Yield to Love (19 page)

He turned back to Marlowe.
Her arms were defiantly crossed over her chest.
Shit!
There was no way out of this
one. And he had no one to blame but himself.

“
Yes,” he confessed.
“Natalyn is my wife, but I can explain—”

Marlowe held up her hands, indicating for
him to back off. “No explanation necessary.” She grabbed her purse
from the table next to the door and brushed past Natalyn.

“
Nice to meet you,”
Natalyn purred.

“
Marlowe, wait!” Roque
raced after her. “Where are you going?”

“
That’s none of your damn
business!” she spat. She was walking out of his house. Out of his
life.

“
At least let me drive you
home,” he reasoned. “You can’t walk.”

“
I’ll take a taxi from the
guard shack,” she called over her shoulder.

He couldn’t let her walk to the security hut
in the front of the neighborhood. “Marlowe, please be—”

She spun around, piercing him with a look
that could kill. “Stay the fuck away from me, Roque. I never want
to see you again!”

Roque had no choice but to let her go. The
venom in her voice was something he’d never heard before. And she
had every right to be angry with him. He’d fucked up, big time.

He stormed back into the house to find
Natalyn walking up the stairs. “Hold it!” he yelled out. He slammed
the front door behind him, damn near knocking the thing off its
hinges.

Her head whipped around, a mixture of fear
and annoyance crossing her features.

“
Why the hell did you do
that?” he demanded.

“
What? Tell her the truth?
Somebody had to. You obviously didn’t think it was
important.”

He stalked toward her, hoping she felt every
iota of his anger. “What do you want, Natalyn? Why are you
here?”

“
You told me I needed to
visit my daughter, so I came.”

“
You couldn’t call first?”
he thundered.

She trembled. He wanted to wring her neck,
but he’d never put his hands on a woman, and as much as he felt she
deserved it, he wasn’t about to start now.

“
I called Jade’s cell
phone, but she didn’t answer.”

“
Tough shit. That doesn’t
give you the right to come charging over here.”

“
The court order says I
can see my daughter on my appointed weekends.”

“
I’m surprised you even
know your visitation days, Natalyn. It’s been years since you’ve
used them. Now, you want to come back into Jade’s life and play
mama like nothing ever happened?”

She stuck out her chin. “Don’t be pissed at
me because your girlfriend found out you’re still married.”

Roque’s jaw clenched so hard he thought he
might break a tooth. “Marlowe’s not—”

It was on the tip of his tongue to tell
Natalyn she wasn’t his girlfriend. But it was none of her damn
business. And really, he had no reason to be mad at anyone but
himself. He was the one who’d never finished filing for the
divorce, despite the fact that he and Natalyn hadn’t lived together
as man and wife in over eight years.

He let out a long breath. “Just leave,
Natalyn.”

“
Not without seeing my
daughter.”

“
She’s not
here.”

“
You’re lying. You just
don’t want me to see her.”

“
Woman, I could care less.
And I don’t have to lie. If I didn’t want you to see her, I’d haul
your ass to court, tell the judge how you left your daughter and
ran off with an old geezer, and I’d demand your visitation rights
be revoked.”

She walked back down the three stairs she’d
climbed. “I can see there’s no reasoning with you. There never has
been.” She stood directly in front of him. She must have had on
five-inch stilettos, but he still towered over her. “And obviously,
you still want me,” she challenged, “or else you’d have filed for
divorce a long time ago.”

“
I did file. You never
signed the papers. Maybe I should have tried harder, but I got
tired of having my private investigators hunt you down.”

“
Well, I’m here now.” She
took a step toward him and ran her palms down his chest.

He grabbed her wrists in a
vise-like grip. “Why are you
really
here?” he growled.

“
To see you.”

“
Why?”

“
I’ve missed
you.”

“
What?” He frowned. “Are
you out of your mind?”

“
We were good together,
Roque. Remember the hot nights we had in bed?”

Oh, he remembered all right. And now that he
thought about it, those nights weren’t so hot. Marlowe fulfilled
his desires more than Natalyn could ever dream of. Or any other
woman for that matter. Physically, Natalyn didn’t even turn him on.
Yeah, she looked fantastic in her high-end wardrobe. But he knew
that beneath the glitz and glamor was a deceitful opportunist.

“
What I do remember was
how manipulative you were, Natalyn. Using sex and withholding it to
get your way.”

“
I didn’t want you to grow
tired of me. I had to keep your interest, Roque.”

He shook his head. “What really prompted
this visit? Daddy Warbucks run out of Viagra?”

She pursed her lips. “You want the truth? He
doesn’t thrill me like you do.”

She tried to rub her body against his, but
he released her wrists and pushed her away from him.

“
There was a time I would
have walked through the fires of Hell for you, Natalyn. But time
has passed and that ship has sailed.”

“
Think about Jade,” she
pled. “She needs her mother. We could be a family
again.”

“
Family? You have no
concept of family. That’s a foreign word to you.” He strode toward
the door and yanked it open. “If you want to see your daughter
again, call next time. Goodbye.”

Natalyn pulled her mask of nonchalance back
on and squared her shoulders. “I was a fool to come here,” she
said.

“
I couldn’t agree
more.”

“
You haven’t changed one
bit. You’re still the same cold-hearted brute you were when I was
married to you.” She walked over the threshold. “I feel sorry for
Marlowe. One day she’ll learn that you’re incapable of passion and
love.”

He sneered. “Thanks to your meddling,
Marlowe may never get to find out exactly what I’m capable of.”

He slammed the door in Natalyn’s face. Then,
he pulled his cell phone from his back pocket and punched in the
numbers to Brett’s cell phone.

“
Yes, sir?” Brett answered
just like he was at the office, even though it was a
Sunday.

“
Get my lawyer on the
phone,” Roque barked. “ASAP.”

###

Hours later, Marlowe sat in her living room
reliving the encounter with Roque’s wife. She smacked her forehead
with her palm. “Stupid, stupid, stupid.” She couldn’t believe she’d
fallen for Roque’s charms. All that shit about her being the only
woman for him, when he knew he already had a wife.

She shook her head. Natalyn Coleman didn’t
even seem like his type.

Stuck up.

Pretentious.

Plastic Barbie doll-looking.

He could do so much better.

What do you care?

I don’t! As far as I’m concerned, Roque and
his Barbie Doll wife can have each other.

She walked into the kitchen to make herself
a cup of cappuccino. She probably should call someone, one of her
sisters, maybe and vent. But she didn’t feel like talking to
anyone. She felt like curling into a ball and hiding from the
world.

She spotted LaReesa’s scrapbook on the
counter. She absently flipped through the musty pages while her
cappuccino brewed.

“
This is all your fault,
Reesa.”

It seemed everything surrounding her mother
brought only misery. If she wouldn’t have left that house to
Marlowe, then Marlowe would have never met Roque. She would have
never bumped heads with him. Never fallen for his wicked kisses.
Never flown to another country with him on a whim. Never been
forced to remember how he rocked her galaxy.

She closed the book. She wished she could do
the same with her memories of Roque.

The shrill ring of her cell phone brought
her back to reality. The caller ID showed it was Jade calling.
Marlowe didn’t want to talk to Jade or anyone else affiliated with
Roque, but she answered anyway.

“
Marlowe? It’s me, Jade. I
need you to pick me up right now.”

“
Listen, girl. I don’t
have time to play games today—”

“
Marlowe, I’m scared. He
wants me to do something I don’t want to do.”

“
Who?”

“
Some guy I’m on a double
date with.”

Her heart thudded. “What are you doing on a
double date? You shouldn’t be—”

“
Please,” the girl pled.
“Come get me. I can’t call my dad. I’m at the La Quinta Inn on
42
^nd
Avenue. I’m hiding out in the lobby.”

Marlowe grabbed her purse from where she’d
thrown it on the couch. “Stay put, Jade. I’ll be right there.”

Marlowe flew like a lunatic across the
freeway to make it in record time to the hotel. Jade was easy to
spot. The red hood of her hoodie stood in stark contrast to the
muted tones of the hotel’s front facade.

Marlowe threw open the passenger side door
to her Acura. “I thought I told you to stay put,” Marlowe
chastised. She was all prepared to give Jade a lecture when she
looked over and saw the girl’s bottom lip trembling. Before she
could speak, tears spilled over her pale cheeks.

“
Oh, no.” Marlowe wrapped
her in her embrace. “Everything’s gonna be all right. Tell me what
happened?”

She had to wait for Jade’s sobs to subside
before she got all the details. Jade related the story of how she’d
hung out with some of her friends for a few days. One girl’s
parents were in Europe, and she had the house to herself for the
week. Everything was fine until two of the girls invited a half a
dozen boys over. Two of the older boys gave them liquor and drove
them to a hotel.

“
They were nice at first,”
Jade said. “One of the boys asked me if I wanted to go on a double
date with my friend, Martinique. We played Uno and watched movies
on the TV. Then, he started putting his hands all over me.” She
squeezed her eyes shut as if she were shutting out the horrible
memory. “He said I’d been holding out all weekend.”

“
Did he hurt you?” Marlowe
asked. “Did he…?”

Jade shook her head. “No. I kicked him in
the nuts and I ran.”

“
Good girl.”

“
He just changed so
quickly.” Her sad face had dried tear tracks on it.

“
He was a jerk. And you
have to know that it was not your fault.”

“
I shouldn’t have gone
with them. I shouldn’t have flirted.”

“
It’s true, you shouldn’t
have gone with them. But you still have rights. ‘No’ means no. I
don’t care whether you flirt or not. A real man does not take
advantage of any female.”

“
Why are guys so
single-minded?”

Marlowe patted her hand. “Honey, it’s in
their DNA. They’re going to try everything. You have to set the bar
for how a man treats you. Always carry yourself with respect and
demand it in return from him.”

“
I promise, I will. And
I’m never drinking alcohol again. It tastes nasty! How can
grown-ups drink that stuff?”

Marlowe started up the car and backed out of
the parking lot. “Some of it ain’t so bad, kid. But you should
definitely lay off the booze until you’re at least
twenty-five.”

“
I thought the legal
drinking age was twenty-one.”

“
In your case, I’m raising
it.”

She sniffed loudly and then offered a weak
smile. “Thanks for coming to get me, Marlowe. I didn’t know who
else to call.”

“
It’s okay. You can call
me anytime, especially when you’re in trouble. But you need to find
a new group of friends.”

“
It’s hard for me to make
friends.”

“
I thought you were
supposed to be at dance camp?”

“
I hate those fake ass
cheerleaders.”

Marlowe’s jaw dropped. “You told your dad
you were there. He was so proud of you. He thought you’d finally
found something of interest.”

Her bottom lip poked out. “I lied to him.
That’s why I couldn’t call him to come and get me. He would have
killed those guys.”

“
I know.” Marlowe pictured
Roque storming inside the hotel to rescue his baby from the hands
of some horny teenage monsters.

“
I’m not a prude or
anything. I know what happens between a man and a woman. Kenya and
Martinique have experience with boys. But I’m still a
virgin.”

She said it as though she
were ashamed. Marlowe didn’t want to give the girl a lecture, but
she felt the need to impart some advice to her. “There’s no shame
in being a virgin. At your age, you
should
be a virgin, Jade. There’ll
be plenty of time for boys later.”

“
I’m saving myself for
that special someone.”

“
That’s smart. I wish I
had done that.”