The Billionaire's Desire (A Billionaire BWWM Steamy Romance) Read Online Free PDF Page B

    Sanniyah

 
 
 
    My
dreams are filled with the sound of the ocean in my ears, the memory of
Carter's fingertips on my skin as indelible as ink. I really don't want to wake
up and have that memory fade away.

 
    We just
walked, nothing more, but that walk was more intimate than if I had torn off
his clothes and kissed every inch of his body.

 
    And
while every cell in my body yearned for him to kiss me, he did nothing more
than squeeze my hand when we said goodbye.   The pressure of his hand on mine still
heated my skin the morning after.

 
    It is
torturing me that I didn't kiss him. I lift my phone to stare at his number.
Then, feeling like a complete idiot, I press my lips to the cold screen.

 
    Since when did I revert into a teenager
around guys? It didn’t matter. Carter was no ordinary man…

 
    It will
have to suffice. For now. Because right now I really have to return to reality
and get to work. I wasn’t here to play matchmaker for myself. I was here to
plan a wedding.

 
    My home
office is the same as it always is, but for some reason, today it
feels...lonely. I blaze through my emails like I am trying to set land speed
records. I am keyed up, rushing for some reason.

 
    You know the reason.

 
    Carter's
phone number is in my phone. Taunting me. Like the   cookies in the pantry that I am
deliberately avoiding, that phone number calls to me all damn morning. My gaze
keeps dropping down to my Iphone. I want to pick it up, text him. "No, Sanniyah
Rose," I told myself out loud. "Stop it."

 
    The
morning goes by in fits and starts. It's Saturday and I have a wedding
scheduled for this evening, but until then I have plenty of time to get my
emails and pitches done.

 
    Instead,
I fritter away my time looking at pictures of Carter on the internet .

 
    Pathetic.

 
    I need a
distraction and luckily one lives right next door to my apartment.

 
    Tricia has
been my best friend since I was a nervous and traumatized fourteen-year-old girl.
The first day my mother and I moved into Otis' house, Tricia hailed me from her
driveway. "Oh, you're the new kid? Thank god you seem normal," she
had shouted.

 
    I
certainly didn't feel normal back then. Moving to the big house on the corner
from the tiny studio apartment my mother and I had shared was making me feel as
conspicuous as if I had a horn growing out of my forehead. My mother had just
married Otis, down at the courthouse, and all of our possessions were crammed
into plastic bags, in the back seat of his car. Everything I knew had just been
turned upside down, but Tricia said I looked normal.

 
    I never
forgot that.

 
    We went
through school together, the Asian and the black girl a united front. And when
we both moved to the city after college, we made a pact to live in the same
neighborhood again. The universe had done us one better and let us be next door
neighbors once more

 
    I love
having her so close. Especially this morning when I need to talk and only face
to face will do.

 
    I knock
on her door, inhaling the scent of cooking smells that emanate from within her
apartment.

 
    Her
gorgeous wife Rita answers the door, spatula in hand. "Hey Yahya, you eat lunch
yet?"

 
    I
smile. Rita likes to feed me and I don't ever object. "Even if I had, that
smells too delicious to pass up."

 
    "Come
on in," she steps aside. "Babe? It's Yahya."

 
    Tricia
pads out of the bedroom, still in her pajamas. "You've embraced the
weekend completely, I see," I laugh, hugging her.

 
    "Nah,
I'm not even drunk yet!" she protests, then sniffs her armpit. "Do I
stink?"

 
    I lean
in and adopt a critical expression. "You smell like sloth and decay."

 
    Tricia
nods. "Good." She plops down on the couch. "Sit down, you're
making me nervous. How's your mom holding up?"

 
    I
freeze, mid-sit. Guilt washes over me in waves. It has been a week, no wait,
more than a week now. Aside from a few hasty texts, I haven't been to the house
on