Almost Doesn't Count Page 5

  He rolled his eyes. “Oh, here we go.”

  “I’m not judging you,” Billie said. “You got into some trouble as a kid. You were also caught in possession of marijuana when you were twenty-three?”

  “Who hasn’t carried some weed on them every now and then?”

  “I haven’t,” she answered. “But it looks like you’ve been on the straight and narrow . . . mostly. What led you to Saturn House?”

  “Not easy for a black man with a record to get a job in this world,” he started. “I was walking by Saturn House ten years ago and saw they needed a handyman. The woman that owned it, Della, was the only person in DC willing to give me a chance. At least it seemed like it.”

  “How did you go from being the handyman to owner in ten years?”

  Ricky smiled as if he was in wonder at that reality himself. “Went from handyman to cook, then helped Della manage some of her papers, started making friendships with the local donors, etc. Della came to trust me and the transition made sense.”

  “Good for you,” Billie said.

  She was proud to see a brother who wanted to do something good for the community. She’d seen too many Porters, men who had the brains and potential to do great things in the community, become dazed by money and power and decide to do good things only for themselves.

  Billie tried to focus on the work at hand. “About a year and a half ago, Sanders Realty approached you with an offer to buy your property.”

  “They approached Della at the time,” he answered. “She was dead set against selling for obvious reasons. This place means everything to her. It means everything to a lot of people. She made me promise not to sell to them.”

  “So you claim that”—she checked her notes—“Alex Mattas from Sanders became very aggressive with you as you refused his repeated offers.”

  Ricky nodded. “Meanwhile, he’s . . . Sanders Realty is buying up everything around me. He kept telling me that no one wanted a . . . he called it a halfway house . . . in an up-and-coming neighborhood.”

  Billie shook her head. “You claim that he is behind the people who call the police suggesting that they have witnessed criminal activity around the building?”

  He nodded. “I know he’s behind it.”

  “But you have no proof it’s him. None of those calls could be traced back to him in any way.” Billie would have to see how much more information she could get about that. “When did the notices from the DC Housing Authority start coming?”

  “The first one was eight months ago.” He pointed to the notice as Billie pulled her copy from her stack of papers. “That’s the first one. They start telling me that they have reason to believe that my living conditions don’t meet code and they have started an investigation.”

  “And you say no one has actually visited Saturn House?”

  “Someone came for the first time last month. That was after the third notice that included a threat to contact the Feds and demand they cut the funding for the house and our tax-free status.”

  “But your house is in good condition.” She wrote a note to have pictures taken of every inch of the home, inside and out.

  “My house is immaculate,” Ricky said proudly. “Honestly, Della was OCD, if you ask me. She always demanded the house be spotless. I’ve kept it that way. Everything is up to code.”

  “But you have a notice you received two weeks ago that references several code violations.” Billie looked at Ricky, seeing that he was getting angry just thinking about it. She didn’t blame him.

  She studied the code violation notice and it looked completely legit, but she would have to investigate more. “Your argument is that this violation is based on lies.”

  “It’s all lies, Billie. I’m telling you. I followed that guy around every inch of my house and he barely looked at anything. He kept saying everything was fine, fine, fine, and left in a real hurry. Next thing I know, I get this notice. They’re trying to shut me down, the government.”

  “I won’t let them,” Billie said. “I know a guy at the firm who is an expert on federal housing law that governs DC. We’re going to get behind this and find out what’s going on.”

  “The government is all a bunch of corrupt bastards, Billie. I’m looking at you and seeing that you’re smart, but are you tough enough?”

  “Don’t let my size fool you,” she said. “I know how to fight in a courtroom. I’ve fought more powerful enemies than the DC Housing Authority.”

  He slowly smiled and leaned back in his chair. He gave Billie a look that made her feel a little uncomfortable again. He had seductive eyes, and as his anger over discussing the problem subsided, his smoother, more charming side resurfaced.

  “You know,” he said, “I’ll bet you have taken down some big boys. I like your style, Billie. I think you and I are gonna get along real well.”

  Billie hoped for the same. This case wasn’t going to be easy, but she had a feeling it was going to be fun. “Let’s get to work.”

  “Damn, you look good,” was the first thing Terrell said as soon as he opened the front door to his apartment and saw Erica.

  She did look good. Erica spent a lot of time and effort to look good tonight. Her hair was up in a banana clip, with curly tendrils falling across her face and down her neck in a wistful, sexy manner. As usual, she wore hardly any makeup, just some gloss to add shine to her full, sexy lips and mascara to accent her long, dark eyelashes.

  She was wearing a blue, red, and silver paisley-border print dress with soft ruffles down the front, stopping just a couple of inches above her knees, defining her generous curves.

  “You looking pretty good yourself, boy.”

  He had forgone his usual sport jersey and jean shorts and was wearing a pair of nice jeans and a hunter green polo shirt. He had to wear a suit every day when he drove his car, so he was always reluctant to dress nice on his free time. She knew this was dressy for him and she appreciated it.

  Just as she stepped inside, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to him. He looked into her eyes before kissing her tenderly. She felt a little tug in her belly, but tried to ignore it. When his lips came down on hers again, she responded by wrapping her arms around his neck. She kissed him back for a few seconds, feeling the heat before realizing where she was.

  She pushed away, looking around the small two-bedroom apartment in the Adams Morgan neighborhood. “Where is Slade?”

  “He’s out with his latest girl.” After closing the door behind her, Terrell took Erica’s hand and led her farther into the apartment.

  After their breakup, Terrell moved out of the apartment they shared and moved in with his friend Slade. He’d had other friends who he could have moved in with, but he’d told Erica that he’d chosen Slade because Slade had never been a hustler and would not tolerate it. Slade was the safest of the safest, an accountant for the state department. From the beginning, Terrell had been thinking of Erica, thinking of what would impress her.

  “Come on.” Terrell led Erica through the living room and down the hall.

  She hesitated. “What . . . What’s going on?”

  “I want to show you something,” he answered, turning back to her. “It’s in my bedroom.”

  “Terrell.” She snatched her hand away and placed it on her hips.

  “Girl, stop it. Just real quick before we go to dinner. I’ll behave, I promise.”

  Erica continued following him even though she knew that she wasn’t so worried about him being on his best behavior. She was worried about herself. If she was being honest with herself, she’d have to admit that while she was getting ready for tonight, she was thinking about the possibility of the night ending with sex. It had been so long.

  He opened the door to his bedroom and Erica cautiously stepped inside, looking around.

  “Is this what you wanted to show me?” she asked. “You cleaned your room?”

  “Proud of me?” he asked with a beaming smile.

  “I’m a l
ittle pissed,” she said. “How many times did I try to get you to clean our bedroom, and get nothing done?”

  “It’s all part of my transformation.” Terrell went over to the dresser against the wall and grabbed a folded piece of paper.

  “Check this out, baby.” He handed her the folded piece of paper.

  “What is it?” She looked at it, but didn’t unfold it.

  “Look at it.” He stepped a few inches closer until he was less than a foot away from her.

  His closeness made Erica a little uncomfortable, so she looked down at the paper. Tossing her purse on the bed next to her, she flipped the sheet of paper open and read it. She smiled a delighted, proud smile.

  “Operations agent?” Erica said it like more of a question than a statement. “You got a promotion?”

  He nodded, so excited he was biting this lower lip. “For the last couple of months, I’ve been helping Scott, the operations director, with managing some of his work. He really liked what I was doing and talked it over with the Jamie, the president. They agreed to give me a chance.”

  Erica felt awkward. She was excited for him enough to want to reach out and hug him, but the whole situation was weird. Was he her man again or not? How was she supposed to handle this?

  “Congratulations.” She handed the paper back to him.

  Terrell was clearly disappointed with her reaction. “You know what this means? I’m not a driver anymore, baby. If I accept, I’ll have my own office.”

  “I’m so proud of you.” There was a part of Erica that was sad that they weren’t officially back together because she could have enjoyed this moment even more.

  “Are you?” His eyes held a pure eagerness. “Because that means everything to me, Erica. I can’t tell you how much you’ve been on my mind at work. Like, it used to be cool out there, driving around, but this is more stability. I knew if I could move up, you would be more proud.”

  “It never mattered to me what you did at work,” Erica said. “I just cared how you treated me. That’s all that’s ever mattered.”

  He nodded. “I know and I fucked that up, but I’ll be able to do more for you now. This is opening new doors for me. I’m not just doing this for you. I’m doing it for us, for what I hope is us.”

  “Terrell.”

  Erica couldn’t help herself as she reached out and touched his cheek. He wasn’t free with his emotions. Terrell always thought it was weak for a man to have his heart on his sleeve. So these moments, as she watched him get a little emotional, were extremely touching to her.

  Terrell placed his hand over hers and pressed it even more firmly against his cheek. “You do want an us, don’t you? I’m not fooling myself, am I?”

  “I want to be able to trust you again.” Erica moved closer to him, wanting to kiss him, dying to kiss him. Suddenly she remembered something.

  “Wait, what do you mean, if you accept? Are you basing your acceptance on me, because if you are . . .”

  “I accepted verbally yesterday.” He stepped away from her, letting her hand fall to her side. He placed the paper on the nightstand. “This is just the formal offer that makes it official.”

  “Well, don’t wait,” she said, relieved. She didn’t want his career to hinge on her. “Call them tomorrow and let them know.”

  “I’ll tell them Monday,” he said. “I got plans tomorrow. It’s my day off.”

  “You’re taking a day off?” Erica was impressed. “Mr. Gotta Make That Money Seven Days a Week is taking a day off? When was the last time you did that? About a year ago?”

  “I actually wanted to talk to you about that.”

  “Do you want to do something?” She suddenly got excited. She hardly ever got a free weekend day with Terrell because he worked nonstop. Now that they were seeing each other again, she thought of all the things they could do. “Eastern Market? Brunch?”

  “I can’t spend my day off with you,” he said. “I actually called Nate and asked him to hang out with me tomorrow.”

  Nate and Terrell weren’t necessarily great friends. Living in the same home for a few years allowed them to form sort of a bond, and Erica told Terrell as long as he kept the hoods out of his life, Nate could hang out with him. Their relationship mostly consisted of the occasionally violent movie and video games. There had been many times when Erica and Nate had gotten into it and Terrell was there, as an older man, to keep Nate in line. Erica really missed that, especially now.

  Terrell returned to her. “You’ve been talking about him a lot lately. I can tell it’s really upsetting you.”

  Nate had been hell on wheels lately. In the past month or so, he’d been arguing with Erica nonstop over just about anything big or small. She couldn’t say a word to him without him taking it the wrong way and snapping at her. Erica had a temper and usually regretted letting it go because she only made it worse. He would go missing for days at a time and she tried not to give him a hard time about it. She knew he wasn’t a boy anymore and she should mind her own business, but any inquiry was met with a verbal attack from him. Erica was very upset and was at her wit’s end with him.

  “You usually tell me that he’s grown-ass man and I should stay out of it,” she asserted.

  “He is, Erica. He’s twenty and he needs to be doing his own thing and making his own mistakes.”

  “The problem with that is, for a young man in DC, a mistake can cost you your freedom or your life.”

  “He’s obviously going through something he’s not comfortable talking to you about.” He reached his hand up and rubbed her shoulder. “It’s not your fault. You’re kind of like a mom to him more than a sister. He’ll open up to me. Maybe I can help him out, give him a little insight. I’ve learned a thing or two in my old age.”

  Erica was incredibly touched and, admittedly, a little turned on by his taking control. She was a modern girl who liked to handle her own problems, but she missed having a man who could take things over for her every now and then.

  “You would do that for me?” she asked.

  “I would do anything for you,” he answered back quickly. “And I care about Nate, too. But most importantly, I want you happy and I know how much you love that boy. You won’t be happy as long as he’s troubled. I want to fix that.”

  There was a voice in the back of her head that told her he was using that tone of voice, the one that always worked on her. The smooth-operator tone of voice that soothed her concerns and turned her on. She didn’t care. It was working. This gesture to help her with Nate made her miss him more now than ever.

  She didn’t hesitate before grabbing him and pulling him to her. She went straight for his lips and pressed hers against them. Just as she did, his arms wrapped around her waist and their bodies slammed against each other.

  His mouth explored hers deeply, and she immediately began to feel the effect swim through her entire body. Terrell always did this to her, even after all these years, he got her motor running right away.

  Feeling her passion intensify, Erica reached for his polo and tried to lift it off his head. He leaned away.

  “What about dinner?” he asked.

  “Are you really thinking about food right now?” she asked.

  Backing away from him, she slowly sat down on the bed, inching back until her body was fully on the bed. She watched with excitement as Terrell looked down at her slowly and seductively. He was looking at her as if she were the tastiest meal he could have ever wanted.

  When he joined her on the bed, he reached out for her again, this time more forcefully, more urgently. Erica felt her body begin to pulse all over as their hands furiously pulled at each other’s clothes.

  Their mouths were everywhere. Her body began tingling all over as his lips left a trail of fire down her chest, across her large breasts, and tickled her belly button. She felt his hands reach around her hips and caress them aggressively, stoking the fire hotter and hotter.

  Erica got lost in the pounding sound in her head as her
body throbbed with intense need when she felt his mouth touch her center. She was already wet when he’d gotten down there and his lack of hesitation made her feel so good she called out his name.

  She heard him call her “baby” as his tongue took a short break to lick the inside of her thighs. Quickly, her body began to move back and forth with anticipation, with anguish. She wanted him badly, more than she could place in words. All she could do was let out the groan that was aching inside of her and he knew.

  When he returned to her, he grabbed her hair and pulled it, making her head go back. He let out a carnal moan as he entered her, hard and ready. He filled her up quickly as she wrapped her thighs around him. She lifted her pelvis to meet him and they began that familiar, sweet movement that set it all in motion. He thrust as her body quivered. Dirty words were spoken in between promises of love. Moans of intense and purely pleasurable pain mixed together.

  She came twice before he did and that was only the first session of the night.

  Sherise wasn’t sure how long she’d been zoned out, but the smell of the pork chops she was frying beginning to burn brought her senses back. She grabbed the pan and removed it from the heat. Placing it aside, she grabbed the spatula and turned them over. One slipped out of the spatula’s grip and fell in the pan, splashing grease that landed on her hand.

  “Dammit!” she yelled in pain.

  This got the attention of Cady, playing in her high chair at the kitchen table. She let out an excited yip and waved her arms.

  “Mommy’s sorry,” Sherise said to her as she reached over the sink to run the cold water over her hand.

  This was just the cap to a bad weekend. She had barely spoken to Justin since he walked out on her Friday night. After returning from his golf game the next day, he tried to spark some conversation with her, but she wasn’t having it. Her pride was still hurting from him walking out on her even though it was her fault. They’d both spent Saturday night doing their own thing at the house, and she pretended to be asleep when he finally came to bed.

  The morning hadn’t been much better. They already had a date for brunch with a coworker of Justin’s and his wife at Black Market Bistro. Sherise had hoped it would break the monotony of her weekend, but it only made her feel worse. While Justin and his coworker talked about work and new clients, his coworker’s wife, a young, beautiful red-haired woman named Elisa, could not say enough about her recent promotion at her public relations firm and how challenging it was going to be to manage twenty people.