by Katie Dowe
“Where do you want to go?” his heart was thudding inside his chest and he was finding it hard to appear normal. He had been waiting for this for a long time and had to be reminding himself to take baby steps.
“The Bistro and bar downtown.” She told him with a mischievous smile.
“You want us to go to a club?” He asked her his eye brows raised. She was sitting on one of the lounge chairs with her feet up and her eyes closed while he scanned a report he had taken home with him. He had wanted to suggest going out but he had not dared.
“Scared?” she challenged him.
“No,” he told her immediately liking this side of her, playful and her guard down. “I have been to clubs before.”
“Not like this one. Don’t worry, my friend Dione is a bouncer there so we will be well protected. Or at least you will be. I have been there several times before.” She told him with a grin.
“Very funny,” he told her lightly. Christ he loved her so much that it was painful! “let’s go.”
She picked out something for him to wear teasing him that all of his clothes were too couture for a downtown club but she finally found faded jeans and black t-shirt and teemed it with a denim jacket. She wore a very short black skirt with a figure hugging white blouse and ankle length boots.
“Are you sure you have on all of that skirt?” he asked her dryly. He could not help but feel possessive and jealous as she bent over to pick up her clutch and he saw the smooth expanse of her bare thighs.
“I am going to be overdressed you will see.” She told him.
And she was right. Her friend was at the door and they hugged warmly while the woman looked him over from head to toe. “So you are the billionaire boinking my friend.” She said with a smirk.
“Don’t mind her she does not know any better.” Diana told him as she took his arm and they entered the crush. The noise was astounding and the number of people packed together was surely a fire hazard! But she took him onto the dance floor and started gyrating like the rest of them.
“Pretend you are not white and that you can actually dance,” she said putting her hands onto his shoulders and rubbing up against him.
“I am white,” he corrected her. “And it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out these dance moves.” Her eyes widened as he pulled her up against him and started moving to the beat. Very soon it became more than just dance and she looked up at him and saw when his expression changed and the atmosphere around them became charged with electricity. The other dancers around them faded into oblivion as their bodies molded together. She moaned as his head lowered and she lifted her head to meet his mouth. Their tongues met and tangled and his arms tightened around her. The kiss deepened and the fire inside their bodies struggled to break free! Jeffry had never in his life lost control especially in public but he could feel the insane and maddening desire for her bubbling forth! He lifted his head and looked down at her in a daze. Her lips were swollen and her eyelids heavy as she clung to him. “We have to go,” he said hoarsely.
She nodded, her body trembling against his. She felt as if he was not holding her up she would have fallen like a puddle at his feet. She rested her head on his chest and took deep breaths struggling to get in control and without a word she allowed him to lead her out of the packed club.
Chapter 11
“How did you propose to Carrie?” Jeffry asked Patrick abruptly as they took a break from the tennis they were playing. It was a beautiful summer day that had the birds singing and the overpowering smell of several flowers in bloom. Patrick looked at his friend sharply. It was the end of June and a Saturday and they were taking advantage of the lovely weather.
“Our circumstances were different man as you know. I had to marry her because she was pregnant with my child. I fell in love with her along the way.”
“Maybe I should get her pregnant and then she would have to marry me,” Jeffry muttered pulling his sleeveless shirt from his soaking wet chest.
“Why don’t you try asking her man?” Patrick looked at the man and tried to hide his grin. He had been a player in his days before he met Carrie but not like Jeffry and to see the man so twisted up in confusion was something he never thought he would see. Love made strange bedfellow!
“She never mentions the fact that I told her I love her and we are only just now beginning to go out in public. She spends most of her time at my apartment and gives me hope that she is coming around but I am as scared as hell that if I mention marriage to her she will run. Leesa told me that she said she is falling in love with me but she does not think what we have will last.” He looked out onto the court where the other players were playing an energetic game of basketball. It was Saturday afternoon and Diana had told him that she was going to spend some time with her mother and do some errands. “I am yet to meet her mother.”
“Take matters into your own hands and go and meet her mother. You are a big shot CEO of one of the most successful companies in the country and you need to start using your initiative. Approach the situation as you would a hostile takeover. Go in with force and determination.”
Jeffry looked at him in amusement. He was the closest thing to being a brother and many had say that they looked a little alike. “You are equating my situation with the woman I love to a hostile takeover?”
“I know it sounds off but I think that’s the way you should approach it.” Patrick said with a grin.
“Her father left when she was little,” his expression changed as he looked down at his sneakered feet. “She has abandonment issues. How do I fight that man? How do I convince her that I will never leave especially with my reputation?
“You are going to have to find a way.” Patrick clapped him on the shoulder. “I am rooting for you.”
“Thanks.” Jeffry smiled at him. “When she says yes I want you to be my best man.”
“Even if you had not asked I would still be,” Patrick said with a grin. “Because I am the best man.”
“Keep on dreaming.” Jeffry retorted.
*****
Diana had not exactly told Jeffry the truth. She had told him that she was going to see her mother and do some errands but the truth is she wanted to be alone to think. She had fallen irrevocably and utterly in love with the most beautiful man she had ever seen! She kept looking for flaws on his magnificent body but had found none and knew that there was none. His body was like a well contoured machine, all rippling muscles and long limbs indicating the many activities he did outdoors. His skin was tanned and smooth and his face! Oh Lord his face! It was like a carving a famous sculptor had etched out in love. His hair was so dark and thick that her fingers were last in the strands and his eyes made her feel as if she was deep into the forest on a rainy day. Love songs should be written about him and women should be feeding him grapes and some others fanning him leisurely if it had been at another time way back in history. He was magnificent and too good to be true for her at least. She had never had any hang ups about her size and had always worn clothes that fitted her well. She was attractive and she knew that but what she did know was that she was not sensationally beautiful as the women he associated with in the past. He had told her he loved her but she was not like the others falling over herself where he was concerned so he was mistaking the excitement of the chase for love.
She wanted to believe him! Oh how she would do anything if it was true but it was not. She was not Carrie with her slim curvaceous figure and beautiful face and especially Leesa who was the most amazingly beautiful woman she had ever seen and had so much confidence! They would have been good together, she said feeling a spurt of jealousy darting through her. She had seen him around her and how easy their relationship was and wonder if they had ever been together that way!
She curled up onto the sofa in her apartment and rest her chin on her knees, her hands clasped around her legs. She loved him but she was practical enough to know that it would never work between them!
*****
; “I think we should get married,” April said softly as she curled herself into Michael’s arms. It was late Saturday afternoon and he had closed the gym and taken her out to dinner and now they were back at his apartment.
Michael stiffened against her and then relaxed. “Is that so?”
“I am in love with you Michael and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. So yes I think we should get married.”
“Was that what you said to your husband?” he asked her coolly.
She pulled out his arms and looked at him, the hurt showing in her blue eyes. “I married Graham because we were compatible and we grew up together. It was expected that we would get married.” She climbed off the bed and reached for her robe and put it on over her slender nakedness and tied the belt. “We were not in love with each other but I was pretty sure we could make it work. I did everything to try and make it work. I learned to cook and I tried out many dishes. I became the perfect wife so it could work between us. The sex was mediocre at best but I was determined to try. It was all in vain because he met someone else who made him feel excited and feel like a man in bed and he told me that I was too much of a cold fish and I made him feel less than a man.” She took a deep breath and went to the window to look out. His apartment was in a part of town that was very busy and the summer night saw people scurrying about and children running around playing water games to keep cool. She wanted that, she wanted children with the man she loved and that man was Michael. Her parents did not know about him yet but she did not care what they say. She was not used to this part of town but she had come here because he refused to come to her uptown apartment. She was a very wealthy woman and had seen where they could work together to build up that gym of his and make it into something very big! But she was white and rich and he could not accept that.
He had come up behind her and she trembled as his arms went around her small waist as he pulled her up against him. He was still naked and she could feel his firm muscled body through her thin robe. “I would never make you feel that way,” he told her quietly resting his chin on top of her head. “I just need some time April.”
She turned in his arms and dropped the robe. Her pink nipples were puckered due to the air conditioner in the room and her white skin shone in the light. “I am not going anywhere.” She whispered.
With a groan he lifted her into his arms and took her back to bed.
*****
She did not come back to his apartment at night. She did not even call. He had ordered takeout for them and when he saw that it was approaching seven and she still had not come he had called her. “Baby where are you? Dinner is actually getting cold.”
“I am staying at my apartment tonight Jeffry. I want to be alone.” She told him.
“Why?”
“I need some time by myself.”
“Come by here and let us talk this over.”
“I need a night Jeffry at least give me that.”
“What’s going on Diana?” he demanded.
“I don’t want to talk about it please give me some time.” She had hung up without saying anything else.
He stared off at the wall as he put down his phone. She was running away and he knew it. She had decided that it was not going to work between them and decided to end it but he was not going to let her! He took up his light jacket and his keys and headed for the door. He was going to take Patrick’s advice: pretend it was a hostile takeover and he had never lost one of those!
*****
Diana knew she should eat something because she had not eaten anything except the bagel and cream cheese this morning and some coffee. But her insides felt as if it could not take in anything. She had never felt so much like giving up in her life. Her friends had called and asked her out to the club but she had told them that she was just going to take it easy. Her mother had also called and told her to come over for dinner tomorrow. She was still deciding on that one. She had taken a shower and sat there in the living room staring at the blank television. She missed him. She missed the way they cuddled up together on his leather sofa and his arms around her. She missed him rubbing her feet as he read some sort of report. She would look at him when he did not realize and feel the thrill going through her at how handsome he was. She had felt like she was living in a fairytale but she knew that fairytales were not real. In reality, handsome, rich men did not fall in love with women like her. He was strong but he would have a hard time lifting her and putting her on his horse. She was a big girl not petite like those in the story books. So as painful as it was she had to end it now even though her heart was tearing in two! It will get better in time. She was thinking of taking up an assignment in Paris where a magazine there wanted her to do exclusive spreads for them. It was what she had always wanted! She would get to live in the most exciting cities in the world and earn a significant amount of money but somehow the victory sounded hollow and empty inside her. Love had come into her life for the first time and she was drowning in sorrow!
She jumped as she heard the doorbell. Please God don’t let it be him, I am too weak to deal with him now.
“I am not leaving Diana so you might as well open the door.”
With a trembling sigh she got up and went to open the door. Her breath caught as she looked at him. His jet black hair was tousled as if he had driven with the top down and the t-shirt he had on beneath his light jacket clung to his muscled chest. She felt herself going weak and her mouthwatering as she stared at him. “I am tired Jeffry and was just turning in.” she said pointedly
“Tough!” he pushed his way inside and with a sigh she closed the door behind him. “I am not going to let you do that to us.” He told her grimly as he faced her.
“There is no us- “she began but he exploded!
“Stop it!” he gritted gripping her arms and forcing her to look up at him. “We are in a relationship whether you like it or not. It is not just sex as you keep telling me. You are my woman and I am your man so you had better stop trying to run away and be a coward.”
She bristled at him calling her a coward but her insides melted at the him referring to her as his woman. She wanted to lash at him and tell him that she did not belong to anyone else but she could not. “Your woman?”
“Yes dammit!” he released her and plunged his fingers through his hair, his body taut. “I love you, don’t you get it? I love you and I refuse to allow you to run away from what we have. It is not easy for me and I know it is hard for you as well. I am not your father Diana and I will not run away from you!”
“What do you know about my dad?” she marched after him and grabbed his arm feeling the tenseness there.
“Only what your brother told me.”
“You spoke to Michael?” her tone was ominous as she stared at him.
“Don’t go blaming him, I went to see him to try and find out how to get to you.” He placed his hands onto her arms. “He left you and I get that. He is a fool but I am not going to allow you to throw away what we have because he was not man enough to stand up to his responsibilities.”
“You think I am having issues because of my dad?” she stared at him in disbelief. With a sudden decision she took his hand and dragged him with her into her bedroom so that they were standing in front of the full length mirror.
“What are we doing?” his eyes met hers in the mirror.
“Look at us!” she demanded.
“You are going to have to enlighten me Diana. I have no idea what to look for.”
“You are beautiful!” she burst out in exasperation. “You are the most handsome man I have ever seen and I am- well I am far from being beautiful. We don’t belong together Jeffry and you need to know that before it is too late.”
He stared at their reflections for a moment, his brow furrowed and then he moved away putting her before the mirror. “I see a beautiful, warm and giving woman with a fiery spirit. You have the most beautiful eyes and mouth I have ever seen and your skin- “he trailed a finger over her arm.
“When I make love to you I reach for the stars and they are within reach. I have never felt this way about another person before barring none. I have done a lot of things in my life and used women because they availed themselves to me. With you I want to love and be loved, I want the whole works. Marriage, children and lifelong commitment. So don’t you dare stand here and tell me how I am going to go away and how you are not beautiful! You are the woman I love with every fiber of my being and Diana if you think I am going to let you leave me then think again. There is no way in this world you go where I would not find you and bring you back. We belong together and the sooner you accept it the better it will be for both of us.”
“You want to marry me?” she whispered as she looked up at him.
“I want to marry you and I have been trying to find the most persuasive way of asking you. I even thought about getting you pregnant.” He told her grimly.
“You are an idiot,” she whispered as she went into his arms. “It will never work.” She hid her face into his chest.
He lifted her chin and stared down at her. “It will work because I love you with every part of me.”
“I love you too but- “
He put a finger over her lips. “No buts Diana, you cannot use the word love and but in the same sentence.”
“Really?” she asked looking at him dryly.
“Really,” he told her tenderly. “I think it’s time I met your mother and you meet my father and his wife,” he said with a grimace. “I wants us married by August.”
“You do realize that we are at the end of June don’t you?” she felt the tremor going through her as he made the plans, their plans.
“I have the means to make it happen and Leesa is very good at arranging things like these. It’s her forte.”
“Have you ever slept with her?”
He looked down at her puzzled and then burst out laughing causing her to bristle. “Baby you are jealous!” his tone was delighted.