Yield to Love (11 page)

“
Wow!” Toye exclaimed.
“That was fast. Must have been some kind of amazing
honeymoon.”

“
Hey,” Ronnie chastised,
“there are children present.” She cut a glance to her son,
Jovan.

Jovan grinned. “I’m almost fourteen, Mom.
I’m not a child.”

“
You’ll always be a child
to me,” Ronnie said, “even when you’re eighty.”

Candace laughed. “Anyway, I was pregnant
before the honeymoon. I saw my doctor this morning to confirm
it.”

“
Congratulations!” Marlowe
said. The sisters each got up and hugged Candace.

“
This is great news,” Toye
enthused. “I’m so happy for you guys.”

“
Yeah!” Jovan added. “I’m
going to be an uncle.”

“
Me too,” Vic said. “I’ll
teach him how to box and play baseball.”

“
And I’ll teach him how to
pick up chicks,” Jovan joked.

“
Uh uh,” Candace
interrupted. “I don’t want my son to be a gigolo.”

“
Besides,” Gabe added, “we
don’t know the sex of the baby yet.”

Candace added, “I’m only eight weeks, but as
soon as we know, you’ll know.”

Toye shook her head. “That’s all we
need—another guy in the family.”

“
Hey,” Gabe said. “With
all these women, we have to balance things out.”

“
These women are taking
care of business,” Marlowe said. “Thank you very much.”

“
How did things go while
we were away?” Ronnie asked. “Any trouble?”

“
No. I held the fort
down,” Marlowe answered.

“
More like she had a
breakdown,” Toye interjected.

Marlowe shot her a warning glance.

“
Uh oh,” Vic said. “Looks
like something jumped off while we were gone.”

“
What happened?” Ronnie
asked.

“
Tell them,” Toye
pushed.

Marlowe continued to glare at Toye. Her
cousin had definitely overstayed her welcome.

“
Oh, Lord,” Candace
moaned. “Is it the Burns Contract?”

“
No,” Marlowe
answered.

“
It’s worse,” Toye
prompted. “Something life-changing.”

“
Don’t tell me, you’re
pregnant too,” Gabe probed.

“
Hell no!” Marlowe
replied. “It’s not that serious.”

“
Dang,” Jovan jumped in.
“I thought I was gonna be an uncle again.”

Ronnie smiled grimly. “Will all of you
please stop discussing inappropriate topics around my teenage
son?”

“
How is pregnancy
inappropriate?” Toye demanded.

“
I do know about the birds
and the bees,” Jovan said.

“
I’m still waiting to hear
what life-changing event happened,” Candace said.

Marlowe tossed her napkin on the table and
stood. “I need to talk with my sisters in private.”

Five minutes later, Marlowe and her sisters
were sitting in Candace’s spacious bedroom. Ronnie and Candy sat on
the massive California King bed while Marlowe lounged in one of the
wingback velour chairs near the window.

“
Oh, hell no!” Ronnie said
when Marlowe briefed her on what had happened during their weeklong
absence.

Candace shook her head. “I don’t understand
how Reesa could have been living in that house without us
knowing.”

“
Toye seems to think
Ronnie knew,” Marlowe said.

Ronnie bristled. “Me? Why would I know?”

“
You two apparently had a
fight one day. You kicked her out?”

Ronnie crossed her arms defensively. “I
don’t want to talk about it.”

“
I think you should,”
Candace said. “She was our mother too. We have a right to
know.”

“
I’ve been reading through
her memory books,” Marlowe admitted. “She wasn’t such a bad
person.”

Ronnie exploded, “You don’t know shit about
her!”

Marlowe gaped, unaccustomed to hearing her
sister speak in that manner.

“
LaReesa was horrible,”
Ronnie continued. “She was a shitty mother.” She stood and paced
the room. “She left us for days, weeks at a time. Once she was gone
for three weeks. She came back late one night. She tried to sneak
back into our house and take you with her.”

“
Me?” Marlowe asked. “I
don’t remember that.”

“
You were only six at the
time. I couldn’t let her take you.”

“
Mama wanted me and you
wouldn’t let me go? Why?”

Ronnie pinned her with an angry look. “She
was down on her luck. Looked bad. Strung out on drugs. And she
wasn’t alone. She brought her pimp with her—a madam she owed money
to.” Ronnie shook with rage. “Reesa was going to settle the debt
with you.”

Candace gasped. “Our mother was going to
sell our sister to a pimp?”

“
Yeah. So you see, I had
to kick her out. I told her not to ever come back again. I told
both of them I’d report them to the police if I ever saw them near
any of us.”

A wave of sadness washed over Marlowe. She
could scarcely believe it. But Ronnie had no reason to lie. “No
wonder you told us never to speak of her again.”

Ronnie nodded. “Our mother was dead to me
long before she died.”

“
My God. I never
knew.”

Marlowe stood and wrapped her arms around
Ronnie, trying to comfort her the best she could. Candace joined
in, the three of them sharing a group hug.

“
Later, I found out she
wasn’t strung out,” Ronnie admitted. “She had cancer. She needed
money for her chemo. But I still wasn’t going to let her take my
sisters. As soon as I turned eighteen, I applied for guardianship
and moved you guys away so she’d never find us. And she never did.
When she died years later, she was living in some shanty on the
east side.”

“
I can’t believe Reesa
would stoop so low,” Marlowe said. “I thought she loved
me.”

“
She did,” Ronnie assured
her. “She loved us all in her own warped way.”

“
Maybe she felt guilty,”
Candace offered. “It was her way of giving you
something.”

“
Maybe so,” Marlowe
agreed. “Do you want to see it?”

“
The house?
No.”

Marlowe nodded. “What about you,
Ronnie?”

Ronnie shook her head. “I have no reason to
see it. And personally, I don’t see why you want to hold on to it.
LaReesa is where she needs to be—in the past. And all that stuff in
her house is only stuff. The real memories are the ones you have of
her.”

That was the same thing Roque had said. To
hear confirmation from her sister’s lips hurt like hell. But she
knew Ronnie was right. Maybe it was time to sign those papers.

###

Roque drove through an upscale neighborhood
looking for the address Brett gave him yesterday. Marlowe Jones
lived in a pretty posh area. For some reason, he’d expected no less
from her. That’s why he couldn’t understand why she was clinging to
that dilapidated house like a lifeline in the Pacific Ocean. He’d
given her more time than he would allow most people, but she was
really trying his patience. No matter how bad he felt for her, he
couldn’t hold up a business deal like this.

His cell phone chimed with Jade’s personal
ring tone.

“
Hey, honey,” he
answered.

“
Dad, I’m at Kendra’s
house practicing for cheerleading tryouts.”

“
Cheerleading? You hate
that kind of stuff.”

“
Not really.”

“
As I recall you said it
was nothing but a popularity contest. You’d said you’d rather join
the 4-H Club.”

“
Well, I’m diversifying my
interests. I have to grow up sometime.”

Jeez, the girl gets one bra and now she’s
ready to conquer the world!

“
Okay,” Roque gave her a
break. “Just be home by seven-thirty.”

“
Me? You’re the one who’s
always working late.”

“
As a matter of fact, I’ll
be home early tonight.”

“
What are you doing
now?”

“
Um, running an
errand.”

“
Dad, you don’t run
errands. Brett does that kind of stuff for you.”

“
I’m taking care of some
important business, Jade.”

“
Does it have anything to
do with Marlowe?”

“
That’s Ms. Jones to
you.”

“
She told me I could call
her Marlowe.”

Roque turned onto Marlowe’s street. “Jade, I
don’t have time to discuss this right now. I’ll see you at home
tonight.”

“
Y’know, Dad. You could
cut her some slack.”

“
She’s holding up a very
important deal, honey.”

“
I know. But is money
everything?”

“
Says the girl who asked
for a Swarovski diving board.”

She giggled. “Yeah, I like nice things, but
would our life be so bad if you didn’t get this deal?”

Roque parked at the curb of Marlowe’s condo.
There was a time when he cared more about people than money. But
that was before he’d gotten burned. And the woman he thought he
loved ripped his heart to shreds. There was no room in his life for
giving people a break.

“
I gotta go, baby. I’ll
see you tonight. Have a good time.”

He hung up before his daughter could grill
him anymore. Sometimes, it was as if that girl had a built-in
bullshit meter.

He strode up the sidewalk to Marlowe’s
place. He’d meant to come last night. But he’d gotten so caught up
in meetings it had to wait until today. The first chance he got
this afternoon, he drove over to her house.

He rang the buzzer,
wondering how he would be received. He pulled the contract from the
breast pocket of his suit coat.
He didn’t
have long to wait. Marlowe buzzed him in without even asking who he
was. He frowned. She needed better security. Maybe she’d seen him
on the close-circuit camera.

He took the elevator to the fourth floor of
her residence. As he strode purposefully along the white polished
floors, he rehearsed in his mind what he’d say to her. His plan was
to get in and out with as little drama as possible. Finally, he
reached her unit at the end of the hall, a red door with her condo
number stenciled in gold. The door was slightly ajar, but he used
the doorknocker anyway to make his presence known.

“
Come on in,” Marlowe
called out. “It’s open.”

Roque walked inside Marlowe’s lair. It
wasn’t what he expected. It was cozy, filled with earth tones and
African artwork. The lights were dimmed and soft jazz floated
throughout the modest space.

“
I need you so bad,” she
said. “I’ve been waiting over thirty minutes.”

He followed the sound of her voice, thinking
she must be talking on the phone. Surely, she couldn’t be waiting
for him. He hadn’t even called prior to storming over here.

He finally located her in the middle of the
living room. She was lying facedown on a massage table with a
folded sheet covering her delectable round ass. Her head was turned
away from him. His footsteps echoed on the hardwood floors.

“
Finally,” she murmured.
“I’m dying for you to get your hands on me.”

Roque stopped in his tracks, mesmerized by
the flawless brown skin of Marlowe’s body.

“
I’m so glad you could
make it on such short notice,” she said, still not turning to look
in his direction. “I’m on my second glass of wine.”

His eyes flitted to a half-filled glass of
red wine sitting on a nearby table. He cleared his throat, trying
to swallow the lump lodged there.

“
I just need you to work
out the kinks, Gustavo,” she begged. “It’s been a hell of a
week.”

Roque pulled off his jacket and rolled up
his sleeves. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen a naked woman, but
he couldn’t take his eyes off Marlowe’s lush body. Apparently, she
thought he was a masseur.

He couldn’t resist touching her bare
skin.

The moment he rubbed his fingers along her
back, she purred like a kitten. “Oh, that feels good already. You
always know how to touch me just right.”

Roque grinned. Oh, this was gonna be
fun.

“
Use the almond oil,
please,” Marlowe instructed. “I like the smell.”

He poured a generous amount from the nearby
bottle into his palms. Then, he rubbed his hands together to create
warmth. He’d been on the receiving end of plenty of massages
before, but it was the first time he’d ever given one.

He started at her shoulders, rubbing in
circular motions and making his way down to her shoulder blades.
Her skin felt like silk beneath his fingertips.

“
Ooh, yes,” she
cooed.

The combination of stroking her skin while
listening to the soothing music put him in a good mood.

“
I’m so tense,” she said.
“I know I am. But your hands are like magic.”

She’d never be this nice if she knew who was
giving her this pleasure. Roque felt his body reacting to her words
of praise. The muscle between his legs stirred as he worked. He
kneaded her back slowly, sensually, enjoying the feel of her flesh
beneath his big palms.

“
There’s this ingrate
who’s been hounding me,” Marlowe began. “He’s so mean. Don’t you
just hate mean people?”