Not This Time (8 page)

“
Is something wrong?” The
words, quietly asked, sounded simple, courteous even on the
surface. But she’d been getting to know this man on a deeper level
this past week and heard the undercurrents.

Pulling her hand through her hair, she
turned to face him. His dark eyes latched onto hers and she forgot
everything that had seemed so important a moment before. He
stretched out his hand and she took it, strengthened by the warmth
of his palm, so vibrant, so strong, so determined that nothing
would come between them.

“
Talk to me.” His deep voice
skittered along her spinal cord and settled in her core. Calloused
palms stroked her arm from shoulder to elbow. Leaning back, she
rested her head on his granite chest, the beat of his heart was
steady.

“
I can’t explain it. For a
moment, I felt embarrassed.” He stiffened beneath her, but remained
silent. “It doesn’t make sense. I mean we’re adults, we’re getting
to know each other, trying to see if there is something to build a
relationship on—”

“
Correction. We’re in a
relationship, and building on it each day. That embarrasses
you?”

“
Not that.” It was hard to
gather her thoughts sitting so close to him. She huffed and tried
to sit forward. He held her tighter. Glaring up at him, she pinched
his forearm.

He kissed her forehead. “I like you where
you are. You can still talk.” He grinned and bent forward, lips
puckered. Despite her intentions to remain peeved, she laughed. He
looked adorable.

“
I have a hard time
gathering my thoughts when you’re so close,” she murmured as his
lips brushed against her temple.

“
Good.” He kissed her lips.
“I’ll have to remember that.” He kissed her deeply and she forgot
it was eleven in the morning, forgot she needed to work on a legal
brief, forgot she needed to ask him more questions about his
family. For that space in time, her world revolved around the heat
searing through her core as he stroked between her thighs. The man
was talented beyond anything she’d ever experienced. He had her
seeing stars and hearing bells.

“
Shit.” His hands loosened
from her waist. With her anchor missing, she rose against the tide
of euphoric bliss that had held her captive and sat forward.
Blinking, she realized his cell had been ringing.
Bells
. Her face heated at
the far-fetched thoughts she’d had a few moments ago. Thankfully,
no one knew she’d ventured into the realm of fancy. Snorting, she
stood. No one would believe keeping-it-real Veronique even had
those types of fanciful words in her repertoire. Lord knows, she
was learning new things about herself each day.

“
Give me a minute,” Frank
said, covering the mouthpiece as he looked at her. Nodding, she
moved toward the kitchen to deal with her thoughts privately. The
beauty of the day beckoned and she stepped through the side door,
and entered the lanai. The day was clean, crisp and cold. She put
on one of Frank's jackets from the hook near the door and stared
out the window.

Frank and Red were
brothers
. Of all the men in the world, it
figures she’d fall for one of her daughter’s friends. Wait. He'd
never mentioned Cherise or Ross for that matter. Did he know them?
God, she was obsessing over something small and probably stupid.
Cherise hadn’t made the connection, although, all she’d told her
daughter was his first name. Besides, it’s not like she’d been on
blind date with someone her daughter had set up. She cringed at
that image. Cherise would definitely tease her about this. That
girl was always trying to get into her business. She
smiled.

“
I hope I’m the reason
you’re smiling.” Frank’s arms wrapped around her waist from behind.
She snorted.

“
Okay. I can take a hint.
And I don’t mind, I just like to see you smile.” He kissed the top
of her head and held her close. They stood together for a few
moments, gazing outside, watching the leaves chase one
another.

“
Do you know Ross?”
Veronique asked without turning.

“
Red’s partner?”

She nodded.

“
Yeah.”

“
What do you think about
him?”

She felt his shrug through the coat. “He
seems capable. Their business is making a lot of money and he works
as hard as the rest of them.”

Not exactly what she wanted to know. “Okay.
As a man, do you think he’s good?”

“
I said he’s capable.” He
paused. “What do you mean do I think he’s a good man? Like for a
woman?”

She nodded.

“
I don’t know. He has a
woman.” His voice deepened and his embrace tightened
slightly.

“
Have you met his
woman?”

“
Yeah. Why?”

“
Why, she’s my
daughter.”

Frank turned her slowly. His vague
recollections of Ross’s woman notwithstanding, he couldn’t believe
she had a child that age. “You told me you had one child, but you
never mentioned anything else.” His eyes tracked over her face.
He’d originally placed her in her thirties, but from what Denise
said, Ross’ girlfriend had a Master’s degree. That’d put Veronique
in her early forties.

“
Let’s face it, our bodies
got to know each other first. Then we decided to discover if we
meshed in other areas.” She laughed. “I can’t let Cherise find out
I broke every rule I taught her.”

Cherise. That’s the name of Ross’s girl.
Frank had forgotten. Their introduction had been brief before Ross
had sent her home from the hospital with Denise. He didn’t remember
much about her.

“
She’s the one with all the
pencils,” he blurted, pleased he remembered. She and Denise had
held a video-conference with him and his brothers after Red was
shot. The women had researched some ex-cons for them. He’d wondered
about the pencils, but never said anything.

“
Yes.” Veronique’s cool tone
caught his attention. “She has this thing about using sharp
pencils.” Her tone dared him to make an odd comment. He nodded and
made a note. No jokes about Cherise.

“
She was very pretty. Ross
was very protective of her.” Hopefully this was safe
ground.

“
He is. I think they’ll be
the next ones getting married. Are you in Red’s wedding?” They
walked toward the door, heading toward the warmth of the
house.

“
Yeah. Denise insisted she
needed all four of us as groomsmen. Mama agreed. I think she’s
happy one of her boys is getting married, and would agree to a
wedding on the moon if that’d make sure it happened.”

“
No sisters?”

“
One. She’s married, but
it’s not enough.” He paused. “You see yourself getting married
again?” They’d just entered the kitchen ,and she stopped and looked
at him. His heart sped up as she searched his face. For a second he
thought she’d peeped inside his heart and knew how much her answer
mattered. Everything about this woman drew him like lint to cotton.
She didn’t come across embittered from her past, which was a
miracle in his opinion, but he was interested in her future. His
role in her future to be exact.

“
Maybe.” She sent him her
signature sexy grin. His cock twitched in salute as she sauntered
to the refrigerator. He watched her swaying hips. A sigh of
disappointment escaped his lips when they stopped.

“
What about you?” He looked
up, guilty. They both knew he’d been staring at her ass. Hell,
she’d added a little extra for him to see. It took a moment for her
question to penetrate.

“
Maybe.”

She smiled at his parroted response. “That’s
good to know. What about kids? You plan on making some little
Frankies?”

He paused. What man didn’t want someone to
carry on his name? Sure, he’d like a kid or two, but she had a
grown kid. “Maybe.” He laughed at her pout.

“
You can’t use that all the
time.” Veronique sat on the stool, plucked a banana from the wooden
bowl and peeled it. He swallowed hard as his penis jumped. She was
going to torture him eating that banana. He knew it but couldn’t
move, wouldn’t stop or change a damn thing. This woman had him in
knots.

The banana was poised at the entrance of her
mouth. She glanced at him. He’d swear wicked things danced in the
depths of her eyes as she spoke. “It’s a simple question. Do you
want kids? Or don’t you?”

Moisture fled his mouth. He couldn’t speak.
Instead, he stood mute as the banana made a slow descent into the
warm cavern of her mouth. Jealous, he moved forward and then
stopped as she sucked the fruit before biting the white flesh. He
let out a hiss of frustration at the tightening in his pants. How
in the world was she able to chew and look as though she was
sucking the life out of that banana at the same time?

“
I’ve got something better
for you to eat.” In a blind move, he’d stepped close enough to
touch her elbow, his eyes locked on her mouth.

“
I’m hungry.” Her cute pout
returned as she took another bite.

“
I’ll feed you.” He ignored
the desperate sound in his voice as he watched her throat work,
swallowing.

“
What’cha gonna feed me?”
she asked around the food in her mouth.

“
Whatever you want, and then
some.” He leaned forward, elbow on the island, prepared to taste
her sweet lips.

“
You want kids?”

“
Yeah.” He spoke without
thinking. It took a moment to register the shocked expression on
her face.
What? What
happened
? Damn. His little head had him
saying shit he would’ve said, but not now. Never now. Her face
blanked. But he’d seen the shock and disappointment.

“
I don’t want to have any
more children.” She slid off the stool and went to walk around
him.

“
Okay.” Taking her hand, she
stopped and looked up at him.

She shrugged, he could see the pain in her
eyes. “I guess we want different things.”

“
No. We want the same
things. Love with someone we trust, a place of peace and rest,
interesting and satisfying occupations or hobbies. Serious and
satisfying intimacy with someone without fear of rejection. Did I
leave something out?”

She pulled her hand from his and walked to
the end of the counter. “Children. You left out children.”

“
You can’t have a
kid?”

Swirling to face him, he winced at the glare
she threw him. “I have no idea. It’s not something I try out every
once in a while.”

Oops, another touchy area. “We have time to
think about that.”

“
No. It’s one of those
foundational issues, like Republican or Democrat. Christian or
Atheist. Children or no children. I don’t want any more. You do.”
She inhaled. He watched as she worked herself up over what he
considered a non-issue.

“
It’s a good thing we
discovered it now, right?” She finally looked at him.

“
Why?” He crossed his arms
over his chest.

Inhaling deeply, she straightened. “Because…
because this way we know how far we can go in this
relationship.”

“
Really?” His brow rose as
he deliberately deepened his voice. “One of the things I like most
about you is your straight-up, almost brutal honesty. Up until now,
you’ve been upfront. I believe I got to see the real you and I like
your kick-ass personality. Pretty much, you call them as you see
them. And that’s a good thing.”

She nodded slowly, with a measure of
uncertainty. He liked that.

“
But, we’re still getting to
know each other. And before you decide to bail out of our
relationship, answer this. Do you go and stay with men you just
met, often?” Inwardly he smiled as she stiffened.

“
No. I
explained—”

He waved off her explanation and budding
anger. “Do you open up and share the real you with people you
intend to see temporarily?” He covered his smile as she moved from
foot to foot.

“
No, but that’s—”

“
Do you hand over control in
the bedroom to someone you don’t trust?” Her head snapped up. She
stared at him. Without them ever discussing that part of her past,
he knew she’d dictated the shots in the bedroom with her past
lovers; but after that first night, she'd allowed him
control.

“
No.”

“
I’ve never begged a woman
to stay with me. Especially in my house.”

She scoffed. “Begging is a bit extreme.”

“
I asked more than once, is
that right?”

“
Well, yeah. But that’s not
begging—”

“
It is to me. I've never
wanted anyone to stay past a day. Never wanted to learn everything
about another woman, or share myself with her or loved to hear her
talk. Usually, I prefer women silent.”

She snorted, but continued to watch him.

“
I’ve never put my business
aside for anyone other than family. I don’t have to. Maybe I need
to say this so you can understand me better.” Releasing his arms,
he stepped closer to her. “I want you. Badly. Whatever it takes to
make that happen, I intend to do. This relationship doesn’t stop
because we disagree on issues. We work through those. Nothing’s too
big for us to deal with.” He boxed her in with his hands on the
countertop. Leaning backward she looked up, capturing him with her
dark eyes.