by Unknown
She gave him one last smile and then she was moving faster than he’d ever seen a woman get dressed and out the door, leaving him alone in her huge penthouse suite, wondering just how in hell he was going to keep from completely losing his mind over her.
Or if he already had.
Chapter Twelve
Even though Nicola had never flaked on a meeting or been late to a venue for a show or interview, she knew better than to think her previous track record would matter even a little bit today.
People believed what they wanted to believe about her. And she was pretty darn sure that everyone was automatically assuming she’d been partying too hard last night to show up for her own video shoot. So, while she was tempted to burst onto the set full of apologies, she knew better. She had to be completely in control of herself from the first second she stepped onto the set.
“Hi everyone,” she said in an easy voice. “Sorry about the delay, I had some important business to take care of this morning.”
She didn’t bother to take stock of everyone’s response, not when she was very much afraid she’d end up blushing as she remembered the details of the very “important business."
The passion Marcus had shared with her simply blew her away, so much so that she’d even forgotten to be wary about trusting him. He had a key to her hotel room, which meant that he could snoop through her things to his heart’s content if he wanted to. But even though she’d vowed never to trust a man again, knew there was the potential that maybe she was being stupid and naive again, she just couldn’t see Marcus rifling through her things.
In any case, she wouldn’t have the head space to process what she was doing with Marcus until the video was in the bag, so she forcefully pushed him out of her head. As much as she could, anyway, considering she still felt the imprint of him all over her body. His big hands, his mouth on hers, his huge shaft plunging in and—
“Nico, perfect timing!”
Lori’s enthusiastic greeting yanked Nicola out of her forbidden thoughts. “I’m really sorry I’m so late,” she said in a quiet voice meant only for her choreographer.
Marcus’s sister waved away her apology. “Everyone had so much to set up, I swear they just finished. As soon as you’re done with wardrobe and makeup, we’ll warm up, okay?”
Nicola loved the way Lori didn’t make a big deal out of things. So many people she’d worked with over the years would have held this over her head, would have tried to insinuate that she was a total flake and that they expected nothing less.
“Sounds great. Thanks."
She was turning away to go check in with the director, when she felt Lori’s hand on her arm. “I know we’re in a hurry here, but real quick, I want to apologize for running out on dinner with you and Marcus last night.”
Nicola didn’t want to admit she hadn’t given Lori another thought after she’d left. Feeling terrible about that, she asked, “Is everything okay?”
Lori shrugged. “It’ll all work out one way or another, I suppose,” was her cryptic response. “I wouldn’t have left if I didn’t know you were in totally safe hands with my big brother. Did he take good care of you and get you back to your hotel all right?”
Nicola had never had to work quite so hard to school her face into a completely blank expression. Her breath got caught in her throat as she opened her mouth to try, and she needed to clear her throat a couple of times before responding.
“Yes. He was great.”
So ridiculously, stupendously great that she had almost bailed on her video shoot altogether just for the chance to spend the entire day in his arms.
The director walked over just then, fortunately, and saved her from blushing any more than she already was. Glad for the chance to focus on business rather than the swirling emotions she felt over what had happened with Marcus, she spent the next twelve hours working as hard as she ever had in her life.
Everyone might have begun the day thinking she was a flaky pop star...but by the end, she vowed she would outlast them all.
* * *
Twelve hours later....
She’d outlasted them, all right. But at what price?
After dragging herself into the elevator up to the penthouse, Nicola barely had the strength left to lift her hand high enough to slip her key into the reader beside her door.
She stood with her head against the wall and closed her eyes. Just another thirty seconds and then she could collapse and not move for another twenty-four hours.
The lock clicked and she shifted her weight to the door to push it open. She barely caught a flash of Marcus sitting at the dining table behind his laptop before he was pushing away and coming toward her.
“Nicola.” He grabbed her just before she collapsed. “Jesus, what did they do to you today?”
“It’s not them. It’s my stupid pride,” she said, even though she knew it wouldn’t make any sense. And then, oh God, it felt so good to be held by him, that she lost her train of thought altogether as she let him carry her over to the couch.
She closed her eyes against his chest and finally gave in to utter and complete exhaustion.
* * *
Nicola woke up disoriented but not uncomfortable in Marcus’s arms. He was so sweet that he’d tucked cushions beneath her torso and her feet while she’d slept like the dead. She loved being with him like this, so warm and safe. No one had ever made her feel this comfortable, like she didn’t have one single thing left to prove. She didn’t have to be “on” with him, or perform to impress. She could just be herself. Nicola, rather than the world-famous Nico.
“What time is it?” Her eyes felt gritty and every muscle in her body hurt from dancing and performing at 110 percent for twelve hours straight.
“Late.”
Feeling terrible that she’d asked for this extra night with him, only to have him stuck beneath her on yet another couch while she snored, she said, “I’m always falling asleep on you.”
He laughed softly. “I’m starting to wonder if I should take it as a hint?"
Relieved that he wasn’t upset with her for being a big tease, she said, “I’ll make it up to you. I promise."
She leaned forward to press her mouth to his, her tongue stroking against his for a split-second, before he pulled back way too soon.
“You’re tired. Tell me about your video, first.”
She’d much rather kiss him than talk about her crazy day, but when he began to massage one of her feet she couldn’t do anything but groan at how much it hurt...and how good it felt at the same time. His hands on her were so gentle and yet firm, exactly as he’d been when he was making love to her.
At some point, she realized he’d asked her a question about something, but it took her longer than it should have to remember what.
“The shoot went well,” she told him, not sure how much he really wanted to know. He was probably just being polite, probably thought she was one of those stars who just liked to talk about herself when the truth was that she’d rather do anything but.
“Lori called right before you returned. She couldn’t stop talking about how amazing you are.”
Nicola’s stomach clenched, hardly able to bear the praise. “I didn’t tell her about us, I swear.” Whatever us was.
“I know you didn’t. My sister has been excited about working with you from the start. She told me she’s never seen anyone as focused and hardworking as you. I’m not at all surprised to hear it.”
Nicola was already feeling overly warm from the feel of his hand moving up to her calf as he began to work out the knots in the muscle, but at the praise, her blush turned into a full-body flush.
“Most people are surprised.” The slightly bitter comment left her lips before she could hold it back. At his questioning look, she explained, “My image isn’t exactly a brainiac workaholic.” She knew she must be tired to be talking so openly to Marcus about this kind of stuff.
He frowned. “Your image?”
Even thou
gh she knew she should drop the whole conversation, she said instead, “Come on, you have to know all about public images, considering one of your brothers is a big movie star.”
“How do you know about that?”
“Don’t worry,” she said in a snottier voice than perhaps she should have. “I didn’t go snooping online about you.” He raised an eyebrow as she explained, “Lori told me yesterday that Smith Sullivan is your brother.” Nicola cocked her head to the side and looked carefully at Marcus. “Maybe if I had been looking for the family resemblance I would have linked the three of you together."
“If you’d known I was Lori and Smith’s brother, you wouldn’t have left the club with me.”
It was a statement, not a question. “You’re right,” she agreed, as blunt as he. “I wouldn’t have left with you.” She paused a beat before adding, “And if you’d known I was the infamous Nico you wouldn’t have left with me, either.”
His dark eyes flashed with something she couldn’t read at her use of the word infamous, but before he could respond, she realized, “Hey, that was Smith’s house we went to that first night, wasn’t it?"
Marcus simply nodded and asked, “Why are you infamous?"
“You really don’t know?” God, she wished she didn’t find that so hard to believe. But even though he hadn’t known who she was that first night, he’d had plenty of time to do his research since finding out she was Nico.
“I haven’t gone snooping online about you, either.”
Ouch. It wasn’t particularly fun to have her own sarcastic words thrown back at her. She winced and said, “Sorry. I was out of line with that comment.”
“Yeah, you were,” he agreed as he moved his hand up from her calf to her thigh to begin massaging that large, tight muscle, “but I’m sure you have to deal with that kind of stuff from people every day, don’t you?”
She found it really difficult to believe that he didn’t know anything about her story. Then again, he wasn’t exactly her target audience, so why would he?
“I do,” she confirmed, “but it’s a necessary evil, just like my image. I’ve always figured that as long as I’m able to play my music for people, the tradeoff is worth it.”
“What’s your image, Nicola?”
Shoot, she was hoping they could get off this whole topic, before she accidentally told him more than she wanted him to know about herself and her past. Sure, he could find out anything he wanted to know online in seconds, but a big part of her—a really naive part, probably—couldn’t quite picture him sitting down at his computer and scrolling through pap pictures and stories in People magazine.
But now that he’d asked her a direct question, and was clearly interested in the answer, she couldn’t quite find a way to deflect it. “My image is pretty obvious,” she said with a crooked grin she didn’t quite feel. “Sexy.” She licked her lips, before forcing out the word. “Wild.”
“I can see sexy,” he said. “But wild?” He frowned, looked around the nearly dark, very quiet suite. “It didn’t exactly look like you were having crazy parties up here before we met.”
She shrugged. “People believe what’s easiest for them to believe.”
“Sure they do,” he agreed, “but only when there’s a reason for them to believe it.”
She hated talking about this, especially to Marcus, but she’d promised him she’d be honest. “I haven’t always made the best decisions.”
She could feel his eyes, warm and dark, on her as she studied her knee.
“Everyone makes bad decisions at some point in their lives.”
She looked up at him. “Have you?”
His mouth tightened. “Not too long ago, actually.”
She couldn’t help but be somewhat comforted by that. “Unfortunately, I made mine in front of the world. Thus the wild image.”
“Couldn’t you change that, if you really wanted to? If you let people see who you really are?”
Nicola had actually asked herself that question many, many times during the past year, every time her stylist brought her skimpier and skimpier outfits that were barely a few strips of fabric. If she were talking to her manager and record label and publicist, it seemed she couldn’t. None of them were blind to the fact that her career had absolutely exploded after Kenny had betrayed her. She’d ended up on the cover of more than one magazine, had suddenly been hot property for late-night talk shows. Her popularity hadn’t waned since. In fact, she’d only gotten bigger.
“I don’t know,” she said, and then, “Maybe.” Another shrug. “My career has never been better. Maybe wild isn’t necessarily a bad thing.”
“No, wild isn’t necessarily a bad thing,” he agreed. “But it isn’t you, is it, Nicola?"
How, she wondered a little helplessly, did he already know her so well? When their bodies were coming together last night, this morning, when he’d been pulling every ounce of pleasure from her, had he also been reaching into her heart to find the truth she’d been hiding from everyone else?
When she didn’t say anything, he continued to hammer her in his gentle way. “I’ve only heard one song so far, but it was great. Seems to me you’re talented enough to let your songs speak for themselves.”
All of this was hitting way too close to home. For a relationship that was just supposed to be about sex, it sure felt like Marcus was going a whole heck of a lot deeper.
Simultaneously wanting to deflect his attention from her—and deciding it wasn’t fair for him to be the one asking all the questions—she said, “Enough about me. During our dinner break today, Lori was telling me about your winery. How did you get started with that?”
Instead of answering her question, he said, “My sister likes to talk, doesn’t she?”
She grinned. “You’re her hero.” Her smiled slipped as she softly said, “She told me that you basically raised her and her twin, along with a couple of your brothers who are just a bit older than she is."
Lori had almost been offhand about the fact that her father had died when she was two, leaving her mother with eight kids to raise on her own. Nicola had immediately wondered how much of the burden had fallen on Marcus’s shoulders. Looking at him, knowing after only two nights how steady, how strong he was, she felt that she already knew the answer.
Marcus shifted her weight so that he could better reach her other foot. She groaned with pleasure as he began to press into the sensitive skin.
“Too hard?”
“No, it’s just perfect.”
The air sizzled after the word perfect, taking her right back to those moments when he’d been pounding into her and she’d been begging for more, for harder, for deeper. She knew he’d been afraid of hurting her.
But, oh, what little pain there’d been that first time had been so worth it.
“My father was a big backyard gardener,” he said as he began to work his way from her foot to her calf. “My first memories are of digging in the dirt beside him as he planted tomatoes and strawberries.”
Her insides went all gooey at the thought of Marcus as a toddler, jamming his shovel in the dirt. She tried to tell herself that she was just reacting like that because she loved babies, but she knew it was Marcus himself that had her melting. Of course, the fact that he was getting closer and closer to her thigh, nearer to the part of her body that was throbbing in anticipation of his touch, was definitely contributing to her overall meltability.
“I’ve always admired people who have a green thumb.” She looked at her own. “I’m afraid mine are the black thumbs of death. Plants run screaming when they see me coming.”
She loved his grin as he said, “I don’t think my thumbs are any greener than yours. It’s really just math and science.”
He made it all sound so easy, like he didn’t have anything to do with it, but she didn’t believe him. “That’s like saying songs are just combinations of notes and words.” She shook her head. “They are, but I’ve always thought what makes a song really special
is some indefinable magic that’s either there or it isn’t. I’ll bet your grapevines are like that.” She smiled a small smile. “And that you’re the magic that makes them grow so well.”
“I’ve never thought of it like that,” he said slowly. “As magic.”
She was waiting for him to discount what she’d said, to go back to his whole quantifiable math and science thing. Instead, his eyes were intense, filled with that hunger that had her blood racing.
“You know, I think you might be onto something.”
In an instant, the magic that had existed between them from that first moment in the club leapt back to life as if some sex faery had just flown over with her wand.
Chapter Thirteen
“Put your arms above your head, kitten.”
She swallowed hard at his low-pitched command. After taking a shallow breath that didn’t even come close to filling her lungs, she leaned into the pillow behind her back and slowly did as he asked.
Once her hands and arms were out of the way, he reached for the zipper of the loose sweater Lori had loaned her at the end of their very long day. “Do you remember what we agreed on this morning?” he asked her as he slowly drew the zipper down.
“Yes,” she said, the sound more a breath than a word. “I remember.”
“Good,” he said, and then, “Tell me.”
Oh God, that breathing thing was getting harder by the second, especially with his hands brushing over her breasts as he pulled the sweater open. Her nipples were sharp points against the thin fabric of her tank top.
“While we’re together—” She couldn’t bring herself to repeat what he’d said.
“Go on, I’m listening.”
She took a shaky breath. She knew she didn’t have to say it, but something inside her wanted to, wanted to please him. “—my body is as much yours as it is mine.”
His eyes flared with approval...and so much desire it took what was left of her breath away. “Take your sweater and tank top off and then lie back with your hands above your head again.”