Spontaneous - Brenda Jackson [22]
A smile touched his lips and that smile made sensations flutter all through her. “I’m surprised that you would ask me that, especially after last weekend and this morning,” he said in a throaty voice. “But just in case you don’t have a clue, let me break it down to you.” He leaned closer. “I’ll be getting you, Kimani. I like kissing you. I enjoy having sex with you.”
His smile widened as he added, “Um, I especially like having sex with you.”
She couldn’t help noticing he’d specifically pointed out they’d had sex and not made love. Why did his description of what they’d done bother her, when the same terminology from any other man would not have? She pushed the thought from her mind and wriggled up to wrap her arms around his neck. Looking up at him, she smiled. “Then I guess we are officially pretend engaged.”
“DUAN ACTUALLY VOLUNTEERED to go to Shreveport and pretend to be your fiancé?” Sherri asked Kim a few days later. Terrence had left their hotel room to grab them breakfast and she’d taken the time to give Kim a call.
“Yes, can you believe my luck? Seeing me with him will satisfy Aunt Gert I’ve got a man.”
“Is there something you aren’t telling me about you and Duan, Kim? Sounds serious.”
Kim chuckled. She knew just what Sherri was hinting at. “Not serious, just sexual. I don’t do serious, Sherri. You of all people know that. And Duan isn’t looking for anything serious, either. It’s the perfect arrangement.”
Before her best friend could ask her any more questions, Kim quickly said, “Now hang up the phone before your husband returns. You are on your honeymoon, you know.”
“I know, and I am so happy I have to pinch myself to make sure it’s real.”
Kim could hear the sheer contentment in Sherri’s voice. She laughed. “Why pinch yourself? Just look at the size of that rock on your hand if you have any doubt.”
Moments later, she hung up the phone and glanced across the room at her packed luggage. She would be flying out of the Keys in a few hours and would catch a connecting flight in Atlanta, where Duan would be joining her to continue on to Shreveport.
Strolling from the living room to the kitchen, she couldn’t help but smile when she glanced over at her table. She was consumed with memories every time she walked past it. Even now her mind was filled with memories of their lovemaking on Terrence’s boat. To be totally honest, there wasn’t a single night since the wedding that she hadn’t thought about all the lovemaking she and Duan had done.
He was definitely a man who knew how to have a good time and she remembered how quickly she had slid her bikini bottoms down her legs and untied her top. It hadn’t taken Duan any time at all to remove his swimming trunks, and using the rocking motion of the boat on the water, they had taken each other hard, fast and often.
And they would be back together again for a third weekend. She shouldn’t, but she was beginning to consider him as her weekend lover, and his ability to turn any fantasy she’d ever had into reality was simply amazing.
Kim glanced at her watch. It was time to begin loading her luggage in the car. As she headed up the stairs she couldn’t squash her anticipation at the thought that in a few hours she would be seeing Duan again.
6
DUAN PULLED INTO the airport parking lot and then into the space his car would occupy for the next ten days. He patted the pocket of his shirt to make sure the ring he’d slid inside was still there. He had volunteered to come up with an engagement ring and thought the one he already had in his possession was perfect. It was the ring his grandmother had left him to present to the woman he would one day marry. When he’d mentioned it to Kim, she’d thought using that ring was a good idea, as well.
He had to remind himself that the ring’s purpose was twofold. First, it was personal since he was helping out a woman he’d come to consider a friend. It was also business, in that he hoped to determine if Edward Villarosas was guilty of murder.
The Atlanta police department had agreed to reopen the two cases