Up to No Good

  Also by Carl Weber

  The Choir Director

  Torn Between Two Lovers

  Big Girls Do Cry

  Something on the Side

  The First Lady

  So You Call Yourself a Man

  The Preacher’s Son

  Player Haters

  Lookin’ For Luv

  Married Men

  Baby Momma Drama

  She Ain’t the One (with Mary B. Morrison)

  Up to

  No Good

  CARL

  WEBER

  DAFINA BOOKS are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  119 West 40th Street

  New York, NY 10018

  Copyright © 2011 by Carl Weber

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  All Kensington titles, imprints and distributed lines are available at special quantity discounts for bulk purchases for sales promotion, premiums, fund-raising, educational or institutional use.

  Special book excerpts or customized printings can also be created to fit specific needs. For details, write or phone the office of the Kensington Special Sales Manager: Kensington Publishing Corp., 119 West 40th Street, New York, NY, 10018. Attn. Special Sales Department. Phone: 1-800-221-2647.

  Dafina and the Dafina logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

  eISBN-13: 978-0-7582-6835-8

  eISBN-10: 0-7582-6835-1

  First Hardcover Printing: February 2009

  First Trade Paperback Printing: January 2010

  First Mass Market Printing: February 2011

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

  Printed in the United States of America

  This book is dedicated to my friends of relation.

  My thanks for standing by me when others

  knew the truth but wouldn’t.

  My loyalty and friendship is a bond

  we will share forever.

  Contents

  Also by Carl Weber

  James 1

  Darnel 2

  Jamie 3

  Darnel 4

  James 5

  Jamie 6

  James 7

  Darnel 8

  Jamie 9

  Darnel 10

  Jamie 11

  Jamie 12

  James 13

  Darnel 14

  Jamie 15

  James 16

  Darnel 17

  James 18

  Jamie 19

  Darnel 20

  James 21

  Jamie 22

  Darnel 23

  James 24

  Jamie 25

  Darnel 26

  James 27

  Darnel 28

  Jamie 29

  James 30

  Darnel 31

  Jamie 32

  Darnel 33

  Jamie 34

  James 35

  Jamie 36

  Darnel 37

  James 38

  Jamie 39

  Darnel 40

  Jamie 41

  James 42

  Darnel 43

  James 44

  Jamie 45

  James 46

  Darnel 47

  James 48

  Prologue

  Prologue

  1 Tammy

  James

  1

  “So, are you going to take me back to your place, or are we going to make Benny rich by running up a ridiculous bar tab?” Crystal whispered seductively.

  Her eyes traveled over my body, stopping a little below my belt as she took a sip of her drink. This was her way of letting me know that she was ready. The next move was mine, and her body language was begging me to make it. She lifted her head, her eyes meeting mine as she put her drink on the bar. I smiled, giving her my own once-over. I couldn’t help but respond with a devilish grin as I placed my hand on the small of her back, high enough to be respectable but low enough to have an effect. She shuddered slightly under my touch, even though her face failed to give anything away.

  We hadn’t seen each other in almost a year, and probably wouldn’t see each other for another one, unless our son Darnel’s wife-to-be Keisha became pregnant in the next few months. Crystal had traveled back to New York from Richmond, Virginia, for Darnel’s wedding, which was tomorrow night. We’d met at Benny’s bar, one of our old neighborhood haunts, to catch up on old times after the rehearsal dinner.

  “So?” she asked again, this time with a little more desperation in her voice. She wanted me. She wanted me bad. She wanted me to do what only I could do for her—satisfy that sexual itch that nobody else seemed able to reach. I know it sounds rather arrogant, but I ’d been sleeping with this woman off and on for the better part of twenty-eight years, so I knew what she needed in the bedroom, just like she knew what I needed.

  I glanced at her again. Even in a conservative pantsuit, she had a way of enticing me. Her face was a beautiful bronze color, highlighted by a beauty mark right above the left side of her lip. She’d gained a few pounds over the years, and her hair showed a hint of gray around the edges, but hell, whose didn’t? Besides, truth be told, I liked a woman with some meat on her bones and some mileage on her engine. Experience meant a lot in life, especially in the bedroom.

  She turned her head slightly, exposing a small tattoo with the letters DB, our son’s initials, on the lower side of her neck. A memory of the way she cooed when I kissed her neck came to mind. Then I looked down at her chest, and the thought of her neck was quickly replaced with an image of her large, plump breasts and the silver-dollar nipples that rested atop them. My heart rate increased, and my breathing became heavier. It never mattered where I touched her; Crystal’s body was so sexually in tune with mine that I didn’t even have to take off my clothes to give her an orgasm. Oh, but when I did get undressed, she would return the favor like very few women I ’d ever known. Having a child together bonded us, but it was the sex that kept us hungering for each other year after year.

  She licked her lips, and my manhood sprang to life. I flicked my wrist so I could see the time on my watch. I was wondering if Crystal was planning on a quickie or one of our all-night marathons. I ’d already canceled a date to meet with her, so an all-nighter with someone of her sexual prowess was fine by me. That, of course, left only one question.

  “Where’s your husband?” I asked, getting straight to the point.

  Crystal looked annoyed by my question. Yes, she was married, going on five years now, and she definitely preferred that I didn’t mention her husband when we were getting ready to get busy. We both knew that her marital status really wasn’t a factor in all this anyway. We’d played this game before, Crystal and I, through countless boyfriends and two husbands. She didn’t make any excuses for the fact that she was a woman who needed a man in her life. She always said that she would prefer it if that man were me, but after a while, she stopped holding her breath and moved on.

  One thing was for sure, though: It didn’t matter who she was with. If we saw each other or had the chance to talk on the phone, it was never a question of if we were going to get together, but rather when and where it would happen.

  “He had to work third shift. He’ll be here sometime early tomorrow morning.” Crystal slid off her bar stool and folded her arms as if to say, “So, come on. We got time, but we ain’t got all night.” I knew her well, and she was not about to take no for an answer. And as good as she was looking, I wasn’t about to give her an argument.

  “Okay, but only if you’re going to respect me in the morning,” I teased.

  She didn’t laugh. Instead, she came back with, “Please. You my baby daddy. I ain’t got to respect you.” Unfo
rtunately, I knew she wasn’t joking, and her words stung like hell.

  “You don’t?”

  “Hell no. Everybody knows you ain’t shit, James. As much as I love our son, I should have never had a baby with you.” She’d been using this same line on me since Darnel was a baby, and now here he was, a grown man getting ready to get married and have babies of his own. Jesus, I was getting old.

  “Then why do you want me to take you home? Why do you keep sleeping with me after all these years? You tryin’ to say you ain’t got no love for me?”

  “Please, James. You broke my heart more times than I care to remember and in more ways than I will ever forget. I ’d be a fool if I still had love for you.”

  “If you ain’t got love for me, then why are you trying to sleep with me?”

  “Good dick is hard to come by,” she said, like it was a simple fact of life that everyone understood. “And you’ve got some really good dick. Now, are you going to sit here and debate it, or are you gonna take me home and remind me why I rented a car and drove seven hours up here instead of waiting for my husband so we could drive together?”

  I reached in my pocket and pulled out a twenty-dollar bill. I slapped it down on the bar, nodding my head.

  “You know me. Last thing I want is for anyone to make a seven-hour trip in vain,” I said with a laugh. The truth of her words could have deflated my desire for her, but I knew this was not an opportunity to waste on being overly sensitive or sentimental. Besides, I ’d known this woman my entire adult life, and there wasn’t a thing she could say that I hadn’t heard at least a dozen times before. We were too far past that naïve stage to believe we’d ever be anything more than what we were today.

  Crystal leaned in and kissed my full lips, then smiled as if I had just given her a large sum of money. The way she stared at me made my manhood grow, making it clear that I was the one about to hit the jackpot. In less than twenty minutes, we’d both be in my bed, as naked as the day we were born, making love like there was no tomorrow. And as it had always been between the two of us, there would be no tomorrow—only a here and now.

  Five hours later, Crystal was snoring with a purpose, her back to my chest and her round hips and ass securely resting against my groin. I ’d wake her up in about ten minutes for another round. She would have to leave after that in order to make it back to her hotel before her husband showed up. Part of me didn’t want her to leave, because I was having such a good time. I always had a good time when Crystal and I got together.

  I stared at her face as I stroked her sweaty hair. We’d gone at it for the better part of an hour—twice. The way she called out my name and told me that this would always be her dick was definitely good for the ego. It also told me that after all these years, no matter what she said, she was still in love with me.

  Crystal had sacrificed most of her adult years chasing after me. We’d met right after high school. I was far from being faithful, but she was as close to a steady girlfriend as I had during those days.

  She looked out for me when no one else would, sometimes even when it wasn’t in her best interest. There wasn’t anything Crystal Jackson wouldn’t do for me. I knew that better than anyone on this earth, and the thing that haunted me the most was that she wanted only one thing in return: my love. But as much as I tried, I just couldn’t give it to her the way she wanted it.

  Like most women, she wanted to be a wife much more than a girlfriend. Don’t get me wrong; I liked her, but I wasn’t having no part of getting married. I was having too much fun with all the other women in my life. Crystal, on the other hand, wouldn’t take no for an answer. As far as she was concerned, she was in love with me, and all I needed was a little coaxing to understand that I loved her too. She was so convinced of this that she got pregnant, hoping it would settle me down enough for us to get married. It didn’t. All it really made me do was act the fool even more. It was something I wished could have been changed, but I still had no regrets. I ’d had a good life, a fun life. Why would I mess it up by getting married?

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered.

  “Huh?” She lifted her head. “What did you say?”

  “Ah, nothing.” I leaned over and kissed her cheek.

  She rolled over to face me. “If you’re gonna kiss me, kiss me right.”

  I smiled as I studied her face through the dim light that peeked between the curtains. She really was beautiful, and I ’d never seen a woman age so well.

  I pressed my lips against hers, and our kiss became passionate. My hands roamed her body hungrily. Just as she mounted me for another round, my bedroom door flew open and blinding light flooded the room.

  Crystal dove under the covers to hide her nakedness.

  “What the—” I shouted, squinting my eyes to adjust to the bright light as I saw what looked like a woman standing in my doorway. In that brief moment, my mind went into overdrive, trying to understand who had just broken into my house. It could have been one of any number of women I ’d been seeing over the past few months—but most likely the one I had broken a date with to meet Crystal. But how the hell had she gotten into my house?

  The woman yelled, “I knew you was here with her!” and suddenly I knew who the intruder was. This wasn’t just any woman standing in my doorway. This was a woman I loved with all my heart, but when it came to me pursuing my love life, she could be described with only one word: trouble.

  Darnel

  2

  “Well, tomorrow’s the big day. You’re really gonna go through with it, aren’t you?”

  I smiled, nodding my head at my best friend, Omar, as I slid my key into the door of my hotel room and pushed it open. We’d just left what was quite possibly the best bachelor party ever thrown, and we were both drunk. I plopped down on the first of two queen-sized beds while Omar stumbled toward the bathroom to relieve himself. I didn’t know about Omar, but I was tired, both mentally and physically drained from preparing for my big day tomorrow and from celebrating my last night as a single man with my boys.

  Omar, who was my best man, had gone all out, inviting all our friends, along with six of the wildest strippers I ’d ever seen. They were more like erotic circus performers than strippers, with all the contortions and tricks they showed us. Add them to the top-shelf liquor our friend Reggie supplied and Bam! One hell of a bachelor party.

  “You know, Dee,” Omar slurred as he stood in the bathroom, “I never thought you’d really go through with it. I mean, I like Keisha and all, but …” He paused. I heard him say “Ahhhh,” followed by the sound of him relieving himself.

  “Man, will you close the door? Don’t nobody wanna hear you peeing.” I loved Omar like the brother I never had, but he could really be disgusting sometimes. Some might even call him repulsive.

  “Don’t get your panties in a bunch. I’m done now.” He walked out of the bathroom with his zipper down and his pants hanging off his ass, exposing his plaid boxers. I didn’t bother to remind him to wash his hands, because, like I said, he could be a little raw.

  “So, what were you saying about me getting married? You didn’t think I was gonna do it? Man, I been with that woman since I was fifteen years old. That pussy is bought and paid for. I ain’t got no choice but to marry her.” I tried to sound cool for Omar, but the truth was, I loved Keisha with all my heart.

  “Yeah, I know that, and you been faithful to her since you was fifteen. But what I wanna know is, do you really want to die having been with only one woman?” His expression made it look as if he felt sorry for me. I hated that look.

  “You act like me being faithful is a bad thing.”

  This conversation was nothing new to me. Omar and my boys had always thought me strange because of my faithfulness to Keisha. The way they saw it, a man was supposed to get as much experience as he could with as many women as were willing to give it up. But I viewed things differently. I had given my virginity and pledged my faithfulness to Keisha, and I wasn’t about to hurt her by ch
eating with some woman who didn’t mean anything to me. My father had done that to my mother. I grew up seeing how deeply it affected her life and saw the hurt in her eyes over and over again, so I vowed never to do that to the woman I loved. It just wasn’t worth it to me.

  “Nah, it ain’t a bad thing,” he conceded, “just unrealistic. Besides, with that chick Tia as her maid of honor, who knows what they’re doing across the street at her bachelorette party.” Omar sat down on the bed across from me with a strange look on his face—like he had something important to say but couldn’t find the words. He was starting to piss me off. “Dee, I heard Tia hired male strippers for Keisha’s bachelorette party. Who knows what Keisha could be—”

  I cut him off right there. “Look, bro, Keisha ain’t Tia, just like I’m not you! You got that?”

  “You think our strippers had big titties? Can you imagine how big those male strippers’ dicks are? Stretch that tight little pussy right on out.”

  Omar was my boy, but he was really pushing the limit tonight. “You’re drunk, so I’m gonna ignore that. But, O, you better check yourself,” I warned him.

  He laughed, but I wanted him to understand that I was serious. The night before my wedding was not the time for him to be disrespecting my fiancée like this. I loved that woman more than I loved myself.

  “I’m just saying … do you really think you’re the only guy Keisha has ever been with?”

  I stood up and pointed my finger in his face. “Best friend or not, don’t come out your face like that about her again or I’ll—”

  “Or you’ll what? Man, sit your ass down.” He laughed. “What you gonna do, fight your best man for trying to get you some pussy the night of your bachelor party?” He shook his head.

  I let out an aggravated sigh. “O, I don’t know why you gotta disrespect me before my wedding.”

  He was still smiling, but he had stopped laughing. I think he could finally see that I was upset. “Yo, Dee, I’m sorry, man. I meant no disrespect, but—”

  “You need to shut that drunk-ass mouth of yours, then.”