Independent Women - the Complete BWWM Romance Series Boxset (13 page)

“Do you have a condom?” She asked quickly.

“Yeah, one minute.” He leaned over to his nightstand and pulled out a gold package. She did her best to keep from laughing because he didn’t need to use the condoms that came in the gold foil, who exactly was he trying to fool? He put the condom on quickly because of course there wasn’t a struggle to get it over his lackluster tool.

Once he got it on, she guided him inside of her. He stretched her a bit when he dipped inside and she inhaled, he entered her and gasped for breath.

“Damn baby, you feel so good.”

She remained quiet and opened her legs wider so that he could go in deep, he plunged inside of her and he was just long enough to hit her g-spot. She gave a small sigh of relief; she knew that she could work with him and that things would be okay.

20 minutes later she laid in bed, feeling conflicted. The sex was okay and she came once, usually she came a lot more than that but she was grateful to get any pleasure from the sex. Usually she wouldn’t entertain the thought of having sex with someone like him again but he had so many other qualities that kept him in the running.

She tried to drown out the sound of his snoring as her thoughts went over how great their date was. It was time for her to stop getting rid of people over sex. She was going to give him a fighting chance and stop being so sexually shallow. Sleep took her away soon, and a feeling of contentment washed over her.

“Crystal…Crystal … wake up.”

She groggily opened her eyes. What time was it and why in the hell was he waking her up? “What?”

“Babe you’ve gotta get up. I need to take you home, I have some business that I have to handle this morning.”

“I wish you would have told me before I fell asleep. What time is it?”

“It’s five.”

“Are you kidding me? It’s five in the damned morning and you have to take care of business?”

“I know, I’m sorry and I’ll make it up to you later, but now I’ve got to get out of here.”

If he was her man then she would have demanded to be left the hell alone. He could have left to handle business and let her sleep, but they weren’t in a relationship and she had to get the hell up, no matter how much she disliked the idea.

Five minutes later, she had on her clothes, “Where is your bathroom?”

“It’s down the hall to your left,” he whispered to her as she opened the door.

“Okay,” she said and headed down the hallway. The photos along his wall were cute. There were pictures of women along the wall and it was clear that it was his family. She got to the bathroom and was confused. What kind of man accents his bathroom with lace trimmed bath towels, not only was that shit played out, it was extra feminine. She quickly peed and washed her hands, and opened the bathroom door. Standing at the door was an elderly woman, and it scared the shit out of her.

“Oh my god!” Crystal exclaimed.

The woman was shocked and she smiled, “Oh hello, you must be one of Corey’s friends.”

“I guess you could say that.”

“I’m Corey’s mom.”

“Oh I didn’t know that you were here, he should have told me,” Crystal laughed.

“Well where else would I be? This is where we live after all. Anyway, I’m about to make breakfast and some coffee, you’re more than welcome to join us if you like.”

“Oh, I would love to, but Corey has some business to take care of this morning.”

“Oh at H&M? I know that they open early, but he normally doesn’t have to be there this early on a Sunday.”

He worked at H&M! Crystal did her best not to have a mini freak-out right in front of his mother. He still lived with his parents and judging from the house, it was their home and not his. On top of that, he worked in retail.

“It was very nice to meet you, Ma’am.”

“You too, Honey, have a great day.”

Crystal walked down the hall, feeling stunned. She couldn’t believe that she considered giving that loser more of her time. He was a conniving liar, and he was trying to get her out of the house before his parents woke up, his ass didn’t have to work.

Why didn’t he just tell her the truth? It was probably because she wouldn’t have given him the time of day if she knew that he was still living at home with mommy and daddy and working with cheap retail clothes. She was disgusted, and she hated that she had pity sex with him. That was a lesson learned. An indifferent look was on her face when she entered the room.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“I met your mom as I was leaving the bathroom.”

“Oh,” he said.

“Yeah ‘oh’. When were you going to tell me?”

“I didn’t think that I had to,” he said defensively.

“Wow, then why did you try to hide it?”

“I never tried to hide it, you never asked.”

“I didn’t think that I would have to!”

“So you’re one of those shallow chicks, huh?” His tone was nasty and for the first time she got a glimpse into who he really was. She knew better than to be drawn into a conversation with an overgrown child.

“I’m not interested in arguing with you. I was just surprised to be greeted by her this morning, let’s let it go.”

He seemed to be happy with the temporary solution, but he knew that it was the last time that he was going to see Crystal. He was right, but at least he got his.

#Chapter5

“Do I have to explain the birds and the bees to you Reggie?”

Tommy

Reggie paced the hallway of his friend’s apartment. He hated begging, it made him feel like a loser, but he didn’t have much of a choice. Tommy should have been home by that time, but he was taking longer than usual, but that’s what he got for showing up unannounced. He sat down on the stairs and ignored the interested glares of women and wary stares of men. His looks made him stick out like a sore thumb. He was built like a football player, which was supposed to be his destiny.

His thoughts drifted off to his college football days. He loved to hear the roar of the crowd when he helped make a play. On that turf he could do anything, he could get out his aggressions, and he felt complete. Putting on his team's uniform made him feel at home, it was where he belonged.

Nothing could compare to the way that Tamika would screw him after the games. She would always say that watching him play got her engine revved. He knew that she was telling the truth because she was wet and ready for him to impale her. She would initiate sex, watching her ride him like a stallion would make him have to think about football so that he wouldn’t explode prematurely.

What he wouldn’t give to have that part of his relationship back. Now, she looked at him with pity. He hated that look. Even when he graduated law school, that look was on her face because she knew that wasn’t what he wanted for his life. She stood by his side when everyone else turned their back on him, and she put up with his sullen behavior and mood swings. Not a lot of women would do something like that for a man, not even a man that they loved. He couldn’t blame her if she wanted to leave, but he was grateful every day that she remained a part of his life.

He had to find a way to get past his ego so that he could get close to his wife again. He missed her touch, but guilt plagued his senses every time they had sex. Living a lie was affecting his libido and it was hurting his marriage. Not being able to get his dick to stay up because of stress was embarrassing. He had to do better, he needed his wife back. The look that she’d been giving him lately was hard to stomach. It was a mixture of pain and disappointment.

Everything that he did, he did for her and his younger brother. When he asked her father for her hand in marriage, he made a promise to take care of her. Her dad was very serious about him stepping up, being a man, and taking care of his little girl. Tamika was successful in her own right, but he never wanted her to have to pay bills. Her money was extra; it was a lot of extra but extra, nonetheless. She worked because she wanted to, not because she had to and he planned on keeping it that way.

He was going to do whatever it took to get his life together. There wasn’t a day that went by that he hadn’t regretted punching one of the senior partners in the face at his old firm. However, being called a nigger to his face wasn’t something that he was accustomed to. He snapped before he had the chance to think about his actions. In hindsight he should have dealt with it better but the dude deserved that punch to the face. Watching the blood spew from his nose felt amazing, but having to run from the building like a fugitive wasn’t fun. He just felt lucky that he decided not to press charges, but he black-balled him everywhere, finding a firm that would take him on was next to impossible.

The idea of starting his own firm seemed like a good idea but he didn’t know if he could really handle something like that and thrive. It wasn’t his dream to own his own business and there would be no turning back once he took that route. The amount of money that it would take would be insane, and the stress would be even worse. But anything had to be better than the bullshit that he’d currently gotten himself into. Old habits die hard and he’d fallen back into the nasty habit of depending on Mimi when he got in a bind.

“Hey what are you doing here, bro?” Tommy asked, jarring him out of his thoughts.

“I’m sorry for stalking you like this but I need to ask a favor of you.”

“Alright, come on in,” he said as he opened the door to his apartment. Reggie looked like shit, and that was rare, so he knew the favor had to be huge.

Reggie followed him like a lost puppy; he prayed that his friend could help him in his time of need.

“So what do you need?” Tommy asked cutting to the chase.

“I need to borrow $10,000,” Reggie said without flinching, his heart was pounding wildly. The quicker he put what he needed on the table the better. He wasn’t the kind of man to beat around the bush and he wasn’t going to start now.

“Damn, dude. What do you need that kind of money for? That’s not a small piece of change.”

“If it was, then I wouldn’t need to borrow it.” Reggie was feeling defensive, but that kind of behavior wasn’t going to get him the money that he wanted or needed. “Sorry dude, I’m just stressing the fuck out. I know it’s a lot of money, but you know that I’m good for it. I just need this influx of cash, and I need it quick.”

“Look man, you're my boy. You know that I’ve got you, but you know I’ve gotta ask some questions.”

“It’s cool, but just understand that I can’t really answer questions about it right now. I’m stressed the fuck out.”

“How is everything going with you and Tamika? I hardly ever see you this fucked up.”

“I know, right.” Reggie sat on the couch and laid his head back. It felt good to finally relax a little, his friend was going to cover him, and so he wouldn’t have to pull the money from his account. That alleviated a lot of stress. He could get Mimi off his back. When he thought about it, he wondered if his friend would give him more money. That would give him some extra padding to work with. “Actually dude, it’s going to be more like $15,000.”

Tommy’s face screwed up in confusion and he found it to be a little suspicious, but he never knew his friend to be shady. Reggie was an upstanding guy and if he said he needed something, then he was going to be there for him. There were plenty of times when Reggie had to bail him out of bad monetary situations and he did it without asking any questions. It was his turn to extend the favor. “Alright, I’ll go online and transfer the funds in the morning.”

“Cool, thanks. I really appreciate you for this shit, man, I know it’s not easy.”

“It's all good, besides, I know where you live.”

Reggie laughed, “Damn, it’s like that?”

“Hell yeah, it’s like that.”

“I don’t blame you. You have helped kill a lot of stress, now I can sleep tonight.”

“So are you going to answer my question about Tamika or are you just going to ignore me?” Tommy asked.

“My bad, I’m not ignoring you. It’s just that she’s got baby fever, she asked me if I wanted to have a kid. I told her that I wasn’t ready yet and she got all upset. I had to explain to her how we weren’t ready to have a child and that maybe we could have one a few years down the road. The both of us have a lot of things that we want to accomplish before we have kids; at least that’s what we used to say. But I don’t know, she’s flipping the script on me, man.” Reggie felt stressed out just thinking about it.

“You know how women are around this age, her biological clock is ticking and the last thing that she wants to hear is ‘wait.’ Shit, are you sure that she isn’t pregnant already?”

“Nah, she’s not. There’s no way that she’s pregnant.”

“Unless you haven’t been having sex with your wife, she can be pregnant. Do I have to explain the birds and the bees to you Reggie?”

“She’s on the pill.”

“There are a lot of babies in the world that have bypassed the pill, the shot, the patch, and condoms. Those little fuckers are resilient,” he laughed. “But hey, if you say that she’s not, then she’s not.”

His wife couldn’t be pregnant could she? There was no way that she could be pregnant because she would have told him if she was, right? She was acting a bit moody lately but he chalked that up to him being an asshole. He shook the thought from his mind and dismissed it as nonsense.