Alicia was willing to admit, to herself anyway, that her own reasons for not wanting Elissa around went far beyond the woman’s high saddity ways. Alicia had burned with jealousy of her. Not because she was going to college, nor because she was slender, pretty and well-dressed, but because Elissa had what Alicia wanted most in the world . . . Devon’s love and devotion.
His distant and aloof manner had attracted Alicia like a moth to a flame. Ever since she was old enough to recognize that boys were good for more than playing hide-and-seek and tag, she had loved Devon.
Even now as she watched him, her heart ached for his love and her center throbbed for a touch she had never experienced from him. Both he and Deshawn were her very best friends in the world, but she wanted Devon as her lover. She let her eyes caress him, because her hands could not. Secretly, she envisioned the physical loving they could bring each other. She dreamed of him spending the night in her bed, and not her couch, as he had in the past as a friend. They could share passion in her bed, and love in their hearts for each other for the rest of their lives.
Chapter Four
“Chloe, there’s nothing like the Carolinas at night. Ain’t nothing can beat it!”
“Nothing Mama?”
"Unh-uhn. Not a thing.”
“Not even the smell of lilacs?” the little girl asked, knowing it was her mother’s most favorite thing in the world . . . besides her, of course!
“No, baby girl, not even lilacs.” She smiled down at her daughter, her treasure, with her head resting lightly on her lap as they sat on the fire escape to get away from the heat of their apartment. “Down south the night skies are shades of deep blues and purples with millions of stars that look like fireworks on the Fourth of July."
The little girl lifted her head from her mother’s lap to look up at the dark New York sky. “More stars than up there, Mama?”
Adell sucked her teeth. "Baby girl, that up there ain’t nothing compared to a starry Carolina night.”
She gently pushed her child’s head back down on her lap, using her finger to trace the zig-zag pattern of her tight braids. “At night the air fills up with crickets, frogs croaking and owls hooting—"
“All that noise?" she giggled.
Adell laughed, and it resembled the light tinkling of a bell. “Ooh, you city kids are a mess. If you can sleep through the noise of this city, a few crickets and a 'hoot’ ain’t gone block your sleep none.”
"Naw baby,” Adell sighed. "Ain’t nothing like the Carolinas at night. Not a thing!”
∞
“You were so right.” Chloe’s voice was like a husky echo into the night. As she looked up into the sky, the stars reflected and glistened in the depths of her eyes. Feeling near tears, Chloe purposely let her gaze fall down coming to rest on where she parked her car in the garage behind their house. She left the window where she stood and crossed the hardwood floor to climb onto the queen-sized bed. She enjoyed the feel of the cool crisp sheets against her naked skin. Her first night in “the Carolinas.” Not exactly what she expected, but pleasurable nonetheless.
What a day, she thought, as she shifted to find comfort in the strange bed.
Nana Lil was a trip. She had kept Chloe and Deshawn laughing all through dinner. She made Chloe feel like a real family member when she called her “baby” and spoke of the close friendship she shared with Tessa.
And Deshawn was so charming and funny, a real ladies’ man who was a harmless flirt. She thought of the twenty-five dollars she won from him on a bet they made as they watched a WNBA game on television. The Houston Comets went on to beat the New York Liberty just as she predicted.
And Devon. Well, she really hadn’t spent enough time in his company to judge him, so she just pushed all thoughts of the brooding man from her mind. As long as he did his share to make sure her house was built as expected, then nothing else mattered.
With a sigh, she turned over in the bed and reached to turn on the lamp that sat on the night stand.
THUD!
Her hand accidentally knocked something onto the floor with a loud echoing noise. “Damn it!”
She sat up straight in bed and successfully turned on the lamp, basking the attic room in hundred-watt brightness. Chloe sat on the edge of the bed, looking down at the ceramic figurine on the floor. Luckily she hadn’t broken it.
She reached down to pick it up and place it back on the table. Her intention had been to check the time on her watch. It was after midnight. She lay back down in the bed, pulling the sheets over her. The smell of lilacs clung faintly to the material and Chloe felt a pang of grief as she thought of her mother.
∞
Devon pulled his truck into the yard and parked it in front of the house, not bothering to pull into the three-car garage in the back. As he passed the swing on the porch he thought briefly about his nightly ritual of lounging on it. It was his time to think and be in solitude, but he was tired and so he passed on the idea.
The house was quiet as he climbed the stairs in the darkness. He stopped at his Deshawn’s door but his brother’s lights were out and the distinct sound of a snore filtered through the oak. With a laugh, he jogged up the rest of the wooden stairs to his suite of rooms on the third floor. Not bothering to turn on the light in his bedroom, he undressed in the dark, leaving his clothes in a pile on the floor before climbing into his unmade bed.
Alicia’s dumplings were laying heavy on his stomach and he kept tossing and turning to find comfort.
THUD!
Devon jumped up out of the king-sized bed. What the hell was that? He looked up to the ceiling, as if he could see through the wood and plaster to the attic above. He stood quietly, listening for another sound. Nothing. But he knew he heard something.
He reached back down into his discarded pile of clothes for his boxers and pulled them on. Not quite sure what he would find, if anything, Devon left his bedroom and turned right to walk the short distance to the stairs leading to the renovated attic room.
He flung the door open wide and flicked the light switch on the wall to bask the room in brightness. Shock widened his eyes at what he saw. The shock turned to a hot rush of desire.
Chloe sat up in the middle of the bed, clutching the cotton sheet to her obviously naked body. Once her eyes adjusted to the sudden light, she saw Devon, or was it Deshawn, standing in the doorway in nothing but his snug cotton boxers.
“What the hell are you doing up here?” he barked.
Devon. It was definitely Devon.
Chloe pulled the sheet up higher and eyed him. “I think the better question is what are you doing up here ... in those?”
She let her eyes fall meaningfully down to his Calvin Klein boxers, with a perfectly arched brow raised.
“I heard a noise and came to—” Devon stopped when he realized that he was explaining himself to her. “My head must be messed up because I thought this was my house.”
“Look Mr. Jamison. I’m sorry if I scared you—”
“You didn’t scare me,” he balked.
She raised her brow again, this time in disbelief. “Okay, whatever. Your family invited ... no insisted, that I stay here until the house is built. I appreciated the invitation and I accepted it. Of course I offered to pay for room and board—”
Devon laughed harshly, and shook his handsome head in amazement. “I know they didn’t agree to take money for you staying here! This isn’t a boarding house.”
Chloe rolled her eyes heavenward. “No, they refused my offer, I just—”
“If my family offered for you to stay here, it certainly wasn’t to bring in money.” His nostrils flared in anger.
She was really getting tired of him cutting her off, and she was confused by his anger. “Look, I wasn’t trying to offend anyone, I just—”
He slashed his hand across the air. “We’re not living off multimillion-dollar modeling contracts, but we hardly need to treat our home like a hotel, motel, Holiday Inn.”
The sar
casm dripped from his words, and he said the word “modeling” as if it was vile.
Her confusion turned to white-hot anger. “Look, what’s your problem?”
He snorted in anger. “I don’t have a problem. The problem is when someone mistakes what we call hospitality in the South, for a chance to flash money.”
She watched in wide-eyed shock as he flicked the switch down, turning off the lights, and slammed the door behind him, leaving the room shaking in his quake.
“What the hell was that about?” she wondered aloud to herself, her voice whisper soft in the darkness.
“This isn't New York . . .”
“I know it’s not what you're used to, but we love it. It’s our home.’’
“Devon said you weren’t moving here permanently.”
“We don’t want to force Ms. Bolton to eat here.’’
“We’re not living off a multimillion-dollar modeling contract, but we hardly need to treat our home like a hotel, motel, Holiday Inn.”
Comments Devon made swirled in her head, coming back to her at once as they ran together, colliding in her head.
“This isn’t New York ... I know it’s not what you’re used to, but we love it. It’s our home . . . Devon said you weren’t moving here permanently ... We don’t want to force Ms. Bolton to eat here . . . We’re not living off a multimillion-dollar modeling contract but, we hardly need to treat our home like a hotel, motel, Holiday Inn. . . This isn’t New York . . . I know it’s not what you’re used to, but we love it. It’s our home . . . Devon said you weren’t moving here permanently. . . We don’t want to force Ms. Bolton to eat here . . . We’re not living off a multimillion-dollar modeling contract but, we hardly need to treat our home like a hotel, motel, Holiday Inn."
He was moody and argumentative, high-minded, arrogant and . . . and . . . and fine! To see him half naked was to desire his muscled body. The strong masculine lines appeared to be sculptured in granite. His broad shoulders, hard chest and ridged stomach. The narrow hips and thick, strong and muscular thighs and calves. Her cheeks warmed thinking of how his maleness strained against the cotton material, large and daring even at rest.
Chloe sighed, the image of him clearly etched into her memory. She accounted it to hormones. It would take both hands and a couple of toes to count the months since she’d been intimate with a man. This very physical attraction she had for Devon was all because she needed to physically be with a man. That was all there was to it.
Then why didn’t she feel the same attraction for Deshawn? They were identical twins, and except for their temperaments, she couldn’t tell them apart physically.
She tried to force him out of her thoughts as she lay quietly still in the bed, letting the sounds of the Carolinas waft through the windows to lull her to sleep. But she was very aware that he lay in the room just beneath her.
∞
Devon flew back down the stairs, passing his own floor, to come to a halt in front of Deshawn’s closed door. It was late and his conscience said, This can wait until morning, don’t wake him up.
Then he thought about how he had just argued with a beautiful woman in his boxer shorts. He opened the door. Deshawn lay in the middle of the bed on his stomach, his head buried under a pile of pillows. It was the exact same position Devon found himself in when he awoke in the mornings.
He placed his foot on the edge of the bed, pumping it up and down. They both slept light and Deshawn jumped up immediately, startled. “Dev, man are you crazy? What you wake me up for?” His voice was groggy and hoarse with sleep as he reached over to turn on the lamp on his nightstand.
Devon paced by the side of the bed. “What did you invite her to stay here with us for?”
A big goofy grin spread across Deshawn’s handsome face. “Did you think I would let the opportunity to have that heavenly body under this roof pass and not take it?”
At Devon’s unmoved attitude, his face became incredulous, as if to say, Why don't you understand? He sighed. “Anyway, Nana Lil invited her while I was in the office working on the draft for the Devane’s room addition.”
“Did you finish it?” Devon stopped pacing, immediately becoming focused on business. At his brother’s weary nod, he said, “Thanks, man. I meant to work on it today.”
“No problem.” Deshawn wiped the sleep from his eyes. “Look, I know you have your bad assumptions about her, but she’s a nice person. Nana Lil loves her and she can keep her company. She’s here now, so try to keep your judgments about her to yourself.”
Deshawn turned off the lamp and settled back down on the bed. “Oh, and shut the door on your way out. Night Dev.”
Devon did close the door on his way out, and he retraced his steps back upstairs to his bedroom. He stepped out of his boxers again and lay down on the bed. Sleep eluded him.
Visions of mocha skin contrasting with white cotton plagued him. The gentle curve of a full breast outlined in an erotic shadow behind the sheet. Smooth thin material following the contour of a shapely long leg.
Damn her!
The construction of her house would take at least another month and a half, if not two. During that time she would be living up above him in the attic. He groaned as he remembered that there wasn’t a bathroom up there. Since his was the closest, that meant she would have to use his.
He just knew she would spend hours enclosed in there. If she hung up wet silk stockings to dry he would explode, and he better not see one drop of makeup on his sink.
He growled in frustration. He felt foolish that a part of him was excited about knowing she was just up above him.
Damn!
∞
Chloe stretched lazily in the bed, feeling rested and renewed. Once she had finally settled into a sound sleep, it had been the best night of rest she had had in a long time. She felt like she had enough energy to run five miles.
Checking the time on her watch, she was stunned. It was twelve-thirty in the afternoon. Never had she slept past seven, even if she was ill or she got in late. Always she was up and awake before seven. Her mother was country born and bred, and it was her ritual of rising early that had been instilled in Chloe. It was her body’s natural alarm clock.
She stretched her long limbs again before rising her naked form from the bed. Thank the heavens that she had washed her underclothes out last night before she went to bed. She would have to drive into Charleston today and get her clothes from the hotel.
She was in Holtsville, South Carolina, a far cry from the fast pace of New York City, the glamour of France or the vintage beauty of Italy. But she didn’t question her choice, because it felt so right!
She couldn’t wait to explore her new surroundings and try to see this small part of the world through her mother’s eyes. Chloe wanted to feel the same love for the small town as her mother had.
But right now she was in need of a shower.
When Nana Lil had invited her to stay, she had told Chloe to use Devon’s bathroom downstairs. With his attitude toward her, she had been more than a little apprehensive, but what choice did she have? Last night when she washed out her lacy briefs and brassiere, she had noticed the two entrances into the bathroom, one from the hall and the other connected directly to his bedroom. She made a mental note to always lock both doors.
She pulled on the thin cotton robe Nana Lil lent her and grabbed her lingerie from the windowsill where she laid them last night to dry. The house was quiet as she descended the short flight of stairs and entered his bathroom. His presence still hung heavy in the room, with its masculine tones of smoky gray and blue. The faint smell of his sporty cologne remained. A glob of toothpaste was dried to the faucet. She picked up the damp towel flung carelessly over the tub and removed the bar of soap being melted down by the shower dripping hot water.
The man was a slob. He had to know she would be using the bathroom. Surely he could have left it better than this pigsty.
She found a sponge and liquid cleanser in the cabinet bene
ath the porcelain sink. Quickly she straightened his mess before locking the doors and stepping into the shower.
Immediately she envisioned his naked form, wet and lathered with soap. It was almost as if she could see him standing there in the shower stall in front of her. His strong hands massaged his chest with circular motions, moving down to the densely curled hairs surrounding his long, thick flesh—
Whoa!
Chloe gasped at her erotic imaginings as the image faded into the steam filling the shower, but not before he raised his head and smiled at her with a roguish wink. Her nipples were erect and aching, just like the bud between her thighs. She dropped the soap and reached down to switch the water to cold. After the initial jolt, which caused her to jump back, Chloe stepped under the jet spray. The cold gush of water cooled her.
From now on, Chloe muttered to herself, as her body temperature became normal, I’ll take a bath.
After she finished her shower, she rushed back to her room and dressed in the clothes she wore yesterday. Without her supplies she had to forgo the pampering she usually gave her body with her luxurious body kit. With a brush she had in her purse, Chloe removed the tangles from her weaved hair and pulled it into a tight ponytail.
Downstairs she found Nana Lil on the porch, sitting in the rocking chair as she peeled potatoes. “Good morning Nana Lil.”
“Good afternoon, ain’t it?” she said with a spunky wink at her.
Chloe smiled, taking a seat on the wooden swing, tucking her bare feet beneath her. “Something in this country air got me going. I never slept so late in my life.”
“It’ll do that to you.”
She put a foot down on the porch and pushed off, causing the swing to rock gently. “Thank you again for inviting me to stay here until my house is done.”
Lil nodded, her attention on the spud in her hand as she slowly peeled of its skin. “When are you going to get your clothes?”
“Now is as good a time as any.”
“Mind if I tag along? I can use a road trip, and then maybe we can stop at the Piggly Wiggly on our way back.”
Admission of Love Page 7