Tamara laughed as they headed for the front door. “Hey, I planned the date, not the sex. I am a friend, not a pimp.”
Caress just laughed and shook her head. “Girl, hush with your crazy self.”
“So when is move-in day?”
“Just as soon as PSE&G gets the lights on.”
“Well, I’m proud of you and I’m happy for you.”
“Thanks, Tamara.” Caress gave the place one final look before she began to pull the door closed behind them. “Let’s go. I’m ready to sit my big ass down.”
“How far along are you?” Tamara asked.
“Twenty-seven weeks.”
Tamara quickly did the math in her head. “Wow, you are big for close to seven months.”
Caress nodded, feeling the additional pounds on her lower back. “I know.”
“Once he’s born please stop the counting in weeks and months. Seriously, once he’s a year just like leave it alone. It is crazy to say he’s like eighteen months. No, he’s a year and a half. Or he’s fifty months. Oh God that works my nerve. I swear it does.”
“Girl, shut up.”
Julius followed Kendrick into his and Tamara’s apartment. “Man, your game is falling off,” Julius chided as they moved across the hardwood floors to settle in the kitchen.
“Man, I can’t ball like I did ten years and thirty pounds ago,” Kendrick said, as he reached into the fridge for two ice cold beers.
Julius cut his eyes up at his friend as Kendrick tossed him a can. “Tell me about it. To get those fleas off our necks, I had to pull out some tricks I haven’t used since I was growing up in the projects.”
Kendrick laughed. “I’m glad as hell my woman wasn’t there to see me.”
Julius took a deep sip of the beer, although he preferred brandy or cognac when he was in the mood to drink. Beer made him too tired unless it was lite. Just one can and he was somewhere sleeping with his mouth wide open—hardly an asset to his cool and suave persona. “Where is Ms. Busybody anyway?” he asked, pulling his basketball shorts away from his thigh where they clung because of the sweat.
“She and Caress went to look at Caress’s new apartment,” Kendrick said. “I know you’re happy as hell to get your house back.”
Julius didn’t try to hide his surprise.
Kendrick paused, his beer can frozen at his mouth as he cut his eyes to Julius. “Caress didn’t tell you she found a place,” he stated more than asked.
Julius shrugged. “Not yet,” he said, his eyes looking off into the distance at nothing as he let the news settle on him.
Caress was finally moving.
They’d both waited months for this to come to fruition. Now here it was.
“I love Caress like a sister but you should be celebrating…so why you looking all shell-shocked?”
Julius turned his head and leveled his eyes on the big and tall man across from him. “I’m just hoping she isn’t moving into some roach-infested rat trap because she’s rushing to get her own place.”
Kendrick spew beer out of his mouth as he looked at his friend. “Rushing? A roach-infested rat trap?” he said with comical emphasis as he used a paper towel to wipe the beer from his chin and the table where it landed. “Why the hell do you care?”
“I don’t want my son growing up in the kind of crap I used to live in.”
The beer went flying again as Kendrick’s eyes widened. “Your son? A first, ladies and gentleman. Julius Jones faces reality.”
“Shut up,” Julius growled. “I meant if he is my son and you know it.”
“Playa down! Playa down,” Kendrick hollered to the roof. “Call 911. A playa is down.”
Julius eyed Kendrick like he was a fool. “You and Tamara are made for each other.”
“Maybe you and Caress were made for each other,” Kendrick retorted.
Just then the front door opened and the ladies walked in laughing at something. Julius’s eyes immediately shifted to Caress. His heart tugged at the sight of her. She frequently joked that her nose was now the size of a 747 and her neck was getting dark, but Julius thought she was beautiful. She never did the pregnant woman waddle even though her belly was fast expanding. She was wearing one of the outfits he bought: a deep fuchsia button-up shirt and fashionable dark denims. The color brought out her complexion and made her eyes come alive.
He took a deep sip of the beer as he forced his eyes away from her.
“Hi fellas,” Tamara said, setting her purse and keys on the kitchen table.
“Caress, my bad, I spilled the beans to Julius about your apartment,” Kendrick admitted as he turned and reached for another can of beer from the fridge. He offered one to Julius, who declined with a shake of his head.
Caress looked over at Julius as she took a seat at the small round table. Their eyes met. They both looked away quickly.
“Congratulations, Caress,” he said.
“I was going to tell you tonight,” she said.
Their knees brushed under the table and Julius felt that same awareness between them. It had become familiar to him. “So where is it?”
“It’s just ten minutes from your house, Julius. It’s nice,” Tamara said, easing the can from her husband’s massive hand to take a sip.
Julius didn’t move his knees from Caress’s and he noticed she didn’t move hers either. “So you like it?” he asked.
“Well, I would love a two bedroom better but I like it.” Caress smiled at him. “I’m just excited to be back on my feet, and I know you’ll be glad to get your house back.”
Julius was acutely aware of Kendrick’s and Tamara’s eyes on him. He ignored them. “I’m more excited for you than anything.”
Their eyes met and held for a few seconds before they both looked away.
“Thank you, Julius,” Caress said softly, her hand rising to touch her neck.
The room fell silent. Both Caress and Julius slowly turned their heads to eye Tamara and Kendrick, who were both looking at them like they were putting on a play or something.
“Y’all are so cute together,” Tamara said with a big goofy grin on her face. “I don’t know why you two don’t admit—”
“Tamara,” Caress warned in a hard voice.
“What?” Kendrick said. “Julius was just in here—”
“Kendrick,” Julius warned in a voice just as hard and ominous.
Caress stood. “Julius, can I catch a ride home?”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” he said, rising to his feet as well.
“You don’t have to go,” Kendrick said, as they walked out of the kitchen.
“I want to start packing,” Caress said opening the front door.
“I have to go over the proofs for my book,” Julius said, reaching in the pocket of his shorts for his keys.
“Bye!” they said in unison before Julius pulled the door closed in Tamara’s and Kendrick’s faces.
Later that night, Caress left her room in search of Julius. She had walked every square foot of the upstairs and downstairs before it crossed her mind to try his darkroom in the basement. She knocked, not knowing if opening the door would ruin his film or not.
“Come in,” he hollered up.
She opened the door and slowly made her way down the stairs. The red lights for developing were on, and Julius was removing dried photos fr
om the line hanging across the rear of the darkroom. “I’ve never been down here before,” she told him as she looked around.
Julius smiled at her over his shoulder. “Welcome to my world,” he said as he continued to take down photos.
Caress walked around looking at the framed photographs on the wall. “You really have a way of pulling people into your photos, Julius,” she said, captivated by the picture of a homeless man asleep on the top of a subway grate.
“Photography has been my passion since I was a kid with a second-hand—or maybe even third-hand—Polaroid camera.”
Caress smiled and softened her eyes as she looked over at him. “I can’t imagine you as a kid.”
Julius glanced at her over his shoulder again. “Oh yeah. Why not?”
“I don’t know. Today was the first time I’ve seen you in shorts and sneakers,” Caress mused as she walked over to stand beside him at the waist-high table. “Guess, I imagine you twelve and decked out in a suit listening to Miles Davis.”
Julius laughed. “Far from it. When I was growing up I was always in patched-up clothes, and I promised myself a different life when I was grown.”
“Guess we both had it rough coming up,” she said sadly.
Julius looked down at her, nearly towering over her with the difference in their height. “My Dad was MIA and my mom was caught up in her own life and the streets. I thank God for my grandmother.”
“I grew up in foster care after my mom died when I was two. So I don’t know who my daddy is, you know. All I have is this old photograph of her and this Spanish man—which is the only reason I even know I’m part Hispanic.”
“Foster care can be rough. Were you okay all those years? You know, were you safe?” he asked, his eyes searching her face.
Caress’s heart swelled at the genuine concern he was showing. “I guess I was one of the lucky ones, nothing too traumatic that I couldn’t handle.”
“Good,” he said in that deep voice.
She waved her hand around the darkroom. “You did well for yourself though. Not bad at all for a kid from The Bricks.”
“Thanks. That why I sometimes volunteer with Jordan as a mentor. I want kids to know they can have more, hope for more, and work hard for more.”
“Jordan?” she asked, pushing her hair behind her ears.
“Jordan Banks—”
“The writer?” she asked in disbelief.
Julius laughed and nodded as he reached to the end of the table for his camera case. “The one and only. Real nice guy. He’s good people.”
“I read a couple of his books that you had,” she said, turning to lean back against the table as Julius moved across the room with that bowlegged swagger. She allowed her eyes to dip down to the movement of his firm buttocks in the jeans he wore. “He still lives here in the city, right?”
“Jordan will never leave Newark. He’s another Amiri Baraka.” Julius squatted down to open the case and pull out his beloved camera. “Would you like to meet him?”
“Jordan Banks? Hell yeah,” she said, excitedly.
“Done.”
“For real? Wow. Thanks.”
They fell silent as Jordan extracted the film from his camera.
“Julius, I really came down here because I have something to ask you,” Caress admitted as she walked across the room to stand beside him as he filled trays with some liquid.
“Fire away.”
“Why won’t you cash all those checks I’ve been giving you?” she asked accusingly.
Julius looked down at her and under the red glow the intensity around him was only heightened. “Caress, I don’t need the money,” he said simply.
“And I do?” she asked with a bit of annoyance.
“Yes,” he said with emphasis.
Caress bit back a smile. “Okay, yes I do, but I like to pay my debts. You were under no obligation to do all those things for me, and I want to pay you back, Julius Jones.”
“I wanted to offer you all of the furniture I bought for your bedroom since I’m changing it back to my office,” he told her, sounding exasperated. “Are you going to write me an IOU for that too? Why can’t you accept a gift?”
“Julius, I can’t—”
He locked his eyes on her like a dare. “Independence is great and all that, but cutting your nose off to spite your face is childish and foolish.”
Caress did one of those sista girl head motions as she poked him in the arm. “Are you calling me childish and foolish?” she asked.
“If the shoe fits.”
Caress’s mouth dropped. “You think you have the right to call me names, Julius Jones, but I can finish whatever it is you’re starting in this basement.”
“It’s a free county.”
“Maybe…maybe,” she struggled for an insult to top the one he threw at her. “Maybe the reason you don’t want to be in a relationship is because…because you’re switch-hitting. Now there.”
Julius frowned. “Are you calling me gay?” he balked.
“All I’m saying is there might be more to you and Boo than you’re letting on,” she said.
Julius’s eyes glinted as he watched her for a long time.
Caress forced herself not to break his hard stare.
Suddenly the light in his eyes changed and she saw it. She took a step back. He took two forward. She took another back and he took several forward, until the table was pressing into her back.
He picked her up with ease, sat her on the table, and stepped between her open legs. It put their mismatched frames on a more-equal level, eye to eye and mouth to mouth. She said nothing as he quickly swooped his head in to lock his mouth on hers. She gasped hotly at the first electrifying feel of him, and he used that opportunity to delve his heated tongue inside.
With a moan from deep in her soul, Caress tilted her head to the side and brought her hands up to the sides of his handsome square face as Julius deepened the kiss. When his hands shifted down to her buttocks and he pressed himself close, it felt just fine for her pregnant belly to be pressed against his hard abdomen.
Under the light that was as red hot as their chemistry, Julius and Caress kissed with a slow and sexy intensity that allowed them to relish the goodness of it all. Their hearts pounded in unison. Electricity seemed to cause the very air around them to crackle. Their body heat made the room several degrees hotter. Their moans and the light smacking of their lips and tangling tongues echoed in the air.
Caress wrapped her arms around his strong neck and held him close as Julius used his tongue to trace her lips before he placed a dozen tiny but erotic kisses on and around her open mouth. “Julius,” she moaned into the air with a whisper as she let her head fall back as he kissed a trail down to her neck. She shivered and moaned aloud as he twirled his adept tongue around her beating pulse.
Her nipples ached. Her clit throbbed. Her heart beat wildly. She was moist with anticipation.
Julius placed kisses up and down her neck, even nudging her blouse open with his nose to press his lips to her cleavage. He inhaled deeply of her scent and his erection seemed hard enough to press a dent into the table. “Caress, if we don’t stop I’m going to make love to you,” he admitted against her throat before kissing a trail back to her open and panting mouth.
She took the lead, grabbing the back of his head with her quivering hands as she used the tip of her tongue to lightly flicker against his mouth. She relished the feel
of the tremble that shook his hard, chiseled frame. With a catlike purr she eased her tongue between his lips and stroked his tongue with her own. “Just once more. Just for tonight. No strings,” she whispered into his mouth as she opened her eyes to lock with his.
She saw the desire he had for her in the dark depths of his eyes. She saw him considering her indecent proposal.
“Caress, you got my dick so hard,” Julius admitted, burying his head against her chest.
“Don’t let it go to waste,” she teased sensually as she slid her hand from around his neck to reach for the hem of his silk T-shirt. She pulled his shirt up exposing his chiseled chest to her. She moaned in satisfaction before lowering her head to twirl her tongue around his hard nipple. “Mmmm.”
Julius honestly didn’t know he could get so hard as he flung his head back and enjoyed the way Caress suckled his nipple between her pursed lips. “Damn,” he swore, swallowing hard.
She laughed huskily as she brought her hand up to tease his other nipple. “You know if I ride you backward the baby won’t be in the way.”
Julius nearly came.
He stepped back from her. Not too far. Just far enough to break the delectable hold of her mouth on his chest. He looked down at her as he breathed like he just finished running a marathon. Her hair was mussed. Her eyes were bright. Her shirt exposed the fuller swell of the top of her breasts. Her lips were swollen and pouty.
Who knew a pregnant woman could look so damn sexy?
She was a woman in heat, and he knew that only he could cool her off. Just like she was the only woman who could ease the ache in his loins.
“Caress, we can’t. I want to. I really want to. But I don’t want you to regret this in the morning,” he told her, putting his hands on his hips as his erection caused his pants to teepee.
She eyed him. Hard chest exposed with his shirt up under his armpits. Eyes glazed over. Rock hard abdomen. Dick hard and ready. “I’ll regret it if we do. I’ll still regret it if we don’t. Might as well err on the side of pleasure,” she told him, tilting her head to the side as she reached out and trailed her finger through the hard grooves of his eight pack.
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