“Hi Paula, is Stephan here?” Malik asked his cousins’ house manager as he walked in the front door.

Paula was an older white woman with a narrow face and crow’s feet around her eyes like splintered spider webs. He’d only ever seen her hair in the long gray braid that fell to right above her behind.

“Yes. He’s in the kitchen eating breakfast.”

Malik checked the time. It was almost midday. “You cooked for him today?” he asked with a smirk. Stephan and the housekeeper had a love-hate relationship.

“He was rude to me earlier this morning,” Paula replied by way of answer.

Malik followed her into the kitchen and found Stephan seated at the massive, moon-shaped island, bare-chested and in boxers. A bowl of cereal that looked large enough to hold a gallon of milk sat in front of him. Reese sat on the opposite side of the counter, and they had a guest. One of their cousins from Seattle, Gavin Johnson, was there, as well. Gavin was tall, dark-skinned, and had the same light brown eyes as Stephan. The last time Malik had seen him was back in March when his brother Xavier Johnson got married.

“Hey, what’s up? You’re a long way from home,” Malik said.

“Surprise inspection,” Gavin replied. He oversaw quality control of his family’s breweries.

“How’s the wife?”

“She and the kids flew down with me. She’s hanging out with her brother and his family while I work.”

“She’s not pregnant again, is she?” Malik asked. Gavin and his wife had the most children of the Johnson siblings. A total of four so far—two girls and two boys.

Gavin chuckled. “No, she’s not.”

“Not yet,” Stephan added. “Only a matter of time. Five years from now, you’ll be on one of those reality shows. I’ve got the perfect title. Nine kids and counting.”

“We’re not having nine kids.”

“That’s only because she won’t let you,” Reese interjected. “You would have nine if you could.”

“True.” Gavin glanced at his watch. “I better head out. I’ll see you guys later for dinner at Aunt Sylvie’s. You coming, Malik?”

“For sure. See you later.” When Gavin was gone, Malik fastened his gaze on Stephan. “I came here to talk about Lindsay.”

“No need to thank me. I talked to Lindsay the other day, and she told me you two are working together now. Am I the man, or am I the man?” He spread his arms wide, waiting for the accolades.

“You’re full of crap, you know that?”

“Whoa, what did I do?” Stephan laughed.

“You know exactly what you did.”

“Remind me.”

Paula entered the kitchen. “Can I get you anything to drink?” she asked softly to Malik.

“No, I’m fine.”

Stephan scowled at his employee. “You offer him something to drink, but I have to beg you to fix me breakfast?”

Paula smiled sweetly at him. “Looks like you found plenty to eat.”

“This is cereal. I wanted bacon and eggs or pancakes or something. Is that too much to ask? I know you think you run this house, but I pay your damn salary, Paula.”

“Your mother pays my salary, Stephan.” She picked up a purse on the counter with an uncaring attitude, which only inflamed Stephan’s ire.

“And I can tell her how unhappy I am and she’ll stop. Then you’ll be begging for my forgiveness.”

“You’re right, I should learn to behave myself.” She fake-smiled at him. “I’m on my way to the market, gentlemen.”

“Don’t forget my chips,” Reese said to her.

“I haven’t forgotten.”

“Not that you care, but please make sure you pick up that peach jam I like,” Stephan said.

Paula walked out of the kitchen without another word.

“You see that shit?” Stephan said to Malik. “She purposely ignored me. One of these days I’m firing her ass.”

“You say that every week,” Reese said.

Stephan could fire her any time he wanted to but hadn’t, which meant he enjoyed their sparring matches, and she probably did, too.

“She never listens to me.” Stephan swiveled to the door and yelled, “She’s the worse house manager in the galaxy!” No response. He turned back around. “One of these days, I’m getting rid of her. No joke. I’m tired of her crap. She barely talks to me and has full-on conversations with Reese.”

“What can I say? I’m the younger, more charming one,” Reese said.

“Back to me and why I came over,” Malik said.

“Oh yeah, what is it I’m supposed to have done? I’m pretty sure you should be happy and not mad.” Stephan ate a spoonful of cereal.

Malik braced his hands on the island. “So you still want to play innocent? First of all, you hook me up with that fine woman, pretending that you wanted to help me get exposure for my art.”

“Pretending? Lindsay’s sister owns a chain of hotels. I’m pretty sure one of them could use your sculpture. Was that not clear?”

“What’s clear is that you set this whole thing up to tempt me into reneging on my personal promise of celibacy because, quite coincidentally, Lindsay is tall and has great breasts, just the way I like my women.”

Stephan chuckled. “Wait a minute, let me get this straight. You’re tempted by her, and you think I set you up so you could break your celibacy streak?”

“Are you saying you didn’t send her over to tempt me?”

“Man, I’m not thinking about your sex life. Or should I say your non-existent sex life. I have my own needs to worry about, but I understand your dilemma. Her tits are fantastic, aren’t they? I’ve fantasized about them plenty, believe me. You should see them in a bikini top. Whew! I know I’ve got some pictures somewhere. I could—”

“I got it.” The direction of the conversation irritated Malik. He didn’t want to listen to his cousin’s lewd description of Lindsay’s breasts, which was unfair since he’d been having some pretty lewd thoughts about them, too. He wondered if the nipples were walnut dark or caramel colored. He wondered what she’d look like riding him, squeezing her breasts together, or letting them swing like heavy fruit as she bounced up and down on his dick.

He squeezed the bridge of his nose. His thoughts about Lindsay were getting wilder and wilder. Fucking Stephan.

“She’s actually not your type,” Stephan said.

“Meaning?” As far as he could tell, she was exactly his type. Tall, pretty, sepia-toned skin, and those breasts.

“Lindsay likes to party and be seen. You’re an introvert who lives out in the country. You’d probably get on each other’s nerves. If you want to deprive yourself of the pleasures of the flesh, that’s completely up to you, but I sent Lindsay to you because I was trying to help.”

Stephan actually sounded sincere. “So this really wasn’t a set-up?”

“No.” Stephan laughed again. “You must really be tempted to break your sexual fast.”

“Shut up.”

Reese hopped into the conversation. “So you’re going to cut her off because you want to jump her bones?”

“No, we’ve gotten in a bit deeper. She wants me to pretend to be her fiancé.”

“What?” Stephan and Reese said at the same time.

Malik explained the plan to his cousins. When he was finished, Reese spoke first.

“I can’t believe you agreed to her idea, but I guess it could work.” He shrugged.

“At least you don’t have to worry about any old exes popping up and causing problems. You haven’t been with a woman in years,” Stephan said.

“You love bringing that up, don’t you?”

“Remember Tanya?” Stephan asked Reese, purposely ignoring Malik.

“Who could forget Tanya? When they broke up, she took one of every pair of shoes he owned. He had no matching shoes.” Reese broke down laughing and shook his head.

Stephan doubled over chuckling. “That level of petty doesn’t come along everyday. That takes some thought. Ah man, Tanya was a treat. She was my favorite.”

“I’m glad you guys find that so funny. I had to buy all new shoes.”

“What the hell do you do to these women to make them turn on you like that?” Stephan asked.

“Hell if I know,” Malik muttered.

“Whatever it is, don’t do that to Lindsay. She’s liable to burn your house down.”

Malik’s eyes narrowed on Stephan. “What’s the deal with you and her? Just friends?”

“Truth?”

“Of course.”

“Back in the day, I tried her, but Lindsay wasn’t having it. She said there was no way that anything was going to happen between the two of us. She cut me down so hard, my ego was bruised for a week. Every now and again I try her, in case she’s changed her mind. She always turns me down.”

Malik felt an immense sense of relief at that answer. “There’s actually a woman alive who can resist the Stephan Brooks charm?”

“One and only one.”

Reese shook his head and Malik laughed.

“I’m out of here,” Malik said.

“What are you going to do about Lindsay?” Stephan asked.

Malik paused on the way out the kitchen. “Tread carefully.”