Garrick lifted his head off the staircase. “Your turn to get the baby.”
Chapter 19
As it turned out, Emma wasn’t quite ready for breakfast and had fallen back to sleep almost as soon as Leila had entered the room. Thankful for the reprieve, she quickly joined Garrick in her bedroom.
His eyes fluttered open and a smile hooked his lips the moment she slid beneath the sheets. Both lay on their bellies while they faced one another.
“You know I’m still waiting, don’t you?”
She frowned and then her brain kicked into gear. “Oh, why did I come over?”
He nodded and scooted closer. “You didn’t think I forgot, did you?”
“If you want me to remember, you need to keep your distance.” She laughed as she snuggled against her pillow. “You tend to have a strange effect on me.”
“And here I thought that was a good thing.”
She twitched and scooted closer herself. “It’s definitely a good thing.”
“What are you—the Energizer Bunny?”
“Complaints from the peanut gallery?”
“Not at all.” He lifted his head and leaned over for a smooch. “So about your visit last night?”
Leila sighed. “It’s no big deal really. I just came over…to tell you about my decision to keep Emma.” She blinked. It sounded silly now that the words were out of her mouth, but the truth was the moment she’d told Roslyn of her decision, she’d been stunned that she’d changed her mind about motherhood and that it had happened with a snap of her finger.
“You’re going to raise Emma?” Garrick questioned, reshaping his pillow. “Are you sure about this? It’s a big step.”
“I know,” she admitted with a warm but lazy smile. “But it feels right, you know? When Roslyn showed up last night, I—I was just filled with this anxiety and this fierce possessiveness that I just blurted it out.”
Garrick’s smile grew. “How do you feel now?”
She paused and gave serious thought to the question and her answer. “Good. I feel like I made the right decision.”
“So you’re going to balance a career and motherhood?”
She shrugged. “Women have been doing it for decades. I’m going to do most of my work from home because hey, I’m the boss, right?”
He stared deep into her eyes and loved the passionate glint reflected in them. “If anyone is capable of doing it, it’s you.”
Her face lit up from his vote of confidence, then just as quickly something else flickered across her face.
“What is it?” he asked.
Leila drew a breath and opened her mouth, but she said nothing and shook her head.
Garrick’s curiosity inflamed. “Tell me.”
Her dark gaze intensified as she studied him. While she did so, Garrick witnessed a profound vulnerability wash over her. He brushed an errant lock of hair from her face. “What is it?”
“I don’t regret my decision. I-It’s just that I’m worried about…”
He waited while her eyes dropped to stare at nothing.
“All parents worry,” he assured, lowering his hand to stroke her face. “I’m not a parent, but I get my information from pretty reliable sources.”
Glancing up, Leila smiled, though her eyes shimmered with unshed tears.
Concern replaced Garrick’s humor. “I’m sorry. I’m listening.”
The top sheet drifted to lie lazily across their hips. “I worry about being like my mother,” she confessed. She attentively watched his reaction and appreciated his patience while she gathered the strength to continue.
“My mother committed suicide when I was twelve—one year after my father was killed in a car crash.”
Her words punched him hard in the gut and rendered him speechless.
“Sam found her and I found her letter—begging that we find it in our hearts to forgive her. Said something about how hard it was to look at us every day and see our father.”
“She must have been devastated when he died,” he finally said.
Leila’s eyes hardened. “We all were. That didn’t give her the right to bail on us. Our dad’s death was an accident. She chose to leave us. How do you forgive that?”
He didn’t recoil from her anger, but understood it. “I know it was hard.”
“It is hard.” She wiped at her tears. “Forgiving her is a daily act. For me as well as for Sam…which is why I don’t understand—”
“How she could leave Emma?”
Leila nodded. “Roslyn is the middle child and seemingly more emotionally adjusted. Sam and I are extreme opposites. I try too hard…and she doesn’t try at all.”
“Try to what?”
“Not be like my mother.” She found his gaze again. “I never want to harm a child like that, which is why I convinced myself that I didn’t want to become a mom—then Emma showed up….”
Garrick smiled and leaned over to kiss her. “You don’t have to worry. Your niece is very lucky to have you.”
He kissed her again and could feel her body submit against him. This time when they came together there was an element of tenderness Garrick hadn’t known that he was capable of feeling. She filled his senses and like a thief in the night stole what he wasn’t prepared to give again: his heart.
Ciara arrived at Leila’s shortly before ten o’clock with a stack of files from Atlanta Spice. She enjoyed working from Leila’s home because it gave her the freedom to dress down. Today she wore a light blue baby-doll top that prominently displayed her growing belly.
As usual she gave a quick rap on the door and entered. Inside, she inhaled the fresh scent of roasted coffee beans. “Good morning,” she sang, walking past the kitchen.
“Good morning,” a deep baritone sang back.
Ciara froze and replayed the voice in her head. Definitely not Leila. She walked backward and stopped before the kitchen’s doorway.
Mr. Fine from across the street smiled back at her. “Care for some coffee?”
She blinked and then her eyes roamed over him, dressed in a too-short, too-tight pink terry-cloth robe—twice. “No, thanks.” She forced on a smile. “Where are Leila and Emma?”
“Upstairs.” He poured two cups of coffee. “We all sort of slept late this morning. Are you sure you don’t want any coffee?”
“I wish I could.” She touched her stomach. “I’m expecting.” His deepening dimples made him more devastatingly handsome.
“Congratulations!” He turned toward the refrigerator. “We have some orange juice, if you like.”
We? Ciara’s brows rose. “That would be great.”
Upstairs, a door shut and footsteps rushed down the hall. “Garrick, you better get dressed. Ciara should be here soon,” Leila called out.
Ciara glanced up and smiled at her boss. “Hello.”
Leila blinked. “Oh, you’re already here.”
Ciara nodded. “Yep.”
Emma began to babble enthusiastically.
“Hey, sweetie,” Ciara cooed back.
Garrick strolled out of the kitchen and handed Ciara her orange juice before he glanced up at Leila. “Coffee?”
Leila’s face flushed burgundy while her eyes shifted between her secretary and her new…what? She shook off the question and laughed. Whatever he was, she committed herself to loving every minute of it.
The next week, for Valentine’s Day, Garrick pulled out all the stops by filling her house with her favorite flowers and taking her and Emma to the romantic Canoe restaurant off Atlanta’s Chattahoochee River.
The lovemaking was especially sweet that night. Their bodies joined together in a tangled mass, where neither could tell where one began and the other ended.
For Leila, each coupling brought her to new orgasmic heights and gave her a peace she’d never known. And for Garrick, he discovered love was better the second time around.
Chapter 20
“It’s so nice to finally meet you—again!” Tamara reached out and enclose
d Leila and Emma into her embrace as they entered her home for dinner. “How long has it been—three months? I was beginning to think Garrick was ashamed of us or something.”
“Not the way he keeps talking about you guys.” Leila winked at Garrick from over his sister-in-law’s shoulder. When she drew back, she took one look into Tamara’s eyes and felt an immediate kinship.
“I know the last time we met was rather…”
“Interesting,” Tamara finished for her. “And you must be little Emma.” She pinched the baby’s cheeks and was rewarded with a hearty belly laugh.
“She’s adorable,” Orlando commented, joining in on the cheek pinching. “You’re going to have quite a time keeping the boys away from this one.” He winked.
“She’s already stolen my heart,” Garrick said, and then paused. “Wait. Are we talking about Leila or Emma?”
Leila blushed while Tamara and Orlando laughed.
Omara joined the group and was tickled to death when Leila and Garrick allowed her to play with the baby. When dinner was ready, everyone moved into the dining room.
“You’re now working full-time from your house?”
“As much as I can. There have been a few days when I had to take her into the office. Wackiness ensued, but we always seem to survive.”
“So.” Tamara stabbed her steak and pinned Garrick with a simmering look. “Does this mean you’ve changed your mind about career women?”
Orlando’s eyes widened as they shifted from his wife to Garrick.
“Yes, tell us.” Leila carefully braided her hands above her plate. “Has dating me changed your mind about career women?” She smiled.
“Dating you has changed my mind about a lot of things.” He winked. “Some I can’t mention in front of mixed company.”
Orlando chuckled. “Great backhand. One point for the bro-meister.”
“Better get used to that,” Tamara warned. “They love to keep score.”
“Is that right?” Leila slid her foot beneath the table and then glided it up Garrick’s leg. “I’d like to keep score myself some time.”
“Two points for Leila.”
Orlando looked up, stunned. “What?”
“She gets two points,” Garrick repeated.
Leila placed on her sweetest smile.
Tamara’s face lit with understanding and she raised her hand to receive a high five. “That’s my girl!”
Orlando continued to be lost. “I don’t understand. What just happened?”
The other adults collapsed with laughter. Throughout the rest of their meal, the Graysons made Leila feel right at home. The love radiating between Orlando and his wife put her in mind of Roslyn and Patrick, and even Ciara and Elmo.
At one point in the night, she couldn’t remember why marriage had failed to be something she’d pursued. Once, Leila rarely thought about how life had been before her father’s car accident, but she thought about it all the time now.
The truth was, once upon a time, Nicole and Reggie Owens were happy—deliriously so. Every day seemed filled with sunshine and laughter. Her father praised her every accomplishment and when there were tears, he was right there to kiss them away.
Leila, Roslyn, and Samantha—each were princesses and none of them could imagine a prince being as wonderful as their father.
Leila escaped her reverie to glance at Garrick across the table. He was a prince she hadn’t prepared for. At that moment, Garrick caught her stare and winked. Even that harmless act caused a nest of butterflies to flutter madly in her stomach.
She loved this man—clueless of how and when it happened. She shook her head and then tried to pay attention to Tamara as she relayed the story of how she and Orlando met and fell in love.
However, Leila’s own memories captured her attention again. She remembered her and her sisters sneaking out of bed to go watch her parents dance cheek to cheek in the living room. They always looked so happy and so in love.
Garrick leaned forward and took her hand. “Leila?”
“What?” She glanced around. “What did you say?”
He laughed. “You disappeared on me again.”
“Sorry. It won’t happen again.”
It did. All night, Leila made constant comparisons between Garrick and her father, and surprisingly between herself and her mother. Yet, this time, she grew envious of her mom. Had her father loved her too much? Was there such a thing as too much?
“I loved your family,” Leila admitted during their ride home. “But how come your brother doesn’t work with you at your father’s firm?”
Garrick shrugged. “He never cared for the business. He’s always been more of a sports jock and he loves teaching so he just combined the two and became a coach.”
“You two are extremely close.”
“He was my best friend.”
“Was?”
“He’s sort of been replaced by this beautiful woman that lives across the street from me. You might even know her.”
Touched, she leaned across the seat, planted a kiss on his cheek, and confessed, “You’re my best friend, too.”
He smiled. “Do you think I can see my best friend naked tonight?”
“I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours.” She winked.
When they arrived at the house, Leila took her bundle of joy upstairs for her bath. This was quickly becoming another favorite time for Leila. Watching Emma sing and splash her hands in the water was a pure delight. As usual, Leila joined in on the action. When bath time was over, Leila was just as drenched as her niece.
Soon after, she laid Emma down for the night and went to join her man in the bedroom.
“How’s our little girl doing?” Garrick asked, reclining back on the bed.
“Sleeping like an angel.” She kicked off her shoes and peeled her dress straps off her shoulders.
“Come here. Let me help you with that.” Effortlessly, he bounded off the bed, dressed only in a pair of black boxers.
Entranced, Leila moved toward him. Her heart thumped wildly inside her chest while her body tingled in apprehension. She pressed against his growing hardness, relishing the electric feel of his muscular arms as her hands ran up their length and then across his smooth, broad chest.
“Have I told you lately how beautiful you are?” Garrick whispered the question against her cheek. His long fingers fumbled with the back of her dress for a moment, but he was finally able to slide the small zipper down her backside.
He felt like a kid unwrapping his favorite toy. When the dress hit the floor, his hand seared a path around her waist and drew her closer. The scent of her completed the assault on his senses.
He wanted and needed to be buried deep inside of her, but he was willing to take his time to get there. His head descended and captured a sweet kiss.
Leila hooked her fingers into the band of his boxers and pushed them below his hips.
“We’re a little eager this evening,” Garrick laughed against her lips.
“I’m burning up,” she whispered back.
“I think I can help you with that.” He unsnapped her bra and let it join the dress on the floor. Gently, he cupped her full, lush breasts in his hands and fed one into his greedy mouth.
Leila’s sigh filled the room and became the music of the night as Garrick’s mouth danced between her breasts. Unable to endure the aching, Garrick laid her on the bed and shimmied her panties off her hips.
The triangle of curls nestled between her legs snapped Garrick’s control. He loved the way her warm body sheathed him as he entered her. He moved; his hips rocked to the sound of their bodies’ music. Stroke after luxurious stroke, he ground deeper in hopes of touching her very soul in the way she’d touched his own.
Spurred by desire and the crescendo of her cries, Garrick’s thrust became a jackhammer. He gritted his teeth through the pain of Leila’s nails digging into his back. She writhed uncontrollably and even tried to escape when her first orgasm surfaced. He quickly lock
ed her hips into place and only had a short wait for her body’s tremors to hurtle him into ecstasy, where he collapsed, temporarily spent.
The combination of the morning’s warm sun rays and Emma’s soft singing over the baby monitor penetrated the thick, lazy fog swirling inside Leila’s mind.
Another glorious day—another blissful morning.
She knew without looking that Garrick wasn’t in the room, but was either in the baby’s room or making coffee in the kitchen.
Confirmation soon followed when Garrick’s heavy baritone filtered through the monitor.
“Are you going to finish your bottle for your uncle Garrick? That’s my girl.”
Uncle Garrick? A warm glow radiated within her and she spread her arms out wide as if to embrace life. She could get used to this. She and Garrick and little Emma made a nice family.
Family?
She shook her head, amazed at how caught up she was in her flight of fancy. She’d even begun to wonder what it would be like if she spent more quality time with her niece. After all, her early formative years were important. Of course, the only way she could do that was if…she sold the company.
Leila let the thought linger in her head.
It was the first time the idea appealed to her. She could sell the company and negotiate a position for herself that wouldn’t require a lot of her time.
The doorbell rang and Leila turned over to glance at the clock. It was Saturday, so Ciara shouldn’t be downstairs.
The bell chimed again.
“Do you want me to get the door?” Garrick asked over the monitor.
How did he know I was up? “No. I’ll get it,” she shouted, and then forced herself out of bed. She quickly located her robe, raked her hands through her hair a few times and rushed out of the bedroom.
As she bolted past the baby’s room, she blew a kiss.
“I’m going to take that as a rain check,” he barked behind her.
“Deal!” She took the stairs two at a time as the bell rang a third time. “I’m coming,” she bellowed, and then mumbled under her breath, “just hold your horses.” At last, she jerked open the door and felt her smile melt from her face. “Samantha.”
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