Loving Montie (Breathless 4)

“Yeah, I’ll get up with you later.”

***

After returning to the states, I called Lissa’s office every day. She had assigned one of her designers to the project we were working on so she wouldn’t have to speak with me directly. When I called to fuss about the change and demanded to see her face to face, she didn’t answer her personal line. Her secretary said she was working from home. Since she wasn’t answering her cell for me either, I finally took it into my own hands. Two days was far too long to be separated from her. I had to make her understand that I had good intentions for her.

On the drive to her home, I picked up the same salad she ordered when we ate at the The Tavern and a bottle of her favorite wine. I parked and walked up to her front door. I heard voices on the side patio. I paused just short of walking around the corner and listened to Lissa talk to her best friend.

“I want to see him so bad, but I think it’s best if I just fade on out,” said Lissa. A head wrap covered her naturally coily hair and she wore no makeup. She had on an oversized t-shirt and slippers. Her creamy thighs glistened under the sunlight until she folded them underneath her.

“For him to look so well put together, he does have quite a bit of drama going on. The way you said that woman called and acted crazy reminded me of Rhonda. We both know what she’s capable of.” Shayla wasn’t cutting me any slack.

“See that’s why I didn’t want to fall for another man.”

“Girl, when Rhonda told me she was pregnant with Titus’ baby, I thought I would die. It felt like I got shot in the heart,” Shayla said.

“Listening to Montie and Justine talk right in front of me wasn’t too much short of that. Another woman always slides into what I thought was my slot.”

“Lissa, you have to know that I would never hurt you,” I turned the corner and my voice humbled as I laid eyes on her sad face.

“What are you doing here eavesdropping on our conversation?” Shayla shuffled from her seat to stand.

“Shayla, do you mind if I talk to Lissa for a minute?” I asked.

“Yes, I do!” she yelled. “You can’t just stroll up in here acting like you haven’t broken my friend’s heart. You—”

“Please, wait for me inside,” Lissa cut her off.

Shayla glared at me before she stormed inside the house slamming the door behind her.

“Your minute starts now. Talk,” Lissa said sternly.

I handed the bag with the salad over to her and placed the bottle of wine down in the center of the table. “You have to know I’ll never do to you what those other men did. I would never break your heart.”

“And I’m supposed to believe that just because you said it?”

“Lissa, I have more to tell you.”

“Spit it out. You’re down to thirty seconds now.”

“Can I sit down beside you?”

“Sure.” I sat beside her on the lounger. She whipped her head around and spit fire in my direction. “Fifteen seconds now, Montie. What is it that you couldn’t tell me while you were standing?”

“This.” I shifted on the chair so that I was leaning down in front of her and my lips forcibly crashed into hers. I kissed her, my tongue exploring every morsel until I had her taste memorized. After just one kiss, I realized I would never have enough of this woman. Ever. There was no way I could let her go. But I knew that. That’s why I was there to plead my case for her heart.

Her hands reached up to grab the sides of my face. I could sense her pulling away, but she was too weak to resist. Her feeble moans in protest had no bearing over he

r tongue that caressed mine harder, deeper and with increasing fervor. An intense urge to be nearer to her, one with her, all that a man should be with a woman, overtook me. My hands ran wild with that urge.

“I can’t do this…not out here…no with you.”

“Why not?” I murmured against her neck. “You’re mine. I can have you anywhere.”

She pushed my chest with all the energy in her petite body. “Get off me, Montie. You can’t come to my home claiming me when there’s a woman saying that she’s pregnant with your child. I won’t be made a spectacle of, not again. Nope. No, you’re going to have to leave. I’m asking you to stop calling or coming by here.”

“Lissa, you don’t mean anything you’re saying.”

“Please respect that this is just more than I can deal with, right now.”