Finally, she exhaled.
“Yes,” Brinton said, body humming with relief. “We should tell our families, friends. My mom will be happierthan me.” She laughed. “But maybe we still wait until after the article comes out to go public?”
“I’m gonna do everything in my power to protect you.” He frowned, then shook his head. The words seemed too excruciating for him to vocalize. “No matter what people say.”
Brinton squeezed his hand. Their new reality, outside this safe Iris bubble, was always lurking, waiting for its moment to leap from the shadows. She had to face it, even as the Grammys fallout had nearly destroyed her.
Jamie couldn’t protect her from that heartbreak. She didn’t need him to. Having him in her life was enough.
She exhaled, laughing to ease the discomfort. “I don’t know if you’re aware, but I’m a Black woman in a country that puts diminished value on my existence.”
His dejected expression throttled Brinton’s heart.
“But I’m stronger now,” she went on, lifting his chin and meeting his sparkling eyes. “I think you helped make me stronger. My whole life, I molded myself into somebody else because I hated the things that I couldn’t control. I didn’t want to see those parts of myself, but even the scary shit—it makes me who I am. So I want to do this for us, and myself.”
He smiled, pressing her so hard into his chest she was winded as she laughed. “Woman, you make me so damn happy.”
Brushing her braids off her shoulder, he kissed her neck, setting off little sparks behind her eyes. His fingers marched down her hip to the top of her boots. “These look good on you. Even though I kinda miss the combat boots. Made you look like you stepped out of a Wes Anderson movie, in a good way.”
“Mm, and what else do you miss?”
Their faces inches apart, he nipped at her bottom lip, prompting her sharp intake of breath. Jamie cradled herhead, anchoring her and slipping his tongue between her parted lips. On contact, she moaned into his mouth.
“That. The way you moaned for me in that alley.” His voice dropped an octave, making her stomach corkscrew. “Music to my fucking ears,” he said, still cradling her head.
This was another first for her: a man she was crazy about, admitting his true intentions and making space for her in his life. And wanting nothing but her heart in return.
That, and a few kinky extras she was more than willing to supply.
“You can have me,” she said, untying the halter straps around her neck.
Jamie’s eyes followed the pooled fabric at her sides, then swept over her bare chest. “Goddamn, woman…”
That’s all he got out before she pressed his hands onto her collarbone. She guided them down, down, down. Until he didn’t need her help.
“What about our plan?” he asked between spiraled, lazy licks on each nipple, her moans eclipsing his. “Waiting until the article was published to?—”
“I agreed to wait until it wasdone.” She gasped at each supple lash, then smiled triumphantly. “I submitted it yesterday. So?—”
Jamie guided her onto the soft quilt, one hand on her back, the other still shamelessly squeezing her breasts.
“Hell of a plan, huh?” He helped her drag the dress down her legs, then tossed it to the side. Jamie eyed her boots.
“Leave ’em on,” he grunted, prompting a delicious swell between her thighs.
“Fine,” she teased, “but if you scuff them?—”
“Best believe, I plan on it.”
One corner of his mouth quirked. She was so turned on, she decided to lick it. The sound he made would have brought her to her knees if she weren’t already lying down.
His eyes worshiped her body, as they always seemed to when he looked at her. “You’re a goddess, you know that?” Jamie rolled onto his side, next to her. “I can’t even believe you’re real.”
After denying herself for so long, she felt the same. Brinton’s hands sifted through his silken waves and tugged, earning each of his rumbling moans. “I need to make sure you’re not some weird AI. There’s some pretty good ones online.”
He smiled back. “Satisfied?”
“Well, I remember you promised to fuck me six ways to Sunday.”
