Essence of Desire

by Brenda Jackson

  The one she’d had on tonight was the sweetest scent he’d ever known. It was subtle and combined with the womanly scent of her body had made it hard to think about too much of anything but making love to her. He had sat through most of the dinner meal with a boner that just wouldn’t go away.

  He wanted her. He had wanted her a lot over the past two years but had fought the desire the same way she had. The same way she was still doing. But he wanted to do more than just get Michelle back in his bed. More than anything he wanted to know why he always felt these crazy emotions and feelings around her. And he wanted to also know what made her tick. Why she felt she had to be in direct competition with a man? Even while making love that night she had struggled not to lose control and on the occasions that she had, she had fought like the dickens to retain it, hold on to; like it was a precious commodity she couldn’t let go.

  That hadn’t stopped her from going over the edge each and every time he took her there, from becoming one with him each and every time they shared an orgasm. Her attitude had been fiery, but so had her passion. While she’d fought for domination, he had fought for command of her senses, the heat they could generate and spread. She hadn’t liked the fact that he had not only met her on all fronts, but had not let her have total power.

  More than once tonight he had been tempted to kiss her, to kiss that sultry pout right off her lips. But he’d done what he knew she wanted by giving her space, as much space as the small kitchen allowed. By the time the kitchen had been restored to a spotless state his senses had to be as stretched as hers. No wonder afterwards, she had been quick to leave and he had been just as eager to leave when she had.

  And he had made her angry all over again by his insistence to see her home safely by following behind her. It had nothing to do with her independence but everything to do with him being concerned for her safety. Of course she hadn’t seen it that way. He wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t call him tomorrow to cancel their date.

  He headed straight to the refrigerator for a beer, a beer he desperately needed to calm his nerves, cool his libido. Michelle was a challenge but in the end getting her back in his bed, beneath him, with his body inside hers would be worth the struggle. He still wanted her to go on that cruise with him and starting tomorrow he would begin working on her to get what he wanted.

  ***

  “So what happened in the kitchen?”

  Michelle would have laughed out loud if Dominique’s question hadn’t sounded so serious. Her sister knew she would try just about anything at any place and at any time, but honestly, did Dominique really think she and Royce would attempt even a quickie in a house filled with people? She smiled, because yes, in essence if the mood had hit her bad enough, she would have.

  “Michelle?”

  “What?”

  “You’re stalling, which means something happened.”

  Michelle rolled her eyes. Chances were both Jordan and Sawyer were asleep and Dominique was still awake pondering over some court case and needed sordid details of a sexual encounter to help pass the time. So she would oblige her.

  “Yes, something did happen,” she heard herself say.

  “What?”

  He got me against the dishwasher.”

  “Wow.”

  “Then on the table, all over the counter and stove.”

  “I hope you did a good job of cleaning that stuff up,” Dominique said.

  “We did but I think I might have left my panties behind. I hope not. You think I should call Grampa and ask him to check the dishwasher in case I loaded them with the dishes by mistake?”

  “Michelle!”

  “Okay, just kidding,” she said, not able to hold her laughter any longer.

  “You and Royce didn’t really do anything,” Dominique concluded.

  “Of course we didn’t. I told you we made out that one time and I don’t intend to ever have a repeat performance,” she said once her laughing had been contained.

  “Yes, but I noticed the two of you last night at the dinner table. Jordan did, too. We could actually feel the electrical charge flowing between the two of you.”

  So had she but she wouldn’t admit to it. “You imagined it,” she said easily.

  “No, I don’t think so, and now I’m not sure which of you I should be worried about.”

  Michelle rolled her eyes. “I can handle Royce.”

  “And from the look of things, he can handle you.”

  For some reason she didn’t like the sound of that. “Okay, Dom, it’s my bedtime and it should be yours. Goodnight.”

  “I love you, you know.”

  Michelle couldn’t help but smile. Leave it to Dominique to get all sappy at the end. “Yes, I know and I know you also worry about me. You always have. I’ve gotten used to it. But I’m fine. I like the way my life is going.” She paused a second and then said, “And I love you, too. Now goodnight.”

  She quickly hung up the phone and as she crawled into bed she couldn’t help but wonder if what she’d told Dominique was true. If she could truly handle Royce.

  Seven

  Royce knocked on Michelle’s door with that same funny feeling in his stomach he always got in the courtroom when a member of the prosecuting team had something up their sleeve; something he hadn’t expected that could possibly sway the jurors into thinking differently than he wanted.

  In all honestly, he was surprised she hadn’t contacted him to call off tonight, which in itself sent up warning flags. But she hadn’t called and he was here. That meant he would have to be on his Ps and Qs for the rest of the night. He leaned forward about to knock on the door again when it was snatched open.

  Holy crap!

  For a moment he kept blinking, sure as heck that he was seeing things. There was no way Michelle Kincaid, sister of the Honorable Dominique Kincaid Prescott, sister-in-law to Jordan Prescott who Royce felt had a good political future, and daughter and granddaughters to the Kincaids, outstanding law-abiding citizens of Orlando, would open her door wearing practically nothing. The shock of seeing her dressed so, or in this case, undressed so, had him almost losing his balance.

  “Come on in while I grab my purse.”

  He blinked. He couldn’t quite believe she’d said that. Grab her purse? What about first grabbing some clothes? When she turned he quickly walked inside and closed the door behind him and followed her into the living room. Her perfume was all over the place, a different scent than the one she’d had on last night but just as potent. Even more so. And if he thought whatever she was wearing or lack thereof was scandalous from the front, he had to really pull himself together when seeing her from the back. Now he was being given a great view of her curvy behind and thighs, both practically bare through the thin layer of net covering them.

  “Excuse me.”

  She turned back around and looked at him. “Yes?”

  “Where do you think you’re going dressed like that?” The outfit was no more than a fishnet mini-dress that didn’t even hit her mid-thigh. It seemed even shorter than that. And only a thin mesh of dark material covered the area of her nicely rounded and full breasts and the juncture between her legs and her backside. But it wouldn’t require much thought for any man to imagine what he couldn’t see.

  Imagine it and want it.

  “I’m going clubbing, which is what I do most Friday nights. You asked to come along. I wasn’t the one who issued you an invitation so if you don’t think you can hang then I-”

  “I can hang, I choose not to. Dressed in an outfit like that you’re only asking for trouble,” he said angrily.

  “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “And don’t you be so brazen.”

  “Brazen?”

  “Yes, audaciously so.”

  “In that case, you can leave.”

  Royce knew that he had teed her off but at the moment he didn’t care. She was a beautiful, sexy woman and her outfit made that fact doubly so by flaunting all her God-given attributes.
Guys would come on to her and he was in no mood to flex his muscles tonight. He wanted them to have a good time not become the object of scandal and violence. And he could see him wanting to smash another man’s head if he appeared too interested in her.

  Royce inhaled deeply. It wasn’t a part of his nature to get jealous over any woman. He’d never done so before so why was he doing so now?

  “Royce, I said you could leave.”

  Her words invaded his thoughts and pulled his focus back to her. She was standing there with her hands on her hips glaring at him, looking so staggeringly beautiful he could feel his body beginning to throb, get hard. He was a smart man who knew women and suddenly he saw through her ploy. This was a setup. She had dressed this way intentionally just to rub him the wrong way. He knew Michelle was an individualist in her own right, a maverick if there ever was one. However, he refused to believe she would really go out in public wearing something that revealing.

  He might be wrong but he would take a chance and assume he was right. And if he were, why would she pull such a thing on him. What was she trying so hard to prove? And then he knew. It was always the same thing with her. Control. But why?

  Was he being tested for some reason? She should have known from their last encounter two years ago that he was not the submissive type. When it came to women there wasn’t a meek bone in his body. He was an alpha male through and through and was proud of it. But on the same note, he held all women in high regards. He showed every female he came in contact with total respect. And when he took them to his bed he didn’t pull any punches. He was upfront and totally honest about where the relationship would not go. He dated women who knew the score mainly because he had laid it out for them.

  “Royce?”

  She’d grabbed his focus once again. “I’ll leave if that’s what you really want,” he finally said. “But I think differently. For you to be dressed like that means only one thing.” He then bestowed her with a smile that displayed a confidence he now felt. “What you want is attention, Michelle.”

  She lifted a brow. “Attention?”

  “Yes, and since I’m here I might as well give it to you,” he said walking toward her.

  ***

  Michelle’s pulse increased with every step Royce took toward her. Her mouth opened and then closed to the point where her lips pressed together tightly. She knew that all she had to do was to tell him—and really mean it—that she wanted him gone and he would adhere to her wishes and leave. But as usual, he had read her like a book and, like always, he refused to let her rule him.

  She swallowed hard the closer he got to her. She wished he didn’t look so good. She wished there was some way his jeans didn’t mold with perfection to his masculine body, or that the white shirt he was wearing didn’t intensify the darkness of his skin or the muscular contours of his chest and shoulders.

  And more than anything, she wished the way his gaze was holding hers, the way he was zooming in on her within those dark depths, didn’t make her feel sexy and desirable. She felt her nipples harden against the thin knit material; and knew there was no way he wouldn’t see it when he got closer. Then there was the heat she felt between her legs, a clear sign that her body was responding to him in the most primitive way.

  She exhaled slowly, thinking this was insane. Simply crazy. Their attraction to each other couldn’t be normal. But when he finally came to a stop in front of her, she felt the most intense physical connection ever to any man. And when he blatantly allowed his gaze to move from the top of her head to the soles of her stilettos, she realized that she had him just where she wanted him.

  She had seen this dress in the store yesterday and had deliberately brought it to tempt him tonight. Tease him with it. Taunt him mercilessly. And then when she had gotten him hot, hard and nearly out of control, she would have sent him on his merry little way. But she could see by the tense jaw, flared nostrils and darkened eyes that she had misplayed her hand, miscalculated her strategy. Royce was a man always in control, even now when she could tell by all outward appearances, none that he was trying to hide, that he wanted her.

  For a mere instant, she was afraid to move and then she dismissed the thought as ludicrous. She knew the vibes and had never felt troubled when they’d come from a man before. It was all a part of the mating ritual for humans. First she had set up her territory by inviting him over. Then to assure that she attracted his attention, she had worn this outfit. It had worked and now he had made his move. She could accept it or she could reject it.

  She was going to accept it.

  She wasn’t sure just what gave that fact away, made her decision obvious to him. It could have been the way she was gazing in his eyes with the same intensity that he was gazing in hers. Or it could have been that her heat was sending out a potent scent, one he could decipher. Whatever it was, they could not deny that at that moment they were bound by passion in such a way that neither could ignore. She wanted him. He wanted her. They both knew it. Like before they were thoroughly aroused.

  Their passion was a mutual thing, like before.

  She wasn’t sure who made the first move but she was certain it was her grabbing him by his shirt collar and pulling him to her. The next thing she knew his mouth had taken possession of hers in a way that made her moan as he proceeded to kiss her thoroughly, cupping her face while delving between her lips with a moist and firm tongue, while her hands slid up his chest, pulled up his shirt, needing to feel some skin. The moment her fingers came into contact with the crinkly hair on his chest, she actually heard him moan.

  He pulled back and broke off the kiss and he held her within the intensity of his dark eyes. “You’ve accomplished just what you’ve set out to do, Michelle,” he whispered in a choppy voice. “You’ve driven me crazy.”

  She intentionally licked her lips in a way she knew would drive him even more insane.

  “You’ve done it now,” he warned.

  And then his hands were everywhere, stripping off her outfit, nearly ripping if off her and within minutes it lay as a piece of scrap at her feet. She was left standing totally naked in front of him. And before she could catch her next breath, he reached out and placed his hands between her legs to touch her hotness, her wetness, to generate even more of it. Test her readiness.

  “Royce.”

  His name came as a hoarse whisper from her lips. He pulled back and began kicking off his shoes, removing his shirt and belt before unsnapping his jeans to ease them down his legs, followed by his briefs.

  Then she saw the full extent of his engorged erection. She remembered it well. Recalled every second of the pleasure it had given her before. Remembered the nights following when she had been tempted to show up unexpectedly at his home to initiate a booty call, wanting a repeat performance. Now it was back, and as she reached out and clasped the full length of him, she thought further, right back into her hands.

  She watched as Royce closed his eyes, heard the groan of tortured pleasure that rumbled forth from between tightly closed lips. At that moment, she knew that she was the one in control. The one in charge.

  For now.

  And just so he would let her remain in control for a while, she dropped to her knees in front of him, opened her mouth and took him in.

  ***

  Instinctively, Royce reached out and grabbed hold of Michelle’s head with both hands, entwined his fingers in her hair while thinking this is one of the things he remembered most about that night. The satisfaction he got from her mouth on him. At the moment, he could barely think. He could only feel. And she was forcing him to feel the pressure of her mouth, lips and tongue as they focused on driving him over the edge in the most delectable way. He took it for as long as he could stand it and then he knew he had to drive her crazy with pleasure the same way.

  He stepped back the moment she reached out and pulled her to her feet, and then eased her down on her back on the sofa. He started with her breasts, perfectly rounded and firm, the nipples
fitting just right in his mouth. Branding her possessively.

  His mouth then moved lower to her belly, placing wet kisses there with his tongue, bathing her tattoo that was of all things, two cherries. Something new she’d added since he’d paid this part of her a visit. He liked cherries. And used his tongue to lick and taste hers, along with her belly button ring.

  Then he was there, between her legs and tasting her the same way she had tasted him, reacquainting his tongue with her flavor and knowing it would always be a permanent taste bud on his tongue. Pure feminine pleasure flooded her body and he could taste it, feel the vibration of her womb in his mouth. Then she lifted her hips up off the sofa and grounded herself against his mouth when an orgasm claimed her.

  “Royce!”

  He didn’t let up and he didn’t let go. His tongue remained planted deep inside her, tasting the satisfaction and pleasure he was giving her. And when the last spasm flowed from her body, he pulled his mouth away, needing to join his body with hers. Now.

  He reached for his jeans off the floor to retrieve a condom from out of the pocket while glancing over at her. She was staring at him beneath long lashes with the most serene and satisfied smile on her face. The only times she had ever smiled at him that way were after he had given her complete sexual gratification. Her smile held him spellbound and for a moment he couldn’t seem to think. Just feel. A deep pressure seemed to take over his chest, consuming it as well as the furious beating of his heart.

  He knew at that moment what he was sharing with Michelle was more than just lust roaring through his senses or having sex. It was more than passion sweeping him to another plane. It was more than just an intense urge to mate with her.

  Never had he been gripped in the clutches of something so profound. Never had he been shackled with more than physical need for a woman. He swallowed deeply as he tried clinging to the last semblance of denial, but it did no good. Why, he couldn’t help asking himself, although he knew the answer was beyond anyone’s comprehension and knowledge, especially his own.