Sweeter Temptation (Kimani Hotties) (11 page)

Sighing, Kyle pushed away from his desk and stood by the window overlooking the Nashville skyline. He hadn’t talked to anyone about Nia yet. After the way they’d left things in Candy, there didn’t seem to be much point.

But if he were going to confide in anyone, it would be his brother.

“Nia’s funny. She’s smart, savvy and has the biggest heart of anyone I know.” The words tumbled out of his mouth. “Nia’s wonderful.”

Kyle turned from the window to find Adam staring at him openmouthed.

“What are you gawking at?” Kyle asked.

“I just don’t believe it,” Adam said. “Are you listening to yourself?”

“What? You asked me about her, and I told you.”

“Yeah, you did, and ever since I can remember you’ve described your women in terms of gorgeous face, big boobs or nice ass. Always physical features.” The corner of Adam’s mouth lifted into the beginnings of a smirk. “You didn’t use a single physical attribute to describe this one. You told me things that are invisible to the eye.
Characteristics only the heart can see.
”

Kyle stood rigid as his brother’s observations sank in.

“Where in the hell did that come from?” he joked, in an attempt to deflect from the fact it had left him reeling. “Your wife have you watching Lifetime movie marathons now?”

“Whatever, man.” Adam smiled. “So when do I get to meet her?”

Kyle shrugged. “Probably never. The last time I talked to her she was angry with me for closing the factory. She doesn’t want to see me again.”

“So you’re just going to sit around moping?”

“She’s already turned me down twice. What do you suggest I do?”

“It’s simple,” Adam said. “Ask her again.”

Chapter 16

F
riday afternoon Nia looked at her boss’s empty office and smiled for the first time since she’d returned to work.

Mr. Randall had been out all day showing a movie location manager around town and wasn’t expected to return to the office. With him gone, she was cautiously optimistic she’d be part of the mass exodus of workers leaving city hall at five o’clock.

Again, Nia glanced from the seminar handouts she was stapling together at the clock. Not even a minute had passed since she’d last checked.

Her phone rang in her purse, and she reached into her bottom desk drawer.

Nia never took calls at work, but with her boss away and her two coworkers sitting across the room dawdling on Facebook, she figured it wouldn’t hurt to do it just this once. Besides, it was almost quitting time.

She answered without checking the number, assuming it was Amy wanting to know if she was coming to Candy this weekend to work on her grandmother’s house.

Instead, a deep, achingly familiar voice said her name.

“It’s Kyle,” he said.

Nia closed her eyes. She held the phone to her ear with both hands and let his voice wash over her. Unable to believe she was hearing it again.

When she finally spoke, she repeated his name in a breathless whisper.

“How’ve you been?” he asked.

“Good,” she said. “You?”

“I’m fine.”

The weeks apart had diminished her anger, making Nia wish she’d at least heard him out—as he’d done with her proposal—instead of judging him so harshly.

At the same time, her longing for her former houseguest had only grown stronger. She missed him.

“I read you were named the new CEO of Ellison Industries,” she said, hating how stiff and awkward she sounded. “Congratulations.”

“Thank you.” His tone was also off. Too formal and polite for two people who once enjoyed an easy camaraderie.

Nia heard his sharp exhale at the other end of the phone.

“I don’t want to waste time exchanging small talk with you.” He hesitated. “I called because I’ve missed you—a lot.”

Nia spun around in her chair until she faced the wall, avoiding her coworkers’ curious stares.

“I know what you said when I saw you last,” he continued, “but I was hoping you’d had a change of heart.”

Her heart slammed against her chest, brimming over with all the things she felt, but couldn’t put into words.

“I want to see you again. Take you out on a real date,” Kyle said. “Dinner. Perhaps, some dancing.”

“I’d like that.” The soft-spoken admission belied the screaming “yes” reverberating in Nia’s head.

“I’ll see you soon,” he said, and then disconnected the line.

What?
Nia pulled the phone from her ear and stared down at it.

For a man who seemed so eager to take her out, Kyle hadn’t given as much as a clue to when it would actually happen.

Nia couldn’t help feel disappointed. And stupid.

One thing was for sure—she wouldn’t sit by the phone wondering when or if he’d call again. She was going to pack a bag and head to Candy. She’d completed the living and dining rooms, but needed to get started stripping the flowered wallpaper from the walls of her grandmother’s old knitting room.

“Earth to Nia.” Janice snapped her fingers in front of her face.

Nia blinked, surprised. She hadn’t seen or heard her friend come through the door.

Janice cast a glance at her boss’s unoccupied office. “Think you’ll be able to get out of here before he comes back to dump more work on you?”

Nia checked the clock. “Unless he comes back in the next ten minutes, I’m home free.” She kept her voice low, although there was probably no need. Gerald Randall’s nieces were already shutting down their computers and pulling out compacts to reapply their makeup.

“Great, then you can join us for happy hour,” Janice said.

Nia opened her mouth to reply, but Janice cut her off.

“Oh, no you don’t,” she said. “I have reinforcements coming, and we’re not taking no for an answer this time.”

As if on cue, Veronica, who worked down the hall in the suburb’s parks and recreation office, and Deborah, from information technology, barged into the office.

“Did she say no, again?” Veronica asked.

Deborah stood in front of Nia’s desk, her hands fisted on her hips. “Put on some lipstick and let’s go.”

“Lipstick?” A voice from the other side of the room butted into the conversation and added a snort. “Nia doesn’t care about going out or trying to look pretty.”

Janice, and crew, spun around and glared at Gerald Randall’s niece.

“Work is her man,” the other niece chimed in. “So y’all are just wasting your time.”

“What did you...” Janice began.

Nia leaned over her desk and laid a restraining hand on her friend’s arm.

“Don’t,” she said, despite the fact, she’d been itching to take a bite out of her boss’s nieces. Nia had been frustrated with them before her leave of absence. Now she was downright fed up.

Still, with her promotion on the line, she didn’t want to rock the boat.

Exhaling, Janice turned to Nia. “Okay, but I’m only keeping quiet for your sake,” she said.

“You’ve got to come out with us now,” Veronica said.

“I appreciate the invite, but I already have plans.”

Janice frowned. “Going to Ohio to house paint isn’t a plan.”

“Exactly,” Deborah said. “And tall, dark and handsome isn’t coming to you.”

Nia glanced at the clock. In five minutes, she was Ohio-bound.

“Oh. My. God.”

The exclamation came from one of her boss’s nieces.

Nia, along with everyone else in the room, followed the woman’s opened-mouth gaze to the door as six foot four inches of suit-clad, masculine deliciousness strode through it looking as if he’d just stepped out of a Hugo Boss ad.

Kyle.

Her mouth went dry and her panties dampened simultaneously. She’d bet money she wasn’t the only woman in the room with the same reaction.

“Ladies.” Kyle acknowledged the other women in the room, but his brown eyes remained intensely focused on her.

Nia took in the perfectly-tailored dark suit. He’d eschewed a tie, and the snowy white shirt was open at the collar revealing a tiny expanse of his sculpted chest.

Kyle cut a path through the women surrounding her desk. Planting both palms on the desktop, he leaned in until his face nearly touched hers. The woodsy scent of his cologne tickled her nose and aroused her senses.

“I believe you promised me a date.”

“You want to go out
tonight?
” Nia stammered, still stunned he was in her office.

Kyle rounded her desk and held out his hand to her.

“I want to go right now,” he said. “I’m not taking a chance on you changing your mind.”

Nia retrieved her purse with one hand and placed the other in his larger one. She smiled up at him.

“Then let’s go,” she said.

Nia couldn’t help relish the moment as she and Kyle walked past the wide eyes and gaping mouths hand in hand.

“Enjoy your weekend, ladies,” she said.

“I
know
you will,” Janice chortled.

They walked out of the city hall building, and Nia stopped midstep. A black limo was parked at the curb, a uniformed driver manning the door.

Kyle gently tugged her hand.

“I enjoyed your hospitality during the blizzard,” he said. “Now let me show you mine.”

“Hospitality?” Nia snorted and resumed walking toward the car. “I fed you peanut butter and had you shovel my snow.”

He threw his head back and laughed. “I don’t have peanut butter or Lucky Charms, so we’ll just have to make do.”

“Ms. King.” The driver opened the door.

After they were seated in the car, Kyle inclined his head toward the window. “Looks like you have an audience.”

“Audience?”

Nia glanced out the window. Sure enough Janice, Veronica, Deborah, her boss’s nieces and a few additions were standing on the landing of the city hall building watching their departure. She had a feeling she’d be the top subject of the office gossip mill next week.

“I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me where we’re going.”

“It’s a surprise.”

The driver merged onto the highway in the direction of Chicago. The options of places to go there were limitless, and she decided not to wrack her brain trying to figure out their destination.

“So you were already here when you made the call asking me out?”

Kyle nodded. “I called from the car as soon as we got to town.”

“You must have been pretty confident I’d say yes.”

“I was the opposite of confident. After all, you’d already turned me down twice,” he reminded her.

“What if I had said no this time?” she asked.

Kyle, who still hadn’t let go of her hand since they’d left her office, traced a pattern on it with his thumb. “I would have returned home a very sad man.”

“I’m glad you called,” Nia admitted.

She looked down at their entwined fingers. The elemental contact reminding her of the more intimate skin-on-skin connection they’d shared during their night together, and her toes curled inside her sensible work pumps.

He squeezed her hand. “So am I.”

Moments later, she noticed the driver taking the wrong exit to Chicago and traveling down a less populated road.

“I think your driver got turned around,” Nia said. “Chicago is in the other direction.”

“We’re not going to Chicago,” Kyle said.

Before she could protest the limo approached a private landing strip Nia hadn’t even known existed. It came to a stop ten feet in front of a jet with the gold Ellison Industries logo emblazoned on the side.

“Now you have to tell me where we’re going,” Nia said. “I have to be at work on Monday. I don’t have anything packed.”

Kyle leaned over and brushed his lips against hers, in a kiss so sweet it silenced any protest.

“I’ve taken care of everything, and I’ll have you back in plenty of time for work,” he said. “Trust me.”

Nia nodded.

The security guard standing near the plane opened the car door. “Good afternoon, Mr. Ellison, Ms. King.”

Nia felt like the first lady as they climbed the flight of stairs to board. She couldn’t contain the audible gasp when she entered the cabin. It didn’t look like any airplane she’d ever seen.

Awestruck, she ran her fingertips across the rich, lacquered cherrywood paneling lining the walls as she took in the creamy leather first-class chairs, each accompanied by its own small television.

“I could fit my entire apartment in here,” she said.

“Make yourself at home,” Kyle said. “In addition to the galley, there’s also an office, bedroom and bathroom.”

Nia looked down at the skirt and blouse she’d worn for work. “If I had known I’d be traveling in the lap of luxury, I’d have worn a nicer outfit.”

“Speaking of outfits, I have some people I’d like you to meet.”

As if on cue, three women Nia assumed were a part of the jet’s crew walked across the lush patterned carpeting to the front of the plane.

“I’d like you all to meet Nia King, the woman I told you about,” he said, and then turned his attention to her. “Nia, these ladies are going to help you get ready for our date tonight.”

He went on to introduce her to a manicurist, aesthetician and a personal stylist. Then escorted her to a room that looked like a private spa.

Overwhelmed, Nia could only stare.

“Our flight time is a little over an hour, so they can only provide a mini version of their usual services,” he said.

“Kyle, this is too much,” she said, when she finally recovered.

He lifted her chin with the curve of his knuckle until their eyes met, the heat of his gaze igniting memories of their night together.

“It’s not nearly enough,” he said.

“B-but I can’t let you do all of this for me,” her protest sounded weak even to her own ears.

“Please.” His deep voice lowered to a husky whisper that transported her back to him lowering her onto the middle of her bed. “Let me.”

Nia slowly nodded, knowing in that very moment she would have let him do anything, anywhere, anyhow he wanted. And it both excited and scared the hell out of her.

* * *

Kyle put the figures he’d been reviewing on his laptop away and donned his tuxedo moments before the pilot announced the plane was about to begin its descent into Nashville.

He’d planned to work during the short flight. However, focusing on the profit-and-loss statement of one of Ellison’s detergent companies had been nearly impossible. His gaze and attention kept drifting to the closed door where he hoped Nia was enjoying her condensed spa day.

Kyle returned to the leather chair near the front of the plane. Part of him wished he’d opted to whisk Nia away to the private beach of an island paradise, where they could be alone. But the truth was, he’d taken women on impromptu vacations for a bit of fun in the sun.

This was the first one he wanted to take home to meet the people closest to him.

Kyle forced himself to stop staring at the closed door and turned to look out the window. He knew he was getting ahead of himself. She’d only agreed to one date. However, he hoped at the end of the evening she’d agree to much more.

Nia entered the first-class section of the cabin, and any doubts he had about sacrificing the hour without her vanished.

A single word echoed through Kyle’s mind as he took in the woman walking toward him in the sultry, red, shoulder-baring gown.

Breathtaking.

The slinky fabric slid over her curves like his hands yearned to do, and when her movements revealed the dress’s side split, he had to fist the same hands at his side to keep from touching the expanse of thigh.

Their gazes connected, and for a second time, Kyle wondered how he could have ever thought this woman was not his type.

“You look magnificent,” Kyle said, standing.

“I feel like Cinderella.” Nia rested her palms against his chest and rose up on tiptoe. He met her halfway planting a kiss on her lightly glossed lips.

God, he’d missed the honey-sweet taste of her. Kyle kept his hands at his sides, afraid to let them operate on their own accord. He knew he wouldn’t be able to stop them from gliding down the sumptuous fabric of her dress and cupping her lush bottom. He wanted to pull her flush against him so she could feel how much he missed her, not stopping until the gown was on the floor and her legs were wrapped around his waist.