He pulled her close to his body and she buried her face in the addictive hollow of his neck. His hands dropped to her hips and her arms snaked around his strong neck as they rocked to the house band’s instrumental jazz rendition of Aaliyah’s “At Your Best.”
The music was slow, pounding, and hauntingly sweet all at once. They moved in perfect unison, her ying to his yang. The heat they generated could warm a castle during the harshest winter. It was their soulful rendition of “La Bamba.” Their own rhythmic dance of raw sexuality and electrifying chemistry. A man who wanted a woman who wanted him just as much.
Anika let her head fall back in abandon, her fingers splayed on his broad shoulders as they moved back and forth to the music with a wicked grind that any native Jamaican would be proud of. They were the picture of subtle eroticism. They were the center of attention, lost in their own world as if the music played for them alone.
Chapter 8
Give Me You
Anika’s steps paused as she entered her bedroom. Sitting in the middle of the queen-sized bed was a Saks Fifth Avenue signature gift box, wrapped with a beautiful plum ribbon and a lavender rose. She knew it was from Deshawn.
Quickly she made her way to the bed, pleasure clearly etched on her pretty face.
There was no card and the box was lightweight in her hands. Carefully, so as not to destroy the rose, Anika removed the ribbon and opened the top of the box. Beneath the flimsy white paper she found her gift.
It was the sheer nightgown she had been admiring that day in Saks. It had caught her eye in a flash and she had fallen instantly in love with it. But how did Deshawn know that? Anika thought back and remembered that Deshawn had walked up when she had just taken a look at the price tag and put away her dream.
He remembered that?
With a sassy “uhm, uhm, uhm,” Anika lifted the lilac creation from the box by its slender straps, spinning to face the mirror. “Deshawn, baby, you are wicked,” she said aloud to herself, looking at her reflection.
Just as she had done in the store, Anika held it up to her body. This gift was clearly an invitation for more . . . if she chose. He was obviously a man who wanted to please a woman. This woman. Her. “Me,” she said aloud, warmed to her core by the thought.
In the morning he would be gone, with only long distance phone calls to follow until they were able to see each other again.
“To hell with it,” Anika said, quickly making a decision.
She grabbed her toiletry bag and entered the bathroom for a shower, the silk of the gown floating behind her in lilac waves.
∞
Deshawn couldn’t believe he was on pins and needles. Anika had retired to her bedroom as soon as they entered the apartment and he knew she had to have discovered his surprise by now. He wanted so badly to see her body draped in silk. He wanted even more to remove it inch by inch and feast upon her nakedness.
But would she come to him?
Would she accept his invitation?
He hoped so.
And that was a first for him. Never had any woman made him nervous and unsure. Only Anika.
That didn’t sit too well with him, but he couldn’t ease the desire he felt for the woman. Tonight was his last chance to quench the thirst she created. If she didn’t come to him, then Deshawn was prepared to go to her again and make one last attempt at seduction. He had to get her out of his blood . . . tonight.
This need he had to touch her, kiss her, and make her smile at him had not been in his plans when he came to New York. He looked forward to seeing her arrive and missed her as soon as she departed. Her hold on him was a weakness.
“Deshawn.”
He quickly turned from the window when her husky voice floated over to him. At the mere sight of her body encased in the soft, flowing silk and lace, Deshawn’s maleness hardened in a hot rush, straining against the cotton boxers he wore. His heart pounded loudly in his ears as he devoured her with his sable bedroom eyes.
The lights were dimmed in his bedroom, giving her a soft glow that made her even more alluring. Her round face was free of makeup, a testament to her true beauty, as her brilliant eyes glowed in her bronze face.
The lilac silk was the perfect complement to Anika’s mocha complexion. Thin straps rested against her softly rounded shoulders. Plum Venetian lace trimmed her deep cleavage, fitting to her ample bosom like a second skin, her hardened nipples straining through the luminous material.
Slowly Anika walked to him, seeming to glide as the silk shimmied across her waist and abdomen before caressing her shapely hips and falling lower to skim her ankles. Long lace-trimmed slits ran up the sides, exposing well-toned, shapely legs with the most glorious thighs Deshawn had ever seen. Never had the sight of a woman excited him so.
He wanted to touch her, but she would mock him for his hands trembling so badly? “You’re—” he began, meaning to compliment her, but she held a soft finger to his lips.
“Sssh,” she said huskily, sending shivers over his body as she traced his mouth with that finger. “Make love to me, Deshawn.”
His knees nearly buckled at her softly spoken command. What was happening to him? Wasn’t he supposed to be the one in control? What was this hold she had over him?
With a revealing groan that was a mix of torture and pleasure, Deshawn pulled her tempting frame to his. As he was enveloped by her fruity scent and her shapely arms, his hands slowly massaged her exposed lower back. “Anika,” he moaned into her neck as he licked a nerve-shattering trail from her collarbone to her earlobe.
Anika whimpered softly in the back of her throat in sharp and intense desire. With slow, rhythmic movements her hand caressed each hard muscle of his bare back, rising to clutch his head desperately and press his mouth closer to her skin.
With a fierceness he couldn’t control, Deshawn’s lips sought hers, needing to feel and taste them underneath his own. And what sweet success he felt as their lips touched, opening in a heated rush so that their tongues could slow-drag in the minute space between them.
“So sweet,” he moaned, nearly devouring her tongue as he sucked upon it deeply.
“Do you want me, Deshawn?” she asked throatily, as his warm hands made their way up one of her revealing slits to deeply massage the soft flesh of her buttocks. Her skin seared where their flesh made contact.
“Yes.”
Anika dipped her head to lick hotly at his nipples, loving the feel of the short, soft hairs against her lips. She sliced her eyes up to him. “Then tell me.”
“I want you, baby,” he answered quickly, with much meaning, using his strong arms to pick her up easily, his muscles flexing beneath his caramel skin.
Cocoa eyes met those of midnight, both dazed and cloudy with desire.
Some emotion he didn’t want to claim tugged at his heart and made his stomach a bundle of nerves. This wasn’t at all what he had intended when he came to New York to seduce her, but for the life of him he had about as much chance of stopping his feelings as a fireman had of putting out a blazing inferno with one bucket of water. “You’re beautiful, Anika,” he told her with honesty.
She smiled shyly at him, heat infusing her cheeks as she tilted her head up to bless him with a kiss. “So are you.”
Never breaking their gaze, Deshawn strode over to the bed and laid her down atop the covers. With ease he lay down between her open legs, her gown now up around her shapely hips, exposing the moist silken flesh to him.
With a growl Deshawn lowered his body to suck wildly and hungrily at her nipples through the silk. Anika’s body became covered with fine goose bumps, her back arching as the heated, damp material rubbed against her aching buds. She groped blindly for his hand, moving it from her hip to press deeply into the warm, throbbing core between her thighs. She gasped deeply and released a shaken breath as his strong fingers tangled in the silken folds of her flesh. “Yes, Deshawn,” she moaned, hardly recognizing her own voice.
He laughed huskily against her cleava
ge. “Like this?” he asked, leaning up to look down into her face as his middle finger sought and found her clitoris with deep, circular motions.
Warmth spread from her curled toes to her thighs as she spread her bent legs farther, wanting more. “Yes.”
Deshawn lowered his head to his feast, enjoying her thighs shivering by his head. The natural woman scent of her, mingled with the smell of apples, drove him wild. With trembling hands he grabbed her hips and jerked her body closer to his mouth, pushing his tongue in deep.
Anika collapsed back against the bed, her pulse thundering in her ears. Each flicker of his tongue caused her hips to jerk; each suckle of his mouth made her clutch blindly at the sheets above her head. She felt the first delicious waves of a climax rising.
His kisses and bites intensified like he wanted her to explode in his mouth.
“No, no,” Anika whimpered, tears about to spill down her cheek. She reached for him frantically and pulled him up on the bed.
“What’s wrong, baby?” he asked, confused that she stopped him.
Anika turned her head to look into Deshawn’s eyes. “I want you inside me,” she told him throatily.
Their movements became almost frantic as Deshawn worked his boxers down his hips and Anika rose to remove her nightgown, flinging it across the room. Both naked and proud, they floated together, entwining their limbs as they shared a fierce and erotic kiss.
Together they tore the foil of a condom, working in heated unison to roll the latex down the long, thick length of his shaft. Deshawn settled himself between her open legs, cupping her soft buttocks with his hands to raise her core for his delivery.
Anika held her breath in anticipation as she looked up into his beautiful black eyes. “Now, baby, please.”
Deshawn kissed her deeply just as he plunged his hard, throbbing length into her tight warmth with fierceness. Anika moaned into his mouth, as white-hot spasms exploded inside her at the very feel of him.
He squeezed his eyes closed, struggling for control, as he held her body close to his own. He knew it would be good, but he had never expected this. She surrounded him tightly like a sheath, her walls throbbed around him, pulling on his tip and pushing him to spill his seed. He hadn’t felt that out of control since he was fifteen.
Anika squirmed beneath him, as his length filled her, pushing against the sides with heat and strength.
He began to stroke deeply inside her, teasing her swollen bud with his tip before diving deep into her again. He bit his bottom lip and pressed his face into her neck.
When she began to move with him, putting such sweet pulling motions on the tip of his member, Deshawn nearly broke again, but he continued wanting to please this incredibly uninhibited woman in his bed.
“Damn, it’s good,” she told him, her hand massaging his back as they moved in unison.
“It’s good, baby?” he asked, as fine goose bumps covered his back from her light touch.
“Hell yeah.”
Deshawn pulled out of her and then slipped back in, inch by delicious inch, as her walls rhythmically clutched and released him.
Anika shivered and had to bite her hand to keep from yelling out.
Deshawn pulled out again. “Roll over,” he commanded.
She did as he bade, lying on her stomach. Deshawn used his hands to raise her to her knees. He rubbed his hardness against the lushness of her ample, smooth buttocks before slipping into her with a hard thrust that caused them both to gasp for air. And then the stroking began again.
The sight of her buttocks cupped in his strong hands as his length moved in and out of her turned Dashawn on so much, causing him to harden even more.
It was then that he noticed their heated coupling was totally reflected in the dresser mirror parallel to the bed. “Look in the mirror,” he told her thickly, his own gaze already locked on the sight of her breasts swinging as he loved her down.
Anika turned her head and she couldn’t look away from their refection. It was a heated dance. But she wanted more control. She moved her hand behind herself to lightly pat his stomach.
Deshawn stopped, curious.
She began to work her hips to pull downward on his maleness with her sheath and smiled wickedly as his mouth shaped an O and his eyes shut as he flung his head back.
“Don’t stop, baby. Don’t . . . stop,” he begged, digging his fingers deeper into her buttocks as he held still and let her do the work. “You gone make me—”
Anika felt the heat building in her stomach as well. “Me too, baby,” she told him, breathless and heated.
Their gazes locked in the mirror as they both worked for their release. Sweat glistened on their beautiful bodies and their hearts pounded wildly. They moved together in a physical symphony, their movements quickening to a fevered pace as they both began to shiver with each spasm of release.
Their moans mingled in the air above them.
Anika’s legs gave out and she dropped to the bed on her stomach, but Deshawn was relentless in his pursuit of their pleasure. He moved down and continued to stroke deep within her until they were both spent and exhausted.
With a groan he fell down upon her back. He moaned, swallowing heavily and panting before kissing her damp shoulder.
Anika closed her eyes, feeling replete by his loving, and protected by his body. “Lawd, quit,” she begged, before joining him in sleep.
∞
Anika awakened with a smile, feeling satisfied as she stretched her nude body beneath the thin cotton sheet covering her on Deshawn’s empty bed. She rolled over onto his side, hugging his pillow and scent to her as she let her mind drift to the passion they had shared several times last night. The spot between her thighs tingled and throbbed.
She sighed with a smile into the pillow.
Deshawn had touched spots in her body and her heart that she didn’t know existed. She always knew that sex between them would be good, but she didn’t know it would be that delicious!
This definitely wasn’t going to make him leaving for Holtsville today any easier. She was going to miss the handsome devil terribly. Truthfully, she missed him even now and would’ve loved to awaken in his arms.
Deciding to partake of a hot, steaming bath before she sought everyone out, Anika flung back the sheet and rolled out of bed with a languid motion that spoke of a woman whose desire had been sated by a skillful and well-endowed lover.
Carefully holding her discarded negligee, Anika left Deshawn’s bedroom, entering their adjoining bath. She paused long enough to fill the tub with steaming water and the scent of apricots, before continuing to her bedroom with steps that felt as if she were floating on air.
What a week it had been. Seven days and she felt her life was changed so significantly. She never would have guessed she would give up her body and her heart to Deshawn so freely. If loving him was wrong, she didn’t want to be right.
Back in the bathroom, she cracked Deshawn’s door to listen for his return, before she slipped into the tub. The frothy water floated around her chin and the steam rose to kiss her face.
She wished it were Deshawn’s smooth lips instead.
She was reliving their rather X-rated rendezvous last night when she heard his room door open and close. She opened her smiling lips to call out his beloved name and then heard someone knock at his door.
“What’s up, Dev? I was just fixing breakfast for me and Anika. You hungry?”
“No, but I came to talk to you about Anika as a matter of fact.”
“What?”
She froze like ice at the sound of her name.
“The last thing I need is for you to give Chloe a reason to chew me out.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she heard Deshawn say.
“It’s obvious from ya’ll’s little dirty dance last night that something’s going on between Anika and you.”
“And?”
“And I know you, twin. It’s right up your alley to knowingly seduce Anika
to get back at her for dissin’ you at the reception.”
Anika held her breath, awaiting his denial. Needing him to deny what his twin accused him of.
“Look, Dev, what’s your point?” Deshawn asked, his deep tone definitely indignant.
“Just look me in the eye and tell me you didn’t come to New York to seduce Anika out of some childish plot of revenge,” Devon persisted.
Anika’s fear increased tenfold at his silence. She sat up straighter in the tub, already reaching for a towel.
“I’m waiting, Deshawn.”
“For?”
“Deshawn!”
“A’ight . . . a’ight. Yes I came to New York just to have sex with her—”
Clad only in a towel, Anika felt as if her whole world were crumbling around her.
She just couldn’t stand to hear any more and took her leave through the open bathroom door connected to her own room. Anger and resentment consumed her. Deshawn played her like a fool. A slut. Her breathing was ragged as she paced the length of her bedroom.
She wanted to storm in there and slap him, but that went against her nonviolence stance.
She wanted to scream.
Mostly, she wanted to cry but she refused to shed one tear over his lousy soul! That low-down, lying, scandalous, mutt!
Anika’s eyes lit upon the suitcases she had started packing yesterday in preparation of her departure today. Without another moment’s hesitation, she flung the towel from her body and began pulling on a pair of jeans and a sweater.
She was getting the heck out of Dodge and save what little face she had. She wasn’t going to give him the chance to laugh in her face and say, “Gotcha.”
A note to Chloe would have to suffice.
Against her will, a lone tear streamed down her cheek and she was just glad she never told him she had fallen in love with him.
∞
Heavenly Match Page 10
