He shook his keys in his hand as he came to a stop in front of her. “What?”
“The look on your damn face,” she snapped again, her eyes flashing. “I just wanted to get things straight between us and you looking at me like I’m bird shit on your windshield.”
Beep-beep.
Kaeden deactivated his alarm as he stepped past her to open his car door. “Trust me, you already got me straight,” he told her coldly.
Jade grabbed his arm. “Why are you so mad at me?” she asked.
Kaeden turned his head to look down at her through his spectacles. “Because there is more to me than dick. You should understand that since there is more to you than tits and ass, right?” he asked, flinging her own words back at her.
Jade flushed with guilt. “Do you have to be so crass, Kaeden? I would’ve thought that was beneath you.”
Kaeden laughed bitterly. “And I would’ve thought sleeping with two men shoulda been beneath you. What’s wrong? He ain’t tapping that thing right?” he asked her coldly.
Jade fought the urge to slap the hell out of him as his words cut her like a knife. “You know what, you bullheaded, arrogant asshole? Just forget it and forget you,” she told him before turning away.
“You did that as soon as old boy showed up,” he shot at her.
Jade whirled back to face him. “This has nothing to do with him, Kaeden,” she told him.
Kaeden stiffened as his eyes shifted behind her. “Then why is he headed this way?”
Jade whirled and her eyes widened to see Darren strolling over to them. What the hell does he want? she thought, aggravated at his oncoming intrusion.
“Mornin’, baby,” he said, stepping up to slide his hand onto Jade’s back with his eyes on Kaeden.
“Listen, Darren, could you excuse us for a minute?” she asked, hating his increasing shows of possessiveness.
“No need for that, playa, we’re done. Trust me.” Kaeden opened his car door with one last long look at Jade before he climbed in. Soon the car purred to life.
“Were you two arguing? It looked like you two were arguing,” Darren asked as Kaeden reversed the car out of his spot, threw up a deuce sign, and then drove out of the parking lot. “What was that all about?”
“Just a misunderstanding I was trying to get straight,” Jade admitted.
“About the camping trip?” he asked in obvious confusion.
A hundred different steamy flashes of a moonlit rendezvous in the middle of the woods bombarded her.
“Yes, about the trip,” she said in half-truth. “Everything’s fine, Darren.”
They walked back to their office in silence, but Jade could tell that he had more questions. Thankfully he left them unasked.
Kaeden watched Jade in his rearview mirror until he turned the corner and erased her from his line of vision. The woman was effortlessly beautiful…but she was not his woman. She was in a relationship with someone else and so was he.
It was for the best anyway.
But was it?
Kaeden knew he hadn’t half the female conquests of any of his brothers, but he wasn’t a slouch either. Since high school he always had a steady girlfriend while his brothers played the hell out of the field. There was Keesha in eighth grade. July in the tenth. Mickala in the eleventh. Keesha again in the twelfth. Then Farrah during the college years and Jennifer in graduate school.
He’d had sex with them all and a few more. None compared to that one sizzling night with Jade. Not separately or totally.
Tapping his fingers against the steering wheel, Kaeden steered his vehicle toward his offices across town. His BlackBerry vibrated on his hip and he grabbed it.
“Kaeden Strong,”
“Kaeden, where are you?” Felecia asked.
“On my way to the office. What’s up?” he asked in return.
“Nothing. Just hadn’t heard from you this morning, that’s all. I’m at the office.”
Kaeden frowned. “Felecia, listen, I don’t need you to check up on me like this. I’m fine. Believe me.”
“I know you’re fine,” she said with a laugh that sounded forced. “I’ve been calling you and leaving messages all morning.”
Kaeden’s jaw tensed in irritation as he accelerated forward. First Jade running up on him with the drama, and now Felecia and her third degree. Rolling his shoulders, Kaeden felt tension race from his shoulders to the back of his head. His eyes lit on the turn for Highway 17. “I’m headed down to Kahron’s. I’ll be in later,” he told her.
Their was silence on the line before she reluctantly said, “Okay, Kaeden.”
He really needed a little piece of peace right now.
He made the turn toward Holtsville and didn’t stop until he was pulling in front of Kahron and Bianca’s house. Kade and Kahron were sitting on the porch with frosted glasses of lemonade in their hands.
“What’s up, bubbas?” he greeted them, using the common Southern nickname for “brother.” Kaeden immediately felt his tension ease being in the company of his brothers.
“We just got back from the auction. What’s up with you?” Kade asked before taking a deep sip of his drink.
“Wishing I had a big old glass of lemonade,” he joked as he climbed the stairs and soon felt the cool shade under the roof of the porch.
Kahron jumped to his feet. “You lucky I have to go inside,” he told him before walking into the sizable ranch-style home.
Kaeden let out a long breath as he dropped down into one of the rocking chairs. “Man, it’s gonna be a hot summer.”
Kade nodded as he squinted his eyes. “Especially trapped in a relationship you don’t want to be in,” Kade slid out with ease—and far too much wisdom.
Kaeden leaned to the side to eye his older brother through his glasses. “You and Garcelle having troubles?” he asked without one bit of seriousness.
“Picture that shit,” Kade drawled dryly.
Kaeden fell silent.
“I saw you and Jade that morning.”
Kaeden’s gut clenched.
Kade leaned over to sit his glass down beside him before he ran the long fingers of his strong hand through his full silver curls. “I found you guys and saw…you know…you…and, um, Jade doing the Adam and Eve thing. So I walked away and then I called out for you two. You know…I gave you guys a chance to find your clothes and ripped underwear and all that.”
“Oh,” was all that Kaeden said as the hot memory of him ripping those lace panties from her made his dick throb with sudden life.
“So it’s funny to me, little brother, that Jade’s boyfriend strolls up almost catching you two and then you take up with Felecia the next day.”
The same night, actually.
“Felecia and I haven’t slept together.”
Kade frowned. “Look, man, I didn’t ask for all your business,” he snapped.
Kaeden chuckled.
“What the hell is going on?” Kade asked, turning his head to look at Kaeden.
“Nothing. With Jade and me, things got out of hand for one night, and Felecia and I are building something more lasting, you know,” Kaeden said.
The words sounded hollow to his own ears.
“First off, you don’t do one-night stands. Second off, you barely wanted to hire Felecia because you broke up with Felecia because you didn’t want to date Felecia.”
True. Kaeden just released a heavy breath.
“Just be careful with playing with people’s hearts, little brother.” Kade reached down for his lemonade. “You rebounded to her because you mad or hurt or whatever about Jade having a man. So if Jade didn’t have a man and she was wide open for more Strong loving on the regular, you wouldn’t pick her over Felecia. Come on, man.”
Kaeden shifted his eyes away from his brother and the truth.
“Felecia is a good girl. Jade has a man. Jade and I don’t have anything in common but something physical,” Kaeden said, listing his argument, annoyed that the very thought of Jade made him feel alive
.
“Don’t settle. Felecia is a pretty girl. A good girl. But you can have the fireworks and the good girl wrapped all up in one. I have it with Garcelle and Kahron has it with Bianca.”
“Felecia is a good match for me,” Kaeden insisted.
“Man, Felecia is the type of girl to go all in,” Kade advised him. “At least sit back and make sure you’re ready for that. Don’t lead her on.”
Kaeden leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees as he stared off into the distance at Kahron’s farmland.
“You’re not that guy, Kaeden.” Kade finished the last of his lemonade in one gulp.
Kaeden spent the rest of the afternoon with his brothers and his inhaler. He’d left his BlackBerry in his car and wasn’t at all surprised to see a dozen missed calls from Felecia when he finally got back to his vehicle.
He called the office, but when there wasn’t an answer he tried her cell phone.
“Kaeden,” she said in a disappointed tone.
He felt like a child being chastised by a teacher. Or a child being checked by my mama.
“I’m headed back to the office now.”
“Actually, just come on to my house.”
She closed the office early again? he thought. Felecia had been taking a lot of liberties at work since they started dating.
“I already fixed dinner,” she told him.
Kaeden really just wanted to go home and chill out for the night. Kade had put a lot on his mind to think about, but he knew if he was serious about building a relationship with Felecia then he had to put in the time and the effort to make it work. “I’m on my way,” he told her, turning his car around in the dirt yard of Cyrus Dobbs’s one-pump gas station to head toward Summerville. His mind was set on getting there, eating, and then jetting back to his own house. He wanted to get home but he also wanted to talk to Felecia and make sure they were on the same page about their relationship. Slow and steady might win the race.
In truth, the memory of Jade was affecting his relationship with Felecia.
Or maybe just revealing the flaws in it.
In about twenty-five minutes he was pulling up to the front of Felecia’s apartment building. The curtains and blinds of her first-floor apartment were open. As he climbed out of his car, his eyes locked on the sight of Felecia moving about her living room.
She looked nice in the ruffled white shirt she wore with darn denim slacks.
He walked to the door and just as he knocked, she opened the door.
“Hey, Kaeden,” she said with a smile as she handed him a frosted glass of sweet tea.
But Kaeden nearly let the glass slip through his fingers as he eyed the dozen or so people walking out of the kitchen to greet him.
What the hell?
Felecia wrapped both her arms around him and pulled him in. “My family really wanted to meet you,” she whispered in his ear, just before a circle was formed around them.
Kaeden couldn’t do anything but force a smile.
Chapter 12
The moon was full and so large that it seemed a child could reach, grab, and hug it close to their chest. It was perfectly framed by the dark shadowy outline of the tips of the towering trees and the brilliant sparkles of stars. Definitely a beautiful scene.
But Jade Prince saw none of its grandeur as she tossed, turned, writhed, and moaned in the middle of herbed…deeply in sleep…and completely aroused.
Jade slid her hand down the length of the leather thigh-high boot she wore after she slowly pulled up the zipper. She placed her hands on her bare hips as she stood tall at the foot of the black satin-covered bed in the center of the woods. Surrounded by the sounds of night and nature, she eased her hands over the smooth, deep mocha of her nude body.
Lying in the center of the bed with his hands and feet lightly strapped with torn cloth, Kaeden’s hungry eyes missed not one single sensual movement.
The slight jiggle of her breasts as she massaged them.
The way her nipples hardened as she teased them.
The goose bumps racing over her curvaceous frame.
The sight of her hands easing over her wide hips and the tops of her shapely thighs.
He had to lean his head a bit to the left to see past his growing erection as it stretched and reached for the night sky.
“See something you like?” Jade asked with a purr as she pressed one foot onto the end of the bed and then used her hand to press her knee back, opening herself to him. With a lick of her lips, she ran her finger across her intimate lips before opening them to expose her core.
“Hell yeah,” Kaeden told her, then licked his bottom lip as he wrapped his hand around his shaft and stroked the length of it before he massaged the smooth, thick tip.
Jade laughed softly as she walked around the bed to stand by his side. “You are blessed, Kaeden,” she told him as she eyed his hardness and licked her lips as if hungry.
She reached out slowly and stroked Kaeden’s thigh. It quivered.
She shifted up until his maleness was in her hands. It stiffened at her touch.
She grabbed him just a bit tighter around the base and she knew he liked it as his eyes glazed over. “This is mine,” she told him with just enough force in her voice to make it interesting.
“Then get what’s yours,” he ordered her as he lifted his hips to pump his dick inside her fist.
Jade spread her legs and bent down slowly until her open and panting mouth was just above the heated, throbbing tip of his dick. She inhaled deeply of his unique scent before easing the smooth tip against her lips. “Hmm,” she moaned as she kept her eyes locked with his.
“Suck it,” he ordered thickly.
Jade shook her head and licked it slowly instead, enjoying the smooth feel of it against the tip of her tongue as she enjoyed it like a treat. “Say please,” she demanded huskily, enjoying the thrill of their play.
“Please,” he begged shakily.
And with a moan she did, slowly taking the thick and lengthy hardness of him until his silvery hairs tickled her lips.
“Aaah!” Kaeden hollered out as his body arched, only his bound limbs keeping him from fully springing up off the bed.
Jade smiled around the width of him as she worked her head up and down. She circled her tongue around the tip before sucking it deeply between her pressed lips.
“Shit,” Kaeden swore, tugging at his bonds.
Jade reached down to press her fingers against her own moist bud.
Kaeden watched the move and he gasped in pure pleasure as her hips jerked. “Untie me,” he told her forcefully.
Jade shook her head and deep throated him again.
“Ahhhh!” he cried out, closing his eyes tightly as his muscles tensed as he fought to break the ties.
And they did break.
First the left and then the right.
Kaeden sat up and swiftly picked Jade up by her hips.
She shifted her hands from her slickly wet bud and roughly pushed them against his lips. His head shifted to the right as he captured her moist fingers with his mouth and sucked the juice from them. “Mmm,” he moaned, closing his eyes.
Jade straddled his hips, his shiny hardness standing straight up and ready for Kaeden to arch up and fill her in one swift thrust.
“Ahhh!” they cried out.
“Yes, Kaeden. Yes…yes…yes….”
“Yes. Yes.” Jade stirred in her sleep. Her head thrashed back and forth on the pillow as her heart beat furiously and her clit throbbed with a life force all its own. “Get it, Kaeden—”
She gasped. Her eyes popped open. She panted through her open mouth. A fine layer of sweat covered her entire body. Her short nightie was up around her waist. Her panties were shoved to the side…and her hands were pressed intimately between her legs.
Jade released a heavy breath as she closed her eyes and shook her head at herself. “Good grief,” she muttered, rolling out of bed like she’d discovered a snake beneath the covers.
/> Why was that one night with Kaeden Strong haunting and taunting her?
The sun was just starting to break through the trees and Jade wished she had a tour or some work to do. There was no way she could sit around her little cottage with nothing but hot memories of Kaeden and one night in the forest. She rushed through a shower, threw on running shorts, a tank, and her sneakers. She went out the door jogging and she didn’t stop until she jogged around the long, winding curve to her grandfather’s.
I just hope he didn’t go fishing, she thought, finally slowing down to a walk as she made her way up the paved driveway to his house.
She smiled to find Esai in the large garden in the backyard. The rows and rows were filled with fruits, vegetables, and plenty of herbs—to cook and to use for his herbal remedies. “Hey there, old man,” she said as she walked up to him.
Esai rose to his full height and brushed some of the dirt from his hands on the front of his jeans. “Just who I wanted to see,” he said, bending down a bit so that she could give him the customary kiss on the cheek. He called it his own little blessing from an angel.
Jade loved her grandfather to pieces.
“You needed something?” she asked as he moved over to the rinse sink at the rear of the house.
“Nope, I just wanted to see you,” he told her with a hint of a smile as he cast her a sidelong glance.
Jade wrapped her arms around herself and watched him rinse the vegetables in the basket. “I wanted to see you too,” she told him when he walked up to her. She wrapped her free hand around his arm as they made their way toward the large wraparound porch. She thought of Kaeden and her face became pensive as she bit her bottom lip. She thought of the dream that sent her running to the safety of her grandfather.
Mmmm…
She tripped over her own steps at the sound of her moaning in pleasure echoing inside her head. Her dreams were still chasing her down.
“Something on your mind?” her grandfather asked.
Mmmm…
Jade shook her head to clear it. “No, nothing. Well, not really. Kinda. Sorta.”
Esai laughed. “Come on. Get it together.”
Jade followed him up the steps. What do I say? I’m dating one guy and feigning for another? She released a heavy sigh. “It’s nothing. I’ll work it all out in my head.”
Give Me Fever Page 11