“Karina Stevens.” Kareem pushed back from his desk with his eyes still planted on me. “No introduction needed.”
He licked his lips, then pulled the bottom one between his teeth. Moments passed before any of us said a word. I could feel the heat radiating off his assistant’s back. I knew she was pissed, and I couldn’t even see her face.
A smile tugged at the corner of my lips, but I refused to let it fully form. There was no way Kareem still had the ability to make me blush after all these years. Not only was my face threatening to betray me, but my heart literally wanted to jump out of my chest at the view of him in the suit he was wearing.
I watched carefully as Kareem stood and rounded his desk. He stood well over six feet, and I definitely hadn’t appreciated the sight of him at my grandparents’ house. I didn’t know if itwas the tailored Armani suit that accentuated his perfectly built frame or the way the black radiated off his high yellow skin.
He sat on the corner of his desk and stretched one of his long legs out in front of him. The smile he was wearing as his dark eyes roamed my body lit up his entire face, and I could tell his assistant wasn’t too happy about that. I could also tell Kareem had completely forgotten she was there. I smiled at the thought of that.
“Ahem.” She cleared her throat in an attempt to steal his attention.
When his eyes stayed on me, she crossed her arms over her chest and rested her weight on one leg. The animosity was clear, but I didn’t care. Whatever problem she had with me was her problem alone.
“Mr. Sheffield, we were supposed to have the editor-in-chief of this little magazine. I’m sure this is not her.”
“No. I’m her editor-at-large. Rayla wasn’t able to cover the story, but I assure you that I take this story just as seriously as Rayla does. I also brought a few sample articles for you to look over.”
“You can give them to me. I will read over them just to make sure they align with Mr. Sheffield’s vision. In the meantime, you can wait downstairs in the lobby.”
“Nah, she can give them to me. That will be all, Tyla.”
“But I?—”
“That will be all, Tyla.”
Tyla had been speaking to Kareem with her back to me, but when she turned around, the look on her face caught me off guard. If looks could shoot bullets, I’d be lit up. I would have felt sorry for her, but it was clear that she had a thing for Kareem, and he was paying her dust. However, now that she was gone, I was left alone with Kareem for the first time since prom night.
Chapter
Four
Kareem
“You can have a seat.” I motioned for Karina to take one of the chairs on the opposite side of my desk while I returned to my seat.
I let my eyes search her face before they started to roam her body all on their own. I may have missed my shot back home, but it was clear God was making way for a whole new plan, and I couldn’t thank him enough for that.
“Thank you.” Karina took a seat and set her bag on the floor beside her chair. “Um, like I said, I have my portfolio with me. I know you requested Rayla, but I want you to know I am going to do my best with this article.”
Karina wasn’t my first, but I was sure I was hers. Something about knowing that made me want to be her last. It wasn’t about being inside her or even knowing that I was the first to do it. It was the fact that no matter how many girls I’d been with since then, I always pretended they were her.
We’d gone to prom together and spent the night together afterward. Since that day, I had never been able to get her outof my mind. Having Karina constantly on my mind was hard as fuck, seeing as though she started avoiding me the very next day.
Karina took all AP courses in high school, which meant the only way we would cross paths was if we mutually agreed to meet up. Before prom night, that was exactly what we’d always done. That night changed everything between us because she switched all the way up on me.
I chased Karina down at school the day after prom but she ignored me the whole day. After that, I felt like she made it her business to never take our normal routes or even pass by our meeting spots. I had called her, checked her social media, even hung around outside of her classrooms, and still, she managed to slip by me.
Imagine giving a girl her first orgasm, and after you did, she never talked to you again. As a teenage boy, that shit hurt my pride more than anything. It had been sixteen years, and I was still chasing the same girl.
I thought I missed my chance with Karina the moment I got up from the dining table at her grandparents’ home in Mississippi. Truthfully, I thought having Thanksgiving dinner with the Stevens’s would have worked in my favor because I knew how much Karina’s grandparents meant to her. They had raised her to be the beautiful and graceful woman standing in front of me today, and damn, they had done a good job.
“It’s good to see you again, Karina. I didn’t think I would after Thanksgiving.”
I chose my words carefully because Thanksgiving showed me every moment that I had with Karina could be the one she decided would be the last. She was the only woman I knew who cared absolutely nothing about what I had going on. She just didn’t want my ass, and that was clear.
Still, I at least had to try to change her mind. Karina popping up in my life two times in a row had to be some kind of sign. Notonly had I never gotten over her in the first place, but I was now being taunted by her presence. There was no way God would be that cruel.
“Yeah, about that. I didn’t mean to stand you up. I’m just not interested in dating anyone right now. I hope that is not going to affect our working together.”
