“A passenger van, Gran,” he answered patiently, the tips of his dreadlocks gracing broad shoulders.
“Yeah, well, he drove that all the way up the road and scooped us right on up. Said he wanted to surprise you because you were missing us for the holidays. Big baby,” she finished tenderly, before reaching up to pat Anika’s cheek.
“There’s another surprise for you,” Trevor added, throwing his muscular arm around her shoulders and looking down at her with mocha eyes so like her own. He guided her back to the front door and opened it.
There stood Tara and Kimani.
“Happy T-day, Ms. Foxx,” Tara said, almost shyly as she stepped into the foyer with her daughter in her arms. “Mr. Jamison invited us and since we didn’t have any plans, we tagged along.”
Anika immediately pulled the young woman into her embrace. Holidays were always a big deal to her and it felt good to be surrounded by her family and friends. Everyone she loved and cherished was here and she was moved beyond words. Well, almost everyone.
“Where’s Deshawn?” she asked.
“We left him at his house. He’s not coming.”
“He’s not?” she asked, unaware of the immediate sadness that filled her face.
Tasha stepped forward to look into her daughter’s face. “Do you love him?”
She couldn’t lie to her mother. “With all my heart.”
Tasha smiled sweetly. “Do you want him here?”
“More than anything.”
She squeezed her daughter’s hand. “Well?” she asked so simply.
Anika turned and looked at her family and friends gathered around her. They all said in unison: “Well?”
She smiled and then turned to quickly dash out of the house. She didn’t know she could move so quickly in high heels as she climbed into the rented van and was glad to find the keys in the ignition.
“Anika, you need a coat,” Tasha yelled to her as they all bustled onto the porch.
“Tasha, please. She’s going to get the best kind of heat,” Auntie Luv said with a bawdy wink.
Anika never heard a word as she sped toward her destiny.
Chapter 20
I'm in Love
Deshawn was standing in front of his fridge, freshly stocked thanks to Chloe, contemplating which frozen dinner to have for his holiday meal. He’d give anything in the world to share the holiday with his family, and he already included Anika and her rambunctious bunch in those numbers.
“Next year,” he promised himself aloud, thinking of the holiday to come when his twin sons would be present as well.
Ding-dong.
He looked down the narrow hall to the front, unsure of who could be standing at his door. He set the frozen dinner on the counter with a thud before using long strides to carry him to the front door. His heart hammered in his chest at the very sight of Anika standing there looking far too lovely in her ivory outfit.
“Anika,” he said, forcing coolness into his tone. “What can I do for you?”
Anika licked her lips, hoping she didn’t show her nervousness as she devoured every bit of his handsome features with hungry eyes. Acting on impulse, she stepped close to him, her eyes half closed as she lifted her head to his and said softly, ‘Thank you for my surprise, Deshawn.”
Her heart slammed wildly against her chest as she anticipated the sweet feel of their lips pressed together. The scent of his warm, spicy cologne and pure maleness surrounded her. Anika felt heady with want and love for him.
Unfortunately, her lips landed on his cheek instead of his mouth as he turned his head slightly to the side. Anika felt the brunt of his rejection like an actual slap to the face. With hurt eyes that only reflected a miniscule amount of her wounded soul, she looked at him.
She had thought his surprising her with her family for the holiday was a gesture to show her his love. Obviously she was wrong.
Deshawn wanted nothing more than to kiss away the pain he saw in her eyes. He wanted to pull her into his arms and comfort her, but she had to come to him. She had to be ready for the world he wanted to share with her. He wanted her love, not her thanks.
“You’re welcome,” he said briefly.
When she remained standing there, he made his face stay aloof. “What do you want, Anika?”
“You.”
Anika pushed past Deshawn into the house. She let all the love she had for him glisten in her eyes. “Make love to me, Deshawn,” she demanded softly, raising her hands to him.
But she never felt the hard contours of his well-defined chest beneath her eager fingers. He stepped away from her touch. “Sorry, I’m not in the market for one-night stands or booty calls.”
Anika’s eyes widened slightly before she got mad. Bump that, Anika didn’t beg or chase any man.
He fought back the urge to strip her of her clothes and make sweet passionate love to her on the floor. That was not his ultimate goal. This connection between them wasn’t about sex for him, no matter how thrilling he knew those heated moments inside her would be. There was something more to want: her love. “Is sex all you want?” he asked, his voice deep and husky.
Anika’s anger dissipated as she saw exactly what Deshawn wanted. All of it, his past actions and the distance between where they lived, didn’t matter. Deshawn hadn’t stopped loving her at all. As he stood before her, she knew what he wanted to hear. Words he wanted her to mean. She couldn’t deny him. This was her fate. He was her destiny.
“I love you with all my heart, Deshawn Jamison,” she told him as she reached to stroke his jaw. “But you already knew that, didn’t you?”
Deshawn nodded slowly, his eyes piercing into hers, enjoying the feel of her flesh against his own. “Yeah, I knew it but I wanted you to know it, believe it. . . and say it,” he finished with emphasis, turning his head to softly kiss her palm as he grasped her waist and pulled her body to his.
A soft sigh of pleasure tumbled sweetly from Anika’s smiling lips. “I love you ... I love you ... I love you,” she repeated softly. “I’m in love with you.”
Deshawn lowered his head and captured Anika’s lips in a kiss that he deepened with ease. It was as if all the time between that last explosive night in New York and the present had vanished. It was as if that morning she had overheard his conversation with Devon never happened.
With a feline purr from the back of her throat, Anika sucked Deshawn’s thrusting tongue before tilting her head back to look into his handsome face with lazy, aroused eyes. “Now, I’m gonna try this one more time. Make love to me, Deshawn.”
Laughing softly, Deshawn easily swung Anika’s full-sized frame into his arms. “My pleasure,” he told her, carrying her to the stairs.
Anika buried her face in his neck. “It better be my pleasure,” she told him saucily with a quick, hot lick of his earlobe.
∞
Anika stood naked and proud before Deshawn as he sat on the edge of his bed. He massaged her thighs deeply. The first feel of his fingers against her soft curly hairs covering her V-shaped mound sent a shiver of pleasure up her spine.
“Open your legs,” he demanded softly, looking up at her with hot ebony eyes.
With a wicked smile, she did as he bade, spreading her stance wider. His fingers teased the wet bud he sought and her knees nearly buckled. She bent forward to rest her head against his as her body shivered with need.
Deshawn captured one of her pendulous breasts in his mouth, sucking deeply upon. His tongue flickering across the nipple with sensual ease and skill. His teeth grazed the hard bud with tantalizing delight.
The combination of his mouth and his agile fingers were wreaking havoc on her as she pressed his head closer to her body with her hands. Wanting to please him as well, Anika sent those hands down the hard contours of his body to stroke the long, thick length of his hardness through his sweatpants. She wanted him, she needed him, she loved him, and she begged him for more. “Take these off,” she told him, her lips pressed to his forehead.
/> Deshawn lifted his hips up from the bed, even as he suckled her breast with a deep satisfied moan. “Take them off me.”
Anika worked the clothing down to his ankles and he kicked them free. The first feel of his hard heat in her hand caused them both to shiver as she stroked him with slow, deep motions that caused a small trickle of release to lubricate her hands. “It feels so good to hold you,” she told him softly as she looked down into his eyes.
“Never let me go,” he told her, before pulling her head down to him for a deep kiss filled with their stormy emotions.
He lay back on the bed, breaking their kiss to rest on his elbows. “Stand on the bed.”
Not for one second questioning him, Anika placed first one foot and then the next on either side of his head on the bed until she stood above him. She raised a brow and smiled down at him, loving the carefree, humorous, and sexy reunion they shared.
“Come here,” he told her, flicking the tip of his tongue.
Slowly she lowered herself until her thighs straddled his head and her throbbing core was just inches from his mouth.
The smell of her womanly scent caused his shaft to swell with desire. Using his hands, he pulled her down to begin his first, sweet slow drag against her swollen pink bud. He became relentless in his hunt for her pleasure, listening to just what licks or caresses caused her to shiver or moan until she began to gasp for air and clench her thighs with the wave of her first climax.
Anika flung her head back, her arms over her head as Deshawn gripped her thighs, locking her in place while he deepened the sucking motion and filled her trembling body with the white-hot spasms of release.
Deshawn drank deeply of her nectar, swallowing her whole, tasting of her fruit, until her body slackened above him. He let her tumble softly to the bed as he struggled for his own control. Standing, he locked his eyes on her as he massaged the full, throbbing length of his erection. He moved around his bed to his dresser to retrieve a condom.
Once protected, he kneeled between Anika’s open legs. He lay down on top of her and kissed the tracks of her shameless tears, before pressing his lips to hers with a moan just as he plunged himself within her. The tight feel of her walls pulled him into her deeply as she still throbbed from her climax.
Anika gasped at the feel of him, her arms spreading out on the bed as she clutched desperately at the sheets. “Oh, Deshawn,” she moaned, closing her eyes against another delicious wave as he stroked hard and deep inside her with strength and confidence. “I love you.”
Deshawn’s heart soared and he grasped her buttocks with a strong grip. “Tell me again,” he demanded hoarsely, his head against her neck, their bodies a beautiful mosaic of browns like erotic black art.
“I love you.”
“Again.”
“I . . . love you, Deshawn.”
Anika lowered her legs beside his and began working her hips, causing her walls to pull on the tip of his member like a suction. She smiled in lust and triumph as his body stiffened and he hit a brief high note before biting his lip. “Who’s the best?” she asked.
“You.”
She popped her hips a little harder. “Who?”
Deshawn was lost to time and space. All he recognized was Anika and how good she made him feel. “You, baby. You’re the best,” he moaned against her neck, his eyes clenched shut as he trembled with his oncoming release. “I love you, Anika. God, I love you,” he roared, as he was lost in his climax.
∞
Anika and Deshawn had fallen into a thoroughly exhausted slumber, their bodies nude and entwined atop the sheets as they slept. They were spent. They were sated. They were in love.
They definitely were not in the mood to be interrupted.
Brrrnnnggg.
Anika’s eyes opened first, jolted awake by the jarring sound. Her heart thundered against Deshawn’s side where she lay. “Deshawn—”
Brrrnnnggg.
She tapped his chest with her hand. “Wake up, baby. The phone is—”
Brrrnnnggg.
“Ringing,” she finished softly.
“Answer it,” he mumbled sleepily, his words floating softly against her forehead.
Brrrnnnggg.
Anika froze, immediately envisioning another woman’s voice on the line. She eyed the phone warily before reaching to pick it up. “Hello,” she snapped.
“Now, Foxxy . . . you know y’all is wrong for that.”
Anika sat up in bed, smiling at the sound of Chloe’s playfully chastising voice. “What?” she asked innocently, just as Deshawn snored in the background.
“You put him to sleep, huh? Oooh, you are wicked,” Chloe teased.
“Well, you know. What can I say?” Anika boasted, mimicking the comedic antics of the character J.J. from Good Times.
“Uhm, uhm, uhm. The rest of us down this road is hungry, you know. Get a move on.”
Suddenly alarmed, Anika sprang from the bed. “We’re on our way,” she said urgently, as she searched beneath the covers on the floor for her clothes.
Chloe laughed. “So everything’s cool?”
Anika was gloriously beautiful as the sun shone through the windows and cast her full-sized body in an amber glow. She turned to find Deshawn sitting up in bed, propped against a pillow, his eyes on her with unashamed love and desire. Anika had never felt so sexy and loved. “Everything’s wonderful, girl.”
∞
Once Deshawn and Anika emerged from their love zone, they realized why Chloe had called. Their reunion had lasted every bit of two hours.
“Heaven only knows what they all are thinking,” Anika bemoaned, chagrined as she cuddled closer to his inviting side, his arm around her body in the cab of his truck.
Deshawn laughed, caressing her hip with his free hand. “The only one I’m worrying about is your father. And your brothers. Oh, and your grandmother. Granny Bert doesn’t play around either.”
Anika bit her full bottom lip, now devoid of its gloss from their ravishing kisses. “What about my mama?”
“Piece of cake. I have your mama right here,” he reassured her, showing her the palm of his hand.
“You better hope the Foxx men don’t pull some of that southern shotgun wedding drama,” she teased, just as Deshawn steered the truck into the yard.
“All they’d need was a water pistol and I’d see you at the altar, baby.”
Blissfully they returned to the festivities with no great fuss, everyone accepting their excuse of “talking” for the last couple of hours. All except Granny Bert, who made a big deal about Anika and Deshawn washing their hands before they ate, with a knowing look at them both.
The entire dinner was just the way Anika wanted, loud, raucous, and joyful. All of her family was gathered together and that included Tara and Kimani. She had Deshawn to thank and love for that.
Anika smiled secretly at the soreness between her legs, a testament to their union. Deshawn knows he can throw down in bed, she thought, cutting her eyes to glance at him, shivering at the very thought. She felt like singing Ms. Mary’s jam “I’m in Love.”
Anika reminisced so hard on it that she didn’t even know that her eyes were distant and that there was a goofy grin on her face.
“A penny for your thoughts,” Deshawn whispered close to her ear.
She turned her head to the side quickly to kiss his lips. “They’re worth more than that . . . trust me.”
Their eyes met and held.
Instinctively Deshawn knew just how lascivious those thoughts were and he was immediately aroused and glad for the table that hid his lengthening erection. “Careful,” he drawled with a meaningful look down at his lap.
Anika followed his gaze and her cheeks warmed immediately. “You nasty,” she whispered teasingly for his ears alone.
Deshawn laughed out loud and all eyes around the table turned to him. His erection eased, but his desire for her remained strong. He had never been happier.
∞
FOR RENT.
>
His eyes widened slightly at the neon orange and black letters emblazed against the black backdrop of the sign in the second-floor window. Nodding his head slowly, he studied the building, amazed that he had just happened to look up and see the sign.
His interest was definitely piqued. He couldn’t believe his luck and knew that this was a sign of his duty. He had to get that apartment. It would make his plans easier to execute.
But where would he get the money to afford the rent and the deposit?
It didn’t matter, he’d find a way. He had to.
Hakeem turned slowly and looked across the street at Anika’s town house.
Chapter 21
All Night Long
Anika was nervous. There was an actual tremor to her hands as she smoothed them over her nude hips. Her heart hammered in anticipation and pure trepidation. The last time she had given of herself to Deshawn he had hurt her and—
“No,” she whispered to her reflection. “That was then and this is now.”
The bathroom door opened and seconds later she was surrounded by his heat, his scent, and his arms. With a contented sigh, Anika leaned back against Deshawn’s chest with a pleased smile on her face. Her eyes caressed their reflection as he planted a sweet kiss on her temple with those plush lips.
What a stunning couple they made. Her beauty the perfect complement to his chiseled caramel good looks. The wide breadth of his shoulders, the muscles of his arms, and the sculptured form of his chest spoke of his ability to handle a thick slice of woman such as herself.
Anika’s smile widened as she stared deeply into Deshawn’s eyes in the mirror, her insides warming under his velvety gaze. “I love you,” she mouthed, her hand massaging his forearm.
Deshawn’s own smile spread, showing the dimple in his cheek. “Oh, you do, do you?” he asked teasingly.
Anika did a double take before pushing her elbow into his ribs. “Don’t play with me.”
He tightened his grip around her waist, laughing. “Okay . . . okay. I am so in love with you, Anika Foxx.”
Heavenly Match Page 22
