Risking It All (27 page)

“I love you, too, Quinton.”

He sighed. One of relief. And they stayed in each other’s arms until Julissa said that it was time for her to go.

**

Michael went to play golf Saturday morning with some of his friends from the office, so before making her routine trip to the grocery store, she went to Quinton’s house first. As she pulled up in the gates, she was surprised to see him and Ed with boxes in their hands heading into the house. She had thoughts of turning around, but it was too late, because they both
looked up and
saw
her car
from the main road
.

Ed looked surprised to see her. Quinton was all smiles. She got out of the car, grabbed her bags, and made her way up the walkway, her stilettos clicking against the pebbles, her dress moving up her thighs from the strong winds.

“Surp
rise!” Julissa smiled
. “Hello, Ed.”

“Hi, Lissa,” they both said at the same time.

“We were just getting through here. Ed’s helping me move some of my stuff from the storage across town.” Quinton peered at her from around the box.

“Oh, did I catch you at a bad time? Should I come back?”

“No, no. We’re finished,” Quinton said, quickly.

“I made key lime pie this morning. I bought this one for you.” Julissa gestured to the bag in her hand.

“Mmmmm. I can use a taste of that right now.”

Ed cleared his throat. “Q, why don’t you put that box on top of this one? I’ll take these in while you guys…ah…um…whatever.”

Quinton placed his box on top of the one Ed already had in his arms. Ed turned
around and walked away.

He
took the bag from her hands
and
kissed her lightly on the lips.
“You look nice today. Have any plans?”

“I have a list of things to do today. I wanted to stop by on my way to the grocery store.”

They headed inside the house.

“I’m glad you did.” Quinton placed the bags on the kitchen counter, reached in the bag, and pulled out the pie. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Do you know any designers?
I thought you would
since you’re in the
industry.”

“I do, actually. Plenty. Most
of
them
do home staging. Some are full-
time interior decorators. So, you want to trust someone to design your whole house?”

“Better someone else than me. I’m not much into coordinating colors. I tend to stick
to codes, numbers, and computer language
.”

“I’ll send an email to Martha Monday morning. She knows a few designers who have experience with a house like this one.”

“Or…why don’t you come over here and decorate it for me?”

“I’m a realtor, Q, not a decorator.”

H
e smiled. “I know that, Lissa. I’m just trying to
create a reason to see you more.”

“Don’t you see me enough, already? I was only here just yesterday.” Julissa taunted.

Quinton grabbed the front of her jeans and pulled her against his chest. “If I had it my way, I would see you more often. As in, morning,
mid-morning,
noon,
mid-day, evening,
and night.”

“I like to give myself sparingly. Or else, you might get tired of seeing me.” Julissa pressed her lips against his in a kiss.

“I will never get tired of you. So, is that how it is now? You want to purposely keep us apart. Seeing you is not the only thing I miss when you’re away. I miss having my dick in your tight juicy
pussy,” he whispered in her ear.
“I miss the way you wrap those long legs around my back
and the way you work it
when you’re hot
and ready to climax. I’m hard
right now
just thinking about you
.”

“Well, let’s not think about it,” Julissa pressed her pelvis up against his, feeling his hardness. “Let’s do it.”

The sound of Ed clearing his throat brought them back to reality and they separated.

Ed stepped in the kitchen. “Don’t mind me. I just came to tell Quinton that I should be heading out, so I can leave you two to yourselves.”

“Oh, no. We were just talking,” Julissa said.

“Uh-huh?”
Ed had a skeptical look on his face.

“Would you like some pie
before you leave? I’m sure
Quinton wouldn’t mind sharing.”

Ed and Quinton exchanged a look with each other. After thinking about what she just said about Quinton and his willingness to share, Julissa felt stupid. And bad. And guilty.

“The pie. I don’t mind sharing the pie,” Quinton corrected her. He turned around and took some small plates
out of a box.

S
he cut and plated a piece of pie for
both
Quinton and Ed. “Do you have something to drink?” Julissa asked.

“Bottled water in the fridge,” Quinton replied. “Than
ks, baby,” he
said, when she returned with the water
.

“No problem.” Julissa stood on her tip toes and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

The kiss made him stop in mid-speech and stutter. Quinton smiled at her and then continued his conversation with Ed. Something about construction material.

Julissa pretended to be reviewing her day planner while they were talking over the kitch
en island. The very same
island
they’d
fucked on just twenty four hours before. She wasn’t really interested in what was in her day planner. She found herself, looking up, and glancing at Quinton. The way he spoke and discussed his business with such authority. The way he ran his hand over his head and licked his lips when he was deep in thought. He was sexy just standing there and Julissa wondered if he even realized it.
Had he any idea just how badly she wanted him?

“Julissa?” Quinton called. “Come over here. What are you doing way over there?”

“I didn’t want to interrupt what you two were talking about,” Julissa said.

“Come here.”

“This is your thing any
way, Lissa,” Ed said.
“Real estate and what not. You listen to him yap, not me.”

Quinton laughed.

“Baby,
you didn’t eat any of your pie,
”
Julissa said, looking up from his untouched pie to him.

“See, he’s busy yappin’. That was Quinton when we were little and that’s something that never changed about Quinton,” Ed joked.

“I only have two hands.” Quinton held a copy of floor plans in one hand and a pencil in the other.

“Well, let me help you…” Julissa scooped a forkful of pie and lifted it to his mouth. She watched as the pie disappeared between his lips.

“Mmmm, baby, feed me some more
.”

“You know what?
It’s past time for me to leave.” Ed took
his empty plate over to the sink.

“No, Ed. Stay. We promise
we won’t do that again,” Julissa begged.

“No, we won’t promise anything,” Quinton corrected her. He lifted her fingers and licked each one.

“See you, man
.” Ed started for the door. “Thanks for the pie, Lissa. It was good.”

When
the door clos
ed, Quinton
picked her up in both his arms.

“What are you doing?”

“Carrying you.” Quinton began walking.

“Where?”

Quinton walked in the direction
of the spiral staircase.
“I have a surprise for you.”

“I like surprises,” Julissa smiled. S
he giggled as he tickled
her neck with the tip of his nose.

Quinton opened the door to what Julissa knew was the master bedroom. In the middle of the room, was an oversized plush bed.

“When did you get this?”

“They delivered it this morning.” Quinton set her down on the bed.

Julissa automatically fell back and sighed as the plush mattress and down comforter enveloped her. “Feels fabulous.”

“I was thinking maybe you can help me break it in.” Quinton pulled his shirt over his head.

“I was thinking the same thing.” Julissa kicked her shoes off, which landed on the floor.

Quinton walked over to a stereo system and placed a CD in the player. “Remember this song?”

When the song began, Julissa smiled. “The song we first danced to.”

“Yeah.” Quinton walked over to the bed, leaving his jeans in a heap on the floor at the same time.

Julissa closed her eyes when he presse
d his lips into her calves
. His hands tra
veled up her dress to her hips, and over her ass.

“Surprise,
”
she said.
There were no panties for him to take off.

He smiled and kissed the insides of her thighs. “I had a feeling what you had on your mind when you drove over to my house in this little red freakum dress and fuck me stilettos.”

Julissa giggled. “
Then
you figured me right out. Do you like?”

“Mmmm-hmmm.” Quinton pressed kisses against her pelvis. “You still love me?”

“I love you, baby.”

“And I love you.”

This time the lovemaking was slow, sensual, and sweet. They didn’t part from each other’s arms until hours later. Julissa didn’t want to leav
e his embrace, but she knew
he would be here tomorrow. And the next day, and the next day after that, and then the next. How long would he acce
pt sharing her with her fiancé? How long would it be before he finally realized that there were other woman in the city of Atlanta who would
accept him at the drop of a nickel
without the excess baggage
?

Michael surprised her that night. They had not had dinner together at the same time in their own dining room in a
long time. After she cooked
that night, he
came home and
suggested that they eat
in the dining room together. To add to the surprise, he set the table as she made the finishing touches to the food.

Michael leaned over, tipped the wine bottle, and carefully filled her glass, and then filled his. “This is the same wine we had at the dinner party Christina and Richard invited us to just before they got married, remember?”

“Uh-huh,” Julissa pretended to remember, but the truth was she really couldn’t recall what type of wine they’d ordered that night. “It was good, wasn’t it?”

“Sure was. I remember that night so vividly. Remember how late we were?” Michael chuckled. “I should have apologized for that, telling you how to wear your hair and everything. But, I must admit that you were the sexiest woman there. I take pride in that, more than you, I think. And you know that.”

“I know. There’
s nothing wrong with that. I kno
w you always like me to look my best when we
go out.” W
hy
were
the
y were talking about that night?
A night that shouldn’t have mattered to him one way or the other.

“The disadvantage of that is that other men seem to notice.” Michael made eye contact with her as he pushed a forkful of veggie lasagna in his mouth.

“Other m
en would seem to notice if I were
wearing jeans and a sweatshirt with a bad hair day. All men like to look at woman,” Julissa joked.

“Looking is expected, but lusti
ng and pursuing is something different all together
.”

Julissa could tell that he was taking this conversation on a serious note. “Isn’t that how you got me, Michael? Lust and pursuit?”

“Yo
u weren’t an easy catch either…back then.
It took me two weeks
to
convince you to go out with me.”

“I’m sorry but sometimes I like to play hard to get.
” Julissa smiled, twirling he
r fork around in her salad
.

“You do?”

“How are things at the office? How many new clients have you obtained?”
she asked. There needed to be a change of subject to something lighter.

“Plenty.”

“Any business trips planned for the near future?”

“A few.”
He looked off in the distance.

“What about that trip overseas? Is that still in the works?”

“Uh-huh.”

Michael didn’t seem interested in talking about himself. Although, whenever she tried to talk to him in the past about his work, he gave the same one word answers.