“I’m not going there with this.”
She shook me. “Answer me, Henry.”
“I need twenty-five thousand right now.”
“But that’s not all you owe.”
“No. That’s just to get me an extension. It wasn’t that large in the beginning. Interest and ‘late fees’ kept getting added on. I had something in the works, but lost my job the other day.”
Pumpkin sighed. I was expecting her to put on her clothes and walk out the door. She didn’t move. “Is that why you had that gun last night?”
I nodded.
She looked at me strangely, which made me uneasy for some reason. “You got fired? Where did you work?”
“At that building where you were last night.” I regretted letting that slip the moment it left my lips. I was exhausted, careless.
“Huh? Were you following me?”
I stared her dead in the eyes, fearful of letting anyone know just how desperate I was. “No. I was traveling behind you. That’s all.” Since we were on the subject, I figured I’d ask some questions of my own. Just for my own peace of mind. “I used to work for Tanner Coleman. Ever hear of him?”
“No,” she answered. I didn’t detect any deceit. Good. Like I figured, she’d probably been visiting someone on another floor in the building last night for whatever reason. “Should I know him?” she followed up.
“Naw. Just an asshole who thinks he runs this town.”
Her laugh was unsettling. “Don’t do anything rash, Henry. I’ll see what I can do for you. After all, one good turn deserves another.”
A good-luck charm she might turn out to be
, I thought.
8
BIANCA
“G
o to bed, princess,” my dad says as he comes up the staircase. Ours is an older house, the bottom lived in by an Asian couple that refuses to move from the neighborhood. That’s what my mom tells me when I ask why they’re different from everyone else. I see people like them when my dad takes me to Chinatown. They’re very nice.
“I don’t want to go to bed.” I pout. It’s cold outside . . . again. I feel the chill as it whistles up the stairwell from the open door below. I can’t see very well because the lightbulb is out again. I smell my dad’s leather coat before he’s taken two steps. It’s my favorite. Sometimes he lets me wear it. It’s too big for me, but I don’t care. My mom and dad laugh when I put it on.
He stops, doesn’t take another step. I wonder what’s wrong. Is my dad hurt? “Go give your mom a kiss; then go to bed,” he urges.
I ignore what he says and run to him instead. I almost fall because I can’t see the big stairs. Then I stop. In the faint light from the street, I see he’s not alone.
I don’t want to go to bed.
My body shook. A quick jolt in the midst of the haze I’d awakened to.
In my bed.
Now.
Then another.
My body trembled and jerked as I tried to fight the sensations overcoming me. I had no will.
“Mmmm,” he moaned as he feasted in the dark. “Baby, you awake now?”
Had I slept the whole day away? I last remembered coming home after lunch with Rory.
“Huh? What are you doing?” I asked of Tanner in a barely audible whisper. My husband’s face disappeared between my thighs as he took another taste of my latest orgasmic concoction. I felt his stiff tongue as it probed my clit, giving me involuntary shudders. I was tired, not feeling good, and not in the mood for him to be simply taking my stuff. I tried moving, forcing him from between my legs, but I was too weak—muscles failing from all the trembling he was bringing about. I pressed against his forehead with my palm, begging him to put this off to another night. His reply was to stick his face deeper into my pussy, licking and sucking on my swollen clit as I came against my will while subject only to his. No surprise; I never was a match for Tanner. When he wanted something, there wasn’t a way to say no in any language known to man.
I gave up the fight like so many times before and let him finish his “Bianca pie,” as he liked to call it. Rory never called me Tanner’s slave, but I guess in so many ways, it didn’t have to be said.
When his neck began cramping, the distinguished Mr. Coleman rose up, positioning me to receive his hard dick. I grimaced as he entered, sensitive from his oral feast, I guessed. He hated when I didn’t cooperate or generate enough moans for his pleasure. This wouldn’t take long tonight, pleasing me in some fashion. After sliding in and out of me several times, he exploded—a release from the pressures of his stress-filled world.
He would be talking about it soon, giving me all the details as his faithful confidante.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked while removing himself from me. He didn’t look at me long. He had taken notice of several more gray hairs atop his scalp, examining them from a distance in the mirror on the wall. I think he was worried about that point when “distinguished” just started to look like “old.”
“I’m sure, Tanner.”
He made note of the additional grays, then moved on. “I’ve never known you to sleep like this. Maybe you should go to the doctor . . . make sure the car wreck didn’t do anything.”
“I told you I’m fine. Shit,” I muttered uncharacteristically.
He frowned, hating when I cursed . . . at least in these situations. “Mad about tonight? I hope you’re not. It’s just that you’re so beautiful and irresistible. You just bring it out in me.” From the role-playing that began shortly after we were wed to the more exotic demands of late, I doubted that I was simply “bringing it out” in him.
“No,” I said as I looked at him. “You’re a man and you have needs.”
“Good. I’d never do anything to hurt you, Bianca. You’re my heart. It’s just that things have been so crazy at work.”
He paused, wanting me to egg him on. I didn’t. I just wanted to get cleaned up and go back to sleep. He’d continue anyway.
“We’ve been going through the books.” Bingo. “You know I had to fire someone for messing with my money?”
I still didn’t react.
“
Our
money,” he added, correcting himself to make me a part of the equation. “I’m lucky I caught the lowlife. And he’d better not try seeking a reference. Shit. He might want to move to another town, as far as I’m concerned. I have a low tolerance for thieves.”
Somewhere in the monologue, I mentally wandered off. I was still hoping Pumpkin was keeping quiet and out of sight. Tanner had strict rules for having her around.
After venting, he watched some business news on CNBC before taking me to shower with him. A good idea, as I thought the steam would reinvigorate me. My aching muscles seemed to soak it up, feeling looser than they had in days. I’m not quite sure where all my tension was coming from.
We took turns soaping each other while kissing under the pulsating streams of water. Times like this were when the man I’d fallen in love with shone through. Sure, he had issues, but no couples were perfect. Maybe I was the one with issues, never up to par with this extreme alpha male whom fate had paired me with.
“How was your lunch with Rory?” he asked as I scrubbed his back with the sponge. I was over being surprised by how much he knew. Lorenda probably told him when he came home from work.
“Good,” I replied as I let the nozzle rinse away the suds. “I got to see Morris, her little boy. She rarely brings him out.”
“Probably doesn’t know who the father is,” he derided. Rory was one he disapproved of, probably because she refused to fawn over him like the rest of this town.
“That’s not nice. She does know who the father is.”
“Oh, really?” he said, turning around to face me. It was his turn to finish soaping me. “Did she tell you?”
“Well . . . no. I don’t ask those things. But I’m sure she knows.”
He laughed—hearty and full of amusement. “Probably has one of those ballplayers conned.”
“Will you leave my friends alone?” I said, raising my voice. “I don’t talk about yours, so . . .”
“Bianca?”
“So . . .” I couldn’t finish my sentence because I was too busy trying to focus. The world had begun spinning. Maybe the hot steam was too much, too soon. I braced myself in time for Tanner to catch me. He turned off the water and opened the shower door.
“I’m fine, really.” A deep breath seemed to do me some good after the near-fainting spell. I tried it again to make sure I was going to be all right. “Something just passed over me.”
“Let’s get you to bed. I’ll call the doctor in the morning. A checkup wouldn’t hurt. Can’t afford a sick wife.” I sounded more like a business asset than a wife with that closing remark, but took no offense.
After toweling me off, he carried me in his arms, tucking me in beneath the down comforter. Tanner then donned his PJ bottoms. His physique was still admirable and, truth be told, satisfied me when I was in the mood.
“Where are you going?” I asked as he headed toward the bedroom door.
“Eat some of Lorenda’s soup, then do a little work in my office. I’ll check on you in a little bit.”
I nodded, beginning to close my eyes for departure.
“Baby?”
“Yes.”
“You’re not pregnant, are you?”
“Ha, ha,” I answered, remembering the issues of his sperm count he’d told me about. I threw one of the smaller pillows in his direction. “If I were, then it wouldn’t be from you. Go do some work or
something
.”
“I’d rather be doing you,” he joked, except I knew it wasn’t a joke. Maybe if I fell asleep right now, he wouldn’t bother me until morning.
On that thought I shut my eyes tightly, turning off the lights with the remote.
9
PUMPKIN
I
’d come to visit and was going to get the most out of it. Lorenda the maid, who I was now contemplating calling “Horrenda,” was gone for the night, and Bianca was sound asleep. I think I even heard a snore. It was best that way for her— nothing asked, nothing demanded. She barely lived her life. If I had this, I’d rule it all. Envy aside, I crept into her closet to check on something. There it was, right where I figured it would be. I zipped her purse back, then returned it to its resting place.
As I crept around, I passed Tanner’s office. The man of the house wasn’t to be found. A quick stop to put up what was in my hand and then I went searching for trouble.
Trouble
by the name of another T was found shooting pool in the game room. The room was enveloped in darkness with only the recessed lights above to illuminate his diversion. He was listening to Sting while ingesting Scotch like Henry’s, except in much smaller quantities.
Henry. Maybe I shouldn’t have lied to him about Tanner. But my life was none of his business. Besides, he’d thank me for it later.
Crack.
The balls bounced around the table, subject to the calculations Tanner had made prior to taking his shot. As the last one fell into a pocket, he backed away from the table. He sipped from his glass while holding the stick, satisfied with his work.
“If you play by yourself, how do you know who won?”
He almost spilled his drink. He’d thought he was alone—alone with his smugness.
“Miss me, baby?” I asked, not fully in view.
Tanner’s brow furrowed as I revealed more of myself. In the light, the olive dress and tan peep-toe slingbacks shone. I struck a pose, having fun at his expense with my features still obscured. “Like it?”
“What are you doing up?” he asked. I came closer, completely revealed. He recognized the dress and shoes to be his wife’s, but now saw the shoulder-length straight hair, not his wife’s. I smirked, eyes twinkling with fire.