The Unearthing of Blackstone Read online

  They spent the rest of the time talking about historic Chicago, the gangster era and jazz clubs, the local entertainment and the latest movies that neither of them had had time to see, but were interested in. A tentative date was set to plop down in some plush movie theater seats of such an establishment, encircled by surround sound, buttery popcorn and a leisurely arm around a shoulder.

  Ace was so wrapped in the conversation, he lost track of time. And he’d had a damn good time; it seemed, so had she. She’d loosened up, laughed hysterically at the silly things he said. A fun and engaging woman, full of stories and insights wrapped in wisdom beyond her years. He didn’t want the night to end. If he could bribe God for another hour there with her, he would’ve done so, but time waited for no one. The restaurant was literally closing around them.

  Shit, look what time it is. Not ready to leave this place just yet…

  “Oh my God!” Brooklyn suddenly exclaimed. She pushed her half-eaten apple cobbler away and looked around as if she’d just awakened from a dream. “I’ve been having such a good time tonight, Ace, I didn’t even notice the staff was cleaning up around us.” She gave a laugh and rubbed her stomach as she fell back into her chair like a stuffed bird.

  “Same here.”

  The club would be much louder, but he anticipated at least getting near her, wrapping his arms around her small waist and nestling close. “It’s gotten a little later than I’d imagined, but I could sit with you here all night.” He polished off his glass of wine and looked deep into her bright eyes.

  He didn’t know whether to be pissed at himself that he’d just blurted those words out, or pleased that he’d dug a bit deeper. One thing was certain — he enjoyed her company immensely and that made his tortured soul all the more concerned. He couldn’t turn back now. Everything she did, everything she said fed him somewhere deep within, somewhere he hadn’t even known existed and starved inside him.

  She gets me.

  Their conversation flowed. The damn thing had angelic wings.

  This has started all wrong…but, I’m diggin’ her. I can’t just let this go. I’m not tryna settle down though. Shit, maybe I am. Maybe I just hadn’t met the right woman yet…

  He’d hoped, when he was ready to commit, he’d meet someone like her someday. Yet here his ass was, in the mothafuckin’ flesh…

  Without thinking, he reached for her. His fingertips traced hers until he’d enveloped half of her small hands in his grip. Warm, soft skin, like something expensive with a velvet inlay. He traced her index finger with his own, going over the bump of an emerald ring on her right hand, then focused his attention on the soft brownness of her skin. He ran his fingers along the veins, noticing her short cut nails with a glossy, clear polish. He swallowed as he looked into her eyes and her lips parted. Her tongue licked her bottom lip as she seemed lost in thought, deliberating over something monumental. Suddenly, her eyes constricted and she slowly slid her hand away from his.

  “Ace, uh,” she hurriedly reached into her purse, pulled out a tissue and swiped it across her nose, “I hate to cut our date short, but I think I better get going. I’m feeling a bit…tired.” She grabbed her still open silver bag by the handle, bursting with papers and what he assumed was a cheetah print make-up case.

  Ace’s heart sank. She’d pulled the plug, yanked him out of a fancy, snapped him out of a magical, comfortable feeling with her abrupt words and frenzied body movements. Something had gone wrong, and it disturbed him more than he’d ever imagined.

  “What is it?” he asked as he surveyed the now empty restaurant, wondering if it was possibly something she’d seen. He looked at his wine glass. Empty. He had an urge to gulp a new bottle of wine like a drunken brute.

  She seemed to be struggling for words as she toiled away with her jacket. Getting a hold of himself, he stood to his feet and helped her out of her seat, not sure what else to say.

  Just calm the hell down. Just calm down so you can figure out what’s going on…

  “No, everything is fine,” she finally blurted, as if she’d been set to pause and someone finally pressed her play button. “I know we were supposed to go out to dance, but I’m a little tired like I said… Maybe some other time?” Avoiding his gaze, she looked all around as if she wanted to be anywhere but there.

  She’s running from me…running, running, running.

  She’s running from me…from the attraction.

  The pull between them had been fierce, electric and just that quickly, she extinguished it with a few curt words. He was now left confused and lost at her sudden retreat — and the feelings it provoked.

  He started to second guess himself and his intuition. Had he read her all wrong?

  Why in the hell did she agree to go out with me? Didn’t she have a good time?

  Before he knew it, he was paying the bill, waving goodbye to the waiter and walking her out of the restaurant while a light rain bathed them in tears from the heavens. With each footstep, the strange mood grew. Things were moving so rapidly, with no room to stop the derailment of things. Besides, he had pride. He refused to ask her to stay with him a bit longer, to have one more conversation or to just sit in his car and make plans for a later date. He wanted to, Lord knew he did, but he just couldn’t bring himself to follow through. He’d never begged a woman to do a damn thing in his life; why should he start now?

  But as he bit down on his acrimonious emotions, swallowing them whole, un-popped kernel included, his grasp of his pride started to slacken. The ego was thrown aside like a candy wrapper as he stopped in his tracks and glared at her. He grabbed her hand, startling her, and intertwined their fingers as if they were lovers who’d vowed to be together for an eternity. He felt her tug, then quickly relax, accepting his touch as they walked the pavement. Her body language said it all though — stiff yet conflicted as she squeezed his hands a bit tighter. She kept her gaze ahead, looking as if she were walking to her execution and only there against her will. This gave him all the additional insight he needed.

  “Here’s my car.” She pointed to the white, shiny Camry.

  Reliable car. New model. White. Pure. Clean. Fresh. She likes things that are a sure bet. Not too flashy, not terribly expensive, but nice enough nevertheless. She wants quality.

  “Okay, well, Brooklyn, I had a great time.” He released her hand, allowing her to remove her car key and automatically unlock the vehicle. She never looked at him as she tried the simple task, ending with nervously dropping her damn keys. They clanked onto the slick pavement. She lunged for them simultaneously, but he beat her, his fingers touched the cool, wet metal. Their hands brushed against one another and for a few seconds in time, they seemed frozen.

  “I did too, Ace…” He handed them to her and she clutching the keys to her chest like a terrified mouse, hopping into her car seat as if her ass was on fire and it was a bucket of ice-cold water, certain to give instant relief. He’d never been so confused in all of his life. She settled in the car and prepared to take off, one hand gripping the steering wheel and the other on the gear shift…but he couldn’t let this happen.

  The hell with this…

  “Ugh!” Startled, she looked up into his eyes when he lunged forward, practically pressing his nose into her window. She took a deep breath and smiled anxiously. “You scared me.” She spoke through the rolled-up window, her tone slightly muffled.

  “Roll the window down…” He snapped his fingers and didn’t offer a smile, didn’t wink, didn’t yell. He wasn’t playing any more games. She hesitated, her eyes wide with dread, her teeth chewing on her bottom lip. God, this is insane! Feeling guilty at his tone, he added, “Please.” The word tumbled from his lips, unbidden, surprising even him. Never had he felt this way, and so soon, for any woman. He put on an earnest expression, let it show what was in his heart. After a few seconds, she made a decision and rolled it down part of the way.

  Guarded. What’s going on, Brooklyn?

  “I had a really nice tim
e tonight, and I want to see you again.”

  “Um, well, Ace, I had a nice time too but I don’t know if I really have time to date right now. It’s not you, I promise.” She smiled sadly. “You seem like a great guy, actually, it’s just—”

  “Okay, if you don’t want to go out with me again, that’s fine, Brooklyn.” He hated saying it, but he meant that shit, at least in theory. “But since you are telling me this is the last time we are going to go out basically, and you say I didn’t do anything to cause this reaction from you, can I at least have a kiss goodbye?”

  There was a method to his madness and he prayed she fell for the bait. She veered back and swallowed hard, yet her eyes told him she’d comply. Her twitchy lip told him she may not. Ace didn’t ask for kisses, he took them, or they were granted to him without ceremony. Shoving his hand in his pocket, he kept kicking his ego to the curb, telling it to shut the hell up while he put in the work.

  She veered back.

  This is all an act. She really wants me to kiss her.

  “Uh, I don’t know about that, Ace.” She crossed her arms around her chest, hugging herself.

  “Why not?” He stood straighter. “What? This is all new to you? You’ve never been kissed before?” he teased.

  He could see in her eyes she was trying to gauge if he was joking. She was no virgin, she was into him, so what was the damn hold up?

  Kiss me, damn it. You’re scared…

  “If you are going to blow me off, you could at least send me away with a smile on my face,” he said, egging her on.

  She smirked and swallowed again. Hard. That beautiful neck of hers seemed to cover up in goose bumps as he got an even closer look at her. He wanted to layer that neck with kisses, too. But for now, he’d settle for her lips.

  He waited for the window to roll the rest of the way down. She did it like he was a damn cop and she’d been pulled over for speeding. As soon as she had, he jammed his head inside and stifled a scream from her sweet, soft mouth.

  “Mmmmm….” He moaned, feeling his own voice vibrate in his throat like an organ.

  Wrapping his palm around the back of her head, he brought her close, their noses bumping against one another. He parted her lips ever so gently with the tip of his tongue, slowly, taking his sweet time, just as he would do if he were undressing her. He slicked it inside, then backed out, topping off the oral sweetness with a soft peck, like a wet, seductive ribbon around the gift of their embrace. Then, he pulled his head out of her car as if it were a turtle shell, jammed his hands in his pockets and turned to walk away, a slight smile on his face, even though he was beyond agitated.

  “Goodbye, Brooklyn. Take care. I mean that.”

  He heard her car start as he made his way across the street to his own vehicle. Something inside of him felt some kind of way. Resentment — and a need to get out of there. The kiss had revealed his suspicions. She’d kissed him back, sighed in his open mouth and relaxed in his grip. She wanted it… Something inside of him desired her so badly, he thought he was going to lose his fucking mind. It wasn’t just physical. His connection to her was an odd sort of thing that he wanted and yes…needed. He also knew her motivation for resistance wasn’t pure. This wasn’t merely a woman playing hard to get…there was more to it. Regardless, he couldn’t make the woman do shit. It would be her choice if she’d want to deal with him again. Life wasn’t fair, he was used to that.

  Before he’d gotten to his car, his cellphone rang. He almost didn’t answer, then thought better of it. Pulling the damned thing out of his pocket, he saw her number across the screen.

  “Yeah?” He turned and looked to see her still sitting in her car, her angelic face clearly visible. She whipped her glasses off of her face, her gaze fixed on him as she spoke into her receiver.

  “I just want you to know that I’d love to go out with you, two, three, a hundred more times. This is a first date though, and you didn’t need to hear a bunch of drama. It’s a rotten cliché, but it’s true. It’s not you, it’s me and I don’t want to lead you on.”

  “It’s not you, it’s me?” He smirked. “What is this drama you speak of? I may like drama, you never know,” he joked as he returned her stare, ignoring the raindrops that fell onto his jacket and face.

  “I just…I have some crap going on in my life that doesn’t lend way to dating a whole lot.” She turned her car off.

  She’s attempting to be honest, in a roundabout way. Interesting…

  “I hate telling you this; it sounds so stupid and wrong. I should’ve just driven off, but I wanted you to know that I really like you, Ace, at least what you’ve presented. I know it’s only been one date, but…”

  “To me, this is date number two.” He held up two fingers.

  A glimmer of a smile appeared on her face from their short distance apart.

  “I like your energy. Like you said, there is just something about you. I can tell you’re a good guy. I think you deserve someone who can be open with you, and you can get their all… Aren’t you getting soaked?”

  Are you? Is that why you bailed, Brooklyn? Do you want me inside you?

  He kept starting at her as he gripped his phone. The light rain saturated the strands of his hair now but he didn’t give a damn.

  “I tell you what.” He swallowed and leaned causally against his car, crossing his ankles as if it were a summer night out there where he stood. He looked up the street as cars passed by, then back at her. “Give me what you got, and I’ll make up the deficit.”

  She laughed lightly into the phone as she kept staring at him. A car passed, blocking their view for a moment. “I feel like we’re playing telephone. So silly…” She turned away to focus on her windshield.

  “You are making it harder to walk away. You’re incredible.”

  “No, just a guy who wants a chance with you. I’ll call ya tomorrow, if that’s okay.” He unlocked his car and slid onto the driver seat, unable to wipe the smile off of his face as he turned back to stare at her. She re-started her engine.

  “Yes, I’d like that,” she said, returning his smile.

  “We’ve all got some drama, Brooklyn. Everyone has a little baggage.”

  She chuckled sadly, as if holding on to something emotionally heavy…and he knew that she was.

  “Yeah, well, I have more than my share and you are the first person I’ve ever admitted this to. It’s a little scary, actually.” Her voice trailed, as if she’d become introspective.

  “What’s scary? That you’re telling me how you really feel?”

  “Well, yeah, that and the whole baggage thing.” She sighed. “I’m tired of carrying the weight, but I can’t promise you I’ll unload. But, you do make me feel comfortable. I like talking to you, I really do.”

  “Well, when you feel up to it, just set the shit down. Maybe I can be your bellhop. I can take it off your shoulders.” He winked at her, waved, and drove away…

  ~***~

  CHAPTER NINE

  If her hand shook any harder, it would be an 8.5 on the Richter scale. The chunky ice cubes in the slender juice glass filled with water clinked together as her knees slammed into one another, making her bones ache. Brooklyn sat huddled to a beige toss pillow on her sable brown couch in the total, bleak darkness of her modern style living room, equipped with an electric, albeit unused fireplace. She thought over the evening’s events long and hard and felt as mentally and emotionally tangled as she had been hours before. She’d walked into the mouth of a beast, took a seat and dared herself to not be eaten. She hadn’t expected this.

  Why couldn’t he have been just like everyone else, like all the others?

  She couldn’t find anything wrong with him! She sat there at that table, hour after hour, wondering who this man was. Why was she this drawn to him? Perplexed, she chided herself on becoming so quickly infatuated. Rather than use him as a temporary cure to loneliness, one to let go of quickly and move on from there, she became more enamored with the goatee, ca
refully coiffed, close shaven dark beard, and faux hawk grinning fool. His black shirt had a few buttons loose tonight, exposing what appeared to be a chest covered in jumping flames tattoos.

  Yes, the motherfucker was hot. And she’d get burned if she stayed in his presence too damn long.

  Sarcastic, yet hilarious. Laid back, yet masculine to a fault…and that damn voice, deep, raspy and animated. The fucker was a sexy walkin’ dream.

  I should have just driven away and not called him. But that’s silly, I would have just called him later on tonight, then…I doubt I could have resisted.

  To have a disturbing yet fulfilling date with someone was a new arrangement. Ace wasn’t creepy per se, but he unnerved her. She crossed her legs and took another sip of water. The clock marked two A.M. and she was still in her date clothing, her heels thrown to the opposite side of the room.

  Everything had gone wrong, or had it all gone right? She shook her head and dug her bare heels into the carpet. The point of the whole evening was to help squelch her isolation for a while, not make her crave his presence. What happened was beyond her control yet she tried to reel the big beast in on a short chain. It broke free…

  The beast was her conflicted emotions. Ace had figured her out. He’d looked right through her as if he knew her story, her entire world. It wasn’t anything specific that he said, but his damned eyes. He knew shit, deep shit, things she’d took a lot of energy and time to cover and bury, toss flowers on and walk the fuck away from waving a white R.I.P. flag in the air. The oddest thing was, she felt as if she’d known him for years. Those vibrant green eyes of his made her pussy swell…and her heart skip beats…and her worries soar…

  Coming to Chicago had been the hardest, yet most fulfilling challenge of her life. She’d began anew here — touting her story of a fake aunt who had raised her in Louisiana to help compensate for the Southern dialect she couldn’t quite shake. That ‘aunt’ was actually a retired black woman, a widow with no children of her own known to help children in need, and through her, she received all the documentation she needed to begin afresh. She’d heard about her from one of the international amnesty groups she’d heard about as a youth, and funny how three years later, she’d called on that information in her time of need. Brooklyn travelled, wondering what she’d do and who she’d be, and then one day, while mourning the life she’d left behind, she discovered her calling…archeology.