by King, Thayer
Turning off the television, she stood. She grabbed her purse and keys.
Chapter Ten
It was only as she parked behind Keith’s car that her doubts resurfaced, but only for a minute. Frustrated with her own indecisiveness, she growled and got out of the car before she could change her mind.
At the door, she could hear Bear barking on the other side. He’d probably heard her pull up. But his human companions had not.
She could hear muffled talking. The male voice definitely belonged to Keith. She suspected the female was Harlow. Irritation wrinkled her brow. The bitch had said nothing about visiting Keith when she’d run into her earlier.
Imani bit her lip. If she knocked, they would pretend that the situation was innocent whether it was or not. And she wouldn’t get her answers. She needed the element of surprise.
She flipped to his key on her keychain and quietly unlocked the door. And then the whole world seemed to stop. She couldn’t believe her eyes.
Harlow was kissing Keith. Her Keith. And he was practically naked. Water dripped from his hair onto his broad shoulders and rolled down his hard body only to be absorbed in blue terrycloth. He clung to that towel with one hand. With the other, he held onto Harlow’s shoulder. Her fingers were buried in his hair, holding his head at an angle so she could reach him.
“Harlow,” he said against her mouth, his voice tight and thick with restrained emotion.
Imani didn’t want to hear him start up the sweet talk. She crossed her arms over her chest. Pushing down the pain of his betrayal, she said with more calm than she possessed, “Keith, I don’t know. I’d say she seems to be interested in more than friendship.”
They sprang apart. Keith looked horrified. Harlow appeared smugly satisfied. Imani worked his key off her key ring, practically splitting a nail in the process. “I won’t need this in future.”
“I’ll take it.”
“Harlow, shut up. You’ve caused quite enough trouble. In fact, you can leave.”
“Why? The fun’s just beginning.”
He growled. “Get out before I rescind your invitation.”
“You wouldn’t!” Harlow seemed suitably terrified at what seemed like a minor threat, to Imani’s way of thinking.
“I would.”
“Fine. I’ll go.”
“Front door,” he ordered. Harlow quirked a brow but marched toward the front door in silence.
“There’s no need for her to leave, Keith.” Imani slapped his key onto the coffee table. “I’m the interloper here.”
Harlow hesitated. “She’s right, Keith.”
“Leave,” he ground out.
She made a huffing sound, tossed her hair over her shoulder and left.
“She kissed me. I didn’t kiss her.” He spoke swiftly, the door having barely closed behind Harlow.
Imani was unmoved and utterly unconvinced. He was stronger than Harlow. He could have simply pushed her off. “I guess I should have clarified that when I said I wouldn’t have sex with you, I wasn’t giving you permission to bang anything in a skirt.” The thought that he might have been about to sleep with someone else hurt. It brought to the fore her feelings of inadequacy. They’d been doing so well up until this past weekend. Hope that they could make this work despite her issues with sex died out in the face of harsh reality. Expecting Keith to love her and commit to her without a physical relationship had been stupid. She blinked back tears of self-pity.
“Imani, I know how this must have looked, but nothing was going to happen.”
She glared at him. “You have her lipstick on your face.” He dragged a rough hand across his lips. “I knew this was a mistake from the beginning. I knew you wouldn’t be able to handle this. Consider this experiment over.” She grabbed the doorknob and turned it. Keith stopped her, his hand closing around her wrist in an implacable grip. The other slammed into the door, keeping it closed. His naked and wet chest pressed into her back. When he growled, she could feel the vibrations in her chest. Her nipples perked at the tingling sensation.
“Imani, stop it.” He spun her to face him. “Am I horny? Hell, yes. But the only woman I want is you.” He pressed into her and the thick bar of his erection imprinted itself onto her belly. “The only legs I want to spread are yours.” He took her hand and molded the fingers over his cock. His flesh thickened and pulsed in her palm. “This is yours whenever you want it. All you have to do is take it.”
She gasped. Keith was never this forward, never so commanding. She should hate it. How dare he kiss another woman and then turn around and attempt to seduce her? Yet her legs trembled, her heart thumped, and her pussy fluttered. Damn, she wanted him. And not just kisses, cuddling or petting. She wanted him to fuck her.
Fear paralyzed her. Suppose it was bad? Once she opened that door, he’d expect them to continue having sex. It would ruin anything they had.
Tears filled her eyes as she realized that her options for keeping him were slim. Either she let him fuck her or she let him fuck other women. She couldn’t realistically expect him to remain celibate forever. But she didn’t want to be with an unfaithful man, either.
She needed to get away from him before she surrendered to this moment of weakness. He smelled delicious. Urges she thought long dead made her heart race. The heat of his erection burned her, creating a sizzling distraction, impeding clear thinking. It wouldn’t take much for him to convince her to give in to him. “I-I need…”
“What do you need? Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you.”
She moaned. Why did he have to be so damn sexy? She wrapped her arms around the strong column of his neck and slid her fingers into the wet curls at the nape of his neck. Her lips parted for him and she pulled him down for a kiss. It was no tentative kiss. Keith quickly took control. His tongue entered her mouth in a slick slide. He wrapped her in his arms, crushing her to him and rocking his hips into hers. She gasped and he deepened the kiss further. She felt utterly owned and possessed. By a kiss.
Imani didn’t protest as he undid the buttons to her blouse to reveal her bra. She didn’t have time to be embarrassed over the simplicity of it. Keith shoved her shirt down her shoulders and attacked the clasp at her back. He filled his hands with her breasts. His deep groan of masculine appreciation made her belly clench. Each tug of her tight nipples made her gasp, but no sound escaped her. Keith ate her gasps, swallowing them in his voracious kisses.
His hands moved down her body, roughly caressing the curves of her hips before unfastening her jeans. He pushed until they fell to her ankles and she was able to step free of them. Her movements were awkward since he didn’t break the kiss. She’d barely freed her left foot when he pulled her back into his warm embrace. Only her panties and his towel separated them. He curved his hands over her ass and squeezed.
She ran her hands down the corded muscles of his back, stopping at the white terry cloth. Her fingers curled under the material, prepared to remove it.
Keith stopped her. He held her forearms and dropped his forehead to hers. His eyes were narrowed slits, but what she could make out of his irises seemed to glow. “Imani, are you sure about this?” His voice was deep and his breathing ragged. “We don’t have to…go all the way. You don’t have to do this. I’m yours. I can wait for you.”
“Then why am I almost naked?”
He stroked her cheek with the backs of his fingers. “I can wait to fuck you.” He smiled. “But I admit I want to eat you alive, toss your legs over my shoulders and bury my tongue as deep into your pussy as I can get it.”
Imani swallowed. She wasn’t sure what to make of this new Keith. He was the same, yet more elemental, and much more raw. “What’s come over you?”
“Nothing. I’ve wanted you for months. I’ve tried to hide it, for you. I didn’t want to pressure you. That was our deal, remember?”
She bit her lip. “It’s time to renegotiate.” She gave the towel a yank and it fell to the floor. Her mouth dropped open at his size. “
Oh, my…”
Keith cut her off with a kiss. He maneuvered them through the house to his bedroom. “Get on the bed.” She lay on her back in the middle of the king-sized bed. His eyes were hot rays of neon blue as they scoped out her body, pausing at her breasts before flowing down her belly. “You’re beautiful.” He fisted his cock, stroking the thick length from base to tip until a pearl of moisture pooled at the top. She licked her lips and he groaned. “Take your panties off.”
She lifted her hips and wiggled them down and off. Keith crawled up her body, making her feel like his prey. He settled himself over her, one thigh between hers, his erection pressed into her side. Imani couldn’t help tensing. What would happen now? Would this be over in seconds? Or did he plan to draw this out forever?
She enjoyed his kisses but the rest of this was a big question mark. So far, she had to admit he had her excited and eager for his touch. But they’d never gone this far before.
Keith started with kisses to her forehead. “So beautiful,” he whispered as he pecked his way down her nose and over her eyelids before claiming her mouth in a deep drugging kiss. “Going to kiss you all over,” he murmured as he buried his face in her neck. “Bury my tongue between your thighs, taste your cream, suck your little clit until you’re crying my name.”
She felt herself grow wetter at his words. He moved down, his lips trailing over her collarbone. Licking a line between her breasts, he cupped them with his hands, his thumbs flicking the tips until she was arching her back. He swirled his tongue around both of her nipples before going back to the first breast and suckling. Imani’s toes curled. Heat unfurled in her lower belly. She’d never enjoyed a man’s attentions to her breasts. All that groping and gnawing had always been a turn off. Who knew it could be like this? She buried her fingers in his hair to encourage him. She eagerly offered him her other breast when he released the first.
She emitted a disappointed whimper as he continued his downward trajectory. He chuckled before dipping his tongue in her belly button. His fingers parted her thighs wide. Imani nibbled her bottom lip as he stared at her. He inhaled as though savoring her fragrance. “God,” he groaned at last. “You don’t know how long I’ve wanted this pussy.” And then he was licking, kissing, and sucking her heat. Imani screamed. He hadn’t been lying about wanting to do this. He skewered her with his tongue and the fire in her belly exploded.
“Oh, God, Keith!” She pumped her hips up for more of his sinful loving. She was gone, utterly his, mindless to anything but the man growling and groaning between her thighs.
She was still in the throes of ecstasy when he came up. His eyes were blazing as he positioned her knees over his elbows, her thighs on either side of his. “You’re mine.” His voice was deep and guttural.
The head pierced her walls. She glanced down her body and she stopped him with a hand to his firm belly. He was bare. “Condom,” she said.
“No.”
She frowned and tried to twist free, but his hands tightened over hips. “What do you mean, no?”
He closed his eyes and took a breath. “We’re both clean. This is my pussy. No one else is going to fuck you ever again.”
Her eyes flashed down to his cock where the tip was buried in her body. “And your…”
“All yours,” he replied with no hesitation. “Forever.”
She nodded. It was all the encouragement that he needed. He thrust forward, filling her with half his cock. Her hands fisted in his sheets as her body stretched to accept him.
“That’s it,” he whispered. “Take it. Take my cock.”
Imani trembled. Who knew he would be so good at dirty talk? She watched as he thrust his hips back and forth until he was buried to the base. He swiveled his hips and she gasped. He grinned and it was the sexiest sight she’d ever seen. Damp black curls clung to his brow. He was so handsome, he belonged on the cover of a calendar geared towards hungry women. Imani moaned as he began to fuck her. The initial thrusts were slow slides that seemed to take him deeper within her depths while stretching her walls.
When he hit an especially sensitive spot, her breath hitched and her eyes flew to his. “Feel good?”
“Yes.” She cried out as he purposely thrust against that spot again. And again. She arched her back as waves of pleasure rolled up her belly to her breasts. Even the skin on her face tightened. “Oh, oh, please.” Sex had never felt like this, with this building passion.
“Your pussy looks so beautiful filled with my cock. Did I tell you how delicious you taste?” He came down over her so that her nipples rubbed his chest with every lunge of his hips. But he kept her knees bent back over his arms. “Love…fucking…you, Imani,” he groaned. He plunged deeper, harder and faster until she was calling his name. Her climax claimed her, seconds before he succumbed to his. She felt him swell inside her, followed by the hot splashes of his cum flooding her channel.
He sighed and rolled onto his back. “So,” he asked with a smile, “never again?”
“Arrogant bastard.” She punched him in the arm before snuggling into his side. Pulling the sheet over them, she pondered why sex with Keith was so different. Admittedly, the man had skills. And she was more attracted to him than she had been to any other man. Andre and Colin had felt safe to her. They were friends, but she’d never been over the moon about either of them.
Keith toyed with her hair, wrapping a spiral curl around his pointer finger. “I’m sorry that you saw that, earlier. Harlow and I have never been more than friends.”
Imani frowned. She didn’t want to talk about the other woman so soon after they’d shared something so incredible. Elation built in her chest. She could finally have a normal relationship.
“Lately, she’s gotten it into her head that we should be together. I’ve told her it’s not going to happen, but she’s refusing to accept it. I don’t want to end our friendship, but she’s giving me no other choice. She forced that kiss.”
“Shh.” She pressed her fingers to his lips. “I’m enjoying the afterglow.”
He kissed her fingertips and then laced his fingers with hers. “I just wanted you to know that you had no reason to be jealous or insecure about me.”
She raised herself on her elbow so that she could watch his face when she asked her next question. “You were going to dump me, weren’t you?”
He blinked. “No. Never. I would never… Imani, I love you.”
She stroked the hair back from his brow. “You don’t have to say that because we had sex.”
“Correction. We made love, and I do mean it. I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
Her fingers paused in his hair. “What?”
He closed his eyes and sighed. “Hell, I’m botching this. I planned to do this better.” He slid out of bed and went into his closet. Imani shamelessly enjoyed the view of his naked backside. After rummaging around, he came back to the bed with a small jewelry box in his hand. He opened the lid, revealing an emerald cut, two-carat yellow diamond. “I bought this the day I met you. I knew you were the one. Imani, will you marry me?”
She could see his uncertainty. But more importantly, she could see the love in his eyes. She didn’t think she could get any happier. “Yes,” she whispered and threw her arms around his neck. Tears of joy pricked the backs of her eyes. “I really thought….” She couldn’t continue. Her throat was tight and her voice was thick with emotion.
He ran a soothing hand down her back and kissed her forehead. “Imani, I’ll admit, I was an ass this weekend. I was having trouble with our deal. I love that you were so trusting of me, but you were really testing my limits. I knew we’d be fantastic together. Abstaining from sex, while no fun, was doable until the foreplay grew more intense. You were a drumstick dangled before a starving man.”
Imani wrinkled her nose. “A drumstick? Really? You couldn’t think of something less ordinary? Like cheesecake?”
“Forgive me. My blood flow has been otherwise diverted, with you pre
ssed up against me as you are.”
Sure enough, she could feel him hard and poking against her hip. “Oh.”
He tipped her chin up. Caressing her lips with his, he murmured, “I was thinking. Before could have been a fluke. I need to be absolutely certain you enjoy sex with me. Care to experiment?”
Chapter Eleven
Imani smoothed her slacks, sat down and then hopped up in the next instant as though his couch was on fire. She contorted her torso so that she could see the back of her body. Whatever she saw there must have satisfied her, because she sighed and marginally relaxed. She must have decided it was safer to stand, because she leaned against the arm of the sofa instead of sitting again.
Keith stood in the kitchen doorway as he observed his woman’s nervous behavior. His woman. He grinned. He could beat his chest with masculine pride. After making love twice more last night, he’d prepared dinner. He’d convinced her to spend the night, but she’d had to leave early in the morning in order to go to work. “What are you doing?”
“I don’t want to meet your brother and sister-in-law in wrinkled pants.”
“They’re going to love you. What has you so apprehensive?”
“They’re famous!”
He shrugged. “So am I, and you were very dismissive of me,” he reminded her.
She rolled her copper eyes. “That’s different. You wanted to get in my pants.”
“I wanted so much more than that,” he said, crossing the room to take her hand. “And I got it.” He kissed her finger above the engagement ring.
“Stop being so sweet. You’ll make me cry and I’ll ruin my mascara.”
Before he could respond, the doorbell rang. He kissed the top of Imani’s head. “Relax. They’re going to love you as much as I do.” He greeted Sean and Mystique with hugs and invited them inside. He’d texted Sean last night and reminded him to drive to his home and not to teleport. It was a wizardly skill that Sean had grown adept at. His busy schedule, not to mention Mystique’s, often kept them apart. Since meeting his mate, his brother’s interest in magic had grown, even though as a teen, Sean had shown little interest in magic. Acting was his first love. But for Keith, developing his skills as a witch had been his passion.
