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  “Little girl!” I shouted, snatching toward her. “If you don’t stop it with that baby talk.”

  Skai burst into laughter, for what had to be a full minute. The whole time she was laughing, I was giving her a daggered side eye.

  “Mama,” she said, when her laughter had calmed. “You really act like that would be the worst thing in the world.”

  “Skai, change the subject. Or better yet, just get me in the house so I can jump in the shower and lay down in front of some movies. What are we watching?”

  “I don’t know. You can pick.”

  “Okay, remember you said that,” I teased.

  The rest of the way home, while the music played, I found myself rumbling with my thoughts once again. Thinking that once the final tallies came in about when the focus group would begin, I was going to book a flight out of here for a while. I needed to get away. To refresh. Think about life and what was going to be next for me. Now, would be the best time to think about what my future held. It had just been a bleep on my mental radar before, but now with this new turn of events, I needed to seriously consider some of my other passions.

  There was no way I could work in an environment where it was highly likely I’d come face-to-face with this person that had bamboozled me. Executive Managing Director. Tuh! There was no way. And of course, before I did that, I was going to light him the fuck up. That much I had decided on while at the restaurant. How dare he? And was this something that he did on the regular? Shit was sick! Gaining access to employee files.

  When introductions were done, all I heard was his full name: Zane Cabot. Well, Zane Cabot, please be prepared to get the full wrath of this woman when she sees you again…

  “Here we go again,” I complained when we turned up my street and there was another car in front of my house. Frustrated, I sighed heavily and slowly shook my head.

  “Chill, Ma. I felt the tension already. Maybe there’s some kind of energy field at your curb that speaks to cars as they’re driving by.”

  “Not funny. It’s just so annoying. Pull into the garage.”

  “It’s okay. I can park in front of it. At least it’s a luxury vehicle,” Skai observed of the Mercedes sports car.

  “Don’t matter how luxurious it . . .” My words trailed. No, not trailed . . . halted as we drove past the car and I got a glimpse of its driver. My eyes bulged out of my head when my eyes met his. “Keep driving!” I yelled out to Skai. It was unexpected, but panic set in and I had no control

  “What?!” Skai yelled back. “Mama! What’s wrong with you?!” She hit the brakes instead of the gas and the car jerked forward inches past the car.

  “Just go!”

  “No! I’m not doing that! Just because somebody’s parked in front of your house?” Skai argued, frustration painted on her face. “You can’t be serious right now. Mama, you scared me yelling like that! What’s wrong?!” she asked, looking over her shoulder.

  I closed my eyes and began pushing short breaths out of my mouth. I leaned forward in my seat and turned to look behind me, panicking. “Skai. I’m sorry for scaring you. I just need you to keep driving.”

  Skai rolled her eyes and let off the brakes slowly, leaving the car to coast a little. But then as I was relaxing, she threw the car in reverse and cut the wheel to the right in her quest to park in front of the car. My heart pounded out of my chest. This was the last thing I needed. Frantically, I searched my rear view, and then he came into view exiting the driver’s side of the sports car.

  Fuck! Just fuck!

  Returning to the scene of the initial crime! You bold fucker!

  “Mama, what is wrong with you?” Skai asked just as Zane approached on my side of the car…

  Fuck it.

  Cat’s about to be let out the fucking bag.

  I pressed firmly on the lever to roll the window down, then snapped. “What are you doing here?” I asked my voice trembling with anger.

  “I’m here to see you, Giselle,” he responded

  “And because I called him, Mama . . .”

  -27-

  4 months earlier …

  Twenty-two-year-old, Skai Childs, stepped out of the elevator of the New York high-rise she worked in as a Senior Staffing Manager. After having completed an MBA in Human Resources, Skai had already decided that not only was she going to remain in New York, but that she was going to hold off on pursuing the Ph.D. both her parents tried forcing upon her. She didn’t feel the need to pursue her education any higher. She had landed the gig of a lifetime working for Dionne Austin, of Crescendo Executive Recruiting. Working for Crescendo, was the dream job that a million HR professionals would love to have. Especially ones just graduating. Only, not all of them had graduated at the top of their class, as Skai had. And her hard work didn’t go unnoticed. So much so, that because of it, she had been handpicked by Dionne herself, for her agency’s vacant spot.

  As Skai approached the grand marble, semi-circular reception desk, she saw Dionne waiting for her in one of her many designer Dolce & Gabbana dresses, and a pair of Bellucci t-straps. As soon as Dionne saw Skai approaching, she took off in her direction, her heels clacking against the marble flooring. “You’re here! I need you!” she said, grabbing hold of Skai’s wrist and rushing her into her large, all-glass, all-cream office.

  “What is wrong?” Skai asked, once they were behind the glass double doors.

  “You look cute, Miss Thing in your red dress, with the red bottoms. I see you! Love your hair in that high ponytail too.”

  “Well thank you,” Skai playfully curtsied before taking a seat in one of the leather chairs near the Manhattan view. “But can we get into why you dragged me in here. The suspense is killing me.”

  Skai watched Dionne tuck the waves of her blond bob, behind her ear. Skai wished at times she was bold enough to dye her brown hair blonde. She and Dionne were the same shade of light-brown, but for some reason, she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. But Dionne . . . she rocked it.

  “I need a huge favor, sweetie. Like . . . this huge,” she stated, demonstrating with outstretched arms. “I have a client that I need for you to do final screening on, for me. He’s arriving in an hour and I just do not have the time. I would either have to reschedule him for later, or take the call via Skype tonight. I don’t want to do either of those. He deserves attention since he’s relocating soon. I know you haven’t done the screenings yet, but—”

  “I’d love to!” Skai jumped at the chance. “I’m hyped that you trust me to do it.”

  “Girl, please. You’re the only one I do trust to do it.”

  The confession almost brought tears to Skai’s eyes. Not only had Dionne been an amazing mentor, she had placed all her trust in Skai, and made her feel like she had found her life’s calling.

  “That means so much to me, Dionne.”

  Dionne rose from her seat and sauntered over to a filing cabinet. She returned with a royal blue packet in her hands and motioned for Skai to follow her to the conference area of her office. There, she laid down the packet with the name, “ZANE CABOT” on the front on a wide gold label. Dionne reached inside the pack and pulled out several documents, the first being a picture of the client.

  “Oh, my damn . . .” were words that fell from Skai’s mouth. Words that she intended to remain in her head, but that had fallen from her mouth, causing Dionne to look up and smile.

  “I know, right. Masculine energy bouncing right off the pages.”

  Skai was of little words. “Man,” was all she could produce.

  For the next twenty minutes, Dionne sifted through Zane Cabot’s life, his educational background, his expertise in the education field. And most importantly, where he would be working, and where he would be moving. By the end of the briefing, Skai was beyond excited. It was divine intervention, as far as she was concerned.

  She not only knew that she and Zane would hit it off perfectly, she had every intention of delving into his personal life in the process. All
with a clear goal in mind—getting him and her mother acquainted.

  -28-

  “Come on, Mama. You haven’t said a word. Say something,” Skai urged me, after many moments of silence on my part.

  I was still playing over pieces of what had been told to me. Sitting there, I imagined that what I was feeling was something like what shock therapy felt like. A whole fucking shock to the system, rendering you not only speechless, but motionless. What could I even say to diffuse the bombs that had collectively dropped on my ass?

  I leered at Zane, who had been standing against the paneling near my foyer. His arms were folded across his strong chest, and his eyes were on me, thinking no telling what. I think he was amused. For her part, I think my daughter was too. I was the only one that was pissed enough to go to my room and lock the door until tomorrow morning.

  “Giselle, you do know this was all in good faith, right?” Zane said from his position. “All done with the best intentions.”

  “Right,” Skai cosigned. “Good faith. Best intentions.”

  I looked from the girl I brought into the world, then over at the man who was fairly new to my world, and without saying a word, I got up and took off into my kitchen. I knew what I needed. Moments later, I felt their presence in the kitchen with me. By that time the triple shot of Honey Jack was already burning a hot trail down my throat. For good measure, I took down one more then pulled out one of the stools that sat against my double island.

  “So, let me get this straight,” I dove right as soon as my butt hit the seat. “My daughter sent a stranger to seduce me. Would that be the perfect sum-up?” I shot. And there was way more sarcasm where that came from.

  “That’s dramatic, Mama. Like, seriously. Don’t try to dirty it up because you want a reason to run away from a situation that’s actually good for you.”

  “I like that,” Zane stated calmly from his newest position against the end of my island. This time instead of his arms folded, his hands were clasped in front of him atop the island. “She’s got a lot of wisdom to be so young.”

  I shook my head and rolled my eyes at him. “Don’t . . .” I ordered. “Just don’t.”

  “What do you mean, don’t?” Zane shot back. “Your daughter is right. All you’ve done is run. And even though I didn’t chase you, I was right there for when you came back around. I’ll say this, though, if this is you and what you insist on doing, then it won’t be with me. You’re a confident woman, but not confident enough to trust that you make sound decisions. That’s an insecurity that needs attention if you want to be in anything healthy.”

  “Whew. I don’t even know if y’all need me for this discussion,” Skai said, ditching the seat she had taken, and preparing her exit. “I’m going to go across the street and chat up Trevor for a little bit and tell him thanks for helping me get you that box.” She even had the nerve to laugh upon her departure.

  “Skai,” I said between gritted teeth.

  “I’ll leave y’all to this. Don’t let her off the hook, Zane,” she felt the need to say before disappearing from where we were.

  “Skai!” I called after her, but soon heard the front door open and close. She had left.

  “Come and sit with me, Giselle.” He wasn’t asking. It was more of an order. I hesitated at first, but then with his eyes on me, stubbornly, I got off the stool and made my way to the chair he had pulled out. After I was seated, he walked around to the other side of the table where we could be face-to-face. “Let’s hash this out like adults. Are you willing to do that?”

  The liquor was beginning to take effect, evidenced by the calming flow overtaking me. I clasped my hands together on top of the table, giving him direct eye contact. “We can do that.”

  “Good. So, here’s the thing. I like you. Our meeting wasn’t coincidental, but that’s the only part of what we’ve started that wasn’t organic. Even though the meeting was orchestrated, everything that happened after that, was us. Was natural. Was meant. I didn’t come into your life to disrupt it, only to enhance it. I’ve been through some things; you’ve been through some things. The only difference is that you have a daughter who is so invested in your happiness, that she was willing to have you mad at her for trying to ‘fix things’. When I met Skai that day, after business was out of the way, she brought you into the conversation. She loves you. She talked about you and her father. How she hurt for you. How she feared that you wouldn’t open yourself up for anything serious with a man. I’m sure that’s a conversation that the two of you can have, but I’ve never seen that kind of love coming from a child, as it related to a parent.”

  “I love her too. I feel bad that she’s carried such a burden.” Once again, I was on the verge of crying when I spoke those words to Zane. It was knowing that my child was carrying weights of my past with her, made me feel like shit. “She told me pieces . . .” I paused. “. . . earlier. She told me how she felt that I would continue being in my own way.” I quieted for a few seconds. “She was talking about you . . .” I said, when the truth dawned on me. “But how did she know? When I left you last—”

  “She didn’t know about earlier today. She only knew that the meeting to introduce me was today. We’ve been in touch. I told her how we left things at the Bellagio, and how promising it was. She came home to ensure that after you saw me, that you didn’t lose your shit. That’s my guess.”

  I laughed out loud. “She knows her mama.”

  “She’s a great girl,” he said smiling. “Strong, feisty like her mom.”

  “Yeah,” I blushed. “Feisty, for sure. She knew I was going to shit in my pants seeing you walk in there.”

  A chuckle escaped Zane. “She thought something like that.”

  “Why didn’t you just tell me? Hell, why didn’t Skai? I was caught way off guard. I thought you were some kind of creep that went through employee records or something. My mind was all over the damn place.” I unclasped my hands, taking them from the table and folding them in my lap, where I focused my attention for a few seconds. “I didn’t know what to think, Zane.”

  “You don’t have to speculate anymore. Just know that I’m interested in you. That I want to continue what we started—dating. Me working with Julian won’t interfere with anything. You do what you do, I do what I do. And at the end of very stressful days, we come together and relieve each other of those stresses.”

  I looked into the warmth of Zane’s blue eyes and my heart softened. It’s all I could do. He had a firm seal of approval from the person who cared about me the most. The person who mattered to me the most. And he hadn’t given me any reason to believe that he intended anything malicious with my heart.

  After our stares lingered for a bit, he got up from his chair and came and pulled out the chair next to mine. He reached underneath my seat and grabbing both sides, turned the chair towards him, sliding me between his legs.

  “How does that sound? Are you going to let me stay in your life? Prove to you that I’m the right choice?” He leaned in close to my ear and whispered, “Taste you when you need to be tasted? Visit your wet, warm place anytime you want me to? Be there for you?”

  My mouth formed into the biggest smile, teeth and all, “Mmm...hmm,” I hummed, nodding as a follow-up to that response.

  “Perfect. So, I guess that makes us a couple in training, then.”

  “I guess it does…”

  “In that case, please . . . please bring me those beautiful lips right now.”

  “They’re all yours,” I said, leaning in.

  The End

  For now

  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)

&n
bsp; 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)

  CONTACT THE AUTHOR

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

  Email: [email protected]