One Night: A BWWM Interracial Romance (8 page)

“Stop!” she yelled. “I
am
trying to eat here.”

“Ouch,” he said with an injured look.
 

He saw a smile creep to her lips at that.
 

“Speaking of which, I should probably get dressed too.” She looked up at him pointedly.
 

“You weren’t so shy last night,” he teased, getting the hint. “It isn’t as though I haven’t already seen everything.”

She frowned, and he decided let her stew a little.
 

“If it makes you feel better, I would love to see it all again.” He smiled brightly.
 

Her frown deepened and she sank back into the bed. “Are you going to let me get my clothes or not?” she fumed.
 

“Okay, okay,” he ceded. “I am a gentleman after all.”
 

She rolled her eyes and waited for him to go into the other room.
 

Too bad.
 
He certainly hadn’t been lying about wanting to see her body again. Just thinking about it was causing the thin fabric of his boxers to form a tent.
 

NATALIE

As soon as he left, Natalie jumped out of bed. Her head still pounded, though less than before, but at least her stomach was calm. He had been right about the food, and she supposed the whiskey as well.
 
She saw a tiny bit left in the glass and gulped it down. No need to let it go to waste.
 

She scrambled around the room grabbing her scattered clothes and pulling them on before he decided to be a jerk and change his mind.
 

Why was she being so shy about it? She had certainly enjoyed ogling his body.
 
Under less achy and nauseous circumstances she wouldn’t have even minded a replay of last night. But one-night stands were one-night stands, and her friends were probably done with breakfast by now. If she wasn’t back by the time they got to the room, they’d probably send out an alert or something.
 

She had found the bra and sweatshirt. Now she wandered around desperately looking for the underwear. Where were they??
 

She racked her brain trying to remember how everything had played out. The stretch pants.
 
She found those, turned inside out near the bed. Her white, cotton, panties. His finger.
 
She shivered as she felt the tip of it caressing her sensitive lips underneath the fabric—

Natalie shook her head.
 
She had no idea where they were. She pulled the legs of her stretch pants right side out again as she searched the room with her eyes.
 

Whatever.
 
He’d have a nice souvenir of their little tryst. Serves him right.
 
Serves
her
right.
 

“That’s what you get for being a naughty girl, Natalie,” she said to herself. She sighed and pulled on the pants.
 

Jake was staring out the window by the desk with a cup of coffee in his hand. Natalie had a brief view of the silhouette of his firm ass….and the dick hanging between his legs in the morning light.
 
She paused, staring open-mouthed at the picture before her as he turned around. She quickly composed herself, walking over to where one UGG boot lay on the dining room table.
 

Jake apparently saw her scanning the room for the companion and pointed his coffee mug to the area near him.
 
She made her way over, conscious of how close she was getting to him.
 
She pulled out the chair to the desk and sat down to pull on her boots.
 

When they were on she stood up and faced him. She stood there for a second, staring out the window, thinking of some way to politely say goodbye.
 
Goodness, the view was spectacular in the daytime!

Jake rested the mug on the desk and stared at her with a slight smile on his face, waiting.
 

Natalie, sighed and turned back around. She brought out her hand to shake his.

“Well, Jake—”

He ignored the hand and brought his hands up to her face, surprising her. The next instant his lips were on hers, pulling them apart to give his tongue access to her mouth.
 

Natalie gave a slight yelp in surprise underneath his probing tongue, then relaxed, falling into his body.
 
Between the flimsy fabric of her pants and his boxers, she could feel his harness against her abdomen. She brought her hands up to his hard chest to steady herself.
 
The feel of his warm, firm skin under her hands only made her legs weak.
 

Jakes hands slid from her face an caressed her neck, causing her to moan against his lips. Her body shivered as they traced their way around her collarbone to reach around and bring her body into his in a firm embrace. Her own arms went around his body, gliding over the rippling muscles of his back.
 
They moaned and slid against each other, tasting one another, feeling the heat rise between them.
 

No,
she thought.
 

She had to get going. This could only lead down a dangerous path. She was heading back to L.A. And he was headed back to…Jesus, she didn’t even know where he lived.
 

She let her arms fall.
 
When he didn’t let go, she brought them around to his chest again, momentarily falling back under his spell as they felt their way across his skin. She gently pushed and he grudgingly broke away from her lips.
 

Natalie looked up at him.
 
The eyes were actually more green than hazel.
 

“Thank you,” she said, and pulled away.
 

She quickly headed to the door, noticing her e-reader on the couch and grabbing it before making a quick exit. She looked back one last time and saw him staring at her with that smile. She smiled back and closed the door behind her.
 

Outside she brought the reader up to her chest and fell back against the door.
 
There were no words, just a million thoughts running through her head. Finally she shook them free, her head going
 
back and forth, and pulled herself away from the door to head back to her own room.
 

JAKE

There was no way he was letting her get away without tasting those lips one last time. They were practically begging for it.
 

When she broke away and fled the room, he stared after her with wonder and disappointment. So that was it, then.
 

He knew her name. Natalie Damond. Librarian at large.

Her image fresh in his head, he walked around to sit in the chair by the desk. It still radiated the heat that she had left and he was all the more inspired. He opened the laptop and pulled up his novel.
 

It was easy creating the scene. It was even easier—and far more enjoyable—describing the new heroine: silky, smooth brown skin; full, delectable lips; killer legs (capped in stilettos instead of UGG boots).

Unforgettable face.
 

He typed for hours, inserting her in one scene after another.
 
Memories of last night flooded his brain and splashed across his keyboard as he brought them back to life on the screen in front of him. The blood pulsed through his body as he relived it on the page.
 
That was a good sign.
 

Jesus, this woman!

The name was the hard part. His first instinct had been to go ahead and name her Natalie. Somehow it seemed wrong. It wasn’t that it didn’t fit, it was that he wanted Natalie for himself. This woman would be shared with the world (God willing), and while Natalie was certainly the inspiration, she belonged to him and him alone.

Jake went through a litany of names: Nancy; Nicole; Noelle. Naomi was the one that stuck.
 

Nick and Naomi. It was perfect.
 

Hours later he looked up to see that the sun had reached the other side of the lake, creating new and different shadows. The grumbling of his stomach reminded him that he’d only had coffee today. The breakfast he’d ordered for Natalie was probably disgustingly cold by now, but it was good enough to tide him over until he could order something fresh.
 

He made his way into the bedroom and inspected the scene. Apparently Natalie had a time of it trying to find her clothes.
 
The arm chair was pushed aside and the bedspread was thrown to one side, practically off the bed.
 

A white spec caught his eye as he surveyed the area. It was on top of the armoire near the back.
 
Even at 6’2” he had to strain his neck to get a better look at it.
 
He walked over and stood on his toes to reach it. Pulling it down he realized it was Natalie’s underwear.
 
A clear memory of pulling it down her silky thighs and flinging in the air went through his mind and he smiled down at them.
 
He wondered how frantic she must have been searching for these.
 
Obviously she had been too short to see where they were located.
 

“I guess you’ll be my good luck souvenir,” he said, looking down at them.
 

Jake bent his head down, memories flood his brain as he took in the scent of her.
 
He grabbed a piece of bacon and made his way back to his laptop. He put the bacon in his mouth and the panties on the desk next to him.
 

It was time to put the finishing touch on this revision.
 

The dedication page read:
 

To Natalie, my muse and the inspiration for Naomi.
 

NATALIE
 

The first half hour of the car ride home to Los Angeles had been strained silence. Natalie, still not fully recovered from her hangover, had sat in the front passenger seat avoiding her friends’ unspoken questions.
 

Unfortunately, Natalie hadn’t made it back to the room before her friends did. In fact, she had been literally steps behind them as they came back from breakfast.
 
It wasn’t lost on her that the long kiss with Jake was probably the reason for this.
 

Naturally it had opened the door for a barrage of questions.
 
They took in the disheveled state of her hair and clothes, the face that probably broadcasted her hungover state, the fact that she hadn’t showered, and they started in on her.
 

Yes, she was okay.

No, she didn’t need to eat anything.
 

She was sorry they were so worried.
 

“Okay, spill it,” Denise finally said, slapping the steering wheel with her hand.

Natalie closed her eyes as her head fell back into the headrest. “I’ve already told you, there’s nothing to spill!”

“So, you spent the whole night in the bar lounge area reading your book?”

“Yes.”
 

“And that’s why your hair is was a mess and your clothes were wrinkled?”

“Yes.”

“And why you smell like sex?” Mia asked in the back seat.

Natalie’s head spun around. “What? Do I?” she bent her head down to sniff into her shirt.

“I knew it!” Mia laughed falling back into her seat. “I told you Dennie!”

Denise wasn’t nearly as amused. “Who was this guy, Natalie?
 
Did you just pick up some random man in the bar? He didn’t get you drunk did he?”

Natalie sank back in her seat since it was all pretty much true. Of course Denise would be the one asking all the direct questions.
 
They had been friends since elementary school and ended up as roommates in college. She had always been the leader of the two.

These days she was an associate producer for Channel 5.
 
It was easy enough for her to judge since she was finally engaged to a writer she met at the station. Natalie looked at the rock on her left hand with envy. They had only been dating a year!
 
That was half as long as Malcolm and Natalie had been together.
 
No wonder it hadn’t lasted.
 

“Yes, yes I did!” she confessed out loud with vigor. “And it was awesome. So leave me alone!”
 

Denise turned to give her a sharp look.
 

“You get yours, girl!” Mia said, leaning forward to high five her.

 
Mia had joined the two of them during a group project in one of the classes they had all ended up in together.
 
The odd part was that Denise and Mia were so different but almost closer to each other than they were with Natalie.
 
Mia let Denise mother her around and in turn Denise let Mia loosen her up. It was a perfect Odd Couple.
 

Natalie turned around to the confidant that wasn’t being so judgey.
 
Mia’s facial features were also a complete contrast to Denise’s with a button nose, round cheeks and light brown eyes. Where Denise was tall and lean, Mia was tall and curvy, mostly in the hips. She had skin that was a perfectly neutral shade of light beige, the same color that uninspired people painted their walls. It was ironic, because she was anything but boring.
 
She was a graphic artist who worked as a DJ on weekends. The soft, natural curls that fell almost to her waist were constantly dyed a different hue.
 
This weekend it had been a deep maroon color. Mia swung both ways and had no intention of settling down anytime soon, so she was the perfect one to dish with.
 

“He’s a writer, actually,” she started. “Have any of you heard of Jake Cavanaugh?
 
He writes spy stuff, I think. ”
 

Both of them thought for a moment then shook their heads.