A Designed Affair

by Cheryl Barton

  Mike understood exactly what Jase was saying. Not only could his friendship with Duron be in jeopardy, but his relationship with the entire Knight family could be jeopardized if he decided to act on the thoughts floating around his head about Loren. He definitely wanted her, there was no doubt about that and if Jase could see it from watching them for a couple of hours, others would be able to tell as well. He needed to tame that.

  Jase was a good friend and Mike didn’t need to lie so he admitted defeat.

  “Thanks bruh. I admit I think she’s beautiful and I’ve found myself attracted to her much more than on a friendship basis. I also hear what you’re saying about Duron. He’s knows all of my secrets and he’s the one person I’ve told all of my stories to about women and there have been a whole lot of them. So I hear you and I’m going to keep my distance. I have to because too much would be at stake.”

  “I feel for you man. Just know that you are not the only one who has given Loren a second look.”

  As soon as the words left his mouth, Jase knew it was a mistake. Mike gave him a look that said he needed to rethink his next words.

  “Whoa Mike,” Jase smiled. “No need to act all aggressive with me. I’m not saying I have a thing for Loren or that I’m even remotely interested. I like my life too much to test Duron’s patience because he knows my secrets too man. I’m just saying, a man would have to be dead to not recognize how beautiful Loren is inside and out. Don’t do something temporarily stupid that could lead to permanent damage to family and friendships. “

  Mike understood his concern and turned away to glance at Loren again through the window of the office.

  “I see the wheels turning while you’re staring at her right now and I’ll say it again, you’re playing with fire. Duron would serve your head to you on a platter.”

  “Don’t worry about me, I’ve got this,” Mike answered.

  Jase wasn’t so sure.

  “Are you sure about that? Are you sure about your next move because I don’t think you are. Think about this, how many women have you been with in this past month? Better yet, how many in the past two weeks? On top of that, how many have you told Duron about? Now think what you told him about those encounters and ask yourself if you could see yourself telling him you have a think for his baby sister. It’s a death sentence. Back off Mike and just walk away.”

  He didn’t even bother answering Jase. His answers to those questions were not pleasant. If memory served him right, he’d had his last sexual encounter with a sex buddy of his over a week ago and he also remembered he told Duron the saucy details. He got one last glance at Loren looking beautiful sitting at the table waiting for him and he turned his attention back to Jase.

  “I hear you man. I hear you. I’m heading out to make sure Loren gets home okay. Thanks for the advice and the wake-up all. I’m officially backing off.”

  He gave Jase a handshake and headed back down to walk Loren to her car.

  Loren sat at the table anxious to leave. There was something about her being with Mike tonight that wasn’t sitting right with her. Maybe all those sleepless nights of thinking and dreaming about him were coming to the surface because the air between them tonight was unlike any other time they had been around each other.

  If she were not mistaken, when they were dancing, Mike had been making circles on her back in a caressing motion, which in her mind was a very intimate move. Maybe he did it without thinking, but it had an effect on her that got her body tingling with want, stronger than she’d ever remembered having before. Being so close to him, her body immediately reacted.

  The mixture of his cologne, how close he was holding her and the way he was crooning in her ear, had her thinking about sheets, nakedness, passion and screaming. She had managed to keep her body in check for most of the evening and neither of them made mention of the phone conversation they had that could have meant a few things. She was both hoping that he would and that he wouldn’t bring it up. She wanted to clear the air and let him know how attracted she was to him, but she didn’t want to be the only one who felt that way.

  Loren wasn’t sure they could go beyond friendship and keep the friendship intact. When he’d walked away to speak with Jase, she had hoped to get herself in check before he came back. She was doing a good job of it until she looked up and noticed him returning and those warm, fuzzy feelings returned. She needed to get out of the restaurant and away from Mike. Just thinking about him had her close to exploding. She needed release of the worse kind, but now was not the time to walk herself into trouble and then end up with Mike helping her with her release. She watched him return and the closer he got to her, the hotter the temperate in the room seemed to get. Her last thought before he reached her was that she was in trouble.

  Mike made his way back over to the table to get Loren.

  “Are you ready to go?” he asked.

  “Yes I am.”

  Mike helped Loren stand and placed her hand in the crook of his arm as they made their way through the crowd to the front entrance.

  “Where did you park your car?”

  She pointed across the street to the parking garage.

  “I’m parked on level three in the garage.”

  “Good, I’m in there on level one,” he said.

  Mike escorted Loren across the street and up the elevator to level three to her car.

  When they reached her car he said, “Drive me down to my car so that I can follow you home to your condo. I want to be sure you get in okay since it’s very late.”

  Loren nodded. He was a gentleman. Mike may be the biggest man whore she had ever met, but he was also the most respectful man when it came to how he treated a woman and took great care with her safety. When they reached Mike’s truck, Loren noticed his hesitation before reaching for the handle to get out.

  “Thanks again for a nice evening Mike. I’m not only talking about the business part either. I really enjoyed your company.”

  Mike turned so that he was completely facing Loren when he replied.

  “I enjoyed your company too. I also want to say one more time tonight that you look beautiful.”

  “Thank you,” she said blushing.

  After exiting her car, he leaned back in before shutting the door.

  “I’m going to follow you to your condo and when you’re inside with the door locked, send me a text so I’ll know everything is okay.”

  “Mike you don’t have to do that. My condo has paid security and they always make it a point to be sure the women are safely escorted to their doors.”

  “Just do it for me please?” he asked

  “Okay, I will.”

  Before he shut the door, Loren thanked him again and then he was gone.

  True to his word, he followed her to her building and when she was safely locked inside her unit, she sent him a text letting him know she was in. From her living room window on the fifth floor, she could see him drive off. She was finally able to exhale and ask herself, what had happened tonight?

  Chapter 5

  Loren didn’t get much sleep following her evening out with Mike. He had such confidence about himself and Loren knew he would be an assertive and very thorough lover as well. At first she couldn’t get to sleep because she had a few websites she wanted to check out for some ideas for his house. She had been up well into the middle of the night doing that and she still couldn’t get to sleep as her body would not let her forget about the close contact she had with Mike on the dance floor. Her thoughts had drifted so far off to the night before that she almost missed hearing her phone ringing. Seeing it was Taija, one of her friends, she answered.

  “Hey Taija.”

  “Hey Loren. I hope it’s not too early to call you.”

  “No not at all. I’ve been up for a while. I was going to give you a call later today anyway to see how you were. Also, so many people have been contacting me since the auction saying that they had a great time and the ladies who won bachelors have been ravin
g about the great dinner dates they’ve had. We never did get a chance to talk about how yours went with my brother. I’ve been so busy with work since then that I haven’t had a chance to touch base with you.”

  “That’s why I was calling you too. It was incredible and your brother is a great guy. We’ve been hanging out a little since then and I really like him. I hope you don’t mind or find that awkward or anything.”

  Loren laughed at Taija’s comment. Why would she mind?

  “Of course not. Do you girl. My brother is a great guy and I’m happy things turned out good. I could tell he was really into you the night of the bachelor auction. Have fun Taija.”

  “Whew, I’m glad you said that because I wasn’t sure if you would be okay with us continuing to see each other or not. I just wanted you to know. Just to mention again, I had a wonderful time with Duron. Well I won’t keep you long. Thanks again for helping me with the unpacking and decorating I’ve already done. The place looks great. I’ll give you a call soon.”

  After they hung up, Loren patted herself on the back. The bachelor auction this year was a major success. Between her sorority work, her charity work, her business and family stuff, Loren’s free time was pretty much non-existent. Real personal time was all but non-existent for her. Thinking about personal time had her thinking once again about her last failed relationship. She hated when she couldn’t seem to stop revisiting that awful time in her life. She had not had a relationship since her involvement with Sam Wilson.

  He had been the love of her life at one time. They had met her junior year in undergraduate school at Spellman and had been together off and on until her graduation from graduate school when they finally parted ways. It was a tough breakup for Loren. Sam had shown her his true colors when she discovered he was seeing other women while in a relationship with her. They weren’t just dating, but were in what she thought, was a one on one, serious relationship. He obviously had other ideas of what that meant. Not only did the relationship end horribly, but she then discovered that he’d started seeing a woman she considered a very good friend.

  Her brother Duron mentioned, when first met Sam, that there was something about him that he didn’t like. Duron never trusted him. He said Sam was too slick and always seemed to be hiding something. They didn’t know much about his background and he had no family to speak of; no connection to anyone. That automatically set off warning bells with her brother, but Loren was already in love with the man he showed to her every day. At the time that was enough for her. Now that she was older, more mature and a lot wiser, she expected more and she paid attention more.

  For now, she was happy casually dating and taking the time to grow her business. Casual dating for her didn’t mean sex, it simply meant having a man to do fun things with and hang out with. She hadn’t ventured into anything serious since her relationship with Sam and she wasn’t ready to do so yet.

  When she decided to go into business for herself, she knew that it would take a high level of commitment on her part and she was dedicated to seeing her business flourish. If she found a man that she could truly be into, she was willing to invest the time into him, but until then, she would settle for work, work and more work to occupy her time. Being so focused on work, it had actually taken her mind off of the fact that she was not intimately involved with anyone, that is until her evening with Mike the night before. He had stirred up desires she had kept under control. Even now, she knew a cold shower was in her near future if she had plans to lessen the effects of the night before when dreams of Mike and what he would look like naked and aroused had her remembering what it felt like being intimate. He made her miss it.

  Not being able to stand the heated thoughts any longer that were also turning her body into a furnace, she got up and headed for the shower. As she stripped, she knew that this would be a very, very cold shower.

  ~~~

  Mike woke up early Saturday morning with thoughts of Loren on his mind. He had come home the night before and his usual would have been to call a female friend for a nightcap, his word for uncomplicated sex. It’s how he often chose to unwind from his week. He didn’t do a lot of kicking it with women during the week because lots of time was spent building up the business. When the weekend came, he would call one of his beauties and before he could get the invitation out of his mouth, they would ask him what time should they be ready.

  Mike enjoyed having a very active sex life and he loved indulging as much as possible. Even if he wanted to slow things down, he wasn’t sure he could after having his libido stroked so often for so long,. He didn’t know what it meant to turn it off. Last night, however, was different. Last night was the first Friday in a long time that he didn’t pick up his phone to either visit one of his sex buddies or pick one up to join him at his condo. His cell phone had rung a few times from female friends who left messages wanting to know if they would get to see him. He surprised himself when he didn’t return the phone messages which were clearly invitations for sex. Instead, he ended up back at his condo alone and thinking about Loren all evening.

  Mike let his mind play tricks on him with many wonders of what would have happened if he had kissed Loren in the car, which is what they both wanted. He could tell by the look in her eyes that she wanted him to kiss her and he struggled with that decision. He wanted to badly, but he couldn’t get past the fact that Loren was Duron’s sister and he didn’t feel it would be right to give in to his body’s want for Loren when he knew what dangers would lay ahead for him down the road. Instead, he took what he considered the high road and walked away. He tried not to search Loren’s face for any disappointment when they spoke before he closed the door. All he knew was that he had done the right thing. At least he thought so at that moment. In the light of day now, he wished he had kissed her. That way the not kissing her would not have haunted him all night. He had been with enough women where he knew the look of a woman who desired him. He desired her as well, but he knew that desire was making them both forget the consequences of proceeding down that path.

  For the first time in his life, his past sexual escapades and his reputation with women had come back to bite him in the ass. If he knew nothing else, he knew that Loren knew of his playboy ways when it came to women.

  Being Duron’s sister, she knew first-hand the plethora of women he was known to have bedded over the years. He was also known for dating several women at one time. He knew that Loren was not the type of woman that he would categorize like that. He wouldn’t set her up to be hurt by him because he knew she deserved better than to be one of many women he was seeing. His body wanted her yes, but it was more than that. He had feelings that were growing for her and had been for some time.

  On a regular basis he tossed back and forth between the idea of telling her how he felt and staying quiet and the turmoil was wreaking havoc on his life. There were days when he didn’t know if he was coming or going when it came to Loren and the more he saw her and thought about her, the stronger his desire for her became. He knew he had to do something soon, but he wasn’t sure what that something was. He also knew until he figured it out, he would continue to be plagued by the dilemma every day.

  Frustration was not settling in and he knew only one thing could distract him and that was the gym. He got up, grabbed his gear and headed for the door.

  ~~~

  A week had gone by since Loren’s business dinner with Mike and he was still heavy on her mind. In the midst of that, she was excited that some art she had purchased had finally come in.

  Duron had asked her to purchase some wall art for his condo like she did for the house he purchased that she had also decorated. The art she purchased for him had finally come in and she needed to meet the delivery man from the gallery at Duron’s condo so that they could get it hung up. She knew that her brother was out at his house in Buckhead so she wouldn’t have to worry about disturbing him at the condo while she got the art in its place. This distraction would also allow her some time
to get her mind off of Mike. She wasn’t trying to fight the connection she was beginning to feel with him. She just didn’t want to make a fool of herself fawning all over him when she knew he wasn’t the one woman type that she was looking for.

  She even questioned herself all week about his interest in her. She second guessed whether he was interested especially after he failed to take advantage of the invitation she was mentally giving him to kiss her the night they’d had dinner, while they sat in her car. She felt the charge in the air and she knew he did as well. She assumed it was possible he still saw her as the little sister of his best friend and not as the woman she had become over the years.

  She cleared her mind and focused. The hour was getting late and she had lots to do before heading to the condo to meet the art delivery.

  ~~~

  Mike had been at the office for a few hours. It didn’t matter how much work he tried to delve into, he could not get his thoughts off of Loren and how sexy she looked the last time he’d seen her.

  She had not stopped in at the office to see her brother and other than a few email exchanges back and forth about his house in California, they had no other contact. He wanted to call her, but he fought that want. He didn’t know what he would say. They had left things at a point that he would call her when the time came for her to go out to Los Angeles and do a walk-through of his house to take photos of each room. Until then, he really didn’t have a reason to just call.

  Since it appeared concentration was the furthest thing from his mind, he decided to pack things up and head back up to his condo to get a little remaining work done there before meeting up with some friends later in the evening for drinks and some pool.