Dirty Old Men [And Other Stories] (Zane Presents) (10 page)

Beverly had driven them to the downtown event that evening, and while she drove her friends back home, she contemplated if she would call David on his cell phone to find out his intentions for giving her a key to a room at the Marriott.

“Why you all quiet, Bev?” Rocki asked from the passenger seat. Treena was already knocked out in the backseat. She had practically been up for two days straight, strategizing the previous night, and had used up every bit of her energy at the event. And now that it was finally over, her body had shut down for a much needed rest.

Beverly took a breath. “I’m thinking about getting in bed and getting back up for tomorrow, that’s all.”

“Who you telling? I might be coming in late tomorrow myself.”

“But I know who
won’t
be late,” Beverly teased in reference to Treena.

“Yeah, that’s why she’s back there sleeping now,” Rocki suggested. “She’s a damn workaholic and ain’t even out of college yet.”

Beverly dropped Rocki off at her parents’ house first, then she drove Treena back home to wake her up and help her into the house. Once her driving duties were accomplished by midnight, she was free to
call
or
not to call
David Butler Sr.

“What if he’s sitting right next to his wife?” she imagined to herself out loud. “That would be so embarrassing.”

Then his wife would look at me the way she looks at C.J.,
she assumed.
But I could call him to say we all made it back home safely. His wife can’t argue about that.

She had rationalized an approach and a justification to call him. And she wanted to make the call before midnight, so she jumped on her cell phone with haste and called his emergency cell number at 11:56 p.m.

“Hey, you guys make it back home safe?” David asked her over his line. He didn’t even say “hello.” There was a lot of noise in the background, as if he was still out at a bar or something.

“Yeah, we all made it,” she answered.

“And you’re still driving?”

She paused and wondered if he could tell over the phone. “Unfortunately.”

“And are you anywhere near the Marriott?”

She thought briefly. “No.” She figured if he really wanted her, he would at least have to do a little work.

“Are you
planning
to be?”

“I
could,
” Beverly told him. And she left it at that, prolonging their cat-and-mouse game.

“Well, what’s stopping you?” he questioned. “You came this far with it. And like I tell you, you have to be confident enough to go after what you want when it’s right there in front of you.” He added, “You’re holding the key to your own desires right now.”

“Am I?”

“You answer that question for yourself and call me back with your answer. I’ll be down in the lobby having a drink.”

He hung up and left her to think for herself, right as she approached the
exit ramp for downtown Birmingham. The Marriott was directly in view from Interstate 20 as she headed north toward home.

The hotel is right there in front of me,
she told herself.
But…I mean, that’s just wrong. What if it was my husband?

That thought made her want to call him back to beef about it.

“Where is your wife? Is she there, too?” she called back and asked him immediately. She even had the gall to sound snappy.

“You know better that that. Now, are you here or are you home?”

He made the cat-and-mouse game sound finished. There was nowhere left for her to hide. Either she would accept his advances or she wouldn’t.

Then she whined, “But why me?”

“I’ll tell you what; I’ll explain it to you when you get here. Now, let me finish up this drink.”

Again, he ended the phone call. But she still wanted concrete answers from a man who seemed to be a master escape artist. He failed to give folks a straight answer to anything.

Finally, she slapped on her right-turn blinkers and headed for the ramp that was two exits past downtown.

She told herself, “You know what; he’s not gonna do me like that. I need to know what he wants before this goes on for too long.”

When she arrived at the Marriott and parked, less than fifteen minutes after their last phone call, she haggled over whether to use the key to enter the room on her own or meet up with him at the bar.

But if anyone else was there at the public bar with him, he may have chosen to play another game of ambiguity and have her standing there looking foolish. So she decided to call him again.

“Hello,” he answered nonchalantly. Even his bland response to her call was coded. He was giving her a chance to talk without him playing his own cards at the bar.

Beverly shook her head, irritated and impressed with him at the same time.
Players are so good at this,
she analyzed. Her past college boyfriend was adept at dipping and dodging in a similar fashion.

“You want me to use the key to the room, or…meet you at the bar?”

She had already suspected his response; she only wanted to make certain.

“It’s there for a reason. And I’m heading up in a minute. Then I can talk to you about everything, and explain my life to you.”

She nodded. “Okay. I’ll be there.” And she couldn’t wait to hear him out.

Beverly entered the club-level room and walked into a spacious suite with all the amenities of executive quarters. It was more than a room; it was
five
rooms, including a master bedroom, a master bath, a full office, a television and lounge area, and a guest bath. Her walk to the window revealed a beautiful skyline view of downtown.

“Damn,” she expressed out loud.

David walked in while she was admiring the view.

“It ain’t much to look at compared to the big cities, but she’s still ours,” he commented of Birmingham.

Beverly turned to face him in her plum strapless dress. “So are you gonna run for mayor? I won’t tell anybody if you tell me,” she promised with a grin.

David grunted and walked over to her by the window. Then he held his hands out for her to take them, which she did. “Are you gonna tell them that you were my intern?” His eyes were locked dead on hers with serious intent. His loaded sentence told her everything. She was in the real world of grown-ups now, and the stakes of rumors were far too high to chance.

She dropped her eyes. “I don’t know.” It was a loaded response of her own. She didn’t know if she wanted to go there with him.

David kissed the back of her right hand softly with his lips. “Yes, you do. You know
exactly
what you want.” He walked away from her and into the master bedroom.

Beverly stood there cold and lonely. She was cold, not from the temperature of the room, but from the lack of his soft touch. She quickly found herself desiring his warmth inside the room, no matter what the consequences would be.

She took a deep breath and thought,
What am I about to get myself into?
But it was a rhetorical question. Her decision had already been made. All David had to do now was ask her for it.

“So, you got some questions for me?” he asked her from the bedroom. He was already taking off his suit jacket, tie and shoes.

Beverly heard his question and decided to finally walk into the room behind him.

She erased all of her earlier questions, but wanted to know her worth to an older man who already had everything, and who was destined for much more.

“What do I mean to you?”

David tossed the question back in her court. “What do you want to mean?”

She shrugged. “I mean, I don’t wanna be some one-night
stand,
I know that.”

“Well, can you handle
more
than one night?” he questioned.

“Yeah,” she answered. “Like you said, I’m
dedicated,
right? But what happens to everyone else? And your
wife?
” she quizzed.

David grunted and smiled again. “Nothing happens. Everyone plays their position, or they don’t play. That’s the way it is.”

Beverly stood and felt cold again. His honesty had left her stranded with no coat. And she still wanted his warmth. “And what position am I?”

“You’re a young rookie, an upcoming star,” he spoke as if he was bragging.

The absurdity of being compared to a sports player made her grin. But she understood the comparison. She was young and brand new to his team. However, she still found herself wanting to join, like a rookie would.

“Well, are you gonna stand there trying to make up your mind…or are you planning to take off your clothes for me?”

Instead of feeling appalled by his impatient candor, Beverly felt an urge to smile. His urgency and frankness had made her feel warm again. He was finally being direct with her. And it made her feel like an insider.

She cracked, “Are you gonna take your clothes off?”

“I don’t think my body is as pretty as yours.”

It was a clever response on his part. So she stripped from her clothes to give him what he wanted, a close-up view of her naked body, while she aimed to feel the warmth that
she
wanted from him.

“Was that so hard to do? Look at you. You’re beautiful,” he expressed to her.

“And I’m
cold.
”

David pulled back the overkill of quilts, sheets, and covers on the king-sized bed.

“Climb on in, and I’ll be joining you in a minute,” he told her.

David then took a stroll into the master bathroom to take a loud piss with the door still open.

Oh my God, it sounds like he got a big one,
Beverly thought to herself, while listening to the heavy sound of his urine hitting the toilet water. She found herself in strong anticipation of his older body while she waited in bed.

When David returned to the room with condoms in hand, and stripped down to his boxers, she found that the man still had an honorable figure.

“You’re not that bad yourself,” she commented.

“Yeah, that’s from working out and jogging. A man needs to stay in shape if he plans to run for public office. Not saying that I agree to do it yet, but you know…just in case.”

He climbed into the large, quilt-soft bed with his young intern from Alabama State, and he immediately kissed her smooth shoulder, making her nipples harden.

She leaned deep into the cushioned pillows behind her and muttered, “How’d you know to kiss me there?”

David ignored her question and licked around her ripe nipples with his drink-moistened tongue.

“The same way I know how to lick you here,” he answered.

Beverly then cradled his head inside her breasts, enjoying it. It felt so soft. It felt so right. It felt so gentle. And she had no doubt that he would feel warm inside of her.

“Can you put it in?” she begged him after too much foreplay.

David seemed to be blessing her entire body with soft kisses while continuously working her aroused nipples with the tips of his soft fingers. But how wet did he intend to make her before he would decide to penetrate?

“In a minute,” he responded. “I like to take my time with what I do.”

Beverly held her peace for another few moments of bliss before she squealed, “For how long?”

She wasn’t used to the patient wait from a man. Her much younger college boyfriend would force himself inside of her in less than two minutes, and sometimes before she was even succulent. But David had her practically dripping.

“You need to learn how to make it worth it,” he told her with another soft kiss on her lips. “You said you don’t want a one-night stand, right?”

“No, I don’t.”

“Well, I don’t want a quickie. But don’t worry, you’ll get what you need soon enough,” he promised.

In the meantime, Beverly continued to massage his arms, shoulders, head, and back with her anxious hands, until David finally reached down to open a condom.

Beverly took a soothing breath and had lost all of her wrangling inhibitions. She was one hundred percent ready to submit to him now. And he entered her from on top; he was even patient with his entry, hovering around her lubricated edges with his hard-on.

She became so unnerved and desperate to feel his full thrust inside of her that she gripped him by his ass to anchor herself and push her young pelvis into his.

David then arched his back to pull his stroke away from her and avoid her clumsy rush to action.

“
Please,
” she squealed. She had no idea what else to do. The man was much heavier, stronger and more experienced than she was. All she knew was that she wanted to feel him badly, all the way inside her.

David heard her trembling pleas and thought,
Oh yeah! I got her right where I need her.

He then secured her young hips in his hands—much slimmer than his wife’s or even his secretary’s—and he gave her a single, strong thrust to let her feel what she could expect from him if she begged for it hard.

“Unnhh.” Beverly reacted violently. She jerked back as if he had shocked her with a police stun gun.

“You don’t want it like that, do you?” he asked.

Beverly was confused. She didn’t want it as softly as he had started, but she surely didn’t want it that hard either. Before she could respond to him, David had established his own sweet rhythm.