Alicia relaxed against Brad beneath the covers as his fingers played with the skin above her navel. She couldn’t believe that she’d finally made love to Brad and it had turned out to be the best night of her life. She was so glad that she hadn’t given into Max any of that time he had tried to get her into bed just for sex.
Brad was on a totally different level than Max. Brad was loving, giving and understanding. He knew how to rise above any situation to see it with objectivity. It showed her there wasn’t a selfish bone in his handsome body. He was the kind of man that wanted to help a person to empower himself and transform into a better person.
“Sweetheart, what are you thinking about? You’re so quiet. Are you regretting what happened between us tonight? Was I too rough with you?”
She heard the concern in Brad’s deep voice and it touched her. It was just like him to be worried about her well-being instead of his.
“No, I was thinking about how perfect tonight turned out to be,” she answered honestly. “I never thought I could be with a man so completely.”
Turning her body on the bed, Alicia faced Brad running the tips of her fingers over his lips. She smiled when he nibbled at him. “I want to thank you for not giving up on me all of those times I pushed you away because I didn’t know any better.”
Brad grabbed her wandering hand and laid it against his chest and heart. Alicia felt the steady beat and its movements relaxed her. “I wasn’t about to give up on you or let you go because I welcomed the challenge of a good mystery.”
Alicia smiled at Brad’s description of her. “So, you considered me a mystery?” Alicia asked, grinning at the man she was in love with.
“Yes, the best kind.”
“What kind is that, Mr. Drace?”
“The kind of mystery a reader isn’t able to guess the ending after reading only the first five chapters. You kept me working to know about you,” Brad said. “I like that quality about you.”
“I’m glad that you did,” Alicia replied and then yawned. She couldn’t believe how tired she was.
Rolling over on his back, Brad pressed her head against his chest. “Why don’t you go to sleep? I can tell you’re struggling to stay awake.”
“No, I want to talk to you some more. There are some things I want to tell you.” Alicia didn’t want to go to sleep without telling Brad that she was in love with him.
“Darling, whatever it is can wait until you wake up. Now do as I ask and go to sleep. Nothing is going to change while you’re asleep for a few hours.”
Alicia opened her mouth to argue and then she shut up. Brad was right, she was tired and her love for him wasn’t going to change if she took a quick nap.
“Okay, I’ll go to sleep,” she said, snuggling closer. “You better still be here when I wake up.”
“I wouldn’t think about being anywhere else,” Brad answered, kissing her on the forehead before her eyes drifted closed.
Brad’s eyes wandered over the woman sleeping so peacefully next to him in the king size bed. He didn’t want to move around too much and wake Alicia up. She had to be the most beautiful woman that he had ever encountered in his life.
Her thick black hair stopped a few inches above her shoulders now and he liked her new haircut. It added a hint of sexiness to her, something that he found very tempting
It fit in perfectly with her cute nose and black eyebrows that were arched over a pair of brown eyes that could seduce him into doing anything when she looked at him.
When he was growing up he never thought about the woman that he would fall in love with, but he knew Alicia was his soul mate. The woman he would raise beautiful and healthy babies with. He didn’t care that Alicia was African American. All he cared about was that he could never love another woman but her and hopefully after tonight she felt the same way about him.
Unlike his brothers who dated a huge amount of women before they fell in love and settled down, he was very careful to only get intimate with a few ‘well-chosen’ women. He wasn’t a virgin and hadn’t been one since he was a junior in high school, but he had no need to have endless women clinging to him for attention.
For years, he had to get past what the women truly wanted from him? Was it the notoriety that his name and money brought? What could they give him besides an attractive arm piece and maybe a quick hot night in their bed?
Most of them never passed his test of wanting to spend time alone instead of going out to a fancy restaurant every night. He wasn’t that kind of guy. Sure, he didn’t mind spending time alone with his female companion, but he wanted more than that.
Alicia, despite all of her protests, showed him that she could be trusted, thoughtful about his feelings when she wasn’t running scared and could give him space even when he didn’t want it half the time.
Truthfully, he never had a chance to even think about falling in love with another woman after the strong sexual vibe between him and Alicia. She’d captured his attention and held it in the palm of her tiny hand ever since.
The emotional connection created a powerful intriguing stimulation that made him realize how he had found something very rare and special in Alicia. She made him so hungry to find out what made her tick. Alicia gave him the unique impression that something about her personality could enrich his life ultimately making it better and he was right.
Alicia was giving him enough courage to tell Lee that he was quitting the firm to open up his own tennis school. He loved tennis. It was a part of him like breathing. He might even call it a passion and he wanted to pass his love on to other people and children. He knew his brothers might be stunned and try to talk him out of it, but they wouldn’t. His mind was made up and he was very pleased with his decision.
Brad saw and heard how Alicia loved talking about the complexity of her job and he wanted to have the same completeness when it came to his job. He doubted that Alicia even knew he saw or paid attention to these things when it came to her but he was intrigued by everything that was Alicia.
Complexity was another quality which had drawn him to the sleeping woman next to him. She seldom told him that things were fine. She had a fire in her eyes that came out at all the right times. He would be turned off by Alicia if he couldn’t thrive in a good old-fashion argument with her.
No matter what, passion was a huge part of Alicia’s personality. She let him in on what she aspired to be, but without coming off as needy for it. It was almost like she was allowing him to recite her dream with her.
Smiling down at Alicia, he touched the beauty mole on her cheek with his thumb. Love tugged at his heart because he was always going to remember this tender moment that he shared with her.
It would be something special that he kept with him even after the both of them had been married for years. Alicia was his one true love and nothing was going to stop him from spending the rest of his life with her.