Wives and Champions (9 page)

“
Hey,” she said glancing at
him briefly and continued walking swiftly towards the bed. She
peeled back the covers, then got in.

Desmond blew a breath of frustration.
He’d seen a time when he would be sitting in the very chair he was
sitting in now and she would straddle him, run her hands across his
head and kiss him until they were both nearly out of breath. Now,
not so much. She just beelined it to the bed, disappeared beneath
the covers and that was the end of it.

He stood up, walked over to the bed
and joined her. Sliding next to her so their bodies touched, he
whispered against her neck, “Sherita, can you turn around and look
at me?”

“
Des, I just want to go to
sleep.”

“
No. Look at
me.”

Sherita sighed before she grudgingly
twisted her body so she was facing him. “Des, I’m not ready for
this.”

“
For what?”

“
To make love to you. I’m
not ready.”

“
I’m not asking you to make
love to me, Rita. I just want to kiss you,” he said, staring at her
lips.

“
No.”

“
Yes. I miss you, Sherita.
Let me kiss you.”

“
No,” Sherita said an
octave louder, her heart thumping in her chest at the sight of
Desmond’s determined, eyes locked in on her.

“
Why?”

“
Because we’ll end up
making love.”

“
No, we won’t. I promise.
I’m a man of my word. You know that about me, don’t you?” he asked,
still staring at her lips.

“
Yes.”

“
Then, let me.” Before she
could deny him again, he leaned down and captured her lips. Her
mouth.

Sherita’s mind went blank.
Well,
he
was
still on it – her spectacular husband who was just as good at
kissing as he was at everything else. Powerful emotions shot
through her with every pull of his lips on hers, sending warm
sensations all over her body.

“
Des,” she whimpered
softly, barely able to say his name with the way he owned and
clamped down on her lips, kissing her with purpose. She needed to
know just how much he missed her and he intended on effectively
using these few minutes of skilled kissing to show her
that.

Her chest moved in and out quickly as
Desmond deepened the kiss, no longer laying beside her, but
crawling on top of her so he could fully claim her lips, leave an
impression and while he wouldn’t make love to her, that wouldn’t
stop him from making love to her mouth. And he did so slowly.
Passionately. He stopped briefly to look at her, to make sure she
was okay with his aggression and then he lowered his head again
connecting their mouths once more, consuming her lips.

Taking it a step further, he softly
kissed around her mouth before pecking a path to her neck. Desire
washed through him. Lost in the moment, his right hand crept up the
front of her camisole and grazed her stomach. Her body trembled
beneath him.

“
Des, stop,” she said in a
panicky voice.

“
I just touched you,
sweetheart.”

“
I don’t want you to touch
me.”

“
Sherita—”

“
Please don’t,” she said
before tears rolled out of her eyes. “Just don’t.”

Desmond positioned himself on the bed
beside her, then pulled her into his arms. “I’m sorry,
baby.”

“
No, I’m sorry, Des,” she
whimpered. “I’m so sorry.”

“
It’s okay,
Rita.”

“
It’s not okay,” she said,
crying harder. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m so
sorry.”

Desmond held her tight and closed his
eyes, feeling pain in his heart. For a long time, he held her,
feeling her body tremble against his as she cried. When she had
calmed down a bit and was near sniffles, he said, “I think we need
to see someone. Together.”

“
Okay,” she said
faintly.

Okay?
Desmond frowned, surprised she agreed with him. Before, she
fought him every time he brought up the subject of seeking help.
Now, she was ready. At least, he hoped she was ready. To confirm,
he asked, “You agree with me?”

She nodded against his chest. “Yes. I
agree. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, Des.”

“
Whatever it is, we’ll
figure it out together. I just need to know that it’s really what
you want.”

“
It is. I don’t want to
lose you because I can’t get it together.”

“
Lose me?” He propped up on
an elbow so he could see her face. “You’re not going to lose me.
When we married, we married for life, baby. I ain’t going nowhere.
That, I can promise you.”

Sherita smiled with tears in her eyes.
It was comforting to know that Desmond was fully committed to her.
Still, she recognized it was time to make some changes. She
couldn’t go on like this anymore.

Chapter Seven

Melanie laid flat on the bed, staring
up at her Adonis. Sweat gathered on her forehead. Her face flushed
with warm shades of love. Her chest moved rapidly, up and down, in
and out over and over again while she panted for air. She watched
Dimitrius’ lips quirk up in the corner like he was satisfied with
his work. What a man.

“
You are something else
Dimitrius Champion.”

His bright smile widened. “What are
you talking about, woman?”

“
You had this all planned
out, huh?”

He lowered his head and took a kiss
from her lips. “I wouldn’t say, planned. I like being
spontaneous.”

“
I like that about you,”
she said, feeling the weight of his body come down on top of her
again. She wrapped her arms around him, her fingers gliding across
his sweat-covered back.

Dimitrius didn’t say a word in
response. He just stared down at the woman he made his
wife.

“
What?” she asked, curious
about the smirk on his face.

“
I can’t stare at my wife
if I want to?” he asked.

She smiled. “I feel like you’re
playing mind games with me.”

And then his smile faded…

She was his woman – the woman he chose
to be his wife. He was bold enough to walk right up to her and tell
her that she was going to be his wife, even before they had a
chance to get to know each other.

Their initial meeting had
been rocky. At the time, Melanie was interviewing for a position at
The Champion Corporation. While Dimitrius knew he wanted love, was
ready to settle down, even knew she was the woman he wanted to
settle down with, he wanted her to fit
his
timetable. He wasn’t ready for
her to work in such close proximity to him because he wasn’t ready
to commit. But all that changed when he realized he had avoided her
long enough. Besides, Melanie was a great catch. A great woman.
Smart, funny and beautiful. And even before they’d officially met,
they’d exchanged glances during a few seminars at the hotel in
which she used to work, or when he would so happen to catch a
glimpse of her at Dante’s house since she and Emily were friends.
Now she was his.

“
What is it, Dimitrius?”
she asked, staring up at him.

“
Nothing,” he told her, but
it was something. It bothered him that she didn’t seem to have a
problem conversing with her ex this morning. But then again,
Desmond had brought up a good point at the bar. What if he ran into
one of his exes? Would she have a problem with him if he was
cordial with them? What was the protocol when it came to dealing
with exes? Were you to cut them off completely?

Whatever the case, he didn’t like the
way Scott was looking at Melanie. He hated to bring up the subject
because he didn’t know how she would react to it. And what if
Melanie had lingering feelings for the man? What would he do if he
found out his wife was not completely over her ex? If she wasn’t,
then what? Was their marriage doomed? Maybe he was thinking about
it too much.

Melanie lifted her head from the bed,
placed her hands on both sides of his face and left a soft kiss on
his lips. “Dimitrius?”

“
Yes,
sweetheart?”

“
I love you.”

A smile came to his lips.

“
I love you, too,
Melanie.”

“
Good. Now, get off of me
so I can take a shower?”

“
No.”

Melanie giggled.
“Dimitrius…”

“
Okay, okay,” Dimitrius
said taking a quick kiss from her lips, “But only on one
condition.”

Melanie smiled wide. “And what might
that be, Mr. Champion?”

“
That…I…join you…in the
shower,” he said between kisses.

“
Please do.”

Dimitrius rolled off of her, stood to
his feet and standing next to the bed, he stretched his arms out,
assisting her to her feet.

“
Thank you,” she said,
heading to the bathroom.

“
You’re welcome,” he said,
following her, his eyes sweeping over her body.

“
And stop staring at my
butt,” Melanie quipped.

He grinned. “That’s
my
butt now. How many
times do I have to tell you that?”

Melanie grinned. “Just like a
Champion…always think you own something that’s not
yours.”

His eyes narrowed as he stood behind
her while she turned on the shower. “Not mine?” he asked, palming
her flesh with his large hands. “Let’s hear you say something
illogical like that when you’re pinned against those tiles.” He
spun her around, kissed her lips again while scooping her up into
his arms.

Chapter Eight

Dante leaned back in his leather desk
chair, Monday morning, finding it difficult to concentrate on work.
Yesterday at home proved uneventful, partially due to the fact that
he’d taken Ezra with him on a few errands. Emily stayed in the
kitchen most of the morning, curled up with her laptop and coffee,
working on inventory for the boutique. He doubted if she knew he’d
even left the house.

And since when did she start working
on Sundays? She usually made it a point not to work at home. She
was already complaining about not spending enough time with Ezra,
but that didn’t stop her from spending hours on her laptop, did it?
At least it hadn’t yesterday.

When he heard his cell phone ring,
Dante sat straight up and picked it up from his desk. “What’s up,
Des?”

“
Hey, I won’t be in today.
Thought I’d let you know.”

Dante glanced at his watch. A few
minutes before nine…

“
Is everything cool?” he
asked his brother.

“
Yes,” Desmond replied.
“Have to take care of some things with Sherita today. I’ll probably
log in at home later to check emails.”

“
Okay. Well, in your
absence, I’m sure Kurt can handle anything that comes
up.”

“
Yep. Already talked to
him. Told him to call me if he had any issues.”

“
All right, Des. See you
later, then.”

“
Yep. Later.”

Dante hung up the phone, watching
Dimitrius walk into his office at the same time.

Dimitrius rolled his wrist to check
his watch. “It’s nine. Where’s Desmond?”

“
He just called. He’s not
coming in today.”

“
Oh. Is everything okay
with him?” Dimitrius asked, sitting down.

“
He sounded okay. Said he
needed to take care of some errands or something.”

“
All right, so do we need
to have this meeting or what?” Dimitrius asked with a cranky edge
to his voice.

If a person didn’t know Dimitrius,
they’d think he was being rude. Dante knew this was his brother’s
normal temperament. Marriage had evened him out a little, but
Dimitrius hadn’t lost his astute business sense nor the stern,
let’s-get-down-to-business approach that made him who he was. He
was more relaxed at the bar Saturday night.

“
Do you have anything to
discuss from an accounts perspective?”

“
Ah…” Dimitrius thought for
a moment, then said, “I’m working on a few account updates with the
I.T. department this week. Nothing to discuss concerning that, but
there is one thing we’ve been putting off for a while.”

“
Which is?”

“
Grieving Hearts Connect.
With the rollout of eRoll in Vegas, we sort of forgot about our
previous discussions which centered around the possibility of
opening up GHC to your everyday vacationer–removing the exclusivity
for the grief-stricken.”

“
Actually, I didn’t forget
about it.” Dante leaned back in his chair, crossed his legs with
his ankle resting on his knee. “I was hoping you all forgot about
it.”

“
Why’s that?”

“
I don’t think it’s a good
idea.”

“
Reason being?”

“
That wasn’t its original
purpose. GHC is an outlet to help people heal, not a party
destination for a bunch of rowdy, fun-seeking vacationers. That’s
not why I opened that facility.”