Finding Nick

by Janis Reams Hudson

  At the top of the stairs his gait smoothed out after a couple of steps, until his limp was once again barely noticeable.

  Lightning flashed again. The thunder came more quickly this time. The storm was getting closer.

  She made herself look forward during that brief flash of brilliant light. She feared that if she looked at Nick and saw that sharp light on that strong, tense face, she might have a meltdown right there on the walkway.

  By the time they reached her door, her heart was about to pound its way out of her chest. Not from exertion, but from anticipation, and maybe a wild case of nerves.

  The Tribute Inn used actual metal keys for its guest rooms. Simple enough, in theory, but she couldn’t seem to fit hers into the lock. That might have had something to do with the way her hands were trembling, as if she had the palsy.

  “Need help?”

  She laughed. “I’d say no, I’ve been putting keys in locks all my life, but tonight I don’t seem—”

  He put his hands on her shoulders and turned her to face him. “It’s all right, Shannon. We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. It’s okay to change your mind.”

  Flash. Lightning traced highlights and shadows on his face, this time giving him a predatory look that called to her so sharply she nearly gasped. Instead, she swallowed. “Do you want me to change my mind? Have you changed your mind?”

  “Not on your life, lady,” he said with feeling.

  “Then would you please open this door?” She handed him her key and stepped aside to let him at the lock.

  Nick wasted no time in getting them inside her room. He wasn’t going to ask again if she was sure. He’d asked and she had answered yes more than once. She could still say no, but she would have to think of it on her own.

  He closed the door and leaned back against it, taking her into his arms and pulling her close against his chest. She felt good there. Small and slight, yet solid, too. And warm. Holding her close made his heart pound. But it was her mouth he wanted at that moment.

  The room was pitch-black. He wanted to see her, to look in her eyes while he tasted her mouth. With one hand, he fumbled beside the door until he found the switch.

  The lamp beside the bed cast a halfhearted pool of light ten feet from where they stood at the door, but it was enough that Nick could see her.

  “That’s better,” he whispered. Then he lowered his head and took her mouth with his. The kiss was hot and deep and sent his pulse pounding and his blood racing. He’d wanted to keep his eyes open so as not to miss any part of the experience of kissing her. But her eyes were closed, and he felt his closing, too, the more to concentrate on the softness of her lips, the rough-smooth texture of her teasing tongue.

  Oh, yes, this was what he wanted. She was what and who he wanted. The surprise, the sheer relief to know that he could still feel these sensations, when he hadn’t felt much of anything for the past five years, exhilarated him. He drank her in and took everything she gave, and she was generous.

  But she took, too, and demanded more. He answered her with his lips and tongue and teeth, and set his hands loose to roam over her, to feel her shape, her softness, her firmness, her curves. Her breasts. It had been years since he’d had the privilege of touching a woman’s breasts. Hers were a perfect fit in his palms. He wondered if she would mind if he never took his hands away. He flexed his fingers on them and nearly groaned at their firm resilience.

  Shannon felt her blood rush to her breasts. They seemed to swell to fill his hands. Heaven help her, she wanted those hands on her flesh, and her hands on his skin. She tugged at his shirt, pulling the tail free of his jeans. In the process, she dropped her purse and kicked off her shoes. And somehow, her new tie-dyed T-shirt ended up on the floor. She believed it had help, but not from her, and she was thankful.

  In a flash she had his shirt unbuttoned and Nick had removed her bra. Then, from waist to shoulders, her bare flesh was pressed against his, and everything inside her turned warm and liquid, like honey in the sun. Never had she felt anything so strong, so peaceful yet stirring, arousing. Finally, finally she was not alone. She felt as if she never would be again.

  She never wanted to move. Until his hand slipped into her jeans. “Oh, yes,” she whispered against his lips.

  Nick’s pulse leaped at her response to his touch. At the rate his body was going, he would be lucky to get them to the bed without losing control.

  “Come,” she whispered with a little pull on his arms.

  “I will,” he said with feeling. “Probably sooner than you’ll appreciate.”

  She sucked in a sharp breath and stopped halfway to the bed and kissed him. “I doubt it.” She ran her hands over his bare chest and took his breath away.

  Such a simple thing, a hand on a chest. But it was a woman’s hand—this woman’s hand—on his chest, and it was far from simple. It was erotic. It was hot. It was thrilling. It was comforting. It was soothing. How could anything be erotic and soothing at the same time?

  And yet, her touch was. He understood the erotic and was grateful for it. Maybe the soothing was for finally feeling this way again after all these years. To know he was still capable of pleasing a woman, of being pleasured by one. That this essential part of his manhood was not lost to him after all.

  When she flicked her fingernails over his nipples, he forgot to wonder about anything. With a moan, he kissed her hard and deep and shuffled the two of them to her bed.

  Four hands tugged and pulled and fumbled, breaths rasped, clothes ended up on the floor. And finally Nick and Shannon lay on the bed together, naked, wrapped in each other’s arms.

  “Oh, yeah,” he said, running a hand over her satiny hip. “I like your skin.”

  Shannon took in a long, deep breath and tried to slow her racing pulse. She spread her hands across his back. “Yours is pretty prime, too.” She kissed his shoulder, then nipped her way along his collarbone, loving the salty taste of his skin.

  Nick nearly lost his mind. What she was doing felt so good, he wanted to shout. He doubted he had enough air in his lungs for it, but he could think of better uses for his mouth anyway. Her lips were smooth against his skin, her tongue hot. Her teeth took tiny bites that sent electrical impulses from his collarbone to his groin. He shifted until he could put his mouth on her shoulder and returned the favor.

  Shannon shivered. She had never felt so greedy. She wanted to take in all of him at once. She wanted to run her hands smoothly over him, but ended up grasping him instead, afraid to go slowly, afraid to be gentle, for fear he might somehow disappear. She grasped, and held on. His biceps felt like warm, carved marble. She’d never felt anything better.

  Unless it was his shoulders, or his chest. She touched him everywhere she could reach. Kissed him every place her lips could find.

  They drove each other on until their skin slicked with sweat. To Nick, she felt like a sensuous fire come to life in his arms, a fire that scorched him clear through and had him begging for more. He couldn’t seem to get enough of her and knew he wouldn’t until he buried himself deep inside her.

  He felt and found her ready. Some deep part of his brain kicked in and reminded him to reach for the condom he carried in his wallet. When it was on, he settled himself between her thighs, then held still, his upper body braced on his forearms.

  Shannon looked up at him in the pale gold light from the lamp and felt singed by the heat in his eyes. Why was he waiting? She wrapped her legs around his hips and arched toward him. Didn’t he know how much she wanted him? Couldn’t he tell that she was going to die, right there in the bed, if she couldn’t feel him inside her?

  “Nick,” she whispered.

  “Yes,” he whispered back. He wanted to savor this moment, to make it last. He knew that once he entered her, he was going to lose all control and race toward the finish. He had to make sure she was with him. But the look in her eyes and the feel of her smooth, strong legs wrapped around him wouldn’t let him wait. Neither
would the urgency in her voice. It matched what he felt inside. She was with him.

  With one small flex of his hips, he nudged against her slick heat.

  “More,” she demanded.

  Nick smiled. “You said the magic word.” Another flex, this one deeper. Then deeper still until he was in all the way.

  Beneath him, she moved, raising her hips, moving them side to side. Moaning.

  “Are you with me?” he managed to say on a strangled breath.

  “I will be.” She raised her arms and pulled him down for a long, hot kiss. “If you’ll hurry. Otherwise I’ll be ahead of you.”

  He laughed. “No way.” He didn’t think he’d ever laughed at such a time before, but just then, with her, it felt right. He reached both hands beneath her head and threaded his fingers into her hair, anchoring himself, tilting her head up for another kiss, and began to move. In and out, as slowly as he could.

  But the heat was already overwhelming, and the new friction was the spark that shot them both over the edge in mere moments.

  Still holding each other, they rolled to lie on their sides, facing each other, so he wouldn’t crush her with his weight. There they gasped for breath and grinned at each other.

  Chapter Five

  The thunderstorm blew through town around midnight, and the next day the air was fresh and clear and just cool enough to require a sweater, with the tang of turning leaves in the air. The perfect autumn day for a homecoming parade.

  Shannon strolled along Main from her motel toward the town square. Nick had said that would be the best place from which to watch the parade.

  At the mere thought of his name, a hot flush raced from her head to her toes and back again. She may have miscalculated. She’d been so sure that she could ease into a casual affair with him, a little mutual scratching of itches, no big deal, just a good time being had by all.

  Except her night with Nick had been a very big deal. Quite possibly the biggest deal of her life. How was she supposed to look him in the eye today, when she felt her entire world had slipped off-kilter? Would he be able to look at her and know he had reached something deep inside of her that no man had ever reached before? She was afraid the emotions inside her—confusion, elation, fear, anticipation—showed on her face. And maybe frustration, too, because she knew he hadn’t felt the same things she had.

  Oh, he had no complaints about the sex. They had been dynamite together. Three times.

  But she felt as if he’d been holding some part of himself back. While she had opened herself completely. She hadn’t meant to; it had just happened. His hands had fisted in her hair, his dark eyes, heavy-lidded, eating her alive, their bodies joined, and she had been overwhelmed by sensations and emotions. Her climax, when it had hit, had been more powerful than anything she’d ever felt. Until the next one, and the one after that. Nick Carlucci should wear a sign warning women to beware. One night with him, and they’ll never be the same.

  What Shannon had to decide was what to do about these new feelings she had for him.

  “Are you cold?”

  She nearly jumped out of her skin. “You scared ten years off my life.”

  Nick looked at her curiously. “You’re standing on Main Street with dozens of people all around. That must have been some mental trip you were on. Is everything okay?”

  The hand she held against her chest told her her heart was still in there, but it had a long way to go in slowing down to normal. “Sure,” she lied. “Fine.”

  Or maybe not, she thought. She glanced around and realized she had walked all the way to the park without realizing where she was. Without noticing the dozens of pedestrians lining the sidewalks. A number of high schoolers and a few adults, too, sported black-rimmed glasses and plastic pocket protectors filled with ink pens, all in honor of Nerd Day. Most people were decked out in red and white—even Nick wore a red-and-white team jacket with leather sleeves.

  She shook her head. She must have really been out of it. She wondered if she would have noticed if there’d been a fire.

  “I guess my mind wandered,” she admitted.

  Nick’s dark, bedroom eyes slid to half-mast and took on a seductive look. “To anyplace in particular?”

  Shannon sucked in a deep breath. A certain look, a tone of voice. Was that all it took to have her ready to beg for more of what they’d shared last night? Get a grip, girl. She straightened her shoulders and steadied herself.

  “No,” she answered him. “Just taking in the sights. Where did all these people come from? What did they do, shut down every business in town?”

  He gave her an easy smile. “Close to it, I guess. Everybody has somebody, family or friend, connected to the high school. Homecoming parade’s a big deal around here.”

  “So I see.” She pulled a small digital camera from her shoulder bag. “I’m ready.”

  He frowned as if in deep thought. “You going to write a book about it?”

  She hadn’t thought to but the idea wasn’t half-bad. “An article, maybe. Does that bother you?”

  “No. Not at all.” He gave her a halfhearted smile. “I’d rather see you write that than the other thing you’re working on.”

  “Why doesn’t that surprise me? But I doubt I can make an entire book out of a homecoming parade, and my publisher is expecting that ‘other thing,’ as you put it.”

  He grimaced. “As far as I’m concerned, a book about Homecoming would be a better use of paper.”

  Shannon started to laugh it off, but something tweaked in the back of her mind. Maybe not an article about the parade. Maybe a book about the entire Homecoming Week, small-town style? She could visit other small towns, get a cross section from different parts of the country….

  “There’s that look again,” Nick said. “You’re gone.”

  She blinked, shook her head and smiled. “No, I’m here. But you’ve given me a possibly great idea for a book.”

  “About Homecoming?”

  “Maybe.”

  He looked skeptical. “You’re joking, aren’t you?”

  “I don’t know. It’s just an idea. What’s with the letter jacket? I thought you were the custodian.”

  “I help out with football practice, sometimes at games.”

  “Really? Doing what? Coaching?”

  “Not really. Mostly I help out with first aid. I’ve got a lot of experience there.”

  “Oh. I guess you do. Is that the band I hear? Is it time?” She made her way to a spot at the curb and Nick followed.

  It had been a long time since Shannon had seen a homecoming parade. She wasn’t quite sure what to expect.

  She could hear the marching band clearly now, but they weren’t leading the parade. First came a local police car with its lights flashing. Every few feet, the cop hit the siren for a couple of seconds, then cut it off. The crowd cheered.

  And it was a crowd, Shannon noted. People two and three deep lined both sides of the street for the three blocks of the official parade route, with a small knot of onlookers gathered in the grass behind Shannon’s curb spot, another group just down the street at the gas station. People stood; some sat on lawn chairs they’d brought from home; some sat on the curb; and others sat on top of cars and on tailgates of pickups. She shot pictures of the crowd and the cop.

  After the squad car came a truck pulling two long, flatbed trailers sporting the Tribute Tigers football team, some perched, some lounging, on hay bales. Some looked endearingly embarrassed, while others mugged and clowned around for all they were worth, putting on a great show for everyone with a camera—and there were lots of cameras. Every proud parent in the crowd wanted to capture the moment the Tigers rode through town in the parade.

  “That’s your team, huh?” Shannon asked.

  “That’s them,” Nick confirmed.

  “Are they going to win tomorrow night?”

  “They’re supposed to.”

  “Well of course they’re supposed to. Are they going to, that’s t
he question.”

  “If you ask them, they say yes,” Nick said.

  Behind the players came the cheerleaders, leaping and kicking and cheering. They stopped right in front of the park, and Shannon and Nick, and performed one of their cheers, stirring up the crowd with school spirit.

  Shannon took pictures while she cringed.

  “Why the face?” Nick asked.

  “I read an article. Cheerleading injuries have more than doubled in the last decade. I wish they wouldn’t do those flips. And on pavement.” But she snapped more shots.

  “I take it you weren’t a cheerleader.”

  “Me? Ha. I was a geek. School newspaper, year-book committee, that kind of stuff.”

  “A geek, huh?” He grinned. “I’ll have to think about that.”

  “I wish you wouldn’t,” she muttered.

  “I can see you with a set of pom-poms.”

  “Watch out, Carlucci, you’re bigger than I am, but I can still hurt you.”

  “Woman’s got no sense of humor,” he grumbled.

  The cheerleaders finished their yell and flipped and tumbled their way down the street. The pep squad followed, marching in semi-straight rows, belting out another cheer.

  Then came the majorettes, leading the way for the drum major and the marching band, who played a jazzy rendition of “The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You,” with the horns and reeds bopping side to side in time with the music.

  Shannon shot pictures of it all, stooping, stretching, jumping out into the street, whatever necessary to get the best shot. Her face was alive with fun and excitement. Nick was getting a bigger kick out of her enjoyment than he was from the parade itself.

  He’d been apprehensive about facing her today, after the night they’d spent. He didn’t know what to expect from her, or what she would expect from him. Nice ride, see you later? Or, how about another round? Or something in between; but for the life of him, he couldn’t imagine what might be in between.