Unlike some people, who’d rather eat restaurant food five nights a week.
She gathered margarine, mayonnaise, and mustard, and deposited the containers on the counter. Lettuce, tomato, onion, and half a green pepper followed. Her engagement ring mocked her as her hands flitted between the frozen loaf of crusty French bread and opening the deli packages she’d brought for Royce.
The scum!
She yanked off the ring so quickly, her knuckle throbbed. She’d chuck it across the room, but he wasn’t worth the energy. She tossed it on the counter.
As the diamond bounced along Formica, the pressure in her chest lifted. For too long, she’d carried the weight of Royce Carbuncle’s so-called love on her finger. She’d never have to wear the offending chunk of ice again.
She didn’t even like the damn thing. The design was garish, not her style at all, but Royce’s.
Like everything in her life. Royce’s tastes. Royce’s decisions. Nikki the numbskull had just followed along.
Luckily, even numbskulls could learn.
She heated the oven to thaw the bread. Santos’s head remained buried in his food bowl. The everyday sounds of his strong canine jaws munching kibbles soothed her.
“Need any help?”
Alex.
She turned. He leaned against the doorframe, hands in the pockets of his ridiculously short, baggy pants. This morning, the gray boxers had been absent from the bathroom, which meant he wore them again.
Too bad. She rather liked imagining his things unclad.
Her skin prickled. Barely over an hour ago, she’d broken off her engagement and already she lusted for another man.
Not any man, though. Alex Hart was one of a kind.
“I’m okay.” She tried a smile. “I’m making lunch.”
His gaze drifted over her. “Don’t,” he said in a gruff voice.
Heart beating like a tom-tom, she placed the foil-wrapped bread on the stovetop. “Don’t what?”
“Pretend nothing’s happened.” He shoved off the doorframe. “I know you phoned Royce after you talked to Karin. When you went into the woods, Violet came and told me. She said you needed time alone, or I would have gone after you.” He stepped toward her. “It took everything in me not to go after you, Nikki. When you came inside a minute ago, it took everything I have not to encroach on your space.” He pulled his hands out of his pockets, fingers splaying. “I’m running out of willpower.” His gaze locked on her face.
Her pulse scattered. “What else did Violet say?”
“That you’d talk when the time was right. But I can’t stand to see you in pain, Nik. Tell me what the jackass said. I’ll gladly throttle him for you.”
“I’m not sure I want to witness any bloodshed—”
“Nikki—”
“He’s not coming.”
Alex’s gaze darkened. “Did he have an excuse?”
“Yep.” The carbuncle’s duplicity knew no bounds. Similar to her, with her crazy kidnapping scheme. But at least she knew when to stop. “Some fake crisis at the clinic.”
“Fake?” Alex echoed, and she nodded.
“That’s not what he told Karin, but it sure as hell is what he told me. Granted, he didn’t say fake crisis. He did want me to believe him. But he tried to hand me a real snow-job, Alex. He caked on the charm nice and thick.” Her face heated. “Get this. He told Karin he didn’t care if I had a pre-wedding fling. He told me he knew the note was a ploy to get him to take time off. ‘A sexy little game,’ he called it. Then he said he believed so strongly that you and I aren’t fooling around—and that we never would—that he didn’t even call you to find out if you were home! He droned on and on about how much he’d wanted to play out my sexual fantasies by coming after me. But he couldn’t.”
“Because of this crisis?”
“Yeah.” She snorted. “A real lame one. A rich patient who threw a tizzy when his receptionist tried to reschedule her appointment. He tossed in a power lunch with my father and the clinic’s other two partners. One of them is due to retire soon. Did you know that? I didn’t. And then Royce can slither right in there.” She wriggled her hand in imitation of a snake’s movements—one far slimier than poor Lucy. “Turns out that’s why he asked me to marry him. The clinic employs three doctors besides Royce. All of them want to make partner. Being with me gives him an edge. He doesn’t love me, Alex. He never has.”
Alex’s hands fisted. “He told you that?”
“He didn’t have to. It was pretty easy to guess that love was never part of the equation for him.”
Or her.
She saw things so clearly now.
She’d fallen for Royce, but for the wrong reasons. That someone her parents approved of had wanted her, had tricked her into believing he accepted her, had sucked her in.
She’d allowed him to use her. What a weak-willed wimp.
“He hit on Karin, you know.” She jerked a hand. “She told me. But when I asked him about it, he said Karin hit on him. The ass! After that, the conversation fell apart. I got ticked, he became defensive. And then he began dictating to me. He actually laid out his plans for our life.”
“Aw, Nik.” Alex stepped forward again. “I wanted to warn you—”
“Don’t you dare apologize, Alex. I wasn’t ready to listen. This was my screw-up, no one else’s.” Her hands trembled. She wiped them on her jeans. “We have the ideal arrangement, he said. We’re lousy together in bed, you know. Well, Royce doesn’t think he’s lousy, just me. Not only that, but he’s had ‘an indiscretion or two,’ as he put it. And he wants me to accept that it might happen again! Accept that he’s unfaithful! Apparently, he thinks I’m too chickenshit—”
“Nikki, hey.” Alex’s long legs swallowed the space between them. His strong arms curled around her, his solid chest... right there. Offering a haven for her to shelter in. A refuge of sinew and muscle and caring man.
As Santos’s munching filled the small kitchen, Nikki curled her arms around Alex’s waist. “That’s why he kept postponing setting the wedding date. If he made partner before the wedding, then he wouldn’t have to marry me at all. But he said I shouldn’t worry, that our marriage is still in the best interests of the practice. My ‘sexy little game’ helped him realize that.”
Beneath her head, Alex’s chest muscles tensed. “He thinks you’ll go through with the wedding?”
“He thinks I’m too spineless to call it off, even though I told him we’re through,” she said against the flannel barrier hoarding Alex’s warmth. “He thinks I won’t risk disappointing my parents—yet again, as he loves to remind me. Then he said he wants me to return to Seattle as soon as possible so we can ‘discuss our future rationally.’” She mimicked Royce’s deep voice. “His one concession is that we can get married whenever I want. I finally get what I thought I was after, and, you know, it doesn’t feel so sweet. Yeah, we’d get married, Royce would give me every material thing I couldn’t care less about, he’d make partner, and then we’d have this supposedly wonderful, loveless, rotten-sex life together.” She gazed up. “I don’t want that anymore, Alex.”
“You never did,” he replied, his voice both rough and gentle. His hands slid up her shoulders and rested on either side of her neck. His thumbs massaged her knotted muscles. “You’ve always wanted love, Nik. That’s been clear from the start.” His mouth curved. “Okay, maybe not when I was tied up in the van, but shortly afterward.”
She smiled a little. Alex soothed her frazzled soul so easily. Being with Royce had always felt off-kilter, but having this man hold her felt like coming home.
“Clear to you and to me, maybe, but not clear to my fiancé. My former fiancé,” she amended.
Oh, Alex’s hands, his touch. As the gentle onslaught continued, hot smoke swirled inside her.
“Alex, I’m embarrassed. I should have picked up on his signals. No wonder we haven’t made love in ages. There’s been no love to make.” Not for either of them.
Alex’s hazel gaze softened. His fingers glided up her throat. “Ah, Nik...”
“Don’t pity me,” she whispered.
“This isn’t pity. Royce is an ass.”
She inhaled. “He said... I don’t do it for him.”
“Then he’s more than an ass. He’s an imbecile.” Alex’s thumbs stroked her jaw, and the smoke swirled hotter. “You’re beautiful, sexy, desirable. Don’t let any man ever tell you otherwise.”
Her mouth dried, and her blood rushed. Carnal need danced in her veins. Forget Royce and the last humiliating couple of hours. She wanted now. She had to know.
“Do you think I’m desirable?” she whispered.
His eyebrows arched. “You have to ask?”
“Then show me,” she murmured, heart racing. She could scarcely believe her daring. Why tap-dance around her feelings for Alex any longer? Her sham of an engagement lay shattered at her feet. She was free to love who she wanted. Free to share her body with a man whose slightest touch thrilled her.
He sucked in a breath. “Do you know what you’re saying?”
“Yes. I want you to show me, Alex.”
“We shouldn’t. You need time.”
“I need you.”
“Nikki.” His hands cradled her face, his touch like silk, pure magic. “You’re killing me.”
“Then show me.” She skimmed her hands up and down his broad back. “I want to make love with you, Alex. I’ve never wanted another man this badly. Not even Royce. Only you.”
A low groan issued from his throat as his mouth came down on hers.
Finally.
A dizzying sweetness filled her. Greedily, she pressed her lips to his. Opening her mouth, she took him in. Velvet stroked velvet.
But she wanted more. She wanted him deeper.
His fingers gathered in the curls at her nape. Then his hands slipped downward, his palms caressing her shoulders and arms. His fingers warm, possessive. Tingles emanated from every inch of skin and cotton T-shirt he touched.
Nikki breathed him in. Sweet saints above, she’d never experienced anything remotely this wonderful with Royce. This hot and sweet mesh of want and need mixing, swirling, burning.
The sensations swamped her, threatened to drown her—and she loved it. Loved how free she felt with him.
How foolish she’d been to believe she could force love where none existed. Love found one at its own pace. She knew that now.
Love had given her Alex.
She grappled for his shirt buttons, and the plastic discs and ancient threads popped. His chuckle rumbled in her mouth as their kiss softened.
Pulling away, she pushed the ruined shirt off his shoulders, down both his biceps... trapping his arms in the worn fabric. She smoothed her hands over his muscular chest, and his nipples puckered.
“Nikki,” he whispered. “Are you sure?”
Her tummy swooped. “More than I’ve ever been about anything.” She kissed him. “Make love with me, Alex.”
“You don’t have to ask me three times.” He shrugged off the shirt, and it fell into a puddle on the floor. He scooped her into his arms and carried her out of the kitchen. “Your place or mine?” he asked with a glance toward the beds.
“Mine,” she murmured. “Rusty’s sleeping on yours.”
He carried her over. “I don’t have protection,” he cautioned as he lowered her onto the quilt.
“In the nightstand drawer.” Here she’d thought she’d arrived prepared to jump her former fiancé’s despicable bones, but fate and a certain history professor had surprised her.
“I’ll keep that location in mind,” Alex mumbled in the moment before their mouths fused.
His tongue entwined with hers, and pure sensation drove through her. She wriggled her hips beneath his welcome weight. An approving groan sounded in his throat.
Alex’s lips plucked her mouth, his large hands curving her breasts over her T-shirt, molding her hips through her jeans. He clasped one of her hands between their bodies while they kissed, his thumb grazing the underside of her naked left ring finger.
He lifted his head. “You took off your ring.” His husky voice rolled like gravel.
“It means nothing to me,” she whispered.
“Well, that’s good. Otherwise, we shouldn’t do this.”
“We wouldn’t, Alex. I don’t tango.”
“Tango?” He smiled.
“You know what I mean. I don’t cheat.”
His gaze, suddenly serious, captured hers. He brushed curls off her forehead and then planted a kiss above her right eyebrow. “I know.”
The spot tingled. “Alex.”
He slipped off her T-shirt and cupped her breasts through her stretch-lace bra. Her stiff nipples poked his palms. He brushed them with his thumbs, and ribbons of pleasure coursed through her. His head dipped, his mouth torturing one nipple through the lace, and her breathing grew shallow. She gripped his shoulders while he slid off the bra straps and unsnapped the front clasp.
They embraced, both naked above the waist. Mouths melded, heated skin touching.
Blissful tension arced within her. She’d never known such ecstasy. She wanted more.
She delved her hands to his belt, but he tore away his mouth from hers and stood back from the bed. He shed his belt and trousers. The boxers quickly followed. His erection jutted in the mid-day light.
Her mouth watered.
She rose to her knees and crept to the edge of the bed, jeans scraping the worn comforter. Sexual need blazed in Alex’s eyes.
He tipped up her chin, and she smiled. Their gazes linked, and pure love rushed through her.
He kissed her, sweetly, tenderly.
Oh, how she wanted him. Not just for now. Forever.
His fingers skipped to the waist of her jeans, but this time she urged his hand away. She wanted to share something with him that she’d never shared with another man. No more waiting for this non-existent wedding night crap.
Breathing quickening, she curled her fingers around his rock-hard penis. He rewarded her with a low moan. Bending, she lowered her head and slowly, savoring each silken-steel inch, drew him into her mouth.
He raked in a breath as she ran her tongue over his bulging tip, then stroked his hot length with her lips and hands.
Up and down, up and down, luxuriating in the taste of him, until he groaned. The guttural sound rumbled.
“Nikki.” He dragged in air. “It’s been a long time, sweetheart.”
Smiling, she gazed at him. “You don’t like?”
“That’s the problem. I like too much. I’ll lose control if you keep it up.”
She stroked him. “Keep it up? I like the sound of that.”
He chuckled, urging her onto her knees again. Kissing her, he unsnapped her jeans and pushed them down her hips. Her desire-moistened panties went along for the ride. The garments bunched where her legs bent, but instead of coaxing her to stand or lie down, he slipped thick fingers between her legs and lowered his mouth to her breasts, sucking one aching nipple, then the other.
Her back arched from the sheer pleasure invading her nerve-endings. Just when she thought she couldn’t take any more, he lifted his head. Their mouths fused anew. He deepened the kiss, slipping a finger inside her.
A moan of desperate need rippled. She spilled it into his mouth.
As his tongue thrust deeper, a second finger joined the first inside her slick folds, gently stretching her, then sliding, stroking. Driving her insane.
The rough pad at the base of his thumb massaged her swollen nub, and desire spiraled. Urgent and hot and faster than she’d thought possible. The tension centered, soared, threatened to spin out of control.
But she didn’t want it to. Not yet. She wanted to take him with her.
She broke the kiss. “Alex... the nightstand... now.”
Fingers ceaseless, he granted her a lazy smile. “Mmm. I don’t think so.”
The spirals merged with hot tingles. Sweet mercy. He wa
nted to argue with her at a time like this?
“But Alex, I’ve never—I think I’m going to—ooooh!” The tension blazed, ebbed, arced, and then she shattered. Wave upon wave pulsing through her, against his questing hand, around his talented fingers.
Gasping, she sagged against him, her legs imprisoned in the bunched jeans. Gently, he withdrew his hand.
“Now the nightstand,” he whispered.
Nikki blinked. She should nod, but she couldn’t even move. Wow. Never in her entire life would she kick this man out of bed for eating crackers.
He turned to the nightstand, opened the drawer, and retrieved a packet, the bright noon sunlight playing on his muscular thighs and butt. Her brain kick-starting, she scrambled out of her jeans and panties and tossed them to the floor.
He faced her again. His gaze drifted over her, lingering on her rigid nipples.
She curled a finger. “Come here.”
Like a good captive, he obeyed.
Together, they fell onto the comforter. The worn satin caressed her skin as she opened her mouth beneath his, gripping the back of his neck with her hands before slipping them down to stroke the strength of his corded shoulders and upper arms. His heartbeat quickened against her breast, and desire clustered in her womb, slowly building, tugging, coaxing, licking hotly. She ran a hand over his chest, found a nipple, and rubbed it.
He groaned. “Ah, Nikki.”
His erection probed her opening, then eased in. One slick movement, one deep thrust, and she was whole.
She wrapped her legs around him and held him there, cherishing the soul-stirring sensation of Alex buried deep inside her.
Then his mouth covered hers again, and he began moving. Long, slow thrusts that left her needy and aching. The blissful tension she’d just experienced fluttered, looped, and started its flashpoint spiral.
She cupped his ass and urged him to pump faster. Harder now. Then deeper. Slower. And faster again. Still faster.
His mouth pulled away. His face was tight and his breathing choppy as he neared release. “Nikki...”
Her body pulsed, heart clenching. She lost herself in his eyes, his touch. She released her very soul.
Borrowing Alex Page 13
