Business of Love

by Hodges, Cheris

  She reached for the zipper of his slacks, nearly ripping it apart to release his manhood. When Darren’s erection sprang forward, Jill didn’t say a word but rolled down his body to taste him as he had savored her body. She kissed the tip of his manhood before slipping him into her mouth. Darren moaned deeply and heavily as she moved her lips down the length of him. Her tongue rounded the head, and then went back into the depths of her warm mouth. He held the sides of the sofa, barely able to stop the explosion that was building inside him.

  Slowly, methodically and with the rhythm of an African drum, Jill pleasured her man orally, tasting the essence of him as he began to explode. Then she pulled back from him and mounted his erection, taking him deep inside her hot body. “Love me,” she moaned over and over, clutching his shoulders as they took each other to ecstasy.

  Darren gripped her bottom as he reached his climax. “Oh, Jill, I love you!”

  She slowed her hips, wanting to join Darren in his climax. Leaning into him, she kissed him slowly, as if to say, “I love you too.”

  When they were spent from lovemaking, they fell asleep on the sofa, clinging to each other as if they were magnetized by desire.

  It was well after midnight before Jill woke up. It wasn’t a dream; Darren was holding her. And she still hadn’t opened up to him about DVA. She pried his arms from around her and went into the kitchen to pour herself a glass of water. She couldn’t confess her secret to Darren right now; it would ruin his Valentine’s Day surprise. But when those pictures made the cover of David’s magazine, she was going to have a lot of explaining to do. Somehow, she was going to have to stop David from publishing them, even it it meant cooperating with that snake.

  She sipped her water, hoping to get the bitter taste out of her mouth. The thought of dealing with David on any level was enough to make her sick. I’ll try to appeal to his human side, if the bastard has one.

  “There you are, I was wondering where you disappeared to,” Darren said as he appeared in the kitchen. “Are you all right?”

  “Perfect,” she replied with a smile. Darren walked over to her and sipped her water.

  “Jill,” he whispered.

  “Yes.”

  “I just like the way your name sounds in my mouth, almost as good as you taste on my tongue.”

  She tapped him on the chest. “Darren, I love you and I don’t want anything to ever change between us.”

  He took her hand in his and kissed it. “It won’t.”

  “But we can’t be sure of that, now can we?”

  “Am I missing something here? If we’re in love, what can come between us?”

  “My work, my enemies.”

  Darren waved his hand as if to say ‘whatever.’ “I get that your career is important to you. But from what I’ve seen, you haven’t let that stop us from spending time together and getting to know each other. And speaking of your career…”

  Uh oh, she thought. He knows and he’s going to dump me right here. That’s why we made love. He wanted to make sure I’d miss him when he walked out of my life. I can’t say that I blame him. I did what he said he couldn’t forgive.

  “I know you probably have sixteen weeks of vacation time, but I’m only asking for two days. No cell phone, no PDA, no business talk, nothing but you and me. If your boss says no, call in sick.”

  “I think I can get the time off with no problem.”

  “Good, because I don’t want anything to ruin my surprise for you. Make sure you pack that dress you wore tonight.”

  “When are we leaving?” she asked excitedly.

  “Let’s see,” Darren said. “Thursday, that is if you can break away from your job.”

  “I can do that,” she said without hesitation.

  “All right, I’ll meet you here at nine Thursday morning.”

  “I’ll be waiting, but I hope this doesn’t mean that you’re leaving now.”

  Darren shook his head. “Not until the sun comes up,” he said, and then drew her into his arms. “Why don’t I go run us a nice hot bath?”

  “Great, and I’ll bring some wine,” she said.

  As Darren headed for the bathroom, Jill picked up the phone and dialed David’s number.

  “Hello,” he said.

  “It’s Jill,” she said. “I don’t appreciate your photographer ambushing me.”

  “I was just going over those pictures. You look wonderful. Who was the guy with you? Doesn’t look like the executive type.”

  “Don’t worry about who he is. Can you just kill the story? If you hold it for a couple of weeks, I’ll give you an interview, I’ll even run an ad in your magazine, full page if you want me to.”

  “Why the change of heart? A few days ago I was a backstabbing bastard. Why don’t you want the city to know about you and your new love?” he asked.

  “Because it’s no one’s business. What kind of tabloid are you running?”

  “Listen, you’re asking for a favor. You could stand to be a little nicer. We’re set to go to print in the morning and we’re going to be on the street tomorrow. How soon can you get that full page ad in here?”

  “First thing in the morning. How much?”

  “For you, $15,000.”

  “I’ll have a check messengered over to you.”

  “No. Meet me for breakfast at the Buckhead Bread Company and bring the check.”

  “Why?”

  “Maybe I want to see you,” David said. “Besides, you’re the one asking me for a favor. I’m calling the shots this time, Jill. Seven-thirty and not a minute later.”

  “Babe,” Darren called from the bathroom, “what’s taking so long?”

  “I have to go,” Jill said, then hung up the phone. She grabbed a bottle of merlot and two glasses, and then dashed down the hall.

  When she walked into the bathroom, Darren was in the tub, covered by bubbles. Candles surrounded the bathtub and cast a golden glow over the bathroom. Jill held up the bottle and the glasses.

  “Sorry, I had to make a quick phone call,” she said.

  “Business this late?”

  “I have a breakfast meeting that I needed to confirm. That’s all.” Jill set the glasses and the wine on the edge of the marble bathtub before slipping out of her underwear and joining him. Darren leaned over and wiped his hands on a towel before he took the corkscrew and opened the wine.

  “You don’t ever turn off, do you?” he asked her.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re a twenty-four hour businesswoman. What’s going to happen when you have a family?”

  Jill shrugged her shoulders. “I think my biological clock is on snooze.”

  “Have you ever thought about having kids, though?”

  She reached for a sponge and dipped it in the water. “I have. But I know I don’t want to be a single mother. I would want my son or daughter to grow up in a home with a mother and a father.”

  “I know that’s right. Silk and sandpaper.”

  “What?”

  “That’s what Cleveland and I used to call our parents. Dad was silk and Ma was definitely sandpaper. She doled out punishment, spankings and took away the phone when we were bad. Dad would come behind her and remind us how much she loved us and tell us that everything she did was to make sure when we grew up, we didn’t wind up in jail or dead. And just when we thought he’d knock a day or two off our punishment, he’d always say, ‘You know your mother is right, so I hope you learned a lesson.’”

  Jill laughed as she squeezed the water from the sponge and rubbed it across Darren’s pectorals. “I was spoiled,” Jill said. “I pretty much got away with anything because I could talk my way out of trouble.”

  “Why am I not surprised?”

  She giggled and dipped the sponge in the water again. “Sometimes my mouth got me in trouble, though. My mother was old school, children were to be seen and not heard.”

  Darren took the sponge from her hand and ran it down the valley between her breasts.
“And you wanted to be seen and heard, huh?”

  “Sometimes. I was quite the little diva growing up.”

  “Pigtails and all?”

  She turned around and faced him. “I hated pigtails. They were one of the reasons I got quite a few spankings. My mother would take the time and part my hair, place it in what seemed like 10,000 pigtails, and I’d go to school and change my hairstyle. I could never get it right before I got home.”

  Darren wrapped his arms around her waist and she locked her legs around his. She could feel his sex growing against her. He leaned forward and kissed her on the neck.

  “So what would happen when your mom saw your hair all remixed?”

  It was hard for her to think as she felt the full swell of his erection dancing against her thighs. “Uh, that I,—,” she stammered, then pressed her lips against his. She kissed him hard and long, slipping her tongue into his mouth, reveling in the taste of his kiss.

  Darren pulled back from the kiss, smoothing her damp hair from her face. “I could be with you like this forever,” he whispered, placing his hand on the back of her neck. “I love you.”

  “I love you too,” she breathed.

  They kissed again. Slowly their tongues jockeyed for position in each other’s mouth. Darren eased her against the back wall of the garden tub, spread her legs apart and eased between them. Jill shivered with anticipation as Darren thumbed her hard nipples. He leaned in and nibbled her neck as if it were a delectable dessert. She closed her legs around him, felt his thickness against her thighs and drew his manhood inside her. Though her body was raw from their previous lovemaking session, she still craved more and Darren was more than willing to deliver the passion she desired.

  He filled her with his love and made her feel more like a woman than ever. She wrapped her arms around his neck and tightened her body around him. Never before had she been so wanton and so filled with enthusiasm about a lover. No one had ever made her feel so feminine, so womanly.

  But she couldn’t help feeling guilty that she had been lying to him. That was going to end, though. She was going to tell him the truth as soon as Valentine’s Day was over.

  When they finally got out of the tub, Jill and Darren retired to her bed. When he wrapped his arms around her, she felt safe, secure and loved.

  She wanted that feeling to last forever.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The next morning, Jill rose, guiltily awakening before Darren. Why had she agreed to meet David, knowing the emotions that would come from the meeting? Though she’d put some of the pain he caused her in the past, she was still wounded.

  I can’t think about that, she reasoned. I have to convince David not to run that story yet.

  She leaned over Darren and kissed his cheek gently. “Wake up, sleepyhead,” she said.

  Darren’s eyes fluttered open. “What time is it?”

  “Six.”

  “You have a meeting, don’t you?” He sat up in the bed and rubbed sleep from his eyes.

  “Unfortunately. Do you have to go into the station today?”

  He shook his head. “Nah, but I’ll probably go in anyway. This is Cleveland’s first full week back and I want to make sure he’s all right.”

  “You and your brother are really close, aren’t you?”

  “We are. He’s my little brother and I have to look out for him.”

  “You know what, I’m the one who has a meeting, and you don’t. Why don’t you lock up when you leave?” Jill walked over to her jewelry box and handed him her extra house key.

  “Where do you want me to leave it when I’m done?”

  “Keep it.” Jill couldn’t believe she’d said those words. She’d never given a man a key before. Her home had always been her inner sanctum, which she didn’t want to share with anyone. But Darren wasn’t just anyone. He was her man.

  He rose from the bed, still naked from the night before. “What time is your meeting?” he asked.

  “Seven-thirty.”

  He playfully swatted her bottom. “Then you’d better get a move on.”

  She blew him a kiss as she disappeared into the bathroom.

  * * *

  Darren eased back into the bed and stared up at the ceiling. Jill was the kind of woman that he didn’t think existed anymore. She meant the world to him and it didn’t matter that she worked too much for his taste, because she’d proved that she was a woman who could balance love and her job.

  He watched her as she dressed, covering up that body that brought him so much pleasure in a black pants suit. She was supple, sexy and demure, enough to send any man’s hormones into overdrive. It took every ounce of self-control in him not to rip her clothes off and make love to her again. Jill had awakened a hunger in him that he couldn’t fill.

  Darren sat up in the bed as she reached for a pair of black and red heels. “How can anyone concentrate on business with you looking like that?”

  “You’re silly.” She eased her feet into the shoes as Darren rose from the bed and put his boxers on. He crossed over to her and wrapped his arms around her waist as she dabbed his favorite perfume on her wrists.

  “You’re going to make me late.”

  He kissed her neck. “I don’t even want you to leave. But if you must…” He dropped his hands to his side.

  Jill turned and faced him, a smile touching her cherry lips. “I could get used to this.”

  “Me too. You felt good in my arms last night, this morning and right now.”

  She kissed him and he inhaled her minty-fresh breath. Jill broke off the kiss. “I have to go. I can’t be late.”

  Reluctantly, he let her go. “Do your bosses know how hard you work?”

  “Bye, babe.” Jill dashed out the door.

  Before he left Jill’s place, Darren made the bed, washed their wineglasses, cleaned the tub and emptied the trash. It reminded him of the days when he and Rita were married and he left the house after she did. Darren didn’t mind helping his woman out; in fact, he enjoyed it. He wasn’t the type of man who thought a woman should do all the cooking and cleaning. A few more nights with Jill and he knew he’d be waiting on her hand and foot like the queen she was.

  Darren hummed a love song all the way to the station. When he walked in the door, he greeted everyone with a smile.

  “What are you doing here?” Cleveland asked when he found Darren in the break room fixing himself a cup of coffee.

  “Came to check on you.”

  “I called you this morning, but you must have been with your woman.”

  “Don’t be jealous.”

  Cleveland pushed his brother in the chest. “Why would I be jealous? You still got that same face.”

  Darren pushed him back. “I look better than you on a bad day. Anyway, I was at Jill’s this morning and man, I never thought I’d feel like this again.”

  “It’s good to see you happy. You’re a relationship man. Me, on the other hand, I have no use for all of that drama.”

  Darren took a sip of his coffee, which tasted more like day old espresso. “You never let a woman get close enough to you to find out if a relationship will even work.”

  “And you marry women before you even know their blood type.”

  Darren’s eyebrow shot up. “Whatever.”

  “Man, I’m saying you and I are different. There’s not a woman in Atlanta who could make me want to commit. Besides, marriage is an institution and institutions are for crazy people. I’m not crazy. Bought Jill an engagement ring yet?”

  “Nah, not yet. But I can see that happening in the near future.”

  Cleveland smiled despite himself.

  Darren knew his brother was happy for him. Now if he could only channel some of that happiness into himself. Darren wanted Cleveland to find what he had found in Jill. But he wasn’t going to force the issue

  “Let’s go get some breakfast,” Darren said. “My treat.”

  “All right, got to get the rover and I’ll be right out,” Cle
veland said, referring to his radio.

  Moments later they were headed to Buckhead Bread Company for fresh baked Danishes and orange juice.

  * * *

  “Why can’t you just make this disappear?” Jill snapped. She’d been sitting across from David for the last thirty minutes trying not to reach over and wring his neck.

  “Why do you want it to disappear? You’ve never been camera shy before. You had no problem announcing your grand takeover of Concurrent and the firing of its executives in front of the cameras. And then there was your spread in Essence, Black Enterprise and the National Business Journal. What’s the problem now?” He leaned back in his chair, picking an imaginary piece of lint from his crisply pressed slacks.

  David had style, but that was about it. He was a user and liar. What she ever saw in him was a mystery to her. And as he sat there with her money in his hand, she realized what a blessing it was to find out that he was the scum of the earth when she had, rather than years down the road.

  “My personal life is my business,” she said. “I don’t want it splattered all over the front of your magazine or anyone elses.” She gripped her juice glass so tightly she was surprised that she didn’t crush it in her hand.

  “Who was he?”

  “None of your damned business.”

  “You’re in the public eye, people will want to know.”

  “People or you?”

  David rolled his eyes. “I’m over you, Jill. I could care less who you’re sleeping with. It’s nice to know that you have finally stopped being so bitter.”

  That did it! Jill tossed the contents of her glass in David’s face. “You slimy bastard. You have some damned nerve, after what you did to me. You used me to steal my company away and you want to talk bitter? You can-can…” Her voice trailed off when she looked at the door and saw Cleveland and Darren walking in. Jill sat down and smoothed her pants. “This meeting is over, David. For once in your life, do the right thing.”

  He wiped his face and glowered at her. “Go to hell, Jill. I’ll run my magazine the way I see fit and if I want to run the picture of you and your lover, I’ll do it.”