Here Comes Trouble (5 page)

Like Lewis’s father, Lorena’s father had been a professional baseball player. He and Juan Diaz never played on the same team, but they’d become friends. At some point, her protective father had decided she and Juan’s son made a good match, and both men arranged for their children to meet.

“You’re right. I’m acting like a fool.” Lewis grinned and gave his meal his attention once more. He launched into an explanation about the purchase of property in another state, but she barely heard him, her thoughts caught up in an unfair comparison between the two men.

Lewis was a bottle rocket. Matthew delivered full-blown fireworks that should be handled with caution to avoid getting burned. Because of that, he presented a danger to her heart and everything she thought she wanted from a man.

He should come with a warning. The sign should be in big, bold red block letters and say: HERE COMES TROUBLE.

****

Lorena was happy to get home and relax. She loved the work she did, but her home was her sanctuary. She had moved in last year, after her father gifted her the money for a large down payment, allowing her to finally move out of her parents’ home and have an affordable monthly mortgage.

When she entered her little two-bedroom house in trendy Decatur, she felt the stresses of the day fall away. Outside of Atlanta, the small city took up approximately four square miles. At least three days a week she went for a run, five miles round-trip. She passed by restaurants, a grocery store, art galleries, a farmer’s market, and clothing boutiques. 

At the door, Lorena slipped off her heels and padded across the cool hardwood floor of the open great room leading into the dining area. She seldom sat at the table because she preferred to use the TV tray and prop her feet up on the coffee table to catch up on the news or watch sports on the big-screen television hanging on the wall. In one corner, a glass case displayed her running medals and trophies from competitions over the years.

She picked up the remote, and with the click of a button, the music of salsa legend Héctor Lavoe poured from the speakers of her stereo system. Twenty minutes later, comfortably dressed in a camisole top and men’s boxers, she munched on a late-night snack of her mother’s delicious beef empanadas she’d pilfered from her parents’ house the day before. At least she’d gotten her appetite back. No thanks to Matthew.

The brief moments of contact with him had reacquainted her with his heart-stopping grin—fashioned to make her forget her anger. But she didn’t want to, because then she’d forget why he was no good for her and why Lewis was the better choice.

It seemed she had been in love with Matthew forever. He’d never known, of course. She would have been mortified if he’d found out.

Her junior year in college, she and Cassidy met at an off-campus party when Cassidy was a freshman. They’d become good friends by sharing the woes of having three older brothers and no sisters, but they had very different personalities. Cassidy had an outgoing, bubbly personality and a girly style of dress. Lorena, on the other hand, had been more reserved and into sports. To her mother’s consternation, she often left the house without makeup and wearing only a comfortable pair of sweats and tennis shoes.

When she and Cassidy became roommates her senior year, she met Matthew for the first time. He and Cassidy’s oldest brother, Roarke, had come to help Cassidy move into the apartment. She fell for him right away. Even though he’d already graduated two years before, she knew him by his reputation on campus. Not only as a formidable football player, but also as a ladies’ man.

One would think the injury in his senior year would have slowed him down, but it didn’t. For every woman who abandoned him because the prospect of a professional football career had dried up, another waited to ease the pain of his lost dreams.

When Lorena finally met him the day of the move, he’d been as gregarious as she’d been told. His witty sense of humor kept them all—her, his siblings, and her brothers—laughing throughout the afternoon.

After that day, she looked forward to seeing him whenever he came around. At first it had been harmless enough, just a crush on her best friend’s brother. But then one night everything changed. Matthew agreed to let her and Cassidy stay in his spare bedroom while their apartment was being fumigated. They were supposed to arrive on Saturday morning, but since he’d given Cassidy the key earlier that day, they came over on Friday night.

Cassidy got called in to work for a few hours at her part-time job and jumped at the chance to make the extra money, which meant she left Lorena alone. Because of it, she saw Matthew in a situation that ripped her naiveté to shreds. If she hadn’t seen him, perhaps the feelings she’d had would have eventually died. Perhaps she wouldn’t have carried a torch for him for years and never given another man a chance.

If only she hadn’t seen what she saw that night…

****

Lorena yawned, her back against the pillows in the spare bedroom of Matthew’s townhouse apartment. She rubbed her drowsy eyes, unable to focus on the words in the textbook opened on her thighs. She hated biology and wished she hadn’t put off the class. Had she taken it her freshman or sophomore year, she wouldn’t be getting tortured now.

The sound of a door closing downstairs let her know Matthew had arrived home. He didn’t expect anyone to be there because they weren’t supposed to arrive until tomorrow. Cassidy had borrowed her car to go to work, so no car sat in the driveway. She intended to announce herself, but she decided against it when the peal of feminine laughter and Matthew’s earthy voice reached her ears. She held her breath, listening closely.

They trampled up the stairs, and the sound of their footsteps receded as they made their way to the other side of the house. She doubted he even noticed the light on under the door of this room.

Lorena pulled up her knees and pressed her face into her thighs. She didn’t want to be here. Not while he had another woman in his room. She wrapped her arms tightly around her legs and squeezed her eyes shut, trying desperately not to think about what they were doing.

Before long, soft moans came down the hall. At first she thought it was her imagination, but they got louder. She could hear them so clearly, she wondered if they had left the door open.

She slipped off the bed and cocked her head to listen. They were definitely having sex, and it was loud. She eased open the door and listened again, clearly hearing the sound of a woman. The wrenching cries continued unabated. Heart pounding, Lorena tiptoed down the hall, past the staircase, to the other end of the townhouse.

As she’d suspected, they hadn’t closed the door. It stood ajar, which explained why she could hear them so well. Moving quietly, she edged closer and peered inside the room, her mouth falling open at what she saw. She should be ashamed for her act of voyeurism, but she couldn’t look away.

An Asian woman lay with her wrists tethered to the iron bars of Matthew’s bed by handcuffs. Matthew braced on his arms above her. Her legs were spread wide, and he thrust between them with deep, long strokes. The powerful muscles of his back rippled with each movement.

If she didn’t know better, she’d think the woman was in pain, but she knew better. She knew those moans and the grimace on her face were the sounds and image of a woman experiencing unbelievable pleasure.

He dipped his head to her breast, licking and sucking the nipple, making her cry out to the heavens. Rooted to the spot, Lorena couldn’t take her eyes off of them. Her own nipples hardened and swelled with arousal, aching for the same attention from Matthew’s mouth. A pulsing heat, something she’d never felt before, throbbed between her legs.

She should stop. She should walk away, because she was fully aroused watching them, wishing she could trade places with the other woman.

As she took one step back, a naked black woman joined them on the bed. Lorena’s eyes widened in shock. He had two women in there!

The new woman started to kiss Matthew’s back. Her hand stroked the length of his spine and over his buttocks. Rather than allow her to continue to distract him, he stopped his ministrations and grasped the back of her head. The woman beneath him whimpered her disapproval and tugged on her restraints.

Matthew kissed the black woman thoroughly, devouring her mouth. With his hands still entangled in her hair, he pulled her away. Lorena heard him say, “I’ll get you next. You need to wait your turn.”

Lorena inhaled sharply and stumbled backward before racing down the hall. Her legs barely carried her, they shook so badly. Safely in the other bedroom, she closed the door and fell across the bed, closing her eyes in an unsuccessful effort to shut out what she’d seen. Her face was flushed, and her body thrummed with hunger. More than ever before, she ached for him.

She was an inexperienced tomboy with a muscular body—not soft curves like those women. He’d never looked twice at her before. Why would he, when he could have seasoned, sensual women like those two?

The words he’d said made her envy them. 

You need to wait your turn.

Later, after the women left and Cassidy returned, Matthew watched Lorena as the three of them sat around the table eating pizza. He knew now she’d been there the entire time, and he probably wondered if she’d heard him. She didn’t give anything away. She smiled and chatted as if her whole life hadn’t been thrown off-balance by what she’d seen.

For months afterward, every time she saw him, no matter where they were or what they were doing, she had the same lurid thought.

I want my turn.

Chapter Four

The next day, Matthew whistled as he entered the double doors of the Harriet Tubman Community Center on the west end. He’d spent the night thinking about the situation with Lorena, and he knew exactly what to do. Because she was involved with someone new, he had to tread carefully. He needed to readjust his plan to win her back.

“Hey, Coach Hawthorne!” A young man coming toward him grinned broadly.

“Where have you been?” Matthew asked. “I haven’t seen you in a while.”

“I’ve been busy. My mom and I have been visiting colleges.”

“Get out of here.”

The young man, a junior in high school, wanted to go to college, but he didn’t think he’d be able to. Matthew had counseled him and his mother about scholarships and grants available for financial aid. 

The boy looked self-conscious. “Yeah, I’m not getting my hopes up or anything, but we figured we might as well start looking into schools…you know…in case things work out. That way I’ll know which ones to apply to.” He paused. “Did you mean it when you said you’d write me a reference letter if I need it?”

“Absolutely.” Matthew placed his hand on the boy’s shoulder and lowered his head to look him in the eye. “Whenever you’re ready, you let me know. Don’t you dare hesitate. Understand?”

The boy grinned. “Thanks, Coach.”

Matthew continued down the hallway, stopping to scold a young man and tell him to pull up his sagging pants. He entered the administrative office to see the director and let him know Lorena could fit them into her schedule, but pulled up short when he saw Lewis Diaz in a close, intimate conversation with the office clerk in front of an open file cabinet. Their body language suggested they were talking about more than the files she held in her hands. The woman handed Lewis a piece of paper, and at that point, Matthew cleared his throat.

“Matthew.” Lewis folded the paper and tucked it into his pocket before coming toward him with an expansive smile, as if they were best buddies.

“What are you doing here?” Matthew’s gaze shifted to the clerk. “How’s it going?”

“It’s going,” she replied before turning her attention back to the open drawer.

“I stopped by to talk to you for a minute, man-to-man.”

It didn’t take a clairvoyant to know Lewis wanted to talk about Lorena. “You’ll have to make it fast. I need to get out on the field with the boys.”