Scandalous Heroes Box Set (170 page)

“Congratulations,” she said almost in a defeated tone. “I wish you lots of success.”

“Yeah, good luck with that relationship. I’m sure you two will have lots to talk about.” He held the bedroom door open for her. “You want me to drive you home?”

She shook her head. “I’ll be fine.”

Before he could say anything else, Eminence ran downstairs. After a few seconds, he heard his front door slam.

“Shit!” With one swing, he punched a box off of a pile of boxes to the floor.

Contents from the opened box tumbled onto the hardwood floor. The item that rolled to his feet kept him cemented in his spot. The ring.

Why the hell had he kept that damn ring he’d bought for Eminence back when he was in high school? He knew back then that she wouldn’t have married him, and from the way she slinked out of his life just now, he had no future with her, especially after figuring out that she had a boyfriend. Knowing that hurt him the most. Without trust and honesty, they could have nothing between them.

Chapter Thirteen

Sitting at the bottom of the tub under the streaming showerhead helped Eminence. She couldn’t discern if the water droplets going down her face came from the water or had been her tears.

After Keys’s angry tongue-lashing, she understood how he must have felt all of those years when she’d accused him of being unfaithful. She should have told him about Les. Sleeping with him or not, it didn’t matter. Eminence had a committed relationship with Les. Although she had plans to break up with him, she hadn’t yet. Until that happened, she knew she shouldn’t have slept with Keys. Now her heart suffered.

“Oh, God!” She crumbled into a heavy sob.

Through her cries and the overpowering sounds from the shower, she heard her phone ringing. The sound forced her to finally confront herself. Eminence turned off the shower and stood.

After the fourth ring, her answering machine engaged. Eminence dried herself and had planned on tuning out whoever would speak when a voice caught her attention.

“Eminence, it’s me. Well, you know me.” A nervous giggle then a trademark snort had her stopping in her motion as though Les stood before her and could see right through her. “I know you had plans to come over to the library for lunch to see me. Just be sure to come here after twelve. Um, I’ll be busy up to that point. Okay, so I’ll see you later. Um, bye.”

No, Eminence had some things to get off her chest, mainly her infidelity.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Keys’s words cut her to the core, but he had been right. She fell right into the same pattern as her father, only she hadn’t been caught. Her own admission revealed her dishonesty.

Eminence had to get dressed. She had a couple of stops to make. First one had to be with Les. She had to tell him about Keys. Then she had to be honest and tell him what she should have told him weeks ago. Their relationship had been a mistake. Although she cared for him deeply, she would never love him, not the way she loved Keys.

Even if Keys never spoke to her again and breaking up with Les meant she would be alone, Eminence could live with that. Having integrity meant more to her than getting her man. It took a good wake-up call like this to remind her of that.

An hour later and dressed in jeans, flats, and a plain, white t-shirt, Eminence bounded up the stairs to the Main Street Library. She trotted to the main desk where Les normally sat. Instead she found a young woman looking bored and busying herself by texting.

“I’m looking for Les.” The underlying meaning behind her statement gave Eminence a gentle reminder that Les the Librarian would never be able to fulfill her needs. She needed more. She had Les. “Is he here?”

The young girl, who never broke her gaze from her electronic device, tilted her head towards the reference section. Make-out section was what she and her friends used to call it. No one went to that darkened area of the library unless you wanted to have some alone time with a special someone.

As she got closer to the stacks, Eminence suspected that other people were using the area for the same purposes. She heard a moan and some serious lip action. She smiled. At least someone got their priorities right.

Eminence rounded the corner and saw the back of her soon-to-be ex-boyfriend, only Les wasn’t alone. Judging from the hands that went up her man’s back to the back of his neck, looked like Les cheated on Eminence with a white woman. Not that she had the right to say anything. The sting of his betrayal hurt. At least the breakup wouldn’t be as difficult as she thought it would be.

Eminence cleared her throat, which got Les’ attention, apparent from the way he straightened up and stiffened his back. When he turned around, Eminence had to fight hard not to look overly shocked at who her man had just been swapping spit with moments ago.

“I told you not to come here until after twelve.” Les glanced at his watch. “It’s only ten.”

“Is this her?”

Eminence stared at the slight, delicate, and annoyingly cute young man with shaggy brown hair and a set of green eyes that looked like he’d plucked them out of a kewpie doll’s head.

“I couldn’t wait.” She volleyed her attention between Les and the lover who hid behind him. “There’s something I needed to tell you.”

Les held up his hand. “I know what you’re going to say. I don’t want to talk about your career anymore. I’m sick and tired of hearing about it, and, quite frankly, I get the impression that you don’t want to talk about it either.”

Eminence bit the inside of her cheek. As much as she wanted to argue with Les about that point, he had nailed it on the head. Considering she just caught him cheating on her with another man, her potential promotion shouldn’t have even registered as something to discuss.

“And I don’t want to talk to you about all the fun you had last night at the club.” Les put his fists to his hips as though he had a right to feel angry or betrayed. Up until this new development, he hadn’t. “I’m glad you came up early. I don’t have to pay for your lunch now.”

What did she see in this guy again?

Les continued. “I think we should break up.”

“No. Really? Gee, didn’t see that coming.” Eminence crossed her arms. “And here I thought we could still work something out.” She shook her head. “I’m not angry at you.” She stared at the young man. “Or you. Actually I came here to tell you the same thing.”

“But I broke up with you first.”

God, was this guy still in high school?

“Yes, you did. The reason I wanted to break up is because last night I met up with a past love and we had sex.”

The young man gasped. Yeah, like he had a right to be shocked.

“Eminence, it’s okay.” Les turned to the man who must have really captured his heart. The man simply glowed. “I think we both found what we were truly looking for. You didn’t have to tell me, especially in this situation.”

She nodded. “Oh, yes, I did. I’ve lived my life bottling up secrets, so much so that it’s killed a lot of my relationships. I wanted to be honest with you and apologize for being unfaithful.”

Eminence waited for him to come back with an apology of his own. He didn’t have to apologize for his sexual orientation, but she would have thought he would have said sorry for cheating on her as well, for deceiving her all this time.

Instead he said, “Apology accepted.”

Great.

“I hope the two of you are happy. I really do.” She turned to leave.

“Hey,” Les called out to her.

She brought her attention back to him.

“What will you do now?”

Eminence shrugged. “I have some other aspects of my life that I need to straighten out.”

He nodded. “The job?”

She nodded. “That’s one.”

“The man from last night?”

She shook her head. “That’s not the relationship with a man that I’m interested in fixing first.”

It’d taken her years to figure out that in order to have a positive relationship with a man, she needed to start at the root: her father.

* * * * *

Eminence had ridden Tank’s cock and broken his heart. That thought never left Tank’s mind. He couldn’t blame anyone but himself for his newly crushed heart. He’d invited Eminence back into his life, into his bed. Hell, he’d even played with her.

One last call. Fuck! He’d practically given her permission to fuck with him, physically and figuratively.

Tank punched in the key code next to the back door at Reign. Had he not forgotten some of his paperwork and tools at Jordie’s club, he would have been home. At home, he would have been staring at the same bed where Eminence had rocked his world.

Her body had changed since high school. Eminence had developed a killer woman’s body, curves upon curves upon curves. She knew how to move, more than back in that damn closet.

Tank loved touching her. Eminence’s soft skin shouldn’t have left a sense memory, but his fingertips continued to prickle the more he thought about the way he’d moved his hand over the swell of her hip and down the valley of her waist.

The taste, the flavors, the touch, the way her body reacted to him. Despite his best efforts, Tank fell in love with her all over again. What cemented that feeling had to do with how she folded body against his as she slept, and how she reacted to him when they played. Eminence felt comfortable enough to let her guard down to trust him. Then she destroyed him.

A boyfriend. A fucking boyfriend who had gotten to touch her, tease her, pleasure her, probably not as good as he had done it.

Tank stormed to the back room area and picked up a bag of his tools. He knocked over a shelf full of wine glasses when he bent over to pick up a box of paperwork.

“Fuck!” He slammed his tools on top of the box.

“Freeze! I will hurt you!”

Tank saw the glint of the knife in Jordie’s delicate hands before he saw her.

“Sorry. It’s me. It’s Tank.” He spoke slowly and smoothly as to not make her nervous.

After a pause, Jordie peered around the doorframe. When her gaze connected to his, she relaxed her shoulders and lowered the weapon.

“Thank God. I really didn’t want to stab anyone in here.” She leaned against the doorframe. “What are you doing here? I thought you would be packing today.”

“I am. I remembered I left some stuff here.” Tank peered down at the mess around his feet. “I’ll clean this up and pay for it.”

“Never pictured you as a bull-in-a-China-shop type. Big as you are, you always seemed a bit, well, dare I say it, graceful.”

Tank felt himself rolling his eyes. “No man likes to be called graceful.”
              “I don’t know. I think a few ballet dancers and basketball players would disagree.”

Tank picked up a broom that sat in the corner of the cramped space.

“No. Don’t worry about it. That’s why I have people who work for me.” She took the broom out of his hand. “So?”

“So what?” He shrugged and wouldn’t fall for her fishing expedition.

“You. Eminence. A ride on that bike of yours.”

He chuckled.

“Did something happen?” she asked.

Tank wanted to tell his friend about the incredible experience. He wanted to share how he had come alive by being with her again. He wanted to scream how opening his own business paled in comparison to being with this goddess.

He shook his head and picked up his items. “She’s with someone.” To say the words out loud hurt him more than keeping the thought rattling around in his head. “She accuses you and me of betraying her and here she is stepping out on her man. And she…” He stopped. “And we…” He stopped again. “Not a big deal. Eminence hasn’t been in my life for the last decade and a half. I’ll be fine without her.”

Tank kissed his friend on the cheek as he walked by her.

“He’s not the one.”

He stopped in his trek and returned his attention to his friend. “What?”

“I talked to Eminence in my office. I encouraged her to settle whatever issues she had with you. I told her that if there was a chance to rekindle the relationship that she should do it. She told me that there was a guy in her life.”

Damn, so even Jordie knew about it and didn’t warn him. Where was the love? Where were his true friends?

“Thanks for the warning.” He started to leave again when her words stopped him.

“As soon as she said she had a man in her life she immediately said ‘He’s not the one’ meaning whoever this guy is or was, he could not and would never compare to you. Don’t you see, Keys? Eminence does care for you. She probably still loves you. You don’t know what’s going on with this man and her. Did you two talk about it?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“I think it does. Before you leave, I think you owe it to her and owe it to yourself to find out where here heart is.” She glanced down at the shiny shards of glass on the tile floor. “It’s obvious where your head is. Don’t leave out of town and don’t let her out of your life again until you find out for sure. Remember, an assumption was what broke us all up.”

No truer words had been spoken. Right now Tank couldn’t confront her or his feelings right now. If he had a choice to leave with his heart intact or take a chance to have it broken again, he would go for safety, the same advice he’d given to Jordie.

“By the way, why in the world are you trying to protect yourself in your own club?” He wanted to add “and with a knife no less” but he understood why Jordie would never own or use a gun, not after what happened with Reggie. “With all the security measures in here, you shouldn’t have to feel like you need to protect yourself in your own place.”

Jordie’s smile faded. “I could be wrong, but I think someone is stealing from me. A case of Cristal is missing.”

Tank balled his hand into a fist. “You need me to stay and watch your employees? I’ll do it.”

Jordie touched his hand. “I know. That’s what I love about you. But I’ll be fine. Maybe I miscounted when I did inventory. Or maybe Dru did.”

The mention of his employee’s name stopped Tank’s heart. “Dru helped you with inventory?”

“Yeah.” Jordie must have noticed the look of concern on Tank’s face. She quickly supplied, “I know that’s not a part of his job description. He was just being helpful. I appreciated the assistance.”