THE SWEETEST TABOO (BENNETT SERIES 2.5)

by Brenda Jackson

  She lifted a brow. To her way of thinking, he sounded rather breathless. She shrugged, thinking it was her imagination. “It’s Sonya.”

  “Punch in 50799 and come on in. I’m in the exercise room. First door down the hall on your right.”

  She punched in the numbers on his keypad and turned the handle and the door opened. She walked into what had to be the biggest foyer she’d ever seen. Her parents had owned an extravagant home but this one pretty much took the icing on the cake and it was only a condo.

  Sonya made it to the living room, glanced around, and decided she didn’t need to take a tour of Mike’s home to know it would be the perfect place to host the party. The layout was wonderful. The living room was massive, and the location of the kitchen would be great for the caterers. Where she stood, she could see enough of his kitchen, especially the sparkling stainless-steel appliances, to know it would work out just fine.

  “Sonya? You’re inside?”

  “Yes,” she called back to Mike and began walking down a hall. She turned and walked into the room. Her stomach immediately knotted and breathing suddenly took an effort; a big effort.

  He was lying on his back on a weight bench, wearing nothing more than what was equivalent to a pair of boxers and lifting barbells that seemed too heavy for even King Kong to lift. But he was doing so…easily and each time he did, the muscles in his thighs seem to tighten, become more prevalent. She wondered what area on his body he was trying to firm up since he seemed taut all over. One particular body part came to mind and she wished her thoughts hadn’t gone there.

  And to top it off, he was sweating. Profusely. She was tempted to replace the towel he had slung over one piece of equipment and just lap the wetness from his body. She frowned. When had she ever thought of doing such a thing to a man? She must really be in a bad way. Fourteen months without sex was finally taking its toll, making her loony.

  “I’ll be with you in a minute,” he said in that same breathless voice she’d heard over the intercom earlier. “I just need to do a few more.”

  “Take your time,” she found her voice to say. But she didn’t add, I’ll just stand here and watch while my panties get soaked and my nipples swell to the size of miniature melons. She would love the feel of him drawing one of them into his mouth.

  Deciding that standing there watching him was too much torture, she finally glanced around and saw what a nice exercise room he had and all the equipment it contained. Why bother with a membership at the gym when you had a place like this?

  “So, did you take a look around yet?”

  She glanced back over at him and blinked when she saw he was standing up. Hell, nothing was worse than a sexy Mike Kelly lying flat on his back than a sexy Mike Kelly standing up. The man was built. All muscles and no fat. This was the closest she’d ever come to seeing him naked and she was getting an eye full. Those shorts he had on didn’t hide much.

  “Sonya?”

  She moved her gaze from his crotch to his face. “What?”

  “I asked if you took a look around.”

  “I didn’t have to. This place will be perfect.” You are perfect. Her gaze latched on the towel and watched as he began blotting the sweat off his body. Boy she envied that towel, especially when he dabbed his inner thighs with it. Precious Lord take my hand.

  “Then you didn’t take a look at the patio?”

  Sonya glanced back to his face. “What?”

  “The patio. Did you take a look at it?”

  She was beginning to get annoyed with him until she remembered the reason she was there. “No, but if you think I need to I will.” She then straightened from the wall. “Can I get something for you?”

  He lifted a brow. “Something like what?”

  “A glass of cold water. A bigger towel. How about more clothes? Maybe you haven’t noticed but you’re almost naked.”

  He wrapped the towel around his neck. “Sorry, if I’m embarrassing you.”

  “You’re not.”

  “Then what’s the problem?”

  She bit her tongue from saying that this was the most skin she’d seen belonging to a man in quite some time. How could she explain it when she couldn’t understand it herself? Going without sex wasn’t something she did often. She didn’t consider herself as being promiscuous, but she was a woman who indulged in casual affairs when it suited her fancy.

  And she was extremely selective. But lately, more specifically since that kiss they had shared last year, the thought of any other man’s lips connecting to hers, or any other man’s body going inside of her, was a total turn off. She had tried denying that fact but now, right here, at least to herself, she would admit it.

  “So, Sonya, what’s the problem?”

  She nervously smoothed the fabric of her short skirt along her thighs and was fully aware that his gaze followed her movement. “Nice outfit,” he said in a throaty voice. “Nice stomach.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You’re going out somewhere when you leave here?”

  Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to let him think that. “Yes. I feel like dancing.”

  “Do you?”

  “Yes.”

  He didn’t say anything for a second and then, “If you wait a minute while I clean up, I’ll go with you. I have an urge to go dancing myself.”

  She tilted her head back and looked at him. The air surrounding them was electrically charged. She felt it and knew he felt it too. Being alone in his home with him wasn’t a good idea. Going dancing with him would be even worse. But tonight, she had an urge to treat herself to the forbidden…up to a point. “Sure, get dressed. I’ll wait. As long as us going out together doesn’t constitute a date in your mind.”

  “It won’t.” He slowly walked toward her. He paused and came to stand in front of her. “But there is this one thing that I think we need to deal with. Right here and right now.”

  Her nerve endings felt edgy, especially with the way he was studying her mouth. “What?”

  “This.”

  And then he took her hand and tugged her to him, leaned down and captured her mouth in his. She let out a moan the moment he did so. She thought the same thing tonight that she did the last time he had tasted her. Never had any man kissed her the way he did. Every area in her mouth he touched with his tongue became sensitive, hungry. She absorbed his taste like a sponge, lapping it up like it was the best thing since chocolate. Hershey Kisses didn’t even come close to this. She loved Hershey Kisses-was practically addicted to them.

  Just like she would become addicted to him if she didn’t pull away. Maybe later. But not now. She just wanted to pamper herself while it lasted, so for the moment she wouldn’t deny herself anything. Especially not this.

  So he continued to kiss her like kissing was going out of style so they had to store up what they could. But he wasn’t just kissing her. She was aware that his hands joined in and he had reached down to caress her stomach. She moaned in his mouth at the contact. And when he removed his hand to pull her closer to the fit of him, she felt his aroused body part pressed hard against the juncture of her thighs.

  Then she felt his hands on the move again. This time they touched the top of her thigh that her skirt couldn’t hide. When he began inching her skirt up more, she knew exactly where his fingers were headed.

  She pulled her mouth away from his; but was too weak to do anything other than rest her forehead against his. Both of them needed to get their breathing back under control. “I didn’t have a problem with the kiss,” she said, breathlessly. “But your hands were going somewhere they didn’t belong.”

  He didn’t say anything for a second. Then he inhaled deeply, pulled back, met her gaze and then asked. “And where was that?”

  “Under my skirt. No man goes under my skirt unless I give him permission to do so.”

  He held her gaze. “And do I have permission?”

  She stroked his hair, pushed a wayward strand back from his face. “No.”<
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  “Okay.”

  She frowned. “Just like that? You’re not going to even try putting up a fight?”

  He grinned at her obvious disappointment. “Will it get me anywhere?”

  “Probably not.”

  “Then why bother? In the meantime, doing this will suffice.”

  And then he was pulling her into his arms and kissing her again. She let him. Loving the feel of his mouth on hers. Eating away at it with a hunger that made her feel totally wanted, desired. She participated, returning the feeling, openly responding to the kiss.

  Moments later, she pulled back, but not before letting her tongue take a quick swipe at his lips. She looped her arms around his neck. “If we keep this up, I’m going to be too weak to go dancing.”

  “You think so?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then let’s keep it up,” he said, nuzzling her neck. “Because I prefer that when you leave here that you go home. Alone. If I can’t get under that skirt tonight, I want to make sure no one else does either.”

  She wanted to tell him that he didn’t have to worry about that, but decided it really wasn’t his business who she let under her skirt. It suddenly occurred to her that she had stayed here long enough. Longer than she should have.

  She dropped her hands and took a step back. “I came over here to make more plans for the party. Instead I let you get me off track.”

  Mike chuckled. “No, you came over here wearing that ‘take-me-now’ outfit and shoes to turn me on. You accomplished your goal and now you want to take your goodies and go home.”

  She smiled slowly. Yes, that about summed it all up rather nicely, and she wasn’t feeling guilty about it. “Are you saying that I am a tease?”

  He cupped her face. “What I am saying is that sooner or later, I will get under that skirt, and I hope like hell you’re going to be ready for me, sweetheart.”

  Her body tingled all over from his words. She tried ignoring the sensations and said, “Don’t be so sure of yourself, Mike.”

  “I can’t help it. It’s a part of who I am. Just like fighting me at every turn when it comes to the thought of us being sexually involved is a part of who you are. I can respect that. But we’re pretty intelligent people and one of these days we’re going to wonder why we’re wasting our time when we both know what we want.”

  She frowned. “Speak for yourself. You don’t know what I want.”

  He smiled. “Yes, I do, and if you want to drag things out, go ahead. What’s one more cold shower?”

  “I don’t know. What is one more cold shower?”

  He leaned forward close to her lips. “Take off your clothes, come with me in the bathroom and find out. I’m about to take one.”

  “I’ll pass.”

  He brushed a kiss across her nose. “Chicken.”

  She took a step back. “Think whatever you like. I’m out of here after I check out the patio.”

  And then she quickly scooted by him and headed down the hall.

  • • •

  Another cold shower was a bitch, Mike thought as he stood under the spray of cold water. It would cool his body off for now but what would happen the next time and the next?

  He didn’t intend to set himself up for a case of pneumonia. He planned to be fully healthy when he and Sonya made love and regardless of what she said, they would make love. It was just a matter of time.

  And once they did then they would be out of each other’s system, and he could pick up where he’d left off with Susan. Hell, maybe not. The woman had started getting too clingy and possessive, and he didn’t do clingy and possessive. He had explained things to her up front, but evidently she’d conveniently forgotten.

  She’d even had the gall to call him earlier to say that she heard that he’d had lunch with some black chick. Evidently, someone she knew had seen him at lunch. He had reminded her, and not too nicely, that his time was his time and no matter what chick he was seen with - red, blue, black or brown - it was his business. Like all women he dated, she was nothing more than a sleeping partner to him. Take it or leave it. She had gotten quiet and then she’d said she would take it. Before hanging up he’d said he would call her when he was ready to renew their relationship. The woman was too damn easy. No challenge.

  Sonya was another matter. She was hard as nails and a challenge if he ever saw one. He couldn’t suppress an arrogant smile with the thought that he intended to succeed where others had failed. He would get into Sonya’s bed on his terms and not hers.

  He stepped out the shower to dry off…and to plan his next strategy.

  • • •

  Sonya had taken a long, leisurely soak in her Jacuzzi tub and slipped between the sheets when her phone rang. She reached over to pick it up. “Hello.”

  “Glad you’re home.”

  She lifted an arched brow. “And if I wasn’t?”

  “Then I would have to get out of bed, throw on some clothes and go out and search the dance halls for you.”

  She rolled her eyes because she couldn’t see him doing that for any woman. “I’m thirty-four, Mike, and can take care of myself.”

  “I’m thirty-six, Sonya, and I can take care of you better.”

  She liked the sexy sound of his voice on the phone. And she loved hearing him say her name. “In what way? Marriage isn’t in my future. My parents ruined it for me.”

  “Marriage isn’t in my future either. No one had to ruin it for me. I’m a loner. Jesse is the only person that I ever considered family. And now Carla and the kids. I don’t need anyone else.”

  For some reason his words rattled her. “So, tell me. How can you take better care of me?”

  “In bed. So if you own an ‘electro man’ you can get rid of him.”

  She smiled slowly. “Why would I need one of those devices when I can have the real thing. Whenever I want.”

  “But what about a night like tonight? When you’re in bed alone.”

  “I have a little black book, remember. Men have no problem making booty calls. You should know that.”

  “Umm, can I make one right now?”

  “As long as it’s not to 5629 Parker Lane, go ahead.”

  “You’re a tough woman, Sonya Morrison.”

  “You haven’t seen tough yet, Mike Kelly.”

  She heard his soft chuckle. “Good night, Sonya. Pleasant dreams.”

  “Same back at you.”

  Then she hung up the phone. Or rather she pressed the button before placing the receiver in the middle of her chest and thinking this would be the closest Mike ever made it to her bed.

  “So, what’s going on with you?”

  Mike glanced up at the man whom he considered not only his best friend, but his brother. Like him, Jesse had been given up at birth for adoption. The two of them had been fifteen when placed in the same foster home and had immediately bonded.

  It hadn’t mattered one iota that he was white and Jesse was black. From that day on, they had remained the best of friends, considered themselves blood brothers and looked out for each other. They had gone through a lot together and there was nothing one wouldn’t do for the other.

  “Why do you ask?” Mike questioned, taking a sip of his drink.

  “You haven’t been around lately,” Jesse said. “The kids are asking about their godfather.”

  Mike chuckled. “Hey, be honest. Don’t blame it on the kids. I know Carla is the one doing the asking.”

  “She loves you and worries about you.”

  “And?”

  “She thinks you need a good woman in your life.”

  Mike leaned back in his chair. “Go on, this is getting good.”

  Jesse hesitated slightly and then said, “And she thinks something is going on between you and Sonya.”

  Mike met the teasing glint in Jesse’s hazel eyes. “Something like what?”

  “You tell me.”

  Mike took another sip of his scotch. Today they had played golf and were sitting i
n the lounge of the clubhouse, relaxing and unwinding. He and Jesse had achieved their goals by making it in life. Something they’d promised themselves they would do when they were barely getting by while living on the streets for a year as runaways.

  “What I can tell you in all honestly, Jess, is that nothing is going on. But not from lack of trying on my part, trust me. Hell, it’s been two years and Sonya Morrison still gets to me something fierce. I told you what she said that day we met when you left us alone in that hotel restaurant.”

  Jesse lifted a brow. “About her not liking vanilla?”

  “Yes.”

  “And I distinctively remembered what you told me you said to her as well.”

  “Well, yeah, that was before.”

  “Before what?”

  “I’d gotten a taste.”

  A smile touched Jesse’s lips. “And?”

  “I want more.”

  Now it was Jesse who chuckled. “Sonya isn’t an easy woman. According to Carla, she has always been a little on the wild side, and what happened with her parents’ marriage pushed her even more out there. There was a time she did want the marriage, family and a white picket fence, but seeing what her dad did to her mom literally killed that dream.”

  “What exactly did her old man do?”

  “He divorced her mom to marry a woman half his age. Suzette is even a few years younger than Sonya.”

  “Damn, he didn’t mind robbing the cradle, did he?”

  “Don’t pity Suzette. I’ve met her and she’s quite a character. She got just what she wanted. An old man for a meal ticket. She’s not cheap and is taking him all the way to the cleaners. He practically built a mansion for her last year.”

  Mike didn’t say anything. “Sonya’s parents’ problems shouldn’t concern her. Those are their issues, not hers.”

  Jesse shook his head. “You and I can think that way because we’ve been detached for so long. We’ve never had a real family. Sonya did, and her parents were married for over thirty years.”

  Mike shrugged. As far as he was concerned that still shouldn’t make a difference. “Well, to go back to your question. Nothing is going on with me and Sonya. And I plan to spend time with Craig and Jessica this weekend.”