Free FallingforSharde_MLU by Marilyn Lee

to tape it in case I missed it, I said no. That night we discovered we had a lot in common and we liked each other. At least he liked me and I fell in love with him. I don’t know when it happened. One night I went to sleep really liking him a lot. The next morning I woke up in love with him.
    “Until that happened, I’d planned to get a few years’ experience in here and then head out to work in Atlanta. Instead, I’ve spent the last several years waiting for him to wake up and realize we should be more than friends.”
    “I think he realizes that now, Sharde.”
    “He realizes he wants to be my lover. I want more than that from him.”
    “Isn’t part of getting to that point going out with him?”
    “Yes... when he wants more than sex. Does that make me sound hard?”
    She shook her head. “No. You have to do what you feel is right. Just don’t push him too hard too fast. It can’t be easy for him... after being betrayed by two women he loved in such a short time.”
    “It’s his own fault for being so bloody stupid! I knew the moment I saw Vanessa she was a bitch! All he could see was her shaking her bony behind at him.”
    “Likes bony asses, huh?”
    Sharde arched a brow. “Not anymore.”
    Darbi laughed. “I heard that, girl.”
    “Tomorrow’s Friday. Any plans?”
    “Jadan has this new male strip club she wants to check out,” she said of a mutual friend. “She’s heard about this hot dancer named Sarro. Do you want to come with us to ogle him?”
    “Hmmm. Sounds like fun, but the only man I’m interested in ogling is Jefferson. We have a meeting tomorrow afternoon.”
    “You going to cut him some slack?”
    “Maybe. I don’t know.” She sighed. “But how is Jadan? I haven’t seen her in a while.”
    “You know Jadan.”
    “What is Tom going to say about her ogling some gorgeous stripper?”
    “I don’t think they’re an item anymore.”
    “Oh. How’s she taking that?”
    “Better than I thought.”
    “Well, say hi for me. And while you two are ogling your gorgeous stripper, I’ll be plotting Jeff’s downfall.”
    “Sounds like a plan.”
    Smiling, Sharde closed her eyes, forming a mental picture of Jefferson. One of these days he was going to be hers. “Oh, yeah.”
    The next day, Sharde took a long lunch to go shopping for lingerie at Victoria’s Secret. Recalling Jefferson’s reaction to the teddy she’d worn at the cabin, she bought a skimpy red teddy with spaghetti straps. It was called a strappy-back baby doll. Without the matching thong, it left the sides of her breasts, thighs, and ass exposed. All he’d have to do was lift up the front, part her legs, and enter her.
    When she returned to the office, she took her hair down and shook it out, running her fingers through it. Looking in the mirror in her private bathroom, she decided she’d managed to achieve the look she wanted, as if a lover had been stroking his fingers through her hair.
    She freshened her lipstick, unbuttoned the top two buttons of her blouse, revealing her cleavage, and waited. Right on time for their two o’clock meeting, a knock sounded on her door.
    She rose, walked over to the next to lowest file cabinet in her office, bent over so that the short black skirt rose up the back of her thighs and called out, “Come in.”
    The door opened. She heard a quick inhalation. Still bending, she looked over her shoulder. “Be with you in a second, Jeff. Just need a few files.”
    He stood by the closed door staring at the backs of her thighs. Pretending not to notice, she turned back to the file cabinet, pulled two files out, and straightened. “Got them.”
    She sat down and motioned to the chair in front of her desk. “Have a seat.”
    He sat, his gaze going to her hair.
    She opened the folders on her desk and glanced up at him. “We’ll start interviewing for the system analysts positions on Monday.” She tapped the top folder on her desk. “I have the monthly reports here and–”
    He held