Julia gasped the instant she felt his hands cupping her waist.
Lifting her without effort, Cortez placed her on the countertop and made quick work of the button-down bodice of the curve-hugging dress she was wearing. Once the tiny row of pearl buttons was undone, he brought his persuasive lips to the valley between her breasts. Strong teeth tugged at the front of her dress as it was pulled away to reveal her chest.
Cortez leaned back and studied the round, flawless dark globes with hungry eyes. He licked his lips before settling them to the tip of one mound. Closing his eyes, he savored the sweet, familiar taste of her skin.
Julia’s weak cry filled the kitchen when she felt the passionate nibbling on her nipples. She arched her back, pushing more of herself into Cortez’s hot mouth.
“Mmm…” Cortez moaned when he felt the slight movement. Pushing her dress off her shoulders, his fingers caressed her bare skin and pulled her even closer.
Shivers of delight danced along Julia’s spine and she gasped. Throwing her head back, she threw her doubts and caution and questions aside. She was sick of fighting and ready to take what she wanted.
Books by AlTonya Washington
Kimani Romance
A Lover’s Pretense
A Lover’s Mask
Pride and Consequence
Rival’s Desire
Hudson’s Crossing
The Doctor’s Private Visit
As Good as the First Time
Kimani Arabesque
Remember Love
Guarded Love
Finding Love Again
Love Scheme
A Lover’s Dream
ALTONYA WASHINGTON
has many titles; aside from Mom, her favorite is romance author. Crafting stories and characters that are sexy and engaging with a fair amount of mystery really keeps her busy. When AlTonya’s not writing, she works as a library assistant and as social secretary to an active son—a job that commands the bulk of her time. Visit her Web site at www.lovealtonya.com or e-mail her at [email protected].
As Good as the First Time
ALTONYA WASHINGTON
To the readers. I am continually blessed and motivated by your awesome support!
Dear Reader,
I hope that you’ll enjoy my latest super sexy effort. This time we’re jet-setting between Detroit and Los Angeles for what I hope you’ll find to be a romantically sensual treat.
I’m sure we’ve all wondered from time to time about the one who got away. Our heroine Julia Kelly is about to find out what happens when she puts her wondering into effect. The road is going to be a rocky one, but once you’ve met our hero Cortez Wallace, I think you’ll understand why she chooses to take it!
This story has gone through lots of changes since I first drafted it in 1998. That’s right! It was 1998 was when I first had the idea for Julia and her sinfully seductive ex. I’m proud to say that the characters have really evolved since that first draft. Additionally, the heat, intensity and edge that I love to bring to my stories is in full gear amidst the pages you’re about to begin.
So settle down, curl up and lose yourself in As Good as the First Time.
Enjoy the romance,
Al
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Prologue
Detroit, 2002
“How’d you get into this thing?”
“Don’t you know? You were watching me get dressed the entire time.”
“I was more concerned with getting you out of it.”
“I remember.”
The soft whispers of suggestive conversation drifted into silence. Julia Kelly wound her slender arms around Cortez Wallace’s neck and met the lustful thrusts of his tongue inside her mouth with her own brand of sweet pleasure. Once again, the elevator car was filled with only the sounds of feminine cries of delight and the unmistakable moans of male satisfaction.
Cortez groaned each time her tongue swirled around his own and he hoisted her securely against his athletic frame. Caught up in their passion, the couple never wondered when—or even if—anyone would encroach upon their lovers’ tryst. After all, an elevator wasn’t the most private of places. They thrived as much upon the possibility of discovery as they did on the enjoyment of privacy.
Cortez held Julia trapped in one corner of the car, tearing his mouth from hers to settle it at the pulse point of her throat. He felt her seeking hands at the belt around his black trousers and folded his larger hands over hers when she sought to tug down his zipper.
“Haven’t you had enough of having fun in public?” Cortez asked, taking hold of her wrists and pressing them near her sides against the paneled elevator walls. “Have you?” Julia teased, tugging her bottom lip between her teeth. She ground her body against him and felt the stiff muscle straining against his pants. “Besides, your mother got what she deserved,” she added, recalling Cora Wallace’s look of horror and distaste when she walked in on Cortez and Julia “carrying on” in one of the deserted corridors of the restaurant where they’d all met for dinner that evening. A shuddery moan lilted from Julia’s throat when his lips fastened to her earlobe and he lightly suckled.
“Give her a break,” Cortez chided, his big hands cupping Julia’s bottom to settle her more snugly against him.
“Mmm,” Julia sighed, wrapping her long, dark legs around his waist. “She only came to spy on us, you know,” Julia said. “She had absolutely no business in that part of the restaurant.” Julia’s lashes fluttered as Cortez’s hand disappeared inside the scooping bodice of her gown to fondle an aching nipple.
His handsome caramel-toned face followed the path of his hand as he nuzzled into her ample boson. “Julia, I really don’t want to discuss my mother just now.” His tone was matter-of-fact. “In fact, I don’t want to discuss at all,” he decided, just as his mouth captured the nipple that wasn’t being manipulated by his fingers.
Julia had no qualms. Airily, she acknowledged for the hundredth time that she’d never have Cora Wallace’s approval no matter what she did.
Julia and Cortez managed to set their clothes right before the elevator opened on the floor to the apartment they shared. The front door opened to them kissing again madly. Cortez kicked the door shut while Julia worked on the collar of the stark white shirt he wore with his tux. He’d undone his tie long ago and cast it to the backseat of his Pathfinder.
Their clothes flew all over the living room amidst their frenzied disrobing. Julia raked her French tips across the light beard Cortez had taken to wearing over the last several months.
“Tsk, tsk. I was just getting used to this,” she lamented, trailing her tongue across the sleek black whiskers covering his square jaw. “Now you’ll have to let it go for the job,” she said, referring to his first anchor position at WPDM-TV.
The promotion was cause for the celebratory dinner earlier that night. Much of Cortez’s family was in attendance. Julia had hoped her family would join the celebration, as well. She’d been promptly informed that they would just as soon break bread with a pack of rabid wolves than dine with the uppity Wallace clan.
Un
like the humble presence Julia’s family held in the Detroit area, Cortez’s family was quite well-known. Aside from Cortez’s prominence as the area’s most popular broadcaster (and most sought after bachelor), his brother, Correll Wallace, owned a high-profile advertising agency. Correll began his business with inheritance money from his and Cortez’s deceased father. Andre Wallace’s array of car dealerships across the Motor City earned him a highly prominent and respected name.
“I don’t plan on letting it go,” Cortez said, pushing Julia’s ankle-length curve-tugging black gown down over her hips. “It’s why I got the job.”
“Liar,” Julia accused playfully, splaying her hands across the rigid pack of muscles lining his abdomen.
“I can prove it. Delia told me she loved it.”
“Oh Delia,” Julia sighed, repeating the name of the only female executive at the station. “I’m not surprised. She just wants to sleep with you.”
“Shame on you, talkin’ that way about our superior,” Cortez teased, now kneeling before her and removing her black lace panties with his teeth.
Julia let out a delighted shriek when his tongue barely brushed the throbbing flesh of her femininity. “Mmm…my superior—now your equal,” she managed to correct him.
Cortez rested his forehead against her thigh for a moment before he stood. “You deserve to be right next to me in that broadcast booth,” he said as he pulled her tightly against him.
Julia shook her head, sending locks of her glossy dark bob into her face. “I prefer behind-the-scenes work,” she said, referring to her position as production assistant for the station where she’d worked alongside Cortez before his promotion. “I don’t think I’m cut out to work in front of the camera.”
“With this face?” Cortez countered, giving her a slight shake. “And if they could see this body…” he started, his deep brown eyes raking past her collarbone before he hefted her against his bare chest. “In front of a camera is exactly where you should be. There, or walking down an aisle to become my wife.”
Julia’s gaze fell. “Corky…”
He nodded, already knowing what she was thinking. He’d asked more than a few times during the four years they’d lived together. She’d always refused, saying she liked them the way they were. He’d argued against her resistance while she continued to resist. Eventually he realized he loved her too much to make a real issue out of it.
“Like I said, in front of the camera, nowhere else.” He returned the lightness to their banter.
“Oh, Corky,” Julia sighed playfully, relief filling her eyes when they fixed on the seductive curve of his mouth, “when will you anchor types realize that the power is behind the lights?”
Cortez began to knead her bottom in his wide palms.
“Power, huh?” he probed.
“Mmm, hmm that’s what I want—what I crave.”
“Only at the station?”
Julia cupped the back of his head and smoothed her fingers across his soft hair where it tapered at his neck. “Only everywhere,” she clarified with a devilish grin.
Words were unnecessary and undesired after that. The heated talking and caressing resumed. Julia met the force and savagery of his kiss with her own special fire. The muscles flexed involuntarily in Cortez’s arms as he held her close and headed toward their bedroom.
Much later in the night, Julia awoke and stretched languidly. She was completely satisfied, as she always was after making love with Cortez. In the distance, however, she could hear voices, and they were angry ones. Whipping back the covers, Julia grabbed her robe from an armchair and headed out of the bedroom. She found Cortez in the living room with Correll Wallace. Under no circumstances would she have eavesdropped, except for the fact that Cortez and his older brother never argued. Then she heard her name in the midst of the heated conversation.
“…do you know how upset she was after seeing that?”
“What the hell was she doing there anyway?”
Correll fixed his brother with an exasperated look. Clearly he felt their mother’s snooping was justified in light of what she’d walked in on between Cortez and Julia. “It doesn’t matter where Ma was. You and your girl should learn how to keep your…love scenes private.”
“Well, here we are in our own home, so why don’t you go run and tell Ma that?” Cortez snapped, strolling toward the front door.
Correll intended to have his say. “She’s beneath you, man,” he said in the coolest of tones.
Cortez clenched his jaw, feeling his simmering temper heat to boil. “Get out, Correll,” he warned.
“She’s got no restraint. She does what she wants when she wants and doesn’t care who sees it.”
“Correll—”
“Hell, Tez, she’s almost straight out of the projects. She didn’t even attend a real college—put herself through some night school—”
“And came out with a degree just as good as ours,” Cortez roared, shoving his hands into the deep pockets of his black sleep pants. “You forget she’s the golden girl at the station. If they could get away with it, they wouldn’t even hire other production assistants. She’s that damn good at her job.”
“It’s her actions, man,” Correll persisted, folding his arms over the front of his now slightly wrinkled tuxedo jacket. “Out in a restaurant messin’ around like that? She’s got no self-control, Tez.”
“She wasn’t there alone,” Cortez reminded his brother.
Correll seemed happy he’d broached the subject, “Well let’s talk about that, too. Hell, man, you’re about to be very well-known. You can’t afford someone like her giving you that sort of reputation.”
Cortez stepped away from the front door, his dark eyes narrowed to thin slits. “What reputation?” he asked, whispering purposefully.
“The kind she’s had since high school. You think a woman who looks like that isn’t getting offers from every fool out there? And I’ll bet she’s taking as many as she can get.”
Cortez closed the distance between himself and Correll. “Correll, you’d better leave on your own now or I swear you won’t be able to,” he threatened, glaring deep into his brother’s eyes.
Correll blinked, seeing something in his sibling’s expression that made him reconsider his next words. “Tez, you know what I’m talking about here.”
“I know what Ma’s been fillin’ your head with. Hell, you sound just like her. Reputation?” Cortez’s stare narrowed even farther. “Why? Because she’s never had a problem talking to a man with honesty and sensibility instead of letting him think her IQ’s smaller than her breast size?”
Correll broke eye contact with his brother, knowing his accusations were unfounded. Julia was practically obsessed with Cortez. Still, that wouldn’t make him take back what he’d just said. “Watch her, Tez,” he added with a cold stare.
“You come to me with this crap about Julia again and we never see each other again, simple as that,” Cortez promised, walking toward the door, which he then held open for Correll.
Julia had lost sight of Cortez and his brother minutes ago. Her eyes were too blurred by tears to see anything properly. Hearing Correll Wallace’s words wasn’t the cause of her tears—his mother had said things far uglier. Of course, the outbursts were always spoken out of Cortez’s presence.
Seeing him standing there, hearing all those terrible opinions—that she could not take. Correll was right about one thing: Cortez didn’t need that sort of drama if he was going to be in the public eye. She would always be Julia Kelly. Julia Kelly from the wrong income bracket. Julia Kelly who went to night school instead of a great HBCU. Julia Kelly who carried on in restaurant corridors. Julia Kelly—the kind of woman no mother wanted her son involved with.
She’d hurried back to bed by the time Cortez slammed the door behind his brother. She pretended to be asleep when he slid into bed next to her. Once Cortez finally drifted off to sleep, she turned to look at him, taking in the handsome, deep caramel-toned face that wou
ld soon be gracing televisions all over Detroit. Swallowing a sob, she leaned close to brush her lips across his temple. She dreaded what she was about to do, but she needed to do it just the same.
Chapter 1
Detroit, 2010
Cortez Wallace had changed drastically in the last eight years. He’d gone from an unknown entity to one of the most powerful and respected anchors in the industry. True, his journalistic prowess helped him garner a fair share of the accolades. But everyone knew his sinfully handsome features were the real asset. Women blatantly admitted that a man like Cortez Wallace made even the most heinous news story a pleasure to hear.
That morning, however, Cortez was feeling anything but pleasure. A scowl contorted his face as he bounded down the corridor to his office suite. In his eight years working for WPDM, he’d never been so eager to leave.
Cortez’s assistant, Sara McBride, saw her boss on his way down the hall, and her smile widened with a syrupy sweetness that gained in intensity the closer he came to her desk.
“There he is,” Sara sang, only to earn a sinister glare from the man who stormed past her.
Cortez stopped just before entering his office. Hands braced on either side of the doorway, he bowed his head. “Sara, come in here, please,” he said without turning to look at her.
Sara’s smile disappeared in a flash. She bit her lip while standing up to do as he’d asked.
“What’s going on around here?” he demanded to know, rolling up the sleeves of his midnight blue shirt to reveal muscular forearms. “I mean, I feel like I’m on a sugar high with everybody being so sweet to me. What? Have I been given six months to live and everyone knows but me?”
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