Nervous: A Novel

by Zane

Overview

In this follow-up to the mega-sensation Addicted, the New York Times bestselling Queen of Erotica delivers a shocking and steamy story about a woman with a split personality who must overcome her disorder before her chance at a happy ending is forever destroyed.

Jonquinette Pierce has never felt comfortable around men—except when she’s her alter ago, Jude, who takes over on the weekends to lead a life of wild and intense sexual escapades. Jonquinette knows she can’t keep living like this and sets out to overcome her split personality with the help of Dr. Marcella Spencer.

But Jude isn’t about to let Jonquinette off so easily. Just as Jonquinette begins falling for her hot neighbor, Mason, Jude decides she’s had enough and goes on a sexual rampage to keep her alter ego from riding off into the sunset. Jude has no intentions of letting Jonquinette fall in love and find happiness at her expense—she’s having way too much fun using the body she shares with Jonquinette. Though this scenario could be a fun fantasy for women who have imagined their own alter ego behaving badly in a sexual way, this is a nightmare for Jonquinette. Nervous takes readers back into the world of Addicted and keeps them hooked until the very end.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780743475815
Publisher:	Atria Books
Publication date:	08/26/2003
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	154,907
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Zane is the New York Times bestselling author of Afterburn, The Heat Seekers, Dear G-Spot, Gettin’ Buck Wild, The Hot Box, Total Eclipse of the Heart, Nervous, Skyscraper, Love is Never Painless, Shame on It All, and The Sisters of APF; the ebook short stories “I’ll be Home for Christmas” and “Everything Fades Away”; and editor for the Flava anthology series, including Z-Rated and Busy Bodies. Her TV series, Zane’s Sex Chronicles, and The Jump Off are featured on Cinemax, and her bestselling novel Addicted is a major motion picture with Lionsgate Films. She is the publisher of Strebor Books, an imprint of Atria Books/Simon & Schuster. Visit her online at EroticaNoir.com.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

jonquinette

I entered my third floor apartment fighting back tears. It was hot. Extremely hot. I'd forgotten to turn on the air before I'd left that morning.

I tossed my keys onto the coffee table and kicked off my low-heel black pumps. "You knew they were calling for a heat wave today," I said aloud, recalling the morning weather report that I'd neglected. "Why didn't you turn on some air?"

The sole of one of my stockings snagged on a nail in the parquet flooring as I stumbled into my hallway. I adjusted the thermostat to seventy and sighed, praying it wouldn't take long to drop down from the current temperature of eighty-six degrees.

I continued down the hall into my bedroom and collapsed on my king-sized bed. I'd purchased it despite the fact that one person didn't need such a monstrosity to sleep alone. And sleep alone I did. Always.

The red light on my answering machine was blinking. Who could possibly have called? On a Saturday, no less. Normally it would be Momma, but she was out of the country for two weeks. She'd whisked off to Paris to fulfill a lifelong dream. More like fantasy. Momma had a way of fantasizing like no other. One day I hoped she would find whatever it was she was truly searching for. I doubted she would've called more than once at those rates and she'd called three days earlier to inform me that she and her latest romantic conquest had arrived safely.

I rewound the tape and hit play.

"Jon, what's up girl? It's me!" a bubbly, female voice squealed out at me to the point where I felt compelled to adjust the volume.

Me who? I wondered.

"In case you don't know who this is, it's me, Darnetta."

I sat up on the bed. I should've known it was Darnetta. I heard that overanxious voice daily at work. Why was Darnetta calling me at home on a Saturday? We were coworkers but rarely spoke more than two words to each other.

"Jon, I was wondering if you want to hang out tonight. I know we don't usually flow like that, but I have two tickets to this live concert at Club Snatch and everyone else I know has plans already." There was a slight pause. "That's not to say that you're my last choice. I was going to ask you about going out sometime soon anyway and I saw this as the perfect opportunity. You always seem so shy at work. Anyway, give me a call if you can make it. My number is -- "

I didn't even bother to listen to the phone number and hit the erase button. Me in a club? No way. That meant a lot of people. That meant a lot of men. No way!

I baked some chicken breasts that I had marinated in Hawaiian flavoring all day. I cut up a few russet potatoes and boiled them along with a pouch of broccoli. While I was waiting for my meal to get done, I pulled some paperwork out of my briefcase and looked over the weekly shipping records for the office supply warehouse where I was head accountant.

The numbers didn't make sense. They were way under target for the week, something that normally only happened around holidays. After all, who orders office supplies for Christmas presents? Most people take vacation the week between Christmas and New Year's anyway. But we were in the middle of August, when there were no holidays.

I'd broken out my calculator and was crunching numbers when my phone rang. I debated about answering for the first three rings. What if Momma was calling back? Maybe something had gone wrong in Paris. I picked it up on the fifth ring, one ring before my answering machine normally kicked in.

"Hello."

"Jon, is that you?"

I didn't utter a word.

"Jon, you there?"

"Yes, I'm here," I replied hesitantly.

"It's me, Darnetta!"

"I kind of figured that."

"I left you a message earlier. Did you get it?"

"Uh...yes, I did. Sorry I didn't call you back but I couldn't quite make out the number."

"Cool. It's no problem. Sometimes I talk too loud. I'm working on all that though. So, what's up? You trying to hang out tonight or what? Lil' Z is performing. The show is going to be all that and them some. You feel me?"

"Lil' Z?"

"Yeah, Lil' Z, the rapper. You've never heard of him?"

"Of course I have." I lied again. "He's one of my favorites."

I hoped Darnetta wouldn't ask me to name any of his songs because I'd never heard of the man. Thankfully, she didn't go there.

"So how about it, girl?"

After accidentally knocking over my tea onto some paperwork, I involuntarily blurted out, "Shit!"

"Ooh, Jon, I've never heard you curse before," Darnetta chided. "What else do you do that I don't know about?"

I didn't like her implications. "Huh? What do you mean?"

I felt bad about cursing. I wasn't raised that way but, from time to time, a four-letter word forced its way out before I could push it back down my throat.

"Never mind," Darnetta said. "What about tonight? I really need someone to go with me and I don't want to waste the ticket. They were so hard to come by."

"What about your boyfriend, Darnetta?"

Even though we rarely held conversations at work, everybody knew about her boyfriend Logan. He was all she ever talked about -- rather, bragged about -- in the break room.

"Logan's out of town for the weekend. He went to Durham. Asshole! I'm so pissed at him. I told him about this concert weeks ago but he made plans to go hang out with some of his immature friends anyway."

"I see." I rolled my eyes up to the ceiling. Surely there had to be one other person in the entire city of Atlanta Darnetta could get to go with her. "Darnetta, I'm exhausted. I had a lot of errands to run today. Maybe we can go out some other time."

"Aw, Jon, please don't do this to me," Darnetta whined into the phone. "I realize this is short notice, girl, but I guarantee you'll have a good time. Funky music. Free buffet. Fine-ass men."

I couldn't help but laugh. Now I definitely wasn't going.

"Jon, I'm telling you to take a chance and do the damn town with me. What's the problem? Do I stink or something?"

We both giggled.

"Darnetta, it's not you. Really, it isn't. I just don't like going out. Especially to clubs. I don't even recall the last time I've been in one."

"Well, things need to change then. How old are you?"

"Twenty-four. Why?"

"I've never heard of a single, twenty-four-year-old woman that doesn't enjoy going out. You have a man, right?"

Now why did she have to go there? I could never tell her the truth. She could never identify with the fact that I'd never really had a boyfriend. No one would.

"No, no man. I'm kind of between men at present. You know how it is."

"I'm feeling you. That's why this is a great opportunity to meet someone new. There will be a ton of bachelors there tonight, just waiting on a sexy sister like you to grace their presence."

Me, sexy? Who was she trying to fool?

"Darnetta, I appreciate the offer. I can't believe you thought of me, but I really just can't make it. Sorry."

Darnetta sighed into the phone. I could tell she was disgusted. "Fine, Jon. I'm going to let you off the hook this time, but there's one condition."

"A condition?" I asked, still trying to reorganize my papers and dry the damp ones off.

"Yeah, the next time I ask you to hang out with me, no matter where it is or when, you have to agree right this second that you'll go."

"Um, I can't really say if -- "

"Jon, I mean it. Agree to go with me next time or I'm going to be highly offended and get an emotional complex thinking I really do stink or something."

I didn't want to hurt her feelings so I agreed. "Okay."

"Okay what?"

"I'll hang out with you the next time you ask."

Darnetta giggled. "All right. Now we're getting somewhere. Well, I better run and get ready for the evening. Even though I've got a man, I'm still trying to be fly as hell when I step up in that bitch. I still have to wash my hair so I'm going to get started."

"Have a good time, Darnetta."

"Oh, I will. You can believe that."

We discussed work for another few minutes before hanging up. Darnetta said that if I changed my mind, I could call back within a couple hours. But that would never happen. There was no way I was going to a club with a bunch of strange men around. They made me nervous.

I ate my dinner and watched some cable. I was completely drained by ten. I took a hot shower, threw on some pajamas, and climbed into my bed with the latest D. V. Bernard novel, The Last Dream Before Dawn. The brother is a powerful writer but I didn't make it through ten pages before I passed out.

Copyright © 2003 by Zane

Editorial Reviews

Two couples weather rough times in this latest by Zane (Addicted; The Sex Chronicles) set in swinging D.C. Tempest and Janessa are best friends, out to find "the one" Janessa at local singles' clubs, Tempest anywhere but. Dvont and Geren are their male counterparts. When the pairs meet one fateful evening, Cupid strikes with wildly differing results, pairing yuppie Geren with responsible social worker Tempest and womanizing Dvont with reckless but good-hearted Janessa. Tempest and Geren embark on an emotionally mature relationship, full of the usual testing of boundaries, while Janessa and Dvont begin a passionate and primarily sexual fling that results in the typical half-truths and finally an unwanted pregnancy. Tempest and Geren have to balance their loyalties to their old friends with their budding love for one another, all the while wrestling with personal secrets that could further jeopardize the union. Adding to an already complicated scenario, a young woman being counseled by Tempest is complaining of physical abuse at home. Zane's characters, while well drawn, fluctuate between being sympathetic and painfully superficial, as when they mock the unattractive ("desperate, ugly hoes") and, bizarrely, the short ("watch out for pygmies in there"). For the most part, however, the novel is warm and engaging, stressing the importance of personal responsibility and attesting to the power of hope while delivering the clever banter and sizzling sex scenes that Zane's (many) readers have come to expect. (June) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Sistahs and brothas, in bed and out. As Tempest goes through her little black book, she can't help but think about all the sorry mofos she ever had sex with. Damn, will she ever find the fly black man of her dreams? All she wants is a heterosexual, honest brother with a good job and a gigantic "grade-A, prime, FDA-approved dang-a-lang." Is that too much to ask? No, says best friend Janessa as the two head out to a club to try their luck again. Maybe Janessa's tight minidress will attract some worthwhile men. More likely, Tempest's modest suit will turn them off. But Janessa seizes any excuse to escape from her parents' stifling little apartment in the projects and her lazy, big-butt brother. Sistah-gurls gotta have some fun, even if they ain't going to get married any time soon. Alas, the club offers the usual dismal prospects: momma's boys, I-Know-I'm-All-That's, and homie-sexuals. Enter Geren, a handsome, well-off, elegantly dressed brotha who doesn't normally frequent clubs, preferring to jerk off than contend with any woman's untoward interest in his money. But his best friend Dvonte dragged him along, so what he can do? Dvonte is a dumb-as-a-rock playa with a heart of gold. All he wants is hot and juicy punanny, and he doesn't care if he dies getting it. Inevitably, the foursome hooks up: fastidious Geren likes demure Tempest, and fun-loving Dvonte goes for hoochiesque Janessa. It turns out that Tempest has a social conscience under her extremely healthy libido: she counsels teenaged mothers, a cause she's drawn to owing to the back-alley abortion that left her unable to bear children. A few more talk-show complications are tossed in, plus a few sistah-gurl snifflefests about howtough life is, but all's well for Geren & Tempest & Dvonte & Janessa. Cheerfully lusty contemporary tale with raw energy to spare, though the crude talk and slapdash plot don't add up to much

Kirkus Reviews