A Marriage of Convenience (2 page)
Read A Marriage of Convenience Online
Authors: Aliyah Burke
“Please Michael,” she begged in a faint voice.
He shucked his jeans and boxers. Moving back up her body, he saw the longing in her eyes matched what he felt deep in his soul, a gut-wrenching need to be joined totally with her. Mixed in with the physical desire was something else, something more, an emotion he hadn’t experienced with another woman ever.
He picked up the condom packet, opened it and rolled it on his engorged shaft. He counted to gain control when her gaze landed on him and her pink tongue swiped over her lips.
Positioning his body between her spread legs, Michael almost lost his hard-won control when her hand touched his cock and guided it into her wet warmth. As her pussy welcomed him, Michael encountered euphoria and his body thrummed with electricity. Her muscled walls gripped him tightly as he slid fully into her body. The heat almost seared him. Images grew blurry as he sank until he could go no further.
“Fuck me!” he uttered on a harsh breath. The pleasure was almost too much.
“Oh, God!” Ayanna moaned and shuddered as another orgasm took her.
The rippling sensation snapped the tenuous hold Michael had on his control. He began to pump. Back and forth. Her body clutched at him as he withdrew, trying desperately to prevent his leaving, and conformed perfectly to his erection as he moved back inside.
Her panting grew louder as her hips gyrated and move up to meet his thrusts. Michael kissed her as his hips moved faster. Deeper. Harder. Her short nails dug into his back as he continued to pound into her.
“You feel so good, Ayanna,” he muttered into her ear as he slid his hands under her shoulders and gripped the back of her head.
“Michael,” she mewled.
“Tell me, baby.” Sweat covered his body as he tried not to come before she reached her orgasm. Her body tightened around him.
I want to partake of you without a condom on, Ayanna. I want to spill myself deep inside you.
“I’m…I…I’m…” Her words were garbled. Her actions weren’t. Ayanna tightened her legs as her back arched in time with her climax. The waves of pleasure sailing through her propelled Michael over the edge of the cliff he’d been teetering upon. He came with a gravelled shout, his eruption longer than it had ever been before.
Collapsing beside her, he kissed her then disposed of the condom before gathering her back into his arms. They both lay in silence as their hearts slowed and their breathing returned to normal.
He knew they had the night and he wanted to enjoy her luscious body as much as he could. He also realised something else.
Something more meaningful than just sex had happened between them. More powerful than the flames that erupted where they’d touched, the intense experience between them had an undercurrent of destiny. It was almost as if the fates had tipped their hand and brought them together.
Ayanna was boneless and limp. And unsure. This was supposed to just be a good session of sex—which it had been—but her invading emotions threw her. The only thing she was sure of was that she wanted more. More of the pleasure Michael brought her.
His penis hardened against her as his lips moved over her ear. “Take a shower with me.”
“Okay,” she agreed.
I can’t get enough of his touch.
They walked to the bathroom, heedless of the clothes scattered on the floor of her hotel room. The heat lamp was switched on along with the fan before Michael turned on the water.
When he faced her, her breathing hitched. Goosebumps popped up along her body. His eyes watched her and they looked sleepy, but she knew…she knew they were anything but. Her own gaze moved up and down his hard, naked body. His mouth-wateringly handsome body.
Unbidden, she reached for his fully erect cock and wrapped her fingers around it. His hiss of pleasure reached her, but she ignored it. She focused on what she held.
She swiped her thumb over the tip of the swollen head and it jumped in her palm. In her peripheral vision, Michael’s hand clenched. She moved her other hand along the shaft, slipping down to the nest of dark hair at the base and up until it met the one that teased the head of his cock.
Drops of pre-cum were smeared with each pass of her thumb over his hard rod. It was like touching steel covered by warm silk. Ayanna dropped to her knees on the plush bathroom rug and replaced her thumb with her mouth. Her hands shifted down, one on his thick shaft and the other caressing his balls.
“Ayanna!” Michael’s voice was hoarse. His rigid posture exposed the tendons of his neck.
Running her tongue under the bulbous head of his cock, Ayanna hummed against him vibrating the tip. But instead of waiting for a reply she moved down the shaft, taking more and more of him into her mouth. She continued to tease his scrotum as her mouth alternated its pressure.
He pumped his hips, driving himself into her while she kept her eyes on his face. His shout announced his release as he came deep in her throat. Before the sound faded, he had pulled her from the floor, kissed her, took her in the shower and proceeded to fuck her like there was no tomorrow.
The water cascading around them only added to the pleasure. The steam made it more exotic. Michael gripped her hips, as she faced him, her back against the wall.
He pulled out of her seconds before he came and spilled his seed onto the dark skin of her belly, only to have it washed away seconds later by the shower. Afterward, she let him carry her back to bed where he loved her all over again.
Every muscle ached, but this man was like a drug. She craved more. It was going to be hard to walk away in the morning.
As she rode him at her own pace, she looked at him again. His eyes spoke of more than just a one-night stand. Neither of them seemed to remember he wasn’t wearing a condom. Neither of them seemed to care.
In the morning, however, when Ayanna woke, sore but content, she was alone. There was no sign of Michael Taylor anywhere. Staring at her reflection in the mirror she smiled sadly.
“That’s what happens when you agree to a one-night stand.”
Chapter One
Michael opened the purse he’d found and searched for some identification so he could have the owner paged. As his tanned fingers slipped through the interior they passed a book of American poets—Edgar Allen Poe, Langston Hughes, Robert Frost, Walt Whitman, and more. He found a container of orange breath mints. A playbill for one of his favourite shows,
The Phantom of the Opera,
was crumpled up on the bottom and under that, he finally found an identification card. He immediately recognised the woman pictured on the Exchange employee card. She worked in the flower shop, but he’d seen her in the bookstore, as well.
Standing, he curled one hand over the muted purple purse and headed for the door. Not even the loud roar of the F-18s and other aircraft flying overhead distracted him from his ‘mission’. As a pilot stationed here at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, the sounds were all common place to him.
Crossing the parking lot of NAS Oceana’s main Navy Exchange, Michael fought the grin which almost crossed his suntanned face as he watched a few children walk past him in their ‘I ♥ Jet Noise’ tees. He knew he was receiving strange looks from people as he walked in the Exchange, carrying a purse, with no woman beside him, and for some reason it didn’t bother him. Today was a good day.
It was summer in
“Can I help you?” she asked, coming towards him.
“I believe you dropped this outside, Ma’am.”
“Oh, my goodness. I couldn’t find it. It must have fallen out of my bag. I’ve been looking everywhere for my card to swipe, and I didn’t…” she trailed off, apparently realising she was rambling. Clearing her throat, she muttered, “Thank you so much…?”
He smiled at her. “Taylor. Lieutenant Michael Taylor.”
* * * *
In the bookstore, Ayanna smiled at the customers she was helping and handed them their purchases. “Have a great day,” she said as they walked away.
Her gaze moved back across the corridor to the flower shop where a handsome man talked to Lauren. His faded jeans seemed to mould themselves to his lower half. A beige shirt hugged his torso and defined his upper arms as it conformed to them. A whisper of familiarity skated across her skin, but she shook it off.
“Figures,” she muttered to herself. “She’s either getting a dinner date or he’s buying flowers for his wife.” Allowing herself one lingering look at the dark-haired man, she walked over to a box of new inventory waiting for her attention and got back to work.
As she finished putting the last book on the stand specifically for military reading, Lauren entering the bookstore with a silly grin on her face as she walked.
“Hey, Ayanna,” she said in her typical, upbeat manner.
“Lauren,” Ayanna responded with a grin. “I saw that handsome man hanging over your counter.”
A blush moved up her friend’s face. “Oh, that…that was Lieutenant Taylor.”
“Ooohhhh,” Ayanna teased. “And what are you doing with him later? Or should I say
to
him.”
I knew a Taylor once, but that was a different lifetime ago.
“Shut up, you. He was returning my purse, well your purse. He was very impressed with its contents. The playbill, the poetry book…”
“Why would he be impressed with that?”
“I guess he doesn’t meet many people who read American poets anymore.”
Ayanna rolled her eyes. “And I suppose you told him the lead in
Phantom
was just
so
dreamy.” The deepening flush on Lauren’s face gave her the answer. Ayanna shook her head. She’d let Lauren borrow the purse for a date and was still waiting on the return of her items. Things she’d forgotten were in the purse at the time. “Shame on you for trying to pass off those things as yours.”
“Well, I was just trying to make an impression.”
Ayanna burst out laughing. She couldn’t help it. “Can you even tell me one of the poets in that book?”
Collagen-injected lips pursed as Lauren thought.
With a friendly yet knowing smirk, Ayanna patted Lauren’s arm as she moved to the counter and the customer who waited there.
Fifteen minutes later, Ayanna sat down outside the Exchange at the small table and took out her lunch. A few moments later, Lauren joined her and they chatted easily while they ate.
“Is Erma dropping off Devon today?”
Ayanna smiled. “Yes. Yes, she is.”
Devon Lamar Barker was her three-year-old son. Back when all she’d cared about were parties, she’d had gone to a Thunderbirds air show demonstration with a friend in Albuquerque while on a break from undergraduate school.
And had gotten pregnant.
There’d been a huge party. Lots to see. Lots to do. Well, only one for Ayanna. She’d met him at the beer tent. His name was Michael Kelly Taylor.
He was a handsome man. A few inches over six feet. Golden tan skin, all over. His hair was mocha brown and soft to touch. His dark, sensual, chocolaty gaze had felt like satin when it had touched her. He was beautifully constructed—a body that belonged in a sculptor’s studio, chiselled from granite or marble. Yet, his touch had been warm and tender.
He’d told her he was staying in Albuquerque at Kirkland Air Force Base. She hadn’t known what that meant exactly, but she’d gathered he was military. And assumed Air Force.
Honestly, she didn’t care. It was a combination of things. The evening air, the buzz from alcohol, the fact she was wild and impulsive. All combined, it had left her with no desire to leave his presence. Topping it all had been how the mere touch of his callused fingers sent tremors through her body.
Michael had kept her cradled against his chest during the firework display that had rounded out the night’s festivities, his body keeping the cool desert air at bay. The memory of that night was imprinted on her soul.
“Ayanna, are you listening to me?”
Blinking rapidly, Ayanna shook her head, dragged back to the moment. “Sorry Lauren, I got lost there for a sec.”
“From the dreamy expression on your face, I’d bet it was a guy.”
Ayanna blushed. “Yeah, it was.”
“Who?” Lauren asked, more than ready to dish some dirt with her friend.
“Devon’s father.”
A blonde eyebrow rose. “You haven’t ever talked much about him. I guess I always assumed your relationship had ended badly.”
A short bark of laughter slipped out. “Relationship? Let’s just say I was being ‘liberated’ and such. Went to the Thunderbirds air show and the fireworks afterward. The rest was history.”
Lauren opened and shut her mouth. “Is Devon’s father military?” Her head cocked to the side in question.
Ayanna shrugged. “He said he was staying at Kirkland. To be honest…I didn’t care. I was at lot younger then, still trying to figure out what I wanted to do.”