NICK (Carsonbrothers Book 3)

by S R Dyble

  "Told you," Nick said as I rose like a sopping wet dog.

  In my anger, I kicked the water, aiming directly for Nick. What I hadn't noticed was the hard rock hidden beneath. My toe hit it full-pelt, making my eyes blacken for just a second until sickness took its place. I grabbed my foot, falling to the wet sand as I silently went absolutely mental from the inside out. The absolute thumping of raw pain came within seconds. Nick was at my side, picking me up effortlessly and carrying me away from the water.

  "Oh God, I think I've broken my damn foot," I said holding my throat so I wouldn't be sick.

  "Here." He gently placed me onto the dry sand, then moved to my feet to take a look.

  "How is it not gushing with blood right now?" I blurted. I felt as if I'd sliced my foot in half.

  "Can you move it at all? Your toes, can you move them?"

  It was clear that I'd hit my big toe first—the rest of my foot taking the brunt. I could move my toes, despite the pain.

  "And your foot?"

  I could move that too, but it hurt like a bitch.

  "Good news. I don't think it's broken."

  "Don't think? How the hell do you know?"

  "I'm trained in these sorts of things. I have to know how to treat someone if they're injured on a mission. Just like—"

  "Okay, okay, you're a bloody Delta warrior, we get it!"

  I was seriously beginning to stress out, this sickness wasn't passing and I felt really weak all of a sudden.

  "Let's get you home, Petal."

  Even him being so bloody beautiful was pissing me off. Somehow my brain had already placed blame on him without even needing a reason. The fact that he had kissed me yesterday, the way he had kept things from me and the way he always acted so bloody cool while I blew my top, revealing my feelings without even wanting to, all added to the furious pain. Nevertheless, as Nick lifted me into the air and started carrying me down the beach, I couldn't help but stare at how flawless he was. Everything down to the way he styled his hair, to the stubble on his chin was ridiculously flawless.

  "You keep looking at me like that and you may kiss me," he said, the corners of his mouth turning up.

  "You cocky little shit." I glared at him, resulting in a huge grin spreading across his face.

  I couldn't believe he'd carried me back to the house. Inside, he carried me over to the couch and placed me down gently before tending to my foot. I couldn't help the sensation his hands were causing. The gentle way he glided his hand down my leg and to my foot sent a jolt over my body. I cursed from the impact it had, causing my body to jolt, making my foot hurt. He hadn't noticed because he went in search of the first-aid kit just then. Eventually, he found it in the kitchen cupboard. With bandages in hand, he returned to my foot and looked at me.

  "There's not much I can do. You just need to rest it… It's gonna bruise pretty bad, so you should keep it elevated too."

  "Elevated? For how long?"

  "At least for tonight. You think you can do that?"

  Part of me thought he was milking this to get a kick out of it. Then the sheer pain in my foot came again.

  "This is ridiculous," I said.

  "Look, I'll pop you outside on your favourite chair and make you tea."

  Frowning, I studied him.

  "How do you know I have a favourite chair?"

  "Because you sit there with your tea every chance you get."

  Not long after, he slowly and gently placed me down onto the beach chair on the front patio. He was slow to lift my foot onto another chair he had pulled up in front of me. Nick was crouched down beside my chair and silence lingered as I got myself comfortable and sat back. I closed my eyes for the shortest time, then opened them, feeling the air between us thicken as Nick stared at his hands.

  "I was going to delete the photos," he said, looking down at the wooden patio. "I didn't deserve them… I knew that. But every time I went to delete them, I just couldn't. Truth is, having those photos and looking at them was the only thing I had of you when you wouldn't even look at me anymore. I know it sounds pathetic."

  "Nick…"

  "I'll delete them if you want me to, I swear."

  After a few seconds, I shook my head. Despite what had happened and the way he had made me look like a total fool, and everything that had happened prior, I shocked myself by saying, "Keep them."

  His mood seemed to lift straight away as he studied my face.

  "Really?"

  I nodded, looking at the floor again.

  "Does… anyone else have any photos of you?" he asked, cautiously.

  Staring into his eyes, I shook my head. "It's not something I make a habit of doing…"

  "Good. I don't want anyone else to have photos of you except me."

  He stood up and stared out towards the sea.

  "Sounds kinda possessive," I said.

  "Only when it comes to you. Trust me, it's foreign for me too. The only thing I've felt possessive over in the past, is a packet of chocolate covered hobnobs."

  I splurged out a laugh, earning myself a certain type of look from Nick as he smiled down at me. He stared into my eyes, then came closer. He bent down to my level, his hands placed on the chair arms at either side of me.

  "Nick," I said, as my breathing picked up.

  "Yes," he replied, staring at my lips.

  "Don't kiss me." I closed my eyes. The anticipation was my undoing.

  "Then push me away," he answered, his lips almost touching mine.

  Then, just as he was about to kiss me, he stopped.

  "What are you so afraid of, Lilly?"

  He spoke so quietly, so ridiculously seductive, that my eyes stayed closed as his lips trailed over the outer edges of my mouth.

  "I can't trust you, I don't wanna get hurt again," I admitted for the first time.

  Nick's gentle brushing against my skin stopped and I opened my eyes. We stared at each other for what felt like forever until the anticipation became too much, and he kissed me hard. I lifted my arms, gripping around his shoulders to get him closer. It was pretty hard when I was sitting on two chairs like this, my leg still elevated. Then he shifted—hooking his arm under my legs—his other behind my back. He lifted me effortlessly. I wasn't sure where he was taking me, and I wasn't sure how he could see where he was going either because we were still passionately kissing. After walking through the house, he lowered me onto his bed and made short work of climbing up between my legs. Our hands shifted fast, exploring each other's bodies. Mine were gripping at his hair and down his back, his hands started at my face, cradling my head so he could continue kissing me.

  "What do I have to do for you to trust me again?" he asked against my ear before kissing my earlobe. He sounded so desperate. He then journeyed his hands down my body, gripping the backs of my thighs.

  "Let me show you how good I can make you feel," he said, kissing me hard.

  "Nick." I was almost begging him.

  We were both fully clothed but my body was wild with need, already knowing what Nick could deliver.

  "Tell me, Lilly. Tell me you want me to."

  "Nick," I begged again, panting.

  "You need to tell me, tell me, baby."

  I nodded fast. "Yes. Please. I need you."

  It forced Nick into overload, gripping at my clothes to pull them off.

  "Ow." I tried to laugh it off as he tugged my leg and my foot felt the full brunt of the pain.

  "My foot," I reminded him.

  Breathlessly, he pulled away, glancing down my leg.

  The way he looked back at me, his lips slightly parted, sent a noticeable voltage of need down my body.

  "I guess we should wait until your foot has healed."

  Biting my lip, I nodded. Then, pulling my lips apart with his fingers, he kissed my bottom lip.

  "Sleep in here with me tonight," he said, making me frown.

  "For protection purposes. If you're waiting for your parents to be discharged from the hospital, we'r
e gonna have to stick around. I wanna know you're safe."

  I took some well-needed breaths to calm myself down and lay down beside him on the bed. What the hell had I nearly just done?

  I was giving Nick completely the wrong idea. I had zero control around him, which meant the only way to stop this from happening again, was to be away from him.

  "I don't know why I'm sticking around, to be honest…"

  "You love them, Lill'," he answered, looking at me.

  Part of me wondered if I was just talking about my parents.

  "Since when did you become the emotional support type?"

  He shrugged. "I guess I've changed," he said, pressing himself onto his arm so he could look me over. I shied away from his eyes, pulling myself to the edge of the bed to stand up.

  "I wouldn't stand up just yet if I were you."

  He was right. The second I tried placing weight onto my foot, the whole thing felt bloody unbelievable.

  "What the hell am I supposed to do? I'm in the most beautiful place I've ever been to, I can't just stay inside!"

  He smiled. "Just for today, alright?"

  "Fine," I said, pouting.

  Nick jumped up off of the bed and looked down at me.

  "So, what will it be, the sofa or the chair outside?"

  "Where are you going?" I asked.

  "I'm going surfing."

  My pout deepened.

  "Well, it'll teach you to take your anger out on the water," he said, raising his eyebrows.

  "Yeah, next time I'll just have to aim better at you…"

  He stood still in front of me, smiling at me in a certain way.

  "The chair…" I said, trying to stand up.

  Nick then bent down and lifted me into the air once more. I stared at him as he carried me through the house, which turned into a glare once his cocky expression returned, and despite my obvious anger, he smirked like a damn fool all the way to the outside chair.

  "Don't get sunburn," he said, leaving me there.

  I pretended to smile. "Yeah, don't get eaten by a shark…"

  I huffed, twiddling with my fingers as Nick headed towards the water with his surfboard. It wasn't until that moment that I noticed Olivia walking down the beach towards him. She was in her usual signature bikini and rushed over to hug him. They spoke for a little while until Nick turned around and pointed to me. She didn't wave, just stared at me long enough to know I was watching. I felt like a sodding idiot sitting here. I decided to busy myself on my phone, making a call to the hospital to check up on my parents.

  Then, the longer I watched Nick and Olivia out on the water, the more annoyed I became.

  "What the hell?" I spoke to myself as Olivia pushed herself onto the board, her arse stuck up in the air as she slid forward and laid down on top of it. She stayed that way, floating on top while Nick seemed to be watching with his arms crossed.

  For some reason, it became agonising to watch.

  Oh, hell no.

  How the hell Olivia managed to fall off the surfboard and almost drowned herself in a metre of water, I had no idea. Still, she spluttered as Nick lifted her up. Once up and out of the water, her body was pressed against his and they shared a long look before Nick glanced my way and lowered her to the sand. I realised then what I was doing. I was sitting here, obsessing over this like an overly clingy girlfriend. Me and Nick weren't even a thing and we never would be. Still, watching Olivia parading around him in her perfectly tasseled bikini, pissed me off. I hoisted myself up, cursing the second I placed weight onto my right foot. It was obvious what I had to do. I hopped, yes, bloody hopped like a sodding wallaby. I made my way around the house and back inside so I wouldn't have to deal with the sight anymore. There was only one bedroom with a TV in the beach house, and that was Nick's. I wasn't going to stay in the living room to have to watch them prattling around through the windows. Plus, I had to lay down due to my ridiculous injury. First, I required something deliciously calorific. How I hadn't won any of the hopping races during my primary school sports day events, I had no idea. I was a pro at hopping. Until I moved too quickly, stubbing my toe on the corner of the kitchen counter. The pain escalated from my now thumping toe, to the rest of my foot already shouting in pain from my accident on the beach. I fell, ice-cream in hand, onto the wooden floor and screeched in pain.

  "You bloody—stupid—bloody—daft—fucking—piece of old sodding wood!" I continued cursing long stretched out offensive lines to the kitchen cupboards until the pain subsided somewhat.

  As I sat there, I realised I now had to devise a plan to not only lift myself off of the floor without using my badly damaged foot, but I also had to rescue the ice-cream...

  I rolled myself over onto my knees, whimpering as my foot began hurting again. Then I lifted my hands and gripped onto the counter before pulling myself up onto the one foot. I had to do it quickly. I allowed the tiniest amount of pressure onto my foot, enough to level myself so I could bend down to retrieve the ice-cream.

  I made short work of grabbing a spoon then hobbled and partially hopped to Nick's room. Lying on my front, I flicked through the channels until I found something to watch then ripped off the ice-cream lid to dig in. Five mouthfuls later, I still couldn't distract myself from what was happening outside. Regrettably, I'd finished more than half of the ice-cream tub by the time Nick had returned. I could hear him walking through the house and calling for me. I didn't ease his search and I didn't answer him. When he eventually found me, I sat up and placed the ice-cream tub on the side.

  "You came inside..." he said, glancing at the tele.

  "Don't miss much, do you?"

  Or should I have said, he had, clearly… He was too busy staring at Olivia's arse to notice much else.

  He narrowed his eyes at me, as if studying me.

  "Why did you come inside?"

  "To eat a full tub of Ben & Jerry's ice-cream?" I asked, picking the tub back up and licking the back of the spoon. The ice-cream was much runnier now.

  Nick sat down, almost crushing my foot in the process. He sat close and stared inside the ice-cream tub before reaching for the spoon.

  "What's up?" he asked just before I pulled the tub away so he couldn't take the spoon.

  "I don't share ice-cream."

  "That's not what I asked," he said, reaching once more for the tub.

  "I'm unable to answer your question while you're clearly attempting to nab my tub of ice-cream."

  He smiled and tried again, I held it out of reach. Then he reached for it, pushing my body back onto the bed. I yelled at him, knowing I'd spill the now runny ice-cream as I lay back and tried to keep it level in the air.

  "No!" I shouted at him as he reached again for the spoon. This time he got a hold of it but as he lifted the spoon out of the tub and over my head, a large splodge dropped from the spoon and landed a few centimetres from the outer edges of my lips.

  "Nick!"

  Grinning from ear to ear, he apologised and took the tub of ice-cream to place it on the side. Then he lowered his body back over mine to wipe away the ice-cream but instead smirked at me as he lowered his mouth to lick it off of my face.

  "Nick! You grotty little sod," I yelled at him, swatting my hands at his arms to try and get him to shift.

  He just chuckled and continued his wet assault on my face.

  "You're so disgusting!"

  He hummed, teasing me all the more until his lips hovered over my skin as he smiled at me.

  "Enough," I told him, but it didn't disturb the gaze he had on me as he once again lowered his lips. Only this time, he didn't lick my face but began kissing my skin. His kisses were sweet and delicate and led towards the corner of my mouth. My eyes were open until he applied more pressure onto my lips, and my mouth partially opened, allowing his tongue a way in.

  "Lilly?" he asked against my lips, before continuing to kiss me, only allowing me to hum in response.

  "Why are you in here alone?" he asked as he trailed kisse
s down my neck.

  "I told you."

  He stopped kissing me to look at me, making me unhappy. I didn't want him to stop. My body didn't want him to stop. Then he returned his lips onto my neck, this time his hand trailing over my body as he hovered over me on one arm. I lifted my hand to trace my fingers along his arm supporting his whole body weight. He had impeccable arms, but I knew how much he worked out so it was obvious why.

  "Fine, I didn't care to watch you and Olivia on the beach anymore… okay?"

  He frowned at me in question.

  "You know what she's like, she shakes her arse around to get attention and your eyes were glued to it," I said, pushing him back so I could sit up properly. Remembering how he was with Olivia didn't make me so eager to continue this trap I'd gotten myself stuck into. I was a fool around Nick and had to remind myself how pathetic I sounded right now. Nick and I were friends— at least we were trying to be. Only, friends didn't lick ice-cream off of each other's faces or kiss each other how Nick had just kissed me. Friends didn't kiss at all! I had to nip this in the bud.

  "You could have reenacted one of the Dirty Dancing scenes, holding her up after her convenient drowning… It was awkward as hell to watch."

  I frowned, realising that my attempt to brush it off sounded still a lot like me being a jealous fool… I seriously needed to get my shit together.

  I got up, ready to hobble my way back to my room.

  "You were jealous," he said after me.

  "I'm not stroking your ego, Nick," I answered, ignoring his question.

  "Where are you going?" he asked, as I continued down the hallway.

  "To my bedroom to do my nails, I can't do much else, can I?"

  "Do something with me."

  I turned to look at him and hissed as I accidentally put too much weight onto my foot. I didn't think that was a good idea...

  "Like?" I asked and creased my face at my inner cursing, telling myself how stupid I was.

  "Watch a movie, braid each other's hair, talk about our celebrity crushes. Just call me Eves."

  I snorted, but mainly to direct my mind away from what it had been thinking about when Nick had suggested spending time with him. I'd had inappropriate flashes of us rolling around naked.