Make You Mine

by Niobia Bryant

  “That’s right.”

  Caress reached into her gold clutch bag for her cell phone. “I want to check on the baby.”

  Julius reached over, slipped the phone out of Caress’s grasp, and slid it into the inner pocket of his jacket. “Justin is fine. Tamara is more than capable and completely in love with him. Kendrick is her sanity. Everything’s fine, baby. Let’s just enjoy each other tonight. It’s been a long…damn…time. For real.”

  Caress nodded as he parked. “Just you and me.”

  “Just you and me,” he agreed, hopping out of the car.

  Caress climbed out before Julius could make it around. He eyed her as she looked at him curiously. “What?”

  “Listen, Miss Coleman, it’s okay to be independent and strong and still let me be a gentleman. Okay?”

  Caress smiled at him. “Okay.”

  Julius placed his hand at the small curve of her back as they walked into the restaurant.

  In only a short time they were seated across from each other at one of the more secluded balcony tables overlooking the already crowded dance floor. They ordered their drinks as they accepted leather-bound menus.

  “I love it here,” Caress said, looking around at the muted jewel tones of the brick-walled interior.

  “Me too.” Julius unbuttoned his suit jacket.

  They fell silent but the music and atmosphere created a warm zone where the silence was far from awkward.

  With a soft smile, Caress watched the people on the dance floor. She loved dancing and couldn’t wait to get on the floor. She looked over at Julius and found his intense eyes resting on her.

  “You look good as hell, Caress,” he told her, the flickering light of the candle centerpiece illuminating his handsome face as he continued to watch her.

  “Thank ya. Thank ya.” Caress reached across the square wooden table and lightly stroked the back of his hands. “You’re looking fine yourself, Mr. GQ…of course.”

  They fell silent again.

  “I actually wanted to talk to you about something,” Julius began, flipping his hands over to grasp hers.

  Boom. To Caress that was the sound of that other shoe dropping. She felt that nervous anxiety and dread as she closed her eyes like that would block the blow of his words.

  “I want you and the baby to move back in with me.”

  She opened her eyes. “Julius, I…uh…uhm. No. No.”

  His handsome face shaped into a frown. “Why not?” he asked, obviously confused by her answer.

  “Being pregnant, jobless, and without a place of my own to live will forever be one of the worst time periods in my life, Julius,” she began, her eyes filled with conviction. “I thank you for letting me stay in your house, but I’m finally back on my feet and if this thing between us ends I don’t want to be back behind the starting line getting myself together. God always blesses the child that his—or her—own.”

  The waiter stepped up to their table and they gave their orders of oxtail stew and rice for Julius and fried catfish for Caress. Julius waited to say anything else until the waiter was out of earshot.

  “So you’re just waiting for this ‘thing’ between us to end?” he asked Caress with an edge in his voice.

  Caress lifted his hands to place her face against his palm. “I’m waiting to see what this ‘thing’ is, Julius,” she told him with complete honesty.

  Julius stroked her cheek. “This ‘thing’ is the first time I’ve met a woman I can say I’ve fallen in love with.”

  “Because of the baby?” Caress asked, letting her doubts surface.

  Julius’s face hardened. “Give me more credit than that.”

  “And don’t blame me for being afraid,” she countered with attitude.

  Julius locked his eyes on her. “Afraid?”

  Caress nodded, meeting his stare.

  “Of me?”

  “Of love.”

  “Of me,” Julius asserted, his anger and annoyance clear.

  “Okay fine, yes, Julius. Of you,” Caress admitted. “You have women coming to your door buck naked with a smile and calling you leaving messages just trying to throw their stuff on you like you have the last penis on the planet earth.”

  “It’s up to me to catch it.”

  “Eventually.”

  Julius frowned. “Did some brotha dog you out and now I’m catching his hell?” he snapped in irritation as he sat back in his chair and fingered the rim of his drink.

  Caress’s mouth dropped open. “Oh no you didn’t.”

  “Yeah I did.” Julius picked up his drink and swallowed nearly half of it down.

  Caress sat back in her chair and glared at Julius like she wished she could choke him.

  The mood was shattered. The air was stilted and the distance between them was far wider than the table separating them. Each looked any and every way around the dimly lit interior. Anywhere but at each other. When their food arrived, they focused on their meals.

  The sounds of the live band’s sultry jazz rendition of Mary J. Blige’s “I’m Going Down” suddenly filled the air.

  Julius looked up at Caress.

  Caress looked over at Julius.

  They both looked away.

  The music seemed to get louder like it wanted to be noticed.

  Julius used his napkin to wipe his mouth while he chewed his food, with another quick glance at Caress.

  She took another bite of her crispy fried fish while she fought not to sway to the music and get lost in the memories of their first night together.

  But it was hard to forget for either of them. That night and all it encompassed was far beyond the physical.

  Caress felt her anger and annoyance at Julius ease away. The man planned a romantic evening when she would’ve gladly let him take her right there on her kitchen floor. Not to mention his patience the last six weeks—or the last ten months for that matter.

  Clearing away a piece of fish from her teeth with her tongue, Caress removed her napkin from her lap and dropped it on the table next to her plate. Clearing her throat a bit, she rose from her chair, smoothed her dress over her shapely hips and then held out her hand to Julius. Her friend. Her lover. Her man.

  He bit back a begrudging smile before he too dropped his napkin on the table and then rose to take her hand.

  Sparks immediately flew at their touch.

  Caress dropped her head as she led Julius down the stairs to the crowded dance floor. They found a spot near the front, their bodies already swaying to the music as she turned and wrapped her arms around his waist.

  Doubts about love and their relationship ceased.

  Silly worries about possible infidelities in the future went away.

  The moment—this moment—was all about Caress and Julius. Nothing else mattered as they got lost in the moment, the mood, and the music.

  Julius watched Caress as she slowly walked around his studio. He was fascinated that she stopped and studied each and every photograph. Her face would show whatever emotions she was feeling so clearly…just like when he made love to her that night. Raw. Exposed. Unbridled.

  After eating dinner and enjoying countless moments dancing in their own little piece of the world, Julius asked Caress what she wanted to do next. He offered her anything at all. Truly it was a rhetorical question because he
assumed she would be ready to head to one of their homes and bed.

  Her reply, “Take me to your studio,” was a definite surprise.

  So here they were.

  As he walked up behind her, Julius tried not to notice how thick and shapely her petite frame looked in the dress she wore. “You’ve been looking at this one for a while,” he said, taking in the black-and-white photo of children outside a village.

  Caress reached for his hands from behind and wrapped them around her waist. “I was just remembering some of the stories you told me about your trip to Africa. I can’t wait to have your book in my hands.”

  Julius pulled her body back close to his. “And I can’t wait to have all of you in my hands,” he moaned against her soft neck.

  She lifted up on her toes to place her full bottom against his groin. She wiggled her hips as she arched her back. “In time,” she teased, before breaking his hold around her waist and walking away from him with sass.

  Julius shoved his hands into his pockets before he followed her.

  “What’s behind here?” she asked, pointing to the leather curtain.

  “My office.”

  “May I?”

  Julius smiled, thinking of the childhood game “Mother May I.” He nodded his head and Caress disappeared behind the curtain. He followed at a slower pace, eventually leaning in the doorway as he held the curtain open.

  Caress was standing in front of his desk with her hand at her mouth as she looked up at the poster-sized photo of baby Justin hanging on the center of the wall behind his desk. “Awwww,” she sighed, moving around the desk to step closer to the image.

  Julius smiled at the image as well.

  “I really wanted to see your studio since it’s such a big part of you,” she said, touching the picture of Justin’s face softly before she turned to Julius. “I like…”

  Her words trailed off as her eyes fell on the five-by-seven photo on the corner of his organized desk. It was a beautiful snapshot of Caress breastfeeding Justin as sunlight streamed in through the sheer curtains at the window. The look on her face as she gazed down at her son and he gazed back was total love. “Okay, why don’t I have a copy of this?” she asked.

  Julius smiled when Caress finally looked up and focused her soft eyes on the gold heart-shaped locket hanging from his index finger. He walked over to stand behind her and placed the twenty-inch chain around her neck with a kiss to the soft hairs at her nape.

  Caress shivered as she pressed the small latch on the side of the plump heart locket to spring it open. Inside was a small copy of the picture from his desk.

  “I was going to give it to you at my house but the moment seems right.”

  She turned and kissed him passionately as she splayed her hands on his strong back. “Let’s go,” she whispered up to his panting and open mouth.

  Julius grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the office without another word.

  Caress laughed as Julius carried her up the stairs and into his dimly lit bedroom. As soon as she slid to her feet from his capable grasp, she kicked off her heels and crossed the room, pausing at the bathroom door to beckon him with a bend of her finger while she untied her wrap dress with her free hand.

  Caress undid her bra, flinging it at him before she wiggled out of the matching sheep thongs. Julius strode across the room to reach for her but she dodged his embrace.

  Ever aware of his eyes, Caress made sure to strike a few sexy poses as she bent over to start the shower. She turned and watched Julius step out of his pants and boxers like a stripper. A well-toned and sculptured stripper.

  “You are one fine ass man, Julius Jones,” she told him as the steam of the shower began to fill the room.

  Naked and proud with his long hooked erection leading over to her, Julius placed one sinewy muscled arm around Caress’s waist and picked her up to step into the shower. As the water pelted down on their bodies, Caress tilted her chin up and pressed her lips against Julius’s with a soft grunt of pleasure.

  With her body held close down the length of his, her feet floated above the floor of the tub. That plus Julius’s kisses made her feel like she was floating on air. “Yes,” she sighed as his hands shimmied across her wet, silken skin. The back of her shapely thighs. Her fleshy brown buttocks. The small curve of her lower back. The soft sides of her breasts.

  Julius turned and pressed Caress back to the slick, tiled walls. He moved down to squat before her, leveling his lips to her twin peaks. Looking up at her as she looked down at him expectantly, Julius released his tongue and took an exquisitely slow time tasting her taut chocolate nipples. One to the other. Each stroke sent her senses reeling from something so seemingly simple.

  Caress arched her back, pressing her hands to the back of his head as she brought her legs up to wrap around his back. The bud between her legs throbbed with a beating pulse all its own. “It’s been so long, Julius,” she admitted in a passion-filled sigh.

  “Too damn long,” he agreed against her cleavage before suckling the plump flesh of first her left and then her right breast.

  Caress gasped hotly as he suckled the tingling spots until he left twin passion marks in his wake. Shivers wrecked her body as he licked a trail from one nipple to the other before pursing his lips and pulling one nipple deeply into his mouth.

  He grabbed her knee and raised her leg to his shoulder shifting down with the heated water and steam to ease his movements. Julius then placed kisses from her knee to the sweet vee of her essence. Her core. Her ultimate pleasure zone.

  Caress spread her legs wider as Julius blew a stream of air against her throbbing and moist lips. “Lawdy,” she gasped, bringing her hands down to spread her lips and expose the pulsing pink bud to him to do with as he pleased.

  And he chose to please.

  Each stroke of his tongue.

  Each suckle of the bud into his mouth.

  Every tender nip of it with his teeth.

  All of it sent Caress free falling into one delicious wave after another until she forgot everything but how good he was making her feel. Without shame she cried out in passion and release until she was hoarse.

  Julius relished in the pleasure he gave her. Even as his hard inches throbbed and ached for release he denied himself so that she could be completely fulfilled. In that moment it was his job. His duty. His privilege to be all that he could be.

  “Damn, Julius, damn,” Caress said in between pants for air, as she placed her hand to her rapidly beating heart. Julius kissed her deeply, drawing her tongue into his mouth before offering her his own. And when she circled her tongue around it, tasting her own juices, he felt his dick harden to stone. A piece carved out just for Caress.

  She climbed down on wobbly legs and came around to stand directly under the spray of the water with a beguiling smile. Julius took it all in as he watched her over his shoulder and then turned to face her.

  Steam swirled around her body as water cascaded down it like an erotic waterfall. Drops raced down the slopes of her breasts to hang precariously like diamonds from the taut tips before plunging down to the floor of the tub. Her body simply glistened as the water soaked her hair and softened her makeup.

  Caress is sexy as hell.

  She grabbed the soap and gave him a coy look as she began to lather her body. The addition of the foamy suds was damn near his undoing as he stroked the length of his hardness as he watched her like a hawk over its prey.

  Julius shook his head for clarity as Caress stepped
closer to him, dropped down to her knees, and then brought her body up the length of his body. Her hands and breasts made a sudsy trail from his ankles and his thighs—pausing to cup and caress his hard length.

  Julius’s body went tense as she looked up at him as she held his shaft at the base to guide it toward her slowly opening mouth. Inch by inch she took him in with delicious swirls of her tongue. He hissed in pleasure as his hips arched from the wall at the jolt of pure electricity that shot through him. “Caress…Caress,” he moaned as he reached out blindly, entwining his fingers tightly in the wet strands of her hair.

  She grabbed his thighs as she continued her passionate onslaught with deep sucks to the thick smooth tip that was warm and throbbing in her mouth.

  Julius felt his knees weaken as Caress circled the tip with her tongue like she was on a mission. His face twisted in pleasure.

  Feeling, that nervous energy of his climax nearing, Julius placed his palm to her forehead and pushed while he pulled his hips back, freeing him from her eager mouth.

  “What?” she asked innocently.

  Julius nodded even as he waited for his equilibrium to return. “Round one goes to you…but now it’s my turn,” he told her with cocky confidence, stepping out of the shower to turn and lift Caress into his arms.

  She clutched him tightly as he almost slipped on the tiled floor. They laughed, but the laughter and the teasing quickly diffused as Julius sat down on the bench at the end of his bed with Caress straddling his hips. His healthy and hard inches stood up between them like the hands on a clock showing high noon.

  Caress brought her hands up to Julius’s shoulders before easing them up to touch his face lovingly as he placed his hands on her hips possessively. “I love you, Julius Jones,” she promised him huskily as she lowered her face close to his.

  “That’s all I want.”

  Their kisses were filled with the love and desire they shared—running the range from tender bite, playful pats, and delicious deep thrusts to tantalizing tangos of the tongue. They enjoyed the electrified but easy energy they created in each other’s arms. It was a chemistry between a certain man and a certain woman. Unique. Blazing. Addictive.