“Ready for me to add the bubbles?” Nick asked. Garrett toddled at Nick’s side, gibbering in the language of presentences that only he understood.
“Bubbles?”
Nick appeared in the bathroom doorway with a bottle of strawberry bubble bath in hand. “This belonged to Cherry. I’m assuming bubble bath doesn’t go bad.”
“I’d love some bubbles,” she replied, touched that he would allow her to use his sister’s bubble bath. “Where’s Adam?” she asked. She hadn’t seen Nick’s brother since they’d arrived.
“Adam is out of town for a couple of days. He’s visiting some friends and checking out a few horses we might purchase.”
“Oh.” When she’d agreed to come here for the night she hadn’t thought that it would be just herself, Garrett and Nick in the big house.
“Worried about your reputation?” he asked, and she thought she detected a sharp edge to his words.
“Of course not,” she replied. “I was just wondering why I hadn’t seen your brother, that’s all.”
He nodded. “I’ll go finish up your bath.”
A half an hour later Courtney lay in the scented bubbly water in the bathtub and finally felt her sore muscles begin to relax.
She leaned her head back against the cool porcelain and closed her eyes, trying to keep her mind as empty as possible. But, no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t think of nothing.
It wasn’t thoughts of the accident that scurried through her head; she had no memories of getting into her car, of driving on the rain-slicked streets and flying off the road and into the tree.
Why? Why couldn’t she remember leaving the café? She could understand losing the memories of the initial impact and being unconscious, but she didn’t remember even telling Mary goodbye the night before when she’d left the café.
And if that wasn’t enough for her to think about, thoughts of the man in the kitchen with her son filled her brain.
What had he been doing for the past two years of his life? She knew he’d been working on a ranch, but what had he done besides that? He seemed to have arrived back in her life with no baggage from that time.
She’d certainly had baggage. She’d had Grant. She frowned as she thought of the man she’d broken up with only a week earlier. He’d come into the café during the dinner rush the night before although he hadn’t sat in her section, indicating he was still angry with her for breaking up with him.
Why could she remember him coming in to eat and the teenagers leaving her a paltry tip, yet she couldn’t remember walking out of the door to get into her car?
It was this troubling thought that finally pulled her out of the tub. She dried off with a large fluffy towel that Nick had provided and then looked at her reflection in the mirror.
There was some slight bruising at her hairline on her forehead, but thankfully it wasn’t creeping downward. Her sternum had a faint discoloration from contact with the steering wheel. All in all everyone was right—she’d been tremendously lucky to walk away from the accident.
She pulled on a pair of pink shorts and an oversized navy T-shirt, deciding that her bra would be too uncomfortable, then went in search of Nick and Garrett.
She found them in the large country kitchen. Garrett, seated in his high chair munching on a cracker, greeted her with a wide smile.
Nick stood at the stove, stirring something in a large pot. He turned and gestured her to the table with a smile. “Something smells good,” she said as she sat at the large oak table.
“Ground beef, jarred sauce and spaghetti noodles that are slightly overcooked,” he replied.
“Sounds yummy. Can I do anything to help?”
“Nope, just sit there and look pretty and I’ll do the rest.” He left the pot on the stove and reached into a cabinet for two plates and a plastic bowl. He set the plates on the table and handed Garrett the bowl. The boy promptly put it on his head.
Courtney took the bowl from his dark curls and placed it on his high chair tray. “It’s not a hat,” she said and touched his little nose.
“Hat,” he said and pointed to Nick.
Nick added silverware to the table and smiled. “He definitely has a hat fetish.”
Courtney smiled. “If you think his hat fetish is funny, wait until you watch him eat spaghetti. You might want to break out the hazmat suits.”
“How much mess could one little boy make with a bowl of spaghetti?” Nick asked.
A half an hour later as he wiped sauce off the floor and then a nearby cabinet, he shook his head ruefully. “Who would have thought,” he said more to himself than to Courtney, who was clearing the dishes from the table. “I’ve never seen spaghetti fly before.”
She laughed. It had been nearly impossible to carry on any kind of conversation through the meal as Garrett had been a pip, finding the game of throwing pasta as entertaining as eating it.
He now sat in the high chair, face cleaned and properly contrite after being fussed at by Courtney for his bad manners. “How about I make some coffee and we all go into the living room?” Nick suggested once the kitchen was clean.
“That sounds nice.” As Courtney attempted to lift Garrett from the high chair, her bruised and sore muscles protested.
“Here, let me do that,” Nick exclaimed. “How about you make the coffee and I’ll take Mr. Garrett in and dress him in his pajamas.”
Once again Courtney was shocked by what a natural Nick was at parenting. As she made a short pot of coffee, she thought about Nick the daddy.
She hadn’t expected him to be so demonstrative with the child. He kissed Garrett often, ran a hand lovingly through his curls. The light of love in his eyes when he gazed at the boy was obvious and seemed to grow brighter each time father and son were together.
He’d once seduced her as the taboo bad boy, but if she wasn’t careful she’d find herself equally seduced by the father in him.
By the time she carried two cups of coffee into the living room, Nick had a pajama-clad Garrett on his lap on the sofa. “I think somebody has had a long day,” Nick said.
“Are you talking about yourself or Garrett?” she asked teasingly.
“He didn’t have much of a nap today and he almost fell asleep while I was changing him.”
“Maybe we should just go ahead and put him down for the night,” she said, although she wasn’t so sure she liked the idea of being totally alone with Nick without the buffer of Garrett between them. Then she was irritated with herself for even thinking she needed a buffer between herself and Nick.
Fifteen minutes later Garrett was asleep and Nick and Courtney were back in the living room seated on the sofa with their coffee.
“Tell me about Texas,” she said. “You pretty well know what I’ve been doing for the past two years, but what did you do down there?”
He leaned back against the sofa, looking sexy and relaxed. “I’ve got a friend down there named Charlie Hanes. He hired me on at his ranch, and that’s what I did for the past two years. I worked, I slept and I ate, and I like to think that during that time I did a little growing up.”
He took a sip of his coffee and then continued. “I’d never really been alone before. There was always a sibling to pick up the slack if I got too lazy, somebody to tell me what to do, to party with or to just talk to if I felt like it. I’d never had to depend just on myself. I’d never really taken the time to look inside and find out what was there.”
“And what was there?” she asked with curiosity.
He shot her a lazy grin. “I’m still a work in progress.”
And she liked the way he had progressed. There were still flashes of the boy he had been when he’d left Grady Gulch, but there was more substance, more solidness to him now.
“In lots of ways I think I’ve grown up, too,” she replied. “For the first time in my life I suddenly not only had to depend on myself, but also had to think about how I was going to take care of a baby. And I’m proud of how I’ve man
aged to do both without anyone’s help.”
“You’ve done a great job,” he replied, and his eyes held a soft light that felt seductive.
She suddenly felt the need to distance herself from him. He seemed like an illusionist to her, playing havoc on her senses, on her very sensibilities with his magic. She took a big drink of her coffee and then stood.
“I think it’s been a long day for me, too. I’m exhausted and I need to call it a night.”
He got up as well and set his cup on the coffee table next to hers. “Courtney, before you go...” He stepped close...closer still to her, and her heart began to beat a rapid rhythm.
He stopped when he stood so close to her that she could feel his body heat and was engulfed by the heady scent of him. “Yes?” she asked, her mouth dry.
“I’ve been wanting to do this the minute I yanked open the car door and saw you slumped over the steering wheel.” He wrapped his arms around her and gently pulled her toward him.
She stood stiffly in his embrace for just a brief moment and then yielded to the warmth and familiarity of him, gave in to her need to have strong male arms around her. Melting against him, she released a tremulous sigh.
He felt just as she remembered, big and safe and warm, and she was in no hurry to leave his arms. She nestled her head into the crook of his neck and was reminded of how well their bodies had always fit together. His heart beat against her own, a steady, strong rhythm that further relaxed her.
It had been a long time since she’d felt the comfort of anyone’s arms around her, and she hadn’t realized until this moment how hungry she’d been for this kind of physical contact.
It felt right to be in his arms and she would have stayed there forever, but he took his finger and raised her chin so she was looking up at him. His blue eyes were dark with unabashed desire, and she knew he wanted to kiss her.
And even though she knew a kiss from Nick was wrong on all kinds of levels, she wanted it. She wanted him. She opened her lips slightly, as if to invite him to take what he wanted from her.
He lowered his head and claimed her mouth with his. Initially his kiss was feather-soft against her lips, heating her from her head to her toes. He deepened the kiss, touching first her lower lip with his tongue, and then delving inside her mouth with desire and determined intent.
She raised her arms to his shoulders and pressed more tightly against him as their tongues swirled in heated battle. She’d forgotten his kiss.
She’d forgotten how when he kissed her she felt as if he touched her all over, as if kissing was the most important thing in the entire world. Nick’s kisses had always been infused with not just desire, but also with caring, making her feel like the most important woman on the face of the earth.
“You know I want you,” he said as he finally broke the kiss. His voice was deep with need.
Would it be so terrible? To make love with him just one last time? It wouldn’t mean anything, because she refused to allow her heart to be involved with him ever again.
Just one more time to hold in her heart for when he eventually got tired of playing daddy, when he ran from his family responsibilities not just to Garrett, but to the ranch and Adam, as well.
Fool, a little voice whispered in her head at the same time she placed a hand on the side of his cheek. “I want you, too.”
She didn’t want to dwell on their past, and she didn’t want to contemplate the future. She just wanted to be in this moment with him, feeling safe, feeling desirable and fooling herself into believing that she was loved.
Chapter 10
Nick wasn’t sure exactly what he expected from Courtney, but it wasn’t the shine of desire in the depths of her eyes, it wasn’t the words he’d most wanted to hear.
He took her hand and led her down the hallway toward his bedroom, afraid with each step that somehow the mood would shatter, that she’d change her mind.
The last time he’d been with her he’d been consumed with grief and despair. This time he wanted to make love to her with joy and the fullness and wonder of life between them.
When they reached his room, she paused in the doorway and dropped his hand and for a moment he was certain she’d changed her mind. And if she had he was okay with that, although his need for her burned bright and hot through him.
“You know this won’t change anything between us,” she said, her voice a hoarse whisper. “We’re Garrett’s parents, but this won’t make you be anything more in my life.”
“All I’m asking for is this night,” he replied. Could she hear his heart? Pounding with such an intensity that it seemed to fill the entire room? Could she feel his need, so intense it left him almost breathless?
His answer seemed to satisfy her, for she took several steps toward him and once again buried herself in his arms as their lips met in a fiery kiss.
As their kiss lingered he gently caressed her slender back as her full breasts pressed evocatively against his chest. The scent of her stirred him on every level, evoking old memories of making love with her and heightening his anticipation to repeat the intimate act.
When his hands reached the bottom of her T-shirt, he slid them beneath and caressed upward against the warm bare flesh of her back. “Take it off,” she whispered as she stepped mere inches away from him.
She didn’t have to ask him twice. He grabbed the bottom of the T-shirt and pulled it over her head. He tossed it to the nearby chair and then gazed at her beauty. Her breasts were definitely fuller than he remembered, a residual effect of her pregnancy.
“Now take yours off,” she said.
He smiled at her. “Yes, boss.” He pulled his own T-shirt off and they came together, bare skin against bare skin.
“You’ve always felt so right in my arms,” he whispered as he moved his lips down the slender column of her neck.
Her only answer was to drop her head back to allow him full access to her throat. He loved the way she tasted, but it wasn’t long before he wanted more...more.
He stepped away from her and tugged her toward the bed, mindful that he needed to be gentle with her because of the physical trauma she’d suffered two nights before.
She stopped by the edge of the bed and stepped out of her shorts, leaving her clad only in a wispy pair of white panties. Nick nearly came undone. Never had he seen her so sexy, and he hurriedly shucked his jeans, tore off his socks and yanked down the navy bedspread to expose the white sheets beneath.
It all felt like a dream to Nick as he slid under the sheets next to her. This was a dream he’d entertained since the moment he’d first met her. To have her, to hold her, not in the confines of a stable in the old Yates barn, but rather in his own bed in his own house.
She moved back into his arms, the only barrier between them her little panties and his boxers. Their bare legs entwined as their lips met once again.
Her skin was soft and silky, just as he remembered, and he wanted to touch her everywhere. He felt the need to hurry, as if at any moment the dream would shatter and she’d jump up and run out of his room.
Forcing himself to take his time, he broke the kiss and instead moved his lips once again down her throat, across her collarbones and to the erect tip of one of her breasts. As he teased and flicked, she tangled her hands in his hair, as if in an attempt to pull him closer...closer still.
There was no talk. The room filled with the sound of sweet sighs of delight, deep moans of desire, and that was all the communication necessary.
His hands remembered where she loved to be stroked, his mouth knew where she was most sensitive, and by touching, by kissing there he would elicit an intense response from her.
He not only loved making love with her, but making love to her. His desire was to give her the most pleasure, to give her moments she would never forget, to somehow mark her as his own for the rest of their lives.
Still, she was certainly not a passive participant. She took off her panties and then yanked his boxers off him. Nick was o
n fire and ready to possess her, but he had no intention of doing so until she had enjoyed a climax.
He slid his hand down her stomach, below her hip bones and to the place where he knew his touch could bring her the most pleasure. She sucked in a deep breath as he placed his fingers intimately against her.
Every muscle in her body stiffened as he increased his movements against her, and her back began to arch, letting him know the waves of pleasure sweeping through her were about to peak.
She began to shudder, a low deep moan escaping her lips as her climax claimed her. It was only when the last of her shudders had left her that he moved on top of her.
He was as hard as a rock; ready to take her hard and fast, but he also didn’t want this all to end so quickly. He slid into her and hissed a sigh of pleasure as he felt her completely surround him.
He felt as if he was home, and he closed his eyes to fight for control. It was at that moment he realized he’d never stopped loving Courtney.
She’d been in his heart, in his soul since the moment he’d let her go and left Grady Gulch. Even though he’d tried to move on, she was still as firmly implanted in his heart as she had been the day he’d left.
Moving against him, she arched her hips to meet him thrust for thrust. He kept his rhythm slow, wanting to stay inside her forever, but as she gripped his buttocks with her hands and urged him to go faster, his control snapped.
Together they moved in a frenzy until she cried out with another orgasm that sparked his own. Moments later they lay gasping to catch their breaths.
“Some things just get better with age,” he finally said as he stroked a strand of her dark hair.
There had been a time when he’d believed he knew what she was feeling, what she was thinking, but as he gazed down into her green eyes, he realized he had no idea what was going through her mind.
“I’m on birth control pills,” she said, making him realize that he hadn’t even considered any kind of protection. “And I haven’t been with anyone since the last time we were together.”
“I haven’t been with anyone since then, either,” he confessed. She looked at him dubiously. “It’s true, Courtney, and to be perfectly honest, I wouldn’t have minded another slipup between us if the result was another boy like Garrett or a little girl like you.”
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