“Stay right there. I want to open your door for you.”
“You’re such a gentleman.”
“I’m glad you think so, because the things I want to do to you might be considered ungentlemanly.”
The thought took her breath away. “God, I hope so.”
With that he let himself out of the car. The windows had begun to fog up. So she could see only the vague outline of him as he made his way around to her side.
She knew what this meant. She knew she was letting this happen again without any promises or pledges from him. And she thought of how well their bodies worked together, how he felt inside her, and that was all the promise she needed.
He helped her out of the car and put his arm around her, pulling her close and nibbling at her ear and her neck as they walked toward her front door.
“Do you know how crazy you are making me?” she asked as she took her keys out of her purse.
“How crazy? Tell me everything. How does this make you feel?”
As she unlocked the door, he positioned himself behind her, and she could feel his arousal through her coat. He moved her hair to one side to give himself better access to her neck, and the way he licked and trailed kisses made her stupid with lust.
His hands found their way inside her coat to her breasts; she inhaled sharply. If she couldn’t open the door, they might just have to make love out here. He slipped his hands underneath her blouse and found her sensitive nipples. He knew just the right amount of pressure to make her want to cry out.
Thank God she was able to get the key in the lock and open the door. She pulled him inside and barely had time to shut the door when he turned her around and backed her up against the wall. She locked her hands around his neck, and he ravished her with deep kisses that blocked out everything else but him.
He slid his hands along her thigh, pausing at the crook of her knee, and drew her leg up and around him. He pushed his arousal into her, and she thrust back.
“God, Becca. Who’s making who crazy now?”
She dug her fingers into the hair on the back of his head and pulled his mouth back to hers. He lifted her up so that she could encircle him with both legs, and they stayed like that kissing and thrusting, until she pulled away and said, “Let’s go into the bedroom.”
Before he set her down, he looked into her eyes. “Becca, I want to be here for you. I don’t know if I’ll be very good at it—”
“But you are, Nick. I don’t understand why you can’t see that.”
“I have a history of messing things up when it comes to family. I was married once before, but it didn’t work out, and then—”
He choked on his words, but he cleared his throat.
“I just don’t have a very good track record when it comes to family. Everything I touch seems to disintegrate.”
“That’s not true. You are a gifted doctor. You save lives, Nick. That’s sort of the opposite of making things disintegrate.”
He set her down gently and took a step back, raking his hair out of his eyes and looking more intense than she’d ever seen him look.
“Do you want to talk about this?” she asked.
“Not really. Not now. Another time. But I want you to know that there is nobody else but you, and if you want to try to make this work, that’s what I want, too.”
She took him by the hand and led him into her bedroom, where they kissed softly, gently, for what seemed an eternity—or maybe it was only a moment. Time was suspended, until he picked her up and set her tenderly on the bed.
“I didn’t realize you had a fireplace in here,” he said. “I’ll start a fire. I don’t want you to get cold.”
“Are you kidding? Here with you like this, there’s no way I could get cold. Forget the fire.”
He kissed her, and she felt it all the way to her toes. “Hold that thought. I’ll be right back.”
She watched him as he walked across the room and set logs and kindling on the fireplace’s iron grate.
“There are matches on the mantel,” she said. “In that little wooden box.”
He picked up the matchbox and stared at it a moment before looking up at Becca.
“Are you sure this is okay? I mean, is it safe for the babies?”
“I talked to Dr. Stevens and he said it’s fine. He said the only reason they classify my pregnancy nearly normal is because the uterus is really designed to only carry one baby. But since I’m healthy and everything seems to be fine, he said I should live as normal a life as possible within pregnancy parameters.”
She was glad he asked, glad he cared about the well-being of their children. It made her want him all the more.
Minutes later the fire flared and spit tiny embers, casting Nick in a warm glow of light and shadows. Everything about this man, from his tall, rugged build to his dark, brooding personality, set her senses on fire. The guy was a mystery, and she wanted to solve him, to get inside him and figure out what made him tick.
As he came back to her, he unbuttoned his shirt and let it fall to the floor. He unbuckled his belt and tossed it to the side. By the time he rejoined her on the bed, he was wearing only his pants.
Firelight danced across the taut muscles of his bare chest and shoulders. That’s when she saw it—that single word tattooed on his left bicep in dark block letters.
Ignosces.
Was that Latin?
The first night they’d been together she hadn’t noticed the date underneath the word: May 13, 1995.
“What’s this?” She gently traced the word with her fingernail. “What does it mean?”
She felt him tense, maybe even pull away just a little, but she kept her hand on his arm.
He opened his mouth as if to speak but closed it before he could say a word. And then, as if thinking better of it, he said, “It means forgive me.”
Becca nodded, prepared to let it go at that, but he expounded.
“It’s for my little brother. He died on May 13, 1995. He was only seven years old.”
Becca’s heart clenched. “I’m so sorry, Nick.” She continued stroking his arm. “What happened?”
She knew it was a bad question to ask, even before his eyes darkened. She really wasn’t trying to kill the mood. There was just so much between them that they needed to know about each other.
“That’s a story for another day,” he said.
Instinctively, she knew not to push him. It was the first personal detail—that and that he’d been married once before and he seemed to be convinced that everything worth loving fell apart in his hands. They were small steps. Tiny revelations she was learning about him. And if things kept going the way they were, she was confident that he would keep revealing himself to her bit by bit.
He swung his feet up onto the bed and propped himself up on one elbow. Reaching out, he smoothed a strand of hair off her forehead. His gaze was still dark, but now there was an intensity to it, and she felt herself melting like beeswax in his hands, especially when he trailed a thumb down her cheek, across her bottom lip, over the sensitive area at the base of her neck, until he reached the neckline of her sweater, where he teased the skin just below the surface.
Her mind skipped back to that first night they’d been together. He had instinctively known how to comfort her, how to please her. He’d made her feel as if she were the only woman in the world. Or at least the most adored woman in the world, and that’s exactly how he was making her feel right now. Right now, in this moment, her world consisted of the two of them and the babies they’d already made. She couldn’t imagine how life could be any sweeter.
His hands found their way to the bottom of her sweater and gently tugged it up and over her head, and then he made haste relieving her of her jeans, leaving her in just her bra and panties.
“Aren’t you glad I stoked the fire?” he said through a lopsided smile that was more sexy than it was humorous.
“Yeah, you’re good at that,” she said, gazing up into his smoldering eyes. So many nights she’d thought of him, sure that she’d never see him again, never again feel his touch that seemed to instinctively know how to please her.
As if he could read her mind, his hands found her breasts, and he moved his thumb over her hard, sensitive nipple, which was aching for his touch. As he worked his magic, she found herself inhaling a ragged breath a second before a low moan escaped her lips. She didn’t try to control her response; she let herself go, allowing her reaction to come spontaneously and unself-consciously.
She reached up and ran her hands over those shoulders that drove her crazy. His skin was as hot and his muscles as hard as a sheet of pressed steel. His body was smooth and strong with animal-like sexiness that had her summoning every ounce of self-control to keep from demanding that he take her right then and there. They were going to make love.
The heady realization racked Becca’s body with shudders. She couldn’t wait for him to do more of the same he’d done to her that first night they’d been together.
Of course, that night their lovemaking had created a baby—two babies. Right now, that seemed terribly romantic. Lying here with him naked and vulnerable, allowing him inside, past her personal barriers, there was no place to hide in the soft firelight. And that was fine because she couldn’t recall ever wanting anything more.
He ran his hand down her thighs, sliding them all the way to her knees and then back up until his fingertips found their way inside the edge of her panties. Gently hooking his thumbs in the elastic, he tugged them down and slipped them off. Then he lifted her ever so slightly and removed her bra with a couple of deft movements.
It wasn’t her lack of clothing that gave her pause as much as it was her emotional vulnerability. Could he read the desire in her eyes as clearly as she could read it in his? He put her at ease when he began placing gentle, unanticipated kisses on her body—on her forehead, on that ticklish spot behind her ears, trailing his way down until he’d reached the sensitive insides of her thighs.
Then he stopped, looking at her with possessive eyes. “I said I wanted to get to know you better.” His voice was low and sexy. “Show me what I need to know.”
He started running his hands over her, then he took her hand and moved it with his, allowing her to introduce him to her body, having her show him what she liked. This was something she’d never done during lovemaking.
He was incredibly gentle and generous. Not only did he know how to please, he seemed to give his all to every experience. Or maybe the explosiveness of his touch was a by-product of their personal chemistry.
Whatever the case, she loved everything he did. Everything he said. Everywhere he touched.
And then his tongue found its way to her center, and he worked his magic until she cried out in pleasure that was so intense it radiated off her in waves. Her first climax was compliments of his clever, teasing mouth, and the second time it was thanks to the long, soft gliding strokes of his fingers.
Spellbound, she turned onto her side and braced her hands on his strong, muscled chest, letting her hands discover him, feeling every muscled ridge. Then when she freed him of his pants and underwear and took him into her hands, his head dropped back.
He groaned as she savored the hot, smooth length of him.
Lowering her head, she swirled her tongue over him. His whole body stiffened, and he let out a sound that heartened and aroused her even more. With him, she wanted to do things she’d never done before, had never wanted to do with anyone else. She wanted him to see her pleasure in doing them with him.
He must’ve known, because everything about him was hard with arousal. And yet his hands were gentle as he turned her over onto her back and stared lovingly into her eyes.
“If you keep doing that, I won’t be any good to you. We have a lot more territory to cover.”
He leaned down and kissed her softly and slowly. “Becca, I’ve never seen anything more perfect than you in my life,” he said as he positioned himself over her. “You are flawless.”
His words nearly brought her to tears. No one had ever called her flawless. No one had even remotely thought of her that way. Or at least they hadn’t told her if they had. She’d spent so much time trying to live up to everyone’s expectations—the couple of former lovers she’d had, her family...
“You don’t know how many nights I’ve lain awake, thinking about this moment when we would be together again like this.”
She wanted to tell him that she felt the same way, but she was afraid that if she spoke she might break the spell or, even worse, wake up from this lovely dream.
Then he finally thrust into her, filling her with his muscle and heat. She gripped his shoulders tight, matching him thrust for thrust until she exploded in an orgasm that seemed to last forever.
His forehead glistened with sweat and his biceps bulged. Their gazes locked and he built a strong rhythm that got faster and faster until his teeth clenched and his face contorted. A long, guttural growl emanated from his throat. Then very slowly, ever so tenderly, he lowered his body to cover hers.
* * *
As a general rule, Nick wasn’t a fan of shopping malls, but over coffee and bagels early Monday morning before they both went to work, somehow Becca had talked him into meeting her at the mall after he got off work at seven that evening.
She wanted to look at baby furniture in Dallas. After last night, she might be able to talk him into just about anything.
He had taken a risk making love to her again—crossing that line and making implied promises he still, in his moments of doubt, wasn’t sure he could keep.
But damn, they were good together. In bed, they had a chemistry that could scorch the sun. He just hoped it didn’t mean that the relationship was combustible in other ways. Even that possibility didn’t burn away the reality that he liked waking up beside her.
His other reason for meeting her at the mall was that he wanted to talk to her about Dr. Stevens’s caution that, because they were pregnant with twins, the pregnancy was considered nearly normal.
Becca was healthy and Stevens had said sex was okay, but during a slow moment at work, Nick had done some research and discovered that even the slightly elevated risk associated with carrying twins warranted extra precautions as the pregnancy progressed.
He’d also picked out the best hospital in the area that specialized in high-risk births. He’d been eager to talk to her about it because he wanted her to tour the hospital to make sure she was comfortable with it, but he didn’t want to alarm her any more than Dr. Stevens had. Just as he started to broach the subject, a woman who was modeling a ruby ring and necklace at the entrance to a jewelry store spoke to Becca.
“This would look lovely on you,” she said, “with your fair skin and dark hair.”
Becca stopped to admire the jewelry.
“Would you like to try it on?” the woman asked.
“Oh, no, that’s okay,” Becca said as she continued to admire the necklace. “We’re in a hurry today. Maybe another time.”
The way she lingered over the unusual piece belied her objections.
Nick looked at his watch. “Go ahead,” he urged. “We have a few minutes.”
“We still need to look at furniture,” Becca said. “I know you’re tired after working. I’d planned on making this quick.”
“We’re fine.”
Becca smiled and followed the saleswoman into the store.
Once inside, the woman unhooked the ruby-studded gold chain from her neck and slipped it around Becca’s neck.
“Doesn’t she look exquisite wearing the necklace?”
The woman was an excellent s
alesperson. She was definitely working hard to earn her commission.
“She is exquisite even without the necklace,” he said.
He smiled as he watched Becca’s cheeks turn a pretty shade of pink. It reminded him of how color had touched her features last night as he’d made love to her in the firelight.
“Try on the ring, too.” The woman took it off her finger and handed it to Becca.
“Historically, rubies have been associated with passion. They’re also a symbol of romance and adventure. So, Romeo, this is a nice gift to get your sweetheart.”
Yes, she was definitely working it. He had to admire her tenacity.
“Do you want the necklace?” he asked. “I’d like for you to have it.”
“Oh, no, Nick, I couldn’t. I mean, it’s gorgeous, but it’s far too expensive. I was just trying it on for fun.”
Apologetically, she turned to the saleswoman. “I didn’t mean to waste your time.”
The woman smiled at her. “No apology needed. We’re slow right now, anyway. I’m happy you tried it on.”
As Becca took one last wistful glance in the mirror, the woman slipped Nick her card and mouthed, For Christmas?
Nick nodded. It would be a good present, he thought as he tucked the card into his pocket.
As they walked away from the store, Becca said, “I’m sorry that woman put you in an awkward position. It was sweet of you to offer to get me the necklace. But you didn’t have to.”
“One thing you definitely need to know about me is that it’s not easy to coerce me into anything I don’t want to do. I wouldn’t have offered if I’d felt pressured.”
“Good to know,” Becca said, and a sensuous light passed between them.
He hated to potentially kill the mood. “There’s something I need to talk to you about.”
“Should I be worried?”
“No,” he said as they entered the department store. “In fact, it should be something to ease your mind.”
She slanted him a dubious look. “Okay. Why is that not comforting?”
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