Bedding the Best Man (5 page)

That spring break, he and I had the whole
campus to ourselves. We studied on blankets spread out over the
lawn, the library, some of the local restaurants and any place we
wanted. More importantly we talked and laughed and shared dreams in
that week.

“
You didn’t have to come.
I never asked you to.”

“
But you didn’t turn me
away.”

Because I needed him. “I struggled, but I
would have figured it out. Gotten more tutors.”

“
You’re smart. You would
have figured it out when you weren’t stressing over it or putting
yourself down. Tell me. How many of the men you’ve dated or even
Mr. Ballroom Sleaze knows about you?”

I backed away. “My private
business is no one’s concern.” My throat was getting tight and it
pissed me off more. Fighting the rising emotions I attacked. “You
think I need a reminder of my shortcomings. You think I need
you
.”

“
Only shortcoming you have
is your thick head.” He matched my steps, moving toward me as I
headed for the escape. “I bet Patrick has never looked beyond your
hot body, that beautiful sienna brown skin, or those full lips that
make a man hard just thinking about them.”

I licked my lips, then pulled the bottom one
in.

“
Tell me, Kamari. Do you
think he’s ever taken a moment to learn that
in spite
of your dyslexia you
graduated from high school and college with honors? Do they know
you are the top ranking consumer product analyst on the east coast?
Or that every Saturday you spend time with special needs kids? Do
you think that would have won you points in his bed?”

No
. I doubted Patrick knew anything about me, because I showed
him the same thing I showed the world, what they wanted to see—a
pretty, wild and flirtatious black woman. Even at work I allowed
most to believe I used my charms to sway the clients and the
executives to gain my status. Anything that kept people from
looking too close or knowing how much work I carried home every
night to stay two steps ahead.

Only my family knew…and Travis.

“
Patrick sees what I want
him to see and because of that he treats me like Serita and every
other girl. That’s what I want. So, forget what happened and leave
me alone.” I hurried toward the hotel door and reached out for the
handle.

In a blink, I found myself pressed against
the inside of the room door. Travis was pressed along my back, his
body trapping me, keeping me in place. I could feel not only the
impression of his hard cock against my ass, but his heartbeat as
well. Pounding in time with mine. That scared me. Travis and I
couldn’t really be connected heart and soul. Not someone who knew
me, my flaws.

He pressed his lips to my ear. “What did you
think, Kamari, that I would let you just walk away,” he demanded in
a hoarse, rough voice as he slid his hand around the front of my
body, up the inside of my thigh and under my skirt. “Pretend in a
few hours while we sat across from each other at breakfast, that
you hadn’t used me as a replacement for someone else.” His fingers
were inside my panties now, stroking my sex.

I tried to think, formulate every reason in
my mind why I should tell him to stop, to leave me alone. He isn’t
Patrick, my mind called out, fooled by my veneer.

Three of Travis’s thick fingers pressed
inside of me deep, thrusting in and out. Forcing me to take them,
receive my pleasure.

He
isn’t
Patrick.
He’s Travis
, my heart
screamed.

My body started shaking, winding tighter as
a climax built inside dragging me rapidly toward the cliff of
ecstasy.

“
Ahh…” I whimpered,
rocking my hips against his hand, needy, as if I hadn’t just come
so hard my heart had stopped a little while ago.

“
Tell me, love, who am I?
Who do you want fondling you…bringing you pleasure?” His fingers
slipped out and circled my clit, causing me to undulate, chase his
touch.

“
Please…” I
begged.

“
Who?” The one word was
sharp, demanding.

I knew what he wanted, his name on my lips.
I wanted to hold back, protect myself. Somehow I understood that if
I said his name, allowed my lips to confess, I would be forever
changed—unable to go back. Back to the façade I hid behind. He
would make me accept myself…and his love.

The orgasm was so close. I thirsted for it
like desert sands did rain.

His fingers pressed firm onto my clit.
“Who?” The sound and texture of his voice shifted, pleading. As if
his soul was in that word.

Inside I was aching, knowing that I held the
power to destroy a strong man with one word; one name.

“
Travis!” His name broke
from my lips on a loud crying; a plea. I realized at that moment
that I needed him.

“
Oh…love…”

Shoving my skirt up and my panties down, he
was inside of me and causing my next breath to catch on a wail of
pleasure as I came. “Travis…”

“
Keep saying my name,
Kamari…” He pumped in and out of my wet sheath and rained kisses on
the curve of my neck. “I want to hear it until you come
again.”

I was on my way there all
too quickly for me. Confined in the tight space with Travis behind
me, a sensual force of nature thrusting deep into me, I was caught
in a vortex of ecstasy. There wasn’t anywhere else I desired to be
at that moment but right where I was with
this
man. I was high on my tiptoes
and pressed between a hard structure and a rock-hard body, filled
with joy.

“
Oh, love, you feel so
good.”

So, do
you
. I thought, unable to speak or think
more than a few words in a row. All I wanted was the climax he was
propelling me toward. I wanted to come, more than that I wanted to
feel him losing himself inside of me, again. Knowing I had the
power to take him there, too.

The sound of my nails scraping the back of
the door as I scrambled for purchase, something to ground me before
the storm hit, was accompanied by the pounding and rock of the door
on its hinges.

“
Come for me…” His voice
was rough and his body trembled along the back of mine, he was
close.

My orgasm was already running roughshod over
me as my body spasmed and jerked, ripping a scream from my throat.
“Tra-vvvis!”

I didn’t care who might have heard it
through the door and along the corridor, I chanted his name through
the climax.

My shrieks of pleasure continued as his
strength and the speed of his cock pistoning inside my sex built—an
intricate crescendo.

“
Kamari, I love you.” His
words were clear, whispered in the calm moment before
gratification’s tempest claimed him.

My heart pulled in his words, locking them
inside a vault for the rest of my life.

When our heartbeats calmed and our breathing
was no longer erratic, Travis stepped back, giving me space.

Taking a second before facing him, I righted
my clothing before turning around.

Shifting my body until I was looking at the
man before me, still close enough for me to feel the warmth of him,
but not touching me; anywhere. Not feeling him against me caused an
all over body ache—missing him. That confounded me. How could I
miss so strongly what I had never had outside of the last three
hours?

His pants were pulled up, zipped, but the
button of his jeans was still open. I looked away from that
appealing sight. I was becoming a nympho. Feeling as if I’d never
get enough of this man. A man who shocked me on so many levels I
could barely think straight.

The air between us was an amalgamation of
his scent, my perfume and sex—us.

“
I know you heard me tell
you I love you, Kamari.”

My nod was slow. “I did.”

“
Are you planning to tell
me how your feeling?”

Yes. No. “Confused. Not sure if it really
matters.”

Closing the small space, he placed his hands
against the door, blocking me in. “Oh, hell yeah, it matters.”

“
Why?” The single word
came out low and shaky. There was a bubble of fear inside of me at
his words. What could a man who knew all my secrets and just saw me
at my lowest, sneaking into a man’s room to seduce him, say? What
would he reveal about me that I didn’t want to hear? “Whatever is
happening between us, if we face it and it goes wrong, we can’t go
back. Let’s move on,” rushed out.

“
I’ve tried to move on,
Kamari.”

“
What are you talking
about?” Now I was even more bewildered.

His gaze held mine for a moment then he
stepped away, shoving both his hands into his hair as he stared up
at the ceiling.

He appeared as a man who struggled with
something internally.

That foreboding feeling pressed down on me
again.

Exhaling loudly, he dropped his hands and
faced me. “How long have we known each other, Kamari?”

“
I don’t know. Maybe
fourteen years.”

“
In that time, you’ve
never noticed anything between us?”

I fidgeted with the hem of my shirt. I
wasn’t sure how to answer him. Tonight I realized all the things
about him I’d noticed, things I’d used to keep him at a
distance.

“
While you’re thinking
I’ll tell you this,” he began. “The first day I met you, at your
house you were in the backyard with your girlfriends practicing
cheerleading routines. You were wearing these tiny shorts. All I
kept thinking about is how long your legs were. Then you turned
around and stuck you tongue out at your brother; completely ignored
me. In that moment I wanted to kiss you—capture your tongue in my
mouth.” He reached out and traced my lips.

“
Why didn’t you ever say
anything to me?”

He laughed and lowered his hand away from
me, slowly. “Kamari, we both know how you would have reacted if I
said anything to you. Hell, in high school I knew I wasn’t prime
male meat.”

I smiled. “You were geeky, but you had the
bluest eyes and the times that we touched accidentally I was
impressed at how soft, yet strong, your hands were.”

“
You noticed things about
me?” He looked shocked, his gaze searched mine as if attempting to
see if it was the truth.

“
Yeah. Even when I didn’t
want to. There were times after high school…college…since
then.”

“
That week spent together,
practically alone on campus and in that college town, I wanted to
tell you then. But, things were going so well between us, I didn’t
want to jeopardize it.”

“
You called me three times
in the next two weeks.” I said that to him, as much as to
myself.

“
All with the purpose of
telling you I’d fallen for you. That I’d been in love with you for
years.”

“
But you
didn’t.”

“
I didn’t. Maybe I was
waiting for some sign from you.” He shrugged. “You’d always end the
call first and say ‘thanks again for your help…I’m good now’. I got
the message. Stop calling.”

It was my turn to reveal another bit of
honesty. “I think, no, I know, all these years I’ve worked hard at
keeping you at a distance. You were right. You were there every
time I needed you… that scared me.”

“
What did?” he was close
to me again, boxing me in. Those blue eyes were staring down at
me—expectantly.

“
How much I needed
you.”

“
To figure things out?” he
asked.

“
No…” I reached out and
laid my hand on his chest. “To balance me out. My life. Tonight I
can finally see you have been my anchor. Even as I was foolishly
running from myself, you still kept me grounded. I think that is
why I would give you so much of my anger, because you would always
look at me like I was capable of so much more than I was being.”
His heart pounded against my palm. “I didn’t see that in myself.
Even now there are days I doubt myself, but you never
did.”

He pulled me into his arms, but never gave
up our eye contact. “I loved you, my love. I wanted nothing but the
best for you. Even if I wasn’t part of that picture.”

Slipping my hands around his neck, I stroked
the nape and felt him shiver against me. Stretching up, I kissed
him. Showing him how deeply I felt for him. He allowed me the lead
as I swept into his mouth and caressed his tongue with mine.

His hands tightened on the small of my back,
pressing me to him.

When I ended the kiss, more than a little
breathless, I said, “If we decide to move forward and take our
relationship to the next level, which I want to, I’m not sure how
my family will take this. Well, besides my Aunt Renee…Lord that
woman has been singing your praises all day.”

He chuckled. “Your auntie has always had a
special place in my heart.”

“
There better be room
enough in there for me.” Teasing I poked him in the
chest.

“
All the rest of my heart
is yours. How about I let you share my shower with me and I show
you.” Kissing me, he lowered his hands to my ass and lifted
me.

Wrapping my arms and legs around him I fully
gave myself over to the kiss. My head was spinning and my body was
starting to have that all-over aching desire again. No other man
did this to me—caused me to go from zero to sixty in sensual
seconds.