Nick settled in beside her and put a gyro on his plate, then poured soda into their glasses all the while unable to remove his eyes from her. She even ate with passion. She was enjoying every bite, every scent, probably even the texture of the mixed greens as they swirled around her tongue. She was fabulous and he couldn’t keep himself from reaching out for her. His thumb brushed her cheek. He smiled at her when she looked at him, then forced himself to start on his own lunch.
“I’m sorry about breakfast.” He said around a bite of spicy lamb.
She raised one shoulder. “I’m sorry about everything.” Her laugh was unexpected. “Except maybe about your graceful swan dive.”
“Thank you.” His dry response didn’t at all match the gleam in his eye as he rubbed his jaw.
She continued to laugh at him and he realized then that this was the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. He didn’t care about Derik, he didn’t care about his father and he sure as hell didn’t care about her mother. Keely was his and he’d be damned if any of them would keep her from him. He smiled and wiped his mouth with a napkin.
She stopped laughing for a minute, a frown appearing on her lips. “Does it hurt very much?”
“I’ve had worse.”
She started laughing again. “I don't think I’ve ever had anyone ride to my defense like that before.”
Her laugh became harder and as she tipped her head to the side, the deep blue towel fell to the ground releasing long wet blonde waves, which only seemed to make her laugh more. She tore at a piece of gyro and slipped it into her mouth.
Nick thought she could probably make anything look sexy. He wondered how much of that was natural, and how much had been taught her. He determined then not to spend the next three weeks driving himself insane thinking things like that or the time would be over and he’d have missed it.
He grabbed her hand and ran his thumb over her knuckles letting out a contented sigh. This was a perfect moment and he wanted to remember it forever.
She squeezed his hand back as if she understood completely. He knew it was probably just a reflex, but he liked the fantasy of them being so in tune with one another they didn’t need words.
He closed his eyes and cringed. There he went again being overly romantic and dreamy. He had to remember to keep those instincts in check. In his experience nothing scared a woman away faster than to get all gushy with her.
“What?”
Her voice was so soft, sweet. He looked at her and shook his head, “Nothing.”
Her smile challenged him. “Was so.”
“Was so, what?”
“Something, not nothing.”
He couldn’t help but laugh. Even as she confused him, she made him happy, and he was pretty sure she wasn’t trying.
“I was just thinking how nice this was.”
She took another bite of her gyro and smiled sweetly at him. “Yeah, it is.”
They ate in silence for a while after that. Sharing goofy grins like love struck teenagers occasionally, until finally she put her napkin aside and sat back, leaning her spine against the bottom of the sofa.
“I’ll need to get my things.”
Her voice was tentative as she ran her fingers through her wet hair and bit on her lower lip.
“I’ll come with you.”
“No.” Her brow furrowed with concern. “I don’t want you to see it.”
He knew instinctively what she meant. “Where you live with him?”
She nodded and he could see something in her eyes, he wondered if she even knew it was there, it was shame. She could give him brave talk all she wanted, but he saw the truth in her eyes. He understood it was far more complicated than he originally thought, but he had three weeks to figure out how to free her. It was going to have to be enough.
“I’ll go get your clothes from the dryer.” He stood, but stopped and stared down at her. “Can you forget him? At least for a while?”
She looked up into his eyes and he saw the trepidation. “Probably not.”
He ran his hand over her hair.
“Thank you. For the honesty.”
He smiled and went to his bedroom to remove their clothing from the dryer.
A while later when she came out of the bathroom she was once again, flawless. He let out a heavy sigh.
“I could wait in the car.”
He was whining like a puppy and he hated it, but he didn’t want her to leave, in case she changed her mind and never came back.
She moved up beside him and cupped his cheek in her palm. “I won’t be long.”
She moved passed him to the door, he called after her.
“Keely.”
She turned, her smile reaching into the deepest parts of him, unlocking doors to feelings he didn’t even know he had.
“Don't forget your rocks.”
The warm smile turned into the sun as it spread across her whole face and lit her eyes.
“You mean it?”
“You bring anything you want. This is home for the next three weeks, not a hotel.”
She bit her lower lip and looked to the ground for a minute, then back at him, her nose wrinkling briefly. “Thanks.” She was out the door before he could even say how welcome she truly was.
Chapter Ten
Keely was having second thoughts. The forty minute drive took forever as the entire way she second guessed herself. It was pretty clear by this point that Nick was the end to her life the she’d always known it and she wasn’t sure she was ready for that, for him.
She’d learned young not to let her expectations get too high, because then she couldn’t be let down. She’d always accepted things the way they were without question, maybe that made her weak, but it hadn’t been so bad. Of course she was looking forward to her thirtieth birthday when her life would finally be hers, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t content with the life she was living either.
She got to travel, spend a fortune on clothes. She’d met some interesting people, Nick’s dad being one of them. She’d always thought him the most kind man she’d ever met and could see him in Nick’s smile. Just because he’d been kind to her though, didn’t mean he wanted her dating his son. Something she definitely had to keep in mind.
The landmarks buzzed by as she maneuvered the Mercedes along the city streets without much thought. The sun wouldn’t set for hours yet and it was an incredibly hot day. As she passed a bank, the thermometer read a hundred and three. She was thankful for air conditioning but pulled through a drive-through for a tall lemonade with lots of ice just the same.
Pulling back out onto the road her thoughts went back to Nick. He had very different plans for her than she did. She planned to take her settlement and buy herself a cottage by the beach somewhere and live quietly, alone. God knew she’d have earned it by then.
The problem was that he didn’t yet grasped the enormity of the situation, she’d been brought up in it. She understood. Nick probably wouldn’t until the day she walked out. And walk out she would. She made the left onto Wilshire slurping the last of the lemonade up through the straw. She’d been in this situation for ten years and wasn’t about to blow everything with only four left.
Sure if things were different, she supposed she’d have spent a lot more time dreaming about things that would make her heart sing, but they weren’t, so why depress herself thinking about children and front porch rockers she wasn’t ever going to have?
She parked her car in the underground structure and caught the elevator up to the penthouse apartment she’d shared with Derrick from the day she turned eighteen. She walked through the stark space, with its clean lines and predominately white decor. It was so different from Nick’s warm home. Derik had a designer furnish the apartment and it never really felt like home to Keely, even though she had tried to add a few touches here and there.
She wondered how Nick would feel about plants? She always loved them, but Derik had forbidden them, saying he wasn’t about to pay a service to kee
p them alive. When she’d suggested she would take care of them, he glowered at her, telling her that she would not waste time she could be spending tending him, tending a jungle. And that had been the last time plants were discussed, she hadn’t even chanced a conversation over a pet.
She pulled a suitcase and an overnight bag from her closet and opened them up on the bed. Three weeks. She’d have to take almost everything she owned. She held out a long pink dress, it was one of her favorites, but it was unlikely she’d have a chance to wear it so she put it back in the closet. She threw in jeans and T-shirts, of which she had very few, those were off hours clothes and off hours were few and far between. If Derik ever saw her in a pair of jeans he would hit the roof.
Once she was packed, she realized she was sorely lacking in normal clothes, but there wasn’t much she could do about it and there was enough. She was glad Nick’s apartment had its own washer and dryer. She liked everything about his apartment and had gone so far as to think it would be like one she might have, if the entire universe shifted someday.
She went to her bathroom and looked at all the vanity products she owned. She stood there staring at it all for a good ten minutes, then picked up lotion, mascara, lip gloss, shampoo and shower gel and walked out. This was three weeks of freedom and she was going to take full advantage.
She hoped Nick wouldn’t mind that she wasn’t going to spend three hours every day on her looks. She stopped at the door to the bathroom.
He may be kind, but he’s still a man.
He’d probably have an interest in how she looked, she turned around and took a few steps back towards the bathroom, then stopped. If Nick was that much like Derik, she wouldn’t last the three weeks anyway.
She moved her two bags to the door and looked around the apartment. It was so quiet. She ran her hands along the brass railing that lined the foyer steps, then over the mother of pearl knob at the end. This place was steeped in luxury and she wouldn’t miss it one bit.
She only existed here, never really lived.
Her hand ran over her bare throat, there was no jewelry there and it felt a little strange, in a good way. Maybe Nick was right, in three weeks anything could happen. Whatever was going on between them was burning white hot at the moment, but maybe it would burn out in three weeks. She had a vision of being wrapped in Nicks arms, in his sheets.
But maybe it wouldn’t.
Her lip found its way between her teeth. She couldn’t imagine sleeping in the same bed with him for three weeks and not having sex. Not that she’d ever been all that interested in it before, but what Nick had done to her last night and again today made her rethink all her notions about a man and a woman.
She wasn’t sure she could last and wondered how on Earth Nick would. She laughed into the empty apartment thinking of all the times she wished she could go weeks, or months, without sex. It was going to be different with Nick, she could already tell.
She was just about to leave when she remembered his last words to her. She smiled and ran to the kitchen, pulling out three plastic containers, then going through the apartment filling them with her precious stones. She hoped she’d find something at Nick’s to put them in, because taking all her containers would be too much.
At the last minute she also grabbed a few CDs that she very rarely got a chance to listen to and a book she’d been dying to read.
This is going to be such fun!
She was grinning from ear to ear as she walked out the door, closing it behind her without a second thought.
This was going to be the time of her life and she couldn’t wait for it to get started.
Chapter Eleven
Moonlight flickered through the palms overhead as she sat with Nick on the most wonderful piece of furniture ever invented, a double chaise lounge. They sat in a pleasant silence on Nick’s balcony awaiting the fireworks and Keely never felt so secure as she did right then, wrapped in his arms. The hot summer night caressed them as his hand slid smoothly up and down the exposed skin of her arm and shoulder.
It had been a wonderfully domestic day and she’d been in seventh heaven all day with Nick. He’d actually taken her grocery shopping and let her buy whatever she wanted. She made him go to the bookstore first so she could buy some cookbooks. She had a moment of melancholia when she thought of how she’d leave them with him after their time was over. She’d have no use for them, Derik hated her doing anything remotely domestic. He wouldn’t let her clean, cook or shop. All things that were secret pleasures of her heart.
Not only did Nick let her, but he seemed thrilled. He almost seemed as happy as she was that she wanted to bake bread, silly though that thought seemed. She was probably projecting, but it was still nice. She smiled now thinking of the moment and how it had warmed her, head to toe.
Together they’d reorganized his kitchen so she could find things easier. She felt a little guilty, it wasn’t like she was staying, but he said he could just as easily move it back after she left. Then they had stared at one another in silence as sexual tension snapped and sparked between them. She thought he’d probably been as afraid as she had that if they started anything, it wasn’t going to be as easy to draw a line as where to stop. Luckily the phone rang and Nick enthusiastically ran to get it.
She sighed in pleasure now as his fingers so lightly grazed her skin. She dropped her head back against his shoulder. She thought it a little funny that the lounger was the only thing on his balcony, it really was such a great space, it got a lot of light, but she hadn’t gotten up the courage yet to ask him about the plants. She figured that could wait another day.
After today, she thought that even if they didn’t do any of the things they’d talked about, but just spent the days like today, she wouldn’t mind one bit. Except... Even though she wasn’t sure about the whole ‘fooling around’ thing, she was sort of looking forward to it. She was most assuredly confused by her feelings. They were more powerful that she could have imagined and it was imperative to keep a tight rein on them.
She could hear voices drifting up from the courtyard below. Nick said that families gathered down there with their kids every night to watch the fireworks. She thought how amazingly wonderful it would be to have her own child to watch with, but she had to be careful not to go too far down that road.
A few minutes couldn’t hurt, though.
She allowed herself the extreme luxury of imagining herself and Nick with a small boy with dark hair and blue eyes just like his daddy. It was a beautiful dream, but she had to keep those in check, or she’d be so distraught by the time came to leave, Derik would have no choice but to have her locked up. She shuddered at the thought because she didn’t think it was that far out of character for him.
“Okay?”
“Mm-hmm. Wonderful.”
He kissed her head. “Me, too.”
She heard them before she saw anything. A loud boom, then the sky lit up with color. It was fabulous. She heard excited cries from down below and smiled.
It felt dreamy and a little surreal sitting there as Nick’s fingers ran along her neck. She couldn’t help but wonder what sex would be like with him. Celibate or not, experienced or not, that man knew what he was doing.
She’d read a lot of books on how sex was supposed to be. Most of them forced on her when—in her opinion—she was far too young to have read them, but sex with Derick had never been like what she’d read.
He hated her for it, too, she could tell. He always got so cold with her as if her lack of response to him was on purpose. She couldn’t understand why he’d kept her all these years. Wasn’t the whole point of a mistress fantastic sex? She supposed he like the way she looked on his arm and the attention she seemed to draw for him. They also had good conversations, although he only wanted to talk about politics and world events. Two areas she was well versed in, but far from her favorites.
She often wished just once he’d want to talk simply about life. Watch a sunset, smell the roses. She thought sh
e could have made him much happier if she could get him to ease up a bit.
Like right now, lounging on the chaise watching fireworks and listening to the children’s voices below.
It was a lovely moment. One Derik wouldn’t have known what to do with. She thought she could probably sit here for hours with Nick and not even have to say one word.
She wrapped her arms up over his that were draped across her front. She ran her fingers through the dark hair and wondered at how she found everything about him sexy. She was certainly learning a new respect and sympathy for all those moths who’d obliterated themselves because they couldn’t keep away from the one thing that was most destructive for them.
Another burst of color lit up the sky, she looked up at him, “Do you think one night we could watch down there?”
He pulled her closer to him. “Only if one night, we watch from bed as well.”
She could feel her cheeks heat as the startled laugh left her throat. She turned her head to see him, he was smirking at her. She could see the reflection of the fireworks in his eyes and wondered if anything had ever been more perfect.
She pressed her lips against his. “Sounds like a plan.”
She kissed him again as he cradled her in his arms and Disneyland continued to light up the night sky, seemingly only for them.
• • •
Nick finally had to pull away. He couldn’t believe he was happily sitting on the stupid present his sister had bought him a month ago when she came to visit and he was enjoying it. More, he was grateful, he had an apology to make to poor Caroline whenever she got back because she’d been right.
When she’d complained about his vastly empty balcony, he’d taken it as his younger sister trying to be in charge again. Now sitting with Keely, the back in a reclining position to ease their view of the fireworks, it became a truly intimate experience. He remembered her winking at him, telling him she hoped he’d find some nice girl to cozy up on it with. He laughed at the time, but now he guessed she got her wish, and so had he.
He pulled her deeper into his arms as green and blue exploded against black velvet and ooohs and aahs rose from below them.
Anything She Wants Page 11