Brenda Jackson - Stern

And only then did it occur to him how good it had felt holding it.

* * *

“Thanks for the movie and coffee tonight, Stern.”

“Don’t mention it,” he said, following her inside her home. Whenever he took her out, he would come in with her and check things out.

After their little discussion in which he had explained why he was in such a bad mood, his attitude had vastly improved. Over coffee, he’d joked about Aiden and Adrian and their plans now that they had finished college. Aiden, who had gone into the medical field, was doing his residency at a hospital in Maine. Adrian, who’d gotten a master’s degree in engineering, would start working for Blue Ridge as a project engineer in a couple of months. Adrian had decided to travel abroad before returning to Denver to settle down and start work.

She and Stern also talked about all the excitement swirling around the Westmoreland households, with all the recent marriages and engagements. The one thing she noted was that Stern thought it was really funny that some of his cousins and brothers figured he would be next—even though he didn’t have a steady girlfriend.

“Everything checks out,” Stern said, coming out of her kitchen.

“Only because you scared away the bogeyman.” She chuckled and took off her cap, tossing it on a table before removing the band from her hair to let the waves flow around her shoulders. She wondered if the person who would do her hair for the weekend would suggest cutting it. She’d never gotten her hair cut, but if it meant getting Walter to notice her, then she would definitely consider it.

JoJo almost jumped at the feel of Stern’s hand in her hair. She hadn’t heard him cross the room.

“I love your hair,” he said softly, running his fingers through the strands.

His fingers felt good. “I know,” she said. He had always complimented her on her hair and she knew from their conversation at the lodge that he thought she shouldn’t hide it under a cap.

“Tell me you won’t cut it. Ever.”

“Umm, can’t do that. The hairstylist might suggest I cut it as part of the makeover.”

When she heard his teeth gnashing she glanced up at him. They were standing closer than she’d realized. “You’re supporting me with all this, right?” she asked, trying to sound in control of herself, of her emotions. Why did he have to smell so good?

He didn’t say anything as he continued to run his fingers through her hair. Why was heat beginning to flow through her? It’s not like he’d never played with her hair before. When they were younger he would pull her pigtails all the time, and then when she got older, her pigtails became ponytails and he would pull those, too. And more than a few times he’d helped her wash her hair when they’d vacationed at the lodge. But that was before she’d discovered she had feelings for him, before she’d begun lusting after him. Some of her dreams about him were totally X-rated.

She cleared her throat. “Well, if you still plan to go into the office early, you better go home and get a good night’s sleep. And I still have those inventory reports to go over before I can call it a night.”

“Yes, you’re right,” he said, pulling his fingers from her hair and checking his watch. “It’s getting late.”

“Yes, it is.” Was it her imagination or did his voice sound a little throatier than usual? He was still standing there, and he had reached back up to run his fingers through her hair again. Why was her body shifting closer to him? Why was her face tilting toward his?

More heat streaked up her spine and she was swathed in feelings she had never felt before.

And then Stern’s fingers tightened on several strands of her hair and he lowered his mouth to hers.

She leaned up to meet his lips, feeling weak in the knees as their lips touched. Sensing she was about to lose her balance, Stern wrapped his arms around her and deepened the kiss. At least she had the presence of mind to grip his shoulders. Voices echoed through her brain: this is wrong. This is Stern. He’s my best friend and we shouldn’t be engaging in this sort of thing. But she ignored the voices as sensations overtook her.

And then he did something that made her gasp in shock. He deepened the kiss even more, literally sucking her tongue into his mouth and devouring it. Never had she been kissed this way. To be honest, she’d never really been kissed at all. That sloppy, wet kiss Mitch Smith had planted on her lips right before Stern had clobbered him, when they’d been in the tenth grade, was nothing compared to this. In fact, it was crap compared to this.

This was the kind of kiss that romance novel authors wrote about—the kind that rendered you senseless and boneless at the same time. She couldn’t help wondering if this was a test. Stern knew about her inexperience when it came to men, yet she had boldly set her sights on a man. Was he kissing her merely to show her what to expect? To see how good—or awful—she was?

That wasn’t a bad idea, she thought. Then he could give her pointers so she wouldn’t mess things up with Walter. Yes, that had to be it. That had to be the reason he was kissing her like this. He was kissing her to give her suggestions afterward. In that case...

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