Sinful Too Read Free Page A

order to retrieve the money from Dior’s clutched fist. Her arm was extended but wasn’t in the least bit anxious to part with six hundred dollars, not even for her three-bedroom brick home in a quiet neighborhood.
    “Come on, Dooney, can’t you just ease up for one month?” she whined. “Could I at least hold on to it for a minute? I mean, for real.” Dior’s impish grin returned slowly as the wheels inside her head spun faster. “What if I told you I’d be a few days late with the cash?”
    He chuckled and then smirked at Dior’s failed attempt to get over on him. “Then I’d have to tell you how quick your behind would be out of my rental property by the end of the week.”
    Dior turned up her nose rudely. “You’d toss your own sister out on the street?”
    “Yeah, and her stuff out on the curb,” he answered in an unwavering manner that she’d seen before. “Stop playing, girl, and hand over the rent. And anyway, you ought to be glad I’m not charging you for painting every room in that house a different color. You got no idea how hard it’s gonna be to fix it.”
    “I don’t care. You won’t have to worry about fixing anything. I’m in love with that house and it loves me back. I’m not planning on leaving it until I’m ready to get married and upgrade to a mansion.”
    “Well, until that happens,
Spinderella
, you need to have my money on time, every month. I got a mile-long waiting list of single sistahs begging to get up in there.”
    “You can take that list and your tired threats back to where you came from,” she pouted. “If you keep on, I’m telling Billie Rae how you do me.”
    “Whaaat, you’re going to see her again? When?”
    “I was up there this morning. She looks pretty good, I guess. Age is starting to set in, though, around the eyes mostly. She was upbeat and all about you. Dooney is this and oh how I love me some Dooney,” she teased.
    “That’s because I’ve been going to Azalea Springs to look in on Mama for years. You don’t get that kinda love for putting in just three funky visits.”
    “Five, I’ve been to see her five times,” Dior proudly corrected him. “Anyway, I’ve got to get my stuff together before she gets out. After all this time, not knowing how to feel about Billie being gone, I’m scared she’ll come home trying to clown me because I don’t have it going on like you.” Dior shook her head slowly in retrospect. “There was a time I didn’t give a flip what she thought.”
    “Then you grew up. Congratulations. You finally came around to thinking about somebody other than Dior. About time. Now pay your monthly living expenses before I have to call the county constable on that . . . you gonna fool around and make me cuss.”
    “Dooney, you still have a buck-o-five from the first buck you ever made with your tight behind. Why do you need my measly six hundred dollars?”
    “Six bills ain’t nowhere near measly,” he argued, as his voice raised one octave. “And, since when did needing it have anything to do with getting what’s mine? Stop stalling and give it up.” Dior held on to the money tightly before he pried it from her hand. “Now that we’ve got business out of the way, let’s talk up on some pleasure. I hear you jamming to your girl’s show on the radio. When are you gonna put me down with the Midday Deejay?”
    “That’s
Midday Diva
, and why would I do that?”
    “It won’t hurt you to tell Tangy I’m trying to get at her.”
    “See, uh-uh. Her name is Tangie. Tangie, get it right. And every time I try to be nice and set you up with one of my friends, that’s one less friend I have after you bang and bounce.”
    “Don’t blame me when they fall for the Doo-Doo. I can’t help it that I get down like that.”
    “You know what, you’re right. I don’t blame you. I blame me and I’m tired of doing it. Looks like you’ve got enough going on as it is.” Dior sneered at the large bags from Sports Galore.