She glanced down at the gray peekaboo pumps below the cuffs of her slacks. “I may’ve heard your name mentioned somewhere.”
“Ah…” Talib stroked the sleek hair covering his jaw. “A little pillow talk?”
Ouch. Misha wouldn’t let the barb sting enough to remove her cool smile. “I don’t share pillow talk.”
“But wouldn’t that depend on whose pillow it was?”
Ouch again. A change in subjects was definitely in order.
“This restaurant has a great menu.” Misha glanced around at the elegant surroundings.
Talib glanced around as well. “We got a recommendation for it. I’m just checking it out for Asher.”
“Ah, so Asher’s trusting you with his stomach these days?”
The grin made his rich dark eyes twinkle. “You know how he is. New place, and it’s New York…”
Misha pressed her lips together. “Right. I remember….”
Talib’s smile was humor mixed with curiosity then. He took a step closer, slipping a hand into the pocket of his chestnut-brown trousers. “How much have you told your friend about all that?”
Misha’s healthy locks brushed her cheeks when she shook her head. “You never really told me much. Besides…I don’t share pillow talk, remember?”
Humor left his gaze, yet curiosity remained. “Not even mine?”
What would he say if she told him there hadn’t been any since his? Humph, he’d never believe her. She tilted her head in greeting. “Good morning, Talib.”
He stepped back and nodded. “Always a pleasure, Misha.”
“Pleasure’s mine.” She spoke too low for him to hear as she watched him leave. Moments later, she felt a chin rest on her shoulder. “Don’t, okay?” she pleaded while bowing her head.
“Wasn’t that Talib?” Riley asked. “My God,” she breathed, marveling at the man’s appearance.
“Uh-huh…” Misha agreed, allowing herself to melt just a little.
“Sure you wanna join me and a bunch of stuffy old coots for breakfast when you could follow that?”
“Please, Riley,” Misha hissed. “We’ve been down that road, remember?”
“And you’re sure it’s a dead end?”
Misha turned, fanning her blouse away from her chest. “He thinks I slept with him for a story.”
“And did you?”
Misha closed her eyes. “I was working with someone who didn’t care for confirming certain facts before running with the story. When it all came out, it looked like I was involved…I let him believe it.”
“Why?” Riley was intrigued. She’d never been able to extract much information from Misha about her relationship with the man.
Misha groaned. “Because he never would’ve believed I slept with him because I was in love with him. Our old coots are here.” She interrupted Riley’s next question and headed for the dining room.
“Sorry. Thought I saw ’em,” Misha explained five minutes later, when they were seated at a square table set for five.
Riley didn’t spare her editor a glance. “It’s okay. I’ll just take that to mean your love life is off-limits to discussion.”
Misha gave a mock salute. “That’s right, due to the lack of existence. Now yours, on the other hand…”
“To quote your earlier words, ‘don’t, okay?’”
“You’re glowing, you know,” Misha whispered, as if it were a hot secret. “I would say that’s one of pregnancy’s more wonderful side effects, but then I know there could be another reason for that glow….”
Riley rolled her eyes toward a menu. “Yes, there could be….”
“Coffee. Black,” Misha told the waiter who’d approached. “So’d you get around to telling him about the new addition to your club?” she asked once Riley put in her order for hot herbal tea.
“I haven’t told him. Yet. I plan to ASAP. I don’t think I can look at him every day for the next three months without him knowing.”
Only one of Misha’s perfectly arched brows lifted. “So he is in town for Vic’s signing? That’s really a go? Talib didn’t actually confirm it.”
“Yeah, it’s confirmed.” Riley slammed down her menu. “But before you start brainstorming story angles, you should know I already promised Bastian the exclusive on breaking Vic’s news. So it’s completely out of our ballpark—no pun intended.”
Misha responded with a secretive smirk, which Riley didn’t have the chance to question. Their breakfast dates had finally arrived, and after settling down and ordering, Shepard Cade, VP of creative development, got to the point.
“We’ve been batting around the idea of spinning off from our very popular columns one new main publication. We’d like for the two of you to head up the works.”
Riley and Misha sat in stunned silence for quite a while. After sharing a knowing smile with her associates, publisher Gloria Reynolds leaned close to the table.
“We understand that this news is quite dazzling.” She cast a pointed look toward Riley. “But even dazzling news has to be weighed and discussed. Especially when one has a new marriage and a husband living halfway across the country.”
Hunching against the chill biting her arms beneath her cashmere sweater, Riley noted that she now had even more to consider.
“We’d like the two of you to delegate tasks to your staff,” Gloria continued. “Take time and think this over. Discuss it with your families.” Another glance toward Riley. “Orly?”
Marketing VP Orlando Tims handed Misha and Riley twin packets. “We’ve put these together to assist in your decision. Should give you a bit more info on the new pub.”
Riley and Misha tore into the packets and were already tossing out questions by the time the breakfast orders arrived. Breakfast was delicious, and the conversation was heavy.
Asher snorted and gave a weary grunt into the pillow and finally managed to crack open an eye. Glancing at the bedside clock, he saw 10 a.m. on the digital pad. Waking up to that sight was about as unfamiliar as the present view of Central Park in the distance.
He let his face drop back into the pillow and contemplated another hour. Negotiation meetings wouldn’t start with the team execs until tomorrow morning. Still, he had a crap load of other work to handle….
What’s wrong with me? Asher questioned the sudden bout of laziness. Of course, it was obvious. He slept so well only when Riley was around him. Though she wasn’t physically there in the apartment just then, having her in the same state, city and zip code was enough.
And the fact that it was New York? Asher smoothed the back of his hand across the wicked scar on his cheek. The question was enough to pull him up from the pillows, which were softly scented with his wife’s fragrance.
Maybe Talib was right; maybe he should just tell her why he wanted her out of there. Easy enough, but how could he admit that to her when he got sick just remembering it? Hell, she’d lived in New York all her life. The last thing he wanted was to scare her. But she wouldn’t leave without a damn good reason. Would knowing that the actual events that transpired during a convenience store holdup still haunted him to distraction be enough?
Virginia Stamper spoke to the tiny boxes of African violets like a mother tending her children. Riley leaned against the brick ledge and watched the woman enjoying her favorite hobby.
“So if you talk sweetly enough, will they respond?”
Hands poised over an empty pot, Virginia looked across her shoulder and then rushed over to envelop her only child in a warm hug. Virginia’s dark face held a resigned look when she glanced back toward her flowers.
“I’ll be moving my flock inside in a few more weeks. This winter promises to be as cold as a frigid bitch.”
Riley chuckled, scratching at her temple while her mother sauntered back to the flowers. “You know, Miss Ginny, you’re gonna have to tamp down that language now that you’re going to be a grandmother.”
Virginia dropped the clay pot she’d just picked up. Whirling around, s
he regarded Riley with disbelief. Immediately, she rushed over to cup Riley’s face for a kiss and hugged her tight.
“When? How far along are you? What is it? Stupid question, Gin. Of course, you don’t know that yet.” She spoke absently, running her hands over Riley’s arms and shoulders.
“No word yet on whether you’ll have a grandson or granddaughter to spoil, but my doctor says I’m about six weeks along,” Riley shared through her laughter at her mother.
“Oh, that Asher,” Virginia declared, resting one hand on the side of her lovely face. “Not only is he sexy and gorgeous as hell, but he keeps his promises.”
Riley laughed again but tugged at the hem of Virginia’s rust-colored smock. “What are you talking about?”
“Well, he promised to make me a grandmother within two years after the two of you got married.” She patted Riley’s tummy and winked. “I like a man who keeps his promises.”
“He never told me the two of you talked about kids.” Riley sounded captivated.
Virginia shrugged and reached for a brush and dustpan to clean up the broken pot. “I didn’t get too specific, but I heard enough to know that he wants that very much.” Forgetting the pot, Virginia looked up at her daughter. “You haven’t told him, have you? Why?”
Riley felt a chill beneath her blazer. “Had a meeting this morning…They offered me a new job…heading my own publication.”
“Ah.” Virginia’s smoky eyes twinkled in acknowledgement. “Which explains the real reason you’re here. A talk with the devil mother who chose career over family.”
Riley shook her head, sending locks of her chic cut bouncing. “You weren’t that bad. But that is why I’m here.”
“You want to know if you can have both?”
“You did.”
“No, love.” Virginia returned to sweeping up the clay pot. “I had my career and my child. The man didn’t stick around, remember?” Clearing the broken pieces, she tossed aside the brush and dustpan. “Don’t base your decisions on mine, baby. I didn’t really have a choice in the way things turned out.”
Riley went to lean against the brick ledge. “But your career was always there.”
“Because it had to be. Your father was a self-centered jackass. When things got rough, he did what a self-centered man does best. He ran.” Bracing her hands on her thighs, Virginia pushed to her feet. “Honey, is everything all right between you and Asher? Is that why—”
“No, no, no, everything’s good.” Riley winced as the lie touched her ears. “But he did leave me with an ultimatum.”
“Not in his vocabulary,” Virginia replied.
Riley smiled. “Leave New York or leave our marriage.”
Virginia considered the words but a moment before shaking her head. “He could’ve meant anything by that—”
“Ma—”
“And, anyway, I don’t see why it’s a hard choice for you to make.”
“Why? Because writing a column isn’t nearly as important as scoring an extra million for an already overpaid athlete?”
“Riley—”
“Or perhaps not as important as heading up your own medical ward—”
“Love, shh…shh…” Virginia rushed over, pulling her daughter into a rocking embrace.
“I feel so small when you do that, Mama.”
Virginia kissed her temple. “I’m sorry, honey. I know and I’m sorry.”
“Asher makes me feel lower.”
“Because he’s the man you love.” Virginia massaged her daughter’s back. “It always hurts when they don’t support us the way we do them.” She pulled Riley over to stand with her next to the brick railing. “When I told your father I wanted to go after my nursing degree, he just laughed and laughed…The hours were hell, but I succeeded, and then there were more hellish hours. When I actually got a decent position…” Virginia’s eyes misted as the memories took hold. “Thank God for your granny Lil. You know, when I said things got tough, it wasn’t just financially…It was marital, too. Eventually, the money got better and better, but he only got angrier and angrier. I felt more and more powerful, and that power outweighed whatever love I had for him.”
Riley was shaking her head. “Mama, that’s not—”
“Now just wait a minute, all right?”
Virginia placed a finger across Riley’s lips. “I know that’s not what’s going on between you and Asher, which is why I’ll tell you not to base any of your decisions on mine.”
“I need insurance, Ma.”
“Explain.”
Riley closed her eyes. “I’ve never admitted that. Not even to Misha.”
“Honey, don’t you trust him?”
“I do…but…”
“Honey?”
“What?”
Virginia patted Riley’s hands to stop her from wringing them. “There’s no halfway with trust, love.”
“He’s keeping something from me.”
“Something.”
Riley grimaced. “It’s not anything like that. I have no doubt that he loves me, but…I’ve just always felt there was something, something beneath the surface that he’s not saying. At first, I told myself I was just imagining it.”
“And?” Virginia tugged on one of the cuffs of Riley’s blazer.
“Now I’m afraid to just chuck it all, to walk completely away from all that I have.”
“Marriage is full of fears, love. You still have to face ’em, though.”
“Well, until I can—” Riley smiled up at the sky and then down at her mother “—I’ll hang on to my insurance.”
“And once he tells you this secret you think he’s keeping?”
Riley could barely shake her head, and then she practically melted into her mother’s hug.
Chapter 13
Riley got home around 2 p.m. The loft was suspiciously dim for the middle of the day, but she didn’t question it just then. Instead, she pressed her forehead against the door and replayed the conversation with her mother.
How’d things get so complicated? She felt a hunger pang, as if it were a response. Smiling, she brushed her hand across her still-flat tummy. “All right, little baby.” She took a mental inventory of everything in her cabinets. Sadly, her cravings turned either to sweet and gooey or crunchy and salty.
She decided to think about it while she changed clothes. She was about to turn away from the door when his hands eased around her waist.
“Mmm…you’re gonna have to go. My husband’s back in town, you know?”
Asher grinned, causing his probing light brown gaze to narrow. “I’ll make it fast. Promise.” Slowly, he nuzzled her ear and suckled the lobe while tugging at the zip front of her blazer.
“That’s not a promise I’d be proud of keeping.” Riley’s tease caught on a gasp when his hands found their way into her bra. She let her forehead fall to the door and moved against Asher, who was presently clothed in a navy towel. Biting her lip, Riley lost herself in the sensation of him behind her.
The pleasure was overstimulation at its best, and she was soon turning to face him. She practically climaxed while splaying her hands across the impressive slabs of muscle packing his chest and abs.
Riley’s moans wavered when he kissed her. Asher held her neck to keep her in place as his tongue delved deeper repeatedly and possessively. Riley pulled at the knot securing the towel at his waist, but he patted her hand.
“Later,” he whispered.
Whimpering her protest, Riley obeyed and kissed him with increasing eagerness. Moments later she wore nothing but a pair of lacy panties. Asher’s groans joined her sighs of delight as he buried his face in an abundance of fragrant cleavage.
Riley arched into the ravenous suckling and moaned his name. Asher felt his legs go weak.
He honestly didn’t think he could leave her there when it was time to go. He was so starved for her, and every time he took her, he grew more insatiable. The way she chanted his name was enough to render him stiff and throbbing
with need. Her hushed voice and the way she dropped her r’s…He’d lived off phone sex with his wife for far too long. Now he wanted her voice, her body, a touch away.
Again, Riley moved to tug away the towel.
“Later,” he told her…again.
Dismissing the order, Riley folded her hand over the stiff length of flesh beneath the towel. “Now,” she declared, squeezing and fondling him without mercy.
Asher smirked. “Dammit, Riley.” He slammed his fist on the door and then snatched away her panties with a flick of his wrist. The towel left his waist seconds later, and they were soon enjoying each other enthusiastically against the door. He kept his grip tight about her thighs and spread her to accommodate his frame more comfortably.
He gasped into her shoulder.
When he drew back in an attempt to prolong his enjoyment, she put him back inside her and dared him to resist the pleasure that time. “Don’t faint on me now,” she teased when his legs weakened.
Asher managed a chuckle but didn’t lose his focus. His back glistened with sweat as he took her against the door. Riley’s needy groans soon resembled tortured whimpers, she was so lost in delight.
The next several moments passed in a long erotic blur.
Much later, following a tasty supper of roast turkey sandwiches and broth, part two of the cozy interlude commenced.
“I’d set it up to take you here in the tub,” Asher said while his light eyes scanned the bubbles clinging to her dark skin. “I tried to make it past the front door, but you wouldn’t let me.”
Riley settled more snuggly into his lap. “Not a problem.” She rode him slow, loving the way he bit his lip as the pleasure consumed him. “You’ve got all night to take me right here.”
Asher leaned his head back against the mauve tiles. “I intend to do exactly that.”
“I guess you’ll have to save a little time for this business you’re here to handle.”
Asher let a grimace mar his handsome honey-toned face. “Don’t let tomorrow barge in yet, all right?” Cupping her face, he drew her into a branding kiss. “I wish we could stay this way for a lifetime,” he confided, with his forehead pressed to hers.
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