A Risqué Engagement (In The Heart Of A Valentine Book 2)

by Stephanie Nicole Norris

  Xavier growled and planted her back against the pillar. “Will you stay with me in Chicago?” he asked. “I need you there.”

  Corinne shuddered. “Yes.” Xavier kissed her mouth as Corinne panted again. “Yes,” she whispered.

  Xavier’s heart rocked against his chest. “I don’t have a condom,” he warned.

  They continued kissing as the head of his shaft pierced her mound, threatening to enter her cove.

  “I’ve got my papers,” Corinne said. “Do you?”

  Xavier pulled off her lips and hovered right over her mouth. With one strong hand, he reached down and slipped her bikini bottom to the side, revealing her precious sanctuary.

  “I do,” he said, entering her soft and slow.

  Corinne’s mouth opened, and her head fell back and Xavier rained kisses down her throat. He pushed inside her until not an inch of him was left uncensored. Something like a gurgle bubbled from Corinne’s throat, and she wheezed when his hips moved and rotated the sweet juices inside her.

  “Fuck…” Xavier’s dark voice groveled.

  “We’re moving forward whenever you guys are ready,” a guide said, standing on the opposite side of the water’s rain.

  “Fuck again,” Xavier said, and Corinne giggled then moaned when he rocked inside her core so hard it practically snatched her soul.

  Xavier grabbed the back of her neck and pulled her head forward then swallowed her scream as he tore into her pussy, thrust after gutless thrust. Corinne wailed into his throat, and tears sailed from the corners of her eyes at his massive probing and thorough trajectory. His balls clapped the bottom of her ass and a spiral of hot lava coursed through their loins as they fucked to meet each other’s orgasm head on. Xavier tried to be quick, but making love to Corinne was a different type of paradise altogether. After what felt like ten minutes but was really twenty, they both came in sync, exploding in a torrent wave of a wet shower. Corinne’s crème coursed down Xavier’s shaft and he coated not only her walls within but her clean shaven mound. They shook, trembling with a force that had their hearts pounding and their bodies tingling.

  Xavier sucked her mouth and ran his tongue down her chin to her neck. He wanted more and felt like an animal now that he’d gotten another taste of her.

  “When we get back to the hotel…” He left that sentence in the air, and Corinne nodded in agreement.

  “Shall we go back now?” She asked.

  “Don’t tempt me, woman.”

  “Okay, how about we head to our next spot and then depending on what’s shielding us, try this again.”

  She couldn’t get enough of him either.

  “Deal.”

  He covered her vagina with the thin material of her bikini bottom and they resurface from behind the falls. From there, their adventure only got better as they found another place to paraglide.

  “I can’t believe we’re doing this here!” Corinne gasped, combing her eyes over the flatlands and hills of Zambia. The land was color-coded and every spot that Corinne’s eyes fell upon exciting the adolescent inside of her.

  “I told you we would, didn’t I?”

  “Yeah.” Her voice was timid, and they sailed the breeze for as long as possible before landing and being caught up under the big balloon.

  “Uh, oh…” Corinne said, seeing the devilish gleam in Xavier’s eye.

  “Well what do you know, another place for us to hide and…”

  Corinne screamed and giggled, and they rolled around finding themselves in another passionate erotic coupling.

  When they reached the hotel, Corinne was fast asleep, and Xavier swept her up in his arms and carried her to their room where he laid her on the bed and watched her. His heart swelled as images of Corinne carrying his child began to take shape. He climbed into bed with her and before long was off in dreamland where they both slept through the night and half of the morning into the next afternoon.

  When they finally rose, their day started in the shower, and as their last day, Xavier wanted to show Corinne his reasoning for bringing her to Zambia all along. After arriving in a neighborhood filled with children and women carrying buckets of water on their heads and babies on their backs, Corinne gawked and took it all in.

  “I’ve only seen neighborhoods like this in movies,” she said.

  Xavier nodded. “These families are provided these homes, clean water, and education due to the organizations like Save the Children. They also take donations directly through wire transfer, which helps the most because it gets the money to the people who need it the fastest and most effectively.”

  “Wow, I didn’t know that.”

  Xavier nodded. Corinne turned to him. “How did you know?”

  He rubbed his chin. “I’ve had my fair share of donating as well, Bella Anima. Would you like to meet the children?”

  Corinne’s eyes lit up. “Yes!”

  They entered the village, and their guide introduced them to the kids and their parents. The kids wore school uniforms and were very lively and joyful. They began doing a ritualistic dance, and Corinne tried to follow their movements. When she felt like she had a few steps down, she asked them to show her again, and they were pleased to do so.

  “Mister, do you know how to play ball,” one kid asked Xavier.

  “By ball you mean basketball?” Xavier asked.

  “Yes.”

  “It’s my all-time favorite sport.”

  The little boy grabbed Xavier’s hand. “He plays!” he yelled, and a group of boys crowded him with their own makeshift basketball.

  “Oh, you want a piece of me?” Xavier said.

  “Yeah!” they shouted.

  “All right, let’s do this. Now Im’ma go easy on you because I’d hate to embarrass you in front of your friends,” Xavier told the first kid that approached him.

  The little boy threw Xavier the ball as if to say “check” and Xavier tossed it back. They were playing a game of all of the children against Xavier, running around him in circles, passing the ball back and forth before making their shots in an old rugged hoop.

  “Ah, man, ya’ll cheating,” Xavier said, and the kids all laughed.

  On the sidelines, Corinne and the girls did their dance like cheerleaders while the boys played. Some of their movements snagged Xavier’s attention as he took his gaze over to the way Corinne’s hips rotated. While he was distracted, the ball hit him upside the head, and the group of boys laughed then turned around and sent the ball flying through the hoop.

  Corinne and the girls giggled, too, and Xavier winked over at her trying to refocus on the game. Their day was spent at the village, but when it was time to depart, it was bittersweet.

  “Visit us again, please!” One little girl begged, tugging on Corinne. Corinne bent down, throwing her arms around the child.

  “You have my word.”

  They embraced with Xavier watching. Again, he thought of Corinne as his bride and mother of his children. He stood by until they finally let go, and with the linking of their fingers, they rode back to the hotel in calmed silence.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Island Harbour, Anguilla

  Love… for most, it was a myth, a thing not within their reach, the most coveted but priceless antique in human existence. But for some, it was the only thing to strive for, the quintessential belief that one could not survive in this life without it, because well, what was living without affection, passion, caring, fondness, intimacy. Without patience, kindness, faithfulness, and perseverance, life would be, plainly put, bland. Like a constant state of unease. The heart would always want because the thing that keeps it alive would be absent.

  There are other ways to find happiness, but these things are temporary, short-lived and require an expiration date. Love is forever, which is why every human being in existence strives to grab hold of it at one time or another. It was why Corinne Thomas laid on her beach towel, soaking up the island sun rays without another singular thought on her mind other than X
avier Valentine. Their trip to Africa was two weeks past them, and since then, Corinne and Xavier shared many nights together, but most of them apart due to their demanding schedules. It only made them yearn for one another more because their singular commonality was love. They were sick with it, so much so that when they couldn’t be together, text messages ran thick, video calls were a must, surprise gifts at the most unexpected times arrived.

  Just hours ago, before leaving Kinship Airlines, Corinne had been bombarded with a serenading band. They were dressed in island gear and had lit up the airport with their rendition of “The Most Beautiful Girl in The World” by Prince. The elation that bubbled inside her was so strong that her eyes misted over. Xavier had grown accustomed to Corinne’s schedule, aware of her layovers like he himself were a part of Kinship Airlines. Corinne understood he was familiar, but still this band and song carried her back to Africa, where he sang to her on his jet, where he serenaded her underneath the waterfall, where he laid his head to rest in the most sensitive part of her flesh. A shiver slipped over Corinne as she recounted their days spent together. No schedule to think of, no emergency to run off to, no one to answer to but each other. It was complete bliss. The kind that sank into her skin and swelled her heart with a tantalizing zing. It was a love she’d never known. One that Corinne didn’t think she would one day own. It captivated her with awe and inspired her beliefs that if this thing called love was available to her, surely everyone could attain it.

  Corinne sighed. The one thing she regretted was not telling him. It was her wall of defense. Though Xavier had knocked down her barriers regarding men and love, mostly regarding him and love, still Corinne held on to those three words. It was that part of her that wanted to hear him say it first, that part that longed for him to look her in the eye and confess that she was his one true love. It was the thing she coveted, and more than anything else, Corinne needed to know he reciprocated her true feelings. But who says he needed to be the first. Finding out that he’d been hurt by women in the past was enough to give Corinne understanding that loving again for him probably was the hardest relinquished confession that Xavier could make.

  Men tended to harbor feelings more than women, at least in her line of love that had been mostly true. So right then and there, with the waves threatening to wash ashore and sweep her back into its aqua blue waters, Corinne decided the next time she saw him, not through video, or through a photo message, but in person, she would let loose and tell Xavier what she desired most. Him.

  A smile crept across her face, and she shifted to her back just as a shadow cast over her. Bringing her mind to focus on the darkened change, Corinne’s gaze shifted through her shades to find Carlos hovering to the side of her, his silhouette blocking the sunlight.

  Corinne lifted her arm and removed her shades. “Carlos?”

  “Good evening, Angela,” he said, calling her by her alias.

  “Good evening, Carlos, how are you today?”

  “Better now that you’re here.”

  Corinne chuckled. “How are you better now that I’m here?”

  “I’ve been waiting for you to reappear. I think I must have missed you the last few visits.”

  Corinne’s squinted slightly. “You really think you know my schedule, don’t you?”

  Carlos’s smile didn’t give off joy, but more of a leering quirk that Corinne couldn’t distinguish as sentimental.

  “I do, you’re special to me, Angela.”

  Corinne’s laugh was filled with nervousness and uncertainty. She kept nice with him although she began to wonder if she’d have to stop coming to the beach during her layovers here. That would just be unfortunate as Corinne rather enjoyed her time in Anguilla.

  “I have something for you,” he said.

  “Oh?”

  Carlos removed a stem from behind his back. It reminded Corinne of the berry plants she used to find in her parents’ backyard when she was a child.

  “It’s called Rondeletia anguillensis. It is a rare Anguilla based plant that only grows on the north side of the island. I thought you should have it since you are also a rare beautiful plant that grows on me every time you visit.”

  Did he just call me a plant?

  “Carlos, that’s really sweet, but you truly shouldn’t have.”

  “Yes,” Carlos pushed the plant forward, “it is yours please take it.”

  “I’m sorry, Carlos, I can’t take it.”

  “Yes, you can. Here, it’s yours.”

  Carlos leaned forward then squatted down to offer her the flower, and his nearness freaked Corinne out. She didn’t try to, but she scurried just a bit, upon her buttocks now, her hands planted in the sand and her feet backpedaling.

  Her response made Carlos frown.

  “What is wrong?” He asked.

  “Um, nothing!” she said quickly. “I just don’t think it’s appropriate for me to accept this gift from you. Although lovely, Carlos, my boyfriend would not be pleased.”

  Carlos frowned.

  “You understand, don’t you?”

  Corinne didn’t set out to hurt his feelings, but she needed to let Carlos know in no uncertain terms that anything romantic between them was not in the forecast.

  “This is the first time I’m hearing about this boyfriend,” he said. “Why?”

  The question threw her for a loop. “Um, I… well, it wasn’t something that needed to be said before.”

  Carlos grimaced but didn’t respond, only stared at her with an unpleasant narrow to his eyes.

  Feeling uneven, Corinne scrambled to her feet. “I’m sorry, Carlos, I really am. We can be island friends, right?” Corinne collected her beach towel, shades, and beach bag as she spoke.

  Carlos watched her with the frown continuing to linger on his face.

  Corinne cleared her throat. “Anyway, it’s time for me to head back. I’ll see you next time.”

  With that, Corinne walked away, her pace fast and her hands rummaging through her bag for the hotel keycard. She didn’t bother glancing back; she could feel Carlos’s eyes burning a hole in her back. The walk across the beach seemed like it had taken a few miles, but it was only half of one. The doors opened as she neared the hotel, and she shuffled onto the elevator breathing a sigh of relief once the door closed. What was that?

  Corinne had always known Carlos flirted with her, but his knowledge of her arrival, and his plans to woo her made her anxious. After locking herself inside the suite, Corinne dropped her bag and strolled to the balcony overlooking the beach. In the distance, she could see the spot she and Carlos had once stood, and her skin crawled when she noticed his form still standing there, seemingly looking right at her. Corinne rubbed her shoulders and tried to shake the unpleasant sensation running through her. He couldn’t see her from where he was, could he?

  Even she couldn’t see the rooms individually while she lay on the beach, so surely he couldn’t, right? While she tried to convince herself, unease still crept through her spirit, and suddenly, Corinne couldn’t wait to be as far away from Anguilla as possible.

  Xavier loosened his tie as he left the National Hockey League headquarters. Today’s negotiations had been rough, but nevertheless his quick pro quo had come out to seal the victory. Another million dollar contract negotiated added to his resume and another happy client. Hitting the alarm on his Jaguar, Xavier opened the door and slipped into the driver’s seat. He removed his suit jacket and tossed it in the passenger chair and dialed a number on his steering column. The Bluetooth connected, and his seatbelt automatically crossed his chest when the engine roared to life.

  “Are you on your way?” Hunter said, answering from the other end.

  “Yes.”

  “So, you can get out of a meeting in an orderly time frame. Look at you being all prompt.”

  Xavier chuckled as he navigated through the streets.

  “I find myself being more aware of my time lately.”

  “Why do I think that has something
to do with Corinne?”

  Xavier didn’t respond immediately. Instead his mind conjured her face, her smile, the deep sexy tone of her laugh.

  “I’m pulling up in five minutes,” Xavier said.

  “I’m inside,” Hunter replied.

  The call disconnected but rang out before he could shift gears. Xavier tapped the telephone symbol on his steering wheel without checking the caller ID.

  "This is Xavier," he smooth voice cruised.

  There was a hesitation on the other end then a thick sultry voice broke through the line.

  "Xavier, it's been a long time..."

  Xavier's attention turned from the road to the caller ID.

  "Who is this?"

  He kept his tone neutral although he knew very well who the caller was.

  She paused again. "Has it been that long that you don't remember my voice."

  "I'll ask you again. Who… is this?"

  She tried not to feel slighted by his off-put, but she did. Sitting her pierced pride to the side, she returned.

  "It's Nadine, Xavier."

  Xavier's hands tightened as he steered the car.

  "Nadine Benson? As in, the woman I told never to contact me again?"

  Suddenly, Nadine thirsted for a bottle of water.

  "That was three years ago, I was hoping by now—"

  "What? That I would be able to stand your voice or God forbid see your face?"

  His language was harsher than necessary, but it was on her. He'd warned her not to reach out to him under any circumstances. Yet here she was, on his line.

  "I miss you," she responded. "What we had—"

  "Is over," he finished. "And honestly I'm surprised. Didn’t Archduke Benjamin Forrest the third teach his little princess not to try and crawl back to any man regardless of the situation? You are royalty after all, nothing or no one supersedes your highness."

  "I hurt you," she said. "I understand, and I want to make it right. If you'll just let me."

  The phone went dead as Xavier dropped the call and immediately blocked the number. He gritted his teeth and steered the Jag around a corner.