The Closer I Get to You (Cochran/Deveraux Series Book 8)

by Melanie Schuster

  “Umm, where are the windows?”

  And that’s how they ended up driving to St. Simon’s with Paris apologizing about every twenty-five miles or so. “Titus, I’m so sorry. I know you went to a lot of trouble to make this weekend special for me, but I’m so claustrophobic I can’t even go into a closet without getting choked up. I just hate small spaces, closed-in spaces, even big places with no windows. I have to be able to look out a window, preferably one that opens. I’m not too crazy about those hotels where you can’t open the windows, either,” she’d told him with her cheeks crimson from shame.

  He’d taken her hand and kissed it. “Mmm, you have the softest skin in the world. Please stop apologizing, beautiful girl, it’s completely understandable. If I’d had any idea that you were afraid of closed spaces I’d have never booked the suite. I just want to be with you, that’s all. I just want to spend some time with you,” he’d said with such sweetness it won her heart all over again. And now they were alone in the comfortable weekend home everyone in the family used. Since it was only April, it was still early enough in the year that no one had planned on coming that weekend so they were guaranteed privacy. The Deverauxes tended to flock to St. Simon’s in the warmer weather. Although April in Georgia is warm enough for outdoor activities like a long walk on the beach to be pleasurable, Titus didn’t have a long walk in mind.

  After they arrived at the house, Titus got the bags out of the car and they unpacked. Then Titus said he was going to take a shower and suggested Paris take a bubble bath if it suited her, which it did. She found a big bottle of Pink Peony bath gel by Perlier, something that Vera used. She always kept it at St. Simon’s and it was understood that it was community property. All the Deveraux women kept the place supplied with bath gels and soap, shampoo and other necessities. In next to no time the big claw footed bathtub was full of fragrant bubbles and she sank into its depths with real pleasure. She was basking in bubbles when a tap at the door made her open her eyes in time to see Titus, clad only in a towel sarong, enter the room with a steaming mug in his hand. “I thought you might like something to drink,” he said, offering the mug to her.

  She accepted it with a smile and took a sip. It was the same delicious warm milk concoction he’d made for her before.

  “Thank you, Titus; this is just what I needed.”

  “I know something else you need," he said and knelt on the bathmat. “You need to have your back scrubbed very, very gently, that’s exactly what you need.”

  Paris didn’t offer up a single protest, it sounded perfect to her. She handed him the mug, which he placed out of harm’s way on the bathroom vanity. She then leaned forward so he could have his way with her back and it was wonderful. “Scrub” wasn’t the right term for what he did to her back but she couldn’t think of the right word for what he did. His strong hands applied more bath gel and he used a terry bath cloth to rub her in small circles from the nape of her neck to the base of her spine and from shoulder to shoulder. He did this over and over until she was purring with contentment, then he used his fingers to massage every square inch of her back, leaving her limp from sheer enjoyment. She was so relaxed she almost fell asleep in the tub as Titus discovered when he helped her lay back again. He kissed her and suggested it was time she got out.

  “Okay. Let me finish my drink and I’ll get out,” she said sleepily.

  He handed her the mug and she sipped the rest of the milk. “Mmm,” she sighed when it was gone. “Now I need to rinse these bubbles off,” she said with a delicate yawn.

  Titus did the honors, helping her to stand and supporting her while he directed the hand held shower over her body until the foam was all gone. He wrapped her in a towel and carried her into the great room in front of the fireplace. And now he was ready to relax her even more, or he was until she started fretting. But his words finally got through to her, his words and the incredible bath she’d just taken. Now it was time for another level of release and he had just the thing. She was sitting in front of him, resting against his chest. He reached for a flat bottle labeled Sole Impressions and opened it, inhaling the pretty fragrance of the super thick contents. He rubbed it in his hands for a moment to warm it, and then spread it across Paris’s shoulders and down her arms. The exotic fragrance permeated the room as he worked and the soft music that was playing intensified the heady atmosphere. He finished with her arms and shoulders and reached in front of her to loosen her towel, letting it slip down around her waist. He applied more of the scented emollient cream, this time to her breasts.

  Paris’s long lashes fluttered and she trembled under his sensual touch, arching her back and leaning against his warm, broad chest for support. Titus didn’t stop; he kept rubbing her already sensitized breasts in circles, manipulating the tender, erect nipples that blossomed under his care. Her hands clutched his thighs as the sensations he was creating built a fire in her that spread to all her erogenous zones. She breathed his name over and over but he didn’t relent, he continued the massage, squeezing and caressing her with his hands while his middle fingers stroked her hard nipples that were bigger than he’d ever seen them, engorged from his stimulation. Her breathing grew erratic and her moans became cries of release as he brought her to a shattering orgasm. He finally relented long enough to kiss her neck and whisper in her ear.

  “That was just the beginning, baby, I have more for you.”

  She wanted to answer him, but she could only manage the softest whisper imaginable; “I love you.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Paris was extremely happy about this year’s birthday for several reasons. First, it was a real milestone. She was having her real adult birthday by turning thirty, which she saw as a cause for celebration, not panic. Second, she was having the party to end all parties and her whole family, with the exception of the evil Aunt Gert, would be there. She loved her father and brothers dearly and despite the fact that they babied her something awful, she loved to be with them and missed them terribly when she was away from them. The third reason was also a very important reason; Aunt Ruth would be in town and Paris had been dying to see the older woman. There was something about confiding in Aunt Ruth that made her feel so much better, so much more at ease with herself. With the exception of her cousins’ mother, Lillian, Paris hadn’t had a mother’s influence in her life since she was a small child and from time to time she felt that absence keenly. She couldn’t wait to see Ruth and get her take on all that had been going on in her life since they were last together.

  Her face got flaming hot and she picked up a manila folder to fan herself. Okay, maybe she couldn’t tell her everything that had been going on; the incredibly hot sex life she and Titus shared wasn’t anything she wanted to confide. She put the folder down and went to the small refrigerator in the corner of her office and made a sound of relief when she found several bottles of her favorite spring water and a plastic container of ice cubes as well. She took out a bottle of the water and a couple of cubes of ice and went to her sofa to sit down. Placing the bottle on the long coffee table in front of the sofa, she bent her head forward and held her hair up off her neck with her free hand and ran the ice cubes up and down her neck in an effort to quench the burning inside. She was so wrapped up in what she was doing she didn’t hear the knock at her private office door.

  “You’re a little too young for personal showers so it must be that man who has you so hot,” said an amused voice.

  Paris dropped the ice and tossed her head back in disbelief. “Aunt Ruth! Ooh, I’m so glad to see you,” she exclaimed as she leapt to her feet and ran to embrace her. “What’s a personal shower, by the way?”

  Ruth gladly accepted the hug before stepping away from Paris to give her a good long look. “A personal shower is a euphemism for a hot flash, honey, and I know you’re not having one of those. What’s been going on around here that you want to share with me?”

  Paris sighed and shook her head and led her over to the long rose colored
Ultrasuede sofa. “To tell you the truth, I don’t even know where to begin,” she said as she curled her legs up on the sofa pillowed surface of the couch.

  Ruth’s eyes were alight with curiosity and she followed suit. “Well, just begin at the beginning, that’s always seemed like the best place to me.”

  Paris shoved her disheveled hair out of her face and smiled. “You’ll never know how glad I am you walked in that door. Well, this is how it all started,” she began.

  ***

  Meanwhile, Titus was having an uncharacteristic reaction to Paris’s upcoming birthday. He was having difficulty deciding what to get her for a gift because he had very little experience in gift giving. Outside of his mother, grandmother and sisters, he’d only given gifts to the high school sweetheart who dumped him and the colorstruck fiancée who used him. After those experiences, he’d shut down emotionally. He’d meant every word he said to Paris the first night they’d made love. His relationships were finite; they were about sexual gratification and nothing else. Paris was the one exception to that rule. He had an inkling of the depths of his feelings the night he’d brought her flowers, the first flowers he’d sent anyone other than his mother and Mama Sweet. At some point, between the first time he’d laid eyes on her, the first time he kissed her and the first time they had become as one person, wrapped in each other’s arms with nothing between them but passion, the rough, heavy bricks that made up the wall around his heart came tumbling down. That’s the effect Paris had on him. And that’s why he wanted to get her something really special, but he had no idea what to get.

  He was in his private office, leaning back in his oversized leather chair with his arms behind his head staring at the Romare Bearden print on the wall. He supposed he could get a clue from the women in his family, but he didn’t want Nicole up in his business, he reflected with a smile. He loved his youngest sister like crazy and that’s just what she could do to him, drive him absolutely mad. He was distracted by the sound of the intercom. “Titus, there’s someone here to see you. Mr. Clayton Arlington Deveraux would like a few minutes of your time if that’s possible.”

  Titus raised an eyebrow as he told his secretary to send him in at once. He was about to stand up when the heavy oak door opened and Trey stuck his head in. “Yo, T. Got a minute?”

  “Of course, man, come on in,” Titus invited. Trey was at the complex often, he loved nothing better than hanging out with his father and his uncles. While the young man took a seat across the desk, Titus remembered a time the previous summer when Martin had asked him to come with him for a ride. They had gone to the summer camp where Trey and his younger brothers, the unruly twins Martin and Malcolm, were spending three weeks. As they drove, Martin had confessed he had no idea why they were going.

  “Trey called me and asked me to come as soon as possible. And he wanted me to bring you, too. I have no idea what this is about. I asked if he wanted me to bring his father and he said no, just you and me. So brace yourself, there’s no telling what we’re getting into,” Martin had said.

  Titus still got a smile when he remembered that afternoon. They had found Trey in his cabin with his two brothers, who were rather subdued, compared to their normal behavior. Trey had shaken the hands of both men and gotten right down to cases. “They said Marty and Mal did something they didn’t do and they won’t listen to me. It’s one thing to discipline them for rule infringements, but to make an assumption and act on it without proof is egregious and specious reasoning,” he said with real anger in his voice. “That’s why I wanted you to come, Uncle Martin, to act as counsel. And T., I want you to be our investigator.”

  Both men had to sit down after Trey made his pronouncement. Who knew he knew that much legalese? Trey was a true Deveraux, that much was plain. Nobody messed with his brothers as long as he was around. It seemed that the young twins had been the usual suspects when a snake was placed in the bed of the camp bully. But Trey knew for a fact they couldn’t have pulled this prank because they didn’t like snakes. They disliked them to the point that neither one of them would have dared pick up one. “If it had been a frog or a lizard, sure. But not a snake,” Trey said passionately. “None of the counselors or the director will listen to me. You have to present our case, Uncle Martin, and T., you have to find out who did it. And you have to get our money back because I don’t want my dad paying for us to go to a place that calls us liars.”

  Titus disciplined his face to keep from smiling as he looked at Trey sitting across from him with all the insouciance of a man three times his age. Everyone who knew him agreed he was the image of his father in looks and demeanor, and he was. Tall for his age with the same Creole coloring, thick, wavy black hair and piercing eyes under thick eyebrows, Trey displayed none of the gawky awkwardness of the normal preadolescent. He was a very old soul, Trey was. And Martin had indeed left Camp Wildwood with three nephews, three weeks worth of camping gear and a check. The red-faced camp director had decided it was better to forfeit the money than risk the lawsuit Martin assured her would ensue.

  “So what’s up, T.? Are you getting geeked up for Paris’s birthday party? It’s going to be a good time,” he said with a smile. “Have you gotten her a present yet?”

  Titus confessed he had not and was amused to see Trey’s look of dismay. “What are you waiting for, T? Her birthday party is next week, you should have it wrapped and ready by now,” he said disapprovingly.

  Titus had to confess. “Well, part of the problem is I don’t know what to get her,” he admitted. Trey shrugged. “That’s not a problem. What was the last present you gave her? You don’t want to give her the same thing,” he said.

  “Umm, I’ve never actually given her a present,” Titus said, and winced at the Trey’s expression of utter disbelief. “You’ve never given her anything? But you’ve been her boyfriend for a long time, T. Do you send her flowers?”

  This was one Titus could answer confidently. “Yes. I brought her some flowers once, I got them from…”

  Before he got the words out, Trey was on his case again. “Once? Just once? Do you send her cards?”

  “Uhh, no.”

  “E-cards?”

  “No.”

  Trey was stunned into silence. Finally he spoke with real concern for Titus’s welfare in his voice. “T., you got no game, man.”

  Titus promptly threw a staple remover at him, which Trey ducked, laughing. “Hey man, don’t blame me because your game ain’t tight. You don’t know how to treat a lady, that’s all. It’s not my fault if you lack skills.”

  Titus burst out laughing at Trey’s cocky assumption. “So you know all about women, do you? Have you got a girlfriend?”

  “I bet I know more about know more than you do about women,” he muttered. “And yeah, I have a girlfriend,” Trey said casually, as though it were no big deal.

  “What’s her name? Is she pretty?”

  “Her name is Paget. And she’s my best friend. She’s real pretty, on the inside. The outside is okay,” he said offhandedly as he inspected various objects on Titus’s desk. “But she’s gonna be real fine in a few years.”

  Titus raised his eyebrows. “You sound pretty confident about that, Trey. How do you know what she’s going to look like?”

  Trey gave him a slow grin. “I told you, she’s pretty on the inside. She’s really smart, she’s funny and she’s nice to everybody. And,” he grinned even wider. “Her mama is fine. Her big sisters are both fine. Even her grandmother is fine. So it’s just a matter of time before her outside catches up with her inside.”

  While Titus was thinking that Trey was the single coolest kid he’d ever encountered, Trey was deep in thought. He looked at Titus without cracking a smile.

  “T., you need some help. You need a few guidelines for dating in the new millennium and I’m going to help a brother out. Can I use your computer?”

  Titus moved his chair away from the desk and invited Trey into the space. “Go for it, dude.”

&nb
sp; ***

  Paris was about to spill the contents of her soul to Ruth when she realized it was getting late. “Let’s get something to eat and we can got to my place and talk, if that’s okay. There’s a deli near here that has really good chicken salad and crab salad, and I have a couple of perfectly ripe avocadoes at home, and some good wine,” she said thoughtfully. “We can get the salads and some good bread and chill out at my place.”

  Ruth nodded, but had one stipulation. “Throw in some cheesecake and I’m all yours.”

  They did just that, stopping at the deli for provisions and enjoying the impromptu but delicious meal that resulted. They shared avocado halves filled with crab salad, a salad of mixed field greens topped with marinated artichokes, black olives and grape tomatoes with red wine vinaigrette dressing, whole grain sourdough rolls with goat cheese and for dessert, dulce le leche cheesecake with a cinnamon-pecan crust. They were in the living room enjoying the cheesecake with coffee as they eased into the night’s conversation.

  Paris unburdened her heart, starting with the part when the threats started and Titus began his investigation and protection. She covered the trip to California for the Oscars, and the trips to New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Charleston. She hesitated a moment before sharing what Sarah told her about Titus, then grew resolute.