“No!”
“Yes.”
“Dang, I really thought y’all woulda worked it out and got together.” Tamara sighed. “I didn’t know he was dating one of those models. He said he went to Jamaica for a calendar photo shoot.”
Caress sucked air between her teeth. “He’s working all right…from the waist down,” she said sarcastically.
“Sound mighty jealous.”
Beep.
“Hold on I got another call.” Caress gladly clicked over.
“Hello.”
“Hi, Caress.”
Her heart raced. She would know that voice anywhere. Julius.
“Caress?”
“Hi. Hey…hey Julius. How’s Jamaica?” she asked and then instantly regretted it. Don’t let him know you care.
“Beautiful. Relaxing.”
His voice was deep and husky through the phone line. She hated that she felt the urge to press the phone closer to her ear. “It’s nice of Karina to let you call your future baby mama on y’all vacation,” she said, completely sounding just as jealous as she felt.
Julius only laughed. “You are one of a kind, Caress,” he said huskily.
“Don’t laugh at me, Julius Jones.”
“And don’t you try to play me, Caress Coleman,” he countered in a warm voice still filled with his teasing. “I am in Jamaica. Karina is here. We are not on vacation.”
Beep .
Dammit. She hated the intrusion. “I got another call. Hold on, Julius.”
She clicked over. “Hello.”
“Girl, how long you gonna leave me on hold?”
“Tamara, I’m talking to Julius—”
“Ooh-wee. Bye.”
Click. Then nothing but a dial tone.
Julius poured himself a shot of cognac before he settled back down on the sofa in his villa. He was surprised how much he felt like a teenager calling a cute crush as he waited for Caress to click back on the line.
“Julius. I’m back.”
His heart raced at the sound of her soft voice. He pictured her face and smiled a bit. “You were saying,” she prompted.
Julius’s smile broadened. “I just called to check on you,” he told her, before lifting the glass to take a sip of the brown liquid. It burned a warm trail as it raced down his throat.
“From Jamaica?”
“I thought about you in Jamaica.” He licked the remnants of the liquor from his lips.
“Anyway, that’s not what we’re talking about.”
Julius set the glass on the bleached wooden table. “I figured you wouldn’t want to talk about Karina,” he said as he turned and lifted his feet up on the couch.
“And why is that?”
“You think we’re together.”
“And you think I care who you are with.”
“Definitely.”
Caress’s laughter came through the phone line. “You sure think highly of yourself.”
Julius tilted his head back and laughed, his straight white teeth flashing against his bronzed complexion. “If I don’t love me first who else will?” he asked, feeling relaxed by his tropical surroundings, the liquor, and the laid-back flow between them.
“No vacation in Jamaica, huh? Does all work and no play make Julius a sad boy?” she teased.
He crossed his feet at the ankles. “More like all work and no play makes Karina a mad girl,” Julius admitted, instantly wondering if he said too much.
“Awww,” Caress sighed, sounding fake as hell.
Julius laughed again. “Try to sound like you mean it,” he drawled.
“Whatever.”
They both fell silent.
Julius could only wonder what was on Caress’s mind as his own thoughts filled with the flight he made from Karina’s villa earlier. He could only shake his head. Every single time Karina laid out the deal for him, Caress had stopped the show.
Months ago, in his office, when Tamara called to set up the blind date with Caress.
When he first got back from Africa and Caress opened the door to Karina and her near-nakedness.
And tonight, thoughts of Caress and how much he missed her and still wanted her made sleeping with Karina feel wrong.
They both were single. He had extra Magnums. He was eager. More than in need. So was she. But as soon as she loosened his belt and zipper enough to close her hand around his hardness, the whole thing felt…wrong. Odd. Out of place. A mistake.
It’s not that his body wasn’t willing because every bit of his manhood was rock hard and ready to roll. But images of Caress played in his head even as he tried to make his normal moves on Karina.
Caress’s smile.
Caress playing with her earlobe while she read those silly celebrity gossip magazines.
Caress trudging around the house in those sweatpants and T-shirts she loved so much.
Caress’s eyes all dilated-looking after he kissed her in the kitchen…or as he stroked deep inside of her that night at her house.
Whew!
Somehow, Mr. Living Life to the Fullest as a Bachelor had become comfortable coming home every night to a woman. The same woman. Caress. And Karina was not Caress. No way. No how.
“Karina, let’s not do this,” he had told her, even as her hands nearly clawed at him in her eagerness.
Once she caught on he was serious, he had barely made it out the front door of the villa before his pants and shoes came flying out behind him.
Still, the feel of the air breezing across his bare legs and ass as she slammed the door felt good. Damn good. Almost as good as that unmistakable buzz of awareness between Caress and him even when they were just passing one another in the house.
The first thing he did when he walked through the door of his own villa was pour a drink and then pick up the phone to call Caress.
“Julius? You asleep?” she asked, her voice filling the silence.
“No.” He shook his head as if she could see him.
“Julius?” she called out softly.
He pressed the phone closer to his ear, expectant of her next words because the way she said his name sounded like she had something serious to say. “Yes, Caress?”
“Nothing,” she mumbled. “Never mind.”
Julius frowned a bit as curiosity nipped at him. “Go ahead,” he urged. “Say it. Ask it. Demand it. Go.”
“I don’t have the right to ask it.”
“Yes.”
“Huh?”
He smiled. “I was answering the question you were going to ask.”
“Okay, Mr. Know-it-All, what was I going to ask?”
“If I still thought you were sexy,” Julius said, shifting his long and lean body for comfort on the sofa.
Caress laughed, and it made him smile even more. “Uh…no.”
“So what were you going to ask?” Julius sat up long enough to take another sip of his drink.
“Nothing, Julius.”
“Something, Caress,” he urged in deep tones as he set his glass back down on the table. “Come on. Be a woman.”
“Oh, I’m all woman.”
A vision of her naked and sprawled before him on her coffee table flashed. “That I know.”
“Okay, listen. What exactly is going on with you and Karina? Okay I asked. Now you go.”
How honest should he be? Vagueness or half-truths would make sense if he and Caress were in a relationship or working on one. “I’ve photographed her a lot and we’ve flirted a lot. But it just never happened and I’m learning it’s just not meant to be.”
“In Jamaica?” Caress squawked in disbelief.
“In Jamaica,” he countered in a serious tone. “I’ve never made love to her, Caress, and trust me, I’ve had plenty of opportunity.”
“Check you out bragging, Mr. Billy Big Stick.”
Julius chuckled. “I see you remember me well.”
“Negro, puh-leeze.”
“So it’s not?”
“Not what?”
“Big.” Julius loved messing with Caress.
“I don’t remember.”
Julius’s eyes widened huskily.
“You know what? You do have a big head—it’s sitting on your neck.”
Julius suddenly pressed his mouth closed tightly as the words “Damn, I miss you, Caress” almost slipped through his lips with ease. “Everything good with the baby?” he asked, purposely changing the subject as he wiped his hand over his face.
“Yes, everything is fine.”
“And the job?”
“It’s real good.”
They fell silent again.
“I guess I better let you go,” Julius said, amazed by how reluctant he was to end the call.
“’Kay.”
“Caress?” he called out huskily as he sat up on the sofa.
“Yes, Julius?”
He shook his head, before dropping it into his hand. “Nothing. Never mind.”
“Oh, no. I’ll tell you like you told me. Man up.”
Julius turned his head and gazed out the open balcony doors at the beautiful island locale. “I was just going to say good night,” he lied as his eyes reflected the emotions he was trying ever so hard to ignore. Deny. Push away.
“Good night then, Julius.”
Long after they disconnected the line, Julius sat in that same spot with his thoughts and his heart filled with many what-ifs.
Chapter Twelve
Two Months Later
Caress tried hard to ignore the tiny twinges of discomfort occasionally radiating across her back as she shifted for comfort in her chair. Her doctor had already warned her that she was very large for thirty six weeks, plus her petite size was causing hell on her back. On top of that, the stifling city heat of July was making her pregnancy really aggravating.
“Everything okay, Caress?”
She tried to cover a grimace as she looked up at her supervisor Harriett Longe, standing beside her desk. Caress adored the woman because if for nothing else, this tall, redheaded white woman had hired an obviously pregnant woman who was in need of a job. “I’m fine, Harriett,” she assured her as she reached for a stack of files on the edge of her desk. “Here’s the information you requested for your meeting today.”
Harriett accepted the files but her green eyes were filled with concern. “Why don’t you go on home for the day?”
Caress started to deny the offer, but she felt a headache coming on top of the backache, and she did just want to lie down. “I’m sorry about this, Harriett,” she said, as she reached into the bottom drawer of her desk and pulled out her purse.
“No worries. You haven’t missed a day since you started working here, and half the day is gone anyway.” Harriett stepped back to let Caress rise and slowly walk from behind her desk. “I’ll call you later and check on you, sweetie.”
“Thanks, Harriett,” Caress said over her shoulder with a weak smile.
She reached out for the desk as the room spun suddenly and pain pierced her lower belly and the back of her head. She hollered out as her hand missed the desk and her body fell to the carpeted floor with a thud.
“Caress!” Harriett cried out, dropping the files as she rushed down to the floor to check on her. “Oh God, you’re bleeding.”
Harriett left her side just long enough to call an ambulance and Caress, filled with fear even as she felt unconsciousness claim her, told Harriett, “Call…Julius…on my…cell.”
Julius’s heart hadn’t stopped pounding since he’d gotten the call that Caress was on the way to the hospital. He drove like a madman through the streets of Jersey City and then Newark to reach UMDNJ. He had never before blown his horn excessively, driven in the wrong lane, or maneuvered in and out past cars, but this was urgent.
Nothing had ever felt so important to him as getting to Caress’s side.
Thoughts raced through his brain as he raced through the streets.
What if she lost the baby?
What if she passed on from complications?
He felt nauseous and weak at the thought of both.
Julius burst through the doors of the emergency room.
“Julius?”
He turned as a white woman came running up to him. He immediately assumed it was Caress’s boss, Harriett. “Where is she?” he asked, not caring that he was completely drenched in sweat and nearly out of breath from running from the parking deck.
Harriett grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the nurses’ station. “He’s here for Caress Coleman,” she said, her cheeks flushed and her eyes teary.
“Are you the father of the baby?’ the nurse asked.
“Yes,” Julius answered without hesitation. Now was not the time for what-ifs.
“Right this way.”
Julius gave Harriett a thankful squeeze of the hand she had lightly resting on his arm, before he followed the nurse down the brightly lit hall to a small room on the right. As soon as he turned into the room his eyes locked on Caress lying in the bed looking pale, an IV in her arm, and hooked up to monitors that were beeping. Alone. In need of him.
He brushed past the nurse to stand beside the bed and take Caress’s hand into his own. “Caress, I’m here. I’m here, Caress,” he whispered down to her as emotions made his throat tight, and he felt his eyes fill with tears of happiness that she was alive and fear that she was still in harm’s way.
Her eyes flickered open and he could tell from the dampness of her lashes that she had been crying. “The baby?” he asked, turning to face the nurse as panic clawed at his chest.
“Is fine,” she assured him with a comforting smile. “That’s his heartbeat you hear. It is slowing down and we’ve let the doctor know.”
Julius went still. Listening. Needing to hear it.
“I’ll let Dr. Dillinger know you’re here,” the nurse told him, quickly checking Caress’s intravenous site and line before she left the room. Caress tightened her grasp on his hand just enough for him to glance back down at her. “My blood pressure…shot up. They might…have to induce labor…if they can’t get it down,” she said to him, obviously still weakened from the ordeal. “I’m so glad you’re here, Julius.”
Julius bent down, his elbows resting on the side rails of the bed as he locked his eyes with hers. “You scared the shit out of me, beautiful,” he admitted, his thumb making light circles on the back of her hand.
“I’m scared, Juliu
s,” she admitted to him in a whisper.
In that very instant. That unforgettable moment. He knew. He welcomed it. He embraced it.
He loved Caress. He was in love with her. Completely.
Julius leaned in and pressed his lips to her forehead. He kissed the tears silently falling from her eyes. And finally her mouth. “I’ll be right here and we’ll get through this together, Caress. I swear,” he promised, his words breezing lightly down the short distance to her trembling mouth.
The monitors began to sound an alarm and moments later Caress’s room filled with medical staff.
Someone pulled him from the side of the bed but he held onto Caress’s grasp until the distance between them was too wide for even their fingertips to touch.
“Mr. Jones, we’re taking Caress in for an emergency cesarean section to alleviate the preeclampsia and take her and the baby out of harm’s way.”
As they wheeled her bed out of the room he drew his eyes away from Caress just long enough to notice Dr. Dillinger standing by his side. “I want to be in there,” Julius told her, in a voice brooking no argument.
Dr. Dillinger smiled at him reassuringly. “Of course,” she told him, leading him out of the room.
Tamara had never wrung her hands or paced so much in her life. Everything about the bland waiting room was a reminder that her best friend was in a hospital in surgery. She wrapped her arms around herself and released a heavy breath. Moments later, Kendrick’s strong arms covered her arms and she was grateful for the wall of support and love he gave her. She turned into his embrace as he pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
“I just wish I knew what was going on,” she admitted softly as she eased her arms around his waist and hugged him back fiercely. “I’m so scared that when someone does remember us they’ll be nothing but bad news.”
Kendrick bent his head, placing his mouth near her ear. “Our father, which art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name…”
Tamara closed her own eyes and joined her loving husband in prayer.
Caress vaguely noticed Julius in his operating room garb as he stood by her head in the operating room. She kept her eyes closed. Blocking the bright lights. Pretending the room wasn’t cold. Trying not to visualize what was going on beyond the small curtain blocking everything from her view. Placing her mind on anything but the facts. Wishing for the best. Dreaming of the end result and not the road traveled to get there….
Make You Mine Page 14