Give Me Fever

by Niobia Bryant

  Jade had to admit that it sounded tempting—especially with his hardness pressed against her buttocks. But if she gave in she wouldn’t be worth a quarter in the morning. So she closed her eyes and threw out a fake snore.

  Kaeden chuckled. “Night, Jade.”

  “Good night.”

  Kaeden spent most of that weekend at his parents’ missing Jade and avoiding as much of the outdoors as he could. He knew she was getting in today. He just wasn’t sure what time to expect her. But as soon as he got the call he would walk out of church if he had to, to get to her. He was ready for his woman—his woman—to get home. Particularly from a trip where she might be the lone woman among a group of men. Jade in jeans and sweatshirt was just as tempting as a nude woman. There wasn’t much she could do to hide her wide hips and full bosom.

  Bzzzz.

  A text. He grabbed his BlackBerry.

  Almost to Holtsville. Meet me @ my house.

  Kaeden smiled broadly as he rose to his feet. “This is good,” he told the rest of the Strong bunch that were lounging in their Sunday finest on the porch. “But I gotta go.”

  “Must’ve been one helluva message,” Kahron drawled as he led one of the ranch’s ponies with Kadina and KJ nestled on its back.

  Everyone laughed.

  “Is Jade back from the trip?” his mother asked.

  “Yes, ma’am,” he answered as he walked down the stairs and made his way to his BMW.

  “So you’re going to miss church this morning?” Kael called to his son.

  Kaeden looked up, surprised because his father usually didn’t want to go to church himself. But his concern faded at the twinkle in his father’s eyes. “Jade and I might come back later this afternoon,” he told them before climbing into his vehicle.

  They all waved him off as he reversed in an arc and then pulled off down the drive. The idea of bringing Jade around his family was spur of the moment but the more Kaeden sat with it, the more he liked the idea of it.

  At first he worried Kaleb would hold a grudge because his brother was with the woman he briefly tried to pursue, but when Kaleb first heard the news he just shook Kaeden’s hand and asked: “Sure you can handle all that?”

  Kaeden had gripped his brother’s hand tighter and replied: “Trust and believe that.”

  They laughed. It was done. Kaeden 1, Kaleb 0. When it came to Jade, anyway.

  And Kaeden was happy with Jade.

  The sound of a horn blaring made him shift his bespectacled eyes up to the rearview mirror. He smiled as the black Wild-n-Out van turned into the yard. Before she had even come to a stop, Kaeden was out of his car and ready to swoop her into his arms as soon as the driver’s-side door opened.

  “Hey, ba’y.”

  “Hey, sexy.”

  They smiled even as their lips touched.

  “Miss me?” Jade asked as she wrapped her arms up around his neck.

  “Yeah, I did,” he told her with complete honesty as his body reacted to being near her and having her in his arms.

  “Good,” she teased with a laugh.

  Kaeden looked down into the smiling mocha face and he felt some powerful emotional clutch at his heart. “I could really fall for you, Jade Prince,” he told her low in his throat.

  Jade’s smile faded as her eyes glimmered. “And I think I have already fallen for you a little bit,” she told him.

  Kaeden dropped his hands to her waist. “Just a little bit?” he joked.

  Jade leaned back in his arms and winked. “Just a lee little bit.”

  Kaeden kissed her deeply with a hungry moan opening his heart and allowing himself to freely fall.

  Jade held the sheet up with her arms to cover her nudity as she fed Kaeden fresh fruit from a glass bowl. “This was nice,” she told him before biting into a bright red strawberry and then offering him a bite as well.

  “You’re welcome.”

  Jade leaned down and licked the trail of juice from the fruit that drizzled down his chin. “Now, why does that taste better than the actual fruit?”

  “Must be all this chocolate,” Kaeden mused, dropping the sheet to expose his chest.

  Jade playfully plucked one of the lenses of his glasses. “Well, I loved my bubble bath and the breakfast in bed and the massage and the things that happened after the massage.”

  Kaeden reached over to rub light circles on her back with his fingertips. “I know you like to relax after an excursion.”

  Jade lifted the sheet to stretch her body out next to Kaeden’s. “All I want to do right now is sleep, and then I’m going to make us dinner.”

  “Actually, I thought we could ride over to my parents’ and eat there,” he told her before he removed his glasses and set them on the nightstand. They both turned on their sides and snuggled close in their beloved spoon position. “But if you’re tired, we don’t have to go.”

  “No, let’s go. I wanna go horseback riding.”

  Kaeden stiffened. Please don’t ask me to ride with you. Please don’t ask me to ride with you.

  Jade’s eyes popped open before she rolled onto her back. “Actually, I know your allergies get to you, but I think it would be cool if we rode together for a little while.”

  Kaeden knew that Jade made concessions for him all the time. She was an outdoors baby and they spent the majority of their time together indoors because of him. “Yeah, we can ride,” he promised, a man of his word.

  If he had to go to his allergist and get a dozen shots in his butt to take Jade horseback riding for an hour, then he would just have to do that.

  Jade took a deep sip of her glass of cherry lemonade as she and Kaeden sat in his parents’ kitchen eating fried chicken, cabbage, white rice, and huge spoonfuls of macaroni and cheese. “Oh my God, this is so good,” she sighed, doing a little dance on her stool.

  Kaeden laughed. “My mom and my sisters-in-law cook like this every Sunday,” he bragged before taking a bite of a chicken thigh.

  “I couldn’t eat like this all the time. I would blow up like a double-wide mobile home.”

  Kaeden leaned back to eye her buttocks and her long shapely legs in the jean shorts she wore with studded flip-flops. “Nah, don’t do that,” he told her in appreciation.

  “Y’all done eating?” Lisha Strong asked as she strolled into the kitchen.

  “Yes, ma’am, everything was so good. My grand-daddy would love it,” Jade said as Kaeden rose to pick up their plates.

  “Take a plate for Esai,” Lisha said, moving to the pantry to grab one of the hundreds of to-go containers they kept handy. “Him and Kael used to hunt with that Holtsville Hunting Club, and the wives took turns taking food out to their little clubhouse, so Esai’s eaten plenty of my food.”

  Jade nodded as she watched the becoming woman ladle heaping servings of food into the Styrofoam container. “Thank you, Mrs. Strong,” Jade said, hating that she sounded as nervous as she felt.

  “Uhm-hmm. No problem. I’m just going to leave it in the fridge ’til y’all go.”

  Kaeden squeezed her shoulders comfortingly before he briefly kissed her neck and whispered, “Relax, Jade. She doesn’t bite.”

  She smiled…until Garcelle, Bianca, and Kaitlyn strolled in. Oh great, I’m about to be quizzed, Jade thought, stiffening her back as Kaeden gave her one last wave and left the kitchen.

  Of course Jade knew of the women—they all lived in the same small town and attended the same church—but Jade didn’t know them personally. Jade knew she was an attractive woman, but watching this unholy trifecta was still intimidating.

  Garcelle was a Beyoncé look-alike, curves and all.

  Bianca was equally gorgeous with a stomach flat as a board—all hints of a baby bulge gone.

  And Kaitlyn was tall and thin and willowy, with a head full of curly jet-black hair.

  “Jade, would you like something to drink?” Garcelle asked, moving to the fridge.

  “I have lemonade.”

  Bianca waved her hand. “Not th
at. We mean a real drink.”

  Kaitlyn sat four crystal wine goblets on the island. “Oh my God, Jade, Garcelle makes the best white sangria.”

  “Ooh,” Jade sighed as she eyed the huge glass pitcher of white sangria filled with slices of oranges, peaches, green apples, and grapes. She filled each of the glasses halfway.

  “Let the men have their ugly and nasty beer in a can, but we ladies sip on sangria.” Lisha winked at Jade as she opened a bottle of Sprite and topped off each glass with a splash.

  Jade accepted the goblet passed to her and immediately raised it to her lips.

  “Oh, no, no, no, no, no,” Mrs. Strong admonished. “First we toast to something good in our lives.”

  Bianca snuck her a look saying, just smile and nod.

  And so Jade smiled. And then Jade nodded.

  “Now, I’ll start.” Mrs. Strong cleared her throat and raised her goblet high. “Here’s to family. The most important thing to me.”

  Kaitlyn stopped checking her nails to pick up her own goblet. “Here’s to Louis Vuitton and Gucci. Chocolate mani-pedis and stone massages. Ooh, I almost forgot—”

  “Kaitlyn!” Mrs. Strong snapped.

  “Remember the rules, Mama, no judging,” Kaitlyn reminded her chidingly with a twinkle in her eyes.

  Mrs. Strong rolled her eyes heavenward.

  Bianca held up her glass next. “Here’s to sisterhood.”

  “I’m thankful for Kade agreeing that we should start trying to make a baby brother or sister for Kadina,” Garcelle added softly with a smile, her Spanish accent prominent.

  All of the women, including Jade, sighed in pleasure.

  “Well, I’m adding on that I am thankful for that,” Lisha said with a wink at Garcelle.

  “Enjoy the liquor while you can, Garcelle,” Kaitlyn teased.

  “Okay, Jade, sugar, what are you toasting?” Mrs. Strong asked her.

  Surprised, Jade eyed each of them. “Me too, huh?”

  “Uhm-hmm,” they all said in unison.

  “Okay, um, I am thankful for meeting Kaeden and not letting our obvious differences keep us from getting to know each other better.” Jade lifted her glass high into the air, filling in their circle.

  Jade watched the camaraderie among the women. Lisha Strong seemed to be closer to her daughters-in-law than Jade felt to her own mother. And so far, Jade genuinely liked them all. They laughed together. They shared things. They loved one another. She’d thought they were going to grill her or rake her over the coals, but instead they had welcomed her into their midst.

  “Cheers, ladies.”

  “Cheers.”

  Kaeden’s throat was itching. His eyes were watery behind his spectacles. He wanted so badly to pull his inhaler from his pants pocket and suck for dear life on it.

  But he didn’t.

  “Isn’t this the most beautiful thing ever,” Jade said in complete awe from atop her horse, looking out at the sun setting on the horizon. The sky was a myriad of vibrant colors with just a streak of darkness on the perimeter.

  Kaeden shifted on his own horse and tried his best to concentrate on the view, but all he could think about was the long stretches of land that was kicking his allergies into overdrive.

  “I just love the outdoors. I have to get it from my grandfather because my dad is all my GQ and my mom is…well, she’s my mom.”

  Kaeden gripped the reins of his horse as he rubbed his tongue against his palate.

  “Thank you for this, Kaeden, I really appreciate it,” she told him. “So much so that I think that one good turn deserves another.”

  Kaeden felt Jade’s hand on his thigh and for the first time since he met her he doubted he could focus enough to get hard. “Jade!”

  Jade and both their horses jumped.

  “Listen,” he began, digging in his pocket for his inhaler, which he promptly used. “Making love to you in the middle of this hayfield is way too much to ask from your man right now.”

  “Awwww, baby, I’m sorry,” Jade said consolingly as he removed his glasses and wiped his eyes. “Why didn’t you say something?”

  “Because you love the outdoors and I know you hate always being cooped up in the house,” he told her in between puffs.

  Jade leaned over and pressed a kiss to his shaven cheek. “Listen, we have to be real with each other, and if that means using your inhaler, then use it. If that means leaving something we’re doing early, then we’ll leave. Got it?”

  Kaeden nodded as he shoved his inhaler back into his pocket. He smiled at her.

  She laughed. “I swear, you are the weirdest but the sweetest man I’ve ever known, Kaeden Strong.”

  Kaeden slapped her rump and the horse’s to send them ahead of him headed back to the ranch.

  “It’s over, Felecia, and I’m sorry if you’re hurt, but you have to stop calling me.”

  Jade lay deathly still in the bed as she pretended to be asleep while she listened to Kaeden trying to talk low on his cell phone.

  “Felecia, if you threaten to hurt yourself again, I’ll have to call your father and clue him in.” Kaeden sighed. “I didn’t think you wanted that either.”

  Jade frowned. Hurt herself. What the hell?

  “Felecia, another woman has nothing to do with this.”

  Jade started to sit up but she held herself in check.

  “Felecia, we barely dated for a month. I think if you just come to grips with it being over, you will agree with me that we weren’t working out.”

  Having had enough, Jade made a show of stirring in her sleep and sitting up in the middle of the bed.

  Kaeden turned to look at her and blew her a kiss. “I gotta go, Felecia.”

  Jade was at least glad he didn’t try and hide who he was talking to, but she was even more pleased when he finally ended the call. “So, Felecia’s not taking the breakup well?” she asked.

  Kaeden remained by the bedroom window, his figure outlined by the light of the moon. “I let the fact that you were seeing Darren push me into dating Felecia again.”

  “Again, huh?” Jade asked.

  “And that’s why I feel bad, because I knew we didn’t click the first time and I really shouldn’t have messed with that this time.”

  “So why did you?” Jade asked, watching him as he set his phone on the nightstand and then got back in bed.

  “I told you why.”

  “Oh,” was all that Jade said as she pulled the sheet up around her breasts.

  “Hell, even you said we made a cute couple,” Kaeden told her as he flung the sheet over his body.

  Jade lightly boxed his arm. “Don’t play with me.”

  Kaeden chuckled before he reached out to wrap his arm tightly around her. “You and your girlfriend make a cute couple,” he mimicked in a feminine voice.

  Jade bit her bottom lip to keep from smiling. “Get off me.”

  He wrestled her down in the bed and then slid on top of her, grabbing both her wrists and pressing her arms above her head. “You don’t want me to get off of you. You know you want me to get in you.”

  Jade shook her head. “Since you don’t have on your glasses, Mr. Magoo, I know everything is blurry right now. I just shook my head no.”

  “Ha, ha, ha. Now you got jokes.”

  She smiled. “No more calls from Felecia, especially when you are fresh from my bed, Kaeden Strong,” she told him just before she lifted her chin and offered it to him to kiss.

  And he did plant a kiss there, and a few on her high cheekbones and then her neck and along her collarbone. “And if I ask you not to work alongside Darren all day every day in that little office?”

  Jade arched her back, presenting the tips of her breasts to him. “I would tell you that I like a man who is secure and not ruled by jealousy.”

  Kaeden circled his tongue around one sweet chocolate tip and then the other. Jade shivered. He took another hot lick. “I would tell you I like the same from my woman.”

  Jade struggled a
bit against his hold on her wrists as Kaeden sucked nearly half of her breast into his mouth. She gasped in pleasure and closed her eyes at the feel of sweet torture. “And how do I know Felecia’s antics to get you back won’t work?” she asked breathlessly as that now familiar heat between them began to rise like steam.

  Kaeden planted a soft and tantalizing bite to the fleshy side of one brown mound before he looked at her. “You have men sniffing behind you all the time. How do I know one of them won’t swoop you away from me like I swooped you from Darren?” Kaeden asked.

  Jade was surprised to discover from the intensity of his eyes that Kaeden was serious. “Because you can trust me, Kaeden,” she whispered to him. “You are all the man I need. You satisfy me. You complete me. You make me happy. And sometimes this all scares me because I have never felt this way about anyone. Not so fast and so strong. You were nothing like what I thought I wanted, and now you are everything I need.”

  Kaeden released her arms and laid his head down on her chest with his ear pressed just above her heart. “I have no idea where we’re headed, but I do know that I am not ready to stop the ride.”

  Jade wrapped him tightly in her embrace, sure that he could hear the beat of her heart. She spread her legs open beneath him, snuggling him into the intimate vee of her legs.

  No further words were spoken—or needed—as Kaeden shifted his body up, pressing his chest down upon her twin mounds as he maneuvered his hips upward to guide his hardening shaft deep inside her.

  Jade closed her eyes and bit his shoulder.

  Kaeden felt his dick harden and stretch inside her, filling her, cruising along her ridged and moist walls.

  There in the center of the squeaking bed, their limbs tightly entwined, their bodies ultimately united, Kaeden and Jade made the most heated and emotionally intense love of all.

  Chapter 19

  Kaeden had to hire a replacement for Felecia. In the six weeks since their breakup he was catching pure hell trying to answer the phones and focus on his work.