Make You Mine by Niobia Bryant Page B

Julius, Mr. Sexy Cologne, and shirts with just enough muscle exposed and that bowlegged walk—can you stop all that?” she asked.
    â€œMy walk?” he spouted.
    Caress leaned her shapely hip against the sink as she looked up at him with more boldness than she felt on the inside. “You walk like you holding, and if memory serves me right…you are,” she admitted.
    Julius frowned deeply. “I can’t help how I walk.”
    â€œAnd I can’t help that our baby has given me… these ,” she waved her hand rather dramatically across her breasts. “But I catch you looking.”
    Julius bit back a grin. “They’re pretty hard to miss.”
    Caress laughed too, putting her hands on her small, round belly as she did.
    And there was that comfortable air around them again. The kind of comfort a man found with his woman and a woman found only with her man. It was a zone Caress was afraid to find comfort in and she felt Julius wanted no part of. “I’ll be out of here soon,” she reminded him. “Me and all this sexiness.”
    She was joking but when she looked up at Julius his eyes had darkened. That awareness between them returned like the snap of a finger.
    â€œFuck it,” he muttered low in his throat, before he took one step forward, squatted down, and lightly grasped the sides of her face with a deep, guttural moan that was telling.
    Caress sighed in the heated moments just before Julius pressed his mouth down upon hers. Their lips fit like puzzle pieces as they shared one long and passionate kiss. And then a dozen rushed and heated pecks. And then an erotic and sizzling twirl of their tongues in that minute space between their damp and open mouths. And then that frantic and deep kiss like they were trying to draw life from each other.
    Julius broke the kiss long enough to pant deeply as he kept his face pressed to hers. “I wanted to do that all while I was in Africa,” he admitted. “I dreamt about that little move you do with your—”
    â€œJulius! We have to fight it,” Caress reminded him, even as she brought her hands up to massage the back of his head.
    Julius nodded. “Too many complications.”
    â€œToo many expectations,” Caress added before she turned Julius’s head toward her to briefly taste his delicious mouth again. Just once more .
    â€œCaress, I don’t know how much more I can fight—”
    â€œNo, no, no, no, no,” Caress insisted, whirling away from Julius and quickly moving over by the island. “I will admit it, Julius Jones. I have not forgotten that night either. It was good. It was real good. Addictive. Delicious.”
    Julius ran his hand over his mouth before he whirled and walked over to the fridge to pull out one of her Snapples. He tossed his head back and drank the entire bottle nonstop. Her eyes shifted down to his throat and just the movement of his Adam’s apple put Caress on edge.
    â€œBut…I am not a one-night freakum or booty call kinda chick, Julius,” she said in a rushed voice like she was trying to convince herself why her pregnant behind shouldn’t strip naked and hike her heels to the ceiling. “I’m a girlfriend, committed girl kinda chick. You’re not looking for that…but I am. And sex would mess me up, so no matter how many wet dreams, no matter that you turn me the hell on, no matter that…that…night was the best…sex…I ever had…no more na-na for you, Julius Jones.”
    He nodded as he laughed low in his throat. “And no more for you, Caress Coleman.”
    They fell silent again for a little while and a haunting jazz song took prominence. They moved back to their positions at the sink and quietly finished up the dishes. As Caress put the dried dishes back inside the cabinets, Julius used the dishcloth to wipe down the countertops and the island.
    â€œCaress.”
    She closed the