Zabrina closed her eyes, hoping to stem the tears pricking the backs of her eyelids. “I’m not crying because I’m sad, Myles.”
He pressed his mouth over one eye, then the other, tasting salt. “Then why are you crying?”
“I’m happy, darling. The last time I felt this way was when I saw my son for the first time.”
Myles went still. “Did he abuse you?”
Zabrina opened her eyes. “What are you talking about?”
“Did Cooper abuse you?”
She dropped her gaze, staring at his bare chest. “Physically, no.”
“So, he abused you emotionally.” The question was a statement.
Zabrina shook her head. “I can’t explain it, Myles. Our marriage was very strange, and that’s all I’m going to say about it. Thomas is gone and I’m free, free to live my life on my own terms.”
Burying his face between her neck and shoulder, Myles breathed a kiss there. He’d gone to bed with women where a third person was in bed with them because they hadn’t been able to exorcise former husbands or boyfriends. Their inability to let go had doomed their relationships from the start. Zabrina’s declaration that she was free to live her life on her terms meant there were no ghosts from her past to interfere with their summer liaison.
“We can’t right the wrongs or turn back the clock,” he said in a quiet voice, “but what we can do is heal.”
Zabrina had begun to heal the day she’d become a widow. Any power Thomas Cooper had over her died with him. Surprisingly, she’d never wished him dead, but for him to fall from grace.
Smiling, she wrapped her arms around Myles’s neck. “Sometimes, counselor, you talk much too much.”
He winked at her. “What would you have me do instead?”
Pulling his head down, she pressed her mouth to his. “This. And this.” Zabrina kissed him under an ear.
“That’s nice.”
She bit down on his lower lip, suckling it and simulating his making love to her and achieving the response she sought when Myles moved his hips against hers. “How was that?”
Myles leaned over, opening the drawer to the bedside table and removing a condom. If he didn’t put on protection now he knew it wouldn’t happen, and what he didn’t want was to get Zabrina pregnant. He’d used protection when they’d begun sleeping together. However, once she went on the Pill their lovemaking had become more frequent, more spontaneous and more intense.
With the latex sheath in place, he began the journey to reacquaint himself with her body. Every muscle in his body screamed, vibrated. The scent of the perfume on her silken skin rose sharply in his nostrils, heating his blood as Myles fell headlong into the lust holding him captive. He kissed her forehead, her nose, her mouth, then moved lower to her throat where a pulse beat erratically as her breathing quickened.
Zabrina was hot, then cold and then hot again. The pleasure Myles wrung from her was pure and unrestrained. The sexual passion of her body after years of celibacy had been awakened and she wanted him, all of him inside her.
“Please, Myles.”
“What, baby?”
“Don’t make me wait.”
“I thought you liked foreplay.”
She was on fire. Feelings she’d thought dead were back, making her aware of the strong passion within her. All memories of being held in Myles’s protective embrace, the pure, unrestrained ecstasy that took her beyond herself and the pleasurable aftermath of a shared lovemaking that made them cease to exist as separate entities came to mind. She liked and wanted foreplay, but not now, not after ten long, lonely years during which she’d had to deny being female.
Her fists pounded his back. “Ditch the foreplay, Myles! I need you! Now!”
Myles wanted foreplay, a long, leisurely exploration of the body he’d fantasized about whenever he took another woman to bed. Their faces had become Zabrina’s, their bodies Zabrina’s, and whenever he climaxed it was her name that resounded in his head. She’d been so indelibly imprinted in his heart that he found himself comparing every woman to her.
It’d gotten so bad that he’d consciously embarked on a quest to see how many women he could bed before exorcising Zabrina Mixon, but he’d scrapped it because he thought of his sisters and of some man taking advantage of them.
He’d lectured Donna, Belinda and Chandra, telling them he would commit capital murder if any man harmed them. It took a while, but he realized it’d been the wrong thing to say to them; whenever they ended a relationship they were reluctant to talk about it.
Grasping his erection, he pushed gently into her vagina, increasing the pressure until a small cry from Zabrina stopped him. She was tight, tighter than he’d remembered. He was only halfway inside her. “Easy, Brina. Try to relax.”
“I am,” she gasped in sweet agony and unable to believe the tumult of intense pleasure holding her captive, refusing to let her go.
Still joined, Myles cupped her hips, lifting her body off the mattress and in one, sure thrust of his hips her body accepted every inch of him, both of them sighing in unison. He felt her flesh pulsing around his, pulling him in farther.
Zabrina wrapping her legs around his waist had become Myles’s undoing. It was his favorite position because it permitted deeper penetration. She’d missed him and he’d missed her. He missed the intimacy, the shared moment when they became one and the lingering pulsing aftermath of the shared ecstasy where no words were needed to communicate with each other.
Zabrina prayed she wasn’t dreaming and that when she woke she wouldn’t be alone in bed. After her first trimester she’d experienced a resurgence of sexual desire that was frightening. She went to bed crying for Myles to come and lie beside her, and when her crying jag ended the dreams took over. Erotic dreams where she relived making love with him and her body reacted. She woke to intense orgasms, the walls of her vagina contracting and her body drenched in moisture. The dreams continued nightly until she woke one morning to intense pain in her lower back. When the pains continued unabated she knew she was in the early stages of labor.
The dreams stopped altogether after Adam’s birth, and as much as she tried, she couldn’t conjure up any erotic images to assuage her sexual frustration. After a while, she stopped trying and embraced celibacy as if it were her fate.
Myles wasn’t a dream, the strength in the hands gripping her hips was real and the hard, engorged penis moving in and out of her in a measured cadence was beyond real.
Desire rose so quickly that Zabrina felt as if she was caught in a maelstrom of sexual hysteria bordering on insanity. She wanted to move, but Myles, holding her fast, wouldn’t permit movement as he quickened his thrusts. The raspy sound of his labored breathing against her ear escalated. He began chanting and it took a full minute before she could understand what he was saying.
“Baby, oh, baby, baby, baby,” Myles crooned over and over when he felt the buildup of pleasure at the base of his spine. He knew it was going to be over and he wanted it to go on until he was repaid tenfold for the years when he’d wanted to go to sleep and wake up in Zabrina’s arms.
He’d lied to himself at Belinda and Griffin’s wedding. He’d wanted their wedding to have been his and Zabrina’s. And, although he hadn’t met Adam, he wanted the boy to have been his and Zabrina’s. All of the things Thomas Cooper shared with Zabrina should’ve been his. It was as if the man had stolen his life.
He released her hips to grasp her legs and settle her ankles over his shoulders. What he saw in Zabrina’s golden gaze sent a wave of fear throughout his body. The expression on her face was one he’d seen countless times in the past. She was still in love with him. She loved him as much as he’d loved and continued to love her.
When she confessed that she hated Thomas Cooper as much as she loved you I knew something wasn’t quite right. He hadn’t believ
ed Belinda when she’d told him what Zabrina told her.
He also hadn’t believed Zabrina when she told him that she wanted him for sex. A woman asking him to sleep with her just for sex made him feel cheap. It was no different than a hooker asking him if he wanted her to show him a good time—for a price. And, Zabrina’s price was sexual favors because she was sexually frustrated. After all, she did admit that she and her husband slept in separate bedrooms.
She wanted sex for the summer, whereas he wanted more. And the more was starting over. He wanted to move her and her son to Pittsburgh where people wouldn’t recognize her as the widow of Pennsylvania’s junior senator.
Myles closed his eyes against her intense stare, not seeing the rush of blood suffusing her face and chest, or the hardening of her nipples and pebbling of her breasts’ areolas as an orgasm held her in its grip. It released her at the same time another one swept her up, holding her trapped in a pulsing, pleasurable passion before releasing her to another—this one more turbulent. Her body vibrated liquid fire and Zabrina finally surrendered to the passion as tremors seized her until she shook uncontrollably.
“M-y-l-e-sss!” His name, tumbling from quivering lips, came out in syllables.
Myles answered her entreaty when he ejaculated into the condom. The strong pulsing continued until he collapsed heavily on her body. He lay on Zabrina, helpless as a newborn, while he waited for his heart to stop slamming against his ribs.
He was uncertain how long they lay together, their bodies still joined, but Myles was loath to withdraw from her warmth. He wanted to lie between her scented thighs forever. But he did withdraw, leaving the bed to go into the bathroom to discard the condom, lingering long enough to wash away the evidence of their lovemaking. He took a quick peek at the puppies sleeping atop each other in their crate, then returned to the bedroom.
Zabrina had fallen asleep, her features angelic in repose. He loved her, she loved him and they’d agreed to sleep together for the summer. Where, he mused, would that leave them come summer’s end? Would she be willing to give up her new home and friends to follow him across the state? Or would he be forced to sacrifice his teaching position to go back to practicing law?
Slipping into bed beside Zabrina, he pulled the sheet up over their naked bodies and extinguished the light. Turning on his side, he pressed his chest to her back, rested his arm over her hip and joined her in the sleep reserved for sated lovers.
Chapter 11
Zabrina managed to slip out of bed without waking Myles. She used an upstairs bathroom to shower and dress. The puppies were awake, growling and nipping at each other when she went over to the crate in a corner of the laundry room. A baker’s shelf held an assortment of doggie food and supplies. She wasn’t certain whether the dogs were permitted the run of the house, so she closed the louvered doors before opening the door to the crate. The Yorkies came at her like fluffy bowling balls, jumping up while trying to lick her face.
“Sorry,” she said softly, “but I don’t kiss doggies.” Without warning, the doors opened and the dogs shot past her.
“That’s good to know,” said a familiar baritone behind her, “because I’d hate to be charged with animal cruelty because two little fur balls are attempting to hit on my woman.”
Zabrina took a quick glance at Myles, finding him incredibly delicious in a pair of gray paisley-print silk boxers. “I know you’re not talking about hurting the babies.”
Bending slightly, Myles cupped her elbow, easing her up to a standing position. “I will if you decide to bring them into the bed with us.”
Seeing the skin crinkled around his eyes told her he was kidding. He was the one who’d grown up with a menagerie of animals in and around the Eaton house, while the building she lived in with her father had a no-pets rule. Myles had his dogs, Donna her rabbits, Belinda her cats and Chandra fish, but the youngest Eaton daughter also had to have baby chicks every Easter. The elder Eatons didn’t mind the animals but the rule was the cats and dogs had to be neutered or spayed. Once the rabbits began multiplying they were given to a local pet store. When the baby chicks grew up to become hens and roosters they also found new homes at a farm.
“Do they sleep in the bed with your nieces?”
“No. Belinda was emphatic when she reminded the girls that the first time she found the dogs asleep in their beds will be the last time. Why did you let them out?”
“I was going to clean their crate,” Zabrina said.
“I’ll clean the crate, and after I take a shower I’ll start breakfast.”
“While you’re doing that I’ll take Nigel and Cecil for a walk.”
Myles smiled at the woman who’d offered the most exquisite pleasure he’d had in years, resisting the urge to pick her up to take her back to the bedroom. He found her enchanting in the body-hugging jeans, fitted T-shirt and sandals. With her freshly scrubbed face and short hair in sensual disarray, she projected an air of innocence. His gaze lingered on her full lips; he didn’t know how it was possible but he felt sexual magnetism radiating from her like sound waves.
Zabrina knew what Myles was thinking because it was the same with her. Making love last night had only served to whet her sexual appetite. After all, she had more than a decade to make up in less than eight weeks. Even if they made love every day for two months it wouldn’t put a dent into the number of times they would’ve made love if they’d been married.
“Please hand me their leashes and harnesses. Now that you’ve opened the door I’m going to have to go and look for them.”
Myles stopped her when he reached for her hand. “Watch.”
Pursing his lips, he whistled, the piercing sound reverberating throughout the kitchen. Within seconds the two puppies came sliding across the tiled floor, sitting obediently at his feet while he slipped on the harnesses, attached the leads and handed them to Zabrina.
She flashed a dazzling smile. “I’m impressed.”
His smile matched hers, slashes appearing in his lean jaw as he inclined his head. “Thank you, darling.”
She kissed the stubble on his chin. “You’re welcome, darling. How long do you usually walk them?”
“Half an hour to forty-five minutes.”
“Please hand me a couple of poop bags and we’ll be on our way.”
Zabrina pushed the small plastic bags into a pocket of her jeans and her cell phone into another. The puppies were wiggling, making strange noises and pulling on their leads in their impatience to go outdoors. She led them out a side door and into the warm, sun-filled morning.
Nigel and Cecil stopped every few feet to sniff grass, fire hydrants and lampposts. They took off running when a squirrel raced across the road, but she managed to pull them back to walk beside her. She couldn’t whistle between her teeth like Myles, but watching Dog Whisperer had come in handy. She’d become a pack leader. There were other people walking their dogs. Some of the canines stopped to sniff the Yorkies and others walked by as if they didn’t exist.
I’ve become a true suburban housewife, she thought. She mentally corrected herself. If she’d married Myles, then she would’ve become the housewife. Going to bed with Myles, making love, walking dogs and sharing breakfast. That was what she would’ve had if her father hadn’t had a gambling problem, if he hadn’t stolen from Thomas Cooper and if he hadn’t gone to loan sharks to pay off his gambling debts.
The ifs assaulted her until she felt like screaming at the top of her lungs. Whenever she recalled the scene with Thomas and his muscle pointing a gun at her father’s head she chided herself for giving in too easily.
If the man Thomas called Davidson had killed her father there was no way he could’ve gotten away with it. If they’d shot her in order to eliminate a witness they still wouldn’t have gotten away with it.
Zabrina walked as far as her subdivision before retrac
ing her steps. The puppies weren’t as frisky as they’d been when they’d begun their walk. The rising humidity signaled another hazy, hot and humid summer day. Without warning, Cecil and Nigel started running and when she looked down the street she saw Myles sitting out on the porch. Scooping up a puppy under each arm, she approached the house. Myles stood up, came off the porch and took the dogs from her. He looked incredibly sexy in a black tank top and khaki-colored walking shorts. His head came down and she raised her face for his kiss.
“How was your walk?” he whispered against her lips.
“Good.”
Myles kissed her again. “As soon as you wash up we can sit down to eat.”
Zabrina went into the house, Myles following with Nigel and Cecil. She washed up in the half bath off the kitchen, while the puppies went back into their crate.
She sniffed the air. It smelled like apples. “Something smells delicious. What did you make?”
“Come out and see.”
She dried her hands, then walked out of the bathroom and into the kitchen. Myles stood behind a chair in the dining nook, waiting to seat her at the table covered with a linen tablecloth with cross-stitch embroidery.
“Do you want me to set the table?”
Myles’s hands circled Zabrina’s waist, lifting her to sit on the table. Repositioning the chair, he sat down in front of her. “I just set the table, Brina. Now, I’m going to have my appetizer before we sit down to breakfast.”
Zabrina stared at the flecks of gray in his cropped black hair. “What on earth are you talking about?”
Unsnapping the waistband of her jeans, Myles lowered the zipper. Placing his hand over her belly and the other under her head, he eased her back onto the table. Half rising, he loomed over the woman who made him do things he didn’t want to do; she made him love her when he had every right to hate her.
“I’m going to do to you now what you wouldn’t let me do last night.”
Forever an Eaton: Bittersweet LoveSweet Deception Page 29
