Chocolate Dove

by Cas Sigers

Genres: African American; African American Urban

Synopsis

When Basra Sadiq realizes that catalogue modeling isn't enough to pay her college tuition, she reluctantly becomes a high-end escort. With her exotic Somalian looks, there are plenty of men willing to pamper her, showering her with money and expensive gifts. It's not long before she becomes hooked on the extravagant lifestyle. She joins Choice, an elite international escort agency in Manhattan, where she works under the name Dove. In spite of her "no sex" rule, affluent patrons are willing to pay top dollar for just a few hours in her company. Dove is in high demand. After months of wild parties and expensive vacations, Dove finds it harder to hold her slot as "top chocolate." There is plenty of competition from girls who are willing to do any and everything to make a buck. Dove realizes that she's got to do whatever is necessary to stay on top. However, matters become complicated when she falls in love with Grayson Charles, an abstract artist. Dove would like to leave behind the escort business, but that proves to be harder than she expected. Not only has she become accustomed to the perks of her job, but she's also boosting Grayson's career by convincing her clients to buy his artwork. Even after she marries Grayson, she hasn't been able to break free from the escort service. How long will she be able to balance her life as the wife of one man and the fantasy of many?

Release date: April 24, 2012

Publisher: Urban Renaissance

Print pages: 278

Sample

Basra Sadiq intensely stared at her dark brown reflection in the mirror. Without a hint of makeup, her skin was flawless, and her complexion perfectly even. Even still, she never felt dressed without her face painted with creams, powders, and bright colors. She studied makeup as though it were her profession and experimented with colors most women her complexion would shy away from. But Basra was well aware of her beauty and could get away with more than the average woman, for her confidence could easily flip a sketchy look into an instant success.

Still analyzing her face, Basra took her pointer fingertips and stretched out the corners of her eyes.

“I sometimes wish my eyes weren’t so round,” she called out to her roommate, Lucia.

Basra loosened the tension on her eyes, finally stopped analyzing her face, and placed her focus on the color palette of shimmery hues of silver and blue. While applying her first layer of foundation, Lucia walked in and stood over her shoulder.

“What did you say?” Lucia asked.

“My eyes are too round. Do you think he wants to go out with me because I’m black?”

“That’s not what he said, but probably. More so because you’re Somali.”

“Gee, that makes it better,” Basra mumbled.

“It’s no different than men wanting to go out with me because I’m Italian. Men have this half-baked fantasy about exotic women, like we do it better or different.”

“He didn’t know I was Somali.”

“He knew you were exotic, and that’s all that matters.”

Basra shrugged her shoulders and continued to decorate her face.

Lucia, who was just as long and skinny as Basra, propped her scrawny body up on the counter, and pushed the makeup over with her bum.

“We need to talk,” she said.

Basra kept her face toward the mirror, but cut her eyes toward Lucia while applying eye shadow.

“Are you sure he’s going to want to have sex?” Basra asked.

“You work for an escort service.”

“So ...”

“This may be a new concept to you, but men who go out with escorts expect sex.”

Basra placed her makeup on the counter and looked Lucia squarely in the face. “Then I might as well be on the street corner.”

“Oh, hell no. Streetwalkers don’t wear two-thousand-dollar shoes,” Lucia said, handing over a brand new pair of Jimmy Choos. “I can’t believe I’m letting you wear these.”

Since the age of nineteen, Lucia Giovanni had been at Choice, one of the world’s most elite private escort services, known for their international beauties. She was discovered on a photo shoot for a top Italian shoe designer. Lucia and Basra modeled under the same agency and Lucia knew she’d be a great candidate for Choice, but didn’t know how to approach her. When Australian native Lawson Hughes, heir to one of the largest coal mining productions, approached Lucia about Basra, it was the perfect opportunity to bring her into this new world.

Basra rubbed her hands across the expensive pair of soles and her eyes sparkled as though they were diamonds and emeralds. “Thank you,” she said.

“You are quite welcome. I want you to look and feel your best. How many hookers on the corner get one thousand an hour, and health insurance?”

“I’m not having sex. And I made that clear when we talked on the telephone.”

“Well, things always change in person. You might change your mind. He is very sexy, very charming, and very, very rich.”

“I am not like you. No offense, but I can’t just sleep with a man and blank it out like it doesn’t mean anything. I wish I could, but I can’t. If I didn’t need the money so bad, I wouldn’t even do this.”

“I think it’s extremely noble that you’re helping family back home, however ...”

“Why are we still talking about this?”

“Fine!” Lucia yelled.

Basra started applying her eye shadow and Lucia was compelled to give a last tidbit. “I wasn’t always like this, it’s just that the money numbs you after a while.” With a sullen expression, Lucia left the bathroom.

“I didn’t mean anything by that,” Basra called out to soothe her friend, but there was no reply. She peeped out of the bathroom but Lucia was gone, and so Basra quietly continued to prepare for her date. Thirty minutes later, she sauntered downstairs in her shimmery crimson mini-dress, curly hair, and five-inch designer heels. Basra looked like a supermodel.

Lucia looked at her roommate and smiled. “He’s in so much trouble. How many marriage proposals have you had?”

“None that I would take seriously.”

Lucia smirked and shook her head.

Basra nervously fumbled through her purse and grabbed her phone. “Okay, you’re going to call me in an hour and check on me, right?”

Lucia nodded.

“If I don’t answer, call right back. We’re going to dinner at Masa and jazz at Smoke. Make sure you call me, and keep calling until I answer.”

“You’re going to be fine. This is your first time; I promise it will get so much better.”

Basra took a deep breath and blinked her big doe eyes. “Do I look okay?”

“Assolutamente bello.”

“Mahadsanid,” Basra replied, giving thanks in her native tongue.

It was a humid summer evening in New York, and the thousands of bright taillights lit up the evening. Basra nervously sat in the back seat of a black sedan. She repeatedly rehearsed the evening’s future events. She would greet her date; they would have succulent Japanese cuisine and great conversation, and then listen to jazz over cocktails. She expected to be home by one in the morning, two at the latest.

“Oh, God, what if he wants to have sex?” she whispered to herself amid the thoughts.

Basra’s stomach was turning flips. The more she practiced her programmed responses to his possible advances, the more nervous she became.

“Why did I agree to do this?” she quickly pondered. “Oh yes, four thousand dollars,” she quickly responded.

When she looked up, the car was pulling up to the restaurant, but Basra couldn’t move.

“We are here, Ms. Sadiq,” said the driver.

Basra looked out the window and for two seconds thought about telling him to keep driving. But she knew this money would help her family back in Somalia. She was hoping that her sister could use this money to go to school until she was able to come to the States. Many women in her family never got the opportunity to get an education, and this small sacrifice was worth it.

“Do I call you when I’m ready to be picked up?”

“Yes, ma’am,” replied the driver before passing off his card.

Basra smirked and responded, “I could get used to this.”

Immediately, she tried to eat her regretted words. I am going to school to get my psych degree so that I can afford things like car service, she thought. This is only a means to an end for now.

“I will call, thanks.”

Basra stepped out of the car, inhaled the night air, and walked inside to the fourth floor of the Time Warner Center. She’d never been to Masa before but had heard the wonderful reputation of its fresh fish and delectable truffles. She’d eaten a small meal before leaving the house so as to not look like a greedy date, but still couldn’t wait to taste what she’d heard was the best sushi in New York City. Basra, standing six foot two in her borrowed shoes, leaned over and gave her name to the petite receptionist, who seemed a bit of a snob.

“I don’t see your name, who’s the reservation under?”

Just then, Basra’s date, Lawson Hughes, wrapped his arm around her waist.

“Ah, Mr. Hughes, good to see you again,” expressed the hostess.

“You too, Minami,” he replied.

“Right this way,” she said.

Basra and Lawson followed the woman, who was suddenly less snooty, over to the bar made of exotic Japanese wood.

“You must come here often,” Basra asked.

“The chef and I are old friends,” he answered. “Now pronounce your name again?”

“Bahs-rah,” she replied slowly and phonetically.

“Very pretty,” expressed Lawson.

They only sat for one minute before the server came over carrying a beautiful bottle of Kimuri, Akita.

“Hope you like sake,” said Lawson.

“I do,” replied Basra, who’d only tasted sake once in her life. Partly, because she wasn’t much of a drinker, and secondly, because being only twenty-three, she hadn’t had much partying in her two legal years in the United States. However, when she did partake it was white wine. Yet after a few sips of the very expensive sake, she was hooked, and kept her little cup filled most of the night. Lawson took the liberty of ordering for them both.

“We’ll start with crab salad with yuzu and shiso flowers, toro tartare with osetra, and truffled uni risotto.”

Basra was very quiet as she drank her sake and looked around at the minimalist decor. It was apparent that she was still very uncomfortable.

“You can relax,” said Lawson.

“I am,” she replied with a nervous chuckle.

“You look extremely beautiful tonight,” he said.

“Thanks,” she responded without eye contact. “Your accent is different. It’s proper but has a weird rhythm. You don’t sound Australian.”

“It’s what you get when you’re raised in Australia but lived Texas for thirty years.”

“Oh,” Basra replied softly.

Lawson let a few seconds of silence pass and then he opened the floodgates. “So, why is it you don’t want to have sex with me?”

Basra nearly choked on her sake.

“Didn’t mean to startle you, but you’ve been so quiet. I was hoping to get a good conversation started. You okay?”

She nodded her head while clearing her throat. “Your comment surprised me, that’s all. It’s not that I don’t want to have sex with you in particular. I don’t have sex.”

“You’re a virgin?”

Releasing a demur giggle, she answered, “No. But, I don’t have sex for money.”

“Sure you do. Everyone does. A man takes you out, you eat or go to the cinema, or the opera, or maybe he takes you shopping, eventually you and he have sex.”

“But we have sex because I like him, not because he spends money on me.”

Lawson gave a look of doubt.

“Are you saying you don’t believe me?”

“I’m saying that whether or not you thought you were doing it for free you weren’t. In his mind, he’d paid for it. Unless you meet a man off the streets, introduce yourself, and then immediately have sex with him, he’s paid for it.”

“Not true.”

“Yes, true, even if he only paid with time, and attentiveness, he still paid.”

“If that’s the way you see it,” she said.

“That’s the way it is,” he replied.

Basra said a silent prayer and took a bite from one of the appetizers. “This is very good.”

“One of New York’s finest.”

“So I’ve heard.”

Basra was used to men staring, but Lawson’s eye games were making her increasingly anxious.

“Please stop staring at me.”

“You seemed annoyed,” Lawson said.

“A bit.”

“Discuss.”

“I don’t agree with you and your opinions about sex, I don’t like how you are staring at me—”

Interrupting, Lawson asked, “How am I staring?”

“Disrespectful.”

“I don’t mean it that way. I think you’re beautiful.”

Basra could no longer control the thoughts running through her mind. Lawson wanted to have sex and his looks confirmed it. Was this delectable meal the enticer? What had she gotten herself into?

“This is a very expensive restaurant, right?”

“Some would say that.”

“So tonight, you might spend, what? Just on dinner and drinks?”

“I don’t know, maybe $2,500.”

Basra’s eyes nearly popped from her skull as she dropped her food onto her plate.

“You paid at least four grand for an evening with me, two or three grand for dinner. So it’s fair to say you may spend almost eight thousand dollars tonight.”

Lawson nodded and commented, “More like ten,” then gave a curious look to see where Basra was going with her statement.

“I’ll be back.”

Basra pushed back from the table, and rushed toward the restrooms. She immediately grabbed her phone from her tiny clutch and called Lucia, who answered on the first ring.

“Is everything okay?”

“I can’t do this,” Basra replied as she stepped in the bathroom.

“Do what? Aren’t you at dinner?”

“This man is going to spend thousands of dollars tonight.”

“So what? He’s a billionaire. You have to stop thinking regular thoughts; you’re in another league now. To you that’s a lot of money; to him, it’s pocket change.”

“He wants to have sex,” Basra whispered as another patron entered the restroom.

“He told you that?”

“No, but it’s obvious. I just don’t want to do this. I can’t be myself, and I feel like a whore. This isn’t normal.”

“By whose standards? Again, stop thinking regular thoughts. Lawson is a good guy, not some weirdo who is into crazy sex fantasies. He thought you were beautiful and wanted to take you out.”

“Then he should have just asked me out.”

“But you were with me, and he thought you were an escort. You know all of this. You’re the one who asked me to get you on with the agency. You’re the one who gladly took four thousand from the agency fee. This is what you signed up for. If you don’t want to sleep with him, fine. But you have to finish the date or else we both look bad.”

Basra stopped pacing the bathroom and stared at herself in the mirror. “I’m just nervous.”

“I understand, but just have dinner and hang out. Get to know him, pretend like it’s a real date. It’s acting. Tonight you are a character. Give your character a name, and that’s who is entertaining, not you.”

“Okay,” Basra replied.

“You sure you’re okay?” asked Lucia.

“I am. I will see you later tonight.”

“Okay, call me if you need me.”

Basra hung up and leaned over the counter so that her nose was almost touching the mirror. “You’re a character,” she said. “Get into character.” She took several deep breaths and walked out.

When Basra returned to the table, it was covered in small bowls of colorful, wonderfully smelling dishes. Lawson was already eating.

“You didn’t wait for me?”

“Was I supposed to?” he asked.

Basra didn’t reply, she simply took her seat and placed her napkin in her lap.

“Try this,” Lawson said, sliding a small plate across the table.

As Basra lifted a small piece of the white filet, she asked, “What is this?”

“Blowfish sashami with lemon vinaigrette,” Lawson replied.

She tasted a small amount, smiled, and replied, “Interesting.”

After the blowfish, she sampled each of the dishes spread across the table, which included lobster sashami, foie gras, Japanese gingko nuts, and several different truffles. As soon as a few bowls emptied, more were brought over. Finally, Basra was stuffed.

“I can’t eat anymore, but it’s so good I can’t stop.”

“I can imagine that’s what the men say about you,” Lawson replied with a contemptible grin.

“Get your mind from the gutter,” Basra said.

Lawson’s grin evolved into a full chuckle. “I can’t help myself. But I promise I won’t touch.”

“Are we going to dinner?” Basra asked, only to receive a puzzled look from Lawson.

“Dinner? We just—”

“I mean dancing. Are we going dancing? I’m sorry, I’m just—”

“A little nervous. I can tell. You’ve had two hours to warm up. Am I making you that uncomfortable?”

“I have a confession,” Basra expressed. “This is my first date like this.”

“When you say like this, you mean as an escort.”

Basra nodded her head.

“Good, I’ve always been fond of virgins.”

This time, his look started to make her stomach rumble with rolls of nervous energy, but luckily the head chef came to the table and greeted them.

“Lawson, it’s good to see you again, my friend,” Chef said.

Lawson rose and gave the chef a hearty hug. They spoke in Japanese for a few seconds and then Lawson introduced Basra.

“I hope you have enjoyed your experience,” said the chef.

“My taste buds thank you,” Basra replied with a sweet smile.

“This one is beautiful,” Chef said to Lawson.

“I’m sure they’re all beautiful,” Basra mumbled to herself. Lawson cut his eye in her direction but Basra pretended as though she’d said nothing. The chef walked away and Lawson placed his card on top of the ticket. Basra tried to sneak a peek at the bill but couldn’t see the numbers and dared not to ask.

It’s pocket change. It’s pocket change, she continued to think.

“So you mentioned dancing?” Lawson asked.

“Only because you mentioned it earlier when we spoke on the phone. We don’t have to go dancing. If you’re ready to go home ...”

“Home? I have you for the evening. And the evening has just begun,” Lawson said while reaching across the table to hold Basra’s hand. She lowered her head to gain her composure and then lifted it with a pleasant smile. She felt like rented property, and there was nothing she could do about it, and so they left dinner and headed to Smoke for cocktails and jazz. Smoke was much more casual and laid back. She immediately felt more at ease once they walked in the door. But Lawson once again took control of the situation as they approached a table near the back corner.

“I’m getting a bottle of champagne,” he said before walking away from the table.

“I don’t like champagne,” she whispered into the atmosphere. “He doesn’t care,” she sighed. Basra looked around the room at the couples holding hands, flirting, and smiling. She honed in on an Italian-looking couple canoodling three tables over. Somehow, she became so lost in their world that she didn’t realize Lawson had snuck up behind her.

“I bet they’re having sex tonight,” he whispered in her ear.

Basra, startled by his presence, let out a small yelp. “I’m sure they’re having sex tonight, and I’m sure they’re a real couple. Unlike us.”

Lawson sat as the server placed the bottle of champagne and two glasses on the table.

“I don’t like champagne,” Basra said.

“That’s because you’ve probably only had cheap champagne. You will like this, I promise.” Lawson took the liberty to pour her a glass.

“I’ve been drinking sake all night. I don’t think I should mix—”

“Shhhh,” Lawson said, placing his finger to her lips. “Drink. It will make me happy.”

Basra placed her lips on the edge of the glass, sipped, and pretended to enjoy.

“See, I told you. Once you’ve had the finer things in life, it changes your entire perspective.”

They listened to the jazz band that covered at least nine Tony Bennett songs throughout the next hour. But Lawson was losing interest and Basra could tell.

“Are you ready to leave?” she asked, hoping he would say yes and they could part ways.

“Yes. I have an apartment not far from here, let’s go.”

“Wait a minute, I thought we were just doing dinner and jazz. I can’t go to your place.”

“What do you mean? The deal was we were going out for the evening, and it’s still evening.” Lawson reached in his pocket, pulled out his cell, and called the car.

“The keyword being ‘out.’ Not in, or inside. I can’t go to your place.”

“I get it. No means no. I’m not a rapist. I’m not going to try to have sex with you. I’m a wealthy man. I can have sex with ninety percent of the women I meet, and that’s because the other ten percent are underage. You intrigue me. I simply want to engage in more conversation with you. Let’s go.”

Lawson rose and held out his hand. Basra felt trapped. She knew if she didn’t go, he would call and give an unpleasant report to the agency, and she didn’t want that. But she knew if she went that it might lead to a situation beyond her control. Yet she continued to follow him toward the door. As she approached the exit her grip tightened and anxiety heightened. The car pulled up moments after exiting Smoke and Basra slowly got in. Lawson was very lucid considering the grand amount of sake and champagne he’d ingested. There was no way he was going to pass out, as she wished the entire ride over to East Seventy-seventh Street. They walked hand in hand into The Pavilion and went up to the thirty-first floor, two floors shy of the penthouse. It was nice, but not as extravagant as she’d imagined. As she walked in the apartment, Basra immediately took her shoes off, a habit she’d grown accustomed to as a chi. . .