said, holding out her hands to him as she neared.

  “Hello to you,” he said, taking her hands in his and pulling them around his back as she bent his head to taste her lips.

  Sweet, intimate touches deepened without hesitation. They both felt that same familiar pulse of energy surround them in the bubble they created whenever they were near each other.

  Jaime leaned back first and reached to wipe her gloss from his supple lips. “You’re not making this easy, Graham,” she said, trying hard to smile but failing as she closed her eyes and tilted her head back to shake it as if to clear it. “Why are you so damn fine?”

  He was glad for his shades as he blinked away his own tears before they fell. “There’s more to me than that,” he said lightly, having made that discovery for himself of late.

  “You’re right. You are smart and funny and deep, and you are the most amazing lover. You are strong and good and... and . . . you are leaving me,” she finished sadly. She reached to stroke the neat edges of his locs and then the side of his handsome face.

  “I need some time alone to get my shit together and—”

  “And I need to decide if I can ever get past your past,” she finished for him.

  He nodded as he rubbed her wrist with his thumb. He loved that the beat of her pulse pounded against it. “I love you, Jaime. I swear I love the fuck out of you,” he told her fiercely.

  “I believe that,” she said confidently. “And I love you too.”

  “I know that,” he said, his heart swelling.

  He pulled her close and lifted her up against him to hold her close as he pressed a dozen kisses to her face and then her lips before he set her back down.

  “Until we meet again?” she asked softly, forcing a smile even as a tear raced down her face.

  Graham nodded and stepped back from her. Blowing one final kiss to him, Jaime turned and walked away. He watched her until the door to the rooftop closed behind her. It took everything in him not to stop her. Go to her. Kiss her. Proclaim his love for her.

  Now was not the time, and he wondered if that time would ever come.

  Don’t miss any of Niobia Bryant’s thrilling books in the Mistress series, now available at your local bookstore!

  MESSAGE FROM A MISTRESS

  Through good times and bad, longtime friends Jaime, Renee, Aria, and Jessa have shared just about everything. But all hell breaks loose when Jessa texts them a shocking revelation: she’s been sharing her bed with one of their husbands. To make matters worse, she refuses to name which husband she’s been cheating with. And all three wives have reason to worry . . .

  MISTRESS NO MORE

  Jessa Bell shocked the hell out of her three best friends when she announced she was having an affair with one of their husbands—then refused to say which one. She’s been reveling in watching them self-destruct. But now, Jessa’s ready to confront the ladies, reveal the truth, and move on. But she’ll soon find out revenge isn’t just sweet—it can be deadly . . .

  MISTRESS, INC.

  Shunned by her former friends, Jessa Bell is still being propositioned by married men—and decides to start a business to help wives catch their cheating husbands. But when more secrets about her past are exposed, it’s going to be tough for her to stay on the straight and narrow—even if it spells disaster for her future...

  Don’t miss Grace Octavia’s latest novel in the

  Southern Scandal series,

  His Last Wife

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  Chapter 1

  “Put more of that cheese on my plate.” This directive murmur that edged on the possibility of a growl came from the cigarette-blackened lips of a woman in an orange jail jumpsuit whose stereotypical back-braided cornrows and decidedly mean mug announced that not only had she been incarcerated for a very long time, but that this was likely not her first incarceration and it wouldn’t be her last.

  Six feet tall with a wide back and muscular arms, she was standing toward the middle of a rowdy line at a metal food service counter in the gray-walled cafeteria at the Fulton County jail. All around was a mess of loud, trash-talking female inmates in various stages of eating dinner and wide-eyed guards with their hands on their guns.

  “I can’t do that!” This uneasy response that was dipped in fear came from the Vaseline-coated lips of a woman whose orange jumpsuit was hidden beneath a white apron; however, this inmate’s stylish two-strand twists that only had three inches of gray at the roots made it clear that not only had she just gotten to jail, but also that she didn’t plan on staying and still wasn’t clear about how life had led her to that place. Indeed, like half of the other women in the jail, Kerry Ann Jackson had mai
ntained that she was no criminal. But that didn’t stop officers from putting her in handcuffs and placing her behind bars for allegedly tossing her ex-husband off the roof of a downtown Atlanta skyscraper.

  “You better put more that cheese on my plate, bitch!” The murmur coming from the black lips was definitely now a growl.

  “But I already gave you the serving. One scoop. That’s it,” Kerry tried to rationalize, pointing to the soggy pasta shells on the growler’s plate. Kerry was standing behind the service counter, holding a one-cup serving spoon over the pan of pasta shells and processed cheese that was supposed to be macaroni and cheese. The kitchen manager had given her one instruction: “One serving spoon per inmate. You fuck that up and you’re back on the toilets.”

  “You think I’m simple, bitch? I know what the fucking serving is, but ain’t no cheese on mine.” She slammed the tray on the counter in a way that made the soggy noodles shake in the soupy yellow cheese sauce on her plate, and all eyes to the front and back of the line looked over at the spectacle. Guards chatting nearby craned their necks to get a look.

  Kerry was ready to disappear. If the pan of artificial macaroni and cheese surprise was big enough, she would’ve jumped right in and swam to the bottom to escape. Drowned herself in the yellow paste just to avoid what could happen next. And it could be anything. Anything. She’d been in holding at the jail for three months and in that time she’d seen women spat on for less. One woman got stabbed in her right tit for chatting up one of the female guards who’d been sleeping with another inmate.

  “Problem, Ms. Thompson?” a youngish white male guard with tattoos up both arms said, approaching the confrontation from the back of the line.

  Cornrows looked at him through the corner of her eye and spat, “Nah—none at all.”

  The guard looked at Kerry. “You okay?” he asked rather politely. He’d been working at the jail for over five years, and in that time he’d seen Thompson and her cornrows come and go and stir up trouble in the jail each time.

  “I’m fine,” Kerry lied nervously.

  “Move it along then, Thompson.” The guard nudged Thompson in the back with his index finger.

  After taking two steps, she looked back at Kerry and mouthed, “You mine.”

  Fear shot through Kerry’s veins like electricity and she would’ve tried to run right out of that cafeteria had it not been for a whisper in her ear from the inmate serving green beans beside her.

  “Girl, don’t mind Thompson. She all talk. She’ll set shit off, but if you buck up at her, she’ll back off,” she said, dumping green beans onto another inmate’s plate. She was Garcia-Bell, a Latina with a short black buzz cut and beautiful long eyelashes that looked out of place on her mannish face. She was one of the two friends Kerry had made since she’d been locked up—the other was the inmate who’d gotten stabbed in the tit. “I told you that you can’t let these chicks see you all scared. Bitches feed on that shit in here. They like dogs.”

  “How am I supposed to seem like I’m not scared when I am scared,” Kerry whispered, watching Thompson continue to peek back at her as the guard forced her down the line. “I’ll just be glad when this is all over and I can get away from these people. When I can go home. See my family—my little boy.”

  “Don’t we all,” Garcia-Bell agreed, scooping out another serving of green beans. “Don’t we all.”

  Most evenings after dinner, Kerry didn’t go into the recreational common area to watch soap opera reruns on the outdated projection television with the other inmates. Instead, she’d head to the library, pick up a book, and sit at one of the tables in the back of the room where volunteers taught GED prep classes. There, she could read and think and pretend none of this was happening to her.

  But Kerry didn’t do that the day after the incident in the cafeteria with the macaroni and cheese. To avoid a confrontation with Thompson, she went straight to her cell and climbed into her bunk, vowing to stay there until the lights went out and later the sun came up. Maybe tomorrow would be different. Maybe Thompson would’ve forgotten their spat in the cafeteria. Maybe Kerry would wake up and be away from this place altogether. Tomorrow she’d be sitting on the back deck of the Tudor off Cascade drinking margaritas with Marcy. Tomorrow she’d be driving up I85 in the old Range Rover with the windows down and air conditioning on. Music blasting, open road in front of her. Going to wherever she wanted. Tomorrow she’d see Tyrian. Jamison. Home.

  Kerry lay back in her bottom bunk and looked up at the picture she’d tucked into the spring beneath the top mattress. Two faces smiled down at her. A man and a boy with the same brown skin, dark eyes, and pug noses. They were standing beside a large wood sign that read “East Lake Golf Course.” The boy, who was a little taller than the man’s waist, held a golf club in his hand. The man’s right arm was draped around the boy. Both looked proud.

  A tear left Kerry’s eye and rolled back toward the pillow beneath her head. She closed her eyes tightly and tried to go back to that day she’d taken the photo. It was Tyrian’s first golf demonstration. She and Jamison had already been divorced by then, but that day was peaceful. Agreeable. Tyrian woke up that morning so nervous and anxious and excited he wouldn’t stop asking his mother questions.

  “What if I lose? What if it rains? What if it snows? What if I faint? What if my coach faints? What if no one comes? What if too many people come?” he listed so intensely Kerry wondered how a six-year-old could come up with so many worries.

  “And what if everything is perfect? Just perfect?” she’d said, placing his clothes on his bed. “Have you thought about that, my little worrywart? What if everything is wonderful and everyone has a great time?”

  Climbing from beneath his bed sheets, Tyrian looked off to consider like he was much older and wiser. “Okay,” he said after a long pause. “It could be perfect. You’re right, Mama.”

  Kerry winked at Tyrian, kissed his cheek, and said, “I’m always right.”

  And she was right. While her ex-husband was usually late to Tyrian’s practices at the golf course and had gotten into the habit of using his recent victory in a tight race for mayor of Atlanta as an excuse to be absent from most of Tyrian’s scheduled events, he was waiting outside the golf course, right by the sign, when Kerry and Tyrian arrived. Sitting in the backseat of his mother’s truck, Tyrian squealed with the delight of a six-year-old-son when he saw his father standing beside the sign.

  “Daddy’s here! Daddy’s here already! He really came!” Tyrian cheered, tearing off his booster seat’s seat belt before his mother could pull into her parking space and turn off the engine.

  She was about to tell him to wait for her before he hopped out of the truck and bolted right to the person who’d become his favorite as of late, but she decided to let it slide that morning. All of the other little golfers unloading from their parents’ cars had both mother and father in tow. She knew Tyrian wanted that, too—for his parents to be together like everyone else’s. And at that moment, he was just ecstatic that his life would look like all of the other kids’ that day.

  “My big boy!” Jamison said, gathering his son into his arms after the boy had jumped out of the truck and run to his father standing at the sign. “Man, you’re getting heavy. I’m not going to be able to pick you up much longer!” Jamison laughed. The phone in his pocket was already vibrating with other things he needed to do, but he didn’t reach for it. He promised himself he wouldn’t. Today was about Tyrian.

  “Hi.” Kerry’s greeting was flat and uninspired when she’d gotten out of the truck and walked up carrying the golf bag Tyrian left behind.

  Jamison looked over at his first wife. “Good morning,” he offered, smiling.

  “Good morning,” she added to her greeting.

  A few parents walked past with their little golfers straggling behind, waving at Tyrian. The whole time—just seconds, really, but to the exes it felt much longer—Jamison and Kerry eyed each other for signs of anything new. Kerry ha
d recently cut off her long, black permed hair and was wearing a short natural Jamison thought made her look younger and thinner. Maybe she’d lost weight, too. Jamison was wearing a new expensive watch. He had the collar on his old gold fraternity golf shirt popped up to hide a hickey on his neck, but even with the carefully planned disguise and brown skin, and two feet of distance, his ex-wife could see it.

  “Think we need to get to the clubhouse. I’m sure they’re starting the demonstration on time,” Kerry said dryly.

  “Of course. Of course,” Jamison agreed and then added, “Hey, can you take a picture of me and Tyrian?” He pulled his phone from his pocket and stretched to hand it to Kerry.

  “Okay,” she said, taking the phone.

  “Cool!” Tyrian cheered, standing beside his dad.

  The three organized the perfect shot in front of the sign and just before Kerry was about to take the picture, Jamison added one of Tyrian’s clubs from his bag.

  Kerry held up the phone and took a few shots. In the background, a new spring had the grass a bright green.

  Once all were satisfied that the moment had been captured, Kerry was about to hand Jamison the phone when it rang and a familiar name came up on the screen—Val.

  “Here,” Kerry said, rushing to give the phone to Jamison.

  “Wait, Mama! You get in the picture!” Tyrian posed with a big smile. “We can take one with all of us.”

  Kerry and Jamison looked at each other. The phone was still ringing with Val’s name on the screen.

  “Oh, we can’t do that,” Kerry said, handing the phone to Jamison. “There’s no one to take the picture.”

  “I’ll take it!” A fourth voice cut into the conversation suddenly.