Red Velvet Kisses

by Sherelle Green

  “No...just lower yourself onto my mouth,” he said, still beneath her. “As if you’re going to sit on my face.”

  Face sitting... She’d heard it was amazing from other women, but she never thought she’d have a man this irrefutably sexy asking her to willingly sit on his face. I wish I could keep him in this position forever. The thought made her close her eyes in embarrassment and surprise that she would even think such a thing. But Micah was daring her to live in the moment and had been since they had met.

  Oh, my goodness, she thought as she spread her thighs more and slowly eased down onto his mouth. This is really happening. With each low movement, she could feel his warm breath teasing her wet center, anxiously awaiting the connection.

  “Are you ready?” he asked in a deep raspy voice. She opened her mouth to tell him that she was, but the only word to escape was a pleasurable whimper of absolute satisfaction as his tongue dipped in her core and twirled around inside her.

  Chapter 12

  Lex slowly opened her eyes and glanced at the empty spot on the bed beside her. She briefly recalled Micah whispering in her ear that he had to get up early to assist with some activities at the festival and wouldn’t be finished until 2 p.m. He seemed so involved in the community, and Lex would have never guessed that about him before visiting his family in Arkansas.

  She took a long stretch and yawned before pushing the sheets and cover off her body. She was still naked, a sight that brought a small smile to her lips. Last night had been amazing and Lex couldn’t believe that she’d willingly participated in such naughty behavior. She always attracted men who were all too eager to tell her how they could please her in the bedroom, and even if Lex had given those jerks the time of day, she knew that not one of them could have delivered the performance that Micah had last night.

  Imagine how great he is in bed. She no longer wished to convince herself to stay away from Micah and she actually didn’t think she could even if she tried. He wasn’t just a sexy man, or a passionate man. He was a man who cared about pleasing her and put her needs before his own. She didn’t want to think about Evan after such an amazing night, but she had to because being married to a man like him was what made her appreciate how Micah had handled her last night.

  “Eeekk,” she squealed as she kicked her legs in excitement. “What have you done to me, Micah Madden?” Not only did she feel like a new woman physically, but mentally, she felt relaxed and refreshed. I guess it’s true what they say, she thought. Orgasms really do relieve built-up tension. She’d always thought it was a myth, but clearly she’d been wrong.

  Lex stood up and gave her body another much-needed stretch, enjoying the freedom of being naked. You’d think living on her own she would’ve walked around naked every now and then, but she didn’t. Right now, walking around naked until she showered and dressed for the day felt right.

  She smirked to herself as she began singing one of her favorite holiday songs. She took it one step further and made up a dance to go along with her vocals. Gliding across the floor, she moved to the sound of her own voice, feeling more liberated than she had in a long time. She proudly hit the last note of the song, reminding herself that every woman should indulge in a little me time.

  After her song, she went into the side drawer and got out the clothes she would be wearing for the day along with her cosmetic bag.

  “I much prefer you without any clothes on.”

  Lex yelped aloud and dropped everything she had in her hands at the sound of Micah’s voice. Her hand flew to her heart as she swiftly turned around to find him standing in the doorway of the bathroom.

  “What on earth are you still doing here?” Lex asked, oblivious to the fact that she was still naked. “You said you’d be busy until 2 p.m.”

  Micah gave her an amused look. “When was the last time you checked the clock?”

  She looked over her shoulder at the clock on the nightstand. “Oh, wow, is it really 2:30?”

  “It sure is, sunshine,” he said, leaning against the wall wearing a white T-shirt and worn jeans. There were a few paint stains splattered on his clothes so she assumed whatever he did today included painting.

  “I helped paint the inside foyer of the town hall,” Micah said, reading her thoughts. Clearly captivated by Lex, his eyes perused her entire body with keen interest.

  “But I’d much rather talk about how sexy you look and the fact that last night, I didn’t notice how many cute brown freckles you had on your body.”

  “Oh, crap,” Lex shrieked as she yanked the white sheet off the bed and covered her body. “Why didn’t you say anything?” she asked as she began picking up the belongings that she’d dropped.

  “I didn’t know I had to remind you that you were naked,” he said as he let out a robust laugh. “Plus I enjoyed watching you sing and dance. Your voice is amazing.”

  Although her family and close friends knew she could sing, she rarely sang in front of them. “My parents placed me in voice lessons when I was younger,” she told him. “Up until I was ten, I did voice-overs for numerous Chicagoland companies for different toys or musical books.”

  “You just keep amazing me lingerie girl,” he said, moving toward her. “Did you mean what you said before you got out of bed?”

  Lex raised an eyebrow at him when he reached her. Got out of bed? “Um, how long were you watching me?”

  “Long enough to hear you say ‘What have you done to me, Micah,’” he repeated in a girlie voice as he slightly flared his arms in the air.

  “I did not sound like that,” she said punching him in the arm. His eyes ventured to her hair and she figured she must look a complete mess. She brushed one hand over her disheveled hair before covering her mouth with the same hand.

  “What are you doing?” Micah asked inquisitively.

  “My hair is a mess and I still have morning breath.”

  “Seeing your hair like this let’s me know that I did something right last night,” he said with a wink. “And I don’t mind morning breath.” He removed her hand from her mouth.

  “But I do,” she said raising her hand back to her mouth. “And I had no idea I slept that long.”

  “I guess I’m to blame for that. We were up until 6 a.m.”

  “Did you even get any sleep?”

  “Barely, and I don’t have time for a nap either,” he said. “Would you mind accompanying me to Little Rock today? I have a business dinner there with a potential investor and they are bringing their wives.”

  Kinda like a date?

  “I’ll go. How far is Little Rock?”

  “Um, with the way I drive, it’s about two hours...not too far,” he answered before removing her hand again and glancing at her lips.

  “Hold that thought,” she said when he started leaning in to kiss her. She went to the bathroom and brushed her teeth, trying to ignore the fact that he was watching her do so and was blocking the door so she couldn’t close it.

  “So after last night I guess privacy is out of the question?” she asked in between brushing.

  “Pretty much,” he said with a smile as he brushed his hands over his goatee and looked her up and down. That was another quality that she really liked about him. Despite the fact that she was sure she looked like a swamp creature with her hair all crazy and her lips swollen from kisses, he still looked at her as if she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. Given that he was such a good-looking man, she knew he attracted beautiful women all the time and she was sure they were those type of women who would never let a man see them in this state.

  “Why do you like me?” she asked, walking past him to the bedroom.

  “Why wouldn’t I like you?”

  “What exactly do you like?”

  “What is there not to like?”

  She twisted her mout
h to the side. “Why am I really in Arkansas?”

  “Why do you think you’re in Arkansas?”

  She placed one hand on her hip and turned to him. “Why do you keep answering my questions with a question?”

  He took a step forward, stopping centimeters from her face. “Why are you asking me so many questions?”

  “Because I really want to know,” she said sincerely, her voice barely above a whisper.

  Instead of responding, he closed the distance and gently placed his lips on hers. Her unanswered questions were forgotten, as she got lost in his intoxicating taste.

  * * *

  On the drive to Little Rock, Lex and Micah had given Cyd and Shawn a call to see how plans were going for the wedding. Micah was excited for his friend to finally marry a woman who understood him and loved him as fiercely as he loved her. When his brother Malik had first introduced him to Shawn, they’d hit it off instantly. Although they’d matured into respectable men and dedicated their lives to the safety of others, both had gone through a bad-boy streak that some may argue was still part of their personality.

  Now Micah and Lex were sitting in his parents’ Highlander in comfortable silence.

  “I want to make a pit stop before we get downtown,” he said to her, never taking his eyes off the road. There was so much more about him that he wanted her to know and understand.

  “Okay,” she responded. “Are you going to tell me where?”

  “I want it to be a surprise,” he said, preferring to see her reaction to the location when they arrived.

  Twenty minutes later, they entered a part of the city east of downtown, where Micah had spent most of his childhood. As they drove through the low-income neighborhood, he noticed Lex tense. She was always full of questions so he figured she had questions now, but for some reason, she didn’t say anything.

  They passed several corners that were filled with young men either hanging out with nothing to do, or discreetly selling drugs. Although Micah hadn’t been around the old neighborhood in years, he still felt comfortable in his original hometown.

  When they arrived on his old block, Micah shook his head thinking about how much his family’s lifestyle had changed after they moved to Cranberry Heights.

  “Here we are,” Micah said as he pulled over in front of a small boarded-up home.

  Lex glanced at the house before setting her eyes on him. “What did you want to show me?”

  “This is it,” he said pointing to the house. “This is the home I grew up in.”

  Her eyes widened as she turned back to the house. “How long did you and your family live here?”

  “Until I was sixteen,” Micah said. “My mom and dad had moved here back when the neighborhood wasn’t as bad as it is today. My dad grew up in the area and was the director of a community center six blocks away. My mom taught at the elementary school that was right next door so they both chose to live close to their jobs.”

  “That makes sense,” she replied.

  “It did,” Micah said. “My mom took off work for a while when she began having children, but she remained a substitute teacher.”

  “Are you the second oldest after Malik? Your mom mentioned that she had six sons. I knew you had brothers, but I had no idea there were six of you.”

  “You guessed right. Malik and I are less than two years apart,” he said. “My brother Malakai was born after me, followed by fraternal triplets, Crayson, Caden and Carter.”

  “Oh, my goodness! Your mom didn’t mention triplets. That’s nuts! I like the M and C name combo, though,” she said with a laugh. “Was that done purposely?”

  “You catch on quick, Turner,” he said, joining in her laughter. “Before we were all born, my parents had decided if they had boys, their names would begin with M like my dad’s. If they had girls, their names would begin with C like my mom’s. Years after having three sons, my mom wanted to try for a girl and convinced my dad to have one more child. To both of their surprise, they were informed they were having triplets. Neither one of them was prepared for the news since natural reproduction of triplets was so rare. But my dad is a twin, so he was less surprised than my mom. Giving up her hope of having a girl, she gave the triplets names that begin with the letter C.”

  “Your mom is a warrior,” she said with a smile.

  “She is and I love her for it,” he agreed, turning his head at the sound of a garbage can falling over due to a stray cat.

  “What about your dad? Raising six sons could not have been easy.”

  “It wasn’t,” he said. “Especially when you have a son like me who was constantly getting in trouble.”

  “How so?”

  Micah turned in the driver’s seat to face her. “Growing up in this neighborhood can be hard for a young man trying to come into his own. Malik was known as the intelligent brother. Malakai was the creative one. And the triplets are years younger than Malakai so they were just developing their individual personalities. Me on the other hand...I had the street smarts.”

  Micah glanced at the front window, the white fog slowly overtaking the entire glass. “Since my mom was a teacher, she made sure we all studied as much as possible. I guess you can say I was born smart because I rarely studied, but I always got good grades. In my adolescence, my boredom resulted in me pranking teachers, spray painting the sides of buildings, and pickpocketing tourists downtown.”

  “Please tell me you did not steal from people,” Lex exclaimed.

  “I never stole anything big, but the friends I had growing up convinced me that stealing from people who had money, wasn’t stealing.”

  “You mean like Robin Hood.”

  “Something like that,” he said with a laugh. “Any money I took I usually spent on food for people in the neighborhood who didn’t have enough to eat. I wasn’t thinking about the consequences back then because all I knew was that I wanted to give back to the community in some type of way. School bored me, girls bored me and, quite frankly, life in general bored me.”

  “What else did you get into?” she inquired.

  “What didn’t I get into...” Micah turned back to face her. “When I became a teenager, I learned that I could survey a situation and come up with a solution instantly. I didn’t just have sales skills. I knew how to strategize and create different tactics that delivered results. I didn’t want to do anything reckless like sell drugs or get into gambling, so instead I decided to put my skills to use in another way.”

  “Like what?” she asked with interest as she shifted in her seat.

  “I began discreetly following around some of the drug dealers in the area who all worked for the same leader. I observed the way they interacted with others in their group and enemies from neighboring areas. After about a month of following around some of the biggest dealers in my neighborhood, I approached one of them who I knew from school and asked him to set up a meeting with his boss and I.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she said, resting her head on the headrest. “Why would you set up a meeting with the head drug dealer?”

  “To tell him what his organization was lacking. I told him that although he was running a good system, he could be running it much smoother. I gave him a strategy plan on how to increase his sales and reduce the number of killings in the area. The plan also included a way to have a less violent relationship with enemies.”

  If Micah could think of one word to describe Lex’s face, astounded was the first word that came to mind. He expected her to be surprised, but he needed her to know that being who he was in the past molded him in a positive way, although what he had done back in the day weren’t his most shining moments. Her mouth opened, and he held his breath to see what she would say. “So...you helped drug dealers sell more drugs?” she asked.

  Chapter 13

  He
lped drug dealers sell more drugs? “In a way, I guess I did,” he said. “But my main goal when I constructed my plan was trying to reduce the number of killings in Little Rock. So in my mind, I figured I would go to the source and create a plan to do that. I never thought about the consequences, I only thought about my main goal.”

  She searched his eyes, and Micah tried his best not to fidget under her scrutinizing observation. He turned down the heat in the SUV, growing hotter under her gaze. He really didn’t share his past with too many people, but he’d decided a while ago that he wanted a future with Lex, so he needed to be honest with her.

  “I’ve never told this story to another woman,” he said, unable to take the silence any longer. “In order to understand the man I became, I wanted to tell you about the man I used to be, no matter how stupid the decisions were I made in my past.”

  She was quiet for a moment longer before she squinted her eyes together. “You say that like you believe I think you’re a bad person after hearing the story,” she finally stated.

  “Not a bad person,” he said. “But I do recognize that I didn’t always make the best decisions and I have to live with that.”

  “How long did you help that drug dealer?”

  “For a few years, only when they needed a new strategy,” Micah said, letting out a deep breath. “The killings in the neighborhood did reduce 20 percent from previous years, but I think my parents knew I was doing something I shouldn’t have. Like I said earlier, I maintained good grades, so my relationship with them was fine until a terrible fire destroyed the community center and the school. Both my parents lost their jobs.”

  “Oh, no,” she said as her hands rushed to her chest. “What did your parents do?”

  “My mom started substitute teaching at another school and my dad began working odd jobs. Malik and I were both working at a local grocery store, so we handed over our checks to our parents to help with the mortgage and our brothers. Although Malakai wasn’t old enough to work a real job, he began selling his artwork to shops downtown.”