Temptation - Brenda Jackson [38]
She had been reading for about an hour or so when she decided to go to the connecting room to check on Sunnie. Although the baby now slept through the night, Sheila checked on her periodically. Sunnie had a tendency to kick off her bedcovers while she slept.
Sheila tiptoed into the room. Already the scent of baby powder drenched the air and she smiled. Sunnie’s presence was definitely known. When Sheila had come downstairs after taking a shower, Zeke had been holding the baby in his arms and was standing at the window. From Sunnie’s giggles she could tell the baby had enjoyed seeing the huge raindrops roll down the windowpane.
It had been a spine-tilting moment to see him standing there in his bare feet, shirtless with his jeans riding low on his hips. A tall, sexy hulk of a man with a tiny baby in his arms. A baby he was holding as gently as if she was his.
She had watched them and thought that he would make a wonderful father. She wondered if he wanted kids one day. He had talked about his cousin’s twins and she knew he didn’t have an aversion to kids like some men did. Crawford would freeze up whenever the mention of a baby entered their conversation. That had been one topic not open for discussion between them.
Pulling the covers back over Sunnie’s chubby legs, Sheila was about to exit when she felt another presence in the room. She turned quickly and saw Zeke sitting in the wingback chair with his legs stretched out in front of him. He was sitting silently and watching her, saying nothing.
The glow of the moon flowing in through the curtains highlighted his features and the look she saw in his eyes said it all. She fought not to be moved by that look, but it was more powerful than anything she’d ever encountered. It was like a magnetic force, pulling her in, weakening her, filling her with a need she had been fighting since awakening that morning.
She wished she could stop her heart from beating a mile a minute, or stop her nipples from pressing hard against her nightgown. Then there was the heat she felt between her legs; the feeling was annoying as well as arousing.
Then he stood and she had to tilt her head back to look at him. In the moonlight she saw him crook his finger for her to follow him into the hall. Knowing it was best they not speak in the room to avoid awakening Sunnie, she followed.
“I didn’t know you were in there with Sunnie,” she said softly.
He leaned against the wall. “I went in there to check on her…and to wait for you.”
A knot formed in Sheila’s throat. “Wait for me?” He seemed to have inched closer. She inhaled his masculine scent into her nostrils and her nipples stiffened even more.
“Yes. I knew you would be coming to check on Sunnie sooner or later. And I decided to sit it out until you did.”
She shifted her body when she felt a tingling sensation at the juncture of her thighs. “Why would you be waiting for me?”
She was warned by the smile that tilted his lips at the same time as he slipped an arm around her waist and said, “I was waiting to give you this.”
He leaned his mouth down to hers. And instinctively, she went on tiptoe to meet him halfway.
This was well worth the wait, Zeke thought as he deepened the kiss. There was nothing like being inside her mouth. Nothing like holding her in his arms. Nothing like hearing the sound of her moaning deep in his ear.
And he had waited. From the moment she had gone upstairs to put the baby to bed, he had waited for her to come back downstairs. She hadn’t done so. Instead, she had called down to him from the top of the stairs to tell him good-night.
He had smiled at her ploy to put distance between them, and he put a plan into action. He figured there was no way she would settle in for the night without checking on Sunnie. So he had closed up things downstairs and gone upstairs and waited.
The wait was over.
She was where he