Olivia’s
dreams have finally begun to come true, as she marries the man who’s held her
heart for twenty years. Her beauty salon is prospering, and she has begun
rebuilding her team, after seeds of discord were sowed and bonds were broken.
Everything is beginning to look up, or so she thinks. When a scandal is leaked
to the media, Olivia’s dream of expanding is in jeopardy. She must step up and
play hard ball in a game with which she’s unfamiliar.
Nikki had
dreams of building a beautiful family with a loving husband. But after looking
at the shattered pieces of her broken life, she is losing hope and desires
more. She wants more than the shame of barrenness, and more than physical abuse
from his drinking binges. One phone call gives her courage to escape the deadly
clutches of her husband. Yet, when she finds strength in another’s arms she
finds herself spinning more lies. Nikki’s web of deceit is going to cost all
those who are close and it could just cost her, her life.
When deception is the name of the game, who all will
have to share the pain?
EXCERPT
The pain was easing up somewhat
as Nikki and Wesley entered the breezeway at his apartments. Unlocking the
door, his eyes softened when he looked at her face once again.
She saw a mixture of anger and compassion nestled
there.
“What?” she asked when he
continued to stare at her longer than what she deemed comfortable. “Nothing,”
he said, shaking his head. Wesley led her into a galley kitchen and pulled a
sandwich bag from one of the cabinets, filled it with ice, and then wrapped it
in a paper towel before applying it to her face.
She was in awe at the tenderness with which this man
handled her. Every time he touched or said a word to her, it was with such
protection, like she had never known. This was a side of Wesley that she had
not seen in the five years of knowing him.
“Come on,” he said, grabbing her by her free hand and
leading her to the back of the apartment. She looked around at his bedroom; not
at all what she would have expected for a single man. Decorated in oranges,
greens, browns, and yellows, it had a Caribbean look and feel to it. The room
was small, but neat and exhibited a nice décor. The full-sized bed sat directly
opposite the black-framed, chestnut-colored dresser. To the right of his bed
was a small nightstand in the same black framing and chestnut top as the bed
and the dresser. To the left of his bed was a double-paned window, with orange,
brown, and green curtains blocking out the midday sun. He walked over to the
window and opened the curtains halfway and then opened the blinds to allow the
sun to stream through.
“I’ll be right back.”
“Where are you going?” she asked with a look of
apprehension in her eyes.
His eyebrows lifted slightly.
“Just to the bathroom, Nikki. I’ll be back.”
Exhaling a deep breath, she
realized that a new fear had come over her. In all the altercations she had
endured with Carlos, he had never left her for dead. Why did he leave like
that? What if the neighbors didn’t come? I could’ve died in that bathroom, she
thought.
She tried to fight back the tears, but they betrayed her.
Sucking in her sobs, she stood and walked to his dresser and began looking at
his pictures, anything that would take her mind off her problems. There were a
couple of him and his father at various stages of his life, a few of some
children, and one of a lady she assumed to be his mother. She stood up and
walked to the bed, staring at the amazing likeness he had to this woman.
“That’s my mom.”
She jumped at the sound of his voice; she hadn’t heard him
return to the bedroom.
“Oh, I didn’t hear you come up. Are you always so
quiet?” she asked as he came and stood beside her. She still had not looked at
him, wishing she could make the tears disappear from her eyes and face. “No.
Are you always so scary?” he teased. He regretted the words almost the moment
he said them. Her body tensed up, and she looked down. Her fear had come as a
result of the relationship she was in. She was always tense and on edge,
because she never knew what fuse Carlos was about to blow.
“Hey, it’s okay. I’m sorry. Here,
look at me,” he said, turning her face up towards him. “Why are you crying?” he
asked as he wiped her tears away with his fingers.
“I’m sorry. I just…I don’t know.”
She couldn’t explain if she wanted to. No one would understand her confusion or
pain. She could forgive Carlos if he just had not left her. Didn’t he love her?
Didn’t he want to work things out? Maybe he didn’t love her, after all. If he
did, he would not have left her there like that.
“Don’t be sorry. You haven’t done
anything wrong. I have the feeling you have spent many years apologizing,”
Wesley stated.
He lovingly caressed the bruise that had formed on the
right side of her face.
“Too beautiful,”
Wesley said, being drawn into the power of her presence in his bedroom. “Huh?”
“You. You’re too beautiful for
this. I don’t want you to be scared every time people come near you. Relax,
okay? Just be…I promise I won’t ever do nothing to hurt you,” he said as he
drew her nearer to him. Looking down into her big, dark brown eyes, he felt
himself getting lost.
Nikki didn’t know what she was
feeling or what was happening between the two of them. And she couldn’t contain
herself as he pressed his full firm lips against her soft, lush ones. As their
foreheads touched, he continued to gently apply pressure to her lips, asking
for permission to enter in.
