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  RISQUÉ

  Copyright © 2019 by Perri Forrest

  Chic Lioness Publishing, LLC

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Without limiting the right under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form by means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

  This is a work of fiction.

  Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  DEDICATION(s)

  To my Village—mi familia. I love you, infinity.

  To my Guardian Angels: Alcia Kellogg, Frank Forrest Lee, Ricky Lavender, Elijah E. Warren and Martha Lee

  Cover Design by Perri Forrest

  Photos (c) Unsplash/Giano Currie

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  To the Most High: Thank you for blessing me with the gift of writing. I’m so alive, and so whole with this outlet. I set out to see if I could write one book, and here I am in the double digits now. In addition, I thank you for the Angels assigned to only me. I wish I knew them by name so that I could speak their names in gratitude when I’m saying my daily prayer to you. Thank you forever for blessing me with my moon, my stars, my son, the Marine. He is the love of my life and I’m proud to be his Mama. My sister, who always shows up when I need her. Even with all she has going on, in both her personal and professional life, she is consistently there! The universe couldn’t have gotten it more right with the sibling assignment.

  Special thanks to: Jacqueline Quintyne who continuously lifts me with her encouragement and belief in my talents. Kim Wright Barnum. Lady, I love you to the moon and back. You’re always there when I need you! Angela Burnett. You’re new to my world, but you’ve been a great friend in the short amount of time we’ve known each other. Thanks to all three of you beauties for taking time out of your busy schedules, to be ARCs for this new project. Your feedback was very much appreciated.

  My girls in the Playhouse . . . y’all already know you’re in my hearts. Thanks for the sisterhood!

  OTHER BOOKS BY PERRI FORREST

  SERIES

  Dario Caivano (2-book series)

  In the Ring: A BWWM Love Story

  Rush Cambridge (4-book series)

  Rapture: A BWWM Alpha Male Romance

  Gavin Brooks (2-book series)

  Special Delivery

  Special Delivery 2

  Love’s Awakening (2-book series)

  Kennedy’s Awakening

  Awakened Desires

  Pandora’s Box (Brooklyn Kellogg)

  The Color of Lies

  What Lies Beneath the Surface

  Beautiful Lies

  Crooked Lies

  STANDALONE NOVELS

  The 4Mula (Conscious Fiction / AA Fiction)

  Sexcapade: Affair at Nightfall (IR Romance / Suspense)

  The Graffiti Effect (IR Romance / Suspense)

  The Gift (AA Romance)

  Last Night (IR Suspense)

  Family Ties (AA Fiction / Love Story)

  Beautiful Vengeance (AA Fiction / Love Story)

  Destined (IR Love Story)

  Captivated (IR Fiction)

  Isa: Gift of the Baloma (IR Fantasy / Paranormal)

  (Subscribe or Updates) http://eepurl.com/baxfEr

  (Website) https://www.perriforrest.com

  “Life is short. Break the rules. Forgive easy. Kiss slowly. Love simply, Laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that makes you smile.”

  ~Juvy Ann~

  -1-

  Sixteen down. Six to go.

  I was on some, “Y’all ain’t gotta go, but y’all gotta get the hell outta here!” type of wishing.

  I love my kids. I really do. All twenty-two of them. I mean, watching them sometimes even has me regretting that I didn’t have at least one more. When they’re six and seven like my students, that’s the fun, inquisitive, and impressionable stage that I sometimes miss. That little fun stage would have a lot of women with maternal instincts, wanting to take that journey again. Too bad for me, starting over at this point in my life—forty-two years of age—just wouldn’t make sense. Especially, being that my only child is already twenty-two, and well on her way to living her very own life. So, yes. I love my kids, but that time has come and gone.

  As a few of the little ones giggled, and ran around the classroom playing with each other, I glanced over at the oversized clock mounted next to the whiteboard. According to the time that stared back at me, it had only been eleven minutes since the last time I looked over there. I needed to stop, though. For, it seemed that the more I checked those moving hands, the more time slowed. So, I decided to stop and just let it creep up on me.

  Surprise me, baby!

  I sauntered over to the other end of my rectangular-shaped classroom so that I could finish storing the year’s remaining supplies. My goal was to have everything put away, then get all my emails answered, so that when the last of the kids skipped out the door, I’d be right behind them cheesing from ear to ear. I was already checked out of my educator duties, and ready to greet the summer with open arms. Plans for the first day of freedom, were already locked firmly in place: A trip to Lee’s Liquors for a few bottles of sin, and a stop at The Love Store to pick up the two new ‘toys’ I ordered online, during my lunch break.

  From there, summer break would officially begin for me.

  Exactly what else my ‘timeout’ was going to entail, I didn’t know yet. The ultimate attraction to being ‘off’, was that I didn’t have to know. Right now, the only thing that I knew was that as of this morning, after my weekly alarm sounded, I promptly switched the notifications to the off position! After today there would be no waking up until I damn well felt like it. And even then, having the freedom to fall back asleep, was sounding like the most attractive thing I’d heard in a very long time.

  I did have tentative plans to take a solo trip to Monterey, where I could be near the massive body of water. Where I could be in the company of those energy fields that everyone swore hung over the town. Of course, I would get a nice room with a view. In my mind, at the end of it all, I’d come back regenerated and like a reset button had been hit. The Monterey Bay Aquarium would definitely be a stop. While visiting, I could stuff my face with some prime seafood from Bubba Gump’s.

  If I did manage to make it down there, it would be so wonderful, so relaxing, and so about me. And only me. Buuut, right now, those plans were merely a thought. Not yet set in stone. However, what wasn’t tentative, and definitely set in stone, was a lot of liquor intake, a lot of self-pleasuring, and maybe a few movies here and there.

  My mind paused as the musings floated around. It paused because the more I thought about how non-exciting, and temporarily fulfilling my ‘plans’ sounded, the more I wanted to kick my own ass. I had allowed my role as a married woman, to be the reason for dismissing all but a few, of the girlfriends I had; thus, having limited choices when it came to calling somebody for major chat sessions, or girlfriend getaways. Meanwhile, he . . . the ex-husband . . . former high school sweetheart . . . baby daddy all rolled into one, had long ago moved on. Two years ago, to be exact. Well, three, if you add in there the last year of the marriage when he first started fucking a woman that we both knew.

  Girl, you gotta get a life and quick, I inwardly scolded myself.

  “Miss McCall!” I heard sing out from a tiny voice, saving me from my reverie. “Miss McCall!” the little voice called out again right as I was set to
answer.

  “Yes, baby,” I responded to the little chocolate drop standing at the front of my desk with two of the cutest ponytails, and a set of beautifully inquisitive, almond-shaped eyes.

  “You didn’t hear me, huh?” she asked, giggling. “I was askiiing what you were doing for the summer.”

  I tapped the side of my chin with my forefinger in contemplation, then smiled at her. “Well, let’s see. Umm . . . I’m going to relax. Going to experiment with a peach cobbler recipe so that I can get it perfect. Catch up on a few movies, I . . .” In the middle of my response, I locked eyes with my pretty little pupil who was looking at me with big eyes, and who had just started laughing in the middle of my spiel. “What?” I asked her. “You laughing at me?”

  “Yeah,” she confessed through cute giggles. “That’s gonna be boring, Miss McCall.”

  My brow lifted. It wasn’t like I didn’t know this. It was that a child was pointing it out. “Gonna be boring? Is it now?”

  “Yep. Realll boring. Don’t you have like a boyfriend, or something to have fun with? Or a cousin?”

  Kids! My God! Their minds are so underrated. Just something else. How did we go from a boyfriend to a cousin? I wanted to laugh so bad, but I didn’t want her to think I was making fun of her amazing little mind. Instead, I pointed out, “You ask a lot of questions, Miss Brittany.”

  I reached across the desk to smooth down the fine baby hairs on her forehead.

  “My daddy says that too. I just want you to have fun,” she said, her tone shifting to a lower pitch. “You can come over our house. We have a pool and a sauna thingy that my daddy gets in a lot, with his girlfriends.”

  Oh my God!

  Laughter wanted to explode from me so badly!

  But then, several yards ahead, near the classroom door, I spotted Brittany’s dad. Brittany came with a story that I got when she first enrolled in my class last year. One that involved a not-so-good environment with her birth mother. There was mention of drugs, men, and a few other unhealthy situations. But most importantly, was that her father stepped in and gained sole custody of her, and was extremely attentive to his baby girl. Not only was he a good father, the man was a looker: Mid to late 30’s, tall, designer-suited, deep-chocolate, regal, and with a trail of smell-good that made it to my nostrils before he did.

  He usually came alone, but surprisingly, today, he was in the company of a busty blonde woman. A rejected Barbie. She had a cheek-to-cheek grin plastered across her overly-tanned face. Hell, I would too, if I was on his arm. But she could have done a little better on her presentation. While he was dressed in a tailored blue-grey business suit, and looking like he was about to facilitate a large meeting, she had on a piece of tacky form-fitting spandex that tried desperately, to hug curves she didn’t have.

  Instinctively, I wanted to shake my head in disapproval. Luckily, my manners were intact enough for the greeting that was mere seconds away.

  “There’s my little princess,” Brittany’s father announced, surprising her from behind, and scooping her up into his arms. The air filled with excited shrieks as she was being lifted into the air and twirled around.

  The whole scene brought a smile to my face. A healthy father-daughter interaction always pulled at my heartstrings. She’d make less mistakes in love, and she would settle for nothing less than a man who treated her like a queen, because of her father’s love and adoration. That, I was sure of.

  I rose from my chair, making sure to smooth the sides of the aqua-colored pencil skirt that I wore. I also made sure that the white bodysuit beneath my waist-length blazer was secured, had no accidental coffee stain, or that no annoying wrinkles had gathered.

  I watched as the blond woman took her eyes from the cute display before us all, then turned her attention to me. “I guess the fun begins,” she chirped, as she placed something on a desk next to her, and extended a pink-on-white gel set, in my direction. Because of the king-sized smile she walked into the classroom with, I didn’t think her mouth could open any wider. However, when it did, it was no surprise that she had a mouthful of the same veneers that were taking up residence in just about everybody’s mouth from rappers to athletes, to my favorite Barista, Jamie, at Starbucks. “It’s so nice to meet you,” she greeted. “I’m Becky.”

  Of course, you are…

  Behave, Giselle…

  “It’s nice to meet you, Becky. I’m—”

  “Miss McCall,” she interjected. “I know all too well. This one,” she stated, toying with one of Brittany’s ponytails, “talks about you all the time. And I can see why,” she said casually scanning from my twist-out, to my Nine West heels. “You’re simply gorgeous.”

  “Thank you,” I responded, hoping that soon she was going to finally stop staring.

  My guess was that with Brittany talking about me, she wanted to come and see what the ‘other’ woman looked like, and to make sure that she had no competition. Typical woman move. I get it.

  “Miss McCall,” Brittany’s father stated, in his calm baritone. “Thank you so much for your amazing contribution to my daughter’s academic excellence. It’s been great having you this school year. With any luck, we’ll have someone as wonderful as you, for 2nd grade.”

  “What a sweet thing to say. I appreciate your kind words, Mr. Thomas. Brittany is one of my shining stars. She makes my job very easy.”

  “Yeah right!” he lightly guffawed, eyeing his daughter admiringly.

  “No, really. She’s a sweetheart,” I said truthfully.

  “That’s so good to hear. And she adores you,” her father shared. “Can’t stop talking about you. It’s Miss McCall this, and Miss McCall that.”

  “I had no idea. Thanks, little one,” I said to Brittany. I was humbled by the fact that I’d made such an impact on her.

  “And she says you have a daughter who’s in college?” He raised an inquisitive brow. “That can’t be.”

  “I do.” I laughed lightly. Becky’s annoyed gaze did not escape my peripheral. “Well, technically, she’s pretty much finished with college. She’s twenty-two, and lives in New York.”

  “You don’t look like you have—”

  “They say black don’t crack,” Becky stepped in, with a shrug of her shoulders and a fake smile.

  Mr. Johnson shot his girlfriend a look. But then I eased the moment, by replying, “They do say that, don’t they?”

  “Ahem . . .” Mr. Johnson pushed out, preparing to readdress me. “Well, with everything that my daughter has been through, you were just what she needed. What we needed.”

  “Just doing my job,” I stated casually. “But I do appreciate your kind words. I just try to put forth my best effort, as one part of her village.”

  “And an integral part, you are,” he added.

  “Thank you,” I remarked, again, beginning to sound like a broken record in my own mind.

  “And so . . .” Becky chimed in, reaching to retrieve the item she had set aside when they walked in. Since it wasn’t really my business, I hadn’t paid much attention to the item she had temporarily offloaded. But now seeing it, I noticed that it was a pretty silver bag, with dangling pink and yellow ribbons tied around its thick handles. She held it out toward me, along with a card. “This here is for you.”

  “Really? How thoughtful of you,” I said, bordering on speechless.

  Appreciation from parents didn’t come too often, so this gesture was extremely unexpected. I accepted the item from her hand, at the same time looking down into Brittany’s smiling eyes. “Yes! Open it!” she shouted. “So, you can see what I picked out for you! See, Daddy. I told you I could keep a secret. And I did!”

  A quick peek into the bag and my eyes landed on a velvet, turquoise Tiffany’s pouch. I pulled the single item out, then sat the bag down for a moment while I nervously explored what was inside. I was totally unprepared for what was there—a pair of black diamond earrings. I couldn’t help the gasp that escaped from between my lips. They had no way o
f knowing, but I had a matching tennis bracelet of the same cut, that I had treated myself to, the day my divorce was final.

  I shook my head slowly, in disbelief. “Oh my God, they’re beautiful.” I was trying as hard as I could to keep my emotions in check. “I-I-I’ve never gotten anything so—”

  “Read the card!” Brittany shouted, jumping up and down in place.

  Becky released a soft chuckle in response to Brittany’s excitement. “Honey, let her take her time,” she urged with a rub to Brittany’s back.

  As soon as I opened the envelope, I let out a gasp louder than the first one. They had really outdone themselves.

  “Oh wow. Oh wow. I can’t believe you did this. I . . . I don’t know what to say. Honestly, this is the most thoughtful gift I-I . . . could’ve gotten.”

  “Like I said, what you’ve done for us, no amount of money can buy. So, this was our pleasure. We have to head out now, but we do hope you enjoy. You certainly deserve it.”

  I watched after them, tears tapping at the edge of my emotions, and trying to force themselves from the corners of my eyes.

  Suddenly, Brittany snapped her little head around to look at me. “Wait!” she shouted, right before the threshold leading out of the classroom. And then she came running back toward me, her arms outstretched. “Have a good summer, Miss McCall,” she said hugging me tightly. I’ll miss you.”

  “You too, sweetheart. I’ll see in August.”

  -2-

  Close to an hour later, I leaned against the wall next to my supply cabinet looking out over my empty classroom. Blue and yellow chairs were stacked neatly atop the multicolored desks. The whiteboard had been wiped clean. My classroom was finally empty. I could breathe a sigh of relief. The campus was quiet, which let me know that I was probably one of the last to get my class emptied out. I would miss the little ones. They made my days bright, and gave me a lot to do for the first nine hours of my days. Days that generally led to a sixty-hour week.