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  Caress remained seated long after she finished. She needed a moment to herself. Tam-Tam was the best kind of friend but her girlfriend could talk and somewhere during her pregnancy Caress had developed a love of peace and quiet. She’d even found herself turning off the television to snuggle under the covers to read. Julius had an extensive book collection and right now she was devouring a book by Jordan Banks.

  Pregnancy was changing her. Motherhood would change her even more.

  Would fatherhood change Julius too?

  Caress frowned as she leaned forward as much as she could and placed her elbows on her knees. If it did, how would she know? She hardly knew any more about Julius than she did that night…even after almost two months living with him.

  In essence they really were still strangers.

  Air whished against Caress’s bared bottom as the bathroom door suddenly swung open. Her eyes got big as she squealed.

  “Shit. Sorry,” Julius swore, stepping back to swing the door closed.

  He was home.

  And he just caught a live action view of her on the john.

  “Great,” Caress drawled, finally pulling her sweats and panties up as she rose to her feet. She washed her hands and opened the door to step into the hall. Julius and Tamara were standing in the hall. Oh great, an audience .

  “Tam-Tam said you have good news,” Julius said, putting his hands on his narrow hips as he looked down at her petite frame.

  Caress shot Tamara a look that made her friend focus her attention on the cell phone in her hand as she moved past them to jog down the stairs.

  “I got the job at the insurance company,” she told him, unable to hold back her smile.

  Julius’s smile matched her own as he picked her up with ease and twirled her. Caress squealed as she instinctively snaked her arms around his neck to hold on for dear life. She kicked her feet and pressed her face into his strong, warm neck.

  Wrong move.

  She inhaled his warm and spicy scent. Awareness filled her, and her body literally tingled from being so close to him.

  Julius stopped spinning and looked down at Caress just as she drew her face away from the addictive and dizzying scent of his neck. They paused. Their eyes locked. Their mouths were just a few inches apart. Caress could smell the gum on his cool breath.

  Caress still wanted Julius. She’d never stopped. She wondered if she ever would.

  His eyes, those heated and intense eyes, dropped to her mouth and then to the tops of her breasts. She opened her mouth as she panted slightly like she needed air to breathe—and that was simply because he made her breathless.

  Tamara’s feet climbing the stairs brought them out of the spell.

  Caress licked her lips as she shifted her arms down from around his neck. Her hands eased over his chest, and she didn’t miss the thunderous pace and pounding of his heart. Even as he placed her back on her feet she couldn’t draw her eyes from his. Instinctively she knew the beating of his heart—which matched her own—was not from physical exertion.

  That excited the hell out of her.

  “Oops. Sorry I didn’t know I was interrupting,” Tamara said, already turning to walk back down the stairs.

  “No!” Julius and Caress hollered out together rather dramatically.

  That caused them both to laugh nervously as they moved farther apart.

  Tamara peeked her bobbed head over the railing with a knowing look. “Is it just me or is it hot up here?” she teased.

  Julius gave Tamara a hard look before he turned and walked to his bedroom. “I’m taking a shower.”

  “Kendrick’s bringing food and some movies…unless we’re in the way,” Tamara called behind him, as she winked at Caress.

  His bedroom door closed solidly behind him.

  Tamara continued up the stairs and moved over to bump her thick hip against Caress. “Girl, it’s so obvious you two want to get back in each other’s pants.”

  Caress pinched Tamara. “Stop it. You’re being childish,” she scolded.

  Tamara winced and then pinched Caress back. “You two stop it. You’re being foolish. I can cut the sexual tension with a knife,” she said dramatically as she sliced her hand through the air.

  Caress released a heavy breath before she turned and walked into her bedroom. She wanted to put on a less-revealing top. Her breasts had surged from a B-cup to a C and her fitted tank top made her look more like Pamela Anderson than she wanted to.

  Tamara walked into the room, predicting Julius and Caress would be going at it like rabbits really soon but Caress tuned her out. The only thing on her mind was the memory of that furious beating of Julius’s heart.

  Julius left the steam-filled bathroom loosely wrapping a towel around his waist. The length and breadth of his maleness, even at rest, was impressive and it pressed against the towel with strength. He released a deep breath before he sat down on the leather bench at the foot of his bed.

  This was a dangerous dance Caress and he were doing. His move to pick her up was innocent but in an instant it had changed. Switched. Flipped.

  Pregnant or not, Caress was still sexy as hell.

  He was fighting it…but he wanted her. He was curious to know if it would be just as good as that night. Or maybe even better?

  That had to be impossible.

  Caress living under the same roof with him was a wreck to his senses.

  Of course the scent of her perfume wafting through the house messed with both of his heads.

  Of course walking by the bathroom and hearing her in the shower evoked erotic images.

  Of course the sight of her breasts near spilling out of one of those damn spaghetti strapped tanks she loved so damn much made him dumbstruck like a horny teenager.

  He felt like a horny teenager anyway—he hadn’t had sex since the sexy flight attendant he met while en route to Africa and four months was a record for him. Plus Caress had singed her memory into his brain and his body was calling for more—even if his brain told him “don’t you do it.”

  Caress. Beautiful, exotic, complicated, sexy as hell, Caress. He felt his dick stir between his thighs and slightly tent the towel.

  Knock knock .

  Julius looked over to the door as he loosened the towel over his growing erection. “Come in,” he ordered, opening his legs wider so that hopefully his arousal wasn’t revealed.

  His bedroom door opened slowly. He looked up from where he sat. His eyes smoldered as the sight of Caress stepping into the doorframe.

  She wore nothing except for a sequined pair of sandals and a sultry smile.

  His eyes took in everything. Missed nothing.

  Her beautiful face free of makeup.

  Her petite but shapely frame.

  Her small but plump breasts with the darkest and fullest nipples and aureoles.

  Her wide hips made for a man’s hands.

  The soft ebony curls covering her plump mound.

  His dick surged even more with heat and strength, pressing against his towel.

  Caress walked into the room slowly, crossing one shapely leg in front of the other as she brought that sexy little body to him like she
had nothing else to do in the world.

  “Say you don’t want me…I dare you,” she said softly as she straddled his hips with ease on the bench.

  Julius breathed in and out deeply as he looked into her eyes. “I can’t,” he admitted, as his eyes dropped down to drink in the sight of her breasts.

  He swallowed over a sudden lump in his throat at the sight of her nipples hard like pebbles as they pointed at him. Tempting him. Calling him.

  Caress brought her hands up to trace a hot trail from the top of his strong thighs up to the back of his head. With her other hand she gently lifted one of her breasts before guiding his head toward her. She purred as she stroked her nipple against his mouth.

  His tongue darted out to lick it…

  “Julius…Julius…why the hell you looking at me like that?”

  He shook his head and the hot image of Caress on his lap disappeared like a mist. Instead there was Kendrick standing over him. “Damn,” Julius said softly, wiping his mouth with his hands as reality sunk in.

  “Man. Throw some clothes on before Tamara thinks we on the damn down-low or some shit,” Kendrick complained, before he turned and left the room.

  Julius could only shake his head. Even in his daydreams Caress was hard as hell to resist.

  Chapter Eight

  Tamara licked the back of her card and then stuck it to her forehead with a “Bam!” before she then slapped it on the center of the card table. “Can y’all handle that?” she asked Caress and Julius, pointing to the ten of hearts. “Ain’t nothing they can do with it, baby,” she said, turning to Kendrick.

  Caress and Julius eyed each other from across the table.

  There was nothing worse than a cocky whist player.

  Caress shook her head shamefully when Julius tossed out his last card, a King of Diamonds—he was out of trump. Kendrick threw out a low piece of diamonds. Caress couldn’t do a thing with the piece of club in her hand—face card or not.

  Trumps were all played and everyone threw off the suit Tamara led with. Her piece of heart was nasty.

  Kendrick and Tamara stood up and started their obnoxious high fives across the table. Caress was confident they would’ve bumped chests if the table wasn’t blocking them.

  Caress stood up and started to gather their wine and highball glasses. “Oh, man, please y’all act like you ran a Boston or something.”

  “Ain’t it,” Julius agreed, rising to stretch.

  “Whateverrrrrr,” Tamara said, glancing at her watch. “Come on, baby, let’s go home and celebrate by spankin’ dat ass.”

  “You two really need more victories to celebrate,” Julius drawled as he started picking up their plates and empty Chinese food containers.

  Kendrick retrieved their coats from the foyer closet. He helped his wife into hers before he shrugged his own on. “Congrats again, Caress,” he said, as she walked into the foyer with her hands full. He bent down quickly to kiss her cheek and give her a one-armed hug.

  “Thank you.”

  “Yes, congrats, girl,” Tamara said, rubbing Caress’s belly before she leaned in close to whisper in her ear. “I had a good time. It was a nice couples’ night.”

  Caress started to protest but Tamara just laughed a little and walked out the door behind her husband.

  Julius strolled out of the living room with his hands filled as well. “I wash. You dry,” he offered with a charming smile.

  Caress started to tell him that he was the one to insist on using regular plates instead of paper ones, but she just turned and headed for the kitchen. Julius followed behind her. While she filled the deep sink with water and detergent, Julius scraped the plates before placing them next to the glasses already on the counter. Caress shifted over, giving him the sink while she grabbed a dish towel.

  They worked together in a comfortable silence, the soft strains of Julius’s constantly playing jazz music floated in the air.

  At times their arms or legs would brush from being in such close proximity. Each innocent touch was building a slow burn between them. The air surrounding them was charged with electricity.

  Caress’s entire body was alive from his nearness. His closeness.

  Their hands accidentally touched, and they both jumped like they’d been shocked with high voltage.

  Caress swallowed over a sudden lump as she grasped the edge of the sink tightly.

  “Caress, we need to talk about this,” Julius said.

  She closed her eyes as she waited for her heart to resume its regular pacing. “About what?” she asked, proud of herself for sounding like the man wasn’t turning her into jelly with nothing… nothing but his presence.

  “We want each other. We still want each other.”

  Caress chanced a look up at him. He was leaning against the sink looking down at her with his arms folded across his defined chest. She licked her lips nervously and Julius threw his hands up in exasperation.

  “Don’t do that,” he said.

  Caress was confused and looked it. “What?”

  “Lick your lips,” he said in a deep voice. “You’re not helping.”

  “Oh be serious, Julius. I am not trying to seduce you. I’m pregnant for God’s sake,” she said, whirling to poke her stomach out at him.

  Julius shoved his hands into the pocket of the loose fitting—but still stylish—sweatpants he wore with a wifebeater. “Pregnancy hasn’t made you any less sexy Caress.”

  Or less horny , she thought as she started to lick her lips again at the husky tones of his voice, but when his eyes darted down to her mouth she quickly tucked her lips inward. “Okay, Julius, Mr. Sexy Cologne, and shirts with just enough muscle exposed and that bowlegged walk—can you stop all that?” she asked.

  “My walk?” he spouted.

  Caress leaned her shapely hip against the sink as she looked up at him with more boldness than she felt on the inside. “You walk like you holding, and if memory serves me right…you are,” she admitted.

  Julius frowned deeply. “I can’t help how I walk.”

  “And I can’t help that our baby has given me… these ,” she waved her hand rather dramatically across her breasts. “But I catch you looking.”

  Julius bit back a grin. “They’re pretty hard to miss.”

  Caress laughed too, putting her hands on her small, round belly as she did.

  And there was that comfortable air around them again. The kind of comfort a man found with his woman and a woman found only with her man. It was a zone Caress was afraid to find comfort in and she felt Julius wanted no part of. “I’ll be out of here soon,” she reminded him. “Me and all this sexiness.”

  She was joking but when she looked up at Julius his eyes had darkened. That awareness between them returned like the snap of a finger.

  “Fuck it,” he muttered low in his throat, before he took one step forward, squatted down, and lightly grasped the sides of her face with a deep, guttural moan that was telling.

  Caress sighed in the heated moments just before Julius pressed his mouth down upon hers. Their lips fit like puzzle pieces as they shared one long and passionate kiss. And then a dozen rushed and heated pecks. And then an erotic and sizzling twirl of their tongues in that minute space between their damp and open mouths. And then that frantic and deep kiss like they were
trying to draw life from each other.

  Julius broke the kiss long enough to pant deeply as he kept his face pressed to hers. “I wanted to do that all while I was in Africa,” he admitted. “I dreamt about that little move you do with your—”

  “Julius! We have to fight it,” Caress reminded him, even as she brought her hands up to massage the back of his head.

  Julius nodded. “Too many complications.”

  “Too many expectations,” Caress added before she turned Julius’s head toward her to briefly taste his delicious mouth again. Just once more .

  “Caress, I don’t know how much more I can fight—”

  “No, no, no, no, no,” Caress insisted, whirling away from Julius and quickly moving over by the island. “I will admit it, Julius Jones. I have not forgotten that night either. It was good. It was real good. Addictive. Delicious.”

  Julius ran his hand over his mouth before he whirled and walked over to the fridge to pull out one of her Snapples. He tossed his head back and drank the entire bottle nonstop. Her eyes shifted down to his throat and just the movement of his Adam’s apple put Caress on edge.

  “But…I am not a one-night freakum or booty call kinda chick, Julius,” she said in a rushed voice like she was trying to convince herself why her pregnant behind shouldn’t strip naked and hike her heels to the ceiling. “I’m a girlfriend, committed girl kinda chick. You’re not looking for that…but I am. And sex would mess me up, so no matter how many wet dreams, no matter that you turn me the hell on, no matter that…that…night was the best…sex…I ever had…no more na-na for you, Julius Jones.”

  He nodded as he laughed low in his throat. “And no more for you, Caress Coleman.”

  They fell silent again for a little while and a haunting jazz song took prominence. They moved back to their positions at the sink and quietly finished up the dishes. As Caress put the dried dishes back inside the cabinets, Julius used the dishcloth to wipe down the countertops and the island.