Her Lover's Legacy

by Adrianne Byrd

  “I don’t have a political career.”

  “You’re damn right you don’t. Not after that little performance.”

  “Let me be clear,” Malcolm sneered. “I’m not too interested in a political career, so you can stop plotting and planning with Cayman. So the next time you want to go to one these boring political fund-raisers, feel free to call up your new boyfriend Clint Hardy to take you.”

  “My boyfriend?” she bellowed and fixed her eyes on his stern profile. “Is that why you’re throwing this little temper tantrum? You think I’m interested in him?”

  Malcolm ground his teeth in silence.

  “I wasn’t flirting with him, if that’s what you think. I was simply questioning him—”

  “About a job,” he jumped in. “I know.”

  “No. I was sizing up the competition,” she defended. “No telling how many voters you turned off back there.”

  “I don’t give a damn about what those people think,” he spat. “I have my own plans, not that anyone’s interested. And I don’t like being manipulated.” He jerked his gaze. “I would have thought that you’d have figured that out about me by now.”

  “You want to know what I’ve figure out?” She turned in her seat and challenged him. “That with all your bravado about being your own man and marching to your own beat, you’re nothing but a scared little boy willing to throw away an opportunity of a lifetime just because you were mad at your old man.”

  “Goddamn it. How the hell can you of all people view my father’s death as a career opportunity? The man hasn’t been in the ground two full weeks and everyone who claimed to love him can’t wait to fill his shoes.”

  Malcolm took the next turn too fast and his tires squealed in protest.

  “That’s not how it is.”

  “Isn’t it? Well, I happen to think his shoes were too big to fill—especially by me.”

  “Oh, don’t give me that. You’re just comfortable sitting on the sidelines, pointing and laughing at those who are truly trying to make a difference in this world. The truth of the matter is that you lack the guts to get in the game yourself. You don’t like what’s going on in politics, and if you think everyone is just a puppet or a puppet master, then jump in and do something about it. That’s what Harmon was trying to do, whether or not he made mistakes. The point is that he tried to make a difference. What are you trying to do?”

  Malcolm nearly swerved off the road. “Are you for real? Every day I get up, I try to make a difference in this world. I bust my butt trying to shelter the homeless, feed the hungry or get medical aid to the sick.”

  Gloria closed her eyes and drew a deep breath. “You’re right. You and the Arc Foundation do some wonderful work—but let’s face it. Those things are just Band-Aids on a larger problem. Real change comes from fighting for those same people through the system—homes, food and medical care should be a right, not an option in one of the richest countries in the world.”

  The fight seemed to shorten the drive back to Gloria’s apartment, and before Malcolm had shifted the car into Park, she was out the SUV and storming toward her building.

  No way Malcolm was letting her off the hook. “We’re not finished,” he barked, racing behind her.

  “Oh, yes, we are,” she snapped over her shoulder, and continued her trek toward the elevators. “I don’t know why the hell I thought you had the balls—” she jetted into the elevator “—the guts to do what needs to be done. You don’t give a damn about your father or the things that he cared about. He went to work every day with those political sharks and put his neck on the line. All you know—all you care to remember—is the few times he made mistakes. It must be nice to be perfect, Malcolm. How do you stand it to be on earth with us mere mortals?”

  “I never claimed—”

  “He was human, Malcolm. He made mistakes. Get over it!” They arrived at her floor and she jumped out as if she couldn’t stand the sight of him another minute.

  “I am over it,” Malcolm charged, dogging her heels. “You’re the one insisting I be something I’m not. When you look at me all you see is an opportunity to turn me into your idol. You don’t see me. You just see my father.”

  Gloria jabbed her key into the lock. “Well, thank you for opening my eyes. Now, feel free to run home and hide in your quaint little apartment where you play poor little rich kid. Let real men with real balls fight the good fight. Men like Clint Hardy who know what they want and know how to go after it.”

  She’d finally done it, Gloria realized the moment Malcolm’s face turned into stone and he slammed a fist against her door. It slammed open with a bang.

  “How dare you,” he seethed.

  She stumbled in backward through the door while Malcolm stalked inside and then kicked the door closed behind him.

  She backed away until she was pressed against the hall closet. He looked like he didn’t know whether to hit her or throttle her.

  “You’re challenging my manhood now, is that it?” He pressed his chest against hers and gave her a good feel of his rock-hard erection. “Do you want to see how much of a man I really am?”

  She honestly didn’t know. Hell, she didn’t think she could handle standing much longer.

  “What’s wrong, Gloria? Cat got your tongue?” He found another inch to move closer.

  She closed her eyes and could swear she felt his erection pulsing in rhythm to his racing heartbeat.

  “I asked you a question.” Malcolm spoke softly while he wrapped a lock of her hair around his finger. “Do you think you can handle me? Or are you going to run away like you did last time?”

  Her voice remained MIA. The fire in his eyes and the tautness of his broad chest pinned her to the closet. That absolutely turned her on.

  She didn’t wait for him to kiss her. She couldn’t. In fact, there was no thinking involved. Just feelings—and what she felt was pure fire. Gloria’s passion devoured him. His long winding moan sounded as if it came from a well deep inside of him.

  With no space left between them, Gloria hiked up one leg and anchored it against his hip before bringing up the second and then locking her legs behind him. If she hadn’t already been lost, the feel of Malcolm’s iron-hard erection now pressed against her thin panties was enough to send her into no man’s land.

  She grabbed at his shirt and ripped it open with a strength she didn’t know she possessed. There was no more denying that this was what she wanted. No more pretending that she couldn’t stand him. For the first time in her life, she was going to toss caution to the wind and deal with the consequences later.

  “Are you sure this is what you want?” Malcolm asked, dragging his lips away from hers to rasp against her ear. “I’m not going to be able to stop this time,” he promised.

  “Don’t you dare stop,” she growled back, and reclaimed his lips in a hungry kiss. Gloria was only vaguely aware of her dress inching up her body. It wasn’t until their lips tore apart the second time that he pulled it over her head, getting rid of the thing. And frankly, she was too lust-drunk to give a damn.

  “My God,” he whispered, taking in the sight of her incredible body. Decked in a blue-and-black strapless bra, matching panties, garter belt, thigh-high stockings and high heels, she was ready for her own pinup poster. She looked like nothing he’d seen in fantasy or real life.

  Malcolm lowered her feet back to the floor and found himself sinking to his knees before her. Her beautiful heart-shaped face was suffused with desire, and he felt an incredible pressure to please and satisfy her any way he could. On his knees, he was now eye level to her hips. He was unable to contain his desire to kiss her other set of lips.

  Gloria’s flat stomach quivered when his mouth peppered kisses around her belly button. Loving her response, Malcolm sank lower until he took the lacy fringe of her panties between his teeth and proceeded to pull them off her hips and down her smooth legs.

  Slowly, she stepped out of the small material and then spread her l
egs a little wider as she watched him climb back onto his knees. This time he was eye level to her velvet V of black curls.

  Once again, Malcolm was awestruck by her beautiful body. As if in a trance, he leaned forward and planted a kiss against her springy curls.

  Gloria sighed, her legs visibly trembling.

  He kissed her again. This time, his tongue glided inside her.

  “Oh, God,” she moaned, dropping her head back against the closet door.

  She had stolen the words out of his mouth. Her body was sweeter than anything he’d ever tasted. His next kiss had his tongue sliding in between her thick lips, plunging deep and sapping up her body’s juices as if they were the elixir of life.

  Gloria lowered her hands to Malcolm’s head—at first to pull him away because the pleasure was too intense, but once they reached their destination, she could do no more than massage and urge him on in his glorious feasting.

  However, Malcolm needed no encouraging; he continued to suck out her very soul with each gentle lapping of his tongue.

  Her legs came up once again. This time she anchored them over his shoulders until she was literally sitting before his face while his hands cupped her ample bottom.

  Suddenly, Gloria couldn’t breathe. The pleasure was too much. She tried to squirm away but had nowhere to go. Her hand found the door to the closet just as her body shuddered in release and liquefied her every bone and muscle.

  And still Malcolm continued to lap her up until she begged for mercy.

  But she slipped sideways and the door slid open on its track. Gloria tumbled inside, dragging down coats and jackets on top of her.

  At any other time, the couple would have laughed.

  But the fire was too hot, the passion too intense for them to stop now.

  Malcolm pulled and tugged out of his pants and got them off in record time.

  At the first sight of Malcolm’s incredibly rigid, toffee-colored erection, Gloria’s mouth watered. She absolutely must have a taste of him.

  Pulling herself out of the closet, she wrapped her hand around his beautiful thick work of art as if she was in awe. She leaned in close and drew him into her mouth, knowing instantly that she would forever remember his rich taste.

  “Oh, Jesus.” Malcolm exhaled as his straining flesh bobbed in and out of her mouth. For some reason he hadn’t expected her to share his love for oral sex, and he certainly didn’t expect her to bring him to the brink of madness so quickly.

  In order to prolong the moment, he forced himself to pull her away and scramble for his condoms in his wallet.

  After rolling one on, he eased Gloria onto her bed of fallen coats. She squirmed a bit when he pushed just the head of his sex inside her, giving her time to adjust to his girth. He took his time, inching his way into her hot passage and watching how the O shape of her mouth widened as he did so.

  Once her slick body accepted his full length, he waited a few heartbeats until she rocked impatiently against him before he started moving languidly in slow torturous strokes.

  He loved how high her sighs climbed and how she couldn’t seem to stop saying his name. Nothing in his life had ever felt so right and so perfect.

  He never wanted this night to end.

  Malcolm teased her with long fluid strokes, taking his time to rotate his hips just so and hitting all her hot spots. So long, in fact, he counted her erupting with three body-quaking orgasms before he sought to get his own. He picked up the speed, grabbed hold of her long legs and used them as handlebars.

  When he finally allowed himself to give into his own budding orgasm, he was thrusting hard and fast and had lifted her hips high off the floor. With one final stroke, Malcolm’s orgasm raged through his body like a hurricane, and he collapsed on top of her.

  They lay there, panting—half of their bodies inside the closet. They looked at each other, laughed, but waited for their second wind.

  Minutes later, when they caught their breaths, Malcolm rained more kisses across her dewy brow while he freed her creamy brown breasts from their lacy confinements.

  Just the sight of their perky ripeness made him hard again, but this time he asked, “Why don’t we take the next round into the bedroom?”

  Gloria smiled. “Great. I have a wonderful walk-in closet.”

  Chapter 14

  Malcolm fell asleep with the sound of Gloria’s orgasmic cries ringing in his ears. Never had he had a woman satisfy his every need. It blew his mind how Gloria’s lush body anticipated his every move and would respond by meeting his every thrust with one of its own. Even now while his mind floated in a pool of euphoria, his body tingled as if alive for the first time.

  He curled toward her, cupping her curvy frame in an intimate spoon position and brushing her shoulders and neck with butterfly kisses.

  This was bliss.

  This was heaven.

  This was love.

  Malcolm opened his eyes—startled by the dangerous direction of his thoughts. Love? Had that word really crossed his mind?

  Still on his side, Malcolm propped up on his elbow and stared down at the sleeping woman beside him. Despite Gloria’s loose curls spread around her head like a dark halo, and her full, kissable lips whispering his name, Malcolm felt the sharp kick of panic hit him squarely in the gut.

  Love?

  He shook his head as if it would somehow erase the notion, but it took root. When had all of this happened? And why now?

  If ever he stood at a crossroads, it was now. Malcolm no longer recognized his own life, and it was all moving too fast for him to catch up—and now this.

  Lying back down on the pillow, Malcolm gazed at the back of Gloria’s head and twirled a few strands of her hair around his finger—loving how even that carved a smile on his troubled face. While the question of love swirled inside his head, more questions crept from the recesses of his mind: How did Gloria feel about him? Was she attracted to him or just the idea of transforming him into her former idol?

  That last question shifted the pain from his gut to his chest. He lay there, motionless and overwhelmed.

  By the time the first rays of morning filtered through the bedroom window, Malcolm was more confused than ever, but his body was slowly stirring to life.

  Maybe it was time to go.

  Gloria stirred, her ample bottom pushed against his returning erection.

  He sighed and planted more kisses along her shoulder blade. Seconds later, Malcolm slid his arm over her round hips and then glided his hands up to cup her firm breasts. She had just the right amount: a handful.

  She moaned and hiked her butt higher. Their little game continued until Gloria’s light giggles floated on the air. “You’re the best alarm clock a girl could have,” she whispered.

  Malcolm smiled into the crook of her neck and then inhaled her body’s musky sweetness.

  Eyes closed, Gloria loved the feel of Malcolm’s hands massaging her breasts and his hard-on sliding between her legs, begging for entrance.

  A part of her couldn’t believe that last night or even this morning wasn’t a dream. If she had her way, they would never leave this bed.

  Malcolm’s whisper-soft kisses moved up the column of her neck before he settled on nibbling the lower earlobe.

  As she felt Malcolm’s knee nudge her legs open, a lazy smile ghosted around Gloria’s lips as she complied to give him better access. Almost immediately his hand abandoned her breast to dive in between her legs. At the first stroke of his fingertips inside her, Gloria’s breath rushed from her lungs.

  “Ooh,” she sighed as his fingers made lazy circles around her swelling clit. In no time, a glorious heat simmered in the center of her body and then gushed like a California geyser. Stars flashed from behind her closed eyelids.

  One.

  Two.

  Three fingers dipped deep into the well of her honeypot to find her slick and ready. Gloria didn’t care whether she looked too wanton or too brazen; she only wanted to satisfy the growing ache p
ulsing inside her. She rocked her hips against his large, thrusting hand and prayed that he would soon stop his teasing and give her what she really needed.

  As if hearing her thoughts, Malcolm withdrew his hand for a few torturous seconds while he ripped open another condom packet. When he returned to their previous spoon position, he nuzzled her neck, lifted her leg and entered her fully and completely.

  Malcolm rasped out Gloria’s name each time he withdrew and sank into her. His heart thundered at the feel of her body contracting all around him, until one stroke sent her tumbling headlong into an orgasmic storm.

  They cried out at the same time before their bodies curled into each other’s—the bed linen clinging to their dewy bodies.

  The last thought that drifted through Gloria’s head before sleep claimed her was that this was the man she’d waited for all her life. All this time, he was right in front of her and she never knew.

  Malcolm Braddock was a real man.

  He was the one she could spend her whole life with.

  He was honest to a fault, passionate and had just stolen the keys to her heart.

  She felt a kiss to the back of her neck and fell asleep dreaming that this was the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

  What she hadn’t counted on was waking up to an empty bed.

  Chapter 15

  “Earth to Malcolm.” Paula snapped her fingers.

  Malcolm blinked, sat up and glanced around the conference room. A few coughs rippled around the large table while a few volunteers shook their heads in sympathetic concern. He’d heard the whispers of those thinking his quick return to work was a mistake—that his burying himself in work was fooling no one.

  Maybe there was something to that. After all, it’d only been two weeks. Two weeks, his mind echoed. Was that all? It seemed he’d been battling this hole in his heart for a lifetime.

  Paula frowned and stretched a supportive hand out to him. “Maybe you should sit this meeting out?”