His Betrayal Her Lies (16 page)

“I came to see if you wanted me to wash your
back,” he offered.

Where did this man come from? And what is
his angle?
She brushed her qualms aside and said, “Sure.” The
water sounded like waves on a beach as they slapped against the tub
when Taylor repositioned herself so that he could easily reach her
back. She bent her neck down and closed her eyes.

Kalon took the sponge and poured some Dove
Body Wash on it. He started at her shoulder blades and moved side
to side. He then ran the sponge lightly down her spine.

Taylor shivered a little in the water.

“Are you cold?” Kalon asked in a concerned
voice.

“No.” She said quietly.

Kalon dropped the sponge in the tub and the
next thing she felt against her skin was his hands. He ran them
across her back a few times, taking his time to massage her neck
and then her shoulders. He moved his hands in front to her breasts,
massaging those, too. Taylor felt like she was floating on a cloud.
If this is what comfort felt like, then she never wanted to come
down. Kalon was pampering her and catering to all her needs.

He started to kiss her back and it felt like
soft butterfly kisses. She wasn’t sure how much of this she could
take before she asked him to just take her.

“You ready to get out?” Kalon asked.

“Yes.”

He opened a huge bath towel and held it in
arms spread wide. She walked into the cocoon and let him fold her
into the softness. He stepped back and allowed her to pat herself
dry. When she was done, he handed her his Georgetown T-shirt.
Taylor quickly slipped it over her head.

“My room is this way.”

Taylor followed him into his expansive
bedroom. Darkness was all around, except for where lights from
downtown Chicago shone into the windows. She went over and lay down
on the king-size bed.

“I’m about to take a shower,” he told her.
“I’ll be right back. Make yourself comfortable.” From the en-suite
master bathroom, Taylor heard the water come on and she closed her
eyes. This was exactly what she needed right now.

* * *

Kalon took a long time in the shower. He
needed to get control of himself and to think. He was doing things
that he never did with any other woman but Taylor was different. He
could see how she put up this brick wall so no one could get close
but in the inside she was a fragile piece of art.

He came out the bathroom to find this
beautiful angel asleep in his bed. When he was kissing her earlier,
she was submissive but he felt something was bothering her. He
didn’t feel right moving forward with her if her mind wasn’t in the
right place. This was definitely not his plan for tonight but it
was the right thing to do.

He rained a few kisses on her face and she
didn’t wake up. He moved down to her long beautiful legs and placed
a few kisses in her inner thighs. He pushed her legs apart and
licked her clit. She moved a little in her sleep. He knew she
needed to release and he wanted to give that to her. He took hold
of her clit and sucked it harder. Taylor roused from her slumber
and grabbed the back of his neck. All she could do was cry out in
pleasure. His mouth was skilled in kissing and definitely in oral
sex.

He lifted her butt off the bed and licked her
ass. Kalon’s tongue went deep inside Taylor’s pussy and she tried
to scoot away. He knew she couldn’t take it any longer. Kalon
locked his arms in between her inner thighs and kept her in place.
Taylor let out a muffled scream as multiple orgasms hit her, one
after the next.

Kalon rolled over onto his back after he made
sure he had licked every drop of her. All she could do was ball up
in the fetal position beside him and fall fast asleep. He took
pleasure in the fact that he had satisfied her.

Watching her sleep so peacefully, he knew he
was in trouble. This woman was his poison. He needed to stick to
his plan to bed her and get out.

* * *

Taylor awoke the next morning in an
unfamiliar place. She looked around the room, with its wall-to-wall
windows. Rubbing her eyes did nothing to help her recognize her
surroundings. And then she remembered she was still at Kalon’s
place.

She stood to get out of bed and her legs were
kind of weak. Taylor smiled to herself and thought,
this man
cannot be real
. All the things he did to her body started to
resonate in her mind. She almost became horny from the memory of
last night but the aroma of bacon and eggs in the air captured her
attention.

Her nose led her down the long hallway to
find Kalon standing at the stove, flipping pancakes. In gym shorts
with no shirt, his body was flawless. The Mohawk he was rocking was
on point. She came around the counter and sat at one of the bar
stools.

“Good morning, sleepy head.”

Taylor smiled shyly. “Good morning,
Kalon.”

He walked over with a plate of food in his
hand and gave her a kiss on the lips. “Enjoy.”

Taylor couldn’t believe what she was feeling
for this man.

“So, Taylor, what do you have planned for
this Saturday morning?”

“I have to go into the office today.”

He pretended to sound surprised. “You work on
Saturdays?”

She playfully shoved him. “Well not really. I
just go in to check and make sure things are running smoothly.”

“You’re a workaholic.”

Taylor took a sip of the coffee he poured for
her. “Um, somewhat.”

Placing his hand under her chin so she would
look up at him, Kalon said, “I want to see you again.”

This could get messy. Taylor didn’t want to
get too involved with Kalon until she had time to figure out her
marriage. She loved the night they had just spent together but was
still unsure if this was something she should move forward with.
Guilt over what happened last night was already beginning to eat at
her. She wasn’t sure how much of her morals she was willing to
throw to the wind.

She bit her lip. “I’ll call you, Kalon.”

“When?”

Kalon was being really direct but Taylor was
trying to stay vague. “Today. Once I get my work done at the
office, I’ll give you a call.

“Alright, beautiful. Don’t keep me waiting
all day. And oh,” he added, “I had you some clothes delivered
today.”

He had mentioned that last night but she
didn’t know he had actually done it. “Kalon, you didn’t have to do
that.”

“It wasn’t any problem.”

“Do you need me to help you clean the
kitchen?”

“No, you can go ahead and get dressed.”

Turmoil bubbled inside Taylor.
What have I
gotten myself into?

Chapter 13

Taylor arrived at her office around eleven
o’clock. After getting dressed and saying good bye to Kalon at the
door, he grabbed her around the waist and kissed her passionately.
But when he let her go, something weird happened. He held her face
in the palm of his hands like he wanted to tell her a secret only
he knew. All she could do was stare into those deep, dark eyes
filled with a hunger for her.

Maybe checking her voicemails would get her
mind off Kalon. The first message was from her mom, saying that she
wanted the family to get together for a dinner. The next message
was from Mrs. Tab, explaining that her husband was in the hospital
and she was unsure when she would be able to return. She had called
the temp agency for a replacement, who should be there on Monday
morning. Taylor had noticed all the mail stacked up on Mrs. Tab’s
desk when she came in. She would leave it there for the temp to
sort through.

The last message was from Ari. “Hey, Tay.
I’ve called you several times. Your cell phone kept going to
voicemail last night so I decided to call your office phone. Please
give me a call back. We really need to talk. I need to explain to
you about Maci, that she means nothing to me, baby. Don’t let this
destroy us.” Beep.

Taylor hit the delete button. She wasn’t
ready to talk to Ari just yet. She couldn’t escape the truth,
though—she was as much to blame as he was. She knew about Maci and
Adrianne before she and Ari got married but she let her concern for
her family and fear of embarrassment keep her from doing the right
thing. Plus, the love she carried for her husband had dimmed her
judgment.

Now she sat in her office wishing she could
do it all over again. She wished that when she first got that
letter from Maci, she had told Ari and called off the wedding. Now
that she thought about it, she realized that her father’s campaign
would have survived the media blitz. And, she knew she would have
kept her mom in check.

My life is fucked up.

* * *

Kalon met Ephraim at the Martin Luther King
Recreational Center on 191st and LaGrange to play basketball. They
always met every other Saturday to play ball in the neighborhood
they grew up in.

“What’s up, bro?” Ephraim asked. They dapped
hands on the court.

“I’m good.”

Ephraim started shooting a few free throws.
“Man, you left work early the other day. What’s up with that?”

Kalon caught Ephraim’s missed free throw and
nailed a three-point shot. “Nothing, man. I just had something to
do.”

“Did it have anything to do with you blowing
off meetings and being so secretive?”

Kalon kept throwing up shots. “Man, stay out
my business.”

Blocking his friend’s shot, Ephraim
challenged, “I thought I was your boy and we tell each other
everything.”

Kalon thought about what Ephraim said. Their
friendship went back to when they were kids growing up in Orland
Park. Kalon was a skinny nerdy boy; he was quiet and kids would
pick on him. Ephraim was a big boy for his age. He already was
growing facial hair in the sixth grade. They attended the same
boarding school and were among the five percent of blacks at the
school. They were roommates and made a pact that since they were in
this dreadful place together, no matter what, they would remain
good friends.

Halfway through today’s hard game of
one-on-one half-court basketball, they made a five-dollar wager on
who was the best player. Kalon beat Ephraim by just one point.
Exhausted, they walked toward the bleachers. Two other men stepped
right in to take their place on the court.

“A’ight, man,” Kalon said, “Let’s sit down
and take a breather.” Ephraim drank a bottle of water. Kalon took a
few sips of his water, too, swishing it around in his mouth before
swallowing it. “I met someone.” He spit the words out and waited
for a reaction.

Ephraim wiped his mouth and cleared his
throat. “You met someone. Like, is this serious or does this person
fall under your one-date rule?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been trying to figure
that out.”

Patting Kalon on the shoulder, Ephraim
concluded, “Bro, if you got to think about it that means it’s
serious.”

Kalon knocked Ephraim’s hands off his
shoulder. “Don’t even go there, Ephraim. I ain’t serious about no
woman. She still falls under my one-date rule. It’s just going to
take me a little longer to get what I want.”

Laughing and slapping his thigh, Ephraim
replied, “Yeah, keep telling yourself that. If you keep spending
time with this girl, you’re going to throw that one-time rule out
the door. I thought it was stupid anyway. I think you are just
suffering from some abandonment issues.”

“Who the hell do you think you are, Dr.
Phil?”

They both laughed.

The basketball rolled off the bleacher
Ephraim had laid it on. He reached down to pick it up, tucked it
away under his arm, and then turned to relay some work information
to Kalon. “Anyway, I have some news for you. That account you
passed off to me a few weeks ago, they’re interested in doing
business but they want you to go to New York to sign the final
documents.”

“Why you can’t go?” Kalon asked.

Bouncing the ball once and sitting it on the
ground, Ephraim said, “Because they want you to finish up the deal.
And I think it would be a great opportunity for you to see your
mother. It’s been a few years since you last saw her.”

Kalon thought to himself that Ephraim was
right about him going to see his mother. Every time he talked with
her on the phone, she would always ask when he was coming to visit.
“Yeah, I might just go down there and see how she is doing and get
this deal closed.”

Ephraim grabbed the ball off the floor.
“Great then. Come on, let’s play again so I can whoop that
ass.”

* * *

Ari went to his home that evening to wait for
Taylor. He had avoided several calls from Maci. She kept begging
him to call her back. He wasn’t in the right frame of mind to talk
to her about the little stunt she pulled with Taylor and him the
other day.

He walked up the long, circular staircase and
into the master suite they used to share. His heart dropped when he
saw his clothes in a pile on the floor. Expensive suits, jeans,
shirts, and underwear were all lumped together. He went over to the
wall-to-wall walk-in closet. Hangers that once held his wardrobe
were empty. He didn’t think it would go down like this. He sat down
on the bed and placed his face in his hands. He decided to wait for
Taylor. He was convinced once he explained everything, life would
go back to normal.

* * *

Taylor left the office to head home to
shower. She wanted to be in her own bed tonight after the night she
had with Kalon. Her mind was confused and she was stressed. It
intensified when she pulled into her driveway and saw Ari’s
car.

“Damn! I forgot to change the locks.” She
banged her hand on the steering wheel.

When she got in the house, she saw no trace
of him anywhere. In the kitchen, she poured herself a glass of
Moscato to calm her nerves because she knew an argument was
brewing. All she wanted him to do was get his shit and leave.