Rapture (8 page)

“Uhh…umm…nice,” she stuttered.

“Wanna test it out, Alika?” I asked her.

She began to cough as her response got stuck in her throat. I had caught her off guard…
again
. I went into the kitchen and grabbed bottled water from the fridge, and handed it to her. When she reached for it, I moved towards her, closing the small space between us, and twisted the cap off.

“Thank you,” she said, as she rebounded from her cough fest.

Meanwhile, I was trying my hardest to keep from laughing out loud. “You okay?”

“Yes, I’m good,” she said, bringing the bottle to her lips.

“You know I only meant that if you wanted to
sit on it
to test it out, you could.”

“Uh, yeah. I knew that’s what you meant.”

She was nervous as hell. What she didn’t know was that had she said ‘
yes
’, to testing it out, I wouldn’t have balked at the chance to lay her down, undress her slowly, explore every nook and fucking cranny of her body with my hands, my lips, and my tongue, and then show her what being with a real man felt like. I had a strong desire to take her to bed. I wanted to see what she felt like
everywhere
, beneath the exterior—particularly, the tight jeans, and the shirt that had her breasts trapped beneath it.

“So, you liked the club did you?”

“Yes,” she hurriedly answered, clearly relieved about the change of topic. “It’s beautiful. Unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Not that I’ve been that many places, but I doubt there’s many that will compare to what you’ve put into motion, here.”

“All these compliments might give a guy the big head, Alika,” I joked. “I mean, that’s a lotta accolades from a beautiful woman.”

“Well, it’s all true, Rush.” Then she paused. “…even the
sexy
part.”

“Oh, you mean the part you cut off earlier?”

“Yep,
that part
. I mean…sexy is sexy, and well, your club does give off a sexy vibe. So, I’m gonna bold up and own my comment,” she laughed.

“Sounds good to me,” I replied, enjoying her contagious laughter.

“Sooo, what we got next?” she asked. “Maybe you get to the part about why you called me here. You’re not the show-off type, so I know the grand tour wasn’t the gist of it.”

“Another great observation,” I acknowledged. “I’m definitely not the show-off type…unless I’m showing off my woman.”

Alika brought her bottled water back to her lips at the completion of my statement, and widened her eyes as she took down another gulp of H20. 

“For the reason you’re here. I’d like to ask if you would like to be my club manager for Temptation?”

“Manager?” she asked, wearing a look of surprise.

“Yes. You moved around at your former place of employment, so you were a valued employee, it seems. I need that.”

“I was,” she stated. “I worked my way up from Mixologist, to—”

“Assistant Manager. I know.”

“Oh, that’s right,” she smiled, walking her bottle to the counter to set it down. “But I haven’t been in position to manage on my own, Rush.”

“There’s a first time for everything. I think you’ll do just fine. You’d be helping me out because I’ve hired all my staff except for my club manager. I interviewed four people and two of them were to come in this week for a second round of interviews, but I wasn’t that eager about either one of them—at least, not as managers. I might still bring them in to see who would be stronger as an assistant manager. That position could be used to alleviate some of your impending load, but I definitely want you in the CM position.”

“Wow! Really, Rush?! Thank you so much!” she said, rushing me for a hug that caught me off guard. “You won’t be disappointed!” she exclaimed, drawing back to look up at me. The tension in the room rose like yeast in an oven. Right along with that tension, the intense attraction that I sensed was mutually shared exposed itself in the wide open. We stood in our spot for several long seconds, neither of us pulling away from the hug, yet waiting to follow the lead of the other. I knew what I wanted to do, but I didn’t want to put her in any compromising positions before she was all the way ready. I didn’t want her to feel obligated for…

Crashing right in the middle of my thoughts, Alika threw all caution to the side, and rose up on her tiptoes to kiss me. As we delved further into the kiss, she snaked her arms around my neck for leverage, and she let go of all inhibitions. I was all too ready to reciprocate. I didn’t normally kiss, but with her it felt right. I pulled her into my chest, and held her tightly while our tongues frantically sought to mate with one another.

Shit
!
She feels good
.

~
7
~

Alika

I surrendered all my inhibitions and let what was happening take on a life all its own. It felt good. He felt good.
Oh my God
! He was holding me tightly in his arms, with no immediate plans of letting me go. And fuck if his lips didn’t feel damn good. I wanted them everywhere on my body.

His hands were on the move.
Damn
! They were on the small of my back, caressing my ass, and on the nape of my neck. Each place he touched, he left a tingle in its wake.
This is danger
. He’d take me for a complete ride if I gave in. I could feel it. He was packing a magic stick, and I could feel it grow against me.

But with my eyes closed, I kept seeing Curtis!
Fuck
! I tried getting into the moment, staying in the moment, and focusing solely on Rush’s touch. I wanted to focus on the intense heat coming from his mouth into mine, but it was difficult. I kissed him harder and with more hunger to make an effort at convincing myself that submitting to the passion was what it would take to make the visions stop.

Just block it out, Alika. Block it out…!

My fingers strolled through his soft waves. His lips were soft as hell, and his tongue did a perfect tango with mine. It was magical, and everything I thought it would be every time I fantasized while watching his mouth move. I knew that he could tell how hungry I was for him by the way I allowed my tongue to roam his mouth in such a frenzied and free state. I hadn’t been kissed as passionately in years—too many years. I hadn’t even been touched by a man…in the way that it mattered…in far too long.

“
Mmm
,” I moaned, against his mouth. The moment I was caught up in, had my emotions pulling me in two different directions: One that wanted to surrender totally to the moment and spend the rest of the afternoon in that king-sized bed being fucked into oblivion; and the other that told me the moment our clothes were off, I would only be able to see/feel/hear Curtis, and the invasion that he brought upon me.

Stop it
!
Rush is NOT Curtis and this is NOT that
!

Rush wanted me and I damn sure wanted him. There was a part of me inside that wanted him to take me…to make the decision for me. Then I could just go with it and allow myself to reside in that place of ecstasy with him inside of me. To be caressed the way I deserved, to be kissed the way I deserved, and to be made love to, in the way I deserved. My body was all in. But it was my mind that kept prodding at me, nagging me to do the so-called ‘right thing’—to stop before things went too far and I failed at giving Rush what he wanted, and what he needed. I couldn’t live with myself if that happened.
But then pulling away with emotions running so high was doing the same thing, right
?

His big, soft hands travelled down the length of my back until his palms rested firmly around my ass, where he massaged both my cheeks, sending waves of pleasure through my entire middle. I weakened. My body was on fire and I could see a tiny constellation of stars dancing behind closed lids. And then it happened…I felt the tingle that brought about wetness between my legs. And the feeling only intensified. My cove pulsated loudly as though trying to send a forbidden message to lure Rush’s manhood deep inside. He was wanted badly, and we had plenty of space and opportunity for it to happen. But just when things were about to hit a point of no return, I ended it.

“Rush…we shouldn’t,” I said, pulling back from his embrace, and the kiss, struggling to retain my balance. I didn’t know if I was doing the right thing because the moment I broke the connection and our lips separated, I felt an instant void. The moment I didn’t feel his hands roaming my body, I felt a void. Instant regret set in.
Fuck
!

Rush looked baffled, but he didn’t question my actions. He merely stepped back away from me, adjusted his pants and stated, nonchalantly: “Okay.”

I felt like shit in that moment. What had I done? I didn’t know what the fuck I was operating off of, but I knew that I had made a mistake. And I knew because kissing him felt so right, but standing there having put the brakes on something so beautiful felt so wrong. I knew and my body knew it because it was attacking in a major way behind the scenes. My panties were lightly creamed. My nipples were banging against my bra, screaming for freedom. It was something fierce, brought about by my own actions—actions that were too late to be reversed.

I’m sorry, Rush.”

“No, it’s good. No hard feelings,” he said. “I respect your wishes. It won’t happen again.”

And those were the wrong words because I
wanted
it to happen again. I wanted it to happen again
right then
, but I had lost the courage I felt before. I had just met him, but the attraction was potent. It was so potent that it was scary. In fact it was so strong that it felt longer than twenty-four hours! Wow…and it hadn’t even technically even been that! I felt like I needed to turn the feelings off, but I really didn’t want to turn them off. You only live once! Why was I fighting against something that seemingly had so much potential? Maybe because I thought that Curtis had so much potential too. Maybe my character meter is off and my vision is too blurred to see it!

Say something, Alika
!

“It’s just that—”

“Alika…” he interjected, looking me in the eyes. “It’s
really
okay. You don’t have to explain anything. I won’t lie and say it didn’t feel good, but I can understand, and I respect it. Let’s go ahead and get outta here so we can get ready to come back tonight. Wait…you did want to come, right? I figure you could get a sense of the crowd even though the one for Temptation might be slightly different.”

“Oh, I expect that they’d be different since one is everything sports and chicken wings, where the other will be the sophisticated party folk. So, yeah, of course I want to come. I think that’s a good idea.”

“Exactly, and then you could have a little fun in the process. I’m sure you could use that, right? Have a few drinks, taste some of the best chicken wings this side of the Bay, and maybe even meet some new people along the way.”

Damn
…

And just like that, he had removed himself. I watched him in those seconds turn what happened between us into something non-existent, and it was all my fault. As much as I wanted to be unaffected, it wasn’t the case. I had to face the devastating fact that that I had missed my opportunity.

~*~*~

We stopped at Barney’s for takeout after we left the club. The most he’d said to me on the way home was when he gave me a vague response when I asked him about baseball. “It was a part of my life that was fun while it lasted, but that I walked away from after it had run its course,” was all I could get from him. I was hoping he would elaborate, but that didn’t happen. It wasn’t even an open-ended response; it was pretty much the finale. I had no choice but to leave it alone. I figure that if he ever felt like telling me all the details, then he would do so. If in fact, there were details to give.

Once we got back to Rush’s in the early evening, he gave me a hug, and we went our separate ways—him to the main house and me to my new living space. I took my food into the kitchen and set it in the oven so that it could stay warm, then walked into my bedroom and saw all my new items sitting in their bags. It was then that I realized just how blessed I was to have found Rush. He was introducing me to a whole new life, and it wasn’t at all one that came with strings attached. He’d given me a home, bought me clothes, and offered me a job.

I walked over to the window and looked toward the main house. I imagined what he was doing now that he was inside. I wanted to be bold enough to invite him to come and eat his food with me, or take a stroll up there and eat with him, but I didn’t dare. I closed my eyes as my mind settled back on being in Rush’s arms earlier and how good it felt to be touched by him. Before long, I had removed my shirt, my bra, my jeans, and panties. I moved to position myself against the wall off the side of the window and laid my head against it for leverage. I bit down on my bottom lip and brought my hands to my breasts and began to massage until my nipples hardened. I imagined Rush’s tongue sliding across my areolas, and teasing my nipples between his teeth. The more I imagined his touch, the harder I rubbed. The more I remembered the taste of his lips, his tongue, the wetter I became. My nipples were at their firmest state and bulging forward like mini-headlights. I brought one hand from my breasts and inserted both my index and middle finger into my pussy, pushing my fingers in and out of my wetness—only they were Rush’s fingers. I squeezed my walls around my fingers so that I could feel the sensation intensify, and there I fucked myself until I felt the onset of my orgasm, at which point I curved my finger into my g-spot, and shrieked aloud with pleasure when I came. As I convulsed against my own fingers, I concluded that this would be my existence for a while as I conspired to kill my hunger for Rush. However, hours later after I’d eaten, I found myself in the same position inside the shower, coming harder and moaning louder than I had earlier. And that’s when it hit me…nothing but Rush could kill the desire.
I’m fucked,
were the words that came to mind when I creamed against my fingers a third time…

After my shower, I followed my ritual of moisturizing my face, lotioning my body, and then wrapping my hair. And as I wrapped my hair and remembered just how high-maintenance a short cut could be, I knew I needed to decide whether I’d be growing it out, braiding it, or finding someone really good to take care of it for me. After my bathroom activities, I outfitted myself in a pair of my new Victoria Secret boy shorts and a tank top, and I felt amazing. Every time I thought back to Rush, I smiled. Even though the moment had been murdered and left for dead, I was still living in it. Not just that, I welcomed each and every tingly feeling that came with the thoughts.

As tragic as that situation with Curtis was, in the weirdest way, it hadn’t really done anything to me. I wasn’t going to allow that episode to dictate my future. I’d made it out alive by doing what I had to do, and I was at peace with that. I hoped that he would burn in hell, but I was at peace.

With all the self-pleasuring, soothing shower, and deep thinking, I was satiated, relaxed, and hopeful. But I was also starving, so I was finally able to devour my broiled chicken burger, and French fries. I grabbed a Raspberry Smirnoff from the refrigerator, and headed to my room to read
The Motive
a novel that I picked up when Gigi and I went shopping. But then I noticed the new iPhone box on my nightstand, and sat my book aside.

How the hell did I miss that
?
Lusting and being horny
!
That’s how
! I thought, smiling to myself.

There was also a note from Gigi telling me what my new number was with both hers and Rush’s numbers written down on the same sheet of paper.
‘
Program these first
’
, was what her note read, with a smiley face. I did as the note said, and then commenced to loading a few apps: Words with Friends, Gmail, Instagram, and as reluctant as I was at first, I went ahead and loaded Facebook. After everything was set, I powered on the TV and streamed an R&B playlist through Pandora, and of course with my luck, the first song that came on was,
Three Letter Word
, by Jamie Foxx! I hadn’t even made it past the second song before I slipped off into a deep nap.

A few hours later, I awoke wide-eyed, bushy-tailed, and ready to head to Chaos, with my new crush.