Healing Nicole (The Maynard Series Book 1)

by Rachel M Storm

  "Mace, it's been a long time since you visited!" A feminine voice says from behind us. I turn to see a short elderly woman with blonde hair in a bun, blue eyes, dressed in a white sundress.

  "It's only been a week mother," Mace replies before embracing her.

  "Hello dear, you must be Nicole," Mace's mother says as she pulls me in for a hug. Damn this family is handsy.

  "Nice to meet you Mrs. Maynard," I say.

  "Call me Claire," she says as she lets go of me. "I've heard so much about you, you are even more beautiful than I heard," she continues, making me blush a little. I already like Claire, she reminds me so much of my own mother, who I miss dearly.

  "Thank you," I say, not sure what else to say to that compliment and to the fact that she has heard a lot about me.

  "Where is dad?" Mace asks.

  "He won’t be joining us, he had to go to work," she answers, I detect a bit of sadness in her voice and Mace and Connor look at each other.

  The rest of the day goes by fast. Spending time with this family is so much fun the, four siblings are hilarious when all together and their mother is just the sweetest woman ever. The food, wine and company is exactly what I needed to relax and practice getting back into the socializing game.

  By the time Mace drops me off at my house, I'm relaxed and not to mention tipsy from all that wine seeing that I'm such a light weight.

  "Thank you for today Mace, I had a lot of fun." I tell him as I fumble with the keys. I realize just how tipsy I am when the keys slip out of my hand, falling to the ground. I giggle then hiccup. Okay, maybe I'm a little more than tipsy.

  He lets out that throaty laugh that always makes my lady parts tingle before bending to pick up my keys.

  "You are welcome," he says as he unlocks my door for me. Once the door is open, he gets closer and gives me a hug causing the atmosphere between us to change drastically, from light and full of giggles to intense and full of heavy breathing - from my side.

  He takes a small step back and stares at me, eyes full of what can only be described as lust – or maybe I'm the one looking at him with eyes full of lust. His eyes move down to my lips and for a split second I think he is about to kiss me. I want him to kiss me. I lift my head slightly towards him as way of showing him what I want him to do. He said he wanted me to ask but this is the same thing. Right?

  "I should get going," he says, clearing his throat.

  What?! Disappointment hits me hard when I realize that he didn’t really want to kiss me. I mean if he really wanted to do it he would have, I made it clear it’s what I wanted too. Embarrassment is the next emotion to hit, I just imagined that he wanted to kiss me because I wanted it so bad.

  How can I be so stupid! He didn’t mean what he said before, he was just messing with me.

  "Um, yeah. Goodnight Mace," I say, disappointment oozing from my voice.

  He turns and walks away as I step into the house and close the door behind me. Disappointment and embarrassment hit me so hard that I feel less drunk, not to mention stupid.

  A persistent knock on the door startles me just as I push away from the door. I start panicking, because I'm a woman alone and there is a harsh persistent knock at my door at eleven PM. I tiptoe back to the door, peek through the peephole and see that it's Mace at the other side of the door.

  "Shit, you scared the crap out of me," I sigh when I open the door.

  He doesn’t answer as he pulls me flush against his hard body and plants his soft lips against mine. My lips part from the unexpected shock and he takes that opportunity to slip his tongue in, exploring every inch and corner of my mouth. I kiss him back like I've have been starved for months.

  Oh my God! He tastes even better than the first time.

  My knees feel like jelly by the time he pulls back and not because of the alcohol I've had.

  "I forgot to give you back your keys," he says, caressing my now swollen lips.

  "Thank you for bringing them back," I reply, looking up into those mesmerizing greens with specks of gold.

  "I've been wanting to do that ever since you opened your door this afternoon" He confesses.

  "Why don’t you do it again?" I challenge instead of asking why he didn’t do it when we first arrived.

  “I told you, you would ask,” he smiles triumphantly before kissing me again, this time much gentler than before and I melt in his arms.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  MACE

  "This is going to become my favorite part of each day," I tell her pulling away slightly. She looks at me with heady eyes and smiles.

  "I'm still not sure this is a good idea," she says, her smile falling.

  I frown before asking; "Why are you so against this Nikki? You are attracted to me and I'm attracted to you, let's just see where this thing takes us,"

  "I'm just-"

  I cut her off with a soft kiss, showing her just how much she wants me. The low moan coming from the back of her throat makes my dick twitch and I deepen the kiss as I blindly lead her into the living room, I almost lose it when she tugs a handful of my hair and moans again in my mouth.

  I lay her on the couch and straddle her without breaking the kiss. Damn, she feels so fucking perfect underneath me. I groan in frustration when she starts grinding against my crotch- In frustration because I can’t take this further than this, she has had a lot of wine today and is a bit drunk.

  "You're killing me Nikki," I break the kiss when she tugs at my hair again and starts grinding faster.

  She smiles up at me with so much fire and lust in her eyes that I almost say to hell with it and just take her here and now. She pulls me back in for a heated kiss and I can’t help my hand that moves south of her body and my fingers that make quick work of un buttoning and zipping down her jeans.

  "Fuck!" I groan when my hand slips inside to find her soaking, just for me.

  At this point all the blood has rushed down to my dick and I'm so damn hard that I'm scared one wrong move, it will just break right off.

  "Mace," she moans softly when I start massaging her clit. I wonder if she can come like this.

  I decide that seeing that I can’t bury myself deep inside of her I'm going to find out if I can make her come like this. My head dips to the nape of her neck just as I put more pressure on her clit and start rubbing a bit faster.

  "Shit, Mace..." This time she moans out load and I can tell she's close.

  "Let go," I whisper before nipping at her neck. She finally let's go and my name falls from her lips in a loud moan that almost makes me blow my load in pants. Fuck, that would have been damn embarrassing. My lips cover hers in an attempt to swallow all her moans of ecstasy.

  "Wow," she says when she finally comes down from her high. I smile down at her before planting a soft kiss on her forehead. When I pull back up to look at her, she’s passed out. I chuckle when she starts snoring softly.

  "Well, I guess this is goodnight," I pick her up and take her to the room I saw her running into the second time I came to visit. I lay her on the bed and remove her jeans before pulling the covers over her.

  "Night, Nikki." I kiss her forehead again before making my way out. I grab her extra keys so I can lock up behind me.

  Well this day turned out better than I expected. I got my woman and I know I sure as hell will not be letting her slip through my fingers.

  ****

  NICOLE

  The damn alarm screams and I almost throw my phone against the wall. The blaring of that damn thing is just killing me right now. Oh dear God my head. I wake up hungover for the second day in a row but this time it’s not a cry hangover but a better one, an alcohol one- my hell, what am I saying, there is nothing better about this damn hangover! It’s just as bad as the one I had the morning before, if not worse. I really should stop doing this to myself. And what’s worse? It’s Monday today, meaning it’s back to work. Here comes Manic Monday!

  “Oh fuck,” I groan just as everything south of my body clenches in the m
ost delicious of ways when the memories of the previous night flash through my head like a movie playing on repeat.

  “Oh dear goodness noo,” I groan again, this time in my hands. Did I really fall asleep on Mace after he gave me the mother of all great orgasms, with nothing more than his freaking magic fingers? This is most definitely a low point, very low point.

  I glance at my phone again to check the time. Shit, it’s 06:15! I better start getting ready if I want to have time to enjoy my morning coffee. I can’t even begin to imagine beginning my day without coffee, especially in this damn hungover state. I stand and make my way to take a bath.

  Images of Mace and his fingers driving me absolutely insane rush through my mind again as the hot bath water covers my body and a slow deliberate throb starts at my still semi sensitive clit. I can’t help my hand that journeys down there and try to replicate what Mace was doing last night, while imagining he was the one in the tub with me pleasuring me. It’s not as breathtakingly good as when he did it but it works. After a short while, I moan Mace’s name loudly. The sound sounding even more foreign now that I don’t have any amount of wine in my system as my orgasm hits me hard and fast, leaving me panting.

  Oh my, I think I might be a bit obsessed with Mace Maynard and to be honest, I’m not sure how I feel about that. This might just lead to me actually falling in love with the man. And falling in love with him means that my heart will be vulnerable for shatter and that scares the shit out me.

  It’s 07:57 when I step out of the elevator on our office floor. Damnit, I was almost late today and I never even had enough time for my damn morning coffee. What would my boss think of me? I’ll tell you what he will think; Oh, I let her hang with me outside of work now she thinks she can do whatever she wants at work. I blame it all on Mace freaking Maynard!

  “Morning Nikki,” Sunette greets in her normal chipper voice that actually sounds way too damn loud today.

  “Hey, Sunette,” I reply, trying my best not to flinch when she speaks again.

  “How was the weekend?”

  “Eventful… How about yours?” That second part was really just to be polite. At this point I just want to get to my office, away from her loud chipper voice.

  “Great thank you, spent it with my family.”

  “I’m glad you enjoyed,” I say. “Laters,” I continue to say as I start walking toward my office when I see that she is about to say something else.

  “Oh and Nikki?”

  “Yeah,” I answer as I grab my office door, which is closed for some reason. It’s never closed in the mornings.

  “Someone is waiting for you in there,” she says. What? I start to panic. Was there a meeting that I forgot about this morning?

  “Who?” I open the door before she can answer to find a smiling Mace seated at my desk.

  “Morning, beautiful.” He says, his smile broadening when I start blushing something fierce.

  Really Nicole, stop being so damn obvious and get a hold of yourself!

  “Morning,” I finally say in a surprisingly normal voice. I was expecting some kind of high pitched sound to escape my lips.

  “I come bearing coffee,” he says standing from behind my desk and grabs a delicious looking coffee from the desk that I didn’t even see.

  Oh my God! coffee! This man can’t be any more perfect at this moment.

  “Oh my God! I could just kiss you right now,” I blurt out as I take the coffee from him and take a sip of the divine tasting and smelling liquid.

  “Actually…” He says before bending to plant a lingering kiss on my lips.

  “Finally!” I hear Connor say at the same time Sunette exclaims a “Holy shit!”

  Shit sticks! I forgot my door was still open and we are standing right in front of it, where everyone can freaking see us. Another blush heats my face as Mace starts chuckling under his breath.

  I glance behind me to see Connor with a shit eating grin on his lips and Sunette sporting a shocked expression that probably means ‘Oh is that what you meant by eventful?’ Mace saves me by reaching for the door and closing it, hiding us from the two peeping toms.

  “I’m sorry for last night,” I bite my lip as I look into his greens.

  “For falling asleep on me? That’s okay, you actually saved me,” he smiles and my face falls. What the hell does he mean I saved him?

  He chuckles before continuing; “No, that doesn’t mean what you think,” I arch an eyebrow at him that says; well what the hell does it mean?

  He chuckles again. “You were kind of drunk last night Nikki, I don’t sleep with women when they’re drunk, but last night… if you didn’t fall asleep then I would have taken you, drunk or not,” he says planting another soft kiss on my lips. “So, you saved me,” he continues when he pulls back.

  “Oh, okay.” I can practically feel another piece of my wall crumbling down.

  “I have a meeting this morning so I have to go but, you. Me. Lunch,” he smiles then winks at me.

  “Okay,” for the first time my agreement is without hesitation. “What kind of job do you do?” I ask, because I actually know nothing about him.

  “I own the hotel you lived in when you got here,” he winks. “See you later babe,” he says as he turns to leave.

  I go sit behind my desk with one thing running through my mind.

  Mace.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  NICOLE

  Although very busy, this week has been great. The best week I’ve had in close to eight months. Mace has been taking me out to lunch every day and in that time, we both have learned a lot about each other. He asked me again why I moved here and I clammed up. That was the first and last time that Gabby and Donald crossed my mind this week. But Mace being the great man that he is, didn’t press the matter. And I was grateful for it.

  “Hey there Banana Girl,”

  “Oh no, not you too,” I groan as I look up at Connor who is standing at my office door.

  “What? It’s too good a name not to use,” he smiles, folding his arms on his chest.

  “Oh dear goodness,” I groan into my hands. I seem to do that a lot when it comes to any of the Maynard’s.

  “Its way past knock-off and I’m here to get you before my brother accuses me of turning you into a workaholic.” He says. I glance down at my watch to see that he’s right, it’s already 7PM, I lost track of time again.

  “I just need to finish putting together these-”

  “Nikki, it’s Friday and you have been working long hours this week, whatever is left for you to do, you can finish on Monday. Plus, we are going out!”

  “Huh?” I’m not sure what he’s talking about going out because I wasn’t aware of any going out plans.

  “My sister wants us to go to a Karaoke tonight and apparently you aren’t answering your phone or texts so both Mace and Ang asked me to get you before I leave.

  “I do not sing,” my eyes widen, causing Connor to laugh. But seriously, I don’t sing in front of people. I don’t have a bad voice but I do have stage fright. And another thing that I don’t dare to mention is that I actually hate karaoke bars.

  “Well that’s a lie,” Mace says as he approaches us. “I recall hearing you sing Despacito, well a very broken version of Despacito very loudly in the car this week.” I groan again at Mace’s words. How could I forget that mortifying day’s occurrence?

  On Wednesday, Mace came to pick me up for lunch but had to get something from his office at the hotel so I waited in the car. Despacito- my favorite song by the way- started to play on the radio and I just couldn’t help but sing along, very loudly if I might add. Next thing I know, Mace is losing it with laughter at my very horrible pronunciation of Spanish. When he got back? I wouldn’t be able to tell you. He pulled a complete ninja move on me.

  “Broken version?” Connor asks, his smile growing by the minute.

  “Dude, this woman’s Spanish is horrible, almost as bad as her Korean by the way,” Mace explains, throwing in our
little inside joke in the mix.

  “Mace,” I groan, looking at him with a why are you selling me out look. Fire blazes in his emeralds at my groan and that fire I see there sends a direct message to my lady parts. We haven’t done anything hot this week but what he did to me Sunday night is still very fresh in my mind.

  “So, you’re a Bieber fan?” Connor asks, now chuckling.

  “No, I’m a die-hard Despacito fan,” both Mace and Connor burst out laughing at my answer.

  “Come on Banana Girl, we need to go before my sister gets impatient,” Mace tells me and I shutdown my computer before grabbing my purse.

  After we left the office, Mace drove behind me to my house so that I could freshen up and wash the day’s work away. Now, Connor, Mace and I are seated in the very modern karaoke bar that is quite packed. I never knew that so many people are actually into doing karaoke.

  "Wow, this guy is horrible," I say as I cringe for the millionth time when the guy singing tries and fails to hit a high note that shouldn’t even be in the song. He sounds more like a choking cat than anything. This is one of the reasons I don’t like coming to karaoke bars. My ears can't take this anymore.

  "I know right!" Angela says as she covers her ears. "Mace, why don’t you save our ears from this? Get up there," she continues, looking at Mace with pleading eyes.

  "You do karaoke?" I ask him, shocked to learn yet another thing about him.

  "Does he!" Angela exclaims. "He is the fucking king of karaoke. Yet he sits here and lets our ears suffer. I swear if I have to listen to another cat sounding person sing, my ears are going to start bleeding!" She says supporting my choking cat inner comment.

  Mace's throaty laugh, as usual, brings goosebumps to every single inch of my body. If KFC saw me everytime this man laughed or looked at me in that smoldering way he usually does, they would seriously confuse me with one of the chickens.

  Man, sometimes I really hate how obvious my body’s reactions are to him. It's just damn mortifying.