Love In the Red Zone (Connecticut Kings Book 1) (18 page)

I scoffed quietly. “I won’t say all that, but someone in my circle I’ve known for years.”

“Were you sleeping with her for years?”

“Something like that.” When you subtract the time I was away.

“Why’d you stop?” That was delivered with more timidity, making me consider actually answering it.

“Turned too aggressive. Real suspect.” I angled my head on the mattress, hit with a thought. “It was probably aggressive from the gate, but I got caught up in the hype and let it play on for too long.”

“So, she wanted you and showed some aggression,” Jade noted defensively. “What’s wrong with that? She’s suspect because she goes after what she’s wants?”

She wasn’t understanding. Brielle was a damn con artist.

“She was a poser, built with a hidden agenda like everyone else. She wanted a freedom with me that she could use to hide the real her from the world.” Flashes appeared in my mind of how familiar and at ease she was with the shortie in our threesome. I remember recognizing that and realizing I’d been set up to allow an experience Brielle wanted all along. Doing it with me padded her with the excuse of sexual exhibition with a lover instead of her desire to explore intimacy with the same sex. She could always put it on me. That’s why I’d walked out while they were going at it. “That aggression came from a place. A fraudulent place. A place where I was the means to an end that served only her.” I spoke with widened nostrils, the bitter memory of being used now in the forefront of my mind.

Jade tossed her little body on the mattress, sighing on the way down. “Well, that just sucks.”

My brows met. “For who?”

Me…Brielle?

Jade never answered that question, leading me to my final thought on the topic.

You…

“Where do you work?” he whispered in the faintly lit room.

I exhaled, stretching my arms and legs on his ginormous bed that I found extra comfortable, certainly more fitting than the full size mattress Kyree slept on next door. That question reminded me of the long day I had today. I worked between three gigs. I started at Ming Nails on Bloomfield Ave in Bloomfield. That was only for a couple hours before Pretty Nails from down the street on Bloomfield Ave in Montclair called for help for their lunch time rush. I drove down there to clear their shop before taking off to Maplewood to do a private wedding gig with a fellow student belonging to the same program. Mila was completing her hours, too, but did private gigs on the side for extra money. Whenever she called, I came running, guaranteed to walk away with at least a couple of hundred for my services.

“Between two salons on Bloomfield Avenue, doing nails and waxing. Technically, I’m finishing my 300 hours of instruction, but I’m so popular, the owners forget.”

“So, you’re in high demand?”

I smiled in the soft glow of the room, mostly recessed lights from the hall illuminating. I’d been leaving them on lately for Ky, who apparently came looking for me one night, and thankfully had no idea I was in Trent’s bed, lost in his virile heat and scent.

“I guess so.” I sighed.  “The money is funny, but it’s my profession, I guess.”

“It’s enough for you to pay for food.”

The room was silent. I noticed Trent didn’t bounce his ball to distract from my presence. He was better at opening up to me. That realization thrilled me more than what was wise, and I didn’t care.

“But not enough to have my life together.”

Silence swelled the air.

“I figure since you can’t find nothing better to do than clean around here; I’ll pay you a few bucks for it.”

I sucked in a breath, my eyes popped from my skull. “Really?”

“Yeah!” He laughed, chords vibrating with amusement. “I may be a cheap S.O.B., but I place my money where my needs are. I plan on getting this place furnished
one
day. I suppose it should be cleaned first. We can come up with a price we can agree on, I hope.”

“We could! I wouldn’t charge much, even though scrubbing a castle can be laborious.” The mansion mainly had a coating of dust from neglect. The structure wasn’t old, just not tended to. I could do it and use the money to make it more home-like, outside of paying for groceries. My pay from the salons covered everything else.

Except for ren
t…
somewhere else!

I quickly decided to ignore that ‘shoulder influence’. I didn’t know if it came from my angel or devil.

“How’s the apartment hunt coming along?” his baritone vibrated authoritatively.

“Horribly. The places I’ve seen are either too small, or too small and in a dangerous area, or in crowded quarters.”

Trent broke into laughter. It was so unexpected an
d…
embarrassing.

“What’s so funny?”

“Your bourgeois showing?”

“It is not!” I found myself whining petulantly.

“It is. Jade, you’re a South Orange debutante. You
are
bourgeois!” He couldn’t stop his hearty laughter. “Public assistance doesn’t suit you, is all I’m saying.”

That stirred my anger and fueled my shame. It was difficult to admit my fall from grace. My mother had taught me better than this, but so bitter and determined in my need to prove her wrong, I’d finally fallen on my face. My stomach churned with regret and humiliation that Trent here had somewhat figured it out. It was so bad, I couldn’t speak to give rebuttal.

“You need to have Ky transferred to the local school district,” he requested with the same manner of authority as before and my heart swelled right along with my clitoris. “It’s crazy…you having to drop him off over thirty minutes away. Taxing in gas, I’m sure.”

That. Instantly.

What is this?

It was pathetic to equate acceptance, generosity, and goodwill to attractiveness, but I couldn’t help it with Trent. There was something about his odd persona and story that propelled my heart and libido. I knew I should slow down and think before laying my heart and desire at his feet, but I didn’t. There was something about Trent that mysteriously made me feel safe, even now as I lay in bed in one of his oversized
Connecticut Kings
t-shirts and nothing else.

“Okay. I’ll look into it tomorrow,” I shrieked pathetically.

And I did the following day.

“So, who is she? Tell me about her,” Ezra asked calmly over the phone.

I exhaled, readjusting myself in my seat as I rode the highway, crossing the Connecticut state line. After hanging out with my JJ, I was en route home to face another night with my house guests.

“She’s... Jade. I ain’t never met a chick like her.”

“I think we’ve established that a few minutes ago when you called saying you think you like her.” He chuckled quietly into the line.

I rolled my eyes and brushed the back of my head. I didn’t exactly say that, but he and I both knew it was what I meant.

I growled, frustrated. This morning, I’d awakened in sweat dreaming again about eating her out. It was so bad that I actually had a taste of her in my mouth because after all these late night visits with her wearing practically panties and one of my
Connecticut Kings
tees that she ‘found’ in my laundry room, I’d become familiar with the scent of her feminine musk.

Damn!
She had me going crazy! Jade was real trouble.

“She’s bad, man. Just a dope chick…inside and out—and not just to me. When she comes to
RSfALC
, you should see how people react to her energy. Everybody gives a double-take and she doesn’t even have to speak!”

Ezra let off another chuckle. That annoyed me, too. I felt like a kid, running to his father on advice about girls. Deep down inside I knew this was different, but it was still frustrating to feel needy about guidance. But I was willing to do it, to stay on the right side of things. My life had turned into this delicate balance since Ezra shared his dream with me.

“I’ll tell you this, Trent. There seems to be this inexplicably intrinsic divine draw to women that men have been slaves to since the beginning of time. But to a man of your former lifestyle, I don't have to explain how on occasion, there’s always that
one
that propels the testosterone that calibrates our balls to her at a speed that makes us delusional. If your head follows your testes, you’re in trouble because it means there’s a dimensional draw to her and one that is aligned.

“I’m sure you’re not telling me all that has been exchanged intimately between you two, nor do I need to know. However, know this: when you cross that line, there is no turning back. With this one, you’re going to have to face the decision of making her your wife or figuring out how she will pack up her son and leave your house with the least incident. Be prepared to make that pivotal call.”

My mouth dropped. My chest tightened at the visual of Jade and Kyree leaving. The reaction to that visual was unrecognizable to me. I’d never been emotionally clingy. I couldn’t as a child. My mother never responded to that. So, why was I feeling some kind of way about the prospect of my unintended guests leaving? Them being at the crib this long was never the plan.

“Gotchu, E.” I nodded in the pickup. “Gotchu.”

Jade kept with her late night visits to my room. One night, it was time for me to turn the tables.

“Why do you keep your hair and makeup done twenty-four/seven? I mean... You’re really pretty and I’m sure you don’t need to be turned up all the time to feel that way.”

“I used to feel like I had to keep it all done to be pretty. I didn't always feel pretty—”

“Bullshit!” I blurted, unable to believe there’d ever been a day Jade wasn’t pretty.

“No!” She spoke over me, trying to fight her smile. “I never exactly thought I was ugly, but I used to always want to go over and beyond to be sure people knew.”

“Used to?”

“Yeah. I’m not as mental as I used to be about it. Now it’s just a habit.” She pouted and smacked her lips. “I gotta keep my weave tight. Now
that’s
my religion. Can’t have a busted wig.”

So she worships her weave.

“I’d like to see you without it.” I fingered the end of the long black silk mane.

“Depending on how long we’re here, you will.” She stretched over the mattress, sounding sexy as hell. “But it wouldn’t be for long. I don’t wear my hair out. What you see is what you get.”

Jade yawned and things got real quiet for a moment. My dick swelled in my pants at the thought of seeing her strutting around here carefree, not needing to be made up or weaved up.

“Jade...”

“Huhn?” she hummed, turning toward me on her side into a fetal position.

“You’re really pretty...naturally pretty. You don’t need hair and makeup for anyone to see, including you. You’re just...” I exhaled. “Real pretty inside and out.”

I heard her gasp and lifted from the bed quickly. I needed to walk off my erection or I’d be dishonoring Ky’s moms.

I felt a small tap on my arm. I tried turning over, but felt something to my left, prevented me from moving further. Then I felt a nudge.

“T
B…
” More taps on my arm. “Trent!” I recognized that whispery voice.

My eyes fluttered open then ballooned in a panic. I licked my dry lips in the darkness of the room.

“Whaddup, Ky?”

“I can’t find my mommy!” he whispered directly in my face, panicking. “And I think I had an accident.”

“Think?”

I wasn’t all the way with it to understand.

“Yeah. I woke up wet everywhere. It was in the bed, my leg
s…
on my back. But I don’t remember peeing the bed!” he whispered defensively. “I need help. She’s gonna get me, though.”

I brushed my hands over my face, now getting the picture. Ky pee’d the bed and was in need of his mother and help from his mother. The moment I got the revelation, I felt a warm body being pressed into me. I heard a hard exhale from underneath the comforter, too.
Damn!
It was Jade. She must have fallen asleep in my bed tonight. But how did she get underneath the comforter?

I shook my head, swiping my palms over my face again. As I shifted to the end of the mattress, I knew exactly how something like that could happen. I knew Jade by now. She’d meant to fall asleep in my bed. It was a deliberate act that said so much and delivered the ultimate revelation: Jade had grown comfortable enough to sleep in my bed. I wasn’t exactly happy about that. It was an aggressive move and one I hadn’t been prepared for. But that was Jade. Ready or not, here she was with whatever agenda she chose.

“C’mon,” I whispered while standing to my feet. I took him at his tiny shoulder. “Let’s get you right before she finds it, lil’ man.”

We crept out of my room and began getting rid of the evidence of his accident. 

“You good now?” I asked Kyree as he wiggled into his freshly made bed to find comfort.

His eyes were slanted from exhaustion. I had him shower while I changed the bedding. Thank God his mother had a spare set in the laundry room downstairs. Kyree nodded his head.

“Thanks for helping me,” his voice was sincere, tender.

It struck something in my chest.

“It’s all gravy, man. You can hit me up if you find yourself in a jam.” That offering made me think of how I met him when he’d start a fight with a teammate just to stay late as a result to delay his going home to a dark and scary apartment. “You know that, right?”

I patted his head as he snuggled into the pillow, nodding again.

“All you gotta do is ask for help when you need it. No need to be afraid, my dude.”

“Sometimes I don’t want anybody to know.”

I found myself nodding. “I can dig it, but the Bible says a man’s pride comes before a hard fall. That means keeping things from people you can help or who can help you is no good for you.”

“Sometimes it’s scary.”