by Ju Ephraime
Getting into the car with Foxx took her back to the many hours they used to spend in this vehicle. It seemed they were either all over each other or always traveling to somewhere new on the island. He had taken her all over the island in the little time they’d had together.
She’d always enjoyed those trips. Now she sat back and relaxed as he merged the vehicle into traffic and they began heading south. That part of the island was very different from the north.
In the south, the Atlantic Ocean was visible, as were the beautiful white-sand beaches, while the north was surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and its unique black-sand beaches. Both sides of the island were uniquely different, but she preferred the north because this was where Foxx had his home and his restaurant.
She knew she was in for a treat. Foxx was an excellent driver, and she was happy just to be sitting next to him. She considered that progress.
Foxx felt like hell. He’d tried to mask it, but he wanted to strangle Therèse. After he’d walked out of her hotel last night, he was supposed to have gone to his restaurant, but he had returned home. He felt as if someone had hit him with a sledgehammer, and it was still pounding in his head, not to mention his eternal hard-on had intensified to the point of being painful. He vowed he would make her pay for this also.
The day was cool with a hint of rain in the air. They needed the rain; it had been extremely dry on the island for several weeks now, and the ground was parched. As someone in the food industry, he was affected by any form of drought that could impact the food supply.
He took a quick glance at Therèse. She was sitting next to him as if the incident last evening had not happened, as if he hadn’t almost taken her there in the hotel’s garden. Feeling like a cauldron of emotions and unfulfilled need, he envied her composure. Taking his eyes off her, he focused on the road.
Needing a distraction, he barked out a question, which came out harsher than he intended. “How long do you intend to remain on the island?”
“As long as it takes,” she answered.
“What do you mean?”
“Were you listening to me at all last evening? I thought I made myself clear.”
“I heard you, Therèse, but I don’t understand your intention since you didn't state it clearly. I don’t want to read anything into what you said. The last time I did that with you, it backfired on me in the worst way. So, if you want something from me or you want me to know something about you, you’ll have to be very explicit in your words and actions.”
She got it. He intended to make her beg and grovel. She didn’t have any qualms about doing both because he was vital to her life. She’d tried living without him, and it had been pure hell. She wasn’t going back there, not if she had any say in the matter.
Sitting peacefully in the vehicle, Therèse tried not to stare at Foxx. It was difficult to appear nonchalant. Foxx possessed a dynamic presence, an inherent virility that was impossible to ignore. She snuck a glance at his thighs as they bulged in the fabric of his jeans.
The jeans weren't tight, but every time he shifted the gears of the vehicle, the muscles in his powerful legs contracted. He handled the vehicle with the ease born of long practice. He had no idea what seeing him and sitting this close to him was doing to her.
She asked herself over and over how she could have thought for one moment she could get over this man. What a fool she’d been, putting herself through two years of unnecessary pain and suffering. She was back where she’d started, as if nothing had happened. The only difference was that feeling him now consumed her to the exclusion of all else. She could only hope to find some reprieve soon.
She glanced at him again. She never got tired of looking at him. That was nothing new. She used to do it so much he would constantly ask her if he had something out of place on his face. Embarrassed at being caught staring, she would turn away without answering.
She just couldn’t get over what a perfect specimen of manhood he was. She didn’t know why he’d even noticed her that day on the pier. Foxx had to beat the women away; he attracted them like bees to honey.
Looking back on it now, she believed her insecurities had made her vulnerable and caused her to turn tail and run. Her alumnae sisters hadn’t helped either; they’d played on her insecurities, and she’d been so young and naïve she’d allowed them to do so. She hoped Foxx would give her a chance to prove her love for him.
The early morning sun was shining through the vehicle, bringing out the deep red in his hair and the green and golden brown in his gorgeous eyes. She loved this man beyond all sense of pride and self-preservation. He could so easily destroy her if he had any idea of the extent of her love for him. The very thought was enough to scare her.
Sensing her eyes on him, Foxx glanced quickly at her. Their gazes met and held in a flash of raw heat before he forced himself to return his attention back to the road. He had to find a neutral topic of conversation; otherwise, he would be pulling over into one of the many clumps of bushes along the roadside and doing what he’d wanted to do all along: sink his rampant, throbbing cock into her sweet heat. This type of thinking only further aggravated his already desperate situation. If he wanted to torture himself, he was succeeding beautifully by thinking about anything to do with Therèse’s honeyed pot.
“How is your room at the hotel?”
“It’s fine, why?”
“I’m just curious. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable while you’re here.”
“Really, what would you have done if I’d said my room was not comfortable? Would you have offered to put me up?”
“Seeing how you’re satisfied with your room, you’ll never know, will you?”
“I guess not.”
“Tell me what you’ve been up to since you left here.”
“There’s nothing more to tell, Foxx. I’ve already told you. From the time I arrived back in England, I devoted one hundred percent of my time to making my shop work. I had time for little else. What about you? I thought for sure, you’d be married with a family by now.” Although I hoped for the opposite, she couldn’t help thinking.
“I’ve not yet met a woman I wanted to marry. I almost made that mistake once, but whatever malaise caused that thought, I no longer suffer from it,” Foxx muttered.
Her fingers itched to touch him but, hearing the disgust in his voice, stayed her hand. She stole another glance at his face, only to find him looking at her hand, which had somehow moved and was now lying on his thigh. She tensed and snatched her hand away as her face turned bright red in embarrassment.
She was so concerned about the fact that she had almost touched him inappropriately she was barely aware they were no longer moving. The vehicle had come to a complete stop.
Therèse braced herself for his punishing remark about her actions while he was driving, but before she could speak, Foxx stunned her by pulling her almost onto his lap. Sexual tension exuded from him in waves, causing his face to appear almost harsh in the fading light.
Her body responded with erotic urgency that had her panting, and he hadn't even done anything to her yet.
She felt as tightly strung as a bow, enveloped by a sexual haze, a familiar feeling whenever she was with Foxx. Only now, it had intensified to a level of discomfort.
Foxx was so close to her she could see the short hairs in his freshly shaven face, enhancing his appeal. His lips were set in an unforgiving line as a nerve beat at the corner of his mouth. Therèse wanted to kiss that line away from his mouth and calm that nervous beat. The need to taste him was so great, it was painful, but she didn’t know how he would react. Desperately, she pushed the thoughts aside, lowering her eyes to avoid looking at his mouth.
“It makes no sense you being here with me,” Foxx told her. “I have a very difficult time accepting it. I keep waiting to wake up from this nightmarish dream.”
“I’m not a figment of your imagination, Foxx, and neither am I a bad dream. If you cut me, I will bleed,” she told him, trying t
o lighten the situation.
He did not seem to have heard her. “It feels so good just to have you sitting here,” he admitted.
Awareness rippled through her as she felt the hard ridge of his arousal digging into her through the layers of fabric between them. Therèse could not stop herself from moving her fingers across his lips.
Foxx went still, as if he were holding his breath, neither rejecting nor welcoming her. That didn't deter her because she could feel the effect she was having on him.
Therèse continued moving her fingers back and forth over his mouth, as she worked up the courage to replace her fingers with her mouth, what she really wanted. Without any warning, he took two of her fingers into the hot cavern of his mouth. She ran her other hand through his hair down to his ear. Getting bolder, she replaced her hand with her mouth and then her tongue.
With a hiss, he began to breathe as if he were winded. Therèse continued to kiss his ear, moving next to the corner of his mouth, never quite reaching it entirely before moving back to play with his ear.
Delighting in the sense of power and the sexual tension thickening the air in the vehicle, she kept going for his lips, only to stop at the last minute. Denying herself what she so desperately craved heightened her sense of excitement. She could tell it was having the same effect on Foxx by the way his cock pulsed against her buttock. The heat poured off him in waves.
Not able to stand it anymore, she moved her buttock over the jutting head of his penis as memories of their time together had her long-deprived body throbbing in anticipation.
Foxx groaned and placed his hands on her waist to remove her from his lap, but she gave her body one last wiggle as she delved into his ear with her tongue. The thought of him inside her, impaling her with his oh-so-generous manhood caused another surge of liquid heat to dampen her panties.
With a barely suppressed growl, Foxx brought her head around to his as he lowered his mouth to hers. He ran his tongue over her lips before moving to the corner of her mouth. He was reacquainting himself with familiar terrain, his touch almost reverent in its gentle intimacy.
Then he moved to the soft lobe of her ear without fully taking possession of her mouth. Having him so close, yet denied the full taste of his mouth, had her blindly seeking it, wanting the full pleasure of his kiss.
Moving with sudden urgency, he caught her in a deep, soul-searching kiss that had her whimpering and straining to get more of him. He gave it to her slowly, as if releasing and revealing himself a little piece at a time.
Each kiss from him was followed by a slight nip at the corner of her mouth, only to have his mouth returning to hers in sweet abandonment, as if to take away the sting. She was so enthralled that the stings hardly registered. His ravishing mouth became the only reality and sweet reward to her sex-crazed mind.
Again and again, he went back and forth between her ear and her mouth before dipping down to the pulse beating wildly in her neck. Her nipples were stiff from the friction of rubbing against his chest, and her panties were damp with her juices. She wanted him so much that her body temperature rose and she broke out in sweat, causing a rivulet to run down between her breasts. This was too much for Therèse. The rhythm of her breathing became frantic as she felt herself almost on the verge of an orgasm.
She wanted to wrap herself around him, to feel him deep inside her as he took her again and again, as only he could. Desperate to reach fulfillment, she tried pressing down on his rigid cock, but this proved too much for him, as, with a harsh curse, he suddenly broke the kiss and lifted her back to her seat.
Therèse felt so bereft she wrapped her arms across her breasts where her nipples were still tightened into hard, painful knots. She rocked back and forth, making a keening sound, which had Foxx looking at her strangely. She didn’t know what to make of that look, but she could tell both of them were equally shaken by this interlude.
“I can take only so much,” he muttered as he lowered the window of the vehicle to give them some much-needed cool air, lessening the sexual haze fogging up the vehicle.
The knowledge that he was not in full control and was willing to reveal this to her filled Therèse with a mindless excitement that remained with her as he eased the vehicle back into traffic.
It took a while for the sexual tension in the vehicle to simmer down. Then, with one smoldering look from Foxx, she was back to burning up. His heavy-lidded eyes were a deep green, the brown all but gone. That look had her squirming in her seat in anticipation of their next encounter.
In less than twenty minutes, they were pulling into the first stop on Foxx’s trip, a local farm he was visiting. He got out of the vehicle and came over to her side, holding out his hand to her. She placed her hand in his and immediately felt the heat of his firm grasp as he helped her from the car.
Lowering his head, he made as if to reach down to her lips, but with a muttered curse, he swung around and went striding toward the farm. The owner came out to greet him, and began speaking in French.
“Bonjour, Foxx, que vous a amené ici aujourd’hui?”
Foxx answered him in English. The other man responded in English, and they continued the conversation in that language.
Therèse was grateful for Foxx's consideration. Although she could follow the conversation in French with no problem, she felt better when she did not have to translate everything in her head. What she did get immediately was that Foxx asked for cognac. She wasn't surprised; cognac was the drink of choice on the island and most homes had it in stock.
“Do you want something to drink, Therèse?” he asked after he’d introduced her to the owner.
“If I may, a long, cool drink with lots of ice will do me good,” she replied as she watched Foxx down the drink he was handed and hold out his glass for a second serving. This one he sipped slowly.
In no time, Foxx had concluded his business, and they were on their way to his next stop. They visited two other farms, but Foxx didn’t spend any time there, he was in and out. He appeared to be in a rush, and she sat back and watched as he pushed the vehicle to its limit.
chapter
NINE
After leaving the farms, they stopped at a restaurant in Grand-Rivière, the northernmost town on the island. The food was delicious. She had blaff de poisson cooked in seasoned soup and crabe farci, a spicy stuffed crab, accompanied by crudité, a mixed vegetable salad. Foxx had a Guinness and didn’t eat much of his food, but she enjoyed every mouthful of hers.
They didn’t linger at the restaurant, and very soon, they were on their way again.
“Why are we rushing so much?” she couldn’t help asking as she watched him drive as if they had an appointment to make.
“I’m trying to avoid the lunchtime rush hour, and I don’t want to be late for my meeting with Wolfe. Very soon everyone will be on the road. You know how it gets at that time of day. It’s not only crowded but hot as hell. I want to be back home or at your hotel before lunchtime.”
“Oh, all right. I’d forgotten about that because I’m usually at the café on the pier or at my hotel during the lunch hour.”
“Well, sit back and hang tight. I want to be on time for my meeting with Wolfe. He gets very antsy when he’s kept waiting.”
They raced through town and made it back in record time.
“Would you like to go back to the café, or do you have other plans?” he asked, turning to face her.
“What are your plans after your meeting with Wolfe?” she responded. “I have my afternoon free, and I don’t mind spending it with you, if it’s all right.”
He gave her a sharp glance from beneath his lashes. “Come along then. I’ll have to leave you to your devices for a bit. I wanted to spend some time at the cove with you. I do have a game this afternoon, but I can call out.”
“No, don’t call out of your game. You can take me back to my hotel before your game. I don’t want you to make any changes for me; that’s not why I’m here.”
“Then it
’s settled. We’re off to Wolfe’s, and we’ll do the cove another day.”
They arrived at Wolfe’s restaurant, where Foxx and his brother went through their usual greeting of exchanging kisses on the cheeks. Therèse was surprised when Wolfe extended the same form of greeting to her.
It was indeed a pleasure to be greeted thus because the last time she’d seen Wolfe in an amicable setting was right before she’d decided against continuing to see Foxx. Looking back on that occasion, she realized it was the last time she’d known any happiness.
All of Foxx’s family had been there, his mom and dad as well as his four other siblings and their children. It had been his parents’ fortieth wedding anniversary, so nearly everyone who was important to the LaCasses was present. It had been a party to top all parties. The islanders knew how to celebrate, and she’d had a wonderful time.
But very soon after that, she had left Martinique and had no further contact with any of Foxx’s family until this meeting with Wolfe.
She had been filled with trepidation about meeting his family again because she didn’t know what to expect. So it was good it was only Wolfe she had to contend with today. And being greeted by him in a form of friendship gave her reason to hope.
She’d expected to meet his wife, but she supposed she was no doubt at home. She’d learned from Clay that Wolfe was now married with a gorgeous wife. It was the woman she’d caught a glimpse of briefly at the café when Foxx had walked in accompanied by a woman.
Recently she had seen the same woman with Wolfe when they stopped by the café. At the time, she hadn’t said anything much to Wolfe, and he hadn’t introduced his wife to her.
From Wolfe’s reaction, she could tell seeing her on the island had been a shock. And without verbalizing it, she felt his displeasure at seeing her. He made it obvious by deliberately avoiding making eye contact with her.
When she’d been dating Foxx, she’d never had a problem with Wolfe. She had considered him a friend, but his reaction to her had told her, in no uncertain terms, she was not welcome. For that reason, she had stayed away and not made a nuisance of herself with Foxx’s family.