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“I have an image to uphold and modeling in little to nothing isn’t exactly the visual I want to leave for the women in that room.”
“Angelique was going to wear a masquerade mask anyway that covered half her face. Even if some of the ladies know it’s you, they won’t say anything. Plus, half of them are tipsy anyway.”
Of course, Winter knew all about the mask since she was the one who’d decided on the look for Angelique. But that wasn’t the point.
“Danni, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Do you have a better one?” When Winter remained silent, Danni continued. “Okay, then. Let’s get out of this closet and get you ready. The other models are preparing in the bathrooms and spare room on this level, but Kaya said we could use the bedroom upstairs if we need more room.”
Reluctantly, Winter let Danni drag her down the hall. She passed a few ladies who spoke about what a great time they were having so far. The minute they walked into the bedroom in the corner of the second level, Winter knew it was Taheim’s.
“Is there another room we can use?”
Danni squinted her eyes in confusion. “Don’t be silly—this is fine. I have to make sure the ladies are ready since you’ll now be in the show instead of running the show.” She ushered Winter into the room before turning quickly on her heels. “I’ll grab your lingerie outfit and I’ll be right back so you can change. Don’t worry—you’ll be great.”
She didn’t have a chance to respond before Danni was out the door, leaving her alone in the last place she wanted to be. Large black-and-gray contemporary furniture filled the confines of the spacious bedroom, which was equipped with a water wall and sunken living space.
Of course Mr. Too-Arrogant-for-His-Own-Good has a bedroom to die for. She wouldn’t put it past him to have a walk-in closet bigger than her bedroom either. The closet she’d been hiding in earlier was already half the size of her bedroom. As if her feet had a mind of their own, they carried her in the direction of the closet, which began to slide open the minute she stepped in front of it.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” she said aloud as her hand grazed over the first row of clothing hanging on the lower pole. Just as she’d predicted, his closet was bigger than her entire bedroom. Whenever she thought about Taheim Reed, all that came to mind was complete and utter frustration. The man was a walking nuisance and even though she seemed to be the only woman in Chicago not falling for the playboy, it didn’t ease her irritation.
The first time she’d heard about Taheim, she’d been attending an annual networking event thrown by Elite Events Incorporated. While she’d met the Elite Event ladies through her cousins Micah and Malik Madden, that day she’d really bonded with them and had been surprised when they mentioned that they had a friend she would be perfect for.
Winter would rather have had a full-body wax than go on a blind date, but with a little coaxing, she’d agreed to the setup. Fortunately, since she’d been busy getting her company off the ground and Taheim had been promoting his clothing line, they hadn’t immediately gotten a chance to go on that date. She’d thought she’d dodged a bullet until her new friends suggested they go out before the first practice for the Elite Events Charity Date Auction, which both she and Taheim were a part of. If she’d known then what she knew now, she would have told them there was no way in hell she was going on a date with Taheim Reed.
Winter left the walk-in closet—which conveniently closed right after she’d exited—and ran her hand across a couple cologne bottles sitting on the top of his dresser. She then moved her hands over his watches. She tilted her head to the side and admired the black watch box, which seemed big enough to hold more than fifty watches. When her eyes landed on the watch he’d been wearing when they’d gone out, her stomach stirred with awareness and something she refused to acknowledge. She thought back to the moment he’d entered the restaurant wearing a business suit, clearly having just come from a meeting. Even though he had been almost an hour late and she’d been ready to leave, she had called her sister Autumn, who’d convinced her to stay.
She’d been caught off guard by his good looks. She’d seen pictures of him, but those photos hadn’t done the milk-chocolate Adonis justice.
“Here’s the outfit,” Danni said, causing Winter to jump, as if Danni could see the direction her naughty mind was going. “If you head down in about fifteen to twenty minutes, that should be fine.”
“Okay,” Winter mumbled as Danni closed the door behind her. She glanced at the black lace material lying on the bed and the stylish black-and-white masquerade mask that would complete her overall look. She hadn’t really modeled since she was in college, but desperate times called for desperate measures. There was no doubt in her mind that the group of women downstairs were ready to purchase one-of-a-kind Bare Sophistication pieces.
* * *
“I can’t believe I forgot the spare key,” Taheim Reed whispered to himself as he tiptoed through the door of his condo and quickly made his way to the flight of stairs leading to the second floor.
When his sister, Kaya, had asked if she could use his condo for her best friend’s bachelorette party, Taheim had immediately agreed. Kaya was his heart and there was nothing that he—or his older brother, Ajay—wouldn’t do for her, even if that meant having a bunch of tipsy women in his place. So he’d packed an overnight bag and headed to his friend Jaleen’s condo so that Kaya could have the freedom to do as she pleased. But forgetting the spare key to his friend’s place wasn’t part of the plan. Especially since Jaleen was out of town. Now he was sneaking into his own home, attempting to go unseen by his sister or any of the other women in attendance.
When he hit the top of the stairs, he briefly looked over the banister to see if his eyes were playing tricks on him. What the hell is going on? he thought as he observed several women strutting around his place in lingerie. He expected to see half-naked women at a bachelor party, but a bachelorette party? It didn’t make sense. When he caught a glimpse of Kaya talking to another attractive woman in lace lingerie, he figured it was best if he got the key and exited as quickly as possible.
As he made his way down the hall, he thought about the fact he had never asked Kaya what type of bachelorette party she was throwing. He trusted his sister to be responsible and the last thing he wanted was to hear the details of the type of night she was preparing. Seeing as his condo had turned into a scene right out of a late-night adult reality show, he probably should have asked a few more questions.
He opened the double doors of his bedroom and immediately stopped in his tracks. Standing in the middle of his sunken living room, slowly pulling up a pair of thigh-high stockings, was the sexiest woman he’d ever laid eyes on.
Her back was completely bare with the exception of a pearl thong delicately placed between two plump cheeks he was dying to get his hands on. Her long hair was delicately draped to one side in soft brown curls. The black heels adorning her feet were the type meant to stay on in the bedroom...the kind that appeared in every man’s fantasy. Similar to the type of fantasy Taheim was witnessing right now.
He didn’t know who this seductress was in his room and damned if he even cared. Obviously, like the other women downstairs, she was participating in whatever was going on for the bachelorette party. But unlike the other women he’d seen, this one made every fiber in his body come to life. What man wouldn’t be standing on high alert upon finding an attractive woman half-naked in his bedroom? But that wasn’t all that had him salivating over her as if he were a starved man who’d just been told he could have anything on the menu. It was the crazy notion that this woman was in his bedroom for him and him only, his for the taking.
Taheim could definitely have his share of women, but looking at the tempting beauty oblivious to his arrival made him feel as if it had been months since he’d had sex instead of weeks.
She lifted her right leg and slightly bent her back as she tied the black ribbon at the top of her thigh-high stockings. When she lightly adjusted the pearls at the top of the thong, Taheim sucked in a breath, unable to hold back his lust any longer.
He let out a slow whistle as he took a gradual perusal of her body from her thighs and up her back, lingering at the delicate slope of her neck.
At the sound of his voice, she began to slowly turn her head over her left shoulder to the door where he was standing. His heart began beating faster as he waited for her to completely turn around to face where he stood. When she finally did, she gasped in surprise. He was sure her gasp was nothing in comparison to the groan that had escaped his lips.
The black-and-white mask covering half of her face only enticed him more. Who was this woman? And how did he get so lucky as to find her in his bedroom? He was so busy taking in his fill of her that he almost didn’t realize that she was removing her mask. He waited in anticipation as inch by inch she revealed herself. Once the mask was completely removed, it took every ounce of energy he had to try to maintain a neutral face.
Of course it’s her. It had to be the world’s idea of playing a cruel joke on him. Was she the worst date he’d ever had? Hell yeah. Was she still extremely beautiful? Absolutely. Did she still elicit feelings inside him that he wished would just go away? Of course she did. Was she the last person he wanted to see in his bedroom? Not really.
How, out of all the women in the world, was she the one standing in his bedroom wearing barely anything? Then she bit her lip, obvious desire in her gaze...and he lost his train of thought completely.
Chapter 2
Cover yourself, Winter thought to herself. She wanted to grab the blanket draped over the sofa so that Taheim would stop looking at her as though he wanted to cross the room and drag her to the bed. Even worse, she was sure she would willingly let him drag her anywhere.
She’d seen him at a couple events in Chicago since their blind date and had learned a bit more about him. But they had both managed to avoid each other most of the time, and when they didn’t, they’d just ended up arguing about unrelated things. Even when they’d caught each other’s gazes on occasion, it hadn’t been anything like the sexual chemistry currently floating through the room.
“Kaya said I could come in here to change,” she said nervously. She didn’t even know why she was so nervous. One thing Winter didn’t do was get nervous around men. Especially men she couldn’t stand.
“No problem.” She waited for him to say more, but his eyes trailed down to her body, reminding her that he had an unobstructed view of the most risqué part of the lingerie.
She quickly moved her hands to cover the front part of her thong and was rewarded by Taheim sucking in his breath in admiration.
“You look beautiful,” he said as he brought his gaze back to her face. She blinked several times, caught off guard by his sincerity.
“Thanks.”
“I just forgot something.” He walked over to his dresser and pulled out what looked like a key. When he turned back to her, he didn’t say anything.
She didn’t know what was more awkward: the fact that he couldn’t seem to find his voice after seeing her in little to no clothing, or the fact that she usually had a lot to say, but she, too, couldn’t find the right words at the moment.
She was so caught up in her own thoughts that she didn’t realize he was walking toward her until he was only a few inches away.
What is he up to? And why wasn’t she backing away from him instead of moving closer?
When he reached her, he studied her eyes before his gaze dropped to her lips. She didn’t want to mess up her lipstick, but she couldn’t help but lick them. The groan that escaped his mouth made her bring her eyes toward his lips, as well. In her spare time, Winter often liked to paint, and the shape of his lips was the perfect subject.
Focus, Winter! Don’t forget he was the worst blind date of your life. It wasn’t that she’d forgotten that tidbit of info, but more like she was just choosing to ignore it.
“May I?” he asked, the deep timbre of his voice causing her nipples to harden instantly.
“Sure,” she said, surprised that her voice was so breathless. Wait, what did I just agree to?
He must have sensed that she didn’t know, because he smiled knowingly before kneeling to the floor.
Her eyes widened at the sight of him on his knees precisely adjacent to the part of her that was aching for his touch. Dang! The last touch she should be craving was his! A man who assumed that all he had to do was voice a few words and she’d turn to putty in his hand.
When his hands grazed her thighs, she shivered. She wasn’t sure what he was doing and she was even more worried about the fact that deep down, she didn’t care what he was doing.
She looked down at him and watched him study her left thigh-high. Strong fingers picked up the black ribbon on the thigh high, and slower than she liked, he tied a bow to match the one she’d made at the top of her right thigh.
When he stood back up, their eyes collided once again. The rise and fall of their chests moved in unison and the sexual tension caused her to shuffle from one heel to the other. The intensity in his stare was almost too much to handle.
“Winter, everyone’s downstairs waiting for you to...”
They both turned toward the door as Danni entered and stopped midsentence.
“You’re up,” she finished as she looked from Winter to Taheim.
“I better go,” he said as he turned and walked out the door.
“Um, any reason why you and the guy you claim to hate were in here looking as if you wanted to rip each other’s clothes off?”
“Beats me.” Winter shrugged. “I’m ready. Let’s do this.”
Danni was grinning like a kid on Christmas, which annoyed Winter even more. If she’d thought she didn’t like Taheim before, she really couldn’t stand him now.
* * *
There wasn’t much that Winter Dupree couldn’t handle, but she was certain that watching a roomful of women drool over Taheim Reed was a torture unlike anything she’d ever experienced.
“Did you hear the rumor that he has another clothing line in the works?” said a perky brunette to a couple women who had conveniently chosen to stand right in front of her and gawk at Taheim from afar. “I swear that man gets sexier by the day.”
“Look at the way he moves across a room,” said another woman. “I’ve heard the way he is in the bedroom is enough to keep a woman pining for more.”
Taheim chose that exact moment to turn, giving them a nice view of his backside covered in a black sweater and dark jeans. “Oh man, I’d love to test-drive that,” said the third woman.
Ugh, forget torture. Listening to them was enough to make her want to pop her eardrums. It wasn’t that she particularly disagreed with them. Taheim was definitely sexy. Even she’d admit that. But unfortunately, his looks didn’t mask the fact that he was still a jerk. A jerk that she had been fantasizing about ever since he’d walked in on her in his bedroom last week, wearing nothing but a babydoll and thong.
When Winter had accompanied her sister Autumn to a business convention in Chicago three years ago, they’d been convinced that the city was the perfect place to open their lingerie boutique, Bare Sophistication. Since their youngest sister, Summer, had a huge opportunity to work for a top New York fashion public relations firm, Winter and Autumn had agreed to take the reins and make the move to open their store. Living in New Jersey had been great, but she was glad she had a life in Chicago. Now, three years later, Winter didn’t have any regrets except for one...going on a date with Taheim Reed.
Although she hadn’t had any family in Chicago when she first moved, she hadn’t been surprised when her cousins Micah and Malik Madden moved to the city from their respective towns. Micah had been a police officer in Arkansas before he joined forces with Shawn Miles to open M&M Security in Chicago. Malik, a private investigator with offices in Detroit and Chicago, had also decided to move from Detroit and make Chicago his permanent home. Why had both of her male cousins decided to move to Chi-Town? Well, as much as Winter and Autumn would have loved to believe a part of it had to do with them, Micah and Malik had both proved their moves had more to do with the Chicago natives they’d fallen in love with.
Which brought her to the reason she was attending this party despite the fact that it was being held at a lounge owned by Taheim’s brother. She glanced over at the happy couples, who were beaming with joy. Her cousins had both fallen in love with cofounders of Elite Events Incorporated, a very respected event-planning company headquartered in Chicago. Winter admired the success of the founders, Imani Rayne-Barker, Cydney Rayne-Miles, and Winter’s cousin-in-law, Lexus Turner-Madden, and soon-to-be cousin-in-law, Mya Winters.
“I don’t really understand the point of having engagement parties.” Winter turned at the sound of her sister Autumn’s voice.
Leave it to her sister to try to rationalize an event that people had been celebrating for decades. “You know, we should be happy that Micah married Lex and that Malik and Mya will be married soon. Especially since we and our other male cousins are nowhere close to getting married.” Malik and Micah had four other brothers, all of whom were single. “And you should also prepare yourself for baby showers that I’m sure are right around the corner.”
“Another pointless celebration,” Autumn chimed in. “I’m happy for them. I just don’t understand why we need manmade holidays, or in this case multiple celebrations, to celebrate a marriage. And baby showers are superficial. I curse the person who took such a sacred act as bringing a baby into the world and labeled the gathering a baby shower.”
Winter gave her sister a blank stare. “Your brain never ceases to amaze me.”
“What?” Autumn said with a shrug. “I thought you’d be happy that I came over to discuss my views on pointless celebrations rather than the fact that you obviously can’t take your eyes off Taheim.”
Her tone of voice was normal, but clearly, mentioning his name had gotten the attention of the women in front of them, who walked off after shooting them looks of irritation.
“See, and now you can thank me for running off those drooling women.”
“Do you think before you speak?” Winter asked as she unscrewed her water bottle to take a much-needed sip. She refused to believe her sister was right, but deep down, she knew it was true. Looks-wise, Taheim Reed was everything she wanted in a man. His creamy milk-chocolate complexion, intense almost-black eyes and strong scored jawline had been the star of more than a few fantasies. Even worse, she’d even used him as inspiration when crafting a new lingerie line that she was working on for Bare Sophistication. Like her, he was also an entrepreneur, which she assumed was the only reason their mutual friends had thought they would be a good fit together.
She watched him walk over to his business partners for R&W Advertising, Jaleen Walker and Imani’s husband, Daman Barker. That was another thing Winter hated that she liked about him. Whether it be women or men, people were just drawn to him. He was such a people person and his charismatic ways worked on everyone...except her. If they weren’t arguing about the color of the sky, as if that even warranted an argument, they were pretending that the other person didn’t exist. Her eyes roamed over his muscular arms encased in fabric before moving to the collared shirt peeking out from underneath his sweater. She appreciated his style and the fact that he always dressed to impress. Being that they were both designers, she understood making a fashion statement in clothing from your own line, but she’d bet that his athletic frame would look good in anything. Even better if he were wearing nothing at all.
Suddenly, her body tensed with awareness, causing her eyes to rush to his face. As she’d figured, his gaze was pinned to her, and for a brief second, she forgot that she hated the guy. That he was the worst blind date ever and the only guy she’d ever met who’d caused her to lose her temper in public. At the sound of her sister mumbling, she broke eye contact and turned to Autumn.
“Two forty-six, 247, 248, 249.”
“Is there a reason you’re counting?” Winter asked.
“Two fifty. As a matter of fact, there is a reason I was counting.”
She waited for Autumn to continue and quickly realized that she wasn’t going to explain further. She really wasn’t surprised. Autumn spoke only when she felt it necessary or when she wanted to rattle off about a statistic or her point of view on certain topics. Her sister was the walking dictionary definition of brains and beauty. Winter could appreciate her uniqueness.
“And what reason were you counting, Autumn?”
“I was counting the number of seconds it took you to not so discreetly gape at Taheim. At thirty seconds your eyes showed interest. At 105 seconds you began to admire things about the way he looked tonight that I assume you hadn’t allowed yourself to notice before. At 195 seconds your heart rate increased when you noticed he was staring at you just as intently. At 250 seconds you finally noticed I was counting.”
She opened her mouth to say something about Autumn’s observation but closed it when no words came out. She scrunched her eyes together instead before crossing her arms over her chest. A chill went down her spine when she thought about the fact that her sister’s stats also meant that she and Taheim had spent almost a full minute just staring at each other.
“Don’t give me that look,” Autumn said. “Especially since you really aren’t that upset at me, since your first coherent thought was obviously the fact that you and Taheim could spend that much time staring at each other. Pretty odd for enemies, don’t you think?”
Winter finally let out a frustrated breath. “You don’t know what I’m thinking.” In response to Winter’s statement, Autumn smiled. Truth be told, Winter and Autumn had been reading each other’s minds since they were kids. When Summer felt left out, Winter had to remind her that she and Autumn were Irish twins since they were born eleven months apart.
“Whatever,” she said with a wave of her hand. “He’s easy on the eyes, so I just got a little distracted.”
“Since your breathing still seems to be labored, I believe you meant to say that you got sexually aroused at the sight of him. Not distracted.”
Winter uncrossed her hands and placed them on her hips. “For once, can you try not to state the obvious?”
“I didn’t know I was stating the obvious,” Autumn said in a serious tone. “I mean, I could tell you were sexually aroused and I wouldn’t put it past a few others to notice the same chemistry whenever you both are in the same room. But I stated my observation because I didn’t think it was obvious to you.”
Winter dropped her hands to her sides and let out a deep sigh. She really didn’t like the fact that Autumn was right yet again. She’d had no idea people could sense the sexual tension between her and Taheim.
“I’m stepping outside to get some air,” she said as she pointed to the rooftop terrace. Maybe the cool late-October air would help lower her body temperature.
Chapter 3
“Taheim, did you hear what I said?”
Taheim tore his gaze away from the five-foot-seven cappuccino beauty with the luscious hips and round hazelnut-colored eyes in time to catch the intuitive glances of his friends Daman and Jaleen.
“Come again?” Taheim asked Daman. His friend shook his head.
“Never mind. It wasn’t that important and I wouldn’t want to stop you from watching Winter walk across the room.”