When It Rains... (28 page)

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Authors: Angie Daniels

BOOK: When It Rains...
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“I'll never pressure you. When you're ready, you let me know.” He had been without pussy this long, what differencewould a little bit longer make? Drawing her close again, he planted small kisses on the top of her head.
Tears of happiness were in the corner of her eyes, but she didn't wipe them away. His words soothed the fear that lay just behind her heart. She was glad he understoodand didn't judge her. But she should have known all along that Jay would be patient with her. “I want to,” she told him. “I—I'm just so damn scared.”
“I'll wait as long as it takes. When you're ready for me to make love to you, you let me know. I promise when I do, I'll take it slow. I want you to feel comfortable.”He held her for the longest time after that. Finally,he said, “I hate to bring this up now, but I need to leave town for a couple of days, but when I return I want us to spend some real time together.”
“I'd like that.” His being away would give her a chance to figure out the 180-degree change in their relationship.
Jay stayed long enough to play a round of Scrabble. When he left, she climbed back into bed. Honey found herself smiling lazily as she lay there thinking about what Jay had said. He was going to be patient. She silently prayed as her eyelids drooped closed. The next time he attempted to make love to her, she wanted to be ready mentally as well as physically.
 
 
After hanging up the phone, Kendra rolled onto her side and pulled herself into a sitting position on the bed. Her big-ass stomach itched. Raising her gown, she reached for a bottle of cocoa butter and rubbed the lotion generously across her abdomen. Shit, if she had known pregnancy could cause stretch marks, she never would have allowed herself to get pregnant. Her doctor assured her the generous use of lanolin or cocoa butter would help, but that was no guarantee.
Jay had called to inform her he would be out of town for at least a week. He reassured her that if she needed anything she could call his office and they'd get in touch with him immediately. Kendra was fuckin' insultedthat he hadn't even bothered to come by. But she already knew where he had been. She had driven by that bitch's house last night and found his car still there this morning.
It was apparent Jay had changed his mind about her and the baby. He had kicked her black ass to the curb. Asking her to hold off on seeing a lawyer was his way of trying to con her into keeping the baby.
You got life fucked-up!
She was through playing games with his mothafuckin' ass.
Now it was time to get even.
Fourteen
“I
t's not my fault,” Honey chanted as she exited her therapist's office.
Today she had opened up and discussed her relationship.When her therapist asked her if she was ready for intimacy, without hesitation she had answered yes. She was no longer going to be a victim. The rape wasn't her fault. She finally realized that it was time to let go of the past and move forward with her life. She deserved happiness. She was going to be a survivor.
Pulling away from the clinic, she stared out at the clear sky. The gorgeous day marked the beginning of March, and it was coming in as a lamb. Honey took a deep breath. Jay was willing to take things as slow as she needed. She giggled, feeling silly.
It might not be as long as he thinks.
She was ready to be loved. It was time to put her vibratoraway.
Relief rushed though Honey, its force making her light-headed. She had lived with the memories and the fact that she would never have children for so long that she feared she'd never be able to love. But Jay changed all that shit. When the time was right, he would understand.He had to.
He had been gone three days. They spoke on the phone each night. Last night when Jay asked her how she had been able to satisfy her sexual urges, she'd admittedshe used a vibrator. Jay then instructed her to take it out of her nightstand.
“Now put the phone on speaker.”
She did as she was told, then slipped off her gown and panties and slid under the covers.
“Rub your pussy for me, boo.”
Lying on her back, she spread her legs wide as she stroked her clit with one hand and pinched her nipple with the other.
“You like that?”
“Ohhh, hell yeahhh!” she moaned.
“Now stick your finger inside your pussy and taste it.”
She stuck her fingers inside her wet welcoming walls, then brought her hand to her lips.
“What's it taste like, boo?”
“Wet pussy.”
“Aahh, yesss! That's some good shit!”
“Uh-huh,” she moaned as she reached down again and probed deeper inside.
“Now take my dick and put it inside your wet pussy.”
She reached for her vibrator and inserted it in her wet hole.
“Ohhh, yeahhh, now I'm strokin' you with my big dick. Movin' in and out of your pussy again and again just the way you like it.”
“Oh, yesss!” As he chanted in her ear, she followed his lead, pretending he was there inside her. She slowly slid the instrument in and out of her coochie again and again. Her body arched with shock and pleasure. As Jay continued to talk shit she plunged deeper, riding that vibrator as if it were a dick.
“Oh yeah, baby. You got some good-ass pussy. Damn, that shit is good. How you likin' this dick?”
“I'm lovin' it. Oh yeah.”
“You got me stroking my meat just imagining being in that phat pussy. Keep workin' it, baby. Don't stop! I want us to come together.”
“Aw'ight.” She moved it faster and harder, feeling the rhythmic contractions of her inner muscles grippingthe vibrator. Moans of pleasure escaped her lips when spasms coursed through her body.
“I'm getting ready to come, baby. Damn, that pussy is good. Come with me, baby.”
“Oooh ... weeee ... I'm comin' too, baby!” It wasn't long before she erupted in a flow of spasms.
“Aaahhh ... yesss!” he hissed.
They both lay there for the longest, breathing heavilyover the speaker.
“Boo?”
“Yeah?” she whispered, still out of breath.
“That's what it's gonna be like with us, baby. It's gonna be good. It's gonna be so damn good.”
“Uh-huh.” It wasn't long after that that she drifted off to sleep with the vibrator still firmly in place.
 
 
When she arrived at the salon, she found it quiet for a Wednesday morning. The lobby was empty, and only three workstations were occupied.
Candy was returning to her desk carrying a cup of coffee. “Hey, boss lady,” she greeted. “A lady came by to talk to you about the nail tech position.”
While hanging up her coat, Honey glanced over at her receptionist settling back in her chair. “Oh, good.” She wanted to have her new staff on board and trained before the grand opening of the new addition. “Did she fill out an application?”
Shaking her braids, Candy answered, “Shit, I tried, but she said she'd wait until she had a chance to talk to you first.”
Mercedes came out of the restroom. Catching tidbitsof the conversation, she arched a sweeping eyebrowand asked, “Was she pregnant?”
Candy swung around in her chair. “Yeah, as a matter of fact she was.”
Resting a hand on her hip, she nodded knowingly at Honey. “She's come by several times. I've tried to get sista girl to fill out an app, but she refused.” She paused, her eyes narrowing. “She seemed pissed off you're never here.”
Honey shrugged and turned in the direction of her office. “Well, if she'd fill out an application, I could call her and schedule an interview.”
 
 
It was one minute after two when Jay entered his condo. Tossing his keys on the counter, he removed his jacket and draped it across the couch.
It had been a long week. He had arrived in Kansas City to find something that was only in the fuckin' movies. Dr. J.W. Price had risen from the dead. Only he died, was reborn, then died again.
According to the police, Jhamil Wayne and James William Price had been identical in every aspect, from their features to their dreams of someday becoming a dentist like their deceased father. Only James had what it took, while Jhamil didn't; James was an excellent student,but Jhamil's college grades were far too poor to gain entrance into dental school. While on a boat trip together, James drowned. The drowning was accidental,but Jhamil saw it as his lucky break; he assumed his brother's identity and attended dental school. In spite of his poor college grades, he was able to learn the hands-on dental techniques well enough to get by. Passing the academic courses was easier; by manipulatinga fellow student who had fallen in love with him, he was able to pass the academic requirements, if just barely.
After graduation, he built a practice as Dr. James W. Price. When substantial gambling debts began to weigh him down he took out an insurance policy, leavingthe money to Jhamil Price—his real name. By switching dental records with a patient named Timothy Madden, who was also a friend, he put his plan into action.
He invited Timothy to meet him in Columbia, Missouri,for a tailgating party at Mizzou, and then the two traveled to Boonville to a casino boat. James made sure he got Timothy drunk enough to pass out cold. Then he put his car in gear, and with a push, it went over the cliff. Dental records identified the body as Dr. James Price. He moved to Leavenworth and rebuilt his practice as Dr. J.W. Price, then waited a year to file a claim on the insurance policy.
Jay found not only J.W. but another wife, a newborn son, and a mother suffering from Alzheimer's, who didn't care which son he was as long as someone was alive. J.W. Price tried to deny ever knowing Jocelyn, but after the insurance company sent one of their investigatorsdown and the police became involved, Jhamil, a.k.a. J.W. and James, took his own life, again.
Jocelyn had flown down with Chad to identify the body. Within a few hours, Jay saw the beautiful woman change. She had been betrayed. He finally realized what women meant when they said men make them the way they are.
Moving to his room, Jay removed his clothes, then fell facedown onto the bed. Sleep, that's what he needed. Once he woke up, he was going to spend the entire weekend showing Honey how much she truly meant to him.
He knew exactly what he wanted. He wanted her to love him. He wanted her to marry him and bear him several gray-eyed children. He wanted to spend the rest of his life making her happy.
It was time for Honey to realize she wanted the same, 'cause phone sex was no longer enough.
 
 
My husband is dead ... again.
Jocelyn Price stared out the window as the plane prepared to land at St. Louis's Lambert Airport.
I'm not gonna cry again
, she told herself. She'd cried enough the first time she buried the bastard. Or, the man she'd always thought was James Price.
As the St. Louis Arch came into view, she rememberedthe first time James had taken her there. It had been on their first date. It was also the place he had proposed several years later.
Had she really been that fuckin' naïve? She had thought their marriage was ideal. James was a dentist while she was a pediatrician. Her friends all envied her relationship, and she thought she was the luckiest woman in the world. The only thing missing was children,but James had insisted that they wait until their practices were under way, and she had agreed.
Then a car crash brought her blissful world to a screeching halt. Or so she thought.
For several months, she lay awake at night, wishing they'd had a child so she would still have a part of him.
Jocelyn had tried to hold it together, and buried the man and a big chunk of her life. It had taken a year beforeshe was able to pull her shit together. Her laughter had just recently returned and the tears lessened until finally she had felt ready to date again.
Then she attended a seminar in Kansas City, and it all came crashing back when she saw that sorry mothafuckacrossing the street.
At first she'd thought she was losing her damn mind, but she knew her husband's strut, the way he tilted his head slightly to the left, his long neck, the way he alwaysembedded his right hand in the pocket of his pants when he walked, the style of his tailor-made suits. Everybody had thought she was crazy, but in her heart, she knew she was right.
I wish I had been wrong.
But a deep emotional attachment for the man she believed had been her soul mate forbade her letting go. All she could think about was that maybe she had buried somebody else, and her husband was still alive ... Maybe he had amnesia.
So she had hired a private investigator.
“Are you okay?”
She flinched at the sound of Chad's voice, then, without glancing at the man sitting in the seat beside her, she nodded and looked out the window again.
Jocelyn had lied. She would never be all right, ever again. She had given her all to one man, giving him her heart and soul. In turn, the man had made her look like a damn fool. He had crushed her heart and killed her spirit. He had taken something from her that would take years, if ever, for her to get back. Trust.
Chad watched Jocelyn out of the corner of his eye as she tried to come to terms with the last twenty-four hours. He couldn't begin to imagine what she was going through as she tried to accept the fact that the man she thought she knew, she'd never really known at all—and the man she thought she had buried last year had only died yesterday.
Chad had flown down with Jocelyn so that she could identify the body, and had watched the beautiful woman crumble right before his eyes. He wouldn't wish that kind of bullshit on anyone.
When the plane taxied in and pulled up to the terminal,Chad unfastened his seat belt and glanced over at Jocelyn again. “We're here.”
She looked over at him with a dazed look, then blinked until her eyes cleared. She forced a smile and said, “Yes ... yes, I guess we are.” Unfastening her seat belt, she reached for the small overnight bag underneaththe seat in front of her.
As he waited for the passengers in front of them to begin exiting the plane, Chad folded his hands in his lap. “Would you like to go somewhere and talk? I know a great restaurant in North County.”
Jocelyn rolled her eyes. “No. I have a million things to do.”
“Maybe another time?”
“Maybe not,” she retorted, then paused, realizing that she was being rude. “I'm sorry. I really appreciate everything you and Jay have done for me, but right now, the best thing for me is to be alone.”
He nodded in understanding. When their turn came to rise and depart the plane, they entered the terminal and went their separate ways.
Chad moved out to the parking garage, his ego bruised, but not beaten. He would give Jocelyn the time she needed to heal, then he'd come knocking at her door.
No one had ever turned him down before. That in itselfmade Dr. Price a challenge he couldn't pass up.
 
 
That afternoon Honey hung out with Marcus, giving his parents a chance to spend some time alone. She and her nephew had a wonderful time. They went downtownand visited the City Museum, an old warehouse that had been converted to house a collection of unusualartifacts. It also had a train and a man-made cave for the kids to explore. Honey found herself climbing through the tunnels alongside him. Afterward they went to McDonald's and pigged out on cheeseburgers, fries, and hot fudge sundaes. They returned to her house around dinnertime after stopping to rent some of Marcus's favorite movies. She checked her answering machine and saw that Jay had called several times. Her heart throbbed at the realization he was back. While boiling water for hot chocolate, she returned the call. He answered on the first ring.

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