Who's That Lady? (11 page)

There was nothing wrong with Graham, she reminded herself. He looked good enough, had a steady job as a car salesman, and no obvious vices. But his shoulders weren’t as broad as Key’s. And he didn’t have that little dimple in his chin. And his voice wasn’t as gravelly—

Was she using Key as a yardstick? Whoa, she’d better watch that.

* * *

The restaurant where she and Graham met was a casual place with a varied menu and a friendly, relaxing atmosphere. When she walked into the crowded entry area, Graham greeted her with a smiling double take.

“Wow! You look fantastic,” he said.

“Thanks.” Her face warmed with pleasure. She was beginning to like the reactions to this new look.

“They should be calling us for a table any second.” As he finished speaking, the electronic disc in his hand started to flash. They followed a waitress to a booth and slid into opposite sides.

Graham was already thinking of ways to entice Shonté’s interest. Immediately after they ordered, he emptied a large envelope onto the table to show her a stack of brochures. With excitement, he told Crystal he planned to invite Shonté on a Caribbean vacation and he wanted her help in planning the trip. Crystal exclaimed in delight over the hotels, resorts and cruises.

She grew wistful as they talked. Wouldn’t it be intoxicating to get away on an island fling with some man? There was no way Shonté could turn this down. She was bound to forget about Trevor Devlin.

Crystal smiled warmly at the man across from her. “You’re a treasure, Graham. This is the kind of surprise any girl would love.”

Graham met her eyes with an eager smile. “You think so? I really want to make her happy. I’m falling hard for her, Crystal.”

She patted his hand in a comforting gesture. “I know, Graham. She’s a lucky girl. She’ll see that.”

Gratitude shone in his eyes. And surprise. “You’re pretty special too, Crystal. If only I had fallen for you instead of Shonté. Any guy would be lucky to have you.”

Crystal pulled her hand back as if burned. Yeah, right—if they were drunk and horny.

“Crystal?” Graham faltered. He tentatively reached toward her across the table. “Did I say something wrong?”

“No, no,” she murmured, suppressing her wayward memory. Couldn’t she stop thinking about Key for one hour? She patted Graham’s hand again. “I like you too, Graham. You and Shonté are a terrific couple. Let’s look at those brochures again.”

They were laughing within minutes. When a shadow fell across the table, she looked up into Key’s challenging dark eyes.

Awareness of Graham vanished, replaced with the memory of making love to Key, dark musty images of biting, sucking, panting, straining….

Oh, God. She swallowed and managed a smile. “Hi, Key.”

Graham half stood up to exchange a handshake and invited Key to join them. Key did so, dropping into the booth next to Crystal. She tried to ease away from him. Somehow his size overpowered the table. He cocked an eyebrow while staring holes into the brochures on the table.

“You two going somewhere?” he asked in a hard voice.

“Graham’s planning a trip for himself and Shonté,” she said. “It’s kind of a surprise. You won’t tell her, will you?”

“Shonté?” His eyebrows drew together even more.

Crystal silently willed him not to reveal Shonté’s lack of interest.

He shrugged and let his gaze travel from Graham to Crystal. “You two waiting for Shont
é?”

She and Graham exchanged a look. She sensed Graham wasn’t comfortable with Key’s presence, and she wondered why Key was being so curt. When Graham remained silent, Crystal responded again. “She’s rehearsing tonight. Graham wanted to get some ideas about what she might like.”

She trailed off under Key’s steely gaze. He was definitely disapproving of something.

“You two looked like you were having a good time without her,” he said.

She stared at him in confusion. Why did he keep saying “you two” that way?

“What are you doing here?” she asked, hoping to change the subject.

“I was having dinner with some friends from the university when I saw you two over here.”

Graham cleared his throat. “Well, I guess I should be going. Will you tell Shonté to call me?”

He reached for his wallet. Crystal waved him off. “No, I’ll get it.”

Graham opened his mouth with the beginning of a protest. But Key’s glare brought him to a stuttering halt and he slipped away with a hasty good-bye.

She was alone with Key. His tension did not lessen once Graham left the table. She was aware of him in a way that engaged her whole body, from the shiver at the back of her neck to the curling of her toes. Why didn’t he move to the other side of the booth? She was having difficulty breathing.

Key turned to her, leaning one elbow on the table. She licked her lips, looking around the room at anything to avoid his unrelenting gaze.

“Do…do you need to get back to your friends? I should be going myself. I—”

He cut her off. “What are you up to?”

“He asked me to meet him so we could talk about Shonté. He’s worried because she wouldn’t go out with him this weekend.”

“She’s rehearsing.”

“I know. But Graham is feeling kind of insecure.”

“It didn’t look like he was missing her when I walked up. You looked like you were having a good time too.”

“I was.”

“For a minute there,” he continued, his voice still hard, “it looked like you were a little too tight with your friend’s man.”

She gasped in outrage. “You know me better than that. I’m trying to help Shonté. Graham might be able to distract her from that no-good Dr. Dawg.”

“Maybe she wants no-good Dr. Dawg.”

“He’s no good for her. I’m not having it.” She leaned back in her seat, folding her arms across her chest.

“You aren’t her mother.”

“This is not about being her mother. I’m just being rational about what’s best for her.”

“Oh, yeah, you have all the answers. Can’t you ever just
feel
, Taylor?”

“Of course I can.”

“You don’t act like it.” He was seething by now, a dark, churning volcano about ready to erupt. “You have to analyze every little thing until there’s no spark left in it.”

“I’m trying to be your sister’s friend. As her brother, I would think you would be a little more interested in her well-being.” She grew sullen in the face of his antagonism.

“She’s a grown woman. She wouldn’t thank me to meddle in her business. And she won’t thank you either, Taylor. I know you think you’re helping, but you should drop it. You could get in trouble messing with someone else’s man.”

Crystal flinched as if stung by a small electric shock. The way he said, “someone else’s man” made her remember waking up with him in bed beside her, dark and hard and warm to the touch. So sensuous.

When she didn’t answer, the air bristled with anger and a subtler, more potent tension.

Key’s mouth remained in an unrelenting line. “Why are you wearing those hoochie momma clothes?”

Her jaw dropped open. “
What
?”

His gaze flicked down her body. She was wearing another new outfit. The softly colored blouse draped off the shoulder and the sleeves were slit all the way up the arm and across the upper chest. Her short skirt boasted an asymmetrical hem with a long fringe swishing around her legs with each movement. She wore slides with an ankle bracelet.

She snapped her jaw shut. “They are not hoochie momma clothes.”

“You’re showing too much stuff, baby. I think you ought to watch out. You don’t know the kinds of things that men are thinking when they see you looking like that.”

She puffed up with indignation. How dare he warn her as if she were an idiot! Just because she’d slept with him one night didn’t make her some kind of slut.

“For your information, I’m not responsible for men’s minds being in the gutter. And one night of sex doesn’t give you the right to tell me what I can and can’t wear!”

He ground his teeth. “I’m concerned about you like you are about Shonté.”

“About me?”

“Yes, dammit. It has nothing to do with sleeping with you.” He sat too close, overwhelming her with his presence.

“Yes, it does. Because I slept with you, you assume I want to sleep with other men.”

His jaw muscles worked and his fingers closed murderously on the table edge. “Well, do you?”

“It’s none of your business, Emerson. This is exactly why we can’t be lovers. We’re already fighting. There’s something about sex that does things to the mind.”

“So you regret what we did?”

She blew an exasperated breath and responded in a vehement burst. “Of course I do. I regret it a thousand times. It was incredibly stupid. Let’s forget about it. I don’t want to talk about it, think about it, or anything. I want it to never have happened.”

He didn’t answer for a long time. At last he stood up, moving to allow her to get out of the booth. “Come on. I’ll walk you to your car.”

“I don’t need you to do that.” Crystal scooted out of the booth, trying not to look at him.

“I’ll walk you to your car,” he repeated, his voice firm.

Crystal gave in with a huff of air. She whirled to walk out of the restaurant, all the time intensely aware of him behind her, thinking she was a hoochie momma. With renewed anger, she strutted across the parking lot, lengthening her strides to make her hips rock in undulating sensuality, the way Shonté had taught her one evening when they were trying on clothes.

Key was tight-lipped by the time they reached her car. “Was that fun?” he gritted out.

“As a matter of fact,
yes
.” She dug in her purse for her keys. “That’s what you think of me, isn’t it?”

He gave a low groan of frustration. “I need to talk to you, Shortcake.”

“There’s nothing to talk about.” Agitated, she scrabbled into several pockets in her purse. “It’s over. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

“What are you afraid of?”

“I’m not afraid. I just don’t see the point.”

“You said we’d still be friends. We’ve always been able to talk. That’s all I want to do.”

“I don’t,” she snapped, still fumbling in her purse. “Oh, damn.”

Key eyed her. “Excuse me?”

“My keys,” she fumed. “Where the hell are my keys?”

With foreboding, she peered through the driver’s window. Key bent to look with her.

Her key ring dangled from the ignition.

CHAPTER 10

Crystal and Key exhaled in unison and she became aware of how close his face was. She snapped upright.

“Need a ride?” Key asked, arching his brows.

“No.” She pulled out her cell phone. “My auto service will bring me a spare.”

“Taylor…”

Ignoring him, she paced while she waited for the phone to ring. Five minutes later she snapped the phone shut.

Key leaned against her car, his arms folded and a smug look on his face. She knew he had heard every word of her conversation as she begged the service to please try to fit her into their schedule in under six hours.

“My car’s right over there,” he said. “You’ll need to use my key to your place anyway. Shonté or I can bring you back later tonight or in the morning with your spare.”

She gave in with a growl, unable to come up with another excuse. Seething and nervous, Crystal’s awareness of him jumbled her senses into chaos.

They got in his SUV. She was glad the center console separated the two front seats, though it didn’t relieve her heightened sensitivity to him. She tried hard not to notice his hand flexing over the shift lever or his soft grunt as he twisted his head to take a quick look behind before backing out of the parking space. She breathed a little easier as the SUV emerged into the street and Key focused on his driving.

“Crystal, I understand you don’t want to talk about this. However, it’s important to me that you know this wasn’t just a casual encounter to me. I told you I hadn’t been involved with anybody for awhile.”

“What’s that got to do with me?” she snarled.

“Maybe it wasn’t so important to you. Maybe I was particularly vulnerable or something. All I know is that I can’t forget it.”

She vented her exasperation once more. “Why not, Key? Sex is so overrated.”

He snorted. “Yeah. Like air, it’s not important unless you ain’t getting any.”

“Okay. You’ve had it. Now move on.”

“It’s not that simple, Taylor.”

“Yeah, it is. I’m not even your type.”

He rubbed his forehead with one hand. “People change, you know. If I even had a type, what makes you think it will never be different?”

Crystal shook her head. “Maybe you aren’t my type!”

His start of surprise would have been funny if she hadn’t glimpsed his hurt. Crystal turned her head toward the passenger window, chewing her lip. “I don’t mean it that way, Emerson. I value our friendship. I want things to stay the same.”

“Crystal, I just can’t forget it. With you, it was different than with anybody I’ve ever been with.”

“Key….” She squirmed, uncomfortable.

He sliced one hand through the air to stop her from talking. “I know. It sounds like a line. But it’s true, Shortcake. Maybe our friendship gave it an extra something. Now things are different. Every time I look at you I feel—”

He shot a sidelong look at her that sizzled all the nerve endings under her skin to life. Crystal gasped softly. Her hands shook and her leg muscles trembled. It was a good thing they were both confined by seatbelts. Otherwise she might have flung herself into his arms in surrender. She focused her eyes straight ahead on the road.

“You can’t possibly remember what it was like,” she said in a shaky voice. “We were both so drunk.”

“Okay, I wasn’t at my best. Are you saying it wasn’t that good for you?”

“It’s not that. I mean, I don’t remember.”

He took a deep breath, his mouth loosening. “I wish I could forget, Taylor. I swear to God, I want to forget it. But I can’t seem to let it go.”

He gave her another quick glance, this one tinged with such pleading she had to bite her lip to keep from reaching for him. So strong, so vulnerable. What woman could resist the combination?

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she whispered.

Key smacked the steering wheel with a soft curse. “Fine. If that’s what you want, I won’t beg you.”

The remainder of the drive passed in bristling silence. Key turned up the volume on the radio, but the noise did nothing to disguise the searing resentment radiating from him.

When he stopped in front of her condo, she hesitated with her hand on the door handle. It would be so easy to take what he was offering. But she was afraid of letting him know how much he affected her.

“I’m sorry, Key,” she mumbled.

“No problem,” he snapped with a brief hard glare. His jaw was chiseled stone.

She tried again. “I only want to be friends.”

“You got it.” The words were clipped, unfriendly.

She climbed stiff-jointed from the vehicle’s interior. “I’ll see you later…I guess.”

He didn’t even look at her, twisting her key off his ring, extending it to her. She automatically closed her fingers on it. Shoulders slumped, Crystal let the car door fall shut. She felt heavy, clumsy, numb. This was a nightmarish replay of their breakup in high school. Leaving Key’s car in humiliation…Key furiously burning rubber out of her life.

Blind with despair, she turned and walked to her door. Her fingers fumbled like sausages as she tried to unlock it.

The sudden slamming of a car door made her jump and whirl. Key strode toward her from the parking space, his engine still idling.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart, I’m sorry,” he was saying even before he reached her. He took both her hands, gazed down at her with earnest appeal. “I’m still being an asshole. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I don’t want you to do something you don’t want to. I love you, Shortcake, you’re my best friend. I don’t want to lose you.”

She closed her eyes, dizzy, hiccupping on a half-laugh, half-sob. “It’s my fault, I want—” She felt the words trying to push their way out of her throat.
I want you, I love you, I crave you. Do anything you want to me.

Key pulled her against him in a fierce hug. “I’ll never hurt you. Never. Trust me.”

Her vision misted, she lifted her face to his, her intent to assure him she knew that. Her voice was whisked away when his fingers touched her jaw in a whisper of a caress.

Vertigo
. Her hands slid up his chest to hold onto his shirt. Her body soaked up his essence.

Oh, this was disaster.

His lips, warm, firm, descended to hers. Helpless, Crystal parted her lips with a little moan. His mouth opened as if to devour hers.

He pulled back, breathing unsteadily. “Crystal…”

She looked at him, panting. Without another word, he thrust her back and swung away, walking rapidly to his vehicle. She stared after him, dazed. He paused with his hand on the door handle to offer her a bruised-looking smile. Then he flung himself inside and was gone in an instant.

Crystal stumbled inside the front door and sank onto the first chair she could reach.

Nausea made it difficult to breathe. Key hadn’t left her. But the scene had been too reminiscent of high school. Her body flushed with feverish reaction. After all these years, a word from him could still destroy her. She couldn’t,
wouldn’t
let their friendship be endangered again.

* * *

“I broke up with Graham.”

Crystal was having lunch with Shonté at a small café near the hospital. It had been a couple of days since Key left her in front of the condo. She hadn’t talked to him at all and not much to her roommate. Shonté was spending more time in rehearsals while Crystal had been busy at work, where Dan Jefferson was giving her more responsibilities.

Shonté’s statement had her focusing on her friend in concern. Shonté looked a little tired but showed no other signs of distress.

“When did that happen?” Crystal asked.

“He met me at the theater last night. He wanted me to go on a cruise with him.” She gave a harsh laughing sound.

Crystal suppressed her guilty start. “You didn’t like the idea?”

“Oh, come on,” Shonté sneered.

“Wouldn’t you enjoy a tropical island getaway?” she asked in a small voice.

“With somebody else, maybe.”

The corners of Shonté’s mouth drew downward. “I told you, we’re too different. I don’t think he’d like me if he really knew me.”

“Of course he would,” Crystal retorted.

Shonté grimaced with dramatic exaggeration. “I know he’s trying to be nice and you think he’s wonderful, but I’m not right for him.”

“Why would you say that?”

Shonté rolled her eyes, and Crystal knew what she meant.
Why did it always come back to this?

“Shonté, you’d make a good match for anybody. You deserve someone decent who loves you.”

“Hah!” Shonté snarled.

She leaned toward her friend, intent on convincing her. “You’re loving and caring and fun.”

“You mean I’m frantic.”

“No, you make me glad to be alive.”

Shonté flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Okay, we’re special together, the yin and yang twins.” She jumped to her feet, carefree once more.

She was gone with a casual wave of her hand.

Crystal moved more slowly to gather her tray and leave the café. Why was everything falling apart? She’d always been so rational and strong. Now she couldn’t figure out how to help her friend or control her feelings for Key.

* * *

Devastated by the breakup, Graham phoned Crystal four times in the next two days.

Crystal tried to be comforting, but he was driving her nuts. She didn’t have anything hopeful to tell him. It didn’t matter what she or Graham believed. Shonté would have to decide if she wanted him.

Frankly, Graham was beginning to annoy Crystal. Why couldn’t he accept the inevitable? Maybe his clinging was partly to blame for driving Shonté away. She shuddered when she remembered just how needy she’d been in past relationships.

“Graham, I can’t talk about this right now.”

“I’m sorry. Talk to her for me, Crystal. What do you think I’m doing wrong? Do you think she’ll change her mind? Maybe if I make her see that I love her?”

Crystal hung up the phone, weighed down by the burden of his depression. She rubbed a hand over her weary eyes. Why couldn’t people love someone who was right for them? She had spent so many years studying the dynamics of groups of people, but her textbooks were no help now. Her mind yammered with confusion and panic. She was on a speeding train to disaster.

* * *

Crystal woke the following morning with a dull, listless feeling. She’d had a vivid dream about an incident that had actually happened when she and Shonté began their freshman year at college. After the initial move in, it was several weeks before Key visited them in their dorm. They went out to eat and shop, hanging out for most of the day. But when evening came, Shonté left the two of them to go on a date.

Crystal thought she had masked her mood well, but Key confronted her as soon as they were alone in the dorm room together.

“So how’s college life?”

“It’s great.”

“Then why the droopy smiles?”

She was flustered. “What are you talking about?”

He walked across the room and placed his hands on her shoulders. His face inches from hers, he gazed into her eyes. “Come on, Shortcake. I know you. You aren’t yourself.”

She wanted to deny it. But looking into his tender gaze, feeling his strength so near to her, she broke down.

“Oh, Key! I’m such a dork! Nobody is ever going to like me.” The teen angst at the time had been gut-wrenching and without relief.

Key looked dismayed by the flood of tears, but to his credit he didn’t let her go. Instead, he massaged her shoulders gently. “You have lots of friends, Shortcake.”

“I don’t mean those kind of friends!” she ground out, suddenly furious with him.

“Oh.” He looked blank, as if he had never contemplated the idea of her with someone special.

Crystal shook out of his hold. “Oh, never mind!”

He caught her and turned her back around. “Crystal, honey, you don’t have to worry about that.”

“Don’t patronize me, Emerson. I know damn well no man is going to look at me twice. Especially beside Shonté.”

“That’s not true, Shortcake. You’re one of the prettiest girls I know.”

“You’re just saying that.” She eyed him, hoping despite her suspicion.

“Have I ever lied to you?” His gaze was direct.

“Really?” Her face grew hot and her heart warmed. She steeled herself against the warmth and tried to stay rational. “But I’m not beautiful like Shonté.”

He made a dismissive sound by blowing air from his lips. “Yeah, she’s pretty. But you’re…perfect. You have the looks that turn a guy on, but you don’t scare him.”

That had been the end of the incident in reality. Ever since then she had never been too concerned with her appearance. She figured if Key liked her looks, then someone else would, too, eventually.

But in the dream, Key moved closer and kissed her on the lips. The kiss began as a tender exploration and turned into a deep, hungry demand.

Crystal woke up in a shaky sweat.
Damn
. Was she ever going to get over Key Emerson?

She’d overslept a little bit. As she rushed through her morning preparations for work, she kept thinking about the powerful attraction between them. He seemed to want her with something like the burning need she felt for him. Could their friendship survive an affair? Could she survive if he broke her heart?

Why not have a fling?

Because she was afraid she’d be crushed. Look at Graham. Would she become as pathetic as he was?
Needy
, she thought in disgust. Just like her mother had always called her. Key and his family had filled those needs for a long time. They were as important to her as her own family. If she and Key became an item, then broke up, what would happen? Of course they would support their son. She didn’t blame them. But the thought of losing the Emersons, along with Key, pained her.

They’d had a chance at a relationship in high school and it hadn’t worked out. They’d fallen into bed together one night a few weeks ago. But their friendship had survived. So far.

* * *

The day was one she would have liked to exchange. Three people were absent from her section, and there was a call from another department for a huge stack of training records. She worked late, escaping just in time to rush to her regular beauty shop appointment. Even though rain pelted the streets, she looked forward to her appointment. But it didn’t take long for her to realize that her regular hair stylist, though she denied it, was angry with her for letting Tanya do her hair last time. Dena turned Crystal over to Tanya once more to get her twists tightened, but she kept walking over to make comments on the dryness of her hair, or the breakage at the hairline, or the unevenness of the color. Crystal and Tanya were both relieved to finish the job so Crystal could get out of the shop.