Half Way to Love (3 page)

She laughed and turned on the shower. “With the rest of me.”

“Then I need to make up for lost time.”

For the next twenty minutes, they washed each other between kisses, but they didn’t start up their lovemaking just yet. Shannon held him at bay. “Would you like something to eat? All I’ve had since breakfast was a few pieces of candy at my sister’s shop.”

“I could go for something.”

She heated them each a plate of homemade pepper steak and spooned it over rice. Shannon had a habit of cooking enough food to last a couple nights since she didn’t like doing it. They leaned back on pillows on her bed while eating, and Alex chowed down as if her food was gourmet.

“I guess you like it,” she commented.

“Delicious. You’re a great cook.”

Warmth spread through her at his compliment. “Thanks. I may not like cooking, but I put it together just fine. My aunt made sure of that.”

“Your aunt?”

She nodded. “She’s the one that raised us, my sister and me. The deadbeat who fathered us could be any of a number of men, and our mother didn’t feel like she was up to it.”

He set his plate aside and stroked her cheek. “I’m sorry. That must be hard.”

“No, not really. I mean, I’m glad she admitted the truth. Better to be brought up by someone who loved us and taught us right than someone who couldn’t handle us. Who knows what we’d be like today. I can thank my mother for one thing though—my singing.”

“Ah yes, the famous singing.” She ducked her head at Alex’s dry tone, but he lifted her chin and kissed her. “Would you consider singing something more positive for me?”

“Maybe,” she teased. “But it’s your turn to tell me something about yourself. At least while I’m eating, because everybody doesn’t wolf their food down like you.”

He pinched her thigh, and she squealed.

“Well there’s not much to tell. Just like your mother influenced your singing, my parents influenced my life as well.” He seemed to consider how to explain it. “They are both workaholics, and I turned out to be just like them. I didn’t choose the same field. They’re both in law, but I decided to become a stock broker. I’m guilty of loving what I do too much.”

“That’s why she was so angry? Seems extreme.”

He nodded but didn’t elaborate. She wondered if he was nursing a broken heart and didn’t want to push it.

“Remind me not to get you wrong,” she said instead.

He gave her a blank look.

“Both parents in law?”

“Oh.” He chuckled. “Trust me. I don’t want to get them wrong, as you put it. I’ve never in my life won an argument with either.”

“Ouch.”

“Exactly.” He laughed.

Shannon finished her food while they continued talking. She had given herself enough to stave off hunger but not so much that she couldn’t enjoy this sexy man the rest of the night. When she set her plate aside desire took hold of her, to enjoy this Valentine’s one night stand to the fullest. She climbed onto Alex’s lap facing him and rubbed her breasts against his chest.

“So where were we?” she murmured.

His cock twitched between them.

“Right here,” he said and devoured her mouth in a kiss.

When they broke it off, Alex looked at her with hesitance in his expression.

“What?” she said.

“Have you ever had anal sex?”

She smirked. “Of course.”

“And do you like it?”

Shannon leaned up to his ear and ran the tip of her tongue along his lobe. He shivered in her arms. “If you do.”

“Do
you
?” he insisted. “I enjoy it very much. But I don’t want to do anything you’re uncomfortable with.”

She tilted her head and studied his face. “Something tells me you have all kinds of naughty fantasies in that brain of yours.”

He didn’t deny it. He only grinned. Shannon shook her head as if she couldn’t believe him, but knowing Alex was up for anything excited her. She’d never done anything really wild, and she wasn’t sure tonight was the time they would, but Alex being all for some of the things she’d only read about or seen in pictures online excited her.

“I like it.”

Alex’s eyes lit up. He scooted them both to the end of the bed and turned Shannon so she was on her knees at the edge. He moved up close behind, stroking her ass. She watched him put on a new condom. Already just knowing what they were about to do, he was rock hard. When he came close, she arched her back. Alex pushed two fingers in her pussy to coat them and then smeared her cream on her anus. He didn’t waste a moment before he began pushing his digits into her rear entrance.

Shannon was so turned on, she didn’t think twice about the pain. She relaxed and let him work her hole, loosening her muscles and making her stretch. She groaned and pushed into his thrust as he added another finger.

“Now, Alex,” she demanded when he was taking too long.

“We have to be careful, baby. I don’t want to tear you.”

“
Please
.”

He pushed his cock in slowly. She gritted her teeth. Her former lovers hadn’t been so thick as Alex. The sting took her breath away, but it didn’t last long. Alex seated himself deep inside her and then began a gentle rhythm. They shuddered together, gasping. The pleasure was so good, Shannon couldn’t even moan. Her core pulsed with strong sensations she couldn’t describe if asked. Incredibly, she was about to come with Alex pumping into her ass.

Alex rested a heavy hand on her back and molded his thighs to the backs of hers. She pushed against his hard body, loving having him there. Him taking her from behind made her feel full and faint at the same time. “It’s too much,” she rasped.

“Hold on, baby. Just a little more.”

He began grinding faster, his skin slapping hers. His fingers bit into her hips, and he yanked her back on his erection. Tremors rocked Shannon. Her jaw went slack, and she closed her eyes. When her climax came, it came wild and strong. She collapsed on the bed, but Alex followed her down. Their bodies were sealed together, and he kept moving in and out of her. He reached under and pinched both her nipples. She cried out his name. Seconds later, he found his own release.

Exhausted yet satisfied, Shannon lay still. Alex covered her lips with his, and they tasted each other in silence for long while. At last, he drew back.

“Was I too rough?”

“You were perfect.”

He kissed her again. “There’s more where that came from.”

“You’re insatiable.”

“I only want to pleasure you, Shannon.”

She grinned nuzzling his neck. “Man, you have no trouble doing that in the least!”

“It was supposed to be for one night,” Shannon said between biting on her thumb nail.

Kim leaned over the counter and rescued Shannon’s finger. “And?”

Shannon spun away and watched passersby on the street. She sighed. “We decided to extend the one night.” She tried making light of it, but if anyone knew her, it was Kim.

“As boyfriend and girlfriend? Because you know he’s on the rebound, right?”

Shannon groaned. “No, just lovers.”

“But you want more?”

“Stop reading my freakin’ mind.” She pushed off the counter and wandered over to the area where there were bins of multi-colored candies. The red gummies shaped like plump coins were a weakness. She would have grabbed a bag to fill it, if Kim hadn’t come over and smacked her hand. Shannon grumbled. “I didn’t ask for this, and believe me, I’m not trying to fall for him. It just happened. He’s so…I don’t know. Right.”

“I thought you said his ex described him as a jerk and worse.”

Shannon rolled her eyes. “She lied.”

“Shannon—”

“I know what you’re going to say. It’s not like that. I’m the last person likely to lie to myself. I’ll admit in a heartbeat that I just want a man, and I know he’s no good, blah blah blah. But Alex
is
a good man, and he is great in bed!” Shannon shivered, remembering all they’d done over the last few days, and still they were both hungry for more. Her appetite for sex with him should not be legal, and she could have nonexistent self-esteem and see he felt the same. He scarcely let her out of the bed, and she’d spent several nights at his place. Talk about the lap of luxury. She was jealous.

“Yeah, you can keep that part to yourself,” Kim told her. “Just pull back a little. It can’t hurt anything. I see you losing your heart, and I don’t want to see you hurt. Don’t get me wrong. I want you to find love, and I can only go on what you tell me about Alex, but that little bit tells me this is just sex to him. He’s getting a little wild, got a black lover, living up the difference, and all that, but…”

“But it’s fulfilling a fantasy.”

Kim hugged her. “For both of you. You’ve never been with a white man either.”

“I
know
you don’t have a problem with it.” Shannon put her hand on her hip and faced her sister.

Kim pursed her lips. “You know better than that.”

Shannon heard her cell buzzing in her purse. She hurried over to where she’d left it and discovered it was Alex texting. Her heartbeat kicked up several notches, and it was all she could do not to let on how excited she was to hear from him. He’d called himself a workaholic, but she hadn’t seen evidence of it yet. Alex had come to pick her up every night no later than seven, and they’d even had a few midday quickies. A man consumed by his work didn’t do that.

She turned to her sister. “I hear what you’re saying, and I agree with you. Alex probably isn’t going to fall for me. I accept that, but I’m not ready to give him up. A little while longer, and I’ll walk away—hopefully still in possession of my heart.” She walked over and kissed Kim’s cheek. “Don’t worry. I’m a big girl.”

Shannon rushed out of her sister’s shop and headed down the street while texting Alex. On instinct more than paying attention, she stopped at the corner to wait for the light to change. A grin spread over her face at his words.

“Been thinking of you naked all afternoon. Pick you up tonight?”

“Yes,”
she texted back
. “I’ve been thinking about you too.”

She worried over whether her response sounded more like love than lust. Alex’s mind was clearly on the physical and nothing more.

“Then I will satisfy your craving tonight.”

“If I let you,”
she teased.

“Oh, you’ll let me. I’ll have you eating out of my hand in no time.”

She smirked.
“You mean
I’ll
have
you
eating out of mine.”

“You hand is not what I want to eat, Shannon.”

She tripped over the curb and almost lost focus crossing the street. When she was safe on the other side, she stopped walking to write him back.

“Stop! No talking like that. You’ll have me climaxing on the street for the whole world to see.”

“Haha. Okay, I will pick you up at six forty-five if that’s fine.”

“Yes. I’ll be waiting.”

*****

Shannon checked her overnight bag again and shifted everything around. She frowned at the book she’d popped inside for no reason and was about to remove it when the doorbell rang. Forgetting every thought except seeing Alex, she ran to the door and flung it open. A second after she did, she remembered that she should have played it cooler than looking like a lovesick idiot.

Alex scooped her up into his arms and kissed her lips, moved to the tip of her nose, each eye and then back to her lips. He ran a hand up her belly until he got to her breast and squeezed with a groan. “Tell me you’re ready. We have the entire night to play.”

“Okay, just let me get my bag.”

He was faster and scooped it up. Shannon shook her head. “Your sex drive is out of control.”

He wiggled his eyebrows, not an ounce of shame in him. “You like me just as I am.”

I
love
you just as you are.

Her eyes widened, and she gasped putting a hand over her mouth.

“What’s wrong? Forget something?”

“No, it’s nothing to worry about.”

Boy, was that a lie. She’d come to the full realization that she was in love with him, but what lasting relationship developed out of two people jumping into bed the first night? She didn’t know of one, and what made it worse was how they met. She must be insane.

They headed over to his place, a ranch style house on a quiet street in the suburbs. What she wouldn’t give for this, at least part time. Shannon wasn’t totally against city life. She loved how it popped, and there was always something to do. A short ride on the train would put her in the thick things, but every now and then, she liked to get away from the noise to regroup. That’s when she’d head to Kim’s. The woman had an easier time of it now that she’d met her husband, and Shannon didn’t spite her for it. They’d both had their dreams, but Shannon’s had been derailed by her own choice. Maybe she would rethink it all later, especially after the fairy tale affair was over.

Alex dropped off her bag in his bedroom, and together they headed to the kitchen. Damn, she loved his kitchen. A huge five-burner stove lay in an island in the center of the room. Overhead were sparkling pots and pans, and every surface was done in beautiful tiles the shades of forest green. “Are you cooking tonight?” she queried.

“I am.” He tapped a cookbook already opened to a page. “This one you’ll love.”

Alex was a decent cook for a man, but he did nothing from memory. He was loyal to his small stash of books he kept in a cabinet. The fact that he didn’t mind doing it made him all the more appealing. Shannon couldn’t figure out how his ex could say all the horrible things she’d said about him. She hadn’t seen evidence of one issue. Not that they’d done more than eat and have sex up until now. If she let herself believe what was happening, she’d think they were meant to be, but that was so lame.

After dinner, Shannon insisted on rinsing the dishes and piling them into the dish washer. Alex disappeared muttering something she couldn’t hear. There was no reason to wonder. She didn’t doubt she’d find him in the bedroom. When she was done, she dried her hands on a towel and turned the knob to get the wash started. While she headed down the hall, nervousness stirred in her stomach. No matter how many times they were together, not until she’d warmed up did she relax.