Burn (21 page)

“Gian’s just being nice.” Cinder kicked her feet,
staining the toes of her canvas sandals in the freshly cut
grass. “He’s so nice to me, Zae. And so patient.”

“He’s not stupid,” Zae remarked. “He knows that
some things are worth the wait. But why are you making
him wait?”

“I don’t mean to. Every time we’re tangled up in each
other, I go so far with him before it’s not just us anymore.
Chai creeps in.”

“Oh, baby . . .” Zae cooed.

“Gian came over to watch a movie last week, and we
ended up falling asleep on the sofa. I had the dream
again.”

“That bastard is in your head and you have to get him
out,” Zae said forcefully. “You can’t let him keep control
ling your life.”

“He was really good at it, you know. He did it for so
long without me even noticing it. He would tell me that
h
e was just looking out for me, or wanted what was best
for
us
. Remember when I accepted the promotion at
MetaGraphica?”

Zae crunched into a taro chip. “Vaguely.”

“My first big assignment was for Calvert Caldwell
Incorporated. They’re based in Baltimore, and their net
work is enormous.”

Zae nodded. “Three of my literature grads are at
Missouri U. on scholarships awarded by Calvert
Caldwell. It’s amazing how much the company does to
help low-income and impoverished women advance
themselves.”

“I did the graphics for a national campaign they
planned to launch for their new Women’s Technology
Services division. The focus was on how the WTS would
provide no- or low-cost training in computer education
for women re-entering the job market, or women who
speak English as a second language—for whatever reason
a woman needed to have computer skills. Men can go out
and get well-paying jobs in construction or something if
they don’t have computer skills, but a woman without a
degree usually has to trade on her looks if she wants to
earn a good living. The whole concept behind WTS was
that of empowering women, so that they could compete in today’s job market using their brains and ambition.”

“Sounds good,” Zae said. Having finished off the lasagna, she used her finger to mop up the last of the
sauce on Cinder’s plate.

“On the day of our big presentation, everything was
going great. The client loved the treatments we came up
w
ith, both in terms of the copy and the art. They really
liked one of the logos I designed. Just when they were about to leave to go see the treatments the other com
pany up for the job had done, in comes a singing
telegram. From Chai.”

Zae looked up, her black eyes wide.

“My birthday was a week off, but he sent a singing
telegram to the office as a surprise. He’d chosen strippers,
and not just any strippers. The women were twins, iden
tical right down—or up—to their enormous breasts. He
hired Bitty and Kitty McTittie to dance and sing an
absolutely horrible song for me. The lyrics of the song were worse than their dancing. When they stripped off
their sequined 54DDD brassieres and tossed them in the
air, that was it. The Caldwell Calvert reps had all they
could take. They stormed out, I got called before the vice
president of personnel. I was demoted to the Lenny
Orsatti Used Car account, and Caldwell Calvert ended
up going with the campaign treatment our rival created.”

“That wasn’t your fault.”

“Yes, it was. I shouldn’t have talked about my promo
tion so much. I should never have let Chai know how
much the Caldwall Calvert account meant to me. That’s
why he took it away. He didn’t want anything in my life to compete with him for my attention.”

“Is that why you went two years without calling or
writing or visiting me after you got married?”

“It was just easier to keep the peace than to argue or
deal with his silent treatments if he found out that I’d been talking to you,” Cinder said.

“
He never could stand me. I always stood up to him,
and he hated that.”

“How could I not have seen it at the time? What was
wrong with me?”

“The problem was never with you,” Zae insisted. “It
was him. When you introduced me to Sumchai Wyatt for
the first time, I fell half in love with him myself! He was
smart, funny, he seemed to worship the ground you
walked on with those big ol’ size nines of yours, and the
man was beautiful.”

“I don’t want my past interfering with my future,”
Cinder said firmly. “Gian deserves that.”

“So do you, honey,” Zae assured her. “Just keep doing
what you’ve been doing. Everything will work out the
way it’s supposed to. Say your prayers, and God will
manage your mess into a glorious outcome.” She patted
Cinder’s bare knee. “Now let’s go see if Chip’s little friend
has any food allergies.”

* * *

“I’m too old for this,” Cinder grunted as she pulled herself onto a higher branch of the oak tree at the far end
of Zae’s backyard.

“If you’re too old at thirty-one, then I’m definitely too
old.” Gian, his hands on her hips, gave her a boost onto the cargo netting moored between two branches of the
tree. The rough synthetic cable formed a triangular web
nearly thirty feet above the ground. Zae had installed the
web for her twins’ tenth birthday as a compromise to get
t
ing a tree house, something Zae knew the twins would
quickly outgrow.

Hesitant, Cinder crawled over the web, fearful that it might not support her weight. Gian braced his feet on a
lower branch and grabbed the netting. He gave it a good
shake, scaring a shriek out of Cinder, who bounced onto
her back and stiffly splayed her arms and legs. She
gripped the wide squares of the netting as tightly as she
could.

“I’m sorry.” Gian chuckled. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I wanted to assure you that the web would hold.”

“You’re lucky I didn’t kick you in the windpipe,”
Cinder replied. “I know what to do with my startle reflex
these days, you know.”

Gian hummed a noise of acknowledgement. “Guess
what?”

“What?” Cinder asked. Framed by the leafy canopy in
the early darkness, he looked like a mythical forest
denizen, or perhaps a mischievous demi-god.

“You’re not wearing any panties.”

Convinced that the wide web would indeed support
her, Cinder relaxed, pillowing her head on her laced fin
gers. “Yes, I am.”

Gian made a production of peering under her short
black skirt. “No, you’re not. I’ve got a great angle and I
can see your—”

“It’s my Chocolate Silk.” She laughed, clapping her knees together and crossing her legs at the ankles.

“That’s a fancy name for it.” Gian grabbed her ankles
to drag her closer to him. “I call mine Soldier.”

C
inder laughed harder, succumbing to a full attack of
the sillies. “I’m wearing my Chocolate Silk
panties
,” she
clarified. “I’ve got Va-Va-Voom Vanilla, Strawberry Sweetness, Naked Nectarine. Those are see-through
orange silk.”

Gian licked his lips with a noisy slurp. “You know,”
he started, peeking through the branches to get a look at
the house a few hundred yards away, “everyone’s on the
deck having dessert. We’re the only ones out here.”

“I want a slice of Zae’s coconut cream pie.” Cinder sat up.

“I want what’s right here.”

It might have been a trick of the moonlight, but the
playful gleam in Gian’s eyes turned into something else as he stood there, his upper body framed between her feet.
The specifics of his desire went unspoken, but Cinder
perfectly understood what he meant. What he wanted.

Beckoning him with an index finger, she lay on the
web. Gian heeded her silent invitation. He climbed onto
the web, crawling over her until his face aligned with
hers.

“Now about these panties of yours,” he said, his voice
low. “Are they edible?”

“No.” She giggled. “They’re from an online company
called Cashmere & Charisma. It’s owned by two African-
American women, Cashmere Connolly and Charisma
O’Meara. They started the business as an intimate party
planning service, to pay for college. It was so successful,
they branched into merchandising their brand. They sell
lingerie, gourmet food, bath and beauty products—”

“If you’d stop talking, I could kiss you. ”

“Well, if you’d kiss me, I’d stop talking.”

Gian’s mouth came down on Cinder’s; she raised her
head to meet him. He supported his weight on his knees,
his heavier body lowering that end of the web to bring
her more upright. His hands gently closed around her
forearms, then slid up to her wrists before he threaded his
fingers through hers. Kissing had become one of their favorite pastimes. It came very easily, so much so that it
was merely another way of using their lips to speak to one
another.

Gian’s kisses held nothing back. They revealed every
thing about his feelings for Cinder. The flick of his
tongue and pinch of his lips at her earlobe, the nip of his
teeth at her lower lip, the gentle vacuum of his mouth at
her neck; in so many ways he told her how much he
cared for her and wanted to please her.

Cinder responded in kind, tonight more than ever.
She found herself someplace she had never expected to
be. She had shared a bed with Gian, but only to sleep in
his arms. They had made out like teenagers, Gian never
moving faster or further than she desired. She desired
him now, suspended between Heaven and Earth, far
from every reminder of her painful past and uncertain
future. Joyfully, she reveled in the present, a blissful place
shared with a man whose kindness, patience, and tolerance heightened his beauty.

He cupped her face to set the most tender of kisses on
the tip of her nose and eyelids. Arms outstretched, she
gripped the web. Gian’s gaze held her face in place while
h
is hands moved under the soft cotton pleats of her skirt. Goose bumps rose in the path taken by his fingers as they
glided over her thighs and hips to the waistband of her
Chocolate Silk panties.

“Do you want me to stop?”

She responded with a shake of her head.

“Tell me. ”

“I don’t want you to stop,” she whispered, her words
as soft and raspy as the language of the wind-stirred
leaves.

The give of the web made an awkward task of
removing her panties, but Gian managed, draping them carefully over the nearest branch. He kissed her then, his
hands roaming freely beneath her skirt.

His long, strong fingers pressed into her lower back,
his thumbs stroked her hips. He kissed her deeply,
clasping her left buttock in one hand while cupping his
right hand between her legs. The warmth of her liquid
silk wet his fingers as he parted the slippery seam hidden
in her moist curls. His tongue slipped between her lips to
suckle the tip of her tongue. His thumb and forefinger
found the firm tip protruding from its fleshy hood, and
he mimicked the action of his lips and tongue.

The joints of the cable creaking, Cinder gripped the
net even tighter, her arm muscles hard. Running his
hands along her thighs, Gian felt the tension in her legs.
He broke the kiss to whisper, “Imagine that your muscles
are like honey.”

Soft kisses and even softer caresses helped her do just
that, until she released the web and put her hands on
Gian. He took them, kissing them, before granting her
leave to touch him as she wished. She cradled his head to her body as he nipped and gnawed at her breasts through
her knit top. Her back arched, thrusting her hard nipples
at him. He raised her top, exposing her Chocolate Silk
bra to the night. Leisurely, Gian suckled her through the
shiny satin, darkening it. Cinder closed her eyes and surrendered to sensation. Her hips bucked toward Gian, the
empty heat within her aching for fulfillment.