He cut a small slice of the cake for her. “Here, have some. It’s unbelievable.” Suddenly, he put the cup on the coffee table, walked over to her and picked her up from the chair.
Opportunity knocks but once, she told herself and looped her arms around his neck. For a few seconds, he stared into her eyes. She was praying that he wouldn’t let his awesome willpower rule him. He sucked in his breath, and she met his lips when he lowered his head. She didn’t know whether it was his moan or hers that filled the room, and she didn’t care. She parted her lips, begging for more, and she could feel his hesitation just before he plunged his tongue into her mouth.
It felt so good. Feeling his tongue dance in and out of her mouth the way his penis had shocked her into orgasm was almost more than she could stand. She gripped him tighter and tried to wrap her legs around his hips. If he’d only put her on that sofa…A shudder raced through her, and she thought he attempted to push her away. It was then that she heard the telephone. He released her reluctantly, but that didn’t pacify her.
“Biggens.”
She didn’t listen, mortified because he had tried to break the kiss that she felt she had initiated. She grabbed her pocketbook and dashed out of the showroom. What did he think of her now? She gathered her aplomb as best she could and kept the three consultation appointments on her calendar for that day. But oh, how she dreaded going back to the big Tudor house to be alone there. Alone with her thoughts. Could Luther kiss her like that if he didn’t feel anything for her? And how far would they have taken it if the telephone call hadn’t interrupted them?
Luther would have pondered the same question if he’d had time. “What do you mean Charles has gone to court?” he asked his lawyer in reference to his youngest brother. “What the hell’s he got to feel cheated about? The family took a vote, and every one of them, including Charles, agreed to sell me the dealership. He got his share of the money, which was a lot more than he deserved, since he’s never done a day’s work at either of the three showrooms. A fight with my own brother is all I need.”
“What do you want me to do?” the lawyer asked him.
“Tell him to meet me in court. He’s wasting my time and his money.” He hung up and called his father.
“I told Charles not to do that,” Jack Biggens said. “He thinks he was entitled to more than he got. I built up the business and worked in it every day, and yet I agreed that his share would be equal to mine, although he never did a lick of work at any of those showrooms. Go ahead and take him on. It’ll teach him a lesson.”
Luther hung up, looked around and saw that he was alone. When did Ruby leave? It was the second time that she’d set him afire, given him hope and then run off when he wasn’t looking. When he’d gazed into her eyes, he’d seen complete surrender. He’d swear it. And she’d kissed him as if she’d die if she couldn’t have him. He stopped his left foot just before he slammed it into the closed circuit television he used to demonstrate his cars. He looked down at the cheesecake and couldn’t help laughing. At least she’d had the wisdom to leave his cheesecake. He poured out the cold coffee, got a fresh cup and sat down to enjoy the best cheesecake he’d tasted in years.
“Be careful, girl,” he said between forkfuls. “If you don’t want to be consumed, stay away from the fire,
’cause you’ll get no help from me.” The phone rang, and he let the answering machine take care of the call. After consuming half of the cake, he put it away. He’d never been afflicted with greediness, but he could eat every morsel of that cheesecake. And he could also love her senseless.
“I will, too, dammit, if I get the chance.” He let enough time pass, then called her on her cell phone. “This is Luther. I’ve eaten half of this cheesecake, and I stopped because I didn’t want to make myself sick. It’s wonderful, the best I’ve had since the last time you made me one.”
“I’m glad you’re enjoying it.”
She didn’t sound like herself, but he didn’t intend to probe. “How are you going to get your plate back?”
“I’ll come by for it one day,” she said, still with more diffidence than he normally associated with her.
“I could be a gentleman and bring it to you.”
“Uh, I wouldn’t want to put you out.”
He was having none of that. “It didn’t put you out to make the cheesecake and to bring it to me in twenty-three-degree weather, so it won’t put me out to wash the plate and take it to you. Subject closed. I’ll let you know when I can bring it over, and don’t bother dropping by here for it. When this plate gets back to your kitchen, I’ll be the one who puts it there.”
“All right, if you want.”
“Why did you run off while I was talking with my lawyer?”
“I didn’t want to hang around your place of business. What if a customer came in?”
He didn’t laugh; she was too transparent to be amusing. “Was there some reason why I couldn’t have two customers there? Why did you kiss me?”
“I didn’t kiss you. You kissed me.”
“Really? And what were you doing in the meantime? Woman, I thought you’d burn me to ashes. I never had a woman take from me the way you did, and God knows you gave. I’m still wondering what would have happened if my lawyer hadn’t called.”
“Look, I have to go. I’m glad you like the cheesecake.”
“You’re chicken, eh? You think you have the right to kiss me like that and leave me to deal with it as best I can? Don’t you care?”
“Luther, you’re trying to start a fight.”
“Not on your life. I have a big enough fight on my hands with my brother.”
“Your brother? Not Robert. What’s the problem?”
“No, it isn’t Robert. It’s Charles.” He told her about the suit Charles had filed against him.
“Why that lazy mama’s boy,” she shouted. “How does he dare do such a thing? Where is he?”
“He’s home right now, but he’ll be back in school Tuesday.”
“The nerve of him! If he doesn’t learn the value of work, he’s going to stay in trouble,” she fumed.
“I know. We all do.”
“I have to go, Luther. If you want cheesecake every Sunday, just say so. No strings.”
“Yes, I want cheesecake, and you couldn’t be that naive. Nothing in life comes without strings of some kind. I’ll call you when I’m bringing the plate. Bye.” He had embarrassed her. Good. A woman too shy to acknowledge her sexuality deserved that and more. She hadn’t heard the last from him.
Finished with her lecture, Ruby walked out of the community center. It had been a success. She wished she could say the same about her encounter with Luther. She cared deeply for him and, if she hadn’t already known it, their kiss would have alerted her to that fact.
What had that call interrupted? She thought of it long after she kicked off her shoes, changed her clothes and put a frozen pizza into the microwave for supper. Why would Charles take Luther to court? The more she thought of it, knowing Charles’s selfishness as she did, the angrier she became.
She finished her supper and went to her room. For a few minutes, she looked out on the wintry garden and then walked back to her bed. “What’s wrong with me?” she asked herself as she returned once more to the window. Well, she could get at least one thing off her chest, so she sat down and dialed Charles’s phone number.
“Charles, this is Ruby.”
“Say, what’s up? You’ve been scarce around here.”
“I’m fine, Charles. I called to ask you what’s up. Luther told me you’re taking him to court. How can you do this to him, Charles? He loves you so much, and he’s always looked out for you. You’ve hurt him, Charles, and you ought to be ashamed of yourself. He doesn’t deserve this from you.”
“Look, Ruby, I don’t have to justify my behavior to you, but I am entitled to what’s mine.”
“You think you’re entitled to more than your father received?”
“If he didn�
�t fight for his rights, that’s him. I want what’s mine.”
“Luther said you voted with the others and that you all got equal shares. Now you’re breaking ranks with your family. You’re being disloyal to your brother.”
“Ruby, if this was any of your business, I’d state my case to you, but it isn’t. You’d do well to look at yourself. You use Luther as if he were a piece of rubber that you can pull, twist and manipulate to your satisfaction. Whenever you want anything done, you call him. Luther do this, Luther come here for me, go there for me, be my little puppy. And you do it because you know he’s enamored of you.”
“What?”
“Don’t pretend with me, Ruby. You know how he feels about you, and you string him along for your convenience.”
“Not one word of what you say is true.”
“No? Take a good look at yourself, and clean out your own closet before you start cleaning out mine.”
“You’re accusing me, because you know you’re wrong. Unless you want to waste a lot of money on lawyers and court fees, you’d better withdraw that suit, Charles. With your entire family as Luther’s witnesses, you can’t win. Try to repair some of the damage you’ve done.”
After she hung up, a heavy cloud dropped over her. Had she abused Luther? Her belly contracted sharply, and her heartbeat seemed to have slowed to a crawl. She made a cup of green tea, took it to her bedroom and sat in the middle of the bed, strung out with worry and a fear of self-examination.
She ruminated about her behavior toward Luther from the night of Opal’s wedding reception. She didn’t remember ever having as much self-confidence as she’d had that night. She knew she’d flirted with Luther, and she couldn’t understand why, because until that night she hadn’t been interested in him or, if she was she hadn’t been aware of it. The champagne certainly didn’t clear her head, though she’d lie if she said she was drunk. She knew what she was doing when she asked him to unzip her dress. Or at least she thought she did. But why? Why did she do it?
Had Charles told her the truth? Did she use Luther? Was she so used to his doing whatever she asked that she’d seduced him because she knew she could? But Luther made the experience real, unforgettable, and forced her to lay herself bare to him. Wasn’t that why she left him as soon as the moment of reckoning came?
She held the bedspread to her face, and let it catch her tears. Now that she knew she was attracted to him and wanted him, he was wary of her, and she didn’t blame him. How could she have been so stupid and so blind for so long? Even if Luther was enamored of her, as Charles claimed, with his Herculean strength and determination, he would ignore her if he believed she’d mistreated him.
With her hands locked behind her, she walked from one end of her bedroom to another, battling the urge to call Luther. She needed to hear him say that she hadn’t hurt him, even though she knew that would be a stretch. Finally, she crawled into bed long after midnight.
He’s been so good to me. If I’d only realized what he could mean to me. He deserves so much better than I’ve given him.
If Charles’s comment shook her up, Amber’s call the next day did nothing to relieve her stress. “Would you believe what Luther asked Paul when he was here this past weekend?” Amber asked Ruby during their conversation.
“Not much surprises me these days, Amber. What did he ask Paul?”
“He asked my husband when he realized that he loved me. That surprised me. It didn’t seem a bit like Luther. Maybe he’s interested in somebody. He’s awfully good-looking, you know, and he’s not a bit poor. I imagine women like him. That limp is hardly noticeable. I used to think something would develop between you two, but…uh…you don’t seem interested in him. I guess if you’ve known him since you were little more than a baby, he doesn’t seem like a man, but a friend. You know what I mean?
“Sis, you should have seen Luther with Joachim. Luther was enchanted with him. Somehow, I’d never associated Luther with babies, but he and Joachim got along like bread and milk. Luther didn’t want to give him up, and Joachim didn’t want to leave Luther. That told me a lot about Luther Biggens. “
“If you’ve got a point, Amber,” Ruby said, becoming irritated for no good reason, “please make it.”
“I just wondered if Luther had said anything about having a woman he’s…uh…making it with. I’ve never seen him with one, but if a man wants to know how to be certain he’s in love, he must be taking stock of things. Oh, yes, I’m forgetting something. Luther asked Paul that question immediately after we asked him how you were. Instead of answering he reminisced about how sweet life was when the two of you were close. I say that’s a heck of a time to question whether you’re in love.”
“Amber, honey, don’t be so full of melodrama. He wasn’t determining whether he’s in love, but how Paul knew he was in love with you. Don’t mutilate the facts.”
“Okay. Pay me no mind, and you’ll be sorry. I’ll see you in a couple of days when we come for Paige’s engagement party. Imagine marrying a brother who can buy out a five-star hotel for two nights and three days! Mr. Epse is da man!”
“Tell me about it. I’m so happy for Paige,” Ruby said. “She’s had a difficult life, and I hope that’s a thing of the past.”
“I expect it is. The brother’s carried away with her. They’ll have a home in the Detroit area, but she’s going to travel with him. Imagine going all over the world and traveling first class while you’re doing it. Way to go, Paige. All she has to do is keep it between the lines,” Amber said, “and that goes for you, too, sister dear. See you at the party.”
Ruby shook her head slowly. She wasn’t foolish enough to ignore Amber’s sentiments. Amber may be the baby sister, but Ruby would bet she understood men a lot better than Ruby herself did. She just wished she knew where to start.
Direction came from an unlikely source.
Ruby had never liked her manicurist, apart from the work she did, because she considered her too frivolous, but when she kept a noontime appointment that day, she found herself listening to the woman’s chatter as she gave advice to all who would listen.
“Unless a woman is totally unfeminine,” the manicurist said, “she can get any man she wants. First, she has to let the man know she wants him, but in a subtle way, and pretend she doesn’t want him to know it. Expose some of the goodies, but just a little bit, and do it often enough. His ego and his libido will do the rest.”
Ruby could hardly believe her ears as she listened to the conversation that followed and the examples some of the women gave of their success with men using that or similar methods. And here Ruby thought it came about as a result of a natural attraction. Those women declared war and set out to win. But she wasn’t sure she wanted to do that. However, when she was back at her desk searching for an excuse to telephone Luther, she conceded that her method was no more honest than the one proffered by the manicurist. “At least I have options,” she said to herself. “If I can’t work it one way, I’ll try the other.”
Luther had also arrived at some important decisions. He would no longer behave apologetically for his disability. He was born with two perfect sets of feet and legs and lost one set in the service of his country. Anybody who didn’t want to see the result didn’t have to look. He was finished wearing hot, uncomfortable long pants in the heat of summer. He bought three pairs of Bermuda shorts, and three bathing trunks that amounted to little more than G-strings. He dumped his purchases on his bed, and had an indescribable feeling of relief, as if he’d just been released from a dungeon.
He packed the items for his weekend at the hotel to celebrate Paige’s engagement to Lyman Epse. The invitation had requested that all guests stay at the hotel and announced a Friday-evening barbecue and entertainment, a Saturday-afternoon pool party and a Saturday-night gala.
Ruby had better not try anything cute, because he’d let her have it straight. He was getting tired of this cat-and-mouse business, although he knew he helped her instigate it. She cam
e at him with her fresh, sassy cracks, and wanted him to think she was teasing. Sometimes she was and sometimes she wasn’t, and he knew the difference. She’d never got fresh with him until he took her to bed and showed her what it was all about. Tomorrow she’d see so much of his prosthesis that it would cease to repel her. And if she was the woman he hoped she was, she’d look at him with mature eyes and mature feelings and not with the values of an adolescent looking to be swept off her feet by a knight on a white horse.
He went down the stairs whistling. “You get Friday and Saturday off, Maggie,” he said when she peeped at him from the kitchen door. “And you get a fifty-dollar raise.”
“Thank the Lord,” she said. “You just keep right on whistling, Mr. B.” Her laughter seemed to shower the house with warmth.
“I appreciate your reverence for the Lord, Maggie, but I’m the one who’s giving you that fifty-dollar raise. Don’t I get a thank-you?”
She rubbed her hands together. “Lord, Mr. B, I do declare if you’re not the funniest sometimes. You know I thank you. I’m the only person I know who can’t wait to get to work. The Lord’s gonna bless you. You hear?”
Ruby checked into the hotel a few minutes before noon, unpacked and went to the second-floor lounge where Paige’s guests were to register and collect favors and additional instructions. She hoped Paige hadn’t invited Trevor Johns. Ruby didn’t want anything to get between her and Luther, and Trevor was just insensitive enough to spoil the whole weekend for her. She collected her bag of information and goodies, went back to her room and switched on the TV.
“I wonder what time Luther’s getting here,” she said to herself, just before she dozed off.
At a quarter of five, she awakened with a start, wondering where she was. The phone was ringing repeatedly, and after fumbling around, she located it. It was Opal. She was in the lobby and Luther had arrived and was asking for her.
So Luther was looking for her. Good. She dressed in the first black leather pants she’d ever owned, a red long-sleeved shirt, put silver hoops in her ears and slipped on a pair of spike-heeled black boots. She applied her favorite perfume and pulled a red scarf through the belt loops of her pants. After locking her purse and other valuables in the safe, she put her door key in her pocket and headed for the party.
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