2 Timers

Book 2: Love Sisters

by Amaleka McCall

Genres: African American Urban

Synopsis

Sista Love was a chart-topping girl group that had it all - fame, fortune, and failure. After three years apart, Harmony, Melody, and Lyric are forced back together after the death of their mother. Their forced reunion rekindles past hurt, lies, and deceit, but it is new lies, backstabbing, and jealousy that will bring the sisters to the brink of destruction.

Harmony is piecing her life back together after her husband's relapse back into addiction and his affair with her sister Melody. Now Harmony must decide if she will walk away or stand and fight. When she meets a handsome stranger, her decision will become that much harder. Will she become a two-timer, or will she give up on her marriage for good?

Melody continues throwing her money around to get what she wants. Still devastated by her ex-boyfriend's blatant two-timing, Melody turns to her sister's husband for comfort but quickly realizes that he is around only because she is his constant supply of drugs and the fast life. With pressures mounting from all sides, Melody will have to figure out who she can trust. Will she risk it all to find love, or will her past come back to snatch her from her pedestal?

Lyric is haunted by a secret she's kept from Harmony and finds out the hard way that turning back to drugs to run from her problems has landed her in the worst predicament of her life. Will Lyric let her addiction once again take her to the brink of death, or will she embrace sobriety once and for all?

Release date: November 29, 2016

Publisher: Urban Books

Print pages: 288

Sample

Light music played softly in the background, like an angel strumming harp strings. The warm orange glow cast over the room from the wall-embedded fireplace brought a smile of relaxation to Melody’s lips. She was free falling, like strips of golden ribbon floating in the sky. Her heart thumped steadily to the rhythm of the music. She squeezed her eyes shut and giggled when a rainbow appeared inside her eyelids. Is this what love felt like?

“I make you feel good, don’t I?” he whispered roughly against her neck.

It was him. He was the reason she felt so good; the owner of that familiar voice that had whispered in her ear hundreds of times.

Melody kept her eyes closed, folded her bottom lip between her teeth, and nodded her head.

Yes, yes, you do!

“Damn, girl,” he said. Without warning, he crushed his mouth over hers. Grabbing her tightly, he forced his tongue between her lips. Melody lifted her arms in weak protest. She didn’t want to appear too eager for more.

“Don’t stop me, baby,” he panted out each word as he forced her arms above her head. The heat of his breath danced over her lips. Everything about him was intoxicating. Melody felt light-headed.

“Stop,” she gasped, overwhelmed by her desire for him. She moved her head from side to side, but he found her lips every time.

“I missed you. I love you,” he murmured between kisses.

The words I love you softened Melody. The tension in her muscles began to ease.

He pressed his body into hers until she was sandwiched between her bedroom wall and his muscular chest. He smelled and felt so good. His touch, his scent, their chemistry—it was all familiar. The combination was heady, causing her insides to warm and her body to ache with need.

“Let me love you, Melody. Let me take care of you. Let me stop all of your pain. You don’t have to be in control all of the time.”

Melody relaxed as a tsunami of lust rushed over her. She was drowning and did not want to be saved. Her entire body trembled.

He moved his mouth from hers and trailed his tongue down her neck, sending a shockwave of electricity to her loins.She didn’t know how much longer she would be able to stand upright.

“What about T—” Melody started, the throbbing between her legs growing stronger.

“Shhh. I love you,” he interrupted before she could finish.

Melody couldn’t understand why her body was betraying her like this. Logically, she knew this would end in heartache.

“You are with someone else now. You told me you love her. You’re having a . . .” Melody struggled to get the words out.

“Hush. I love you,” he said with a nip on her neck.

“I love you,” he repeated as he moved lower, taking in a mouthful of nipple.

Melody gasped and moaned. An explosion of pleasure shook her small frame.

He sucked on her breasts, gently cupping each one like a precious treasure. Melody panted through her mouth, breathless with want. She parted her legs, inviting him inside. He lifted his head and smiled.

Then he slipped his pointer finger into his mouth and pulled it back out slowly.

“You ready?” he whispered, moving his moistened finger below her belly button. Melody shivered as he rubbed her clit with his wet finger until her juices flowed freely over it.

“Shit,” Melody huffed. “Keep going . . . don’t stop.”

He added his middle finger, stretching her wide. He slipped both fingers inside and out, increasing the pressure.

Melody felt her pleasure mount, and she groaned in ecstasy. Tears welled in her eyes. She writhed her hips until she got his fingers to touch her just in the right spot.

“Yeah. That’s what I like to see. Now, look at me,” he urged.

Melody’s eyes slowly fluttered open. She watched as he licked the nectar from his fingers.

“Oh God,” she said, breathing heavily.

“Stop . . . no . . . wait,” Melody huffed trying to push him away from her again. “What about her?” The words came out in a hot rush.

“I want you. I want to taste you. I fucking love you,” he said with urgency. Melody closed her eyes again. Heat engulfed her body.

He moved his head further south, licking all the way to his destination.

Melody’s heart beat erratically, and her vagina pulsed.

On his knees, he put his hot mouth over her clitoris and blew on it. Melody’s body bucked with pleasure as she neared her peak. Her back arched sharply against the wall.

In a flash of light, she floated to the ceiling and watched herself and her lover from above. She could see his face, but couldn’t feel him anymore. She reached out and tried to grab him. He was fading away, and she could no longer hear the words that he uttered. She couldn’t smell his essence or taste his lips. She wanted to scream his name. She wanted him to see her, to hear her. She wanted him to touch her again. She tried in vain to grab his muscular chest, but he slipped away like a phantom.

Come back. You said you loved me!

Melody felt herself falling into a vortex. The floor seemed to spin beneath her. She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out. She threw her hands up right before she was about to hit the floor.

Melody awoke with a start, her chest heaving. Sweat drenched the front of her nightgown, and a chill seemed to permeate the air. She whipped her head around, but there was no sign of Sly. Melody touched her face, then her chest. It had seemed so real. She lowered her right hand to her crotch, and it was soaked with her juices. She didn’t realize women could have wet dreams too.

Her shoulders slumped, and her lips curled down. She sighed and turned to the left. Her face immediately folded into a frown.

“I hope that nasty dream you were having was about me,” Ron said, chuckling over his shoulder. “You were moaning and groaning like you was getting a good old back-breaking fuck.”

Melody glared at him. In just two weeks, he had gone from gorgeous to hideous. Ron’s skin was ashen, his lips were dark, and the unkempt, overgrown hair on his head and face made him look like he was homeless. Her eyes darted to the nightstand where his cocaine, straw, and stem lay on top of her expensive, gold-trimmed handheld mirror. How could she have thought being with him would make her happy? Clearly, he was a weak man, and nothing disgusted her more than weak men.

Melody sucked her teeth and flopped back down on her pillow. The dream had seemed so real. Sly’s touch and the sensations she’d experienced were almost palpable. She shook her head wishing she could go back to sleep and pick up where the dream had left off.

The sound of Ron snorting at her bedside brought reality crashing down on her. Sly was gone. Forever. Period.

After he took in a nostril full of coke, Ron turned toward Melody and laughed. “No? So the dream wasn’t about me?”

She groaned. This man was a disgusting addict. If she had something handy to throw at him, she would have.

“Damn. I guess not. That must’ve been some hot loving you was riding in that dream, though. You’re not going to tell me who you were dreaming about?”

Melody closed her eyes and exhaled. Her jaw rocked. “Have you been up all night getting high?” she grumbled, turning her back on him. “Is that all you do, day and night? Don’t you ever sleep? Or think about other shit? Other shit besides who I’m having a wet dream about? Ugh, get a life.”

“Get a life? I had a life, remember? I thought you wanted this,” Ron replied, touching his chest. “Me being here with you, instead of being home with my wife and daughter. Wasn’t this all part of your plan? I mean, you did go to great lengths to get me where you wanted me, no?”

Melody shot up in the bed and threw her legs over the side. “Fuck you, Ron.”

“Answer me. You wanted me, right? Let’s just clarify that I didn’t go chasing after you, Melody. You wanted to take me away from her. You knew my weakness, and you exploited it. Didn’t you?” he shouted. Since he’d been holed up in her SoHo penthouse, she noticed that Ron rarely took responsibility for his actions.

Melody shrugged into her bathrobe in a fury and tied the belt so tight it squeezed her stomach. She turned around to face Ron, her eyes squinted into dashes.

“If you didn’t want me, you wouldn’t be here either. And, for the record, you gave in to your own weakness. It was going to happen with or without me. Once a fiend, always a fiend,” Melody taunted.

She stormed into her bathroom en suite and slammed the door; then she leaned her head against the door and closed her eyes. Her temples were throbbing. The reality of her situation and the truth of Ron’s words hit her like a hammer to the skull.

It was true. When Melody first met Ron at her mother’s funeral, he appeared to be a loving, attentive husband to her sister, Harmony, and a dedicated father to her baby niece, Aubrey. It burned Melody up inside with jealousy. Melody remembered watching Harmony walk into the funeral chapel with her little family—baby in hand, husband at her side. Melody had noticed right away how Ron supportively held onto Harmony with love in his eyes, and how, when they sat down, Harmony had so easily and lovingly lay her head on his shoulder and how Ron, in response, wrapped his arm around Harmony, holding her close. It was clear to Melody then that her sister had found a good man to love. Real love.

As she watched Harmony and Ron from behind her dark shades that day, Melody had actually become nauseated from the rough waves of jealousy swirling inside of her. Even then she had thought, I was supposed to have everything. I was supposed to be the happiest. I am the only one worthy of a perfect life. These same words had been uttered by the girls’ mother throughout their lives. Melody had always been their mother’s favorite, and no matter what Melody wanted, she could have it—even if it belonged to Harmony and Lyric. It was a fact they all had accepted very early on in life.

Melody had the mansions, the cars, the jewelry, the money, and anything else she could buy. Melody Love was the megastar, but Harmony seemed to have something that all the money in the world couldn’t buy—love.

Melody decided that she deserved a man like Ron. She convinced herself that it was her mother’s fault that she was lacking in the love department.

Melody swiped her hands over her face, trying to get rid of the sharp pangs of guilt that occasionally swamped her.

“You were so wrong, Melody,” she whispered to her reflection, looking into the large, custom-made beveled glass mirror that hung over the bathroom sink. “You should go to hell for what you did. When Harmony finds out, she will never speak to you again.”

Nauseated, Melody held the sides of the sink, her body bowed over. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to steady her emotions as she thought back to what she’d done.

“Did you think you were being smart? Did you think you were being funny?” Ron had growled, slamming Melody against the wall.

His hand was a vise on her throat, cutting off her air supply until her lungs burned.

Her vision blurred for a few seconds. Melody hissed and spit, trying to gasp for air. Her hands clawed at the fingers wrapped around her neck.

“You thought you would be more important to me than my wife, huh?” Ron used his free hand and dangled the tiny bag in front of Melody’s face.

“You fucking tried to set me up?” he accused, biting off each word and spitting them in her face. “You know damn well I’m in recovery. Why did you leave this in my jacket?”

He held the damning evidence in front of Melody’s bulging eyes. She tried to shake her head, but the movement sent a shock of pain straight down her spine.

Ron clamped down harder. His pupils were ringed with a fiery, orange tinge. He was the devil incarnate.

Melody’s eyes burned with tears. The memory made her shudder with disgust. In a fit of jealousy, Melody had set a trap, and it worked. As solid as Ron and Harmony’s relationship had seemed, Melody was able to snag him. Like a fish on a hook, he’d taken the bait. The bag of cocaine in his jacket pocket was how she managed to finally reel him in.

Not even a week after that violent encounter, Ron returned to Melody looking for more coke. The drugs made him weak, a shell of his former self.

Melody wasn’t doing so well herself. She had just found out that her longtime boyfriend, rapper, and music mogul, Sly, was having a baby with Terikka, a young superstar who was signed to his Diamond Records label.

Melody felt abandoned, weak, and alone. So when Ron approached her car and slid into the backseat, she didn’t protest. She let him in willingly, despite his unpredictable behavior.

“Driver, please move the car,” Melody instructed, wanting to get away from the cameras.

Ron appeared relatively calm, almost despairing. She was no longer afraid that he would beat her up. Instead, she almost felt sorry for the bastard. She pretended not to be sexually attracted to Ron, but she was lying to herself. Faking, as usual.

“I didn’t put the drugs into your jacket pocket,” Melody asserted.

“It doesn’t matter now. I’ve lost Harmony forever,” he said. “One bag of dope and she’s gone.”

“What are you talking about? What do you mean you’ve lost—”

Before Melody could finish, Ron lurched over and forcefully put his mouth on top of hers. Melody’s mind went blank, and her body tingled in places she hadn’t felt in a long time, even with Sly. In that moment, Melody wanted to be loved so badly, she didn’t care where she was.

Ron pushed her against the door, his hands moving all over her body.

“Wait,” Melody whispered over his lips. She tried to push him away before things went too far, but he was more determined than she.

Ron ran his tongue down her neck. His hands worked feverishly at the buttons of her jeans. He was skillful and had her pants off in mere seconds. He tossed them into a heap on the floor, an unspoken challenge.

“C’mere,” he wolfed, almost breathless.

Melody screamed out as Ron grabbed her upper arms and forced her to straddle him. She closed her eyes as she felt his erection pushing against her stomach. She couldn’t bring herself to look at him.

Ron used his powerful hands to clutch her hips and force her up and down on him.

“Oh God,” she grunted, digging her nails into his shoulders as she rode him hard.

Melody covered her mouth to keep herself from screaming now. What a fool she had been. Petty. Pathetic. She lowered her head in shame. It had all been a game to her—Harmony had something that made her happy, and Melody wanted it—like a spoiled child who was denied a shiny new toy. Melody had gotten so used to taking everything from Harmony that it had become second nature to her. Even now after their mother, Ava Love, was dead, her wicked influence still lingered like a dark cloud over the sisters.

“Your phone is ringing!” Ron yelled from the other side of the bathroom door, interrupting Melody’s thoughts.

Melody lifted her head and curled her hands into fists. She inhaled and squeezed her eyes shut, praying for patience.

Ron pounded on the door.

“I heard you! Now get the hell away from the door!” Melody yelled, her temper barely in check.

Since Ava’s death, Melody had gone from the most beautiful, sought-after star in the world, to this ghost in the mirror. She hadn’t seen dark circles under her eyes in years. Her hair had gone untouched for longer than a week.

Tears streaked down her cheeks. Bastard! Sneaky, lying, snake-in-the-grass bastard! You did this to me, and I’m going to make sure I pay you back.

Sly should’ve loved her like she needed to be loved. He should’ve been like Ron was to Harmony—in the early days at least.

She hunched over the sink and dry heaved. Thinking about Sly and Terikka together made her physically sick. Melody imagined the young girl’s beautiful, smooth, caramel skin intertwined with Sly’s velvety dark skin as they made love. Her stomach muscles clenched as she thought about Sly touching, licking, and fucking Terikka. The same way he did in her dream last night.

She missed him. There. She admitted it to herself.

“It’s Lyric. She left a text. Says it’s an emergency,” Ron called from the bedroom, interrupting her pity party. Melody exhaled and swiped at the remnants of tears. Her patience was all but gone. Ron had to go. She’d come up with another master plan to get rid of him.

Ava used to say, “You only think you want something until you actually get it.” Truer words were never spoken.

Melody snatched the bathroom door open and prepared to curse Ron out.

“Find out if Harmony and Aubrey are okay,” he urged, pushing the phone into Melody’s face. She grabbed her phone and narrowed her eyes at him.

“If you were home with them, instead of being here on a weeklong drug bender, you’d know if they were okay, now, wouldn’t you?”

Ron threw his hands up in frustration.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Now please move out of my way.”

Melody scanned her phone. There were six missed calls from Lyric and four text messages. She sucked her teeth. Lyric’s definition of an “emergency” was much broader than the average person’s. Lyric was a pesky, opportunistic, drug-addicted baby sister that always needed money to get high.

Melody thought about ignoring her sister, but something told her to go ahead and call her back. Lyric knew something about Melody that she wasn’t proud of at the moment. If the price was right, she knew Lyric could remain quiet. Melody couldn’t afford for any salacious information to get out in the media about her.

Melody’s fans had no idea that she lived a double life. When she was performing and in the public eye, she made sure her reputation was pristine. Whatever the price, Melody wouldn’t let her image be marred with scandal. The Sly and Terikka baby announcement would drop soon and Melody already had her PR team working overtime on casting her as the victim of a two-timing boyfriend and home-wrecking whore.

When her team was done, Melody hoped her album would go double platinum. In the meantime, she would completely destroy Terikka’s image and, hopefully, her singing career. Melody didn’t like to lose in any aspect of her life, love life included.

She dialed her sister’s number and waited for her to answer.

The words came out faster than her mind could process.

“Homicide? What? How? I’m . . . coming.”

Melody’s phone dropped to the floor. Her entire body grew cold.

“Shit,” Lyric grumbled as she stumbled, nearly twisting her ankle. She paced in front of the building that housed New York City Police Department’s Brooklyn North Homicide squad.

She . . .