Shrugging off the bit of negative emotion, I readied myself to go into what would be my home for the next little while. I didn’t have high hopes of staying forever in Nixon’s home. While his intentions were good, I assumed that sometime in the future he’d find a woman who was good for him—someone clearly in his league, a thing I wasn’t.
Getting out of the car, I grabbed my purse and the overnight bag I’d packed for my brief stay at a motel in Portland, which I’d gone to after making sure the movers got everything from my old place. They’d taken off right away, aiming to get my things to Nixon’s ahead of my arrival. Now I’d have to get inside and try to get things put away so my crap wouldn’t be looming in boxes, taking up space.
When I got to the door, I went to punch in the code to disarm the security system before I used the key to open the door, just as Nix had told me to. But I thought it might be best to ring the bell instead, just in case he was home, which I couldn’t tell from out here as his garage was closed.
When the door opened, I saw Nix’s handsome face. “Hey, why’d you ring the bell? I told you to come on in.” He wasted no time pulling me inside and hugging me. “I’ve missed you.”
His arms around me did what they always seemed to do—made me wet and aching for him. When he closed the door and pinned me to it, I got the feeling his body reacted much as mine did.
He looked at me with hungry eyes, and I ran my hands over his bearded face. “It’s grown even more. You look so dangerous.”
Leaning down, he kissed me softly. “Good, that’s exactly what I was going for. Did you miss me at all?”
Only every waking moment.
I didn’t want to go that far. It was never my intention to make him feel like I wanted more than he was willing to give me. “I might’ve.”
His hands moved down my arms as he pressed his bulge against me. “You have this crazy effect on me.”
I laughed but stopped short when I heard someone in the kitchen. “Someone’s here?”
“Yeah, the maid.” He kissed me again. “Damn, I guess I should introduce you to her.”
So the woman I saw wasn’t the maid … then who was she?
I kept my thoughts to myself. “Yes, you should introduce us. After that, I really need to get to work putting my things away.”
“No need, I had that all taken care of,” he said, moving to one side and draping his arm across my shoulders.
“You had everything unpacked and put away? Already?” I was shocked and amazed and thankful.
“Yeah, I had the movers do some, and my maid and her son did the rest. I hope you don’t mind.” He stopped and pointed at a rocking chair that sat near the glass doors, which led outside to a gorgeous wooden deck. “I bought that yesterday for us to rock our baby in. Do you like it?”
The wooden rocker had been whitewashed, making it look rustic. “It’s nice. I do like it. How thoughtful you are.”
He shrugged and moved on, pulling me with him. “I don’t know what’s getting into me.” When we stepped into the kitchen, my eyes landed on a middle-aged woman who was a little red in the face from cleaning the inside of a cabinet. “Mona Black, I’d like you to meet the lady of the house, Katana Reeves.”
Wiping her hands on her white apron, she made her way to me. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, ma’am.” I shook her hand and took in her friendly smile. “Mr. Slaughter has told me your good news. Congratulations.”
I looked at Nix and wondered why on earth he’d have this woman, who was clearly older than him, calling him such a formal name. Whatever his preference was, I wasn’t about to be called ma’am or Miss Reeves. “Thank you. It’s nice to meet you. And please call me Katana.”
“I’ll do that.” She went back to what she was doing before, still talking. “I’ve planned roasted chicken with asparagus and wild rice for dinner this evening. Will that be okay with you, Katana?”
I looked at Nix, who smiled at me then winked. “She works for you too, Katana.”
Not sure I liked that at all, I answered, “Anything you make will be fine with me. Just keep on doing what you’ve been doing for Nix. I don’t need any special treatment.”
“You don’t hesitate to let me know if you want anything special, Katana. That is what I’m paid to do, after all—look after you guys.” She got back to work as Nixon pulled me away from the kitchen.
“Let me show you around.” He pointed out the glass doors. “That’s the deck. There’s a set of stairs that lead down to the beach.” He had my hand in his and led me across the large living room. “On the other side of the kitchen is a formal dining room that I rarely use.” He pointed to a door under the stairs. “That’s a closet where things are stored. Next to this is the room we’ll leave as the guestroom.” Then up the stairs we went, and he pointed to the room at the end of the long hallway. “That’s my bedroom back there. The door on the left is the baby’s, and the one on the right is yours. You have access to a balcony through a set of French doors. You and I share that balcony; my room has another set of French doors that lead out to it as well.”
“This place is gorgeous, Nix. I can’t believe I get to call it home for a while,” I gushed. Then I thought about the maid we’d left back in the kitchen, and looked at him as I put my hand on his chest. “Since I’m here, I can help with the daily chores. I can wash our clothes and keep things clean up here in our rooms and bathrooms. If you won’t let me pay you anything, then I want to help out around the house.”
He chuckled. “No way. I’m paying the maid to do that work. You wouldn’t want to put Mona out of a paying job, now would you?” He pulled me along with him and opened the door to my new bedroom. “What do you think? We can change it up any way you want.”
“It’s perfect just the way that it is,” I said as I looked at the gorgeous furnishings. The bed, a small desk, and the bedside tables were all made of cherry wood. A very large flat screen television hung on the wall, making it easy to lie in bed and watch it—which I might do whenever I wasn’t gazing out the windows or doors at the perfect view of the blue waters of the Pacific Ocean. “This is more than I ever expected.”
Nix’s hand went into his pocket and came back with what looked to be a credit card. “This is for you. I want you to buy whatever you want or need.”
I shook my head as I held up my hands in protest. “Nix, I can’t take that. I have my own money.”
He took my right hand and placed the card in my palm. “You will take this. I know you have your own money, but I want you to have access to more than just that. Just take it and don’t fight me on it. Please.”
I’d take it, but I wasn’t planning to ever use it.
I laid it and my bag and purse on the bed. “Thank you, Nix. Thank you for everything.”
He took both my hands in his and kissed them. “Thank you, Katana Reeves. I can honestly say that I’ve never felt more at home than I feel with you here. You and I will make a happy home for our child, I can tell that already.”
“What kid wouldn’t be happy here?” I asked as I glanced around the room again.
“I mean happy with us. You and me,” he clarified, then kissed me and pulled me in close. His hands moved over my back then down to my ass, pulling me to him.
I moaned and melted into him. This wasn’t what I’d expected, but I was happy he wanted me sexually. I wanted him that way too. But with the sex, we ran the risk that feelings might get in our way of making this work for our baby.
When he released my lips, I asked, “Nix, is what we’re doing really smart? I mean, I love having sex with you—you know I do. No one could fake that. But should we be doing this?”
His sigh was long, and his eyes drooped a bit. “You don’t want to anymore?”
I did want to. I wanted to very badly. But I didn’t know how smart it was to keep doing the things that other couples would do. I bit my lip then finally said, “I don’t want to force a relationship on you. Having sex will have some effects—on m
e at least. I can’t stop my feelings for you from developing if we continue as we have been.”
He let me go and turned away from me, rubbing his head. “I want you, Katana.” He turned back around. “Do you want me?”
I nodded. “But I don’t think it’s smart.”
“Then sex is off the table?”
Is it?
Chapter 17
Nixon
Katana’s eyes stared a hole in the floor. She looked as if she was contemplating actually take sex off the table. So I had to step in. I took her chin in my hand and made her look at me. “Hey, I don’t want to stop anything from happening with us, either. If that’s what you’re thinking, just stop doing that. We have some pretty amazing chemistry. Why try to act like we don’t?”
The fear in her blue eyes became evident. “I’m just afraid …”
I kissed her plump red lips with one feather-soft kiss. “I can see that. Don’t be afraid of anything, Katana. Let’s just ride this wave, doing whatever we want. Let’s not let the fear of what might happen stand in our way of being happy with what we have right now.”
“Which is what exactly?” she asked before running her hands up my arms and resting them on my shoulders. “I mean what are we, Nix?”
“Two people who happen to be extremely attracted to each other, but are doing things backward. We’re having a baby while also getting to know one another and seeing what the future might hold for us.” I kissed her again, softly and sweetly.
When our lips parted, I loved the smile that moved over her face. “Okay. I think I can handle that.” Her long dark lashes fluttered as a blush covered her cheeks. “I’ve got one more thing to ask you.”
“Shoot,” I said, then kissed the tip of her adorable nose. “If we have a girl, I hope she has this precious little turned up nose, just like you do.”
She giggled, and the blush went a shade deeper. “You’re so sweet, Nix. Being pregnant with your child, I—I don’t have any intentions of being with other men.” She looked at me, and I saw concern in her eyes. “What about you?”
“Me neither, but then again I’ve never been with any men.” I chuckled, and she smacked my chest lightly.
“You know what I mean,” she said with a scowl on her pretty face. “Are you going to stop seeing other women?”
Oh boy, things just got real, didn’t they?
Was I going to take myself off the market? Was I ready to do that? I didn’t even know Katana that well at all. What if there were things about her that just didn’t sit well with me?
She could have some nasty habits I just couldn’t cotton to. I mean, who knew if we’d actually get along or not?
But looking into her eyes I told myself that I should forgo seeing other women until I knew for certain that she and I weren’t compatible. “I think I can be satisfied with just little ol’ you. We don’t have to put this agreement in stone. We have a lot to get to know about one another before we decide whether we’re interested in pursuing more later on if we want. But for now, yeah, I’ll stay away from other women, and you stay away from other men.”
She let out a big breath. “Good.”
Then she kissed me, and we fell into that blissful state of just being together. It seemed the most natural thing to me, being with her. But as we continued kissing and my cock grew, I heard her tummy growling and stopped the kiss—if I didn’t stop now I knew this would lead all the way to the bed. “You’re hungry.”
“Not so hungry that we need to stop where we were headed,” she protested.
I wasn’t having any of that. I took her hand in mine, leading her out the bedroom door. “I’m getting you something to eat. I’ll have Mona make you a sandwich to tide you over until dinner’s ready.”
She lagged behind, whining, “Really Nix, I can wait for dinner. I’m not that hungry. My tummy has just started growling a lot—I have no idea why that is.”
I had to laugh. Was she really so clueless? “Baby, you have a little human you’re growing inside of you. You need to eat a lot more so our kid will be healthy.”
Taking her straight into the kitchen, I didn’t see Mona anywhere and figured she was doing something elsewhere. So I sat Katana down and went to the fridge to make her a sandwich myself. “Ham?” I asked.
“I kind of hate ham. Do you have turkey?” she asked then tried to get up. “I can make my own sandwich, Nix.”
I turned around and placed my hands on her shoulders. “I’ve got this. So turkey and Swiss?” I asked as I found some sliced Swiss cheese in the lunch meat drawer.
“Sounds great. And thank you,” she said, then pulled out her cell and looked at her social media while I got to work.
A beep from the alarm system alerted me that it was being deactivated again and my stomach went tight. I knew there were only four people who had the code to my system, and three of them were already in the house.
“That would be Shanna,” I told Katana, watching her eyes go big.
“Shanna? Who’s that?” she asked.
Shanna came into the kitchen before I could answer her. And she didn’t wait one second for me to introduce the two. “I’m Shanna, Nixon’s best friend. You must be the woman who says she’s pregnant by him.”
Katana got up and extended her hand in a polite gesture, but Shanna didn’t shake it. “I’m Katana Reeves. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Shanna.” When Shanna just looked at Katana’s hand for several moments, Katana pulled it back and took a seat.
Shanna did the same, sitting across the small table from her. I hated the way she was eyeing Katana and stepped in, placing the plate with the sandwich and chips in front of Katana. “I think milk would be best for you to drink.” I turned to grab a glass and then wondered if she had any allergies. I turned back, placing my hand on her shoulder. “Wait, are you lactose intolerant, or do you have any allergies I should know about?”
“No, I’m allergy-free as far as I know, and I can have dairy. Thank you, Nix,” Katana said then bit into her sandwich as Shanna stared at her. I had to hand it to Katana—she didn’t seem to be intimidated by Shanna in the least.
But then I remembered that Katana had been in an orphanage and then in foster care. She’d probably had to learn at a very early age how to deal with assholes—which my best friend was definitely being.
After placing the glass of milk on the table, I took a seat, pulling my chair closer to Katana’s than Shanna’s. “So what brought you back here, Shanna?”
“I wanted to meet her, of course,” she answered me. “So what’s the deal with you two?”
“What do you mean?” Katana asked, wiping her mouth with the napkin I’d given her.
“I mean, do you think you’re going to come in here and take over my best friend’s life?” Shanna tapped her foot as she stared Katana down.
I’d had enough. “Shanna, stop.”
Shanna’s light brows rose and she looked appalled. “Nixon, someone has to look out for you. I’m not about to let some money-grubbing bitch …”
I stood up and took her by the arm. “I will not have you speaking that way in my house, Shanna.” I jerked her up and pulled her toward the door.
But Katana stopped me. “It’s okay, Nix. She can ask me anything she wants to. She just cares about you. That’s why she’s upset right now—I understand that. Please, let her sit back down, and she and I can get to know one another. If she’s your best friend, then she’s pretty important to you, and will be to our baby as well.”
I let Shanna’s arm go and wagged my finger in her face. “You chill on the name calling. You’re lucky she’s nice, Shanna, or you’d have been out on your ass. Be nice. She’s the mother of my child. My blood. And you know how I am about blood. It takes priority over everyone else. Don’t make me cut you out of my life.”
Shanna went pale. I suppose she’d never imagined I’d actually do such a thing to her. “Nixon?”
I nodded and took my seat again. “I am dead serious. Now play nice.�
��
Shanna took her seat and looked apologetic. “Well, seems he’s got a protective instinct for you, Katana. I’m sorry. I’ve known this man since we were little kids. He and I were in the same classes all through our school years. I lived three houses down from his, and we walked to school together every day for thirteen years. He’s beaten up my jackass boyfriends when they hurt me, and he’s let me cry on his shoulder about them too. He’s a rare man, and I count myself lucky to be able to call him a friend, let alone my best friend.”
Katana finished up her sandwich and then took a long drink of her milk before saying anything else. “Sorry, I didn’t realize just how hungry I was until I took that first bite.” She patted my leg underneath the table. “Thanks, sweetie.” Then she turned her attention to Shanna. “I think it’s admirable of you to want to watch out for Nix. He’s lucky to have a friend like you who cares so much. I’d like to set the record straight, though. I am not a money-grubbing bitch.”
“She isn’t,” I agreed. “I have told you that before.”
Katana smiled at me and ran her hand over my bearded cheek. “Aw, you stood up for me before? That’s so sweet of you.”
“Yeah, he’s a real sweetheart,” Shanna said then shook her head. “Not. At least, not usually.” She narrowed her eyes at me, looking like she was trying to solve a puzzle. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you make anything for anybody in my entire life, Nixon. And I’ve never seen him look at anyone the way he looks at you, Katana. But I want to warn you both: you don’t know one another. Try your best not to rush into things more than you already have.”
But it felt like life was rushing ahead for us—and at a staggering pace.
Part Four
Chapter 18
Katana
After several days had passed, I began to feel more settled. Nix and I had chosen an obstetrician and had an appointment set up for the late afternoon. Nerves were getting the best of me, and I ended up puking three times before he arrived at three to pick me up.
Nightclub Sins: A Billionaire Romance Series Page 26