“I didn’t find him on Craigslist.” His laugh was more relaxed. “He’s the brother of a buddy of mine from the Marines.”
Well, that explained it. It was his nature to do for others, even if it meant living with his friend’s weird brother who’d rather sleep on a couch than reduce his computer usage by a monitor or two.
He directed her to the bathroom. Once done, Samiah returned to the living room to find a plate with several quartered cupcakes and two glasses of milk.
“You really do think of everything, don’t you?” she said, pointing to the dessert spread. “And they all look evenly divvied up.”
He raised his hands. “Hey, I’m not risking getting cut over cupcakes. We each have equal portions.”
She burst out laughing as she reclaimed her spot on the sofa. She unfolded two paper napkins and gently placed one in each of their laps.
“Okay, so how are we going to do this? Do we try the same flavors at the same time, or alternate and give our opinions?”
“Alternate,” he said. “You can be the guinea pig for the peppered bacon and chocolate one.”
“What? You don’t think that sounds good?”
“Not even a little bit.”
She rolled her eyes, picked up the aforementioned sweet and spicy cupcake, and took a huge bite. Samiah did her best to school her features, but when a bit of pepper caught at the back of her throat, she couldn’t help but cough.
“Okay, okay. You win,” she said, gulping down milk. “This is awful. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“Admit it, you were going for the shock factor.”
“Maybe,” she said with a laugh.
He held up one with light green frosting. “Now, this white chocolate and honeyed pistachio is more my speed.”
Samiah looked on as his teeth sank into the moist cake. She suddenly found herself breathless, awareness blossoming within her chest, vibrant and wild and uncontainable.
“You have frosting right here,” she said, pointing to the side of his mouth. He started to reach for it, but she caught his wrist. “Let me.”
She leaned over and closed her mouth over his, scooping up the speck of sugary icing with her tongue before slipping it between his lips. A groan climbed from somewhere deep in his throat as his palm immediately wrapped around the back of her head and brought him to her. Samiah straddled his lap, clutching his face between her hands and holding him steady as their tongues teased and tarried, playfully vying for dominance in their sensual game.
His hands slid up her stomach and then over her breasts. He cradled them, gently squeezing and releasing before capturing her nipples between his thumb and forefingers and tweaking them through the fabric of her T-shirt. She felt him growing hard between her legs and it took every single drop of willpower within her not to grind against him. If she did that her clothes would melt and she’d have her naked thighs around his waist in a matter of seconds.
Wait? Was that a bad thing?
Yes, yes it’s a bad thing.
At least it was for now. Sex would take this to a level she wasn’t quite sure she was ready to reach.
With one last swipe of her tongue inside his insanely delicious mouth, she braced her hands against his chest and pushed away.
“Slow,” Samiah said. “We’re supposed to take this slow, remember?”
He let his head fall back against the sofa cushion and released a pained groan. “I remember.” He lifted his head, his eyes narrowed. “We never actually defined slow. You drive a Mustang GTE. Your definition of slow has to be pretty close to mine.”
“What’s your definition?” she said.
“One more kiss like that and the clothes come off.”
And now she needed an ice pack for her underwear.
“I can work with that definition,” Samiah said.
She climbed off his lap while she still had the strength to do so and resumed her spot on the sofa. She picked up the document she’d been reviewing, resentment building with each word she read. She’d been working on this project for Trendsetters all day. It was the weekend.Hertime. She should have been working on her app.
