Black Belt in Love (Powerhouse MA Book 3) Read online

  “He agreed to the test though, that was the one thing I was worried that he wouldn’t do.”

  I folded my legs underneath me and turned my body toward Karlton. “You gave him a test? What in the world were you looking up online? I think I’m going to have to take away your Google.”

  “No, missy. The kind of test where he goes to the doctor.”

  “You made him take a mental evaluation?” I exclaimed.

  Karlton’s head snapped up, and his eyes bugged out. “I think you might need one if you think that’s the kind of test I’m talking about. I meant he went to the clinic to make sure he was clean, dumb dumb. I can tell from talking to the man for five minutes if he was healthy mentally. His twig and berries were a different thing.”

  “Oh, my God,” I gasped. The fact we didn’t use a condom last night came crashing down on me. “He passed, right?” I croaked.

  Karlton closed his eyes. “Lord God in Heaven above, please tell me this woman does not think that I would let her date a man with the herpes.”

  “Just answer the question,” I demanded.

  “Of course, he was clean. Although, I am rather surprised that you raw-dogged it last night.”

  My eyes squinted at him, and I pursed my lips. “I never said that.”

  He tsked me and shook his head. “You are a horrible liar, grasshopper. You’re on the pill, right?”

  “Yes.” Not that it was any of his business.

  “Not saying have a little ninja running around wouldn’t be adorable, but I think you two need to get past the whole decoy thing before you get pregnant.”

  “I’m not pregnant,” I insisted.

  Karlton eyed me. “Yet. You might want to make him suit up from now on. I have a feeling those ninjas have super sperm. Karate chop their way into your womb and refuse to leave.”

  “Can we please not talk about my womb?”

  “No glove, no love, sugar. That’s my motto.”

  I covered my eyes with my hand. “I need more sleep if we are going to talk like this.” I was off my game and in no shape to worry about my womb and Dante together.

  “You talk to your mother lately?”

  Jesus. Another topic I did not want to talk about right now. “She called the other day, but I didn’t answer. She’ll call again tomorrow. I’ll need to answer her then.”

  “Gonna set up the meet between her and Silver Fox?”

  I chuckled and took a sip of my coffee. It wasn’t comparable to Molly’s, but it did the trick caffeinating me. “You need to stop calling him that because with you saying it all the time, it made me say it to his face.”

  “Pfft, ain’t nothing he’s never heard before. He knows he’s a handsome devil.” Karlton leaned closer to me. “Is he, ya know, gray all over?” He wiggled his eyebrows and thrust his hips.

  “Oh, my God, no! He’s thirty-nine, not one hundred and five,” I insisted.

  “Groomed? Tight?”

  I turned my head to the side. “I am not discussing anything with you that is below the waist on Dante.” Any detail I would give Karlton, I knew he would blurt out at the most inappropriate times. I was not about to go there with him.

  “And this is how you repay me for setting you up with the Silver Fox.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “I demand to know at least one detail from last night. Hell, you can even choose what you tell me. Just give me something, though. I’m dying not knowing.”

  I leaned back my head and looked at him out of the corner of my eye. “Whatever I tell you, you have to promise that you aren’t going to open your mouth about it. I know how you are and half of the time, you speak before you have a chance to think.”

  He held up his hand and crossed his eyes. He looked like a drunk boy scout. “I swear on my aunt Pearl’s Gucci bag that I will zip my lips and not tell a soul.”

  The fact that he was willing to put his favorite Gucci bag on the line spoke volumes. I chewed on my lip and gripped my cup in my hands. “I really don’t think I should say this.” There was only one thing that came to mind that I could tell him. “You really promise that you will not tell another soul this, right?”

  Karlton scooted his chair closer to me and leaned on the arm of my chair. “Oh, child, this is going to be juicy, isn’t it? Am I getting length? Is it girthy? I had a feeling Silver Fox was packing. I had tried to convince him to let me come to the clinic with him and hold his hand during his exam, but he shut me down.”

  Jesus. “I really don’t think you should be allowed out in public.”

  He waved his hand at me. “I never thought I would say this, but forget about me and tell me your little secret about Silver Fox.”

  “He does have a name, Karlton,” I reminded him.

  “He does, and while it is a hot name, I’m rather partial to Silver Fox. Now, spill, woman.”

  Gah. Why had I agreed to this? “I had never actually seen anything like this in person before.”

  Karlton perked up. “Sugar, you got me hanging onto the edge of my seat here. This better be huge and juicy.”

  I couldn’t help thinking those were two good words to describe Dante’s dick. I cleared my throat and put my feet on the floor. “It’s pierced,” I said, although it sounded more like “hefpecd” since I said it with my hand over my mouth.

  Karlton grabbed my hand and pulled it into his lap. “Enunciate, woman.”

  I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. “It’s. Pierced.”

  Karlton squeezed the hell out of my hand and screamed. Like, wake the neighbors, screamed. “I can’t breathe,” he gasped. He released my hand, shot up from his chair, and fanned his face with his hand. “I gave him to you,” he whined. “I gave you the luck of the pierced cock.”

  I busted out laughing and slapped my hand on my leg. “Is that kind of like the luck of the rainbow?”

  Karlton shook his head. “Much better than the luck of the rainbow. Do you know how freakin’ lucky you are, girl?” He spun around. “Did you take pictures?”

  “Did I take pictures?” I giggled. Karlton was completely off his rocker if he thought that I had gotten any photos of Dante’s dick and planned on sharing them with him. “I was a little too busy to pull out my phone and snap a picture.”

  “There’s always next time,” he reassured me.

  “Um, that would be a negatory on that one, Karl. I hate to inform you, but I will not be sharing those kinds of pictures with you.” Ever.

  “I need more details. What kind of piercing was it? Prince Albert? Jacob’s Ladder? Dolphin? Ampallang? Apadravya? Lenny?” he rattled off.

  I blinked slowly, realizing I had no idea which one of those Dante had. “Err, it’s a barbell one.”

  “Just one?” he asked.

  “That’s all I saw.” I’m pretty sure if there was more than one barbell, I would have noticed.

  “Through the head or lower?”

  Lower? What in the hell? The fact that I was rather naïve about this dawned on me, and I held my hand up before Karlton could ask any other questions. “It was through the head, and it was sexy as hell. That’s all I know.” Hopefully, that was enough information to keep him satisfied.

  “Ampallang or apadravya,” he mumbled. “Although it could be a dolphin. Was it underneath?”

  “Err, underneath what?” This was really too much.

  “On the underside of the head?” he asked impatiently.

  “What? No. How the hell do you know all of this? This is not knowledge that every person has.”

  “They have it if they want to know it.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest. “That doesn’t even make sense. Just because you want to know something doesn’t mean you’ll know it.” Have I mentioned that Karlton was whacked in the head? “Can we please stop talking about piercings?”

  “Well, you’re the only one I can talk to it about since you swore me to secrecy.”

  “Today is the only day you have that you can talk about it. That’s it. If I ever
hear about it after today, I swear to God, I will never talk to you again.”

  “You’re mean, Kennedy Kramer. Telling me a juicy secret then cutting me off before I can even fully process it.”

  “The problem is, you can’t seem to process it silently. In your head, where no one can hear you talking, especially my neighbors, would be best.”

  Karlton paced the length of the small patio, his hands propped on his hips. “Well, can we talk about the fact that you did the dirty with the Silver Fox and you don’t seem to be running for the hills?”

  I shrugged and sat back in my chair. This also wasn’t something I wanted to talk about, but at least it was better than talking about Dante’s penis. “I’m exhausted and don’t have the time or brainpower to think about all of the reasons why Dante and I are a bad idea.”

  “No, sugar, it isn’t exhaustion that is keeping you from talking yourself out of this. It’s the plain and simple fact that deep down, you know that you and Dante are the best thing there is.”

  I tilted my head back and closed my eyes. This was the last thing I wanted to think about right now. I knew what happened between Dante and I was amazing last night, but was it something that I wanted to happen again? He was coming over tonight, but I was hesitant not knowing where this was headed.

  At the end of the day, he was still my decoy. I needed someone who could throw off my mother and convince her that I was living life the way she wanted. While Dante looked the part, I knew he wasn’t what my mother wanted for me.

  He was a successful business owner, but he wasn’t making the kind of money that would put him in the income bracket that made my mother comfortable. There were very few people who made the type of money that could ease my mother’s conscience.

  “All I know right now is that I need a decoy, and Dante fits the bill. Do we really need to talk about any more than that?”

  Karlton fell back into his chair and grabbed my hand. “Sugar, you’re one of my best friends, and I just want to see you happy. That man will make you happy, I know it.” He squeezed my hand, and I swiveled my head to look at him.

  “I agreed to decoy with benefits, Karlton. I think that says enough.”

  He nodded and stood. “Then I guess I’ll leave ya to napping and waiting for the Silver Fox to come over later.”

  “How did you know he was coming over later?” I asked as I stood up and followed him to the front door.

  “I didn’t know for sure, but I figured he wasn’t going to let you out of his sights for too long after finally getting you.” He pressed a kiss to the side of my head and slipped out the door while what he said whirled around in my head.

  I closed the door, threw the lock, and leaned against the wood panel.

  “What are you doing, Kennedy?” I asked my empty apartment.

  I didn’t answer out loud because I honestly didn’t know what I was doing.

  **********

  Chapter 19

  Dante

  “She’s doing it again.”

  I tossed my towel over my shoulder. “Doing what again? And who?” I asked Kellan.

  “Molly. And she is insisting on another girls’ night out at the club that Hadley works at.” Kellan bent over and wiped his face with the bottom hem of his shirt. “I don’t know what the hell that woman is thinking half of the time. She’s shy as hell, and then she’s planning a huge ass girls’ night with strippers and margaritas.”

  I chuckled and tossed my dirty clothes into my gym bag. Adding a shower to the bathroom had Powerhouse had been one of the best decisions we had ever made. Now I could just go home and collapse into bed for a few hours before going over to Kennedy’s. “So what are you going to do about it?”

  He sighed and bowed off the mat. “I’m supposed to ask you if Kennedy wants to come,” he grunted, defeated. “And tell you that your asses are coming along if your girls come.”

  “Last I checked, girls’ nights did not involve guys.”

  “She calls it a fucking girls’ night, but it’s more like she just wants us all to go out to the strip club together.”

  A chuckle rumbled from my chest, and I hitched my gym bag over my shoulder. “I’ll talk to Kennedy tonight and let you know what she says. You know when this sideshow is going on?”

  “I’ll shoot you a text. She keeps changing the date.”

  “Well, I know I’m gonna have to meet Kennedy’s mom soon, and then I have the Amex in a couple of weeks, but other than that, I’m free.”

  Kellan nodded and fell into the chair behind the front desk. “So, how are things going with you and Kennedy? Molly said she was over there yesterday helping her get ready for your date.”

  I leaned against the desk and crossed my arms over my chest. “As good as can be expected. She’s got it in her head that she only needs me to be her decoy and that’s it, although she threw decoy with benefits at me so I’d have to say she’s slowly coming to see things my way.”

  “And what way would that be?”

  “The way that she ends up in my bed every night for a very long time.”

  “Hadley just called. I gotta get going,” Tate complained as he walked out of the bathroom. “I didn’t even get a chance to fucking shower.” He pulled off his sweaty shirt and shoved it into his bag. “She went out driving with Ryker, and now Hadley is refusing to get back in the car with him, so I have to go and pick her up.”

  Kellan and I both chuckled because Ryker wasn’t the best driver yet. “Why doesn’t she just drive?” I asked.

  “Because Ryker locked the doors, and he’s driving slowly next to her as she walks.” Tate couldn’t help but laugh, and he pulled a clean shirt out of his bag. “Those two get along great all the time except for when she’s teaching him how to drive.”

  “Maybe that might be something you’ll have to teach the kid before he drives off and leaves her on the side of the road,” I chuckled.

  Tate pulled the shirt over his head and grabbed his duffle bag. “That’s what I’m planning to do right now. Hadley can drive my truck home, and then I’m taking Ryker to a fucking empty parking lot and showing him everything he needs to know.”

  “You could always take him out to Bluff Park and show him how I taught you two to drive,” I suggested.

  Kellan and Tate both busted out laughing, and Tate shook his head. “I don’t think that’s the kind of driving Hadley wants me to teach Ryker.”

  When Tate was fifteen and learning to drive, I had taken him and Kellan out in the jacked-up truck I used to have and tore up the park teaching them how to do donuts on the grass. It was fun, but looking back, not exactly the smartest thing we had ever done. I was twenty-four and pretty immature. I blame it on Kellan and Tate for being younger than I was. “Maybe you can take him to the park after he gets his license. You really don’t want him to whip a shitty during the middle of his test.”

  “Yeah, that’s a good idea. Probably one you should have had back then,” Kellan put in.

  “I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” Tate made his way to the door and said over his shoulder, “Make sure you let me know when that girls’ night shit is, Kellan. I’m sure Hadley is going to make me come with. Although, we did have some fun in that parking lot when we first started dating. Maybe I can sneak off with her and do a little reenacting.” Tate pushed open the door and slipped out with a smirk on his face.

  “You gonna make Roman come along too?” I asked Kellan.

  He shrugged. “I mentioned it to him. Whether or not he shows up, I have no idea.”

  I nodded. “That’s the truth. Well, I’m out of here. See ya tomorrow, man.”

  Kellen gave me a parting wave, and I made the short walk to my truck.

  I groaned slightly as I slid into the truck and stuck my key in the ignition. Between sparring yesterday and practicing with Kellan and Tate today, I was fucking sore. Throw in getting some extra cardio with Kennedy last night, and I was ready to sleep the rest of the day away.

  I quickly co
nnected the call to Kennedy, listened to the phone ring through the speakers of my truck, and headed toward my house. After the seventh ring, I was ready to hang up when I heard her sleepy voice. “Hellor?” she slurred.

  “Hellor?” I chuckled.

  “Ugh, I just finally fell asleep, Dante.”

  “I’m sorry, honey. I was just calling to see what you were up to.”

  “Snuggled up in bed trying to recover from last night,” she muttered. “Not everyone goes to work out after staying up late. I need my sleep.”

  “No rest for the wicked,” I mumbled.

  “Well, you go be wicked, and I’m going to sleep. Unless there was something you needed from me?”

  “You got room in that bed for me?” I know I had said I was going to take a nap, so why couldn’t I just take that nap next to Kennedy?

  She sighed heavily, and I heard the rustle of the sheets. “You have five minutes, ninja. Anything after that and I’m not answering the door.”

  I cranked the wheel of the car, whipping a shitty in the middle of the street, and headed in the direction of her apartment. “I’m about five minutes away, honey. Any way I can get a minute extension on that?” I should have called her before I left the studio. Although, I have to admit that I was damn surprised she was giving me the option to come over.

  “Four minutes and thirty-five seconds, Dante.”

  The line went dead, and I tossed the phone on the dash. I California rolled through a stop sign, cut through a back alley, and hopped a curb to get to Kennedy’s with ten seconds to spare.

  I sprinted up the stairs after she buzzed me and pounded on her door. “Kennedy,” I called.

  Her door opened, she grabbed a handful of my shirt, pulled me, and slammed the door shut behind me. “You need a shower?” she asked.

  I shook my head and wrapped my arms around her waist. She was wearing tiny cotton shorts, a tight black tank top, and her hair was piled on top of her head. “I grabbed one at the studio.”

  “Perfect,” she muttered. She grabbed my hand and pulled me down the hallway to her bedroom. “Sleep. That’s it. At least for the next three hours. Any hankie pankie and I kick your butt out, and you sleep on the couch. Capice?” She fell into bed before I could even answer and pulled the covers up over her head.