by Lori Foster
Josie knew the feeling well. Nick made her feel like she was the only woman alive—but he would never ask her to marry him. It was up to her to take the initiative. “You are special. Bob’s a lucky man to have you.”
“Bob told Nick this morning.” Her tone suggested that Josie should be upset by that news.
Nick had gotten so comfortable with her, and every day it seemed he spent more and more time with her, sleeping with her at night, calling her during the day. He talked to her and confided in her. He’d taken her to his house and they’d laughed together at the unconventional steps he’d taken to simplify his life.
But inside, Josie’s heart had nearly broken. By his own design, Nick had set up his life so there was no room for a permanent relationship. Jeb had warned her several times the effect his parents’ divorce and his stepmother’s spite had had on Nick. Not that Jeb wanted to discourage her from loving Nick. Just the opposite. Josie often had the feeling Jeb did his best hard sell on Nick, trying to maintain her interest.
“Don’t you want to know what Nick had to say about it?”
“He’s due home in just a little while. I’m sure we’ll talk about it then.”
Susan tilted her head in a curious way and then forced a laugh. “You say home as if Nick lives here now.”
Josie sat in her chair, stirred her coffee, then put down the spoon. She looked around the kitchen for inspiration, but found nothing except her own nervousness.
“Josie?” Susan pulled out her own chair, then frowned. There was a heavy silence. Josie tugged at the edge of her miniskirt, knowing what was coming. Her relationship with Nick wasn’t precisely a secret, not really. But it had been private.
Now, though, what did it matter? In a very short while, Nick would either decide to stay, or he’d go. “He’s been sort of staying here, yes.”
“Sort of? What the hell does that mean?”
Susan’s voice had risen to a shout and Josie sighed. “It means I have my own private life to lead.”
“In other words, you want me to butt out, even though I can see you’re making a huge mistake?”
Josie refused to think of Nick as a mistake. He made her feel alive, special and whole. Even if he turned down her proposal, she’d never regret her time with him.
Josie was still formulating an answer when Susan’s temper suddenly mushroomed like a nuclear cloud.
She launched from her seat and began pacing furiously around the kitchen. “I’ll kill him! God, how that man can be so considerate and generous one minute and such an unconscionable bastard the next is beyond me!”
Josie glanced at the kitchen clock. She was running out of time. “Susan, I really can’t let you insult Nick. It’s not fair. We made an agreement and he’s living up to his end of the bargain. I’m the one who stipulated no strings attached.”
Susan slashed her hand in the air. “Only because you knew anything more was unlikely with a man like him.” She thumped a fist onto the counter. “I asked him to leave you alone, but he wouldn’t listen to me.”
“You did what?”
“He told me he wouldn’t hurt you.”
“And he hasn’t! Oh, Susan, you had no right. How dare you—”
But Susan wasn’t listening. “And to think I was actually starting to like the big jerk.”
“You were?” Then, “Damn it Susan, don’t change the subject. When did you talk with Nick about me? What did you say?”
In the next instant, Bob stepped into the kitchen. “I knocked, but you two were arguing too loud to hear…me….” His voice trailed off as he stared at Josie in her killer outfit. After a stunned second, he gave a low whistle. “Wow.”
Susan whirled to face him. Bob took one look at her piqued expression, quickly gathered himself, then pulled her close. He glared at Josie over Susan’s head. “What did you say to upset her?”
Josie’s mouth fell open in shock. She’d never before heard Bob use that tone. Before she could even begin to think of a reply, Susan jerked away from him.
“Don’t you snap at my sister! It’s not her fault. It’s that degenerate friend of yours who’s to blame.”
Throwing up his hands, Bob asked, “What did Nick do now?”
To add to the ridiculous comedy, Nick walked in. “Yeah, what did I do? And who forgot to invite me to the party?” He grinned, caught sight of Josie and seemed to turn to stone. Only his eyes moved, and they traveled over her twice before he frowned and lifted his gaze to her face in accusation.
“We’re not having a party,” Josie informed him, feeling very put upon with the circumstances. She pulled two more coffee mugs down from the cabinet. “I’m just trying to convince Susan that I know what I’m doing.”
Nick advanced on her, his stride slow and predatory. “I see. And what are you doing, dressed like that? Planning to expound on your experiences? Planning to breach new horizons?” He pointed a finger at her. “We had a deal, lady!”
“What in the world are you talking about?”
His cheekbones dark with color, his eyes narrow and his jaw set, he waved a hand to encompass her from head to toe. “Were you planning to go back to the same bar? Have I bored you already?”
Her plans were totally ruined, the moment lost, and now here was Nick, behaving like a jealous, accusing ass.
Her temper flared. “Actually,” she growled, going on tiptoe to face him, “I thought I’d ask for your hand—or rather your whole body—in matrimony. So what do you think of that?”
She heard Susan’s gasp, Bob’s amused chuckle, but what really fascinated her was Nick’s reaction. He grabbed her arms and pulled her closer still, not hurting her, but bringing her flush against his hard chest.
“You what?” he croaked.
“You heard me. I want to marry you.”
A fascinating series of emotions ran over his face, then Nick turned, still holding her arm, and practically dragged her from the room. Josie had no idea what he was thinking, because the last expression he had was dark and severe and forbidding. In her high-heeled shoes, which still hampered her walk, she had no choice but to stumble along behind him.
Susan started to protest, but Bob hushed her. Josie could hear them both whispering.
Nick took her as far as her bedroom, locking the door behind them. Josie jerked away from him, but he simply picked her up and laid her on the bed, then carefully lowered his length over her, pinning her down from shoulders to knees. Josie struggled against him. “We have to talk, Nick. I’ve got a lot to say to you.”
Still frowning, he said, “I love you, Josie.”
Her eyes widened. Well, maybe she could wait her turn to talk. “Do you really?”
“Damn right.”
She chewed her lip. “Do you love me enough to marry me?” Before he could answer, she launched into her well-rehearsed arguments on marital bliss. “Because I love you that much. I had planned to ask you properly, after a special night out. Even though I’m not the sexy lady you met that first night at the bar, I can be her on occasion. I just can’t be her all the time. I realize that now. I knew something was missing from my life, but it wasn’t what I thought.” She touched his jaw. “It was you.”
His Adam’s apple took a dip down his throat, and then Nick smiled, his eyes bright, filled with fierce tenderness. “You are that same, sexy lady, honey, and you make my muscles twitch with lust just looking at you. You’re also the very sweet little sister who’s spent years showing her appreciation, and the conscientious caretaker who makes people feel important again. I love all of you, everything about you.” He kissed her quick and hard. “Were you serious about wanting to marry me?”
Josie threw her arms around him and squeezed him tight.
Nick laughed. “Talk to me, sweetheart. This is my first attempt at professing love and I’m in a welter of emotional agony here.”
“You’re very good at it, you know.”
“At suffering?”
“At professing your love.” She
pushed him back enough to see his face. “Yes I want to marry you. And I want to buy a house and make babies and—”
“Whoa. About the house…”
His hesitation shook her and she cupped his face in her hands, hoping to soothe him. “A house is permanence, Nick, I know. But it’s what I want. I don’t expect you to change, to become someone else, because I love you just as you are. But you will have to meet me halfway on this.”
“No more gym equipment in the dining room?”
“And no other women. Just me. Forever.”
“I like the sound of that.” He leaned down and nuzzled her chin. “Honey, we don’t need to buy a house because we already have one. And no, don’t look so horrified. I’m not talking about my house.” He smoothed her hair from her forehead, his touch tender. “Granddad came to see me today. He’s moving into the condominium with Mrs. Wiley and he wants us to have his house, if, as he put it, I was lucky enough to convince you to marry me.”
The enormity of Jeb’s gesture overwhelmed her and put a lump in her throat. She swallowed hard. “Oh.”
“Granddad knows you love that house almost as much as he does. He insists it has to stay in the family, and he said it might help my case in persuading you to the altar. Wait until I tell him you proposed and all I had to do was say yes.”
“So you are saying yes?”
“How could I not when I’m so crazy about you?”
Josie contemplated a lifetime with Nick and felt so full of happiness, it almost hurt. “I can’t believe I’ll get to do anything and everything to you that I’ve ever imagined.”
He froze over her, groaned, then settled his mouth, hot and wet, possessively over hers. Josie had just decided she didn’t care if Bob and Susan were in the kitchen when Nick pulled back.
“I have a few confessions to make.”
She bit his lip, his chin. Her breathing was unsteady. “Not now, Nick.”
He caught her hands and held them over her head. “It has to be now. I don’t want to mess up anymore. So just be still and listen.”
Since he wasn’t giving her much choice, she listened.
“I didn’t realize it at the time, but I took you with me to see my grandfather because I knew he’d talk me up to you. I suppose I wanted you to like me as more than a damn fling, and Granddad seemed like the perfect solution.”
Tenderness swelled in her heart. “You’ve never needed any help with that one. I’ve always liked you.”
“I wasn’t thinking of anything permanent when I did that, Josie. I just wanted more time with you, and I knew I couldn’t let you start experimenting with any other guy. The thought makes me nuts.”
“I never intended to. I just told you that so you’d agree to hang around. I knew it was what you wanted to hear.”
He stared at her with widened eyes. “You lied?”
“Mmm-hmm.” She touched his jaw, his throat. His familiar weight pressed her down and had her body warming in very sensitive places. “I’d have done anything to keep you around a while.”
“Damn it, Josie, do you have any idea what you’ve put me through?”
“Are you talking about on the boat?” She dragged one foot up his calf, then wrapped both legs around him. “I remember it very well.”
His expression changed from annoyance to interest, then to grudging respect. “You know damn well that wasn’t what I was talking about, you just said it to distract me. You’re such a little tease.”
“I learned from a master.”
His grin was slow and filled with wickedness. “A master, huh? But I haven’t even come close to showing you everything yet.”
Though his words caused a definite hot thrill to shimmer through her belly, she hid her reaction and smiled. “And I haven’t even come close to testing the limits of your restraint. Do you know what I’d like to do to you next?”
“I don’t want to know. Not yet.”
She leaned up and whispered in his ear anyway. He groaned, pressed his hips closer to hers and asked, “When?”
Epilogue
NICK…” Josie’s groan echoed around the large bedroom and Nick slowed his pace even more, loving the sound of her pleas, loving her. For almost six months now they’d been married and living in what he still called Granddad’s house—and Nick knew he couldn’t have been happier.
“Tell me what you want, sweetheart.”
For an answer, she dug her fingers into the muscles of his shoulders and tried to squirm beneath him.
“Uh, uh, uh.” He pressed down, making her gasp. “You promised to hold perfectly still.”
“I can’t, Nick.”
His lips grazed her cheek. “You always say that, honey. I always prove you wrong.” He chuckled softly at her low moan. “Trust me. You’ll enjoy this.”
He slipped his hand down between their bodies and pressed his thumb where she needed it most. “Easy…” But this time his words did no good. Josie arched off the bed, her head back, her cries deep and real and she took him with her as she climaxed.
Long minutes later, he managed a dry chuckle and a mild scolding. “You’re too easy, Josie. And you need to learn to slow down. I’m going to get conceited if you don’t stop trying so hard to convince me what a wonderful lover I am.”
Without bothering to open her eyes, she lifted a limp hand and patted his cheek. “You’re the very best.”
He laid his hand on her belly and watched her shiver. “I love you, Josie.”
A smile tilted her mouth. “I’ve been thinking about cutting back at work some. With the way Granddad and Grandmom run things, I don’t need to make my rounds to visit nearly so often anymore. No one is lonely, not with those two always throwing a party of one kind or another.”
Nick still had a hard time thinking of Mrs. Wiley—now Mrs. Harris—as Grandmom. But he called her that because she asked him to and because he loved the way she pleased his grandfather, doting on him and putting the glow back in his eyes. She doted on Nick and Josie, as well, treating them as if they were her own grandchildren. The elders had married about a month ago, and were the epitome of lovesick newlyweds.
Nick dragged his fingers down Josie’s belly to her hipbones. He explored there, watching gooseflesh rise on her smooth skin. “If you want to work less, you know I won’t complain. But why the sudden decision?”
She turned to look at him and she caught his hand, bringing it to her lips. “Susan is pregnant.”
He stared at her for a long minute, then broke into a huge smile. “Well, I’ll be damned. Bob hasn’t said a thing.”
“Susan was going to tell him tonight.”
“He’ll be thrilled. And Susan will make a wonderful mother. Maybe it’ll keep her from checking up on you so often.”
Josie smacked at him. “You know she’s cut way back on that since we got married. She even likes you now.”
“Yeah, but she pretends she doesn’t. I think she just got used to hassling me.”
Josie shook her head. “She knows how much you enjoy arguing with her.” Then she bit her lip and tucked her face into his shoulder. “Nick?”
“Hmm?”
“What would you think about having a baby?”
His heart almost punched out of his chest. It took him thirty seconds and two strangled breaths to say, “Are you…?”
“Not yet. But I think I’d like to be.”
He fell back on the bed and groaned. “Don’t do that to me. I almost had a heart attack.”
Josie didn’t move. “So you don’t like the idea?”
He came back up over her and rested his large hand on her soft belly. He stroked. “I love you, honey. I didn’t think I’d ever feel this way about a woman, and now I can’t imagine how I ever got by without you.”
“Oh, Nick.”
“And I’d love a baby.” His rough fingertips smoothed her skin, teasing. “I’d love three or four of them, actually. God knows this house is big enough for a battalion, and nothing would make Grandda
d happier.”
She chuckled and reached her hand down to his thigh. “Let’s concentrate on just one, for now. I promise to make the endeavor pleasurable.”
“I await your every effort.”
Josie laughed at his hedonistic sigh. “You’re so bad.”
With one move, he flipped her over and pinned her beneath him. “You just got done telling me how good I am.”
She lowered her eyes and flashed an impish grin. “Hmm. Then that must mean it’s my turn to show you how good I can be.”
“You’re not done experimenting yet?”
She trailed a fingernail over his collarbone. “Nick, I’ve barely just begun.”
HIS EVERY FANTASY
Janelle Denison
Chapter One
LEAH BURTON stood just outside of Jace Rutledge’s auto shop, her heart beating triple time in her chest as she gathered the courage to approach Jace with her shameless proposition.
In all of her twenty-five years, she’d never been so brazen. But in the span of a few hours she’d gone for broke. First, she’d daringly stolen a page out of the Sexcapades book she’d found on the coffee table at the wedding planner’s office. Then she’d made a spontaneous decision to seek out what really should go on between a man and woman in the bedroom. Because she certainly wasn’t getting anything in that department from her soon-to-be fiancé, Brent. In fact, he seemed immune to her efforts to tempt him beyond lukewarm kisses, affectionate hugs and his gentle insistence that he respected her. He had no doubts that it was best to wait for their wedding night to make love.
If she accepted his offer of marriage, she thought, and leaned wearily against the cool metal siding of the building. She’d been stunned by his unexpected proposal a week ago during a candlelit dinner at one of Chicago’s finest restaurants, since after all, they’d only been dating for six months. Though she had to admit, from the moment they’d met, Brent had swept her up into a whirlwind courtship that included expensive dinners, lavish dates and social events, and extravagant gifts. Including the gorgeous, two-karat diamond engagement ring he’d presented her with when he’d asked her to marry him.
