Don’t laugh. Just respond normally. “Yes, you may.” You go, girl! Mission accomplished!
His hands fit perfectly around her waist just as hers did around his neck. She leaned her head against his chest as they began to sway to the song.
“I’ve missed you,” he said.
She smiled. “You just saw me last night.”
“I had to share you with my mom,” he said. “And everyone knows Felicia leads the conversation whenever she’s in the room.”
“I enjoyed talking to your mom. She reminds me a lot of my grandmother.”
“Does your grandmother still live in Miami?”
“She sure does.” Nicole thought about her grandmother. “My grandfather passed away about ten years ago, and it took my gran a while to get over his passing. Now, she’s dating a guy she met in one of her cooking classes.”
“Why do I get the feeling that you’re a lot like your gran?”
“I am and she’s my world...” Her voice trailed off as she thought of her mom. Please don’t ask me about my mom, she thought. Not tonight.
“You feel so good,” Kendrick said, bringing her closer to him. “I’m not sure dancing with you in public was such a good idea.”
Nicole lifted her head to meet his gaze. “Why is that?”
He studied her eyes. “I’d say that to the outside eye, it probably looks like we’re completely engrossed in one another right now.”
She slowly exhaled. “For you, is that far from the truth?” He was so close, his minty breath tickled her lips.
“Quite the opposite, LeBlanc,” he said in a rugged voice. “Not only am I completely engrossed in you, but I’m beyond intrigued and fascinated to peel back more of your layers.”
She swallowed the lump in her throat. “You’ve had my permission to peel back those layers since the day we met.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “Why do I get the feeling we’re talking about more than getting to know one another on a psychological level?”
Nicole pulled his ear closer to her mouth. “That’s because we’ve done a lot of talking. Reaching a psychological euphoria wasn’t exactly on my mind tonight.”
Kendrick groaned. “You shouldn’t have said that.”
She shivered. Don’t laugh. Don’t laugh. A couple seconds later, she laughed.
Kendrick squinted his eyes. “Why do you keep laughing at me?”
Because you make me nervous, and when I’m nervous, I laugh. And once the crazy laughter starts, it’s hard to cut off. Instead of explaining that, she laughed again.
“I have an idea,” he said as he led her out a side door of the ballroom. He walked with urgency, yet, he kept a normal pace. The sexual tension crackling around them was at an all-time high, neither speaking as Kendrick opened door after door of meeting rooms that were around the corner from the ballroom.
The last door on the left was supposedly what he was looking for. He pulled her through the door, shutting it behind them. Nicole backed into the wall, curious to see where this was going.
“Why are we here?” she asked.
“I think you know.” He studied her eyes. “I wanted to get you all to myself without any interruptions.”
“Oh.” Nicole shuffled from one heel to the other, reminding herself to breathe. However, the longer he watched her. Observed her. The more nervous energy she had. On cue, she laughed again.
“What did I tell you about laughing at me?”
“I can’t help it,” Nicole said. “When I find something funny, I laugh about it.”
“So you find me funny?”
“In a way, yes, I do,” she said.
“Well, let me refresh your memory about what I said earlier.” Kendrick leaned closer, placing his arms on either side of her. “Before we started dancing, I warned you that the next time you laughed at me, I would do something to wipe the smile from your face.”
Nicole took a deep breath. “I think you’re all talk, and I’m tired of talking.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You’re tired of talking?”
“Sure am,” she said with more confidence than she felt. “And if you’re trying to make me nervous, it’s not going to work.”
His lips curled to the side in a sexy smirk, and his eyes darkened even more. “Nicole, when you look back at this moment, I want you to remember how you feel right now. Remember how my arms felt holding you hostage in your place.” His mouth got closer to her neck, but he didn’t kiss her. “Remember how my breath felt as it tickled the dark-brown curls resting on your neck.”
By now, she was reminding herself how to breathe, but she was doing a terrible job. Her goal had been to take the flirting they had been doing since they met to another level. Yeah, maybe she had been trying to break his control, but who wouldn’t with a guy who looked as sexy as Kendrick?
His mouth paused right in front of hers. “But mainly, I want you to remember that I gave you fair warning that if you pushed me to this point, I was damn sure gonna to push back.”
Nicole gasped, unable to speak. She didn’t see the next move coming until her feet were off the ground.
Chapter 8
Kendrick dragged his lips to hers while he lifted her off the ground. An empty meeting room in a crowded hotel wasn’t exactly ideal for what he had in mind, but he was past the point of waiting.
When he reached the table in the middle of the room, he gently placed her on top of it, mentally thanking the designers of the room for putting dim lights along the walls. It wasn’t that he needed illumination for what he planned on doing, but he didn’t want to miss a moment, and his eyes hadn’t adjusted in the darkness yet.
He ran his hands up and down her thick thighs while her hands gripped his neck even harder. Damn, she kisses with so much passion. It was something he’d already experienced from her, but it caught him off guard nonetheless. If he kept on kissing her, he’d get too lost to continue with his plan.
His lips left hers and continued down her collarbone, marking a path to her plump breasts and that tattoo he liked so much.
“It’s a scorpion,” he stated right before he placed a kiss on it.
“It is,” she said breathlessly. “I’m a Scorpio.”
“That explains so much,” he said before bringing his lips back to hers. After a few more seconds, he lifted his head so that he could look her in the eyes. “Are you game to see what I want to do next?” If she had any objections, he would stop right now.
He watched her eyes darken in the dim lighting. “I’m game,” she said, pulling him in for another kiss. Their tongues intertwined, each stroke eliciting more passion and promise.
Once again, Kendrick left her lips, leaving a trail of kisses on her collarbone and breasts. Slowly, he eased the fabric of her dress up her thighs until it was scrunched around her waist. He kissed the insides of her thighs in a way that had Nicole panting on the table.
“I got you,” he said when she shivered as he got closer to his point of interest. When his hands found her panties, he began sliding them down her legs. “Want me to stop?” he asked.
“Hell, no,” she said in a clear voice. “Don’t stop.”
When her panties were removed, he ran his fingers up and down her core, stopping at the part he knew would drive her crazy with need. Lowering his head, he smiled at the way her knees each fell to the side in anticipation.
I could stay like this forever, he thought as he positioned himself in between both thighs. “I’ve been dying to know how you taste.” He flicked his tongue over her nub. Nicole bucked off the table just as he hoped she would.
Kendrick placed his hands under both her butt cheeks and suckled the sensitive nub before licking her with long languid strokes. In the back of his mind he still remembered his golden rule about not dating anyone he worked with, but he could no longer restrain himsel
f when he was around Nicole.
And it wasn’t just because she was drop-dead gorgeous with her creamy brown skin, soft beautiful curls, sexy tats and lips he couldn’t stop kissing. A huge reason why it was so hard for him to stay away was that he couldn’t deny how well they meshed together. They exuded the same vibes. Talking to one another was easy and not forced at all. With Nicole, he felt like he could be himself, and they had more in common than he’d had with anyone he’d dated in the past.
You should be dating her. Despite how much he liked Nicole, they currently weren’t committed to each other. He hadn’t even flirted with another woman since he’d met Nicole, much less go out. However, imagining her dating anyone was a thought he didn’t even want to think about. Being around her was reminding him of what he’d been missing the past couple years.
Kendrick had never been the type to date multiple women, but after getting his heart broken one too many times, he’d begun to think that not committing was exactly what he should to be doing. The problem with not committing to one woman meant he would never find that rare connection or chemistry with anyone.
In a lot of ways, he used his black book as a shield to guard his heart. If he went into the situation with eyes wide open, then he wouldn’t be blindsided. There was no one in his black book with whom he wanted to be in a relationship, and therefore he’d never gotten attached.
You’re growing attached to the woman who is moaning and clenching your head right now. He’d liked Nicole so much when he met her, he never even put her number in his black book. She’d gotten inserted straight into his phone contacts. You should have known then she was different, my dude.
Nicole adjusted her legs in a way that let him know she was close. It took a few seconds for him to realize she was scooting away from his mouth. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
Glazed over eyes met his. “It’s been so long... It feels so good... I can’t take it.”
He smirked. “How long has it been?”
“Um, I don’t know. One year. Maybe two. Maybe more. I didn’t keep count.”
Nicole was so intuitive and in touch with her body, he highly doubted she didn’t remember, but he wouldn’t give her a hard time about it.
“Let’s fix that.” Encircling her ankle with his hand, he pulled her back to his awaiting mouth, continuing his strokes quicker than before.
“Kendrick, oh, my... It’s... I’m going to...”
He knew what she was trying to say, and he couldn’t deny that it was music to his ears. Nicole bucked her hips against his mouth again, meeting him lick for lick. Without warning, he added two fingers to the mix as his mouth stayed fixated on her nub.
“Oh, shit.” Expletives rang from her mouth like a sexy song of passion, mixing with her moans and serenading his ears in a way he knew would be branded in his mind for a long time. When she finally released her orgasm, Kendrick was glad that all the other meeting rooms along the hallway were empty. He had no doubt that someone would have heard had they been occupied.
Kendrick only lowered her back to the table when he’d made sure he didn’t leave one last drop. He wasn’t exactly sure what he expected Nicole to say or do next, but pulling down her dress, getting off the table and gently pushing his back to the wall was not what he thought would happen.
* * *
There weren’t many times that Nicole would completely disregard her expensive dress and rough carpeted floor to get on her knees, but tonight was that night.
She didn’t even have the words to express what Kendrick had just done to her. She was still shivering with after effects of her orgasm but being in a public place meant time was limited, so she needed to make the next move.
“You think they have cameras in here?” she asked as she began to slide down his body to the floor.
His eyes grew big. “I don’t... I don’t know. Do you want to leave?”
“Not a chance,” she said as she began unbuttoning his pants. His shaft was straining against his boxers. Her mouth watered at the sight.
“You don’t have to do this,” he said. “Like I said, I was dying to taste you, but I didn’t expect anything in return.”
Nicole smiled. “What if I’ve been dying to taste you just as bad?” She lowered his boxers and took him in her hands, relishing in the size of him. Oh, this is going to be good. She quickly licked his tip in preparation. When she looked up at him, his eyes were glued to her movements, so she licked it again.
Kendrick threw his head back against the wall. “That shit was sexy as hell.”
Nicole slowly lowered her mouth over him inch by inch, breathing in a way that expanded her throat to take him in as much as possible. Once she had him in as far as he would go, she began rolling her tongue up and down his shaft.
She heard noise on the other side of the door, but ignored it. After the mind-blowing orgasm she’d just experienced, she wanted Kendrick to feel just as good.
She fondled him in her hands in the same circular motion as her mouth and was rewarded with an animal-like groan from Kendrick.
“Your mouth feels amazing,” he said in a deep voice. One of the things that Nicole was starting to like more and more about Kendrick was the different levels of his deep baritone voice. Sure, lots of women were fans of men with deep voices, but to her, Kendrick’s took the cake.
The tone of his voice held purpose. Mystery. His voice was confident, yet vulnerable when needed. Strong, yet soft if he needed to whisper. Had he not chosen to work behind the scenes, Nicole was sure he could have been an actor with his good looks and swoon-worthy voice.
“Damn, Nicole.”
Two words. He’d only said two words to her, yet those words caused her to increase the intensity and speed of her tongue and hand strokes. His leg jerked, proving he was getting closer to his release. She briefly glanced up at him to see the emotions that crossed his face and noticed that he’d lifted his shirt, displaying a striking set of abs.
Beautiful, she thought. Beautiful wasn’t a term used on manly and rugged men such as Kendrick, but that’s exactly what he looked like right now. Typically, when a man was about to climax, they did what Nicole coined The Ugly Betty. Their eyes started rolling in the back of their head, their mouth grew slack, they started panting and then finally all those things merged together in a convulsing mess that was not attractive.
Maybe it wasn’t fair to say that Kendrick didn’t display any signs of The Ugly Betty since they still hadn’t had sex yet. However, right now, in this moment, his face was intense yet controlled, and to Nicole, he looked downright beautiful.
“Nicole, baby,” Kendrick said. “You should probably stop now. I’m getting close.”
Instead of heeding his warning, she increased her movements even more.
“Nicole.”
Not listening.
“Nicole.”
Still not listening.
“Shit. Nicole.”
Once again, not listening, but you’re too late anyway. Kendrick bucked off the wall, gripping the table for support. His eyes were wild and in disbelief that she hadn’t released him as he’d warned.
“That was... Amazing,” he said as he began to come down from his passionate high.
“Aren’t you glad I didn’t stop?” she teased.
“I’ll get you back,” he said, fixing his clothes. “Sooner than you think.”
Nicole adjusted her dress back and made sure that her curls weren’t in complete disarray. “Promises, promises.”
Kendrick laughed. “Let’s get out of her before anyone wonders where we’ve been.”
“Sounds good,” she said as she followed Kendrick. They both froze in their tracks the moment he opened the door.
“Uh, hi,” one of the two hotel employees standing there said. “We, uh, we heard noise in the meeting room, but once we figured out what it was, we
didn’t want to interrupt. We only waited because we have to set up the room tonight for an early-morning meeting.”
Nicole and Kendrick looked at each other, then back at the employees. “Um, we appreciate that.” Although Kendrick was the one who addressed them both, they were only looking at Nicole. On instinct, she smoothed out her already smooth dress and stepped a little closer to Kendrick.
“The room is yours,” Kendrick said to the young male employees before motioning for Nicole to walk ahead of him and back to the ballroom. “Try not to drool too much, boys.”
“You’re my hero,” one of them said.
“Adult goals,” the other said.
When Nicole and Kendrick turned the corner, they both let out the laughs they’d been holding in.
“Oh, my God, that was so embarrassing,” Nicole said. “How much do you think they heard?”
“Enough that they knew better than to interrupt.” Kendrick gave her a quick kiss. “And you look so damn good they didn’t know what to do with themselves. I was tempted to remind them to pick their jaws off the floor.”
As they walked back to the ballroom, they were both still laughing. “I guess I can get through the rest of the party now,” Nicole said.
“I’m not sure I can.” Kendrick leaned toward her ear. “If we get bored within the next hour, I’ll race you to the other end of the hotel to check for any more unlocked doors.”
A sly smile crossed Nicole’s face. “You’re on.”
Chapter 9
Nicole grabbed her purse and roller suitcase when her Uber driver pulled up in front of Bare Sophistication.
“Call me if you need anything,” Nicole said after she gave Kyra a quick hug and waved goodbye to the other employees.
“I have everything covered, and I want you to have a good time. But don’t worry, I’ll call if I need anything.”
At the mention of the word fun, she smiled. A couple nights ago, she’d had a lot of fun with Kendrick. Granted, she’d planned on acting on her attraction and not tiptoeing around it; however, she’d hadn’t thought that Kendrick would have had seduction plans of his own.
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