Part Four

            Grae watched as he rose from the bed as if in slow motion. His body was as close to perfection any woman could dream for. It didn’t matter about his skin tone nor that every white man Grae had ever met seemed selfish and self-absorb and made them completely uninteresting.

            Expelling the breathe she had been holding in since he had last spoken, her eyes danced in delight as he walked across the room with any shame at all.

            This was Ezekiel Chambers – a man she had lusted for since childhood and she still lusted for.

            He walked over and picked up the towel to wrap around his waist. Ws he going to get something else to eat off her body? Whip cream? Fudge topping? Or maybe another game to arouse her to lose control and have at him any which way possible?

            No, he didn’t do any of these things. Ezekiel walked over to the closet, reached in the jacket and pulled something out before returning to the bed.

            She watched in confusion as he laid two hundred dollar bills on the bedside table. “I’ll leave you alone to get dressed.”

            With that he walked out the bedroom closing the door behind him.

            ‘That’s it?’ her mind screamed, staring at the money on the table feeling cheap all over.

            ‘What kind of sick shit game was he playing now?’

            Jumping out the bed angrily, she started to pace. ‘What the hell was his problem?’

            Ezekiel was beyond gorgeous and any woman – white, black, Chinese or even blind would be honored to being in the same room with him naked.

            So why would he have to pay?

            Furiously dressing, she could still feel his lips on her body and his hands playing with her skin. Damn him!

            How could he get a woman excited like this and just walk away?

            Grae looked at the money again. And he had the nerve to pay for that?! As if he was doing her a favor?

            Bastard!

            Picking up the money, she tore it into shreds and left it back on the table by the bed. Yet that didn’t quench her anger. So she picked up the jar of honey and pulled the sheets back to carefully pour the honey at the foot under the covers.

            ‘Let him deal with that shit,’ she told herself in triumph as she calmed herself down and even went so far as the fix the bed neatly – even going so far as to refluff the pillows.

            She fixed her hair and makeup before leaving the room, but came to an abrupt stop as she spotted him facing her sitting beside the fireplace holding a canter of brandy.

            “What’s your name?” he demanded to know in a cool voice.    

            Grae was never one to lie, but for some reason she didn’t want the knowledge that she had come here to get out and since he didn’t know her she wanted it left like that.

            “Brandy,” she said because she was not a great liar or a person with a great imagination.

            His eye twitched at her in a bit of distrust but he didn’t press it.  “Who sent you up? Very few knew I was even here.”

            “Does that matter? You got what you wanted, right?”

            Again his eye twitched and yet he still didn’t press it. “For some reason you’re different, Brandy. For the first time, I didn’t want to just play with your body. I wanted to do more.”

            In her mind, Grae asked, ‘Then why didn’t you?’ But outwardly, she didn’t say anything.

            He continued, “But then I knew you would stop me, right?”

            She didn’t answer, because she was nervous that as rhetorical as he wanted that question to be, that he would carry her back in the bedroom and do some serious lovemaking or would it be lustmaking? The thought made her tingle all over.

            Ezekiel stood up and walked up to her. Grae didn’t move a muscle except to look up at him. Gently caressing her cheek, he almost whispered, “Yes, definitely different.”

            “Different? Because I’m not ugly or fat? Is that what gets you off?” she snipped.

            He smiled gorgeously at her. “Beauty is not all on the outside of a person, my queen. And I’ve always believed there’s more ugly inside that on the outside.”

            “And you’re full of shit, Ezekiel Chambers. Why would you participate in that stupid club then?”

            Suddenly his grip tightened on her chin and his angry green eyes locked with hers. Every nerve in her body wanted to just run out of there, but she found herself unable to move

            He moved his body inches from her and forced her to keep eye contact with him. “When you run in the circles I have to run in, then you have to associate with people who honestly believe business can only be done with a certain type of skin color. Business that leads to a lot of money and a lot of power.”

            “But you would rather throw morals and hide like a coward to your own wants?” She snatched her chin away from him to turn away, but he grabbed her arm and whirled her back around.

            “I’m not fool and I know your name isn’t Brandy.”

            “Fuck you!” she sneered.

            The elevator rang outside of the door. He must have called for it before she came out the bedroom.

            “You know a hell of a lot about me. I think its only fair-“

            “Fair? That shit you pulled on me in the bedroom wasn’t fair!” She hustled out the room and jumped on the elevator.

            It closed just as he came into the hallway and she was glad. Instead of going back down to the ground floor she stopped at the third floor and found the steps to get to the lobby which were on the other side of the hotel near the other set of elevators.

            Getting to her room, she realized she had left her hotel key in his room.

            Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!