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  He chuckled. “No, Amelie and I did this all on our own.”

  “There’s a small bedroom on this floor,” Amelie said, “but the master bedroom, master bath and studio space are upstairs. Come see.”

  “I’ll wait here,” Nigel said. “I have this thing about seeing Reggie in bedrooms.”

  Regina blushed as the group broke out laughing.

  “Here,” Nigel said, “I’ll hold Kyle.”

  Jason handed the little one over.

  Amelie led the group upstairs. There was a four-poster in the master suite, with a dresser and nightstand. There were two walk-in closets and a huge bath. The studio space had its own small bathroom, as well.

  Regina led them back down and took a seat next to Nigel on the sofa.

  “When did you start all this? How did you get it done so quickly?”

  “I started looking into it the day you came to my office thinking that I was the one who’d purchased the place.”

  “And our paperwork went to the bank the day after I ditched you two for our meeting.”

  “Are you going to move back in here?” Ellison asked.

  “I don’t know. I feel like I just moved. Would it be better to rent it out and put that down as business income? It would be far more than I’m paying.”

  “It would be your income,” Amelie said. “Right?” she asked Nigel.

  “Yes, downstairs is equally owned by both of you. Up here we drew up as yours, like a condo. And where you live doesn’t matter as long as the business gets off its feet. It’s up to you, but yes, while you’re still working to establish yourself, it’s better to have the income from this place.”

  “We have to go over all the papers so I’ll know what we’re doing,” Regina said. She turned toward Amelie. “There’s so much to talk about.”

  “We can do that,” Nigel said.

  “I’m in,” Amelie said.

  “Is it too early for dinner?” Ellison asked.

  The group cracked up.

  This time, the laughter woke up Kyle, who was lying next to Nigel on the sofa. Nigel picked him up and set him into a sitting position.

  “We’ll let you decide,” Nigel said to Kyle. “You hungry?”

  The little one thought about it then shook his head yes.

  “How about I fill them in another day and we just go to eat?”

  “Word,” Ellison said.

  At the car, Amelie and Regina stopped to do a happy dance and ended up bouncing up and down and yelling.

  “That’s all the repayment I need,” Nigel said to Jason.

  Chapter 20

  Nigel spooned a second helping of pasta onto their plates while Regina poured more water into their goblets.

  “When are you going to come home with me and see my parents again?” Nigel asked. “They haven’t seen you in years.”

  Regina smiled. “That would be nice. I still have friends there.”

  “So you’ll come?” He smiled at her, thinking about holding her on the long ride home.

  “Sure. The weekend flea market at Eastern Market ends soon. But the studio opens again in a couple of weeks, and our classes start again not long after that.” She was excited about the reopening and about her teaching. “We already have people enrolled in classes for Thursday and Saturday, and we haven’t even opened yet. Your advice on advertising has really paid off. Thank you.”

  “You never have to thank me, Reggie.” He pulled her hand to him and kissed it. “Maybe we should go home after you guys get going. Maybe for Thanksgiving.”

  “My parents will die if I’m not there for Thanksgiving. You coming?”

  “Am I invited?”

  She smiled at him. “Yes, but you’ll have to stay in the den.”

  “I can live with that. Okay, a compromise. Take off an extra day for Columbus Day, and we go home to South Carolina. Then we go to New Jersey for Thanksgiving.”

  “Okay. What about Christmas?” she asked.

  “Why don’t we do Christmas here together, just the two of us?”

  She thought of them wrapped in each other’s arms in front of his fireplace with glasses of cider.

  “That sounds nice. My parents won’t be happy, but hopefully we’ll be doing a lot of business, and I’ll need to stay anyway. I’m doing a series of mosaic crosses for Christmas. They’re easy to do, and they sell well. I’m also making one for my aunt. I can go up for New Year’s.”

  “If we keep it up,” he said, “we’ll have parceled out every holiday through Easter before dinner is over.”

  They chuckled.

  Regina finished first and folded her napkin. She got up and rounded Nigel’s chair and bent over to wrap her arms around his neck. She hummed.

  “Finish up.”

  Nigel cut his pork chop, added a forkful of pasta and brought it to his mouth.

  As he took the bite, Regina pressed her lips to his neck, and as he savored the mouthful, she rubbed her hands along his chest, undoing his buttons as she went along.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Nothing. Go ahead and eat.”

  By the time Nigel took another mouthful, Regina had his shirt partway down his back. She moved her lips from his neck down to the back of one of his shoulder blades and bit down gently. She ran her tongue over the surface, and then she moved a piece of ice she’d been sucking on between her lips and drew it along the surface.

  Nigel’s chest heaved outward, and his shoulders flexed backward.

  “Finish your dinner, honey,” she prodded.

  Nigel eyed her over his shoulder and found a mischievous grin on her face. She wanted to play, and he loved when she wanted to play.

  As he brought another forkful of pasta to his mouth, Regina pressed her warm tongue to the back of his neck. As he swallowed, she pressed the ice to the spot, feeling his torso straighten.

  As he cut another slice of his pork chop, she picked the ice out of her mouth and brought her lips to his ear. She licked the inside of the lobe as she brought the ice to one of his nipples. His chest clenched inward, and he swallowed hard.

  “Do you like that?”

  “Yes.”

  “I want proof.”

  She ran her hand along the crease in his pants, and when she found what she was looking for, his thighs flexed, and he sucked in a breath.

  “You’re not eating.”

  “I think I’m finished.”

  “Aw.” Regina straightened up. “I don’t want to stop you from finishing your dinner.”

  As she stepped away, Nigel scooted back his chair and pulled her onto his lap, making her laugh.

  “I’m finished. Look.” She found his plate nearly empty. “And you don’t get away that easily.”

  His first touch tickled her and set Regina to laughing again. But when his mouth found her neck and his hand found her breast, Regina murmured. He toyed with her body until she twisted on his lap.

  “Do you like that?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “I want proof.”

  Nigel slipped his hand under her dress and moved them up her thighs. Regina laughed again, making Nigel laugh. She got up briefly and repositioned herself over his legs, straddling him as she covered his lips with her own.

  “Let me feel you,” she said, scooting closer to his chest.

  He gripped her buttocks and pulled her onto his body. She tilted her hips to meet him and settled along his body. She pulled the straps of her dress from over her shoulders, put her arms around his neck and rubbed her breasts across his chest.

  The heat that ran through her body made her murmur against his ear. She licked the lobe of his ear and felt his body tense.

  He drew his fingers over her bra,
kneading her nipples into peaks. At the same time, he took over her mouth. Regina’s body started pulsing, and she rocked along his thighs.

  Feeling her oscillate over his manhood drove Nigel to distraction, and he groaned, glaring at her for wreaking such havoc on him. He wanted to make her feel that way also.

  “I still want proof,” he said, slipping his hand between them and running his fingers over her slick panties.

  “You’re so wet.”

  Regina tensed, self-conscious, and started to pull back.

  “No, don’t go. I love you wet.”

  He pressed his thumb over her womanhood and began to knead her, and Regina moaned, gripping onto his shoulders.

  When Nigel stood, Regina linked her legs around his waist and held on to his neck. He let them down in the middle of his bed, running his body up and down along hers so that she could feel how ready he was to be inside of her. He felt her tilt toward him and pull down on his hips, wanting to feel more. He continued until she moaned and cried out, clinging to him.

  When he lifted himself away from her, she grumbled and held on to him.

  “Don’t stop.”

  “I’ll be right back. I want to be inside of you, baby.”

  He rifled in his drawer for a condom, removed his clothes and came back to relieve her of the dress that was knotted about her waist and the panties beneath them, as well as her bra and sandals.

  She grasped his sheathed member and drew him to her.

  “I want you, Nigel.”

  His body leapt in her hand, and he climbed onto the bed, positioning himself above her. Regina surprised him. She pushed him down instead, and straddled his thighs.

  “Is this okay?” she asked once she had him pinned.

  He could tell that she was unsure in this position. They had never done this before. “Yes. I love seeing you this way. You look beautiful.”

  Regina moved her hips, drawing herself over his rigid member and making them both moan. She reached the end and moved back the other way, teasing them both.

  Nigel groaned and thrust his hips upward.

  “If you keep doing that...”

  She moved up along him again.

  “If I keep doing this?”

  The naughty glint had returned to her eyes.

  “Yes, that.”

  She reached the end and moved back the other way, making him arch his back off the bed and thrust upward.

  “Then what?”

  He couldn’t think to reply to her question. But he gripped her hips and pulled her toward him. She murmured as she slid along his body. This time when she reached the end, he lifted her slightly and moved his leaping manhood just inside of her.

  She cried out as the pleasure of him pierced her and made her throb. She couldn’t help rotating her hips to tease herself on his body.

  This time, his upward thrust brought him deeper inside her body. She held his shoulders and pressed back, driving him home.

  They began to move together.

  Nigel bit off a groan and then gritted his teeth, needing to keep control. The sight of Regina’s naked beauty, the feel of her honeyed warmth, the vision of her trembling breasts, the scent of her perfumed body, the sound of her muted cries of pleasure, the movement of her body as she rode along his—it all filled him with an aching for release.

  Nigel reached up and spread his palm across both of her breasts, feeling both of her nipples with his fingers. Regina moaned and bucked on top of him, feeling heat spread through her breast to her center. Her throbbing became heavy and filled her entire body with unleashed longing.

  She bent downward, tilting her hips so that her womanhood grazed along his rippled abdomen and her breasts along his chest, and the pleasure made her cry out.

  “Nigel,” she called, agonized by the need building inside of her.

  “Yes, Reggie,” he said, and captured her lips.

  They moved as one, her body grating over his chest, his lower stomach, his manhood. The sensations singed her. She pulled her mouth away.

  “Nigel, Nigel.”

  “Yes, Reggie, yes.”

  Their foreheads pressed together, he drove inside her faster and harder, responding to her call, heady with the urgency he heard in her voice.

  “Nigel,” she cried, “please, please.”

  “Reggie.”

  Nigel groaned. Her desire held him at the precipice, but he wanted to fulfill her need.

  “Take it, Reggie. Take your pleasure from me.”

  Regina cried out as her muscles contracted around Nigel’s thrusting member. She moaned as wave after wave of pleasure ripped through her body, blinding her to anything but the feeling of rhapsody.

  Nigel felt her clench, felt her contract about him like fingers in massage. His body buckled, sending him into her in uncontrollable pulses as he felt his own release.

  They wrapped their arms around each other as she collapsed on him. Nigel lowered her to his side, unsheathed himself and returned to Regina’s arms.

  “Everything you do drives me crazy,” he said. “If I’m not careful, I’ll end up in the loony bin.”

  He chuckled, and she elbowed him playfully.

  Then Nigel got serious.

  “Reggie, has it been okay being with me, us being in love? Do you still look at me and think about...what happened before?”

  She reached out and touched his cheek, looking into his face.

  “No. I love being with you. I don’t think about what happened before.”

  He leaned over and kissed her mouth.

  “I’m so glad. I have another question. Have you forgiven me?”

  “What? Where is this coming from?”

  “Have you forgiven me—for being a kid and for leaving when I should have stayed and for not being there when you lost the baby and for...everything?”

  Regina sighed and thought about it so that she could answer truthfully. “Yes. Yes, I have.” She hesitated, and then she added, “I need to know something, too.”

  “Anything.”

  She took a breath and looked up at the ceiling.

  “Have you forgiven me for losing our child?” Tears spilled down her face.

  “What?”

  “I felt so ashamed that I couldn’t— I wanted to tell you before, to find out before, but I couldn’t. We weren’t...close enough then.”

  “Oh, Reggie.” Nigel turned to her, wrapping his arms around her. “There’s nothing to forgive. It wasn’t your fault. It happens.”

  He kissed her temples and her eyes.

  “I know. I know. I guess I just had to get that off my chest. I’ve been holding it in for so long. I just felt...so ashamed.”

  “There was nothing for you to feel ashamed about. You did everything you were supposed to do.”

  “I know. I just couldn’t help it. I couldn’t help thinking it was me.” Regina exhaled and shook her head to clear her mind. “I’m okay.”

  Nigel got up, pulling something from inside the dresser and coming to her side of the bed, where he knelt. Regina leaned up on her elbow to meet him.

  “There was a reason I needed to know the answer to those questions.”

  “What is it?”

  “I love you with all of my heart. I’m only happy in life when I’m with you.” He opened the box he’d taken from the dresser. It was his grandmother’s wedding ring. “Marry me because you love me, and never think of paying me back again.”

  Regina sat up, bringing the covers with her. Her hand flew to her chest, and tears streamed down her face.

  She took the ring from the box. It was an antique with a large diamond in the middle of a circular crest and smaller diamonds all around it. She looked at Nigel and then slipped it onto her ring
finger.

  She turned to face Nigel again.

  “Yes. I will.”

  She wiped at the tears.

  “But we’re going to pay you back anyway—Amelie and me.”

  Nigel laughed, which made Regina laugh, too.

  “I knew you would say that.”

  “Good,” she said.

  “I’m so happy, Reggie. I love you.”

  “I love you, too, Nigel.”

  They reached for each other at the same time, the fire reigniting between them. It had always been that way for them. She opened her arms for him, and he climbed into bed and into her embrace, their bodies coming together.

  “Reggie,” he said, breaking their kiss.

  “Yes.”

  “I know that your business is just getting started, and this might not be the best time, but when can we try for another baby, or do you still want children?”

  In response, she captured his mouth with her lips, reached between them to grip him and guided him inside of her.

  Nigel moaned as the wet warmth of her body surrounded his unsheathed manhood, making it spring and swell inside of her.

  “Reggie, Reggie,” he said, while he still had the presence of mind.

  “Yes, Nigel.”

  “Are you sure? Are you sure you want this now?”

  The answer came from her body, which clamped around him and twisted, bringing him home.

  Nigel winced in exquisite anguish as Regina’s heat flooded his body. He covered her mouth again, giving himself to the electricity between them.

  Then Regina stopped, shaking her head to wake herself and slowing down to pull him from his reverie.

  “You, what about you? Do you want this now?” she asked.

  Nigel pressed his grinning face against Regina’s cheek, pulled one of her nipples taut and gyrated inside of her until her hips rocked upward to ride her along his tumid crest.

  “Yes, I do. Yes, I’m sure.”

  He drew himself out, stopping at the point he knew she liked, and made short thrusts against her until she moaned and careened her hips. But she paused again.

  “You know,” she said, “we’re doing it backwards again—baby, marriage.”