After The One (The One Series Duet) (41 page)

Tate chuckled to himself. “You’ve always been violent.”

“And don’t you forget it.” She lightly punched him in the arm. “Now that I’m speaking to you again… Thanks for walking that bitch out earlier. She avoided a beat down, too.”

He laughed harder. “Well when I saw the show’s staff not doing anything, I thought stopping her from ruining the wedding was the least I could do. I mean, I did come here hoping to steal the bride.”

“And now you’re destined for a life full of the groupies and gold diggers you wanted all those years ago.” Turning in her gown, she started walking back into the building with Tate following behind. “As my grandma always says, there are even bugs that eat knotweed.”

Tate’s face scrunched up in confusion. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Koko gave Tate a look over her shoulder. “There’s no accounting for taste.”

*****

Winters is Coming

“We have to keep it down if we don’t want to be caught,” Julian whispered as he palmed my ass and backed me into a small, dimly lit studio.

“I’ll be quiet,” I promised, running my fingers through his black hair which had grown longer.

He only let go of my ass to lock the door behind us and then he pulled me flush against him again. His lips brushed against the shell of my ear. “You are so beautiful…and sexy…” He moved his lips down and then back up my neck, nibbling along the way. “And you taste so good.”

I sighed as his mouth covered mine. “It’s been too long,” I whispered between kisses.

Unzipping his jeans and pushing them down, I ran my hand over the bulge in his boxer briefs. Reaching inside, I wrapped my fingers around his girth. It was hot and heavy in my hand. I squeezed gently and relished in the feeling of his body reacting.

“Zoe.” He exhaled my name with so much want that I started to throb with need.

I stroked the length of him. “We don’t have much time.”

With a sharp intake of breath, Julian grunted, moving my hand and backing me against the wall. I gasped as I hit it with a thud. Our lips connected in a series of heated kisses. “They can wait. I’ve missed you.” Pulling my tight magenta dress over my hips, he slipped his fingers inside my black silk G-string. “Shit…”

“Yes,” I murmured against his lips as the pads of his fingertips slipped easily over my clit. “I’ve missed you so much.”

As soon as the words were out of my mouth, Julian parted my full lips with his tongue and kissed me hard and deep. He pushed his finger all the way inside me causing me to cry out. “I can tell. You’re soaking wet.” Spreading my wetness around, he added a second finger and then let out the sexiest groan. “I’ve missed that sound.”

The sheer pleasure of his fingers inside me was too much. When he pulled out, I whimpered.

Putting his forehead against mine, his grey eyes stared into my brown ones. “I need to be inside of you. Now.”

“Yes, please.” I bit my lip, hiding my grin. “I can’t guarantee I’m going to be able to keep quiet,” I admitted as I slipped off my G-string.

Running his hand along the full length of his dick, Julian’s gaze raked my body hungrily. When our eyes met, he licked his lips. “I can guarantee you won’t.”

Leveraging me against the wall, he grabbed the back of my thigh and lifted my leg. Using his thumb, he caressed my clit, driving me crazy. He kissed me deeper, allowing our tongues to caress before he started teasing me.

My breathing became labored. “That feels so—”

We moaned in unison as he eased the head of his dick inside me.

“I’ve been…” His words and breathing faltered as he slowly inched his way inside me, stretching me out. “I’ve been going crazy without you…”

I couldn’t even respond. My nipples were so hard, they hurt. Rotating my hips, I pulled his mouth to mine and kissed him with a passion that had built up for the last three months. I felt his fingers dig into my skin as he struggled to pace himself.

Without warning, he thrusted into me and I let out a loud noise that was part gasp and part groan. My heart thumped inside my chest cavity and my knees buckled.

“That’s it… that’s it…” Julian coerced my first orgasm out of me, catching me by surprise. “Shit.”

My head jerked back, hitting the wall hard, but I barely noticed as pleasure pulsed through me. My new angle propelled my breasts upward and Julian slowed his thrusts to catch my nipple between his teeth. The wet, hot heat of his mouth permeated the jersey knit dress, sending a shockwave of desire to extend the orgasm.

Breathing heavily, I lifted my head to find Julian staring at me with a mixture of love and lust. He had stilled himself for a moment before slowly starting to work his way into me again.

“I needed that,” I huffed, rotating my hips to meet each stroke.

Julian exhaled roughly. “I needed to see that. The way your body responds…” He licked his lips and started to increase his pace. “I almost came watching you.”

“Oh yeah,” I murmured. His words caused me to tighten around him which in turn, seemed to spur him on.

He took in a sharp breath. With his eyes shut and his bottom lip clamped between his teeth, I saw the strain on his face as he was holding his release back. The sight of him struggling to hold it together almost broke me apart. Every single one of my nerve endings burned for him and I felt my second orgasm building right there.

“Julian,” I whimpered, clutching him.

“Fuck, that’s sexy,” he grunted, ramming me against the wall. “Say it again.”

“Julian,” I repeated, needier than before.

Because I was—in that moment, I needed him like I needed air to breathe.

“Shit…sa-say it again.”

“Julian…oh!”

Holding me steady and fisting my hair, Julian drove himself into me over and over again. The sound of Julian forcing his way in and out of my wetness echoed in the silent room. My panting grew louder and more insistent as he grunted with each powerful stroke. My orgasm built quickly and as much as I wanted to hold out and savor it, it was a losing battle.

I lost it.

I dug my nails into his shoulders, screaming as I clamped down, writhing on him. My mouth fell open and my toes curled inside of my five inch heels.

“Fuck!” Julian growled before crashing his lips into mine.

His kisses were a mixture of reckless abandonment and uninhibited hunger. His strokes and breathing were erratic and chaotic. And at some point, he lifted my other leg and fucked me senseless against the wall.

Deep guttural groans reverberated throughout the room as Julian exploded inside me. I shuddered as he filled me up.

We huffed and puffed into each other’s mouths as we caught our breath. Our kisses, and our heart rates, slowed down as we disengaged.

Julian gently lowered me to the ground, making sure I could stand before letting me go. Dropping his forehead to mine, he didn’t just stare at me, he stared into me.

The spark of emotion he managed to ignite lit up every inch of me. After all this time, he still managed to give me butterflies.

I reached up and touched his face, brushing my lips against his. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” he replied. Taking the paper towels we’d grabbed on the way into the studio out of his pocket, he cleaned me up.

I stepped into my panties as he pulled up his pants. There was a bathroom down the hall, but we’d have to walk across the main entryway to get to it. We inspected each other to make sure we were presentable before we exited. After a quick trip to the bathroom, we strolled down the hallway, back to the party, hand-in-hand.

“Well, well, well...” Koko startled us from behind just as we were going to cross the threshold into the party. We turned toward her voice, waiting for her to catch up.

With her midnight blue hair that transitioned to brighter blue hues as it got to the ends, Koko stood out. But it was her laugh that always got my attention first. Since we met ten years ago, my best friend’s laugh was usually the best way I could find her in a crowd.

Julian and I started laughing as she tried to glare at us from the other end of the hallway.

“Hey!” I greeted her with over-the-top excitement.

“Mmm hmmm,” she pursed her lips as she gave us both the eye. She looked at her watch. “Twenty minutes is a mighty long time to go get a diaper bag.”

Having no response, we snickered.

Julian kissed the back of my hand. “I should probably run to get the diaper bag.”

I nodded, still amused. “Yeah, probably.”

“Fortunately for you,” Koko continued. “Beverly had the spare key and I was able to get it from the car. I figured since you two haven’t seen each other in months, you weren’t coming back anytime soon.”

“Thank you,” we said in unison as we laughed.

As she saddled up to us, the cutest little boy in the whole world lifted his head off of her shoulder and smiled at me. I reached out for him. With dark curly tuffs of hair, light brown eyes, and naturally tanned skin, Evan Jordan Winters reached out for me.

“Mama!”

Koko looked down and pouted. “Ohhhh, okay! After Auntie Koko feeds you and lets you throw her phone across the room, you are just going to leave me as soon as you see your Mommy and Daddy?”

Evan twisted his body and stretched his little fifteen month old hands out and I scooped him up. “You have fun with your Auntie Koko?”

He smiled and cooed nonsensical words as I smothered him with kisses. Seeming to sense his dad, Evan whipped his hard head around, hitting my chin.

Damnit that hurt!

“Dada,” Evan exclaimed, attempting to leap out of my arms.

“I’m old news it seems,” I joked as I handed Evan to his beaming father.

“Not to me.” He winked at me before giving his undivided attention to our child. “Hey Buddy, I missed you…”

Julian and Evan walked ahead of us. Watching my husband in his tight white shirt that stretched across his muscles was already a sexy sight. But watching my husband interact with our child was one of the sexiest things I’d ever seen—right up there with watching him on stage or reading any of his poetry. The things that made him a great man were the same things that made him a great father.

I sighed happily. “Thank you for watching Evan while we…took care of some things.”

Koko swatted me away. “You know I’m happy to watch Evan anytime. It’s good practice.” Looking down, she put her hands on her belly. “Can you tell?”

Because Koko was naturally so slim and her clothing tended to be formfitting, it wouldn’t be hard to tell she was showing a small baby bump. But in her strapless black mini dress with pockets, no one would notice.

“Your secret is safe and you look beautiful so win, win.” We stood at the entranceway of the party. “You’re glowing.”

“You also look beautiful. And you have a glow as if you were just bumping uglies with Julian Winters.”

My head fell back and I laughed. Koko’s gasping giggles only extended my amusement.

“You crack me up. I miss you.” Turning, I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her tightly. “Why’d you have to move so far away?” I playfully whined.

Koko ended the lease we’d had on our apartment when she’d moved in with her boyfriend in the spring. A few months after they’d moved in together, she was a few months pregnant.

“I’m only an hour away.” She squeezed me and rubbed my back. “But I hate that it’s in the opposite direction of your job now.”

“I know!” I exclaimed. “That’s what I mean. In the apartment, when you were off and home, I looked forward to our lunches twice a week.”

Looking around the room at our guests, I noticed a handsome face staring over at us.

I smiled at him.

“He loves you,” I said as he started to approach us from the opposite side of the room. He’d only gotten three steps before getting stopped by Julian’s assistant, Beverly Davis.

“I know.” Koko was quiet. “I love him, too.”

“I know. You two need to talk about this.” My voice was gentle as I knew it was a sensitive subject.

“I don’t know what else there is to say. He told me he doesn’t want to have kids,” she reminded me. “And with all of the birth control we’ve always been careful to use, Peanut still made it through. I know he has a right to know and I’m going to tell him. But if he puts me in a position to choose, I’m choosing Peanut.” Her voice broke at the end of the sentence causing me to embrace her with more force.

“I know, Koko. I’m sorry you’re going through this, but you’re not alone. You have me. I just wish you would tell him so I wouldn’t worry so much about you—especially with us not seeing each other as often. Look at the way he looks at you. I don’t think you have anything to worry about, but I get it. This is a lot to process. Anything you need—room, board, hand-me-downs—I got you. But you’re going to start really showing any minute now. You can’t rely on kimonos and baby doll dresses to hide you away forever.”

“Whatever, dude. I look hot in kimonos and baby doll dresses so I’m wearing the fuck out of them until my due date,” Koko giggled. “And I can hide mine for at least as long as you hid yours.”

“I’m a lot curvier than you so it was harder to tell,” I argued with a chuckle. “And the people I work with at the firm are very involved with themselves. By the time I was really showing, I’d already been there for long enough that firing me—the only African American female lawyer at the firm—for a sexist reason would’ve raised some eyebrows. And I know the laws they’d be violating to try to fire me.”

Koko laughed.

“I had to hide mine for survival. You work with JJ who loves you and supports you. And you’re really slim and you stand really close to people all day applying their makeup. People are not going to keep believing that that’s food.”

Our hug had turned into a means of support as we laughed heartily and held each other up. Switching the subject as Bryce came close, we let each other go.

“I didn’t get a chance to say this earlier, but I love what you guys did to this place—great colors and style choices.” Koko was talking to me, but staring at Bryce.

Julian’s expanded, state-of-the-art recording studio, Winters Wonderland, was launched the summer after Evan was born. With large windows, hard wood floors, and enough room for album release and listening parties, the lobby was the perfect location for Julian’s surprise birthday and welcome home party from his summer tour.