Читать книгу The Company We Keep - Mary Monroe - Страница 11

Armed security guards with walkie-talkies patrolled the area inside and outside of the rapper’s house. Dressed in somber dark suits, dark hats, and dark glasses, they looked like an advertisement for that old John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd movie, The Blues Brothers.

Marcus Boggs was Rahim’s head of security and looked the part. He was built like an ox, had a face like an angry gargoyle, and a neck that looked like the trunk of a large oak tree. He towered over Young Rahim and most of the other guests.

The guests were a smorgasbord of ethnic diversity. White people were gadding about with their hair in dreadlocks, braids, and even afros. Some even had the nerve to wear African attire. Black folks, male and female, were prancing around with platinum blond hair. There were others present whose ethnicity, and gender in several cases, could not be determined.

Other guests included popular DJ Harrison Starr. He looked out of place in his dapper three-piece suit, but he was as cool and smooth as he looked. He was tall and solidly built, and he had the look of a man who liked to be pampered. His handsome coconut brown face was as smooth as the faces of some of the women present. He owed that to good genes, a balanced diet, and plain old luck. His slanted black eyes scanned the room and had been doing so from the minute he’d arrived—a few minutes before Teri and Nicole.

He was surprised but glad to see Teri in the mix. That’s when he stopped looking around the room, because he’d found what he’d been looking for. As far as he was concerned, they had some unfinished business to address. From the way he was smiling at her, and trying to steer her by the arm to a more private spot, it was obvious to some of the guests close by that he had a “thing” for her.

“I’d like to talk to you before you leave tonight,” Teri told him. They did have some unfinished business, and she had a thing for him, too. He was the last man she’d been with. Their relationship had ended before it even got off the ground. It had started with a chance meeting at a charity function, a few dinner dates followed by nights of passion she had not experienced before (or since), and then it was over. Sometimes it seemed like it had never happened.

Their hectic lives were complicated by work and many other interests. And even though they were both still fairly young, they were settled in their ways and unwilling to bend too far in another person’s direction. Harrison had wanted her to spend more time with him, stroke his ego, be his trophy, and be the woman behind him.

She had scoffed at the notion of being behind him, or any other man. “If I can’t be beside you, I won’t be with you,” she had told him, laughing as she said it. But he had taken it the wrong way. Harrison had sulked for days and ignored her repeated telephone messages. And by the time he’d come to his senses, it was too late. His telephone messages to her went unanswered, and twice when he was bold enough to ring the buzzer at her residence, she’d ignored him. He finally gave up when he attempted to visit her at her workplace and was brusquely turned away by the pit bull security guard, per Ms. Teri Stewart’s instructions.

“We can talk now,” Harrison told her with a nod, still holding on to her arm. They hadn’t encountered each other since their breakup.

Teri nodded. “I heard about you going around speaking to the kids at some of the inner-city schools. I admire you for doing that,” she told him, meaning every word.

“Did you also hear that I got robbed and beaten at the last school I spoke at?”

Teri gasped and shook her head. “I’m sorry to hear that. I hope that doesn’t discourage you from going back. Those kids need people like us, now more than ever. I visited the girls in juvenile hall last month. I didn’t think they’d want to hear anything I had to say about my work.”

“Did they?”

“They were more interested in who did my hair and what famous people I hung out with.” Teri laughed. “But I’m going back in a couple of months anyway.”

“So am I. And to one of the most violent schools in Crenshaw. As a matter of fact, the boys that jumped me turned themselves in and apologized. I got all of my shit back, too. They said it was my talk that had made them think about what they’d done once the excitement of robbing my ass wore off.”

“See? That just goes to show you that anybody can change,” Teri said hopefully.

“This is not what I want to talk about, Teri,” Harrison said, grinding his teeth. “What I meant was, I wanted to talk to you about me. It’s now or never.” His lips tightened and he gave her a defiant look, staring at her with his eyes narrowed into slits.

She didn’t like his brusque attitude and she let him know by giving him one of the harshest looks she could manage. It didn’t take her long to decide that since he had just acted so uppity, she would make him work his ass off to get more of her attention tonight. He would have to compete with all the other men at the party. “Excuse me,” she said bluntly, attempting to leave. He grabbed her wrist and held her in place. “Please don’t do that,” she ordered, removing his hand. Her attitude didn’t even faze him, though. He was glad to see that she was still a challenge. But he wanted what he wanted and he wanted it now.

Unlike Teri, Harrison had not been spending his days and nights alone. His bed and his arms were rarely empty. He and Teri had the same biological needs, but for different reasons. Knowing what a firecracker she was in the bedroom, he had assumed that she’d kept herself busy in that location, too. He would have been horrified and amused to hear that Teri had been on a self-imposed “pleasure strike” since their breakup.

Harrison Starr had never denied himself the pleasures of nature. As long as he could get it, he would. But he had high standards when it came to women. He wouldn’t fuck just anybody. Beauty was one of the main requirements that he looked for in a woman. That shit about looks not being important was hogwash and had to be something that an ugly person had come up with. In his position he couldn’t afford to be seen in public with a woman who looked like a frog princess. But even having all the physical requirements was not enough. He had to like the woman, not enough to take home to Mother or to give her his name, but just enough to keep the flame going until it burned itself out.

“Do you want to talk to me tonight or not?” he demanded, his impatience showing.

“Maybe later,” Teri replied, pulling away with a smug smile on her lips. A disappointed look slid across Harrison’s face. Teri Stewart had been and still was his biggest challenge. He offered her a smile and another nod. Even though he had not been with a woman in two days, he could wait another two days, or two weeks, for Teri.

One of the many things that Teri didn’t like to do was rush. And the unfinished business that she had with Harrison Starr was something that she wanted to resume in her own time. After all, it had been six months since she’d been with the man. Another six months wouldn’t kill her.