Every Woman Needs a Wife by Naleighna Kai Read Free Book Online Page B

in her hazel eyes. Knowing Avie, she had probably already started calculating how much they’d drag out of him in court. Brandi hated to disappoint her friend, but she didn’t want a knock-down, drag-out fight. She just wanted justice—her way. And the truth be told, her spur-of-the-moment idea of moving the mistress here would really ram that lesson home. Too bad she hadn’t been serious earlier. Seeing all the men getting on Vernon’s case was better than anything she could do on her own.
    Donny changed the record, then danced over to the solarium entrance where they stood watching everything. He pulled Brandi away from Bettye and Avie, and onto the dance floor filled with women. She danced freely to the blaring music as champagne flowed like the Nile. Vernon sat in the corner, nursing a drink while his friends stayed crowded around him like concert security, making Brandi’s relatives move to another part of the house.
    Brandi sang along with Peabo Bryson, moving smoothly in a side-by-side, stepping rhythm with her brother, singing, “
Imagine the bluest ocean. Imagine the stars at night…”
”
    The doorbell rang, barely audible over the music. Brandi checked herwatch, and did a quick mental scan of the guest list. Everyone who was supposed to be at the party had already arrived.
    Tori answered the door, and seconds later her thick frame came scurrying over to Brandi. “Hey, it’s some chick for you.”
    The music kicked into high gear with everyone cheering the beginning of the Cha-Cha Slide.
    Dancing her way to the door, Brandi flung it open and then froze.
    Tanya stood on the doorstep. Her red lips curved into a soft smile as she leaned in and whispered in a sexy voice, “Honey, I’m home.”

C HAPTER
Six
     
    B randi’s eyes narrowed as their gazes locked. Though she wore a leather jacket, the breeze lifted Tanya’s sheer blouse, then pasted it to her body. She held Vernon’s leather wallet in one hand. Brandi pulled the door closed as she stepped outside onto the concrete porch, folding her arms across her chest. “You’ve got a lot of nerve showing up here.”
    “No more nerve than you had showing up at my place,” Tanya said with a haughty toss of her mane.
    The woman had a point. But then again, Brandi had every right.
She
was the wife!
    Brandi inhaled the scent of magnolias from the tree directly in front of her home. “So you came here expecting…what?”
    Tanya held the wallet out to Brandi. “Actually, I figured that since you didn’t have much success keeping your husband, and I didn’t have much success landing one of my own, maybe being your wife might be a better idea all around.”
    Good point. And one that might bear some thought
.
    Brandi plucked the wallet from the woman’s pale hand, opened it, removed the cash, and counted it. As an afterthought, she gave Tanya half. “Finders keepers.” She tucked the cash in her bra and tossed the leather wallet, aiming for an obscure spot in the bushes.
    Tanya snatched it from mid-air, took out his driver’s license and the credit cards, and handed them to Brandi, saying, “Identity theft. You’ll still need him to have good credit at some point.”
    “Good thinking,” Brandi replied, tucking the gold American Express, the Diner’s Club, Visa, and MasterCard in her bra next to the cash. “What happened with Vernon?”
    Tanya let out a long, weary sigh. “He told me that I couldn’t stay in the house unless I continued to sleep with him. And I told him that I had a better offer on the table anyway.”
    “Mine?”
    Tanya grinned, shrugging as she said in a humored tone, “But of course.” She leaned back on the bricks, resting a stiletto-clad foot against the concrete. “If he slept around on you, there’s no telling what would happen when my turn came. What goes around comes around. I would’ve never wasted my time if I had known he was married. So my last words to him were, ‘I’ll be seeing you around.’”
    Brandi