“I can’t wait,” he’d said, his teeth catching deliciously on my earlobe in a way that produced a clenching in my underwear.
And that’s when the panic hit.
I wanted this. I wanted Nick. I wanted his body. I wanted to connect with him in that way again. I wanted all the sexy things to happen tonight.
But a dark voice intruded into my thoughts, pricked my confidence and the sumptuous lust cloud I’d been riding. The same voice that always pointed out I would never have the same thighs or waistline as the model on the Peloton commercials.
So when Nick ushered me in and invited me to get comfortable while he took Sir Duke out for the dog’s evening constitutional, I’d been relieved.
Then I’d abruptly panicked again when the tortuous internal whispering resumed. My mind whirred through the Google results list of all the women Nick had dated. Actresses. Models. Heiresses. All tight-bodied, with perfect skin, TV hair, and dainty features.
It was almost a certainty that none of those women wore a size ten shoe.
Or an eight double-wide.
Whatever.
By the time Nick and Sir Duke came back, I was downright terrified.
Nick gave Sir Duke a command I only half heard, and the dog scampered off to another room.
We both listened as canine feet skittered away into the adjoining rooms. Our gazes connected.
Sweat dripped down my back.
Great, Zora. You’re off to a great start, before the action even starts.
Nick frowned at me and started forward.
I took a step back.
“Zora, is everything okay?” His expression softened as he took another step closer. I willed myself to stay still. “Are you nervous? You don’t have to be. I know we got off to a, er, good start at the party, but we don’t have to do anything tonight. We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. I’d be happy to just hold you again.”
I nodded maniacally, my gaze still on Nick as he took quiet, stealthy steps forward until he was directly in front of me.
“I want to do this. I do. I’ve been wanting it, thinking about it for a while now,” I admitted, shivering when Nick’s eyes darkened at my admission. “I just got to thinking.”
Slowly, he reached for me, hands settling on my back, pulling me into the hard surface of him. Clever fingertips dug into the taut muscles around my neck, dipped into the reef of my spine, elicited pleasurable spasms.
“What are you thinking, baby?”
I blinked. “Baby?”
You know, it could just work. I could get used to that.
“My asshole isn’t bleached.”
His hands and all their clever machinations stilled.
He burst out laughing and pulled me to into his shaking chest.
“I’m serious,” I said. My hands went around him too, coasted along the planes of his back and all that hard, striated muscle. Whew. Hot.
Down, Celeste.
“Zora . . .” He wiped a tear from his eye, then dissolved into another round of laughing. “Why on earth is that on your mind right now?”
I shrugged. “It’s the truth. I just wanted to make it clear, upfront. Before this gets started and you have buyer’s remorse.”
Any trace of mirth suddenly fled his expression.
“I would never—”
“No, I’m serious. Listen. The last time were together, I was eighteen. My breasts had more giddy-up and less ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.’ I’m wider in certain places, I’ve got stretch marks. There are a few dimples on my thighs. I’m not what I used to be, what you remember.” I let out a shuddery breath. “What you’re used to.” I looked away from him, painfully self-conscious.
“I need you to listen to me.”
He cupped my chin and turned it until I met his gaze.
“All these years, you’re all I’ve ever wanted. All I ever dreamed about. The thought of you, of living this very moment one day, is what propelled me through every hardship, every hoop, every hill that ever stood between me and what I wanted. I built the company, the empire, the life that I have today knowing it would only have meaning if you stood in this dream beside me. For twelve years, I’ve walked this earth missing my other half, afraid to hope that you’d give me another chance and make me whole again. You’re the only woman I want.”
His expression was infinitely kind and gentle when he added, “And I’m perfectly happy to prove I don’t care whether your asshole is bleached or not, I’m sure we can—”
I slapped a hand over his mouth, feeling my face heat. “Okay. I hear you.”
His head tilted to the side. “Nah. You know what? You’re a researcher. A scientist. A scientist with a lab full of cameras. A woman who likes to watch. I think the best thing I could do is provide you with a little of the observational data I’ve collected. How does that sound?”
“Uhhh . . .”
“Yeah. I think that’s what we need. You need a data-driven approach to quiet all those doubts in your mind. And lucky for you, I’m a committed scholar of all things pertaining to you.”
He ducked his head to kiss me. It was sweet and chaste to start, then long and lewd as his tongue plumbed the depths of my mouth until I was hot and helpless. Gripping handfuls of his shirtfront. Leaning against him for balance. He gave my bottom lip a last lick, then bit it just enough that my inner muscles contracted.
“Do you know what I thought when I first saw you again?” He whispered it in my ear, then turned his face to lick the silken skin behind my ear.
I gasped. His beard abraded the sensitive skin of my neck and sent rivers of sensation streaming to all my secret places. My nipples tightened in my strapless bra.
Dimly, I registered we were moving. He walked us backward, legs between mine, arms banded against my back, steadying me.
“I thought, ‘Damn, how can she be even more beautiful after all this time?’ I saw your face, then all those damn curves and I couldn’t breathe.” He chuckled against my neck. “And then you got on your hands and knees to chase that battery. And I wanted to punish you for making me hard, for making me want you that badly in a room full of people.” Sharp teeth nipped at my neck, followed by the soothing swipe of his tongue. “I’m going to make you pay for that.”
I tried not to moan like a shameless hussy. “I hated you when I saw you. Hated that I wanted you despite what you’d done to me.”
Nimble fingers worked along my back. Cold air met the newly exposed skin of my back.
“It’s all right.” He straightened to look at me. The burnished color in his cheeks made his green eyes even greener. “You can work out all that hatred on me. I can take it. I’m not going anywhere.”
He tugged at the dress until it fell, leaving me in my underwear, then lifted me out of the circle of it.
“Then you fell asleep on top of me on the plane.” His head lowered to the skin right above my breasts, his tongue tracing an indiscernible pattern. My hands opened, closed involuntarily. “I had to spend that whole plane ride hard, trying to think about my grandmother so I wouldn’t be some pervert. But Zora? Fair warning. I’m a pervert.”
We made slow backward progress down a hallway decorated in muted tones. I barely noticed. My head, my heart, all of my senses swam with hyper-awareness of him. Of his hands on me. Of all I wanted to do with him.
Of how much I loved him.
My bra fell away. His hands immediately went to my nipples, tweaking, rubbing, pulling.
“Were you trying to kill me that day in your office? Those thighs, that ass . . .”
I barely registered what he was saying, cocooned as I was in his sensual spell, floating on a current of bliss as we backed into a room.
His hands cupped my ass, gave it a proprietary squeeze.
He groaned.
I groaned, my hips unconsciously seeking him and his hardness.
My panties melted away. The backs of my legs hit a bed.
Just like that, I sat on his bed. La
id back.
Nick stood before me. His gaze moved over my body. Even in the dark, I read the hunger in his expression.
And I wasn’t nervous anymore.
I felt powerful under his gaze.
A wicked smile curved my lips as I beckoned for him to come closer, to join me.
He didn’t hesitate. Before I knew it, he was over me, biceps bulging as his forearms caged either side of my head. My nipples rubbed against the cold, smooth surface of his shirt and tightened unbearably. One of his hands moved, trailing a path of fire down, down the undersides of my breasts, over the small hill of my stomach, tangling in crisp hair before parting my lips. Broad fingers tested my wetness, dipped and danced around my clit, dived in my tight channel until I was squirming under him. Moaning. Cursing.
“Somehow, I don’t think you’re nervous anymore.” He sounded insufferably smug.
“Dear God, shut up and do me already.”
He laughed, swallowing my moans, his delving tongue mirroring the sly ministrations of his fingers below, his free hand insistently pulling at my nipple.
I bucked against him, sensation tightening and tightening, my hands clawing at his back, clutching his stone shoulders.
Until it all detonated and snatched my awareness, obliterated the whole world. I laid on the coverlet, legs spread, arms akimbo. Melted. Deconstructed.
Then the slide of a zipper penetrated my lust fog and I remembered.
I remembered what I wanted.
And I was going to take it.
“My turn.”
I pushed at his chest until he was under me. I straddled him, my thighs spread wide across him.
“Zora.” The timbre of his voice dropped, his eyes unbearably soft as he cupped my face. “I dreamed of this.”
I grinned. “Me too. But I don’t think I can be gentle.”
His smile was wolfish as his hand shifted up until it was buried in my hair. “Promise?”
“No, you’ll just have to be brave.”
I took his mouth while I tore at his shirt, ripped at buttons until the front was open. I hated severing our connection, even for the brief time it took to pull his undershirt over his head. He wriggled out of his pants. I helped to peel his boxers down his legs.
Until he was finally naked.
All that hard muscle was on display, from the muscled terrain of his chest to the deeply indented grooves of his Adonis belt.
And the beautiful, curving dick in my hand.
“There’s your empirical evidence,” Nick choked out.
I didn’t think Nick breathed as I ran my hand from the base to the tip, squeezing, milking.
His hands ran up my body until they settled on my breasts. His voice, when he spoke, was rusty. “Hey, Zora? Remember what you said about just doing it? I would like to put in a vote for that. Right now. Please. Please put me inside you. Please let me feel that wet pussy coming all over me.”
I was delirious with need, flirting with danger, canting against his dick until it nestled sweetly against my lips. I wanted to feel him inside me with no barriers, nothing between us.
Jesus. Leigh had not been too far off when inquiring about my current use of birth control.
“Where are your condoms?”
“Bedside table. Here.” He commenced with an awkward shuffle up the bed, pulling me along, until we were at the head of the bed. I leaned over, opened the drawer, and snatched out the unopened three-pack.
“Unless,” I began, unable to stop myself from sliding along his thick length.
His eyes widened. “Yes? You were saying? Unless?”
I closed my eyes, relishing the thrill of him, under me, in just the right place. Just a little more to the right and he’d be right where I needed him. “Unless . . . I have an IUD.”
“That’s wonderful news,” Nick gasped out, his voice faltering as he exerted gentle pressure with his hands to still my grinding hips. “I have news, too. Good news. Oh, fuck me, I can’t think.”
“I’m clean.” I leaned forward to whisper it in his ear, then enjoyed the involuntary twitch of his hips when I bit his earlobe.
“Me too, me too,” he rasped. “I get tested on a regular basis, I can send you the results.”
“Mmmm.” I chased the scent of him, tasted the thin skin of his neck. “Me too. I’m clean, you’re clean. Sounds like we’re both safe.”
“So, we’re doing this,” Nick asked, and I’d have laughed at the high octave his voice jumped if I hadn’t been so out of my mind with lust.
“Yeah. I wanna feel you without anything between us.”
“Dear God, yes. Yes, let’s make that happen then.”
I shifted and lowered myself on him slowly, delicious centimeter by delicious centimeter, relishing the pleasure-pain of this impalement. Loving the way Nick writhed as if on a torture rack, fisted the sheets, swore.
Begged.
And then I finally took all of him, feeling our pelvises touch.
Nick gave a sharp intake of breath as I squeezed him experimentally.
Yes.
“This is mine,” I told him, feeling rich with power, brimming with the certainty that this, us, we, were meant to be.
Always had been.
“I thought I could go slow.” I moaned, feeling my hips quicken, the flashpoint of my orgasm that much closer. “I wanted to savor this.”
“We’ll go for slow next time.” He reared up, fastened his mouth to my nipple, his hips pistoning beneath me. “We’ve got time. We’ve got forever.”
We both came together, on the same breath, every part of our bodies entangled and pulsing. He pulled me into him, leaving our connection intact.
“This is forever,” he repeated in my ear, and I relaxed into him. Pliant.
Perfectly willing to wait for forever.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Zora
“No, Sir Duke. Let her sleep. We can’t convince her to stay if she doesn’t get her rest.”
I cracked open an eye and aimed a glare at the handsome man and dog in the doorway.
“Am I supposed to fall for this sham act?”
Sir Duke’s ear perked up when he heard my voice. Less than a second later, I was covered by over seventy pounds of greyhound. I shrieked as the dog’s coarse, wet tongue laved my face.
Nick laughed, then he was there too, sliding alongside me on the bed.
“You two suck,” I managed. Nick’s searching fingers found all my sensitive spots under the covers and tickled me until I begged for mercy.
Sir Duke howled along with my squeals.
It was a mess.
A wonderful, messy, loud mess.
A shadow of doubt, a lingering pull of distrust briefly soured my present giddiness. Dear God, I’d done exactly what Leigh predicted. I’d gone and slept with him, even knowing he’d willfully deceived me all those years ago. Did I really know what I was doing with him? What did this even mean? Was it stupid for me to open up like this after—
My inner monologue of panic was interrupted as Nick maneuvered my prone body until it was under his, his mouth sliding hotly against mine.
“Nick,” I protested, feeling mortified when I tasted the fresh mint on his breath and realized I hadn’t brushed. “You’re both animals! Licking me—”
“I didn’t hear you complaining last night,” he rasped in my ear, his hand sliding down to make mischief. “When I got you so wet with my mouth that you drenched the sheets—”
“Shh!”
Humor lit his eyes. I stared into those green eyes, arrested by the difference in him. He looked younger. Well-rested. Happy, with the hard edges gone.
“Who’s going to hear me?”
“Don’t corrupt Sir Duke.”
He rolled his eyes. “Oh, please. You weren’t thinking about any of that when you were screaming—”
“Okay, fine. I’m up, I’ll get up now.” I laughed. Nick gave Sir Duke a signal and they both clambered off the bed. “Are you both always up
this early?”
He arched a brow at me. “Well, yes, if you considered noon early.”
I threw back the covers in panic. “Oh, my God. It’s noon? I have to get into work.”
“It’s also Saturday, baby. Hopefully, you’re not planning to go in on a Saturday.”
Baby.
Was I just a fool, his fool? Again?
Let’s try. Maybe we can try to let go of the past, to believe in second chances.
“Well, I should go in, but if it’s Saturday that changes things.” I looked into the face of the man I loved and realized, yes, I did in fact love him.
I could try.
“Sir Duke and I have already been out on our morning run. We’re hungry. We should get breakfast. It was his idea.”
My smile felt unsure, but there was no mistaking the warm glow in my chest.
I’d leave room for hope, I decided.
“I could eat,” I said.
He made a show of covering both Sir Duke’s ears with his hands. “We should take a shower. You especially. You’ve got me all over you.” I grinned at his self-satisfied smirk. He looked so damn happy for the first time since he’d arrived in Green Valley.
So was I.
“I think you’ve had me just about every way.” He raised his brows significantly. “If you still want to test out that theory about my preference for bleached or unbleached—”
“Nick!”
“All right, all right.”
I pushed back the covers, winding the sheet around me. I loved the hushed, wide-eyed look he gave me as I headed into the bathroom. I turned back and gave him my best seductress smile. “Aren’t you coming?”
It was the longest, most pleasurable shower I’d ever had in my life.
We were getting ready to head out of the house, me in his comically large T-shirt and pair of shorts, dress folded over my arm, when a knock sounded at his door.
He looked back at me. “You expecting anyone?”
“Nope. I hadn’t had any plans to be here.”
He flashed me a grin. “What a difference twenty-four hours makes.”
With a protective hand on my arm, he moved ahead of me to answer the door. At his height, he had to stoop to use the peephole. His shoulders rose, stiffened. Something like regret colored his expression when he turned back to me.
Been There Done That Page 27
