Femme Tales Read online

  “Another half hour won’t make a difference. Just go,” Raquel told her. “If you go around and rearrange one more place setting, Libby is going to strangle you.”

  Chayse looked up to find one of her servers standing just a few feet away, hands on hips, glaring at her in annoyance. Chayse slowly set the charger plate she had in her hand back on the table and nodded to Libby in surrender.

  She turned to Raquel with a grin. “Yeah, I guess I should probably get there before she gets too tired from all the tests they had to run and her family visiting.”

  “Good idea. We’ll be fine here,” Raquel reassured her.

  When Chayse arrived at the hospital, she swung by the nurses’ station to drop off a pie for them then practically ran to Serena’s room. She was stopped short in the doorway by the sight of Serena sitting up cross-legged in her bed laughing and holding hands with her ex-girlfriend. Determined not to assume anything, she opened her mouth to speak, but her words were halted when Melanie reached up to gently smooth away a stray curl from Serena’s face. It wasn’t the act itself that caused the sudden ache in Chayse’s heart but the look on Melanie’s face. She still loved Serena, and Chayse didn’t believe there was any way she could compete with the obvious love and history Serena and Melanie had. With her heart slowly breaking, Chayse began to back out of the room, but the movement must have caught Serena’s attention because she turned to look her way.

  “Chayse, I almost thought you weren’t coming.”

  Serena’s bright happy smile almost dispelled the insecurity Chayse was feeling, but the cocky grin on Melanie’s face as she continued to sit on the bed holding Serena’s hand pushed it right back to the forefront.

  “Uh…yeah, I can’t stay long. I just wanted to drop off the pie I promised.” On shaky legs, she walked into the room and set the insulated bag on the table at the end of the bed next to Serena’s breakfast tray.

  “You’re not staying long?” Serena moved to stand, but wobbled on her feet and fell back onto the bed.

  Melanie pulled her close. “Whoa! Not so fast. You know the doctor said not to push yourself too much.”

  “I’m fine, I just stood up too fast,” Serena said.

  “I have to get back to the restaurant. We have a VIP group coming in, and there’s a lot to do,” Chayse said as she turned and quickly headed for the door, her heart aching as she ignored Serena calling her name and kept walking.

  “Was that Chayse I saw leaving in such a hurry?” Nan asked Serena as she entered the room.

  “Yes. She dropped off some pies and couldn’t stay long.” Serena was hurt and disappointed by Chayse’s sudden departure.

  Melanie gently squeezed her hand. “Maybe it’s for the best. You should probably only have close friends and family visiting anyway, at least until you’re back on your feet.”

  “If it weren’t for Chayse, Serena’s family wouldn’t have even known she was here, so she has more right to be here than you do,” Nan said, not bothering to hide her dislike for Melanie.

  Melanie’s cockiness wavered a bit under Nan’s glare so she focused her attention back on Serena. “I’m going to head back to the hotel so you can get some rest. I’ll come back this evening.”

  “I appreciate you flying up here to check on me, but you really don’t need to stay. I’m fine. You should head back home,” Serena told her, slowly realizing Melanie’s presence might have been the reason Chayse left the way she did.

  “I’m here because I want to be, not because I need to be. I care about you, Serena,” Melanie said, reaching up to caress Serena’s face.

  Serena blocked Melanie’s hand. “Mel, I wasn’t hit on the head so hard that I forgot why we broke up. This doesn’t change anything.”

  “But I’ve changed,” Melanie said. “I realize how selfish I was being, and I’m willing to try to make it work.”

  “Make what work? I’ve also changed. I’ve had time to think about and discover who I am, and I love the me that I’ve become since moving to New York. I don’t plan to move back to Georgia or be with a woman who doesn’t support my dreams.”

  “You plan on staying here? Is it Chayse? You barely know her. From what I understand you barely spoke to her before you ended up in the hospital. For all you know she could be some sick stalker who gets off on vulnerable women. You’ve always been so naïve,” Melanie said angrily.

  Serena sighed. “I think you should go.”

  “Serena, I’m sorry. Why don’t I come back in the morning and we can talk after you’ve rested,” Melanie said hopefully.

  “There’s nothing to talk about. Thank you again for coming to see me. Have a safe trip home.”

  Mel slowly stood. “Serena.”

  Serena turned a determined and steady gaze towards Melanie but didn’t respond.

  Mel turned to leave. “Bye, Serena,” she said, her voice breaking.

  “Bye, Mel.” Serena watched her walk out the door and closed her eyes with a heavy sigh. “Nan, why do relationships have to be so contrary?”

  Nan chuckled as she sat beside Serena on the bed. “I wish I had an easy answer for that. All I know is that when it’s right, when you find a person who makes all the contrariness worth it, you can’t let them slip through your fingers because you might not have that chance again.”

  Serena slowly opened her eyes. “You’re talking about Chayse, aren’t you?”

  “You tell me.”

  Serena shook her head. “Like Mel said, I barely know her. How’s it possible to fall in love with someone I barely know?”

  “Who said anything about love?” Nan said with a raised brow.

  Serena looked down at her lap. “She led me through the darkness, Nan. I was told you all spent time talking to me while I was unconscious, but Chayse’s voice was the only one that came through.”

  “And what does that tell you?”

  Serena wasn’t sure she wanted to believe what she was thinking. “Maybe I’m so used to all of your voices that a different voice was able to penetrate because it was something unfamiliar.”

  “That sounds like a good explanation, but do you really believe that?” Nan asked.

  Serena met Nan’s questioning gaze. “Nan, this isn’t some fairy tale with a sleeping princess who can be awakened with a kiss. This is real life. Stuff like that doesn’t happen,” she said, knowing that’s pretty much what actually happened.

  “She kissed you?” Nan asked with a grin.

  Serena blushed. “It was just a quick peck at the same moment I was waking up.”

  “Uh-huh,” Nan said. “I take it that wasn’t the last kiss that happened.”

  “Nan, I don’t know what to think about all of this,” she said in frustration.

  “See, there’s your problem. Stop thinking so much and do what you did when you decided to move here. Go with what you’re feeling.”

  From that first moment Serena saw Chayse on the other side of the restaurant, she had felt an immediate pull toward her, and as far-fetched as it seemed, she couldn’t deny that it was definitely that same pull toward Chayse that brought her out of her deep sleep. There was also something Serena saw in Chayse’s eyes when she did fully awaken. She couldn’t say it was love, but there was something between them that had Chayse under its spell as well.

  “You saw how she walked out of here. What if it’s too late?” Serena asked.

  Nan smiled knowingly. “You don’t have to worry about that. Let’s get you a clean bill of health and out of here, then we’ll work on getting Sleeping Beauty her princess.”

  * * *

  Chayse slowly made her way up the stairs to her apartment above the restaurant having just returned from catering a celebrity charity event uptown. All she wanted to do now was throw on some sweats, make a cup of chai tea, curl up on the sofa with Lucky, and watch late night movies until she fell asleep and started everything over again in the morning. When she opened the door, she immediately knew something was off. Lucky wasn’t at the
door for her usual greeting, and she picked up the lightest scent of vanilla and coconut as she walked through the door. She perused the open space of her loft, stopping in surprise when she reached her living room space. The sight before her had her wondering if she had finally gone nuts and her imagination had manifested some fantasy she had or if she was really seeing Serena lying asleep on her sofa with Lucky curled up in her lap. She stared for another full minute before she quietly closed the door and walked toward the sleeping figures. Sensing her presence, Lucky sat up, slowly blinked at her as if to say “What? You weren’t here so somebody had to keep her company,” and then casually jumped from the sofa and went to her cat condo in the corner of the room.

  Chayse gazed back at Serena, still in disbelief that she was actually in her apartment. It had been almost two weeks since she had visited Serena in the hospital and found her and her ex-girlfriend getting reacquainted. The next day, Nan left a message for Chayse that Serena would be going home that afternoon. Chayse responded back with a text thanking her for letting her know and to Give Serena my best wishes.

  Feisty as ever, Nan had texted back, Why don’t you give them to her in person with Serena’s home address. Chayse didn’t answer the text and felt guilty about it ever since. She had spent every day since doing anything she could to keep busy and not to think about Serena, which failed miserably. She constantly found herself thinking things like, did she and Mel work things out? If so, would that mean she would go back to Georgia? Did she think about Chayse as much as Chayse thought about her, which was pretty much every waking hour of the day? And now, as if all that thinking about Serena had manifested itself into reality, here she was.

  Chayse perused Serena’s face which had filled out a bit since she had last seen her, and her expression was just as peaceful and serene as it had been before she had awoken in the hospital. Her gaze slowly made its way along Serena’s prone figure. She must have come from work because she was dressed in a white silk blouse that must have come unbuttoned while she slept, allowing a generous view of her lace camisole underneath and the rise and fall of her voluptuous chest with every breath she took. She followed the curve of her narrow waist to full hips encased in a burgundy pencil skirt that had hiked up around her thighs to display smooth, shapely legs that led to her delicate feet and the wine painted toenails that matched the color on her fingernails and lipstick.

  The urge to run her hand along the curves her eyes had just followed was so strong Chayse had to ball her hand into a fist to keep from doing it. She forced her gaze back up to Serena’s face, surrounded by a halo of her thick curly hair. Chayse knelt in front of Serena, reached up to smooth a stray curl away, and whispered, “Wake up, Sleeping Beauty.”

  Serena’s lips curved into a soft smile. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep. What time is it?”

  “It’s after midnight. How did you get in here?” Chayse asked.

  Serena stayed in her prone position and propped her head up on her hand. “Raquel let me in. I came by the restaurant after work to see you, but she said you were catering an event and probably wouldn’t be back until late. I didn’t want to leave without talking to you so I asked if I could wait in your office, and she offered to let me wait up here because you probably wouldn’t go back to the restaurant until morning. I hope that wasn’t too presumptuous of me.”

  “No, it’s fine. I see you met Lucky.”

  “Yes. I didn’t know she was even here until after Raquel left. She showed me around your beautiful apartment then left. I felt something rubbing against my leg and almost had a heart attack.”

  Chayse gazed curiously over at Lucky sleepily watching them from the top of her tower. “She must have sensed something pretty special in you because she usually doesn’t come out for visitors.”

  Serena gazed over at Lucky as well. “Well then, I’m honored, Miss Lucky. Thank you.”

  Lucky did one of her slow blinks, meowed in response, and closed her eyes. Chayse and Serena both laughed at the feline’s nonchalant attitude. When their gazes met again, it was like that first glance when Serena had awoken. That familiar pull on her heart that seemed to reach down to her very soul flared to life. Their eyes now locked, Serena reached forward, grasped Chayse by the back of head, and brought her toward her. Their lips met for a kiss so intense that the disbelief and doubt she had about what had happened between them while Serena was in the hospital faded away. She felt that this feeling, this moment right here, was all that mattered and all that would matter from this point on.

  Chayse pulled away and asked, “Melanie?”

  “Gone. It’s only you. It’s been only you since the moment I first saw you at the restaurant.”

  Chayse closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she looked at Serena again, Serena’s heart skipped a beat at the intensity in Chayse’s eyes. The gentle, spirited light that was there moments ago was replaced by a passion that turned her pupils into a dark abyss Serena would gladly lose herself in. Without breaking eye contact, Chayse got up from her kneeling position, lifted Serena into her arms, and made her way to her bedroom. Once there she gently laid Serena on the bed and kissed her once again. Her tongue explored Serena’s mouth, licking and nipping gently at her full lips. Serena lost herself completely in that kiss and had no idea when Chayse managed to undo the tiny pearl buttons of her blouse to slip her hand beneath her camisole to brush the pad of her thumb along the tops of her breast. What she did know was that she wanted more…so much more.

  She moaned with need into Chayse’s mouth, and it was as if Chayse understood what she was asking because her mouth began leaving a heated trail of kisses along her cheek, neck, and cleavage. Serena’s nipples strained against the constraint of her bra until she felt Chayse’s deft fingers reach behind her and undo the clasps in one swift motion to free them. When the heat of Chayse’s mouth enveloped her right nipple, Serena almost shouted for joy. When Chayse’s tongue joined the party and her long fingers gently grasped her left nipple, it was her undoing. The speed and ferocity at which her orgasm came took Serena by surprise, and she tried to fight it, but Chayse’s manipulations were too much so she allowed the pleasure to take over. She had never felt anything so intense, not even with Mel. When she came to her senses, Chayse was gazing down at her.

  “You are so beautiful,” Chayse said in awe.

  “Even while I’m awake?” she said with a smile.

  “Especially when you’re awake,” Chayse’s hand traveled from Serena’s breast along her torso to beneath the hem of her skirt, which was now up around her hips, to where her panties were soaked from her orgasm, “and it seems to me that there are some other things that may need awakening,” she said with a sexy grin as she slowly rubbed Serena’s sex through her panties.

  Serena’s breath caught in a shuddering sigh of pleasure. “I have way too many clothes on.”

  Chuckling, Chayse shifted so that she could help Serena remove her now disheveled clothing as well as her own. “Lie back,” she told Serena with a look of pure hunger in her eyes.

  Chayse crouched over Serena and lowered her head toward hers for another soul-stirring kiss before proceeding to lavish loving attention to the rest of Serena’s luscious body.

  After what seemed like forever, Serena could take the torture no longer. “Chayse…” she pleaded.

  Chayse slid her body up along Serena’s, cupped her hand over Serena’s sex, and whispered, “Open your legs for me.”

  Serena willingly obeyed, widening her legs so that Chayse could lie between them. Once she was settled, Chayse slowly slid one of her fingers in and out of Serena’s heated vagina, gently flicking the pad of her thumb across her full clit and savoring another taste of Serena’s pebble hard nipples, where previously she had been completing each touch individually. Serena’s moans grew more frantic and louder as Chayse continued her lovemaking. When Serena’s pleasure reached the highest peak and her body tensed Chayse whispered in her ear, “Wake up, Sleeping Beauty.”
/>   Those four words meant everything to Serena and sent her over the edge…awakening a passion and a love like she had never known.

  Stiletto

  Based on the Cinderella fairy tale

  Cass Phillips took one look at her agenda for the week and felt another headache coming on. Dr. Jansen told her they were stress related and she needed to slow down, maybe take a vacation, something she hadn’t done in over a year. Unfortunately, this was not the time for vacations. She had the Pure Music Annual Charity Ball coming up in a little over a month where she and Ebony planned to debut two new artists as well as promoting tours for three other artists hitting the road right after the charity ball. With a tired sigh, she laid her head on her desk and closed her eyes, hoping just a few moments of quiet would help alleviate the pain. Not even a minute later, there was a knock on her open office door.

  “Yo, Cass, you all right?” Ebony asked as she stood in the doorway.

  Cass sat up rubbing her eyes. “Yeah, just a headache. What’s up?”

  “I can come back later,” Ebony said.

  “No, have a seat. Let me just grab some aspirin.” Cass opened her desk drawer, pulled out a pill bottle, swallowed two capsules with some water, and focused back on Ebony. “What’s going on?”

  “It’s not a problem yet, but there’s some tension building between Cree and Frenetic, and I don’t mean the good kind,” Ebony explained.

  “Let me guess, Frenetic tried to push up on Cree and she turned him down,” Cass said in frustration.

  “Yes and no. He tried while they were in the middle of recording their set not knowing her boyfriend was in the studio and could see and hear everything going on. When they came out of the booth, the boyfriend jumped in Frenetic’s face, but Cree was able to step in before it got physical. Frenetic wants him banned from the studio while they record, and Cree is second-guessing them going on tour together.”