He didn’t care because that gave him another opportunity to inhale more of her arresting scent. Her hair smelled like lavender and combined with her parfum, she smelled like no other woman he’d ever been this close to. “That’s okay. I guess that means you’ll be buying me dessert with that dinner.”
She smiled and his heart stopped. He knew everyone in the cafe could read his mind. “We’ll see.” He watched as she walked out ahead of him. She was the Pied Piper and he was willing to follow her anywhere. He caught up to her on the sidewalk hoping for one last conversation with her.
“Thank you for the coffee.”
“You’re welcome…see you next week.” She turned and walked away. Sean walked back to the showroom, praying to God to grant him favor with Kyla’s client.
Chapter 23
THE MOST CHALLENGING WEEK OF each month for Eric was the week he couldn’t see Kyla, for female reasons. He always seemed a little more anxious. This month was even harder because the week after their break, she was attending a trade show in Chicago for a week. Self control wasn’t his strong suit. If it were, he wouldn’t have a girlfriend and a wife.
He tried finding comfort with Olivia, but she wasn’t Kyla. He still had a couple of days before Kyla returned and he was on edge. Faced with the option of self-fulfillment or making love to his wife, he chose the latter. He also broke his rule and had sex with Olivia with the lights on. That was a joke as it only made Kyla more real and unavailable. As quickly as he started, he stopped.
He got up and jumped into the shower. Olivia followed wrapping her arms around him trying to comfort him. She just thought it was one of those things that occasionally happen to men. He rested his face on the wet shower wall remembering the first time Kyla treated him to a shower. The gentle touch of his wife’s delicate hands holding him made him more angry and frustrated. He turned around with the water pounding his eyes. Forcing them shut, he pushed Olivia up against the wall kissing her harder, pretending she was Kyla. Olivia was enthralled with the tenacity of her husband. In the three years of their marriage, she never felt such passion and excitement. It was the first time Eric gave her what she had heard her sister and best friend refer to as, “The ride of her life”. When he finished her hair was soaking wet. She didn’t care because tonight her husband finally showed her how much he loved her.
He rested his face against her small chest and the lack of cushion knocked him back into reality. He pulled away leaning against the wall, trying to figure out what had happened. Ashamed because he treated his wife as an object of convenience, he stood still letting the six water jets pound him. She rested her head on his back with her arms wrapped around him, smiling. She had no idea that the past moments for him were the equivalent of being with a prostitute.
Instead of taking a taxi, Eric walked to his office. After what happened a couple of nights ago, he had been trying to fend off Olivia’s advances. It was his own fault. If he had been able to control himself, he wouldn’t have done something as insane as delight his wife. As long as she was never sexually satisfied, he could control the temperature of their marriage. Now that the cat had been let out of the bag, there was a problem.
Standing at the corner of West Twenty-Third and Broadway, he smiled at the thought of how wonderful Olivia sounded calling out his name. Kyla never called his name, she only referred to him as “Baby.” He wasn’t a baby, but a grown man able to bring his wife to her knees. He thought again briefly, maybe Olivia was faking. Or maybe Kyla was faking. The only way to know for sure, was to try it again.
Walking to his office, he came up with a brilliantly stupid plan, he’d conduct his own pleasure test. First, he’d sleep with Olivia and when Kyla returned, he’d sleep with her and see what their reactions would be. As quickly as the thought entered his head, it left. He told himself, there’s not a man alive that could tell whether a woman was faking it or not. Instead, he took pleasure in knowing that if he treated his wife to a pleasurable journey like that at least once a week, it would be even easier to control her. Now if he could only be sure he had the energy and stamina to please both women equally. He reached into his pocket for his phone and called his doctor. He needed a little medical help. His trainer suggested getting a nutritionist, now was the perfect time to get one. He also remembered a friend telling him yoga was good for sex…it made you more flexible and helped with your breathing.
First, he needed to see Kyla. He needed to feel her body pressing against his. He may have had a nice evening with his wife, but he still craved the heat only Kyla could give him. He dialed her number, but there was no answer so he left a voice mail. A half hour later he called again, voice mail. He called her every half hour and finally, a little after two thirty in the afternoon, she picked up the phone.
“Hey ba—” she started speaking and he cut her off.
“I want you in our bed in an hour.” Click. He didn’t give her a chance to respond. He told his assistant he would be out the rest of the afternoon at meetings and headed straight to their place. When he walked inside, the apartment was dark. He went into the living room thinking she might be sitting naked in the dark like before. He turned on the light and to his surprise the room was empty. He took his jacket off and started down the hall towards the bedroom and was greeted by a trail of clothes. His face lit up and he started taking his clothes off eager to join her in bed.
He walked into the bedroom and there she was, in their bed wearing a sheet and a smile. He stopped at the edge of the bed and the smile on his face convinced her he was excited to see her.
“Hey Baby,” she purred.
Earlier he would have given anything to have her say his name, but the way the words rolled off her lips excited him. He started walking around the bed.
“Stop right there. Did you miss me?” she asked followed by a wicked smile.
He stood still not moving. His head immediately filled with ideas of what he wanted to do to her. His time with Olivia was good, but it was the appetizer to the main course he was about to enjoy. He nodded and managed to utter a simple, “Yes.”
“Uhmm…I missed you too.” She let the sheet drop, licked her lips and began touching herself. She fondled her breasts and watched as Eric got excited. “I missed your touching me, your mouth kissing my breasts, arousing me.”
He started feeling hot and immediately removed his shirt and tie. Kicking his shoes off, he watched as her hand slid down under the sheet and her eyes closed as she hummed louder. He couldn’t stand it. He quickly dropped his pants and underwear eager to be where her hand was. She gathered the sheet around her waist and scooted toward him. When she reached the end of the bed, she stood up and teased him with the possibility of a kiss. The hot air from her mouth sent a chill up his spine. He wanted so desperately to touch her.
She stood in front of him and commented, “You don’t look like you missed me.” She smiled, dropped the sheet and looked down and saw a change in his body language. “That’s much better. Seems someone really did miss me.” She stepped closer and whispered, “Don’t you ever demand I do anything. I’m not your wife. When you come to your senses, call me.” She turned and walked out.
A few seconds later he heard the door slam shut. He couldn’t move. She had aroused him and left him alone and ready for love. He hobbled to the bathroom and painfully stepped into the shower. He turned the cold water on hoping to find some relief.
Faced with a few choices…stay angry with Kyla, apologize to her and hope to persuade her back to their bed, or go home and face his frisky wife. He collected himself and went to the park to figure out how he had gotten into this mess.
Chapter 24
ERIC’S BEHAVIOR THIS AFTERNOON WAS one of the reasons why Kyla didn’t want to marry him. She remembered her Aunt Rebbie saying, “Honey, once you put it on a man the right way, he’s like a bag of sugar. Sweet and bad, but too good to pass up.” She didn’t quite understand what she meant until she broke up with her college professor. “Baby girl, any man you can control in bed, will be yours. Remember, no matter how good it is, never let him know it.”
Today, she kept replaying her aunt’s words. She really did miss Eric, but she was not going to allow him to disrespect her. She hopped into a taxi and headed over to Bergdorfs. Shoe shopping was the perfect way to forget how much she wanted to go back and spend the rest of the afternoon and evening doing things with Eric most people fantasized.
She rode the elevator up to the shoe salon. Walking around she searched for her salesman, Ronnie Green. Not only did he know what she liked, he was very handsome. Shoe shopping with Ronnie was filled with lots of flirting and an amazing foot massage. She often thought about adding him to her posse of dates, but if it didn’t work out, she’d lose her connection to getting first dibs on all the latest designer shoes.
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