“Did you find the place okay?” Nix asked her as he held the door open for her to squeeze by. “I really wish you would have let me pick you up, you know, like a real date,” he said with a teasing voice all the while keeping a serious face.
“And I wanted my car in case you turned into a caveman again and started issuing orders,” she quipped, causing him to growl through the smile threatening to slide across his lips.
“Anyway, my GPS brought me straight here,” she answered, and rubbed her hands on the front of her legs to soak up some of the sweat cooling her palms.
As his eyes lingered on her thighs, Louise admitted that Winter had been right about the jeans. As Nix leaned back to let her pass and into the house, she followed her nose straight to his kitchen.
“I hope you like spaghetti.” Nix moved toward the stove, and stirred the pot that was bubbling with sauce.
“Pasta is basically my main food group,” Louise joked, patting her stomach without thinking.
“I like that about you,” he said as he left the stove and walked toward her. Caging her in against the marble island, Nix playfully bumped his body into hers. “You look nice tonight.”
Swallowing hard, she licked her lips before answering, “Thanks, so do you.”
And he did. He really, really did.
Wearing a black T-shirt that hugged his broad chest without looking obnoxiously tight, he showed off his build while still looking comfortable. Louise wasn’t even going to get started on his jeans, which she wouldn’t mind feeling against her hands and fingers as she clutched that amazing ass they concealed from her gaze.
“Dinner should be done soon. Do you want a glass of wine?” Nix leaned forward, and for a split second, Louise thought he would kiss her. She couldn’t help but feel disappointed when he simply reached around her body and grabbed a bottle from the counter behind her.
“I’ll be honest with you. My knowledge of wines is pretty limited, so I had a buddy grab this for me with instructions to get something that will go with our dinner tonight.” Holding up the bottle for her inspection, Nix stayed close enough that she could feel the heat coming off his chest.
“I have a confession too,” Louise whispered as if she were sharing some great secret. “I know absolutely nothing about wine. Unless it’s sweet, it all tastes the same to me. You could have spent four dollars or forty dollars, and I wouldn’t know the difference.”
Nix put his hand on his chest as though greatly offended before he burst out laughing. Louise laughed right along with him. Taking the bottle out of his hands, she read the label before tapping the cork. “This one isn’t a screw-top, so I’m assuming you spent more than four bucks. Am I right?”
Holding back a smile, Nix tugged the bottle away before grabbing her hand. “C’mon.”
“What? No wine?” Louise teased, allowing him to lead her out of the kitchen.
“Not yet, I wanted to show you around a bit.” Nix kept ahold of her hand, giving her fingers a slight squeeze.
As he walked her through his home, Louise breathed in the clean scent that hung in the air. Large leather furniture was placed in a cozy configuration in the living room. A modest sized television was the focal point above the fireplace. His bedroom seemed fitting with a large four-poster bed placed on the wall opposite a set of great windows that overlooked the backyard. Overall, for a bachelor pad, the place was clean and matched fairly well.
“Did you want to eat at the table or would you rather eat while we watch a movie?” Nix asked as they moved back toward the kitchen, where he pulled a pan of bread out of the oven.
“In front of the TV is fine. I honestly just started using my own dining room now that Junior is staying with me.” Louise helped Nix dish up their dinner. Noting how he made their plates equally large made her smile. She had been on more than a couple of dates where her eating habits were frowned upon.
Carrying a tray with bread, drinks, and their plates into the living room, Nix settled all of it onto the large coffee table in front of the couch.
“Want to watch the new Guardians?” Nix tossed out the suggestion as he poured them each a glass of wine. Getting everything set up after she nodded, Louise relaxed and dug into her plate.
As they settled on the comfortable couch, the pair took turns asking each other random questions. Some of them based on the music from the movie playing in the background, a few questions about favorite things like food and such. As far as first dates went, Louise was having a great time.
“Cats or dogs?” Louise asked before taking a bite of her bread.
“Dogs. Obviously.” His answer had her giggling before he asked a question of his own. “Steak or chicken?”
“Steak. Obviously.” Hiding her smile behind the wineglass, she blurted out what she was seriously curious about, “Boxers or briefs?”
Nix’s eyebrows shot up as if he was surprised by her daring question before he lifted one corner of his mouth in a sexy half smile and replied, “Neither.”
After letting her own mouth drop open for a second before snapping it closed, she gulped what was left of her wine.
Nix chuckled at her reaction, “I’m just teasing, darlin’. I only go commando when I’m behind on laundry.” When Nix asked his next question, the sexual tension eased a bit allowing them to proceed with getting to know each other.
Good food, good company, and good conversation went a long way in helping her relax. On the drive over, she had been wound so tight that she felt her skin had been shrinking the closer she drove to Nix’s house. Now, she wasn’t holding back her laughter, and even some of the snorts that sometimes escaped when she got really tickled.
Halfway through the movie, both Nix and Louise had sprawled on the couch while they chatted. It wasn’t until Nix had taken Louise’s foot into his large hands and started to massage it that she realized just how comfortable she had made herself. With shoes kicked off underneath the table in front of her, she was so relaxed she was basically a step away from unbuttoning her jeans. That feeling didn’t last long once she felt his strong hands show the arch of her foot attention.
He had magic hands. Magic hands that she didn’t want to stop. Even as they moved up to her calves, slowly stroking until his large palms rested on her thighs.
Louise looked up from where his hands were resting on her legs, and her eyes were captured immediately by his own.
Staring into the gray pools of his eyes, she was reminded of liquid silver. His eyes were mesmerizing as they watched her closely, tracking her movements. The focus making her extremely aware of every aspect of their position on the couch.
Leaning partially back against one arm, her legs had been previously tucked to the side of her body while they chatted. Without her realizing it, at some point, she had straightened her legs out so that her feet were basically resting in Nix’s lap. Nix looked comfortable as well with his body tilted toward her with one arm resting on the back of the couch.
Louise went to adjust her position, the air now feeling heavy with anticipation, when Nix slid both hands behind her thighs to tug her down into a lying position on the couch. The leather creaked as she slid smoothly to her back with Nix maneuvering her where he wanted.
One arm holding himself up on the back of the couch, Nix crouched over her prone body as she waited to see what he would do next. Louise stretched out, thrusting her arms over her head while she got comfortable. Unable to stop a smile from slipping over her face, she pulled one foot up until it was flat on the couch cushion at the end.
She could almost feel the physical weight of his eyes on her body as they absorbed every aspect of her figure. From her neck down, her body felt alive at the perusal.
“Comfortable?” Nix murmured just before tucking his face into her neck and taking a deep breath.
Louise moaned. “Yes.” The sound lingered on her tongue as he traced the slight dip in her collarbone with his lips. Nix had the amazing ability to make her feel fragile. Fragile in the sen
se that he was so much larger than her, which was something she wasn’t necessarily used to. The men that she had dated in the past had been much smaller in stature. A few of them even weighing less than her, which caused her to pull back a little when they were physical. Nix was the opposite of that. There was no fear that she was going to break him if she got too excited. He was more than capable of bearing her weight without getting crushed, and that simple thought was incredibly freeing.
“You still with me?” he whispered against her mouth.
“Yes, sir.” Louise noted how his eyes darkened at her response.
“Good,” he replied firmly. Tightening his grip on her hips, Nix pushed his way into her mouth. Not giving her a chance to say anything else for a long while.
Chapter 12
The sound of something vibrating on the coffee table barely broke into Louise’s thoughts as she lazily kissed Nix. Something she had been doing for the last twenty minutes or so. The fact that she had any spit left in her mouth was surprising considering that her lips had been locked on to Nix’s the entire time. Pulling her mouth away from his was one of the hardest things she’d ever done…and that included the time she had to pick something when she was offered whatever she wanted from the Cheesecake Factory dessert case for free because they dropped her dinner in her lap.
She would give up cheesecake forever if someone would make the buzzing stop.
Then Louise remembered why her phone would be buzzing this late at night. Looking at the table, she watched her phone light up as it jiggled across the wood. At the turn of her head, she felt her eyes start to roll back when warm lips tugged on her earlobe.
“Nix?” Louise said huskily, shifting her hips where he was cradled to try to indicate he needed to get up.
He took the shifting of her pelvis as an indication that she wanted him to thrust against her, something that they had been doing while lying plastered against each other. The only reason she couldn’t enjoy the movement was because she could clearly see that it was Winter who was calling. It was probably not a good idea to ignore a call from the person watching the nephew. That was one of the major rules of parenting, right?
“I have to answer that,” she whispered sadly. Louise shimmied her way out from under his body enough to grab the phone. Sitting up, she glanced back at Nix as she tried to shake off the heavy feeling of lust vibrating deep within her core. She needed to talk to Winter but didn’t want to have sex voice when she did it.
Swiping to answer, she noticed that she had three other missed calls from her friend that she must not have heard come in earlier.
“Hey!” answering with false cheer, she tried to make her voice sound upbeat instead of completely turned on by the man still reclining behind her.
“I’m so sorry. I hate myself for interrupting your date, but we have a slight problem,” Winter said.
Nix started rubbing her back, distracting her from what she needed to focus on. Turning slightly, she tossed him an apologetic look before standing up so as to calm further temptation.
“What’s going on?” she asked urgently. At the seriousness of her voice on the phone, Nix straightened up as he was most likely remembering her tiny human commitment.
“Sooo, we were making crafts, right?” Winter said.
“Just tell me that everything is ok,” Louise snapped. The cloud of lust that was fogging her brain earlier now completely cleared.
“Nobody is bleeding,” her babysitter hedged.
“Winter!”
“Okay, we were making crafts and somehow, for some reason that I cannot understand ,” Winter said loudly, obviously speaking partially to Louise’s nephew, “Junior stuck a couple googly eyes up his nose.”
“He what?” Louise screeched, causing Nix to jump.
“Everything okay?” he asked, pulling his T-shirt back over his head. A T-shirt that Louise had taken great pleasure in stripping off him not long after they’d melted on the couch.
“Junior stuck something in his nose,” Louise relayed.
“Googly eyes,” Winter repeated on the phone. “How many do you think you stuck up there, Junior?”
Louise pinched the bridge of her nose and tried to stay calm. “How many did he say?”
“He doesn’t remember because ‘he still has trouble with his numbers.’ That’s a direct quote,” Winter answered, sounding amused.
“Sweet baby Jesus.” Louise took a few deep breaths, so she wouldn’t lose her mind. “I’m on my way now. Don’t let him stick anything else up there!”
Slipping the phone into her pocket, she tracked down her shoes quickly, not paying any attention to the man shadowing her until she walked to the door.
“What are you doing?” Louise asked confused when Nix reached for his keys on the entry table next to the door.
“I’m going to take you home and make sure Junior is okay,” Nix answered as if it were obvious.
“I can han—”
Nix interrupted her before she could finish. “I know you can, but as a firefighter, I’ve had some decent medical training that might come in handy, so I’m coming with you, and I’m driving.”
“I can drive,” Louise argued, unsure why he wanted to come much less drive her.
“I know you can,” Nix replied still not changing course as he walked her to his large SUV and tucked her inside.
Without further ado, they were off and at Louise’s house close to fifteen minutes later. Both of them were quiet on the drive as Louise googled what you were supposed to do in this situation. Louise opened the front door and was about to call out when she heard giggling from the kitchen. Rushing into the room at the back of the house, she stopped in her tracks when she saw Junior sitting at the kitchen table with a glass of milk as if he didn’t have a nose packed with googly eyes.
“Aunt LouLou!” Rushing over to her, he enveloped her legs in a hug before moving back to the table and handing her a wadded napkin holding something. “I’m okay. We got them all out.”
Winter was standing at the counter leaning back against it with her hands held out in surrender. “Sorry, I was going to call but figured you were almost home and didn’t want to distract you while you were driving.”
“How?” Louise asked cautiously, but happily surprised that the emergency had been taken care of before she really had a chance to panic any more than she already had. A hundred different scenarios had been running through her head on the drive to her house. It really had been a good idea for Nix to drive since she had been so completely distracted worrying they might have to make a trip to the emergency room. Looking down at the napkin, she saw four small googly eyes googling back at her.
“I sneezed,” Junior answered proudly, causing both Nix and Winter to laugh.
“You sneezed?” she parroted like an idiot.
“Yep, and they shot out with a bunch of boogers!”
Louise dropped the napkin she was holding, causing the previously booger coated eyes to fall to the kitchen floor.
“Aunt LouLou!” Junior quickly picked them up from the floor as if they were his new prized possessions. “I wanted to save them to show Dad.”
Louise tried to hold back a laugh, especially considering Nix was shaking with laughter behind her at the scene playing out before them. “Please don’t save those and show your dad what you stuck up your nose.”
Junior frowned up at her. The look of disappointment on his face was comical by itself. “I cleaned them off,” he pointed out as if that made the entire situation better.
Louise simply shook her head and looked over at Winter who tried to act innocent but was failing miserably
“So, when do you want me to watch Junior again?” she asked with a big smile.
“Am I surrounded by crazy people?” Louise asked, looking back at Nix for confirmation.
“I could have told you Winter was crazy a long time ago.” He shrugged. “Come here, buddy. I want to take a quick look to make your Aunt Lou feel better, okay?”
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Nix pulled out a small flashlight from his pocket and plopped Junior up on the kitchen counter. Tipping the boy’s head back gently, he shined the light up his nose to make sure everything looked okay. “I think he got them all out. Given their size I doubt he got them too far up there, but it might be a good idea to take him to an ENT to have a second look. I would also rethink your choice of babysitter in the future.” Nix chuckled as he winked at the women.
“Hey now,” Winter exclaimed while she repacked her craft bag. “I’m sorry about the nose thing. I really was watching him.”
“It’s not her fault,” Junior agreed. “I did it while she was peeing.”
Louise could only shake her head. Sharing a look with Nix that spoke volumes.
Winter must have caught the glance since she tried to hide a smile as she dropped her bag by the door. “Do you want me to put him to bed before I head out?”
“Nah, I got this.” Louise shook her head and moved to open the front door. “You guys can go ahead and head out.”
“I’m staying,” Nix said firmly, making himself comfortable in the living room where Junior was cleaning up his Legos off the floor.
“Wait, what?” Louise stuttered.
“Aaand I’m out,” Winter said, obviously knowing when to get out of an awkward situation. “Bye y’all. Catch you on the flip side, Junior!” she yelled, sneaking out lightning fast.
“Want me to read you a story, buddy?” Nix asked Junior before standing up and offering the little boy his hand.
“Yay!” Junior jumped up and down with excitement, the picture of him in his dinosaur pajamas beyond adorable.
“Go pick out a book, and we’ll be there in a minute, ok?” Nix patted him on the back to get him moving.
As her nephew ran out of sight and down the hallway, Louise raised her eyebrow at Nix. “You’re staying, huh?”
Taming Fire (Braving the Heat #2) Page 9
