A Family Reunion (23 page)

“You’re very dedicated to your family, aren’t you?” Quinn asked after devouring another deviled egg.

Alexia smiled, pleased. He had eaten half a dozen of the deviled eggs already. He should be good and potent by now. “I am now that I’ve taught some of them not to ask me for anything that has to do with money. When I began making the charts I had some family members—not even the real close ones—call me whenever they got behind in their bills, like I was the family bank or something.”

He chuckled. “There are those kinds in every family. But weren’t you always close to your family?”

Alexia leaned back in her chair. If she told him what he wanted to know, it would be the very first time she had shared such deep inner thoughts with anyone other than Taye, Rae’jean, and Michael. But for some reason she felt comfortable in sharing them with Quinn. He had that persona about him. He was an easy person to talk to. “No, not really. I was a big disappointment to my family.”

Quinn frowned. “In what way?”

Alexia’s throat tightened. Her chest burned at the childhood memories. She swallowed, willing her throat muscles to relax, and took a deep calming breath to ease the burning sensation away from her chest. “Rae’jean was always the pretty one, and if you ever saw her you’d see why. She’s totally gorgeous. Those pictures I showed you of her don’t do justice. While we were growing up everyone doted on her, understandably so.”

Quinn nodded but said nothing.

“Taye,” Alexia continued, “was always the smart one. She was so smart the school officials skipped her a grade. She graduated from high school at sixteen. Taye’s a born mathematician and can add, subtract, multiply, and divide in her head like nobody’s business. She has a memory out of this world and could ace any test the teacher gave her.”

Quinn considered everything she had told him so far before saying, “You still haven’t explained why you think you were a disappointment to your family.”

With a voice a bit unsteady, Alexia said, “I was the darkest Bennett ever to be born. Besides that, I was overweight, had unruly hair, crooked teeth, and at times I was rather clumsy. I was considered the ugly duckling in the family.”

Quinn shot her a disbelieving look as he concentrated on her beautiful dark skin, gorgeous figure, a nice set of straight white teeth covered by full, sensuous lips, and the mass of flowing hair on her head that made her look downright sexy. She was definitely a good-looking woman. He looked at her and saw the seriousness of her expression. “You’re joking about being considered ugly, aren’t you?”

She met his gaze. “No. As a child I constantly heard I wasn’t attractive enough to ever amount to much.”

“People would actually tell you that?”

“Not to my face. The conversations were always meant to go over my head or were supposed to be spoken when I wasn’t around.” She exhaled a long breath. “They didn’t mean to be cruel, but constantly hearing those things kept me pretty sensitive, and hearing them didn’t do a whole lot for my self-esteem. If it wasn’t for my grandparents, my parents, Taye, Rae’jean, and Michael, I probably would have grown up with some sort of complex about the way I looked. Thank God for Weight Watchers, braces, and for a hairstylist who worked wonders with hair. And as far as being dark, black is beautiful, isn’t it?”

Quinn pushed his chair back and stood. He walked slowly over to her and gently pulled her from her chair and into his arms. He was thankful there had been others around to make her believe in herself. He couldn’t imagine anyone being cruel enough to say such things around a child. And these were people who’d been members of her family. “Yes, black is beautiful, and you are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, Alexia.”

She tried to laugh against his shoulder. She didn’t want his pity. She didn’t want anything from him. But still, being held in his arms felt good. She blinked the tears from her eyes, wondering why she had told Quinn about that part of her childhood. It wasn’t that they were close friends, lovers, or anything. Why did she feel he was someone she could bare her inner soul to? Why was it so hard to stay on her toes around him, to stay in control?

Although she liked the feel of him holding her, she knew she could never let herself get close to any man. She pulled back out of his arms. “How about if you go on into the living room and resume looking at the photo album. I’ll rejoin you as soon as I clear the table.”

“I’ll be glad to help—”

“No. I prefer doing it myself.”

He studied her face. “Are you OK?”

She forced a smile up at him. She didn’t think she could ever really be OK around him. He had a way of messing with her mind, big-time. “Yeah, I’m OK.”

He nodded before turning to walk out of the kitchen.

As soon as he was gone Alexia began clearing off the table. Her movements were slow, thoughtful. When the dishes began to shake in her hands, she immediately set them back down on the table. Sighing, she wrapped her arms around her waist, trembling. When she had come up with the plan to get pregnant, things were supposed to be simple, easy, uncomplicated. But Quinn was making things pretty damn difficult. She was letting him get too close. Way too close.

She was doing something she swore that she would never do, and that was let a man get the upper hand with her again.

When Alexia joined Quinn in the living room, she squared her shoulders, mustered a bright smile, and walked over and sat next to him on the sofa. For the next ten minutes or so he turned the pages while she told him about the rest of the pictures that had been taken at her family reunion. After they had looked at the last photo he placed the album back on the table, then sank lower on the sofa and stretched his legs out before him. He began talking, telling her about a particular case he was working on, one involving a client who wanted her prenuptial agreement declared invalid.

“I thought a prenuptial was ironclad.”

He shook his head, smiling. “A number of people think that. However, as with anything else, exceptions can be made, especially if the behavior of one of the individuals comes into play. In certain situations, a prenuptial agreement can be overturned.”

Alexia tried not to analyze Quinn’s features while he spoke but couldn’t help doing so. Not only did she enjoy looking at him; she enjoyed listening to him as well. His voice was deep, rough, sexy. The sound of it made her insides tingle. She could just imagine how it would be to wake up to the sensuous sound of it each and every morning. While he continued talking, her eyes skimmed over his chest. She wondered if he had a hairy chest and if so, how her naked breasts would feel rubbing against it. Her gaze then moved to his lap. The thighs she saw covered in denim seemed strong, firm with sinewed strength. She thought about straddling those thighs while they were completely naked with his hands guiding her movements over him as she rode him in sure strokes, moving up and down, forcing him to climax inside of her as she ground herself more tightly against him, taking his seed into her womb.

“Alexia?”

The deep, sexy sound of Quinn’s voice reclaimed her attention as it drifted over her. She raised her gaze and saw the eyes watching her were compelling, magnetic. She sucked in a deep breath when she also saw they were smoldering with fiery desire.

Their gazes held. Neither could look away. The room was quiet except for the shallow sound of their breathing. Then, as if he had been privy to her earlier thoughts, he reached over and lifted her onto his lap to straddle him. As he framed her face in his hands, his mouth hungrily covered hers. Greedily devouring her, more so than it had the other day.

She was not prepared for the magnitude of his kiss as his lips took complete possession, nibbling and sucking while arousing her to a feverish peak and sending new spirals of ecstasy through her. It made her body ache even more. He continued kissing her as his hands moved downward to lift her dress up to her waist.

Quinn moved his legs, stretching them apart and, in doing so, spreading hers wide open and getting easy access to the very heat of her. His mouth remained locked to hers as his hand slid under her dress, not surprised to discover she wasn’t wearing any underwear. His fingers immediately went to work to explore, to touch, and to claim the heart of her sex.

When her body jerked from the sensation of his fingers’ intimate touch, his mouth gentled her by his constant assault on hers, savoring every moment doing so, hungrily devouring her tongue, swallowing her sighs and moans of pleasure.

When Alexia felt herself succumbing to the domination and skill of his mouth, she pulled away, braced her hands on his shoulders while her head fell forward, limp with desire, on his chest. Currents raced through her body the likes of which she had never felt before. He was relentless in what he was doing to her. The pad of his thumb continued to stroke her, demanding her readiness. Her fingers dug into his shoulders, holding on as she abandoned herself to the sensations he was making her feel, sweetly draining all of her fears, doubts, and resistance and making her forget about her well-orchestrated plan. Even that couldn’t compete against this uncontrollable passion and this intoxicating need.

No man had ever touched her so boldly, to the core, branding her sex his, making it crave his touch. And no man had ever made her moan aloud in sexual pleasure. His fingers were tearing away any self-control she may have had. They were tearing away any walls of resistance she may have erected. She felt some sort of rebirth, purely physical, emotionally uplifting. She felt her body getting hotter and wondered if he could feel her heat.

Quinn did feel her heat and gloried in it. He was staking his own claim to her body and, by slow degree, setting in place the groundwork for a future he intended to have with her. He loved her totally, completely, not just physically. But if physical loving was what he needed to start with, then he would. He was willing to do whatever it took. And in time, with love and patience, he intended to give her everything she deserved. She was definitely a woman worth loving and cherishing. And he wanted all of her.

When he felt her nick his shoulder with her teeth he decided it was time to give her what they both wanted. He removed his hand from beneath her dress, and in one fluid motion he lifted her dress over her head and tossed it to the floor.

Easy on. Easy off.
That was no lie. With her completely naked before him, his mouth immediately set upon her breasts. It latched onto a nipple and began teasing it with his tongue, nibbling sensuously with his teeth, then sucking gently with his lips.

Alexia nipped Quinn’s shoulder again when his torment to her breasts became unbearable, making the burning hotness at her center blaze out of control. When he moved to the other nipple and began the same torment, she closed her eyes as pleasure, too rich, too potent, too arousing to deny, flooded her.

“Quinn…oh…oh…Quinn.”

Upon hearing his name moaned so sweetly from her lips, Quinn felt his heart thump loudly in his chest. He removed his mouth from her breasts and went back to her mouth to kiss her deeply, hungrily, intimately. Moments later he broke off the kiss to whip his shirt over his head.

Before his shirt hit the floor Alexia had reached out to explore the mass of hair on his chest, the swell of his muscles, the force of his broad shoulders, and the sheer beauty of his upper body in the naked flesh. She leaned forward, inhaling his scent before lowering her mouth to his chest, latching onto a budding tip, and encircling it with her tongue. When he expelled a long, shuddering breath, her insides grew hotter at the sound. She then attacked the other budding tip and performed the same torment at the same time that her hands went to work at the snap and zipper of his jeans. She wanted to be skin-to-skin with him.

Quinn grabbed hold of Alexia’s hips, lifting her, hauling her closer to his chest, and placing her legs high on his shoulders to hang over the top of the sofa. Her hot, moist feminine mound rubbed against the upper portion of his bare chest, branding him, while he lifted his own hips to tug down his jeans. Her female scent surrounded him, becoming entrenched in his skin. It was the scent of a woman in heat. It was the scent of a woman who was ready to mate. It was intoxicating, invigorating, stimulating.

“You smell good,” he whispered as he brushed kisses around her navel, then moved lower, teasing and tasting before his hands gently pulled her back down his body to straddle him again. His erection was hard, poised, ready, between her thighs. Passion tore through the veins of his turgid hard shaft and its tip began to throb, eager to get inside of her and be released from the pulsing torment.

But first he knew what he had to do before he could think about easing into her heated moisture. He had to protect her against an unplanned pregnancy. “Alexia, I need to protect you, baby.”

“No,” she whispered, splashing kisses across his mouth and cheeks. She had gotten so caught up in the way he had made her feel that she had completely forgotten about her plans to get pregnant. She had gotten caught up in fulfilling another kind of need.

“Alexia?” His mouth stilled against her skin. Horizontal lines formed on Quinn’s forehead as he met her gaze. “You’re on some type of birth control?”

Instead of giving him an answer, she leaned down and captured his mouth with hers. She wanted him to forget about protecting her and just concentrate on pleasing her and letting her please him. No man had ever made her body this hot, this needy, this greedy. She thought she would die if he denied her the feel of the fluid heat from his groin shooting deep inside of her, thick, heavy, and mixing with her own juices in an unbridled force that she knew would give her the ultimate in sexual ecstasy.

She wanted all of him and she wanted him now.

She tried lowering herself down on his lap, closer to his aroused erection, but he caught her hips in his hand and held her immobile. She broke off their kiss and met his gaze. His face was damp with perspiration; his breathing was ragged, his eyes glazed with desire.

But still he held back.

Her breath caught in her throat as she wondered if he would deny her the very thing she wanted because she had not answered him regarding birth control. “Quinn?” His name was a choked whisper from her lips.

She felt him touch her intimately. His fingers moved inside her, arousing even more the satiny flesh within and driving her beyond delirium. He stilled his fingers. His eyes locked with hers. “This is mine. Say it.” His voice was deep and husky as he staked his claim to that part of her body.

Alexia, frantic for the pleasure he could give her, chewed on her bottom lip as she held his gaze, knowing there was no way she would say those words. No man dared to make such a claim to any part of her—heart, body, or soul. “No, I can’t,” she whispered. “I won’t.”

A part of her couldn’t believe he would suggest such a thing of her. No man had the right to expect anything from her other than what she wanted to give him. The thought that Quinn believed that he was somehow above any of the others angered her. She didn’t need this. She didn’t need any man
that
bad.

She lifted her hips to remove herself from his lap, then stopped. He
was
above any others. Hadn’t she placed him there when she decided that he would be the father of her child? Hadn’t she seen something in him that she hadn’t seen in a lot of other men? Had felt it? Had sensed it?

She sighed deeply. She couldn’t fight the deep longing, the fiery need he aroused within her. Nor could she deny it. What he was making her feel was beyond reason. He had her body burning for him. She closed her eyes to the fierce need escalating in her lower limbs, aching for the hardness of him to be inside of her. But she fought giving in to him and to his demand.

When she reopened her eyes there was a calculated look in them as she held his gaze. She was determined not to let him get the upper hand in this and decided to do something about it, even if it meant not playing fair. Slowly she eased downward, silencing his protests with her lips. When her moist heat grazed the tip of his erection, teasing, enticing, taunting, she held it there, waiting, feeling heat ripple through her as her wet mound hovered over him, hot, ready. She held that position, beckoning him to finish the task and sheath his burning shaft deep into the core of her. She felt the tip of his erection stir, get harder and hotter against the mouth of her womanly core.

But still he held back.

Quinn broke off their kiss. He was testing his will, his strength to endure. He was determined to be just as stubborn as she. “This is mine, Alexia,” he whispered again, with a little more force while guiding himself a little more within her. “Say it!”

She closed her eyes and fought for control as she felt the fierce hardness of him fill her a little more than before. She reopened her eyes. “No!” But even as she said the words, she eased down just a fraction more, and her fingernails sank into his bare shoulders. She fought back the moan that threatened to pour forth from her throat. He was inside her now. Just barely. Not even halfway. All she had to do was inch down just a tad, flex her hips, and make their union complete. She inhaled deeply when she felt her wetness bathe the head of his erection. The air encompassing them began filling with the mounting, hot scent of sex.

The breath Quinn expelled was a shuddering one. He closed his eyes and threw his head back when he felt her slick wetness surrounding him, and felt her fingernails digging deep into his flesh. He fought to retain control of his mind and pride. He didn’t want to take the little of herself she was offering him, which was all she had ever offered any man. She believed she had a divine right to do things her way or no way. Damn it, he wouldn’t let her play around with his heart. He loved her too much, and she could destroy him if he were to let her. He refused to go through all that pain just to be her flavor of the month. Giving in to his pride…and his love, he opened his eyes and saw her watching him. Slowly he placed his hand under her hips to lift her off of him, to bring an end to his torture. To keep his pride he had to walk away, even if doing so killed him.

Seeing his intent and realizing what she was about to lose out on shocked Alexia into awareness, admission, and an acceptance. She did belong to Quinn. She belonged to him in a way she had never belonged to another man. No man had ever made her body feel the way he’d made it feel tonight. There was something about him. Something strong, elemental, that had drawn her to him from the beginning. Deep down she’d known it hadn’t been all lust. And now, at this very moment, she was willing to let him lay claim to that part of her that he possessed already.

Before he could lift her up off of him, Alexia took matters into her own hands and pushed downward and took the full length of him inside of her, making their union complete, joining their bodies to the hilt as one. She tightened her hand on his shoulder to hold her body in place. The shock of what she had done made passion rip through the both of them. Her eyes flew to his, dark, guarded, tormented. Even now he still wanted to fight her. He still wanted to resist. There was nothing calculated in his actions, she suddenly realized. He was a man who possessed a deep sense of pride. Pride that she had tried stripping away from him. Pride he was fighting to hold onto.

“Quinn.” She breathed his name and reached out and framed his face into her hands. She tightened her pelvic muscles to hold him with her body and whispered softly, “This
is
yours.”