“Where are all your fancy gowns, Princess?” he asked amid the kiss.
“Mamae says, home is for comfort. Respectability is for the world.”
“I really like your mother.”
Imani tried to laugh, but only managed a gasp when Roman’s tongue launched an attack on her ear. Lightly, she bit into his shoulder to muffle the cry trying to force its way from her throat. She was on her back an instant later. Roman cradled her bottom, his hands squeezing their fill as he continued to devour her ear. She shuddered his name and he drove his hips into hers.
Her shorts were snug. Her sex embraced the raging erection Roman had been laboring to keep his mind off of since she’d joined him in the room. Restrained only by bed linens, his entire body was alive with sensation that stoked an insatiable craving only she could ease.
“Roman...”
“Imani, you’re killing me,” he put his forehead to her shoulder. “Please stop, alright? We’ll be married soon and then-”
“I don’t want to disappoint you when the time comes to...”
“You won’t.”
“But how do you know?”
His smile was playfulness personified. “I just know. Can’t that be enough?”
Imani recognized the words she’d given to her mother the day before. She responded with additional commentary from that meeting. “For you? Yes.”
~10~
Zachary Billups knocked and stuck his head inside Stone’s office door. “Heading out...need anything before I go?”
Stone met Zach’s words with a blank stare initially. “You coming back or going for the night?” he asked after several seconds.
Zach grinned, blue eyes twinkling merrily. “Out for the night. You got any idea what time it is?”
Another touch of bewilderment shadowed Stone’s expression. He looked to the wall clock and blinked, surprised. “Is everybody gone?”
“All but Dev,” Zach leaned against the wall, arms folded over a well-defined chest as he chuckled. “She’s the only one who wouldn’t think of leaving before you.”
Stone nodded firmly. “That’s because she’s the only one on my staff who isn’t a bum.”
“Why don’t you give it a rest for the night?” Zach suggested.
Stone gave the man a resigned look. “You remember what I’m up against, right?”
Zach pushed from the wall and moved closer to the desk. “You ever consider that maybe Humphrey’s so far ahead because he’s not chained to his desk?”
“Meaning, I am?” Stone leaned back from the papers he scoured.
“Something like that,” Zach peppered the admission with a shrug.
“What should I do about that?”
Zach strolled behind the long pine desk. “Come out with me.”
Stone rested his head back on the chair. “Don’t really feel like going out.”
Mouth curved into a sly smile, Zach leaned in to take hold of Stone’s loose navy tie. “We could stay in,” Zach’s rich voice held a quiet seductiveness.
“And do what?” Stone’s voice was just as quiet.
“Let me show you,” Zach used his grip on the tie to draw Stone forward until their lips met.
The kiss was playful at first, beginning with only a few soft pecks before turning more demonstrative and lusty. Stone sank a hand into Zach’s dense blonde curls. Zach kept Stone flush to his chest while he remained seated on the edge of the desk.
Cooler heads somehow prevailed and just in time. Stone and Zachary broke apart just as Stone’s secretary Devonny Cane knocked and stepped inside.
“Telegram from shipping,” Devonny presented Stone with a small envelope. Her lovely features were cool and she didn’t look as though she sensed anything physical going on between her boss and his assistant.
“Thanks Dev. Why don’t you go home for the night?”
“Fine by me. ‘Night, Zach.”
“See you tomorrow, Dev,” Zach waved off the stout redhead as the door closed at her back.
Stone was frowning over the message he had taken from the thin envelope.
“Bad news?” Zach asked.
“Not sure,” Stone turned the telegram over as if expecting to find more information on the back of the pale yellow sheet. “It’s a message from Roman’s guy who we put on the crew of one of the ships. Doesn’t make sense...”
“Well what’s it say?”
