A Preacher's Passion (10 page)

“Don’t,” Princess hissed. “Don’t even think about touching me right now. You need to go wash that girl’s stank off your dick.”

“I told you we didn’t—”

“Oh, so you had your pants down ’cause you were getting ready to do laundry? Whatever, Kelvin, I’m not sleeping with you. Now are you going to move to the couch, or am I?”

“You still haven’t told him?” Hope asked. “He’s the father, Stacy. He has a right to know.”

“And he will know, just as soon as the time is right.”

“Why are you waiting?”

Stacy shrugged.

“Because you’re not sure,” Hope answered softly. “Because as much as you want it to, you’re not convinced that this baby will make the difference you hope it will.”

Stacy’s eyes welled with tears as she nodded yes.

Hope looked at her still-skinny friend. She was carrying the baby well. It might be another two months before she started showing. She didn’t want to judge what Stacy had done, but the moment Stacy had confided in her, the pregnancy became Hope’s business. She wasn’t going to be dishonest in how she felt about the situation.

“Is it Bo?” Hope questioned, wanting to talk about the pink elephant that was always in the room where Darius and Stacy were concerned. Hope felt it might be time to tell Stacy what she knew. She prayed for guidance. “You know, if there’s smoke, there’s usually fire. What would you do if, you know, there is truth to the rumors about him and Darius?”

“There’s no truth to them,” Stacy shot back. “And even if there is, it will all be over once I give Darius the one thing Bo can’t.” She patted her stomach for the confirmation her voice didn’t quite convey.

“I hope you’re right,” Hope answered.

“I don’t believe it anyway,” Stacy said, trying to convince herself yet again. “Gay men don’t screw women the way Darius does me.”

“But he might be bi, Stacy. I never told you this but Frieda—”

Stacy held up her hand. “I don’t want to hear it, Hope. Whatever Frieda thinks she knows is probably nothing I haven’t already heard. Darius loves me; I know he’ll do the right thing when he hears about his child.”

Even though both Stacy and Hope had lost their appetites, they took a moment and tried to enjoy the delicious Thai dishes before them.

Stacy barely touched her food. Hope’s life fascinated her; the only woman Stacy knew who had actually gotten who she wanted. Cy had been one of LA’s most eligible bachelors, and definitely KCCC’s prize, until Hope came along. Now Darius occupied that spot. And Stacy wanted to do what Hope had done…get her man.

“I know some might not agree with what I did,” Stacy continued. “I know you probably think I should have waited on God, like you did. But what happened to you doesn’t happen everyday, Hope. The Cinderella story comes along maybe once in a lifetime.”

“Yes, I wish you’d trusted God,” Hope agreed. “But it’s not my place to judge you.”

“I appreciate that, Hope, I really do,” Stacy said, her eyes once again filling with tears. “And can you do one more thing? Can you pray for me?”

Later that evening, Stacy watched the doorknob turn as Darius unlocked it with the key Stacy had given him months before. Tuesdays had unofficially become their night, the one night when Darius was almost always free. She tried to see him two to three times a week but if he only had one night to spare, Tuesdays was it.

Stacy had taken time with a simple yet hopefully delicious dinner, and Darius’s reaction did not disappoint. “Baby,” he said, taking her in his arms and kissing her soundly. “Something smells delicious.”

Stacy relished his kiss before responding. “Nothing too fancy; just some oven-baked barbeque chicken, baked potatoes, and a salad.”

Darius plopped down on the couch. “Well, I’m starved.” He leaned his head on the back of the couch as the familiar sounds of cooking—cabinets opening and closing, pot lids being lifted and replaced—along with those of the smooth jazz radio station filled the air.
Those are two things they have in common,
Darius thought, remembering the many nights he listened contentedly while Bo prepared a delicious meal.
Cooking and me.

A frown crossed his face as thoughts of Bo and Stacy occupied his mind. Thanksgiving was weeks away; he had to tell Stacy about his plans to be out of town. Knowing how upset she’d be once she learned these plans included Bo, Darius had decided to tell her it was business, a record promotion his label had sprung on him at the last minute. He hoped a trip to Big Bear for Christmas would make his Thanksgiving no-show a bit more palatable.

Soon the sound of clanging pots and pans was replaced by the tinkling of forks hitting plates and barbeque sauce being licked off fingers.

“This is good,” Darius said, reaching for another piece of chicken and placing more salad on his plate. “Sweet and spicy, just how I like it.”

“Hmm,” Stacy answered. “And the chicken is good too.”

Darius laughed. He really did like Stacy. Sometimes he wondered how he could have met two people so different yet so perfect for him in their own way. Stacy gave him a feminine touch, and an accepted look in the eyes of the public, and Bo gave him, well, Bo gave him everything else. Darius was so excited about spending the holiday with his lover. He knew he might as well bite the bullet and deliver the news to Stacy.

“I’ve got some news to tell you,” he began, leaning back in his chair and wiping his mouth with a napkin. “And you’re not going to like it.”

Stacy leaned back in her chair as well. “Okay, where are you going and why can’t I go with you?”

Darius laughed. “Has Dionne Warwick been by here, girl? You probably know where I’m going.”

“I didn’t need the psychic network for that one.” Stacy got up from the table and began clearing away dishes. Darius joined her.

“There are only two things that work my nerves about us: your busy travel schedule and the amount of time you spend with Bo.”

“Aw, hell. Well, I guess I’d better not tell you the second part of the news then.”

“Don’t tell me he’s going with you. Why can’t I go? Last year I couldn’t go to your grandmother’s, and the whacked reason you gave for not inviting me? That she wasn’t very sociable to couples who weren’t married. And now this?”

“He’s my business manager, baby. And it’s not just him: one of the label execs, his assistant, and a promotions manager are also going. All this travel isn’t as glamorous as it sounds. Interviews and signings all day, and playing crowded, smoky clubs at night.”

“Yeah,” Stacy said sarcastically. “Sounds horrible, like surgery even.”

“Well, not that bad.” Darius came up behind Stacy as she placed dishes in the dishwasher. He licked the outside of her ear, one of her sensitive spots.

“Stop,” Stacy said, only half serious. “You want dessert? I made chocolate cookies with pecans.”

“Yes, Stacy Gray, I want dessert. Only thing is…you’re all the chocolate I need and I have my own nuts.”

Stacy laughed. “You’re silly.” Darius continued his oral assault, gliding his tongue down her ear, nibbling her neck, and placing love bites on her shoulders. All the while he performed a slow grind as she stood entrapped between him and the kitchen sink.

Stacy grabbed a plate of cookies and Darius’s hand. “In case we get hungry later,” she said.

Once in her bedroom, the seduction continued. Darius eased Stacy out of her pants and planted whispery kisses along her inner thighs. He continued the trail across her slim hips, around her navel, along each breast and finally a deep, thorough plundering of her mouth.

“Darius, baby,” she whispered between kisses. “I want to go on this trip with you. I miss you too much when you’re away. I promise not to be a bother. I can hang out in your hotel room and then come to the concerts at night.”

With three in the bed, it might get rather crowded.
“Next time, love. I promise, the next full concert we do out of town, you can come with me.”
Oh, God, why did I just promise that? Bo’s gonna have my ass!

“I guess that will have to be okay,” Stacy said, beginning her own oral orientation of Darius’s body. She tugged at each of his nipples until they hardened, then stopped suddenly. “When is this trip?”

“Thanksgiving,” Darius muttered.

Stacy stopped foreplay and sat up. “You’re joking, right?”

“No, baby, it’s a holiday promotion. You know Shabach’s been working overtime since he lost out to me at the Stellars. I’m number one in gospel right now and he can’t stand it. I gotta keep up the momentum, Stacy.”

“I understand that. Shabach’s been all over the place: radio, TV, Internet. But they won’t understand you bringing your girlfriend along on a
holiday
?”

“They specifically discussed no one bringing significant others. They want us to be focused. We’re hitting like, five, six cities in seven days…. They want us to—”

“You’re going to be gone a week? Through your birthday too?”

“I know, baby, it sucks, big time. Which is why I’ve planned something special to make it up to you.”

Stacy was in full pout mode: lips out, arms crossed. “What?”

“This.” Darius rolled over and took an envelope from the nightstand; the envelope idea inspired by Bo’s Canadian trip gift to him two weeks earlier.

“What’s this?” Stacy’s response matched Darius’s to Bo’s exactly when Bo had sprung their Thanksgiving vacation on him.

“Open it and find out.” Exactly what Bo had said. The similarities would have been almost laughable if they weren’t so scary.

Inside the linen, gold emblem-sealed envelope was a brochure, and on the cover a beautiful scene of a snow-covered mountain, transposed above another scene of a roaring fireplace in a cozy suite. Across the top of the brochure, the calligraphed words: “Big Bear.”

“We’re going to Big Bear?” Stacy asked.

“No, I thought I’d give the trip to my mother but wanted to see how you liked the brochure,” Darius responded sarcastically. His smile lessened the bite however, as did his hand drawing lazy figure eights across Stacy’s thigh.

Stacy slapped him playfully with the pamphlet. “Smart butt.” She pulled out the remaining contents of the envelope and found brochures on skiing, hot air balloon rides, a business card for a limousine service, and a paper Christmas tree.

Stacy yelped. “Christmas! We’re spending Christmas together! Okay, you exasperating man,” she said, rolling on top of Darius and wrestling him playfully. “You’ve just made up for me having to eat turkey with the crazy Grays.

“You know I’ve lived in California my whole life and never gone to Big Bear? And I’ve only seen snow once, when we visited one of my uncles who lived in Indiana. Hope and Cy went to Big Bear last year. She said it was beautiful. I really admire them,” Stacy continued as she scanned the various brochures. “Hope and Cy. They have the type of relationship I wish, well, never mind.”

“You wish we had, is that what you were going to say?”

“Yes, it is. I love you, Darius. I want to spend my life with you. Is that wrong?”

“No, Stacy, it’s not wrong. I love you too. And I like Hope and Cy,” he said, the businessman in him instantly thinking of ways he could network with the church’s most prosperous multimillionaire. “Maybe we can have dinner with them sometime, rub shoulders with somebody who has it all.”

“Okay, baby,” she said. “I’ll set something up the next time I talk with Hope.”

“Well, I’ve got something up right now,” Darius countered as he took Stacy’s hand and wrapped it around his hardened shaft. “Can we do something about that?”

“Mm,” Stacy purred as she straddled him. “I definitely think we can.”

Lavon felt horrible. He’d avoided Passion for two weeks, hiding behind the production of the Kingdom Keys series. But she deserved better. He only hoped she would forgive him after he told her what she needed to know.

Passion’s bright smile as he entered the hotel lobby’s coffee shop tugged at Lavon’s heart. He liked to think of himself as a decent man, as one who had put his player days behind him. He knew Passion was ready to trade in her celibate status for sex with him, but it couldn’t happen. What he had with Carla wasn’t over. It would make life simpler for him to have the feelings and attraction for Passion that he had for Carla, but this was not the case. He felt that this conversation would at least set one thing right.

“Hey, Perfected Passion,” he said, kissing Passion lightly on the cheek before sitting down.

“Hey, yourself,” Passion responded. She’d hoped for a steamier greeting, but it was the middle of the day in a coffee shop after all. She was using her lunch hour to meet with Lavon; he’d said it was the only time he had. “I’ve missed you.”

Lavon forced himself not to squirm. “With only a few weeks until I return home, the schedule is crazy.”

“How’s it going, the production? I’m really enjoying Pastor’s sermons, can already see how this series could be one for every believer’s library.”

“Oh, definitely. Dr. Lee can preach
and
teach. That’s one of the things that makes production difficult—hard to find where to cut anything out. But I think everyone will be pleased with the final result.”

They took a moment as the waiter came over. Passion ordered a turkey sandwich, Lavon, black coffee.

“C’mon now, big man like you has to keep up his energy. You sure you’re not hungry? My treat…” Passion lifted her eyebrows suggestively while a smile kept the atmosphere light.

“I had a big breakfast,” was Lavon’s reply. That his breakfast had included Carla assuaging all of his appetites was the tidbit left unsaid. He turned the conversation to the reason he’d agreed to meet with her.

“Passion, I’m here to ask for your forgiveness,” he began sincerely. “I’ve taken this friendship farther than it ever should have gone.”

Passion’s heart sank. “Lavon, we’re both adults. I think what’s happening here is what we both want.”

“That’s just it, Passion. Nothing is happening here. I mean, nothing
else
can happen here, between us. I feel that I took advantage of you by acting like a free man, when I’m really not.”

When Lavon had agreed to lunch, this is not what Passion had expected. Not this conversation—in fact, not much conversation at all. She’d held out hope that lunch would be ordered through room service, with a dessert that wasn’t on the menu.

“Is this about your girl back in Kansas?” Passion was surprised at the hurt she felt, even as Lavon’s honesty impressed her. “Y’all been talking?”

Lavon spoke a simple truth. “My heart is elsewhere, Passion. And you’re a good woman. It’s not fair to keep going down this road. I overstepped my bounds by spending the night with you. The liberties I took were inappropriate, even though we didn’t have sex.”

Passion remembered Lavon’s hands under her nightgown, rubbing and massaging her bare skin before he’d rolled over and away from her to the other side of the bed.

“I understand,” she said. But she didn’t, not really. Being celibate and righteous didn’t feel good at the moment. She regretted passing up the opportunity for a torrid night of love, one that may have led to a future with Lavon. But maybe it wasn’t too late….

“I envy the woman in Kansas,” she continued truthfully. “I wish it were me. But I appreciate your being a man and coming correct like this before my heart really got twisted.”

“Any man will thank his lucky stars to get a woman like you, Passion. I mean that. Another day, another time, who knows what may have happened. But the situation is what it is. I’m sorry.”

Passion reached for Lavon’s hand. “Don’t apologize, Lavon. We can’t always control our feelings, or our heart. And as much as I want you, I’m willing to respect your decision.”

Even as she said these words, Passion envisioned a lifetime with the man in front of her. She didn’t want to totally close the door. “But does this mean we can’t be friends?”

“That won’t be difficult for you? I don’t want to play with your feelings.”

“I’m a big girl. Let me handle my heart, okay?”

Lavon looked at his watch. It was time to head to the church for an afternoon of production. “Let’s just play it by ear, Passion. At least I’ll see you at church, right?”

As kindly as they’d been spoken, Lavon’s words felt like a dismissal. Passion stood, as did Lavon.

“Of course, I’ll see you at Logos. Take care of yourself,” she said, giving him a hug. She left the coffee shop without looking back.