“I don’t think I’m ready for that.” Tonya was able to follow Gage when he spun her around and around.
“Very nice,” he crooned.
“I have a wonderful leader.”
After a while, she lost herself in the music and in the man. Tonya knew she had been in a funk because it was the anniversary of her brother’s death, and she kept imagining that he was still alive and had made her an auntie. Ian had so much potential that she still couldn’t understand what made him choose the life that was destined to end tragically either by spending countless years in jail or by other dealers looking to take over his territory—or by an early death.
Dusk had descended on the city, and by the time they turned off the music and climbed the stairs to the second story, stars lit up the nighttime sky. Tonya walked into the bathroom, lit a half dozen votive candles, turned off the light, and then turned on the water in the Jacuzzi. A bottle of cognac and two aperitif glasses on a silver tray sat on the window ledge next to the tub.
She returned to the bedroom to find Gage shedding his clothes. And it wasn’t for the first time that she marveled at the perfection of his lean, muscled physique. Their eyes met when she slipped out of her shoes and shimmied out of the dress. She recognized lust in his gaze when she stood there wearing nothing but a pair of black bikini panties. Hooking her thumbs in the waistband, she slid them down her thighs and legs without bending her knees, and stepped out of them.
Turning on her heel, she strolled into the bathroom, giving him an unobstructed view of her naked body. She smiled hearing his intake of breath.
She stepped into the warm water and sat down, sighing as the pulsing jets massaged her body. Minutes later Gage joined her, his thick, heavy sex swaying between his thighs.Sit down!the silent voice in her head screamed. Him standing over her, semi-erect, was so erotic she feared she’d reach over and caress him.
Gage finally settled in the tub and filled the tiny glasses with the amber liquid. He touched his glass to hers. “Happy Valentine’s Day.”
“Happy Valentine’s Day,” she repeated. She sipped the liquor, staring at Gage over the rim as heat warmed her throat and settled in her chest.
He took both glasses and set them on the ledge, and then reached for her and settled her over his thighs. An audible gasp echoed in the bathroom when she felt his erection filling every inch of her vagina. Curving her arms around his neck for support, Tonya began moving over his penis. It began with a slow up-and-down motion, and then increased to frenzied rocking, and Gage’s upward thrusting splashed water over the sides of the tub and onto the terracotta floor.
Without warning, he reversed their positions, supporting her body, and his lower body pumped with the velocity of a piston as he wordlessly communicated his masculine dominance over her.
“Marry me,” he gasped, his breath hot and heavy in her ear.
Shaking her head, Tonya swallowed to relieve the dryness in her throat from breathing through her mouth. “No, Gage. I can’t.”
“Marry me!” he repeated.
“No!”
“Please marry me,” he intoned, the supplication becoming a litany, which rang in her ear like a chant.
“I can’t,” she cried out at the same time she felt the walls of her vagina contract. There was one contraction, and then another, and they kept coming as her moans of erotic pleasure became unrestrained screams of ecstasy as she stiffened with the explosive rush of orgasmic fulfillment sweeping through her. The screams subsided to surrendering moans of physical satiation as she closed her eyes and registered the rush of Gage’s release bathing her throbbing flesh.
Tears leaked from under her lids. Gage Toussaint possessed the power to assuage her physical need for him, but unknowingly he also had the power to tear her soul apart. She prayed he would not ask her to marry him again, because at that very moment she would have consented. Tonya loved Gage with all of her heart, but not enough to marry him. One marriage in her lifetime was enough.
She refused to look at him when she reached for a cloth from a stack on the ledge and drew it over her body and between her legs. She climbed out of the tub and picked up a towel off the low stool and wrapped it around her body. Walking on bare feet, Tonya entered the bedroom and slipped into bed. She was falling asleep when she felt the warmth of Gage’s body as he pressed his chest to her back.
“I’m sorry, Gage.”
He kissed the nape of her neck. “It’s okay, babe. I should be the one apologizing for pressuring you to live with me and for wanting to marry you.”
She turned to face him but couldn’t make out his features in the darkened room. “I do love you, but I’m not ready. And I don’t know when I’ll be ready.”
“Hush, sweets. I’m not going anywhere, so whenever you’re ready let me know. I promise not to ask you again.”
Tonya placed her fingers over his mouth before her mouth replaced her fingers. “I love you. Why I don’t know. The list is so long I wouldn’t be able to come up with enough words to describe how you make me feel.”
He nuzzled her ear. “Knowing you love me is enough.”
“For how long, Gage?”
“Until forever.”
She repeated the two words in her head until she fell asleep. And when she woke the next morning to rain pelting the windows, she was alone in bed and there was a square gaily wrapped box on the pillow next to hers. Pushing into sitting position, she carefully removed the paper to reveal a navy blue velvet case. Instinct indicated it was a piece of jewelry—but what?
She finally opened the top and gasped. Resting on a bed of white silk was a diamond bangle. The blue-white stones shimmered like stars. After two attempts, Tonya managed to open the double safety catch and slip it on her left wrist. The weight indicated it was more than gold. Perhaps even platinum.
