When a Champion Wants You (10 page)

“
Yeah. We know,” Desmond
quipped.

Just then, Sherita walked
in and said, “Hi everybody.”

“
Hey,” they all said back
in a blend of voices.

“
I brought my homemade
banana pudding.”

I would love some of your
banana pudding
, Desmond thought wickedly to
himself, then had the nerve to grin. “Dang, who invited my
kryptonite?” he asked, biting his bottom lip while staring Sherita
down as she breezed by.

Dante chuckled. “Your
kryptonite?”

“
Yes, man. She makes a
brother weak,” Desmond said.

The men
chuckled.

“
You know Sherita?” Dante
asked.

“
No. I usually see her at
the coffee shop next to Emily’s store.”

“
You know she’s good
friends with Emily. As a matter of fact, she runs the boutique
sometimes.”

“
Ah…that’s why I see her so
frequently at the coffee shop. Mmm, mmm, mmm…”

* * *

“
Hey Sherita,” Melanie
said, giving her a hug once she’d joined the womenfolk in the
kitchen. “Look at you all dolled up.”

“
Oh, this is nothing,”
Sherita said, “But that lipstick you’re wearing is
everything.”

“
Thanks,” Melanie
said.

“
Yeah, it is everything,”
Emily said, “Especially considering Dimitrius can’t seem to keep
his eyes off of it.”

“
See, Emily, you already
trying to start something,” Melanie said.

“
Wait…” Sherita said,
looking at Melanie. “You and Dimitrius?”

“
No,” Melanie answered
quickly.

“
Yes,” Emily said. “Don’t
know why she’s trying to fight it, Sherita.”

Melanie grinned. “Whatever,
Emily.”

“
Hey, Sherita,” Emily said.
“Can you do me a favor and set the table?”

“
Sure.” Sherita grabbed a
stack of plates then walked over to the table. “Excuse me, fellas.
I’ve been instructed to set the table.”

“
Do your thing, Rita,”
Dante said. “Never mind us.”

She set the plates down,
one-by-one and when she set a plate in front of Desmond, he pushed
it to the center of the table, then gave her a look.

She looked back at him,
then it dawned on her where she knew him from. “Well, if it ain’t
Mr. Double-shot-of-expresso.”

“
In the flesh,” Desmond
responded.

“
I knew you looked
familiar…now that I see y’all together, I see the
resemblance.”

“
Yep…these are my
brothers,” Desmond said.

“
Right. I know Dante
already.”

“
And that’s
Dimitrius.”

“
Hi. Nice to meet you,
Dimitrius,” Sherita said, even though she’d seen him in passing.
Still, they hadn’t officially met.

“
And I’m Desmond. Desmond
Champion.”

“
Also known as Superman,”
Dante joked. Then he looked at Sherita and said, “And you would be
his krp—”

“
Pay my brother no mind,”
Desmond said, cutting Dante off. “He has issues.”

Dimitrius grinned, just
barely. He wasn’t in much of a dinner-party mood tonight. His mind
had been on Melanie and why she had been avoiding him for two days.
Even now, she didn’t say much to him. She stayed in the kitchen,
glancing at him every now and then, but wouldn’t hold eye contact
longer than a few seconds.

Emily brought over a basket
of rolls to the table which prompted the men to grab one and begin
eating.

Melanie brought over a pan
of barbecue chicken and set it on the table where she didn’t have
to be close to Dimitrius.

He noticed.

Sherita returned to the
kitchen to get macaroni and mashed potatoes, then Emily came back
with a pan of collard greens. Melanie brought cups and
sodas.

Now that they were all
seated, the men on one side of the table and the women on the
other, everyone began helping themselves to whatever it was they
wanted to eat.

A few bites in, Dante said,
“Well, I want to officially congratulate Melanie for her new gig in
becoming the marketing manager at The Champion
Corporation.”

After everyone offered
their congratulations, Melanie said, “Thank you, everybody, and
while we’re on the subject, I have to give a notice at my existing
job, so I won’t be able to start for two weeks. Will that be a
problem?”

Dimitrius frowned.
Why hadn’t she told him that?
They’d had lunch together on Tuesday and she hadn’t mentioned
anything about it. That irked him, so much so that he didn’t want
to continue his meal.

“
I don’t foresee a problem
with that,” Desmond said. “Do you, Dante?”

“
Not at all,” Dante
responded. “That’ll give you more time to get your ducks in a
row.”

“
Perfect,” Melanie said.
“When I told my boss I was leaving, he looked like he was going to
have a nervous breakdown.”

“
That’s how you know you’re
a good employee,” Dante said.

Melanie smiled and glanced
up at Dimitrius who was glaring back at her. She could only imagine
what he must have been thinking. After all, she had been ignoring
him, not trying to engage in any sort of conversation with him all
night. She just glanced at him every now and then and that was
it.

Later, when she could pull
him aside, she’d let him know that she couldn’t be his girlfriend,
or whatever it was he wanted her to be. The bottom line was, they
weren’t compatible, and he was still player. He would have to find
another woman to run that game on.

* * *

Later, when plates were
cleared off of the table and everyone was preparing for dessert,
Melanie took a quick bathroom break where she checked her hair
again, added gloss back to her lips and when she stepped out, there
was Dimitrius leaned up against the wall standing there all
casually – his hands hidden in his pockets. He looked agitated or
at the very least disheartened, and she knew why.

“What are
you doing?” she asked, not knowing what else to say at the
moment.

“I could ask you the same
thing,” he said staring into her eyes with darkened hazel ones.
“Why didn’t you tell me about the two-week notice?”

She shrugged. “It’s no big
deal. I meant to tell you on Tuesday…it slipped my mind. Like I
said…no big deal.”

He clenched his jaw, took
his hands from his pockets and inched closer to her. “I want you to
tell me why you neglected to tell me, Melanie. There has to be a
reason why, which probably intertwines with the reasons why you’ve
been avoiding me. So why don’t you go ahead and get it off of your
chest?”

She sighed heavily. She
didn’t want to do this with him at Emily’s house. Not here. Not
now. But she knew she had to. Dimitrius wasn’t going away. “Okay, I
didn’t tell you because I didn’t
want
to tell you, Dimitrius. I’m not
sure about this
thing
you’re trying to do with me and the way you’ve been coming on
to me is not flattering. It may work for other women, but it
doesn’t work for me. I don’t want this. I don’t want to work for a
corporation whose executive is basically demanding that I go out
with him. You claim to be a gentleman, yet, you’re trying to make
me like you…trying to convince me that we belong together, and I’m
not feeling it. I like my freedom. I don’t want a man chasing down
behind me, keeping track of my every move. And we’re not
compatible. You don’t even wear jeans for goodness
sakes.”

He frowned. “What does the
way I dress have to do with anything?”

“It has a lot to do with
everything. Like I said…we’re not compatible. I don’t dress like
you, eat at fancy restaurants or drive exotic cars, and I can only
imagine what your house looks like. I know you’re used to having
and getting your way with women, having them fall at your feet like
robots because you’re a handsome millionaire. That’s the
gold-digging way of the world, but I don’t care for those things
and I won’t let them sway me. So I think it’s best if we ended
whatever you call this weird…craziness that you
started.”

“I don’t think so,”
Dimitrius said.

Before Melanie could make
her escape, he grabbed her arm and pulled her right up to him – to
his chest.

She couldn’t take her next
breath, let alone offer any resistance, before he drowned his hands
in her curls and latched on to her mouth and snuck a kiss. He’d
wanted to do so for little over a year now and he saw this as the
perfect opportunity to fulfill that long-time desire of his. He
could care less about what she said – about them not being
compatible. He’d show her just how compatible they could
be.

Were her feet still on the
floor? She could imagine that they weren’t, that he was holding her
up between his strong arms instead, sending her pulse into
overdrive. That’s when she knew she’d had enough.

She slowly pulled away
from him, staring at him like she was in a state of shock. And when
her breathing was back under control to the point that she could
talk again, she asked, “What was that?”

“It was a kiss,” he
responded. “You’ve never been kissed before?”

Not like
that
. “Yes, but,” she said, still panting
a little. “You said you would never touch me unless I wanted you
to.”

His lips curved to a
smile. “Yes, I did say that, didn’t I?”

“So you’re not a man of
your word.”

“Oh, but
I am, sweetheart,” he said only inches away from her lips. “I
kissed you, not because you wanted me to, but because you
needed
me to. And
you didn’t stop me, which tells me you needed me as
well.”

“Dimitrius—”

“Listen
Melanie…I honestly don’t know what’s going through your head
because you’ve never really had a heart-to-heart with me, and I get
it. You don’t know me that well, and therefore, you don’t trust me
yet, but I will tell you this…I always get what I want. I’m not
chasing gold-diggers or whatever type of woman you’re trying to
link me with. I want you, and I think you want me too. You’re just
holding back, making excuses for reasons that are beyond me but
reasons I will one day understand. You have to admit to yourself
that I am an excellent catch. I don’t like bragging about myself or
tooting my own horn, but I would make a good husband for you. So
maybe you should stop finding all the reasons why you
shouldn’t
do this
and start thinking of all the reasons why you should.”

With that, Dimitrius
turned around and walked away. Melanie could hear him telling
everyone he had to go. He said he had other plans, when really she
knew he hadn’t had anything to do. He just needed to go, to give
her time to think about what she wanted to do, because he would do
what he
had
to do
to get her. It was up to her if she wanted to jog along with him or
be chased. He was down for whatever…

Chapter 13

Dante and Desmond
were busy in the man cave, playing a round of
pool. The women were in the family room, eating banana pudding and
having general conversation, also known as, talking about
men.

“So I saw you checking out
Desmond, Sherita,” Emily said.

“Girl
please. He’s fine and all, but I don’t have time for Desmond. I see
him in the coffee shop in the mornings trying to holla at every
female he can like he is
such
a player. Actually, I heard the
Champion brothers were, but apparently you have the reformed one,
Emily.”

Emily chuckled. “Yeah, I
guess so. But I think Dimitrius is going to be reformed real
soon.”

Melanie shook her
head.

“What was up with him
tonight?” Emily asked Melanie.

“What do you
mean?”

“I mean he seemed a little
frustrated, and then he left early. Dimitrius never leaves early.
He usually stays way past midnight sometimes playing pool with
Dante and Des. But tonight I noticed he left early, and I also
noticed that you weren’t really talking to each other. Is
everything cool?”

“Wait…you
and Dimitrius
are
dating?” Sherita asked.

“I wouldn’t call it
dating,” Melanie said. “He wants to date me, but
he’s…so…different.”

“Different how?” she
inquired.

“He boldly told me that he
wanted to marry me. Said he thought we would be good together, and
that I would make a good wife for him. So he wants us to spend the
rest of the month together…every single day of it, doing some sort
of activity. It doesn’t matter what it is. He just wants to make
sure he’s with me. So Monday night we had dinner. Tuesday he showed
up at my job to take me out to lunch. Wednesday I avoided him.
Thursday I avoided him. Tonight, I avoided him, that is until he
pinned me up against the wall in the hallway and nearly stole my
breath…first time he’s ever kissed me.”