No Other Lover Will Do. Cheris Hodges
not leaving already, are you?” Solomon asked. She hadn’t noticed that he’d crept up behind her.
“If I wasn’t, I am now, Solomon,” Kandace said.
“Oh, so you do know who I am,” he said.
She shook her head. “Don’t flatter yourself. It just so happens that your mug was all over the television this afternoon. Once I found out who you were, it put your attitude into perspective.”
“And what perspective do you have now?”
“Obviously, you’re bored and you think I’m an airhead actress or model you can impress with your money.”
“Something tells me you got your own money. And besides, I’m not interested in your bank book.”
Kandace folded her arms across her chest. “And I’m not interested in you,” she said as she opened the door to the grotto. Solomon walked in behind her, keeping his eyes on her shapely figure. When Kandace stopped, he ran smack into her backside. Solomon snaked his hands down her sides and cupped her bottom. Kandace gasped as he pulled her against his thick erection. Then he teased her neck with his lips. “You know you want me,” he breathed, causing goose bumps to form on Kandace’s arms.
“Get your hands off me,” she said breathlessly, but she didn’t move. She couldn’t move because her feet had taken root and her body wanted his touch more than she was willing to admit. Solomon twirled Kandace around and forced her to face him. Though her face was contorted with anger, Solomon knew it was a mask. Masking her desire and passion. Anyone as angry as she was had to be passionate, and he was damned sure going to find out.
He brought his face level with hers. His lips were dangerously close to hers and he could feel her trembling. But instead of a kiss, Solomon got a swift knee to his midsection.
Doubling over in pain, he dropped to one knee. “The next time I tell you to take your hands off me, listen,” Kandace hissed. “That pretty boy look may work on Heather Williams, but I’m not her.”
Solomon looked up at her, his lips curled into a smile as he wrapped his hand around her leg. “Smooth as silk and feisty. I like you, and you can deny it all you want, but you wanted me to kiss you.”
Kandace tried to step back, but Solomon tightened his grip. “I’m still touching you,” he teased.
“Are you dense?” she asked.
“No,” he said as he released her leg. “I’m focused, and right now, I’m focused on you. Those legs are amazing.”
“Solomon,” she said, “I don’t want you.”
“But I want you, and nothing else is going to make me happier than having those legs wrapped around me.”
“Then prepare to be sad.”
He rose to his feet and stood inches away from her. “I don’t think so,” he replied. “You owe me, now.”
“I don’t owe you a damned thing.”
He folded his arms across his chest. “Really? You assaulted me and I could easily press charges.”
“Then do it.”
“I’d rather do this,” he said, then quickly pulled her against him and captured her lips with a passionate fury she couldn’t escape.
Kandace melted against him and allowed him to press his body into hers. His arousal was evident as he deepened the kiss and his hands roamed up and down her body. She shivered as his kiss headed down her neck and across her collarbone. Then as quickly as the kiss began, Solomon ended it. “Now, lie to me and tell me you didn’t like that.”
She didn’t answer him, couldn’t because her tongue was thick and her mouth felt like it had been packed in cotton. Kandace shook her head and walked toward the edge of the hot tub. Solomon followed her and held his hand out to her. “What do you say we get out of here and go back to my suite?”
She took his hand and turned sideways to the hot tub. “Why don’t you take a dip?” Kandace said, then pushed him into the hot tub. She sauntered out of the grotto, feeling as if she’d channeled her inner Serena. Still, she was bothered by how turned on she was by Solomon and his hot kisses.
He will not wear me down, she thought as she entered the lobby. Though in the back of her mind, she wondered what it would feel like to wrap her legs around him in the throes of passion.
Solomon kicked back in the hot tub and closed his eyes, Kandace’s image appearing in his mind. She had definitely piqued his interest and he wasn’t giving up on her. But he was going to have to change his game plan, he realized. Kandace didn’t seem as if she was easily impressed. That made him wonder, who was she? He knew she was single, and from the cost of her room, she obviously had her own wealth. Leaping out of the tub, he dried off and headed to his room. He was going to find out what her story was, then shift his seduction into high gear.
When Solomon returned to his room, he opened his laptop and typed her name into the Google search box. He was surprised to see that Kandace was a businesswoman in her own right. She was co-owner of a successful restaurant in Charlotte with three other women, including the sister-in-law of Carolina Panthers’ wide receiver Maurice Goings. Things were starting to click for him now. This woman was probably around men like him all the time and she didn’t want or need a thing from them. Impressing her with money and gifts wasn’t going to work. But he had something else she wanted, and that kiss in the grotto proved it.
CHAPTER 6
The next morning, Kandace awoke drenched in sweat. Her sleep had been plagued with heated dreams of Solomon Crawford’s naked body. In her dream, he’d kissed every inch of her body, taking her to the brink of passion and beyond. Even as she sat up in the bed, her body throbbed with the phantom aftershocks of their lovemaking. Shaking her head, she grabbed the phone and dialed the front desk.
“Yes, Ms. Davis,” the desk clerk said.
“I’d like to book my spa treatment,” Kandace said.
“May I place you on hold while I check what times are available?”
“Sure,” Kandace said as she kicked out of the blanket. While she waited for the clerk to return to the phone, her mind wandered back to Solomon. Why was she allowing him to get under her skin? He was just trying to make her another conquest and she was no one’s belt notch. He could be yours. Why not love him and then leave him alone? He’d never see it coming.
“Ms. Davis, we have two times open. There’s a nine A.M. spot and a noon spot.”
“I’ll take the noon appointment.”
“Great. Is there anything else I can assist you with?”
“Umm, could you transfer me to the restaurant? I’d like to make a breakfast order.”
“Yes, ma’am. Enjoy your day,” the clerk said before transferring the call.
After ordering breakfast, Kandace looked out the bay window to check the weather. She smiled as she saw the gentle snowfall, then realized that she hadn’t ventured out in to the snow since she arrived. Maybe before her spa appointment she would take a short walk in the snow. After all, she’d traveled to the mountains because she wanted to see snow and feel the coolness of it on her face like people in the Christmas movies. She stepped back from the window and sat on the sofa across from the fireplace. The snow could wait, she thought as she walked over to the fireplace and placed two logs inside, on top of the kindling already laid. As she struck a match to light the fire, there was a knock at the door.
“Wow,” she said as she walked to the door. “That was quick.”
Looking out the peephole, she saw a man standing there holding a large bouquet of roses. Placing the chain on the door, she opened it just a crack. “Yes?”
“Kandace Davis?” the man asked.