A Forever Kind of Love (Kimani Romance)

by Rochon, Farrah

  Mya couldn’t keep the coyness from seeping through her voice. “I’ve already got a lunch date.”

  Phil gasped and twisted toward her. “Girl, are you thinking of giving Corey the booty again?”

  “My goodness, Phylicia, would you shut up! Or at least keep your voice down,” she said with a terse whisper.

  “Mya Eloise Dubois!” Mya had never heard her name draped in such righteous indignation. “I am appalled.”

  “What’s the big deal?” She shrugged. “It’s not as if I haven’t slept with him before.”

  “That’s not what’s appalling,” Phil said. “It’s the fact that you’ve been back in Gauthier for two weeks and you’re already getting some. I’ve been in this damn town my entire life and the only action I get these days is from my friend Bob.”

  Mya searched her memory, but couldn’t come up with anyone. “Who’s Bob?” she had to ask.

  “My battery-operated boyfriend,” Phil drawled.

  Mya looked over at her friend and burst out laughing. As beautiful as she was, Phil had always had a hard time when it came to guys. Mya was convinced that Phil’s problems stemmed from her job. She confused men. It was hard to reconcile the varnish-stained overalls with the amazingly gorgeous woman who wore them.

  “You should know better than to wait for the guy to make the first move. If it’s been that long, why don’t you ask someone out?” Mya suggested, picking up her bottled water.

  “It’s not worth the bother.” Phil stood and dusted her backside. “Bob has an attachment that connects to the power drill. There’s not a man in Gauthier who can compete with that.”

  Mya started choking on the water she’d just swallowed.

  Phil didn’t even blink. She said, “I’m going to see a man about a sandwich. I’ll catch up with you later.” And she headed toward the pickup truck.

  Ten minutes later, Mya was still trying to get thoughts of power tools and friends named Bob out of her mind, when Corey sidled up to her carrying two wrapped sandwiches and two bags of chips.

  “I thought you were meeting me in the gazebo?” he asked.

  Mya shook her head and patted the sanded step next to her. “Too secluded. I thought this was safer.”

  “In my experience, safer is never as much fun.” He settled onto the porch step and handed her the promised turkey sandwich.

  “It was sweet of Jamal to buy lunch for everyone. That must have set him back a pretty penny.”

  “He can afford it,” Corey said, biting into his sandwich. He swallowed and continued, “Jamal is a trust-fund kid. His family owns one of the largest construction firms in Phoenix.”

  “Yet he’s working as an assistant coach at a small-town high school?”

  “He’s not on the staff. He’s just helping me out with the team while he works on the business plan for an architectural firm he wants to open. We were teammates back at Arizona State,” Corey added.

  Mya’s eyes drifted over to the man who was leaning against his truck surrounded by a group of teens. She recognized the hero worship in the eyes of the young girls. Jamal Johnson was prime teenage-crush material.

  “He is gorgeous,” Mya commented.

  “Hey, I’m sitting right here. You want to squash the lusting after my best friend?”

  She glanced at Corey and laughed. “I’m just admiring him from afar. It looks as if he’s got his hands full.” She bit into her sandwich and followed it with a couple of chips. “So,” Mya said after she’d swallowed, “how much more do you think we can get done before the rain rolls in?”

  Corey looked up at the sky, where thick clouds were stalking in from the south. “With the way that sky looks, we’ll be lucky if we have another hour.”

  “I hope the lampposts Aunt Mo and her crew painted this morning will be okay.”

  “If not, I’ll keep practice short this coming Tuesday and Wednesday and bring the team out here to retouch whatever paint the rain messes up.” His gaze roamed their surroundings. “With all the volunteers that showed up today, we were able to get more done than I’d anticipated.”

  “It’s been amazing,” Mya agreed.

  Corey nudged her leg with his knee. “You know what would make it even more amazing?”

  Mya brought her hand up. “Don’t finish that sentence. You are worse than you were back in high school.”

  “I used to get more action back in high school,” he said. “If I knew back then that I would eventually go this long without sex, I probably would have killed myself.” He finished off his sandwich and balled up the plastic wrap and empty potato chip bag.

  Mya told herself to let his statement pass, but she couldn’t help herself. “How long has it been?”

  Corey reached over and grabbed the empty remnants of her lunch. With a wicked grin, he said, “Long enough that you should take this as a warning. Once we get started, I may not be able to stop.”

  Okay. So that was promising.

  Mya squeezed her legs tight and pleaded with her heart to slow the heck down. She still had plenty of time to make sure Corey came through on his promise.

  The rain held off for another two hours, but when it started it was as if someone had cracked a glass jar filled with water over their heads. People scrambled for cover under the awnings that shaded some of the entrances to businesses on Main Street. Others huddled in the wooden gazebo in Heritage Park or inside some of the stores that were open.

  After a few minutes, the torrential downpour slowed to a slight but steady shower. The volunteers began venturing out into the rain, covering their heads with plastic garbage bags as they swiftly made their way to their cars. Mya didn’t bother shielding herself from the rain. She was already soaked.

  She went over to the tent where her grandmother had spent most of the day handing out water and sports drinks.

  “Looks like God decided we’d done enough work,” Grandma said.

  “He kept it nice and dry for most of the day,” Mya replied. “Why don’t you pack up your things? I’ll find Aunt Mo.”

  “She already left,” her grandmother informed her. “She banged her knee against one of those steel posts in front of the barbershop and howled like a fool.”

  “Is she okay?” Mya asked.

  Her grandmother waved off her concern. “I think it was just an excuse to leave. Anyway, I’m going over to Clementine’s. Some of the girls are getting together to play cards. She’ll drive me home. Do you need a ride?”

  “No, I’m good,” Mya said. She pointed a warning finger at her grandmother. “Remember, no sweets or sugary sodas for you. Make sure she doesn’t eat the wrong foods, Mrs. Washington.”

  Her grandmother rolled her eyes, but didn’t argue. Mya kissed her cheek and dashed back out into the rain. She headed for Phil’s truck, which was parked in the alley between the pharmacy and the bank, but Corey intercepted her. He stepped out from where he’d been helping Jamal load shovels and rakes into the bed of his truck and grabbed her by the waist. He pulled her up against him, her back crushed to his front.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” he growled into her ear.

  “I was...uh, going to see if Phil could give me a ride home,” she said.

  She felt Corey’s jaw move against her neck as he shook his head. “You don’t need Phil to give you a ride.”

  His husky voice caused a fissure of need to split her heart wide open. Mya melted against him. “Then let me at least say goodbye to her,” Mya said.

  “Be back here in five minutes,” he told her.

  She made it back in three.

  Following Corey, she jogged over to his SUV parked just a few yards away on Maurepas Drive. He opened the passenger door and helped her into the passenger seat, then popped open the glove compartment and retrieved his wallet. There was
a condom in there, and they were going to put it to use within the hour.

  Mya swallowed the knot of lust that lodged in her throat. “How far from here do you live?” she asked as soon as Corey shut his door.

  “Ten minutes.” He rammed the key in the ignition and started the truck. “But I can make it there in seven.”

  “Do that,” she said.

  Corey backed out of his parking spot and continued up Maurepas and onto the highway. They turned into a subdivision that had been nothing but acres of sugarcane fields the last time Mya had been to this part of town. Despite being a planned community, the houses still had huge yards instead of the postage-stamp properties that usually comprised this type of neighborhood.

  Corey turned into the driveway of a sprawling two-story home that was way too big for just one person. He drove past the house and into a backyard that was surrounded by high fencing. He parked just outside a detached garage.

  “Sorry I have to park in the rain,” he said. “The garage is filled with a bunch of Jamal’s crap that he’s storing here while he works on his house.”

  “It’s okay,” Mya answered with a husky breath. “I’m already soaking wet.”

  Corey squeezed his fingers around the steering wheel and cursed. In a strained voice, he said, “Are you trying to make me finish before we even get started?”

  “I’m sorry,” she lied.

  “Get out of the truck,” he said between gritted teeth.

  Mya hopped out of the SUV and ran around the back. Corey caught her arm and pulled her against him. He was soaked, the fabric plastered to his chiseled chest. He attacked her mouth with hungry kisses, plowing past her closed lips and plunging his tongue inside. Mya responded with hunger of her own, clasping her hands behind his head and holding him securely to her.

  Her brain faintly registered the inground swimming pool and teak wood cabana, along with the towering magnolia trees shading his massive backyard. It was exquisite and, like the house, too large for a single person.

  As she felt Corey’s iron-hard erection rise up against her stomach she put the house and every other thought out of her mind.

  “We’re not making it inside,” he said roughly against her neck. He stopped under the leafy branches of a magnolia tree and tore the shirt over his head.

  “Corey, what are you doing?”

  “Strip,” he ordered as he unsnapped his shorts and shucked them down his legs.

  Mya’s mouth gaped open even as her hands went for the hem of her shirt. “Are we really going to have sex outside in the rain?”

  “Damn right,” Corey said. He grabbed her and brought her body flush against his own. “Don’t worry,” he said, unzipping her shorts and pulling them down. “The neighbors are too far away to see into the backyard. I skinny-dip in the pool all the time.”

  The mental picture that statement elicited sent a streak of fire racing through her bloodstream. Mya sighed into his kiss, her body fever-hot despite the rain falling in fits and spurts through the leafy branches.

  His mouth never leaving hers, Corey lowered her to the ground. He unhooked her bra and pulled the soaked fabric from her shoulders and down her arms, following the path with his mouth. He tunneled his fingers underneath the rim of her panties and guided them over her thighs and down her legs.

  Their rain-slicked bodies moved easily against each other. Corey cradled her waist and hoisted her up so that she straddled his lap. She bent over and drew her mouth across his chest, flicking at his flat nipple and softly biting his wet skin. He hissed with pleasure, running his palms down her spine, settling them at the small of her back.

  “Grab those shorts,” he ordered. “My wallet is in the back pocket.”

  Mya scooted up his torso and reached for the shorts he’d kicked off a few feet away. She let out a shocked gasp when Corey lifted his head and covered her core with his mouth. He palmed her backside, holding her in place as his tongue delved, solid and deep, into her slick flesh.

  The moan that escaped her lips was animalistic. Mya arched her back, bringing her center closer to his foraging tongue.

  Tension gripped low in her belly, pulsing hot and fevered with every lick and plunge. She encased the sides of his face between her thighs, pumping her body in rhythm to his mouth.

  “Oh, my God,” she moaned as she leaned back and gripped his thighs. He flicked his tongue against her clitoris, fast and furious, curling around the swollen bud and pulling it into his mouth. Then two of his fingers swept in from behind and slipped into her soaking body.

  The climax that had started building within her blood erupted with a ferocity that had her screaming toward the sky.

  Corey captured her by the waist before she could collapse and laid her onto the soaked bed of soft grass. With a satisfied smile on those incredibly talented lips, he grabbed the condom she’d dropped and ripped it open. After covering himself with the latex, he spread her legs apart and entered her with one long, deep, decadent stroke.

  Mya’s world exploded. Everything ceased to exist, except for this one man who had stolen her heart so many years ago. As he moved with deliberate slowness, driving his hard flesh deeper into her with every thrust, she closed her eyes and melted into the moment. She didn’t need anything else. Only Corey, loving her body the way no other man ever could.

  Mya wrapped her legs around his back and locked him on top of her, her hands gripping his rain-slicked shoulders. She sank her fingers into his flesh as he started to pump faster.

  He emitted a clipped, low grunt with each thrust, rocking into her body, setting her entire world on fire. Mya clung to him, savoring every delicious slide of his hard flesh inside of her.

  The sensation that started as a small kernel in her belly sprouted into the most intense, magnificent orgasm her body had ever experienced. Corey continued to plunge into her, quickening his thrusts, wrenching another skin-tingling climax from her just moments after the first.

  Mya collapsed onto the grass, her body humming with the kind of satisfaction she had not felt in fifteen years.

  “Oh, God,” she sighed. She stared up at Corey, a slow smile pulling at her lips. “That was better than I remembered.”

  * * *

  Corey burrowed his head into the pillow, wanting nothing more than to stay tangled in these sheets with Mya for the rest of the morning. He reached his hand out in search of her warm skin, but came up with nothing but cool, silk sheets.

  What the...?

  He sprang up from the bed, tossing the pillows and sheets onto the floor. He looked around the room, a sense of foreboding washing over him as he searched the bathroom, then ventured downstairs.

  Empty. The entire house was empty. Mya had actually left him in bed.

  The elegant string of curses that tore forth from him was reminiscent of his ballplaying days, but the ire stirring in his gut right now was ten times worse than anything he’d felt after a bad call by an umpire. How in the hell could she leave him? After everything that had passed between them last night?

  Corey went to the laundry room and snatched clothes from the dryer. He violently jammed his arms into a clean T-shirt and pulled on a pair of worn jeans. He shoved his feet into his tennis shoes, then grabbed his keys from where he’d tossed them on the kitchen counter.

  As he backed out of the driveway, he eyed the massive magnolia tree in his backyard and his stomach clenched in remembrance of all they had done underneath those branches. If he could, he would have the damn thing bronzed.

  He turned out of his driveway and headed for the Dubois house.

  Ten minutes later, Corey pulled up to the wooden fence surrounding Eloise Dubois’s yard. His chest tightened at the sight of Mya. She was hanging sheets on the clothesline that stretched across the side yard, just beyond the vegetable garden.

  She jumped w
hen he closed his car door, and spun around. Standing with a flowered sheet folded over her arm, guilt was written all over her face as he approached.

  “Hi,” she said.

  “That’s it?” Corey asked.

  “Corey, let’s not do this.”

  “After what we did last night you had better believe we’re doing this. Mya, if you think I’m going to let you stand there and tell me last night meant nothing, you’re crazy.”

  “I didn’t say that it meant nothing, but don’t make it out to mean any more than it did, either. We had sex. Fine. It’s not as if we haven’t done that before. But now that we’ve gotten it out of our systems, we need to just go back to working on the celebration.”

  “I haven’t gotten you out of my system, and I don’t plan to,” he said.

  “Corey, please.” She let out a tired sigh and kneaded the bridge of her nose. He captured her arm, forcing her to drop the sheet. “Goodness! What!” she shouted, jerking her arm away.

  “Why is it so hard for you to say it, Mya?”

  “What, Corey? What do you want me to say?”

  “That you still have feelings for me. And not the kind of feelings one night of sex will take care of. It’s more than that. I can feel it. I felt it last night.”

  Her eyes closed again. Corey tried not to be offended by the anguish that was evident on her face, but it wasn’t easy. Why in the hell was this so difficult for her to accept? They were good together. They always had been. If not for his one indiscretion all those years ago, who knows where he and Mya would be today?

  One thing he did know, he was not letting her slip away so easily this time. He’d made that mistake once, and it had cost him fifteen years of living without the woman he loved. He didn’t want to lose another second.

  Corey captured both her wrists and pulled her close, pressing a light kiss on the back of her hand.

  “I’ve loved you more than half my life, Mya. I know you think that’s crazy since it seems like a lifetime since we’ve seen each other, but it doesn’t change the way I’ve felt about you all these years. No one has ever measured up to you. Not even close.”