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smiling Nathaniel Roberts, as he stared at Coral.
    “I’ve been looking all over for you,” he told her. Initially, he didn’t acknowledge my presence, but shortly after he held out his hand. “Oh, Bennett. Long time no see. How have you been?” he asked with a look of warning in his eyes.
    He was claiming what he believed was his territory.
    He’s got another think coming.
    “Senator,” I returned, gripping his hand a little tighter than necessary. “I’ve been well. A lot better now.” I looked Coral straight in the eyes so that she got my meaning.
    “Well, I hope I wasn’t interrupting anything,” Roberts stated.
    “Trust me; there’s nothing you could do to interrupt me.” I was tired of the bullshit. This dude had no idea the lengths I would go to for this woman.
    “Is that right? Well—”
    “You know, it’s been great watching you two size-up who has the bigger dick, but I’m bored, and I’m leaving. Have at it boys.” Coral turned and walked away.
    My instinct was to follow her, but just as I moved to do so, Nathaniel stepped in my path.
    “I don’t think so,” he warned.
    “Who the hell asked you to think, Roberts?” I stepped closer to him, and while I had a one-inch height advantage, he was not the least bit intimidated.
    “She’s moved on from whatever you two had between you,” he said, turning to watch her as she moved further and further away from us.
    I saw red when I watched his eyes land on the sway of her ass, encompassed perfectly in the fabric of that red dress. The leopard print heels were classic Coral. They showed her feminine, yet dangerous side.
    “You think so?” I asked, my voice dangerously low.
    He chuckled. “Oh yeah. By the way she was calling my name earlier this evening, I definitely think so.”
    I made a move to grab him by the lapels of his tux but was stopped by Ron.
    “Liam, we’re in public.” 
    I had no idea where he’d come from.
    I didn’t move back, but I took a breath to rein in my anger. “Just know, you’re a temporary filler, Roberts. I’ve owned that woman since we were eighteen years old, and I will until the day I die. Don’t ever forget that. And don’t ever get in my face again about my woman. I don’t care how long you’ve had this little crush on her; I will fuck you up over, Coral,” I growled. I snatched away from Ron to walk away before I made good on my promise. I meant every word. I may have left Coral, but it was never meant to be a permanent situation. I’d always had every intention of claiming her as mine. That plan had never wavered.
     

 
    Chapter Three
    Coral
     
    You changed your hair.
    Those words had been repeating over and over in my head the last month. It was the first time I had laid eyes on him in five years, and that was the first thing he’d asked. As if we were old friends simply catching up. Maybe that’s all it was to him. I didn’t know if I was more angry or hurt. No explanation. No apology. Just some dumb observation about my hair. Yeah, it was longer and relaxed the last time I saw him, and now it was short, curly, and a different color, but fuck that. He owed me more than a, “How have you been?”
    Fuck. I hated that thinking about him tied me up in knots. That’s not who I am.
    I heard a male voice that I knew was my younger cousin, Jabari. “Yo, Coral! You in there?”
    We were in the state-of-the-art gym we had built in our office building in the heart of Savannah. Jones & Associates Security was the name of the firm that I co-owned with my cousins, Quincy and Jabari. Quincy and I were more of the muscle, so to speak, while Jabari was the tech guy, although by looking at him you wouldn’t assume, “tech geek.”
    “Let’s spar,” I said, tossing a pair of boxing gloves at Jabari. Boxing was my first learned form of fighting and my first love. I learned at the community center in my neighborhood in the Bronx. The coaches were hesitant to show a twelve-year-old girl the