Sizzling Seduction (10 page)

Urgggh!
He was not making this easy at al . If she were stil in her twinkling twenties and believed in love and half the things men said to get women to let down their guard, she would have had him in the bedroom already. He was good at running his game. She had to give him that.

She just stared at him, trying to think of a comeback that would get him to give up his attempted seduction of her.

She had nothing. And he was so handsome sitting there on her sofa. Even in his relaxed pose, he exuded more masculinity than should comfortably fit in her smal apartment. His muscles fil ed out that brown cotton shirt like nobody’s business. And she wasn’t even going to touch what those hulking thighs and that tight behind did to those jeans…

Luckily the phone started ringing, and that would buy her a little more time. She got up and looked at the cal er ID. It was her parents’ number and her heart stopped beating for a moment. They never cal ed her. The only thing she could think of was that something must have happened to her mother. Her father must have final y…She couldn’t even finish the thought.

“Excuse me, Patrick, I have to take this.”

He nodded and she picked up the phone.

“Mom?” She said hesitantly, hopping it was her mother.

“This is your father, Aisha. Your mother has been forbidden to cal you. So why would you think it was her?”

Aisha rol ed her eyes. She knew there would never be a day when any man could forbid her from talking to her own child. Thank goodness she was breaking the cycle.

“Hel o, Dad.” She couldn’t fix her mouth to say it was good to hear from him or any other normal pleasantry.

“Mom doesn’t cal me. But when I saw your number on the cal er ID, I could only assume it would have been Mom. I never expected you to cal at al after—”

“After you foolishly went against my wishes, divorced your husband and moved to that godforsaken city?”

“What can I do for you?”

“I’m cal ing because it is time for you to get your head on straight and do what’s right for your child and not your own selfish needs. Wil iam is very close to becoming partner at the firm. We are having a reception for some key clients, and al the partners are bringing their wives and children. If he were to secure this client, who is very big on family and family values, it would give me a stronger case to argue for him—”

“Dad, what does this have to do with me? I divorced Bil .

We are no longer married. And I am certainly not going to pretend so that he can win some client. The man hardly makes time to visit his child and he barely pays the child support and alimony he fought so hard to get reduced. The man could care less if Dil on and I lived in a shack and you are cal ing here pleading his case?”

Her blood started to boil and bubble up under her skin and angry beads of sweat pebbled on her forehead. She forgot about everything in that moment, even her hard-won independence and new life. Funny how her father could break her down and bring her back to being a scared and angry little girl.

Daniel Foster was a formidable attorney and a hard-edged man. There was a time when he would at least have a smile and a “how’s my little princess today” for her. But those days were long since past. From the time she was in her teens and dared to voice her opinion on how he spoke to her mother, he’d used the same hard demeanor with her, as wel . She spent the rest of her time in high school and most of col ege trying to reclaim her space as daddy’s girl and rarely did anything to upset her father until she divorced Bil .

She clasped the phone tightly and tried to get a grip.

She was not a child. She was a woman, and she was in control of her own life.

“I am arguing his case because I was the one who told him to fight you on the child support and the alimony. I’d hoped that once you got a taste of struggle and what it takes to survive in the world without a man to support you, you would come to your senses and go back to your husband. I had no idea you could be this stubborn and childish—”

She bit back bile as she angrily cut her father off.

“Father, I am never going back to your little protégé
William
. You and
Billy-boy
can forget that. And I would rather die than help him with anything, let alone secure some client for your firm. He is a horrible, abusive man and any father worth a damn would be helping his daughter stay away from him. In any case, I am seeing someone now, and I know he would have a problem with me even having this discussion. So, if you’re done…”

“Who are you seeing? Some low-life scumbag from Paterson? A drug dealer? Some common thief?” The derision in his voice made her skin crawl, and for a moment she wished she real y were brave enough to risk her heart again and she real y were seeing someone.

But that kind of bravery was going to take time, and she didn’t have that time right now—not when she had to take the air out of her father’s self-righteous little bubble.

“You mean like the people you and Bil defend and help keep out of prison? No, I don’t deal with such people, professional y or otherwise. The man I’m seeing is a real-life hero.” Her recent trip to the fire station crossed her mind and she smiled. “A fireman.”

“A fireman?” Her father bit out a sharp bitter laugh. “A blue-col ar worker? Why not just date the garbage-man?”

“There is nothing wrong with folks making an honest living.” She should have known she couldn’t win with her father. The man was a snob to the core and just plain mean to boot.

“Says the broke schoolteacher. Stop being an idiot and go back to your husband, princess.”

“Don’t cal me princess! In fact, father, please do not cal me again!” She hung up the phone, let out an angry half grunt, half yel and stamped her foot.

She wanted to throw the phone against the wal , but she knew that wouldn’t solve anything. Plus her father’s little
broke schoolteacher
swipe wasn’t far off the mark. There certainly wasn’t any money in her budget for a new phone.

“So, you’re seeing a fireman, huh? A real-life hero?”

She jumped and clutched her chest at the sound of Patrick’s voice. How had she let her father’s irritating request make her forget that Patrick was in the room?

Oh, brother
…

She shook her head and sat down on the sofa. Then she started to laugh and buried her head in her lap. Otherwise she’d cry.

What a night! What an un-freaking believable night.

“You’re right, though,” Patrick said as he joined in on her laughter. “Your new man…the fireman…he wouldn’t like you even thinking about going anywhere with that idiot ex-husband of yours.”

She real y started laughing then and had tears running down her face by the time she was finished. Final y she sat up, holding her laugh-sore stomach as she did.

“Okay, before you get al crazy, I forgot you were in the room. My father makes me so angry. The nerve of him. If I had remembered you were actual y in the room, I would have picked another fake boyfriend.”

He clutched his heart in mock pain. “Oh…please tel me you’re not
fake
breaking up with me already.”

“Dear John…it’s not you…it’s me…” She painted on an expression of mock sincerity and tilted her head.

He closed his eyes and fel back on the love seat. “Oh, no! Not Dear John.”

She hadn’t laughed this hard in years and she suddenly wanted to laugh that hard again and again. She’d forgotten how good it felt. She could let him take out Dil on and her a few times. What could it hurt?

“Okay, seriously, though. I think it would be okay if you, Dil on and I got to know each other. I’m not making any promises. Because I don’t know that I’l be able to get into a relationship, or even go out on a real date with you. But Dil on seems to real y like you and you’re right—he is a good judge of character. So we’l see.”

He nodded. “That’s al I want—a chance. I promise you won’t regret it.”

She sucked her top lip into her mouth because she didn’t trust what might have come out of her mouth at that moment. She’d already said way too much. So she just nodded, too. And she hoped like hel she wouldn’t regret taking this chance.

P
atrick entered his one-family colonial home pretty much on cloud nine. He hadn’t made as much progress as he had wanted to in terms of getting Aisha to trust him. But he had made more progress than he expected. And he knew…He now knew that there was no way he could give up.

He even found himself humming a little song as he entered his bedroom. He was taking off his shirt, ready to hit the sheets so that he could dream about Aisha. When he entered his bedroom, however, al humming and thoughts stopped.

What the hell is
she
doing in my bed?

“Hi, honey. I’m home.” The scantly clad vixen stretched out on his comforter looked at him and let out a little Marilyn Monroe sigh.

“Courtney. What’re you doing in my bed and how did you get in here?”

His ex-wife sat up in the bed and gave a fake pout. “So many questions…Can’t we ask questions later…” She spread her legs and leaned forward. Her thong didn’t cover anything, and he knew he would have to burn his sheets. “…

After we get reacquainted? It’s been too long, honey,” she spoke in a fake lilting voice and purred.

She actual y purred.
Who did she think she was?

Catwoman? Good grief!

He threw his head back at the ceiling. He only did it for a moment, though. Why she had picked this moment to show up was inconsequential. What he knew beyond a doubt was infinitely more important. He knew for damn sure he wasn’t going to al ow Courtney to get in the way of the relationship he hoped to build with Aisha.

“Put on your clothes and get out of my bedroom. We’l

“Put on your clothes and get out of my bedroom. We’l talk in the living room.” He turned and left her there. If she wasn’t out of the bedroom in ten minutes he was going to cal either Lawrence or Jason and have her arrested. Hel , he stil might cal the cops and get her arrested for breaking and entering.

In approximately six minutes, she came sauntering out of the bedroom and slithered onto the couch right next to him.

He scooted over and turned to look at her. She stil looked the same, stunningly beautiful and flawlessly made up. Her deep chocolate complexion and exotic features had always put him in mind of those beautiful high-fashion super models like Iman. Her skin was stil smooth and tight.

Clearly, the years had been kind to her. Even though she was the picture of beauty, he stil couldn’t figure out for the life of him what he ever saw in her.

“It’s been too long, honey. I hope you’re over your hard feelings now and we can pick up where we left off.”

“You on drugs or something? Or are you just crazy? I’m no longer angry about the way things went down between us. But I’m also never going down that road with you again.

Been there, done that, got the divorce papers in a pretty gold frame to celebrate the end of it.” He stood up and started walking toward the door. “How did you get in here?”

“I found out where you keep the spare key and I let myself in.” She crossed her legs as if to say she wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

He turned and walked back over to her. “Aunt Sophie told you where I keep my spare key?” He held out his hand when he reached her. “Give me the key.”

when he reached her. “Give me the key.”

“Oh, come on, Patrick! This is ridiculous. It’s been ten years. When. Are. You. Going. To. Forgive. Me.” She stood up, put her hand on her hip and glared as she hissed out the words. Gone was the sultry vixen.

“It’s been ten years, Court. I’m over you. I don’t feel
anything
for you. I’ve moved on. And I’m involved with someone else now, someone I’m real y serious about.”

So maybe that was stretching the truth…He wasn’t involved with Aisha, yet. But he was more than serious about her. He believed that a relationship with Aisha was within his reach and he meant to bring it to fruition one day.

“What the hel did you think was going to happen? Did you think you were going to come over here, bat your eyes and…what? I’d take you back?”

She pouted again, this time for real. “You could take me back! What did I do that was so wrong that you had to cut me out for al this time? I said I was sorry. What ever happened to ‘til death do us part,’ huh? If you ever real y loved me, you should have been able to forgive me. I forgave you.”

This chick is crazy. She has lost her damn mind!
“I didn’t cheat on you!”

“But you left me alone for long periods of time. When you had time off, you hung out with your friends and your brothers. And you barely spent any time with me. Your stupid mother didn’t like me, and the only person who ever paid any attention to me at al was your aunt.” She became increasingly indignant as she ranted on. “And if she weren’t trying to weasel her way back into the family home once it was passed down to you, she probably wouldn’t have been concerned about me, either. I think you owe me an apology, Patrick Hightower. And I’m going to be your worst nightmare until you give it to me!”

She flung the key at him, swung her head so that the long jet-black weave did a swish and stomped out of the house.

He ran to the front door and yel ed, “They’l be ice-skating in hel and the devil wil be wearing a snowsuit before I’l ever apologize to you, Court. You are the one who wrecked the marriage. Grow up and deal with it. And don’t you ever cal my mother out of her name again! Stay the hel away from me. If you break into my place again, I’m pressing charges.”