by Jen Gilroy
“Way better.” His voice was hoarse and strained.
She traced the outline of the scar. “Is this from the accident?”
“When I crawled out of the truck, the metal—”
She silenced him with a kiss. “It’s over.” Then she wrapped her hand around his erection and stroked to learn his shape and feel.
“I wanted to take this slow, but if you keep doing that…” Nick closed his eyes and the pleasure on his face, pleasure she’d given him, gave Mia confidence and an unexpected sense of power.
“Maybe we should get the first time out of the way. Since I haven’t had sex in so long, I have a lot of catching up to do.”
His eyes flipped open. “Are you sure?” His mouth was inches from her nipples.
“Yes.” If she didn’t have time to think about what she was doing, what it meant or didn’t mean, maybe she wouldn’t lose her nerve again.
He reached for his jeans, found his wallet, and took out a foil packet. The condom she’d forgotten. The package crinkled as he tore it open, then he rolled the condom on and covered her body with his.
“No.” She wanted this to be different and wanted to take charge in a way she’d never done before.
“No?” Nick stilled almost before the word was out of her mouth.
“Yes, but not this way.”
“You want to be on top?” In the soft light of the bedside lamp, his eyes gleamed blue-gray like the color of the lake early in the morning.
She dipped her head as her face got hot, but he grinned and lifted her over him.
Mia held her breath and eased down on him, slow and steady. It hurt and she tensed but relaxed again when he stroked her. Her body opened and adjusted to his as he held himself in check. “Yes.”
He thrust upward, so gentle, and held on to her hips while his gaze never left her face. “Yes?”
“Oh yes.”
His smile had the sexy edge that always gave her a shivery feeling. She gasped as he thrust again, harder.
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You won’t.” She looked at where they were joined then back at his face and her breath caught.
Nick wasn’t thinking about anybody or anything else. Not work, not himself, and definitely not another woman. He was only focused on her and giving her pleasure.
He increased the pace as she did, and they fell into an instinctive rhythm until his breathing got hoarse. “Angel, I can’t wait, not…”
“You don’t have to.” She braced herself as he came hard, hot even through the condom.
Tremors still rocked through him as he reached for her and touched her where she needed it most. His thumb circled and sent her spiraling as the orgasm slammed into her.
“Nick.” From a distance she registered her voice calling his name. Her body quaked as he still pulsed deep inside her like he belonged there. She collapsed on top of him, and tears pricked behind her eyes.
“I’m right here, angel.” He kissed the top of her head and his gentle fingers caressed her cheeks. “Hey, you’re crying. Was I too rough?”
“No.” She swallowed hard. The tears she couldn’t hold back weren’t because of any physical hurt. Instead, it was the emotions sex with him had stirred up. Emotions she’d hidden so deep she’d never expected them to bubble out. “It got me, you know? I’d forgotten.”
Forgotten what sex felt like when it touched her heart and soul and reached to the core of who she was. If she’d ever known.
“Got me too.” Nick smoothed back the hair stuck to the side of her face, and his touch was tender as he brushed the teardrops away. “For a woman who says she’s out of practice, you’re amazing.”
Swallowing more tears, Mia breathed in the notes of his aftershave, her lighter perfume and sex. A musky scent of the two of them together. “I…I could make us a snack.”
She couldn’t let herself think about what he meant by amazing, what they’d done and how sex had changed things between them. Somehow she had to make this situation normal and get back some semblance of what was real and familiar.
Nick let out a sexy chuckle. “I thought what we just did was the snack.” He eased away from her. “Give me a minute and then we can figure out what we want to do for the main course.”
“You mean you…?” He couldn’t want her again, could he?
“We only got started, angel.” He rolled out of bed toward what must be a bathroom behind a door on the far side of the bedroom.
Mia slumped on the pillows and wrapped herself in the blanket. He did want her again, as much as she wanted him. That was the easy part.
What they’d started, though, was something else that, at least for her, might not be so easy to stop.
Chapter Eleven
Mia stretched and stuck her toes out from under the quilt. Sunlight poked through a gap in the curtains and illuminated the room with its mellow log walls. She was in Nick’s sleigh bed in the bedroom of his cabin, a place and a part of himself he’d kept hidden until last night.
She turned her head on the pillow. Nick was sprawled on his back beside her. His hair stood on end, and beard stubble darkened his jaw. His chest was bare above the sheet and, when she snuck a peek, he was bare beneath the sheet too. Even without her glasses, his magnificent body reminded her of what she’d missed throughout all those years of enforced celibacy.
Her body ached in unfamiliar places, and she stretched again as she eased a foot out of bed. She was also naked, the first time she’d ever slept without a nightgown or pajamas. She reached for her bra on the floor by the bed, and stopped as her arm was caught in a firm grip.
“Where are you going?” Nick’s voice was gravelly.
“I need to get my glasses and put on some clothes.” Mia blinked to try to bring him into focus. After what he’d persisted in calling the snack, she’d taken her contacts out while he’d watched, touched, and distracted her.
“Get your glasses, but I like you naked.” Nick rolled over and kicked the sheet away. He was hard.
Mia flushed and put her hands to her face. “I have to find my purse.” She gestured with one hand and then caught his stare at how the movement made her breasts rise and fall.
“Sure.” Nick laughed. “I’ll watch. I like to watch you.”
Clearly, he liked to have sex with her too, four times, finishing in the whirlpool tub in the adjoining bathroom, his body slick against hers.
Mia wrapped herself in the quilt, got out of bed, and grabbed the purse she’d dropped by the door the night before. She dug in it for her glasses case when her phone vibrated.
As she slid her glasses on, her breath caught at the name on the screen. Naomi. She hit ANSWER and moved to a rocking chair near the window. “Hi, honey? What’s up?” It was almost eleven, later than she’d slept in years, except last night she and Nick hadn’t done a lot of sleeping.
Still naked, Nick moved behind her and massaged her shoulders.
“Naomi? I can’t hear you.”
Nick eased the quilt away, and Mia shivered as his hands moved south.
“Where are you?” Naomi’s voice broke through loud and clear. “You didn’t answer your phone earlier, and I’ve sent you like a gazillion texts. Don’t freak out. Emma and I are at Ms. Brassard’s.” She hesitated for a heartbeat only a mother would clock. “With Dad.”
“You and your father are in Firefly Lake?” Mia lurched away from Nick’s touch. “You aren’t supposed to be back for another week.”
She’d counted the days last night like beads on a string, to plan how many times she could see Nick before the girls came home and she had to be a mom first.
“Dad wanted us to surprise you. We flew into Boston last night and drove here this morning. He had this great idea we should all be together.”
“We?” Mia reached for her panties on the floor and tried to wiggle into them. “Your father and I are divorced.”
And she’d spent the night having great single sex with a hot guy. Sex tha
t had gone a long way to restoring her confidence and reminding her of the woman she wanted to be.
“Dad says the divorce is only a piece of paper.” Naomi sounded younger than sixteen. “He thought you two could talk. Besides, Dad and Tiffany had this big fight, and Tiffany took the baby and went to her mom’s two days ago.”
So Jay had gotten himself and the girls on a flight to Boston as soon as he could. Mia’s lips tightened. She’d talk to him all right. They had a custody agreement that included all the scheduled vacation time with the girls he wanted. He couldn’t drop in and out of her life when he felt like it.
Mia stood and bumped into Nick, who eyed her with a mixture of lust and concern. “I’ll see you in an hour, Naomi.” She tried to smooth her hair. “An hour and a half tops.” It would take at least half an hour to get back to Firefly Lake, and Mia couldn’t turn up looking like she’d done what she had.
“Where are you, anyway?” Naomi’s voice sharpened with curiosity. “I took Dad to our house first and you weren’t there. Ty was cutting the grass and he said he hadn’t seen you, so I was sure you’d be at Ms. Brassard’s.”
“What did Gabrielle say?” Mia leaned into Nick, the one solid point in a world that tilted like a ride at an amusement park.
“She told us you left really early to meet a friend. Some place the other side of the lake.”
Mia pressed a finger to her temples, and the dizziness subsided. Bless Gabrielle. She hadn’t lied exactly, but she’d covered for her. “That’s why it will take me a while to get back. The cell reception isn’t great here. That’s why I didn’t get your calls or texts.”
Mia tamped down the guilt that needled her. Every parent had to stretch the truth to their children on occasion, didn’t they? Besides, she couldn’t be entirely honest with her daughter. She couldn’t tell her she’d been so into Nick and how he’d made her feel, she’d forgotten to check her phone for messages. She’d even forgotten to turn the phone’s sound on again after the play.
“Emma and I are hungry. Dad said you’d make us lunch.” Naomi’s tone was accusing.
The old Mia would have, but not the new and improved version. “What are Emma and your father doing?” She retrieved her cuff bracelet from under the bed and shook out her dress as Nick shrugged into his boxers.
“Dad’s working on his laptop on the patio, and Emma’s playing a computer game with Ms. Brassard’s granddaughter.” Naomi let out an aggrieved breath. “We wanted to surprise you so we left the airport hotel really early. Ms. Brassard already has plans for lunch.”
Mia clenched her clammy hand around the phone. “Tell your dad to take you to the diner. I’ll meet you there.” That would give her more time to think and plan.
“Okay.” Naomi’s voice became a whisper. “Dad really wants to talk to you. He told me a lot of things were a mistake, but he’d work it all out. Tiffany was so mad and Dad was, too. He said she could never compare to you. Tiffany made Emma eat processed cheese, and then Emma threw up. Twice.”
Do not react. “Naomi, honey—”
“Emma’s fine,” Naomi interrupted. “She might even have faked it so Tiffany would freak. I have to go.” Naomi made a kissing noise. “I can’t wait to see you.”
The phone went dead, and Mia dropped it onto the bedside table beside the pile of condom wrappers.
“Trouble?” Nick pulled her into a hug.
She bobbed her head, not trusting herself to speak. The panic and self-doubts were back and licked at her. To remind her sex with Nick had been an interlude and escape from reality.
Except, it had been more than sex. It had been making love. And there was a world of difference between the two.
Mia had been silent on the drive back to Firefly Lake. And, as she hesitated outside the North Woods Diner, she looked defenseless and dwarfed by the square, red-brick building where a neon sign in one of the windows overlooking Main Street advertised ALL-DAY BREAKFASTS.
Nick’s stomach rumbled to remind him he hadn’t eaten since the night before. But with Mia in his arms and in his bed, he’d forgotten about food. All he could think of, even with her ex-husband and daughters here, was when he could have her again.
He pulled the heavy door open, held it for Mia, and then followed her into the diner. The black and white checked tile floor and high red booths were the same as when he was a kid. Probably the same as when his mom was a kid.
“You don’t have to come in with me.” Mia stepped behind one of the big Boston ferns, which were Liz Carmichael’s pride and joy. “I’m sure you have stuff to do.” Behind her glasses, her eyes were blank and washed clean of emotion.
“Nothing pressing.” Nick scanned the diner packed with the Sunday after-church crowd. He zeroed in on Naomi and Emma at a table near the back. And the man with them. Jay, the guy who’d walked away from his family without a backward glance, destroyed Mia’s life, and made her doubt everything about herself.
Like his dad had done to his mom.
Mia tensed, and her face went white. Then she gave a little cry, and her heels clicked across the floor as she ran to her daughters with her arms outstretched.
When Naomi and Emma spotted her, they jumped up and ran too. The three of them met in the middle of the diner in a group hug.
Nick put one foot in front of the other, the movement mechanical. He’d seen Mia with her daughters before. He’d even grabbed a pizza with them once when he’d bumped into all of them in town.
But that was when Mia was his friend and not his lover. The step from friend to lover had changed how he saw her and how he saw himself.
“Hey, Nick.” Naomi gave him a high five.
Although the teen had Mia’s brown hair and eyes, she looked more like Charlie, with her aunt’s curvy but athletic build. Returning the gesture, he turned to Emma. The younger girl didn’t resemble either Mia or Charlie, and he’d always assumed her blond hair and blue eyes came from Jay’s side of the family.
“Hi.” Emma tilted her head to look at him. “Do you know I’ve got a cousin?”
“I do. She’s a real cutie.” Nick wasn’t any judge of babies, but that’s what his mom and everybody else said about Lexie.
“My dad says, except for my hair, I looked exactly like Lexie when I was born.” Emma stared at him and she angled her head to one side. “Why are you here with my mom?”
Because he’d made love to her all night, and because he cared about her and wanted to make sure nothing bad ever happened to her again. The realization hit him out of nowhere like he’d been punched. “Your mom and I are friends.”
Emma’s eyes narrowed, and for the first time Nick noted a similarity to Mia: the look she got when something made her suspicious. “Well, since we’re here now, you can leave.”
“Emma Rose Connell, you will apologize to Nick at once,” Mia said. “You know better than to be rude.”
“Sorry,” Emma muttered and held her arms tight to her body.
“I’m sure Emma wasn’t rude.” Jay joined the group and looped an arm around Mia’s waist. “She’s tired. We had an early start this morning, and since you weren’t here to make lunch, we ate later than she’s used to.”
Mia slid out of Jay’s grasp and retied the bow on Emma’s sundress. “I don’t think you’ve met Nick.”
“You’re the guy who helped Amelia with her mom’s foundation, aren’t you?” Recognition dawned in Jay’s sharp blue eyes. “My wife never had a head for business.” His laugh boomed.
“I have to disagree.” Nick forced himself to sound calm and polite. “Mia did a great job with the foundation. I only handled the legal side.” He stuck out his hand. “Nick McGuire.”
Jay gripped Nick’s hand in a firm shake. An executive handshake. He wore executive-on-vacation clothes, too. A white designer polo shirt, pressed jeans, and shiny black loafers.
“I’ll call you later, Nick.” Mia pulled at her sweater.
“Why would you call him later?” Jay slung an arm around Mia a
second time, and again she shook off his touch. “And why are you wearing those awful glasses?”
“If she says she needs to call me, she needs to call me.” Nick stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans as he pictured his fist connecting with Jay’s long nose.
“I’m helping Nick’s mom.” Mia’s voice was strong and even. “Besides, we’re divorced, so it isn’t any of your business who I call or why. Or if I choose to wear my glasses.”
Jay shrugged and gave a polished smile. “I’m looking out for my family, that’s all.”
He’d had work done, Nick was sure of it. The guy was forty, but his face had only a few strategically placed lines.
“Table for one?” Liz stopped at Nick’s elbow and rested a hand on the small of his back.
He read the warning in Liz’s eyes and the concern. “Sure.” He made himself smile back at Jay and the girls, but when his gaze landed on Mia, the smile slipped away. “Okay?” he mouthed for her alone.
“Later.” She linked arms with Naomi and Emma and moved toward the table they shared with Jay.
After Liz had led Nick to a table on the other side of the diner, hidden behind another one of those damned ferns, she filled his coffee mug and slid into the booth across from him. “Want me to drop a jug of ice water on his lap? I’d make real sure it looked accidental.”
The teenage Nick would have gone over and punched Jay out, but he hadn’t been that guy for a long time. “I’d say yes, except he’d probably sue and put you out of business.”
Liz’s chuckle was warm and comforting. “You’re worth ten of him. He criticized my biscuits. Said they had too much butter in them, which was bad for his heart.”
As if Jay had a heart. Nick clocked the hurt in Liz’s brown eyes behind the banter. “Your buttermilk biscuits that have taken first prize at the fair every year since forever?”
“The same.” Liz straightened the already straight silverware and paper placemat.
