His Paradise Wife (15 page)

He traveled further, going for her breasts
again. Having enjoyed them the first time around, he wanted seconds
and a second helping is what he received as he greedily lapped his
tongue around her breasts, feeling their softness against his taste
buds. His mouth watered for more.

He licked a path to her navel, circling his
tongue around it, then further down, his tongue stopped at the tip
of her pajamas. It took all the willpower he had, but he stopped
just shy of pulling her pajamas down and asked, “Are you sure you
want to do this, Emily?”

Emily nodded. “I’m sure.” Right now, she
couldn’t think about anything else – only this beautiful specimen
hovering above her.

“
I need you to be sure,” he
told her, still on his knees straddled over her, his erection
straining against the front of his boxers.

“
I’m sure,” she replied
softly, gazing into his eyes.

She watched as he pulled down his boxers,
his thick, mighty length demanding to be seen. She seductively bit
her bottom lip as she thought about how she would be able to handle
all of him. But it was too late to turn back now, not that she
wanted to.

He easily removed her pajamas and felt his
heart thump when he realized she wasn’t wearing any panties. Then,
starting from where he left off with his tongue, he begin his licks
and kisses again, below her navel then down to her smooth-shaven
center, lapping his tongue there, his mouth watering for a taste of
her. And a taste of her he got, feeling her legs quiver at the
touch of his hot tongue against her sensitive flesh.

“
Dante,” she whispered,
instinctively grabbing his head. “Oh, Dante...”

Had he noticed she said anything? He was too
busy feasting on her, wanting to send her into oblivion. Wanting to
make her remember him. Needing to make her remember him.

Then she felt it – a wild, bottled up
feeling of ecstasy that pressurized from her toes to her brain. She
needed to release it and release it she did in one explosive,
mind-boggling, pent-up shudder that made her convulse underneath
the weight of him. “Oh, Dante!” she screamed. She watched him
position himself between her legs and she opened them wide enough
for him to nestle there perfectly.

Before she had time to brace herself, he was
already priming her with the tip of his length, poking and pulling
back, then sliding his shaft deep into her soul, invading her walls
and forcing them to expand and stretch, recognizing his presence
there. After a tight fit, their souls were connected.

Dante closed his eyes, trying to contain the
feeling of being inside of her, and without a single movement, he
opened them, staring down at her, the woman he’d wanted for quite
some time now, but this was no conquest. And she was wrong in what
she’d initially thought of him, because she wouldn’t be another
notch on his bedpost. He loved her, and he intended on showing her
in a real action-speaks-louder-than-words type way.

“
Is something wrong?” she
asked panting, noticing that he wasn’t doing anything but staring
down at her.

“
Nothing’s wrong. Everything
is right. Everything is perfect. I just want to remember this
moment. I don’t want to rush it. I want to take my time making love
to you, Emily.”

With that, he bared down on her capturing
her lips before parting them with his tongue and working his way
into her mouth.

Emily rubbed his back with her fingertips
while they kissed, while he lay buried to the hilt inside of her.
His slow rocks had her ready to crumble to pieces again, so what
would she do when he increased the tempo?

“
Dante,” she whimpered
again.

His thrusts remained gentle and slow, so
much so that he was able to arch his back in a way that he could
lick and suck on her breasts. She steadily said his name, over and
over.

Her quick breaths and the way she whispered
his name turned him on. “Emily.”

“
Yes?”

“
Don’t close your eyes. I
want you to see me. I want you to look at me.”

“
Okay.”

“
Take me, Emily.”

“
Okay, Dante,” she said
gasping.

“
Take me. Take all of me,”
he ordered.

“
I’m trying, baby,” she
panted, feeling him increase the tempo of his thrusts while never
taking his eyes off of her. And she came again, her muscles
squeezing him as her fingernails dug into his back.

“
Oh, Emily,” he grunted.
“Oh, baby. Only you can make me feel like this. Only you can do
this to me, baby,” he said, letting out a loud growl, throwing his
head back completely draining himself, her cave overflowing with
his release.

Making love to her was incredible, beautiful
and even more satisfying than he imagined it would be, so much so
that he felt himself harden again, aroused even more than
before.

Emily felt it too, while panting and
moaning, fully intoxicated by him.

“
I don’t want this to end,”
he told her. Kissing her, parting her lips with his tongue again,
he devoured more of her, feeling her legs wrap around him, sending
him deeper into her abyss. Instantly, he began thrusting again.
They were more firm, more defined than before, rocking the bed so
much that the headboard was banging against the wall as he gave her
all he had. All she could stand.

For the third time, Emily belted his name,
her body seemingly coming apart underneath him and he exploded too,
more reckless than before, trying his hardest to regain control
over his own body.

Completely drained and satisfied, he slowly
withdrew from her body and laid next to her, holding her in his
arms.

They quietly took a few breaths, recovering
from rigorous lovemaking before Dante asked, “Are you okay,
Emily?”

Still trying to get her breathing back to
normal, she said, “Yes, I’m okay.”

“
Good. I know we’re missing
group therapy, but I’d much rather stay here with you...holding
you.”

“
I’d rather stay here,
too.”

She smiled, completely spent. Dante had
given her body the workout of a lifetime.

He kissed the back of her neck, feeling her
body jerk. No woman had ever made him feel this way, so turned on
that he had to have more of her, so much so that his body ached for
her. Even with her lying in his arms now, he could only think about
the next time he would make love to her. Emily was his obsession,
and he’d become thoroughly addicted.

Chapter 26

Emily crawled out of bed, feeling sore and
tired after making love. Dante wasn’t in the room, she noticed, and
that didn’t sit well with her. Where had he gone?

Melvin had never done that to her. They
would make love and when she was awake, he’d be right there, asking
her if she needed anything. She wanted to believe that Dante could
care about her as much as Melvin had, but could he really? The
truth, her truth, was that there would never be another man like
Melvin. Dante had rocked her world, true enough, but look at all
the things he did to ensure that they’d wind up in bed
together.

And now regret was starting to creep into
her mind. Why had she let Dante break down the barriers she’d built
around her heart only for a few hours of temporary pleasure? He
couldn’t even tell her that he loved her afterwards, which probably
meant that he didn’t.

Her thoughts were interrupted by her phone.
It was Sherita calling again. Since she didn’t get the chance to
call her back yesterday, she made sure to get the call.

“
Hello?” she answered,
disguising her melancholy mood.

“
Hey, girl. I was trying to
call you yesterday.”

“
Is everything okay at the
store?”

“
No...got a notice from your
landlord that the rent is going up eight hundred dollars effective
next month.”

Emily frowned. “Are you serious?”

“
Yeah...it says
eight-hundred.”

Emily sighed. The rent had already increased
at the beginning of the year, putting her monthly lease payments to
twenty-two hundred dollars. Now she would have to pay
three-thousand.

“
Okay, thanks for letting me
know, Sherita. I’m going to call the landlord shortly. How’s
everything else?”

“
Fine...it was pretty busy
in here today.”

“
Okay, well if something
else comes up, don’t hesitate to call.”

“
Alrighty. Bye.”

Emily hung up the phone. She couldn’t bring
herself to tell Sherita that she couldn’t afford the new rent, but
maybe if she spoke to Luke Taylor, the owner of the building that
housed her store, he would consider not raising her rent. Maybe if
she told him how her sales had been slacking, he’d give her some
time to come up with a marketing plan to boost sales to her store.
Then she’d be able to afford the rent.

That’s just what she did after a long, warm
shower. She called Mr. Taylor’s office and asked to speak with
him.

“
I understand your concern,”
he said, “But I have to raise rates due to property tax
hikes.”

“
But you just raised the
rent at my store back in January.”

“
Yes, I’m aware of that. I
also just received a property tax notification from the
city.”

“
Mr. Taylor, I understand
having a set amount of rent and making adjustments based upon
taxes, but eight-hundred dollars is extreme and I simply cannot
afford it right now. If you will give me time to get my sales up,
I’m sure I’ll be able to come up with the money.”

Mr. Taylor blew an agitated breath. “While
I’ve enjoyed having your store in my building, I have a backlist of
businesses who would love to lease your space for a lot more rent
than I’m charging you.”

“
So that’s what this is
really about. You want to give my space away to someone else and in
order to make that happen, you drive up the lease to run me out.
Well, you know what? I’ll have all of my stuff out by the end of
the month.” Emily hung up the phone afterwards and held her head in
her hands. Giving up her store would be difficult to do, but it had
to be done. She had spent close to a year trying to find that
location based on its convenient access and reasonable lease price
of fifteen-hundred dollars, but now that the landlord was getting
greedy, she had to abandon ship.

Maybe it was time to give it up. It had been
more of a burden to maintain anyway. Still it kept her busy, kept
her mind from being consumed with thoughts of Melvin.

She sighed and looked around the bedroom,
thinking about the passionate love her and Dante had made – how he
made her feel things that she’d never felt before and now, how he
was gone. He wasn’t even there to listen to her problems, to be of
support to her. Feeling like her head was about to explode from
forcing herself to hold in tears, she slid off the ring that he’d
given her and placed it back on the nightstand.

For the second time this morning, her phone
rang. She looked at the display and saw a number she rarely ever
saw but knew by heart – her father’s. He’d always been distant, a
man of very few words, so whenever he called, she was sure to
answer.

“
Hey, Dad. How
are—”

Before she could say another word, he
blurted out, “The ambulance is here. They’re taking your mother to
the hospital.”

“
Why? What happened?” Emily
asked nervously, feeling her heart rate quicken.

“
Not sure. The paramedics
are checking her out now.”

“
Is she breathing? What
happened that lead up to this?”

“
She was sitting out on the
patio reading one of her magazines and eating lunch. I go out there
to take her some water and the next thing I know, she has a hand
over her chest and was slumped over.”

After a brief pause, he continued, “They’re
taking her on the stretcher now, so I’m going to follow them to the
hospital.”

“
Dad, call me as soon as you
get there and let me know if she ends up staying overnight. If so,
I’m going to need her room number.”

“
Okay, sweetie.”

“
I’m taking the next flight
out of here.”

“
Okay.”

“
And tell mom that I love
her,” she told him, withholding tears. When they hung up the phone,
one lonely tear escaped her eye, but now wasn’t the time to cry, to
think about things she could’ve done better as a daughter instead
of ignoring her parents. Now, she had to get to Jacksonville as
fast as she could. She needed to be there for them.

Chapter 27

Dante, holding a restaurant take-out bag
opened the door to the suite, ready to lay his eyes on her, his
sleeping beauty. He’d gone to get lunch for the two of them since
it hadn’t seemed that neither one of them wanted to leave the suite
today to participate in any activities. They found their own way to
keep busy.

While getting their lunch, he ran into
Steven Harris, the man he hired years ago to oversee the daily
operations at the GHC resort. They chatted for a few about the
testimonials the place had been getting, as well as the interest
from the general public who weren’t necessarily coping with loss,
but wanted to stay at GHC because it was an exceptional, luxury
resort. Dante had been against the idea, because he had a vision
for the place and that wasn’t it. However, he told Steven that once
he was back at the office, he would set up a meeting so that they
could discuss it further.