Nick took her lips in another soft kiss, leaving her breathless. “She did a good job,” he told her huskily. “You’re glowing, Angel. You looked beautiful at your friend’s wedding but tonight – you’re a siren. And I’m falling a little deeper under your spell with every minute.”
She was saved from having to think of a reply – a very good thing, considering he’d just rendered her speechless – by the call to dinner. And throughout the meal, Nick continued to act the part of devoted date – showering her with attention; making sure her wine and water glasses were refilled; asking how she liked her food. He found little ways to touch her at frequent intervals – a hand on her arm, the brush of his lips against her temple, his thigh rubbing against hers beneath cover of the table. He even chatted pleasantly with the other guests at their table, suavely fending off questions about the nature of his relationship with Angela, and managing to steer the conversation back to more neutral territory when a question got too personal for his liking.
After dessert and coffee were served, he drew her out onto the dance floor, and she finally sighed in surrender as his arms closed about her. He’d rarely taken her out dancing when they had been together in the past, and she exulted in this rare pleasure.
“I see we fit together as well as ever, Angel,” he murmured against her ear. “Though I would have never doubted that fact.”
Angela lifted her head from his shoulder to give him a warning look. “I wouldn’t push your luck, Nick. I’m still not sure I shouldn’t be royally pissed off at you right now. And you haven’t even considered Dwayne in all this.”
“Ah, yes. The boyfriend,” replied Nick lazily. “How is your young man anyway? More importantly, why isn’t he here with you this evening?”
Angela considered lying, then thought better of it, knowing Nick could sniff out an untruth faster than a bloodhound. “Dwayne’s in Europe right now, competing in a series of track meets. He’ll be back in the States in a few weeks. And, well, we’re not – seeing each other anymore. We’re still very good friends but we decided that’s all it will ever be between us.”
Maddeningly, Nick didn’t look the least bit surprised at her news. “Correction, Angel. You decided that’s all it would be. I’m guessing good ole Dwayne would have gladly taken whatever scraps of attention you chose to throw his way.”
She refused to admit that he was right. “It wasn’t like that. Dwayne and I – it was never really more than friendship. We never even -”
“Fucked?” As usual, Nick never held back but at least he’d kept his voice pitched low. “Yeah, I figured that. He’s a nice enough guy for a nerd, but there was no way he’d have been able to handle a woman like you, Angel. After all,” he whispered, his teeth nipping at her earlobe, “it takes a man with certain talents to keep you satisfied. And I really doubt Dwayne would know how to -”
He yelped as she stomped on his instep with the stiletto heel of her shoe. “Don’t you dare,” she hissed. “Just – don’t.”
Nick laughed as he wrapped both arms around her waist, twirling her around the dance floor. “I knew he’d never been your lover,” he told her in a hushed tone. “Because you’d never have responded to me the way you did at the wedding if he had. In fact, I’d wager a guess and say that you haven’t had a lover in a very long time.”
“Unlike you,” she replied in a hollow voice. “And don’t you dare try and bullshit me, Nick. There’s no way I’ll believe you’ve been a monk for the last few years.”
“I haven’t. At least not for four years. But would you believe me when I tell you there hasn’t been anyone for almost two years now?” he asked quietly.
She hesitated, wanting with all her heart to take what he said as truth, but finding it hard to accept, given what she knew of his immense sexual appetites. “No, not really,” she acknowledged.
“It’s true,” he assured her. “Part of it was because I’d been working so hard to prepare for changing firms. But most of it was because I just got tired of it all, of how empty I felt. Of how,” he added in a husky voice, “I never came close to feeling what I did with you.”
“Nick.” Her voice was breathless, wispy, and she felt like swooning beneath his intense regard.
“Let’s get out of here,” he urged. “I want to be alone with you, Angel. Will you come with me?”
He took a step back and held out his hand. She hesitated, knowing that if she placed her hand in his she’d be falling back into more than just his arms. He would own her again, become the center of her universe, and she’d be risking far more than just her heart – her very sanity would be on the line as well.
Taking a deep breath, she placed her hand in his.
***
The elevator doors had barely closed behind them when Nick shoved her up against one wall, kissing her like a starving man. Angela groaned beneath the ferocious demand of his kiss, by the way his tongue plundered her mouth almost brutally. She slid her arms inside his unbuttoned tuxedo jacket, pulling him even closer against her as she clutched fistfuls of his dress shirt. He was already hard and ready, grinding the enormous swell of his erection against the silk of her gown, and she thought faintly that she could come very easily if he just kept that up a few more seconds.
She was barely aware when the elevator doors slid open and Nick guided her out, his arm wrapped around her waist as he walked her down a long, carpeted hallway. He stopped half a dozen times on their way, pushing her against the nearest wall or door as he kissed her again, each time a little more aggressively than the last. It was only when he paused to pull a card key from his pocket and open a door that she realized he was tugging her inside a hotel room. She’d just assumed they’d be leaving the hotel, to get his car or a cab, and then go – where? To her flat – the same flat where Lauren was bunking for the weekend? Surely not to Nick’s place, especially since she still didn’t even know where he lived.
But then none of those details mattered, that he’d evidently planned all of this out and had counted on seducing her tonight. Because all she wanted was to give in, to stop fighting this wild attraction that had never really died. She was finally being honest with herself – completely, totally honest – and admitting that she’d never stopped wanting him, that she’d only been fighting herself and not him these past months.
As Nick closed and locked the door behind them, she stood in the middle of the room, her arms crossed over her chest as she suppressed a shiver. But for once she didn’t feel in the least bit cold; rather, an all too familiar heat was suffusing her body and the shiver was pure reaction, nothing else. Her eyes drifted shut as she felt him step up behind her, his broad, hard chest pressing against her back, while his long fingers trailed slowly, arousingly, up and down her bare arms.
“It’s been so long, Angel,” he whispered, his breath tickling her ear. “I wanted to take this slowly, to savor you, seduce you. But all I can think about right now is how hard I am, how much I need you. Can you feel how much I want you, Angel?”
She trembled as his arms wrapped around her waist and he pulled her even closer against him. The hard bulge of his cock rubbed suggestively between her buttocks, in the place he’d sworn never to take her because it would be too much. “Yes,” she gasped unsteadily. “I can feel you, all of you. And I – I want you, too, need you just as much.”
His hands began to search along the side of her dress. “As I recall,” he murmured huskily, “this particular garment has a hidden zipper somewhere. Ah, there it is. Careful now, we don’t want to tear this.”
He unzipped the fragile silk easily, then helped her slide the garment off her body, leaving her clothed in just her lingerie and high heels. Nick turned her to face him, his big hands gripping her hips as he did so, and he looked his fill. His eyes grew darker, his skin ruddier, as he drank in the sight of her in a strapless bra of pale blue lace and a matching pair of panties.
He trailed a long finger over the exposed upper curves of her breasts, his breath
starting to hitch a little faster as he observed the taut peaks of her nipples straining against the lacy bra. “Beautiful,” he rasped. “Every bit as beautiful as I remembered. Still too thin but we’ll get to work on that quickly enough.” One of his hands slid around to squeeze her ass cheek, half-bared by the high cut of her underwear. “I should really be spanking you right now, for neglecting yourself that way, for not taking better care of this beautiful body. But not now. Right now all I want to do is this.”
Angela cried out in surprise as he slipped his hand inside her panties, thrusting two fingers deep inside of her soaking wet slit before hooking them against the front of her pelvis. It took a ridiculously brief amount of time – half a dozen deep thrusts of his fingers, a few whisks of his thumb over her clit – for her to come.
“Ohh! Ohh!” she whimpered, her body bucking against his hand as the orgasm continued to ripple through her. It had been so long, she thought wildly, so very long since she’d felt this way. She’d never been tempted to make herself come, knowing it would be a poor, unsatisfying substitute for the real thing. The last time she’d felt this sort of bliss had been the night of her twenty third birthday, and her long starved body rejoiced at the pleasure that had been denied to her for so many months.
Nick slowly, carefully, withdrew his fingers from inside of her, deliberately licking the wetness off. “Even more delicious than I remember,” he purred. “Now, get on the bed, Angel. And get naked. I can’t wait any longer to have you.”
She was too dazed to resist, and climbed onto the plush king sized bed as Nick undressed with uncharacteristic haste. She watched him with unabashed interest, her eyes starved for the sight of his powerfully muscled body, and especially the thick, heavy girth of his cock. She’d almost forgotten just how huge he was, how long and intimidating, and she shivered in anticipation, hoping that her out of practice body would still be able to accommodate him without too much difficulty.
And then Nick was splendidly, majestically nude, and he was kneeling in front of her, spreading her legs wide. Without another word, he took hold of that almost ruthless looking cock and began to slowly, inch by inch, guide it inside of her.
He was just about halfway in when his control snapped, and she cried out in alarm as he rammed himself the rest of the way in, buried inside of her now from tip to root. She froze in shock as her body struggled to accept him, her head thrashing against the pillow as she whimpered in distress.
“Shh. Easy, baby,” he soothed. His hand stroked the side of her hip, gentling her, letting her get used to the unfamiliar feel of him filling her, stretching her. “It has been a long time, hasn’t it? You feel tight as a virgin,” he groaned. “And – Christ – I don’t want to hurt you, Angel, but I need this more than I need to breathe right now.”
She hooked an arm behind his head and pulled his mouth down to hers, a move she would likely never have dared to try before. “You won’t hurt me,” she urged. “And I need it as much as you do. I need – to be fucked.”
Nick swore roughly as he pulled her legs up to wrap around his hips. “Then hold on tight, Angel, because that’s exactly what you’re going to get.”
“Ah, God,” she sobbed, her back arching off the mattress as he began to thrust powerfully, pounding that big, hard cock inside of her without mercy. And quickly, all too quickly, her body remembered him, opened for him, welcomed his fierce, primitive possession. Their arms and legs tangled together, their mouths fused tightly in a never-ending series of hungry, desperate kisses as they fucked like a pair of wild beasts. She came once, twice, was still shuddering in reaction as Nick, too, found his release. Never before could she remember him bellowing that loudly, his body shaking that hard as he emptied himself inside of her, filling her up with his cum until she could feel it trickling down the inside of her thighs. He collapsed on top of her, his body still twitching, as she struggled to breathe with his heavy weight crushing her into the mattress. Finally, he heard her gasping for air and hastily slid off of her, his arm draped limply across her stomach.
“Your hair’s a mess,” he mumbled against the side of her neck. “Sorry.”
She laughed, the sound distinctly hoarse. “Like I really care. Besides, you prefer it loose, don’t you?”
Nick pulled the remaining pins out of her hair, then spread the long raven strands out on the pillow. “You didn’t cut it,” he marveled. “In fact, it seems longer than ever.”
She gave a small shrug. “I didn’t pay much attention to my appearance these past few years, didn’t always bother with things like haircuts. It just didn’t seem important.”
“I could tell,” he replied quietly. “Looks to me like we’ll need to start from scratch, Angel – putting that weight back on you, ditching those butt ugly pantsuits. Not to mention -”
“Hush.” She placed two fingers over his lips and shook her head. “Not now. Please. I can’t, Nick. I just can’t deal with your rules and demands right now, okay? Just don’t – spoil this.”
“All right.” He wrapped her in his arms and kissed her forehead. “And I know I need to back off on some of that stuff, know that I can’t dictate to you the way I used to. Things need to be different. I need to be different.”
Angela caressed the damp skin of his stomach, kissing a path across his chest. “Well, not with everything,” she teased. “For example, I always liked the demands you made when we were in bed.”
He snickered, giving her a light smack on her bare ass. “Good. Because I’m going to be very, very demanding tonight. Good thing I planned ahead and booked this room. I don’t think I could have waited until we got to your place.”
Angela’s hand stilled as she fought off a sudden sense of unease. “That wouldn’t have worked anyway. Lauren’s crashing at my place this weekend.” She took a deep breath before adding quietly, “We could have gone to your place instead, you know. After all, that’s one of the ways you’re going to need to compromise if we’re going to make this work between us.”
His body tensed up immediately, and she could feel him beginning to withdraw, both physically and emotionally. “Angel, don’t. I agreed not to push you, so why don’t you agree to return the favor?”
“Favor?” She sat up abruptly, easing herself away from him. “For God’s sake, Nick, you’ve never even told me what city you live in, much less invited me to see your place. How is this relationship ever going to work if you can’t do something as simple as that?”
He growled, pushing himself to a sitting position and reaching for her. “I’m trying, Angel,” he bit out. “It’s not easy for me, but I’m trying. But you’re going to have to give me space, realize that it’s going to be baby steps all along the way.”
“Baby steps?” she repeated in disbelief. “Are you kidding me? If you’re really serious about making this work, Nick, then you need to be taking leaps right now. Great, big flying leaps.”
“That’s not going to happen,” he argued. “You’re asking too much of me, Angel, more than I can give you right now.”
Angela felt her heart begin to sink, along with all the hope she’d begun to feel this evening. She eased herself off the bed and began to gather up her clothes. “What I’m asking for, Nick,” she corrected, “isn’t anything out of the ordinary, isn’t anything that every other normal couple doesn’t accept automatically. But I’m beginning to see that you’re still not ready to change. Worse, I’m doubting if you ever will be.”
He bounded off the bed, splendidly nude, and she forced herself to avert her gaze while dressing hurriedly. If she kept looking at him, she’d be tempted to touch him again, and if she touched him she’d be back on that bed within seconds, with Nick buried inside of her.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” he demanded. “Get back in that bed right now. I’m nowhere near done with you tonight.”
“No.” She shook her head as she zipped up her dress. “But I’d gladly go back with you to your place, spend as many hours there w
ith you as you like. It’s your choice, Nick. Either we continue this at your place or I leave right now. Alone.”
His mouth tightened in mutinous anger. “Are you threatening me, Angel?”
“I’d prefer to think of it as an ultimatum,” she corrected, buckling her sandals. “But whatever you want to call it, I’d say it’s pretty obvious you aren’t ready to do your part to make this work between us.” She picked up her clutch and wrap, pausing with her hand on the doorknob. “You know where to find me when you finally decide you’re ready.”
And even as he began stalking towards her, she fled, heading for the elevator as quickly as possible before she lost her nerve and ran back in the opposite direction.
Chapter Twenty
“Jesus, Nick. Are you trying to kill yourself this morning? Or maybe avoid murdering someone else? Take it down a notch or two, man.”
Isaac Ochoa had been Nick’s personal trainer for more than a dozen years now, dating back to his days in pro football, and it had been a long time since he’d seen his client – and friend – work out with this much intensity. Isaac had arrived at the private gym around eight a.m. this morning, and from the looks of things Nick had already been hard at work for at least an hour. The trainer had watched Nick with mingled concern and awe as he put himself through a grueling workout, one that would have dropped any other man within the first twenty minutes or so – lifting weights, doing pull-ups, sit-ups, push-ups, back to the weights, then a round with kettle bells and medicine balls before heading to the punching bag. Nick, who was usually always controlled and deliberate about his workouts, was instead like a maniac today, unfocused and filled with raw power.
When Nick forced himself to do another fifty pull-ups, then dropped to the mat to start another series of push-ups, Isaac placed a restraining hand on his arm.
“Okay, that’s enough, man. I don’t know what the hell is bugging you this morning but you need to take a break. Even an ironman like you needs to back off once in a while. Here, drink this.”
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