“What is it, Jade?” Kaeden asked with patience and lots of distance.
“That night, what happened between us—”
Kaeden held up his hand. “Just let it go, Jade.”
She stepped forward. “That’s just it. I can’t let it go. If I could I would, Kaeden. But I can’t let it go. I can’t forget. I can’t help feeling like it was the best ever.”
Kaeden released a heavy breath as he watched her.
“You don’t understand, Kaeden,” she stressed. “Before that night I hadn’t been intimate with anyone in over a year, but I forgot all of my restrictions, all of my inhibitions with you. I’m still trying to figure it all out but all I do know is that once you touched me, it was over and there was no going back, Kaeden.”
Kaeden stared at her, and something about the look in his eyes thrilled her.
Jade was going for it. Life was about risks, and when it came to Kaeden she was willing to take the risk. She was listening to her soul.
Books by Niobia Bryant
Romance
Admission of Love *+
Three Times a Lady #
Heavenly Match *+
Can’t Get Next to You < >
Let’s Do It Again
Count on This < >
Heated +§
Hot Like Fire +§
Make You Mine #
Give Me Fever +§
Mainstream/Women’s Fiction (Trade)
Live and Learn ~
Show and Tell ~
Message from a Mistress
Mainstream/Urban Fiction (as Meesha Mink)
Desperate Hoodwives
Shameless Hoodwives
The Hood Life
Anthologies
You Never Know/Could it Be? (novella)
“Caramel Flava”/Den of Pleasure (short story)
KEY
GIVE ME FEVER
NIOBIA BRYANT
Kensington Publishing Corp.
http://www.kensingtonbooks.com
This is my tenth full-length romance novel
so this one is for all my readers—
especially the ones who have been with me since
Choe and Devon fell in love in Admission of Love.
I thank y’all so much.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Epilogue
Prologue
“After you.”
Kaeden Strong held open the front door to Donnie’s Diner. His secretary and the sole employee of Strong Accountings, Felecia Craven, smiled briefly at him before she stepped through the door ahead of him. He paused briefly in the doorway to quickly remove his rimless glasses and wipe away a smudge. As soon as he placed them back on his angular face, Kaeden spotted a bright yellow Jeep Wrangler park across the street.
“Mr. Strong, thanks for taking me to dinner…”
The rest of Felecia’s words and the light touch of her hand to his arm barely registered as every muscle in his body froze when the driver’s door opened and Jade Prince stepped down onto the street. The short-haired, dark-skinned beauty had a very thick, curvaceous figure that could stop traffic.
She definitely made Kaeden pause. Mercy, mercy, mercy, he thought as he took her in as she strutted across the street in a pair of jeans shorts, a white tank, and gold high-heeled sandals. Her deep and dark skin gleamed like the sweetest and most decadent chocolate. Her short and curly hairstyle brought out her high cheekbones and deep-set eyes.
Jade was the epitome of a brick house. The old Commodores hit came floating into his head as each step showed the muscles of her thigh tense.
“The lady’s stacked and that’s a fact, ain’t holding nothing back.”
He swallowed over a lump in his throat.
His heart hammered.
His hands filled with sweat.
As she pressed one foot to the curb in front of Donnie’s, the fruity and sweet scent of her perfume floated to him. The same scent had taunted and tantalized him many a Sunday during church services.
Jade smiled briefly at Felecia and then him before she came to a stop in front of him.
Kaeden fought the urge to reach for his dreaded inhaler.
“Um…excuse me,” she said politely in a husky voice that made him wonder if she could sing.
“Oh. I’m sorry. Sorry.” Kaeden stumbled over himself as he quickly pressed his body back against the door to allow her entrance.
“That’s okay,” she said kindly, briefly touching his arm as she breezed past him into the restaurant.
Dammit.
This woman really did it for him in every way possible…and she had absolutely no idea.
Chapter 1
Kaeden Strong refused to spend another evening alone.
Okay, he wasn’t talking about female companionship, although that would be nice. Doubtful…but nice.
Stretching his arms high above his head, he sat back in the leather executive chair. The office of Strong Accountings had closed hours ago, and Felecia was gone for the night. The facts and figures of his clients were beginning to swim before his eyes and did nothing in the way of offering him company.
Lately the loneliness of his life was really getting to him, especially with each of his brothers falling in love one by one. He knew there was no way in hell that he was next. He favored his brothers in looks, but