Love Out of Order (Indigo Love Spectrum) (17 page)

John put his phone back into his pocket and turned
to me with a smile. He gave me a quick kiss.

“I’m sure she had only good things to say about me,”
I said.

He laughed, squeezing my shoulders. “Of course.”

I stopped at the car and pulled him close to me,
burying my face in the front of his jacket. He lifted my
head by my chin, and lowered his face to mine.

“You okay?” he murmured before kissing my cheek.

“Yeah,” I lied. Out of all the voices that could have
crept into my head at that moment, Astoria’s had to be
the one that did.

“You know, I’ve really had a good time meeting your
family. No, really I have. You and these looks you give
me. I like them all—especially your uncle. Anyway, I
hope you’ll want to come meet mine over winter break,”
John said. He kissed my lower lip.

My mouth dropped open. “Really?”

“Yeah. I was thinking after Christmas, you could
come up to Connecticut and stay through New Year’s.
And we could come back to Virginia afterward together,”
John said.

Wow. And there I was thinking I was going to be
some big secret kept from the family.

“I mean, we have this boring New Year’s thing we
always go to, but I think it’d be much less boring to have
you there for it.”

“I’d love to.” I had never met a boyfriend’s parents
before. Big step. And not just any parents. Super rich
Wall Street lawyer parents. How did I feel about that? At
t
hat moment, it didn’t matter. All I knew was that John
wanted to take me home to meet his family.

I hugged John close and he kissed me. I couldn’t
imagine myself ever getting tired of John’s kisses. There
was always a measure of excitement in the fact that he
wanted to kiss me. He wanted to be with me.

ACROSS THE LINES

John and I got back to my place early Sunday after
noon. I was going to take him home that evening, but
he’d wanted to come over for a while since we hadn’t had
much time completely alone over Thanksgiving break.
And of course I didn’t mind.

I groaned as soon as I saw Astoria’s car parked in a vis
itor’s spot as I pulled into my own spot.

“What is it?” John asked.

“That’s Astoria’s car back there,” I said.

“Why do you sound so upset? I haven’t really met any
of your friends yet. This is good.”

“Yeah. You won’t be saying that once you meet her,”
I said.

“What makes you say that?”

“Oh, she hates you and she hasn’t even met you. Still
excited to meet her?”

“Why does she hate me?”

“Because you’re white.”

“You’re joking, right?”

“Kind of,” I said with a half smile.

He raised his eyebrows.

“C’mon. I’m sorry. I’m not trying to scare you. I’m
just not happy to see her here. She’s been getting on my
nerves a lot lately.”

“You can take me home first if you want some time
alone to talk with her.”

“No. The only person I want time alone with is you,”
I said, leaning over to kiss him.

“Good.”

“And if she wants to be difficult, she can be the one
to go home.”

“All right. Let’s go. I’ll get your bags.”

I kissed him again. He hugged me long and hard. He
then pulled back and opened his door. Sighing longingly,
I opened my own door and climbed out of the car. John got my bags and we headed to the front door. I opened
the door and we were greeted by Astoria’s sour smirk. She
sat on the sofa, across from the front door.

“Hi, Astoria. Good to see you. How was your break?”
I said.

She shrugged.

“This is John. John—”

“I know who he is,” Astoria snapped.

So much for trying to be nice.

“I’m just gonna take these to your room. I’ll be back,”
John said quietly, kissing my cheek.

I nodded, watching him go. I had just spent a crazy
Thanksgiving getting John acclimated to my family. I
wasn’t about to go through any nonsense with Astoria.
“Stori, look. I’m not going to do this. If you’re not here
to talk sense, I don’t think we have anything to say to
e
ach other right now.” I stood in the middle of the living room. The only seats in the room not cluttered with Tia’s mess were on the sofa, and I had no desire to sit next to
Astoria.

“Don’t you call me that. My friends call me that. And
you’re not being much of a friend right now.”

I snorted and crossed my arms over my chest. “I
haven’t done anything to you,
Astoria
. You’re always
going off on me. And for what? Because I won’t let you run my life?”

“I’m not the one actin’ a fool.”

“Yes, you are. Look at how you just treated John. We
haven’t even gotten through the door good yet, and here
you are. Rollin’ your eyes and stampin’ your feet.”

“That’s because I wish you would leave him alone. He
is no good for you. He’s rude. He’s stupid. He’s just
another one of
them
. And all he wants is to see what it’s like to have a black girl on her back.”

“You don’t know a thing about him.”

“I know all I need to know,” Astoria said. Her eyes
shifted to John as he entered the room. “Worthless,” she
sneered.

I gave him a pleading look and he nodded before walking back into my room.

“Astoria, I don’t know what your deal is. He hasn’t done anything to you,” I said.

“He’s just playing with you. He knows he can’t bring
you home.”

“I’m going to John’s parents’ for New Year’s. Besides,
our relationship has nothing to do with you.”

“
You’re my best friend. When somebody’s trying to
hurt you, I make it my business.”

I shook my head. “No. It’s not. My parents don’t even
tell me who to date. What gives you the right?”

Astoria glared at me. “You are a fool.”

“Out.” I pointed to the door.

She jumped up and stormed to the door. “I tried to
warn you. I don’t want you to come crying to me when
this blows up in your face.” She slammed the door after
her.

“What’s her problem? I wish you’d told her we haven’t
even had sex yet.” John had emerged from my room again.

“I warned you. And I didn’t tell her because she
doesn’t need to know our business.” I wrapped my arms
around him. “Just forget about her.”

“Hmph,” John grumbled.

“I bet I can make you forget about her.” I kissed
John’s chin.

“Oh, yeah?” he asked, allowing me to take his hand
and lead him toward my room.

I nodded, kissing his hand. I pulled him into the
room and shut the door.

John sat on my bed with my head in his lap, stroking
my hair away from my face. I stared up at him.

“So, you really think being with me is worth all the
work?” John grinned.

“I could ask you the same question,” I said.

He laughed. “True. Well, I hope you do. Because I’ve
been happier this weekend than I ever was with Sasha.”

“Really?” I was warm all over.

“Oh yeah. But you’ve always had a hold over me, Denise.”

“Stop lying.”

“No. Really. I mean, didn’t you ever notice how I
always made an excuse to get closer to you when we were
studying?”

“Yeah.” I grinned. “I thought it would probably have
been pretty hard to forget your laptop when you were coming to a study session.”

“Yeah. And the way I used to always make excuses to
touch you?”

“Yeah.”

“And now the best part is—I don’t have to make
excuses anymore,” he said, stroking my cheek.

“That is a definite benefit,” I said, putting my hand
over his.

“Yeah,” he said, his perfectly green eyes moving over
my face. “I just don’t see how you can put up with her.”
He linked his fingers through mine.

“She’s actually a pretty good friend when she’s not
being an ass,” I murmured.

“When’s that?” he asked with a snort. We laughed.
“So what do you like about me so much?” I was ready for a subject change.

“Hm . . . what don’t I like?”

“That’s a cheap way to get out of the question.” I grinned.

John removed my hand from his and moved from under me. He then straddled me.

“
Let’s see . . . I like this,” he said, kissing the bottom
of my earlobe.

I giggled. “That tickles.”

“And I like this,” he said, pulling my sweater away
from my shoulder and kissing it. He let his tongue linger
on the flesh of my shoulder. “And I really like this,” he
murmured, gently caressing my arm as he pushed my
sweater sleeve up. He tenderly kissed the skin of the
crook of my arm. He then did the same with my wrist, right over my pulse point, and his eyes locked on mine.
My pulse quickened even more.

“Oh yeah? What else do you like?” I whispered.

He grinned wickedly. “You sure you wanna know?”
he asked, unbuttoning my jeans.

“Yeah I do,” I said, turning out my bedside lamp. I
plunged us into darkness and he plunged me into shivers
of pleasure by running a thumb ever so slightly across my
lower abdomen. I gasped as he lowered his lips to the
place where his thumb had been. Then he started trailing
kisses upward. Damn. I wanted him to go the other way.
He pushed my sweater up as he went.

“I like this almost the most,” he murmured into the
flesh of my breast as I finished removing my sweater and
T-shirt for him. I was impatiently waiting for him to get
to the bra.

“What do you like the most?” I whispered as he
flicked his tongue over my nipple through my bra before
his teeth gently bit at it.

“This,” he whispered the moment before his lips
descended over mine.

I
like this the best, too
, I thought with a moan as he
finally got rid of my bra without ever separating his lips
from mine. I ran my hands down his back, my hands
savoring every solid, muscled inch. I let my hands rest at
his lower back. He groaned, pressing himself closer to me.

He kissed the top of my ear. Then, my right temple.
Next, my forehead. Followed by my left temple. And
finally, the top of my left ear. He sat up and pulled me up
with him. I wrapped my legs around his waist and rested
my head on his shoulder. I then rolled my head back, eyes closed, as he did sinfully delightful things to my
body with his tongue.

I thought at that moment that he was more than
worth whatever I had to go through to keep him. I was
bewildered as to where that had come from all of a
sudden. But if I had known what was really to come, I
wonder if I would have still felt that way.

* * *

On the last day of classes for the fall semester, I was
on my way to John’s place so we could go out to dinner
when Astoria accosted me in the law school parking lot.

“Denise, we can’t keep this up. We’re too good of
friends for that,” Astoria said. We had hardly seen each
other outside of class since that Sunday at my place after
Thanksgiving.