Never Enough, A View Park Novel

Book 0: View Park Novel

by Angela Winters

Genres: African American; African American Women's Fiction; African American Romance

Synopsis

National bestselling author Angela Winters tells the intriguing drama of the Chase family-a powerful African-American family who seem to have it all . . . With four grown children and a multimillion-dollar empire, Janet Chase has been the perfect partner to her husband Steven, Founder and CEO of Chase Beauty. But her well-ordered world seems to be falling apart . . . Daughter-in-law Kimberly Chase has had enough of Janet's reminders that she doesn't belong. Kimberly sees only one solution: get rid of Janet. And the only way to do it is by unearthing a skeleton from deep within Janet's closet . . . It's been almost a year since Carter Chase met Avery Jackson and fell madly in love with her on first sight. He didn't care that Avery was already engaged. Carter could make the fiance disappear. And he had, though now it meant hiding a secret that could destroy their future . . . Exiled to Europe after a high-profile scandal, twenty-three-year-old Haley Chase has returned home to cause new trouble. This time it involves a dangerously sadistic new beau . . . Driven to desperation by a family out of control, Janet may be her own worst enemy in a world where no indulgence, addiction, or desire is out of reach. Praise for Angela Winters' View Park "A guilty pleasure . . . sit tight because you haven't heard the last of this rich and powerful series of books" -The Tennessee Tribune "Winters offers an exciting beginning to this trilogy. The dialogue is realistic, the descriptions are detailed and vivid and the wealthy world of the rich and famous is reminiscent of Dynasty" -Romantic Times "A drama-filled, fast-paced ride" -RAWSISTAZ Review

Release date: July 1, 2007

Publisher: DAFINA

Print pages: 336

Sample

It is a sad day when a man realizes there aren’t any conditions under which he would say no to the woman he loved. This was the state Carter Chase, the reluctant gentleman, was in as he watched Avery from the balcony of his family’s resort condo in Maui. The woman who, with just a smile made it hard for him to breathe, was sitting with her back to him, reading one of her trashy novels in her usual serene and peaceful way. The sight of her made him weak inside, and he didn’t like that at all.

The lesser man inside of him envied her for being so strong, and the better man hated himself for the secrets he kept from her. Despite it all, he felt like he was high every second he was with her. He loved her to death and that wasn’t what he had planned.

It had been almost a year since the day he’d walked into her beauty salon with the intention of buying her out for his father’s company. He’d been careless about it at first, but his father, a man he had struggled with lifelong, had asked for his help. Well, Steven Chase didn’t ask anybody for anything. He’d challenged Carter as he had done all his life to prove he was committed to Chase Beauty, the billion-dollar corporation Steven had built from scratch.

Carter didn’t work at Chase Beauty, a major bone of contention between him and his father, but the company was his biggest and most important legal client. The opportunity to get both of Avery’s very popular salons was a way for him to do more than shove the contracts across the desk for Steven to sign. Carter hadn’t given a damn about Avery or her shops.

That was before he met her. He hated her at first and it seemed ironic to him now that he loved her so much. She was stubborn and obstinate, and for a man like Carter, who was used to getting anything he wanted, especially from women, it was infuriating. Not only had she not given in, but she’d made things worse by taking the struggle to the media—and for the Chase family, that was a big deal.

Everything about the Chase family was a big deal, and if there was one thing Steven didn’t tolerate, it was bad publicity for Chase Beauty. Carter chose to take out the grief his father gave him on Avery and destroy everything she had. He wanted to teach her a lesson and he knew exactly how to do it.

Carter knew he was a cream-of-the-crop bachelor in Los Angeles black society. Thirty, good-looking, in great shape, a successful lawyer, deeply connected, Ivy League–educated, and worth millions. He’d sensed a flicker of electricity with Avery from the beginning and intended to use it against her by seducing her and stealing her shops from right underneath her before dropping her like a sack of dirt. There hadn’t been a woman yet who could say no to him and certainly this goody-two-shoes neighborhood girl wasn’t going to. It hadn’t mattered to him that she was already engaged to another man.

Looking back, Carter could see clearly where he had gone wrong. He’d underestimated her strength, her loyalty and her intelligence. He’d also underestimated her partner, Craig Moon, and that mistake had led to disaster, almost getting Avery killed.

By the time Carter realized he had real feelings for her, it was too late. Every attempt to reach out to Avery met with a brick wall, but his determination became a destructive obsession as he ignored his better judgment and pushed his principles aside. When Alex, her fiancé, became the only thing in his way, Carter set him up and made sure Avery wouldn’t want anything more to do with him.

The guilt he felt over what he’d done disappeared when Avery, grieving over her now-cheating ex-fiancé, came to his bed. He had won and nothing else mattered. Or so he thought.

Carter was at the height of his player days. He hadn’t been a dog, but he hadn’t had any intention of commitment anytime soon either. He’d been faithful through most of his relationships, but that didn’t count the women he’d dumped in order to pursue someone else. Like most men, he saw most women as territory to explore and then move on. Keep them around too long and they would expect to move in or get a ring. Love would be reserved for later on down the line. This is what he thought with Avery. The fun had been in the getting and once he got her, he would move on.

It didn’t work out that way, and as he made his way onto the balcony, Carter accepted that his player days were over. Avery had gotten under his skin, was running through his blood and had staked claim on his sorry ass. It was a bittersweet revelation, but he was man enough not to need to fight it, which had been his first inclination.

He’d spent enough time trying to convince himself it wouldn’t work because she didn’t come from the world of the upper class like him—didn’t have the background that would allow her to slip into that world, which fought very hard to keep others out. He wanted to believe that her simplicity was beneath him and her penchant for being a pushover made her unfit to handle the cutthroat universe of the upper crust. It was all bullshit because every morning when he rolled over and saw her beautiful face, he was floored. She was his home.

“What you reading, baby?” He sat on the down-feathered cushion of the rattan chair next to her, sliding it closer so they were touching. He looked into her large, promising eyes before taking in her full lips and leaning in for a kiss.

Avery Jackson, the girl next door, felt her toes twinkle when he kissed her. She missed him every second he was away. He looked incredible, his milk chocolate–brown skin gleaming from the sun, his light brown eyes always intense. “How was golf?”

He shrugged, leaning back. He was starting to feel a little nervous but wiped it away. “It was golf. What you reading?”

“It’s a romance, so just shut up.” Avery held the book away as he reached for it. She didn’t want the lecture.

There was always a lecture with Carter. It was one of the many things she had gotten used to. It was one of the easier things to get used to. Summer homes, charity balls, exotic vacations on every continent and perks people like Avery were never expected to even know existed. This was all foreign to her until she found herself immersed in Carter’s world.

In this world, everything was better, glossier, brighter, sleeker, prettier and easier. Private jets, designer clothes, breathtaking jewelry and beautiful places were just the basics. Avery was awed to see how things just seemed to work out for people this rich and was a little disturbed by the ease with which Carter accepted it all.

The privilege, entitlement, pleasure and power had given him many strengths, but it had also given him a level of snobbery that Avery couldn’t abide most times. But God help her, she loved him so much.

“Why are you reading that crap?” he asked.

“Why is it crap?” Avery asked. “Just because it didn’t win a Pulitzer? Everything you read doesn’t have to be culturally enlightening and politically significant.”

“There’s a lot of room between culturally enlightening and crap.”

He reached over and ran his finger up her arm. Her skin was as soft as silk and she turned him on in that tiny pink bikini. Avery had an incredible body, but she didn’t flaunt it and Carter loved that. He was turned off by sisters who let it all hang out as if they were putting their body on display for purchase. Avery had class and knew how to look sexy without being sexual. It reassured him that the best was reserved only for him. Just another reason she was perfect to him.

“We’re on vacation.” Avery giggled in response to his teasing touch. “Trashy novels are required.”

Carter looked past the edge of their large balcony at the Pacific Ocean. The scenery couldn’t have been more perfect. They were staying in the 2,500-square-foot condo his family had purchased at the newest luxury resort on Maui. Decorated with wood-paneled walls, museum-quality artwork, a grand piano, lavish furnishings, three bedrooms and marble bathrooms, it was perfect and that was what he wanted for their first real vacation. The Ritz, the Fairmont and W were fine for their weekends away, but this was real and Carter wanted seclusion and perfection. Just last night they’d seen a whale through the condo’s high-powered telescope from just inside the sliding glass doors.

They were about to start the second of their two weeks away and it was a first for him. He was a workaholic and couldn’t fight that little itch making him want to get back to Chase Law, the corporate law firm he’d started only five years ago. He now employed thirteen lawyers and a support staff of more than twenty.

“You enjoy your massage?” he asked, wondering if he should just do it now or wait until after dinner.

“Oh,” Avery moaned as she put her book down and turned to him. The smile on her smooth café au lait face, a little red from the sun, was ear to ear. “It was incredible, baby. I had to hold onto the walls just to get back up here.”

Carter smiled, pleased whenever Avery acted more at ease with the lifestyle offered her. Sometimes she seemed reluctant to indulge herself just because she could, and Carter couldn’t help but feel insulted.

Avery didn’t even want to imagine what the two-hour ritual cost. She’d given up wondering about those kinds of things. Carter was used to the best and most expensive of everything, and after a while of feeling self-conscious, she had come to love it. He gave her everything even though she never asked and he never bragged about it. It was nothing for him and she had to admit it was part of why she loved him.

Only part—she loved him for so much more. Once she had been too intimidated by his last name to think she could love him. The attraction had been there from the beginning, but she’d fought it until she couldn’t fight anymore. Carter had been there for her when she’d lost her shops and even though he was partly to blame, he’d saved her life. He also had been there when Alex broke her heart and hadn’t left her side since.

He was everything any woman could want. He had a presence that sucked up the room and he knew how to make her lose her mind whenever he put his hands on her. It was all too perfect for Avery, so she’d held off. She’d kept her heart away for as long as she could, but there was no fighting this man.

“I was surprised,” she continued. “I expected to see some old German woman with hands like a man and a mustache.”

Carter laughed. “She wasn’t?”

Avery reached over and touched the bottom of his strong chin. Not a hair out of place; this neat freak was clean cut to a sin. She loved him still.

“She was young and beautiful. Very feminine Japanese ...”

“Japanese?” Carter’s eyes widened. “Damn, if I had known that I would’ve joined you. We could’ve all worked something out.”

She slapped him on his muscular arm, wishing this vacation would never end. Always a private person, Avery wasn’t eager to get back to the public life that came with dating Carter. It was all part of the package—she understood that—but it wasn’t easy.

“Honey?” She smiled at his rapt attention. “Do you mind if we ... I really don’t want to get ready for a big deal. Can we skip dinner tonight?”

“Sure.” Carter swallowed. Okay, so much for his after-dinner plan. It seemed to be now or never. “I’ll cancel the reservations. You want to order room service?”

She nodded, glad she didn’t get an argument. With Carter there was always somewhere to go for dinner to meet these people or be seen here or there. Living large was more work than Avery had ever imagined.

“How about steak?” he asked, swinging his legs around the chair so he was facing her. He kept his left hand at his side.

Avery sensed something was up. The tense expression on his usually calm face gave him away. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” he lied. Her little button nose made him want to kiss her again. He loved how she could be beautiful, but not to the point where she was too pretty to be cute. She wore hardly any makeup and had a freshness about her that he never got tired of. “I just ...”

Avery got nervous when he looked away for a moment. Carter was never at a loss for words unless he was angry. He would shut down and not talk to her, but he wasn’t angry now, so what was up?

He looked back at her, noticing the confusion on her face. There was no turning back. “Avery, do I make you happy?”

Avery was taken back by the question. “Of course, baby. Happier than I’ve ever been.”

He bit at his lower lip for a second, forgetting absolutely everything he had planned to say. To hell with it. “I want to be all you need, Avery. You’ve become that for me and I want to be that for you.”

She leaned over, placing her hand gently on his cheek. Now she was really worried. “You are, honey.”

“You’ve touched a part of me I didn’t know was there,” he continued, “and I don’t tell you how much I love you very often, but you know I do.”

“You could say it a little more,” she added with a tender smile, “but I’ll take what I can get.”

“I’m saying it now.” Carter felt his left palm beginning to sweat. “I’m saying it in the way I hope you’ll understand I mean it. More than I think I’ve ever meant anything.”

Avery looked down as Carter raised his left hand in between them. He opened his closed fist and her heart leaped into her throat. She didn’t know the ring was a brilliant-style high-cut Lucida diamond center rectangular stone of about five carats with two bezel-set side stones. She just knew it was absolutely beautiful.

She looked into his eyes and this powerful man looked like a little boy, waiting anxiously. She wrapped her arms around him and screamed his name. She yelled “yes” at least ten times that she could count. She let him go with tears streaming down her cheeks. Was it real? Was he actually ... ?

“You and me,” he said.

“You and me,” she repeated, holding out her hand for him to slip on the ring.

He hesitated. “Baby girl, you know what you’re getting into, right?”

She didn’t need a moment to get his meaning. They’d had this conversation several times. “I’m marrying the man God made me for. Nothing else matters.”

He believed her because he needed to. He believed her because he knew she loved him as much as he loved her and although he didn’t believe she knew what she was getting into, there was no way he could be without her. So he slipped the ring onto her finger and raised her hand to his mouth. He kissed the inside of her palm and leaned forward to kiss her cheek. He tasted the salt of her tears and ignored the secret he kept from her. He ignored anything that told him he didn’t deserve her because he wanted her too much.

When he kissed her, Avery felt her body heat up like a furnace. She had dreamt of marrying Carter for some time but never gave in to it. He could have any woman he wanted and the women in his world had been born into it. They had family names that meant something and had for several generations. And unlike Avery, they had similar backgrounds and experiences as he had.

Why would he settle down with a plain, simple girl who thought the highlight of the weekend was going to church? She wanted to have him as long as he wanted her, but now she would have him forever and that was all those Sundays in church paying off.

As she jumped onto his lap and kissed him back, Avery wasn’t listening to the voice inside that told her she hadn’t thought this through. The voice was yelling under the strain of her happiness trying desperately to remind her that although she knew what was in this man’s heart, she didn’t know everything about him.

Carter put her in position before sliding off her bikini bottom. Avery ignored the voice, hearing only her heart beating out of control as his tongue circled her belly button and went down to her center. He knew just what to do, and soon her moans drowned out the voice completely.

Avery hoped the voice knew it wasn’t welcome. She was going to be happy because the man she loved with every inch of her was going to be her husband.

Michael Chase, the favorite, could hear his boys on the other side of his bedroom door and for once he was grateful. He usually wanted a few moments alone with his wife, Kimberly, before the onslaught of the twins began, but not today. He needed the buffer because he knew Kimberly was going to be pissed off.

When he opened the door, both boys stopped playing and screamed his name like they hadn’t seen him in weeks instead of since that morning. He put his briefcase down in just enough time to catch them and pick one up in each arm. They were six now and getting too heavy for this, but he wasn’t ready to give it up. Daniel and Evan were the lights of his life—them and the angry beauty sitting on the bed among the new bedsheets she’d recently ordered from Europe with a thread count so high Michael doubted it was even the truth.

“You’re in twouble,” Daniel said, pointing his finger.

Michael kissed them both before putting them down. He smiled at Kimberly, who looked so sexy in a simple peach-colored tank and cotton low-rise shorts, it was sick. He sat down on the chenille sofa to the right of the bed, eerily turned on by her unforgiving glare. She was still the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

“Says who?” Michael braced himself as Daniel bounced on his lap while Evan chose to jump up and down on the bed; something he’d been told not to do at least a hundred times.

“You’re late,” Daniel accused, pulling at his father’s Charvet tie. “Says Mommy.”

Michael winked at Kimberly and she responded by mouthing a silent fuck you. He wanted to jump her right then. “Why don’t you boys go play in your room?”

“So Mommy can yell at you?” Daniel asked, seeming determined to conquer the tie.

“Exactly, and don’t slam the—” Michael gave up as the door slammed behind them. “They’re gonna break that damn door again.”

Undoing his shirt, he leaped onto the bed, but Kimberly Chase, the outsider, held out her hand and pushed him away.

“Not a chance,” she said. “You bastard.”

She wasn’t having it. He had been stringing her along for too long. She glared at him, refusing to return his charming smile as he sat on the bed, caressing her leg. She slapped his hand away as he tried to reach the inside of her thighs.

“I’m not playing with you, Michael.” She slid across the king-size bed, determined to resist him. No matter how angry he made her, she always wanted him. After seven years, he still had her lit like a candle.

“I’m sorry.” Michael took his shirt off, revealing his trim, muscular physique. He was very dark and handsome, resembling a young Sidney Poitier. He knew he was hot. “I had to work late.”

“Bullshit!” She grabbed a pillow and tossed it at him with enough force to knock him back. “I had to cancel.”

“It’s just a house,” he said. “Make another appointment.”

“They sold it, Michael. The realtor just called five minutes ago.” Kimberly had to get out of this house or she was going to go crazy. “The house is gone.”

Michael groaned, feeling guilty even though he hadn’t been crazy about that house. “You’ll find another house. You have all the money in the world, Kimberly. They’ll come back with something better.”

“I wanted that house!” Kimberly couldn’t get the vision of the five-bedroom, 8,500-square-foot Venetian-style mansion in Pasadena. That house was made for her.

Michael met her anger with resolve. He didn’t have time for this.

He went over to his walk-in closet in search of something to put on. He could feel her eyes on him through the wall and it irritated him because he knew she was right. He’d made a promise and he wasn’t sticking to it. They should have moved out of the Chase mansion in the mostly black and affluent L.A. suburb of View Park years ago. It wasn’t as if they couldn’t afford it, but he’d asked for time to be close to his father while he was still proving himself. He wanted a promotion to CFO and a seat on the board of directors and had gotten both in December. Chase Beauty clearly was going to be his, and now it was time for Kimberly to get her wish.

“It’s June, Michael. You said we’d have a house by March.” She got up and made her way to the window seat, her favorite place in their large bedroom in the west wing of the house. The window looked over the half-circle driveway filled with Mercedes, Range Rovers, BMWs and Jaguars that led to the steel gate built to keep the world at a distance.

Kimberly found it ironic that, coming from the Detroit projects where she’d had to turn tricks after running away from an abusive home, she should think that living in a 15,000-square-foot-palace was a dream, but it wasn’t. It was a prison and she had to get out before she killed someone. She knew who that someone would be. Janet Chase, the mother-in-law from hell.

“I want to build a house,” he yelled from inside the closet while checking his vibrating BlackBerry. He wanted it to be his brother, Carter, who was supposed to be home soon. “So it’s exactly like we want.”

“That will take too long.” Kimberly didn’t want to go over this again. “We can move into a house now and have one built later.”

“Call the lady back,” he said. “You’re a Chase. Use your name. They’ll find a way to hold on to the—”

“Michael, stop it!” Kimberly yelled. “It’s driving me crazy! Don’t you care?”

Michael stood in the archway to the closet, taking in her look. It was a look that told him he wasn’t doing his job as a husband, and he wanted to be defensive about it even though she was right.

His father always told him a happy wife meant a happy life, and Michael was paying the price for not heeding that advice.

“It’s just not the right time,” he said. Another trip to Harry Winston was in order. “I’m very busy with—”

“Please.” Kimberly rolled her eyes, making a smacking sound with her lips. “You can’t get off your father’s nipple because you’re scared and you’re jealous.”

Michael pressed his lips together to avoid saying something he would regret. He took a quick, deep breath before responding. “You don’t know what you’re talking about, woman, so I suggest you stop while you’re ahead.”

“Stop what?” Kimberly crawled to the front of the bed and stood up. “Getting to the truth of the matter?”

“What truth do you know?”

“That the reason you don’t want to move is because you’re afraid you’ll lose what little advantage you have over Carter.”

Michael’s eyes squinted as he felt his breathing pick up. “Shut up, Kimberly.”

“Don’t tell me to shut up!”

“Don’t tell me about my father!”

Carter, older by one year, was Michael’s best friend and his biggest rival. Carter’s strained relationship with their father had allowed Michael to shine in his father’s eyes and it meant the world to him. He worshipped his father, even though the man irritated the hell out of him and scared him a bit. As much as Michael felt for Carter, who wished he was closer to their father, he knew it all meant Chase Beauty would be his, and so would Steven’s favor.

“You don’t care that I hate it here,” Kimberly said. “You don’t care that I’ve lived under this roof for seven years with a woman who thinks I’m ghetto trash, all so you can be close to your daddy.”

“You can’t place all the blame on my mother,” Michael said. “You hate her guts too.”

“She never gave me any choice, but that’s not the point.” Kimberly took an abrupt step toward him. “The point is, Carter and Steven have been getting along and you’re scared he’s going to take his rightful place as favorite first son.”

Michael’s stare was threatening, but Kimberly didn’t back down. “You’ve got a complex when it comes to Daddy’s approval and—”

“I said, shut up,” Michael warned.

Kimberly smiled, pleased to get such a rise out of him. Why should she be the only one with a ruined day? “I’m just telling the truth.”

“Do you really want to take it there?” he asked.

Kimberly swallowed, hoping it wasn’t as evident as it seemed. She had to stand her ground even though she knew what was coming. His suspicions were getting worse.

“Don’t try to turn this on me, Papi.”

“Don’t turn what on you?” Michael asked sarcastically. “You’re keeping secrets from me and you’re trying to play me for a fool.”

Kimberly blinked, unable to keep her poker face. She was afraid Michael was really beginning to believe what he was saying, and that would ruin everything. “You keep me locked away from the world. You don’t like me to have a life, so you act like anything I do on my own is cheating. I’m not falling for it, Michael.”

He looked her up and down. Part of him wanted to strangle her; part wanted to make love to her. The woman made him crazy. His hypocrisy made him even crazier. He hadn’t been a completely faithful husband, but the idea that she might cheat was more than he could bear. “I know you inside and out. I’ve tasted every bit of you. Don’t you think I can tell when you’re lying to me?”

Kimberly huffed, turning to walk away, but Michael grabbed her by the arm and swung her around to him.

“Stop it.” She jerked her arm away.

“I’ll find out what you’re doing,” he said, feeling the rage rip through him just at the thought of what he feared. She couldn’t possibly be cheating on him. She wouldn’t risk everything he was giving her.

“I’m not cheating on you!”

“Then tell me what’s going on!”

“You’re getting paranoid.” Kimberly stepped back as he reached for her again. She slapped his hand away.

She hated lying to him and had promised herself she never would that night before their shotgun wedding when she’d bared her soul. He didn’t care that she came from nowhere, had dropped out of high school and had run away from home. He didn’t care that she had been a hooker in Detroit for two years until she was seventeen. He had taken in all her lies and gone to great lengths to keep anyone else, especially his own parents, from discovering the truth. For that, he deserved the truth, but she couldn’t give it to him because she knew he wouldn’t stand for it.

She turned her back to him, returning to the window. He followed her, standing at her side for a while. He stared down at her as she kept her lying eyes focused.

Like Michael, Kimberly had a very wicked side to her, and they connected on a cosmic level. Yes, it was a lot about volcanic sex, but the twins made their marriage, their family, real. He’d once believed he’d given up life as a bachelor at the tender age of twenty-three for her because she was pregnant, but that wasn’t it. He had given it up because he knew, as much fun as it might be to keep looking, he would never find another woman with his deviant penchants and beauty that made him lose his stride like this one. He would never get past that twitch he felt from just a glance. Something of him was inside of this woman and had been from the first night he met her. It would always be there.

“Kimberly.” Michael spoke in a quiet, controlled tone belying his anger. “Don’t make me have to kill somebody over you.”

Her head jerked up and she turned to him with wide eyes. She could have asked him if he was kidding, but she knew he wasn’t. She knew him too well. So she didn’t bother to ask or say anything. Her stomach was clenched tight and she knew she was going to be in trouble if she didn’t figure something out soon.

When he finally left, slamming the door behind him, Kimberly felt sick at the thought that he might be going to another woman. There wasn’t anything she could do about it, so she threw it from her mind. She had other things to deal with.

To say Janet Chase was a thorn in her side was putting it lightly, and Kimberly made an obsession out of giving the uppity, devilish socialite her due.

It had all begun the day she met her. Kimberly hadn’t expected much. She was a model with a recently acquired GED and a dark past who had gotten pregnant after a one-night stand with an MBA student who was just too fine to pass up. After a few drinks and some smooth talk, Kimberly was hooked even before she knew she had stepped on a gold mine.

She hadn’t expected Michael to call her again, but he had—and again and again. She had been excit. . .