“You’re not worth my ass catching a case.”
Tess exhaled loudly as she unfolded herself back up. “Well, thank God for small favors.”
“I’m still pissed,” Corona warned.
“I know. I know. But if you just let me explain—”
“Look, the only reason I’m not beating you into the carpet is because Lyfe left New York.”
“Ehhh … “ Tess winced.
Corona Mae’s gaze sliced back over to her. “Ehhh, what?”
Knock. Knock. Knock.
“Weeeeeellll.” Tess headed over to the door. “There may have been a slight change in plan.” She opened the door and was swept up into Lyfe’s arms.
“Good afternoon, my lovely fiancée.” He had swung her around half of the room before he noticed she had company. “Corona.”
Chapter 16
Instant tears sprang into Corona’s eyes. Her fists unraveled as she bolted toward the door. “I gotta go,” she said and nearly plowed headlong into Hennessey’s chest. He quickly got out of the way.
“Wait, Corona Mae.” Lyfe released Tess. She was about to land on the floor when Hennessey turned and sprinted to catch her. “Corona, let me explain,” Lyfe continued, giving chase in the hallway.
Corona ignored him as she raced back to the elevator bay and hit the down button. But when it was clear that Lyfe would catch up to her before the elevator could arrive, she bolted toward the staircase. Lyfe just chased after her.
“Corona, will you please hold up? I just want to talk to you for a few minutes.”
“Well, I don’t want to talk to you, so you can just go back up to your … fiancée! I hope you two have a wonderful life together.” Why in the hell was she wearing heels? It was just a matter of time before …
Her heel clipped the edge of a step and the next thing she knew, she was flying and screaming. Her purse hit the ground and exploded across the stairwell landing. She was about to crash onto the concrete floor, when Lyfe’s steel grip suddenly grabbed her. Once she realized she was safe, she finally decided that it would be a good idea for her to give her lungs a rest.
Turning her upright and setting her back on her feet against a concrete wall Lyfe asked, “Are you all right?”
Panting, Corona bobbed her head but refused to meet his steady gaze. But she was very conscious of his warm, minty breath drifting across the shell of her ear.
“You know, that’s the second time I’ve had to catch you in less than twenty-four hours. I don’t remember you being so clumsy.”
“Clumsy?” Her eyes shot up toward his.
“Ah. Now you can look me in the eye.” He pushed up a smile.
The sight of his pearly whites had a devastating effect on her knees, and, for a couple of seconds, she feared that she was doomed to take another tumble. He was standing too close. She couldn’t breathe. Instinctively, she placed her hand against his chest in an attempt to push him back, but she may as well have been trying to shove an Army tank up a San Francisco hill.
Lyfe glanced down at her hand, particularly the diamond glittering on it. But then he reached down and moved her hand from the center of his stomach up to his heart, so that she could feel her effect on him.
Corona gasped at the hammering against her palm and tried to pull her hand back. Lyfe was having none of that and kept it in place. Then he sought and locked her gaze with his. “What are you doing?” she asked weakly.
“I’m letting you feel me.” And feel him she did. The power pounding against her hand, as well as the electricity crackling between them, was enough to turn the cold stairwell into a sweltering inferno. He slowly reached his other hand out and placed it over her heart.
“I see that we still have the same effect on each other.”
“But … we’re not the same people anymore,” she offered weakly.
“Aren’t we?” he challenged. “Is Captain Crunch still your favorite cereal? When you get upset, do you still throw on your favorite Mary J. Blige CD?”
She blinked.
“Are the New York Mets still your favorite baseball team? Is yellow still your favorite color? Do you still cry when you watch The Color Purple?”
Tears started to burn the back of Corona’s eyes. The realization that her fiancé didn’t know those small things about her hit hard.
“I bet you still love Pepsi over Coke, dancing in your underwear on Saturday mornings and … me,” he added, pressing her farther up against the wall.
“Wh-what?” She barely got the question out before her throat started to close up.
“I didn’t see it last night. Maybe I was too blinded by jealousy, but now … I’m convinced that you’re still in love with me.”
She couldn’t get herself to sputter out a denial right away. She helplessly watched a confident—or rather cocky—smile curl the corners of Lyfe’s lips. And still, words eluded her.
“I can’t believe I almost left here without getting what I came here for.”
Finally finding the power to swallow the lump in her throat, she rasped, “And what’s that?”
“You,” he said.
There was no hiding her heart’s wild pounding against his hand. In fact, she felt like she’d been completely stripped naked in that staircase, and she didn’t know what to do about it.
“I don’t think it even matters anymore why you ran. Maybe you were scared. Maybe you simply thought that we were just too young,” he said. “It doesn’t matter. All I want to know is how you feel now. At this very moment.”
She squirmed. “I—I—”
“Would you like me to kiss you?” He finally moved his hand from her heart, so that he could gently brush the side of her face. “I want to kiss you. I want to see if you taste as sweet as I remember.”
Corona melted. Lyfe had to withdraw his hand and wrap it around her waist so that she would remain on her feet.
“I won’t kiss you unless you say that it’s okay,” he said, leaning in closer.
Every muscle in her body morphed into a swarm of butterflies, and she was afraid that if she opened her mouth one would fly out. But her inability to talk didn’t distract Lyfe from his singular focus: her lips.
“Do you want me to kiss you, Corona Mae? Do you want to see if we still have that same magic we used to?”
A tear rolled off her thick lashes, but before it reached her cheek, Lyfe had absorbed it on the pad of his finger. “What’s this for? There’s no need for tears. I just want what I’ve always wanted—to make you happy. And if you say that that other man makes you happy, then I’m going to step off.”
Corona couldn’t even think of the man he was referring to.
“So what do you want me to do?”
Overwhelmed by the heat of his body, quivering with anticipation and curiosity, she whispered, “Kiss me.”
Chapter 17
The sexiest smile slid across Lyfe’s lips a fraction of a second before his head descended. The two seconds it took for their mouths to connect felt more like a lifetime, but the reward was well worth the wait. That underlying sweetness she remembered was still there, but there was also so much more.
More power.
More richness.
This was not a kiss of puppy love. This was a kiss of a confident man who knew how to do manly things.
They were weightless and suspended in what felt like an alternate time and place. In his arms, she was grace and beauty … and love. Just like that. It was as if there hadn’t been more than a dozen years since they’d been in each other’s arms—melting from each other’s kisses. At the heart … there was still a strong foundation of love.
There was no room for reason and reality at this moment. The past didn’t matter and tomorrow was just too far away for her to be concerned about. All that mattered was right here and right now.
In no time at all, she was returning his kiss with the same fierce hunger that he was trying to devour her with. When she heard a deep growl rumble from his chest, Corona felt a surge of p
ower course through her. Her ego couldn’t help but inflate at the realization that she still had power over him. She could do whatever she wanted with him, right here and right now. The question was whether she dared to take that leap.
Her mind tangled with this question until Lyfe tore his lips away from hers. He blazed a trail of fiery kisses across her jawbone and then down her long neck. Corona rasped as she sucked in some much needed oxygen. Maybe the air would help dispel her naughty thoughts.
No such luck.
Her hands splayed across his chest. Once again, she could feel his hammering heart against her palms. She was doing that to him—and she could do much more—if she dared.
Lyfe’s lips grazed the magic spot at the juncture of her neck and collarbone, and suddenly she had her answer. Corona jerked his shirt up from the waist of his pants, desperate to press flesh against flesh.
Once she had given the signal, Lyfe’s hand went to work as well. Suddenly the hem of her skirt flew up her firm thighs and cinched around her waist. Then his hands got busy caressing and squeezing her ass. A lethal dose of pheromones went straight to Corona’s head and the whole world tilted sideways.
When she got her hands underneath his shirt, she discovered a rippling six-pack, a V-cut hip and an astonishing broad, muscular chest that was as hard as his skin was soft.
A steady drip of honey soaked her panties. A half second later, Lyfe wrenched those to the corner of her thighs so that his fingers could dip inside. He wasted no time zeroing in on her pulsing clit, where the pads of his fingers performed a seductive twirl and dipped beneath the base.
“Ohh.” Corona dropped her head all the way back, giving his hot mouth permission to now slide down the valley of her breasts.
The moment his mouth latched onto her right nipple, an unbearable ache began to radiate through her entire body. She needed him. More than she’d ever needed anything in her entire life. Her hand raked down to the waist of his pants, where she fumbled with the button and zipper for what seemed like forever. But, in truth, it just took a few seconds for her to have what she’d been searching for pulsing in the palm of her hand.
Well, hello.
There had been a few more changes to Lyfe Alton over the years. Every inch of it good. Very good.
“What do you plan to do with that, Ms. Banks?” Lyfe asked, silkily. “Tell me.”
Corona could instantly think of a million things to do with him, and while she mulled those over she lazily slid her hands up and down his growing inches. She even took time to marvel at the intricate veins throbbing on its sides, and the fat mushroom head that was beginning to ooze with pre-cum.
Lyfe abandoned her breasts to pay homage to her left earlobe, where he could whisper, “I’ve missed you so much, Corona.” He nibbled on her lower lobe. “I’ve missed you so very much.” With a slight twist of his hips, he nudged his cock closer to her dripping pussy. “Have you missed me, too?”
“Yes,” Corona answered without hesitation.
“How much?” The tip of his cock brushed against her wet lips.
“More than you’ll ever know,” she admitted.
Lyfe pulled his head back so that he could stare into her eyes and see the truth. When he saw what he was looking for, he slanted his mouth over hers so that he could brand her with another scorching kiss.
Corona knew better than to have sex with no condom and standing in the middle of a public staircase with her panties jacked to the side. But reason and logic continued to leak out of her brain at a steady pace.
Hiking her left leg around his trim waist and dipping her right knee was enough to ease the tip of Lyfe’s dick into her honeyed walls.
Following her direction, Lyfe grabbed her other leg and pinned her to the wall. Gravity slid him in the rest of the way.
Air seeped out of Corona’s lips in a slow hiss while she tried to adjust to feeling him in the center of her belly—or at least, that’s how far it felt like he’d reached. Once she thought that she was ready, she locked her ankles behind his back and prepared herself for the ride of her life.
She didn’t have to wait long. From the very first stroke, Corona was lost. The mere exquisiteness of their joining was enough to send twin streams of tears pouring from her closed eyes.
“Oh, baby. I’ve missed you so much,” Lyfe moaned as he kissed away those same tears.
Corona dipped and rolled her hips, drawing him in even deeper and causing his breath to draw ragged.
“You’re mine … and you’ll always be mine.” His words and his body continued to brand her in ways one would think impossible. “Look at me, baby,” he urged.
It took several strokes for her to find the strength to flutter open her long lashes.
“I want you to know who is inside you—who has always been inside you.”
Her mouth sagged into an elongated “O” as his hips grinded harder to the left.
“You’ll never be rid of me, baby,” Lyfe panted. “You belong to me.” With that declaration, he slanted his mouth across hers and delved his hot tongue into her mouth where it danced and seduced her own.
Soon, small orgasmic quakes started trembling as far down as her toes, then they climbed toward her calves, knees and thighs. By the time the pressure started building in her clit she was squirming in his arms, trying to figure out how to prepare for something that felt like a tsunami heading her way. At long last, she just surrendered and took the force of her explosion head-on.
Corona tore her lips away and cried out. The sound magnified as it reverberated throughout the empty staircase.
“It’s freezing out here!” Amanda complained, racing down 34th Street behind Melody.
“Just hurry up,” Melody said, dodging patches of ice like a seasoned ballerina. “The faster we get there, the faster we can get out of the cold,” she told her best friends. After her aunt had hung up on her, Melody had called her grandparents, asked what hotel they were staying at and told them that she was on her way to come see them. They were ecstatic—they only had a phone relationship with their granddaughter since her mother never wanted to return to Georgia, and her grandparents could never afford to come to New York.
But it didn’t affect things too much. She usually talked to them every Sunday night, and in the last two years they had actually been able to see each other via the internet. Now that she had their hotel information, she had every intention of digging for more information about this Lyfe Alton character.
“I can’t feel my legs,” Carrie complained. “And I think my lashes are trying to freeze together.”
“Ohmigod, you two!” Melody rolled her eyes. “Just hurry up. We’re almost there.”
But even a few minutes felt like a lifetime in this blistering cold. Melody didn’t even care that, by the time they rushed into the lobby of the Four Seasons, she could no longer feel her face. She just made a beeline to the elevators.
“Will you wait up,” Amanda shouted. “What’s the hurry?”
“I don’t want Aunt Tess to leave.”
“I thought you were going to see your grandparents?” Carrie said.
“I will—but after I talk to Aunt Tess. I know if I press hard enough she’ll crack. My grandparents will just toe the line of waiting until my mother tells me about my father. They’ll be too hard to crack.” She pressed for the elevator again. “Why is this damn thing taking so damn long?” She jerked away. “Where’s the staircase?”
“What? We’re taking the stairs now?” Amanda groaned. “I’m starting to feel like we’re in PE class.”
“C’mon, slackers.” Melody laughed as she found the staircase and rushed inside. “It’ll help you warm up faster.”
There was some more groaning and complaining but they continued to race behind her. They managed to jog up two flights before a strange sound reached their ears.
Melody came to a full stop. “Shh. Do you hear that?”
Huffing and puffing, the girls struggled to quiet their breathing to li
sten. Slowly, one by one, their mouths fell open.
“Is that what I think it is?” Amanda asked, her eyes bugging.
Carrie giggled. “Somebody is making out.” She walked over to the railing and tried to glance upward.
“Stop it.” Melody laughed. “What if they see you?”
“Me? They’re the ones who should be embarrassed.”
“I wonder who it is.” Amanda said, starting to take off up the stairs.
Melody quickly grabbed her by the arm and hissed. “Get back here. What do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m being nosy. What does it look like?”
“I don’t think so.” Melody wasn’t in the mood to try and embarrass anyone, so she dragged them back out of the staircase. “We’ll take the elevator.”
Carrie and Amanda issued a final groan of complaint before leaving the mystery lovers alone in the staircase above them.
Lyfe roared in the sweaty crook of Corona’s shoulder. He had never in his life been able to come back-to-back like this. The little devil in his head was steadily trying to convince him that he could go yet another round.
“Wait. Wait,” Corona panted, clearly struggling to catch her breath.
He forced himself to hold back, but he didn’t release her. He didn’t think that he could ever do that again. He didn’t even want to think about how close he’d come to not having this moment. How he could’ve easily made that flight to Atlanta with his tail tucked between his legs. This was all the proof he needed that Corona still had feelings for him; and that perhaps they could bridge whatever differences they may have had.
Hope, something he’d long given up on, pricked his heart and filled his head with wondrous possibilities. After a full minute, the reminted lovers started to ease their grip on one another as the reality of what had just transpired began to take root.
“Ohmigod. What have I done?” She pushed at his chest so that she could lower her legs. However, standing proved to be too challenging, and she slid down the wall and onto the floor.
Lyfe immediately stepped back and kneeled down next to her. “It’s all right. I don’t want you to panic.”
A Christmas Affair Page 11
