Passionate Game (Kimani Hotties) Read Free

the formidable security gate that allowed access to the country club’s exclusive members and their playground. She was sure that, if she tried hard enough, she could detect a whiff in the air of the wealthy and powerful. The club’s close proximity to the seat of power in Washington, D.C., and the nearby stately homes, attracted politicians, elite professional athletes, dignitaries and influential businessmen. After presenting her driver’s license and club membership pass, Tamara drove onto the property. All around her was an overly green oasis of three hundred acres.
    She parked the car herself, instead of valet parking, and retrieved her golf clubs from the trunk before heading to the main building. On cue, her pulse ratcheted its beat, matching her quick footsteps like background percussion. By the time she entered the cool interior of the building, her thoughts had fractured into various compartments of worries.
    Panic soured her stomach. She gulped to keep down the coffee she’d had earlier. No time to deal with her weak stomach.
    Suck it up.
    How many times did she chant this as her new mantra? Just about every day. She would’ve liked to think that she had the spine for a few gutsy moves, but nothing about this situation was normal. If she couldn’t get the company to commit to accepting the students, well, then, who knew what she’d be able to get for them? Definitely no other internship would engage them and guarantee their success like this one would. A compromise could mean the difference between a career and a life back on the streets.
    Plus, compromising made her want to punch something.
    “Good morning, Miss Wendell. How are you this morning?” The concierge greeted her with a wide, bright white, toothy smile.
    “Fine. Um...can you tell me if Mr. Benson has headed out to the tee? Don’t want him to start without me.” She giggled to maintain her nonthreatening demeanor.
    “Sure.” Without hesitation, the concierge pulled up a screen on his computer tablet. “He hasn’t checked in. But you’re about ten minutes early.”
    “Great.” Tamara pasted on a smile, but her lips trembled under the effort of acting like an empty-headed ditz. She headed to the private lockers to stash a few things before heading to the golf area.
    “Tamara, is that you?”
    Tamara turned and spotted the club’s biggest gossip making a beeline in her direction.
    “Hi, Mrs. Roberts. Yes, it’s me.” Tamara tried not to cringe.
    “Haven’t seen you around the neighborhood.” Mrs. Roberts made a show of looking around her. “Are you alone?”
    “I’m playing a round in a few minutes.” Tamara hoped that the emphasis on “a few minutes” would have an effect. She didn’t respond to the “alone” question. Mrs. Roberts liked to tell everyone that her children were all happily married to movers and shakers, and that she had the world’s most precious grandchildren. Since Tamara scored a fat zero in both the marriage and children areas of life, Mrs. Roberts would always “tsk” with faked sympathy.
    “I’ll let you go, then.” She tilted up her heavily lined cheek.
    Tamara got close for the cheek-to-cheek kiss. She was too old to keep being the victim of Mrs. Roberts’s sniping tongue. However, her mother would admonish her for not being respectful.
    She heard the soft double “tsk” in her ear as she pulled away from the unwanted embrace.
    “Please let your mother know that I’ll be in touch. The Ladies Group is sponsoring a trip to Vegas and proceeds are going to the county library. We need to get more serious books on the shelves and drown out all those silly books about wizards and vampires.”
    “I’ll let her know. But she is an avid reader of those kinds of books. She has tons of those books at her bedside. Tons.” Tamara held her arms open wide.
    Mrs. Roberts’s shock was priceless. She knew that meant the busybody would call her mother and that her mother would bite the bait and call to