Half Way to Love Read Online Free Page B

part to yourself,” Kim told her. “Just pull back a little. It can’t hurt anything. I see you losing your heart, and I don’t want to see you hurt. Don’t get me wrong. I want you to find love, and I can only go on what you tell me about Alex, but that little bit tells me this is just sex to him. He’s getting a little wild, got a black lover, living up the difference, and all that, but…”
    “But it’s fulfilling a fantasy.”
    Kim hugged her. “For both of you. You’ve never been with a white man either.”
    “I know you don’t have a problem with it.” Shannon put her hand on her hip and faced her sister.
    Kim pursed her lips. “You know better than that.”
    Shannon heard her cell buzzing in her purse. She hurried over to where she’d left it and discovered it was Alex texting. Her heartbeat kicked up several notches, and it was all she could do not to let on how excited she was to hear from him. He’d called himself a workaholic, but she hadn’t seen evidence of it yet. Alex had come to pick her up every night no later than seven, and they’d even had a few midday quickies. A man consumed by his work didn’t do that.
    She turned to her sister. “I hear what you’re saying, and I agree with you. Alex probably isn’t going to fall for me. I accept that, but I’m not ready to give him up. A little while longer, and I’ll walk away—hopefully still in possession of my heart.” She walked over and kissed Kim’s cheek. “Don’t worry. I’m a big girl.”
    Shannon rushed out of her sister’s shop and headed down the street while texting Alex. On instinct more than paying attention, she stopped at the corner to wait for the light to change. A grin spread over her face at his words.
    “Been thinking of you naked all afternoon. Pick you up tonight?”
    “Yes,” she texted back . “I’ve been thinking about you too.”
    She worried over whether her response sounded more like love than lust. Alex’s mind was clearly on the physical and nothing more.
    “Then I will satisfy your craving tonight.”
    “If I let you,” she teased.
    “Oh, you’ll let me. I’ll have you eating out of my hand in no time.”
    She smirked. “You mean I’ll have you eating out of mine.”
    “You hand is not what I want to eat, Shannon.”
    She tripped over the curb and almost lost focus crossing the street. When she was safe on the other side, she stopped walking to write him back.
    “Stop! No talking like that. You’ll have me climaxing on the street for the whole world to see.”
    “Haha. Okay, I will pick you up at six forty-five if that’s fine.”
    “Yes. I’ll be waiting.”
    *****
    Shannon checked her overnight bag again and shifted everything around. She frowned at the book she’d popped inside for no reason and was about to remove it when the doorbell rang. Forgetting every thought except seeing Alex, she ran to the door and flung it open. A second after she did, she remembered that she should have played it cooler than looking like a lovesick idiot.
    Alex scooped her up into his arms and kissed her lips, moved to the tip of her nose, each eye and then back to her lips. He ran a hand up her belly until he got to her breast and squeezed with a groan. “Tell me you’re ready. We have the entire night to play.”
    “Okay, just let me get my bag.”
    He was faster and scooped it up. Shannon shook her head. “Your sex drive is out of control.”
    He wiggled his eyebrows, not an ounce of shame in him. “You like me just as I am.”
    I love you just as you are.
    Her eyes widened, and she gasped putting a hand over her mouth.
    “What’s wrong? Forget something?”
    “No, it’s nothing to worry about.”
    Boy, was that a lie. She’d come to the full realization that she was in love with him, but what lasting relationship developed out of two people jumping into bed the first night? She didn’t know of one, and what made it worse was how they met. She must be insane.
    They headed over to his