City Vibes - Complete Series (BWWM Interracial Billionaire Romance)

by Violet Jackson

  “Oh....” Reese murmured as his lips found her chest and gasped when his fingers entered her, her toes curling at the titillating sensation. She dug her hands into his pants and wrapped it around his member, stroking him until it peaked out of the elastic waistline and he began to thrust against her.

  Her moans grew more high pitched and breathless, and they mixed with his low grunts, forming a symphony of pleasure that hung in the morning air, suspended in the rays of sunlight that streamed through his large windows. With Reese's help, he hastily kicked off his pants. Daniel cradled her head in his hands, his eyes staring straight into hers as he entered her. Her jaw dropped and she stopped breathing, just as her heart started pounding, pumping her boiling blood so hard she could hear it in her ears and feel it throbbing in her neck and her thighs. They thrust against each other, banging against the leather-padded head board.

  He pressed his lips against hers as he dug harder, deeper, and faster into her. Reese was losing herself, and as she pulled at his head of thick, silky hair, she felt as if she was falling into herself. Jolts of electricity shot up her spine and her head was ambushed with white noise and, as her eyes flickered open, she could see nothing. She bit her lip as the bed disappeared and the sheets haphazardly draped over them ceased to exist and the only real part of her became that which was in between her legs. Screams of pleasure pried themselves from between her lips. It came in relentless waves. With one final thrust, he stopped and collapsed on top of her.

  “Good morning.” He murmured into her ears.

  She giggled at this, “Good morning to you to.” She murmured.

  He kissed her once more, then rolled over onto his back.

  With a sigh, Reese muttered, “You're really good at sex ,” as she wrapped her arms around his torso and rested her head on his shoulder.

  His chest shook as he laughed at this. “I know.” He replied jokingly.

  Reese lifted her head to get a better look at him. “Calm Down, hot head.” She replied.

  He ran one hand through her hair, which was incredibly frizzy, nappy and unkempt from the night before. “I think you're much more of a hot head than I am.”

  Reese gasped and yanked her head out of his reach. “Stoppit!”

  He chuckled. “I don't understand. It's like your hair has a life of its own.”

  Reese glowered. “You don't have to tell me what my hair is like. I know, I've been living with it my whole life.”

  Daniel sat up. “That's one thing that fascinates me.”

  Reese shook her head. “Yes, African American hair, has always been a topic of massive fascination, from slicks, to the Afro-fetish of the '80's, to whatever this is.” She replied, trying her best not to get defensive. This was one of those things she preferred not to talk about, because every time she did, it just brought her back awkward childhood conversations with her tactless classmates who would stop at nothing to make her feel as different as possible.

  Daniel planted a kiss on her nose, then responded with, “Well, your hair is one of the least fascinating things about you.”

  Reese couldn't help but to smile at this, but when she opened her mouth to respond, the shrill ringing of Daniel's phone cut through the air. Daniel picked it up glanced at it to see who it was, then gave Reese an apologetic look. “I have to take this.”

  Reese sighed, then hopped off the bed. “All right. I'll make breakfast.” She muttered as she put her tank top back on and slipped on her slippers. She left his room and shut the door gently behind her, being careful not to make any noise so as to not disturb him.

  Once in his living area, she opened all of his curtains, allowing the glow of the morning sun to illuminate the apartment. As she stretched open the last curtain, she froze, catching sight of his magnificent view. Being in the penthouse, Reese could, quite literally, see the entire city from the Hudson River to the far reaches of the Bronx.

  She took in everything, from the buildings that jutted into a blue sky with wisps of clouds floating this way and that, to the people thousands of feet beneath her that rushed through the streets like ants powered by equal parts ambition and fear.

  With a sigh, she tore herself away from the window and made her way to the kitchen. She opened the fridge, grabbed three eggs and set to work on breakfast. As she cooked, her mind wandered to the New Year's Eve party Daniel had taken her to. Even though, it had been almost a week since then, she couldn't stop thinking about people that Daniel constantly surrounded himself with and how different she was from all of them. She narrowed her eyes at the image of his boss, judging her, just behind her eyes and at the sea of people wearing things she couldn't even afford to rent.

  Yet, as she dropped her whisked eggs into a frying pan filled with melted butter, she found herself overcome with a strange sense of longing. She wished she could have bought those three thousand dollar shoes that she wore instead merely received them as a gift from Daniel. She wished she had a cousin or a father or an uncle with a connection that she could offer, if only to fit it. It was all strange to her because her whole life, she had been taught that achievement and worth were things measurable with academic accomplishments, not monetary gains. Yet, being with Daniel made her feel like those things mattered a lot less to him and to the people in his world than they did to her, and that gave her an eerie feeling inside.

  She split the omelet in half and slid it into two small plate. Just as she had grabbed an avocado and was in the process of cutting it in half, her phone chimed. She groaned, but stopped what she was doing and fetched it from its place on Daniel's coffee table. Her brow furrowed when she unlocked her screen and saw that it was a facebook message from Jack Benson. Having never heard of that name before in her life, she clicked on the link to his profile. Her heart skipped a beat at the sight of the man she had had that awkward bar-side conversation with on New Years Eve.

  His profile picture was of him behind the wheel of what looked like an insanely expensive boat. His golden hair looked ruffled by some invisible wind and the blue linen shirt he wore with only one button fastened, had flown apart, revealing a washboard chest.

  “Oh man.” Reese mumbled when she spotted the, “Respond to Request,” button that indicated that he had sent her a friend request. She sank into the couch and clicked on the button.

  “Hey, Reese?” Daniel's voice stopped her in her tracks.

  She looked up to find him fully dressed in slats and a maroon sweater. “Hey!” She jumped up and dropped her phone on the couch. “I made an omelet...” She explained as she scurried back into the kitchen, “And I was working on cutting up some avocado when my phone chimed.” She continued cutting the avocado.

  “Uhm. That's great. Omelets are great.” Daniel mumbled as he followed her into the kitchen.

  When Reese looked up at him, she noticed something strange about his demeanor. A worried look darkened his eyes, and he set his jaw in a way that made him look either incredibly angry or incredibly nervous. She couldn't decide which. “What's wrong?” She asked.

  He bit his lip. “I have to go to work today.”

  Reese's eyes went wide and her jaw dropped. “What? It's Sunday!”

  He nodded. “I know, but Mark and Jim want me to come in.”

  She ducked her head. “W-.... I... Well did you tell them you had plans, that you're busy?” She asked. They had both been really excited to check out an exhibit that had been up at The Whitney. Since they had both been extremely busy for the last two months, they managed to clear out their schedules for the last day it was going to be up... or so she thought.

  He shrugged. “I tried...”

  “Okay.” Reese said as she picked up the plates and led them to the dining table. “Well, what do they want? Can't you handle it tomorrow morning?”

  Daniel took a bite of his omelet, “Mmm,” he murmured as he smiled. “This is really good.”

  Reese rolled her eyes. “It's the simplest thing I could have made.” She snapped. She sat back in her chai
r and stared him down. A minute ago her stomach was growling for food, but now it churned with frustration at the fact that he was blowing her off yet again, for work.

  He shrugged, seeming to have completely ignored her obviously display of anger. “Either way, it's wonderful.” He shot her a fake smile, “Thank you.”

  “Are you just not going to tell me what's going on?”

  Daniel dropped his fork and released a long, painful sigh. “I don't want to worry you.” He replied in a short voice.

  “Worry me? Blowing off yet another one of our dates frustrates me. It kind of hurts me... But it doesn't worry me. Why do you think I would be worried?”

  “Okay, Reese. If you really want to get into this. I'm scared because our company hasn't been doing so well in the months since we took that twenty billion dollar loss...”

  “But everything seemed fine, “ Reese interrupted.

  “Yeah, because that's how it works around here. Everything is fine, and then you wake up one morning broke”

  “So, is that what just happened?” Reese asked. “Daniel, did you lose all of your money?”

  Daniel raised a hand. “No... I don't know. I think my company, may be in serious trouble and I think I'm being blamed for it.”

  “Why? Because they asked you to come in on a Sunday?”

  “No, because they refused to tell me why they wanted me to come in over the phone.”

  Reese bit her lip. “Like a, 'you should sit down for this,' type deal.”

  Daniel nodded.

  “huh.” Reese murmured. “But, why are you just now telling me this?”

  He ducked his head. “Telling you what?”

  “That you're company is in trouble!” She responded. She felt her face grow hot. She couldn't believe that after everything she had told him, after all the time they spent together, he didn't think it was “worth it,” or, “necessary,” to tell her something as big about his life as completely running out of money.

  “I'm sorry, I didn't realize I had to report the daily fluctuations of my checkbook to you.” He snapped.

  Reese flinched at his sarcastic words and pursed her lips at the sharp retaliation that banged around in her head, begging to be released. But when she watched him slam his elbows on to the table, and press his folded hands against his forehead, his shoulders rising and falling with his deep breaths, worry overcame her anger.

  She realized that this was his career and he was being faced with having it taken away from him. She got out of her chair and stood beside him, wrapping her arms around his stiff body, and burying her face in his freshly shampooed hair. “It's not about the money, Daniel.” She sighed.

  His muscles relaxed and he wrapped his arms around her waist.

  Chapter 14

  “You said you wanted me to be a part of your life.” Reese knelt down in front of him, resting her hand on his cheek. “So let me in.”

  Daniel trailed his hand across her cheek and traced her lips with his finger. “I know what I said and I meant it, but this, my job, is none of your concern.”

  Reese felt her eyes sting with the promise of tears. She gulped, “But,”

  But Daniel interrupted her, pressing his fingers against her lips and whispering, “Shhhh.”

  Her heart dropped into her stomach with, landing like an unforgiving knife-fall as she lowered her gaze. How could he be so exclusive and secretive all the time? She couldn't help but wonder if he kept her out of his affairs because he didn't think she could understand, or because that's how he treated all of his girlfriends. Yet, in imagining the Chanel-clad daughter of the CEO of Coca Cola, something told her he wouldn't hesitate to tell her all the going ons in his office.

  “Hey...” Daniel murmured as he lifted her chin. He leaned into her and kissed her.

  Reese closed her eyes, willing this embrace to erase all of her doubts about him... and about herself. But it ended far too quickly and by the time she had opened them again he was gently pushing himself away from her.

  He stood up and grabbed his jacket from the elaborate wood carving sitting right next to his front door, that also doubled as a coat rack.

  She stood in front of the dining table, watching him leave.

  “You can go to the Whitney while I'm gone. I'd hate to see you miss it because of this.”

  Reese bit her lip. Half of the allure of going to the exhibit in the first place, was going with him. She could hardly imagine herself trekking all the way down to the Whitney all by herself. It reminded her too much of how she was before she had met someone who didn't mind spending hours and hours looking at things that made you think.

  Daniel, seeming to have seen the desperately disappointed look on her face, held his arms open for a hug. She went to him, burrowing her face in the bit of cashmere sweater still exposed under his thick London Fog wool coat. He pulled away, muttering, “Excuse me while I go lose my job.”

  Reese ran her hands through her tangled hair as he opened his door, stepped over the threshold, then shut it behind him. The sound of the shutting door echoed throughout his spacious apartment, but when that was over, an eerie silence settled in. Reese turned to appraise the penthouse, her hands on her hips and her lips folded into a frown. Her gaze swept over the kitchen, whose counters were still covered in all of the things Reese had used to make breakfast; the dining table had two identical place settings across from each other, equally uneaten.

  A distinct feeling of malaise settled in the pit of her stomach as she stepped down into the dining area and began to clean the counter. It occurred to her that she was, once again, completely alone in the penthouse, which she had been every single day since she had moved in. For a short moment, she considered getting dressed and just going into the lab, but the thought of taking a subway down 100 blocks, just to stare at a bunch of papers she wouldn't even be able to concentrate on was extremely unappealing.

  As she set to work, wiping the slashes of egg and stray pieces of avocado off of his kitchen counters, her mind inevitably wandered back to the conversation they had just had and the words she was trying her best to just forget. It was like Daniel kept her on a seesaw of emotions, telling her that he wanted her in his life, taking her to his dinners and his parties, introducing her to his friends... but then holding her at arm's length when it really mattered. She felt like a screaming child in a sound proof room: no amount of discussion in argument was ever going to make him see her side.

  Eventually, she finished cleaning. As she sat on the couch, sinking into the cushions with an issue of The Economist (Daniel's favorite magazine) in her hand, the beeping light on her phone caught her eye. Her stomach flipped as she remembered the message and request from Jack. She grabbed her phone and opened the message. It read: “Please tell me this is that insanely interesting girl I met at The Roosevelt on New Year's Eve.”

  Reese couldn't help but to smile at this. She typed, “We hardly said five things to each other. Don't get ahead of yourself.”

  Almost immediately, he replied with, “That's what makes you so interesting...”

  She furrowed her brow, but held the message feed open as he typed more: “I'm just going to cut to the point here. I know how this may look, but Daniel and I are pretty good friends and I just want to get to know you.”

  She laughed once, surprised at how forthright he was being, and yet not believing a word that he said. “And I suppose you just want to be friends...” She typed.

  He almost instantly replied with, “Lol. Calm down. I have a girlfriend.”

  Reese raised an eyebrow. It struck her as strange that he had showed the type of interest in her that he had at that party if he truly did have a girlfriend. “Oh really?”

  “Yeah. She's a dancer on tour with Lady Gaga right now.”

  She gulped. A dancer? “So, what's your point?” Reese asked, trying her best not to sound offended by his insanely legitimate girlfriend.

  “My point is: I've got a free dance card today, so I was wondering if y
ou wanted to go on an adventure.”

  Reese couldn't help but laugh out loud at this. “And what would this adventure consist of ?”

  “I don't know.” He replied.

  She giggled again at this. “What?”

  “I was honestly hoping you had an idea. You seem like the kind of person who goes on adventures a lot.”

  Reese sighed to herself, taking note of the fact that she was, indeed, still smiling. Just the thought of going to the Whitney with him instead of sitting in the apartment all day, or worse, going alone was already starting to make her feel better. She stared at the set of tickets lying next to her mug on the coffee table. Daniel did say that he wanted her to go without him... in fact, he made it sound like he didn't care where she went or what she did, a sentiment that she wasn't entirely unused to when it came to him.

  “You know what, I actually have two tickets to an exhibit on Cold War art at The Whitney that I am dying to make use of.”

  “Great. What time do you want to meet up?”

  Reese checked the time on her phone, then did a quick physical assessment of the state of her hair and body. After determining the time it was going to take her to get dressed, she replied with, “1 PM.” Once the message sent, she stood up a stretched her arms out, a light smile on her face. As she held her gaze fixed on the sun, which hung high in the sky, and the glimmering buildings it illuminated, she was already starting to feel a hundred times better.

  Chapter 15

  Once Reese stepped out of the subway, then stopped to adjust her heavy scarf and the wool beret she had placed on her head as a last minute decision just before leaving. She slipped off her glove and pulled her phone out of her pocket in order to check the time. Just as she did this, her phone chimed with a message from Jack: “I'm outside.”

  Reese inhaled a sharp breath as she read this and typed a quick reply. Her heart beat with a fast and steady rhythm and she crossed the street, and half walked, half-ran down the two blocks that separated the subway station from The Whitney. Eventually, she turned the last corner and it came into view. The huge building, with its dark, wooden covering, its artfully situated bridge that connected the busy street with the vast glass doors, with the moat-like body of water that surrounded its front, then slipped off the sides in a waterfall that glistened in the frosty sunlight seemed to pulse with the life it fed off of the hundreds of thousands of art pieces that filled it.