Paradise Tempted: The Beginning (Paradise Stories) by L.B. Dunbar

Author:L.B. Dunbar [Dunbar, L.B.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2016-03-03T00:00:00+00:00

We'd stopped dancing. Holding me, he whispered as he stared at my lips, “Have dinner with me?”

“I...” I paused. “I can't.” I wanted to say yes. He was so good at this. He had all the right words, all the right phrases. My body still vibrated from where he touched me and a trickle of moisture released from my thoughts of him. I wanted more. I desired him, all of him. My wayward imagination stalled my answer.

“I have to work the bar again.”

“Call in sick. Don't you have a in with the owners?” He tweaked his lips into that half smile and the lower half of me fluttered with delight. I wanted that smile to be mine, to believe it was only for me.

I couldn't do that to them. My grandparents. I'd already told him about my parents' death: a chance encounter, a random act of violence. My mother had been shot first. The police believe she was trying to protect my father. He was killed second. They were found holding hands in a dark alley behind a lower casino in Vegas.

“Well, I can't leave you alone.” His smile continued. “Strange men in a bar. Who knows what might happen. Don't want you running off and marrying the first man that you meet.”

He was teasing me. It was sugar candy sweet and damnably upsetting rolled together. The truth underlined in his jest. I had met a stranger. I had married him, even if all pretend, it had happened. I was letting myself get caught up in the masquerade.

In an unprecedented move, I kissed him quickly. A sharp brush of my mouth on his before pulling away from him.

“Funny.”

His mouth was on mine again. If he was a fighter, I could image he was a world champion. He took no prisoners in his fight for my lips. I didn't stand a chance against him. There was no competition. I'd let him win every time.

“I wasn't joking,” he said pulling back from me. As I breathed heavily, like I did each time he claimed me, I noticed the edge to his voice. His eyes shifted to cold darkness. Something must have passed through his thoughts. Like a ghost, it was there and gone from him. He closed his eyes slowly and tenderly pressed his forehead against mine.

“I’ll come have dinner with you, instead,” he said. His eyes still closed as his head rested against mine.

“Okay,” I weakly spoke. I needed to break the spell and yet I didn’t know how.

We returned to the villa in quiet companionship. His arm rested casually on the back of my seat and he played with the hair at the base of my neck. I pulsed and clenched between my legs and shifted several times to quell the sensation. I tried not to envision his finger in me, or another part of him, that I longed for more and more as time passed. I was afraid we were on borrowed time as it was.

We separated without a word as he held the door for me to enter the main entrance.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.