Table of Contents
GENTLEMEN PREFER BLACK Title Page
Don't Kill My Vibe by Stacey Allure
About Stacey Allure
Olympic Love by Dana Burns
- Chapter I
- Chapter II
- Chapter III
- Chapter IV
- Chapter V
About Dana Burns
First Comes Lust, Then Comes... by Shanika Patrice
About Shanika Patrice
His True Colors by Marcus Williams
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BONUS - Preview of "Seduced By Mistake" by Sandra Sinclair
Copyright © 2014 Steam Books Erotica & Romance
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Swish!
“Damn, Nia!”
That was the third three-pointer Nia made in the last, oh, five minutes or so of playing. She was on fire. At least, it wasn’t bad for someone who wasn’t a pro, never joined any teams in school or otherwise, and was never even particularly into basketball or sports. The sight and sound of the ball swooping right through that net and subsequently landing straight downwards onto the court floor was amazingly satisfying and made Nia smile.
Now, if only someone else was around to see it.
It was just Nia and Kelly, one of her girlfriends, there on the court. It was pretty late in the day for the gym on a Monday night. Luckily for Nia, she’d taken a couple of her use-it-or-lose-it paid vacation days this week and didn’t have to be anywhere in the morning, and Kelly, well, she was between jobs at the moment—a moment that had lasted the better part of a year at this point—so she didn’t have any place to be in the morning, either.
“Oh, you think you bad?” Kelly teased. “Watch this, watch this.”
Kelly scooped up the ball and bounced-passed it to Nia, and Nia did the same back to Kelly the check the ball back into play. Kelly put on a mock-game face and dribbled her way the free-throw line. Nia approached, and Kelly turned her back to her to try to keep the ball away.
…and the ball bounced off Kelly’s toes and went bouncing out of bounds.
Nia and Kelly both laughed.
“Well, I gotta hand it to you, Kelly,” Nia told her. “At least I didn’t steal the ball.”
The both of them started laughing again. Kelly added, “I’m a try out for the WNBA, think I’ll get drafted?”
Kelly went after the ball, but once she reached it she checked her watch. “Oh, girl, it’s late! I got to get back to my house.”
Nia smiled and tried not to roll her eyes. Kelly was a great friend, but she was gonna be 30 next month and aside from the five years she spent in school getting a business administration degree, she’d always lived with her momma. Nia tried very, very hard to be judgmental—really, she just wanted to see her succeed—but Kelly was a grown-ass woman who still had to deal with curfews.
“I gotta run back,” Kelly told her. “I ain’t got time for a shower. I’ll see you!”
“Alright, Kelly,” Nia hollered back. “Call you tomorrow!”
Nia walked back to the wall behind the basket to grab the towel. They were playing basketball so late on such a weird day because at pretty much any other time the courts were filled with rowdy men, and while she was sure they didn’t mean no harm—this was a gym that required paid membership, after all, not an outdoor public court downtown, which helped cut out a lot of the riff-raff—things always got weird when there was one female playing among all men. The guys either tried to challenge her (who this girl think she is, trying to ball with the men), or they tried to be too easy on her and kill all the fun out of the game, or they viewed this as an opportunity—Nia was single—and acted accordingly, which was no fun when she just wanted to play and unwind.
She dabbed her forehead with the towel and picked up her water bottle, taking a few gulps. The water by now was lukewarm, but after an evening of working out and shooting hoops, still felt very satisfying in her mouth and throat.
Then she heard the ball dribbling again. The sounds were slow but reverberated in the echo-y acoustics of the court.
Nia turned around, the towel draped over her neck and bottle in hand.
There was a white boy standing just inside of the half-court line, casually bouncing the ball and looking in Nia’s direction.
Strike that: a white man.
He was young-ish, but his features were chiseled, his jawline prominent and his shoulders broad. His gray T-shirt was loose-fitting, but Nia could still make out that he had well-developed pecs, and his fore-arms as well as the calves that poked out from his black basketball shorts were thick in a way that suggested he lifted, which was a little surprising because Nia didn’t recognize this guy from any of the other times she came to the gym, and she had been a member for months now.
“You done?” he asked her. “Or you mind if I join you?”
There was something about his approach that appealed to Nia. He was confident, for sure, but in a way that meant he didn’t have to show off, which actually made him appear more secure in Nia’s eyes. Maybe she was projecting, Nia thought, maybe it was just the fact that he was a white guy and, even though he was cute as hell, she didn’t automatically see him as a potential romantic partner the way she might have if he were black. Or maybe it was just because he was by himself and that meant he wasn’t going to try to show-off or compete with any other fellas.
“Yeah,” Nia told him. “I mean, I don’t mind. What do you want to play, you want to do 21?”
“Sounds alright to me,” mystery white boy responded. “You ready?”
Nia took one last swig of water and then twisted the cap back on. “One sec,” she set the bottle and the towel next to the wall again. “Alright, let’s go.”
They checked the ball into play, and the game was on.
Nia started out on defense, and she approached him, and he in turn took a few steps toward her, dribbling the ball. He immediately cut to his right, and she tried to move accordingly in order to guard, but she wasn’t fast enough, she had to turn and then chase after him.
Too late, though. He got the lay up.
Damn.
The ball was in play again, and this time it was Nia’s turn to be on the offense. He approached her and swung his hand out to steal the ball, but Nia dribbled it to her other hand and she turned so that the ball was no longer facing him—the maneuver Kelly had tried to pull on her earlier but wasn’t able to. He tried to steal again, but once more the ball bounced off the floor and into her other hand.
He was on her now, she was backing up into him. Her backside was brushing up against his body, into his torso. Her mind drifted for just a moment, and Nia tried hard, so very hard, not to think about those arms of his wrapping around her, not to think of him holding her in his arms, letting her drop the ball and let it bounce and eventually drift wherever it may, and have his lips gently caress on her neck…
Goddamn, Nia, she told herself inside her head. Get it together.
It was too late, because his hand wound up slapping the ball from her.
“Shit!”
For a second the ball was just bouncing, its trajectory untethered to any one person’s hand. The man got to it first, his hand slapping the ball into his possession, but Nia was right on it, and she managed to steal the ball right back from him.
Now, the ball was in her possession, and she was between him and the basket, she had a clear path.
Nia dove down the court, the man in hot pursuit, but the basket was right there in front of her, screaming for Nia to give it the ball, and when she got to a comfortable range, she jumped and shot it—she could just feel it in her body that her form was good—and the ball launched into a perfect arch on its way to the goal.
Swish.
“Yes!” Nia said in a fashion that sounded a little like hissing, but was unmistakably good-natured.
“Good shot,” the man said.
The game went on, and the two of them were evenly matched, which made the game one of the most challenging and fun matches Nia had ever played. The best part, though, was that she knew this man wasn’t being easy on her, wasn’t patronizing her. There were no ulterior motives with him. In the end, he won, but Nia felt like she gave him a good run for his money, and if she could sum up the whole experience in one word, she’d use ‘real’.
“Good game,” the man told her while trying to catch his breath.
“Likewise,” Nia told him. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Rick,” he told her. He extended his hand. “And you?”
Nia grabbed his hand, and she caught herself savoring the moment as the contact of their hands as they shook. “I’m Nia.”
“Nice meeting you, Nia.”
“Nice meeting you, Rick. So what are you doing here on a Monday night, you don’t have work?” The question was kind of direct, but Nia was able to pull off the playful vibe so she didn’t sound like she was just being nosy.
“Nah,” he answered. “One of the perks of my job is that I get to make my own schedule if I want to.”
“Wow, that’s good, I wish I could do that. But hey, I’m just the assistant,” Nia told him. “What do you do?”
“Self-employed,” Rick answered. “I work in plumbing.”
Nia was genuinely surprised. “I didn’t peg you to be the blue-collar type.”
Rick laughed, a dimple forming in one of his cheeks from his smile, “Yeah, I get that a lot.”
“I haven’t seen you in this gym before.”
Rick shrugged, “I haven’t been a member for very long. “
A part of Nia wanted to burst out with, Come to my place!, but the part of her brain that knew better than to just rush off with some man whose name she literally just found out told her to cool it. She wanted to feel reasonably sure they’d cross paths again before she left, however.
“I come here at this time of the day sometimes ‘cause it’s usually real crowded the other times,” Nia said.
“That’s a good idea, I think I’ll probably start doing that, too.” Rick continued, “Hey, it’s getting late, I should probably get going. Are you going to be here tomorrow?”
“Most likely,” she answered.
“Well, maybe we’ll do this again. Ready to lose?”
Nia laughed, “You’re on!”
Rick smiled and jogged off, but he waved and told her, “See you tomorrow!”
“Alright, see ya!”
~ ~ ~
Nia closed the door behind her as she stepped into her apartment, her hand reaching for and turning on the light switch. The lights came on, and when she walked into her room after making her way through the living space, she dropped her gym bag on the floor and peeled off her clothes, dropping them on the floor, too—she’d pick them up later, but she lord, she needed a shower.
The gym had a very comfortable locker room, but she still wasn’t feeling the whole public shower thing, so once she got naked she stepped into the bathroom and opened the shower booth to turn the water on.
She brushed her teeth as she let the water warmed up, and by the time she was done it was perfectly hot. Nia stepped inside the booth and let the dozens of thin streams of water splash against the skin of her chest.
She lathered the body wash and ran her hands, slippery with the solution, across her skin.