A Christmas Affair (13 page)

“Uhm … Melody, sweetheart. I think that is a question that you need to ask your mother.”

Silence.

“Melody?”

“He’s my father, isn’t he?”

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Oh, thank God.
“Oh, honey. There’s someone at the door. Let me call you back.”

“Aunt Tess—”

“I’ll call you back. I promise.” She disconnected the
call and rushed toward the door. But when she opened it, she quickly wished that she hadn’t.

“I’m going to kill you,” her sister seethed, hitting the door so that it went flying out of Tess’s hands. “How
dare
you pull some stupid prank like this? Do you know what you could’ve done? What if Melody had been at that party last night? Do you know what kind of mess you could’ve caused?” As Corona bulldozed her way in, Tess propelled backward across her hotel room.

Tess’s hands quickly came up in surrender. “All right. Don’t hurt me. I don’t have any health insurance.”

“When I’m finished with you, you won’t need health care, you’ll need a tombstone!”

“All right. All right. You’re angry. I get it.” She’d now backed all the way to the wall. “Maybe … just maybe I didn’t think this whole thing through all the way,” she reasoned nervously.

“You think? We’re not kids anymore, Tess. These types of pranks have serious consequences.” Her hands balled at her sides.

Recognizing the signs, Tess covered her head and curled over at her side to prepare for a few blows. Instead, her sister released a long hiss and then stormed away from her.

“You’re not worth my ass catching a case.”

Tess exhaled loudly as she unfolded herself back up. “Well, thank God for small favors.”

“I’m still pissed,” Corona warned.

“I know. I know. But if you just let me explain—”

“Look, the only reason I’m not beating you into the carpet is because Lyfe left New York.”

“Ehhh … “ Tess winced.

Corona Mae’s gaze sliced back over to her. “Ehhh, what?”

Knock. Knock. Knock.

“Weeeeeellll.” Tess headed over to the door. “There may have been a
slight
change in plan.” She opened the door and was swept up into Lyfe’s arms.

“Good afternoon, my lovely fiancée.” He had swung her around half of the room before he noticed she had company. “Corona.”

I
nstant tears sprang into Corona’s eyes. Her fists unraveled as she bolted toward the door. “I gotta go,” she said and nearly plowed headlong into Hennessey’s chest. He quickly got out of the way.

“Wait, Corona Mae.” Lyfe released Tess. She was about to land on the floor when Hennessey turned and sprinted to catch her. “Corona, let me explain,” Lyfe continued, giving chase in the hallway.

Corona ignored him as she raced back to the elevator bay and hit the down button. But when it was clear that Lyfe would catch up to her before the elevator could arrive, she bolted toward the staircase. Lyfe just chased after her.

“Corona, will you please hold up? I just want to talk to you for a few minutes.”

“Well, I don’t want to talk to you, so you can just go back up to your … fiancée! I hope you two have
a wonderful life together.” Why in the hell was she wearing heels? It was just a matter of time before …

Her heel clipped the edge of a step and the next thing she knew, she was flying and screaming. Her purse hit the ground and exploded across the stairwell landing. She was about to crash onto the concrete floor, when Lyfe’s steel grip suddenly grabbed her. Once she realized she was safe, she finally decided that it would be a good idea for her to give her lungs a rest.

Turning her upright and setting her back on her feet against a concrete wall Lyfe asked, “Are you all right?”

Panting, Corona bobbed her head but refused to meet his steady gaze. But she was very conscious of his warm, minty breath drifting across the shell of her ear.

“You know, that’s the second time I’ve had to catch you in less than twenty-four hours. I don’t remember you being so clumsy.”

“Clumsy?” Her eyes shot up toward his.

“Ah. Now you can look me in the eye.” He pushed up a smile.

The sight of his pearly whites had a devastating effect on her knees, and, for a couple of seconds, she feared that she was doomed to take another tumble. He was standing too close. She couldn’t breathe. Instinctively, she placed her hand against his chest in an attempt to push him back, but she may as well have been trying to shove an Army tank up a San Francisco hill.

Lyfe glanced down at her hand, particularly the diamond glittering on it. But then he reached down and moved her hand from the center of his stomach up to his heart, so that she could feel her effect on him.

Corona gasped at the hammering against her palm
and tried to pull her hand back. Lyfe was having none of that and kept it in place. Then he sought and locked her gaze with his. “What are you doing?” she asked weakly.

“I’m letting you feel me.” And feel him she did. The power pounding against her hand, as well as the electricity crackling between them, was enough to turn the cold stairwell into a sweltering inferno. He slowly reached his other hand out and placed it over her heart.

“I see that we still have the same effect on each other.”

“But … we’re not the same people anymore,” she offered weakly.

“Aren’t we?” he challenged. “Is Captain Crunch still your favorite cereal? When you get upset, do you still throw on your favorite Mary J. Blige CD?”

She blinked.

“Are the New York Mets still your favorite baseball team? Is yellow still your favorite color? Do you still cry when you watch
The Color Purple?
”

Tears started to burn the back of Corona’s eyes. The realization that her fiancé didn’t know those small things about her hit hard.

“I bet you still love Pepsi over Coke, dancing in your underwear on Saturday mornings and … me,” he added, pressing her farther up against the wall.

“Wh-what?” She barely got the question out before her throat started to close up.

“I didn’t see it last night. Maybe I was too blinded by jealousy, but now … I’m convinced that you’re still in love with me.”

She couldn’t get herself to sputter out a denial right away. She helplessly watched a confident—or rather
cocky—smile curl the corners of Lyfe’s lips. And still, words eluded her.

“I can’t believe I almost left here without getting what I came here for.”

Finally finding the power to swallow the lump in her throat, she rasped, “And what’s that?”

“You,” he said.

There was no hiding her heart’s wild pounding against his hand. In fact, she felt like she’d been completely stripped naked in that staircase, and she didn’t know what to do about it.

“I don’t think it even matters anymore why you ran. Maybe you were scared. Maybe you simply thought that we were just too young,” he said. “It doesn’t matter. All I want to know is how you feel now. At this very moment.”

She squirmed. “I—I—”

“Would you like me to kiss you?” He finally moved his hand from her heart, so that he could gently brush the side of her face. “I want to kiss you. I want to see if you taste as sweet as I remember.”

Corona melted. Lyfe had to withdraw his hand and wrap it around her waist so that she would remain on her feet.

“I won’t kiss you unless you say that it’s okay,” he said, leaning in closer.

Every muscle in her body morphed into a swarm of butterflies, and she was afraid that if she opened her mouth one would fly out. But her inability to talk didn’t distract Lyfe from his singular focus: her lips.

“Do you want me to kiss you, Corona Mae? Do you want to see if we still have that same magic we used to?”

A tear rolled off her thick lashes, but before it reached
her cheek, Lyfe had absorbed it on the pad of his finger. “What’s this for? There’s no need for tears. I just want what I’ve always wanted—to make you happy. And if you say that that other man makes you happy, then I’m going to step off.”

Corona couldn’t even think of the man he was referring to.

“So what do you want me to do?”

Overwhelmed by the heat of his body, quivering with anticipation and curiosity, she whispered, “Kiss me.”

T
he sexiest smile slid across Lyfe’s lips a fraction of a second before his head descended. The two seconds it took for their mouths to connect felt more like a lifetime, but the reward was well worth the wait. That underlying sweetness she remembered was still there, but there was also so much more.

More power.

More richness.

This was not a kiss of puppy love. This was a kiss of a confident man who knew how to do manly things.

They were weightless and suspended in what felt like an alternate time and place. In his arms, she was grace and beauty … and love. Just like that. It was as if there hadn’t been more than a dozen years since they’d been in each other’s arms—melting from each other’s kisses. At the heart … there was still a strong foundation of love.

There was no room for reason and reality at this
moment. The past didn’t matter and tomorrow was just too far away for her to be concerned about. All that mattered was right here and right now.

In no time at all, she was returning his kiss with the same fierce hunger that he was trying to devour her with. When she heard a deep growl rumble from his chest, Corona felt a surge of power course through her. Her ego couldn’t help but inflate at the realization that she still had power over him. She could do whatever she wanted with him, right here and right now. The question was whether she dared to take that leap.

Her mind tangled with this question until Lyfe tore his lips away from hers. He blazed a trail of fiery kisses across her jawbone and then down her long neck. Corona rasped as she sucked in some much needed oxygen. Maybe the air would help dispel her naughty thoughts.

No such luck.

Her hands splayed across his chest. Once again, she could feel his hammering heart against her palms. She was doing that to him—and she could do much more—if she dared.

Lyfe’s lips grazed the magic spot at the juncture of her neck and collarbone, and suddenly she had her answer. Corona jerked his shirt up from the waist of his pants, desperate to press flesh against flesh.

Once she had given the signal, Lyfe’s hand went to work as well. Suddenly the hem of her skirt flew up her firm thighs and cinched around her waist. Then his hands got busy caressing and squeezing her ass. A lethal dose of pheromones went straight to Corona’s head and the whole world tilted sideways.

When she got her hands underneath his shirt, she
discovered a rippling six-pack, a V-cut hip and an astonishing broad, muscular chest that was as hard as his skin was soft.

A steady drip of honey soaked her panties. A half second later, Lyfe wrenched those to the corner of her thighs so that his fingers could dip inside. He wasted no time zeroing in on her pulsing clit, where the pads of his fingers performed a seductive twirl and dipped beneath the base.

“Ohh.” Corona dropped her head all the way back, giving his hot mouth permission to now slide down the valley of her breasts.

The moment his mouth latched onto her right nipple, an unbearable ache began to radiate through her entire body. She needed him. More than she’d ever needed anything in her entire life. Her hand raked down to the waist of his pants, where she fumbled with the button and zipper for what seemed like forever. But, in truth, it just took a few seconds for her to have what she’d been searching for pulsing in the palm of her hand.

Well, hello.

There had been a few more changes to Lyfe Alton over the years. Every inch of it good. Very good.

“What do you plan to do with that, Ms. Banks?” Lyfe asked, silkily. “Tell me.”

Corona could instantly think of a million things to do with him, and while she mulled those over she lazily slid her hands up and down his growing inches. She even took time to marvel at the intricate veins throbbing on its sides, and the fat mushroom head that was beginning to ooze with pre-cum.

Lyfe abandoned her breasts to pay homage to her left earlobe, where he could whisper, “I’ve missed you
so much, Corona.” He nibbled on her lower lobe. “I’ve missed you so very much.” With a slight twist of his hips, he nudged his cock closer to her dripping pussy. “Have you missed me, too?”

“Yes,” Corona answered without hesitation.

“How much?” The tip of his cock brushed against her wet lips.

“More than you’ll ever know,” she admitted.

Lyfe pulled his head back so that he could stare into her eyes and see the truth. When he saw what he was looking for, he slanted his mouth over hers so that he could brand her with another scorching kiss.

Corona knew better than to have sex with no condom and standing in the middle of a public staircase with her panties jacked to the side. But reason and logic continued to leak out of her brain at a steady pace.

Hiking her left leg around his trim waist and dipping her right knee was enough to ease the tip of Lyfe’s dick into her honeyed walls.

Following her direction, Lyfe grabbed her other leg and pinned her to the wall. Gravity slid him in the rest of the way.

Air seeped out of Corona’s lips in a slow hiss while she tried to adjust to feeling him in the center of her belly—or at least, that’s how far it felt like he’d reached. Once she thought that she was ready, she locked her ankles behind his back and prepared herself for the ride of her life.

She didn’t have to wait long. From the very first stroke, Corona was lost. The mere exquisiteness of their joining was enough to send twin streams of tears pouring from her closed eyes.

“Oh, baby. I’ve missed you so much,” Lyfe moaned as he kissed away those same tears.

Corona dipped and rolled her hips, drawing him in even deeper and causing his breath to draw ragged.

“You’re mine … and you’ll always be mine.” His words and his body continued to brand her in ways one would think impossible. “Look at me, baby,” he urged.