Kiss of Surrender Read Online Free PDF Page A

mission to Fallujah.
    She and Marie exchanged worried glances. When Donita played the blues, it spelled trouble. Mostly she preferred upbeat songs by Lady Gaga, or even Marie’s rowdy zydeco CDs.
    Entering the small living room, she and Marie followed the music to the tiny kitchen where Donita stood in all her five-ten, ebony-skinned glory, stirring a pot of what smelled like Crab Alfredo. On the counter was a freshly baked chocolate cheesecake. Of course, Donita didn’t have to worry about gaining weight. As a former Olympic swimmer, she had a body to die for.
    But the cooking, along with the blues?
    “I smell trouble.” Marie was sniffing the air, and it wasn’t the food she was referring to as trouble.
    “Donita?” Nicole said, walking up and placing a hand on her arm. She saw then how red-rimmed her friend’s eyes were.
    “I hate the bastard.”
    “Uh-oh!” Marie said behind her.
    They both knew who the bastard in question was. Sylvester “Sly” Sims had been a well-known black underwear model before joining the SEALs after 9/11. Like Marie, Sly had lost a family member in the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers; in his case, a brother. Sly and Donita had been involved in an on-again, off-again, love-hate relationship for the past five years. He must have been on this mission with Donita.
    “What’d he do this time?”
    “He’s engaged.”
    “ What? ” she and Marie both exclaimed. As many times as Donita and Sly had broken up and made up over the years, there had never been any question that they belonged together.
    “Are you sure?” Nicole asked Donita, who was dumping pasta into a pot of boiling water. A pigload of pasta! Was she expecting company, or was she expecting them to eat all this stuff?
    “Oh, I’m sure, all right.” Donita swiped the back of her arm over her teary eyes. “Kendra Black is sporting a diamond the size of a golf ball.”
    “No way!” Nicole’s jaw dropped. “Did you talk to Sly?”
    Donita shook her head. “He tried to talk to me, but I told him to go fuck himself. He had the nerve to say, ‘You snooze, you lose, babe. I got tired of waiting, and Kendra gives good—’ That’s as far as I let him go. The two-timing rat bastard! Honestly, he’s been different lately, ever since he came back from survival camp on San Clemente Island. He even wanted me to . . . well, never mind.”
    If a black woman could blush, Donita was doing it now.
    “What did he want you to do?” she and Marie both asked.
    “A threesome.” The look of disgust on Donita’s face was nothing compared to theirs.
    “Eeew!” Nicole said.
    Marie’s curiosity got the better of her, though. “With whom? I sure hope he meant another guy joining the sheets, not another woman. Never mind, the whole idea sucks big-time. I can just hear it now,” she said in an imitation of a deep, male-husky voice, “I love you, baby, but I gotta share you with my friends.” Reverting back to her own voice, she concluded, “Yeah, right, that’s love.”
    “I really thought Sly loved me,” Donita said, more tears slipping down her face.
    “Honey, he probably does, but men are as loyal as their options,” Nicole told Donita, handing her a tissue.
    Donita blew her nose loudly and tossed the tissue in the trash. “I’m a good-looking woman. I take care of myself. Why is it that the grass is always greener in some other woman’s yard?”
    “I still believe there are good men out there who don’t feel compelled to mow every pretty lawn in sight,” Nicole contended.
    Marie gave Nicole a disbelieving look and glanced pointedly at a pile of her motivational books-on-tape that sat on the counter. Her roommates thought she was a Pollyanna for always looking for positive sides of everything. Well, not everything, or everyone, Nicole thought. She certainly had negative thoughts about Trond Sigurdsson.
    Donita and Nicole jumped when Marie suddenly slapped a hand down on the countertop with anger. “Here’s a news