Trouble with Luv' Read Free

classical music provided an intimate and peaceful setting. Guests were in the process of being served, and latecomers moved around the hall, hunting down any available seats.
    â€œWho knew all the hotties were hiding out in church?” Ebony asked, before returning her attention to the object of her affection. Everything about the man was delicious, from the gleam in his eyes to the way his lips curved into that disarming smile of his. As she stared, one word turned over and over in her mind: tas-ty.
    â€œHe reminds me of Gavin,” Opal confessed, sorry the moment the words left her mouth. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
    Ebony waved off the apology. “I was the one who broke things off, remember? I’m fine, Opal. Besides, life’s too short for regrets.”
    Her no-strings-attached relationship with Gavin Taylor, a promising investment banker, had been running smoothly until he had ruined things by getting serious on her. While basking in the aftermath of a toe-curling lovemaking session, he had announced that it was time to take their relationship to the “next level.”
    â€œWe’re not getting any younger,” he’d said, nuzzling his chin against her shoulder. “Most people our age are already married.” He said he wanted kids. Two, maybe three. With a sedated expression on his face, he had hugged her to his chest and rubbed a hand over her stomach. “Why don’t I sell my place, move in here and we start working on that family?”
    Ebony had retreated like a soldier caught in a cross fire. Settling down and having kids was not in her blueprints; operating the most profitable lingerie franchise in North America was. It was her first and only aspiration. Gavin Taylor was a terrific guy—articulate, intelligent, dependable—but Ebony would rather swim in shark-infested waters than get married and have babies.
    Three lonely months had elapsed since the demise of their relationship and Ebony was yet to find someone to take his place. Living a sexless life was starting to have adverse effects on her. She was moody. Irritable. Short-tempered. And she found herself thinking about sex twenty-four-seven. During board meetings. On the phone with important clients. Waiting in line at the grocery store. At the bank. And every time a semiattractive man looked her way, she undressed him with her eyes. Sex toys had never appealed to her, but things were getting so bad, she was thinking about buying a battery-operated “friend.” It had been so long since she had been intimate with a man, she had started to wonder if it would ever happen again. But from where she was sitting, things were definitely starting to look up.
    â€œGavin has nothing on that man. Nothing at all.” Ebony winked. “But I’ll give you all the dirty details in the morning.”
    Opal’s mouth dropped. Her earrings tinkled harshly as she swung her head back and forth. “Ebony Denise Garrett,” she began, in a hushed tone of voice. “I know you’re not about to proposition that man. He—” Opal broke off her sentence when she realized the elderly woman beside her had stopped talking and was watching her. Opal put on a warm smile, and when the nosy grandmother returned to her meal, she jammed her elbow hard into Ebony’s ribs.
    â€œOw! What did you do that for?”
    â€œYou can’t take home some brother you met at church! You should be ashamed of yourself for even entertaining the thought,” Opal hissed. “I have half a mind to leave you sitting here by yourself.”
    Ebony fought back a laugh. Sometimes Opal was worse than a great-great-grandmother. The tiger print dress hugging her voluptuous figure suggested she was gregarious, reckless and impulsive, but Opal Sheppard was as straight as a ruler. She was responsible and organized and planned every second of every day. There was no room in her life for any funny