“I had a great reason.”
Their gazes were holding, but soon Roman was clearing his throat and turning for the kitchen.
“Are you hungry?” he called.
“Oh, I can wait if you want to...talk a bit,” Imani looked to the living area and then back to Roman with a steady and curious gaze. When he didn’t acknowledge what she so blatantly wished to know, weariness took hold. “Why did you bring me here, Roman? Not to talk?” She prodded when he merely stared at her in response.
“We’ve already established there won’t be anything else going on, so...” she offered a mystified shrug. “Why?”
“Dammit Imani,” Roman sighed defeatedly after holding her stare just a while longer. Spreading his hands over the top of the cook island, he studied the area at length. “I wanted to be alone with you, alright?”
He left the kitchen and returned to the living room. “Somewhere without your cousin watching me like she wants to lock me in her bedroom or at my friends’ place with them watching you like they want you for dinner.”
“Stop it. They’re sweet,” Imani championed the guys she’d met earlier that week.
Roman snorted. “They’re dogs. Just like me.”
Imani held her ground behind the couch and watched Roman near the photo shelf. “You keep wanting me to believe you’ll hurt me. I don’t.”
“And I wouldn’t. Not intentionally, Imani. Never intentionally. But I’m dangerous for you. I want to spend time with you, to be around you for as long as I can, but anything else...I respect your father too much to-”
“Not this again,” She rolled her eyes and made for the front door. She didn’t make it halfway there before she was taken off her feet and deposited beneath her very appealing dinner host on the sofa.
“I’m dangerous for you, Imani.”
“I don’t care.”
Roman nodded, looking as if he had expected her response. “Alright,” the word barely silenced on his tongue before he was taking her mouth.
Imani relaxed into the sofa cushions while arching her back to revel in the chest that deliciously smothered hers. She gasped his name. Kissing Roman Tesano had been on her mind since the night at the club. They had seen each other daily since then and he had kept a heartbreaking distance from her. All she wanted was to kiss him. She didn’t know much more beyond that to crave anything more.
Roman was ending their connection and dragging his mouth down her neck. Imani was virtually panting by then. Her breasts were heaving, as her frantic breaths pushed them against the lacy black confines of her bra.
Friction had undone the buttons on her blouse. Imani bit down on her lip when Roman’s mouth brushed her bare skin. The hand cupping her cheek, descended to her breast. She shuddered his name when his thumb rubbed the super sensitive nipple still hidden inside her lingerie.
She moaned her disappointment when he moved on, but found intense favor in the substitution he made. His mouth took the place of his thumb and continued to caress her into a frenzy. She tried to say his name, but her voice box wasn’t cooperating. Neither were her hands, it seemed, but she did muster strength enough to lose them in the dense jet forest of his hair. She wanted to beg him not to stop. All she could manage was to arch more sharply toward the source of the remarkable experience he was introducing her to. He licked and sucked with a sultry expertise that dampened the fine fabric of her bra cup.
His hand drifted past her hip, down to the juncture of her thighs. The move caused Imani to flinch when an unexpected jolt of erotic bliss coursed through her.
Roman didn’t cease his exploration and Imani didn’t know what to fixate on-his hand between her thighs or his gifted mouth at her chest. Her choice was made when he used his thumb on her. Lashes fluttering wildly, she stammered out his name on a tortured cry. He sucked her nipple with an intensified zeal that made her shudder his name in earnest.
Finally, he paused breathing raggedly over the saturated bra cup. “Stop me,” he said even as his thumb rubbed her sex. It swept the crotch of her slacks, causing her to twist beneath him.
“Roman...”
“Stop me.”
The pressure was too intense, too gripping and too...too terrifying. She...wasn’t ready. Despite that, she couldn’t tell him to stop, but to continue this way would surely drive her crazy. Somehow, she knew he wouldn’t be sympathetic to her plight. He would overwhelm her with stimuli and offer nothing to quell its effects.
“Roman-”
“Stop me.”
“Roman-”
“Stop me, Imani-”
“No...”
“So you’re ready for what comes next?” He moved his thumb and gripped her thighs. He parted them wide to accommodate his body snug in the vee they made.
Imani barely recognized her voice when a sultry moan escaped her throat as his sex wedged heavily against hers.
“Are you ready for what comes next, Princess?” his dark eyes were fiercer than usual, demanding as he questioned her. “Are you ready to lose your virginity on a couch in my brother’s living room? That how you pictured it? Is it Imani?” He thrust slightly against her then, resting his head on her shoulder. All the while, he prayed his willpower wouldn’t fail him when the time came to release her.
“Is it, Imani?” He once again insisted and put a kiss to her ear when he felt her shake her head.
“Can we have dinner now?” He smiled when he felt her nod. He dropped another kiss to her ear and then gently pulled away and went back to the kitchen.
Imani appreciated the time alone to collect herself, to silence her thundering thoughts and urges that were still causing parts of her to throb. Soon enough though, she was pushing off the sofa and going to join Roman in the kitchen for their meal.
Her cheeks burned the entire time.
~~~
“Your mother’s secretary is quite a chef.”
Roman smiled and reached for the small saucer Imani had cleared of the tiramisu prepared for dessert. “I think those skills are a requirement of every secretary who’s come to work for her. Seriously,” he said when Imani laughed.
