Chapter One
Kristina Roberts took a deep breath as her best friend Lissy's late model Mercedes pulled up in front of the Stafford highrise. Her pulse was pounding a mile a minute, and she was having a hard time gaining control of its rapid staccato beat.
For what seemed the one-hundredth time since allowing Lissy to talk her into doing such a harebrained thing, Kristina looked down at her wedding and engagement ring, spinning them around her finger as if trying to remind herself that she was only doing a favor for a friend, her best friend in the world.
No, her husband wouldn't be happy about it if he ever found out. But that was just Scott. And besides, nothing else Kristina did seemed to make him happy these days anyway.
This was nothing more than an intimate party where she was expected to entertain one of the guests. Kristina didn't have to do anything salacious or immoral; she simply had to be her cordial and friendly self for a few hours, nothing more.
But if she really believed that so strongly, why did she feel so much guilt about being here? And why was her heart beating like she was on the last leg of a mile sprint?
The passenger door opened, startling Kristina out of her reverie. The doorman smiled back at her as he offered her a hand to help her from the car.
"Thank you," she managed to say, getting out of the luxury vehicle without making eye contact with the gentleman. Then, staring up at the massive building and thinking about what it held inside, she was only tangentially aware of Lissy's car being driven away by the valet behind her.
"Relax, girl," Lissy said, taking her hand and leading her into the front foyer of the upscale highrise. "You need to take a deep breath and calm down. This isn't that big a deal, and besides, if you went straight home tonight it would have just been to an empty house with Mr. Personality being on duty."
Kristina cut her eyes over at her friend. Lissy's complete disdain for her husband Scott, and vice-versa, was a long-time burden for the twenty-eight-year-old sous-chef. So much so that Kristina did her best to compartmentalize her relationships with the pair. When she was with Scott, she did her best not to bring Lissy up, and she did the same with her best friend regarding her husband.
From the moment she'd introduced the two at a lakeside cookout, they'd fought like cats and dogs. Lissy claimed she couldn't stand how dismissive Scott was of any of Kristina's desires. She claimed he was like something straight out of the nineteen fifties.
To make matters worse, Lissy had started referring to Scott as the alpha-male with a beta dick after Kristina had made the mistake of mentioning that her husband had a short-fuse when it came to sex.
And Scott was no easier on Lissy. He constantly berated her in Kristina's presence, calling her "the whore of Babylon" and other less friendly names.
Yes, even in her late twenties, Lissy was still a party girl. The girl just seemed to have an insatiable amount of energy for the nightlife, men, and sex. She swore that by the time she hit her thirties, she'd be ready to give all that up, but Kristina would believe it when that day came.
There was a time when Kristina was right there at her side, partying as hard as the lanky and lithe blonde beauty. The pair had shared booze, drugs, and even men in their late teens and early twenties, but Kristina had given all that up when she met Scott. She'd yearned for something more fulfilling.
Kristina wanted to be a mom.
"If Scott finds out where I am, he'll kill me, and you too for that matter," Kristina said, meaning every word literally. As strained as things had been between them lately, if her husband found out what she was up to tonight, it was likely that he'd become violent. It had happened before. Scott Roberts had a very jealous nature.
No, he'd never become physical with Kristina. But he had physically accosted more than one man who'd had the unmitigated gall to flirt with his wife. His jealousy had become such an embarrassment that Kristina rarely left his side now at social functions.
Kristina's threatening words had little effect on Lissy, who had already slipped into what she affectionately referred to as her horny frame of mind. The blonde had seemed perpetually stuck in that mode since making the acquaintance of her new beau Reggie.
Kristina had seen Allison Grace Gardner date hundreds of men over the lifetime of their friendship. However, her relationship with Reggie had proven markedly different from the countless men before him for two reasons.
For one, Reggie had kept the leggy blonde's attention and had her singing his praises for over two months now. And that, folks, was a lifetime when it came to Lissy's ordinarily short attention span with men.
Secondly, Reggie was black.
Not that it made a difference to Kristina, but she'd never known her friend to give a black man the time of day. During her dating years, the sexy blonde had gone through an ocean liner full of white men and found them all wanting. But she couldn't stop singing the praises of Mr. Reggie Worth.
And Kristina had heard it all. She'd heard in intricate and excruciating detail how sweet and caring he could be and how he treated Lissy like a princess and met her every need. But most of all, she'd had to listen to her best friend go on song and verse about her sex life. Lissy was fond these days of telling Kristina how the wife of three years was technically still a virgin because she'd never before been fucked by a big black cock.
Lissy called and asked Kristina to meet her for coffee the weekend after she'd first gotten together with Reggie. The blonde had barely let her get seated inside the booth at the coffee shop before sharing the most intimate details about the new man in her life. She'd had Kristina blushing and begging her to keep her voice down within the first five minutes.
To hear Lissy tell things, Reggie had fucked her all night long their first night together, and it wasn't just his sexual endurance she was eager to praise. No, her friend had gone on for the next hour about the wonder that was his black cock. Lissy swore it was every bit of nine inches long and as thick as her wrist. She'd even held out her arm, wanting Kristina to wrap her fingers around her wrist so she could better grasp just how large it was.
Since that night, Kristina had heard countless tales of how Reggie stretched her pussy so deliciously each time he fucked her, which was apparently a lot to listen to Lissy talk about it.
Lissy had even started not so subtly hinting to Kristina that she needed to dump her three-pump chump and find herself a black man with a real cock, and not in a joking manner.
Still, when her best friend had approached her earlier after work and begged her for a favor, Kristina hadn't thought anything of it. It was only when she found out what Lissy wanted that her bullshit detector had started pinging loudly.
Reggie, it seems, had a roommate that had recently gone through a bad breakup, and Lissy's boyfriend didn't want to leave him alone. So he'd asked the sexy blonde to bring a friend over so they could all enjoy a night in--just a few drinks, some music, and maybe a movie, nothing more.
"No, Lissy," Kristina had said immediately, "absolutely not."
Her friend had quickly brought her hands together in supplication and said, "Wait, Kris, just hear what I have to say. Please!"
So Kristina had listened. Apparently, Lissy had arranged to have Heather join her, one of the restaurant's other waitresses. But Heather had been forced to leave work earlier for a family emergency.
"I've asked all the other girls, Kris, and they either can't do it or are too racist to do a friend a favor, so you're my last resort."
"I'm a married woman," Kristina had replied; she then held up her left hand, flashing her wedding and engagement bands to reiterate her point.
"I'm not asking you to fuck him, Kris," Lissy said crassly with a roll of her eyes. "Just be your usual sweet self and talk to him while watching a movie, maybe distract him long enough for me to get my fuck on with Reggie. Please! I beg you, girl. It's been four days since I've had any of that magnificent chocolate cock and momma needs it bad."
Kristina had said no three more times, but eventually, as she was almost always successful at doing, Lissy had worn her down.
As a result, here she was being dragged along behind her best friend as the pair walked up to the Stafford building's front desk. A bald security guard who appeared to be in his mid-forties stood and smiled at the two as they approached.
"Ms. Gardner, it's so good to see you again. Should I ring Mr. Worth?"
"Could you do that, Joe?" Lissy said as if the two were old friends. "Let him know that we're on our way up."
"Come on, bestie," Lissy said, turning to give Kristina a wink that once again made her wish she was already in her most comfortable nightgown and binging something on Netflix in the safety of her own home.
When the two were alone inside the elevator car, Kristina made one last attempt to assure herself that her best friend wasn't up to anything mischievous.
"Look at me, Lissy. Promise me this isn't some lame attempt to set me up with some black guy. Because if it is, I swear I will never forgive you."
Kristina didn't know if she really meant that, but she wanted her friend to believe it was true.
"Aghhh, Kris. For like the one thousandth time tonight, I know that you are married, and I'm not trying anything underhanded. If Heather hadn't gotten called away from work, I would have never approached you."
Kristina thought Lissy at least sounded sincere, but she knew how her friend felt about Scott, and she'd made it plain about how desperate she was to see Kristina free of him.
"You promise, right?"
Lissy sighed deeply and put her hands on Kristina's shoulders. "If you're dead set on ruining your life with Mr. Wonderful, then far be it from me to get in your way. I promise this isn't a set up, but I do want you to be nice to Darius."
"I just know how much you hate Scott," Kristina said with a pout.
Lissy rolled her eyes as she usually did when Kristina mentioned her husband. Her very pores seemed to ooze contempt at the mention of his name.
"I don't hate him, Kris. I just wouldn't piss on him if he was on fire."
Kristina could only shake her head at her best friend. She was tempted to laugh at Lissy's over-the-top reply, but she knew the girl was serious.
"Whatever, just remember, after tonight, this never gets mentioned again. And you owe me big time."
