The Tempted and The Temptress

Chapter 6

Tammy

        Okay, just once more.

            This is madness.  Here I am three months pregnant and I’m craving Max.  Maybe I should have told him about the baby last week when I was at the doctor.  And not the mention how he kissed me later that evening.

            I looked down at the pile of papers on my desk, and tried to concentrate on the list of things I had brought home from the office so that I could get something done.   I needed to be focusing on the Vincent Russell project because we would be starting installation soon and I wanted to make sure everything was just perfect for the opening. I had met him several times before and I loved him like a brother in the art industry. But of course, I was thinking of the forbidden fruit that lives next door.

            Speaking of, I looked out of my home office window and saw a car parked out with his.  He had a date tonight, I thought.  I had forgotten all about that, although I hadn’t heard him saying anything about it.  Then I looked to see his brother’s voltswagon coming up in the driveway.  I could have screamed at that precise moment.  Then the phone rang.

            “Hello,” I answered.

            “Hi, Tammy,” Playboy said.  Oh, he sounded as good on the phone.

            “What’s up?”

            “I wanted to know if you want to come over.  Cindy’s here and she wants to meet you.”

            Thanks God! I thought.  “Sure,” I replied.  I had been trying to meet his sister in law Cindy for the longest time since she was an artist. I’d also talked with her many times on the phone. “I’ll be over in a moment.”

            I put on my shoes and walked over with my shoes through the sand. I went and knocked on the front door, then entered.

            “I’m here,” I called.

            “We’re in the living room” was he reply.  Oooo, memories of that place.

            So I walked in.  I aw Playboy first, and was so taken by the sight of him in a wife beater (I hate the name of that shirt) and some jeans that I had to be brought to attention when someone cleared their throat.

            “Oh, I’m sorry,” I said, then turned to his brother. “Good to see you again, Malcolm.”

            “And you too,” he said, standing to hug me.  “and this is.”

            “Cindy Washington?” I said.

            “Tamara Lewis?” she asked as she stood. “Are you now a Sloan again?”

            I hugged her.  “I keep Lewis.”

            “It’s great to see you. It’s been a long time.”

             “Yeah, yours.”

            “Sit down, Tammy,” Max cut in almost a little to harshly.

            I turned and gave him a look and was about to give a retort until I saw this cold look in his eyes. 

            I sat down next to Cindy.  We went to college together, and were study partners but got out of touch after we graduated.  We both started traveling and just never caught with each other.

            “Tam, how’s life? I heard about Sam, my condolences, sweetie.”

            “Oh, it’s okay.  I’ve gotten on with my life though I still love him.”

            “Girl,” Cindy said. “Who could forget him?”

            “True,” I said.

            “Well, you ladies seem to know each other well,” Malcolm stated.

            “Yeah, baby, we went to college together,” Cindy said excitedly.  Her eyes were shining so brightly, she looked like a child on Christmas morning.  Just then, my head started spinning a little.

            “Would anyone like anything to drink?” I asked, standing up slowly.  I figured it would be best I get out of the room for a second before having to explain myself to anyone.

            “I would,” said Malcolm.

            “I’ll come with you,” said Cindy, inviting herself along.

            I took a few deep breaths as we went into the kitchen.  Cindy, I knew, had about fifty questions and she didn’t waste anytime asking.

            “Okay, so what’s up with you and Max?”

            “Nothing,” I said, sighing.

            “But you wish.”

            “Maybe,” I said.  I sat down at the kitchen table for just a second.

            “Don’t lie to yourself.  Did you tell him you were pregnant?”

            My mouth dropped. “How’d you know?”

            “Forgot so quickly?” Cindy asked, smiling.  Her family was very spiritual and believed they could tell what was going on with a person just by looking at them.  They were also even more sensitive to touch.  I didn’t really buy it, but her impulses were almost never wrong. “You know I can tell. What are you three months?”

            “Exactly,” I said, shaking my head.

            “Come on, you know he would be honorable.”

            “If he knew it was his.”

            “Why wouldn’t he?” Cindy asked.  Then she asked me.  “What now?”

            So I told her everything.  The Eric Benet, the poetry, the sneaking.  Cindy sat there wide-eyed and in awe.

            “Girl, it must have been good,” Cindy stated when I was finished.  “I would have never thought that you of all people would be something that extravagant.”

            “Yeah,” I said.  “But I’m pregnant, so that’s not going to necessarily help me out now.”

            “True,” Cindy said.  Then after a moment. “Why don’t you fess up?”

            “Are you crazy?” I yelled.  Then after quieting my voice, “He’ll never trust me again.  I can’t afford to lose his friendship.”

            “So you’re not going to tell him it’s his child?”

            I shook my head.  “No, I can’t.”

            “Well, when are you going to tell him you’re pregnant?  When you’re in labor?”

            I was silent.  I hadn’t thought that far a long.

            “Well, if you ask me,” Cindy continued, “you’re going to lose your friendship because you’re insisting on keeping the secrets.  You need to rectify the situation.”  Then changing the subject. “So I’m going to be an Auntie?”

            “It seems so,” I didn’t know how much I liked the idea.

            “Don’t worry, you will be too.”

            “Excuse me,” I said. “You’re”

            She nodded.

            “Oh!” I screamed, hugging her.  “Does he know?”

            “Not yet, I’m going to tell him tonight.”

            “We’re going to be mothers together,” I said, in awe.  “I honestly never saw this day coming.

            “Me neither,” Cindy said.  “Me neither.”

            Later on that night, when Cindy and Malcolm left and I had gone home, I decided to make a visitation.  So I put my hair up in chopsticks, and pulled on a crisp, extra large button down white shirt that reached me mid thigh.  No shoes of course.

            So I was off.  I went my usual path, hoping that he was in his room.  He was, and lying down the same way that he was the other day.  I went to the cd player today and played “Come As You Are,” an Eric song which indicated the end of a relationship.  This had to be the last time with my condition, otherwise I’d be found out pretty quickly.

            I quickly set his cd player and said the last words:

            “One last moment

            For me to share you

            The love I give

            Catastrophically, hopelessly

            My heart searches for feeling

            My mind for an explanation

            An inch in order to fathom

            These circumstances

            The wind has come to blow out

            The flame

            And the flickering candle

            Extinguished.”

            I pressed the play button and Eric sang out his hear.  I just stood there for a moment.  Watching him.  I saw that he was awake, anticipating.  I couldn’t move.

            “Come as you are…” Eric sang.

            “Let Eric move you,” Playboy said, coaxing.  I was kind of upset that I let it get to me.  That means he has the upperhand.  I suddenly wasn’t as confident as I normally was.

            I went to him.  He held out this arms and I sat down on him, y back to him because I wouldn’t look at him.  I commenced my job.  Might as well do it right.

            So I started wiggling my hips and rotating my body in a way that guaranteed to make him rise to all standards and occasions.  I then unzipped his pants and pulled out his bulging manhood.  I raised up the shirt, and, since I had nothing on under it, I settled myself.  A simultaneous gasp could be heard around the room.

            I rode him.  I guaranteed satisfaction.  I was so good that he was holding me like a child holding his teddy bear.  Yes, I got pleasured too, but hey, it was all for him.

            After about five minutes, Playboy turned me toward him.

            Now, it’s time to relax,” he said, as he gently laid me down on my stomach.  “You’re tense, let me massage you.”

            And he massaged gently, caressing the knots out of my body.  I was relaxed within a matter of moments.  So much so that I allowed him to take my hair aloose and flip me over, removing my mask without protest.  I moaned, “Playboy.”

            It wasn’t until stopped feeling his hands that I realized my mistake.  I opened my eyes, which had somehow closed during the massage, to another set of that were hurt.

            “Playboy,” I started.

            “Don’t,” he said.

            “But –“

            I said, Don’t” He yelled angrily.  He got off the bed, his beautiful body glistening in the moonlight, every muscle in his body defining his rage.  If the rage hadn’t been directed toward me, I would have marveled in the tiger-like beauty.  I lay on the bed, wrapping my body in the sheet.  I wasn’t ashamed, I just felt that suddenly it wasn’t such a good idea.

            “Leave the shirt off,” he growled once he saw my action.  “You didn’t care what you had on a minute ago.”

            I sat there in silence.

            “ I could have accepted anyone but you,” he continued. “But somehow, in the back of my mind I knew and wish I was wrong.  So what are you now, a lady of the night? Well, here” he picked up some coins off of his dresser and threw them down on the floor in my direction.

            “Playboy,”

            “Don’t call me that!” Oooops!

            “Max, I can explain…”

            “Really?”

            I looked at him.  The truth right about now wouldn’t be the best thing for him to hear.

            “I’m waiting.”

            I sat there debating.  Oh well, can’t hurt that much. “I wanted to know what you would be like.”

            I was wrong.

            “You wanted to know what I would be like? What kind of sluttish antics…? You know what…you’re nothing but a wolf in sheep’s skin.”

            “Ouch, “I said, more to myself than anyone else.

            “It didn’t hurt,” her said.  “Maybe I should treat you like your kind should be treated.”

            My mouth was wide open in shock.  He came to me, roughly handled me, kissing me until my lips bleed, and roughly touched me in such a manner that made me feel like the lowest of the low.

            “Stop,” I sobbed. “Please stop.”

            “Why should I?” he said.  “It was something you were freely giving me just a few minutes ago.” He continued to touch me in a way that made me feel so awful.  I had to stop him.

            “I’m pregnant with your child,” I said.  He stopped immediately.

            “How would I know it’s mine? You could be some copy cat.”

            “You know me better than that.”

            “Do I?” he said, his voice getting louder. “Because up until a few minutes ago, I thought you would never be capable of this.”

            “It’s yours.  You’re going to be a father.”

            Max was still stopped for a second.  I didn’t know what to make of it.  Suddenly, his hands on my got very gentle and he started to nibble on my face.  Max then made love to me so passionately that my toes curled, and I cried from tears of joy.  As I laid there, I fell asleep, comfortable in his arms as if we were a family.  Mother, father and soon to be baby.

            But I knew that from then on, nothing would be the same.