Yearning for Love by Toye Lawson Brown Page A

lane.  She was an introvert, and lived as a hermit by choice, but admiring a gorgeous man from a distance proved she was pure woman regardless of her social flaws.  She had urges and that was where her friend with benefits came to play.  Lately her urges were occurring more often as she thought of Walker.
    His magnificent body came into view as she daydreamed.  If she were a shameless woman, she would have touched him. As it was, her fingers ached to trace the muscles on his chest.  To tug the waistband of his jockeys and see what laid there.  However he was sleeping and she didn’t want to wake him.  And if she had awakened him, he’d for sure, have the wrong idea why.  If she wasn’t willing to deliver on her desires, she had to let sleeping dogs lie.  She did the admirable thing and left him asleep in the hotel room and joined the other bridesmaids for breakfast.
    She blew a sensual breath between her lips as she thought about their date after the wedding.  She wasn't upset it took place at the hotel bar.  The booth they shared provided the intimacy and ambiance any dark room filled with lit candles could.
    Nicole closed her eyes tightly. If she concentrated, she could feel Walker’s soft lips pressing against hers, the scent of his cologne faintly entered her nose.  Her hand smoothed across her chest to cover her heart.  The palpitations increased as she responded to effects of the first kiss they shared.
    The feel of Walker's hair touching her forehead, when they kissed set the nerves on the back of her neck into a frenzied fit.  She was experiencing those fuzzy feeling she’d read about in romance novels.  Never did she believe the statements women gave about knees buckling or the heart racing from a single kiss.  However she was wrong.  Her knees did buckle and her heart did race when he kissed her.
    The breeze seeping through the cracks of the worn window shook her awake.  She took a stack of manuals from the shelf behind her and put them in a box.  She had to keep busy to stop thinking about Walker.  Her body was aroused and with no friend with benefits in the picture, she had to get the thought of sex off her mind.
    She sighed taping the box together and looking up at the clock—the hands were moving slower than molasses emptying from a bottle.  Although she would not be moving to the new building with state-of-the art computer lab, she had to help pack the tiny space she and six other co-workers shared.  Packing and taping two more boxes, she stopped and sat in a chair.  I’m not packing another box—let those using the facilities pack their own boxes.  What are they gonna do fire me for insubordination?
    Nicole opened the bottom desk drawer where she kept her belongings and began placing those items in a box.  She didn’t keep many personal items at work other than shoes, books, and sweaters. The pictures hanging in her station were mostly of co-workers at staff parties and the one company picnic she attended.  She sat under a shady tree with a cold cup of lemonade watching her co-workers play softball.
    Quitting time had arrived as she finished packing her personal stuff and cleaning her desk of excessive office supplies.  Taking her coat from behind the door, she turned on the answering machine to direct callers to the emergency line and left.
    Getting off the elevator, she waved to the security guard behind the desk. “Good night, Jeffery,” she said, buttoning her coat.
    “Have a good night, Nicole,” he answered back.
    The sky had turned dark and the wind brisk, as she exited the back door of the office building to go to the garage where she parked.  Not many people were downtown at eight o’clock on a Monday evening, which meant she would stick out like a sore thumb to a person wanting to make trouble.  Looping the long straps of her purse and laptop case across her neck and shoulder, she took off down the street walking at a fast pace.
    *****
    Walker drove around