Читать книгу Tender to His Touch - Adrianne Byrd - Страница 13

Beverly felt wicked as she allowed Lucius to escort her to his car. It had been years since she’d allowed a man to pick her up in a bar. In fact, she would have to think back to all those wild college spring breaks when she’d been so daring. She kept waiting for her conscience to kick in, for reason to stop her from jumping into this man’s car; however, that little voice never came. Instead, desire and lust seized her body, making her willing to see just how this whole night would play out.

“After you,” Lucius said, opening the passenger door.

Her gaze locked onto his and caused another spark of electricity to flow between them. “Thank you.” Slowly, she dipped into the seat.

Lucius closed the door and rushed around to the driver’s side. “I can’t believe that I’m actually escorting the homecoming queen,” he chuckled, gliding into his own seat.

“Oh, please. Don’t go on about that.” She rolled her eyes. “That was a very long time ago.”

He strapped on his seat belt. “But you’re riding in the parade Sunday, right?”

“Unfortunately.” Beverly sighed and wondered once again how Kyra had talked her into wearing that godforsaken crown and waving to the crowd. In her opinion, there was nothing worse than an aging beauty queen trying to recapture her youth. Back in the day, she thought nothing of pursuing all those titles—heck, there was good scholarship money attached to those pageants. Now that she was older, she just found the whole thing…silly.

She chuckled. Those were those same words her father used to use. He never once liked the idea of her trotting before a phalanx of judges, normally in a skimpy bathing suit, to be judged. It was sort of funny that it had taken her so long to finally agree with him.

Lucius started the car and Lauryn Hill’s “Ex-Factor” poured out of the speakers.

“Oh, I love this song,” Beverly gasped. “I used to blast it all time back in the day.” She rocked in her seat and cooed the lyrics to the song.

Lucius laughed and bobbed his head. “Not bad,” he praised. “Baby girl got skills.”

“I can hold a note or two.” Beverly turned down the volume. “Good enough for car concerts only.”

“You’re selling yourself too short.” He hit her with another deep-dimpled grin that had her feeling as if she was sitting next to a childhood crush. There was no explanation for why she reacted the way she did to him. She had known plenty of good-looking men in her life. A lot of them were confident achievers, too, but Lucius…he had this whole other vibe going. It was this whole sexy-cool thing that had her hanging on his every word—even when he said something cheesy.

A few minutes later, they arrived at Cork—a posh wine bar in downtown Atlanta. The place was so packed that they had to drive around a couple of times before he discovered one parking place in the back of the building. On the outside, the place looked small and quaint, but once inside it was a large open space with dark wood floors. Wine barrels lined one wall while another entire wall was a large mahogany bar behind which were rows and rows of wine bottles.

Tall tables and stools were located off to the sides, leaving the center open for mingling. Soft piano music filtered from hidden speakers and the lighting was somewhat subdued, giving the place a warm, sexy vibe that Beverly was really feeling.

“This is nice,” she commented, glancing around. Everyone looked beautiful in their fancy cocktail dresses and casual suits.

“Beverly? Is that you?”

Beverly turned to see a gaggle of women quickly surround her.

“I don’t believe it! Look at you. You look beautiful,” the leader of the pack exclaimed, taking Beverly by the shoulders and literarily forcing her to do a pirouette.

Beverly beamed a smile at the woman, but after scanning her memory bank, she was unable to place the woman’s face with a name. This is starting to become a trend, she noted. “Why, thank you,” she said when the woman finally released her. “It’s so good to see you. How are you doing?” Maybe if she kept the woman talking, she’d be able to figure out who she was.

“Doing good. Just landed a morning spot on CNN and—” she flashed her diamond ring “—married to Damon Woods. Eight years and still going strong.” She laughed and batted her long faux lashes. But it was how her voice squeaked and skipped that finally made Beverly clue in to whom she was speaking with. Darcy Knight—which meant that the three women flanking her were Kitty Kirkland, Natalie Coles and Keri Evans.

Instantly, a few inches were shaved off Beverly’s smile. She and Darcy had an unspoken rivalry back in college and high school. It was nothing that was perpetuated on Beverly’s end, but Darcy lost both homecoming queen titles to Beverly, as well as placing second in the Ms. Georgia Teen and Ms. Georgia pageants. When they weren’t competing, Darcy chased after David like a bitch in heat and she was constantly biting Beverly’s look from hairstyles to clothes.

Unfortunately, it didn’t look as if the past ten years had been particularly easy on her. At a cursory glance, Darcy’s yaki weave didn’t exactly match her unrelaxed crown, plus she had on way too much makeup and she’d easily gained fifty pounds. And her happy clique suffered the same fate.

“Is this one of your creations? I heard you were a fashion designer now,” Darcy asked, acid dripping from her voice.

“Why, yes. It is. Do you like it?”

“It’s…cute,” Darcy drawled. “You know I thought about going into the fashion biz, too, but I much prefer to work in something a little more serious.”

Beverly blinked, but before she had the chance to respond to that backhand slap, Darcy changed the subject. “So how’s David?” Darcy asked, casting a curious look over at Lucius. “Word is you two tied the knot right after college.”

“We did,” she confirmed. “And now we’re divorced.”

Darcy and her gang’s faces collapsed in mock sympathy. “Oh, I’m sooo sorry to hear that,” Darcy said. “Of course, I always thought that you two were an odd fit.”

Her girls bobbed their heads in agreement.

Beverly tensed, but then to her surprise, Lucius wrapped a supporting arm around her waist. She looked up into his smoldering hazel eyes while he smiled down at her.

“David’s loss is my gain,” he told the women without breaking eye contact with Beverly.

She smiled. Talk about a knight in shining armor.

Kitty, Natalie and Keri sighed while Beverly swore her body was slowly melting in Lucius’s arms. This was the closest they had been tonight; it was almost like being wrapped in a cocoon where she detected the faint scent of his aftershave mixed with his sinfully sexy cologne.

“Aren’t you Lucius Gray?” Darcy asked, stepping closer.

“Guilty,” he said, finally turning to look at Darcy. “And you are?”

“Darcy Woods—well, it used to be Knight.” Her smile was suddenly bright enough to rival the sun. “We met once at a, um…frat party.” She twirled a few strands of her hair around her fingers.

Beverly tensed as jealousy pricked her skin. Had Lucius and Darcy had a fling back in the day? One look and she could tell he was wondering the same thing.

“Well, I did attend my fair share of those,” he admitted.

“Mmm-hmm.” Darcy smiled like a sly cat with a secret. “At this particular party you had quite a bit to drink and I seem to remember you losing a bet to Terrence Franklin and you and Thomas Barrett had to shave your heads and streak through the center of campus.”

“Hey,” Beverly said, turning. “I remember that!” Her eyes widened, mainly because that night one of the boys shocked the crowd by being extremely well-endowed.

Lucius’s face darkened to a deep cranberry. “Ah. That night. Not exactly one of my most sober decisions.”

“Well,” Darcy said, swinging her gaze back to Beverly with contempt clearly written on every inch of her face, “looks like your lucky streak continues.”

Lucky? Beverly almost laughed in the woman’s face. There were plenty of ways to describe her, especially since she’d left college, and lucky wasn’t one of them. “I’d thank you not to presume you know anything about my life.”

“Hmmph. Well,” Darcy said as if she was suddenly bored, “it was good seeing you again. I’m sure that we’ll have time to play catch-up later.” She blew Beverly a quick air kiss and then ushered her three-ring circus away.

Beverly shook her head, stunned by how the more things changed, the more they stayed the same.

“That was…interesting,” Lucius said, glancing back down at her. “How come I get the feeling that you two weren’t really friends?”

“Picked up on that, did you?”

He chuckled. “How about I get us a drink? You look as if you could use one.”

She could, actually. “Thanks.”

“Be right back.” He winked.

The moment his arm fell from her waist, Beverly’s body ached for its return. Again, a strange response to a man she hardly knew.

“There you are!” Kyra threaded her way through a throng of people and then popped up in front of Beverly and wrapped her in a brief hug. “You came.”

“As promised,” Beverly said, smiling.

“Good.” Krya looped her arm through Beverly’s. “Please tell me you’re having a good time.”

“So far so good.” She bobbed her head. “Except when I ran into Darcy Knight.”

“Oh!” Krya rolled her eyes. “I was hoping her invitation got lost in the mail.”

“It’s all right. We kept the claws in…kind of.”

Kyra’s smile exploded. “See. I knew that you could handle yourself. By the way, I love the new haircut and color.”

Beverly beamed. “Thanks, I had Clarence hook me up. I swear the man has magic hands when it comes to my hair.”

“Well, I think you look beautiful. In fact, you look like you’re positively glowing.”

Beverly’s gaze skittered across the room to the bar, where Lucius scanned a wine menu. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.”

“Do you remember a Lucius Gray?” The minute she asked the question she noted a visible change in her friend’s face.

“I, uh, yeah…used to play on the football team, I believe. Why?”

Beverly took another cursory glance toward the bar, but noticed Lucius was gone.

“And here we go,” Lucius said, suddenly appearing at her side and handing her a glass of red wine. “I hope you like pinot noir,” he added, chuckling and circling his arm back around her waist.

Kyra’s eyes widened. “You…two…know…each…other?”

Lucius turned and hit Kyra with one of his sexy deep-dimple grins. “Well, I don’t believe it. Kyra. Kyra Dixon.” He eased from Beverly’s side to sweep a startled Kyra into a brief hug. “Don’t you look lovely as ever?” He glanced around. “Is Terrence here, too? I can’t wait to see him and play catch-up.”

Kyra stiffened. “I don’t know how you could miss him. He’s over there with his big adoring fan club.”

Lucius’s brows lifted at her tone.

Kyra smiled weakly. “Um, can you two excuse me? I need to go check on something.”

Before Beverly or Lucius could respond, she jetted away from their small circle and disappeared into the crowd.

“Was it something I said?” Lucius asked.

Beverly shook her head. “No. It’s…a long story.”

He clearly picked up the hint and let the subject drop. Minutes later, Beverly and Lucius maneuvered through the crowd like a seasoned couple saying their hellos and reconnecting with old friends. Whenever anyone questioned how long she and Lucius had been dating, no one believed that they had only known each other a few hours. In some respects, even Beverly couldn’t believe it. There was definitely a connection between them. The only question was: what were they going to do about it?

“Good evening, everyone. Welcome to Hollington’s annual homecoming weekend, and the tenth anniversary of class of ninety-nine,” greeted a voice over the microphone. “I’m Kevin Stayton…”

That was as far as he got before the room erupted into shouts and applause. Even Kevin seemed caught off guard by the response. He quickly put up his hand to quiet the group down and regain control.

“Thanks for that, but the reason why I commandeered the mike from President Morrow is to make sure that everyone is made aware of who is responsible for the important and complex job of organizing this weekend. As it turned out, the best person possible was selected. And she’s one of ours, class of ’99, y’all!”

There was enthusiastic applause until Kevin again signaled for quiet.

“Typical of her, and some of you will remember this from our undergraduate years, she doesn’t like drawing attention to herself. She works quietly behind the scenes but she gets the job done, as all of you will experience during the course of this weekend. Ladies and gentlemen, Chloe Jackson!”

Chloe didn’t move, and then someone took her hand and pulled her forward to be recognized. It was Kyra, using her small hands to encourage the audience to keep up the applause.

Chloe half raised her hand in a shy salute and quickly stepped back behind the president.

Lucius leaned close and whispered, “I wonder what that was all about.”

Beverly just shrugged. She remembered Kevin Stayton, but for the life of her she couldn’t remember ever meeting a Chloe Jackson, but she looked great up there and there was no denying that she’d done a fabulous job with tonight’s party.

For the most part, Beverly enjoyed the evening. After several glasses of wine, she grew more lethargic and hid more and more yawns behind her hand. Still, she wasn’t quite ready to leave just yet.

“Someone is getting sleepy,” Lucius whispered as they rocked to Brandy’s old jam “Have You Ever?”

“No, no,” she lied and then immediately had to stifle another yawn. “Okay. Maybe just a little.” She blushed.

“Then what do you say that we head out of here and go do something that will wake you up?” he asked.

Did that mean what she thought it meant? Beverly’s legs quivered and those delicious tingles returned. Seeing that she came to the reception with him, it only made sense that they leave together—unless she wanted to play hard to get and call a cab. Looking into Lucius’s twinkling hazel gaze, Beverly realized an undeniable truth: she had no desire to play hard to get.

“Yeah,” she answered in a lusty voice. “Let’s get out of here.”