Shay just sat there. Although Jessica was a good friend to Shay, probably her only friend, and had been there when Shay really needed a helping hand, there was also a side of her that made Shay uncomfortable. She couldn’t say what it was, nor that she had any tangible proof that it even existed, but there was something there. Something that seemed determined to break bad.
“Damn!” Jessica said in a loud voice and Shay immediately looked in the direction of her roommate’s stare. And driving around the curve that led to Devender Hall was a black stretch limousine.
Shay panicked. He wouldn’t, she thought. Please tell me he didn’t!
But he did. Because as soon as the limo stopped at the curb, the driver stepped out and walked over to where the two young ladies sat. Even some of the students, who weren’t used to such a show of extravagance, stopped and stared.
“Miss Cooper?” the driver asked.
Shay wanted to deny any knowledge. “Yes,” she ultimately said.
“Mr. Driscoll has sent his car, ma’am.”
Shay stood and, without saying a word to Jessica because she didn’t want to hear it from her, walked up to the waiting limo. The driver hurried up behind her and quickly opened the door. When Shay glanced back, Jessica was staring, not with a look of surprise on her face, or even envy, but with a look of pure hatred. Shay hesitated. Where did that come from? But then she got into the limo, and plopped down on the cushy leather seat.
She had hoped to find Matty inside. His presence seemed to have a way of calming and reassuring her. And there was indeed a man inside the limo. But it wasn’t Matty.
“I’m Jordan Lambert, although you can call me Jordy, everybody does.” He said this as he extended his hand. Shay shook it with a look of uncertainty on her face. “Oh, honey, don’t worry. I won’t bite. I’m Mr. Driscoll’s personal assistant.”
“Oh, okay. But he didn’t have to send his personal assistant just to pick me up.”
“Oh-no you didn’t say that,” Jordy said in such a scolding way that it made Shay almost want to smile. “Yes, young lady, he did. If he cares anything about you, he did. So don’t you dare declare any expense, any extravagance he chooses to shower on you, unnecessary, you hear me? I said, do you hear me?”
Shay smiled this time. “Yes, Jordy, I hear you.”
“The man is rich, okay? He got this. He apparently views you as precious cargo, my dear, and for Matty Driscoll, that’s a rare treat. It’s not for you to view yourself any less.” She liked Jordy. Liked him instantly. It wasn’t the words that were said, but the way he had said them, as if he was her protector too, as if he was looking out for her interest too.
It made Shay slightly uncomfortable, however. She wasn’t accustomed to this kind of treatment.
But Jordy was a talker, and talk he did. All forty miles to Baltimore. He was a pleasant, attractive man with a nutmeg-brown complexion who seemed closer in age to Matty than to Shay. He had an easy manner that relaxed her and a slender, well turned out frame and dress style that reminded her of a younger version of Dwight from The Real Housewives of Atlanta.
But when they arrived in Baltimore and the limo drove through this fancy, tall, electronic gate and rounded a horseshoe driveway, and when the house, the mansion really, came into view, Shay’s entire attention shifted. She could hardly believe her eyes. It was big, it was brick, and when the limo stopped in front of steep steps that went up one level, then there was like a walking area, then went up yet another level to the double front doors, Shay thought of a civic center, a bank, a museum, not anybody’s home.
But this was Matty Driscoll’s home. And as she and Jordy, who, to her relief, stayed by her side, were escorted by the butler to what Jordy called the ‘upstairs residence,’ her stomach began to churn. What in the world, she wondered, was she getting herself into? She liked Matty, but she was no fool. He was probably blown away, not by her personality or brains or even general humanity, but by the fact that they seemed to have the kind of rare chemistry that made sex between them hotter than he may normally get.
But even that was a stretch for Shay. She was a novice, a recent graduate of the virgin school of romance, and for a man like Matty to find her sex hotter than those sophisticated ladies all over this world he probably had at his disposal, was pushing it.
But something was driving his interest, and sex was the main thing she could figure it to be. And she wasn’t mad at him if that was all he was about. She wanted the experience, she wanted to feel the way he made her feel, so it wasn’t as if she was getting nothing out of the deal. But it would be nice if she knew the deal.
She even asked Jordy’s opinion, she felt just that comfortable with him, when they were seated in a gorgeous upstairs living room that seemed to cover half the length of the second floor.
Jordy leaned back, crossed his legs and folded his hands in his lap. He was really very pristine, Shay thought. “What do you mean?” he asked her. “Isn’t the fact that he’s interested in you enough?”
“Yes,” Shay said, “but my question is why. Why the interest in somebody like me?” Jordy studied her. “And you don’t know?”
“Of course not. What?”
“You’re a very attractive young lady, Shanita.”
“And that’s it? Because I supposedly look good?”
“I’m not talking about looks. Yes, you look good and you have a nice little body going on with your bad self, but that’s not what gets Mr. Driscoll’s attention. There’s a uniqueness about you, a freshness, I picked it up when I first saw you myself, that he finds very attractive. You’re a fresh face in his life.”
Shay looked Jordy dead in the eye, brother to sister, she almost wanted to say. “I’m the new fresh face in his life, until the next fresh face comes along. Is that what you mean?” Jordy didn’t skip a beat. “Yes,” he said.
It was another few minutes of companionable silence, as Shay quietly took in the reality of Jordy’s honest answer, when Matty entered the room talking.
“I apologize, I apologize, please forgive me for my tardiness. Hello, Jordy.”
“Did they bite?” he asked Matty, standing to his feet.
“You bet your life they bit.”
Jordy grinned. “Now that’s what I call good news,” he said as he and Matty gave that manly half-handshake, half-hug chest bump.
Then Matty looked at Shay. His heart began to race at just the sight of her. It wasn’t her look exactly that riveted him, yet it was exactly her look. She was pretty in a clean, innocent way, and her big, bright-brown eyes contrasted beautifully with her smooth dark skin. She wore what she probably considered was a fashion-forward fuchsia-colored polyester blouse and pastel-colored flare-legged pants, although it was more like a fashion disaster to Matty.
But she wore it well. And that was the thing he was beginning to just love about Shay: she did everything well: sex, her poorly conceived but it works anyway dress style, her education up until a few weeks ago when her grades began to slip, and did he mention sex, sex and more sex? Because to his shock, this little lady gave him just about the best he’d ever had. Bar none.
Jordy, noticing how Matty’s attention now was completely on his date for the evening, said his goodbyes and left the upstairs. Matty immediately moved up to Shay, his bright blue eyes staring unblinkingly into her bright brown eyes, and he pulled her into his arms.
“Hey lady,” he said.
“Hey yourself,” Shay said, feeling giddy to his touch. She closed her eyes as he held her. When he first entered the room, and she saw him dressed casually in jeans and a pullover V-neck shirt that looked common enough but was probably tailor made by some fancy designer she’d never heard of, her heart began to pound. His head full of thick, brown hair w a s tousled, making him look more around her age than his own, and his smile let her immediately know that he was so pleased that she had come. And it was that way of his, that warm, welcoming spirit about him, that made her so very pleased that she had agreed to com
e.
They kissed. She knew it wouldn’t take long for them to get there, after the way he had looked at her, and the way she had looked at him, and they got there. They kissed long and they kissed hard. Shay was beginning to know his style, and what seemed to turn him on when she did certain things, especially with her tongue, so she didn’t experiment: she gave him only what turned him on. A move, a brilliant move, that seemed to undo Matty.
He stopped kissing her and looked at her, his arms still tightly around her. He was already breathing hard. “Want dinner now,” he asked her, speaking slowly as if he was attempting to control himself, “or later?”
That was the easiest question in the world to Shay. She couldn’t eat right now even if she had been starving. “Later,” she said.
Matty smiled. “That’s my girl,” he said and lifted her into his arms.
They continued kissing as he carried her across the massive living room, around a corner, and through double doors that entered them into a bedroom as large as the living room they’d just left.
But Shay didn’t notice it. She was too busy enjoying every inch of Matty. And when he laid her on his massive bed, then stripped her naked, and just stood there looking at her, at every inch of her body, she didn’t feel the least embarrassed. It was the look in his eyes more than her own self esteem, that gave her reassurance. He wanted her, his look said, he even cared deeply about her. And she believed he did-at that moment anyway. And at that moment, watching him watch her, she cared deeply about him, too.
He pulled his shirt over his head and revealed his hard, ribbed abs, and then he removed his shoes and stepped out of his pants, revealing a penis already so engorged that Shay, once again, began to wonder how in the world could her small self take in all of that.
But she didn’t wonder long. He got on top of her, and began kissing her again, his manhood expanding even more-she didn’t think it possible- the longer and harder they kissed.
And as he moved from her mouth to her neck to her chest to her breasts, she ran her hand through his hair, enjoying every second.
Matty was enjoying her, too, as he kissed her, and he desperately wanted that sweet mouth of hers to take in the fullness of his cock, but he couldn’t bring himself to take her down that road, too. Mainly because she was so new to sex and he didn’t want to slow her progress with too much too soon, but also because a part of him was beginning to elevate her in ways he found almost frightening.
This was his lady, he thought, as he opened her legs as wide as they could go and began to taste her. And nobody, not even him, was going to get their jollies by cheapening her. He loved the way she smelled, the way she tasted, that he knew if he wasn’t careful he was going to climax before he even entered her, but he loved the taste, the smell of her too much to stop.
But the idea of her doing oral on him kept coming back to him. It would probably be such a thrill that it would kill him, and he could only imagine the day when it would happen.
But that day wasn’t now. Maybe later, after they were married, he thought, and then, shocked by what he had just thought, he stopped all movement.
Even Shay noticed when his licking, his tasting, had stopped. But Matty had just surprised himself. After they were married, was he out of his mind? He’d been with Alex for over a decade and never once had he considered marrying her, or anybody else for that matter. He wasn’t the marrying kind! He loved being free, being beholden to no-one but himself, far too much to give it up. Now Miss Innocent comes along and he’s thinking about marriage? Her sex was good, he’d admit it was the best he’d ever had, but not to the point where he would give up his very freedom.
But when she looked down to see why he had stopped tasting her, and he looked up to see those big, soulful eyes of hers, he got back on track, moved up the length of her, and entered her with a loving, but undeniably hard thrust.
And it was that movement alone, where his hips began to gyrate and her small body arched up to take the entire fullness of him in, that re-righted their course and refocused their hearts. And any thought of that crazy thing called marriage, to Matty’s relief, flew out whatever window deep within his soul, it had entered.
***
It wasn’t until after they had made love and had actually fallen asleep in each other’s arms, was Shay able to take in the magnificence of the world in which she now traveled. She even got out of bed, since Matty was still fast asleep, and took in the full scope. She put on his shirt, which swallowed her and stopped well below her knees, and moved around the master suite that had a sitting room, a balcony, and a master bathroom not unlike the one at Matty’s office, only twice the size-Shay didn’t think it possible.
It was so inviting a room, in fact, that she ran the bath water, got in the tub, and bathe herself in luxury. She was even giddy about doing do. I can get used to this, she thought with a laugh.
Afterwards, when she dried off and put back on Matty’s shirt, still loving the fresh cologne smell of him, she stepped into a bedroom that found Matty no longer in bed. At first she panicked, wondering where he had gone, but then she heard his voice.
“Come here, Shanita,” he said.
The voice came from the balcony. When she realized the French doors had been opened, she went in that direction.
When she stepped onto the balcony that overlooked a big, beautiful, private lake, and saw Matty sitting on the lounger in a green, silk robe, looking so virile, so sexy to her that she just knew even gorgeous couldn’t look this good, she couldn’t contain her joy. He smiled too, opened his arms to her, and she gladly hurried into them. He pulled her onto his lap and leaned her body back against his.
“Um,” he said, kissing her lightly on the neck, “you smell good.” Her hair, she knew, was a mess, but he didn’t seem to mind. He, in fact, gave her a small kiss in her hair, and leaned her closer against him.
“What time is it?” she asked him.
“Late. Eleven pm.”
“Eleven?” she said, surprised. Then she playfully elbowed him. “You didn’t feed me.” Matty smiled. “I know. I’ll put something together for you in a few.”
“You expect me to eat this time of night? I can’t eat at no eleven at night.”
“You can and you will.” His hands were underneath the shirt she wore and he was caressing her backside. “You’ve dropped a few inches since Monday.” Monday was when she had journeyed to his office, when they had ended up making love twice. “You’re small enough. I don’t want another inch off of you. In fact, you probably could afford to put a few inches on.”
Shay didn’t see that happening. She had always been small. “You don’t like small woman?” she decided to ask him.
Matty hesitated. He didn’t want to scare her off by exposing his private life just yet.
He’d already worked out that she didn’t know the extent of his relationship with her school’s dean, not based on what they discussed on Monday where she thought he was there to see Alex on business, and he preferred to keep it that way for now.
“I don’t have a preference,” he said, although that wasn’t entirely accurate. He’d always preferred women with meat on their bones, and many, although not all, of the women he’d been involved with tended to fall into that body type. But all bets appeared to have flown out the window when it came to Shay. She was not only the smallest woman he’d ever been attracted to, but the youngest as well.
“Your parents still alive, Matty?” Shay asked him.
“My mother isn’t.”
“And your father?”
“Don’t know, don’t care.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean. My moma’s dead, too, but the man she said is my father isn’t.”
Matty looked at her. “Oh, really? Is there a relationship there?”
“Nope.”
“You don’t want it?”
“He doesn’t. He cussed me out when I asked him about it.” Matty pulled her closer. “I see,” he said, and kissed her hair a
gain. “How old are you, Shay?” he asked her.
She smiled. “Why?”
“Just curious.”
“I’m over eighteen if that’s what you mean. And if I wasn’t, now was not the time to ask this question.”
Matty laughed. “Good point.”
“I’m twenty,” she said. “What about you? No, let me guess. Twenty-seven?” Matty smiled. “I’m not quite that young, Shay, come on.”
“Okay, twenty-eight.”
“No.”
“Twenty-nine?”
Matty laughed, as Shay’s voice sounded surprised when he shook his head no. “Let’s get out of the twenties, shall we?”
Shay stared at him. “How old are you?” she asked, prompting Matty to laugh again. If only she could see her worried face, he thought. Was he fifty, sixty, she seemed to be wondering. Had she been sleeping with some crusty old man?
“I’m thirty-three, Shay,” he said.
She relaxed. “Oh. That’s okay then.”
“It’s still an age difference.”
“Yeah, but you look twenty-something, you act twenty-something, and I already figured you was too successful to still be a kid. Besides, a guy my age wouldn’t work for me.
I’m too mature and sophisticated.”
On this Matty laughed so hard his stomach began to ache. “Oh, Shay,” he said, wrapping her tighter into his arms. “You’re killing me here.” And the thought of it frightened him. Because this young lady was doing something to him, something that could very well kill all hope he’d ever had of remaining free as a bird, until his dying day.
***
And as if their long and beautiful night wasn’t enough, their date that lasted till morning ended with a bang. He did feed her, only it was near midnight when they finally did eat, and he made love to her yet again, this time downstairs-they couldn’t make it up in time.
Afterwards, when they did make it upstairs, they simply talked until they fell asleep in each other’s arms. And early that next morning, she awoke to find him already bathed, dressed, and downstairs. She bathed, dressed, and went downstairs too.
Romancing Her Protector Page 6
