Miss Independent (36 page)

“Which is exactly the point,” he interjected. “Best friends turned lovers is a classic story, V.”

“It shouldn’t be our story.”

“It should.” He swallowed hard and thought a moment. “I nearly had sex with another woman.”

She felt like gagging. “Is this supposed to be some kind of revelation to me, or--?”

“But I
couldn’t
, because I thought of you. I thought about what it would be like to make love to you instead, and I stopped it with her. The woman I told you about that night you came to me, and I held you in my arms… The night I told you how I felt and what I would do for you…”

“Mo--”

“I couldn’t continue with her because I kept thinking of you, of your hands and your breasts and your eyes and your mouth. I thought of you, V. This is what happens to me quite often. I would get laid a lot more than I did if I didn’t think of you so much before, during and after.”

She became shy, and felt her cheeks burning. “Then try not to think of me at all,” she responded in a low voice.

“How can I do that? How can I stop thinking of you, of wanting to kiss you and taste every part of your skin? You’re a woman I would give up my life for.” He grinned a little and looked around the room as she admired him. “I thought about moving out of this place so many times, but I’d just be paying for another place I never lived in because I’d still be here all the time. I know that there’s a piece inside of you that feels something for me that’s beyond friendship. And I’m determined to find it.”

He lowered his face to hers and she feared he could smell the scent of adultery on her clothes and skin, despite doing her best to scrub every bit of it off in the shower. She was taken by surprise when he gently pressed his lips against hers. He closed his eyes but she kept hers open, watching as he moved his lips against hers with such ease and success, doing all he could to call her attention to the feelings he knew had been rising inside her for years. An expression of pain encompassed by uncontrollable yearning crossed her face. She wanted to fight him, she wanted to scream and yell and shove him away because she didn’t want to admit that he was right. She didn’t want to admit that there were times she had dreamed of him kissing her just like this; times she had dreamed of him taking her and making love to her until they soaked the sheets through the bed and to the floor. As his tongue inserted her mouth and searched for hers, her eyes suddenly fluttered shut. She wanted it. She wanted it as much as he did and through her eagerness, started to wonder if she wanted it a bit more. As he kissed her, she felt like a melting piece of chocolate left on a sidewalk beneath the sun in June. The coolness of his hands from the ice made it all the more tantalizing. She could hardly find the right words to describe what she felt when their tongues met, but she knew she didn’t want it to stop. And when it did, when he released her face and finally pulled away, her eyes were glowing. Such an intense feeling that had been growing inside of her began to emerge all over her face.

Maurice smiled wide.

“I’m in there, too.” He motioned toward her heart. “It may be a smaller piece than Nathan’s, but it’s there.”

He kissed her again and she still couldn’t stop herself from kissing him back. As their tongues intertwined, she trailed her fingers up and down his spine and the back of his neck. She started lifting her leg without thinking, sliding it around his waist. Her dress fell back and she was fully exposed, but didn’t care. He pressed his entire body against hers, forcing her to feel how much he had craved her all these years. He rested his hands at her throat, then slid them down the front of her body, relaxing them at her stomach. He thrust his tongue even deeper into her mouth before yanking himself away for the second time. Vanessa was out of breath. She could hardly remember her own name, what day of the week or time it was, or what had just happened prior to her getting home.

Maurice licked her from his mouth, watching with glee as she tried regaining composure.

“I want to be your friend, Vanessa…. But I also want to make love to you for the rest of my life. I want to wake up to you every morning and hold you every night as you sleep in my arms. You need to accept that these feelings are never going away for me. They’ve only gotten stronger over time and will get even more intense the longer you deny what this is. If I have to accept Nathan as part of your life, you need to accept your feelings for me as part of it too.”

He bent down, kissing and nibbling the side of her neck. She rolled her eyes into her head and turned her face toward his, hoping for another kiss, but he moved away.

“I’m in there,” he told her again.

He was in there, a lot more than she was willing to admit.

“I’m not looking for an answer tonight. But when I said that no matter how hard you try to push me away, I’m gonna keep coming back until you say yes, I meant it. And now that I’m certain I have a chance with you, I’m not giving up so easily this time.”

He walked away from her, a confident grin spreading across his face as he moved up every step leading to his bedroom.

Vanessa was in a state of shock. The kiss was so intense, it practically burned her lips.

As she shut her eyes recalling the taste of it, she realized she had almost had sex with one man in her office and nearly gave herself to another in her own home barely an hour later, and with no time to breathe in between. After everything she had said about Sheila and to Nikki, she was starting to wonder who in the hell
she
was becoming herself. Nathan was taken, but might have called off the wedding if she gave into temptation. Maurice was her best friend, which would change in an instant if she had given into
him
.

Her head was spinning. At this point she didn’t know if she was coming or going. But one thing was for certain, she knew that after tonight, there was no turning back, for any of them.