Lovers & Players by Jackie Collins Read Free Book Online

meat on your skinny self. How many times I gotta tell you? Guys get off on a handful.’
    ‘Now you sound like Mama,’ Liberty said grimly. ‘And I’m not skinny.’
    ‘You got no booty, girl,’ Cindi teased. ‘Men are into booty!’
    ‘I’m down with it, cousin,’ Liberty said tartly, ‘’cause you’ve got enough for both of us.’
    ‘Ha ha!’ Cindi said, grinning. ‘An’ don’t that make me the popular one.’
    Even though she weighed over two hundred pounds, Cindi was blessed with an abundance of confidence, especially when it came to her effect on the opposite sex.
    ‘Okay, so I’ll tough it out.’ Liberty sighed.
    ‘I’ll come by every day,’ Cindi promised, preparing to take off.
    ‘No, you won’t,’ Liberty said, her face glum.
    ‘Girl, I’m gonna try.’
    ‘No, you won’t ,’ Liberty repeated, knowing there was no way her cousin would give up her active sex life to babysit. To Cindi, making out was like scoring a home-run at baseball–she even kept her own personal score-card. And this weekend she had plans with Moose, a six-foot-four-inch-tall security guard, whose big claim to fame was that he’d once worked the security detail for a Britney Spears concert.
    ‘Don’t forget to leave out food for the Ragtags,’ Liberty instructed. ‘Just ’cause I’m not around doesn’t mean they should go hungry.’ The Ragtags was her name for a small band of homeless people who regularly came by the back of the coffee shop to pick up leftovers.
    ‘I don’t get why you encourage those stinky losers to hang out in the alley,’ Cindi complained, turning up her nose.
    ‘They don’t hang out,’ Liberty explained patiently. ‘They come by at seven every morning to collect stuff that would normally get thrown in the garbage. And they only smell ’cause they got no place to shower.’
    ‘Ha!’ Cindi snorted. ‘If you had your way, all those wackos would be crowdin’ into our crib an’ showerin’ there.’
    Liberty put on her pious face because she knew it irritated her cousin, and why should Cindi be having a good day? ‘Just don’t forget, that’s all,’ she said sternly. ‘Those people depend on me.’
    ‘Got it,’ Cindi said, heading for the door. ‘Now, don’t go doin’ nothin’ crazy. Stay cool an’ no fightin’ with your ma.’
    ‘Oh, right,’ Liberty scoffed. ‘Like that ’s gonna happen.’
    ‘Read magazines, watch TV an’ don’t give her no sass,’ Cindi ordered, bossy as ever. ‘You know how the two of you get when you’re together.’
    ‘Sure,’ Liberty said, although they both understood that it wasn’t going to happen. She and her mom, Diahann, shared an extremely acrimonious relationship, a classic love-hate deal.
    Liberty loved Diahann because she was warm and beautiful and, well…just because she was her mama.
    She hated her because for the past ten years her mom had worked as Mr Red Diamond’s housekeeper and sometime cook, and it infuriated Liberty that the woman had given up on her career as a jazz singer to become some cranky old white man’s freakin’ maid . It was totally beyond her comprehension. Why? That was the question that screamed in her head every time she thought about it. Why? Why? WHY?
    Diahann’s explanation was simple: ‘We needed the money, child, and a place to live where I didn’t have to struggle to make the rent every month. Singin’ was takin’ me nowhere, so I did the smart thing an’ quit.’
    ‘What about my daddy?’ Liberty had asked. ‘Why can’t he look after us?’
    As usual, Diahann stonewalled her, refusing to talk about who or where her father was. After a while she’d given up asking, and accepted the fact that she obviously didn’t have a daddy.
    Liberty was nine when they moved into Mr Red Diamond’s house. Tall for her age and gawky, she hated leaving all her friends behind in Harlem, where they’d lived in a crowded housing complex.
    It might’ve been crowded, but at least it was home,