by S Cinders
“Who the hell is this?”
Nate took a protective step forward, “Who the hell are you?”
“I’m the owner, Jack Ass,” Andrew tried to puff up his thin chest, “You better watch how you talk to me.”
Kim gasped, “Why are you here, Andrew?”
Andrew’s eyes narrowed, “Is this your new boy-toy?”
Nate’s hand closed into a fist, “If you speak to her like that again you will be knocked to the floor. I am giving you fair warning.”
Freddy walked out of the backroom with Stacy at his heels.
“How can you afford all of these new employees, Kim?” Andrew sneered, “Are you holding out on me?”
Kim’s mouth opened and closed twice before she could speak.
“If you need something, Andrew, please say it. If not, I am going to ask you to leave.”
Ruddy color splashed Andrew’s cheeks, “I have every right to be here. It’s my fucking shop.”
“No, it isn’t,” Freddy crossed his arms, the tattooed muscles flexing dangerously. “You sold your half to me. Said that you needed the money for your ‘habit.’”
Kim stared, “What habit? What are you talking about? Andrew?”
“That was supposed to be confidential,” Andrew roared at the larger man.
Freddy got right in Andrew’s face, “I was willing to keep your secret when you stayed away. But you screwed Kim over. You have no right to come in here and disrespect her.”
“I want my shares back!” Andrew demanded harshly, “I have the money.”
Freddy smiled, but it never reached his eyes, “Sorry, friend. But I already sold it to someone else.”
Kim was whirling at each revelation. Nate had moved in close to her and taken her hand. It was a move that Andrew didn’t miss.
“Get your hands off my wife!”
Kim blew her stack, “I am not your fucking wife. I am not your fucking partner. You are nothing to me, and you will either leave, or I will call the police.”
Nate shrugged, “No need for that, I can take out the garbage.”
He walked over to Andrew and ducked a crazy punch. Nate nailed him once on his glass jaw, and the small man went crashing to the floor.
Picking him up by the seat of his pants he fairly threw him out the door.
Kim was shaking, her hands were clutched together, and her knees were knocking.
“It’s okay,” Nate murmured as he wrapped an arm around her.
“What was he talking about?” Kim trembled, “How could he sell half of my shop without my knowledge?”
Nate knew that he would need to tell her everything, but it wasn’t in her best interest to do it here. He looked over at Freddy who nodded in agreement.
Kim could hear Freddy asking their new employee Stacy to man the counter while he finished the stocking that she and Nate had left behind. It wasn’t a busy time at The Grind, but there had been a few customers.
Her cheeks burned at the thought of embarrassing herself that way.
Nate kindly led her to the couch and sat beside her.
“Kim, are you okay?”
Her shoulders were hunched, and she seemed downtrodden in a way that bothered him. Kim was usually so sassy, always on his ass for something he had done. He didn’t like seeing her try to fold in on herself.
“How did he sell my shop?” Kim asked shakily.
“Did you look at all the papers in the divorce settlement?” Nate was careful not to get too close.
Kim frowned, “I thought so. There were a lot of them, and I just signed where it was indicated.”
“Your douche bag, ex must have slipped the sale into those papers. You are lucky that Freddy was there.”
Kim’s eyes were filling with tears, “But Freddy said he already sold it, and where would he get the money for something like that?”
Nate took a deep breath, “Freddy bought half the shop for a silent partner. He was only the go-between, Kim.”
“It was you, wasn’t it?” A tear splashed onto her cheek. “Why Nate? I know that you are a lawyer and run a business for Elliot. Why would you do that?”
Nate’s jaw tightened, “I wasn’t about to let that prick take away your livelihood, Kim. He has some real problems, serious problems. I know that you knew about the cheating. But I wanted to protect you from everything else.”
Her face paled, “Tell me. I need to know.”
Nate sighed rubbing his chin.
“Tell me, Nate. I need to know!”
“He is in deep with a meth operation. Part of your funds from the shop has disappeared, and I can only assume that it has gone to pay for the drugs. He is pushing it now, Kim, I feel that you are in danger here.”
Kim felt her body chill. She had known what living with parents who were users. How had she missed the signs with Andrew? Had they been there, underneath the surface?
Nate wrapped Kim tightly in his arms.
“I won’t let you deal with this alone. And I won’t allow you to lose your coffee shop.”
She made a wailing sound, “Don’t you mean our coffee shop? You now own half of it.”
He shook his head, and she brought her confused, teary gaze to his kind eyes.
“You are the sole owner of The Grind. I am a lawyer, Kim. It wasn’t hard to do.”
“How can I ever repay you?” she choked out.
His face crumpled, “I don’t want you to repay me!”
Nate’s tone was almost harsh, “I want to be there for you, Kim. I want to make things easier for you. Shit, I just want to spend time with you. Can’t you see that?”
Kim swallowed, “I am starting to.”
CHAPTER 20
Kim leaned up to take Nate’s face into her small hands, “You aren’t the man that I thought you were.”
Nate held his breath. This was the first time that Kim had voluntarily touched him. He had been hoping that she would initiate something physical with him. Nate didn’t want to scare her away. He knew that her ex had been a shit bag, and he wanted to prove that he was different.
“I’m not?” he replied softly.
Kim’s face flushed, as she shook her head. She moved even closer so that there was hardly a space between their bodies.
“I thought we made a deal?”
Her breathing increased as he slipped his hands around her waist and settled on her hips. Then he lifted Kim until she straddled his lap.
“I wanted to make sure that was what you really wanted,” Nate growled, his eyes boring down into hers.
Kim leaned in and kissed the underside of his chin, “What do I need to do to convince you?”
Nate cut off her question as his lips covered hers. A maelstrom of emotion was swirling in his gut. He had never felt this way about a woman before. She had him twisted up in all of the tiny spaces of his heart.
Nate had always been a player, a love her and leave her kind of guy. The sad truth was that he had been the man that Kim had thought him to be. But he didn’t want to be that guy anymore. He didn’t want a different girl in his bed every night.
And that shocked the hell out of him.
He wasn’t ready to profess his love or to buy a diamond ring. But he sure as hell was ready to stake his claim. He didn’t want Andrew the douche bag to think that she was unprotected or unspoken for because neither one was true.
He tilted his head to deepen the kiss and almost smiled at the whimper that escaped her throat. She tasted of coffee and cherries, and he couldn’t get enough of it. His hands dug into her hips as she slipped her fingers into his hair.
Kim was drowning as he took her mouth over and over again. Kim thought that she knew everything there was to know about kissing. Hell, she had been married! But everything in the past paled to what was happening now.
Her body felt alive, sparks of electricity shooting every which way. Kim's stomach was in knots, and her breasts pressed heavily against his chest. She was so damn aroused by his simple kiss that she wanted
to rip his clothes off.
Much to Nate’s surprise, she bit his lower lip, and their kiss darkened into something akin to lovemaking with teeth and tongues and bodies that writhed against each other.
Her hands slipped around his waist and crept up under his t-shirt. Andrew had been the only man Kim had ever been with. Where Andrew was lean on the verge of skinny, Nate was thick and heavily muscled.
Her panties were a wreck. She knew that she had soaked them. His hands had pushed up the edges of her skirt so that they rested on her bare thighs.
Kim couldn’t help the need to grind her pussy against his lap. She had never felt to frenzied before, her desire taking full control of reason.
Nate grunted as he felt her wetness through his jeans.
“Fuck,” he moaned, as his hands slipped around and grabbed her ass. He molded the globes as she ground her core harder against the bulge in his jeans.
“Fuck, baby, we need to stop,” Nate whispered against her neck before placing open mouth kisses that had her mewling with need.
“No!” Kim’s answer was more than clear, “No stopping, I need more!”
Nate’s hand slipped to the front panel of her panties.
“You are so fucking wet, Kim. Do you know what that does to me?”
But Kim couldn’t answer with his fingers lightly tracing the lips of her pussy. She moaned and arched against his fingertips, wanting more, needing more.
He pushed her panties to the side and traced the moisture on her bare pussy.
Kim gasped in shock as he brought his hand up to her lips and painted them with her juices before taking another sole drugging kiss.
It was naughty and should have disgusted her, but her pussy gushed instead. He growled his approval into the kiss as he slipped a finger into her wet folds.
This was what Kim had been silently begging for. Her body knew it’s master and would have done anything he asked.
Nate gently stroked her folds, licking, and lapping at her mouth in the same way that reminded her of what some men did between a woman’s thighs.
The desire that had been building in the pit of her stomach began to spread out. She felt it at the core of her back, the tips of her toes, and in her aching breasts that had hardened to diamond points.
Kim hadn’t known that lovemaking could feel this way. She hadn’t realized what her body was capable of.
When Nate began to thrust his finger in and out of her pussy, Kim’s hips began to move. One finger became two, and when a third was added, she whimpered at the feeling of fullness. She rode his hand, her hips gyrating and thrusting against his thick fingers.
“Fuck, baby, you are so damn sexy,” Nate whispered against her cheek. “Take your pleasure kitten, take it all.”
He increased his speed, and Kim was almost manic. Her fingers dug into his shoulders. Her eyes were wild.
Nate used his thumb to caress her clit that had popped out from behind its hood. He circled it, again and again, lightly flicking, and gauging her responses to know that would send her to ecstasy.
As he rubbed he leaned down to suck one of her nipples through her t-shirt, the combination of his hands between her thighs and his mouth on her breath proved to be too much, she flew.
Kim shattered, her voice screaming out his name as her pussy gushed with her release. Kim’s body continued to ride his fingers until the final contraction had shaken her body. She felt exhausted and vulnerable.
Never before had she behaved so wantonly. Never before had Kim been pushed to the point of no return. She had always had control during sex. But what they had just done, defied all reason.
And that had only been his hand.
“You are so fucking beautiful, baby.”
He kissed her temple tenderly and then tucked her against his body. When she started to tremble, I grabbed the blanket on the back of the couch and covered her.
“I am probably squishing you,” she muttered against his neck.
Nate smiled and tightened his arms around her, “I will most likely die, but it will be worth it.”
Kim laughed and smacked his stomach.
Nate loved the sheer joy in the sound of her laughter. It wasn’t often that Kim laughed like that. Usually, it was more of a polite, cultured tone. But this wasn’t anything like that.
Her eyes were sparkling underneath those tired lids.
“I’m not that heavy,” she mumbled her cheeks heating.
“There is nothing about you, baby that I can’t handle.”
The words were innocent enough, but Kim’s heart began to melt a little. Because she felt like Nate really meant what he said, and as scary as that was, it was also comforting.
CHAPTER 21
Week 32: Baby practices breathing
Thirty-two weeks into your pregnancy, or 30 weeks after conception, your baby's toenails are visible.
The layer of soft, downy hair that has covered your baby's skin for the past few months starts to fall off this week.
By now your baby might be 11 inches long from crown to rump and weigh 3 3/4 pounds.
“LOOK,” ELLIOT RAN A hand over his face in exasperation, “All I am saying is that you might want to reconsider working from home. I know that you feel like your ankle is healed. But what if you twist it again in those heels you insist on wearing?”
Mandy gasped, “What in the hell is wrong with my shoes?”
Elliot scowled and ignored the snort of laughter that came from Mrs. H’s direction.
“I just want to make sure you are safe,” he ground out.
Mandy shrugged indifferently, “I have been holed up in this apartment for almost two weeks. I am going to work, and if you try and stop me, I will call a cab.”
“Why are you so fucking stubborn?” Elliot asked through clenched teeth.
Mrs. H, cleared her throat causing both parties to turn and glare in her direction.
“I won’t be home today,” she smiled, ignoring their foul attitudes. “And I believe that Robert is taking one of the cars in. So, it might be better for Mandy to go into the office today.”
Mandy beamed at the older woman, “Just what I thought as well.”
Elliot grumbled something about women always sticking together, but he didn’t stop Mandy as she grabbed her coat and tugged it on.
She had taken her own money to purchase a few maternity outfits refusing Elliot’s offer. The woman was stubborn and pigheaded, Elliot thought. But he had to admire the way that she didn’t jump at every offer that was handed to her.
Mandy had pride and self-respect. He remembered how much it chafed as a child to take someone’s handout.
Placing his hand on her lower back, he escorted her to the elevator. In the small box, his senses were filled with her sweet perfume. His cock twitched in his Italian suit pants, and he tried picturing anything else but her fantastic ass.
The workday was hectic, and Elliot found himself daydreaming about the gorgeous mother-to-be more often than he should have.
Nate had come in to discuss a merger with an overseas company and called him out on it.
“What’s with you, man? I just said that our stocks would go to the shitter. And your comment was, ‘sounds great!’ Dude, are you feeling okay?”
Elliot glanced up at his lifelong friend and was about to answer when there was a light knock at the door. Frowning, he stood and went to open it. He had asked not to be disturbed.
His expression immediately softened when he realized that it was Mandy, and he ushered her in. Nate was careful to control his appearance, but a part of him wanted to throw his head back and howl. The only reason he didn’t was that he was reasonably sure he acted the same way around Mandy’s sister Kim.
“I hope I am not interrupting anything important,” Mandy said shyly, as she tucked an errant strand of hair behind her ear.
“Of course not,” Elliot assured her and led her to a comfortable chair.
Nate caught Elliot’s eye and smirked knowingly at hi
m. He had never known his best friend to call forty million dollars not significant. But, that was before the delicious Mandy had appeared on the scene.
“I just got a call from my parents,” Mandy swallowed, and Elliot tracked the delicate movement of her throat. “They said that Andrew came by accusing Kim of being the one that stepped out on him and that she was screwing him out of business somehow. My mother said he threatened them. That doesn’t sound anything like the Andrew I knew.”
Nate blew out a breath and told Elliot and Mandy what had happened a few days back when Andrew had come into the shop. He left off the part where he had held her in his arms, but his body remembered every drop of what had happened.
“Andrew is into drugs?” Mandy whispered, “Shit, I should have known.”
“What makes you say that?” Nate inquired, hoping to find out more about the man who was threatening Kim.
“He always seemed to get on with my parents,” Mandy sighed, “That should have been my first clue. I just thought he was one of those guys that get along with everyone. But who would like my parents?”
Elliot was careful not to offend, Mandy but secretly agreed.
“And then there were times where he needed to be somewhere, and I came in to cover at The Grind. It was always a different excuse, and at first, I figured that was how he covered the affair.”
“It most likely was part of it,” Elliot murmured, “We need to get a private investigator on him.”
Nate smiled, “Already in progress, but the douche bag has been laying low.”
“Do you think that he would try and do something to Kim?” Mandy asked hesitantly. “I don’t worry as much about her when Freddy is there, but after he leaves she is all alone in that apartment above the shop. I know she changed the locks, but if he is desperate enough.”
She let that thought trail off as both men tightened their fists.
“She won’t be alone,” Nate said suddenly, “I will try and get her to move into a hotel or my place, but if she refuses I will stay there with her. That prick isn’t going to take anything more from Kim that he already has.”