THE SWEETEST TABOO (BENNETT SERIES 2.5)

by Brenda Jackson

  She had turned, looked him in the face and said, “No.” Lying through her teeth.

  Bringing her thoughts back to the present, she offered him his jacket, but he didn’t take it. Instead he said, “Aren’t you going to invite me to stay awhile for coffee?”

  She tilted her head and continued to stare at him. “I would if I thought that was all you wanted.”

  “But you and I know it’s not, don’t we?” he asked in a raspy voice.

  “Yes.”

  “Okay,” he said taking a step closer to her. “Since I get the feeling that we won’t be making out tonight, how about a kiss goodnight?”

  She knew about his kisses. Was well aware of how they could make her body sizzle. But she also knew she wanted to lock lips with him something awful. A kiss she could handle. The key would be not to let it get out of control. If she were to do such a thing there was no doubt in her mind that he would have her on her back in two seconds flat. But even with that risk, she wanted his kiss. She would just have to keep her wits.

  “I don’t have a problem with a goodnight kiss.” She instantly knew she had made a mistake, had underestimated his skill as a seducer, when she saw the serious glint in the depths of his blue eyes.

  Her gaze fell from his eyes to his lips and she all but licked hers. His mouth was so beautifully shaped, so well defined, she pulled in a small breath just thinking about all the things a mouth like that could do for a woman.

  Could do for her.

  “I won’t need this for a while,” he said, taking his jacket out her hand and tossing it across the room to the sofa.

  She lifted a brow. “Just how long do you think one kiss will last?”

  A smile spread from one corner of his lips to the other. “No telling. You can’t stick a time limit on something like that.”

  Sonya narrowed her gaze, thinking she could, and she would. She took a step closer to him, so close her body was flushed against his, and not surprised that he was aroused. Looping her arms around his neck, she decided to be the one calling the shots with this kiss. “Okay, Mike Kelly, pucker up.”

  And those were her last words. At least they were the last that she coherently recalled.

  The moment Mike leaned over and captured her mouth in his, sticking his tongue inside her mouth on her breathless sigh, she felt weak in the knees, unbearably hot between the legs and every inch of her skin felt sensitive. He began dueling with her tongue, taking control of it like it was his to have, to play with, to mate with, to inflict all kind of sensual torment.

  He then escalated the kiss, went deeper, took her mouth with a hunger, a greediness and yearning that she felt all the way to her toes. And she felt something else, his hands as they made her backside the center of their attention. He cupped her rear end with a skill that had her moaning and pressing her body closer to him, to his hardness. Automatically her legs shifted to cradle his erection between them, and she heard the groan that came from deep within his throat.

  He momentarily withdrew his lips from hers. “Careful,” came the sexy whisper in her ear. “Or else I’ll be tempted to take this kiss to a whole other level.” He then dragged his lips across her cheeks, jaw, and then back along her lips where he brushed a heated kiss there.

  She pulled in a deep breath, tried to think. But when she felt one of his hands leave her backside to slide beneath the waistband of her jeans, she fought to retain the ability to think at all. It wasn’t working. Not by a long shot.

  Sonya pulled in strength from somewhere – not sure where – and said in a ragged voice, “You’ve been told you can’t go there.”

  His lips came back to the side of her ear. A tongue flicked out and licked her there, causing a shiver to pass through her before he whispered, “You said I couldn’t get under your skirt. You aren’t wearing a skirt.”

  She closed her eyes as his fingers began inching past the waistband of her thong to caress the area that lay between her two cheeks. She knew she had to stay in control. “Just a play on words, Mike. Different clothes. Same meaning. You aren’t getting any.”

  He slowly pulled back his hand and curved it back on her rear end. He pulled her nearer to the fit of him and said, “Umm, maybe not tonight, but eventually I’ll get some. And you will be the one begging for me to take it when I do.”

  She would have pulled back and laughed at something so utterly ridiculous if he hadn’t chosen that moment to seize her mouth again. And he took it with a hunger that was even more intense than before. And her senses – at least what was left of them – got shot to hell. But he didn’t know that. He was too single-mindedly focused on her mouth to take anything else into consideration.

  Sometime later, he withdrew his mouth from hers again and whispered, “You never said these were off limits.”

  Just as she was about to ask what “these” he was referring to, he tugged her knit top off her shoulders. And before she could pull in a quick intake of breath, he had the front catch of her bra undone and the mounds of her breasts poured out.

  And then his mouth was there, latching one in his mouth with a quickness that astounded her. She let out a deep moan. Not of pain but of pleasure. Her hardened nipples became a sensuous feast to his mouth, and she murmured incoherently, words she didn’t know the meaning, didn’t much care for a definition. The only thing she was fully aware of beside the fact that her panties were wet, literally soaked, was that his mouth was lethal. It should be classified as utterly dangerous.

  He released one nipple and immediately sought out the other and she let out a stifled cry, unable to ignore just how he was making her feel; relentlessly bringing it to the forefront of her mind that it had been fourteen months, three days and twelve hours since she’d gotten laid. Hell, yes, she was counting and was wondering how much longer she could last.

  And then he lifted his head and took her mouth again in a gentler fashion this time but no less thorough. Moments later when he released her mouth it took all her control to just stand there and say nothing while he straightened back her clothes – resnapping her bra and pulling her top back up in place to cover her shoulders. When that was completed, he leaned down and placed a kiss right there in her chest, in the V-neckline of her top.

  Mike stood staring at her and she wondered what he was thinking. She watched as he shoved a hand through his hair while blowing out a deep breath. And then he said, his gaze locked with hers, “I want you even more now than before. But like I said, you will be the one who’ll ask for it and when you do, I’ll be more than eager to give you what you want. What we both want.”

  “It’s not going to happen, Mike.”

  He gave her a smile that set butterflies off in her already stirred stomach. He took a step back and then crossed the room to get his jacket. When he returned, he reached out and with the back of his hand caressed her cheek and said softly, “Thank you for such an explosive kiss. Good night.”

  Moments later, after the door had closed behind him, she was still standing there motionless, practically in a trance, waiting for the earth to stop spinning so she could get her bearings, and recollect her common sense.

  The battle was on and she had no intention of losing.

  • • •

  “Would you take a look at this report for a minute?”

  Sonya glanced up from the papers she had spread on her desk into the face of Theo Crosby, the office’s wanna-be-lover-boy. She inwardly groaned. Lately, he would use any excuse to seek her out and say some flirty remark to her.

  For some reason he seemed determined to get into her panties – like someone else she knew. But in her opinion, Mike had a better chance than Theo and the chances Mike had were slim to none. That said very little for Theo. What she saw as the man’s prime problem was that he thought too much of himself. But then so did Mike, she reminded herself. So what was the difference? Why did Mike have the ability to push her buttons when Theo totally turned her off? If she was going strictly by race then Theo should have an
advantage since he was a brother. And he wasn’t bad looking and always dressed nice.

  But she knew without thinking a lot about it just what was missing. Sexual chemistry. It was something she and Mike had an overabundance of.

  “I’ll look at it later, Theo. I’m sort of busy right now,” she finally said, glancing back down at her own report.

  He threw the folder down on her desk anyway, right in the middle of her papers and then leaned forward, flattened his palms down on her desk and got right in her face and said, “Come on, baby-doll, loosen up. It’s almost lunchtime. You need to take a break.”

  “I agree and that’s why I’m here.”

  Sonya recognized that deep, husky voice. However, just to make sure she wasn’t imagining things she shifted in her chair to glance over Theo’s shoulder. Mike stood in her doorway bigger than life and looking sexy as ever. The sight of him almost made her breathless. She hadn’t seen him since Saturday night, and that was a day short of being a week ago . . . not that she was keeping up with it or anything.

  She somehow found her voice. “Mike,” she greeted, coming to her feet and wondering why he was there. For Theo’s sake she tried not sounding too surprised since she didn’t want him to think Mike’s visit was unexpected.

  Mike cut his gaze from Theo to her. “Your secretary said it was okay for me to come on back.” He then looked back at Theo, although his next comment was meant for her. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything important, but I’m here to take you to lunch.”

  She lifted a brow. The only other time Mike had ever dropped by the office to take her to lunch was when the two of them were pretending to have an affair for Jesse and Carla’s sake. And even then they had met downstairs in the lobby. She could just imagine the speculation that will start around the office with him showing up like this to take her to lunch.

  “No, you’re not interrupting anything. I just need to grab my purse,” she said. She stood and glanced at Theo, ignoring the scowl on his face and decided to introduce the two men. “Theo, this is Mike, a friend of mine. Mike, this is Theo, a co-worker.”

  Sonya could tell from the way Theo glared at her that he didn’t like the way the introductions had been made. And to prove he hadn’t liked it, he didn’t bother moving away from her desk to shake the hand Mike offered him. Instead his gaze went to her. “What about my report?”

  There was an edge to his voice that she really didn’t appreciate. “You can leave your report here and I’ll take a look at it later like I said I would.”

  Evidently deciding he didn’t want her to review his report after all, he came around her desk to gather up his papers. “So that’s the way it is with you?” he said in a low but sharp voice for her ears only.

  She knew just what he was asking. Some brothers had a problem with seeing a sistah date outside her race. But then it was vice versa when it came to some sistahs when they saw a brother do it. Personally, she tried minding her own business and had never given interracial dating a thought . . . until she’d met Mike. But regardless, she didn’t owe Theo, or anyone else for that matter, an explanation on her choice of a date and she didn’t like being put into the position that she did. Sonya met Theo’s hard gaze with one of her own. “The way it is for me, Theo, is whatever way I decide to call it.”

  “You’ve never gone out with me,” he accused in a low voice that almost sounded like a childish pout.

  She leaned closer to him and whispered, “Maybe you ought to wonder why.”

  She then straightened and glanced over his shoulder. Mike seemed rather annoyed and the look he was giving her could probably melt stone. There was no reason for him to be upset and she couldn’t help wondering just what his problem was. He was the one who had dropped by out of the clear blue sky after ignoring her for nearly a week.

  Theo stalked out of her office. And she meant stalked, like a little kid who couldn’t have things his way. He was a thirty-four-year old man but was acting like he was a four-year-old little boy. He really needed to grow up.

  She glanced over at Mike after putting her purse straps across her shoulder. “I’m ready.”

  “Sorry if I caused a stir between you and that guy.”

  Sonya tilted her head when she came to stand in front of him. There was not one regretful look in his eyes. “No, you’re not sorry.”

  “Okay, I’m not.”

  She was a little surprised by his admittance. “Why?”

  “We’ll talk about it over lunch.”

  Sonya looked directly into his blue eyes. “And speaking of lunch . . . why are you here?”

  “I thought you and I could go somewhere to eat while you fill me in on how the plans for the party are going.”

  “Why didn’t you call?”

  A smile flashed across his lips. “Because I got it from a very reliable source that you like surprises.”

  • • •

  “You didn’t have to invite me to lunch to get an update on Jesse and Carla’s party,” Sonya said, a short while later after they had finished lunch and the waiter had cleared their table.

  Mike glanced over at her. He had suggested a restaurant across town that was known for their Thai selections. They had discovered a while back that they both enjoyed Asian foods. He took a sip of his drink and then said, “I know but I wanted to. Besides, we haven’t talked in a while.”

  “You saw me last weekend.”

  He nodded. “Yes, but before I left your place Saturday night, talking was the last thing on my mind.”

  Mike decided not to mention anything about the cold shower he’d taken that night, which really hadn’t helped. He had awakened in the middle of the night and prowled around his condo, naked as a jay bird and horny as hell. He’d pretty much convinced himself he could go a week without calling her, without seeking her out, or looking into her face. But this morning when he’d gotten out of bed, he’d been like a man addicted. He had wanted to see her. He had needed to see her.

  That thought didn’t sit well with him that he could crave any woman this badly. And to top things off, he had walked into her office and had encountered something he had never dealt with before - jealousy when it came to a woman. That in itself was just plain ludicrous. Mike Kelly had never gotten jealous over a woman and had actually thought that he wasn’t capable of displaying that sort of emotion. Today he had been proven wrong. Even now when he thought about the degree of lust he’d seen in the man’s eyes, he wanted to hit something.

  “So, why aren’t you sorry?”

  It suddenly occurred to him that Sonya had asked him a question. “Excuse me?”

  She leaned over the table closer to him. His gaze moved from her eyes to her lips, and then they lowered to the V-neckline of her blouse. One thing he’d noticed about her was that she liked wearing blouses that revealed the upper part of her full and firm breasts, which was probably the reason that Theo guy had been leaning over her desk, all in her face and looking down dead at her chest.

  “I asked why you aren’t sorry. Back at my office you apologized for interrupting me and Theo, but admitted that you actually weren’t sorry.”

  Mike took another sip of his drink and decided not to divulge anything about the jealousy bit. “The man was all in your face,” he said. “He was annoying you.”

  She lifted a brow. “How could you tell? You couldn’t see my face since he was blocking your view.”

  “No, but I heard it in your voice. Trust me. I know how it sounds when you’re annoyed about something. I’ve heard it before since you’ve used that same tone on me several times.”

  Sonya stared at him for a few moments and smiled before saying, “Now you’re making me sound like a shrew.”

  “Sorry.”

  “No, you’re not.”

  Mike returned her smiled. “Yes, I am this time. Really.”

  He then reached across the table and took one of her hands and brought it to his lips. “And if you give me the chance, I’ll make it up to you.
”

  Mike knew the exact moment heat began engulfing her because he felt that same degree of heat overtaking him as well. It had been simmering below the surface from the moment she had slid into his car and the hem of her skirt raised a little and he’d caught a glimpse of her thigh. Now that they had finished lunch, what he wanted more than anything was for them to skip dessert and suggest they go to his place and whip up a little mouth-watering tasty tart of their own.

  She pulled her hand back, but he knew it was too late. He’d started her blood to burning. The same desire that was sweeping through him had to be doing the same thing to her. There was no way she could deny it and it was past time they did something about it. It was his opinion that if they were destined to burn then they might as well enjoy the fire.

  “Come to my place tonight, Sonya.”

  Giving him a haughty look, she said. “Give me one reason why I should.”

  “I could give you plenty of reasons,” he said, murmuring low so that only she could hear. “Such as the fact that we want each other in a bad way, and I think it’s time to stop playing games and take us both out of our misery.”

  “I’m not in any misery.”

  He lifted a brow. “Aren’t you?”

  She didn’t say anything, just sat there and stared at him. Actually, glared at him would be a better way to put it. Even though she didn’t like what he had said, the bottom line was that they both knew to deny his statement would be a lie.

  “Or better yet,” he said, deciding to push further while he had her wavering on the edge, “we can leave here and go to my place now. Why wait for later?”

  Now it was Sonya who lifted a brow. “I have work back at the office that I need to do.”

  “There’s work and there’s pleasure. Of the two, which do you think would be more rewarding and fulfilling?”

  She sat there for a second, staring at him as if weighing his question. He let out a deep sigh of relief when she reached into her purse and pulled out her cell phone, punched in a few numbers and then said, “La’Trell, this is Sonya. I won’t be coming back into the office. I’ve decided to take the rest of the afternoon off and need you to lock up for me please. Thanks, and you have a good weekend as well.”