Free Just You by Jane Lark Page A

the way his ass curved into his lower back, and the line of his spine, and… everything… I loved everything about his body, including the shape of his head, I smiled to myself
    He turned and smiled at me–his smile playing odd games with the sensations in my belly.
    After he’d bought the coffee over, he got back into bed with me, and we snuggled up under the comforter as he held me and we watched old episodes of the Big Bang Theory .
    My life felt good, for the first time ever.

Chapter Seven
    I watched Portia. She was working on some more dictation from Mr. Rees.
    It was six weeks since the weekend after New Year’s–since Portia and I had started something up. They’d been pretty good weeks. Mom had even come ‘round to the idea that this girl might actually be good for me. She’d stopped panicking when I stayed out.
    But I hadn’t shown her a picture. I didn’t know how she’d take the fact that Portia was white. Stupid. But Mom was gonna have to step out of her comfort zone. She was a traditionalist, she liked things just so. Portia’s background and her families money, was gonna throw Mom off track when she found out I was dating a society girl. She’d be anxious about it causing trouble for me.
    Anxiety was stitched into Mom’s DNA–by Dad’s failings–and there was no unpicking it. She worried, and I hated making her worry, but I also had to live my life.
    Robin had filled me in on the fact she’d been asking him a ton of questions. But he didn’t know Portia was white either.
    I breathed out the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding; Portia was going to have to meet them soon. I wanted our thing to shift up a level. I wanted her to be my girl–in all my life. I figured Portia wasn’t gonna step it up. She’d given no indication she wanted anything to change. If anyone was taking this up a gear, it was gonna be me.
    I just wanted to stop hiding what we had.
    Portia stood up and walked over to the printer to collect the letters she’d printed off. Her head was down scanning them for errors as she walked back. Her blonde ponytail had caught on her shoulder and rested over her white blouse. She had her work poker-face on. You’d never guess the out-of-office girl I knew was there.
    I sent her an email. ‘In-office.’
    She sat down, and glanced over once she’d seen it. She smiled.
    My fingers typed. ‘Are we meeting for lunch?’
    ‘Yeah, if you want.’
    ‘I want, baby.’
    ‘:-)’
    She hated me calling her babe or baby, but somehow, it softened her a little more.
    ‘See you at twelve in the deli.’
    ‘Yeah.’
    She stood up then, smiling at me, with the letters she’d printed gripped in her hand, and turned to take them into Mr. Rees.
    A bit more than an hour later I stood outside the deli waiting for her, my hands in my pockets. This was one of the things I wanted to change. I didn’t see why we couldn’t just walk out of work together. Why did it matter? But it mattered to her, because whenever I suggested the idea she backtracked a mile, and came up with a dozen excuses not to.
    I saw her, further along the sidewalk, walking toward me. She had on a black pencil skirt, a short cream coat and black patent heels. I knew beneath her skirt her sheer black stockings were stay ups. A spasm of lust, to touch her soft skin above her stockings, gripped in my groin. I ignored it. I couldn’t even see her until Wednesday night.
    If she’d been in out-of-office mode when she reached me, I’d have got a kiss–in-office Portia gave me a nod.
    My hand slipped about her waist as we turned to the door, and I whispered to her ear. “In-office, baby.”
    She glanced back and gave me a big fat pleased to see you out-of-office smile.
    It played guitar strings in my heart. I had it bad for this girl. I wanted it up a gear–and I was gonna persuade her today.
    “You, okay?” I asked when we sat down.
    “Yeah, you? Are you busy?”
    “Yeah, I’ve got a ton to do.”
    “What?” She