Hot For Nick

by Hot for Nick (lit)

  “You having second thoughts or just thought of something you want, ma’am?”

  She made her request against his mouth. “Do you by chance serve the delicacy of tongue?”

  Nick’s laughter, rich and dark like espresso, poured into her ears. She loved him for denying himself, the way he slid down to bend to her desire, his tongue tasting and inciting golden fire through her body with teasing nips of his teeth until she lifted her legs to squeeze her knees against his shoulders.

  “Mercy, kind sir, mercy,” she gasped, falling back to hold her arms out to welcome him into her embrace.

  “Ready to cook now, baby?”

  “Fill the oven before I go up in smoke.”

  An ugly whirring sound intruded in the sweet, thick morning air and they recognized it at the same time. Their garden of erotica had been invaded by the thunder of a dozen Ram truck engines and someone’s car radio blaring country music. The serpent entered their Eden in the form of the demon elevator reviving in the long golden slashes of sunlight pouring into the building. Her euphoria and quest for sexual relief ended with the grinding whine of the evil freight elevator as it descended to earth, leaving them stranded.

  “Damn.” Nick’s comment seemed perfect for their situation.

  “Damn is right.” This embarrassing mess would haunt her and she’d allowed to happen. “We’re stuck up here.”

  He got to his feet and gazed down at the rising dust cloud. He turned back to her and gave her a wicked grin. “Not only that. It must be later than we thought.”

  His meaning penetrated her brain and she struggled to her knees to peer down at the parking area. “My God. The crew is here.” She sprang to her feet and clung to the wire, her fingers curling about the mesh. She whirled on him when he leaned against her. “You get back. Try to act decent for once."

  “Calm down.” Nick tried to draw her away from the open area where the elevator had been. “They don’t know we’re up here.”

  “Sure. Easy for you to say.” She looked for her panties and remembered they had blown to the back wall of the cage. Same for her jacket. She wanted to crumple in humiliation. “And don’t tell me to relax. All you have to do is zip your pants.”

  She held her hand out, signaling that she wanted his handkerchief. He had been well trained, digging it from his rumpled slack pocket to press into her hand.

  He ran his hands through his damp hair and tucked his shirttail in. When he started to look down at the scene below them, she hissed at him.

  “For Pete’s sake. Will you help me? This is all your fault.” She yanked her skirt into a semblance of order. With a cry of anguish, her hands flew to her bird’s nest hairdo and back to the buttons of her blouse.

  “Here.” Nick caught her hands and grinned while snapping her bra and fastening her buttons. “You worry about your hair. I’ll do this.”

  She tried to control her hair, but it was useless. Most of her hairpins had been scattered over the upper floor of the damned building. She jabbed the few she could find into her hair and gave up, leaving a large swatch flopping at the back of her head.

  “Hell with it.” She took in a shaky breath and closed her eyes. “I look like a tramp and now I have to face Matt and the crew in this condition.”

  “You look great, Shel.” Nick rubbed her back and grinned. “Look, I’m pretty sure Matt knows we have sex. He wouldn’t say anything to embarrass you.”

  “He also knows we are no longer having anything together and especially not out in the open like a couple of diddling squirrels.”

  She wanted to cry when Matt’s booming voice rose up to issue a gruff question.

  “Hey, up there.” A moment of silence passed before he shouted again. “Who are you and how in the name of God Almighty did you get up there?”

  Shelby walked slowly to the opening where the cage had been and called down to him. “Matt, it’s me.” She bunched her shoulders in dread of his reaction to her foolishness. “Me and…Nick.”

  “How the… What the… Never mind.” He scuffed his boot in the dust and waved at her before shouting orders to several of the crew. “Get that elevator back up there pronto.” After an animated conversation with one of the men, Matt craned his neck to yell up at them again. “Uh, Shel. My man says the elevator’s generator burnt out. We’re sending up the crane’s bucket.”

  While Shelby waited for her escape from the rooftop and demoralization, she considered her dilemma. The fact she wore no underwear or shoes shouldn’t be any reason for the crew see her as a floozy. Like so much baloney. She jumped when the crane’s engine started and the boom began to swing toward their lofty perch.

  “Nick.” She wanted to pinch his hard rear for not being nervous or at the very least pretending to care that she might be having a mini stroke.

  “Yes, my love.” He stood with his hands in his pockets, absently watching the crane several yards from the ledge.

  “Thanks for your consideration, you heathen.” She had to blame someone and it may as well be Nick. “I wouldn’t be in this mess if you had kept it in your pants.”

  The wry smile on his face spoke volumes about his thoughts on the subject. “Tell the truth now, Shel. You would’ve been pissed if I’d done that.”

  The nasty comment reserved just for him had to wait. The bucket arrived and waited. She shrugged his hand away and climbed in, turning away from him, despising his grin.

  “Take a break, Shel. You look fantastic.”

  “I don’t care what you think. Just because I look like I spent the night in the backseat with you is no reason for me to be upset.” She clenched her jaw and thrust his handkerchief toward him. “At least have the courtesy to take this with you Thank god I didn’t need it.”

  “Who cares what they think?” Nick stretched and yawned, smiling at her. “I’m the one you should worry about. Men die with erections like this one.”

  Shelby leaned against him and punched her fist against his hard belly. “Thank you for the support, Nick. One thing is certain, it will never happen again. It wasn’t even sex.”

  “Yeah. It wasn’t even sex all the way.” He touched her rumpled hair. “Don’t worry, Shel. I’ll respect your wishes. Satisfied?”

  Satisfied? Oh hell. Her legs turned to the consistency of Jell-O. And she wanted sex. If she rubbed her thighs together, she would explode on the spot. Nick hadn’t been wrong. She’d simply been starving for sex. Any man would do. She gazed at him, knowing that wasn’t true. There would never be anyone but Nick.

  She allowed him to help her from the bucket, but jerked her arm away when Matt approached them. He carried her shoes, jacket and clipboard in one big hand. She dug way down deep and salvaged one of her enigmatic businesswoman’s smiles that gave away no true emotion.

  “You all right, Shelby?” He handed her the bundle, leaving Nick to his own devices. “I’m sorry as hell that happened. We’ll have that fixed before you know it.”

  “I’m fine, Matt.” Casting a look of warning in Nick’s direction, she lied. “We thought it would be a good time to check on the carpeting before the heat set in.”

  Matt shook his head affirmatively. “Sure is, Shel. Hotter than Hades already, by golly.” He hooked his thumbs in his back pockets and looked at the ground.

  She tried to appear confident but stumbled over Nick’s foot. He reached out to stop her fall, his hand closing over her breast.

  “Take your hand off my breast.” She had never heard herself hiss before.

  “Excuse me, ma’am, for trying to keep you from falling on your puss, and by the way, your hands roved all over my privates a few minutes ago.”

  “You egotistical blowhard. Nothing happened as far as I’m concerned.”

  Matt beat a retreat in the direction of several cement trucks that had just rolled in to park near the courtyard.

  The hint of a grin on Nick’s face added to her list of humiliations. She clutched the paltry bundle close, trying to set him ablaze with her glar
e. When he walked away, she ran for her car.

  She sat looking at the things Matt had handed her. A pained grimace worked over her mouth when her panties popped out of the middle of the pile. Matt would never mention the incident, but she knew Nick would remind her before much time passed.

  A plan to distance herself from Nick would be her most urgent project. How that would be accomplished had yet to be decided. She groaned softly and tossed the wrinkled clothing into the back seat. Nick acted cocky now, probably thinking she’d be hot to trot anytime he wanted. He had a life changing experience waiting in his future. In the future, he wouldn’t find her so easy. Right now, she still smelled him on her skin—hot, aroused and all man. The very thought made her raise her butt to ease the pressure at the highly sensitized fork of her legs.

  Chapter 6

  Shelby thought about her handling of the embarrassing moment. When he came into her life, she’d no longer had any control over her actions. That thought rated a belly laugh. Shelby ripped the wrapper from a stick of gum and snorted in derision.

  It hadn’t seemed unreasonable that first night he arrived in Kansas City for her to pick him up at the airport. And of course, being a sophisticated and gracious businesswoman, she had driven him to his apartment. Of course she spent the night with him in his new apartment. Lord. What an eager and easy mark she’d been.

  While she blew a bubble and popped it noisily, she pondered the course she should take to handle her outrageous behavior and wimpy submissive attitude toward Nick. The answer would come later, but right now, she had to get to the comfort of her apartment and scrub his scent away in the shower. She hated herself for lifting her arm to sniff her skin. Like a drunken sot to wine, she buried her nose in the aroma and let her body quicken. What the hell, she couldn’t help it. Nick arrived in town like an orgasm, lush, dark and long lasting.

  A blast from the horn of a passing car alerted her to the fact she had arrived at the garage entrance of her apartment building. The underground place seemed cool, quiet and free of questioning eyes. She got out of the car and trotted to the stairwell instead of going to the lobby. She didn’t want to make small talk with Alfred, the doorman. She liked the fussy man immensely, but he could be a pain in the butt with his inquisitive nature.

  The climb up three flights of stairs zapped her strength and she slumped against the door while working her key in the lock. She walked into her apartment and began stripping her clothes off, letting them fall where they may.

  The crackle under her feet reminded her to clean up the graham cracker she had dropped that morning. It seemed a week ago, not hours. That damned man dominated her thoughts so much that time meant little to her anymore. Dropping her skirt on the bathroom floor, she turned the shower on and grabbed a stack of towels from the linen closet. It would probably take several launderings to rid herself of all things associated with Nick.

  Armed with a bottle of her favorite body wash and a lush puffy nylon ball, she stood in the spray with her eyes closed. The scent of Spanish Geranium bloomed in the sauna-like heat, taking her to a calmer plain that had eluded her earlier in the day. Realizing the shower did nothing to ease her self-disgust, she shut the water off.

  Wrapped in a plush bath towel, she padded off to the kitchen in search of nourishment. Dang. Nick had always seen to it that she had food in the house and now she had reverted back to scrounging as she had before he blasted into her life.

  Missing a few meals probably wouldn’t hurt her and she could get her own groceries. If she wanted to. Her search turned up nothing but a box of dated Twinkies that fell from a shelf above her head. Most likely a trap Nick had set for her, but she couldn’t be picky at the moment. Luck wasn’t with her. Only a half pack left and she began to wolf down the dried out confection while walking back to the bedroom.

  The ringing of the phone filled her with a mixed bag of emotions. What if it was Nick? Her heart hummed in her chest with sweet expectation. She crossed the polar bear white carpet with trepidation, afraid, but hopeful and peered at the ID display. The caller turned out to be her college roommate who happened to also be her best friend. She picked the receiver up.

  “Hello, Mary Claire.” The cheerful tone of her voice disguised the pain of heartbreak she felt, but her gabby and self-centered friend wouldn’t have noticed that she had a problem anyway. Mary Claire had majored in nothing but dating and had snagged herself a brilliant attorney. “How are the twins?”

  And what had she expected to hear? Of course both perfect in every way according to their mother. “I have been wondering why you hadn’t called me about your wedding plans. I have so many wonderful ideas.”

  Shelby loved her friend like a sister, but right now the questions about her marriage plans stung. “To tell you the truth, Mary. It’s on hold for a while.”

  “You’re not getting cold feet are you, Shel?”

  How would she ever be able to tell her tradition-crazy friend the wedding had been blown sky high and that she planned to be single for the rest of her life? Shelby slid to the floor, resting against the sofa.

  “No. Not cold feet. Work is so backed up and clients don’t care if you want to get married. They want their work finished.”

  There came an exasperated sigh on the line before her friend spoke again. “Well for heavens sakes, Shel. Let's have a really big blowout for your thirty-second birthday when it rolls around.”

  “Let’s not worry about that, Mary.” At that reminder of her age, Shelby tossed the last bite of cake into an empty candy dish on the coffee table. “We’ll work something out if I get the free time then. Okay?”

  After her friend had hung up, Shelby buried her face in her hands and groaned aloud, taking quick stock of her life.

  Lifting her head to look around, she noted the lovely white carpet and fine upholstery of her furniture. The cream walls would never have crayon pictures on them because the only man she wanted children with didn’t love her. Nope, there would never be jelly stains on her furniture or potty smells in the bathroom. She may as well be sterile.

  A wave of regret rolled over her, helping in her decision to get out of her apartment for a while. Maybe she would stop at one of those high dollar children’s shops and buy Mary Claire’s perfect darlings something pretty. She scrambled to her feet, quickly dressing, in a hurry to hear voices that didn't question her or make demands.

  On her way out, Alfred spotted her getting off the elevator and called to her with his usual wealth of salutations.

  “Ms. Rand. How nice. I didn’t see you come in.”

  Shelby smiled and walked backwards toward the stairs to the garage. “I didn’t want to bother you, so I used the stairs.”

  He snapped his fingers and looked around the lobby as if he didn’t want to be overheard. “Ms. Rand, I hope I’m not being overly concerned, but earlier this morning I noticed a young man across the street and he seemed to be gazing at your balcony for an awfully long time. When I stepped out to stand under the portico, he left in rather a hurry.”

  Poor Alfred, always looking for a new rumor to spread. “I’m sure it was nothing. People walk along Brush Creek all the time and look up at the apartments. As long as he left, I wouldn’t worry.”

  He looked disappointed and hurried to open the stairwell door for her. “I’ll keep a close watch out for him, just the same. Have a good day, Ms. Rand.”

  Shelby left him with a reassuring smile.

  Spending several hundred dollars on children’s toys and clothing didn’t take long. Shelby felt lost and disorganized, similar to the one time she played hooky from school. She decided to drop in to see her father and invite him for dinner next week.

  Thomas Rand, or Tom as most people called him, was filling a birdbath when Shelby pulled into the circle drive of the house she had grown up in. Her soul was burdened and her hug to his neck fierce.

  “What brings my girl home at this time of day? Want to talk about it or should I keep minding my own business?”
Tom followed Shelby into the house, closing the door after them. “What's going on?”

  She gave him her best expression of surprise. “What makes you ask that, Dad?”

  He scowled a little and his voice gruff with fatherly concern. “Well, by God, I can tell your heart’s beating a thousand times a second. Still say everything’s swell?”

  Her laugh sounded like a weak sounding mewl and her hands shook. “It’ll work itself out, Dad.” She looked around the room and let her gaze rest on the family portraits on the mantel. “I still think I have the best looking dad in the world.”

  “Un-huh. You and Nick having problems?”

  “Something like that.” She clasped her hands and grinned at him. “How about fixing me something good to drink?”

  “Okay. I’ll be quiet, but if he does anything to hurt you, I won’t take it kindly.”

  “Oh now, Dad. You know Nick would never do anything to hurt me.”

  Tom smiled at her, stood and motioned for her to follow him. “I taped something you might want to see.”

  Her heart hammered faster in her cowardly chest. By the time her plodding footsteps took her into the family room, the DVD ran the footage of the interview with Nick. They couldn’t wait to run that laugh a minute tape.

  She couldn’t shake the ridiculous, horrid things they’d said to each other in front of strangers and now her father wanted answers.

  She jumped when her father spoke to her.

  “Unless that was planned, I didn’t find it funny, hearing my daughter being called a shyster by the man she’s going to marry.”

  “I can’t tell you all the details, Dad. You can see we’re having a problem. That’s all I can say.” She shrugged and looked at her bare ring finger.

  “I don’t accept that, but I know when I’ve been told to mind my own business.” Tom turned off the VCR and shook his head. “Let’s go have a glass of tea. You hungry?”

  “Nope.” Shelby took two large tumblers from the cabinet and filled them with ice. “Dad, if you had plans to go somewhere, I have things I could be doing.”