Free Message from a Mistress by Niobia Bryant Page A

wrap tightly around his waist while she massaged the muscles of his shoulders.
    Kingston’s playful expression changed. “Oh, it’s like that?” he asked thickly.
    Aria dipped down to stroke her tongue across his mouth. “Oh, it’s like that,” she confirmed.
    Kingston sat her down on the edge of the island before he nearly pulled the white tube top she wore down around her waist. With a hungry grunt that was purely primal, he pressed her down until her upper body was sandwiched between the island and his own body. With snakelike motions of his tongue, he tasted one fat nipple and then the other.
    “Oooh!” Aria moaned, arching her back.
    “Oh, y’all wrong.”
    Aria and Kingston jumped apart in surprise.
    “Jessa!” Aria squealed as she rushed to cover her small but plump breasts with her tube top .
    Jessa leaned in the open doorway in white linen slacks and a ruffled white shirt that was feminine, chic, and cool—so like Jessa—while Aria felt like a twelve-year-old in her cut-offs and tube top .
    Aria scrambled down off the island to run across the room and into her friend’s open and waiting arms. “Jessa!”
    “I see you’re still dressing like you’re in college,” Jessa joked in that husky voice .
    Kingston walked up to slide his hand into the back pocket of Aria’s frayed cut-off jeans. “She knows these turn me on,” he told her .
    “Jessa, this is the love of my life and the changer of my last name, Kingston,” Aria said with pride as she kissed his smooth cheek. She wanted to show off her handsome doctor husband to her frenemy
    Jessa held out her hand. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Livewell. I hope for Aria’s sake that you live up to your surname.”
    Kingston wrapped his hand around hers. “Nice to meet you, Jessa, and you’ll have to ask your friend about that.”
    Jessa nodded in agreement as she slid both of her hands into the pockets of her slacks. “Well, I hope you know you just met a new friend, Kingston.”
    “Well, any friend of Aria’s is a friend of mine,” he told her with a friendly smile .
    “Where’s Marc? I want to meet him,” Aria asked, looking over Jessa’s smooth shoulder out the door .
    “He’s at work, but we’re taking you and two more couples from the subdivision out to dinner tonight. A little welcome to the neighborhood party. You will love Renee and Jaime.”
    Aria waved her at the kitchen. “Good, I don’t think we’ll be done unpacking the kitchen for me to cook.”
    “I had an appointment this morning but let me zip home and change so I can help you unpack.”
    “Well…I was wondering if you were going to help a sistah out.”
    Jessa smiled up at Kingston. “You see her trying to test our friendship?” she asked.
    Kingston held up his hands. “My mama didn’t raise a fool. I’m staying out of that,” he said before turning to finish unpacking plates.
    “I like him,” Jessa mouthed with a nod and a wink before she turned and breezed back out of the kitchen door.
     
    Aria frowned at the memory, hating that now she wondered if that was the moment her husband and Jessa had sparked their interest in one another. When they shook hands had the current of electrical chemistry gone off?
    Who made the first move?
    When?
    Where?
    In my house?
    In my…bed?
    All through college Jessa and Aria’s friendship was based on competition—grades, clothes, boyfriends. All of it. The whole nine.
    But never had Aria thought Jessa wanted to top her badly enough to steal her husband away.
    Was Kingston even fishing? Maybe he had already left. Maybe he was already in Jessa’s new house— their house.
    Aria felt breathless as tears welled up in her eyes. She blinked them away as she pursed her lips and released a deep—and hopefully—cleansing breath. She banged her fist against the top of the island.
    “Okay, I need that drink,” she muttered aloud, opening the door to the Sub-Zero. It was empty and as clean as when it came off the showroom