Sizzling Seduction Read online

  “Don’t you ever let my child’s name fal out of your mouth again, Sophie! The stress of being a newlywed, finishing my degree and you and your mother, God bless the dead, contributed to my unhealthy state during that pregnancy.

  And I promised myself from then on that I would never let you and your hatefulness get to me again. But you wil never quit, wil you?”

  A harsh laugh escaped Celia’s lips and she did everything she could not to slap Sophie again. She told herself that this was just the kind of thing that Sophie would run with and tel everyone. Celia told herself that she should rise above it. She swal owed back years of bile and moved away from her target.

  “You’re going to be sorry for this. We’l see whose side James takes now. I told everyone you were just a little ghetto hoodlum.”

  Celia turned around and started to smack her again. It was time for them to have it out once and for al .

  “Celia, don’t do it.”

  James. When did he get home? Who cares? I’m taking this bitch out.

  Celia smacked Sophie again and had raised her hand to hit the woman again only to be stopped by James. He held her, even as she struggled to get free. She was tired of Sophie.

  Tired.

  “She brought up my child. I told her never to bring up my child again.”

  “Is this why you wanted me to come home and meet you here, Sophie? So I could catch you goading my wife into giving you the whupping you’ve been begging her to give you for years?”

  “How can you take her side, James? How can you?

  Look at me. She hit me. She’s no better than that little thug girl Lawrence married. And she’s the reason al your sons married inappropriately.”

  Celia struggled al the more to break free, only stopping when she felt James’s calming lips on her temple.

  “She’s not worth it, babe. Sophie, you need to leave now. And until you can treat my wife and the rest of the women in this family with respect, you should stay away.

  You’re my sister and I love you dearly, but I refuse to al ow you to terrorize my wife.”

  “But I came to bury the hatchet and to try and make peace before the Thanksgiving holiday. I wanted to make peace with both of you. And she attacked me.” Sophie wiped the tears from her eyes and for a brief moment Celia remembered her former mentor as a friend, the woman who—like it or not—had helped change her life for the better.

  And just like that, the memory was gone. That woman was gone, and this evil, hateful creature was in her place.

  “If you cal making peace bringing up my deceased child and blaming me for it, then you need a lesson in peacemaking.” She felt her husband stiffen at her words.

  She hated that Sophie made her remind him of that bleak time in their lives. He had had to bury his first son, his namesake, almost alone because she had been so overcome with grief that she had almost lost her grip on reality.

  After coming that close to losing her mind, and after getting help for her severe postpartum depression she had found a way to deal with Sophie and her mother-in-law. She made her husband choose. And it was only after his mother made her husband choose. And it was only after his mother passed away and he hadn’t been able to say goodbye that she realized she couldn’t deny him his family, as crazy as they were. And she al owed Sophie back into their lives.

  She had turned the other cheek time and time again, and it had stil come down to this.

  “Sophie, if you real y want to be forgiven, if you real y want peace, then you had better never mention James Jr.

  again. You need to watch the things that come out of your mouth, because I can’t promise I won’t wipe the floor with you if it happens again. You can come to Thanksgiving dinner. But you have been warned.” Celia let her words linger before turning to leave.

  James could deal with his sister now. She was too tired to do so. And something told her she would need al her strength for whatever Sophie was cooking up.

  Sophie touched her jaw as she eyed her brother. James was going to take Celia’s side. Sophie could tel .

  She hadn’t expected the little fool to actual y hit her.

  From the day Celia married James and became a Hightower, she had pretty much tried to keep the peace, and she had never confronted Sophie. Maybe she had final y had enough…Wel , she wasn’t the only one. Sophie had had enough, too.

  Sophie let out a nervous chuckle. “I guess you were right al those years ago. She is a little gang—”

  “Do not talk about my wife, Sophie.” James glared at her as he cut her off. “Al these years, she has tried to make things work and tried to give you a chance to change your evil ways—”

  She had never seen her brother so angry and he had certainly never cal ed her anything as harsh as evil. She had to cut him off. “Evil! I—”

  He wouldn’t let her defend herself. He cut her off.

  “Sophie, enough! Enough is enough. She is my wife! She has given me five children. And for you to bring up the child who died, when you know that she has never real y gotten over it al these years is cruel, even for you! You need to leave. And if you can’t get it together and be civil on Thanksgiving, don’t feel like you have to show up, even though Celia extended the olive branch and invited you.

  This is your last chance, sis. You went too far this time.”

  “But she hit me! What about that?” Her indignation would not be contained.

  “Go home, Sophie. Go home and think about the place you want to have in this family. Your nephews are already close to cutting you off. You have a great-niece and two great-nephews and a new baby on the way. This family is happy. My sons have married some wonderful women and I’m proud of them. I can’t stand by and let you terrorize the family any longer.”

  Sadly, there she had it. James was just too far gone to be of much use. But Patrick had always been her favorite nephew anyway. And Courtney…although she had surprised her by poking her that way…was just mal eable enough for Sophie to influence. There might be hope for her yet. Getting Celia out of the family home before Sophie died was worth anything Sophie had to do, anyone she had to sacrifice. Celia was going to pay for the personal suffering her betrayal had caused Sophie al these years. If it was the last thing Sophie did, Celia was going to pay.

  Chapter 9

  Aisha placed the vase ful of pink, white and red roses on the windowsil of her classroom, right next to the other four vases. She had gotten a vase a day since Monday on and they al had the same note. “Please go out on a date with me.” And each card had a number that she assumed was either Patrick’s cel phone or home number.

  She opened the latest card expecting to see the same message, but instead it said.

  Love,

  I have three tickets to see the Giants on Saturday and I know one real y cool kid who would love to go. I’m hoping his mom wil come with us and we can make a day out of it. And before you say no because you don’t date, know that this is not a date. It is me and you and Dil on hanging out and getting to know one another. When we go out on a date—and we wil one day—you’l know it. I’l stop by at noon on Saturday and if you and Dil on are outside and ready to go, I’l take that as a yes…Hope to see you on Saturday, Patrick She closed her eyes and exhaled.

  Patrick Hightower was relentless, and she barely had any resolve left. She looked at the wide-eyed children in her class.

  “She’s going to cry. My mommy always cries when my daddy gives her flowers.” Michaela nodded her head as she spoke, al the while looking and waiting for the predicted tears.

  “Can we have some of those flowers, Ms. Mil er? You gonna leave them here al weekend? They gonna get cold and die.” Lizzy eyed the flowers longingly.

  Some of the other students nodded in agreement with their classmate.

  “Yes, Ms. Mil er, what’re you going to do?” Toni asked with a big grin on her face. She was worse than the kids.

  Aisha crossed her eyes at her friend and teaching assistant. “I don’t know. But I
do know one thing, it’s story time.”

  “Yay!” The round of voices bounced off the wal s as the children got out of their seats, grabbed pil ows for the floor and jockeyed for the position closest to her chair.

  She grabbed a book from the many children’s books on the shelf and sat down to read to her class. She hoped it would take her mind off a certain firefighter, and couldn’t help but laugh when she got a look at the cartoon fireman on the cover of the book.

  So much for that plan…Everything in the universe seemed to be pointing to Patrick Hightower.

  The rest of the day went along pretty uneventful y. She decided to share her flowers with her students, giving each of them two to take home. She gave Toni a vase and took a vase home herself and there were stil flowers left in the classroom. Patrick Hightower certainly knew how to wear a girl down.

  She picked Dil on up from his after-school program and thought about what she’d cook for dinner. Keeping it simple was always her strong point. But she was tired of baked chicken and baked pork chops and baked salmon.

  She was tired of playing it safe.

  And she had just seen a real y great recipe on TV the other day that was sure to knock Dil on’s little socks off if she got it right. She had most of the ingredients in the apartment, too. She figured she could improvise the rest.

  She thought she would be able to pul it off, but, judging by the way Dil on swal owed and then took a big gulp of juice after he’d tasted it, she hadn’t succeeded. She looked at Dil on’s sweet little face as he tried to eat the thirty-minute version of coq au vin and not hurt her feelings and she gave in.

  “Is it that bad, sweetie? I thought I had it this time. The recipe looked so-oo easy. I just knew I could do it.” She took Dil on’s unfinished plate and emptied it in the trash.

  “You make the best baked chicken and rice, Mom. I love when you make that.” He was trying to make her feel better.

  She real y had the world’s greatest kid.

  “But I make that al the time. Don’t you get tired of eating baked chicken, baked macaroni and cheese, baked ziti, baked blah, blah, blah.” She looked at the brown glob on her plate and threw that in the trash, too. “Oh, wel , how’s about I cal Frank and Joe’s and we have some baked pizza delivered?”

  “I think that’s a great idea, Mom!” Dil on offered with a giggle.

  Her heart swel ed just looking at him. Suddenly, she remembered Patrick’s note. Dil on deserved to go to the Giants game. Even if she couldn’t work her way around to agreeing that she deserved to go out on a date and have fun with the fine, sexy fireman, she could let her son experience a real professional footbal game and take the chance to get to know Patrick a little better. She had made a deal with him that she would, after al .

  “So, sweetie, how would you feel about going to a Giants game tomorrow with Patrick? He asked if we wanted to—”

  “Yes! Yay! I can’t wait! They’re playing the Patriots tomorrow. Awesome!”

  The gleeful expression on his face made any potential risk she was taking with her heart worth it. Dil on’s happiness had been al that mattered to her for so long. But the light, airy feeling in her heart let her know without a doubt that Dil on wasn’t the only one happy about the prospect of seeing Patrick tomorrow.

  By the time there was a knock on her apartment door, she had to admit that she was a little more than hungry. She was probably going to eat more than her fair share of the pepperoni pizza they had ordered. She rushed to open the door without looking through the peephole and instantly regretted it.

  Her father must have made a cal to his protégé puppet.

  Because her ex-husband stood at her door and he hadn’t darkened her doorstep in years, not even to see his son.

  She stared at him. His toasted-cinnamon complexion was ruddy with anger, as usual. His jet-black curly hair was cut low so that the curls formed deep waves. He was growing a mustache and it seemed to cover up his thin lips.

  With his tal , medium build and refined features, most women would probably find him handsome. After being married to him and now blissful y divorced from him, she wasn’t one of those women.

  “What are you doing here, Bil ?”

  He pushed past her and made his way into the apartment. “I don’t need a reason to be here since my hard-earned money is helping to pay for this dump.” He glared back at her. “Shut the door. We need to talk and you’re going to listen.”

  The pizza delivery guy showed up at that moment. So she handed him the money and took the pizza. It gave her just enough time to compose herself, temper her anger and gather her courage. Just for safe measure, she left the front door ajar.

  “You can wait in the living room, Bil . I’m going to get Dil on set with his dinner and then I have five minutes to spare for whatever you need to discuss.” She cal ed for her son, who came immediately running out of his room and down the narrow hal way.

  “Yay! Pizza…” His voice trailed off when he saw Bil .

  “Dil on, say hel o to your father,” she coached her son.

  She couldn’t blame the kid for being too surprised to speak. He probably had forgotten what the man looked like.

  “Hi, Dad,” Dil on mumbled.

  “Hey, kid.” Bil glanced at his watch and then glared at her.

  Aisha rol ed her eyes. She would always regret that she hadn’t picked a better man to procreate with. Although she lucked out and ended up with the best kid in the world, it broke her heart to see him hurt by Bil ’s cal ous actions and attitude.

  She set Dil on up at the kitchen table and gave him a kiss on the forehead. “Mommy wil be back to join you in a minute as soon, as she’s done seeing what he wants.”

  She took a deep breath and then walked into the living room where Bil was sitting on the sofa, looking about as comfortable as the devil at a revival meeting.

  “So, as I said before, what are you doing here?”

  “I’m here because I heard you’ve real y lost it. Now you have al kinds of strange men in here around my kid. And if you think that’s going to fly with me, then you are sadly mistaken.” He glared at her and she glared right back.

  “Since when did you ever give a damn about my son?”

  She whispered between clenched teeth.

  The nerve of this man!

  “You’ve seen him what…three or four times in the last five years? You barely want to pay the measly child support you and your crooked lawyer friends, including my own father, worked out for you. You could care less. So, please, spare me.”

  “It’s your fault that my son isn’t in his nice home, enjoying al the luxuries a son of mine should have. He shouldn’t be living in this hot mess, attending public school in this city with little future criminals in training. But his mother is a vindictive bitch who had a little hissy fit after one smal situation between us that we could have worked our way—”

  “You. Punched. Me. In. The. Face.” The heat rose from her chest to her face and she could barely contain her outrage. How dare he belittle what he had done or her response to it?

  “One time! We could have gotten past al that.” He shrugged in a nonchalant manner. “You filed for divorce and I decided to let you see how hard your life would be taking care of a five-year-old without me or your father there to cater to your every whim.”

  “And I did just fine. I finished school, got a job and I’m taking care of my child. But, most important, my son doesn’t have to live in a home where his father hits his mother and I don’t have to worry about him becoming an abuser like you.”

  Bil ’s toasted cinnamon-complexion turned even redder and she could tel that he was working hard to keep his anger in check. Although she was no longer afraid of him, she also didn’t want him to lose it in her apartment.

  “Your father wants us to try to work this out for his grandson’s sake, and I need to make partner.”

  There it was. When she was a twenty-year-old col ege sophomore enjoying life away from home and
final y free, her father decided that the hot new attorney at his firm would be the perfect man for her to marry. She’d been young and naive and a tiny bit enthral ed by the twenty-seven-year-old’s handsome looks. But she wasn’t sure she was ready to get married. He father said women like her only went to school to get their MRS degree, and since he’d found the perfect man for her, she didn’t need to finish col ege. She hadn’t been strong enough to stand up to the pressure then. But she was more than strong enough now.

  She took a deep breath and folded her hands in her lap.

  “My father doesn’t care about his grandson any more than you do. My father likes to control people, probably even more than you do. He doesn’t control me any longer. I already told him—and now I’m tel ing you—I’m not going to the reception your firm is having. And I most certainly am not in the running for a second round with you. It’s over.”

  He leaned forward with a mean and vicious-looking smirk on his face. “You think you’ve done something special because you got a BA in elementary education and the Paterson public schools hired you to teach some five-year-olds? That’s about the only thing your simple behind could do. It’s a good thing you were blessed with that face and that body, or your father wouldn’t have found anyone to marry you. You’re lucky I was even considering giving you another chance.”

  “Take your second chance and you know exactly what you can do with it. And, for the record, if you were the best my father could come up with in his quest to marry me off, I wish he hadn’t bothered at al . The only good thing to come from that wasted ten years of my life was my son.”

  “Fine.” He smirked. “Have it your way. I want to start seeing my son. I’l be picking him up on weekends from now on.”

  “What?” Her heart jumped to her throat and she felt a slight dizziness overcome her. “You haven’t been interested in seeing him before. Why now?”

  “It doesn’t matter.” He gave another one of those nonchalant, devil-may-care shrugs and she wished she could smack him. “I have rights. I was granted visitation.