A Kiss of Color: A BWWM Interracial Pregnancy Romance (Book 2) (2 page)

To his dismay, she stirred, rolling over in his arms as her eyes opened to sleepy slits. “Xavier?”

She was so goddamn adorable when she was half asleep. Stroking a dark strand of hair from her brow, Xavier smiled. “Go back to sleep, honey. You’re tired.”

She made a weary, frustrated sound in the back of her throat before her eyes closed and she drifted off once more. Beside her, her lover breathed a sigh of relief. It was lucky for him that she was too tired to wake and admonish him for letting her sleep in. He knew how Helena could be when it came to keeping to the schedule she set for herself.

With a sigh, Xavier shook his head.

She had been that way ever since they’d met.

He couldn’t believe it had been four years. Time had passed faster than he ever would have anticipated. Of course, it helped that the both of them had been going basically nonstop since they’d graduated from Antioch University – he with his graduate degree, and Helena with her undergraduate in pre-med. Since then, they had moved to the West coast and hurried to find an apartment before the young woman had begun med school – and he had set himself to making sure that he defied his parent’s expectations and turned his IT company into a household name.

The first year of medical school had been difficult for Helena. While she’d expected the workload, she had a complex with being at the top of her class in everything. This, of course, had resulted in her spending long hours studying – even longer than she had committed during her undergraduate years – and that was saying quite a bit. There had been a point at which she was hardly getting any sleep at all – and that was when Xavier had to speak with her. She was shaping up to be a wonderful physician-in-training, and he knew that her father would have been proud of her. That said, he wouldn’t be proud for long if she killed herself trying to do things unnecessary to her future practice.

That little talk had curbed her fervor somewhat, she’d settled for being only second in her class, and gotten the rest she needed.

After much deliberation, the young woman had decided to follow her passion and become a pediatrician. Everyone who met her – who witnessed the way she dealt with children and her dedication to helping people – knew that she would be a great asset to the medical community. Helena ate, slept and breathed her curriculum, and when she finally started doing internships, and ultimately, her residency, in one of northern California’s most prestigious hospitals, she was more than ready.

She was on fire.

And every day, Xavier had the privilege of witnessing happiness wrought by achieving one’s dreams. It didn’t matter if Helena was exhausted, if she’d had a bad day or if she was just plain out of whack. All she had to do was remember her purpose, and her smile would light up the room. On several occasions, Xavier had been in to watch her work, and even knowing her the way he did, he was awed to see firsthand the way she dealt with her patients. She was a joy to watch, and though she wasn’t quite a full blown MD yet, kids who had seen her before always requested to see her again.

Xavier took that to mean she was pretty damn good at her job.

In the next two years, Helena would go through the most strenuous part of her training – surgical prep and trials. It was now, of course, that she needed the most rest – and Xavier delighted in making sure that she got the rest she needed so she was prepared for all the trials to come – along with a little fun thrown in here and there.

He, of course, had to work around his own busy schedule. These days, he was usually up at dawn and spent the rest of the day running around for his company.

The company had exploded within a single year of its official founding.

Xavier had taken the entire three hundred thousand dollars that Helena had presented to him upon their graduation to turn his company into a reputable brand. He’d hired the few peers who had helped him through the most difficult stages of startup while he’d been in school and chosen a location just outside their small California town as the main location for his office. While, at first, the programmer had been worried that he wouldn’t be able to acclimate to the new location, his business had soon taken off with a speed he’d never imagined.

It was, Helena constantly reminded him, because he was good at what he did.

Xavier tended to take this for granted. He loved programming – had ever since he’d first written his first code at the tender age of thirteen. When he was coming up with new programs, coding, or working with computers in general, he tended to get lost in his work. He’d forget that the real world existed and could work for a straight twelve hour shift before realizing that it was time for him to return home.

That, coupled with his concern for customer service – with making each and every person that worked for him or left their tech in his care felt completely at ease – set him apart from most other IT companies he’d encountered. XTech had quickly skyrocketed in popularity, and as it had, Xavier had delighted in proving his parents every expectation about his failure completely wrong.

It was like an immense weight had been lifted from his shoulders. For as much as Xavier had always wanted to succeed for his own prosperity – indeed, after he’d graduated, his parents had stopped supporting him completely. They’d been disgusted with his career choice – since he was young, he’d wanted to prove to his parents that he could thrive outside of their controlling grip.

Now, he was building his own empire. One that, if he calculated correctly, would rival the worth of his family’s within five years. While Helena had been sure he’d be able to pay back the money she’d loaned him in five years, he’d presented it to her within one and a half. Of course, she hadn’t wanted to take it, but he’d forced her to. It was, after all, he reminded her, just a loan.

The company had soon outgrown their small corner office, and so he’d expanded into a larger one downtown. Months after that, Xavier, with Helena’s coaxing, had begun looking into other California locations. The end of the year had seen ten of them, all thriving, throughout the state. Three years after the company’s incarnation, XTech had fifty locations across the US, as well as some impressive contracts with larger manufacturing companies.

Xavier, however, was no slack. None of what he’d accomplished had come without hard work. As Helena had been struggling through her medical courses, so too had he been with expanding his company. But bit by tentative bit, he was watching it grow into an IT goliath. He’d worked his share of long days and overnight stints. Even though he now found himself CEO of one of the fastest growing companies in Northern America, he still liked to work on some of the computers that came into his downtown office. Xavier didn’t think that would ever change. Programming was his niche just as much was medicine was Helena’s, and it always made him happy.

Despite the hectic nature of both of their lives, both he and Helena were thriving – in their separate careers, and also, together. He didn’t know if he would have been able to accomplish anything he had without her by his side. She always found time to support him with a kind word, to reassure him when it seemed like the weight of the world was pressing down on his shoulders, and to banish all his worries with the heat of her mouth against his own.

God, in the four years they’d been together, if anything, his desire for her had only increased. He could never get enough of the way she squirmed beneath his ministrations. How she moaned at the touch of his tongue against her most intimate places, and called his name in the grips of her climax. Just thinking about it was enough to get him hard.

Which wasn’t very convenient, considering that he was currently pressed right up against the object of his frustrations.

Carefully, he began the process of extricating himself from her. Any longer and he might do something he’d regret. Well, he wouldn’t regret it…he’d just regret waking her. It took the dark-haired man about five minutes to safely untangle himself from his lover before he slipped soundlessly from bed, clad in only his boxer briefs, to stretch leisurely.

He’d make breakfast for her. Xavier knew how much Helena always lamented about having her breakfast on the go. Then, they’d sit down and have a meal together – something they hadn’t indulged in for at least two or three weeks. Maybe he’d even decide to do something crazy, like take the day off to be with her. He was sure that Margaret, his office manager, might have something to say about that, but at this point, he hardly cared.

He just wanted to spend time with the woman he loved.

Xavier was reaching for his robe, intent on making his way to the kitchen, when his phone buzzed atop the bedside table. He froze, cursing his carelessness. He should have grabbed the phone when he woke up. He leapt across the room in an attempt to shut the damn thing off, but he was too late.

Groaning softly, Helena rolled over to curl slender fingers around the madly vibrating device. Blinking blearily. She sat up to extend it to him. “Phone, Xavier.”

Swallowing a sigh of disappointment, Xavier reached for the phone. It was, interestingly enough, none other than Margaret. He answered reluctantly, watching as Helena stretched before slipping from the bed to pad to the bathroom.

“
Yes
, Margaret?” He fought to keep the ire from his voice as he spoke to his right-hand woman.

“Xavier, what’s going on with you this morning? It’s nearly ten! I thought you said you were going to be in the office by nine.”

Xavier resisted the urge to glare at the phone as the sound of the shower starting came from the bathroom. “Margaret, I’ll be in a little later, alright? I was hoping to spend some time with Helena this morning. She’s had a tough time of it lately.”

“Oh!” Margaret’s entire rushed demeanor changed. “I’m sorry! I’ll just…well, let me know when you’re on your way.”

“Will do.” He replied brusquely, before hanging up. The moment he did, he was greeted with a cry of dismay from the bathroom. The water shut off and three seconds later, a very wet, very irate Helena rushed from the bathroom.

“Xavier! You said you would wake me up?” He winced at the shrillness of her tone. “I have a SHIT ton of stuff to get done today, and you KNEW that! How could you let me sleep in so late?”

“Honey,” He tried, carefully, “You were exhausted last night. If I would have woken you that probably would have meant less than five hours of sleep. We talked about this. You need your rest.”

Helena parted plump lips, as if to raise her voice in protest, before her mouth shut. This action was very common for the young woman. It occurred whenever she wanted to argue but had very little justification behind said argument. As he watched her flounder, Xavier tried not to smile. She was probably still too tired to come up with any sort of valid rebuttal. Leisurely, he reached out to enfold her in his arms. Before she could come up with any protest whatsoever, his mouth covered hers in a searing kiss.

The erection he’d been trying to will away for the past half hour came back with a vengeance as Helena melted against him, a soft moan spilling from her lips.

He might have to tell Margaret that he would be in very late indeed.

In a deft motion, Xavier scooped his lover into his arms to carry her back to bed, their mouths never losing contact. As he lay her back against the mattress, he peeled her towel from where it clung damply to her curves, exposing her in all her nude glory.

For a moment, Xavier had to stop and stare. Every time he undressed Helena, he thought he might get used to the magnificence of her body. How wrong he always was. He could never get enough of her smooth, chocolate-hued skin, her ripe breasts with their dark, dusky peaks, and the tiny thatch of curls between luscious thighs.

With a reluctant, enticing smile, the young woman stared up at him with unique, gray-hued eyes. She arched a brow at his lengthy stare. “Is there something I can help you with, Mr. Thompson?”

Xavier groaned softly. “There are lots of things you could help me with.” He kissed her once, leisurely, before his tongue slid against her own, tasting her sweet, intoxicating flavor. His mouth trailed its way down her neck and over to the lobe of her ear, nipping at it before he continued huskily. “This being principle among them.” He pressed his hardness against the core of her and Helena inhaled sharply, her arms winding about his neck.

“Is
this
what my errands are being pushed back for?” She teased lightly, moments before his mouth found hers again.

“A very good cause.” He defended himself against her lips before sucking the lower, fuller one into his mouth to nibble on. Xavier reveled in the shiver that passed through the young woman. Reaching down between them, he cupped the curls between her thighs, chuckling when he found her already wet for him. When he slid two fingers into the slick heat of her, a soft coo of pleasure escaped the dark-skinned woman.

Christ...he had never known it was possible to want a woman this much. Xavier nipped at the curve of Helena’s shoulder before taking the peak of a breast into his mouth to lave the nipple with his tongue so Helena squirmed beneath him. He bit and sucked at the tiny bead of flesh until she was gasping, her fingernails curved into his shoulders deeply enough to make little crescents of desire – and only then did he release her to move onto its twin.

By the time Xavier had his fill of her mewling, low sounds of desire, Helena’s fingers had threaded through his hair, tugging his form back northward to meet him in another turgid kiss.