Read Online Lovin' Blue by Zuri Day - Free Book Online Page B

intensity of her body’s reaction to Jansen’s touch.
    Jansen was trying to recover as well. His heart was pounding as if he’d run ten miles, and one very specific muscle was aching for a release that even a marathon couldn’t provide. In this moment, Jansen knew there was only one thing, only one person who could give him what his body craved, and her name was Eden. And in this moment of stark realization, he swore to have her.
    Jansen thought these thoughts even as he sought to diffuse the current tension. The time for the inevitable would come soon enough. “What, baby girl? Can’t take the heat?”
    â€œI can’t believe you did that,” Eden snapped, thankful she could breathe again. “I haven’t even brushed my teeth!”
    â€œIt’s a good thing my breath is fresh enough for the both of us then, huh?”
    â€œMove out of my way. You’re disgusting.” Eden pushed past Jansen and tested the water still running into the tub.
    â€œIf you’re not downstairs in ten minutes, I’m coming back up here.” Jansen’s eyes narrowed as he gave Eden the once-over from head to toe. “And if I do, I promise you we’ll still get our workout on, but running won’t have anything to do with it.”

12

    â€œYou still got a crush on Morris Chestnut?” Jansen asked. He and Eden were in the living room, eating on TV trays and checking out the movie she’d rented last night but hadn’t watched.
    â€œNaw,” Eden answered before putting a forkful of the fluffy vegetable omelet she’d prepared into her mouth. “He hasn’t been my main squeeze since The Best Man.”
    â€œI remember you cried like a baby during that scene from Hood when he gets shot,” Jansen teased. “You would have thought the brothah really died.”
    â€œI was heartbroken, that’s no lie. It even took me a while to warm back up to Ice Cube. Even though his character’s finger didn’t pull the trigger, it was because of Doughboy’s thuggish behind that Ricky took a bullet.”
    â€œBoo-hoo,” Jansen mimicked, clutching his heart and leaning sideways. “They shot him! Why’d they have to shoot him! It was you and . . . What was your friend’s name?”
    â€œWho? Oh, Chandra. Chandra Brockman. Wow, I haven’t thought about her in years. Wonder where she is?” Eden sipped Jansen’s freshly squeezed orange juice while she pondered the whereabouts of one of her former best friends.
    Jansen bit into a tender sausage. He’d been pleasantly surprised when Eden didn’t make a big deal about his pig consumption, though she had warned him not to fry the links in her newly purchased stainless steel. “I’m surprised y’all didn’t stay in touch.”
    â€œMe, too. We were thick as thieves until she and her family moved to St. Louis. We kept in touch for a while. Then she got pregnant and—”
    â€œChandra had a baby?” Somehow Jansen just couldn’t see the fly-girl chick with the sassy mouth taking care of a child.
    â€œAt least three, from what I heard. She and I lost contact, but I ran into another classmate around my sophomore or junior year of college and found out she was married with children, and a preacher’s wife at that.”
    â€œYou’re lying!” Jansen exclaimed. It was no secret that half the basketball team had slept with Chandra, and the other half had wanted to. Jansen wasn’t proud of the fact that both he and Eden’s brother, Michael, had been on the receiving team, on more than one occasion. He wondered if Eden knew this but quickly decided against asking her. Some things, he deduced, were best left in the past. “Wow, I guess anybody can change,” he finished, an opinion formed by firsthand experience. He’d given up his player card when he got married and hadn’t renewed it since getting