“Great.” He stepped back a bit, giving me room to breathe. “So, do you want some company while you…stroll?”
“No. I don't wanna disturb your workout.”
“Oh, I'm done,” he said. “I'm ready to move on to new things.”
I paused, wondering what he meant. Did it matter? There was nothing wrong with innocent flirting. And wasn't this exactly what I wanted? An outlet for all that was bubbling inside?
“Just give me a couple of moments,” he said as he walked back toward the weight pen. I followed. “Let me get my things.”
He trotted in front of me, and all my eyes could do was watch his butt. Dang! Bang! It! That man was fine in ways that had yet to be defined!
It didn't take long for Roman to come out with a gym bag hanging from his shoulder. “Lead the way,” he said and motioned with his hand.
We walked side-by-side, pressing through the crowd, past the skateboarders and roller skaters and tourists who stopped every five steps to take in the sights. One of those sights was Roman himself. I noticed the way so many people glanced our way. I knew what it was: Roman and I were a beautiful couple. But if I was honest--and like I said, I always was with myself--it was really Roman who was getting all the attention. Women, and a whole lot of men, couldn't help staring at him.
I wasn't intimidated or insecure about that, though. I loved the feeling of being with this man. We continued to walk, not speaking, not stopping, just strolling, so comfortable in each other's presence. As if we were meant to be.
In front of the Sidewalk Cafe, Roman said, “Have you eaten yet?” I shook my head, and he led me to the long line that twisted around the side of the restaurant.
“You want to eat here?” I asked. I'd been coming to Venice beach since I was a kid, and I'd never had lunch at this eatery. The line was always way too long for me to waste my time just for a hamburger. “We won't get in for an hour!”
“Stay right here,” he whispered. He disappeared into the café, and in less than a minute, he was back, gesturing for me to join him at the front of the line. Taking my hand, he led me past all of the waiting people. The hostess grinned at Roman until she saw me. With a scowl, she led us to a premier table on the edge of the boardwalk. But before we could sit down, a woman sitting at the table next to ours jumped up.
“Roman!” she exclaimed.
“Hey, Sheri, what's up?” As Roman stepped forward to hug the woman, she took two giant steps back, knocking over her chair in the process.
Without another word to Roman, the woman grabbed her purse from the table and turned to the guy who was with her. “I'll wait for you outside,” she said. She hadn't even finished speaking before she tore out of there like she was being chased by a killer.
I frowned. The man at the table frowned.
And Roman grinned. He shrugged, then turned his attention back to me and the hostess who had watched the whole exchange.
When we finally sat down, the hostess handed Roman his menu, then she tossed mine across the table to me.
“What was that about?” I asked the moment we were alone.
“What? Lisa?” He shook his head. “Don't pay her any attention. She acts like that whenever I come here. She just wants me.”
I leaned back and raised one eyebrow. This man sure was cocky. “I'm talking about the girl who ran out of here. Who took one look at you and cut like she owed you some money or something.”
That made him laugh. “Sheri's just a girl I used to know back in the day.”
Glancing at my menu, I said, “Seems like she doesn't want to know you now.”
“I guess she's still upset because I broke off the little thing we had going.” He sighed. “She was hurt when we broke up, but there wasn't any point in continuing something that wasn't going anywhere.”
“That's all it was?”
“What else could it be?”
I nodded and turned my eyes back to my menu. Yeah, it was clear that Sheri was a jilted lover, and that made me wonder how many hearts this man had broken.
“So, you really eat this kind of stuff?” I asked, wanting to change the subject.
“What stuff? Food?” He laughed and I joined him.
“It's just that the way you look….”
He rested his arms on the table, then leaned toward me. “I'm so glad that you noticed.”
I don't know why, but I felt like I was blushing. I couldn't remember that feeling…ever! I looked down at the menu, needing a moment to get myself together. I was Jasmine Cox. I didn't fawn over men…men fawned over me.
So, I came back with, “Yeah, I noticed. And with the way you look, I didn't think a morsel of food ever crossed your lips.”
“More than food has crossed these lips, baby.”
“Oh, please.” I waved my hand as if I was totally unimpressed with his flirtation, even though I was disturbed by it a little, and loving it a lot. “So,” I said, “what's good here?”
“Don't tell me this is your first time….” I looked up and he finished, “here.”
His bottom lip trembled again, and I had such a hard time breaking my eyes away. I forced my gaze upward, but staring into his eyes was no better. Those green eyes were piercing and he stared as if he was trying to get me to look away first.
But he didn't know that he'd met his match.
I said, “Yeah, this is my first time…here. I'm a virgin, I guess you could say.”
“A virgin, really?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “Ever had one of those?”
The shock of my words pushed him back against his chair.
I laughed. “I'm talking about….” I paused and picked up the drink menu that had been stuffed between the salt and pepper shakers. “I'm talking about one of these. A virgin Pina Colada.”
He blinked. “That's not what you were talking about.”
“Yes, it was. I was talking about a drink.” I placed the menu back in its place. “I can't help it if your mind went somewhere else.”
“And I can't help it either, since you were the one who took me there.”
“Did I?” I tilted my head, but I leaned away from him. This flirtation was helping to quash my rising stress. But still I needed to pull this conversation back to safer ground. This was fun, but it was dangerous…especially since I found this green-eye chocolate bar so delicious.
A sun-kissed waiter (who looked like the type who told everyone who asked that he was an actor) jotted down our orders. Once he left us alone, I said, “So tell me about Roman.” I took a sip of my water. I needed something to cool me off, to cool me down.
“I'd rather talk about Jasmine.”
“What do you want to know about me?”
“Everything.”
“That could take a lot of time.”
He shrugged. “We got all day…and all night.”
That was an invitation that I so wished that I could accept. Just by looking at him, I knew what it would be like to be with him. I could already feel Roman on me, over me, in me.
I squeezed my knees together, sipped more water and said the right thing: “Did you forget I'm getting married in the morning?”
“Nope,” he said. “You keep telling me that over and over, so how could I forget?”
“I just want to make sure that you remember.”
“I remember, but that has nothing to do with me.”
My surprise had to be all over my face.
He said, “All I'm trying to do is get to know you better.”
“For what purpose?”
“For friendly purposes.”
I laughed. “That was funny.” I raised my glass in a toast to him. “But you know that's not possible. We can't be friends.”
“Because you're getting married.”
“Right.”
“And because you would never cheat on your husband.”
“Right again.”
“Okay, I got it, I get it, but can you do me a favor?” The question was rhetorical b
ecause he didn't even take a breath. “There are a lot of hours between now and tomorrow. So can we just forget about what's gonna happen in the morning?”
Before the question was completely out of his mouth, his hand was over mine, and the spark that surged through me gave me such a jolt that I jerked my hand away, though he didn't seem to notice.
He said, “Now that we're forgetting about tomorrow, we can have a good time today. So, can you please tell me all about Jasmine?”
I was hardly forgetting about tomorrow, but I went along with his question. Over my salad and his protein burger, I gave him the vital statistics only--that I'd been born and raised in L.A., that I'd gone to school in Inglewood, that I worked at Carnation, and that I hoped to one day leave the Golden State. Then, before it got too personal, I turned the tables, and he told me all about his dreams to open up a string of fitness clubs. That's why he danced: because it was good exercise, because the tips were more than he could make anywhere else, and because he could hand out his cards to let women know about his future business.
“You didn't give me your card last night,” I said.
Roman pushed his plate aside. “That's because I wanted to give you so much more.” This man was coming at me hard, with his words, his touch…and his lips. Those mesmerizing lips.
I needed to change the subject. “Okay, so besides working out and planning your business, what do you like to do?”
“My favorite way to spend an afternoon…is horizontally.”
I laughed, but it was definitely time--time to cut and run. Because the truth was that if I stayed any longer, whatever he was selling, I was gonna buy.
I glanced at my watch. “It's getting late.”
“Okay, where to now?”
I looked him dead in his eyes. “I'm going to the hotel.”
“Not home?”
“I'm staying at the Ritz tonight. That's where the wedding will be tomorrow.”
“I've never been to the Ritz.”
I chuckled. As if he could get me with that little hint. Like I was supposed to invite him to the hotel just to check out the room. Yeah, right.
Roman raised his hand in the air, motioned for the waiter, then pulled his wallet from his bag. When I reached for my own wallet, he shook his head.
“Your money's no good here,” he said. This was hardly a five-star restaurant; the bill couldn't have been more than twenty dollars, but I appreciated the sentiment. Still, it was definitely time for me to move on before those lips and those eyes and that glistening bald head got to me even more.
The crowd had thinned as the day edged toward evening, and the walk back to my car was much faster. Like he'd done last night, Roman opened the door for me. For a moment, I hesitated, expecting so much more from him. Surely, he was going to make a move.
But he did nothing. And I was glad about it. I think.
“So,” I said wanting to give him one more moment. When he didn't say anything, I slipped into the car.
He closed the door, then waited for me to roll down the window before he leaned inside. “Thank you for spending your last hours as a single woman with me.”
I couldn't remember a time when I'd been more proud of myself. I mean, here was this man, with all of his magnificence right in front of my face. His lips were so close that a mere movement would have connected us and it wasn't hard to imagine all the ways that those lips could satisfy me.
The familiar heat smoldered between my legs and I revved up the BMW's engine.
“Thank you,” he repeated, as if he wanted me to respond.
But I had nothing more than a wave for him. He backed away and I pulled out, stunned that I was really letting this man go. Slowly, I maneuvered through the lot, putting distance between me and temptation. But, my eyes stayed on the rear-view mirror and the view of Roman…and I remembered him as he was last night--in that fireman's ensemble.
That was when my heat flickered into flames.
“Keep driving,” I whispered to myself, and pressed the A/C button on the dashboard, adjusted the vents and blasted that cold air right onto my face.
“I'm doing the right thing,” I said.
But though the air blew cold, I was fire hot. I couldn't stop the blaze that burned and quickly spread through me. It was a wildfire; it was sexual combustion. There was nothing that I could do.
I slammed on the brakes, pushed the car into reverse, and skidded back to where my satisfaction stood.
With a smile and without a word, Roman hopped in. As much as I wanted to wait for Kenny to take care of me tomorrow, I needed Roman to put out this fire tonight.
I pressed the accelerator to the floor and headed toward the Ritz Carlton Hotel.
Chapter 5
This was the life I needed to live.
I needed to wake up every day just like this on the softest silk sheets known to man, surrounded by the elegance of this Victorian decor, with the marina right outside my window. I felt rich, I felt sexy, I felt satisfied in the luxury of this bridal suite; I wanted to live like this always, forever a bride.
Rolling over, I smiled at the round mound of chocolate next to me--and that was just his head because round was not the way I would've described any other part of him. This man was all muscles: a lean, mean, male machine.
So here I was in this bridal suite, not yet a bride, lying next to the man who was not my husband to be. But who could blame me? How could I not take advantage of the opportunity that was handed to me to live out this ecstasy-filled fantasy?
And ecstasy-filled it was! Last night had been nothing but pure pleasure. Roman was my favorite kind of lover; the time we spent together had been all about me. His hands explored, his tongue wandered, and he had me singing in twenty-seven different languages--all at once--while he carried me around the suite with my legs clinging to his waist. Then, when I introduced him to my favorite position--upside down--I had him singing, too. Roman wanted to go all night, and I'm telling you, there's nothing like a man who is ready and willing to do the bidding of a sex-starved woman.
Roman's skills had me all messed up. He made me forget all about my plan, which was to just bring him back here to the hotel for an hour or two. I planned to send him home before dark, sure that by then he would have scratched my three-week itch. But how was I supposed to know then that I'd given this man the appropriate nickname--Mr. Chocolate. He was as addictive as any Godiva bar. And that was why two hours had turned into four, then eight, and now it was almost six in the morning and the sun was rising on my wedding day.
It was definitely time to let this man go.
I gave Roman a shove, but when he didn't move, I pushed harder. I hoped he wasn't going to be one of those hard-to-wake-up dudes. I needed this man up and out of this room. Not only did I need to put some time and space between this mistake and my future, but I needed him gone before I got busted. Kyla wasn't coming over until seven, but knowing my best friend, her promptness and excitement might have her knocking on this door much earlier. Not to mention my sister, Serena--and the wedding planner, Yolanda, who had been assigned to me by the hotel. It wouldn't do me well to have any of those people see me with a man who didn't look anything like my husband to be.
“It's time to get up,” I said when Roman stirred just a bit.
He rolled over and his eyes opened slowly. Then, he grinned and stretched, kicking the sheet off at the same time.
I looked down at his body and sighed.
He said, “Morning, sunshine.”
The look that he gave me--like he wanted more--and the look I gave his body--like I wanted more--had me longing to fall right into his arms. But I had to stop this madness and start acting like the bride-to-be that I was.
Roman reached for me and with all the strength I had, I pushed his hands away.
“Sorry. Can't do that anymore,” I said, as lightly as I could.
“What? Don't you believe in morning love?”
I chuckled. “Trust me, I do. It's just that
I can't do morning love with you.”
“Why not?”
“First of all, I don't have time. And secondly, I'm not about to have sex with anyone but my husband on my wedding day.”
He laughed, hard, like I'd just told a Saturday Night Live kinda joke. “Oh, so having sex with someone besides your husband the night before your wedding is cool?”
Roman had me there. I mean, I really did feel horrible about what had gone down last night, but what was I supposed to do? I was a woman who was used to getting mine on a regular basis. Having lots of sex and having lots of good sex. The sex part, I could get from Kenny. But the good sex part…not so much. Not that it was Kenny's fault. He had no idea that he was competing with all of these men in my mind.
I sighed. My goal really and truly had been to stay celibate (for three weeks) so that my first night as Kenny Larson's wife would be really special. But maybe all was not lost. Maybe it would still be great with Kenny because we hadn't been together in such a long time. And maybe once Kenny and I took these vows, my body would catch up with my heart and I would be satisfied the way I'd been satisfied with him throughout high school and three years of college. The way I'd been satisfied before I began working at Foxtails and discovering sex on a whole 'nother level.
Finally I said to Roman, “Sleeping with you last night was unfortunate.” I made it sound like I'd just made a little mistake. “I shouldn't have done it, but stuff happens, you know?”
He smirked. “Stuff?”
“Yup, stuff. Good stuff, I'll admit that. But, wrong stuff.”
His eyebrows rose so high, I was sure they were going to slip off his forehead.
“Look,” I said, “there's nothing I can do about what happened. I don't look back and I don't live with regrets. So, all I'll say is that I had a great time with you, but now it's over…bye-bye!”
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