by Hannah Ford
Yes, it tickled, but also it got her that much more wet because now he was so close to opening her fully and completely.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity of wanting, Red slowly took down her shorts, beneath which Nicole was completely bare and slick. Her mound was swollen with desire.
“God, you’re sexy,” he whispered, as if in disbelief.
A man who’d been with some of the most beautiful women on the planet was looking at her body and counting himself lucky. Nicole didn’t quite know how that was possible, but she knew it was real.
She wanted him to kiss her down there, but first he kissed everywhere else. His lips touched her hips, and her belly and then her breasts. He sucked each nipple, insistently, as they stiffened and she cried out, her hips arching against him.
Finally, he kissed up her neck and then his mouth was on hers, tasting her tongue, his lips brushing hers as he found her again and again.
Red looked into her eyes as their tongues and lips connected with passion. She loved the way he tasted—minty, but also salty from kissing her skin.
His body was on hers now and she loved how his weight pressed against her, the way his muscular arms encircled her, a circle of protection from the rest of the world.
Nicole reached up and ran her fingers through his curly dark hair and smiled.
Red gazed lovingly into her eyes and she into his.
“Do you know that I’m the luckiest man alive? I’m even the luckiest man who ever lived. Even if I die tomorrow, I’ll have lived a full life because I met you—the woman of my dreams, my soul mate.”
“I feel the same way,” Nicole said. Her heart was pounding.
“I want to be inside of you all night,” he said, his eyes searching hers, as if he wanted to possess her, to get even closer than humanly possible.
“That would be amazing. I’m so ready for you, Red.”
“I want to feel how ready you are,” he rasped. And then his hand was working her entrance, opening her, his fingers sliding in.
“Oh, God,” she whispered, because she was already about to come.
“Nicole, I want you to be mine and now you are mine. We said our vows and now we’re going to be together always.”
“Always, you promise?” she said.
“Yes.” He slid himself into her, the hardness and fullness of him surprising her all over again—as if for the first time.
“Yes,” she said to him.
His breathing came in short gasps as he found the rhythm of her body, the movement her hips wanted to make against him. They began working against each other’s bodies in the darkness of the bungalow, in the heat of that tropical night.
Their bodies wrapped around one another, so close that nothing could come between them, their skin sticky and tacky with sweat and lust and their mouths joined by kisses.
That night, Red went deeper than she ever imagined possible.
And he went for a long time inside her, seeming to bask in the glory of possessing her body and her openness to him.
She came again and again, and eventually she lost track of how many climaxes, how many minutes they spent together.
Eventually she couldn’t tell where she ended and he began, but she could feel him giving her endless bursts of pleasure as he slid in and out, in and out, always finding a way to take her higher than the moment before.
And when he finally finished, she felt it go deep inside and she wrapped her legs tightly around him, locking her ankles and squeezing him deeper still.
“Oh, Nicole,” he whispered. “Nicole, my love, my love. I finally found you.”
***
Had it all been just a dream?
Nicole couldn’t believe how the time had flown since coming back from Belize. It turned out that there was a price to pay for turning off cell phones for days and days on end.
And both of them were paying a high price indeed.
As soon as they got home, Red was back at the agency, working fifteen and even some eighteen-hour days.
As it turned out, Erikson Bikes had loved the pitch and given Red’s company a huge amount of work. They wanted him to help them roll out an entire new line of bikes and it meant print ads and TV ads and web advertising.
After a week of barely seeing her new husband, Nicole had come back to work as his executive assistant, and she’d been right by his side for many of those eighteen-hour days. It wasn’t easy, but it was exciting. They were, after all, building something together.
The days blended together and then became weeks. She hardly had time to return Danielle’s calls, let alone see her for lunch. Nicole didn’t see anyone, except for her co-workers and Red.
Eventually, she knew, things would slow down. Something would have to give. And finally it did.
On a day like any other, everything changed yet again.
It was perhaps six or seven weeks after their wedding that Nicole got a very strange email.
It came in at just after seven in the morning, when she’d barely even managed to open her eyes. She was in the office, of course, because Red was coming in so early and he demanded it of everyone else. Besides, she was his assistant and his wife.
Still, at the moment in question, she was cursing the day he’d started this company.
Sipping her coffee and wishing the caffeine would hurry up and kick in, Nicole saw an email appear in her inbox with a familiar name attached.
Opening the email, Nicole found that her heart was now racing and she had an uneasy feeling in her stomach.
Dear Nicole,
I know you are probably surprised (and likely not in a pleasant way) to hear from me in this fashion. Not a day has gone by since my visit that I haven’t thought about my poor treatment of you.
And of course, I’m not proud of the way I treated my son, either.
The truth is that I was scared. I was scared because for the first time in Red’s life, he’d found a woman that he cared about more than me. I know that sounds silly and perhaps even sick.
But it’s the God’s honest truth and I feel I owe it to you to be honest.
I miss having my son in my life, Nicole. And I miss getting to know the daughter that I could have had, if I’d only been able to see past my own selfishness and insecurity.
I hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me and perhaps allow for the possibility of me returning, in some small way, to play a part in your new family.
Hopefully this email finds you well. I am so happy to know that the two of you are married and starting your lives together.
I will wait to hear from you.
Love,
Erica
Nicole closed the email and turned away from the computer, suddenly aware that her stomach was churning and bubbling in a most unpleasant way.
“Oh, God,” she muttered, before leaning over and throwing up into her wastebasket beside her desk.
She quickly grabbed a tissue and wiped her mouth, crumpled it, and threw it in the basket.
Was it possible that reading that email from Red’s mother could have so upset her?
Nicole didn’t think so. In fact, as she considered it further, she realized that it had been too long since her last period. And this upset stomach was incredibly similar to what she’d experienced the last time…
She shook her head. No, she couldn’t allow herself to get her hopes up again.
But what if?
Nicole thought back to the wedding. It had been just about seven weeks now, and so it made sense from that perspective as well.
Heart pounding again—but this time for a different reason—she got up and ran from the office.
She went down the stairs two at a time, jogged about a block and a half to the nearest CVS, and bought a pregnancy test.
Even doing it, Nicole thought it was impossible. It was a coincidence, it had to be.
A few minutes later, she was in a stall in the office ladies room, peeing onto a stick and then sitting there,
watching to see what came up.
Her forehead and armpits were sweaty from running down the street and back, and she was basically a mess at this point. But Nicole didn’t care about any of that—all she wanted to know was the answer to this one question.
Minutes later still, she was walking into Red’s office and closing the door behind her.
Red looked up from his computer, distracted. “Hey, what’s going on?”
Nicole was holding the pregnancy test in her hand, and she was shaking. “I threw up this morning,” she said.
“You—what?” His eyes suddenly took in what she was holding. Red stood up and pointed at the test. “Is that what I think it is?”
Nicole nodded slowly. “Red, I can’t believe it. I just can’t believe this happened.”
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Look for yourself.”
He came around the desk and took the pregnancy test out of her hand, and looked at it, his mouth forming a smile, his eyes lighting up. “Oh my God. Nicole!”
“We’re pregnant,” she cried.
And then Red hugged her so tightly, and both of them were holding each other so tight, and laughing. There were some tears too, but they were tears of joy and relief.
“We’re going to have a baby,” she said, unable to believe the words were coming from her own mouth. “It’s happening.”
And Red squeezed her even tighter, and she knew that this was how it was supposed to be. But still, a tiny part of her wondered if she would be hurt again—if somehow, something would steal this happiness from her…
For His Forever (For His Pleasure, Book 6)
The wave crashed onto the shore.
The sound of the ocean brought Nicole back to reality, and she realized that she’d been daydreaming.
She’d been thinking about the water in Belize, and swimming with Red—those mornings and afternoons of sun and surf and the nights dancing and drinking. It seemed like it had all happened just a moment ago, or maybe it was years ago and Nicole had dreamt everything.
Now she was sitting under a large umbrella with her skin smelling of sunscreen, a one-piece red bathing suit covering as much of her as humanly possible, and large round sunglasses that allowed her to watch the other beach goers as they frolicked and played in the water and laid on their blankets.
Red was in the water, so far out she could hardly even see him from where she sat. But then again, Nicole was used to Red swimming for long stretches of time.
She put a hand on her belly and rubbed the smooth roundness of it, something she did often—it comforted her. Sometimes she felt the baby kick, and that was even more reassuring still.
Seven months gone by.
Nicole still couldn’t believe that those warm, sunny days in Belize were seven months in the past.
In that time, she’d lived dozens of lifetimes, it seemed. She’d experienced the fear of waiting for things to go wrong, waiting to tell family and friends of the pregnancy until Dr. Rosen had conducted the sonogram, this time finding the fetus and the heart beat.
And then there had been tears of joy and hugs and phone calls had been made, celebration dinners had been planned.
But life had still gone on. The business was growing faster than even Red had ever imagined it would—he’d found the eye of the tiger and he was winning again. He was renewed, it seemed, wanting to prove himself to the world and his new family.
Nicole continued working by his side, faithfully, even as her stomach slowly grew and sleeping became more difficult, and her hormones raged.
When they’d eventually found out the sex of the baby—and that it was a girl no less—they both agreed that fate had intended it just so.
She no longer felt so sprightly and beautiful as she had in the first months of pregnancy. Now she felt like a balloon about to pop, and in this red bathing suit, she wondered if some kid might mistake her for one and try to poke her with a thumbtack.
Red finally swam his back to shore and made his way to the umbrella, still dripping wet. He sat down next to her, sighing contentedly. “We needed this, Nicole.”
“I think we earned some time off after pulling seventy and eighty hour work weeks the last six months,” she agreed, picking up a bottle of water that had been sweating in the shade and taking a long drink.
“How are you feeling?” Red asked. He kept his voice light, but Nicole knew how much weight that question still carried.
Even though every test had come back fine and Dr. Rosen told them the pregnancy was progressing smoothly, neither of them could truly shake the feeling that something was bound to go wrong.
“I’m feeling huge,” she said with a grin.
“You look amazing,” he replied, and grabbed her hand, squeezing. She knew he wasn’t just saying it. The way Red looked at her, she saw the love and softness in his eyes.
“Thanks, babe.”
Suddenly, Nicole’s phone was ringing. She picked it out of her beach bag and looked closely. “I think it’s your mother.”
“Great,” Red replied, without enthusiasm.
“I should answer it,” she said, even though she didn’t want to. Since the first email Erica had sent Nicole seven months ago, the two had begun tentatively communicating. Red hadn’t been in favor of it, but neither had he expressly forbid her to speak to his estranged mother.
Nicole was conflicted about Erica Jameson, but she thought that ultimately Red would want to have his mother in his life in some fashion—not to mention the life of his baby girl. And so Nicole had continued corresponding intermittently, usually just talking about silly things like the weather, and Nicole asked about Erica questions about work and her other son, Jeb.
Things changed when Nicole wrote Erica of her pregnancy. The older woman asked for her cell number and then immediately called her, seeming to be overjoyed by the news. Since that time, Erica called once every few weeks, usually just asking how Nicole was feeling and being nice and supportive.
So why did Nicole still get that strange knot in her stomach when Red’s mother’s number showed up on her called ID? She wasn’t completely sure—maybe it was just that little nagging sensation that Erica had an agenda and she hadn’t revealed it yet.
“Hello?” Nicole answered, as Red muttered something under his breath and got up from his chair.
“I’m going to grab an ice cream,” he said. “You want?” Nicole shook her head no.
“Nicole, it’s Erica!” the older woman squealed. “How are you? How is your vacation going?”
“It’s going great,” she said.
“Well, I have a bit of a surprise. And I really hope you don’t mind.”
“I’m listening,” Nicole said, feeling even more uncertain now.
“Yesterday I came to a work conference in Manhattan with Jeb. As it turns out, Jeb is so busy hobnobbing with the other doctors, that I’ve got time on my hands. So I thought, why not come up to The Hamptons to see you tomorrow?”
Nicole didn’t know what to say. The smile was frozen on her face. “Tomorrow?”
“I’ll take you shopping and to lunch,” Erica said. “It will be lovely to catch up and see how you’re coming along.”
Nicole looked out at the beach, were Red was standing in line at the little restaurant that served everything from fried clams to ice cream. There was a very long line of people and Red was at the back of it. He was waiting there, arms crossed, looking annoyed.
“That sounds like a plan,” Nicole said, wishing she had more time to consider the offer.
Erica was overjoyed, and said she’d call her first thing in the morning to nail things down.
After hanging up, Nicole was deeply uneasy.
Everything had been going so well up until now, she thought. Was it possible that this was the sign of their luck turning bad?
“Kallie, could you bring the children back here please?” Nicole was once again shaken from her thoughts by the sound of a woman’s voice, loud and demanding.
“Kallie?” More insistent this time.
“Coming Mrs. Danvers!” the young woman—who Nicole could only assume was the aforementioned Kallie—called out from the shallow water, where she was holding a toddler in one arm, as another child splashed in the water beside her. Kallie started back toward the beach blanket with the one child in her arm and the other holding her hand.
On the blanket, the owner of the demanding voice—a middle-aged woman with leathery skin and fake boobs—sat spraying herself with tanning lotion.
Kallie came back and put the toddler down next to the woman, where he started to instantly try and get up and walk away.
“Ben, come back here!” the woman yelled, not moving a muscle to stop him.
Kallie laughed and knelt down, scooping him up. The girl giggled and jumped into the sand, kicking it so that it sprayed up. Some of it peppered the older woman, who scowled.
“Kallie, is it too much to ask you to keep them from making a mess every single place they go? For God’s sake…”
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Danvers,” the younger woman said.
“They need to have sunscreen reapplied every two hours.” She lay back on her beach towel and adjusted her designer sunglasses. Mrs. Danvers had a manner and tone of voice that Nicole recognized as coming from someone who’d grown up wealthy, used to ordering people around her whole life.
Nicole couldn’t even imagine treating people that way, but she was used to seeing a lot of this sort of behavior since marrying Red and moving in social circles that included the very richest of rich people.
And now, vacationing with Red in The Hamptons, she seemed to have found a class of people that took the word entitled to a whole new level.
Kallie went about putting on the sunscreen, diligently applying it to the two children who seemed intent on keeping her from doing the job at hand.
Nicole had to give it to her—the young woman had a good attitude and kept a smile on her face better than Nicole would have done in that situation.
Mrs. Danvers lay on her blanket like a log, occasionally opening her eyes to make a comment or to critique something about what Kallie was doing with the children— meanwhile never offering to help even once.