“I’m sorry—”
“You have nothing to be sorry for. It was damn bad luck that you walked in when you did; you could have heard any other part of that call with Alex, and it wouldn’t have hurt you. Instead, as fate would have it, you walked in the moment I said the worst possible thing. This week… I’ve really enjoyed spending this week with you, more than I ever expected to. I feel like we’ve become closer than we were before…”
“We have,” she whispers in admission.
“I don’t know how to tell you how much you mean to me. Somehow over the last few months, you have weaved your way into my life. You somehow get me like no one ever has. I have no idea how, but you manage to keep the nightmares away simply by sleeping next to me. You’re the only woman I’ve ever shared a bed with, the only one I’ve ever trusted enough to sleep next to me. I don’t know how to classify what we have: it surpassed a business arrangement months ago, and I think in the past week we’ve also surpassed just being friends. We’ve somehow become more…”
“I’m so sorry I walked in yesterday when I did. I wish I had just texted you like you asked—”
“Stop apologizing, you didn’t do this.”
“I wish we could just forget that yesterday happened. I’ve really been enjoying this week and spending time with you. I missed sleeping next to you last night; you make me feel safe when you sleep with me. I… you’re not the only one scared. I swore I would never fall for a guy again; I was content with spending the rest of my life alone rather than risk getting hurt again. I went as far as ensuring that I wasn’t even alone with a man for the last two and a half years.
“Then I met you and you somehow managed to knock down all the walls I had put up. I care for you Nicholas… deeply, more than I think I have for anyone in my entire life. And yesterday, hearing you say… what you said, I thought it meant that what I was feeling was one sided. That you didn’t see me as anything more than your friend…”
Her voice trails off at the end, and I’m gutted once again. I lift her chin up, forcing her to look at me.
“Kenzie… I think you can agree that we passed friendship some time ago. Does this feel like friendship to you?”
Without giving her a chance to even think about it, I lean down and crush my lips against hers. I pour everything into the kiss, hoping for her to feel what I’m struggling to find the words to say. She gasps in surprise, I’m sure at the intensity of the kiss, and I take advantage of the opportunity to slip my tongue into her mouth. She moans against my lips before her tongue cautiously begins to explore mine. I run my hand up her back, holding her tight against me as I devour her mouth. I groan when she sucks my tongue into her mouth, the sensation going directly to my dick. I know she can feel it against her, there’s no way for her not to with how close we are right now.
As I run my hands over her soft curves, I realize that for the first time since we arrived here, she isn’t wearing one of the nighties that Susan had packed for her. I can’t help but feel responsible for her decision not to wear one of those outfits. I wonder why she chose to wear a tank top and shorts to bed? I want to ask her about it, but I’m almost afraid to know the answer. Is it because she knew she would be going to bed alone? Is it because she thought that when I said I couldn’t fall in love with her that she thought that meant I didn’t find her attractive? Surely she has to know that after everything that has happened between us this past week that not finding her attractive wasn’t even a possibility.
I somehow manage to pull my lips from Kenzie’s and slowly start kissing my way to her neck. I kiss, nibble and suck at the juncture where her neck and shoulder meet. Her breathing is heavy and every so often she releases the softest moans that make my dick harden even more. I slip my hand beneath the waist band of her cotton shorts, grasping her soft ass, pushing her further against my dick, wanting to leave her no doubt how attractive I find her. I can tell the moment her own desire begins to take over as she begins to rock against me, rubbing her clit against my dick. I don’t know when it happened, but at some point, she must have moved her leg as it is now resting over my hip. She’s using it to hold onto me just as much as I’m holding on to her right now.
“Nicholas,” she moans as the desire climbs even higher within her.
My own desire is climbing—each time she moves against me she manages to rub me in just the right way. The thin fabric of our pajama shorts is the only thing separating us, the only things preventing me from sliding deep into Kenzie. If only things were that easy—
“Please…” she whispers, pulling me from the path I was about to go down of focusing on how fucked up I am.
Instead of doing that, I focus on the beautiful, sexy woman that is in my arms. I slide my hand from her ass to her damp silk panty covered sex. She gasps and pushes herself both against my hand and against my dick at the same time. I let my fingers slide through her wet folds, teasing her further before sliding one deep into her throbbing center. She grips my finger so fucking tight that I can’t help but imagine what it would feel like to have her grip my dick that hard.
“God, Kenzie... You have no idea how badly I want you,” I whisper to her just before sliding another finger into her.
“Nicholas… I…”
“I got you, baby,” although the position is awkward because of how we’re laying, I manage to twist my fingers as I push them deeper into her until I find the spot I was looking for. “Come for me, Kenzie.”
“OH! NICHOLAS!!!!!!!” She wraps her arms around my shoulders, pulling me even closer to her as she rides out the waves of her orgasm. Her body continues to rub against mine; her lips are on my neck, sucking and kissing me just as I was doing to her a few moments ago. When she sucks on my ear, I swear I nearly come in my shorts right then and there. I use the arm that is around her back to hold her firm against me as I start thrusting my fingers in and out of her warm, tight body, not yet ready to let her go. She moans in my ear before biting it lightly, causing my hips to thrust against her involuntarily.
“Kenzie… you… don’t,” I pant when I feel her hand working its way into my shorts.
“I know, I want to,” she whispers just before she wraps her hand around my dick which has been begging for some attention.
When her thumb glides over the top of my dick, rubbing the drops of moisture that had been collecting there, I swear it takes everything in me not to lose it in that moment. I’ve never felt so out of control with a woman as I do with Kenzie. I’ve never been so fucking turned on just from foreplay—if this is even considered foreplay since it doesn’t result in sex. Whatever the fuck it is, she manages to have me so close to coming, the moment she touches me every fucking time. I’ve never been like this… ever.
“You feel so fucking good,” our bodies have separated a little to give us each enough room to move. I take advantage of the new position and rub my thumb over her clit, causing her to thrust against my hand and grip my dick even tighter as she strokes me. “So fucking good.”
“Nicholas... I’m going to…” I rub her hardened clit a little more which is all it takes to push her over the edge as she once again screams my name.
“Fuck, KENZIE!” She grips my dick harder while her body sucks my fingers deeper into her as she falls apart against me. Imagining it’s my dick inside of her, instead of my fingers, has me following Kenzie right over the edge only seconds later.
Her lips slowly make their way from my ear back to my lips where she gently kisses me. I let her lead the kiss, and she does just that. I hold her against me not yet ready to let her go. After the way yesterday ended and we went to bed separately, I never expected us to be here like this today. Hell, I wasn’t sure we would ever get back here.
“Definitely more than friends,” she laughs, and I chuckle remembering what I said to start all of this a little while ago.
“Let’s go take shower,” I kiss her one last time, take her hand and lead her inside.
Chapter 19
Kenzie
After a long, hot shower together, we’re in the golf cart and on our way to the activities area of the resort to see if we can go kayaking.
“I think I’m going to run into the store while you see about the kayak. I want to pick up something,” I say when he pulls into a parking spot.
“Okay, I’ll meet you in at the bench?” he gestures between the store and the activities area.
“Sure.”
I spend a few minutes walking around the store, looking for something to get Julie to thank her for talking with me yesterday. I’m not sure what I would have done if she hadn’t brought up the topic of what had happened. I don’t know that we I would have worked things out so quickly if she wasn’t as open as she was. I’m still not sure I believe her that Nicholas is in love with me, but hearing her say that at least confirmed what he told me later–that he thinks of me as more than a friend.
It takes me a few minutes of walking around the store, which has everything from gifts to toiletries to snacks, before I finally find something that I think she will like. I decide on a pin in the shape of a turtle that is made from different shapes of stones. I think she will appreciate that the stones on the turtle are local to the island. Walking up the last aisle, I grab one last item on a whim and head to the check-out counter. The cashier scans my bracelet, charging the purchases to the villa and places the items I bought in a decorate bag. I place the small bag in my purse and head out to the bench.
“If we want to grab a quick lunch, we can take the glass bottom kayak out in forty-five minutes,” Nicholas says as he approaches me moments after I sit down.
“Perfect!”
The trip was just amazing; you could literally see everything under the boat as we paddled through the open water. We were able to see the different color coral and even had schools of fish swimming below our boat. I had never experienced anything like that and judging by Nicholas’s face he hadn’t either. There was only one other couple on the water with us, but it really felt like we were alone the entire time. We spent about two hours on the water before deciding our arms were getting too sore to continue paddling around.
“So tomorrow is our last day here, right?” I ask back at the villa later that evening.
“Yes, we have to check out the next day by noon. The resort staff will pick up our luggage by eleven, I believe, to load it onto the plane. We’ll leave from the airport to head back to the states by two, if everything goes as planned. The trip back will probably feel much longer because we’ll be awake for most of the trip. When we land in New York, it will be around two in the morning Fiji time, but around midnight New York time. The time change back shouldn’t be as difficult to adjust to as when we flew out.”
“Are you going back to work on Monday then?”
“Yes, though I haven’t decided if I’m going to be working from home or if I will head into the office. I should head to PFS, but it might depend on how exhausted I am.”
“I was thinking I should meet with Ginny next week. If the press doesn’t know that I’m working there, I should be able to meet with her a few times without them knowing to at least get a feel for things. I have so much to learn about running the bakery…”
“When it comes to the book keeping and finances, I have plenty of staff at PFS who could offer you some advice once you get in there, if you want. Although, PFS doesn’t typically work with bakeries, I think the systems we have in place for The Summit could be scaled back to meet your needs at the bakery. Or you might want to keep Ginny’s system that she has been using—”
“No, definitely not,” I giggle. “Her books are all done by hand—I swear she’s so afraid of technology and won’t try anything new. I definitely want something that is computerized, so maybe once I can get a copy of what she has—”
“I have a copy of her books for the last two years,” Nicholas interrupts.
“You do?”
“Part of the due diligence process. I needed to make sure the bakery was doing well financially before I purchased it. If it was struggling or wasn’t turning a decent profit, I wouldn’t have purchased it for you. It didn’t make sense to purchase something that you would work day in and day out for without collecting a decent paycheck.”
“Oh, that makes sense. Ginny never really talked about how the bakery itself was doing. I just assumed since we were always so busy that it was doing okay.”
“And it most definitely is. I think there’s room for improvement, especially with some of the vendors she is working with, but those are things you can decide.”
“I think I would like to take you up on the offer to have someone at PFS help me set up a decent book keeping system, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course, once we get back and you’re ready, I can set you up with my head of finance. He’s amazing with spreadsheets and formulas; he can show you what we use for The Summit, if that’s something you might want to use, or he can develop a program specific for the bakery.”
“Thank you. I think that would be a big help. It’s kind of hard to believe that in two days we’ll be back in New York. In a way it feels like we’ve been gone for so long…”
“I think it’s because we don’t have to deal with reality out here. There are no business meetings, no reporters, no deadlines and no security issues to worry about. We’ve been able to pretend none of that exists for the last week.”
“It’s been nice.”
“It has. Although, I expect the reporters are going to be worse when we first get back to New York.”
“Really? Why?”
“Because everyone’s going to want the first picture of Mr. and Mrs. Parker, I’m sure. We released the one from our wedding, of course, but they’re going to want their own.”
“Oh, I suppose I should arrange for my name to be changed when we get back.”
“The applications are waiting for you in my office—all you will need to do is sign them. My legal department has taken care of completing everything and should have attached our marriage license, but if it hasn’t come in yet, that might be the one thing we have to wait for.”
“Oh, wow… thanks.”
“You should also have insurance and bank cards waiting for you when we get back.”
“Insurance cards?”
“Medical, dental and vision. PFS offers complete medical care to all of its employees and their families. You won’t have any deductibles or out of pocket expenses. I can assure you the coverage is far better than any that you might currently have, but if you want to compare plans I can have someone in my benefits department call you—”
“That won’t be necessary. I don’t have medical coverage now, so there’s nothing to compare. I just wasn’t expecting it.”
“You don’t have health insurance? How do you… what if…?”
“I looked into getting health insurance, trust me, it isn’t because I don’t want it. I made too much money to qualify for state funded insurance, yet to purchase a policy out of pocket would cost me more than four hundred dollars a month. And even then, the coverage itself wasn’t the greatest, and came with high costs.”
“What if you got sick?”
“There are plenty of clinics that will work a payment plan out with you, or a few even offer a sliding fee, based on how much you earn. Thankfully, I don’t get sick too often, so it wasn’t an issue. I made sure to get an annual physical, just in case, but otherwise, I rarely have to go to the doctor.”
“Well, you don’t have to worry about that any longer. Like I said, PFS’s medical coverage is one of the best on the market. I didn’t want my employees having to worry about medical bills for themselves or their families, especially if they had a major medical issue.”
“Thank you. I can cover the cost of my premium—”
“No. These benefits are provided to all employees at no cost to them. Adding you to the insurance policy doesn’t cost me anything, but even if it did, I wouldn’t let you pay for it. Besides it’s
in our paperwork that I cover your medical expenses.”
“I just assumed that meant a doctor bill or something; I wasn’t expecting that to mean adding me to your health insurance plan.”
“Well this way you don’t have to worry about dealing with bills if you need to go somewhere.”
“And a bank card? I’m almost afraid to ask.”
“Of course, you’ve been added as a joint owner to my bank account—”
“Nicholas! I don’t need or want access to your money!”
“I know you don’t need or want access to it, but you’re going to have expenses that you wouldn’t otherwise have being married to me. It’s only fair that I cover those expenses. You’re a joint owner on one of my personal bank accounts. I want you to use it for any expenses you have. I don’t care if it’s getting your nails done, your hair cut or going out to lunch with Cara.”
“I don’t feel comfortable using your money. It was hard enough to use your card to pay for the dress when Cara and I went shopping, but hair and nail appointments?”
“I know it’s going to take you some time to get used to it. I’m sure you’re used to having to worry about every penny you spend and how you’re going to afford the next thing that comes up. But you don’t have to any longer.”
“But—”
“Chances are you wouldn’t be buying the things you’re going to buy, or getting your hair and nails done as often as you will be, if you weren’t married to me. It’s only right that I pay for those things.”
“I just don’t feel right. I have my own money, I think I should be using that.”
“This isn’t about you having or not having money. It just makes sense since these expenses would be related to me. I have more money that I can spend in a lifetime, probably two lifetimes. Please, don’t worry about spending my money. I love that you are concerned about it, but you don’t need to be.”
On Her Terms (The Arrangement Duet Book 2) Page 20