Despite the hectic nature of both of their lives, both he and Helena were thriving – in their separate careers, and also, together. He didn’t know if he would have been able to accomplish anything he had without her by his side. She always found time to support him with a kind word, to reassure him when it seemed like the weight of the world was pressing down on his shoulders, and to banish all his worries with the heat of her mouth against his own.
God, in the four years they’d been together, if anything, his desire for her had only increased. He could never get enough of the way she squirmed beneath his ministrations. How she moaned at the touch of his tongue against her most intimate places, and called his name in the grips of her climax. Just thinking about it was enough to get him hard.
Which wasn’t very convenient, considering that he was currently pressed right up against the object of his frustrations.
Carefully, he began the process of extricating himself from her. Any longer and he might do something he’d regret. Well, he wouldn’t regret it…he’d just regret waking her. It took the dark-haired man about five minutes to safely untangle himself from his lover before he slipped soundlessly from bed, clad in only his boxer briefs, to stretch leisurely.
He’d make breakfast for her. Xavier knew how much Helena always lamented about having her breakfast on the go. Then, they’d sit down and have a meal together – something they hadn’t indulged in for at least two or three weeks. Maybe he’d even decide to do something crazy, like take the day off to be with her. He was sure that Margaret, his office manager, might have something to say about that, but at this point, he hardly cared.
He just wanted to spend time with the woman he loved.
Xavier was reaching for his robe, intent on making his way to the kitchen, when his phone buzzed atop the bedside table. He froze, cursing his carelessness. He should have grabbed the phone when he woke up. He leapt across the room in an attempt to shut the damn thing off, but he was too late.
Groaning softly, Helena rolled over to curl slender fingers around the madly vibrating device. Blinking blearily. She sat up to extend it to him. “Phone, Xavier.”
Swallowing a sigh of disappointment, Xavier reached for the phone. It was, interestingly enough, none other than Margaret. He answered reluctantly, watching as Helena stretched before slipping from the bed to pad to the bathroom.
“Yes, Margaret?” He fought to keep the ire from his voice as he spoke to his right-hand woman.
“Xavier, what’s going on with you this morning? It’s nearly ten! I thought you said you were going to be in the office by nine.”
Xavier resisted the urge to glare at the phone as the sound of the shower starting came from the bathroom. “Margaret, I’ll be in a little later, alright? I was hoping to spend some time with Helena this morning. She’s had a tough time of it lately.”
“Oh!” Margaret’s entire rushed demeanor changed. “I’m sorry! I’ll just…well, let me know when you’re on your way.”
“Will do.” He replied brusquely, before hanging up. The moment he did, he was greeted with a cry of dismay from the bathroom. The water shut off and three seconds later, a very wet, very irate Helena rushed from the bathroom.
“Xavier! You said you would wake me up?” He winced at the shrillness of her tone. “I have a SHIT ton of stuff to get done today, and you KNEW that! How could you let me sleep in so late?”
“Honey,” He tried, carefully, “You were exhausted last night. If I would have woken you that probably would have meant less than five hours of sleep. We talked about this. You need your rest.”
Helena parted plump lips, as if to raise her voice in protest, before her mouth shut. This action was very common for the young woman. It occurred whenever she wanted to argue but had very little justification behind said argument. As he watched her flounder, Xavier tried not to smile. She was probably still too tired to come up with any sort of valid rebuttal. Leisurely, he reached out to enfold her in his arms. Before she could come up with any protest whatsoever, his mouth covered hers in a searing kiss.
The erection he’d been trying to will away for the past half hour came back with a vengeance as Helena melted against him, a soft moan spilling from her lips.
He might have to tell Margaret that he would be in very late indeed.
In a deft motion, Xavier scooped his lover into his arms to carry her back to bed, their mouths never losing contact. As he lay her back against the mattress, he peeled her towel from where it clung damply to her curves, exposing her in all her nude glory.
For a moment, Xavier had to stop and stare. Every time he undressed Helena, he thought he might get used to the magnificence of her body. How wrong he always was. He could never get enough of her smooth, chocolate-hued skin, her ripe breasts with their dark, dusky peaks, and the tiny thatch of curls between luscious thighs.
With a reluctant, enticing smile, the young woman stared up at him with unique, gray-hued eyes. She arched a brow at his lengthy stare. “Is there something I can help you with, Mr. Thompson?”
Xavier groaned softly. “There are lots of things you could help me with.” He kissed her once, leisurely, before his tongue slid against her own, tasting her sweet, intoxicating flavor. His mouth trailed its way down her neck and over to the lobe of her ear, nipping at it before he continued huskily. “This being principle among them.” He pressed his hardness against the core of her and Helena inhaled sharply, her arms winding about his neck.
“Is this what my errands are being pushed back for?” She teased lightly, moments before his mouth found hers again.
“A very good cause.” He defended himself against her lips before sucking the lower, fuller one into his mouth to nibble on. Xavier reveled in the shiver that passed through the young woman. Reaching down between them, he cupped the curls between her thighs, chuckling when he found her already wet for him. When he slid two fingers into the slick heat of her, a soft coo of pleasure escaped the dark-skinned woman.
Christ...he had never known it was possible to want a woman this much. Xavier nipped at the curve of Helena’s shoulder before taking the peak of a breast into his mouth to lave the nipple with his tongue so Helena squirmed beneath him. He bit and sucked at the tiny bead of flesh until she was gasping, her fingernails curved into his shoulders deeply enough to make little crescents of desire – and only then did he release her to move onto its twin.
By the time Xavier had his fill of her mewling, low sounds of desire, Helena’s fingers had threaded through his hair, tugging his form back northward to meet him in another turgid kiss.
When one of her hands found the substantial bulge in his underwear, he cursed lowly, thrusting into her agile grip. “Damn, Helena…”
The young woman didn’t need to be told twice. Reaching into his boxer-briefs, she extracted his throbbing erection, stroking along it in a feather light touch that threatened to drive him absolutely insane. Xavier wrapped his fingers around her wrist quickly, yanking it from his arousal for the split second it took for him to roll over onto his back.
Helena arranged herself so she straddled his chest, looking down at him like the most alluring succubus that had ever existed. Sliding backwards, she ran the cleft of her decadent behind along his cock, making Xavier’s hands curl into her hips in a death grip. While he was sure the marks he left would linger, he knew his lover didn’t mind. Helena had long revealed to him that she liked it when he got a little rough.
Which explained why he was perfectly justified in using his grip on her to slide her back until the slippery cleft of her rubbed over his aching erection. After a split second of maneuvering, he thrust upward into her inviting, searing heat and Helena cried his name. Pressing down against his entry, she drove him even deeper, drawing a low moan from the programmer.
When he and Helena had first gotten together, the young woman had been tentative about sex – intimidated, almost. She’d had little experience and even less pleasure; and so Xavier had made it his mission, f
or the last four years, to rectify that. With every sensual encounter between them, his goddess became less timid and more dangerous.
And now, she chose to demonstrate that prowess.
Helena rolled her hips downward against his in a motion that had breath hissing from between Xavier’s teeth as pure delectation spiked through his system. Bending in half, his lover leaned down to press her lips to his, moaning as her body devoured his before she raised her pelvis until only the tip of him remained within her. Then, she slid back down, whispering his name. Helena repeated the motion again and again, undulating her hips in a way that was positively ungodly. Xavier’s grip on her grew tighter and tighter, until he could feel the protrusions of her hip bones and the woman atop him bit her lips in frenzied passion.
God, this was what he lived for…to feel the woman he adored taking him, fucking him, loving him so completely that he didn’t know where she ended and he began. Thrusting his hips upward against hers, Xavier grunted as undeniable pressure began to build within him. Helena knew just how to move – just how to slide her body against his so that he tottered on the edge of sanity for what seemed like an eternity – before finally topping over.
With a hoarse cry, Xavier thrust deep within his lover, biting his lip as he spilled his seed against her clenching inner muscles. Helena moaned, long and low, grinding her hips down against his until she, too, found her own shuddering completion.
Groaning softly, the young woman slumped against him in the aftermath, her breath falling softly against his collarbone. With no small amount of effort, Xavier unwound his fingers from her hips to wind his arms around her back, holding her against him. Their lips met softly, in the oft-missed lackadaisical fashion of people who didn’t have another care in the world.
“Have I ever mentioned how good you are at that?” He murmured softly, making Helena laugh against his chest. She raised her head to stare down at him, rendering him breathless, as always, with the beauty of her gaze.
“I learned from the best.” With that, she rolled from him, leaving him bereft of her warmth as she sat on the side of the bed, combing fingers through her messy, damp hair. When Xavier had recovered enough to join her, he swung his legs over next to hers, glancing at the clock. It was close to eleven. If he played things carefully, they could still spend most of the afternoon together.
“Darling?” Helena glanced at him as she attempted to throw her hair into some semblance of decency. “How about we have a leisurely lunch together? Maybe do a bit of house hunting before you get to those errands?” With bated breath, he waited for her answer. After all, for all he tried to control his schedule, for all that Margaret and the company demanded of him, the one who really governed how his days went was Helena. As her schedule was so tight, he would often re-arrange his to-do list around hers.
“Well…” The dark-skinned woman appeared to muse for a moment, before rising, utterly nude, from the bed. Xavier swallowed the arousal that rose anew in his throat, trying to concentrate on the matter at hand. “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt. Offices don’t close until six.”
Despite the fact that he was a thirty three year old man, Xavier resisted the urge to whoop in joy. When did Helena ever agree to set aside work in order to relax – even when he was involved? Leaping from the bed, he drew her into his arms to spin around gaily, and his lover laughed, shaking her head at his silliness.
Margaret would have to wait for her little pow-wow. Xavier had things that were a bit more important to tend to.
Chapter Two: Insecurities
House hunting was far more enjoyable than Helena had imagined. Of course, after the decadent lunch they had, she found herself pretty much open to anything; but house hunting, in particular, had always been a source of nervousness for her.
Once they bought a house, that would mean more bills that she had riding upon her success as a physician – something she was particularly sensitive about. As much as everyone always told her that she was a natural – a born prodigy, not unlike her father had been, Helena could never shake the fear that she might disappoint him. That she wouldn’t live up to his expectations.
That, she supposed, was something her mother had instilled in her.
For a moment, the young woman withdrew from the gorgeous, open-floor plan house she was currently exploring with Xavier as her thoughts returned to a point four years ago. In court, she had testified against her mother, stating that the woman had kidnapped her with the intention of whoring her out – and Janette Freeman had denied every claim. She’d begged for Helena’s understanding and forgiveness, railed to the jury that her daughter had forgotten and abandoned her for the lot in life she’d been dealt and tried to pander to anyone who “had a heart”. Her exact words.
Helena had drawn strongly on the presence of her boyfriend and the memory of her father to get her through that day. Perhaps if she were younger – as weak to her mother’s wiles as she had once been – she would have given into the woman. She would have dropped all the charges right there, right then, in the courtroom. But that would have allowed her to come after her again and again. The next time, Helena told herself, the police might not arrive in time to save her. Xavier might not arrive in time to pluck her from the clutches of what would be an incredibly cruel fate.
She would have wasted all she’d worked so hard for.
And so Helena had been strong – stronger than she’d been in her entire life. Her testimony, and Xavier’s, had seen Janette Freeman, as well as her boyfriend and accomplice, Big Tony, imprisoned for the next fifteen years without the possibility of parole.
It had been one of the hardest things she’d ever done. She, who had only ever wanted her mother’s approval and acceptance, had helped put the middle-aged woman away. What’s worse, she hadn’t even responded to Janette’s flagrant tears. With Xavier’s arm around her, Helena had merely walked out of the courtroom – and away from the mother who would never truly claim her.
Even four years later, it was a bitter pill to swallow. She’d had so few precious years with her father before he’d passed that Helena had never really known what it was like to have parents the way that most people did. And, of course, she didn’t have the opportunity with Xavier’s mother and father either. The couple had made it quite clear that they didn’t approve of her, and never would. Their views, however, had everything to do with where she had come from and nothing to do with where she was going.
She would be successful. This, the young woman promised herself every night, before she went to bed. She loved her work and she loved what she did. She even loved the children that came into the clinic every day. They and their parents trusted her with their lives, and that trust made her heart swell.
“Babe?” She jolted from her reverie to see Xavier speaking to her from over the kitchen island. She herself was standing in the middle of the recessed living room and looked up at him in surprise. “Well?” He extended his arms in question. “What do you think?”
For the first time, Helena took a really good look at the house. It was absolutely gorgeous – right on the edge of town with wide open spaces, and large kitchen, and three bedrooms. The views of downtown from the terrace were breathtaking, and the structure was filled with light. However, the one point three million dollar price tag gave her pause.
It wasn’t as if they couldn’t afford it. No, the income Xavier received from the growing XTech was more than enough to keep them comfortable for the rest of their lives. It was just that…coming from where she had, sometimes the young woman still found it difficult to believe where she stood currently.
On the cusp of obtaining all she’d ever dreamed of, with a man that loved her more than life itself. Sometimes it all just seemed like a dream. One she would be terrified to wake from. Helena didn’t know if she could take opening her eyes to her decrepit bedroom in Maynard, with her mother screaming at her to make breakfast.
She forced a smile as she moved towards the kitchen, stepping up onto the go
rgeous marble floor. “It’s amazing, Xavier. Really, it is…but the price? Isn’t it a little steep?”
The man fixed her with a reassuring smile – one that never failed to get her hot and bothered. “It’s not cheap, that’s true. But think of the space! Think of the location!” Think of our family. Her lover didn’t say it, but Helena could hear the desire in his voice. She knew how important family was to Xavier, never having had proper family structure. She, herself, had learned over the course of her life to be wary of her family and overtures they made towards her – but Xavier had no such qualms.
He wanted a wife. He wanted children – and this place, Helena knew, would be the perfect family home.
The dark-skinned woman wanted to give Xavier everything he desired, truly, she did. He wasn’t the problem. It was her own personal hang-ups that got in the way. She and he were both so busy in their day to day lives that she just didn’t see how feasible it would be for them to get married just now. And children? If there were any at all, they would have to be far in the future. They were both working on building the structures they needed in their lives. In Helena’s mind, there simply wasn’t room to take the steps that would yield the family that Xavier wanted at this exact moment.
Buying a house frightened her. Taking a deep breath, she glanced around the space again. How could she possibly explain herself to Xavier? She didn’t know how many times she’d tried, only to come up short. He knew how she felt about her own family, and the problems she sometimes had believing in herself.
A Kiss of Color: A BWWM Interracial Pregnancy Romance (Book 2) Page 2
