After The One (The One Series Duet)

by Danielle Allen

  “Julian,” I whimpered, clutching him.

  “Fuck, that’s sexy,” he grunted, ramming me against the wall. “Say it again.”

  “Julian,” I repeated, needier than before.

  Because I was—in that moment, I needed him like I needed air to breathe.

  “Shit…sa-say it again.”

  “Julian…oh!”

  Holding me steady and fisting my hair, Julian drove himself into me over and over again. The sound of Julian forcing his way in and out of my wetness echoed in the silent room. My panting grew louder and more insistent as he grunted with each powerful stroke. My orgasm built quickly and as much as I wanted to hold out and savor it, it was a losing battle.

  I lost it.

  I dug my nails into his shoulders, screaming as I clamped down, writhing on him. My mouth fell open and my toes curled inside of my five inch heels.

  “Fuck!” Julian growled before crashing his lips into mine.

  His kisses were a mixture of reckless abandonment and uninhibited hunger. His strokes and breathing were erratic and chaotic. And at some point, he lifted my other leg and fucked me senseless against the wall.

  Deep guttural groans reverberated throughout the room as Julian exploded inside me. I shuddered as he filled me up.

  We huffed and puffed into each other’s mouths as we caught our breath. Our kisses, and our heart rates, slowed down as we disengaged.

  Julian gently lowered me to the ground, making sure I could stand before letting me go. Dropping his forehead to mine, he didn’t just stare at me, he stared into me.

  The spark of emotion he managed to ignite lit up every inch of me. After all this time, he still managed to give me butterflies.

  I reached up and touched his face, brushing my lips against his. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too,” he replied. Taking the paper towels we’d grabbed on the way into the studio out of his pocket, he cleaned me up.

  I stepped into my panties as he pulled up his pants. There was a bathroom down the hall, but we’d have to walk across the main entryway to get to it. We inspected each other to make sure we were presentable before we exited. After a quick trip to the bathroom, we strolled down the hallway, back to the party, hand-in-hand.

  “Well, well, well...” Koko startled us from behind just as we were going to cross the threshold into the party. We turned toward her voice, waiting for her to catch up.

  With her midnight blue hair that transitioned to brighter blue hues as it got to the ends, Koko stood out. But it was her laugh that always got my attention first. Since we met ten years ago, my best friend’s laugh was usually the best way I could find her in a crowd.

  Julian and I started laughing as she tried to glare at us from the other end of the hallway.

  “Hey!” I greeted her with over-the-top excitement.

  “Mmm hmmm,” she pursed her lips as she gave us both the eye. She looked at her watch. “Twenty minutes is a mighty long time to go get a diaper bag.”

  Having no response, we snickered.

  Julian kissed the back of my hand. “I should probably run to get the diaper bag.”

  I nodded, still amused. “Yeah, probably.”

  “Fortunately for you,” Koko continued. “Beverly had the spare key and I was able to get it from the car. I figured since you two haven’t seen each other in months, you weren’t coming back anytime soon.”

  “Thank you,” we said in unison as we laughed.

  As she saddled up to us, the cutest little boy in the whole world lifted his head off of her shoulder and smiled at me. I reached out for him. With dark curly tuffs of hair, light brown eyes, and naturally tanned skin, Evan Jordan Winters reached out for me.

  “Mama!”

  Koko looked down and pouted. “Ohhhh, okay! After Auntie Koko feeds you and lets you throw her phone across the room, you are just going to leave me as soon as you see your Mommy and Daddy?”

  Evan twisted his body and stretched his little fifteen month old hands out and I scooped him up. “You have fun with your Auntie Koko?”

  He smiled and cooed nonsensical words as I smothered him with kisses. Seeming to sense his dad, Evan whipped his hard head around, hitting my chin.

  Damnit that hurt!

  “Dada,” Evan exclaimed, attempting to leap out of my arms.

  “I’m old news it seems,” I joked as I handed Evan to his beaming father.

  “Not to me.” He winked at me before giving his undivided attention to our child. “Hey Buddy, I missed you…”

  Julian and Evan walked ahead of us. Watching my husband in his tight white shirt that stretched across his muscles was already a sexy sight. But watching my husband interact with our child was one of the sexiest things I’d ever seen—right up there with watching him on stage or reading any of his poetry. The things that made him a great man were the same things that made him a great father.

  I sighed happily. “Thank you for watching Evan while we…took care of some things.”

  Koko swatted me away. “You know I’m happy to watch Evan anytime. It’s good practice.” Looking down, she put her hands on her belly. “Can you tell?”

  Because Koko was naturally so slim and her clothing tended to be formfitting, it wouldn’t be hard to tell she was showing a small baby bump. But in her strapless black mini dress with pockets, no one would notice.

  “Your secret is safe and you look beautiful so win, win.” We stood at the entranceway of the party. “You’re glowing.”

  “You also look beautiful. And you have a glow as if you were just bumping uglies with Julian Winters.”

  My head fell back and I laughed. Koko’s gasping giggles only extended my amusement.

  “You crack me up. I miss you.” Turning, I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her tightly. “Why’d you have to move so far away?” I playfully whined.

  Koko ended the lease we’d had on our apartment when she’d moved in with her boyfriend in the spring. A few months after they’d moved in together, she was a few months pregnant.

  “I’m only an hour away.” She squeezed me and rubbed my back. “But I hate that it’s in the opposite direction of your job now.”

  “I know!” I exclaimed. “That’s what I mean. In the apartment, when you were off and home, I looked forward to our lunches twice a week.”

  Looking around the room at our guests, I noticed a handsome face staring over at us.

  I smiled at him.

  “He loves you,” I said as he started to approach us from the opposite side of the room. He’d only gotten three steps before getting stopped by Julian’s assistant, Beverly Davis.

  “I know.” Koko was quiet. “I love him, too.”

  “I know. You two need to talk about this.” My voice was gentle as I knew it was a sensitive subject.

  “I don’t know what else there is to say. He told me he doesn’t want to have kids,” she reminded me. “And with all of the birth control we’ve always been careful to use, Peanut still made it through. I know he has a right to know and I’m going to tell him. But if he puts me in a position to choose, I’m choosing Peanut.” Her voice broke at the end of the sentence causing me to embrace her with more force.

  “I know, Koko. I’m sorry you’re going through this, but you’re not alone. You have me. I just wish you would tell him so I wouldn’t worry so much about you—especially with us not seeing each other as often. Look at the way he looks at you. I don’t think you have anything to worry about, but I get it. This is a lot to process. Anything you need—room, board, hand-me-downs—I got you. But you’re going to start really showing any minute now. You can’t rely on kimonos and baby doll dresses to hide you away forever.”

  “Whatever, dude. I look hot in kimonos and baby doll dresses so I’m wearing the fuck out of them until my due date,” Koko giggled. “And I can hide mine for at least as long as you hid yours.”

  “I’m a lot curvier than you so it was harder to tell,” I argued with a chuckle. “And
the people I work with at the firm are very involved with themselves. By the time I was really showing, I’d already been there for long enough that firing me—the only African American female lawyer at the firm—for a sexist reason would’ve raised some eyebrows. And I know the laws they’d be violating to try to fire me.”

  Koko laughed.

  “I had to hide mine for survival. You work with JJ who loves you and supports you. And you’re really slim and you stand really close to people all day applying their makeup. People are not going to keep believing that that’s food.”

  Our hug had turned into a means of support as we laughed heartily and held each other up. Switching the subject as Bryce came close, we let each other go.

  “I didn’t get a chance to say this earlier, but I love what you guys did to this place—great colors and style choices.” Koko was talking to me, but staring at Bryce.

  Julian’s expanded, state-of-the-art recording studio, Winters Wonderland, was launched the summer after Evan was born. With large windows, hard wood floors, and enough room for album release and listening parties, the lobby was the perfect location for Julian’s surprise birthday and welcome home party from his summer tour.

  “Yeah, she’s right,” Bryce agreed, smiling dotingly at Koko. “We had a lunch meeting with the bachelors for the upcoming sessions and the bachelorette for the summer session the other day. One of the bachelors is an executive for a big music magazine and he said Winters Wonderland is the next big thing.”

  “Did you tell Julian that? That’s awesome. Thank you both.” I let my eyes scan the room until I saw Julian laughing with Scott and Andre. I smiled. “All compliments for the success of Winters Wonderland go to Julian and his hard work. I can only take credit for helping with some of the décor.” I pointed around the corner to my huge corner office. “Bryce, did I tell you that I’m going to be working here full-time as in-house counsel starting in January?”

  “Yes, you may have mentioned it a time or two,” he laughed. “But you didn’t mention Evan getting so big. It seems like you were just pregnant.”

  “He’s growing so fast.” With a quick glance at Koko, I added, “I was pregnant and then he was here two seconds later. And now he’s a toddler. It all happened so quickly.”

  Oblivious, Bryce just smirked. “Evan is a cute kid. You two did good.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Speaking of kids…” Koko started, turning toward Bryce. “Can we talk?”

  My heart started pounding with nerves and my face froze. I was pretty sure I said goodbye before I fled the scene, but I couldn’t be positive. Even though in my heart I knew Koko was going to be fine, I was so nervous for her. I knew she didn’t want to have to choose, but she would. I also knew that if it didn’t work out with Bryce, she would probably give up on relationships for a very long time.

  Please God, let this work out in her favor.

  “That’s a hot little dress for someone pushing a stroller,” Lenny commented, smacking me on the ass.

  I turned with raised eyebrows and smacked her ass in return. “That’s a hot little dress for someone who is over her ex-boyfriend.”

  She pursed her lips as she tried not to smile. “I am over James and he was never my boyfriend.” She paused. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to remind him of what he’s missing.”

  “The only reason you two aren’t together is because he took that job in Seattle last year. That doesn’t mean you don’t still have feelings for him. And it’s clear that you do.” I looked her up and down with a nod. “You look hot.”

  Lennon wore a fitted black and white polka dot dress that hugged her body sexily. Her brown hair was hanging in loose curls around her shoulders. Bright red shoes and lipstick completed the look against her honey-toned skin.

  “I’ll always care for James, but we ended over a year ago. By the way, since you brought him up, is he here?” Lenny asked in her best effort to be nonchalant.

  “Yes, I saw him when we first arrived, but then we left out to…” I let the sentence trail off and wiggled my eyebrows.

  She laughed. “I get it. Trust me.”

  “But we could head over and ask Julian,” I offered.

  “Sure. And just so you know, I’m dating someone so I’m not looking for James for any reason except normal curiosity.”

  We started walking toward Julian who was standing with James, Omar and Keisha.

  “Who are you dating? You didn’t tell me that a couple of weeks ago!”

  “Yeah, it kind of just happened. It’s weird. I don’t know. The whole dating the boss thing is…“ She interrupted herself and looked at me. “I’m dating Ethan.”

  My eyebrows shot up. “What? Ethan Diaz? Owner of Breakers Bar, Ethan?”

  She nodded, scrunching up her nose. “Weird, right?”

  It was more shocking than weird. Lenny always said that Ethan wasn’t her type and Ethan said the same about her.

  More proof that anything can happen.

  “I’m shocked, but I think it’s great! He’s a nice guy and he’s cute and he’s a really good person. It’s only shockingly weird because of how you were adamantly opposed to the idea of dating him three years ago.”

  “I know. Tell me about it. But one day, we were putting bottles away in the stock room and he brushed by me and I don’t know what happened.”

  The look on her face told me she knew exactly what happened.

  “Well good for you, Lenny!” I gave her a squeeze as we continued walking. “I’m happy for the two of you.”

  As we got closer to Julian and his friends, I felt Lenny’s uneasiness.

  “I haven’t been around James since we broke up and the thing with Ethan is still really new,” she whispered as she clutched my arm, pulling me to a stop. “Don’t let me fuck him.”

  I would’ve laughed if Lenny’s eyes weren’t pleading with me. I could see that she was serious.

  “I like Ethan, but James was like my kryptonite,” she admitted in a hushed tone. “I wanted James to see me and want me, but I don’t actually want to fuck him. I mean, I do, but I know I shouldn’t because I want to see where this goes with Ethan.”

  I nodded. “I understand. I can’t stop you from doing anything you don’t want to do, but if you stay in my line of sight, I’ll give you a nonverbal pep talk.”

  “It’s not me that needs the pep talk…” She pointed downward and gave me a look.

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “I got you. Just stay away from situations where it’s just you and him. And don’t talk about anything sexy.”

  She nodded as we approached the group.

  “Mama!” Evan cheered when he saw me, but he still clutched to his dad’s neck.

  I understand, baby. With my arms holding on to Julian, I leaned in to kiss Evan’s chubby cheek. I’m the same way with your dad, too.

  “My turn,” Julian stated before I moved out of his personal space.

  I planted a lingering kiss on his lips.

  “My turn,” Keisha called out, causing everyone to laugh as we hugged. I hugged Omar and James next.

  “So what’s new? What did we miss?” Lennon asked after giving a quick hug to everyone in the group.

  “Julian was telling us that he had no idea about the surprise. I thought I’d blown it when we talked a couple of days ago, but he had no idea,” James answered her, staring with obvious interest. He seemed to realize what he was doing and shook himself out of it. “He didn’t think twice about me saying I’d see him soon.”

  “In my defense, my birthday is tomorrow. I figured, we were going to do something for my birthday sometime this month,” Julian replied before looking at me. “No wonder you were on my ass about missing my flight on Saturday.”

  The Winters Is Coming tour was over Friday night, but due to a New York meeting Saturday afternoon, he wasn’t scheduled to be home until Saturday night. The meeting went well and Julian scored the contract to collaborate with two of the biggest musical arti
sts of our time. But the meeting went so well that it ran longer than expected and he missed the flight. He wasn’t able to get home until three o’clock Sunday afternoon. His late arrival only left time for him to shower and change before we needed to get on the road to the surprise party.

  I smiled up at him. “I wanted you to have a nice ‘congratulations on your world tour and happy birthday’ party and I was scared you were going to miss it. People traveled from near and far to be here.”

  “Yes, Julian. And if you didn’t show up, I’d expect to be reimbursed for my travel. Driving that long, arduous hour on a Sunday afternoon was really difficult for me,” Bryce noted jokingly as he appeared next to James with Koko in tow.

  I tried to read Koko’s facial expression, but she refused to look my way. My stomach knotted.

  I hope the conversation went well. Please let it have gone well.

  “…with Omar,” Keisha announced, excitedly to the group.

  Everyone with glasses cheered. Those without offered their congratulations.

  Crap! What did I miss?

  I looked at my beautiful friend with the dark, shoulder-length hair, dark brown eyes, and rich brown skin and she glowed. Not just because she wore a white dress that made her look like she was a sexy angel. She had the kind of inner glow that—

  She’s pregnant?!

  My mouth dropped open as I looked at her with the thrill of exhilaration pumping through my veins. “Are you—?”

  “Going to start a nonprofit together!” Keisha nodded excitedly.

  “Nice! Congratulations!” Not the news I was expecting, but I recovered quickly.

  I was happy that they planned to help underprivileged youth together in San Diego. I was excited that they were excited about their joint venture. But Omar and Keisha were perfect together and yet, they made every excuse known to man to downplay what they felt for one another.

  In every way, they were a couple. But if put on the spot and asked, they said they were taking it slow—they had been taking it slow for the last year and a half. I loved Keisha and Omar together and although neither of them was dating anyone else, they wouldn’t admit to being together.