Not This Time (4 page)

Focused as he was on his date, he paid
little notice when the elevator pinged. His luscious date was
rubbing his erection, smiling wickedly. The imp knew he was hard
enough to smash nails and wouldn’t give him a break. He’d return
the favor as soon as they got in the room. No need to start
something he couldn’t finish, in the hall. Placing his card in the
door slot, the sound of footfalls garnered his attention. A tall
African American male, a little shorter than him, was headed his
way at a fast clip. A grimace of distaste or anger slashed across
the man’s face. Without thinking, Frank opened the door, shoved
Veronique into the suite and moved forward to meet what might be a
threat. His blood raced as he summed the potential victim up in a
glance. Cracking his knuckles, arms at his side, legs braced, he
prepared himself for the first swing. He was unprepared for the
words spewing out of the man’s mouth.

The stranger stepped closer, snarling, “What
the fuck are you doing with my wife?”

Chapter 3

Veronique stumbled into the room with arms
outstretched, she fell into the corner of the wall, allowing it to
break her fall. “What the hell?” she mumbled, kneeling to snatch up
her purse and the scattered contents. Loud voices from the hall,
followed by a heavy thumping vibration through the floor, sent her
rushing back out the door.

The sight of Hedrick and Frank rolling on
the floor stopped her in her tracks. Her hand flew to her mouth,
muffling the scream that tore at her throat at the sight of her
ex-husband trying, without much success, to overpower Frank.
Shaking her head to dispel what must be a vision, she watched as
Frank rolled Hedrick over, cocked his arm back and prepared to
punch him in the face.

“
No!” Without thinking, she
tried to intervene. Moving quickly, she tried to grab Frank’s arm,
and was thrown forward when his arm flew downward and made contact
with Hedrick’s jaw. Landing on her hips a few feet away, she winced
as loud smacks and grunts resounded in the hallway.

“
Stop. Stop this!” Standing
slowly, she tried to get the two men to listen. She searched the
hallway for something, anything to get them to stop. She pulled her
hair when she realized there was nothing. Running back to the
Frank’s room, she filled a coffee cup full of water. Heck, it
worked on TV. Returning to the hall, she froze. Frank stood, and
offered his hand to Hedrick, who was on the ground wiping the blood
from his mouth.
What the hell happened, I
was only gone for a minute.

Hedrick looked at him for
all of three seconds before accepting the assistance. Both men were
panting, staring at the other. Hedrick wiped the blood from his
face. Frank took deep breaths, but not as fast as Hedrick. They
were too old for this crap.
Neanderthals
. She couldn’t imagine
what would prompt her ex to start a fight, especially against
someone he didn’t know. They stood as two pit bulls, watching,
weighing the odds and waiting for something to happen. The more she
thought about it, the madder she became.

Somehow, she was in the mix of this
wrestling match and that wasn’t cool. She’d had enough of the
testosterone standstill. Striding to her ex-husband with water
splashing over the brim of the foam cup, she asked a simple
question. “Hedrick, what are you doing here?” Heat scorched her
face and throat with the brunt of her anger. Was he following her?
What was going on with him? He knew this bullshit act would piss
her off.

He wiped the blood from his upper lip,
looked down at her, and then back at Frank. For a moment, he simply
stared. “I wanted to see you. I thought…” He wiped his face and
looked at the blood on his hand.

She steeled herself from feeling sorry for
him. Although she’d missed the beginning of the fallout, Hedrick
definitely would remember this night for a long time. It wasn’t
often she’d seen him so…well, whipped.

“
I’m sorry.” He sighed and
ran his hand over his head, breaking the tension. “I had the week
off and thought we could…you know, spend some time together. I’ve
been looking for you all day. One of your sorority sisters told me
you came upstairs.” He shrugged and looked at the carpeted
floor.

“
But why? Why the hell would
you do that without talking to me? What would make you think this
shit would be okay?” Too pissed for words, she squeezed the cup.
Water flowed over her fist onto the floor.

“
Can we talk without an
audience?” He gestured toward Frank. She’d forgotten he was in the
hallway and turned to look up at him. Frank’s eyes were darker than
before, and he sported a new red bruise on his clenched left cheek.
After a moment, his eyes swung to meet hers and she saw the banked
fury.
Oh, hell
. He
was still pissed and ready to continue.
Men.

“
Can you give me a minute
please?” She didn’t know everything, but she knew it wouldn’t take
much to push this man to more violence. That polished veneer had
all sorts of lines and cracks. She needed to get Hedrick out of
here fast. What did he say earlier about kicking someone’s ass over
someone that he considered his? If the man he was fighting was
anyone other than her ex, and if they knew each other better, she’d
be flattered. But it was her ex and she’d just met this dude. Anger
management had his name written all over it.

Frank stared at her a second longer and then
glared at Hedrick. That one look sent chills down her spine and it
wasn’t even directed at her. No wonder Hedrick wanted him out of
the corridor. He’d been the recipient of that deadly stare all
along and she didn’t blame him.

“
Yeah.” Frank moved to the
door, stepped inside, but left it cracked open. She heard Hedrick’s
sigh, and chuckled inwardly. Normally, at six-two, a tight muscular
frame and serious attitude, her ex was the baddest man in the room.
Most men backed down when he stepped up. Today, his ego had taken a
serious blow and it would be wrong to kick a man when he was down,
right? Hell no! That’s the only time to get in some serious licks,
after all, it’s hard to kick a man while he’s standing. And she
planned to put something on her ex, to make it crystal clear how
she felt about his misguided actions today.

Veronique threw the ravaged cup at him and
stepped into his face. “What the hell do you think you’re doing
following me? Do I need to put a restraining order on you?” She
hissed.

“
No, no…I got things
confused and wanted—”

“
I don’t give a damn about
what you wanted. You don’t run my life. I do.” Her fingernail
pushed into his chest. “If I want to talk to you, that’s when we
talk. Dammit, I’m not your wife. We are divorced.
You
left me for another
woman. I was trying to be your friend, but as usual, you fucked
that up.”

“
No, Ronnie…”

“
Stop that Ronnie shit. You
know I hate that name. But you don’t care, do you. It’s all about
what you want, isn’t it?”

“
No, that’s not true.
I—”

“
Why are you here? What made
you do something this stupid?” She crossed her arms over her chest
and leaned back, searching the eyes of the man who’d once been her
world. She’d planned to spend the rest of her life with him, had
loved him more than herself. Perhaps that’d been their problem. She
had loved him and he knew it, took it for granted that she’d always
be around, and had fucked her over royally. If he’d hooked up with
a woman with some common sense, it might not have hurt as bad.
Bullshit. When the man you love tells you straight up he wants
someone else, that shits burns worse than acid. It’d taken her
years to pull herself together, and she’d never deconstruct like
that again, for anyone.

Shoulders slumped, he turned away and stared
at the wall. “I made a lot of mistakes. Not just today, but in my
life overall. I broke up my family over some mid-life foolishness.”
He shrugged and looked at her again. “Started another one, it fell
apart. Kids don’t want to be bothered, everybody’s moving on, and
I’m by myself.” His voice lowered to a whisper at the end.

“
I needed to talk to
somebody that understood me. Retirement’s a bitch, I’m at loose
ends, don’t know what to do with myself. Thought I’d spend this
time with you, we seemed to be doing better than before.” His tone
begged her to understand.

“
No,” she snapped. “You
misunderstood. Here’s the reality. I’m over you, so I don’t lash
out like I did before. Tell me, is that what I have to do? Cuss you
out all the time to keep you in check. Because this bullshit with
you coming up on me and claiming I’m your wife cannot ever happen
again.” She stood, arms akimbo, glaring at him.

“
No. You don’t have to do
that. I guess I should be happy you stopped being so mean and
talked nice to me. It went to my head, made me think there was a
shot of us—”

“
Hell no! That’s not on the
menu of events for my life. I know I’ve told you that before.
Obviously, us getting together for sex last month was a
mistake.”

“
No! That’s not true. It was
all good.” His eyes widened and his voice took on a pleading
quality.

She waved away his comments and continued.
“Yeah, it was a mistake. It made you think there was something when
there’s nothing here. That was just physical.”

“
Like with that guy?” he
pointed to the room, his tone sarcastic. “Physical? Scratching an
itch?” His lips turned up at the corners.

Asshole
. She smiled, all her teeth on display. His widening eyes told
her it wasn’t pretty. “Whether I decide to scratch my itches with
him or the Philadelphia Eagles football team isn’t your business.
You gave up that right a long time ago. Rest assured you won’t
scratch any itches for me ever again.”

He released a long sigh. “Ron…Veronique,” he
corrected when she glared at him. “I admitted I was wrong. I didn’t
treat you or Cherise right. I know I’ll pay for what I did the rest
of my life. But I want you to know this. I loved you. You don’t
think I did, but you were my heart. I think in the back of my mind,
I always thought we’d be together no matter what. I took a chance
with your heart and lost. But don’t go around settling for just
anything. You are and always were a special woman.”

She swallowed hard as her words choked her.
“Thanks. But you need to step.” Her voice firm, yet soft with
unspoken emotion. Once, those words would’ve elevated her to the
highest mountaintop. She’d been so needy for his affirmation and
approval. For years, she’d lived in an emotional wasteland, trying
to find herself. It’d been hard and painful, but she’d discovered a
strong woman inside. A woman she felt comfortable with, and
embraced her inner strengths, faults, and all.

He nodded, his teeth worried his upper lip
as he slowly swung his right foot in front of his left. “Okay. I’m
sorry about all of this.” He waved his hand around the hall. “I was
angry and said some things I shouldn’t have. He had every right to
attack me.”

That made more sense and elevated Frank in
her book. Chivalry hadn’t died in the modern world. Men still
called you out for disrespecting women. One day Hedrick would learn
not to speak out in anger, tonight his loose lips cost him an ass
whooping.

Tired of him, tired of the mess, she turned
toward the suite and then glanced at him. “Words are powerful and
need to be used with wisdom. It’s an old song with you. When you
get mad, you never know when to stop your mouth from running. You
need to watch that.” Lord knows she’d been his victim on so many
occasions. She watched him turn and move in the direction of the
elevators. With each step, they both knew those steps would never
be retraced. The closing of the elevator door signaled a closure on
their tumultuous relationship. At that thought, a curious sadness
filled her.

She looked at the doorway
Frank left open. What did he think about all this? He probably
thought she was high maintenance or a drama queen. She was neither.
Hedrick said Frank kicked his ass for saying something
inappropriate about her. A smile worked its way to her lips. He
fought over her?
Wow
. Now that she had a moment to think, he had pushed her inside
and closed the door. Protection? The more she thought about what
happened, the more she liked her new friend.

She opened and closed the door. The room’s
illumination was a single wall sconce. “Frank?” Moving further
inside, she noticed her purse on the small coffee table in front of
the sofa. Clearing her throat, she called again. “Frank, where are—
” her words trailed off as he walked bare chested and barefoot into
the room from the bedroom area. Water beaded on his chest, a light
sprinkling of dark hairs trapped tiny droplets of moisture. His
unsnapped jeans allowed her a peek at his dark colored boxers
beneath. His chest and arm muscles flexed as he dried his face and
hair.

Synapses misfired in her mind. She couldn’t
process the visual in front of her. Frozen, her throat tried to
speak past the lump of surprise. A squeak emitted from her tight
throat. Blinking rapidly, she assured her temporarily dysfunctional
mind that there was indeed a fine male specimen standing in front
of her and she needed release from her comatose condition to speak,
less he think she was retarded.

“
Sorry, I didn’t hear you
come in.” His eyes never left her as he moved slowly in her
direction.

Heart pulsing at his
panty-wetting deep voice, she barely grasped he’d moved until he
stood in front of her. How was it possible to feel such a strong
connection with a stranger? Why couldn’t she do more than
stare?
I need to say
something
. Her mind blanked.