Tall, Dark_.Westmoreland! - Brenda Jackson [43]
Olivia looked up at him, and he gently pulled her into his arms. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed her face to his chest.
She inhaled deeply. He smelled of man, a nice, robust scent that sent shivers down her spine. This was what she needed. To be held in his arms. Riding over here, she kept thinking about how it would feel to be in his arms again. Her life was in turmoil, and right now he was a solid force in her mixed-up world.
Suddenly, she felt herself being lifted in his arms, and she linked her arms around his neck. “Where are you taking me?” she asked when he began walking.
“Over here, to the sofa, so I can hold you the way I want to, and so you can tell me what’s bothering you.”
Olivia pressed her lips together, not sure she could do that without implicating her father, and that wouldn’t be good. He didn’t need to know that her father had felt compelled to enter the Senate race because Senator Reed, a man he felt indebted to, had encouraged him to do so, and that her father’s heart might not be in it.
Reggie adjusted her in his arms when he sat down on the sofa and angled her body so that she could look up at him. “What happened, Olivia? What happened to make you call me?”
She hesitated and then decided to tell him some of what was bothering her, but not all of it. “I was at the park and saw this mother and child. The little girl was about the age I was when my mother walked out on my dad, my brothers and me. Seeing them made me realize how easy it was for my mother to walk away without looking back.”
“And she’s never tried contacting you?” Reggie asked, softly stroking the side of her face with the pad of his thumb.
Oliver shook her head. “No, she never has.”
Reggie tightened his hold on Olivia, and she clung to his warmth. She wasn’t sure how much time passed before she lifted her head to look at him. He looked at her, studied her face. “Are you okay?” he asked softly.
She nodded. “I am now. But I have to go. Dad will worry because it’s getting late.”
He stood with her in his arms and let her slide down his body until her feet touched the floor. For a long moment, she stood there and stared at him, realizing that he hadn’t kissed her yet. He must have read her mind, because he lowered his mouth to her. She craned her neck to meet him halfway and let out a deep sigh when their lips met.
His tongue was in her mouth in a flash, moving around in a circular motion before winding around hers, taking it in total possession. She wrapped her arms around his neck and groaned out loud when he deepened the kiss. Sensations throbbed within her, and she felt a shiver pass through her body.
Moments later, she pulled back from the kiss, gasping for breath. Nobody could kiss like Reggie Westmoreland. She was totally convinced of that. They had to stand there a moment to catch their breaths. In a way, it did her heart good to know he had been just as affected by the kiss.
“Do you want me to show you around before you go?” Reggie asked her in a ragged voice, taking her hand in his.
Olivia glanced around. The place was absolutely beautiful, with its sprawling living room that was lavishly decorated in peach and cream, its bigger-than-life dining room and kitchen and its spiral staircase. Fit for a king. And from what she’d read, Sheikh Jamal Ari Yasir would one day inherit that title.
“Yes, I’d love to see the rest of it.”
Reggie showed her around, and she was in total awe of the lavishly decorated bedrooms and baths, and when they toured one of the beautifully decorated guest rooms, with a huge four-poster bed, he didn’t try to get her in it. Instead, he looked at her. “Saturday night will be ours. Today you just needed me to hold you,” he whispered.
His words went a long way to calm her, soothed her troubled mind and actually made her feel special, mainly because she had called and he had come. “Thank you for coming, Reggie.”
He looked down at her and