Pretty Packages (6 page)

Giada was ready for him. She was more than ready.

She was newly showered and wearing one of her skimpiest black teddies. The living room was romantically lit with scented candles. Soft jazz music played in the background. Her sofa bed had been pulled out and groomed with red satin sheets. Her recent test results were on the end table in the corner for his review.

As for her dog, Giada put Mercedes to bed upstairs. She pulled the door closed so that the canine wouldn’t wander out at the wrong time and be a distraction to them downstairs.

Giada thought about taking
Kentucky
up to her bedroom. Yet, when she reminded herself that only boyfriends were allowed up there, she prepared the living room instead. Boy toys were restricted to the first floor.

In contrast, Giada noted that
Kentucky
had barely prepared for their night at all. Yes, he’d showered and even shaved, but the clothes he wore were so . . . unromantic. Instead of the all-black attire that he had on before and usually wore to work, he now had on a gray T-shirt, a pair of sweatpants, and black sneakers.

Most men went out of their way to dress up for Giada, but not
Kentucky
. He didn’t even have on any socks with his sneakers. It was as if he’d gone to bed, then suddenly remembered his word to her and threw something on right quick to come across the street.

I’m no afterthought!
Giada raged inwardly, determined to put something on
Kentucky
tonight that would make him never forget her again.

After they shared test results and briefly discussed her birth control device, they proceeded to share a long kiss.

Giada’s mind emptied as she became swept away in that fantastic kiss. She was entranced by the hardness of
Kentucky
’s muscular frame. Was every part of this man granite?

Oooh . . . I can’t wait to see him naked.
Giada might have to turn every light on in the room. The candlelight they’d used to read the results may not be enough for her hungry eyes.

“You ready for me, baby?”
Kentucky
asked after reluctantly breaking the kiss.

“Been ready,” Giada panted out, already trembling with need.

“Let’s go see.”
Kentucky
lifted her effortlessly into his strong arms and carried her over to the sofa bed.

“You’re so strong,” Giada noted, feeling like she was on a honeymoon or something as he carried her. “But I guess you have to be for your job, huh?” She planted kisses upon his thick neck. She ran her tongue along the path of one of the throbbing veins there.

Kentucky
moaned. “Baby, I’ve been strong since I was thirteen. My father was a big man. It’s in the genes.”

“I guess you are attracted to petite black women like he was, too,” she said, referring to how small his stepmother was.

Though Giada was an inch shorter than the five-foot-four woman, neither she nor Hannah were over a hundred and thirty pounds. However,
Kentucky
’s mother was slender all over. Giada was short and curvy like the actress Salma Hayek. Her lower curves could get almost as wide as Jennifer Lopez’s if she didn’t watch her weight.

“Although I like women from all ethnicities like my father, I’ve actually taken to dating plus-sized women over the last few years,”
Kentucky
confessed, gently laying her down on the sofa bed. “I got tired of small ladies either being too scared of me in the bedroom or else unable to handle me.”

“You don’t scare me.”
Anymore
, Giada added to herself, remembering that kitchen incident.

Kentucky
chuckled. “I guess not. If I did, you certainly wouldn’t be blackmailing me to sleep with you tonight.” He kicked off his shoes and removed his shirt as he spoke, revealing a tanned chest packed with muscles.

“I’m not
blackmailing
you!” Giada felt two kinds of heat envelop her. There was the fire of anger at his words. There was also the fire of desire at the sight of his muscular chest. Really, could the man be any finer?

Kentucky
chuckled again, causing his face to actually look handsome in this light. “All right, so you’re not blackmailing me. But you are guilting me into sleeping with you. By now you know that I don’t like owing anybody anything. And we both know that I owe you big-time for what you did for my family tonight.”

Giada sat upright, no longer in the mood for sex. “As of this moment, you don’t owe me anything. Consider the slate washed clean. Close the door on your way out.” Then she turned her back to him, lest she be tempted to change her mind since he’d been just about to take off his sweatpants. Giada knew she couldn’t have taken that sight. Seeing
Kentucky
so aroused through those pants had been enough temptation as it was.

Kentucky
’s tone grew serious. “What’s the matter, Giada? You can’t take a little truth?”

“Just leave,
Kentucky
!” she snapped, calling him by his given name now.

“I’ll go, Giada, but you better make sure that’s what you really want. Because once I walk out that door, you won’t be able to use this little trick on me again.”

Giada didn’t answer him. Instead she folded her arms defiantly across her chest.

* * * *

At her defiant stance,
Kentucky
shrugged and bent down to retrieve his shirt. Coming over here tonight had been a bad idea anyway.

And to think,
Kentucky
had counted down the hours to seeing Giada again. He’d waited somewhat impatiently for his stepmother to go to sleep just so that he could sneak over to keep his word. He hadn’t wanted to give Hannah, or even himself, the wrong idea about him and Giada.

Like Giada,
Kentucky
knew this was a onetime thing. He wasn’t about to allow himself to think otherwise. Now even that was over.

As
Kentucky
redressed, Giada continued to silently sulk. Instead of sitting on the sofa bed, she got up and went around the room blowing out candles and turning lights on.

Kentucky
smirked at her ire. It amused him. It kind of turned him on, too. Now he was starting to have second thoughts about leaving. Why did this woman affect him so deeply? Jumble him up so terribly inside?

“See you around,”
Kentucky
said, speaking the first thing on his mind as he made his way to the door.

“Not if I see you first,” Giada snapped.

Don’t say anything. Just keep walking to the door,
Kentucky
told himself.

“Matter of fact, I wish I had never set eyes on your ugly mug,” Giada continued, twisting the knife in deeper.

Kentucky
had been called ugly many times over the years by many people and had grown a thick skin about his looks. But when Giada said it, it cut deep. It cut real deep.

Before he knew it,
Kentucky
had made a beeline for her. His strides were long and swift. He could feel the scowl lines settling into his face.

With a look of terror, Giada backed up against the wall when she saw the large man coming toward her. She looked too scared to even scream.

“I may be ugly, but I most definitely know how to make beautiful love to a woman,”
Kentucky
said, towering above her. “In fact, if tonight had gone down, I would’ve had you screaming my name so loud that the neighbors would have awakened and called the police back out here. I would’ve spoiled you for all those punk pretty boys you seem to like so much. After one night with me, all your body would have wanted for years is me, me, and more me.”

Giada didn’t look fearful now. Now she looked inundated with passion. She even moaned.

Kentucky
’s hard gaze grew even more intense as he watched her chest rapidly move up and down with rising desire. He knew she wanted him. He could smell her heat. His body instantly became rigid again knowing that he was the cause of such potent desire.

Needing to remind Giada of what just one kiss from him could do,
Kentucky
lowered his mouth to hers.

Once again,
Kentucky
put his all into their kiss. Unlike Giada, he wasn’t trying to impress anyone with his expertise. This was simply the way he functioned in his life—all or nothing. There was no half-stepping with him.

With a greedy moan, Giada immediately welcomed his tongue into her mouth. She sucked hard. Her hungry hands flew to his chest, found their way underneath his shirt, and touched that smooth, tanned skin of his.

Kentucky
moaned at her touch, broke the kiss, and lowered the straps to her teddy. He bent to taste her breasts. Moving from one taut peak to the other, he feasted. His little nibbles at the end caused her to shudder violently. When he dipped a hand into Giada’s cavern, he noted that her underground river of desire had already started to flow downward.

Groaning with need at her readiness,
Kentucky
withdrew, and scooped her up in his arms again. In no time they were on the sofa bed. After laying her down, he took that time to kick out of his shoes and remove all of his clothes this time. Things were about to get very serious between them.

* * * *

While
Kentucky
undressed, Giada used that time to just look at him in full light. Her breath caught. Her body started to tremble as she gazed upon him in all of his glory.

The.

Man.

Was.

Super-fine!

A Mr. Universe if she ever saw one.

Eyes dripping with lust, body sizzling with hot desire, Giada practically ripped the teddy from her body. Who cared that it cost her two hundred dollars? She’d get another man to buy her a new one since she deemed
Kentucky
too poor to afford such things.

Flinging the thin material aside, Giada tugged
Kentucky
down to the sofa bed. He willingly went, but would not place the whole of his weight upon her no matter how much she tried to pull him closer.

“I need you closer, Kenny,” Giada said in frustration, tugging to no avail yet again.

“I’m too heavy for you, baby,”
Kentucky
told her. Then he rectified the situation by rolling sideways and pulling her on top of him.

Giada instantly lowered her lips to his. She kissed him deep. She kissed him long. She kissed him as if he was about to take a long trip and she didn’t know when or if she’d ever see him again.

* * * *

Feeling more wanted than he ever had in his life,
Kentucky
returned each and every flicker Giada gave him. He sucked her tongue. He tasted every crevice of her sweet mouth.

Kentucky
allowed his hands to roam her frame. He enjoyed the silkiness of her mocha skin and the lushness of her curves. He loved the way Giada’s supple bottom fit perfectly in his large palms as he gently squeezed her lower cheeks. If only his hands were a little bigger, he’d be able to cover the whole circumference.