The Pleasure's All Mine (26 page)

A wave brought the water swelling around her. She yelped, “PIERCE!”

Grabbing her with both hands, he brought her into his arms. She instantly wrapped her legs around his waist, hanging on for dear life.

“It’s all right, baby,” he soothed.

She buried her face into the curve of his neck and shoulder, shaking like full winter had come upon them. “Pierce, I can’t do this. I can’t do this!”

“You
are
doing this, see?” With that, he moved her a little further away, and panic set in once again.

“Pierce!”

“I’ve got you, baby,” he whispered. “Trust me.”

She peered over his shoulder. Every inch away from the stairs seemed like a mile. “I want to go back!”

“One more second, okay?”

She gripped him tighter, giving him a mild, “ ‘Kay.”

He pulled her on top of him, allowing their bodies to float for a few moments as they drifted to a hidden area on the side of the catamaran. “Trust me, Raven.”

She only nodded.

“Close your eyes.”

She closed her eyes tight, feeling a sudden pressure on her lips as Pierce’s tongue demanded entrance. Through half-open eyes, Raven watched his head as his tongue traced an outline of her lips.

“Mmmmm,” she moaned, and her body relaxed even more as she allowed him full access.

He purred in a husky voice, “Didn’t you get enough of this last night?”

She moved her hips toward him. “Someone’s trying to make up for lost time.”

Pierce pulled away, grinning. He moved the material away from her core, guiding himself inside to the tip of her delta, and teasing her pearl to the point that she gasped and trembled with pleasure. He inched himself upward as he held her in his arms, her back to the white planks of the boat and her legs crossed behind him. When she arched toward him, head back in pure abandon, mouth parted in wanton expectation, Pierce abruptly pulled out, saying, “
Now
we can go back.”

She blinked, gripped his hips so he stayed in place, and glared at him as she sputtered through clenched teeth, “You leave me hanging and I…will…whip…your…ass!”

Pierce answered with a low, husky laugh before thrusting upward into her heat and finishing what he had started.

When they returned to the suite, a message notice flashed on Pierce’s iPhone, as well as Raven’s.

“It’s Eric.”

“On mine, too.” Raven went into her voicemail, listening to several of Eric’s attempts to remain calm as he left one message after another. She looked over her shoulder at Pierce. “He says for me to have you call him right away. He sounds upset.”

Raven watched as Pierce listened, frowning as the message went on. Before she could comprehend what was happening, Pierce’s expression went blank, then he threw his phone on the bed.

Raven’s heart sank. She was instantly by his side. “What’s going on?”

“Sim called in every one of MEG’s employees and fired them on the spot—at two o’clock in the fucking morning!”

She followed him to the living room and slumped on the sofa right next to him. “You have to go back.”

He nodded, a vein throbbing at his temple.

Raven jumped up. “I’ll be ready in ten minutes.”

“I’ll call the pilot and Vinah.” Pierce pulled her into his arms. “I promise I’ll make it up to you.”

“It’s not your fault. You said dinner.” She held his face in her hands. “And it’s been so much more than that. I can’t thank you enough.”

Pierce waited a moment. “I know I have to take care of this, but finish out this vacation in New York with me.”

Raven shook her head. “We’ll have to do it another time. I have to get back to my life, too.”

“Please?” He kissed the top of her breasts. “With me on top and you squealing on the bottom?”

She trembled with delight and belted out a dirty little giggle. “Now you know that’s not the position that works for us.”

He released her breasts from the bathing suit.

“Pierce, we have to go,” she whispered huskily.

“Will you stay with me, baby? Just a little while longer?”

He kissed her, but she still shook her head. If she spent any more time with Pierce, her heart, mind, body, and soul would be in serious jeopardy. What she was feeling for him had far surpassed love a long time ago—and that terrified her. What could possibly be stronger than love?

Pierce lowered to his knees, trailing his lips across any exposed skin along the way. He parted her thighs and cupped her buttocks as he brought her center squarely in line with his lips. The first flicks of his tongue against her pearl almost made her knees buckle. The second his tongue swirled round the opening of her center, she surrendered her body to him. Minutes later, with all the teasing, tasting, and nibbling, she was shaking with the force of an orgasm so powerful, she blacked out for a few seconds. “I’ll stay!” she shrieked, shuddering as another orgasm slammed into her. “I give in!”

He stopped, stood, and grinned.

That satisfied grin only lasted a few seconds as she glared at him and stormed away.

❤ ❤ ❤

The flight back was a far cry from the mysterious yet wonderful one they had taken days earlier. Raven barely spoke to him, and nothing he said to coax her into light conversation made a difference. As the car took them from the airport to his home, he tried not to focus on what could have made her so angry. Instead he took in his surroundings. Pierce remembered how Sim had teased him about staying in Harlem, despite having enough money in the bank to live a ghetto-fabulous life-style. But Pierce could not, and would not, give up the place where he’d grown up. There were too many good memories for him there.

Central Harlem was still populated by folks who’d been in the same buildings and apartments for generations. The old brownstones and walk-ups were intermingled with new condos and trendy restaurants. Although Pierce could remember a time when white folks wouldn’t set foot in the area, in recent years, some of those brownstone and limestone buildings had been renovated and started attracting families and young people of all ethnic backgrounds.

The area was still home to many musicians, writers, and photographers. The Harlem Studio Museum, the Schomberg Center, and the Apollo Theatre were rich in Harlem history. Hip-hop, the music that was a small part of MEG’s bread and butter, was also alive and well in Harlem.

Between the artists, the lifelong denizens, and the new breed of Harlemites, Pierce truly felt he’d found his home. He didn’t care what anyone said—with its classy venues alongside the mom-and-pop shops and street vendors, Harlem felt more diverse and eclectic than Manhattan. Pierce could step outside his door and satisfy any itch or craving he had without heading all the way downtown and he liked it like that.

The driver pulled up to Pierce’s brownstone and brought their things into the foyer. The entire house was decorated in hues of red, black and silver, and showcased Oriental and African art, leather furniture, and mahogany woodwork, all blending with warmth and simplistic efficiency. Raven scanned the living room, taking in the black, and gray granite fireplace with a silver plasma television perched on top. Pierce took her hand and led her through the fully equipped kitchen and up the staircase, past the two guest bedrooms, then to the top level, which housed an office—and Pierce’s master suite.

Raven’s jaw dropped at the opulence of his California king bed draped in suede and leather with Egyptian spun silk underneath. The bath had a Jacuzzi tub that fit Pierce’s beefy body to a tee and could easily accommodate a guest or two.

Still taking in her surroundings, she uttered her first real words since they’d left Hawaii, “From the outside, I would have never thought this place was so…artistic, so beautiful on the inside.”

Pierce was proud. That was exactly what he was going for. Tough Harlem exterior, warm, earthy and modern interior—a blend of both worlds: his parents’ and his own style. He leaned over the tub, switched on the water. “Why don’t you take a dip while I whip us up something to eat?”

She looked at him and only nodded, as if she’d already said too much, and began to undress.

Damn
, Pierce thought as he left the room. She was in a funk again. Would those strange bouts of silence between them ever end?

After he was finished in the kitchen, he brought the tray up and joined her in the Jacuzzi, where they took turns feeding each other the meal he had prepared. She still hadn’t said another word to him, and he missed the sound of her voice. He missed the warmth in her touch. When he reached out for her, she still came willingly to him. He kissed her slowly, passionately, and she kissed him back, but something within her had changed—her wall was up again. The very thought that she could leave and have no emotional or physical ties to him worried him to the point that he couldn’t think straight.

“Raven, come on now. You’ve punished me enough for what I did. Talk to me.”

She placed a finger to his lips, reached for his hands, and led him from the water to the bedroom. Soon, their bodies melded together as he held onto her, searching her eyes for some sign of forgiveness. But he found only a coldness that startled him.

Raven walked to the bed, flipped back the leather and suede comforter, and lowered herself onto the sheets so that she was totally exposed to him, touching herself in a way that made his mouth water. Then she moved into the position that had brought him the most pleasure, allowing the moisture to seep beyond her center.

He stroked her body, his hand gliding over the slickness of her skin. She moaned, and he took her then, slipping cautiously into her moist heat with a delicious series of thrusts that made him cry out and finished with an explosive release.

When his breathing leveled out enough, he reached for her, but she pulled away, turning her back to him.

Pierce’s heart sank. “I promise we’ll finish our other three days in Hawaii as soon as this all blows over.”

She didn’t respond.

Her silence worried him more than he could say. He tried again to get some kind of reaction from her. “Your lawyer said she’s going to beat you with a wet noodle for not calling her when you got in.”

Raven’s lips lifted into something that could have been a smile, but he wasn’t sure.

Angered, he pressed forward. “We also need to cover one more thing so that we’re both on the same page, and there are no surprises later.”

She leaned back against his pillows, looking as sexy as he had ever seen her, and waited.

“I don’t believe in one-night stands,” he said in a solemn tone.

“Neither do I,” she replied, her voice matching his seriousness.

Great, at least she’s saying something
. “To me, sleeping together on a consistent basis outside of marriage, is nothing more than a series of one-night stands with options for renewal. I don’t believe in long-distance romances, either. So we have to come up with something that works.”

“So how do you suggest we make this work? I’m not leaving Chicago.”

“And I can’t leave New York. This business with my employees has to be handled right and my new label needs to get off the ground.”

Raven’s hand inched up to rest on her hip. “So what are you saying?” She flipped back the cover and sat up. “That I have to leave Chicago to be with you?”

“Raven, you can work from anywhere.”

“So that means you expect me to just uproot myself—sell my condo and move in with you?”

“It bears considering, Raven. At some point, this is going to come up. Why not now?”

“It could’ve waited,” she snapped. “I don’t even like New York. Traffic here is jacked up, and the directions are confusing as hell. You can’t find a damn thing. The bookstores were the hardest for me to get my novels into—the distributors cheated me. And there’s no Harold’s Chicken, no Quench, no steppers clubs—and despite claims to the contrary, Chicago’s pizza is a hell of a lot better—”

She had gone from sullen to furious, making Pierce suddenly miss the quiet Raven. “You can’t judge New York by Chicago standards,” he said. “Chicago is slower than New York, faster than L.A., but it has its sour points, too. Even Dr. King said it was one of the most racist places he ever marched.”

“That was Gage Park, a suburb—so it doesn’t factor into the equation. Not to mention that was a long time ago.”

“I’m sure if I did a little digging, I could come up with plenty more.”

She slid out of his bed, crossed to her clothes. “It won’t make a difference. I’m not moving to New York, and that’s the bottom line.”

“Then we’ve got a problem.”

“I guess
you
do.”

“Why is it
my
problem and not
our
problem?”

She slipped on her underwear, then her skirt. “You’re the only one making demands.”

“Raven, I’m asking you to think it over. I don’t want to spend night after night turning over in an empty bed, or running up phone bills, trying to keep in touch, instead of
physically
being in touch. I’ve waited too long to have someone in my life, only to have her in my life halfway. That’s not how I do things. It’s all or nothing.”

She slipped on her bra, then searched a moment for her blouse, gave up, reached for a hairbrush, and walked to the bathroom.

“Raven, come back here.”

She flipped her hair forward, brushed the underside, and flipped it back. “This conversation could have waited until much later.”

“And the issue would still be the same,” he countered. “We’ve already wasted too much time, and right now I need something stable—I prefer it to be the woman in my life.”

“I don’t appreciate you giving me an ultimatum like this—not right now. This relationship—if it can even be called a
relationship
—is completely new for both of us. And you want to mess it up by moving at warp speed.”

He threw back the covers and got out of the bed. “Either you’re expecting this relationship—that’s right I said
relationship
—to work, or you’re doing exactly what it takes to ensure it fails. It’s simple. I want you. You want me. We’re both intelligent, driven, and successful adults.
Nothing casual
, you said. And that’s exactly what I promised. There shouldn’t be any problem.”

“The problem is that this is moving way too fast, Pierce.”

“So we’ll have a little of this and a little of that, but no direction—no ultimate goal? We’ll get there when we get there?”

“That’s right,” she said, hand on her hips, dark brown eyes flashing with that characteristic anger.

“Raven, I hate to inform you, baby, but that’s the true definition of a casual relationship. I’m in for the long haul, so I definitely can’t have a relationship like that.”