Was it Good for You Too? Read online

  Tailan dug in her bag for another book. He confiscated that one too.

  She looked over to David, who was now completely absorbed in his tablet, then back to Delvin.

  Delvin waited. Tailan said nothing. Delvin waited some more. She still remained stubbornly silent.

  He blew out a weary breath. “Talk to me.” Delvin held out her coveted novel, and she placed it on her lap. “There’s nothing to talk about.”

  “I’ve missed you.”

  Tailan waved her hand dismissively. “No doubt,” she taunted. “Is your wife still serving it up to every Tom, Dick, and Harry, Sally, Sue, and Mary Jane?”

  Delvin felt the volcanic rush of blood through him. “That was low, even for you, Tai.”

  “Really?” she asked with a toothy grin. “I learned from the best, so I’ll take that as a compliment.”

  Delvin’s surrogate-turned-last-minute wife had caused Tailan years of unnecessary tears and grief. Evidently that grief had turned into an anger so large it needed a zip code of its own.

  After shooting three movies back to back, he had hoped this tour would afford him some quiet time to reflect on his next move in life, especially since Gabrielle’s publicist recently leaked a “major alert” that they weren’t divorcing—a blatant lie. His agent sold him on being part of the Woodland tour to promote his new novel. But Delvin saw the move for what it really was—a way to keep Delvin away from Gabrielle until this new issue was sorted out.

  “You were engaged to me,” Tailan attacked, effectively pulling him back from his trip down a memory lane that had more potholes than a Chicago street. “She lied to you and you married her instead. You made your choice.”

  “She was pregnant with my child—a child, may I remind you, that you told me to have with her!” he shot back. “Because you swore up and down you weren’t having one.”

  Tailan sank deeper into her seat and studied him. The way her eyes traveled along every inch of his body triggered tremors of desire in him but also sparks of caution. He was right to be cautious, as she wasn’t about to let him off the hook.

  “Are you really that dense? That child isn’t even yours,” she countered. “If it is, that was the loooooongest pregnancy known to man. Ten-and-a half months, right? She was on a movie set those first two months. Last time I checked, numbers don’t lie. The truth is plain. But then again, I didn’t marry her, so that’s not my business.”

  Delvin felt humiliation erode his normally stoic features.

  “So, you still want to talk, sweetheart?” She flipped open her novel and looked down at the pages.

  * * *

  Twenty minutes out from the tour’s first stop, Delvin finally had enough of Tailan ignoring him. Even in her finely practiced calmness, she was still the sexiest angry woman he had ever laid eyes on.

  “Did I ever tell you just how grateful I was for how you were there for Jason, Tai?”

  Tailan’s sensually curved lips lifted at the corners as though she was struggling to keep her thoughts to herself. Finally, a tiny crack in her resolve. Her shoulders relaxed a bit, and for the first time since he stepped on the bus, Tailan was looking at him with something other than fire or ice in her eyes.

  “How is he?” she asked.

  He rewarded her with a warm smile. “Jason took being apart from you very hard.”

  Jason, Delvin’s stepson, had bonded with Tailan in a way that defied reasoning. Her tender loving care and Delvin’s had saved the boy from a life filled with the psychotropic drugs Gabrielle preferred to shovel into him so she could focus on her movie career and not have to deal with another child she never wanted in the first place.

  If Jason was given his choice, he would have left his biological mother and lived with Tailan permanently. And if Gabrielle wasn’t such a self-centered, cold-hearted shrew, she would have put the needs of her child ahead of her own. But then again, she never had been one to worry about what someone else wanted.

  Delvin smiled as he added, “That boy still keeps your picture on his nightstand. Pisses Gabrielle off every time she lays eyes on it.”

  The instant Gabrielle’s name cleared his vocal cords, Tailan’s softening expression turned to stone.

  “You want to talk about something,” she snapped. “Let’s talk about the fact that you changed the rules when you didn’t stand up for what you wanted.” Her eyes searched his for a moment. “And I thought you wanted … me.”

  “You think I wanted to give you up?” he asked in a low tone. “I had her sign that surrogate contract to make sure we were all on the same page. She changed the rules, not me.” He reached over and stroked the delicate curves of her hand.

  Tailan snatched away. “You got what you wanted. I’m done talking about this.”

  Delvin refused to shoulder all the blame for what had happened between them. Definitely time for a history lesson. “And let me remind you, there wouldn’t have been a need for her in the first place,” he challenged, “if you had been more open to having a child.”

  “What did you just say to me?” Tailan’s tone would’ve given the Grimm Reaper the shivers.

  “All I wanted was one child, Tai,” he continued. “One child. Was that too much to ask?”

  “You know what happened to me growing up,” she retorted, folding her arms over her full breasts. “There was no way I was going to bring a child into this world.”

  “I would never leave you to fend for yourself, especially with my child.”

  “You wouldn’t leave me to fend for myself?” she scoffed. “That’s funny because that’s exactly what you did when she laid a guilt trip on your door.”

  That mistake had left Delvin raw to the bone. He agreed wholeheartedly with Tailan’s hostility towards Gabrielle. He had never loved that woman. He had only married her for one reason: she had flipped the script the moment her pregnancy was confirmed and penciled in her own agenda. The new agenda left Tailan Song, his fiancé, completely out of the picture.

  Gabrielle’s selfish act had cost Delvin seven years of happiness with Tailan. He had more than paid his dues. The reality of his choice was painfully clear. His sacrifice was based on a lie. Delvin had always shied away from the truth about his daughter. But at the time, he couldn’t take the chance. Gabrielle was too lethal, too diabolical and would not have hesitated to terminate the life growing inside her. It was that one threat that forced him to yield.

  He turned from his internal war to focus on Tailan. Her tense form was immersed in the book she was reading. A little smile lifted the corner of his features. He couldn’t let a little thing like her desire to chop his balls off deter him. No sir!

  Delvin noticed a tiny chip in her index fingernail. He reached out and stroked it lightly, causing her to tremble. Then she stiffened and tried to pull away. Delvin held firm. “Later, when we’re done with all this tour stuff, we really need to talk.”

  She yanked her hand back, answering his gentle declaration with, “No.”

  “Do you still love me?” he asked. He stroked a fingertip across her cheekbone, eliciting another reaction.

  Delvin saw it—the glimmer of desire and something he couldn’t quite name. Faint, but it was there all the same. A spark of love? Something he could build on? Whatever it was, it gave him hope that he could get her to fall in love with him once again.

  “Answer the question,” he demanded, his gaze focused on her. “Do you still love me?”

  She looked past him, and he followed her line of vision. Across the aisle from them, Valarie, an erotica author, tore her gaze from the laptop stationed on her fleshy thighs and looked their way.

  Conversation amongst the Nelson staff behind them had halted. Shannon nudged Nona, who nodded to Chanel, and all three of them shifted in their seats to try and listen in.

  “Don’t you dare do this now,” Tailan whispered, as the bus began to slow down as it neared its destination.

  “Answer me,” he demanded.

  “No!” Tailan counter
ed and pushed him back.

  “You’re lying.” This time it was Delvin who crossed his arms over his chest.

  She flinched, then her soft brown eyes shot him with bullet holes. That kind of anger could only come from one source—love. Anger and all, Delvin wanted to kiss her, do whatever it took to calm her.

  “When you don’t like the answer, you accuse me of lying?” She stood and tried to pass him. When he wouldn’t let her by, she trembled with building rage as she stared down at him. “You know what? Why don’t you take your tired ass to the front of the bus? There’s a whole lot of women who’d like to get their hands on you.”

  Delvin yanked her back down. “I’ve never stopped loving you,” he whispered.

  Tailan shot to her feet the instant the bus came to a complete stop. She practically leapt over his long frame and darted to the front of the bus.

  He watched her retreating form. The second the doors opened, he shouted, “Tailan!” Twenty-seven pairs of eyes ping-ponged between him and her.

  Delvin rose and gave her his best smile. “I’m standing up for what I want. This is your only warning.”

  Chapter 3

  SAME DAY, 8:03 P.M.

  MARRIOTT INDIANAPOLIS NORTH HOTEL

  “What do you mean she didn’t sign the divorce papers?” Delvin paced the length of his hotel room, failing miserably at controlling his temper. The first round of signings had gone off almost smoothly, and he was “riding on ten” until he received this call from Maurice Blandin, his lawyer.

  “Her attorney said that she wants to reverse the custody deal,” Maurice replied.

  Delvin needed to find an outlet for his rising fury. He snatched his suitcase off the floor and slammed it onto the bed, nearly yanking the zipper off. “She knows that full custody is the one thing I truly want. It’s been the main reason that I’ve stuck in there so long. What kind of game is she playing?”

  “The kind that gets played all the time,” Maurice answered in a weary tone. “Too much in my line of work.”

  Delvin was sick of Gabrielle constantly pulling another fast one. For seven years, he found that Gabrielle was a stone-cold predator disguised in beguiling loveliness and with a lethal determination that turned him completely off. He endured Gabrielle’s not-so-discreet affairs, the constant blow-back it had on his career, her dysfunctional family, and her embarrassing attempts at motherhood. “Let me guess, she wants more money.”

  “I don’t think it has anything to do with it.” The sound of papers being shuffled and the “click clack” of Maurice’s keyboard echoed in the background. More than likely, he was looking for a clue to this latest setback. “You gave in to almost every one of her demands, even the ones I said you shouldn’t. Are you sure you want full custody? Biologically, the children aren’t even yours.”

  Delvin sucked in a huge gulp of air, trying to corral his anger and disappointment. “We’ve been over this, Maurice. Those children are mine, and I refuse to leave them with that woman.” He wanted to be free of Gabrielle in the worst way but not at the expense of his children.

  “Want to know what I think?” Maurice asked.

  “That’s what I pay you for,” he grumbled, hanging his suits and slacks in the closet.

  “That Paulo dude embarrassed her big time on worldwide television. Now she’s trying to retaliate by not divorcing you.”

  “You’d better find her, put that pen in her hand, and make her sign,” Delvin warned. “I need this noose off my neck.”

  “No worries. It’ll happen.”

  “That’s easy for you to say.” Delvin walked over to his bed and collapsed on top. “I’m the one who’s still married to her, and I’m not hearing anything on this call that’s changing that fact.”

  “We’ll have to go back to the judge with these new developments. You might get the divorce finalized automatically, without a signature, as long as we can prove that she’s stalling even after the judge has ruled.”

  “Then get on it,” Delvin demanded. “My accountant emailed me your latest invoices. Earn my signature on your check and get me unhitched from that hellion.”

  Delvin ended the call, snagged the keycard from the dresser and was out the door and in the lobby in a matter of minutes. He needed fresh air. His heart was heavy. For seven years he had been kicking himself for making the wrong decision. Gabrielle over Tailan.

  A heated argument between him and Tailan years ago ended in an ugly ultimatum. “You want children,” Tailan snapped, facing him in the center of their beach house, “you’ll have to find another woman to have them because it certainly will never be me.”

  Yes, he had known how she felt about having children. Given her family’s ugly history, her stance was totally understandable. However, he had always assumed that after years of watching him and his family interact lovingly and feeling their love herself, she would change her mind. He was dead wrong.

  Delvin had taken Tailan’s suggestion literally. He’d connected with a fledgling starlet and laid down an offer she couldn’t refuse: he would pay for singing, acting, and dancing lessons if she would have his child. He thought he’d timed it flawlessly. His child would be born seven months after he and Tailan walked down the aisle.

  Gabrielle DeLeon had seemed like the perfect candidate for what he had in mind. She was a classic beauty—café au lait skin, wide seductive eyes. She was healthy and more than willing to accommodate his wishes. He would have the best of both worlds—the woman he loved and the child he wanted.

  Problem solved.

  Well … not quite.

  Tailan went ballistic when Delvin’s lawyer showed up with the surrogate contract. “I can’t believe you actually went through with this! I made that statement out of frustration because you refused to accept that I’m not having children. My God,” Tailan ranted. “This”—she picked up the contract—”says a lot about where your priorities lie.” Tailan flung the papers at him, hitting him square in the chest. “Your desire to have children by any means necessary certainly outweighs any love you have for me.” She wiped her tears from her eyes. “I can’t marry you next month.”

  Delvin had to fight hard to ease his way back into Tailan’s good graces. After weeks of wearing her down, Tailan finally calmed down. But it was a short-lived victory at best.

  “I’d never ask if it wasn’t extremely important,” Gabrielle said one bright sunny Thursday in the living room of the home Delvin shared with Tailan.

  “What’s going on?” Delvin asked, alarmed that she had showed up unexpectedly—still not pregnant, but with something else equally as surprising.

  Gabrielle rushed from the room and returned with a boy with honey brown skin and wide eyes.

  “Who is this little guy?” Tailan had smiled, bending down to his eye level.

  “His name is Jason.” Gabrielle pushed him closer to Delvin, but the child instantly gravitated to Tailan. “I don’t know how he found out that I’m his mother.” She was wringing her hands nervously. “I put him up for adoption.”

  “For—” Tailan started.

  “Adoption?” Delvin finished.

  “One of my family members took him in. Now he wants to be part of my life,” she said, and the sour tone told exactly how she felt about that prospect. “I tried to explain to him that my life is crazy—”

  “Too crazy for your own flesh and blood?” Tailan challenged.

  “It’s not like that. I swear.” Gabrielle lied with the best of them. “I just landed my first major movie role, and I have to leave town right away—like right now.”

  Delvin noticed how Jason stared up at Tailan. The child was completely taken with her. Tailan seemed to soften to the innocent affection. When Jason reached for Tailan’s hand and she allowed it, Delvin noticed how comfortable the gesture was for her. He couldn’t understand why she felt she wasn’t mother material.

  “Don’t you have family that can help you with this?” Delvin asked.

  Gabrielle shifted her gaze
to Jason. There was a look there that gave Delvin pause.

  “The family isn’t happy with him right now,” she replied, her expression sour. “When he found out about me, he created such a mess that one of them just dropped him on my doorstep and kept moving.” She sighed. “They didn’t even check to see if I was home! So inconsiderate!”

  “Then he’s got it honest,” Tailan added with a pointed look at Gabrielle. She squeezed the little boy’s hand. “Are you hungry, Jason?” He nodded and smiled up at her. “Well, I was about to fix breakfast. Would you like to help me?” Jason simply smiled harder. “Let’s go to the kitchen.”

  Delvin watched them retreat into the kitchen before turning on Gabrielle. “Just this once.”

  Over the next two months, Delvin watched Tailan and Jason grow closer. Strangely enough, the youngster never talked about missing Gabrielle. From what Delvin could ascertain, Jason literally saw Tailan as his real mother.

  The bond seemed to be going both ways.

  “Delvin,” Tailan said while they were enjoying a light lunch in the dining room with Jason, “I want you to cancel that contract.”

  His fork slipped through his fingers and clattered to the plate, which caused Jason to giggle. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Delvin asked with his heart in his throat and his lungs on pause.

  Tailan’s warm eyes moved to him then to Jason, who was watching them both with eager interest. She caressed the little boy’s face and smiled. “Yes.”

  “Oh, baby.” He stood and leaned over the table, kissing her gently and causing her to smile. “I love you so much.” He turned to Jason and tweaked his nose. “And you’re growing on me too.”

  Gabrielle returned from France and brought the couple two kinds of news. “Terminating the contract won’t work for me. I’m actually pregnant,” she said in a practiced silky voice.