Gentlemen Prefer Curves: A Perfect Fit Novel (12 page)

“Why the hell do you think I got into a fight? Last time I hit anybody I was twenty-two.”

“Your clothes are wrinkled and your cheek is bruised.”

He reached up to touch his face, gingerly feeling the place where Belinda’s hand had landed.

“Belinda,” he mumbled.

“Belinda did that?”

“Yeah.”

Steven blinked at him. “You’re telling me Belinda, the woman you secretly married and didn’t bother to tell me about until two years after it happened, hit you?”

He nodded once. He hadn’t told Steven about Belinda until long after she’d left. He had planned to. He had planned to introduce his friend to her when they came to Durant to visit her parents, but that trip never happened and he couldn’t bring himself to tell his friend that he had failed at another marriage so soon after Bethany. So he kept Belinda a secret from Steven until his old friend told him about his own broken engagement.

“She hit you hard enough to leave a mark.”

“I might have deserved it.”

“You probably did, man.” He came closer, studying him and shaking his head. “You never were very smooth with women. You should have paid closer attention to how I worked when we went out all those years ago.”

“Oh, yes,” he said drily. “How could I not have learned from the master of the shitty pickup line? Gems like, ‘Are you a parking ticket? Because you’ve got fine written all over you.’ And my favorite: ‘If beauty were time, you would be eternity.’ A lot of good those did you. You’re still single.”

“By choice and I’ll have you know I do okay, but you would know that if you ever hung out with me.”

Steven was right—he always did okay with women. He looked like a young Harry Belafonte. He was tall, good-looking, successful. It always surprised Carter that his friend had never settled down.

“Hey, I’m working with you now. We hang out every day.”

“No we don’t. We need to hang out at night with women and have drinks, and not talk about work or your kid.”

“I thought you liked my kid.”

“I do, cutest damn kid on the planet, but she’s all you talk about or think about.”

“No, she’s not,” he said, not even believing himself.

“Yeah, that’s right. You think about Belinda now, too.”

“Why didn’t you tell me she was back in town?”

Steven shrugged. “It never came up and I thought you already knew she lived here. Besides we haven’t talked much since Ruby came around. The last thing I wanted to do is talk about your ex-wife.”

“She’s not my ex. She’s my current.”

“What?” He shook his head. “Shit, man. Do you mean you’re still married? Why haven’t you divorced her yet?”

“I don’t know,” he said truthfully. She could have been gone from his life long ago, but he could never bring himself to end things.

“You slept with her today, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, I did.”

“She’s beautiful”—Steven patted him on the shoulder—“and her ass is amazing. I understand why you slept with her. Hell, I applaud you for actually getting a woman that hot to sleep with you, but I never understood why you married her. She … She doesn’t fit with you.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Belinda grew up here. She went to school with my sister. Her dad may have been a pro ballplayer and her mother a model, but they are decent folks with humble beginnings. They raised Belinda to be humble to work hard for what she’s got.”

“And you’re saying my parents raised me to be a rich asshole?”

“Well … kind of. You aren’t, but if they’d had their way you wouldn’t be the man you are now. You would have still been married to Bethany, living in San Francisco, and working for your father. We would have never been friends.” He shook his head as if trying to make sense of it all. “I’ve been to your parents’ house, I visited you in San Francisco, and I know I couldn’t hack it in your world. I knew this black kid from Durant, New York, with a bus driver father and a scholarship was never going to be good enough.”

The hairs on the back of his neck stood up. “Were my parents unkind to you?”

“Not openly. But I knew if they had their choice they wouldn’t have chosen me to be your best friend.” He shook his head again. “Never mind. I didn’t mean to get into this.”

“No. I want to know. Belinda said they were nasty to her. I never knew. I guess I just didn’t pay enough attention.”

“I don’t want to speak poorly about your parents, but I can believe they treated her like shit. She’s the last girl they would have ever picked for you, especially after Bethany.”

“Is that why you never came to visit me in San Francisco? Because of my parents?”

“It wasn’t just your parents. It was you, too. You were different there. You were uptight and unhappy and I didn’t want that shit rubbing off on me. I’m much better looking when I’m happy and relaxed.”

“Thanks. Your support overwhelms me.”

Steven grinned at him briefly. “I don’t know what went down between you and Belinda exactly, but I’m on your side. Just think about what it was like for her to live in your world. Think about what it must’ve felt like for her to come face-to-face with a kid you had with another woman.”

“I— Are you her lawyer or something?”

“No. But I can tell that you still got something for her. It’s not like with Bethany. There’s a reason you never divorced her.”

“And that reason is that I’m stupid and was too preoccupied with my kid and my job to get it done.”

Steven shrugged and began to walk away. “Keep telling yourself that but you should know that she’s been single since she’s been back,” he said over his shoulder. “And you have been single since she left you. If you don’t get her soon, some other man will, and instead of you getting to spend some more quality time with that amazing ass some other man will. Just saying.”

He left then, and Carter sat there unable to form coherent thoughts for a moment. Get Belinda back? He wasn’t sure that was possible. There was too much hurt between them.

CHAPTER 7

All I ever wanted …

Belinda sat on the couch in a daze. She couldn’t make herself move. Her body wouldn’t let her. She could still feel him. His mouth on hers. His body between her legs. His hands all over her. She should have stopped him. She should have kicked him out. She should have never let him in. But she didn’t do any of that.

Her phone rang and she blindly reached over to her side table. “Hello?” She felt shaky. Her voice didn’t sound like her own.

“Belinda?” It was Ellis. “Are you … I’m coming over right now. Don’t go anywhere.”

Ellis hung up and Belinda finally dragged herself off the couch and into her bathroom. She had to at least wash Carter off her before she faced her friend. But she was afraid there wasn’t enough water in the world.

Ellis didn’t even bother to knock before she came into her house ten minutes later. She had a key to use for emergencies, and for her this must have been one. “Belinda?” she called, but Belinda didn’t have the energy to answer. She sat on the closed toilet seat, trying not to think about Carter but failing miserably.

It was Cherri who opened the door. Her eyes filled with tears when she saw her. “What happened?”

Ellis pushed past Cherri and knelt before Belinda. “You’ve been crying. Are you hurt?” Ellis asked calmly, but there was no denying the worry in her eyes.

She shook her head. “I had sex with him.” She didn’t mean to worry her friends, but she was shocked at her stupidity.

“Come on, Belinda. Let’s get out of here and talk.” She turned to Cherri. “I think we are going to need some reinforcements.”

“I’ll order pizza with the works. And double fudge brownies. Does that sound good?”

“That sounds perfect.” Ellis tried to lead her to her couch but Belinda wouldn’t let her. She couldn’t sit there. Not where she’d had sex with him. Not so soon. Maybe not ever.

“Dining room, please.”

“Oh. Oh! Mikey and I had sex for the first time on my couch, too. I couldn’t look at it for weeks without blushing. Even now I get a little excited when we sit on it sometimes.”

“Oh, Ellis! Gross.”

“What?” Cherri appeared behind them, her phone still in her hand.

“Nothing. Ellis is just the queen of TMI.”

“I may be the queen of TMI. But you’re the queen of no information at all. I think it’s past time that you spilled your guts to us.”

She eased herself into a chair. Ellis and Cherri took seats on either side of her. It was past time she told them her story. She knew that. She just didn’t know how to explain to them something she couldn’t wrap her head around herself. “Carter came over. We got in an argument. I hit him. He kissed me and then we had sex on my couch.”

“You actually hit him?” Cherri’s eyes bulged a little.

“Bastard probably had it coming,” Ellis huffed. “Start from the beginning, Belinda. How do you know this guy?”

“He came to my store looking for a gift for his mother and he asked me out. At first I didn’t want to go out with him. Carter is…” She shook her head. “He’s different from every other guy I have dated.”

“He’s gorgeous,” Cherri said. “He reminds me of Cary Grant.”

Ellis spun to face Cherri. “You’ve seen him?”

“Yeah, I was with Belinda when she bumped into him at the park.”

“And you didn’t tell me?”

“It wasn’t my place to tell you.”

Ellis made a little miffed sound before she turned back to Belinda. “Go on.”

“He’s a Lancaster,” she said as if that explained everything. “His grandfather was a senator. And he’s from old money. He’s serious and super focused and really quiet and we had nothing in common, but there was something about him. I felt like there was a whole other man on the inside that was trying to get out. So I went out with him. He took me to this little hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant where we drank three-dollar margaritas and shared nachos.”

“He sounds cheap,” Ellis said, rolling her eyes.

Belinda shrugged. “Maybe he was but I was glad we went there. I would have felt out of place if he had taken me somewhere fancy. He made me nervous enough as it was, and I babbled on like an idiot that night. I talked for two hours straight and I was sure when he dropped me off that night I was never going to see him again. I wasn’t sure why he’d asked me out in the first place.”

“Because you’re beautiful and sexy,” Ellis said.

“Because you’re smart and funny and you’ve got an ass that no man can keep his eyes off,” Cherri added.

“He told me he liked me that night. He, who barely said two words all night, told me that if he didn’t see me again he would regret it for the rest of his life.”

“That sounds so sweet,” Cherri gushed.

“It sounds like a line,” Ellis said.

“It was sweet,” she admitted. “And I reached up and kissed him and before I knew it I was inviting him to stay. I couldn’t get rid of him after that. I didn’t want to. I had this quiet, beautiful man who wanted to be with me all the time. I thought it was just for the sex, which was amazing, but a month into seeing each other he was watching me get dressed and he asked me to marry him.”

“Had you just had sex?” Ellis asked. “Men always do crazy things after good sex. How do you think I get my husband to take me to the garment district?”

“No, that’s the thing. We hadn’t had sex that day. I was getting ready to meet his parents for the first time when he looked up at me and said, ‘I’m glad you’re meeting my parents today. I want them to meet the woman I’m going to marry.’ I looked at him for a second and before I even got the chance to think, he asked me to marry him. I said yes and I knew as soon I did that it was a mistake. But I loved him, or I thought I did. And instead of meeting his parents for lunch we went to the courthouse.”

“Oh, Belinda.” Ellis reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “It took you three years to decide your college major. Four months to pick out a car. Two years to pick out this place. You never move so quickly.”

“I know. I should have said no, but I thought I might never find a man who made me as happy as he did.”

“What happened?” Cherri asked.

“A lot of things. His mother hated me on sight, told me that I wasn’t good enough for her son, that the only thing I saw in him was dollar signs. She and her husband offered me half a million dollars to leave him.”

Ellis shut her eyes. “I hope you let her have it. I hope you verbally tore her a new one.”

“I didn’t. I wanted to make things work. I didn’t want to be the reason that Carter and his mother didn’t get along. I simply told her she was wrong and that I had everything I ever wanted from Carter.”

“What did Carter say when you told him?” Cherri asked.

“I never told him. Not even when she sent a check to my job. I mailed it back to her, which only seemed to make her hate me more. At first I didn’t understand why Carter married me. It wasn’t for love. He never once said he loved me. I think he did it to get back at his parents. Things were never easy between them, and I represented everything they hated. He’s a little bit of a rebel in his own way. He didn’t go into the family business. He’s got tattoos. He almost doesn’t fit with the life he was born into.”

“He sounds like a regular badass,” Ellis said drily. Belinda shot her a look. “I’m sorry. Go on.”

“Suddenly I found myself thrust into Carter’s world. I had to go to charity events with him and be his date for work functions and on Sundays we ate dinner with his family and the whole time I would hear whispers about me. I somehow became the tart who tricked Carter Lancaster into marrying her. People treated me like I was dirt but I stuck with him. I would have stuck with him forever because I wanted to prove them wrong, but then his ex showed up at our door one day. His ex-wife, a person I never knew existed, and she was holding a baby that looked exactly like my husband. I left him that day and I hadn’t seen or heard from Carter since. But then he showed up here.”

“What do you think he wants?” Cherri asked.

“He moved here. His best friend is Steven Oliver. They have their own architecture design firm downtown.”

“I think he wants you back,” Cherri said. “Why else would he move here?”