Single Husbands Read online

  This book is a work of fiction. Certain real locations and public figures are mentioned. However, all other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2009 by Mary B. Morrison

  Excerpt from Who’s Loving You by Mary B. Morrison published by arrangement with Dafina Books, a division of Kensington Publishing Corp. Copyright © 2008 by Mary B. Morrison.

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Grand Central Publishing

  Hachette Book Group

  237 Park Avenue

  New York, NY 10017

  Visit our Web site at www.HachetteBookGroup.com.

  First eBook Edition: March 2009

  Grand Central Publishing is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  The Grand Central Publishing name and logo is a trademark of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  ISBN: 978-0-446-54441-2

  Contents

  Copyright Page

  Introduction

  CHAPTER 1: Brian

  CHAPTER 2: Herschel

  CHAPTER 3: Lexington

  CHAPTER 4: Nikki

  CHAPTER 5: Brian

  CHAPTER 6: Herschel

  CHAPTER 7: Lexington

  CHAPTER 8: Nikki

  CHAPTER 9: Brian

  CHAPTER 10: Herschel

  CHAPTER 11: Lexington

  CHAPTER 12: Nikki

  CHAPTER 13: Brian

  CHAPTER 14: Herschel

  CHAPTER 15: Lexington

  CHAPTER 16: Nikki

  CHAPTER 17: Brian

  CHAPTER 18: Herschel

  CHAPTER 19: Lexington

  CHAPTER 20: Nikki

  CHAPTER 21: Brian

  CHAPTER 22: Herschel

  CHAPTER 23: Lexington

  CHAPTER 24: Brian

  EPILOGUE

  Book Club Questions

  HoneyB Tips

  Honey Bits

  HoneyB Safe: Don’t Get Stung

  Acknowledgments

  WARNING!

  Adult Fiction

  Sexually Exquisite

  If you are not eighteen or older, do not, seriously, do not read this book.

  Also by New York Times Bestselling Author,

  Mary B. Morrison, aka HoneyB

  Who’s Loving You

  Sexcapades

  Sweeter Than Honey

  When Somebody Loves You Back

  Nothing Has Ever Felt Like This

  Somebody’s Gotta Be on Top

  He’s Just a Friend

  Never Again Once More

  Soul Mates Dissipate

  Who’s Making Love

  Justice Just Us Just Me

  Coauthored with Carl Weber

  She Ain’t the One

  Presented by Mary B. Morrison

  Diverse Stories: From the Imaginations of Sixth Graders,

  an anthology written by thirty-three sixth graders

  Before you say, “I do,” I’d like to say to you . . .

  Date:

  Given To:

  Given By:

  Personal Message:

  Dedicated to the women who will not marry single husbands.

  There may be a shortage of men, but there is no shortage of SEX.

  Instant Message From the HoneyB

  I’m asking ALL adults to support me on sharing this very important message:

  Educate, Don’t Procreate

  There is no reason ANY teenage girl should have a baby. None. We have too many teenagers getting pregnant—for all the wrong reasons. It’s time for adults to stop undereducating young females and start empowering them. I’m most concerned with the females because most of the males are not accepting responsibility for their actions.

  I understand that most African-American women suffer from postslavery sexual trauma. Whether it was our parents misinforming or undereducating us, our being molested and raped, battered and abused, and our being taught that sex out of wedlock is sinful, it’s time for a monumental epiphany in the way women of all nationalities view sex and our bodies. As a woman who is comfortable with her own sexuality, I want to spark an empowering sexual movement for other women.

  Young girls should be educated about their bodies and their hormones. They need to know safe sex practices. They need to know they are in control, not the guys.

  I hope you join me in imparting this very important message to our young girls.

  Sexual Knowledge Is Powerful

  Introduction

  Is there a loophole in marriage vows?

  What wedding vows did you, or will you, exchange? Do, or will, these words sound somewhat familiar to you?

  In the presence of God, our family and friends, I offer you my solemn vow to be your faithful partner in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, and in joy as well as in sorrow, forsaking all others, keeping only unto you for as long as we both shall live. I promise to love you unconditionally, to support you in your goals, to honor and respect you, to laugh with you and cry with you, and to cherish you for as long as we both shall live.

  I encourage you to re-read the aforementioned paragraph verbatim—but don’t stop there. Read the vows you exchanged or are about to exchange at the altar, then read all the marriage vows you can find and e-mail me any preexisting marriage vows where it states, “I promise to exclusively have sex with you,” or any vows that explicitly include fidelity. I have yet to find vows that state married couples shall not or will not have sex outside of their marriage.

  I can imagine that most, if not all, of you are clinging to the words “Forsaking all others, keeping only unto you.” Forsaking means to renounce or turn away from entirely. All includes your family, friends, coworkers, pastors, exes, strangers, etc. It is humanly impossible to forsake all others and keep only unto one person for the rest of your life. The vagueness implies one is to keep unto one, but it doesn’t clarify in what capacity? Sounds nice, but I implore you to think twice about the true implications. Wedding vows are so obscure, they are essentially left to one’s interpretation.

  Moving along… There was a woman on Oprah who sued her husband’s mistress and was awarded a monetary judgment, I believe, in the amount of $500,000 against the mistress but settled for $50,000. I believe in that case the mistress constantly pursued the woman’s husband, knowing he was married, and I believe the husband did not act or respond favorably to the mistress’s countless written and verbal solicitations.

  In any case, even if a married person faced with similar circumstances would have engaged in sexual intercourse, I pose these questions: “What do you feel should happen to a married individual who engages in sex outside of his or her marriage? Why?” Should a married person go to jail for emotional and/or sexual infidelity? How would one measure such a crime? By the number of wet dreams, orgasms, or partners? What if the sex was bad? What if the woman outside of the marriage gets pregnant?

  Your marriage is your commitment. If you choose to quote words or phrases such as “vow to be faithful,” I ask that you first seek the definition of the word “faithful,” then pay close attention to how the word “faithful” is being used in conjunction with other words in the vows.

  There are beliefs rooted in Christianity like “Thou shall not commit adultery” and “Thou shall not covet his neighbor’s wife,” but to my knowledge or lack thereof—correct me if I’m wrong—none of the Ten Commandments are quoted in marriage vows. And even if
they were, everyone is not a Christian. Some individuals are atheists. So I must ask you, the reader, because you are intelligent, “Is there a loophole in wedding vows regarding fidelity?”

  The three couples in Single Husbands made a commitment to one another, but somewhere along their journey after saying, “I do,” Herschel Henderson, Brian Flaw, and Lexington Lewis took detours. Or did they? Now I want you to take a moment to think about whether people change after they are married, and how. These three men didn’t honestly deviate from their premarital behavior. Most people don’t. What had happened was that the women they married thought signing a marriage license would miraculously turn their unfaithful fiancés into faithful husbands.

  Have you ever thought about the definitions for “marriage” and “license”? Marriage is the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law—not by your girlfriend, your ex-man, your best man, your spouse, your mama, your daddy, or a stranger—by law.

  There are no prerequisites to getting married. In reality, it doesn’t matter if the parties exchanging vows respect, love, or hate one another. Who honestly cares? The law rules above all hearts. The law doesn’t care if one is under duress, secretly miserable, constantly unhappy, or clearly unsure as he or she journeys down the aisle or stands before the altar. One’s credit score, IQ, and bank account can collectively be below zero and in the red and he or she can still find someone to marry.

  License means a permission granted by competent authority to engage in a business or occupation or in an activity otherwise unlawful—a document, plate, or tag evidencing a license granted. Does this mean being single is unlawful? If having sex outside of wedlock is unlawful, then 98 percent of adult Americans (which probably includes you and definitely includes me) and a substantial number of teenagers need to be placed under house arrest. I find the concept of marriage ludicrous, because most people, married or single, don’t have the decency to respect the person they’re in a relationship with. No stamp of approval can successfully debate what I’m saying.

  A license is a document. Every license—except a marriage license—must be renewed, can be revoked, suspended, or terminated for failure to adhere to the laws under which the license was granted. A marriage license can either be annulled (reduced to nothing) or dissolved (to become decomposed or to cause to disappear), which ends in divorce.

  A marriage license is a façade. It’s a piece of paper granted not by the parties involved but by authority (the law) to the parties who have no enforceable control over their spouse. In many cases, people are marrying strangers. What’s my point? People who decide to get married are disillusioned because they believe they have entitlements, when in actuality they have zero authority to hold the other person accountable to anything that the individual does not desire to commit to. You don’t marry a piece of paper. What you commit to is marrying an imperfect being whom you somehow expect to become perfect when you hear, “I now pronounce you man and wife.”

  Did you catch that “man and wife” part? What male chauvinists slipped that in on women? Not “husband and wife.” But “man and wife.” What does that mean? Sounds to me like the individual conducting the marriage is saying, “Women are married to men who are not married to them.” Actually, that’s about right. What are women signing up for when they etch their signatures in permanent ink on a marriage license?

  To me, a marriage license is synonymous with the enforcement rights of a birth certificate. It simply identifies a person’s status as having a legal commitment, but the license does not, cannot, will not, shall not, make anyone whole, complete, secure, or happy. If you get caught running a red light, you’ve got to pay. If you don’t pay, you get a warrant for your arrest. If you get caught fucking around on your spouse, you get to stay married and fuck up again. But you can literally break all the laws of marriage and never be penalized. Which brings me to, “What are the laws of marriage?”

  Hit me up at [email protected] with your responses.

  You can throw in the towel and cut your losses, but you cannot bring forth charges against a cheating spouse unless you’re perhaps married or living in the state of Florida. I ain’t gon’ mention no names, but I wonder if the famous multimillionaire couple—that once upon a time lived in Florida—if their double affairs suddenly became hush-hush when the man allegedly impregnated a woman out of wedlock. Hmm? I’d better shut the shack up. I meant, shut the fuck up. Anywho, what good is a marriage license? Now, if you marry the right person, a license may make you wealthy, but how much will it cost you emotionally? Will you lose your self-identity? That’s assuming you took time to know yourself before getting married.

  The law cannot make any married person accountable; it merely grants an immeasurable tool with no accountability. In fact, singles have more enforceable rights than married individuals. Hmm, how many married women by law can make the husbands take care of the kids physically and/or financially? Any divorced woman or single parent who is not receiving child support means she fucked the wrong broke-ass man.

  Every license in America, except a marriage license, has built-in requirements for renewal, or else it does what? Expire. A marriage license is granted in perpetuity. So when a couple decides to get married, they need to think logically if the commitment is one they’re willing to keep forever. Forever… ever? Hmm. Not many couples stay married forever, and the ones that do? A lot of them are unfaithful, unhappy, and they die unfulfilled. A woman who defers her dreams for many years to care for her husband and kids can suddenly find herself abandoned, alone, and divorced. I wonder if the fine print on a marriage license lists children as an asset or liability. What good was the marriage license when you receive a divorce decree?

  I encourage every woman and man to really think about what I’m conveying. Define marriage for yourself. Write your own vows. Maybe what you want isn’t marriage at all but a mutually dissolvable cohabitation agreement and a power of attorney granting your partner certain rights, should you become mentally, financially, and/or physically incapacitated. Couples may want—and I highly recommend—one joint bank account (calculated on a percentage of each person’s income or a 50/50 split) to meet the household expenses and two individual accounts in case shit don’t go your way. At least you won’t have to worry about your spouse running to the bank to close out the joint account after you’ve had an argument.

  More important, as my daddy told me, “Speedy, always have enough money to leave. There’s nothing worse than being in a relationship that you desperately want out of but can’t afford to go.” Now I don’t know if my dad told me that because he’d beaten my mother until she killed herself or what, but I listened to his words of wisdom.

  When my ex-husband laid hands on me, immediately I had him arrested, removed from our residence, divorced him, and started dating men who cared about my son and me. I’ve met some really nice men along my journey through life. When my soul mate proposed to me, I gave back the ring. He felt because he was the man he had the right to physically discipline my son. Fuck that! Beat your own damn kids that don’t fucking live with you. I refused to allow any man to beat my child or me. A big dick and a set of balls don’t make a man the boss in HoneyB’s world. For me, a man has got to come, and have cum, with integrity. People need to know who or what they honestly care about before getting married. Know your core value system and share your values with your mate.

  The piece of paper the marriage license is written on came from a living tree that once upon a time, (before it was chopped down… killed) released life-sustaining oxygen to human beings who destroy most everything around them, including other human beings. Why do people carelessly and vindictively hurt one another? A pussy pocket is the only pussy a man can ever own. And, ladies, if you want to own a dick, take a trip to the pleasure store and buy one.

  What did Oprah say on one of her shows? “Hurt people hurt people.” I hope you take this m
essage to heart, and the next time you feel like hurting someone, you have a change of heart. In our paranoia-driven, socio-economic, political, conscious-less culture, marital status, just like money, ranks above health and happiness.

  Are you happy with yourself?

  Are the women in this novel happy? What the women in this novel get is what they have had all along. Instead of dating a single man, these women voluntarily licensed… Single Husbands.

  Single Husbands . . .

  Three men who married for all the wrong reasons.

  Herschel Henderson said, “I do,” to have access to his wife’s money, Lexington Lewis vowed for his better and her worse, and Brian Flaw meant until death do we part. Herschel has a mistress that he sexes more than his wife, Lexington is making love to as many women as he can at the sex clubs, and Brian is fucking women of every ethnicity because he’s a man who loves pussy. The one thing these men share is despite being married, none of them will give up the sexual freedom they enjoyed as single men.

  CHAPTER 1

  Brian

  Emotionally unavailable… to all women, except his mother and his wife.

  The countless number of women he’d fucked before saying “I do” easily doubled during his ten years of marriage. Pussy was his vice. Anal sex too. Damn, his dick hardened as his eyes beheld his wife easing her red thong out of the crack of her butt, then over her ass. Irrespective of his discreet infidelity, he’d kept his wedding vows; he’d kept all of them.

  He didn’t marry his wife’s mother. He’d married her daughter. Yet, somehow, Michelle’s mother deemed it her responsibility to hold him accountable to his vows. Perhaps because her husband hadn’t kept his vows, or maybe she wanted a happier life for her daughter than the one she’d had. Framed by his wife’s mother, hung by him on their coral reef–painted bathroom wall, centered above their double vanity, were his exact words: