Forever Love (Arabesque)
Read Forever Love (Arabesque) Online
Authors: Celeste O. Norfleet
Pleasure and politics collide with incredible results in a sweet and sizzling new novel in the Mamma Lou matchmaker series
Gia Duncan has turned her back on her family’s wealth in order to run a community organization. That’s why giving in to her desire for powerful, charismatic Keith Washington is a mistake she can make only once. Keith is the mayor’s campaign manager and son, a workaholic whose only goal is to get his father reelected. Gia knows he’s an opponent she can’t trust with her agenda, let alone her heart.
At first, seducing Gia is just a way to keep her from derailing his father’s reelection campaign. Until Keith starts to realize what everyone—especially matchmaker Mamma Lou—already knows. Nothing compares to the passion that keeps drawing him to Gia. But can he convince her that the only thing he truly wants from her is the promise of forever?
Dear Reader,
As always, thank you for your support and dedication to the Mamma Lou Matchmaker series. It’s a pleasure to bring you another novel featuring the indomitable octogenarian Louise “Mamma Lou” Gates.
Forever Love
is very special to me because it brings together Louise and her sister Emma’s family. These two great families—the Gates clan of Crescent Island and the Washingtons of Philadelphia—share Mamma Lou as their surrogate matriarch. In
Forever Love
you will meet Gia Duncan and be reintroduced to Keith Washington, a character I originally introduced several years ago in a novel entitled
Only You.
It has always been my intent to join these two wonderful families, and I’m delighted to now bring you
Forever Love.
Watch for more Mamma Lou Matchmaker series novels coming soon, including the event we’ve all been waiting for, Louise and Otis’s wedding—
In the Name of Love!
Celeste O. Norfleet
To Fate & Fortune
Prologue
I
t was barely after dawn when Keith Washington parked his car on the upper level and walked across the connecting bridge to the Washington & Associates Law Firm office building. He pressed the elevator button to the top floor, unlocked the outer doors and strolled inside. As soon as he went to turn off the alarm, he paused. It was already off. He’d been the last person out of the office late last night and he knew he had turned off the lights and activated the alarm system. He looked around, knowing there was only one explanation: somebody was already there.
Few people had the key to get in and even fewer had the code to disable the alarm. He looked around. Nothing seemed disturbed in the lobby or reception area. He looked up at the glass-covered atrium ceiling. The dimly muted lighting revealed nothing. Still, he knew he wasn’t alone.
Keith walked around the reception desk and continued down the main hallway to the executive suites. As he approached his office he saw a thin shaft of light coming from the conference room at the far end of the hall. He continued walking. As he approached he heard low voices in conversation.
He pushed the cracked door open to see his two brothers already seated at the conference table. Drew and Jeremy looked up as soon as he entered. “I guess you’ve heard we have a serious situation,” Keith said.
“That’s an understatement,” Drew corrected.
Jeremy nodded soberly. “So, what are we gonna do?”
Keith walked over and picked up the last cup of coffee left in the takeout holder on the table. He took a sip and leaned his elbows on the back of the chair across from his brothers. “Okay, we all knew this was gonna come at us one day.”
“Yeah, one day, but not now, I don’t have time for this,” Drew said. “Now that Dad’s running for reelection, my caseload has doubled with more clients coming in every week.”
“None of us have the time,” Keith said, “but the situation’s here and we have to deal with it.”
“You’re the two oldest,” Jeremy reminded them in warning.
“You know that doesn’t mean anything,” Drew said.
“What we need to do is set a plan in motion. Any suggestions?”
“Yeah, run like hell,” Jeremy joked. Drew and Keith smiled.
“That would be nice, but I don’t think it’s gonna solve the main problem. We have a couple of weeks at best before...”
Drew looked up quickly. “A couple of weeks,” he repeated.
Keith nodded. “That’s what I’m hearing, although it may be less. Mom said she might be here for the Prudence and Speed’s children’s benefit ball. So she may come sooner.”
“That’s next Saturday—just over a week,” Jeremy said, shaking his head, already forlorn by the inevitable. “You know there’s no way we’re getting out of this.”
“No, we’ll be fine. We just have to focus and come up with a viable plan,” Keith said calmly. As lead attorney for the law firm, he’d faced all types of challenges. He never gave up and never backed down from a fight. But this was different. This could change his perfectly ordered life forever, and that he couldn’t have.
Drew laughed. “A plan, are you kidding? There’s no way we can win this one. She’s too good.”
“I vote we just leave town,” Jeremy said.
“All of us—at the same time—with an election coming—a bit obvious, don’t you think?” Keith said. “You know, maybe we’re just overestimating this. Maybe it’s not as bad as we think.”
“Yes, it is,” both Drew and Jeremy said in unison. They all chuckled.
“Okay, bottom line, someone’s gonna have to keep her distracted. She can’t get to all of us at one time.”
“I say the oldest takes the bullet,” Jeremy suggested.
“I second that,” Drew added without skipping a beat.
They turned to Keith. He laughed heartily, then instantly stopped. “Not funny. We’re all in this together. If one of us goes down, we all go down. It’s only a matter of time after that. I say we stick together—a united front. That’s the only way to get out of this unscathed. That’s where our cousins, Tony and Raymond, Mamma Lou’s first two victims, went wrong, they didn’t stick together.” He looked from face to face. Each brother slowly nodded his agreement. Keith nodded, as well. “Okay, good.”
They all knew the solution was obvious. One of them would have to step up and block the others. Keith stood and walked over to a stained-glass wall cabinet at the back of the room. Drew and Jeremy watched. He opened it and pulled out a pearl and onyx case. He brought it over to the table and set it down. He opened it and took out one cigar.
He rolled it between his fingers, then held it beneath his nose and inhaled deeply. Nodding his approval, he looked at his brothers and then, using the cutters, clipped it in half. Three heads nodded. They understood.
Keith pulled the rest of the cigars out of the humidifier and placed two back in along with the half cigar. He shook it around gently and then set the case back on the table facing away from them. Jeremy and Drew reached in and pulled out a cigar. There was only one left. Without even choosing, it was instantly obvious who’d lost.
Chapter 1
S
tanding in the back of a town hall meeting, Gia Duncan looked at her watch again. She was itching to get this thing started. This was her opening act and it could make or break her and her organization’s future. This was a monumental undertaking—one that had never been openly tried. Each time the main door opened, she held her breath and looked over anxiously, hoping this was it. Her edginess was just about to get the better of her. “Come on, come on,” she muttered under her breath.
“What did you say?” Bill asked, leaning over to her.
“Nothing, just talking to myself,” she said quietly, briefly glancing over to her business associate, Bill Axelby.
“Gia, you have to calm down,” Bill whispered again.
“You know this is ridiculous. He’s an hour and a half late. Seriously, who does he think he is? Is the whole world just supposed to stop and wait for him to decide when he’s gonna get here?”
“He’s not scheduled to be here until four. Besides, he’s the last speaker to go on. And by the looks of that guy up there now, we’re gonna be here for the rest of the night.”
“That’s not the point,” she said, staring at the empty chair on the stage. It was obvious that her anxiousness was getting harder and harder to mask.
“Gia, everything will go as planned, trust me. We went over this a dozen times. Everybody knows what they need to do.”
She nodded. “Yeah, I hope so.”
“Never get discouraged when you’re doing the right thing.”
She nodded. Bill was right. He repeated her grandmother’s words exactly. Her grandmother would have never been as anxious as she was now. And even if she was, you’d never see it. Julia Duncan was the ultimate fighter. She had courage, integrity and intelligence—a lethal combination that scared politicians to the core. But most of all, she was always in control.
She had never gone up against someone like this though she had had the opportunity plenty of times. It seemed her grandmother, like most of the city of Philadelphia, believed Blake Washington and his family were superstars. They could do no wrong. And the popularity index tipping over seventy-eight percent proved it.
The main door opened again. She turned to look. It wasn’t him. “Crap,” she muttered.
Bill opened the program he’d received earlier. “Who is this guy and what’s he running for again?”
“His name is Preston Hodge and he’s running for city council. He’s thirty-one years old, single, a stockbroker and he wants Lester Jameson’s council seat since he’s running against Blake Washington for mayor,” their assistant, Bonnie Axelby informed them. “He’s good and has some really forward-thinking ideas. I think he’s really going places in this city.”
Both Gia and Bill turned to her. She smiled happily. “What?” she said, surprised to see their stunned faces. “I do my research. I know the personal and professional background of just about everybody on the ballot.”
Gia shook her head. “Bonnie, I’m impressed.”
“Thanks.”
“Come on, Bill, this is totally interesting,” Bonnie, Bill’s younger sister, said excitedly. “Just think about it, this is what our Founding Fathers meant when they created the democratic process. Every man has an equal opportunity to get up and expand on the issues and toss his hat into the political ring.”
Gia looked at their young assistant. Her naïveté was admirable, but Gia knew it would soon vanish just like the belief in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. Sadly, innocence lost can never be regained. She remembered her own moments of true realization.
She was idealistic and innocently full of hope and ambition. She once believed that right would always triumph and that good always won over bad, but that was a long time ago. Gullible was what her grandfather had called her the day he kicked her out. That day her father and grandfather had taught her the ways of their world. It was a basic philosophy that they lived their lives by: only money matters.
But she soon learned that money and power weren’t the answer, and she intended to prove it. They expected her to fail and come running back to them, but she had proved them wrong.
She was never going to let another rich man take advantage of her. Her paternal grandfather controlled her grandmother, and her father usurped her mother. When she refused to take it anymore he divorced her. There was no way she was going to follow their mistakes, not even for love. She was too strong for that. Her last two ex-boyfriends found that out quickly.
She knew better. Politics was a dirty business that thrived on the money and power and only those with deep pockets and unlimited resources made it to the top. She’d learned quickly that it wasn’t about the politics of governing and doing the right thing; it was about the prestige and power of ultimate control.
She looked around at the crowded assembly. No one was really paying much attention to the current speaker. Partly because everyone had heard his type of rhetoric a dozen times before and partly because he was just plain boring. It was obvious everyone was waiting for the same person to arrive—the mayor. Coincidentally, just then, Preston Hodge mentioned the mayor’s endorsement and the crowd applauded and cheered.
She shook her head. They were like lemmings jumping off a cliff. Just mention his name and the crowd cheers. Granted, as politicians go, he wasn’t the worst, but she just assumed he hadn’t been found out yet. Yes, there were others with much worse reputations. But they weren’t the current mayor of Philadelphia and they weren’t running for a second term, having failed miserably to get much of anything done in the first.
This wasn’t personal, and political affiliation had nothing to do with this. She was an independent, meaning she voted for the best candidate. She was well informed and wanted other voters to be just as prepared for whom they were casting their vote. Four years was a long time to sit and do nothing while the city crumbled apart beneath their feet.
“Oh, my God, there he is, there he is,” Bonnie said excitedly.
Gia looked over at the main door quickly. Wouldn’t you know it, the second she wasn’t paying attention, he arrived, but she didn’t see him. “The mayor, where is he? I don’t see him.”
“No, not the mayor, his oldest son, Keith Washington. He’s over there,” she said dreamily, letting her voice trail softly as she stared with her eyes glazed over. “Damn,” she said, exhaling at length, her voice raised two octaves. “He’s even more gorgeous in person than in his pictures on the internet. No wonder he’s got half the women in the city knocking down his door. Look at him, he’s just too, too sexy, isn’t he?”
“Bonnie, focus. You sound like a groupie,” Bill snapped tightly through gritted teeth. She rolled her eyes at her brother’s impatience with her. As half brother and half sister, theirs wasn’t an easy alliance. “You do this all the time,” he continued. “You never take anything seriously. This is a job. It’s important. Not everyone is sitting on a massive trust fund like you. We don’t have—”
“Hey, it’s not my fault you gambled and blew through all your money in a day and a half,” Bonnie said, interrupting his tirade. “Just because you’re broke...”
“I’m not broke,” Bill snapped again. “I have money. I invest. My money’s tied up in my future.”
“Okay. Okay, enough,” Gia whispered, seeing that their conversation was beginning to draw attention. “Where is he, Bonnie?” she asked, looking at the main entrance again.
“There he is, over by the side door,” Bonnie said, completely ignoring her brother. “Isn’t he gorgeous?” she said rhetorically. Gia didn’t respond and Bill just shook his head.
“Okay, can we get back to reality now? If Keith Washington is here, that means the mayor is here, too. Get ready.”
Gia nodded with excitement and then glanced at the side door again. “So that’s Keith Washington.” Good Lord, Bonnie was right. Just looking at him made her stomach flutter excitedly. The photos she’d seen didn’t come close to what he looked like in person.
She knew who he was, of course; most Philadelphians did. But like everyone involved in the mayoral race, she had also researched him online, getting about what she had expected. According to his business profile, he was the typical big-city attorney working in a typical big-city law office. He specialized in political lawsuits, working mostly in New York, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia.
There was nothing in his résumé and profile that was out of the ordinary. And that in and of itself made her suspicious. She knew a PR job when she saw one. It was obvious that the Washington family publicity machine had whitewashed everything that appeared in their online profiles. It was something her grandfather and father did, as well. She wondered what he was really like. Driven, calculating and arrogant, she quickly assessed.
His mother was a judge, his father was mayor, his two brothers were attorneys and his sister was a fashion merchandiser and also married to the number-one quarterback on the Philadelphia Knights football team. Bottom line, Keith had a family with power, prestige and clout. But she knew there was more to him than what she had read in his pristine online bio and what she saw of him standing across the room.
He was tall, over six feet, and standing majestic with broad shoulders and long, slightly bowed muscular legs. He wore an expensive suit that looked as if it had been tailored onto his body, and beneath, she could only imagine the fine firmness of his lean muscled body. No lie, the man was seriously built and the ease with which he carried himself showed that he was very sure of himself. Control and confidence covered him like a lover’s embrace.
She saw his face as he looked around the hall. He was classically handsome with a firm angular jaw and warm brown bedroom eyes. He had full sensual lips that looked tender and succulent. Gia smiled to herself as several “I wonder...” stray thoughts eased into her mind. Her mouth moistened and her legs tightened as the itch of wondering grew stronger.
“Aren’t you supposed to be seated up front?” Bill asked.
Gia startled, ending her erotic musings as Bonnie sucked her teeth and shook her head. “Seriously, who has a town hall meeting on a Monday evening?”
“Bonnie,” Bill snarled.
“Fine, I’m going.” Then she looked at Gia and smiled. “I’m right, aren’t I? He’s too, too sexy.”
Gia didn’t respond. She couldn’t. Her mouth had gone bone dry.