Page 16 of Smoke N' Stroke

If I were being truthful, however, the idea of being with Zaire more than the few days we had over the weekend, didn’t entirely piss me off the way it had last week when we were notified, we’d be going. Maybe that had to do with the sex we’d been having in the early hours of the morning when I should have been getting my beauty sleep. Maybe it was because I genuinely liked him. Who knew? Hewas cool and beautiful. And his open mind and caring vibe came with his dominating masculine energy. He was a man’s man, make no mistake, but he didn’t seem pressed to prove that to anyone and that was intoxicating. So intoxicating, we’d been kissing in the supply closest a lot more and knew we needed to stop or risk getting caught.

“Why do your lips taste so much better in here?”

He asked me after snatching one more taste.

“I’ve asked myself the same thing. But Zaire…”

“Hmmm,” he moaned into my mouth. The distraction of his touch turned my brain to mush for a staggard moment until I was finally able to break my lips free.

“We have to stop this. We’ll get caught and probably kicked out.”

The glazed look he had and the fact that he couldn’t stop looking at my lips told me he hadn’t heard a word I said. When his hands ended up in my hair and his lips back on mine, I knew I’d been right. After a few more presses against my willingly open lips, I sighed but stayed close to his face.

“I know but I can’t stop. Do you know how sweet you taste? Damn.”

His nose was in my neck, my spot, teasing it until I had no choice but to surrender and my handstarted for his zipper. The sound of voices out in the hall had us both rushing to fix our clothes and find something to explain us both being in there.

By the time Peter opened the door, Zaire was scribbling some gibberish on a half-crinkled piece of paper, and I was pretending to read it.

I pretended to just notice the door was opened and turned to find a suspicious-looking Peter watching us.

“Your glasses are in your hair.”

I looked at him with confusion.

“You’re straining to see the lines on that crumpled paper, right? Your glasses are in your hair.”

“Oh, yeah.”

Peter nodded and reached in to grab a stack of pamphlets on the self to the right of us before he shook his head and left.

Zaire and I stared at each other as the door closed.

“Will he tell?”

“He didn’t see anything, Nala.”

“I’m sure he knows.”

“And?”

“And nothing. We have to stop this shit, Zaire.”

It aggravated me to no end that he could be so casual about this. The first time in the closet was onething but now, this was something else. I did not need the rumor mill to be focused on me especially when I was relatively new.

“It’ll be okay, Nala.”For you everything is okay.

“Dr. Jackson.”

I was bypassing him, almost knocking him down to get out of there. I heard him call out, “Wait.” But I was halfway down the hallway and ignoring him and the shame I felt at being caught.

12

ZAIRE

The dancing candlelight cast a warm glow onto her beautiful bronzed skin making me happy I was able to get us a last-minute reservation to City Winery where jazz music from a local band played gently. We had no business being out right now because neither of us had finished packing for our morning flight to Denver but I felt it was important to court her before staying at the hotel where I knew I would be devouring her morning noon and night between conference sessions.

“I feel like you’re trying to butter me up with dinner.”

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