Let's Get It On (11 page)

“Three. I've changed. I'm different. Four.”

Knowing that he'd probably make good on his threat to break down the door, Kenya felt that the best thing to do was to open it and face him. Putting on a poker face, she opened the door. “All right. If you're so different, why don't you listen to me for a change and do something that I want you to do and get out of here?”

“Because you don't want me to leave,” he said. “What's wrong?”

Kenya pushed past him and got into bed. “I just can't lie here with you, knowing that months or even weeks ago, you were doing this with Lauryn.”

Maurice held his chin, closed his eyes, and shook his head. “And what about you? What were you doing before tonight? Everybody has a past, Kenya.”

“You're my past. I just don't see you being in my future, especially if I want one without having my heart broken again,” she snapped. “I can't kiss you and not think about how you kissed her. I can't sleep with you and not wonder what you and Lauryn did in bed. I will never forget what I walked in on that day.”

“That's not how I wanted you to find out about us,” he said in a low voice filled with regret. “Lauryn and I are over, and whatever I have to do to prove to you that you're the one I want to be with, I'll do it.”

She tried to steel herself and not let go of her emotions, but she broke down. Her shoulders shook as she sobbed. “Why?” she asked. “Why wasn't I enough for you?”

He wrapped his arms around her shoulders. “I let everything go to my head. I was a big star, and I listened to people who told me that I should've been playing the field, and that I was supposed to have all of the girls on campus that wanted to be with me. I wasn't supposed to be with one woman.”

“What did you want? Did you want all of that? You still ended up with one girl. So, what did Lauryn do that made you love her?”

“I don't think I really loved her. I was blinded by lust, and she was hanging on to my coattails, just like my family said.” Maurice turned Kenya around and made her face him. “We can't stay stuck in the past. We can't let my mistakes stop us from moving forward. Can you let it go and give me another chance, or am I going to have to keep facing this?”

His words angered her. He wasn't the wronged party. Who had given up everything to be rid of him? She had. She hadn't been able to move on, because so much of what she thought about love and men was wrapped up in what Maurice had done to her. Forgive him? Give him another chance? No way in hell.

“You know what? This was a mistake, and it will never happen again. Kindly put your clothes on, and get the hell out of here.” She snatched the blanket from the bed to cover her nudity, stormed into the bathroom, and stayed there until she heard the door close, indicating that Maurice had gone.

When Maurice returned to his room, he paced back and forth like a caged lion hungry to bite something or someone. What was wrong with Kenya? How could she ruin a moment that was so beautiful and so tender? Did she think he didn't hear her when she said she loved him that second time? Maurice chewed on his bottom lip, thinking that he had to do something to ease her insecurities about Lauryn. How could he, though? He knew that if Lauryn tried to worm her way back into his life, he wouldn't take her back, because he'd never be able to trust her again. He'd wonder if a night out with the girls meant that she was planting her face between her friend's legs again or vice versa. He was gaining a greater understanding of what Kenya had been going through.

Maybe it's time to tell her the entire story behind my marriage that never was,
he thought. As he turned to head out the door, James walked in, with a deep scowl on his face. Maurice thought for a second that his brother was going to knock his lights out.

“What did you do to her?” James demanded hotly.

“Get out of my way.”

James pushed Maurice in the chest, causing him to fall on the floor. “Kenya's sitting at the hotel bar, eyes red and puffy, and I know you're behind it.”

Hopping up like a kicked dog ready to bite his attacker, Maurice grabbed his brother by his collar. “What's your obsession with what's going on between me and Kenya? You act like you want her for yourself.”

Pulling away from Maurice, James glared at him. “Kenya is my friend, she always has been, and I saw what you did to her in the past. I won't let it happen again.”

“What are you talking about?” Maurice asked. “What do you mean, you saw what I did to Kenya?”

“She was a mess when she came back to Atlanta. She barely wanted to talk to me or anyone associated with you. Kenya didn't care about her appearance or anything. Her mother was so worried about her. One day I was chilling at the Atlanta University Center, and I found her, much like I found her today, crying over you. When she told me that she walked in on you and that girl, I couldn't believe it, because I thought you would have had a little more class than that.”

“So, you've been in touch with Kenya all of these years? And let me guess. You fell for her?” Maurice said snidely. “Whatever, James. Is she still at the bar?”

“You're not going down there to mess with her head some more,” James snapped. “I don't know what—”

“That's right. You don't know what the hell is going on, so you need to back off.” Maurice pushed past his brother and headed downstairs, hoping to find Kenya at the bar.

She was sitting at the darkest end of the bar, head down and her hand wrapped around a half-empty glass of what looked to be whiskey from where Maurice stood. Slowly, he approached her, standing in the shadows and observing the look of sadness on her face. The last thing he'd ever wanted to do was put that look on her face again. He knew that look. That was the same look that he'd seen when she walked in the room that day.

When he reached her, he placed his hand on her shoulder. “Remember what happened the last time you decided to tie one on,” he said in a lame attempt to make a joke.

The frown on Kenya's face said she wasn't amused.

“What did James do? Run to your room and tell you that I was down here?”

“Believe it or not, his intentions weren't to reunite us,” Maurice said. “Can we talk?”

“There's nothing left to say.” She picked up her glass and took a sip of her drink.

“I think there is. I have to confess something. I can understand you a lot more than you think,” he said as he turned to face her. “I didn't tell you everything about my breakup with Lauryn.” Maurice inched closer to Kenya, forcing her to give him her full attention.

“You called my name out during sex, or something corny like that?” She laughed coldly. Her eyes didn't sparkle, as they had when he'd tickled her earlier.

“No,” he replied, taking her free hand in his. “Lauryn left me at the altar for her friend Mya Brown.”

Kenya cocked her head to the side as if she was deciding if Maurice was telling the truth or not. “Mya Brown? The same Mya who was her roommate in college?”

Maurice nodded. “One and the same. As it turned out, they'd been carrying on an affair for a number of years. Even when we were in college, I'm guessing. While I was shut up in my house, I thought back to all of the nights she had stayed over at Mya's, and to their shopping trips to Vegas, New York, and wherever else they'd gone together. I realized that I had been played for a fool. And she made it so that when she left me, we had a huge audience and a media following. I don't know if she and Mya planned this as some sort of lesbian revolt against men, or if Mya was bewitched by her, like I had been. But now I understand how you felt finding out that I was with another woman. Mya must have given Lauryn something that I couldn't.”

The sardonic smile on Kenya's face made him regret his words. Was she mocking him? Had he overestimated how she felt for him?

“Let me get this straight,” Kenya began. “Because Lauryn turned gay or whatever, you understand how I felt knowing that you had cheated on me? You're an asshole. Oh, was I supposed to feel sorry for you because she left you for a woman? What was the point of your story? Was that supposed to change something?” Rising to her feet quickly, Kenya knocked her stool over and attempted to storm out of the bar.

Maurice impeded her exit. “Is it possible to love someone and hate them at the same time? How can you run so hot and cold with me when I know you love me?”

“You know no such thing,” she snapped.

“I have two ears, Kenya. I can hear and I heard you earlier. You said you loved me twice, and then you kicked me out of bed like I was a gigolo.” He held her arm to keep her from bolting. “What is it, sweetheart? Do you love me or hate me? I wish you'd tell me, because I need to know what I have to do to make you see that this is fate. We're supposed to be.”

“I'm sorry Lauryn left you for a woman. But I won't be the validation of your manhood. You won't dump your insecurities and shortcomings on me because of what she did. Deal with it. Learn to live with it. I did.” Snatching her arm away from him, Kenya stalked out of the bar.

So much for a relaxing vacation,
she thought. She was more tired now than she had been when she'd arrived on the island. There was no need to prolong this, she decided. She was going to Charlotte and back to her old ways of being buried in work.

 

 

The move to Charlotte wasn't as taxing as Kenya had expected. Maybe it was because she had seen Maurice already and didn't expect to see him again. The way they'd left things in the Bahamas had given her the closure that she'd needed all of these years. But it had also stirred something inside her, which she refused to acknowledge. At night she dreamed of his touch and smelled his scent when she would inhale deeply, and that made her crave his kiss. Vivid memories of their lovemaking often woke her in the middle of the night or broke into her quiet moments in the office, when she was the only one there, drafting briefs. But there was no way that she was going to seek him out. She had too much work to do, and Maurice was more than a distraction. He was poison.

Kenya might not have seen Maurice in person, but his face haunted her. On the way to work, she saw his half-naked body on a billboard advertising Calvin Klein underwear. Then there was the Carolina Panthers' season tickets billboard with Maurice in his uniform, making his clutch catch in the Super Bowl. Those were all over the city. And the irony of all ironies was the fact that her law office was in a new development across the street from Bank of America Stadium, where the Panthers played. At least football season was over, and she didn't have to see Maurice going over there to practice every day.

Catching herself staring at the stadium, Kenya twisted her chair away from the window and faced her closed office door.
Why can't I just forgive him? Why can't I stop thinking about him? He said he's done with Lauryn, and God help me, I love him. And he knows it.

“
Ms. Taylor,” her assistant, Talisha, called over the intercom. “Your three o'clock is here.”

“Thank you,” Kenya said as she straightened her coat. It was time for business. According to her calendar, she was meeting with Brothers Reality, a company that was negotiating with the city to purchase land in a few of the city's distressed neighborhoods and to create housing for low-income families as well as a community center, which would provide after-school activities for the neighborhood kids and computer training for the adults who needed it. Kenya was excited about the project and couldn't wait to meet the “brothers” behind Brothers Reality.

What she didn't expect was for Maurice to walk into her office. Momentarily, she was rendered speechless. Was she imagining things?

“What do you want?” she asked.

“Is that how you greet all of your clients or just me?” he asked, with a huge smile on his face.

“I have an appointment with—”

“Brothers Reality. That's my company. James runs it, but I lend my name and face when necessary,” he said, taking a seat across from her desk without an invitation. “So, how have you been? Are you enjoying Charlotte?”

Did he really walk in here? Is he really talking to me as if we're old friends?
Kenya thought as she stared at him in disbelief.

“I've looked over the contracts that were messengered over here,” she said, ignoring his attempts at small talk. “The asking price for the land is way too high. Especially when the houses there are scheduled to be condemned by the city. I'm going to recommend that one of our other attorneys works with you on this contract.”

Maurice shook his head, then said, “I want the best, and from what I know about you, the only person at this firm that I want handling my business is you.”

Kenya rose to her feet and smoothed her skirt, wishing that she's worn her Prada pants suit instead of her knee-skimming Donna Karan outfit. “I have nothing but the highest level of confidence in everyone on my staff. If you can't work with someone else, maybe you need to find another firm to assist you.”

Crossing his long legs and running his index finger down the crease of his pants, Maurice watched Kenya like a hawk. Her legs looked delectable, and he wanted to reach out and touch them, just to see if she was wearing nylons or not.

She turned and looked at him, catching the lustful look in his eyes. “What?”

“Listen, you know I came here because you work here. I wanted to give you some space between what happened in the—”

“Don't,” she said in a whisper. “Don't say anything about what happened in the past, no matter how recent.”

He stood and closed the space between them. “I can't stop thinking about you,” he said, his lips so close to her ear that his breath sent shivers up and down her spine. “I know you feel the same way. I can see it when you look at me.”

Kenya was powerless to move away from him. She didn't have her wits about her, because his lips were just too close to her and his scent of patchouli overwhelmed her. “What about your contracts? This is highly inappro—”

He cut off her protest with a sharp kiss, catching her off guard and causing her knees to buckle. Maurice swooped Kenya off her feet and sat her on the edge of her desk. She didn't resist his kiss. Instead, she plunged her tongue into his mouth, drawing him deeper into hers. Sucking on his tongue, she forgot where she was, what she was supposed to be doing, and the fact that her assistant could walk in the door at any moment with a tray of coffee.

Maurice slipped his hands underneath her skirt, stroking her thighs, and they were just as smooth as they'd looked when he'd seen her standing by the window. She didn't have on any stockings, and that made his manhood harder than he thought it could get. He wanted to rip his pants off and bury himself inside her, because when he fingered the crotch of her silky panties, it was hot and wet. She did want him, and he had to have her.

Before they became too heady with desire, Talisha buzzed Kenya, and they broke off the kiss. “Ms. Taylor, there's a Mr. James Goings here. He said he's a part of the meeting.”

“Yes, yes,” Kenya said as she wiped her mouth. “Send him in.” She dashed behind her desk, straightening her skirt as she sat down.

Maurice licked his lips and raised his eyebrows at Kenya, as if to tell her that they were not finished.

“Sorry, I'm late,” James said, looking from Kenya to Maurice. “What did I miss?”

Maurice smiled at his brother. “Kenya was trying to assign us to another attorney.”

Shaking his head, James said, “I wonder why. Kenya, how are you, hon?”

She extended her hand to James. “Good, thanks. I was telling Maurice that the city is asking too much for this tract of land that you all want to purchase. I believe condemned property shouldn't cost this much.”

“And to think you wanted to just sign,” Maurice said to his brother.

“But do we want to get into a bidding war with some larger company? I mean, Maurice is a star and all, but the only thing that matters around these parts is money,” James replied.

Kenya folded her hands underneath her chin and crossed her legs, hoping to stop the throbbing in her panties. “Well,” she said, gaining her composure, “sounds just like home. But even if you all get into a bidding war, I know that there are minority-business provisions in dealing with the city, which should work to your company's advantage. You all are black owned, correct?”