by Melody Anne
His mouth clamped down on hers as he slid his head inside before pausing. She wiggled against him, needing him to push forward. He wrenched his mouth away and trailed kisses down her neck.
“You are so damn hot and tight,” he groaned before biting into her shoulder.
She shuddered at his words. She was falling apart in his arms, and he was no more than a couple inches inside her.
Gripping her hips tightly, he looked up. Her eyes were mere slits, but she could see the ardor in his. He was nearly out of control. With a feral cry, he surged forward, burying himself deep within her heat.
Their cries rang through the air as Chloe nearly shattered from the fullness of him inside her. She wanted more. She clawed at his back, and he bit harder on her shoulder―anchoring himself down as he pulled back and then surged forward again.
She was glowing from the inside out, her body damp with heat, her insides burning up. The tightening in her core grew and grew until she was whimpering with the need to explode. His groans accompanied hers as he picked up the pace, moving steadily in and out of her, faster and faster as they clung to each other.
He thrust inside her again, pushing her into the wall, and she let go, her body flexing over and over as she screamed out her pleasure. He sped up as he drew out her orgasm, his grunts reverberating through her. And then she felt him shudder, felt the hot spurts of his pleasure coat her insides. She came again, squeezing him even harder. He groaned as his body stiffened, pressing her against the wall.
They both shook as they came down from the incredible pleasure. She sagged into him, her body spent, her legs locked tightly around him, shivering with the release of the built-up pressure.
Nick finally moved them over to her bed and sat down, their bodies still connected. She clung tightly to him, not quite willing to let him go. She knew she would need to soon, but for now she wanted to enjoy the pleasure of him inside her, of their bodies so tightly joined.
She didn’t want to think of anything other than being right where she was. It was perfect in so many ways. He laid back, her on top of him, and she closed her eyes. Exhaustion filled her, and she let go, feeling content.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Nick stretched in bed, taking a few moments to realize where he was. The sun was sneaking through the cracks in the blinds, and from the low intensity, it was early in the morning. He didn’t need to glance at a clock to figure that out.
Chloe slept soundly next to him, her body well loved and exhausted. He’d fallen asleep with her after their intense lovemaking, only to wake a few hours later and take her again. The stress of the day before had evaporated while in her arms, and he wanted to do it again and again.
Since being with her, she was all he thought about. Nick wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. He’d always enjoyed sex, but this was different. He felt a connection with this woman he didn’t normally feel when he made love. When he was finished, he’d never felt the need to hold a woman close, to caress her soft skin. Once his body was sated, he wanted to be on his way.
But not with Chloe. With her, he wanted to touch her, run his fingers over her delicate skin, memorize every inch of her. And he wanted to slide within her slick heat over and over again―get lost within her.
As she slept peacefully beside him, he was drawn to her, couldn’t take his gaze away. Sure, she was beautiful, her light eyes now closed in sleep, her fair skin creamy and soft, her hair that of an angel’s. She took his breath away.
But there was so much more to her than just her looks. She was feisty and strong, determined and stubborn. She challenged him in a way that he enjoyed, and she made him burn like no other woman had ever come close to making him feel.
The last couple of weeks had been packed with frustration and joy and a need to make her smile. His every thought was being consumed by this one woman, and he couldn’t even find it within himself to care about that.
One moment she would be serious and stern with him. The next she would be laughing and making him smile. She praised him when he pushed himself, and she made him want to be a better person. She was tearing his world apart. When the pieces came back together, he knew he would be a new man. The strange thing was, he didn’t have any regrets about that.
When he’d first met her, he’d instantly wanted her, but whether that was to prove his manliness to himself or whether it was to win a conquest, he wasn’t sure. What he did know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, was that he didn’t feel that way anymore. He’d taken her several times, and it still wasn’t enough. He had a feeling he would never get enough of her―in or out of the bedroom.
Mumbled words escaped her sweet pink lips, and he stilled his fingers on her smooth stomach. She stretched, her hand reaching forward, and he smiled. Was she seeking him out even in her sleep? A frown line puckered between her brows, when she came up with empty air and she stirred a bit more as her body shifted toward the warmth of his skin. She mumbled a few more words and then fell back asleep.
He grinned at the sight. He was going to choose to believe she wanted him, needed him as much as he needed her. They were drawn to each other even in the deepest recesses of their minds. He wondered if he did the same movements when he was dead to the world. He wouldn’t be at all surprised if he did.
Nick lay there with her for about a half hour before the need to get up for the day was too overwhelming. With reluctance, he left her side and went back to his own room where he grabbed clothes and took a hot shower. Closing his eyes while the steaming spray jetted over him had him going hard all over again as he pictured her fingers replacing the water, her lips trailing down his stomach and then taking him deep within her mouth.
Snapping his eyes open, he had to push those thoughts away. That was going to lead him to rush back to her room and wake her up before she had a decent amount of sleep. They had plans for the day, although she wasn’t aware of them. He was sure he could get her on board, though.
Dragging himself from his room, he tried to do some work in his office, but his thoughts continued to stray to Chloe in her nice warm bed all alone. How easy it would be for him to slip inside her room and take her for a leisurely morning of lovemaking. His brothers could wait on him.
That thought made him smile. Now he understood why his siblings were so often late for events. They couldn’t keep their hands off their wives. He’d envied them the smallest bit, and then he’d kicked himself for feeling that way. With Chloe in his life, he was beginning to understand their reluctance to leave the bedroom. Once would never be enough.
Nick managed to let Chloe sleep for a couple more hours, and then he decided he wanted her awake with him. She was normally a morning person. He hadn’t missed how she snuck out of the house to go running each day. He only regretted his knee still wasn’t strong enough for him to go out there with her. Soon, he’d be back to normal health and he would enjoy running the island with her as the sun was rising over the hills.
He could picture doing a lot of activities with Chloe if he really thought about it. He would love to take her up in his private plane, land in a field that was out in the middle of nowhere, and make love to her below the wings with nothing around them but the animals and sun. He enjoyed her company, and he had a whole lot of ideas of what they could do to make their time together even more enjoyable.
Lying down on the bed―on top of the covers to prevent too much temptation―Nick leaned over Chloe and kissed her lips softly. She stirred, her eyes fluttering as she began to wake up. Then she tensed.
He frowned as he looked into her widening eyes. She was trying to retreat. He had no doubt about it. Her body stiffened, and she looked wildly around the room while lifting a hand up to cover her mouth.
“Not quite the reaction I was seeking,” he said as he pulled down the covers, exposing her breasts, and ran his hand over them. Her nipples instantly hardened, and her breath rushed out. He leaned forward and tried to push her fingers away.
“No,” she mumble
d beneath her fingers.
He frowned. “Why not? I kissed just about every part of your body last night,” he reminded her.
“For one thing, I have morning breath . . .” She stopped speaking and he continued massaging her breasts. Her breath was coming out faster and he could feel her heartbeat accelerating.
“I woke you up twice in the middle of the night, and you didn’t complain about breath then,” he reminded her.
“Nick, this is moving too fast,” she said, but the words ended on a moan as he tweaked her nipple. She wanted him even if she didn’t want to want to.
“You weren’t worried about that last night,” he told her. Since she wouldn’t let him have access to her lips, he leaned over and took one tasty nipple into his mouth. Her back arched off the bed before slowly going back down. Then she grabbed his head and pulled him away.
He looked into her eyes and saw the desire there, but he also saw fear. That he didn’t understand. What could she possibly be afraid of? There was no possibility of her being embarrassed. She had a fantastic body, and he’d taken his time studying every single inch of her skin.
“I didn’t force you to have sex with me last night,” he reminded her.
“I know you didn’t. I wanted to make love. It’s just that I don’t normally move so quickly,” she said. Her breath was coming out in pants. And he was working himself up as much as he was arousing her.
“It’s too late to take it back,” he pointed out.
She sighed as she yanked on the covers. Much to his disappointment, she covered up her luscious breasts and then scooted up and leaned against the headboard, hugging her knees and the blanket to her chest.
“I understand that, but just because we had sex last night doesn’t mean it’s now an open invitation. I have a job to do here,” she told him.
His eyes narrowed as he studied her. “What kind of game are you playing?” he asked. He’d rarely been around for the morning-after chat, and he wasn’t loving how this one was going.
“I’m not playing a game. We both were worked up last night. We had sex. Can we forget about it and go back to normal now?”
Nick was stunned into silence. He’d been making plans all morning, and she wanted to pretend like nothing had happened. His ego was taking a major hit.
“Or I could keep you in this bed all day so you forget about anything other than having sex with me,” he told her, liking his idea a whole lot more than hers.
Her eyes widened and he could see her breathing deepen. She still wanted him. What he didn’t understand was why she would try so hard to fight it. Maybe it was a mystery he had to figure out before he went completely insane. It would probably be smarter for him if he just let it go, but Nick wasn’t the type of man to back down. But this wasn’t the time to get too much into the conversation. When they finished the discussion, he wanted to make sure there were no possibilities of an interruption.
“Get dressed. We have company coming over.”
He stood up and walked to her bedroom door. He was angry, but he wasn’t sure if he was more frustrated with her or himself.
“Nick,” she called out. He stopped but didn’t turn. “I’m sorry, okay.”
He didn’t respond. He just walked out the door. Nick went straight to his gym and pushed himself as hard as he could before his leg began to give out on him. Normally when he was angry, he could run hard for a good ten miles, and that would wear him out enough to push the rage away. With the knee injury, he didn’t have that luxury. That just riled him up all the more.
When he came back to the living room, he found Chloe fully dressed, her eyes following him, slightly rounded as if she were afraid to speak. That irritated him all the more. He liked how they acted around each other. He didn’t want her to be some meek little mouse too afraid to stand up to him.
Yes, they’d had sex. That didn’t have to change the entire dynamic of their relationship. If anything, it should make it that much better. He moved past her and heard her slight intake of breath. He wanted to grab her, push her down onto the couch, and make her scream with pleasure. He wanted her to admit how badly she still needed him.
He didn’t get it. Yes, she was beautiful. So were millions of other ladies in the word. Yes, she stimulated him, but again, many other women did the same. He wasn’t fascinated with all of them. So what was it about her that had him breaking all his normal rules? Why couldn’t he just push her aside and forget about what had happened?
Maybe it was the unknown. Maybe he wanted to unwrap her, figure out exactly why she acted the way she did―what her secrets were. She wasn’t the usual type he went after, so what was it that made her so special? He might find that it was nothing. He probably would see, after a short while, that she was just like every other woman on the planet and his interest would wane. He didn’t believe his muddled ramblings, but it helped him try to work through it.
Neither of them spoke as they drank their morning coffees, both of them in their own heads. Nick wasn’t quiet by nature, but the tense silence in the room was suffocating. He wanted to break the silence, but he also didn’t want to be the first one to do so. It was a battle of wills, he decided.
His doorbell rang, and Nick nearly let out a breath of relief. He didn’t think he’d be able to sit there too much longer without either strangling her or pulling her onto his lap to straddle him. If this was a prediction of the days to come, he was in for some serious trouble.
“Who’s here?” she asked as he got up.
“My brothers,” he told her.
He didn’t wait for her reaction, but instead went to the front door and opened it. Cooper and Stormy were there alongside Mav and Lindsey. They all wore smiles. A baby cried from a car seat, and Lindsey’s belly was about a mile out there.
“I’d give you a hug, Lins, but I don’t think I can get past all that stomach,” Nick said, his mood instantly lighting up as his family entered his home.
“Don’t make me kick your ass,” Mav growled as he leaned in behind his wife to kiss her cheek. “You are absolutely stunning,” he told her.
“Nick, you better give me a hug anyway otherwise you might hurt my feelings,” Lindsey said with a pout.
He carefully put his arms around her and gave her the barest of squeezes. He was terrified of breaking her. He really cared for Lindsey, and he was very aware of the horror she’d gone through several years ago. He took extra care when he touched her, but especially now that she was pregnant. “You are stunning, you know that right?” he said to make up for his joke.
“I’m a bloated whale, but I’ll take all the compliments I can get,” she said as she patted his cheek and stepped past him.
“You guys are late. I was going to start the food without you,” Nick told his brothers before he leaned over them and pulled Stormy into his arms, squeezing her a lot harder than he had Lindsey.
“Ha, you cook the meal. That’s entertaining,” Mav said. Nick scowled at him.
“Some of us have children to take care of before we’re allowed to leave the house. We should have made you come over to our place,” Stormy told him.
“Yeah, what she said,” Coop added with a smile.
“Pathetic. You are both so pathetic since you’ve gotten married,” Nick said to his brothers, but he laughed. He actually enjoyed how happy they were. He wasn’t going to voice that thought out loud, though.
Stormy’s attention was caught by something behind him, and Nick knew Chloe had entered the room. She was most likely trying to sneak back to her bedroom before the crowd entered the house. Nick smiled again. She’d have a hell of a time doing that with his sisters-in-law there. They loved to talk, and a pretty woman residing in his house was way too juicy for them to miss.
“Hi,” Stormy said as she brushed past Nick. “I’m Stormy Armstrong, and this man over here is Cooper, my husband. The terror standing by him is our three-year-old son, Aaron, and the wailing infant is our month-old daughter, Addie.”
&
nbsp; Stormy patiently waited for Chloe to speak. All eyes turned in her direction, and Nick watched as a becoming shade of pink infused her cheeks.
“Um . . . I’m Chloe Reynolds, Nick’s physical therapist.” She seemed unsure how she wanted to introduce herself. Just to make it slightly more awkward for her, Nick sidled up to her side and stood far too close for a client-patient relationship. She stepped aside slowly and he followed her.
The tension flowing through the woman could be felt by all, but his family didn’t point it out. That wasn’t their style unless they were trying to embarrass someone. They’d have to get to know Chloe a heck of a lot better for that to happen.
Lindsey moved forward and introduced her and Mav, and then the girls dragged Chloe along with them into the kitchen. She tried to make a polite excuse, but the women weren’t having any of it, just as Nick had predicted. He sure did love his family.
“Let’s leave the ladies to chat so you can show us the new boat,” Mav said.
Nick found himself reluctant to leave Chloe alone with the girls. He knew they were excellent at interrogating people, and he wondered what Chloe might say about him. Never before had he even cared. But for some reason the idea of her trashing him to the two women who had married his brothers brought a frown to his face.
He was torn about what he should do.
“Don’t worry, Nick, the ladies will still be here when we get back,” Coop said with a laugh. That comment got him moving. He didn’t want to seem like he was hung up too much on Chloe.
They made their way down to the dock where his newest toy was tied up. He hadn’t been able to take her out since the injury, but he would get her on the water soon enough.
“Damn, she’s a beauty, even if I do prefer to be in the air rather than on the water,” Mav said with a whistle as he took in the thirty-foot fishing boat with all the bells and whistles. It had a nice cabin below so Nick and a girl could head out to sea for a few days and not have to worry about interruptions.