Page 18 of Tempting Eden

I nodded and squeezed her small hand. Her features were still tight, worried. Somehow, erasing her distress became more important to me than the memories that threatened to destroy me.

To ease her, I gave what I thought was a smile, but I think turned out more akin to a grimace. Still, she seemed to understand my intent and gave my hand another squeeze before letting it go. I didn’t want her to. I wanted to snatch her hand from the air and return it to me.

Then she did something I hadn’t thought even remotely possible. She reached up and placed her hand on my cheek.

It was a light caress, yet somehow powerful. A “balm on my spirit” as some old church song from my youth used to say. The tension left me. My muscles screamed at the change, they’d been drawn so tight. I pushed the dark thoughts away and refocused on this time, this life. After a few moments of her warmth against my skin, she applied gentle pressure, turning my head to the side.

She had guided me to the window.

The view was more than my brain could even process. I was flying, actually flying. I saw the blue of the sky just as the birds do: clear, clean, and perfect. The ground was far below, a beautiful maze of roads, houses, and trees. Fall colors painted the landscape, and dots of blue-green marked lakes and rivers. It was somehow exotic; to get such an otherworldly view of the place I’d lived my entire life. But more than the view, it was her touch that had overridden my fear and shown me something nothing short of amazing.

She gave me another light caress, her thumb ghosting over my cheekbone, then she retreated back to her side of the small cabin. I tore my eyes away from the view to look at her. Color highlighted her cheeks as she ran a nervous hand through her hair. I wanted to acknowledge what she’d done for me. I wanted her hand on me again, so I could kiss her palm in thanks.

She avoided my gaze and opened her laptop. Before I could even say a word, she put her earbuds in and made herself busy, her fingers whizzing across the keyboard.

I turned back to the window and let it all sink in. I was in a private plane, flying with a beautiful woman, to a luxury beachside hotel.

I only hoped Helen could see me now.

CHAPTER FIVE

JACK

PAST

“MAMAREED HAS BEENcalling for you.” Helen ran up, a fine sheen of sweat across her smooth brow.

“What does that old bitch want now?” I sat on a neighbor’s stoop while my girl braided my hair in rows.

Stinging erupted along my scalp. “Damn, Trinia, why you have to pull so hard?” The pain grew worse as I spoke.

“Because I have to make the braids tight or they’ll come undone. Shut up, crybaby.” Trinia redoubled her efforts to tame my hair. “And yours ain’t right anyway. It’s all kinky-straight, thanks to your white mama. At least you got those blue eyes out of it. Didn’t get much else.”

My mixed race was a blessing and a curse. I was irresistible to my fellow fifteen-year-old girls, but a target to my fellow boys. Getting pussy and beatings were two of my main pastimes.

I relaxed back against Trinia as she kept putting a hurting on me. Maybe she’d give it up again a little later. We’d creep down by the community garden, as it was called, though it was grown over with weeds, and get busy in the shade of the pines. I didn’t even care if some of the other boys watched. Their jealousy made me smile.

“Get that goofy look off your face and come home.” Helen shook her head. “Mama Reed ain’t playing. You’re in trouble.”

Helen put her hands on her hips. The buttons on the front of her shirt strained, about to pop, dark skin showing through. Her clothes were two sizes too small, just like all the kids’ at the Reed apartment. They took in as many foster children as the law allowed, from babies all the way up to teenagers like me. The hefty state check they got every week kept them in alcohol and cigarettes, though it didn’t leave much for actually taking care of the kids who lived in their overcrowded apartment.

“What’d I do this time?” I patted the cracked bricks next to me for Helen to sit down.

Helen gave Trinia a look more potent than battery acid and didn’t move. “I don’t know, but she’s hollering for you. You better come. You know how she gets if you don’t. She’ll take it out on everyone else.”

I didn’t care. If Mama Reed wanted to beat one of the other kids because she was mad at me and it saved my hide, then all the better. As long as the one taking the beating wasn’t Helen, I didn’t give two shits what that old woman did.

I heard a voice cut through the stale afternoon air. Mama Reed yelling my name, her rage overwhelming even the sound of the approaching train a few blocks away. Helen wasn’t playing. Mama Reed’s tone told me that only I would do for this particular gripe of hers.

“Shit, Trinia. I’ll catch you later so you can finish, okay?”

She let me go. “All right. But hurry back.” She gave me a parting yank. “And if I see you with Lizzie again, I’m going to whip that bitch’s ass.”

Trinia was stupid. Lizzie was mylastconquest. I didn’t go back for sloppy seconds, only forward. Once I was done with Trinia, I’d keep prowling around until I found my next target. They were too easy around this slum. I’d fucked so many of them I was beginning to forget which ones were which and when. The only trick was hiding my condoms from Mama and Papa Reed. And Helen.

Ignoring Trinia’s pull, I stood up and dropped a quick kiss on her lips, getting a taste of her vanilla lip gloss.

Helen made a gagging sound.

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