Fever (Falling For A Rose Book 4)

by Stephanie Nicole Norris

  Carla dropped her head. “Before last night, two weeks ago.”

  I shook my head and poured her more wine. “You should drink extra,” I offered. If I were you, I would go to work every day until they put me out. I’m talking about security would have to walk me to the door. They’d still have to pay me for the work I did.”

  Carla and Desiree burst into laughter.

  “Why do I believe you?” Carla asked.

  “Because even though we’ve only been acquainted for a little while, you know enough about me.” I stifled my laugher and looked sincerely at Carla. “Will you need somewhere to stay since you don’t have a job now?”

  “While my rent is still paid and my lights and water are still on, I’ll be fine at home,” Carla replied, “but I could use some company tonight.”

  “We can make it a girls’ night!” Desiree chirped. “Besides, we’ve got more to discuss anyway.” Desiree turned to me with a snide smile. “Santana’s going to tell us all about the last two days she spent in Jamaica with Josiah.”

  Carla’s head snapped to me. “Ooooh, you’ve been holding out.”

  I sighed heavily. “I yie yie.” I moaned. I was certain I’d be drilled for the remainder of the evening.

  Chapter Six

  Ten in the morning. That’s what time I made it in to work—three hours late. So not like me.

  I found every excuse to stay in bed a little while longer. I knew what the real deal was. I didn’t want to see Robert. All the teachers knew Carla and I were friends, so I did expect someone to ask about her. But I wasn’t prepared for what did happened. There were no sentiments of empathy for Carla. When I walked into the teacher’s lounge, curious eyes turned to me.

  Throughout the day, people would stop and stare but not ask or say anything. It became high school all over again. Dreaded by that, I decided I also had enough. If Robert could assault Carla and try me, surely, he’d tried others. So why was he even allowed stay on staff?

  I marched right to the principal’s office and demanded a meeting with Ralph McDonald. I didn’t know if he was taking up for Robert because of his male genitalia or if Robert had dirt on Principal McDonald. Either way, by the time I finished saying what I had to, which I had to admit included a sister girl neck roll and hand on hip, I was not taking any shit attitude.

  I told Principal McDonald he either got rid of Robert, or Carla and I were putting in our resignations. For a second, I thought he would let me walk out the door without a care. But then he stopped me once I’d gotten to the exit.

  “Ms. Summers, please don’t leave.”

  He caught my attention so far. I turned back to him and fought crossing my arms and giving him an angry black woman stand.

  “I can’t just let him go. An investigation is underway. Once it’s completed, at that time, I can make a decision. But I implore you and Ms. Summers to stay. If you need to take a little time off, I’d be happy to approve a paid vacation request.”

  He smiled, but I didn’t trust him. I put in my request, which had taken all of ten minutes, and then I left.

  What else was so not like me? Standing in the grocery store in the middle of the day. Inside my car, I’d written a list, but I couldn’t remember where I put it. My phone chimed as I pushed the cart through the vegetable aisle. Shoving my hand inside my purse, I rummaged around until I had what felt like my smartphone in my clutches. I pulled it out and checked the screen.

  Hey, you.

  Josiah. I tugged the corner of my lip with my teeth and hit reply.

  Hey.

  He response came quickly.

  Are you busy?

  For some reason, I was edgy. I glanced around the store then back to my screen.

  Grocery shopping. How are you?

  A minute passed.

  I’ve been better. It seems I caught a cold. It’s been pretty mean. Wish I had someone to take care of me.

  A sudden warmth passed through me. Then another text came through.

  You’ve been on my mind lately, Santana.

  I closed my eyes briefly and imagined his deep, smooth voice calling out my name. My cart bumped into a bin of open tomatoes, and they toppled to the floor in dramatic fashion one after the other.

  “Shit.”

  I dropped my cell in my handbag and went to retrieve the fallen fruit. I tried collecting them three at a time, but fumbled and lost them again.

  “Don’t worry about it, ma’am, I’ll pick it up,” a friendly associate intervened.

  “Thank you so much. I should’ve paid closer attention.”

  The clerk looked at me. “It happens to us all sometimes. I’ll take care of it, you go right along and enjoy the rest of your shopping.”

  I sighed. “Thank you.” I handed him the only two tomatoes I’d managed to retrieve.

  It had been a week since our return from Jamaica, and I hadn’t heard from Josiah at all. I assumed I probably wouldn’t hear from him again, and even though I put up a good front with Desiree the day before, the truth was, I had my fingers crossed. Being with Josiah for those two days was blissful. I imagined it’s what Desiree, Claudia, and Samiyah felt on a regular basis. Granted their bliss was on a whole other level, but still. I thought back to his brown sugar lips and smooth skin. At my cart, I reached to retrieve my cell and went back to the text he’d sent then hit reply.

  I’ve thought about you also, Josiah. If you’d like, I can bring you a few things that may help bust that cold.

  I sucked my lips in and waited for a response as my eyes darted across the supermarket once again. After a few minutes, I pushed forward, deciding that I needed to get this over with. As I moseyed along the aisle, I grabbed items I’d run out of like milk, cheese, and eggs. It wasn’t until after I’d grabbed the package of noodles did I realize I picked a few things for some homemade chicken noodle soup. I like to think of myself as fearless. I couldn’t be shaken by much, and because of that, I led my life on the wild side sometimes. I guess that’s why I made the best damn investigative reporter. However, I had to admit when it came to Josiah, there was a bit of fear there. I tried to shake my crazy mood and forged on to the checkout line.

  Since I only had a few items, I took them through the self-checkout and pushed my cart back with the others. As I got in my car, a fast melody played, and I recognized it instantly as my default ringtone. I reached in my purse and accepted the call immediately.

  “I would love for you to come by,” Josiah’s smooth voice said. “How soon can you get here?”

  “I’m on my way home now. I’ll make some soup and bring it over.”

  “Or you can just come now and make the soup over here,” he suggested. “I would’ve called sooner, but I was in the sauna.”

  I swallowed thickly. “What’s your address?”

  “Seven forty-one Park Place.”

  “I’ll see you in about thirty minutes.”

  “See you then,” he said.

  I ended the call and tried to discern the ruckus my heartbeat was kicking up. Moments later, I’d realized I was still sitting in the parking lot of the grocery store with thoughts of wet heat glistening on Josiah from a hot sauna.

  “Jesus,” I whispered then backed out of the lot and pulled onto the street. As I drove, my thoughts went back to Jamaica. After the wedding, Josiah and I had found our way back in Ocho Rios.

  “What are we doing back here?” I asked.

  “We didn’t get to do everything I had planned.”

  “Planned?”

  He smiled. “Yeah…”

  I let him lead the way, and we ended up having the time of our lives. I’d never rode a tube down a waterfall before until that day. I squealed as the tube flew down the river, over a waterfall into a bank of water. It was like nothing I’d ever done. I felt like a kid in a candy store. Needless to say, we rode those tubs a couple of times before moving on to Dolphin Cove. The beautiful sea creatures loved to perform and were so friendly. Watching the fish play and sing was
delightful in so many ways. It’s something you would truly have to experience. We practically spent the day sightseeing and carrying on as a couple would.

  And I wondered why Josiah was doing all of this with me. But he quickly answered that question in conversation saying how he’d wanted to get back to those exact destinations since he’d visited when he was a kid. There was a brief disappointment that slid over me, but I was good being the friend he wanted to revisit with. I really liked Josiah, and I was hoping we could have a friendship that would last for all time. I cleared my throat and settled my thoughts on how great this new friendship was. But I didn’t ignore the inside voice that begged to differ. No matter how much I wanted to turn it off.

  “Don’t even get yourself worked up, Santana. You’re not in this friendship for anything more than that.” As I talked to myself, I drove across town to Josiah’s condo following the GPS. “We will never be anything more than that. It’s just Desiree’s and Claudia’s weddings that have you thinking all swoonish. Get over it. Now is not the time to go off into la-la land thinking about what ifs. Stranger things have happened.”

  I pulled in front of the high-rise and allowed the valet to park my vehicle. I continued to talk to myself as I sent a text to Josiah’s phone.

  I’m downstairs. What’s your apartment number?

  I hit the elevator button, and it dinged, allowing me entrance.

  Seven forty-one.

  “Duh,” I said to myself. He told me that on the phone. “If you get your head out of the clouds, maybe you could focus.” The compact car rose to the seventh floor without stopping and opened upon resting. “Besides,” I continued, “girl he is too young and probably still wet behind the ears. Look at him as an adolescent.” I hit his doorbell and exhaled, absentmindedly taking my fingers through my hair and rearranging my clothes.

  The door swung open, and my eyes traveled over Josiah, shirtless with a towel barely hanging onto his chiseled waistline. His legs revealed thin hair that tapered off at his ankles. His pedicured feet were three times the size of mine, and his full body was drenched in steam. A splinter of heat drove through my body. If I were to stick to my guns and imagine him as an adolescent, I was officially a pervert. I took in a deep breath and smiled.

  “I apologize for my nakedness,” his voice thundered. “After I hung up with you, I took a quick shower. Come on in.”

  He opened the door wider, but my feet wouldn’t move. This was probably a mistake, but hey, I live my life on the edge. So, with a warning alarm officially triggered, I took a step inside.

  Chapter Seven

  Josiah

  I waited as long as I could to call her. Santana had been on my mind from the second I dropped her off at home a week ago. Trying to dismiss constant thoughts of her was trivial. We’d had such a great time in Montego Bay that my mind repeatedly traveled back to her. Even if Santana and I had never sailed down the river on tubes, or gone to check out the dolphins, I’d already met her, and she could never be just a thought in the wind. I texted Santana with the understanding that I just wanted to have a friendly chat with her. Now when it came to women, I wasn’t usually looking for friendship. But with her, just being near Santana’s beautiful, spirited presence gave me a fullness I could never gain from a nutritional meal.

  Back in Jamaica, there were ample opportunities for us to indulge in one another sexually. My lips had found almost every part of Santana while her killer two-piece bikini draped her frame, and even though I felt no hesitation on her part on whether to proceed or not, I didn’t. It was the one thing I couldn’t figure out. Why had I stopped when no walls or barriers permitted me from moving forward? This I planned to resolve as I was not one to stay confounded about anything.

  “Come on in,” I said.

  After some hesitation, Santana sashayed through my door wearing a thin summer dress that was tightened around her small waist with a flimsy belt. Instantly I undressed her with my eyes as my mind traveled to what I knew was a sexy shapely figure that I could eat a four-course meal off of. My thoughts taunted me as my gaze touched her smooth brown thighs, long legs, curvy bottom, and hard nipples.

  I grabbed the bags out of her hand.

  “Do you mind if I take off my shoes?” she asked.

  I glanced down to her perfectly pedicured feet and was assaulted by an image of tasting her toes. “Of course. Get as comfortable as you like,” I said.

  It was my treat to watch her slip the wedge heels off her feet and reach for me for stability as she maneuvered. It gave me visions of when we laid together in the hammock back at the blue hole. My eyes burned a hole straight through her bare skin. I was ogling, and it was apparent.

  Santana shifted her weight, squirming just a bit under my unwavering scrutiny.

  “Kitchen,” she said.

  My eyes found dark brown irises, then dropped to her lush lips.

  “This way,” I said, pulling my sight away to lead her into the kitchen.

  “Nice tush,” she said, reaching out to pinch my ass.

  I rounded on her and sat the bag down on the counter. “Now you know, I get to grab you back for that.” Without giving her a chance to object, I circled my arms around her waist and grabbed her full ass with a tight squeeze, pulling her against my pelvis. The hardest part of me was now pressed firmly between her legs, and a soft moan crept from her lips.

  It set me on fire, and as if she was mine to have, I tasted her mouth, prying it open with my tongue. Santana let me enter, and I hungrily feasted on her lips.

  “So soft,” I growled, “so hot, so wet.”

  Santana moaned again, her fingers now trailing up my bare chest and neck as she ground her hips into me. I shivered under her heated touch and almost came from the friction of our dance. The phone rang, but the fog we were in consumed me, and I found myself not giving a damn. When it stopped, I breathed a sigh of relief, and we continued to find satisfaction in the warm tango of our mouths. Seconds later, the ringing started up again. I was dead set on ignoring it as my tongue trailed down Santana’s throat, sucking her warm skin along the way.

  More subtle moans escaped her, and I knew at any moment I would take her right there in the kitchen, hard against the counter. The phone stopped and restarted just as I moved to sit her on the countertop.

  “You should answer your phone,” Santana panted. “Whoever it is has called three times. Could be an emergency.”

  I pulled away from her neck slowly, feeling like a savage whose meal had been interrupted. I stared at Santana, knowing my glower held fire as I considered what she’d said. I tried not to show my frustration when I gently scooped her off the counter and helped her to her feet. Without a word, I strutted to the wall phone and hit speaker.

  “Yes,” I barked.

  “Man, I’ve called your cell phone three times. Why are you not answering? Boy, you missed it last night, me and Kevin had two sets of twins at the house. Two sets! We had one for you, but you wouldn’t answer the phone. I know you want to know the details. Where were you?”

  I glanced back at Santana. She held a smirk on her face as she moved around the kitchen to prepare the soup she’d brought over.

  “Desmond, let me call you back.”

  “Nah, man, it’s taken me forever to get you on the phone. You have to listen to every detail.”

  I snatched the phone off its cradle and pressed it to my ear.

  “Now’s not the time,” I said.

  “Oh, don’t stop on my account,” Santana said.

  “I’ll call you back.”

  “J, if you hang up this phone, I’ll come over there with my story. I’ve been dying to tell you all night, just listen!”

  I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples. Desmond was one of my homeboys, and as much as he was getting on my nerves at the moment, I knew he would show up at my door. And I’d hate to kick his ass.

  “Make it quick,” I said, glancing at Santana once more. She sat a pot on the stove and strolled over to m
e and stuck her finger out to hit the speaker button once again. Desmond’s voice came through loud and clear.

  “Me and Kevin went to The Dream Lounge, the new spot that opened on Crenshaw and Sutton. After midnight, it was wide open. With it being a twenty-five and older club, it brought the sophisticated freaks out. BOYYY! You just don’t know. It didn’t take us long to spot Kayla, Kennedy, and Shameka and Tanisha getting out of a Dodge Durango. I watched them walk in and go straight to the dance floor looking like superstars. I hit Kevin, and when his gaze followed mine, he started to approach them. I said naw man all the dudes in the club were trying to get at them or panting in the background.”

  “Like I’m sure you all were,” I said, keeping my eyes on Santana. As Desmond talked, I watched her. Every curve.

  Desmond laughed. “Yeah but the difference was they couldn’t see us from all the other guys in the club, so you know me, I started formulating a plan.”

  “You should really call me back,” I reiterated.

  “Just listen, I’m almost done. I went outside to the parking garage while no one was looking and siphoned the gas out of the Durango. So, when those pretty little ladies got to their car, it wouldn’t start.”

  Santana turned to me astonished, her mouth hanging open. I shut my eyes and shook my head slowly. I had never been embarrassed by something my friends had done before. But they say there’s a first time for everything.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Desmond went on to say. “Sounds a little farfetched, but if not this, then we would’ve been just like the guys in the club, and they wouldn’t have given us the time of day.”

  “A little farfetched?” I said. “Honestly, Desmond, I didn’t know you had it in you.”

  “Me either but you should’ve seen them, they were thick, with the small waist, big butts, breast just about bursting out of their outfits, long hair, skin creamy and glowing and everythang! It was a long shot, but it worked! When I cut the corner with my gas can, they were thrilled to let us be of assistance and begging for a third friend who shall remain nameless because he was nowhere to be found.”