One Taste by Allison Hobbs Page A

you hadn’t given him a new phone. He didn’t know what I was talking about.”
    Matt returned his wife’s confused gaze. Unaccustomed to lying on a regular basis, and unable to concoct a quick excuse, Matt was briefly stumped. His mind raced, trying to come up with a plausible explanation. “Oh!” he finally said with a relieved chuckle. “I forgot to mention it; I returned the phone. Got my money back. You gave me something to think about when you said I spoil that boy. Eric’s never going to learn the meaning of responsibility if I keep giving him everything he asks for. He’s got to be better prepared for the future. I don’t want him to turn out like any of those worthless morons who work for me.”
    Regina looked at Matt, surprised. For the past ten years she’d been telling Matt that he spoiled his nephew rotten. Now, though he hadn’t actually admitted that it was wrong to cave in and give his nephew everything he wanted, he’d taken her words into consideration and had quietly returned the cell phone. It felt like a victory. Regina felt a ripple of hope.
    “I’m tired,” Matt said stiffly. He turned and switched off the lamp on his side of the bed. After plumping his pillow and snuggling into a comfortable position, he reminded Regina, “Don’t forget to call Eric tomorrow.”
    A few minutes later, as Matt snored next to her, Regina reachedover and turned off the light from the matching lamp on her side of the bed. In deep thought, she gazed into the darkened bedroom. She’d give her marriage one last chance. In a day or so, she’d gather her courage and give Matt an ultimatum. She wouldn’t beat around the bush or sugarcoat her words. She’d speak bluntly, tell him straight out that she was at her sexual peak and that after taking matters into her own hands, she’d finally experienced the toe-curling, body-thrashing, heart-pounding orgasm that she’d heard so much about. Now that she knew that she was fully capable of reaching a climax, she’d let him know that she was no longer willing to spend the rest of her life locked in a passionless marriage, aching for sexual release.
    If he refused to get help for his dysfunction, she’d have no choice but to end their twenty-year marriage.

CHAPTER 12
    T heo was drinking on the job again. Cochise had smelled it on his breath, but he’d pretended not to notice. Cochise wrapped his large hands around the handle of the automatic floor scrubber and pushed the two-hundred-and-fifty-pound machine over the tiled fifth-floor corridor with ease. He reminded himself that Theo’s drinking was none of his business. If the boss didn’t care, why should he give a fuck? It wasn’t like he was paid extra money to supervise while Mr. Wheeler was laying up in a hotel somewhere or, if the gossip was true, chillin’ in the apartment he had hooked up for Onika. Shit, the way things had been going down lately, Cochise would be lucky to get paid the regular wages Mr. Wheeler owed him.
    “Damn, I forgot to bring the payment vouchers,” Mr. Wheeler had told the three-man work crew when he’d dropped them off at the site in Germantown. “I’ll take care of you fellas tomorrow,” he assured them. It was the second time that week he’d claimed to have forgotten the vouchers. The same thing had happened the week before. The workers didn’t get their cash stipend if they didn’t turn the pay vouchers in to the house manager at the Recovery House.
    “Oh yeah,” Mr. Wheeler said, pressing his fingers against hisforehead in thought. “Something’s come up.” He solemnly shook his head, his expression grave. “I’ve got a little problem, have to make a quick run. I’m gonna need you guys to handle things while I’m gone. I should be back in a couple of hours.”
    Mr. Wheeler knew damn well that the only problem his married ass had was finding time to spend with his new jump-off. Onika no longer bothered to show up for work, but Cochise would bet a month’s