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  One more chance for them to prove they could all work together as a team.

  Shannan rolled to the other side of the bed and snatched up the cell from the nightstand. “Mom … can we talk?”

  “Um … sure baby, hold on,” she said, and the huskiness in her tone sent off an alarm.

  “I’m sorry, Mom. Did I interrupt something?”

  “Nothing but a series of mind-blowing orgasms.”

  “Good grief, Mom,” Shannan screeched, grimacing. “That’s entirely too much information.”

  “Just kidding,” Jackie teased. “Trust me, I certainly wouldn’t be answering the phone.”

  Shannan placed a hand over her heart. “But what if I was dying and need your help?”

  “Then I’d be there on time for the funeral,” Jackie said simply.

  “That’s cold, Mom,” Shannan said, chuckling.

  “You were always so dramatic,” she countered. “What’s the scoop, Daisy Dukes?”

  “Zach was here.”

  “At your suite?” Jackie let loose with a low, throaty chuckle. “Are you about to give me too much information?”

  “No, we didn’t do anything like that. Though I wanted to.” Shannan sighed. “Mom, is it a bad thing that I still love him? I mean, after everything.”

  “Oh no, sweetheart,” Jackie replied. “We can’t just turn love off and on like a faucet. The kind of love that you all shared in high school was because you all were better together than you were apart.” Jackie’s bare feet slapped against the wooden floor, and the sound echoed on Shannan’s end. “I think what drives him is fear of losing you like his brothers did with their women, so he locked you in. Now he sees that won’t work.”

  Zach had said that one of the things that made her shine brightest was that she was so pretty that boys—and teachers—had fallen hard. But to him, her mind, the way she turned a phrase; the way she absorbed books as if breathing them in—her mind was a wonderful thing. Shannan closed her eyes remembering how they could talk for hours on end, picking apart the aspects of a particular novel—especially science fiction. Zach had been a break from the monotony of a life where she had to be perfect.

  “He was pissed at me for using Monopoly to express how far down the river our marriage was.”

  “Pissed how?”

  Shannan recapped what she’d said to Zach, and her mother whistled her approval.

  “That was deep.”

  “That’s something he instantly understood. He’s so focused on winning and beating them, it brings out the worst in him.” Shannan held onto that thought for a moment. “I never had the chance to tell him the flipside. There was a different set of rules to play the original game. They called it Prosperity. Everyone had a chance to win—as long as they did it together. That’s the game I’m ready to play.” She leaned against the cool glass of the bedroom window.

  “Then play that game, love,” Jackie said. “Play by a different set of rules. Work towards your own goals from now on—there’s a way to do that and still love him, too. You have to decide how to get what you want and balance it against all else.”

  But what did she want? To not be held by or to anyone’s standards but her own. Not her father’s who flaunted her beauty to his colleagues and business partners, with an unspoken agreement that she would marry one of their sons, if she’d become the mistress to one of the older men themselves. Awful man!

  What would this change mean for her? She’d spent so much of her life pleasing everyone else. Her father. Her twin. Zach. His mother.

  She was enjoying this newfound freedom immensely. But she had longed for her family to make her feel complete. She missed her sister so much and Zach filled that void. To walk out of that door, she pushed that love so far down she didn’t think it would see the light of day.

  One more chance. Baby, give me one more chance.

  Then the truth of everything hit her at once—she was afraid of falling; of failing, of losing. She’d already lost half of her family by embracing and loving her mother, who loved her unconditionally. At times, she wondered, would she give up her mother just to have her sister and father back in her life? No. Their love came with conditions. Her mother’s did not. Zach’s love came with conditions and none of them included her.

  She’d have to balance all of it with her own needs—self-care—more of these spa visits and pampering, her career, trips by herself to the places she always wanted to go that Zach didn’t have a desire to see. Most of all, she did not want to spend the majority of her time working for her family, she wanted to work with her family.

  “Mom, I’m so confused right now it’s not even funny.”

  “That’s understandable. When I left your father and took you all with me, it wasn’t because I didn’t love him anymore. It’s because I learned to love myself more. You don’t have to spend the time justifying your needs to your husband; make them known, stand by them and let him deal. He’ll be alright.”

  Shannan laughed and said, “Yes, he will. And so, will I.”

  Chapter 10

  Zach enlisted Jackie’s help and sent the children to be with her and become acquainted with their grandfather. Shannan accepted the invitation to visit the house so they could talk. Well, it started as a wonderful discussion on finding balance, rekindling the love lost between them, until …

  Shannan burst into tears, her naked body clinging to his, trembling within the throes of a release so vicious she almost spoke in three separate languages.

  Zach pulled away, instantly concerned. “Wait. Wait. Did you … Did I hurt you?”

  “No,” she whispered, trying to recover. “It’s just …” She shook her head. “It’s the first in a long while that I’ve had an orgasm.”

  He frowned and peered at her as though she’d grown an extra head. “You always have an orgasm when we make love.”

  Shannan quickly averted her gaze to the freshly-shampooed carpet, then forced herself to look up at him. His expression shifted through three separate emotions in succession—perplexed, shocked, then angry. Finally, his face registered an emotion that nearly stopped her heart. Crestfallen. She should never have told him that. This new “honesty in communication” thing was going to be an issue.

  “Even that was for my sake?” he growled, before storming from the room.

  Shannan snatched the sheet from the bed, rushed to the closet and slipped into a thin robe. She found him in the den staring out at the garden that somehow managed to thrive in her absence. She waited on the chaise not too far from him, letting her presence be known without intruding his personal space while he absorbed the hard truth of their former sex life.

  “I’m sorry. Truly sorry.” His features were a mask of pain. “If you still want a divorce. I’ll sign the papers and … I’ll keep custody of the kids if that’s what you want, I—”

  “I want my husband,” she confessed, moving forward to place a hand on his chest. “I want the man I fell in love with. I want the man who will see he’s being used and manipulated by people who only love him when it suits them or because he’s an open checkbook.” She tilted his chin so they were eye to eye. “I want you to stand up for you; stand up for us. To remember that you love me. Before the children, before anyone else came along, you loved … me.”

  Zach lifted her hand to press a kiss to her open palm. “Did you know about them? Our parents?”

  “Of course, I did,” she whispered. “They’ve been married for five years. Your father is a good man who tried to be there for all of you, despite Monique’s ugly ways. He didn’t hide behind excuses, he got out while the getting was good and now he has a chance at happiness with my mother. The woman he loved before Monique did some underhanded mess to separate them.”

  Zach’s mouth parted but no words came out.

  “Zip your lips, hon. That’s not a sexy look.” She pressed a kiss to his mouth. “You have tried, really tried, even in the short amount of time I’ve been back, to break out of that
path you’ve been on all these years,” she said, drawing them back to the real conversation. “I know that’s hard. And you’re doing it because you love me.”

  Zach leaned in, kissing her gently. “I haven’t been happy for a while and I can’t put that on you. Deep down, I knew. I knew, and did things and said things that …”

  “So, you know this means cutting ties with your family until we get our thing straight, right?”

  He nodded. “I’m down for that. They’re grown-ups …” Then in unison they said, “They’ll be alright.”

  “It’s not going to be easy,” she said. “The boys are going to give us the hardest time.”

  “It’ll be easy enough for me to put that in check.” He snuggled next to her and put his arm about her shoulders. “They can’t replace you. I hate that it took your leaving me for me to realize that. I won’t make that mistake again.” Zach stroked her cheek. “Maybe, I should have a grading system to kind of check how we’re doing.”

  “No, your mother does that. She criticizes everything and everyone and no one measures up. I’m not going to be that woman. Why don’t we focus on what you’re doing right? We communicate about that and make mention when something could be done better.”

  “That’s doable,” he said with a smile.

  “And speaking of things you’re doing right …”

  Zach’s throaty chuckle echoed in the den as she straddled him and showed him exactly what she was working with.

  Chapter 11

  The night Shannan left the suite to come home for a visit, she walked into a spotless house that nearly took her breath away. Zach had worked with her to outline a plan, create a reasonable chore board, spreading out responsibilities so no one person had too much or too little. What amazed her most was that, all by themselves, he and the children transformed the house from that tornado-ridden place to something that looked better than if she had done it herself. Zach even created a cozy office for her to work on her puzzles. This was the best new start she could have ever imagined.

  All seven children waited for her in the family room. Even her mother and James were in attendance—a united front, if she’d ever seen one.

  “Mom, don’t leave us,” Arec had said. “We’ll do better. Give him—I mean, give us—a chance. Him too.”

  “Gee, thanks,” Zach mumbled and Shannan stifled a laugh.

  “You said we all messed up,” Arec continued.

  “It’s not all on you. We will do better—together.” Shannan touched each of their faces, one by one. “I need you. I need your help so we all can be better. I’ve been so out of it that I haven’t been the best mother I can be. I’d like you all to give me another chance to make it work.”

  “No divorce,” Aaron and Andres chorused as Arec nodded vigorously.

  Shannan looked at each child before saying, “It’s off the table.”

  Alan sighed, letting out a long, slow breath. “Good. I … good.”

  “Family meetings every week,” she said. “Thursday, to make major decisions. Dinner every night—together, at the table. I want to know what’s going on with you, and for you to talk about things that are important.”

  That request was met with a range of “cool’s” and “that’s what’s up’s.”

  “And another thing …” She went to the living room with everyone following on her heels. She held the Monopoly game in the air. “No more of this. You all are going to learn a grown folks’ game. A game where you learn to work with partners.”

  She tossed the board into the waste can and held up a pack of Bumble Bee playing cards. “Spades, then Bid Whist.”

  “They’re not ready,” Zach protested.

  “Oh yes, they are,” Jackie said, chuckling as she snatched up the deck, cracking open the plastic with glee. “You just don’t want them to see you get your ass handed to you like you did in high school.”

  Zach gave her the side eye. “See, why you want to bring up old stuff?”

  The children, James, and Shannan laughed.

  “Welcome back, Mom,” Andres said and led the move for all the children to give her a group hug.

  She looked over their shoulders at Zach who stood smiling nearby.

  “It feels good to be home,” she said.

  Now all they had to do was put her in-laws on notice that there was a new sheriff and deputy in town.

  Somehow, Shannan didn’t think that would go over so well.

  Chapter 12

  Monique and the four Hallerin brothers sailed through the front door like clockwork, filed into the dining room and froze at the threshold. The dining table had a lovely floral arrangement, but not a single plate or platter of food awaiting them.

  “What gives?” Monique said, glaring at Shannan, who met it head on with a bland one of her own.

  Zach gestured to the living room. “Have a seat.”

  They gathered around as Zach shooed the children back upstairs.

  “No more Sunday dinners for a while.”

  That declaration was met with pure silence that was so thick it could have stopped rush hour traffic.

  “So, she’s got you by the balls now?” Victor taunted, his mouth curved into a sly smile.

  “At least some woman is wrapping her fingers around mine,” Zach shot back. “Can you say the same?

  “Oh, that’s cold,” Curtis mumbled, coming to stand next to his older brother.

  “That’s truth.” Zach put his arm around Shannan’s shoulder.

  Monique’s round face was a mask of unconcealed fury. “You’re gonna let that woman separate you from your family?”

  “I’m not letting her do anything,” Zach replied. “I realize two things. One, she’s married to me not you. Two, she doesn’t owe you a damn thing.”

  His brothers shifted uncomfortably. So did Monique.

  “Not dinner. Not a laundry and dry cleaning service. Not for you to lounge around and have her wait on you as if you were her husband. None of that.”

  As the youngest of the crew, he had never spoken up for himself. He’d been bullied and pranked so often growing up that giving in was always the safest route to go. But he wasn’t that scared little boy anymore. He had a wife, a family, and goals—and none of them would be jeopardized by four men who still had their heads so far up their asses they’d be spitting shit for their rest of their lives. Unless they found out how deep Monique’s deception went.

  “I’m going to say this, unless either one of you can take her place in my life and does what she can do, then I’m supporting her one hundred percent when it comes to the rules of our house. I’m not losing my wife or my life because y’all are too lazy to get up and get your own. She is my wife. And I’m not going to let you, the kids, or even me run her into the ground.”

  “But what about me,” Monique whined, her arms flapping with each movement.

  “You have grown sons,” Zach explained. “One of them has never moved out because you enable him. That’s your right, but do not expect me to put any more money into a household when you have able-bodied men who can take care of themselves and you too.”

  She looked from Shannan to Zach. “You just gonna leave me hanging for her?”

  “Hanging?” Zach roared. “I have seven children of my own. They are my responsibility. Brian and Victor only live with you. Now they can put all of that money to good use—taking care of you, paying your first and second mortgage, and all the things they should’ve been doing all along.” Zach swept a glance from her to each one of his brothers. “You have them. You’ll be alright.”

  “If my wife ever decides to have a dinner and invite you at any point, you all are not guests. You’ll be expected to pitch in, bring a dish, wash a dish, clear the table—whatever she sees fit.

  I have a second chance at love and I’m not letting none of y’all mess things up for me.” He looked at his brothers and then told them the rest of what James had shared with him.

  “You’ll spend the rest of y
our lives trying to stay under her thumb or you can go out there and get your life. I’m making that effort to let go of anything that doesn’t mean me any good. I’m finally feeling like a grown ass man. It’s a good feeling. You should try it some time.”

  Victor, Vincent, Brian and Curtis glared at Monique who seemed to wither under all the accusations and the unraveling web of lies she had spun all these years.

  The children filed down the stairs, spread out to take a seat on them and looked at their father in a signal that more important things awaited.

  “Now that we’ve come to an understanding.” Zach went to the front door and opened it again, gesturing to the outside. “We’ll get together at some point, but I’m going to need y’all to step lively. We have a Bid Whist challenge on the table. Me and my wife need to show these youngsters who’s boss.”

  Snickers echoed from the peanut gallery as his brothers and mother finally left. Zach gazed at the seven children looking down at him and then winked.

  Shannan leaned into him, kissing him on the cheek as she said, “Let’s get to work.”

  Carnal Confections

  Muscovado Sugar

  Shakir Rashaan

  Chapter 1

  Caressa Sidaná’s world stopped with the whisper of three not-so-simple phrases.

  “There is nothing more to discuss, my darling. I am giving you the family business. It is your time.”

  She wanted to give some sort of reaction—positive, or negative, or something—but all she could manage was a stunned silence that gave no indication of elation or dread. She had been waiting for this moment for some time, but as much as she’d prepared, she was nowhere near prepared.

  Her father, Vijay Sidaná, had taken over as CEO of Sidaná Chocolatier from her grandfather, running the company since before she was born. He had been one of the most revered businessmen in the Middle East, but due to political pressures in the region, he’d moved the family and the company’s headquarters to London when she was ten. Now, a quarter century later, he’d announced that his only child would head the empire he’d helped grow with a meticulous flair into the juggernaut it had become.