Nina raised her head and looked around the totally unremarkable room. “You mean this ambiance doesn’t suit you? But it’s so warm, so personal,” she laughed.
“Cold and generic, I think you mean. I want to go someplace with a really big bed and a great big Jacuzzi tub and room service so we can wallow in luxury for a few days. Doesn’t that sound wonderful?”
Nina agreed that it did. “What should I pack? I’ve never been anywhere tropical. I probably don’t have anything to wear,” she mused.
“Just bring casual things, nothing too dressy. We’re going to be relaxing on the beach, eating in some places that have really good food, but nothing too fancy. It’s not like you’ll need a formal gown or anything,” John said sleepily.
“How about a swimsuit?” Nina asked innocently.
“Oh, sure. The beaches there are amazing,” John yawned.
“Good, because I have a great bikini. It’s red with a teeny little thong bottom,” she said mischievously.
John was instantly wide awake. “You can burn it now, Nina, because there’s no way you’re wearing it. Don’t you have something that’s one piece? Maybe with long sleeves and a skirt or something?”
Nina laughed. “You just described an ice-skating costume, John. Don’t worry about it; I don’t think I even brought a suit with me. I didn’t come to Michigan to swim.”
“We’ll get you one at the hotel. You have to go in the water down there, you’ll love it. Of course, I get to pick it out,” he said sternly.
“In your dreams, buddy.” Nina slid her body so she was completely on top of John, issuing a little sigh of contentment as she enjoyed the sensation of being so close to him. He continued to hold her hand, his thumb stroking the inside of her wrist. She smiled sleepily. “When I was really little I had a charm bracelet and there was one special charm on it from Puerto Rico,” she murmured. “It was shaped like the island and it was silver with pretty colors enameled on it. It really came from Puerto Rico, too. My mommy brought it to me because she missed me so much when she was there.”
“That’s sweet, baby. Where’s your bracelet now?”
Nina rolled off John’s body so quickly he didn’t have time to react. “It’s gone. I don’t have it anymore.”
She went into the bedroom and sat down on the still bare bed, looking down at her feet. John followed her at once, looking concerned. “What’s wrong, Nina? That obviously triggered a painful memory for you. Do you want to talk about it?”
Nina looked at John angrily and pointed her finger at him, unaware of its shaking. “I told you to stay out of my head,” she said angrily. “I’m not one of your patients, John. I don’t need your psychobabble, do you understand? I don’t need you trying to interpret my every thought and emotion and trying to make me over, okay?”
“Good, because that’s the last thing I want to do,” John said calmly. He sat down on the bed next to her and gave her a long, serious look. “I don’t know how to tell you this without seeming like a total jackass, but there are times when I wish I had any kind of job except mine. Not all the time, of course, but there are those moments when I wish I was a pediatrician, a butcher, a steelworker, anything but what I am.
“There are many times when it’s tremendously gratifying to be able to help someone come out of the darkness and misery of an emotional or mental illness, times when I see a patient able to break away from their demons and being to live fully and without fear. That’s when I’m absolutely sure I’m doing the right thing with my life.” He laughed with no mirth before he continued. “Then there are the times when I want to tell people to just get a life. If your husband is a louse, leave him. If you hate your job so much, quit. You dream about food because you’re hungry, so go eat something.”
He stood up and pinched the bridge of his nose. “The people who really get to me are the ones who can’t even articulate their pain, they don’t know how or when or where, but somewhere along the line their life has gone so wrong they can’t even remember when things were right. And I’m the magician who’s supposed to make it all right again.”
He walked back and forth a few times before looking at Nina with a bleak expression, not bothering to hide his conflicted emotions. “I’m not going to pretend like I can automatically turn off years of training but I promise you I’ll do my best to not treat you like a case study or a patient. I can’t swear I’ll be one hundred percent effective at it because I care about you so much and I want you to be happy. So if I say something that ticks you off, I hope you’ll let me know.”
Nina was shocked and humbled by John’s words. And she also felt a little guilt; she didn’t mean to put John in an awkward position. Yet at this moment, she felt even closer to John; closer than she’d ever imagined she could feel to anyone. “John I don’t know what to say. I thought you loved your work,” she said softly.
John stopped his pacing and threw himself across the bed. “Don’t get me wrong Nina, I can’t imagine not being a doctor. I just wonder what would have happened if I’d picked another specialty. That’s the problem with deciding on a career early in life, I guess. I let a twelve-year-old boy decide what I’m going to do for the rest of my life and somehow there’s something wrong with that.”
“What do you mean, John?” Nina asked curiously.
John sighed and reached for her, pulling her close. “When I was a kid there was a man in the neighborhood who we all called Uncle Sonny. He lived in a nice little house with flowers in the yard and fruit trees and he and his wife, Sarah, were wonderful people. Then Sarah got sick and died and left Uncle Sonny alone, because his children were grown and far away. Uncle Sonny started going downhill fast after that. He started looking disheveled, he would wander the neighborhood for hours and hours, and his lawn went wild and the house started going to seed. My parents tried to help him keep it together but he got worse and worse despite their help. Then he was accused of attacking some woman and even though it was later proved to not be true, some of the neighbors got to be afraid of him,” John said solemnly.
“Eventually his children came and got him but I heard they put him in a home, they couldn’t take care of him. That really bothered me, the idea that he was old and lonely and going crazy from grief and there was nothing that could be done for him. My parents tried to explain it to me, but nothing they could say made it any better. One time I took a bus out to the home where Uncle Sonny was living and he looked terrible, he was so frail and old he couldn’t move around and he was totally lost in the past. He thought I was one of his sons and he kept asking me if I had mowed the lawn. Nina, I was heartbroken for that old man. That’s when I decided I was going to be a shrink. I was going to help everyone who had those kinds of problems; I was going to make it all better. And sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t.”
Nina’s eyes were full of tears when John finished speaking. They held each other for a long time after that. John finally kissed her on the forehead and looked at the bed with a fierce expression.
“How are we supposed to make mad, passionate love with no sheets?” he growled.
Nina laughed at the look on John’s face. “Housekeeping hasn’t been in here yet. And besides, it’s broad open daylight or hadn’t you noticed?”
“And what has the time got to do with anything? Lovemaking doesn’t have a watch, chica. I can’t believe you’re shy, Nina. Don’t you know we can do whatever we want, whenever we want, for as long as we want to do it?”
Nina stared at John, sprawled across the bed looking like her idea of the perfect centerfold. He was so beautiful it actually made her throat ache a little to look at him, not to mention what it did to other parts of her body. Now she knew firsthand what his long limbs, his sexy chiseled lips and his long artistic hands could do to bring her pleasure and she was eager to join him, but in the middle of the day? She could feel a warm sensation slowly snaking its way through her most intimate regions and the sensation increased the longer John’s eyes held hers. She wa
nted him, no question, but surely there was something decadent about just laying around in the bed all day. Unconsciously, she bit her lower lip, having no idea how adorably vulnerable it made her look.
Nina’s doubtful expression was all it took to spur John into action. Moving with the quickness of a jungle cat, he rolled off the bed into a standing position and picked Nina up. Ignoring her cries of laughter, he headed for the front door.
“I can see you’re going to take some convincing, Miss Parker. And I can show you better than I can tell you.”
Chapter 8
Despite Nina’s repeated attempts to escape him, John prevailed and in a short time they were in his apartment. He’d distracted her with conversation on the ride over and she’d almost forgotten why they were here until John gave her “that” smile, the one she was beginning to recognize.
“What are you up to?” she asked, suspicion heavy in her tone.
John laughed gently and took her by the hand.
“Come sit down, Nina. I’m not going to do anything you don’t want me to do. Let’s just sit down and listen to some nice music,” he said, drawing her over to the sofa and turning on the I-Pad in its docking system. Bebel Gilberto’s melodic voice filled the room while John and Nina got comfortable. It took a couple of minutes because Nina was anything but relaxed. Every time John tried to touch her, she alternated between awkward stiffness and limber evasion. John made an exaggerated show of exhaustion by the time she finally yielded against him.
“Nina, are you related to Houdini? You could get work as an escape artist, girl.”
“Hey, I have to be able to take care of myself. I’m a fragile little woman all alone in a big scary world,” she said demurely. She wasn’t really listening to John; she was too overloaded by the sensation of his nearness. He smelled better than anyone else in the world. It wasn’t his aftershave or cologne; it was the clean warmth of his smooth skin that drove her crazy.
“I take issue with that fragile part, you may be the toughest woman I’ve ever met,” John murmured into her neck. “But you don’t have to worry about the big scary world. As long as I’m in it, nothing’s going to bother you.”
Nina moved in John’s arms but he held her even closer. “Don’t start wiggling again, woman.”
“Don’t start talking a bunch of trash you don’t mean,” Nina countered. She gasped as John swung her up onto his body so she was straddling him. He anchored his arms around her and put a finger under her chin so she’d have to look directly in his eyes. She was so surprised she forgot about telling him off, she just sighed with admiration. “You really are strong, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I really am. And I mean every word of what I say to you. I may play around because that’s my nature, but nobody’s going to bother you or make you unhappy in any way. Don’t you trust me, baby?”
Nina looked into his black eyes shadowed by his long straight lashes and she wanted to believe him, she wanted it with all her being. “Yes, John, but…” she stopped speaking because John had taken possession of her lips. His mouth was fierce with passion, his hot lips taking control of hers and giving her a glimpse of the depths of his ardor. She responded in ways she didn’t know she was capable of, holding his face in both of her hands; she opened to him finding his sweet tongue waiting for hers. The wild mating of their mouths didn’t quiet the stirrings of passion; it ignited them, taking Nina out of herself and into a questing need to be one with John. She began to move again, but this time it was her hips, moving against John in the unmistakable siren dance that told him all he needed to know.
He slipped his hands under Nina’s T-shirt and stroked her smooth skin, murmuring endearments to her in Spanish until she pulled away from his embrace long enough to pull the shirt over her head. Pleased by her boldness, John began to remove his own shirt but Nina wouldn’t let him. “John, I’m going to explode,” she whispered urgently. He answered the yearning in her voice at once, cupping his hands under her hot bottom and standing up with her arms locked around his neck. She wrapped her long legs around his waist while he carried her into his bedroom where they fell, none too gracefully, onto the bed.
While John was taking off his shirt, Nina kicked off her flats and peeled her jeans off hastily. She looked up to see John unbuckling his belt and he looked so masculine, so incredibly sexy she forgot how to breathe for a moment. She touched his arm and murmured his name. “John.”
“Yes, sweetie?”
“You’re beautiful,” she said shyly. At his look of amazed disbelief, Nina moved closer to him and touched his broad chest. “You really are, inside and out. I’ve never known anyone like you in my entire life,” she confessed.
John looked at her tenderly. She looked both wanton and pure, wearing an enticing half-cup bra made of sheer rose-colored lace with a matching thong. Her hair was tousled and her lips were love-swollen from their kisses. He swiftly removed his jeans and briefs and reached for her.
“Come here, baby. You talk too much,” he murmured as he undid the front fastener of her bra. As her tantalizing breasts came into view John smiled. “You’re the beautiful one, Nina. Have I told you how much I like these?” He circled them with his broad warm palms before taking an erect and yearning nipple into his mouth. While he applied a sensual pressure to its throbbing tip with his lips and tongue, his fingers kneaded the other one until Nina moaned with passion and pleasure. It was his turn to be delighted when Nina shrugged out of her bra and made short work of the delicate thong.
“I want to feel you inside me,” she whispered. “I want to be part of you.”
Touched to his heart and aroused like never before, John covered her body with his while he reached for condoms in the bedside table. “I want you too, more than you can imagine. You’re like a fire in me, Nina,” he said softly.
They managed to get the condom on John’s pulsing, huge erection and Nina cried out when John entered her. The sensation of being filled so completely was overwhelming, it was terrifying, it was indescribably fulfilling. Nina thought she would faint from sheer pleasure. She clung to John’s shoulders as he pumped in and out of her body, each stroke bringing them closer to the inevitable explosion that would make them one.
“Look at me, baby, look in my eyes,” John growled. Nina’s lashes fluttered up and she was instantly adrift in love. The expression on John’s face as his body gave hers the most intimate gift possible was too much for her. He suddenly changed the angle of their bodies just a little, enough to create a slightly different tension that rocked Nina into a place she’d never imagined before, a place where there was nothing but John and the wild, pulsing sensations he created in her. She tried to keep her eyes locked on John’s but her body was no longer hers to control. As John drove deeper into her willing flesh her eyes closed and she breathed his name, over and over until the seismic tremors began to slow down and she was able to breathe again.
John turned so he was on his back and gathered Nina to him, holding her close as she slowly, very slowly came back to earth. He brushed her hair away from her face and kissed her forehead while he murmured to her in Spanish. Suddenly, he uttered a soft burst of joyous laughter.
“What’s so funny?” Nina whispered. “You’d better not be laughing at me,” she warned in a sleepy voice.
“Too late, I am. I was just thinking that you’re a quick study. You learned to make love in the daytime really fast, didn’t you, chica?”
Nina gave him a dazzling smile. “I had a good teacher,” she replied as she brought her lips to his for a kiss.
***
Nina discovered a hidden benefit in making love early in the day. You still had a lot of the day left to do things and on top of it, you were in a really swell mood. At least Nina was. She couldn’t remember ever being so happy. Even the little voice in her head had nothing to say about her mood. She was totally content, curled up on the sofa in the living room, waiting for John to return with food. They had decided, after much more lovemaking an
d a long, soapy shower together, that they were starving.
“We could make something here,” John said.
“I don’t cook,” Nina said at once.
“Well I do, so this is your lucky day. I’ll go get us something and you just relax while I’m gone. Are you sure you don’t want me to go to your place and get some clothes for you?”
Nina demurred, saying she could put on the same ones, once her underwear dried. She’d washed it out by hand the way she always did her fancy ones, and she assured him it would dry very quickly. In the meantime, he’d dressed her in one of his shirts and she looked charming with the sleeves rolled up and the hem almost to her knees. With him kissing Nina and fondling every part of her he could get to under the wholly inadequate cover of his shirt, it took quite a while for John to leave. Nina had to convince him she was starving before he’d go. As soon as the door closed behind him, Nina put the bedroom back in order. She changed the sheets with the linens she found in the bathroom cupboard and made everything tidy. Tidier, actually, than it had been to begin with, as John wasn’t a slave to order.
She finally dozed off on the sofa, lulled by the lilting Brazilian voice of Bebel Gilberto and also by the total happiness she felt. She had her arms wrapped around a throw pillow and she looked like a sweet child sleeping peacefully. John found her that way when he returned with the food. He liked looking at her any time but he found this particularly appealing because she was so vulnerable. And he finally had an opportunity to get a good look at her elusive toes. They were, as he’d suspected, perfect. Her feet were slender and delicate, completely free of any blemish with the nails done in a sexy French pedicure. John smiled broadly. Even though she’d been barefoot that morning she’d been moving so fast he hadn’t been able to really look at her feet and he figured she wouldn’t just show them to him if he asked. She was still his prickly Miss Parker, after all.
A Fool for You (The Cochran/Deveraux Series Book 7) Page 8
