Riding the Storm - Brenda Jackson [32]
Forever.
That was a word he had never included in his vocabulary, one he had never associated with a woman. He didn’t do forever, and never thought about it. But he had to admit that with Jayla Cole, he thought of things he had never thought of before. And he was glad for the time they had spent together. He had learned things about her that he otherwise might not have known, such as her passion for strawberry cheesecake and how she volunteered her spare time at Emory University Hospital’s Cancer Center.
“Storm, I need to get up, get dressed and leave.”
He stared at her, feeling a sense of finality and a part of him felt a sense of loss he’d never experienced before and one he couldn’t explain. And then, suddenly, he wanted her with an urgency he had never wanted her or any woman before. Blood rushed through his veins and he breathed in deeply.
“Storm…”
He looked at her and his breath stopped. He had to have her again, this one last time. He eased her beneath him the same moment that he lowered his head and captured her lips, tasting her, mating his tongue over and over with hers. She had stamped her mark on him and now he was going to make sure he stamped his on her.
For just a little while, he would make her his, and if he lived a hundred years, there would be no regrets. What he would have were memories to last a lifetime.
And from the way she was returning his kiss he could tell she wanted those memories, too.
Six
“S o, how was your trip to New Orleans?” Lisa Palmer asked as she sat back in her chair at Jayla’s kitchen table.
Jayla looked up and met her best friend’s curious stare. “It was fine. Why do you ask?”
“Because I’ve noticed that since you’ve been back, you haven’t said much about it.”
Jayla drew in a deep breath and wished she could ignore Lisa’s curious scrutiny. It was just like Lisa to pick up on her reference about the trip. She knew that sooner or later she would have to come clean and tell her friend everything, including her planned trip to the fertility clinic.
“Umm, why do I get the feeling that you’re not telling me something?”
Cupping her chin in her palm, Jayla forced a smile. “You’re imagining things.”
Lisa shook her head. “No, I don’t think so.” She gazed at her thoughtfully, then said, “There’s something different about you. You look more relaxed and well-rested which can only mean one thing.”
Jayla swallowed, wondering if she really had a different look about her. “What?” she asked softly.
Lisa’s lips tilted into a deep smile. “That you got plenty of rest this trip, which is a good thing that I didn’t go with you. Had I gone I would have worn you out with endless shopping and—”
“I ran into someone.”
Lisa lifted a brow. When seconds ticked off and Jayla didn’t say anything else, Lisa scooted closer in her chair. “Okay, are you going to keep me in suspense or are you going to tell me?”
Jayla took a sip of her lemonade before responding. “I ran into Storm Westmoreland.”
Lisa placed her glass of lemonade down on the table. “Storm Westmoreland? The Perfect Storm?”
Jayla chuckled. “Yes, that Storm.”
Lisa stared at her for a moment as she recalled Jayla once telling her about the crush she’d had on Storm Westmoreland at sixteen. And, like most women in the Atlanta area, she also knew about his reputation as a womanizer, and that’s what bothered her the most. “What was Storm Westmoreland doing in New Orleans?” she asked, having a feeling there was a lot more to the story.
Jayla chuckled again. “He was attending a conference.”
“And…?”
Jayla was quiet for a moment. She knew Lisa had a thousand questions and decided she might as well tell her everything or else she would get grilled to death. “And we ran into each other and one thing