Tender to His Touch. Adrianne Byrd

at her tone.

      Kyra smiled weakly. “Um, can you two excuse me? I need to go check on something.”

      Before Beverly or Lucius could respond, she jetted away from their small circle and disappeared into the crowd.

      “Was it something I said?” Lucius asked.

      Beverly shook her head. “No. It’s…a long story.”

      He clearly picked up the hint and let the subject drop. Minutes later, Beverly and Lucius maneuvered through the crowd like a seasoned couple saying their hellos and reconnecting with old friends. Whenever anyone questioned how long she and Lucius had been dating, no one believed that they had only known each other a few hours. In some respects, even Beverly couldn’t believe it. There was definitely a connection between them. The only question was: what were they going to do about it?

      “Good evening, everyone. Welcome to Hollington’s annual homecoming weekend, and the tenth anniversary of class of ninety-nine,” greeted a voice over the microphone. “I’m Kevin Stayton…”

      That was as far as he got before the room erupted into shouts and applause. Even Kevin seemed caught off guard by the response. He quickly put up his hand to quiet the group down and regain control.

      “Thanks for that, but the reason why I commandeered the mike from President Morrow is to make sure that everyone is made aware of who is responsible for the important and complex job of organizing this weekend. As it turned out, the best person possible was selected. And she’s one of ours, class of ’99, y’all!”

      There was enthusiastic applause until Kevin again signaled for quiet.

      “Typical of her, and some of you will remember this from our undergraduate years, she doesn’t like drawing attention to herself. She works quietly behind the scenes but she gets the job done, as all of you will experience during the course of this weekend. Ladies and gentlemen, Chloe Jackson!”

      Chloe didn’t move, and then someone took her hand and pulled her forward to be recognized. It was Kyra, using her small hands to encourage the audience to keep up the applause.

      Chloe half raised her hand in a shy salute and quickly stepped back behind the president.

      Lucius leaned close and whispered, “I wonder what that was all about.”

      Beverly just shrugged. She remembered Kevin Stayton, but for the life of her she couldn’t remember ever meeting a Chloe Jackson, but she looked great up there and there was no denying that she’d done a fabulous job with tonight’s party.

      For the most part, Beverly enjoyed the evening. After several glasses of wine, she grew more lethargic and hid more and more yawns behind her hand. Still, she wasn’t quite ready to leave just yet.

      “Someone is getting sleepy,” Lucius whispered as they rocked to Brandy’s old jam “Have You Ever?”

      “No, no,” she lied and then immediately had to stifle another yawn. “Okay. Maybe just a little.” She blushed.

      “Then what do you say that we head out of here and go do something that will wake you up?” he asked.

      Did that mean what she thought it meant? Beverly’s legs quivered and those delicious tingles returned. Seeing that she came to the reception with him, it only made sense that they leave together—unless she wanted to play hard to get and call a cab. Looking into Lucius’s twinkling hazel gaze, Beverly realized an undeniable truth: she had no desire to play hard to get.

      “Yeah,” she answered in a lusty voice. “Let’s get out of here.”