Nicholas: BWWM Romance (Members From Money Book 10)

by Katie Dowe

  She was very happy when Nicholas came over and pulled her up for a dance. “Thanks,” she murmured as they circled the floor.

  “For what?”

  “For rescuing me from him.” She rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.

  “I had no idea you needed rescuing.” His arms closed around her body and felt her relaxing.

  “Of course I don’t,” she murmured. “I am supposed to be a strong independent woman of color who does not need a man to rescue her.” She lifted her head and her dark brown eyes met his emerald ones. His wheat blonde hair shone in the overhead light and he stood tall and above the rest of the men in the room in her eyes. He had come to mean so much to her that she had no idea when and how it had happened!

  “Of course you are.” He tipped her chin up gently. “You are the strongest woman I know.”

  “Are you disappointed in me for not forgiving him?” she asked him softly.

  “You will in your own time. I thought you would have been upset that I invited him. I figured we were at his party, so he should be at yours.”

  “I am not. Are you going to expect a big ass party like this for your birthday?” she asked, looking at him suspiciously.

  He chuckled at the way she put it. “No, just the two of us. It is in September.”

  “I know. But at that time it might be the three of us.”

  “That makes it so much better.”

  “Thanks again,” she told him with a smile.

  “You are most welcome.”

  *****

  “I wanted us to have another celebration, but I kind of figured you were not ready for it.” His tone was casual as he sat on the side of the bed and took off his shoes. They had come in a few minutes shy of twelve and she was pleasantly exhausted. “But I wanted to give you this.” She looked at the black velvet box in suspicion before reaching for it and opening it. She pulled out a stunning topaz necklace and stared at the flawless stone in fascination.

  “I love it!” she told him sincerely. She did not wear a lot of jewelry except when she was expected to attend functions and he had discovered that about her.

  “You were expecting a ring?”

  Kelsey put away the necklace and looked up at him. “You know I am not.”

  “You are not ready.” He got off the bed and took off his clothes, reaching for a robe. “Are you ever going to be?”

  “I don’t know,” she told him honestly for the first time since she had met him, wishing she could tell him otherwise. She turned away to sit on one of the sofas in the room as she took off the strappy sandals she had worn and massaged her insteps.

  He came towards her with another box, this one a deep blue, and her heart sank as she realized what it was. He got on his knees before her. “I have been walking around with this for the past month wondering when I will get a chance to take it out and offer it to the woman I am in love with.” He opened the box and the large diamond solitaire surrounded by emeralds winked up at her. She stared at it. She could not help it. The stones were magnificent and she knew it cost a small fortune, but she could not take it, not now.

  “It’s beautiful.” Her eyes met his. “But I can’t.”

  He knelt there looking up at her and Kelsey wished with all her heart that she was not so screwed up. He started to get up, but she stopped him. “I love you and I want to be with you, but marriage is too much.”

  He went still at her words. “What did you say?”

  “I love you, but marriage-”

  He pulled her down into his arms in one swift movement that had her gasping as she tumbled into his arms. They both tumbled back onto the rich burgundy carpet with his arms around her. “Nicholas!”

  “You never told me that you loved me before,” he murmured huskily as she shifted sideways on top of him.

  “Of course I did! Didn’t I?” She looked at him uncertainly.

  “No,” he told her patiently. He had forgotten the despair of her not taking his ring. That would come eventually. She loved him! He felt like shouting from the top of the building and telling the world that this strong, beautiful, mixed up woman was in love with him. “But it does not matter. All that matters is that you love me.”

  “How could I not?” Her tone had a tinge of dryness to it as she smiled down at him. He had one hand on her belly and he was rubbing it rhythmically. “You are a very pushy white guy.”

  “Is that so?” He was bursting with so much happiness that he could not think straight! “You are worth every effort.” He shifted their position so that they were lying sideways.

  “Of course I am,” she whispered as she wrapped her hands around his neck.

  Chapter 11

  They argued over which apartment was better to decorate the nursery. “Mine is bigger,” Kelsey reasoned as she got ready to go to the office. Ever since she had expressed her love for him, it had been different between them. He still had the ring in a drawer hoping that she would one day tell him that she was ready, but for now he was prepared to do it her way. He was aware that she still had a great deal of difficulty when it came to intimacy outside the bedroom but he never stopped reaching for her. “And I have a pool.”

  “How does that factor into us decorating a nursery?” he asked her quizzically. It was a week after her birthday and they had decided that going from one apartment to another was not going to work. “Mine has a better view,” he added smugly.

  She had to agree with him there as his back porch afforded a spectacular view of the terrain. “We are thinking of raising our child in an apartment building.”

  “Mine has a play area.”

  “We are buying a house,” she said decidedly, causing him to look at her in shocked surprise. “What?” she asked as she pushed the diamond knobs through her lobes. “We are already living together, so why not? We could find a nice five-bedroom house in the area adjacent to where your parents are with a large backyard for swings and a tree house and a dog when the time is right or a cat. I am not much of an animal person, but I figured our son is going to be pestering us for some animal or the other and I always fancy myself having a garden. To grow my herbs and some vegetables and of course fruit trees and roses. I figured we are going to have to get a gardener.” He let her talk not daring to interrupt her. “I figured we would look before our son is born. What do you think?”

  His heart was pounding inside his chest as he stared at the coolly beautiful woman sitting on the vanity stool applying her makeup. “When do you want to start looking?” he asked her casually, not wanting to show how much he was affected by what she had just said.

  “I have a realtor who always finds good locations for my restaurants. She was the one who found the apartment for me. I could call and ask her to get on it for me. I figured by July we could move into our own place and put our apartments up for sale if that’s what you want.”

  “That sounds like a plan.” He had never been more in love with her as he was right now! He had already dressed and was waiting for her. He was supposed to fly to Texas sometime this week, but he loathed to leave her unless she was coming with him. “How long have you been thinking about this?”

  “Since the night of my birthday.” She got up and came towards him, looking very pregnant and quite the sophisticated businesswoman on the go wearing a rose pink skirt suit with a soft pale pink inside blouse. She fixed his tie automatically, her tongue poking out at the side of her mouth as she concentrated on her duty. “You are actually growing on me,” she added with a smile.

  “Same here.” He felt the pressure of his erection inside his pants and knew he had to have her before they left the apartment.

  “I am going to have to ask you to take off your clothes.”

  “What?” She looked at him startled.

  “Just your underwear and let me slip it in from behind,” he said seriously. He took one of her hands and brought it to his crotch. “I can’t leave the house like this.”

  “Of course you can
’t,” she said faintly, squeezing down a little bit.

  “I am glad you understand.” His voice was hoarse as he backed her over to the bed. “That’s why I love you so much.”

  ******

  Kelsey toyed with the paperweight on her desk absently, her thoughts far away. She had been asked to be the guest speaker at NYU and she had turned it down. She was big with child and apart from the pressures of traveling several hours and standing before eager co-eds to spout the secret to success, she just had not felt right going there in her unmarried state and declaring that she was what they should aspire to be. Her life had been screwed up by a man who had not known how to deal with his emotions and she was getting that now. She might not be able to forgive him for the horror she went through as a child just now, but she could kind of understand how weak he was to have done that. It was a reflection of him as a man and not on her as a child. She had begun to notice that Nicholas was not like that. He had been a playboy who flitted from woman to woman in the past, but now he had proven himself to be very different. She was not one to judge a person for their past because everybody had one and some like her had a very nasty one. Past or not, she was still damaged and messed up inside and she had no right to impart wisdom to some eager young people who would want to look up to her. She was not a pillar of any society and sometimes she felt like the biggest fraud there was! She had done what she did because of desperation, not really because of ambition, Of course that had a lot to do with it.

  She had been on talk shows and people had lauded her for her brilliance in making money, but they would never know how much she felt like the scared little girl curled up in the corner of her room and crying her eyes out because her life was so bad! How does one get out of that? How do you forget something so awful that it impacted your life not only in the negative but the positive as well! And how do you forgive a man who instead of loving you made your life a living hell?

  “You have a call on line one.” Heather’s voice broke through her reverie and brought her back to earth.

  “Who is it?”

  “Alexandra Peterson.”

  Kelsey stared at the intercom in surprise before responding. “Put her through.”

  “Kelsey, I hope I am not bothering you.” The girl’s voice came through sounding a little anxious. She was on school break and was due to go to Europe with a group of friends at the end of the week.

  “Of course not. Are you okay?”

  “I am thanks. Can we meet for lunch? I have something I want to talk to you about.”

  Kelsey glanced at the schedule before her and saw that she had been planning to go and look at the place Jill had found for them but decided to put it back until later. “Meet me at the restaurant around the corner from my office. You know where to find it?”

  “Are you kidding? My friends and I grew up on your restaurants. We have all the locations in the GPS.”

  “You are making me sound old.”

  “Never that,” she said with a laugh.

  Kelsey hesitated and wondered if she should call Nicholas and tell him that she was going out to lunch and decided to do so.

  “Hi.”

  “Hi yourself. What’s up?”

  “Jill found a house, several as a matter of fact. I am going out to lunch right now, but I was thinking that maybe later we can go and take a look.”

  “Sounds good.” His deep voice sounded in her ear making her feel warm all over.

  “Afterwards, how about a picnic on your balcony? I was thinking some of my spicy fried chicken and potato salad.”

  “I can hardly wait.”

  “Later.” She hesitated a little bit and then added, “I love your skinny white ass.”

  He laughed huskily, pleased that she had actually said it without being prompted by him.

  “I love you too, baby. Take care.”

  She hung up the phone with a smile. She got to her feet and grabbed her pocketbook, heading out. “I am going to lunch, Heather.”

  “You have the health department on at one-thirty, remember?”

  “Don’t remind me.” She grimaced. “I will be back before then.”

  She drove slowly enjoying the dazzling sunshine and the flowers blooming on the sides of the roadway. Schools were out and she could see teenagers walking the streets wearing little more than two-piece bathing suits. She remembered her teenage years and shied away from thinking about it, not ready to delve into the darkness just yet.

  Alexandra was waiting for her inside the restaurant. The moment she parked out in the lot and came out of her car, she was aware that the manager knew of her presence. She was met at the door even though she told them that she required no special treatment and she wanted to be treated like a regular customer. “Kelsey.” The round-faced, slightly overweight woman came forward to greet her. “I hope everything is okay.”

  “I am just here for lunch, Millicent,” she assured the anxious woman. “I see my party is already here.” She indicated where Alexandra was sitting with her head buried over her phone. “I will talk to you before I leave. My usual for both of us and some lemon water for me please.”

  “Right away.”

  “Hey.” Alexandra waved at her. Her wheat blonde hair was tied back in a messy ponytail and she was wearing a short halter top, blue blouse, and micro denims. Big silver hoops glinted at her lobes and she had dozens of silver bangles on her left arm.

  “Hey yourself. Were you here long?” She took her seat opposite her and gave the girl her full attention.

  “I just got here. I told the girls I would meet them by my pool in the next hour. This place looks different from when I came here last.”

  “When was that?”

  “Last year summer I think. I remember Kim saying that she loved the homey look, but it has more class now.”

  “We decided we needed to upgrade,” she said with a smile. She nodded to the girl who came over with their order. “Dig in. I am buying.”

  “Cool.”

  Kelsey waited until they had finished eating before she prompted her. “How are you enjoying the break?”

  “I have a ton of work to finish, but I am not going to even think about that until I am nearing the end of August.” She grinned then the smile faded as she looked at Kelsey. “I think you are going to make the best aunt I have except Aunt Linda.”

  “I am not your aunt, Alexandra. I just live with your uncle and am carrying his child,” Kelsey reminded her.

  “That’s as good as being married to him and I heard that he wants to marry you.”

  “That’s between him and I,” she said firmly, not willing to discuss their lack of a wedding ring with a teenager. “You said you wanted to talk?”

  “It’s about my friend Kim.” She toyed with her water for a moment and then looked up. “I think she is being molested by her dad.”

  “Has she said something to you?” Kelsey asked her sharply, her hands clenching.

  “Not in so many words.” Alex sighed. “Her father is this big shot lawyer and her mother is an actress who has no time for her. She wants to stay at our place now that we are on summer break, but her father will not allow it. Her mother is away on location in some Amazon jungle, but she is of no help. What can I do?”

  “Get her to open up to you.” Kelsey lifted the glass of lemon water to her mouth and drank an amount before putting down the glass. “I was abused physically and emotionally by my dad and never had anyone to talk to about it because he kept telling me that if I said anything to anyone, they were going to take me away and I would be raped over and over by perverts.” She smiled grimly. “I believed him and suffered in silence. Don’t let that happen to your friend.”

  Alexandra stared at the woman in front of her and realized how much she had been through. “I won’t,” she said quietly. “I am going to let her tell me what is going on and I am going to ask my Mom to help me to persuade her to do something about it. We are going off to Europe for the summer, but this needs to
be dealt with before we leave.”

  “I agree.” Kelsey was calmer now and regretted sounding so nettled. “If she wants to talk to someone who has been there, let me know.”

  “Thanks, Kelsey,” Alexandra said sincerely.

  “Anytime.”

  “I cannot wait to see my cousin,” she said, changing the subject.

  “Neither can I,” Kelsey said with a genuine smile.

  *****

  The house was spectacular and spacious! Kelsey fell in love with it right after they went through the electronic gate and went up the cobbled driveway. It was a sprawling ranch-type house with wide lush lawns in spite of the dazzling heat and flowers rioting in the garden. Nicholas had come by her office and they had left together. He took her hand as they made their way towards the front door. Jill was already there waiting for them with a smile on her attractive face. “The minute I saw it, I knew it belonged to you.” She beamed at them. “It has six bedrooms, but I know you will not mind the extra one bedroom and five and a half baths. There is a deck around the back that can be used for family grilling and the pool takes up a quarter of the backyard.”

  “We are already sold, Jill,” Kelsey said as they followed the woman around. The house was ultramodern and the kitchen was a delight! The colors ranged from deep purple to lavender to fuchsia and Kelsey realized that everything was to her suiting. “What do you think?” She looked up at the tall handsome man next to her.

  “I think we have found our house,” he told her gently. He looked up from her and addressed the waiting woman. “Could you excuse us for a moment?”

  “Of course,” Jill said affably. “I will leave the keys with you and we can work out the finer details at another time. Good choice by the way.”

  “Thanks, Jill,” Kelsey said with a wave.

  “I want to purchase it for us,” Nicholas said as soon as the woman had left. They were standing in what appeared to be the master bedroom with its purple and fuchsia colors and big bay windows that opened up to the gentle sloping rise and continued onwards. The view was spectacular with an oak tree towering upwards not far from the dozens of fruit trees lining the massive grounds.