Colton 911: Secret Defender

by Marie Ferrarella

  But once he found himself confronting this moment, savoring it and instantly reacting to it, he discovered that there were no words to begin to describe it.

  His expectations had been much too low.

  Aaron learned that no matter how much he kissed her, touched her, relished her, he still couldn’t get enough of her. Desire drove him like a hot poker stroked against his skin.

  He undressed Felicia with hands that were almost trembling with anticipation. The sensation made him feel like a teenager, not like a man who had had his share of women and truly enjoyed the act of lovemaking. He had never reacted like a teen who just couldn’t get enough of a woman—until now.

  When Aaron felt Felicia’s hands gliding along his skin, felt her fingers as they removed the barriers that still remained between them, the anticipation all but shot through his body.

  There was a sofa in one corner of the loft and eventually he made his way over to it with her. Once on the sofa, he marked a clear path along her body with his lips, branding every single part of her that he wanted.

  And he wanted all of it.

  The sound of Felicia’s heavy breathing stirred him and spurred him on, enticing him more than he thought was possible.

  When Felicia moaned, shifting and moving beneath him as his mouth methodically claimed every part of her, the sound just fanned his desire, sending it up to another level.

  He couldn’t stop himself. As he anointed every part of her, his desire grew increasingly more urgent.

  Felicia twisted and purred. The explosions that went off within her body as climax after climax vibrated through her were almost more than she could bear. He teased her and kept her at bay for almost longer than she thought possible.

  “Now,” she whispered hoarsely. “Please, now.”

  Aaron understood what she was telling him, and he was more than happy to oblige. Quite honestly, he wasn’t all that sure how much longer he could have held off if she hadn’t been ready for him.

  Mercifully, there was no need to find out.

  Sliding his damp body along her heaving torso, he slipped his fingers through hers, joining their hands before he rose above her and completed the act by joining their bodies together, as well.

  He felt her hips rising in a silent invitation just before he began to move. At first slowly, then with more urgency, each time going faster than before until it felt as if the ride toward paradise had both of them racing ever more quickly until the explosion finally came, drenching them in a shower of stars and unimaginable passion.

  Felicia could hardly catch her breath. She could feel Aaron’s heart pounding against her chest, compounding the ecstasy that had found and seized them until it finally and slowly abated, fading into the shadows like a treasured memory.

  She vainly struggled to catch her breath as she lay with her cheek resting against his chest. Felicia was more than a little convinced that she would never be able to breathe normally again. But that was all right because she had been able to experience something indescribably wonderful just now. Something she had never even thought possible in her wildest dreams.

  She realized now that she had never known true lovemaking before.

  Not until now.

  Joy radiated through every part of her, even as she told herself not to get used to it.

  Aaron stroked her hair, doing his best to breathe normally. But it wasn’t easy.

  “I’m going to have to take you home, you know.” When she raised her head to look at him, he clarified, “My mother’s house.” He would have loved to have her spend the night, keeping her locked in his arms, but that just wasn’t possible.

  At least, not yet.

  “I know,” she murmured, doing her best to ignore the wave of sadness that washed over her.

  His arms tightened around her just a little. “You were incredible, you know.”

  He felt her smile forming against his chest. “You don’t have to say that.”

  “I know. But you were. And I’d really like to have you spend the night,” he told her honestly. “But we’re not the only ones involved here,” he needlessly pointed out. And then he laughed softly to himself. “I don’t want my mother thinking that I seduced her physical therapist.”

  Felicia raised herself up on her elbow and looked at him, a smile in her eyes. “Instead of the other way around?”

  “Oh?” He feigned surprise. “Are you saying that you seduced me?”

  “Well, didn’t I?” she asked, pinning him down with her eyes on his. Her smile couldn’t have been wider.

  “Tell you what, why don’t we call it a draw?” he suggested. “Or, we could do it again to see who seduced who.”

  “You can do it again?” she asked in surprise. Greg had always claimed that once a night was his absolute limit, saying that it was every man’s limit.

  Aaron’s grin grew wider. “Properly inspired, I can.” He ran his finger along the outline of her lips. “I promise not to linger so we will get you back to Mom’s before midnight.”

  “Midnight again,” Felicia said with a laugh, slipping her arms around his neck. “Definitely getting a Cinderella complex here,” she told him just before she sealed her lips to his.

  Chapter 19

  “Did you have a good time?”

  Felicia swallowed the scream that had instantly risen to her lips as she swung around, her heart hammering wildly in her chest.

  Less than two minutes ago, she had walked into Nicole’s house. She was doing her best to quietly ease the front door closed after Aaron had dropped her off.

  Given the hour—it was after eleven—Felicia assumed that Nicole was in bed and if not asleep, then pretty close to getting there. Felicia had entered the house trying not to make any noise. The last thing she wanted to do was wake Aaron’s mother up.

  Obviously she had miscalculated.

  Pressing her hand against her chest, as if that would somehow slow down the rapid pounding—it didn’t—Felicia took in several deep breaths. Sadly, even that didn’t help all that much.

  For her part, Nicole looked extremely apologetic when she looked at Felicia.

  “Felicia, I am so sorry. I had no intentions of scaring you like that,” she told the young woman. “I just wanted to ask you if you had a good time and if the food I prepared for your picnic was to your liking. You poor dear.” Nicole felt terrible for having frightened Felicia this way.

  Instinctively, Nicole rubbed her hands up and down Felicia’s arms—as if that would somehow restore the color back into the young woman’s face. Right now, Felicia looked as white as a sheet.

  “That’s all right,” Felicia assured her, doing her best to force a smile to her lips. She needed to get better control over herself and stop being so jumpy, she silently lectured herself.

  She didn’t want Aaron’s mother feeling guilty, especially not over the fact that she had—to her embarrassment—overreacted. Again. After all, Nicole had no way of knowing that her reaction was due to years of having Greg suddenly pop out of the shadows. He would grab her by her hair and, shouting into her face, accuse her of all sorts of terrible things, none of which she was ever guilty of.

  But that somehow never seemed to matter to Greg. It was enough that he believed those things to be true at the time, despite the fact that she had never once done anything to make him suspicious of her.

  And now, it was happening again. Or at least it felt that way to her. She couldn’t get away from the feeling that someone was following her, even though she tried to convince herself that it was absurd.

  Desperate to come up with an excuse for her behavior, Felicia grabbed the first one she could think of.

  “I guess I was so fixated on not making any noise and waking you up, I somehow didn’t hear you coming up behind me.” Felicia smiled at the woman, trying to make a joke. “You’d make a good n
inja.”

  She took a breath, doing her best to sound normal. “Everything was wonderful, just the way every meal you’ve ever prepared has been. As a matter of fact, it was so good we ate everything except the napkins and the knives and forks.” A little calmer now, Felicia couldn’t help smiling. “That was really very nice of you, to go through all that trouble to prepare that picnic basket full of all those great things to eat for us.”

  Nicole was not thoroughly convinced that there was nothing more behind what Felicia was saying. Ordinarily, she might work in a question or two to get to the bottom of things. But it was late and she was not about to press the matter at this point.

  She had a feeling that the young woman would tell her what was bothering her in her own time, when she was ready to do so—although she really was quite worried about Felicia. Her instincts were telling her that something was wrong.

  Something that went beyond just a case of jittery nerves.

  So she patted Felicia’s shoulder and said, “Well, I won’t keep you, dear. I have to go to bed and get my rest.” She lowered her voice as if sharing a secret. “My physical therapist probably has some new, really difficult exercises planned to spring on me in the morning.” She winked at Felicia. “Glad you enjoyed the meal.”

  “Thank you,” Felicia called after the woman, who had turned to go to her room.

  “My pleasure, dear,” Nicole responded. “My pleasure.” And she meant that in more ways than one. Felicia had already won her heart, and her mother’s intuition told her that the young woman and her son belonged together. They made a very good pair.

  She just hoped that they would see that for themselves.

  Nicole was convinced that Felicia needed to feel protected, and Aaron, well, he was definitely the man for the job.

  With a sigh, Nicole got comfortable and settled back in her bed. Tomorrow, after she had more time to think about this, she was going to start setting the wheels in motion so that there was more of a reason to keep bringing Aaron and Felicia together, Nicole promised herself.

  She fell asleep creating a variety of new, different menus.

  * * *

  “You know, I have never seen anyone making so much progress so rapidly as you have,” Felicia told Nicole the next day after she wound up their morning session. “You should be very proud of yourself.”

  “The only reason I’ve made so much progress is because I have such a wonderful teacher,” Nicole told her happily.

  Felicia still had trouble accepting compliments. “Thank you, but be that as it may, I feel guilty taking your money when you clearly really don’t need me anymore.”

  Nicole appeared disturbed by the very suggestion. “Of course I need you. Do you know what will happen if you sign off and leave me?”

  “You’ll go on doing your exercises,” she told Nicole with the confidence of someone who was fairly certain she knew the person she was speaking to.

  But Nicole smiled almost sadly as she shook her head. “That’s just the point. No, I won’t.” Felicia began to protest the woman’s reply, but Nicole stopped her right there. “Oh, I’ll have all these wonderful intentions of continuing to do them, but you know what they say about the road to hell—that it’s paved with good intentions. I will really intend to do the exercises religiously, but something will come up. Something always comes up,” she emphasized with a sigh. “And what will actually happen is that I’ll eventually stop doing them altogether—or even thinking about doing them,” she added before Felicia could say anything.

  “Don’t you understand, dear?” she asked the young woman. “I need you here to keep cracking the whip—figuratively if not literally.”

  Felicia looked at the older woman thoughtfully. She had a feeling that Nicole was not just making this up. Nicole was being serious. Maybe the woman actually did need to have someone standing over her to make sure that the exercises were being done rather than put off.

  She rethought her initial words to Nicole. “Well, maybe if I cut back on my rates,” Felicia began. It didn’t seem quite fair to keep charging Nicole the full amount if she knew which exercises to do.

  And if the woman continued to have her living on the premises, well, that would take care of a large part of her regular expenses. Maybe they could come to some sort of an understanding or arrangement after all.

  But Nicole apparently had other thoughts. She draped the towel around her neck, wiping away the perspiration that had formed along her forehead while doing her exercises.

  “Absolutely not. You’re not going to cut back on your efforts, so I’m not about to cut back on your normal rates. Now, no more discussion about cutting, all right?” she told Felicia. And with that, she deftly changed the subject. “I hope you don’t have any plans for tonight.”

  That caught her off guard, because she did—sort of. Felicia was really hoping to hear from Aaron today about the possibility of getting together with him again. He had said something to that effect when he dropped her off at the house last night, but so far, she hadn’t heard from him.

  Don’t call us, we’ll call you, right? she mocked herself.

  C’mon, Fee. You know better than to get carried away like this. You know what happens when you get carried away. One way or another, you’re going to be disappointed, Felicia cautioned herself.

  Out loud she said brightly to Aaron’s mother, “No, I don’t have any plans.”

  Nicole beamed happily at the response. This morning, even before she began her exercise regimen with Felicia, she had already gotten in contact with her son about coming over for dinner. She had discovered, to her relief, that it didn’t take any arm-twisting on her part at all. As a matter of fact, Aaron seemed extremely amenable to the idea.

  “Good,” she declared. “That means you can come to my impromptu dinner party tonight. I’m going to be trying out a few new recipes and I’m going to need some willing guinea pigs.”

  “Guinea pigs?” Felicia questioned a bit uneasily, not sure exactly what that meant.

  “Yes,” Nicole confirmed. “You, Aaron and Lila, as well as Vita and that sweetheart of her husband—if we can tear him away from the nursery before midnight. Dinner will be at six.” She patted Felicia’s arm. “Thank you for indulging me.”

  Nicole was a firm believer in striking while the iron was hot and she had a definite feeling that things were heating up between Aaron and Felicia. “It means a lot to me to get fully back into the game.”

  It was clear that the woman considered resuming her catering business as being part of her entire healing process.

  Felicia understood where Nicole was coming from. She had dealt with workaholics before and knew that they considered their work as defining who they were. But even so, she still worried about the woman. She didn’t want Nicole getting carried away. That could ultimately do more harm than good.

  “As long as you promise not to overdo things. You’ve made so much progress in these last few weeks, I wouldn’t want to risk you suddenly backsliding. I realize you think of yourself as a superwoman, but you still have to take it a little easy just awhile longer. Deal?”

  “Deal,” Nicole said, a smile playing on her lips as she elaborately crossed her heart. “Now, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll go grab a shower. That last workout left me feeling particularly pungent.”

  “You smell like a rose,” Felicia told the woman innocently.

  “And you lie really badly,” Nicole told her with a laugh. She paused for a moment in the doorway, thinking. She had an idea. “Say, would you like to help me, Felicia?”

  “Sure, what do you want me to do?” she asked, ready to do whatever Aaron’s mother asked her to.

  “Would you lend me a hand preparing tonight’s dinner?” Nicole asked. She looked at Felicia hopefully.

  “Lend you a hand preparing the dinner?” Felicia echoed. “Isn’t that usua
lly something you’d ask Vita to do? I wouldn’t want to step on anyone’s toes. Especially not hers.”

  She really liked Nicole’s ex-sister-in-law. The two women had a relationship that she really envied and could only wish she had. She wouldn’t accidentally insult Vita for the world.

  “Oh no, you wouldn’t be,” Nicole quickly assured Felicia. “Right now, she’s committed to helping Rick finish his end-of-the-month inventory at the nursery. He’s bound and determined to get it finished, and on his own, it’ll take the man until midnight, so Vita’s pitching in whether Rick likes it or not.”

  Nicole shook her head. “You know, I never saw a man so dedicated to living up to all his responsibilities. When my boys were growing up, Rick was so good with them. My ex never had any time for any of them, but any time the boys or I needed anything at all, Vita’s husband never even thought about saying no. Instead, he was always right there. The same went for Vita’s own two kids.

  “Sometimes,” she continued, “a second husband acts as if he wants to have nothing to do with his wife’s kids, but not Rick. He adopted Lila and Myles and, for all intents and purposes, acted as if he had adopted mine, as well. I really can’t say enough about the man. I only wish I had been able to find someone like him myself.

  “Anyway, if you’re willing to help me with the preparations, we can get started right after we both take our showers. Is it a deal?” she asked.

  Felicia smiled. “How can I possibly say no?” she teased.

  Nicole thought about her ex-husband—and especially his mother. Carin didn’t have a maternal bone in her body—or any kindness at all, for that matter. She doubted that either one of them would have any trouble saying no.

  “You would be surprised what an easy word that is to say,” she murmured. Snapping out of it, she promised, “Meet you in the kitchen in fifteen minutes.”

  “It’s going to take us all day to prepare?” Felicia asked, surprised.

  “Oh, no. But I thought you might want to grab something to eat for lunch before we get started.”