After Hours (31 page)

L
ance glanced at the clock on his desk. He'd told Dina that he was coming to bed, but that was more than an hour ago. He'd showered and brushed his teeth, but what he was looking for hadn't come. He was waiting for an e-mail confirmation from a client who wanted to get together for a breakfast meeting. Several messages popped up on his screen, but they weren't what he was looking for.

He noticed there were two from Ronald King, the first one with an attachment. Lance clicked on the newest first.

Lance clicked on Reply.

Shifting the mouse, he deleted the e-mail with the attachment.

Seconds later, the one he'd been waiting for appeared on the screen. He read it quickly, then typed a reply, pressed a button for Standby mode and left his office. He walked into the bedroom to find Dina in bed, weeping. His knees buckled slightly before he was able to regain his balance. The sound tore through him as he slowly approached the bed. What, he wondered, had upset her enought to make her cry? He'd tried to make her happy. Whatever she asked for he gave her.

He got into bed with her, pulling her to his chest. “What's wrong, baby girl?”

Dina touched her fingertips to her eyes to blot her tears. “Nothing.”

Lance kissed her mussed hair. “I know you well enough to know that you don't cry for nothing.”

She sniffled delicately. “I supposed I'm just PMSing.” She sniffled again. “I'm all right now that you're with me. I don't ever want you to leave me, Big Daddy. Not for anything or anyone.”

A slight frown marred Lance's smooth forehead. “Why would I leave you, Dina?”

She lifted a bare shoulder. “I don't know. Maybe one of these days I'll do something naughty and…” Her voice trailed off when she realized there was no need to confess before she heard the charges.

A chuckle rumbled in Lance's chest. “Are you talking about reprising Miss Honey Dip?” He never knew what to expect from his wife. It was as if she searched out different ways to take their lovemaking to another level, a level where he feared dying in the saddle. His doctor told him that he was healthy enough to engage in stenuous sex, but there were times when he doubted the man's advice.

Dina nodded. “Miss Honey Dip is only the warm-up act for what I'd like to do to you.”

This time he laughed. “If you think I'm going to leave you because you like being naughty in bed, then think again, baby. You're a sexy little thing in and out of bed, and I'm very aware of the way men look at you. They can look all they want as long as they don't touch.”

“You like showing me off, don't you?”

There came a swollen pause before Lance said, “Yes.”

There was another beat of silence before Dina asked the burning question that had reduced her to tears, real tears. “Did you finally get your e-mail?”

“Yes. I'm sorry we can't breakfast together because I have an early meeting. Speaking of e-mails, I got a couple from Ronald King. He asked me to delete one because it contained confidential information that was supposed to go to someone else.”

Dina bit down on her lower lip to stop its trembling. “You didn't open it?”

Lance shook his head. “No. It all comes down to ethics. Perhaps there was something in that e-mail I didn't need to see, so rather than be tempted I honored his request and deleted it.”

Dina sprang up with the agility of a cat and straddled his thighs. “How did I get so lucky?”

“What are you talking about?”

She pressed her breasts to his chest. “You're the most honorable man I've ever known.”

“That's because I'm the only man you've ever known. That is, in the biblical sense.”

“You're right about that.”

Looping her arms under his shoulders, Dina buried her face against the side of his neck. Sybil had called to warn her about the photos, but it was apparent Ronald King had had a change of heart. For that she was eternally grateful.

Sparkle, like Adina Jenkins, was her past. She'd been given a second chance at life and she intended to take full advantage of it. She knew Lance wanted a baby, and with the advances in modern medicine she would make certain it would become a reality.

She hadn't been ready to become a mother at fourteen, and she still wasn't certain whether she was at twenty-seven. But she'd grown quite fond of Lancelot Haynes, and there wasn't anything she wouldn't do to make him as happy as he'd made her.

“I have to tell you something,” she whispered.

Lance closed his eyes. “What is it, baby girl?”

“I love you, Big Daddy.” She'd mouthed the words before because she knew it was what Lance wanted to hear. But this time the admission had come from her heart.

“I know,” he said, “because I feel it.”

“I want to feel you inside me.”

Not needing any further urging, Lance reversed their positions and told his wife without words how much he wanted, needed and loved her. It was later, after their respiration slowed, that they lay together, their chests rising and falling in an even syncopated rhythm.

A long fringe of lashes touched Dina's cheekbones when she closed her eyes. She'd changed so much since fleeing Brooklyn that she didn't recognize the woman who she'd been. The day before she married Lance she called her grandmother to tell her everything about her relationship with Payne Jefferson, who her baby's daddy was and that she was now Dina Gordon and soon to be Dina Haynes.

She also told Dora Jenkins that she could never return to Brooklyn, but would continue to send her money to put away for Jameeka's education. Before ending the call she made Dora promise to tell her if or when she was ready to leave the housing projects, because she could make it happen for her. After all, she was marrying a very wealthy man.

Don't forget you're a descendant of survivors.
At that moment Karla's reminder filled her thoughts. That she was. She'd survived a traumatic childhood where she'd been confronted with alcohol, drugs, prostitution and still she survived.

Reaching for the button on the lamp, she clicked it off, plunging the room into darkness. Shifting slightly, Dina pressed her back to her husband's chest. His arm moved over her waist, holding her close.

“Do you know what I want?” she asked cryptically.

“What?” Lance's voice was still heavy with a lingering passion.

“I want your baby, Lancelot Londell Haynes.”

All vestiges of sleep fled when Lance sat up and pulled Dina up with him. “Really?”

Dina didn't know why, but he sounded like a little child. “Yes, really.”

Lance discovered that his wife was an ever-changing mystery. She'd told him that she wanted to wait a year before starting a family, but it was apparent she'd changed her mind. “When do you want to start?”

“As soon as possible. We may have to see a fertility specialist.”

“It doesn't matter, baby girl. I'll agree to anything as long as you have our babies.”

“And I will,” Dina said confidently.