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I felt like I had been sucked dry by the time Cherise finally collapsed on my chest, her head next to Elise’s.

“Who’s ready for round two?” she asked, laughing softly.

“Not yet,” I whispered. I could feel my heartbeat in my dick. It was almost painful, especially with Cherise’s pussy still contracting around me.

She finally slid off me and took the condom off. I opened my eyes enough to watch her disappear down the stairs. I turned and smiled at Elise who lay curled up beside me, her head on my chest.

“Y’all do this often?”

“This is my first time,” I confessed.

“How long have you two been together?”

“Almost two months.”
Technically, six weeks was almost two months, right?

“Seems like longer.” She smiled, then gave me a soft little kiss.

She was right, though; it did seem like longer.

The rest of the night passed in a tangled daze until I couldn’t move, and they went downstairs to shower together. By the time I woke up, Elise was gone and Cherise was downstairs frying what smelled like bacon.

I grabbed my clothes and eased down the stairs, slipping into the bathroom for a quick shower. Cherise had breakfast on the table by the time I came out.

“What time did Elise leave?”

“Early. She had to go to work.” She set a cup of coffee on the table in front of me and kissed the back of my neck.

Somewhere in my sleep and sex-fogged brain, it registered that she’d put sugar and cream in it for me.

“You okay?” She tilted my head back and let her hands slide down my chest. There was no missing the worried expression on her face.

“You mean last night? That was some pretty amazing shit.”

Laughing, she forced me to scoot my chair out and fell into my lap. All she had on under her tiny robe was a pair of white panties, and she smelled sweet, like oranges.

“Think you might want to do it again sometime?”

“Hell yeah.” I reached up under her robe, part of me amazed I could even think about sex after the way we’d gone at it last night.

“Why, you nasty boy,” she said, grinning.

“I’m
your
nasty boy, though.”

She practically purred with pleasure at that, and breakfast got cold while we had a quickie in the kitchen. Afterward, she hopped in the shower again while I stood at the counter, eating my reheated eggs.

The first time I’d been in Cherise’s apartment, I’d been too busy trying to get her panties off to pay attention to my surroundings. Then we always seemed to end up at my place, so I hadn’t been back over here since that first time.

This time I took stock, carefully.

The neutral, apartment-grade carpet.

The worn navy couch we’d fucked on the first time. It still had a little life left in it, and it matched the chair upstairs.

The television and the table it sat on, both spotlessly clean. Frowning, I double-checked to make sure my first impression had been right. Not one picture decorated the walls; not one photograph sat propped in a frame on the television; and the homey touches, the silk flowers on the end tables, seemed generic and almost disposable.

There were no photos. Not upstairs, or I would have remembered. Not downstairs. None. Anywhere.

.

“W
hat are you doing on Monday?” I stood at the door, ready to leave. After putting Mom and Dad off for weeks—no mean feat when you work for your dad—he’d cornered me, insisting I come for lunch today and plan on spending the afternoon.

Even though I’d suggested she come with me, Cherise’s good mood had vanished when I’d told her why I had to go. And she’d said no. “Working.” She adjusted the framed 5 X 7 photo on top of the TV stand.

I’d given it to her last night for our two-month anniversary. She’d tried to act like she didn’t care, but she didn’t fool me. Not the way she kept looking at it and messing with it. Her reaction had convinced me that I was on the right track with her—at least as far as figuring out what made her tick. Even though I still hadn’t figured out why she had no pictures and why she had an aversion to family.

“Monday’s a holiday,” I reminded her. “I’m pretty sure neither of us has to work, ’cause Aunt Glo does a huge-ass Labor Day barbecue at her place and invites like half of Houston.”

“Oh…oh, yeah. She mentioned it.” She finally finished adjusting the photo to her liking before turning to face me.

When she didn’t say anything else, I pushed on. “Want to go with me?”

“And, like, meet your family and shit? No thanks. Besides, I’m supposed to go to Lexi’s I think.”

“’K, then.” Swallowing my disappointment, I crossed the room to give her another kiss good-bye. Before I’d even taken a step, she asked if I wanted to go with her. “You do realize missing Aunt Glo’s barbecue is punishable by death in my family?” I teased.

“Would it kill you to do something different?” Her shoulders were stiff under my hands.

“No.” But I’d have to think about it. Blowing off a major family event could have serious repercussions and involve a shitload of nagging. “What do you have against family get-togethers?”

“I just don’t want to spend my day off with Vivi.” She shrugged off my arms and took a step back, forcing me to release her.

Fair enough, but I didn’t believe for a minute that’s all there was to it.

“So, you’re not coming with me?”

“I might. I might not.” I didn’t like being pushed, not even by Cherise.

Cherise had been wrong; the barbecue was at her friend Lanie’s.

Okay, so I didn’t
exactly
blow off Aunt Glo’s barbecue. I just left early and ignored Vivi’s demands to know where I was going. She’d have a complete and teetotal bitch fit if she knew about Cherise. Just for her, I made up some BS about meeting Kevin, knowing she’d drop the subject immediately.

Leaning back in the patio chair, I glanced through the kitchen window to where Cherise and her three friends were getting the last of dinner together. The sun was almost gone, but the pool light made up for it.

“You do know what they’re doing in there, don’t you?” Devon asked. Carlotta’s boyfriend was a riot. Even in Dockers and a polo shirt he looked like a computer geek, which made the occasional observations he threw out even funnier. As couples went, he and Carlotta probably looked like they went together about as well as Cherise and I did.

“Huh?”

From my other side Wade snickered. “Getting the dirt on you.”

“Oh, shit,” I muttered, and took a sip of my beer.

Both men laughed, and inside, all the women did, too, almost as if they’d heard Wade. He was Lexi’s boyfriend, and they both worked construction. Lanie, apparently, was the only one solo tonight since her boyfriend was out of town on business.

“Speaking of dirt, the rumor is you and Carlotta are moving in together,” Wade said.

“I
should
neither confirm nor deny that rumor,” Devon began when Wade and I both interrupted him laughing. “But, yes, it’s true.”

“Congratulations,” I murmured, still laughing to myself.

The women trooped out, their hands loaded with bowls and paper plates. Wade pulled the steaks off the grill, and Cherise collapsed in my lap before I could even offer to help.

“How am I supposed to eat with you blocking me?”

Turning, she wrapped an arm around my neck. “I’ll feed you, honey.”

“What are you gonna feed me?” I gave her an evil grin and ogled the cleavage almost directly under my chin.

“Now, now, none of that,” Lanie said. “If I can’t get lucky in my own house tonight, no one else damn sure is.”

“My place or yours?” I asked once we were back on the 610 Loop.

“Yours.” She put the seat back and closed her eyes.

My thoughts and John Mayer for company, I left her alone most of the way home except to occasionally glance at her out of the corner of my eye. Cherise had a smudge of barbecue sauce on her white tank top.

“Why do you keep looking at me?” she muttered, lowering her sunglasses.

“When’s your birthday?”

“December.” She sighed.

“What day?”

A semi blew by on my left-hand side, blowing its horn.

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want you gettin’ all pissed at me if I forget. I can’t forget if I don’t know…. You know what I mean.”

“All right.” She put the seat up and ran a hand through her hair. “My favorite color is pink, which is a no-brainer even for a guy. My favorite flowers are zinnias. I wear a thirty-six D bra and size six panties. I sunbathe topless, usually at Lanie’s house on Sunday afternoons with the girls, and I don’t know when my birthday is. Happy now?”

Shock forced my foot off the gas. “Hap—how the hell can you not know when your birthday is?” I frowned at her, then forced myself to focus on the heavy traffic again as I took the exit for my apartment.

“I wasn’t born in Texas.” She sounded matter-of-fact but angry, like she could start an argument with me any second. And maybe even wanted to.

“What the hell does that have to do with…If I was smart, I’d drop it,” I said, almost to myself.

We eased up to a red light, and I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye. Her jaw was twitching, and she had her arms crossed over her chest again. She licked her lips and glanced out the passenger window just as the light turned green.

With a monster truck behind me, I had no choice but to go. Once we were in the elevator on the way up to my loft, I cornered her. “Look—”

“Drop it, D.”

“I care about you, and whether you like it or not, that means I want to know about you.”

“Maybe I don’t want you to know about me.” She stood in the corner, glaring at me.

The elevator eased to a stop, and I went to stand next to her.

“You want me to take you home?” I asked as the doors slid open. My gut twisted. I hoped like hell she’d say no.

“That’s okay. It’s late.” She stepped out of the elevator and I followed.

Cherise didn’t speak again until she’d stripped down to her thong and climbed into bed. She had all the pillows tucked behind her head and the sheets pulled up to her chin. “I was in foster care.”

I sank down on the bed beside her. “I’m sorry—”

“Fuck your pity.”

“Fuck you! I was apologizing for being nosy, goddamnit!” I yanked my T-shirt over my head and threw it in the corner, then headed for the shower, hoping she’d calm down by the time I got out.

The bedroom was dark, and Cherise was curled up on her side, a fist tucked under her chin. I stood beside the bed, water dripping down my back, and stared at her, trying to figure out if she was really asleep or not. The air conditioner kicking on forced me to finish drying off and get dressed. I curled up next to her and kissed her bare back.

If someone had told me back in June that this was going to be the longest, hottest summer of my life, I would have laughed at them or thought they were just talking about the weather. But as the weeks had flown by, piling up on each other, I’d found myself sucked deeper and deeper into Cherise’s world. At the same time, I never seemed to get any closer to her, and that bothered me…a lot.

But at least now I knew why.

Rolling away, I stretched out on my back and watched the lights from an adjacent building play across the ceiling.

“You’re awful quiet.” She rolled over to face me but couldn’t seem to look at me. Her forehead pressed against my arm.

“So are you.” Matter of fact, she’d been quiet all day. Not that she was normally a talker to begin with, but today was different in a way I couldn’t quite put my finger on, and our mini-fight hadn’t helped.

“You want me, you’re gonna have to take me as I am, D’Angelo.”

I’d already figured that out. “Just give me a chance, okay? That’s all I’m asking.”

She snuggled against me, naked, warm, and sweet. “Hungry?”

“Hell no. Between Lanie’s barbecue and Aunt Glo’s ribs, I’ll be stuffed for a week.”

“You too stuffed to fool around?” she asked, running a hand up my leg.

“Never.”

W
hoever was lying next to me didn’t feel or smell like Cherise. I forced my eyes open, my belly clenching in fear at what I’d find.

On the contrary, she was a tiny black girl. I knew her name but couldn’t quite wrap my head around it.

When Cherise said I had to take her as she was, I didn’t realize that meant things would get progressively crazier. Here it was, not even two weeks after our Labor Day spat and I’d let her talk me into what could only be called an orgy. The details were sketchy but there had been five of us last night.

I shifted my legs, then tried to roll over and realized I couldn’t. There was another body wedged at my back, and I hoped like hell it was a woman.

Trista…Tawny…Whatever her name was, the girl in front of me wriggled her bottom against me, but my poor dick didn’t even twitch.

My arm was stuck under the pillow cradling her head.
How the hell am I going to free myself? Get out of this bed?
Panic set in quickly, but I forced it back, forced myself to stay calm. I shifted the tiniest bit, relieved to see Cherise on the far edge of the king-size bed. I was in a hotel room, and pieces of the previous night came drifting back in a way that made me wince.

Besides the black girl, there was a couple separating Cherise and me. A young, very good-looking couple we’d met up with at the bar last night. And the first time we’d ever just gone with strangers.

I’d spanked her, the pretty redhead curled up against her husband now. I’d spanked her last night, and then, at her husband’s encouragement, fucked her in the ass. Never mind that she’d liked it, or that, at the time I’d liked it, too, the thought that I’d fucked a married woman while her husband had watched and gotten off on it made me slightly queasy now.

I tiptoed across the floor, which was littered with clothes and condom wrappers, and finally located my clothes and shoes, except for my underwear, which was nowhere to be found. Movement from one of the bodies in the bed propelled me out the door without them and without Cherise. Easing the door closed, I winced at the chill of the wet concrete under my feet.

It had rained last night, the type of rain that left everything fresh and clean, or as fresh and clean as Houston ever got. That only made me feel worse. Hell, from the sound of it even the fucking birds were happy.

I eased down the stairs to the sidewalk while rubbing my aching head and wondering where the hell I’d parked my car. Disengaging the alarm helped me find it. I gave a prayer of thanks I hadn’t wrecked it or killed someone, because I’d been in no shape to drive last night.

I’d never been so relieved to be home. I locked the door and turned off the phone’s ringer, then stripped and showered. I’d have to take my clothes to the basement laundry room later today. I didn’t feel right washing those clothes in my mother’s washer. I was too embarrassed to see her right now anyway, or my dad.

By the time I climbed out of the shower, all the hot water was gone, but I didn’t feel much better. I brushed my teeth three times, gargled twice, then threw on some pajama bottoms Mom had gotten me for Christmas. Under the cool, clean sheets of my own bed, I stretched out and tried to force myself to sleep. It was almost impossible with the scratches on my back stinging and a raging hangover. It only got worse as more bits and pieces of last night came back to me, and I realized just how far down I’d let Cherise drag me. Yeah, I knew I’d let her. I was just as responsible as her.

And no, hell no, I didn’t feel bad for leaving Cherise behind. She was a big girl and could take care of herself, probably better than I could. Okay, I felt a little bad after the fact, but all I’d been able to think about was getting the hell out of that hotel room.

I’d just dozed off when a pounding at the door had me grumpily sliding from the bed. In my disoriented, half-asleep, blind-from-late-morning-sunshine state, I hadn’t even figured out who it was when they pushed their way inside, hollering at the top of their lungs. “Man, where the fuck you been? You don’t call, you don’t write? What’s a brother gotta do?”

Kevin.

Fatigue, a hangover, and remorse weighing heavily on me, I slumped against the wall and pushed the door closed. Rubbing my eyes, I forced myself to focus on my friend.

Kevin headed for the couch, his mouth working nonstop. “Fuckin’ even your mama don’t know where you are anymore. Not that she’d tell me if she did. She hates my ass.” His grin slowly disappeared as he looked me over.

I shuffled into the living room behind him and pretty much fell into the leather easy chair, at a loss for words. “I think I’m in trouble,” I muttered.

“Well you look like shit. What’d that white chick do to you?”

“She’s a fucking freak. A major freak,” I croaked, sinking deeper in the chair, “and, apparently, so am I.”

“Aw hell,” he drawled. He sat up and propped his elbows on his knees, ready to hear every dirty detail.

“Be right back.” I got us both a Coke from the fridge and three ibuprofen for my head, then filled him in on just how far I’d sunk. By the time I finished, it even sounded bad to me. Worse than bad. Though I wasn’t really sure what qualified as worse than bad.

“You had sex with three other people? With
another man
?” Seeing Kevin speechless was almost worth my misery.

“Four,” I said hoarsely, part of me glad I couldn’t remember everything that had happened the previous night. “And technically I just had sex with another man
in the room
.” With another man’s wife and probably another woman.

Kevin burped, excused himself, and then scrubbed at his forehead with the palm of his hand before smoothing it across his bald head. A sure sign of frustration. “I don’t know whether to high-five your ass or chew you out! So you like this chick?”

“Yeah,” I said thoughtfully. Right then, I wished I didn’t like her so much.

“Doesn’t sound good.”

“I can’t figure out how to get out of this shit-hole mess I’m in.” As much as I wanted Cherise, I
didn’t
want her life. Which didn’t leave me with many alternatives.

“Dump her,” Kevin suggested.

“Don’t want to, that’s the problem.”

She was my drug now, my drug of choice, but maybe a few days away would help me put things in perspective.