A Baby...Maybe? & How to Hunt a Husband

by Bonnie Tucker

  “How’s this for eloquent…I want you. Not just some kiss on your porch, but all of you. I want to take you inside, into your room and—”

  “Nate,” she said, interrupting his description because it so well matched her own thoughts…her own desires. “I don’t know. I don’t want to take our charade, our partnership, and try to turn it into something that it’s not. Something it can’t be. What we have is fiction. Even our casual dating agreement isn’t a real relationship.”

  “I’m not suggesting marriage. I’m suggesting that this could be good. Very good. I think over the last two weeks we’ve developed something more than fiction…we’ve become friends. We both understand that we’re not ready for a lifelong commitment. Why can’t that friendship extend to what we both so obviously want?”

  “Nate, I’ve come to value your friendship. I know we haven’t known each other long, but you mean something to me. Something I’m not willing to lose. Do you really think we could be intimate and still just be friends?”

  “Why not? A friendship that extends into the bedroom.” He paused. “Bedroom buddies.”

  “Why not?” she repeated with a laugh. “Yes, you are eloquent.”

  “You want something more eloquent? How about this.” He paused a moment, then said, “I haven’t been able to get you out of my head since that first night at Mick’s. I like being with you. I like laughing with you. I liked holding you in my arms while you slept last week. Hell, I didn’t even mind watching a chick-flick with you.”

  “You said Terminator wasn’t a chick-flick,” she pointed out with a laugh.

  “I lied. You were right. It’s a romance.”

  “And this? What will this thing between us be, Nate?”

  “We’re friends. Friends who desire one another.”

  “And that will be enough?” She was asking the question of Nate, but really, it was meant for herself.

  Could it be enough to be just intimate friends with Nate?

  What had he said? Bedroom buddies. Friends who occasionally slept together, but had no real commitment?

  Could that work?

  She didn’t know the answer.

  “It could be enough, I think. At least for me,” he said. “What about for you?”

  “I don’t know the answer to that. I’ll confess, I’ve had boyfriends in the past, but no one I’ve wanted the way I want you. No one I felt this sense of friendship…this sense of connection with.”

  “Is that enough?” he asked softly as he pulled her close, tighter within the shelter of his arms.

  “For now,” she said, nodding as she answered her own question. “Yes. It can be enough for now.”

  Decision made, she didn’t want to think or analyze any more. She just wanted him—immediately, if not sooner.

  She tore herself away from his embrace, and fumbled through her purse for her keys. Two tries later, she couldn’t contain the tremor in her hand long enough to get the key into the hole.

  “Let me,” Nate said.

  He unlocked the door and swept her inside, slamming the door behind him. He dropped the keys, and they landed on the tile with a clank.

  “I—”

  “Shh. We’re not talking. We’re…”

  His lips met hers again, stoking intoxicating desire that rose and grew to new, heady proportions. He steered her backward down the hall, without ending the kiss.

  Shannon was just getting the hang of walking backward and kissing when she thwacked to an abrupt halt, her back pressed against her bedroom door, her front pressed against Nate. She reached behind her back, fumbled with the knob and they both practically fell into the room as the door swung inward.

  They stood at the end of her bed and she wrapped her arms around his neck. The hunger of their kiss grew until it threatened to overwhelm her.

  Shannon pulled back and tried to catch her breath, but Nate didn’t seem to want to oblige. His hands were tugging at her shirt, pulling it up and off. And suddenly she was helping him, needing to remove any barriers between them. As he slid off his own shirt, she unbuttoned her pants and tugged downward.

  They didn’t budge.

  Not even an inch.

  She tried again. But, unfortunately, pleather seemed to have a lot of the same characteristics as leather. It didn’t slide well on hot, sticky skin.

  And even more unfortunately, Shannon was definitely hot…and not because of the temperature, but because of the man standing next to her, watching as she tugged at the waistband of the pants. The fabric moved a millimeter toward her feet and then stuck again, as if superglued.

  “Problems?” Nate asked, tossing his shirt on the floor.

  She stared at his naked chest. It was a sight to behold. Firm, without being overworked. He looked like a man who was active enough without being obsessed by his body.

  “Shannon?” he said, reaching for the snap on his jeans.

  “Yes?” she said, her voice practically a whisper.

  She knew he was asking her something, but she was mesmerized by the sight of him and had lost track of what she’d been doing and what he was asking. She reached out and grazed a line down his chest with the tip of her finger.

  “Shannon, you stopped. What’s wrong?”

  Stopped? Her mind was fuzzy. She felt almost drunk on the sight of him.

  “Stopped?” she echoed.

  “Stopped undressing.” He slid the zipper on his pants down with maddening slowness.

  “I, uh…” What were they talking about? She didn’t have a clue. She stood, frozen to the spot, watching every movement Nate made. Feeling a little more…just a little more with each movement.

  “Shannon-me-love,” he crooned, his face lowered and just a breath away from her own.

  His lips grazed hers again. She felt frenzied with desire. With need. A need that had to be met.

  Her bra stood between her and his naked chest. She reached behind her back, trying to undo the clasp, but couldn’t get her hands to stop trembling enough to work the small hooks.

  “Allow me,” Nate said against her lips, not really pausing the kiss at all, but speaking into it.

  The bra was unclasped and before she could draw in a breath, it was gone. Her chest pressed to his, her heartbeat melded with his.

  Thump, thump.

  Thump, thump.

  It was as if there was no separation between them. They were one.

  One breath.

  One heartbeat.

  One entity.

  His hand reached between their fused chests and touched her nipple, just a soft brush. Shannon heard herself groan.

  “Here, let me help,” he said as his hands hooked onto her waistband and tugged.

  The pants didn’t move.

  Suddenly she remembered what she’d been doing when he removed his shirt.

  She remembered the fact that she was stuck in her pants.

  Nate’s lips left hers and he looked down, studying the problem.

  “Uh?”

  “They’re fake leather,” she said as she joined his tugging. “They say it’s like leather, but maybe they should say it’s like a chastity belt. Parents all over the world would buy pseudo-leather pants for their daughters.”

  They both tugged and the pants slipped down another fraction of a millimeter.

  “Maybe if you sat down on the bed and I pulled,” Nate said.

  Shannon nodded. She was starting to feel a bit claustrophobic about being stuck in her pants. What if they couldn’t get them off?

  She sat on the edge of the bed and gripped the footboard.

  Nate pulled. Hard.

  She was glad she’d held on, because her pants didn’t move at all, but her body practically flew off the bed. Suspended between the footboard and Nate’s grip on her pant-legs, she hung like a suspension bridge.

  Nate let her settle back down onto the mattress and Shannon could have sworn she heard a chuckle, but when she checked he looked serious.

  “I don’t think
this is working,” she said. “I should have taken them off before I got so…”

  “Hot?” he supplied, unable to continue his fake seriousness. He was grinning.

  Leave it to a man to find the idea that he’d got her so worked up that she was stuck in her pants a compliment.

  “It is warm out tonight.”

  “I don’t think that’s why you’re all hot,” he said as he reached out and gently touched her nipple. It stood at attention. “No, I don’t think it has a thing to do with the weather.”

  “You’re enjoying this.” He reached for her again, and she moved back. “Let me think a minute.”

  “Are you saying this,” he touched her nipple again, “disturbs you?”

  “You disturb me even when you’re not touching me. This just makes it worse.” She paused and added, “A good worse.”

  “Do you have any powder?” he asked.

  “Powder?”

  “Maybe if we shake a little into your pants it will help.”

  “You want to powder my pants?” She giggled. “Ah, Bull, you are a kinky man.”

  “Ah, but you love it, Roxy.”

  They both burst out laughing: Full, deep, catch-your-breath-when-you’re done sort of laughter.

  When she could breath again, she said, “You know, this has never happened before.”

  “Getting stuck in your pants?” He gave the waistband another little tug, but it didn’t move at all.

  “No. This. Laughing like this when I’m…” she paused, looking for the right word.

  “When you’re what?”

  She found the word. “Aroused.”

  “So, you’re aroused, huh?” he asked, a macho sort of tone in his voice.

  “Yes.” She would have sworn in a court of law that his chest actually puffed out. “Don’t let it go to your head, but if we don’t get my pants off me soon, I just might explode with wanting you.”

  “I like your way with words,” he said as he wiggled his eyebrows.

  They both burst out laughing again.

  Maybe it was nerves, or maybe, just maybe there was something special about her relationship with Nate. Something more than just friendship. Something that bore reflection.

  But she’d reflect tomorrow. Right now, she just wanted to get her pants off.

  She found a bottle of powder from her vanity and sprinkled some liberally into her pants, reaching down her thighs and rubbing it as far as she could.

  Nate sat on the edge of the bed, watching her every move. “Want help?”

  “If you help I’m bound to get hotter, which will ultimately defeat the purpose. Stay there.”

  “Are you sure?” he asked. The laughter had died from his voice. Now she heard something else, something thick and hot.

  “Yes, I’m sure.”

  “So, basically, you want me to stay over here and watch you…strip.”

  “Yeah. Remember, no touching.”

  “Your boss has rules, right, Roxy?” he asked. There was humor in the question, but underneath that was desire.

  “Right, my boss has rules.”

  He leaned back on his elbows and watched. “Ah, Roxy, I’m a lucky man.”

  “And don’t you forget it, Bull.”

  She worked the powder a little farther and pulled again. The pants moved. Slowly, bit by bit, she eased them down. Once clear of her hips, they came off.

  Free at last.

  “Hey, Roxy, I like the undies.”

  Shannon blushed, knowing he was looking at her thong underwear. “I bought them to go with the outfit. They made me feel sexier.”

  He pulled her toward the bed. “I think you should wear them all the time.”

  “Really?” she asked, her voice a whisper.

  “Really. Thinking of you in your powder-blue oxford shirt, jeans and sneakers, so proper on the outside, but knowing you have these on underneath, and that I’m the only one who knows about them…I think I’d like it.”

  She was sitting next to him, and his hands were moving all over her, as if he was trying to memorize every inch of her body.

  “Move a bit closer,” he murmured, pulling her next to him, so that their thighs touched.

  She was falling back under his spell…falling hard. “I don’t know, Bull. Mama says bikers are dangerous,” she murmured.

  “Yeah we are. We live on the wild side.”

  She reached out and ran her hand down his naked torso. “Now, where were we?”

  “I think we were doing this…” He swept her into his arms and kissed her. All the fun and laughter was cast aside in a wave of longing.

  They kissed, they touched. The world outside the bedroom door was long forgotten. The questions were gone. In their place was just this man. This time. The feel of him. The scent of him.

  Shannon was high on the wash of sensations that flooded her system.

  “Nate,” she whispered as his lips left hers and continued their course of exploration.

  Lower, lower. He reached the thong underwear, but rather than removing them, he simply caressed beneath them and through them.

  The effect was like spontaneous combustion. Shannon felt as if something burst as she squirmed beneath his probing until it was almost too much.

  “Your turn,” she murmured, realizing he hadn’t removed his jeans.

  “I’m not finished.”

  “I know, but still, it’s my turn with you.”

  She began her own study, trying to learn everything about him. Soft skin, hard muscle, downy hair…different textures, different feels, but all adding up to Nate.

  She fumbled for her nightstand drawer and removed a small foil package. She’d never found condoms very sensual, but as she slowly slid this one in place, firmly fitting it to the length of him, she realized they could be. That with the right person, every movement was part of the package and could become an erotic part of making love.

  She shuddered with need.

  Nate moaned, and in one fluid movement, flipped Shannon on her back, removed her panties, and plunged into her depths. She met his every thrust, needing to feel him as deeply as possible. Needing to drive this frenzy to fulfillment.

  Needing.

  Needing.

  And suddenly it wasn’t need. His driving rhythm sent her over the edge of desire to completion. She screamed with the power of it. And at that primal sound, Nate too groaned, as his movements slowed, then stopped. He was still buried deep within her, embedding himself fully within her, branding himself on her skin. Still joined, he sank on top of her, his body fused with hers.

  Just as she thought she might run out of oxygen, he rolled slowly to one side, but held her, rolling her as well, so she was facing him.

  “Wow,” he said with a smile.

  Nate Calder might not be the most eloquent guy around, but this once Shannon couldn’t think of a better way to put it.

  “Wow,” she repeated as she snuggled into his embrace.

  NATE HELD SHANNON as she slept. He was too keyed up to sleep himself.

  What they’d just shared…

  He couldn’t quite figure it out.

  He’d wanted it to be just sex. Two friends sharing a moment together.

  Bedroom buddies, he’d told her.

  But it wasn’t just sex.

  Sex was easy. This wasn’t.

  They’d laughed together over her pants dilemma.

  He’d never laughed in the middle of becoming intimate with a woman. That in itself was new and different. Maybe the situation should have pulled him from the moment, but it hadn’t. If anything, it had intensified his need. Added a new dimension to his desire.

  He touched a spiky strand of hair.

  Shannon O’Malley was different from any other woman he’d ever had a relationship with. He wasn’t sure just what that difference was, but he was sure it was addictive.

  After what they’d just done, he should be thinking of leaving, of going home. He’d never spent the night with a woman, unless
you counted the other night when he’d fallen asleep with Shannon.

  Even then she was different.

  He knew that unless she kicked him out, he was staying tonight. Staying as long as she’d let him.

  He gently rolled out of bed, and went into her bathroom, then quietly slipped back under the covers and pulled her into his arms.

  In her sleep, she cuddled into his chest and sighed. And Nate knew he could finally sleep as well. Maybe in his dreams he could figure out just what was different about Shannon Roxy O’Malley.

  8

  SHANNON WOKE UP to the sensation of warmth and weight. It took a moment for her sleep-fogged mind to register just what that meant.

  Somebody was in her bed.

  More specifically, Nathan, aka Bull, Calder was lying next to her, hogging the covers.

  Even more specifically…she liked it.

  This was the second time she’d woken up next to him.

  She smiled as she inched closer to him until the length of him was pressed against her back. He shifted in his sleep, wrapping his arms around her.

  She’d slept with Nate, both figuratively and literally.

  The thought kept chasing itself around in her brain. It was easier to acknowledge the sleeping part than the part that came before they slept.

  This was just a friendship that extended to the bedroom.

  Which made it hard to classify what they did as making love, but making love is exactly how it felt to Shannon even if she couldn’t call it that. She wasn’t sure what to call it.

  Sex sounded too raw and hard.

  She thought of the terms she’d overheard kids at school use. Most sounded worse than sex. Then she hit on boinking and smiled. It sounded light and fun, sort of like what they’d done.

  If what they’d done wasn’t making love, then it was, by its very definition, light.

  Light and fun.

  She’d boinked Nathan Calder.

  He wasn’t her boyfriend. He was a friend who was male. A partner.

  And so they weren’t lovers, and they were no longer just friend and allies.

  They were…boink-buddies.

  She laughed.

  “What’s so funny?”

  She turned and looked at the man next to her. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.”

  “You didn’t,” he assured her. “I’ve been awake for a while now.”