Breathless

by Cheryl Douglas

  Ava reached for Brent’s arm. “Please, guys, don’t do this.”

  “You ungrateful son of a bitch.” Brent poked Keith in the chest. “How dare you—”

  “Stop it!” Ava shouted. “I’m serious.”

  Brent stalked across the room to pour himself a drink.

  “I’m sorry,” Keith said to Ava only. “This isn’t about you. I know you’re only trying to protect your friend, but I’m putting you both on notice. We’re going to be together, whether y’all like it or not.”

  Keith didn’t wait for a response. He didn’t need one. He’d said what he came to say… and more.

  Chapter Seven

  Tara had just slipped into a black bathrobe she’d borrowed from Keith when the phone rang, indicating they had a visitor. She assumed it was the pizza delivery they’d discussed, so she answered. “Hello.”

  “Um, hello,” came a female voice. “I’m not sure if I punched in the right number. I’m looking for Keith.”

  Oh. Awkward. “This is Keith’s apartment. I’m just a friend.” Her heart protested the characterization, but that’s what she kept telling him she wanted. She didn’t have the right to stake a claim as soon as another woman entered the scene.

  “Oh, I have something for him. Could I bring it up?”

  Tara wanted to tell her to leave it at the security desk, but knowing Keith, it could be something of a personal nature. “Sure, come on up.”

  Unfortunately, she didn’t have time to dash into the bedroom and change. Tara decided Keith’s visitor would just have to draw her own conclusions. She didn’t owe a stranger an explanation. According to Keith, he wasn’t sleeping with anyone and didn’t care to. Except her. She couldn’t help but feel a tingle of excitement when she thought about his words. He did seem determined to prove that he was a changed man… and her heart was tempted to let him try.

  Glancing in the mirror by the door, Tara fluffed her hair. She’d left it to air dry, deciding pizza and a movie didn’t warrant using lip gloss or a curling iron. Their visitor meant she didn’t have any more time to fret over her appearance. As soon as she opened the door, she wished she’d reconsidered the lip gloss and hair products.

  The woman was a goddess. And everything Tara wasn’t: blond, tall, and voluptuous. She practically screamed sex. Her sleeveless red dress was short and tight to the point of being almost obscene. She was the kind of woman who would stop traffic and make honorable men consider leaving their wives and girlfriends.

  Pretending she was totally unaffected wasn’t easy, but Tara was determined. With a smile, she opened the door wider, gesturing for the woman to enter. Tara would be secure and composed if it killed her. “Hello. Won’t you come in?”

  It wasn’t until the other woman reached for the handle of the box at her feet that Tara noticed it. The box was reasonably large, gold, with embossed initials and a silk ribbon handle. A gift for Keith?

  Tara said, “Keith should be back in a few minutes if you’d like to wait for him.”

  “Thank you,” she said, breezing past. “I think I will.”

  Her expensive perfume was overpowering. Tara stifled a cough. She was allergic to heavy perfume, which was why she’d stuck with the same light fragrance since college. “He shouldn’t be long.”

  With a sneer, she gave Tara a quick once-over. “I know. You already said that.”

  Okay, so that’s the way it was going to be. Tara wasn’t an instigator, but she wasn’t a pushover either. “Can I get you something to drink?” Her petty side wanted the witch to think Tara had made herself at home with Keith.

  “No, thanks.” She removed the ribbon from the box and extracted a stunning blue and green, hand-blown vase.

  She set it down on the book shelf next to the flat-screen TV, and suddenly Tara felt as though she was the intruder. Who was that woman and why was she so comfortable in Keith’s home?

  “So you’re the flavor of the week.”

  It wasn’t a question, it was a statement, and Tara was almost too stunned to respond. “Excuse me?”

  She laughed. “Let me guess, he told you that you were special, right?” Nodding, a smile still teasing her lips, she said, “He said he’d never felt about any other woman the way he felt about you…”

  Tara felt sick to her stomach, but she’d swallow bile before she let the woman know she was hitting her mark. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Tara knew she didn’t sound convincing. She was a terrible liar, especially when she was shaken and confused.

  “Yes, you do.” Sitting on the sofa, the woman crossed one long, smooth leg over the other and looked at her strappy red sandals. “Hmm, let me think for a minute. What else might he have said? Oh, I know, did he tell you that he didn’t want anyone else? That you were the only one?” She laughed at Tara’s stricken look. “He really needs to get new material.”

  Before Tara could respond, Keith walked in. He looked from Tara to his guest and back again. “Kiley, what are you doing here?”

  She indicated the piece she’d set on his bookcase. “You asked me to drop it off when it came in, remember?”

  Looking nervous, Keith said, “Oh yeah, right. I almost forgot. What do I owe you?”

  “It’s taken care of. It was on your last invoice.”

  So she was his interior designer. Not that it mattered. Anyone could see they’d had an intimate relationship. Keith was behaving like a man with something to hide.

  “Well, if that’s all…” He walked toward the door. “Can we touch base later? Tara and I were just about to settle in for the night. It’s been kind of a long day.”

  Kiley rose, pausing to straighten her dress. “Sure. Call me later this week. Maybe we can get together for dinner.”

  She obviously assumed Tara was a non-issue, and she was right. If Tara had even considered giving Keith the benefit of the doubt, Kiley had just quashed that idea. Keith expected Tara to be one of many. He’d fed her the same lines he used on every woman stupid enough to fall into bed with him. Thankfully she hadn’t been foolish enough to make that mistake.

  “I don’t think so, Kiley.” Keith gripped the doorknob. “Things are, uh, different now.” He glanced at Tara. “I’m kind of off the market.”

  He was obviously doing a little damage control. Too bad it was too little, too late. “Don’t turn her down on my account, Keith,” Tara said, smiling sweetly. “You can consider our little arrangement null and void.”

  Keith winced before closing his eyes for a brief moment. “Don’t do this.” When Kiley seemed content to stay and listen, Keith said to her, “Have a nice night, Kiley.” After closing the door, he leaned against it and glared at Tara. “You want to tell me what that was about?”

  He had the nerve to pretend she should be ashamed of her actions? Unbelievable. “I’m leaving.” Tara stormed down the hall to the guest bedroom.

  “Like hell you are!” he shouted.

  He was dictating to her as if he had the right! He’d gone too far. After throwing her clothes into a cheap suitcase she’d bought, she went into the bathroom to collect her toiletries.

  Keith slammed and locked the bedroom door.

  As though that would stop her from leaving. He couldn’t keep her there against her will.

  He stood in the doorway of the bathroom, effectively blocking her path. “Talk to me. I know you can’t be pissed just because my interior designer stopped by to drop off a vase. What the hell did she say?”

  It was too humiliating to recap. “Just tell me one thing. Did you sleep with her?” Tara knew if they’d been intimate, the rest of the woman’s claims were likely true. They were too eerily reminiscent of the lines he’d used on her to be a lie.

  “What does that matter?” he asked, scowling. “Have I asked you to name all the men you’ve slept with? The past is the past, Tara. Can’t we leave it at that?”

  He might as well have admitted it. “Did you tell her she was special? That you’d never met anyone like her?
”

  Keith rolled his eyes. “How can you expect me to remember everything I said to her? I may have said something like that, but—”

  She pushed past him. “Don’t say anything else. Please. You’re just making it worse.” Tara knew she didn’t have the right to feel so upset or hurt. They hadn’t even slept together, but his promises of what could happen were suddenly more real to her than actually making love with any other man had been.

  “Damn it, you’re not leaving,” Keith said, following her into the bedroom. “Not like this.” He reached for her bag, but she pulled harder, wrenching it out of his grasp.

  “Who are you to tell me what I can and can’t do?” she shouted.

  “I’m the guy who loves you!”

  Tara dropped the bag, too stunned to speak.

  Stepping closer, he whispered, “I love you, baby. Not a woman alive can honestly claim I’ve said that to them.” Reaching for her hand, he sat on the foot of the bed and tugged her down beside him.

  “Keith…I…” She didn’t know what she wanted to say or hear. It wasn’t possible. He couldn’t love her. Could he?

  “Sssh…” He linked their hands and looked at them. “I just need to say this, Tara. If you don’t believe me, I know there’s nothing more I can do to convince you, but I need to say this.”

  Tara held her breath. She wouldn’t try to stop him. She needed to hear it as much as he needed to say it. “Go on.”

  “I’ve done and said a lot of stupid things. I slept with girls I didn’t love or even care about. I’m not proud to admit that. Did I tell a few of them they were special? Sure. Did I think they were? Maybe, at the time. Haven’t you ever said something to someone you were in a relationship with that you meant at the time only to realize later you’d been too invested in the outcome to think rationally at that moment?”

  She thought of all the mistakes she’d made and time she wasted with Biagio. “Sure, I guess.” She’d never claimed to be perfect, but wasn’t that what she was expecting of Keith? Maybe she had judged him too harshly.

  “That’s what I did with Kiley. I said what she wanted to hear because…” He shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe I wanted to believe it. Maybe I was trying to convince myself that she was special. She had everything any guy in his right mind would want, so it kind of made me wonder what was wrong with me if she wasn’t doing it for me. You know what I mean?”

  Tara hated to admit it, but she sort of understood. “I guess.”

  He brought their linked hands to his lips and kissed hers. “I’m sorry if she hurt you or made you doubt the way I feel about you, but trust me, she doesn’t know me. She doesn’t know what’s in my heart. I’d like to believe you do.”

  Tara wanted to believe that too, but a part of her still hung onto fear. She was afraid to take the leap in case the parachute he was offering refused to open and she ended up crash landing.

  “You’re the only one who can decide whether you’re willing to take a chance on me, Tara. I’m not saying you have to decide now. Take all the time you need. If you tell me there’s a chance for us, I’ll wait as long as it takes, do whatever it takes to convince you that what I feel for you is the real deal.”

  Tara stared into Keith’s eyes, trying to decide what to do. She felt as though she was at a fork in the road. If she went left, she could count on emotional safety, but she would be alone. If she took a right turn, she’d take a risk, but she could wind up with the man of her dreams.

  “I went upstairs to tell Ava and my brother to back off and let us make our own decisions,” he said quietly.

  “That couldn’t have gone well.”

  “It didn’t, but I had to take a stand. No way am I gonna let them mess this up for us.”

  He’d risked his relationship with his brother for a chance with her. If he was willing to take that kind of risk, so was she. “Did they agree to back off?”

  “They don’t have a choice.” He rubbed his thumb over her wrist. “Brent can find himself another right hand if he refuses to back off.”

  “Are you serious?” Tara couldn’t believe he’d been willing to give up not only his relationship with his brother, but his career, just for a chance with her.

  “Dead serious.”

  Without thinking about the consequences, Tara stood up and reached for the belt around her robe.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “You put your faith in us,” she whispered, letting the bathrobe fall. “It’s time for me to do the same.”

  ***

  Keith knew he had to breathe, but he couldn’t remember how. Not with the woman of his dreams standing before him, offering to obliterate his memory of every woman who’d come before her. In that moment, she was the only one. His first. His last. His only lover.

  “We don’t have to do this… if you’re not ready.” He prayed she was. He’d been ready for her for longer than he’d realized. Forever.

  “I’m ready.”

  “So am I.” He reached for her waist to draw her closer. He placed feather-light kisses on the undersides of her breasts as she trembled. “I’m ready to love you. To be with you. Only you. You’re all that matters to me, baby.” He was going way out on a limb alone, but he didn’t care how long it took her to join him. He would wait for her.

  “Keith,” she murmured, resting her hands on his shoulders. When he closed his mouth around her nipple, she tipped her head back. “Oh… yes.”

  He became fixated on her pleasure, listening carefully for every hitch in her breathing as his mouth moved over her soft skin, mapping a trail of her pleasure points.

  “Please,” she whispered.

  Keith turned her around so the mattress was at her back, and he eased her down. He allowed her feet to remain on the ground as he fell to his knees, intent on worshiping her. He wanted their first time to be everything she’d never had.

  “Keith.”

  Just the sound of his name on her lips took him into a trance-like state. He wanted to hear it over and over again. Hypnotic. That’s how being with her felt. His subconscious guided his mouth, his mind, and his body as though it knew what she needed… and what he needed to give her to make her fall in love with him.

  Her release moved through him too. He felt it soul deep in a way he’d never experienced a woman’s pleasure. His mouth moved up her body slowly. He memorized every soft inch of the body he just knew he was going to enjoy for years to come.

  When they were face-to-face, he hovered over her and smiled when he saw the look of wonder in her eyes. She seemed as awed by their connection as he was. He would never take it for granted because he’d never expected to find it.

  Kissing her slowly opened the floodgates. Once again, she was riding the crest, hovering between desperation and completion, as she grinded against him, intent on hitting the spot that would take her where she needed to go.

  Keith gladly satisfied her in every way he could. He used his mouth and the friction between them to give her what she needed. By the time her nails dug into his shoulders, she was tearing her mouth away from his, crying out and burying her face in his neck.

  He chuckled as he kissed her cheek. “I don’t know who enjoyed that more: you or me.”

  “I need you inside me now,” she whispered, drawing his earlobe into her mouth. “Please.”

  She didn’t have to ask him twice. He’d been counting down the seconds until he could finally realize that fantasy. He made quick work of shedding his clothes and finding protection before resuming his position.

  Her eyes were still glazed, her cheeks were flushed, and her hair was tousled. She looked well-loved, and he wanted to see her that way every day. “You’re beautiful,” he whispered as he lost himself in her.

  “Ahhhh….” Grazing his shoulder with her teeth, she moaned. “That feels incredible.”

  “Too incredible.” He tried to hold back as she gripped him in the clutches of the only Heaven he’d ever experienced. He’d had sex ple
nty of times, but joining their bodies felt almost ethereal. He had an eerie sense that he’d experienced that feeling before. Never with another woman. Only in his dreams. This is what perfection feels like, what making love means. Giving your heart, body and soul, to someone else.

  He couldn’t move for several seconds. He wanted their first time to last forever, and he knew if he didn’t gain control, it wouldn’t.

  “It’s okay.” She ran her hands through his hair. “I won’t break.”

  He smiled at her, loving her even more. “No, but I might.” Knowing the inevitable was only a heartbeat away, he gave himself over, allowing his body to lead him in the familiar, yet unfamiliar rhythm. Nothing was predictable with her. Every experience was new and different, and beyond anything he felt he deserved.

  “Yessss…” She threw her head back, surrendering.

  Keith couldn’t have held back another second even if he wanted to. It was like a tidal wave, rushing over and through them, taking them down before receding and allowing them to come up for air.

  “Jesus, girl,” he said between deep breaths. “Are you trying to do me in, or what?”

  “I was just about to ask you the same question. Once maybe…” She smacked his bottom as he got up. “Three times? Never.”

  He grinned over his shoulder as he made his way into the bathroom. “Get used to it, baby.”

  Chapter Eight

  Tara was curled up in Keith’s arms, on the verge of falling asleep, when he said, “I don’t want you to save for a new place. Stay here with me.”

  Falling into a comfortable routine with him, living in his posh condo, dining at the finest restaurants, falling asleep and waking up in his strong arms was tempting, but if it didn’t work out, she would have that much further to fall. “I don’t want to rush this, Keith. Let’s just take our time, see where it goes.”