BWWM Interracial Romance 5: Love After Halftime Read Online Free PDF Page B

you had to drink at Time Out?” she teased, laughing nervously because, well… he was making her nervous. Talking about things they’d never talked about before, looking at her the way he’d never—
    The doorbell rang and she jumped. Joe ran to pay the delivery boy. Marlene poured herself more wine, shaking her head at her thumping heart and flushed skin.
    He returned, sliding the pizza next to her. Despite the heady aroma that slipped from the large, cardboard box, Marlene had suddenly lost her appetite. For food, that is.
    He reached next to her to top off his glass, then lingered, his hip on the counter as he faced her.
    “Do you ever have regrets?” he asked, his voice gentle.
    She turned to face him, slowly inching back slightly so as not to be tempted. “About what?”
    “Anything,” he said before fixing her eyes with his. “You? Me?”
    “Are you asking if…” Her voice trailed off. “I’ve ever thought…”
    He nodded, as if reading her mind. Setting his wineglass down, he gently slid his hand atop hers on the kitchen counter. “I have,” he said, white skin upon her black hand. “I do all the time.”
    “Joe,” she said, wanting to pull her hand away but unable to. “What… where is this all coming from?”
    “It’s nothing new,” he said, and she realized he’d inched closer. “I just, never got to tell you how I felt about you before.”
    “That’s a joke,” she laughed, joylessly, hating the breathy, needy tone in her voice but unable to control it. “We’ve known each other for almost a decade.”
    He nodded, brown eyes liquid and longing. “And if you’ll recall, I met Tina right after you, so…”
    “Hold on there,” she said, placing a hand against his chest. “You’re telling me you’ve had... feelings… for me all this time?”
    He nodded, licking his lips as she shook her head. “And you went ahead and dated, got married, then divorced before telling me?”
    “It’s not like that,” he explained. “I didn’t… you never showed any interest, never got jealous about Tina, never seemed to think of me that way before, so…”
    “Who says I feel that way now, Joe?” she chuckled, more breathless than ever.
    He smirked. “Your hand on my chest,” he said, tugging her closer. “Your warm, wet lips so close to mine, the fact that you’re not running away screaming…”
    “Stop, Joe,” she said, trying to push him away.
    He inched even closer, a hand on either side of her generous hips now.
    “This is… crazy.”
    “Why?” he asked. “What’s so crazy about us, doing… this…?”
    He kissed her then, soft and slow, warm gentle lips grazing across hers until they could both hear the lustful moan that escaped her lungs, betraying her as she sank into him, desperate for more.
    “Because,” she panted even as she bit his lower lip, tasted his sweet skin and pinned him against the counter at his back. “It’s… just… crazy…”
    He chuckled, pushing her gently away and glancing up and down her curvy body. “You’re sure using little words for an English Professor,” he murmured, tugging at the top button of her favorite black sweater.
    “No one’s ever made me speechless before,” she panted as her blouse fell away, drifting to the kitchen floor.
    “Oh?” he murmured, leaning forward to smother her with another kiss as he helped her wriggled out of her skirt. “I was hoping for some very literate dirty talk.”
    “I think tonight,” she purred, her inhibitions drifting away like her blouse and skirt, “I’ll rely a little more on body language than usual.”
    His breath caught in his throat and she enjoyed having that power over him. For years she had thought her feelings for Joe – a slow, tender yearning she wouldn’t even admit to herself – had gone unnoticed, even unrequited. To discover that he’d harbored the same fantasies all these years ignited a fire in Marlene she was suddenly desperate to put out, by any means