Authors: Cheris Hodges

Just Can't Get Enough (16 page)

BOOK: Just Can't Get Enough

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“Okay, you scared me,” she said.

“I didn't mean to. This is awesome,” he said staring at Celina's work. “I've never seen you at work before.”

Celina turned her back to the painting. “I don't like people seeing my work before it's done,” she said as she stretched her arms out.

“Why? Because you're drawing me again?” Darius said standing on his tiptoes to look over her shoulder.

Celina flung some paint on him. “Stop trying to look,” she said.

Darius looked down at the paint stain on his shirt. “Oh, Miss Lady, you're going to pay for this,” Darius said as he picked up a tube of paint and squeezed it on the front of Celina's overalls. She threw her hands up to stop the assault of blue paint. She walked toward Darius and grabbed his hands.

“You jerk!” she said as she turned the paint back on him. Darius wrapped his arms around her and lifted her off her feet, then flipped her onto the ground. Celina pulled Darius down on top of her.

“Once again, I will say it. You don't play fair, Darius McRae,” she said.

“That's right,” he replied before capturing her mouth with his. Celina wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer to her. The cold paint seeped through their clothes and onto their skin. She slipped her hands underneath his T-shirt, kneading his skin as if it were wet clay. She rolled over so that she could be on top of Darius. She could feel his arousal through his jeans. Darius nibbled at her chin, causing her to melt against him like an ice cream cone on the hot sidewalk.

“Darius,” she moaned. “It's broad daylight, what will the neighbors say?”

“Who cares?” he replied before raining kisses down her neck.

Celina mustered all the strength in her body to push away from Darius. “My father is in there,” she said, her face flushing with excitement and embarrassment. She rose to her feet and returned to her painting. “Besides, we have a date tonight, remember?”

Darius walked up behind her and encircled her waist with his arms. “I can't wait until tonight,” he said as his lips brushed across the back of her neck. Celina dropped her paintbrush in midstroke.

“Will you stop it?” she said as she turned around and painted a mustache across his face. Darius laughed and then kissed her, leaving a trail of brown paint across her face. “So, is this how you create all of your masterpieces?” he asked. “We look like kindergarteners who just finished finger painting.”

Celina rubbed in a spot of paint on his cheek. “You wear it well,” she said, then kissed him on the forehead. “Do you want to have dinner before we head to the lake?”

Darius nodded. “I'm going to get cleaned up and I'll see you later,” he said before playfully slapping her on the bottom. Celina smiled as Darius walked away, then returned to her painting. Before she knew it, the sun was setting in the distance and she was finished with her painting. She stood back and looked at her work. Calling it inspired was an understatement. Celina thought this was one of her best paintings. She was going to call it
H2Love.

CHAPTER 16

Darius stared at Celina through his kitchen window. He watched the way she moved, the strokes she made on the canvas. No wonder her touch was so electrifying to him. Celina made broad strokes on the canvas, reminding him of the loving strokes that she lavished on him when they lay together in bed. Watching her at work showed him that Celina didn't do anything halfway and when she threw her heart and soul into something, it was beautiful when it was finished.

That's going to be us. We're going to have a beautiful life and as soon as we get rid of Tiffany there will be nothing standing in our way,
he thought with a sardonic smile. Why would that woman just go away? Darius didn't understand how a mind like Tiffany's worked. She was attractive enough to find someone else, but she had an unhealthy obsession with him and just as he'd told the police chief, she was out of control. Anyone who looked at him when he was with Celina knew that there was no other woman for him. Tiffany needed to learn that as well.

Darius continued watching Celina and as she stood back, admiring her work, he admired her. The way she filled out those denim overalls, the round shape of her derriere, her arms with their strong lines, and her striking face. She was the true work of art, not what she had put on the canvas. Darius didn't want anything to happen to her and he was going to do everything he could to keep her safe. He picked up the phone and called Chief Wayman.

“Chief,” the man said when he picked up the phone.

“Chief Wayman, it's Darius.”

“Oh, Mr. McRae, it's been a full week since I've heard from you. I was hoping this thing had blown over. What's happening now?” he said flatly.

Darius rolled his eyes upward at the chief's cavalier attitude. “Look, I know you think everything with Tiffany is a lover's quarrel, but she made a threat against Celina and you need to keep an eye on her.”

The chief coughed into the phone. “Maybe it's just the talk of a scorned woman. Darius, I'm sick of you and Tiffany, all right. Buy that woman some flowers and let her down easily and leave me alone. This isn't a police matter.”

“Chief, if she does something to Celina, I won't be responsible for what happens to her. She's resorted to stalking me and Celina and if I have to go above your head, I will. I'll call the feds, the state law enforcement division, anyone,” Darius barked.

He heard what sounded like a fork clanking against a plate. “Fine, I'll keep an eye on her. But if this is more of y'all's shenanigans, I'm going to throw both of you in a holding cell and beat you with a rubber hose.”

Darius hung up the phone and rolled his eyes.
Does he think this is a damned joke? That woman is unstable and if he doesn't do something soon, I'm going to take this matter into my own hands.
His new mission was going to be to know every step Celina made. It was one thing for Tiffany to come after him, but she'd crossed the line by threatening Celina. He'd lay down his own life before he'd allow Tiffany to hurt Celina.

Darius decided that he'd have to hire a private eye, even if he had to get one from Columbia. Glancing out the window, he watched Celina make her way into her house with the painting. Thinking that someone was lurking in the shadows, he rushed out of his house, leapt over the fence and rushed to what he thought was a crouching figure in the bushes. It turned out to be a stray dog. Darius's heart was beating one thousand times per minute. He had to get back to his house before someone saw him. As he was leaving, the back door opened. “Darius McRae, what are you doing back here?” Velma Henderson, Thomas's nurse, asked.

“Hi, Ms. Henderson, I thought I saw someone lurking in the bushes.”

The woman smiled and headed for her car. “You're protective of that girl, aren't you?” she said as she opened her car door. “Just make sure I'm invited to the wedding.”

“All right, Ms. H.,” he said as he headed back to his house and Velma got into her car and started it. Darius watched her from his porch as she backed out of the driveway. He sighed and headed inside. Before he could change his clothes, the phone rang.

“Yeah?”

“I see you didn't waste any time calling the police on me,” Tiffany said. “Darius, I'm telling you, make them back off or you're going to regret it.”

“Tiffany, you need help. You need to do something with your life and leave me alone. When's the last time you opened your store? You're really going to throw your life away over a man who doesn't want you?”

She laughed. “You treated me like trash and you need to learn your lesson.” The dial tone sounded in his ear. When he heard a knock at the front door, Darius nearly leapt out of his skin, expecting to see Tiffany standing there. To his surprise and joy, it was Celina.

“I thought you would have dinner waiting for me,” she said. “You're still in your paint-stained clothes.”

“Give me a second and we'll go grab something to eat. Why don't we go to Rudy's?”

“The rib joint?” Celina said, raising her right eyebrow. “Now, Darius you know, . . .”

“They have a great grilled vegetable platter and the potato salad is to die for,” he said. “Just wait for me to shower.” Darius dashed down the hall.

“Don't forget your swimming trunks,” she said as she sat on the sofa. “Or on second thought leave them.” Darius jumped in the shower and washed the dried paint from his body. He left the bathroom door open, secretly wishing Celina would come in the bathroom. He wanted to feel her arms wrapped around him, her lips on his neck, her breasts pressed against his chest.

“Are you drowning in there?” Celina called out.

“Why don't you come in and see?” he said. Darius listened out for the tapping of Celina's sandals on the tile. He looked up and saw her standing in the doorway of the bathroom.

“Trying to get me all wet, Darius?”

He pulled the curtain back and smiled at her reaction to his nakedness. Then he reached out and pulled her into the shower by the arm.

“Who needs the lake?” With his wet fingers, Darius unbuttoned the front of Celina's sundress, pushed it off her shoulders, and discovered that she wasn't wearing any underwear. A slow smile spread across his face. “I guess you were serious about skinny-dipping, huh?”

Celina returned his smile with a sly one of her own. “I'm always serious,” she said as she shimmied out of her dress. Immediately, he pulled her against his body and the water from the shower poured on them, seeping through Celina's loose hair. Leaning in, he kissed her lips gently as he backed her against the wall. Wandering down the length of her body, he kissed every enticing inch of her, causing her to writhe underneath his lips. Intense feelings of pleasure and desire rippled through her body as Darius reversed his kisses and took her hardened nipples into his mouth. Each kiss and each stroke made her skin burn with desire.

“Darius,” she moaned as his tongue lapped up the beads of water that pooled on her body. She shivered underneath his touch, Darius continued lashing her body with his tongue. Clutching his back to keep her footing as he lifted one of her legs across his shoulder, she inhaled sharply as he slid between her legs. His hardness throbbed against her and, in a swift motion, he was inside her. Their hips thrust against each other and heat enveloped them, making the cold water falling on them easy to ignore. Celina pushed him over the edge when she reached down and stroked his erection while he pumped in and out of her. She dropped her hand as she ground sensually against his body and bit down on his neck to muffle her screams of passion as she began to climax. She wasn't ready for the feeling to end and she lurched forward, urging him to go deeper, faster, and harder. Her muscles tightened around him, making him explode and growl like a lion leading the pride.

It wasn't until they'd pried themselves apart that it hit Darius that he hadn't protected them. Looking into her eyes, he could see that she was thinking the same thing. Stroking her cheek, he muttered his apology.

“We can't keep doing this,” she said.

“I know,” Darius said. “We don't have anything to worry about, we've discussed . . .”

“What about pregnancy?” she said.

“Would that be so bad? We love each other.”

“We're not married and I'd never thought about marriage and babies until . . .” She stopped in midsentence and began squeezing excess water from her hair, not ready to open that much of herself to Darius.

“Until what?” he asked.

She cast her eyes upward, but didn't look directly into his dark ones.

“Until what?” he repeated.

“Until I fell in love with you. Now, I think about it all the time. But I have so much on me right now. Motherhood isn't in my immediate future,” she said.

“So, what if we made a little one today?”

She turned her head away. “I don't want to talk about that. Let's just cross that threshold if we get to it.”

Darius picked up his towel and wrapped it around Celina's shoulders, deciding not to press the issue. Even with the progress that they'd made, he knew parts of her were still afraid to surrender to love completely. He knew that he would have to give her all the time she needed to open herself to him. He dried her and pulled the towel around her body. An uncomfortable silence hung around them like dripping shower curtains.

She pushed away from him. “Darius, we'd better get dressed if we're going to make it to Rudy's.”

“Yeah,” he said, gently pulling her back into his arms.

“Come on,” Celina said. “I'm starving.”

Letting her go, Darius pulled his hormones under control as he headed across the hall to his bedroom, leaving Celina alone in the bathroom to get dressed.

The couple emerged from Darius' house a few moments later, still quiet, each one pondering the consequences of their lapse of judgment. As he drove, Darius stole a glance at Celina, “Are you all right?”

“I just keep wonderingânever mind.”

“Wondering what?” he asked.

“When this happiness is going to end,” she said, then sighed. “Sometimes this doesn't seem real to me.”

“It's not going to as long as we don't let it. Celina, I know you've seen the wrong side of love, the hurtful side. The difference between me and you is that I've lived it. I would never want to cause you a day of pain. I don't ever want to see you crying because of what I've done.”

“I know that's what you say, now,” she said with the vulnerability of a child.

Darius felt compelled to reach out and stroke her face. “Celina,” he murmured. “I'm more than a man of my word.” She closed her eyes and pulled away from Darius. He could only imagine what she was thinking. When they walked into Rudy's, neither of them noticed who was lurking behind them.

Celina hated being so cynical. Instead of reveling in the beauty of what they had, she kept looking for a way out. Yes, she loved him, but love didn't last and giving herself to Darius was scary. He had his heart in her hands and at any moment it could be crushed and she'd be just like her mother had been all those years ago. Celina felt breathless around him. It was as if she couldn't get enough of himâthat scared her.

He had already pulled her out of her guarded comfort zone and changed the way she felt about being in love. Still, she struggled with believing love would last.

“Celina, talk to me,” Darius said as they took a seat in the dim restaurant. A melting candle sat in the middle of the table, the flickering light bouncing off Celina's dark eyes.

“I think I've said all I need to,” she said.

“Celina, I can't keep fighting the shadows. You're hot and cold. When we're in the moment, it's so good, then you sit back and borrow trouble. Have I given you a reason to believe that I'm going to act like your father?”

Shaking her head, she had to admit that Darius made her feel safe and if she were honest with herself, she'd realize that he was everything she needed and wanted. Celina couldn't bring herself to say that.

Darius continued, leaning against the table and fixing his full stare on her. “How many ways do I have to say it, show it, and prove it? I love you, Celina.”

“And I love you, too, Darius. But . . .”

“Oh my word, do my eyes deceive me?” an older woman said as she waddled through the tables to get to Celina and Darius.

The couple looked at the woman and smiled. “Miss Rudy,” Darius said as he stood up and kissed the woman on her meaty cheek. Celina smiled at Miss Rudy, who stared at her with a wide smile on her face.

“Baby, you look just like your Daddy. How's Thomas doin'?” the older woman asked.

“He's fine,” she replied. “A lot better than when I arrived here.”

BOOK: Just Can't Get Enough

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