Red Hot Lovers: 18 Contemporary Romance Books of Love, Passion, and Sexy Heroes by Your Favorite Top-Selling Authors

by Milly Taiden

  “You can put the groceries on the counter here.” She pointed to the kitchen island.

  “I’ll need to get the cooked food. I’ll be right back,” the delivery guy said.

  Ariana frowned at the bags of food on her counter. “What’s all this? Did you get me groceries?”

  Tricia grinned. “Nope, but he said he’s got a note for you.”

  Three trips to his van and the delivery guy handed her a note that went with her food.

  “Read it!” Tricia squealed.

  “Alright already. Jeez. ‘I hope this helps you relax and not stress over food. Nick.’”

  She glanced up at Tricia’s smiling face and struggled with the feelings and emotions rushing through her. He was on the other side of the world, and he’d arranged for her to have food and groceries. She swallowed at the knot in her throat. His thoughtfulness was astounding. Nick had always been sweet, but this was more than he’d ever done before, more than even she had ever expected of him.

  “I think he really wants to get back together.” Tears clogged her throat. She blinked back the moisture gathering in her eyes. Emotions were overwhelming her with the need to see him. She was turning into a wimp. Throughout their marriage, Nick had always been thoughtful and caring, but like all men, he’d slowly given a lot of it up in favor of believing she knew how he felt.

  It wasn’t a problem until things started going downhill with their trying to have a baby and then her miscarriage. The previously open and communicative relationship had shut down. Neither had been willing to let the other in. And now, here he was, going further in his attempt at reaching out to her than he’d ever had before, even before their relationship had hit the downward spiral.

  “I don’t know about all this.”

  “What don’t you know?” Tricia exclaimed. “He’s doing this to show you he cares. Even from the other side of the world, he’s thinking about you.”

  “His mom called.” Ari winced. Grace had been so good at making Ari feel like the most inadequate wife in the world. “Oh no. Not her. What the hell did she want?”

  Ari sighed. “To ask me if I planned on breaking his heart again.” Her stomach did summersaults and anxiety started creeping inside her.

  Tricia slammed a spoon down on the counter, the sound resonating around the kitchen. “Are you for real? That lady has some nerve. What the hell is it any of her business what you and N decide?”

  Ari shrugged, hoping the tea would soothe her stomach. “She thinks my drive to grow my business was what destroyed our marriage.” She grabbed the cup of tea Tricia handed her, brought it to her nose, and inhaled. “According to her, if I had used up more of my energy trying those fertility treatments instead of dividing my time between that and work, I would have had a few kids with Nick by now.”

  Tricia put a plate of toast in front of Ari. “That old witch. I swear if I ever see her around here, I’ll have her arrested for trespassing.” She pushed the plate closer to Ari when she made a face. “Have some. It should help you feel better. You really need to see a doctor. You look exhausted and way too pale.”

  “I’m okay.” She nibbled on a piece of toast.

  “You should tell N about his annoying nosy mama. Make him aware of her witchiness.”

  Ari shook her head. “Nah. I guess I understand where she’s coming from. Nick was hurt when I left him. I’m sure it wasn’t good to see her only child suffering.”

  Her doorbell rang again while she ate. This time it was her old cleaning lady, the one she’d let go of when she and Nick had separated. He’d sent her to clean so Ari wouldn’t have to worry about that and could focus on work.

  “So when is Mr. Wonderful supposed to make an appearance?” Tricia sat down across the table with a cup of coffee, watching Ariana nibble on the toast.

  “Tomorrow.” She sipped her tea and glanced down at the cell phone. He was probably on his flight back. She knew he’d be exhausted after the long trip and had suggested they see each other after he got some rest.

  “Are you doing anything special?”

  “We were supposed to go out to dinner. I think I want him to come over and eat here, maybe watch a movie. I mean I have groceries now, I can cook.”

  Tricia choked on her coffee. “You’re going to cook?”

  She sniffed. “I do know how to. I just choose not to.”

  “I know honey, but…wow. If you’re willing to cook for him, then you really want to make a good impression.”

  Did she? Hell, he’d done things he’d never done in the past for her. What held her back from doing something new, something nice, for him?

  “He’s been doing all this nice stuff from the other side of the world. I guess I just want to try harder now.”

  It was true. She didn’t want to let a second chance with Nick be messed up by stupid things that could be resolved with ease. Besides, he was making an effort for her, and she wanted to do it for him.

  Tricia placed a hand over hers on the table and smiled. “I know you do.”

  Her head was pounding worse than when she opened her eyes, but at least now her stomach wasn’t making waves. Ugh. The last thing she needed was to come down with something bad because of stress.

  “I think this client is giving me migraines. And an ulcer.”

  “You need to go to a doctor. All these long hours working are taking a toll on you. I swear, I’m going to start coming by here at night and check to make sure you went to bed.”

  Ari grinned and quickly winced at the pain behind her eyeballs. It was time to go to work. The faster she got that project done, the sooner she could take a day to just relax.

  *

  Ari bit her lip and studied her reflection in the full-length mirror. The dress was fine. Wasn’t it? Jesus. She’d never been this insecure about having dinner with a man, especially not her own husband. Not even on her first date with Nick, which happened to be a tutoring session gone strangely longer than usual, did she have the panic clawing at her gut like she did now. Thinking back to their first date always brought a smile to her face. He’d requested help, and she’d shown up to teach him. She’d been wary of his bad boy image, but as they said, don’t judge a book by the cover. While Nick had tattoos, long wild hair back then, and always wore worn jeans and vintage T-shirts, he’d been the perfect gentleman with her.

  Most of the night was spent talking about her love of crime novels and his love for all things handy. A second attempt at tutoring found them eating Chinese in his dorm room, while watching a sci fi movie. They’d talked for hours over what was the best horror movie ever filmed, and he even went as far as admitting to being creeped out by The Exorcist. When she told him she’d never seen it, he’d found his way into date number three. By then, she’d been too interested in the inconsistencies between the harsh bad boy outer shell and nice boy soft center.

  At the sound of her bell ringing, she blinked back the memories and turned to her bed in a panic. Piles of dresses, tops and skirts littered the mattress. She grabbed handfuls of her clothes and shoved them in the closet. Harley started to bark around her legs. She almost tripped over her dog in her rush.

  “Harley, shush!”

  When she tried to shut the door to the closet, the clothes kept popping out. She kicked them on the floor, shoving them far back in the small space, huffed, and shut and locked the closet door. There. Taking a final look in the mirror, she glanced at her dark hair and brushed the mess she’d made changing for the fifteenth time. The bell rang again. Oh, why did he have to be punctual? Damn it, she’d forgotten he was a stickler for being on time.

  Harley barked again, hopping around her in excitement. If she hadn’t known it was Nick before, she was sure of it now. Harley never got that excited.

  “Calm down, Harley. Don’t make us look so desperate.”

  Harley stopped her hopping, cocked her head and proceeded to run off toward the front door.

  “Nice going.”

  Slipping on some black s
andals, to match her blue and black dress, she ran down the hallway and stopped suddenly, exhaled slowly and strolled toward the door with as much calm as she could muster. Thankfully, he couldn’t hear how fast her heart was beating or see how sweaty her palms were.

  “Hi.” She tried not to sound breathless as she opened the door. That was beyond difficult. Seeing him in something other than blue jeans and a vintage Tee was different…and nice. The flowers and wine in his hands were another surprise. Nick had given her flowers before, but the times he had there had been some holiday happening.

  “Hi.” He glanced down her body and slowly made his way back up. Her skin heated from the flicker of lust she saw brightening his eyes. “You look beautiful.”

  A rush of pleasure filled her. “Thanks. Come on in.”

  He handed her the wine and flowers, her favorite purple roses, and stared deep into her eyes. “I wanted to bring you something I knew would make you smile. You’ve always loved these, so it was my first choice.”

  She nodded, unsure of what to say. This was Nick, but a new and better version of him. “I’ll…I’ll just put these in some water. Make yourself comfortable.”

  She filled the antique crystal vase her mother had given her as a wedding gift with water and the roses and placed it on the center of the dining room table.

  “I hope you don’t mind staying in.”

  He sat on her sofa, watching her walk toward him, his gaze penetrating and heating her to the core. “If that’s your choice, no.”

  “Great. Because I cooked.”

  He lifted his brows. She was grateful he didn’t say anything to embarrass her, because he knew the last thing she’d ever volunteer for was cooking. She’d bake the hell out of anything. Cooking was not her specialty. There were only a handful of dishes she knew how to make well, but tonight, she’d gone with the one she’d learned during the cooking course she’d taken after their separation.

  It had been something she’d done to help herself move forward more than anything. Finding herself cooped up in the house with no one but Harley had made it difficult to stop thinking about her failed marriage. So she’d taken Tricia’s advice and gone to some cooking classes. She’d also learned how to do some meditation to help her calm down and de-stress. Though it seemed her exercises weren’t helping her lately.

  Instead of making fun of her, he smiled, his full lips calling her attention. “Thank you, but I know you’re exhausted. You didn’t have to, we could’ve gone somewhere.”

  She shrugged, some of the insecurity she’d felt before returned, expanding inside her. “I wanted to…for you.”

  He stood and prowled toward her. Her breath hitched the closer he came, until she was almost panting by the time he stopped in front of her, lifted a hand, and cupped her cheek. Spine-tingling electric currents crawled down her body. The feel of his rough hand on her face brought comfort into her heart, diminishing some of the anxiety filling her.

  “Thank you. I appreciate your effort.”

  The sound of the oven timer broke the momentary spell.

  “Have a seat. I’ll bring the food over.”

  He followed behind her into the kitchen. “Anything you need me to do?”

  “Sure, open the wine for me.” She passed him the bottle and opener.

  Once she’d placed the food on the table, a table she’d made to look as perfect as possible without going overboard into the super romantic first date feel, they sat down to eat.

  He stared down at the Latin dishes she’d prepared and smiled. “Wow. When did you go back to your roots?”

  She grinned and watched him place large amounts of food on his plate. He’d always loved Latin food. Other than the few times they’d visited her family, he’d been the one figuring out how to make it. For much of her youth, her mom had tried to get her to learn to cook. After multiple burned attempts, it was decided she wasn’t interested in cooking. When she tried her hand at baking, it pacified her mother to know her daughter wasn’t completely useless in a kitchen.

  “I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve.”

  He moaned with the first bite. Pleasure swelled within her, leisurely spreading its wings, replacing any bit of insecurity over their date.

  “Hell, Ari. Have you been asking your mom about cooking?”

  She chuckled. She’d stopped asking her mom to teach her to cook too long ago. Not to mention, most of her family lived in Florida—way too far from her. Her sister, Briana, was the closest one, and she was currently off on vacation with her husband and children to the family home in the Caribbean.

  “If I told Mami I’m trying to cook again, she’d call the local fire department and put them on standby.” She lifted the wine to her lips and stopped. Her stomach burned and still felt pretty sensitive. Wine was probably not the best thing to add to the mix. She left the table and returned with a pitcher of iced tea.

  “What’s wrong with the wine?” He asked between bites.

  “Nothing. I’ve just had a lot of stomach issues lately, and I didn’t want to aggravate it with liquor.” She took small bites of the delicious-smelling roast pork shoulder. It tasted almost as good as her mom’s.

  “This is delicious. How long have you been hiding this new cooking skill?” He continued to eat with gusto, and it made all her hours laboring over the stove worth it.

  “I haven’t been hiding it. I took some classes early in the year, and a couple of the things stuck. I can’t live on take out forever.” She sipped on her iced tea. “By the way, thanks for the food and groceries. They were life-savers. I’ve been so busy, I’d forgotten to go food shopping.”

  He wiped his mouth and drank some wine. A moment later, he grasped her hand on the table. “I wanted to help ease some of your stress.”

  “Thank you. It really helped.” She smiled. His thoughtfulness wasn’t something new, but it was nice to be the recipient of it again. “How’s the business going?” She asked, poking at her food. Her stomach was still feeling delicate, and she didn’t want to eat much. Watching Nick enjoy her food spread a nice accomplished feeling through her. It had been the right thing to do.

  “Great. Busy, but great. I am still in awe at how much it’s grown recently,” he said between bites.

  “I know! I’m so amazed with your success. I mean you went from a local building company to a giant corporation in less than two years. How did you do that?” She had been so wrapped up in herself she’d missed his climb to success. All due to her internal turmoil and inability to cope with not being able to conceive. God. He’d been working so hard at the same time they’d been trying to have a baby. No wonder he was never around.

  He shrugged. “I tried so hard to keep my name from being connected to my father’s. Not wanting to be seen as Nick Parker Sr.’s boy. I wanted to be my own man. To control my success, and for it to be based on my achievement alone.”

  She’d known that about Nick. He’d always tried to push away from his father’s name and money. It wasn’t just the tattoos or the blue collar workman clothing either. He was one hundred percent hands on when it came to his business. She’d seen him put in long hours whenever he’d gotten the smallest contract.

  “So what changed things?” She stopped trying to force food down her throat and focused on him.

  His gaze lifted from the plate and locked on to hers. There was that open door again. Allowing her to view his shifting emotions. He looked a little unsure, and that bothered her. Nick had never had anything to worry about when it came to his work. He was damn good at it.

  “I was hired by one of my father’s friends and things sort of took off from there.” He took a gulp of wine and sighed. “What I didn’t want was what ended up happening. His friends started hiring me, and all of a sudden, I had bigger jobs. Bigger contracts. Huge clients wanting me to do overseas projects.”

  She nodded. Understanding dawned over his insecurity. “Nick, you got those jobs because your work speaks for itself. Not because of your dad o
r how big he is in the architecture world.”

  He smiled, showing off a tiny dimple by the corner of his mouth. “I like to think that. But sometimes I wonder.”

  “Wonder what? Do you honestly think that if you weren’t as good as you are, those huge companies would want to do business with you, father or not? No. Trust me on this. When it comes to business, you can suggest someone, but nobody wants to recommend a company that won’t live up to their recommendation. You’ve earned your success. Enjoy it.”

  He cupped her hand on the table again, drawing circles over her fingers. “You’ve worked hard for yours too.” His gaze bore into hers, heating her blood with a fizzle of arousal she hadn’t felt in a long time. “I’m so proud of you.”

  Her heart flipped. He’d never actually said those words to her before. Ever. She’d never really asked for his approval when she went into her business, but hearing him commend her on her work was nice. It made her realize how much she’d needed validation from him. The man she loved hadn’t for a long time acknowledged how hard she’d pushed herself to make her company a success.

  “Thank you. I’m—I’m proud of you too, Nick. We’ve both come a long way from the kids who got married right after college.”

  He lifted her hand up to his lips. “We have. You’re still just as beautiful as you were then.”

  She’d swear the temperature in the house shot up by a good twenty degrees. While she’d been used to Nick being a flirt before, he’d never looked so romantic praising her. It was surreal. Sexy as hell, but surreal. She realized she liked this Nick. She liked him showing more emotion and talking to her about business. She liked seeing this vulnerability about him. It made it easier for her to connect with the man she married.

  He started gathering empty dishes.

  “What are you doing?”

  He grinned, showing off the dimple again. The one she’d fallen in love with. “You cooked. The least I can do is clean up.”

  She bit her lip, trying to contain her laughter. “Why thank you. And your help will be duly rewarded.”

  He lifted a brow in interest, blue eyes turning a deep sapphire. “Really?”