public relations firm, Winter and Autumn had agreed to take the reins and make the move to open their store. Living in New Jersey had been great, but she was glad she had a life in Chicago. Now, three years later, Winter didn’t have any regrets except for one...going on a date with Taheim Reed.
Although she hadn’t had any family in Chicago when she first moved, she hadn’t been surprised when her cousins Micah and Malik Madden moved to the city from their respective towns. Micah had been a police officer in Arkansas before he joined forces with Shawn Miles to open M&M Security in Chicago. Malik, a private investigator with offices in Detroit and Chicago, had also decided to move from Detroit and make Chicago his permanent home. Why had both of her male cousins decided to move to Chi-Town? Well, as much as Winter and Autumn would have loved to believe a part of it had to do with them, Micah and Malik had both proved their moves had more to do with the Chicago natives they’d fallen in love with.
Which brought her to the reason she was attending this party despite the fact that it was being held at a lounge owned by Taheim’s brother. She glanced over at the happy couples, who were beaming with joy. Her cousins had both fallen in love with cofounders of Elite Events Incorporated, a very respected event-planning company headquartered in Chicago. Winter admired the success of the founders, Imani Rayne-Barker, Cydney Rayne-Miles, and Winter’s cousin-in-law, Lexus Turner-Madden, and soon-to-be cousin-in-law, Mya Winters.
“I don’t really understand the point of having engagement parties.” Winter turned at the sound of her sister Autumn’s voice.
Leave it to her sister to try to rationalize an event that people had been celebrating for decades. “You know, we should be happy that Micah married Lex and that Malik and Mya will be married soon. Especially since we and our other male cousins are nowhere close to getting married.” Malik and Micah had four other brothers, all of whom were single. “And you should also prepare yourself for baby showers that I’m sure are right around the corner.”
“Another pointless celebration,” Autumn chimed in. “I’m happy for them. I just don’t understand why we need manmade holidays, or in this case multiple celebrations, to celebrate a marriage. And baby showers are superficial. I curse the person who took such a sacred act as bringing a baby into the world and labeled the gathering a baby shower.”
Winter gave her sister a blank stare. “Your brain never ceases to amaze me.”
“What?” Autumn said with a shrug. “I thought you’d be happy that I came over to discuss my views on pointless celebrations rather than the fact that you obviously can’t take your eyes off Taheim.”
Her tone of voice was normal, but clearly, mentioning his name had gotten the attention of the women in front of them, who walked off after shooting them looks of irritation.
“See, and now you can thank me for running off those drooling women.”
“Do you think before you speak?” Winter asked as she unscrewed her water bottle to take a much-needed sip. She refused to believe her sister was right, but deep down, she knew it was true. Looks-wise, Taheim Reed was everything she wanted in a man. His creamy milk-chocolate complexion, intense almost-black eyes and strong scored jawline had been the star of more than a few fantasies. Even worse, she’d even used him as inspiration when crafting a new lingerie line that she was working on for Bare Sophistication. Like her, he was also an entrepreneur, which she assumed was the only reason their mutual friends had thought they would be a good fit together.
She watched him walk over to his business partners for R&W Advertising, Jaleen Walker and Imani’s husband, Daman Barker. That was another thing Winter hated that she liked about him. Whether it be women or men, people were just drawn to him. He was such a people person and his charismatic ways worked on everyone...except her. If they weren’t arguing about the color of the sky, as if that even warranted an argument, they were pretending that the other person didn’t exist. Her eyes roamed over his muscular arms encased in fabric before moving to the collared shirt peeking out from underneath his sweater. She appreciated his style and the fact that he always dressed to impress. Being that they were both designers, she understood making a fashion statement in clothing from your own line, but she’d bet that his athletic frame would look good in anything. Even better if he were wearing nothing at all.
Suddenly, her body tensed with awareness, causing her eyes to rush to his face. As she’d figured, his gaze was pinned to her, and for a brief second, she forgot that she hated the guy. That he was the worst blind date ever and the only guy she’d ever met who’d caused her to lose her temper in public. At the sound of her sister mumbling, she broke eye contact and turned to Autumn.
“Two forty-six, 247, 248, 249.”
“Is there a reason you’re counting?” Winter asked.
“Two fifty. As a matter of fact, there is a reason I was counting.”
She waited for Autumn to continue and quickly realized that she wasn’t going to explain further. She really wasn’t surprised. Autumn spoke only when she felt it necessary or when she wanted to rattle off about a statistic or her point of view on certain topics. Her sister was the walking dictionary definition of brains and beauty. Winter could appreciate her uniqueness.
“And what reason were you counting, Autumn?”
“I was counting the number of seconds it took you to not so discreetly gape at Taheim. At thirty seconds your eyes showed interest. At 105 seconds you began to admire things about the way he looked tonight that I assume you hadn’t allowed yourself to notice before. At 195 seconds your heart rate increased when you noticed he was staring at you just as intently. At 250 seconds you finally noticed I was counting.”
She opened her mouth to say something about Autumn’s observation but closed it when no words came out. She scrunched her eyes together instead before crossing her arms over her chest. A chill went down her spine when she thought about the fact that her sister’s stats also meant that she and Taheim had spent almost a full minute just staring at each other.
“Don’t give me that look,” Autumn said. “Especially since you really aren’t that upset at me, since your first coherent thought was obviously the fact that you and Taheim could spend that much time staring at each other. Pretty odd for enemies, don’t you think?”
Winter finally let out a frustrated breath. “You don’t know what I’m thinking.” In response to Winter’s statement, Autumn smiled. Truth be told, Winter and Autumn had been reading each other’s minds since they were kids. When Summer felt left out, Winter had to remind her that she and Autumn were Irish twins since they were born eleven months apart.
“Whatever,” she said with a wave of her hand. “He’s easy on the eyes, so I just got a little distracted.”
“Since your breathing still seems to be labored, I believe you meant to say that you got sexually aroused at the sight of him. Not distracted.”
Winter uncrossed her hands and placed them on her hips. “For once, can you try not to state the obvious?”
“I didn’t know I was stating the obvious,” Autumn said in a serious tone. “I mean, I could tell you were sexually aroused and I wouldn’t put it past a few others to notice the same chemistry whenever you both are in the same room. But I stated my observation because I didn’t think it was obvious to you.”
Winter dropped her hands to her sides and let out a deep sigh. She really didn’t like the fact that Autumn was right yet again. She’d had no idea people could sense the sexual tension between her and Taheim.
“I’m
