Lovers Premiere (Kimani Romance) (8 page)

“Ram. Ram, baby.” She started inching up the bed.

He knew what was happening, but he showed no remorse. Grabbing hold of her hips, he locked her in place and then transformed his drumming tongue into a whirling tornado.

“Ohh, ohh, yes.” Sofia reached out and grabbed hold of the sheets as if somehow they would anchor her down.

“Oh, yes! Oh, yes!”

It went from a tornado to a hurricane in two seconds. The cry that ripped from her throat was undoubtedly heard in the suites surrounding them, but neither one of them cared. After the explosion, Sofia's body continued to tremble with aftershocks.

Ram sapped up the rest of her honey and unlocked her legs that had clamped around his head and then climbed his way back up her body.

“Oh God. I've never felt anything like that before,” she panted.

The compliment inflated his ego. “I've just gotten started,” he promised.

“No,” she said, shaking her head. When he frowned, she added, “I want to do something for you first.” She shoved at his shoulder and rolled him over onto his back. Smiling and giggling, she took the top position.

Ram stared up into her beautiful face and still had a hard time believing that any of this was real. Twenty
fours hours ago, he'd just barely gotten her to agree to a truce and now she was his wife and in a few minutes she would completely belong to him.

“You're not the only one who knows a few tricks,” she told him.

“Is that right?” He couldn't help but grin.

“Uh-huh.” She leaned down and started raining small kisses across his chest. “Oh God. You smell incredible,” she moaned.

“I'm glad that you approve.” He chuckled.

Sofia's mouth roamed lower. “Mmm-hmm. You taste good, too.”

Slowly, she sank lower.

Ram started evening out his breathing in anticipation of his new wife's next move. But then the kisses grew lighter and softer and then he couldn't feel them at all. He waited a moment and then opened his eyes. “Sofia?”

Silence.

He pushed himself up onto his elbows and looked down. Sofia's head laid across his stomach, her arms relaxed against his side and her breathing slow and steady. Is she asleep?

“Sofia?” He reached down and shook her.

“Mmm,” Sofia moaned and poked her lips like she was giving him an air kiss. In the next second, she snored. Loudly.

Ram dropped his head back down against the pillows and started laughing. “I guess my little Energizer Bunny has finally conked out.”

Covering his face with his hands, Ramell went ahead and had a good laugh. When that was over, he carefully
sat back up and awkwardly maneuvered himself up from under his wife. After that, he climbed out of bed and picked her up so he could tuck her in. But before he could join her, he took a very cold shower in her bathroom. It was a sad substitute. When he got out and wrapped a towel around his body, he could already tell that he was cruising toward one hell of a hangover. But damn he had fun.

Just as he was about to exit the bathroom, his gaze drifted over to a medicine bottle. He picked it up and recognized the name of the blood pressure medicine because his father used the same brand name.
Did Sofia take this before drinking last night?
He glanced back out into the bedroom, wondering.

Riiiinnng! Riiinnng!

Sofia groaned and tried to bury her head deep beneath the pillows. Somehow that only caused the ringing to grow louder. It didn't help that her head felt like it had been crushed beneath an avalanche of rocks. She groaned louder and shot her hand out to the nightstand and consequently knocked a whole lot of things onto the floor. A cacophony of noise caused her to flinch and smack her hands onto the pillows in another lame attempt to drown out all sound. But that didn't stop the ringing.

Riiiinnng! Riiinnng!

This was it. She was going to die. That had to be what was happening to her. Something shifted next to her. She didn't even care what it was as long as it could stop that damn ringing before her ears started to bleed. Something
started to climb over her. It was large and heavy and managed to press her deeper into the bed. Great. Now she had the choice of either the noise killing her or being crushed to death. Whichever it was she prayed that it would be quick.

“Hello?”

Sofia frowned at the growling baritone. It was foreign and familiar at the same time. But it didn't concern her enough to try and lift her head from beneath the pillow.

“What do you mean who is this?” the baritone asked. “Who are you?”

Couldn't this floating voice keep it down? Couldn't he see that she was too busy trying to die peacefully over here?

“Oh hey, Rachel.”

Rachel? Didn't she know a Rachel?

“You must be looking for your sister,” he groaned. “Hold on.”

The weight was lifted off of Sofia and she pulled a little more oxygen into her lungs. Before she could seize the opportunity to drift back off to sleep, something started shaking her. Were they in the middle of an earthquake?

“Telephone,” the baritone said.

Sofia groaned, wanting to tell the floating voice to keep quiet. Surely any minute the ceiling was about to cave in on them. That would be an interesting way to go. Finally the shaking stopped.

“Sofia, it's your sister,” the voice persisted.

Sister?
She tried to think for a second and then slowly
she was able to recall something about her having a sister.

“Sofia.” The bed started shaking again.

She was seconds away from just starting to cry. “Will you please stop yelling?”

There was a rumbling chuckle. “I'm sorry, baby. But your sister is on the phone.”

Baby?
Sofia attempted to lift her head, but it plopped back down when it felt as if it weighed a ton. Suddenly, the pillows were magically lifted and the cold phone was pressed to her ear.

“Talk,” the voice instructed.

“Hello,” she croaked and then cringed at the sound of her own voice. Was she speaking through a mega-phone?

“Sofia! What's this about you getting married?” Rachel shouted. “It's all over the trade papers here. Every one has been calling me all day. Charlene called and told me that she and Akil attended the wedding. What happened? What's going on?”

Rachel hurled questions at her so fast that Sofia questioned whether or not her sister was even speaking English. “I don't… I don't know what you're talking about.”

“I'm talking about you getting married! I can't believe it. You beat me and Ethan down the aisle.”

Did she just say that Ethan was beating her?
Sofia attempted to sit up again. This time succeeding in that she was able to prop her back against the bed's paneled headboard, but there was still no way for her to pry her eyes open. “I'm sorry. Now what did you say Ethan did?”

“What? Ethan didn't do anything. I said that you and Ramell beat me and Ethan down the aisle. I can't believe it! I always suspected that he had a thing for you, but I never dreamed that you two would elope in Vegas.”

Sofia's head was pounding so hard that her little sister's sentences weren't making any sense. But her heart quickened at the thought of Ramell eloping.
Her
Ramell? Well, he wasn't technically hers but… “Slow down, Rachel. You're not making any sense. Who did Ram marry?”

Silence.

“Rachel?”

“Are you joking?” her sister asked.

“Joking? You're the one that called me. I'm trying to understand what the hell you're talking about. Oh, God. Someone shoot me, my head is about to split open.”

There was another beat of silence before Rachel tried again. “Sofia, are you all right?”

Silence.

“Sofia?”

“Um.” Sofia rubbed her head and tried to recall the previous night, but instead she started drifting back off to sleep.

“Sofia!”

“Aah!” She jerked the phone away from her ear and dropped it. “Stop all that yelling,” she groaned and then tried to rub the pain away. Next she grabbed the comforter and slid back down into the bed. When she tried to pull the bedding over her head, she got hit in the face with the phone. “Oww.” She placed the phone up to her ear. “Hello?”

“Sofia, what the heck is going on?”

“What do you mean what is going on? What are you doing calling this early in the morning anyway?”

“Early? What are you talking about? It's five in the afternoon. I've been calling you all day.”

“Five? It can't be that late. I have to be back in L.A. at…” she yawned, “Some time.”

“Sofia, focus!” Rachel snapped. “We are talking about you and Ramell getting married.”

“Ramell is getting married?” Her heart quickened. “Whoa.”

“What?”

“I think I just experienced déjà vu. It seems like we just had this conversation.”

“We did just have this conversation,” Rachel said. “Ramell
did
get married.”

“To who?”

“To you!”

“Me!”
Sofia laughed, slapping a hand over her forehead. “Don't be silly! Where would you get that ridiculous idea?”

“But…wasn't that him who just answered the phone?” Rachel asked.

“No…that was….” Sofia drew a blank. “That was…” The floating baritone resurfaced in her mind.
Who was that?
Her head swiveled to the left, over to the huge lump that was buried beneath the covers.

“Sofia?” Rachel inquired.

Sofia didn't answer, mainly because her heart had now found a new home in the center of her throat. With her head still pounding and her hand sweating, she reached
out and grabbed the top of the comforter and slowly started to pull it off from whatever or whoever was lying beside her. When the bedding inched away and revealed Ram's peaceful sleeping face, she screamed, dropped the phone and scooted sideways so fast that she toppled out of bed and hit the floor with a thud.

Ram jumped up like a toasted Pop Tart. “What? What's going on? What's happening?” His head swiveled around while his hands went into instant defense mode like he was about to karate chop the first thing he saw.

“What are you doing in my bed?” Sofia barked.

Ram's head jerked to his right, but when he saw the bed empty, he had to lean all the way over to the heap piled on the floor. “What are you doing down there?”

“I asked you first.” Not until his gaze began to roam over her did he realize that she was naked. “Close your eyes!”

“What?”

“You heard me. I said close your eyes!” He started laughing at her.
“Now!”

He tossed up his hand and closed his eyes. “All right. All right. They're closed. Are you happy?”

Sofia reached up and snatched the comforter from off the bed and covered herself. “I'm still waiting for an answer,” she snapped. “What the hell are you doing in my bed?” It no longer mattered that her head felt like it had its own personal jackhammer drilling away or that in her fall she jerked the telephone cord out of the wall socket. She needed answers and she needed them now.

“Well?”

“I don't think that I understand the question,” he
said, leisurely lying down on his side. “I know that I'm a little hungover right now, but I definitely remember you inviting me into this bed.”

“I most certainly did not!”

“You most certainly did. When I carried you into the suite, I asked you ‘My bedroom or yours?' and you said, ‘You choose.' Then I said ‘Let's start off in your bed room. Maybe we'll go to mine on round two.'

Sofia gasped. “Liar!”

“What?” He laughed, not taking her charge seriously. “You even suggested that there might be a round three. Which there wasn't, by the way.”

Her eyes grew larger with each word he said. “Are you saying that we…me and you…
had sex?
”

Ram's frown deepened as if he didn't know how to take this strange interrogation. “Well, I guess that would depend on your definition of sex.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, we definitely flew past first, second, and maybe even third base. It was sliding into home where we sort of fell apart.”

Sofia grabbed her head. She was still having a hard time trying to process any of this. “But why…I don't understand. Why would I…why would we…?”

“Well, it is what most people do after they get married.”

“Get married?!”
She jumped up onto her feet but forgot the comforter.

Ramell's smile returned when his gaze caressed her small curves. “No worries. We can easily just pick up
where we left off,” he said, peeling back the sheets so that she could see that he was hard and ready.

Sofia gasped, but her eyes zoomed in on Ram's thick and sizable member. For a moment she experienced a surge of recognition.

He started patting the bed. “Don't worry. I won't bite…unless you want me to.”

His body was like a huge magnet and Sofia felt herself pulling toward him. But she quickly slammed her eyes closed and tried to shake off whatever spell or voodoo had come over her. “This is not happening,” she recited to herself. “This has to be a dream…or a nightmare…or something.”

“Careful,” he warned. “I think you're on the verge of hurting my feelings.”

Sofia's eyes flew back open and, sure enough, Ram was still lying on the bed in his beautiful birthday suit. “Oh, my God.” She dropped down and snatched up the comforter again. But it was one sudden move too many. Her stomach rolled while her gag reflexes were activated. She dragged the comforter up with one hand and then slapped the other hand across her mouth to buy a little more time while she raced toward the bathroom.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

She didn't get far before tripping over the long comforter so she dropped it and continued her race toward the toilet. Once there, she dropped to her knees and proceeded to expel the many drinks she consumed the previous evening. “Oh God,” she moaned when she managed a half of a second to breathe. A moment later, she was hit with another wave of soured alcohol.

“Poor, baby.” Ram retrieved a face towel from one of the racks and quickly wet it with cool water. Once he ringed it out, he made it over to the toilet and started pressing it against Sofia's hot face and neck.

Sofia glanced over at him and was relieved and a little disappointed that he'd put on a pair of boxer shorts before coming in to help her.

“Shh. It's going to be all right,” he assured her while he pulled her long hair out of the way. “Just try to take deep breaths.”

She closed her eyes and tried to follow his instructions. When the towel started to warm, he rushed back over to the sink and ran cold water over it again. It took awhile before everything started to settle down and she was able to look up at him. “Are we really married?”

He nodded. “If memory serves me correct.”

She didn't know whether to throw up again or start crying. How could something like this happen? Why couldn't she remember… “Wait. Was it by a black Elvis impersonator?”

A smile lit Ram's face. “Aww. You do remember.”

Sofia turned back toward the toilet and threw up.

 

An hour later, Ramell helped bring his hungover wife back from the brink of sickness. He pumped her full of fruit juice and crackers to get her amino acids up. After that he gave her some Excedrin for her headache and then helped her to the shower. Through it all, he had to admit that he liked taking care of her. While she was in the shower, he ordered himself a mini-buffet since they had missed both breakfast and lunch.

He started cleaning up the bedroom while he waited. It was busy work so that he didn't have to think about what Sofia would say once she came out of the shower. Judging by her reaction to the news of their marriage, he had very little hope that they would reach their two-day anniversary.

He plugged the phone back into the wall just as the bathroom door swung open. Ram looked up to see Sofia draped beneath a white hotel robe that was at least two sizes too big. Even with her hair wet and no makeup, she was still the most beautiful woman he'd ever known.

“We need to talk,” she said.

“I had a feeling you were going to say that.”

The phone rang. He picked it up because it was already in his hands. “Hello.”

“Ramell,”
Jacob Wellesley roared. “What's this I hear about you marrying my niece?”

“Uh, Jacob! Hello!” He glanced over at Sofia.

Her eyes bugged out as she started shaking her head.

“Well?”
Jacob demanded.

Ram couldn't tell whether his new business partner was mad or just sincerely wanted an explanation. “Yes, sir. About that, I'm sure it has come as a bit of a shock but—”

“Shock? Hell, I'm wondering what on earth took you so long!”

“Yes, I, um…what did you just say?”

“I said that it took you too damn long,” Jacob laughed. “I can't tell you enough how thrilled Lily and I are about this latest development.”