Slow Seduction (4 page)

“Damn it! I can’t stand that bitch. She always has everything I want,” Robin snapped, kicking her desk.

“What in the hell is wrong with you now?” Mark screamed, coming out his office door. His jaw was clenched so tight that a muscle was popped out at the side.

“I can’t stand Jenisha. Why can’t you just fire her?” Robin whined, spinning around in the chair so she could see Mark’s face. Grabbing a lock of her hair, she twisted it around her finger.

Tilting her head to the side, she flashed him her best crestfallen look and whispered, “Please, Daddy.”

Marked stormed the short distance to her desk and slammed his hand down on the cluttered space. He pressed her forehead against hers so she could feel his breath of her face.

“Have you lost your mind?” He barked. “She’s the best teacher I have here and the staff loves her. You’re the only person who voices a negative opinion about her.”

Biting her lip, Robin tried to keep eye contact with Mark, but his unblinking stare scared the hell out of her. She pushed her chair back away from his body. “But I want her gone. Why can you do that for me? I’ve never asked you for anything until now. I saw how you look at them when they left your office. You don’t want
Clinton
with Jenisha either.”

Mark bit back a nasty remark. “I don’t care about Clinton Campbell or who he seems interested in,” he spat, nostrils flaring. “What I do care about is how many times I’ve I told you not to call me ‘daddy’ at work.”

He looked around the empty office, making sure they were still alone. “No one else knows we’re related and I want to keep it that way, do you understand?” Reaching out, he wrapped his fingers around her upper arm making sure his nails pinched her skin.

Robin flinched under her father’s hard grip. Tugging at her arm, she whispered, “Why is it such a big secret anyway? What would it hurt for your wife to find out about the affair you had with my mom?”

Yanking her completely out of the chair by her arm, Mark shoved her against the wall behind her desk. “If I hear one word about me being your father from anyone here you’ll regret it, do you understand me!” he snapped and then flung her away from him.

Wincing, Robin rubbed her bruised arm. “I won’t say a word,” she promised
. God, why does he hate me so much?

“Now, I have to leave for a very important meeting that I’m already late for because of you. So, you need to make sure the office is locked before you head home.” Her father went back into his office and grabbed his attaché case and left without a word.

Robin brushed at the hot tears pouring down her face as she watched her father race from the office without even saying goodbye to her. It tore at her heart to know her last natural living parent didn’t want her. From a very young age she knew she didn’t belong with the family that had raised her. They were good, loving people, but her mother and father looked nothing like her.

One night over dinner when she was around eight years old she had asked them was she adopted and they told her no. Believing them, she let it go then years later she found out the truth.

Waiting until she was sure Mark was out of ear shot, Robin muttered, “I’m going to deal with the Jenisha myself and make you so proud of me. Then you won’t have to treat me like a stray dog you found on your doorstep.”

On the drive to the house he rented for the short time he was staying in
Los Angeles
,
Clinton
thought about how far he came with Jenisha today. He couldn’t have planned it better if he tried. Jenisha seemed to like his charm now more than she did fifteen months ago. He wondered what changed her mind about him, but he really didn’t care as long as he got to spend time with her.

Her bedroom eyes and raspy voice nearly drove him insane today inside her classroom, and those full pouty lips kept him captivated for the ten minutes he was in there with her.

He had wanted to haul her into his arms and kiss her until he wiped every other man from her mind and soul. He knew he possessed certain qualities to draw the opposite sex in, but there was only one female he wanted now, and that woman was Jenisha. He would do anything to get her.

Pulling into the driveway in the upscale neighborhood, he got out of his car and went inside. Standing in the middle of the living room,
Clinton
checked the phone for messages. He told his father and
Hayward
he was going out of town on business. He didn’t think they needed to know about Jenisha just yet; he wanted to spend some time alone with her before his brother found out and told True.

He loved his sister-in-law dearly, but she loved playing cupid. If she knew he was in
Los Angeles
working on a project with Jenisha neither one of them would get a moment’s peace.

As he walked toward the bedroom, his eyes took in the beauty of the older model home. It hadn’t been destroyed by any remodeling and it pleased him immensely. Clients who hired him always wanted gorgeous historical homes like this one remodeled and made more modern. It always surprised him, but he always did as they asked. Walking back to his bedroom,
Clinton
took the slip of paper with Jenisha’s phone number out of his pocket and laid it on the nightstand by his bed. “I’m going to win her over and make her my wife. I’m a very patient man. I can wait as long as I have too,” he mumbled.

Hearing his stomach growl,
Clinton
strolled out of his bedroom and headed to the kitchen for something to eat. Just as he reached for the refrigerator door, his hand stopped. “Shit, I don’t have any food in the house.”

The desire to see Jenisha had been so strong that nourishment had been the last thing on his mind. Running his hands down his face,
Clinton
cursed. “Damn it, what I’m I going to do now?”

Leaving the kitchen, he searched through the furnished house until he found a phone book. “I guess I’ll have something delivered,” he muttered, falling down on the couch.
Clinton
flipped through the phone book until he found the right page. Picking up the phone he started making phone calls.

An hour later, he slammed down the phone book along with the phone on the table in front of him. “Hell, I can’t believe no one will deliver out here unless I pay extra. Now I’ve to go out and buy something.”

Pushing his body up from the couch,
Clinton
went back into the kitchen and snatched his keys off the table. He stormed back through the living room and flung open the front door. He was taken back to find Jenisha on the other side with her fist in mid-air posed to knock.

“Jenisha, what are you doing here? I thought our meeting wasn’t until tomorrow?”

Dropping her hand, she took a step back from him. “Are you going somewhere?” she asked, looking down at the keys in his hand.

A wonderful smell of warm, freshly cooked food tickled his noise. He took a deep breath of the air and smiled. “What smells so good?”

Jenisha lifted a medium size brown paper bag in his face. He caught another amazing scent of something delicious. Please, God, let her be here to offer me some food and her company, he thought.

“I thought maybe you would like to have dinner with me and I could go over the ideas the committee has for the school.” She confessed, dropping the bag back down to her side.

His body warmed at the thought of being alone in his house with Jenisha. This wasn’t the first date he planned for them, but he wasn’t going to turn it down. “Don’t stand out there and let that food get cold. Bring it in here, woman.” Wrapping his hand Jenisha’s wrist, he pulled her into the living room, slamming the door behind them.

Taking the bag from her hand,
Clinton
moved toward the kitchen, hoping Jenisha would follow him. “You must have ESP because I was just heading out for nourishment for my starving body.”

“Your body looks well nourished to me,” Jenisha mumbled under her breath as she came into the kitchen behind him.

“What did you say?” He wondered would Jenisha admit to his face that she liked his body.

Clearing her throat, she said, “Ummm…I thought you might be hungry for a good hot meal.”

Sure, that’s what you said
. He would let it go this time, but the next time she gave him a compliment it would be to his face.

Placing the bag on the kitchen table, he moved around the kitchen and looked around in the cabinets for items to set the table with. He really wasn’t use to the way this kitchen was set up, but he couldn’t complain. He really lucked out finding a home to rent on such short notice.

“Let me take the food out of the bag while you look for plates,” Jenisha said, taking the clear plastic containers out the bag and placing them on the table.

“T
hank
s.”

Coming back over to the table with plates and utensils,
Clinton
eyed the fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy and biscuits with a growing hunger. “Where did you buy this?” he asked, arranging the plates on the table.

“I fixed it myself about an hour ago and realized I never would be able to eat it all by myself, so I decided to share it with you.”

“You can cook?”

“Yes, I know how to cook a meal, Mr. Campbell,” Jenisha uttered, insulted. Pulling out a chair, she sat down at the table and placed a napkin in her lap. Opening the containers, she piled some food on her plate and his.

Great,
Clinton
thought. A gorgeous woman came all the way across town and brought him a home cooked meal and then he insulted her cooking ability. This wasn’t the best way to get a second date, he thought, going back over to the counter. Taking two glasses out the cabinet, he filled them with ice. Opening the refrigerator, he took the pitcher of lemonade out and poured it into the glasses. At the last minute, he decided to leave the pitcher on the counter in case Jenisha wanted another glass.

“I apologize. I didn’t mean it how it came out. How did you find me anyway? I didn’t leave my address with you.” He sat a glass in front of Jenisha and took a seat across from her.

“After you left I called the office and Robin gave me the information, but I really don’t think she wanted too,” she muttered, taking a bite of her food.

“Is that the woman with the long black hair?”

“That would be Robin Carter.”

“I ran into her outside your classroom today,”
Clinton
muttered, reaching for the chicken leg on his plate. “It seemed like she had something on her mind because she was acting kind of strange.”

Jenisha tossed her fork down on the tablecloth. “Clinton, Robin is very aware of what’s going on around her at all times,” she blurted out, her voice heavy with sarcasm.

Clinton
stopped eating his piece of chicken and stared at Jenisha across the table. He didn’t fail to catch the note of sarcasm in her voice when she talked about Robin. “I can tell from the tone of your voice you and Miss. Carter aren’t friends?”

She gave him an unladylike snort. “I’ve tried on numerous occasions to become friends with her, but Robin doesn’t want to be friends with me.”

How could someone as gorgeous as Jenisha not understand what Robin’s problem was?
Clinton
wondered, tossing his half-eaten piece of chicken back on his plate. “Most women don’t like another woman who are better looking than them,” he pointed out in a low voice. “Jealousy is a strong emotion. Don’t let Robin intimidate you.”

“You mean you don’t find Robin gorgeous?” Jenisha questioned.

“The only woman I find attractive is you,”
Clinton
whispered, leaning back in his seat. “Let’s stop talking about a woman I hardly know.”

“Okay,” she agreed.

Thirty minutes later the rough drafts for the renovations were spread out on the table in front of
Clinton
. With a pen and pencil near him, he started working on several items that were in his head at dinner. Jenisha had pulled up a seat next to him so she could watch him work.

The joy on his face surprised her. “You really love your job, don’t you?”

Without taking his eyes from his work,
Clinton
replied, “I’ve loved this job since
Hayward
brought me in years ago. I didn’t have anything going on in my life at the time and he knew it. I know this is what I’m meant to do.”

Jenisha moved a few inches so she could look over his shoulder and get a better look at what he was doing, “Do you have any idea what Mark wants to be done?”

“No, I don’t,” he answered, looking at Jenisha quickly before returning his eyes to the paper in front of him.

He loved the light brush of her hot breath on his ear. She was making it hard for him to concentrate on what he was doing. All the blood had rushed from his head to another part of his body. “Right now, I’m just putting designs down on paper.”

Leaning over his arm, she pointed out a problem to him. “That wall right there is connected to the gym. I don’t know if Principal Kimball will let you knock it out.”

Turning his head, he stared at the beauty of Jenisha’s ebony face. He had never seen a more perfect woman in his life. “Well, I’ll just add it to the plans for now and see if he wants it changed.” Jenisha was so close to him and the need to touch her was so great that his hands shook.

He tossed the pencil down and rubbed a piece of her silky hair between his fingertips. “Is there any way I can talk you into getting the curls back? I loved them so much on you.”

She removed the piece of hair from his fingers and shook her head. “No, I wanted a different look, but I can always get them back if I wanted to.” She stood up and moved away from him.

Getting up from the table, he grabbed her elbow and spun her back around. “Will you get them back for me?” He ran his eyes up and down the length of her body. God, the dreams he was going to have about her tonight. He almost couldn’t wait until she left.

“Why are you so concerned with my hairstyle all of a sudden?”

He ran his thumb along her jaw and traced her plump lips, smearing the gloss that covered them. “After you get them back I’ll be more than happy to tell you why.” He gently tugged Jenisha closer to him. Dropping his green eyes down to her moist mouth, the need to sample those lips again ate at him. It was like a hunger he never felt before. “Would you care if I kissed you again?”

“What are you trying to do to me?” she whispered, placing her hand in the center of his chest.

“I’m trying to possess you,” he growled before his lips swooped down and captured hers.

This kiss wasn’t like the first two playful ones. This one screamed fulfillment and longing on his part, like he had been waiting a lifetime to have Jenisha back in his arms. With his thumb against her chin, he eased her mouth open, thrusting his thick tongue inside. She squirmed in his arms as his tongue showed her what his body wanted to do. Cupping the back of her head with one hand and wrapping the other around her waist,
Clinton
molded them together as one. Jenisha wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back with equal passion.