Scandalous (4 page)

“
But we can do that together?
”

I shook my head then hugged her.
“
I'm not gonna talk about this anymore.
I'm gonna be fine.
”

“
I know you are,
”
Kyla said as she pulled away from our embrace.
“
Anyway, you wanna wait for a couple of minutes and we'll walk out together?
I'm just waiting for Alexis to come out of the bathroom.
”

I rolled my eyes and that was enough to get my message across.

“
Stop it,
”
Kyla said.
“
I don't know why you and Alexis can't be friends.
”

“
Because I could never befriend anyone who shares the name and characteristics of a female dog.
”

“
Stop it,
”
Kyla said again, but this time, she couldn't hold back her laughter.
She may have thought what I'd said was funny, but to me, it was nothing but the truth.
I didn't like Alexis.
She'd gone to college with Kyla and when she moved to Los Angeles from her native South Carolina, I'd wanted to buy her a one-way ticket back.

I don't know what it was, but from the moment I met Alexis I knew we'd be the best of enemies.
Someone looking at me from the outside might say that I was jealous.
But you need to know that I wasn't.
Just because she was a leggy, model-type brainiac who owned a successful business didn't mean that she had a thing on me.
I had it going on, too.
Just as many men were sniffin' around me as were sniffin' around her.

Really, to me, the problem was that Alexis was jealous
--
and scared
--
of me.
She knew that if she ever got a man ('cause as much as she had it going on, she didn't have one), she was afraid that if he got one look at me
…
well, then.

Just the thought of that made me laugh.
“
Look,
”
I said to Kyla.
“
Let me get out of here.
I'll see you Saturday.
”

Kyla hugged me again.
“
I can't believe you're about to be an old married lady like me.
”

Like her?
Please!
No matter how much Kyla wanted us to be alike, we were so far from it.

“
Speak for yourself,
”
I said.
“
I'm never going to be an old anything.
I'll call you tomorrow.
”
I turned around and almost bumped right into Roman.

“
You're walking out now?
”
he asked.

“
Yeah.
”

“
Well, a lady shouldn't be by herself this late at night.
You just never know.
”

I nodded, because it was easier to let him think I was a lady rather than explain that I'd been on these mean streets plenty of times (later than this) by myself.
But I'd let him do the gentlemanly thing just so I could have a few extra minutes with my fantasy.

Together we took two steps before Alexis came barreling around the corner.
She glanced at me, then her eyes turned to Roman.
And with a shake of her head and a laugh, she pushed past me as if she had
n’t
been there to celebrate my happy occasion.

I knew what she was thinking: that I was about to do Roman.
She thought I was a whore, but she didn't know me at all, 'cause if she did, she'd know that I didn't do that kind of thing for free.

So I just ignored her, and turned my attention back to Mr. Chocolate and our final moments together
…
.

“
You awake yet, babe?
”

Oh, man.
I'd almost forgotten that I was dreaming.
I felt like I was right there, right back at last night.
But now I was on the verge of consciousness, and I didn't want to wake up.
I wasn't finished with reliving
the party’s
last moments.

“
Babe?
”
Kenny called out to me again.

Inside I sighed, really irritated that he was stopping me from getting to my happy ending.
I wanted to remember the way Roman had walked silently by my side as we made our way to the parking lot.
I wanted to remember the way he'd taken the car key from my hand and unlocked the door, then held it open as I slipped inside.
And finally, I wanted to remember the way his fleshy lips felt like satin had brushed across my cheek
--
my goodnight, goodbye-forever kiss.

Even though that's where last night had ended, my plan had been to continue the dream and take it to that forbidden place: where I would have pulled Roman into the car and he would've had his way with me right there.
It wouldn't have been the first time that I'd had sex in a car with a man I'd known for thirty minutes.
That was the life of a stripper-plus
--
which was the name us girls in the industry called ourselves, because we couldn't possibly be compared to the ladies of the night who strolled the streets and congregated on corners.
We were on a much higher level.

Anyway, that had been my plan
…
to dream a little longer and imagine what could have been.

But I didn't get the chance to do any of that, because my betrothed had chosen that moment to come out of the shower and wake me up.

“
Babe?
”

He was gonna push it 'til I opened my eyes.
So I did.
I let my lids flutter open slowly, though, as if I'd been in a deep sleep.
I milked it too, stretching and moaning as though I was being dragged into consciousness totally against my will.

That was
supposed
to make Kenny feel bad, so he’d
tell me to go back to my sweet dreams.
But when my eyes were all the way open, Kenny stood in front of me with a white towel wrapped loosely around his waist and a super-sized grin on his face.
I knew what he wanted, but he wasn't gonna get it.

I guess he could see my answer by the look in my eyes.

“
Ah, man!
”
he whined, like he was a kid being denied candy.
“
You're serious about this, aren't you?
”

“
What part of 'I want our wedding night to be special' don't you understand?
”

He eased down onto the bed and brushed his lips against the same place on my cheek where Roman had left his mark.
“
Any time you and I are together is special to me,
”
he said, looking into my eyes.
“
Don't you feel that way too?
”

I nodded, even though by agreeing, I was lying.
I mean, Kenny really was my hero.
He was the best man that I knew.
It was just that he didn't do it for me anymore.

Inside, I sighed.
I remembered the days when I couldn't get enough of Kenny Larson.
From high school until our junior year in college, I could've sexed this man for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and all the snacks in between.

But then came our senior year, and my mother's illness, and incredible medical bills, and her death, and my do-right father who believed that he should never be a debtor.
All of that led to the emptying of a college fund that my parents had saved for years, and a hefty tuition bill that had to be paid if I was going to graduate with my class from USC.

And that led to the day I walked into Foxtails, one of the more popular upscale strip clubs in LA, dropped my pants for Buck, the owner, and took off everything else a few hours later for a few hundred men.

But it was in the VIP room where I earned the most.
And not just in money.
I mean, I was supposed to be back there for the men, but I was getting mine
,
too.
There were men
--
especially some of the big ballers
--
who knew how to bring it to a woman.
They gave it to me in every way anyone could imagine: lying down, standing up, upside down.
There were times when I wanted to give the men their money back, just tell them that the pleasure was all mine.
Of course, I never did that, but I made sure that I had seconds, thirds, fourths and beyond with some of those dudes.
Those men turned me into a sex-craving woman who'd rather be in a king-sized bed than a five-star restaurant.

I'd had sex with so many men that it got to the point where I had to think about being in that back room when I was in bed with Kenny.
Which was why I'd held back my goodies from him for the last three weeks.
This was my quest to make our wedding night special, because the truth was that's what I really wanted, and that's what Kenny deserved.

Kenny pressed his lips against mine, but when his tongue started seeking permission to come inside, I pushed myself up and away.

“
Not even a kiss?
”

“
Nope,
”
I said,
“
because if I start kissing you, I won't want to stop and then it'll be my fault.
”
That was the truth.
I was so horny right about now
--
from my encounter last night, my dream this morning, and the lock I'd put between my legs for the last three weeks
--
that
a kiss would bust me wide open.

“
A'right,
”
he said begrudgingly.
“
But babe, it's gonna be all the way live tomorrow night.
”
He strutted to our walk-in closet as if he was moving to music.
His towel was draped so loosely that all I had to do was blow and he'd be butt-naked.
But I let him get away because I loved Kenny Larson something fierce and my self-imposed celibacy was part of my plan to get back all the love that I once had for him.

Kenny was the truth when it came to being a good man.
He'd taken care of me during my darkest days and it wasn't his fault that I'd ended up finding a whole new life as a dancer at Foxtails.
Truly, I wanted to get back to the place where we were before I started cheating on Kenny.
Not that I was really cheating-cheating.
All the men I'd been with over the last three years were strictly business.

But now that he was claiming me as his wife, I wanted to do right by him.
Not sleeping with another man was going to be the easy part.
It was getting back those deep-down-to-my-soul feelings for Kenny that were once such a natural part of me.

I was going to do it, though, no matter what.
Because I loved him.

My beeper vibrated, and I grabbed it.
On the screen was a number I knew all too well.
Ugh!
Didn't he get it?
Didn't he know he wasn't supposed to contact me anymore?

“
What's up, babe?
”
Kenny asked as he stepped out of the closet, fully dressed in one of the suits I'd purchased for him from the Men's Warehouse.
That was a step-up from those places where he'd been buying his suits in downtown LA
--
three for seventy-nine dollars.

“
Nothing,
”
I said.
“
Why?
”

“
You look like you'd seen a ghost.
Who beeped you?
Work?
”

“
Yeah,
”
I said, glad that he'd come up with the lie for me.
“
I'll call them, but I'm still not going in.
Carnation will have to do without me 'cause today is totally about getting myself ready for you.
”

Those words made him pimp-strut over to the bed.
“
I like the sound of that,
”
he said.
“
But you don't have to do anything to get ready.
You look pretty perfect to me.
”

It was a déjà vu moment - one of those times when you knew you'd been in this place before, but just can't remember when.
Only I knew exactly when.
I was here last night.
Kenny had just uttered the same words that Roman had said to me.