by Maggie Marr
“Get on the phone to Ms. Olson in PR and tell her to start spinning,” Nick said.
“Very good, sir. Your meeting with the mayor is scheduled for ten. Shall we go?”
“Yes,” Nick said. “But I have to make a stop on the way.”
*
“Noel, I’m fine,” Nonna sat up in bed with a pillow tucked behind her. “But you look exhausted.”
Noel plumped the other pillow and gently moved Nonna forward. “Has the doctor been in yet? Do you know when you can come home?”
The purple of a bruise peeked out from behind the gauze on Nonna’s forehead. Please let Nonna come home today. The town house without Nonna was too quiet. Sleep had eluded Noel last night, and not just because of Nonna’s absence. Dreams of Nick rolled through her mind when she slept. Memories from when they first dated, of his hands on her breasts and hips. His cock plunging deep inside her body. His kisses across her chest. She’d awakened more than once wishing that Nick had stayed with her after their kiss.
“Did you spend time with Nick last night?” A hopefulness lilted through Nonna’s voice.
Noel tilted her head. Nonna’s gaze was pure innocence, almost too pure.
“He took me home and then he left,” Noel said. “We didn’t really”—heat fired in her cheeks—“spend much time together.” She bit her lip.
“Oh, that’s too bad.” Nonna squinted. “I always found Nick to be so interesting and attractive.” She raised her eyebrow. “He reminds me of your grandfather.”
“He’s nothing like Grandpa. All Nick North cares about is how to line his pockets with money.”
“I don’t know, darling. Most men are selfish until they commit to the woman they love. Your grandfather didn’t help others until we married. The charitable arm of the company was my idea.”
“But Grandpa was willing. He listened to you. He wanted you to be who you were, not someone that his family expected.”
“Nick never wanted you to be someone you weren’t,” Nonna said. “I don’t remember him like that.”
“We have different memories.” Arguing with Nonna was ridiculous. They would have to agree to disagree.
“My oh my.” Nonna’s eyes sparkled and her gaze drifted past Noel. “Those are beautiful.”
A shiver raced up Noel’s spine. Her entire body tingled and her nipples pebbled beneath her blouse. Her body responded to him. Before she even turned and let her eyes drink in his glorious male presence, Noel’s body knew that Nick was there, filling the doorway of the hospital room.
She glanced over her shoulder. Her breath hitched in her chest. She forced her face to remain fixed. She wouldn’t be so weak again. No matter how hard her nipples grew or how wet she suddenly was between her legs. No matter how shallow her breathing became or how vividly she remembered his lips pressed to hers and his hands caressing her breasts.
Damn. Nick was a fine-looking man.
And he knew the way to a woman’s heart. He held a gigantic bouquet of white roses interspersed with ivy and pine. A red plaid bow decorated the front of the cut-crystal vase.
“Nonna, you look much better today.”
Was that a blush? Was her grandmother blushing? Noel rolled her gaze toward the ceiling. The man was trying to bulldoze Nonna’s home, but with some roses and a visit to her hospital room, her grandmother was blushing.
Noel couldn’t judge. Less than twelve hours ago, she’d been pressing her body against Nick’s. Desire flew through Noel with the memory of last night and those big strong hands, now carrying the vase, as they’d felt on her body, on her skin. Things that she’d spent most of last night thinking about while she tried desperately and yet unsuccessfully to fall asleep.
“Noel,” Nick said. That deep, silky voice, so rough and male, sent tremors along her spine. His eyes lingered on hers and then slid down her body. His gaze might as well be a touch because her body responded as though he’d just taken his hands and run them across her flesh.
“Nick.” She flipped her curls over her shoulder. He needn’t know that desire throbbed between her legs.
“How is your room, Nonna?” Nick asked. He set the vase of roses on the dresser.
“I’m surprised I have a single,” Nonna said. “I expected a roommate.”
Nick nodded and smiled. A devilish look entered his eyes. Noel creased her brow. She knew that look. She remembered that specific look that Nick now wore on his face. That was the look he’d used so many times in B-school when he’d performed anonymous altruism, when he’d used his riches to help someone. Like a ticket to an event, a book they wanted. One semester he’d paid for a classmate’s entire tuition. He never fessed up to those random acts of kindness, but Noel had grown wise to them. Figured it out. Especially when once his mother had complained about Nick using his money to help people.
“You,” Noel whispered. Nick’s eyes glanced from Nonna to her and there was a plea in his gaze. A plea to not tell Nonna that he’d gotten her a single room. Noel tilted her head as though to acquiesce. Thanks shone in her former lover’s eyes.
He still had a heart. Tingles shot through her fingertips. He wasn’t as relentless or as callous as she’d assumed. He still cared—for her, for Nonna, for people. Even with all she’d learned about North Industries before finally going to bed last night, she realized that goodness still resided in Nick. Something of the man she’d fallen in love with was still there, in this man he’d become. A man who relentlessly tried to expand his empire regardless of the impact on people or the environment.
“Did they say when you might be released?” Nick asked.
And there it was. His self-interest. Noel crossed her arms over her chest. “Why? So you can get those bulldozers rolling before Christmas?” He’d only gotten Nonna her own room so that she might heal faster. Had he also put the fix in with the medical staff or the hospital for them to agree to release Nonna early?
“I’m a man of my word,” Nick said. “I believe we discussed this last night.” His eyes held heat, not a fierce heat, but the kind of heat that made Noel want to jump into his arms and find an empty storage closet.
“Just so you know, she will be seen by her own doctor. I won’t accept the hospital catering to any special interests when it comes to Nonna’s health.”
“What are you implying?”
“That you like to win and will do anything to get what you want.”
The muscle in his jaw tensed, and Noel knew she’d scored a direct hit.
“Nonna, you must excuse me. I have a meeting this morning; however, I’ll be back later today to check in on you. Please call me or Frederick if you need anything.”
“Thank you, Nicholas,” Nonna said. “I’ll be just fine.”
He turned his icy gaze to Noel. “The hall.”
Noel stalked out of the room in front of him. She wouldn’t allow him to use his money and his leverage to put her grandmother’s health at risk simply because he wanted to build a damn outlet mall.
Another long, deep breath to try to cleanse the anger that rolled through her. She turned. He stood before her. Too close. The scent of him, rich and dark like musk and cinnamon and the clean smell of soap. She’d missed that scent. Dizziness rolled through her. Her sex tightened. Her nipples hardened. He was so male. So big. So … so … purely sexual. Noel took a step back, away from Nick.
“You do not get to put Nonna’s health in jeopardy,” Noel said.
“If anyone has put your grandmother’s health in jeopardy, it’s you.” Nick’s brows tightened and his eyes grew cold. “Her only living relative is chaining herself to a glass door with bulldozers twenty feet away? You think that’s good for an octogenarian with heart problems? At least I offered to move her and to pay for her to move. I offered to give her and that group of eighty-year-old outlaws above market value for their town houses.”
“They don’t want to move.” Anger swept away Noel’s desire for Nick. She took a step closer. “For some of those ‘outlaws’ as you
call them, the people who live at White Pines are their only family. Do you understand that? They don’t want to be apart and they don’t want to lose their homes, no matter how much money you pay them.”
“You are aware that their desire to stay at White Pines was not mentioned prior to your arrival for the holidays? We had a deal. North industries had a deal with these people.” Nick pressed his hands to his hips. “I had a deal. Until you came home.”
Noel crossed her arms over her chest. “Perhaps you don’t understand how family and community can be more important than money.”
Nick scraped his hand over his jaw.
“Noel, I do understand the importance of family and community. You may think I’m an entirely different man than I was when we were involved. But I’m not.”
A tingle shot through Noel with the word involved. “The Nick I knew wouldn’t have done this,” Noel said. “He wouldn’t have tried to oust old people from their homes the week before Christmas.”
A long, labored breath entered Nick’s lungs. His gaze claimed hers. A tremor of desire raced through her. She was angry with him and yet wanted to press her entire body against his and run her hands up under his shirt and press her fingers to his skin. How could she be angry and aroused at the same time?
One corner of Nick’s mouth hitched upward as though she were an attractive puzzle he wished to solve. “You’re as impossible as you always were,” Nick said. “We obviously disagree on this.” His gaze swept down the hall and then returned to meet hers. “I gave Nonna my word, and I won’t do a damn thing to that building until this has been resolved. Doesn’t matter to me if she’s in the hospital two days or two weeks, got it? I won’t rush her out.” His eyes squinted. “I’m offended you’d think that of me.”
Noel’s eyes widened. He was sincere. She didn’t want to think ill of Nick, truly she didn’t, but while her body seemed to still know this man and the attraction was still there, she barely recognized the person he’d become.
“I …” She looked away and glanced at the speckled linoleum. Finally she raised her eyes and met his gaze. “I just don’t know you anymore,” she said softly. “The man I knew wouldn’t have done this.” Noel’s voice was soft and there was no anger in her words, but instead confusion and hints of pain. “The Nick I knew in grad school would have never destroyed a retirement community to build an outlet mall. And especially not the week before Christmas.”
The color dropped from Nick’s face and the hope that had been in his eyes hardened. He leaned toward Noel. “You ran out on that guy. I’m the one who took his place. The one who held his life together when his heart broke. I’m the guy you deal with now.”
Noel stepped back. Heat pulsed from Nick. Any softness washed away with his words.
“I have meetings. I’ll be back to speak with your grandmother. Just so you’re aware.”
“Oh, I’m aware,” Noel said, her voice flat. “I’m aware of how badly you want Nonna to agree to move.”
“She did agree to move, Noel. According to my assistant—”
“Your hatchet man?”
“You’ve met Frederick, Noel. I’d hardly call him a hatchet man.” Nick nodded his head toward the end of the hall and Noel turned. Behind her stood Frederick with his fine black wool winter coat over a gray suit. A quick smile and bright blue eyes. The same man who’d brought her coffee when she’d been chained to the front doors of White Pines.
Nick straightened his spine and towered above her. Noel was tall, but Nick was a giant of a man. “I’ll be back.” He turned on his heel and walked down the hall, his long overcoat blowing out around him.
A chill trembled through Noel. How deeply had she hurt Nick, years before, by saying no to him? He wasn’t the same man, and yet, how was it possible that she still desired him now?
Chapter Six
“Nick, we’ve got a public relations snafu on our hands here.” Mayor Wilkins sat at his desk with the city, county, state, and U.S. flags behind him. He looked old for his young years. A middle-aged paunch and prematurely balding head caused him to look upwards of forty-five, when in reality he wasn’t much older than Nick. “And next year is an election year.”
“Once that story hit the national news, all our phones lit up.” Chuck Jones, the zoning board president, was as tall and thin as Mayor Wilkins was short and fat. Together this duo had pushed through the North Industries agenda with regards to the Shopping Extravaganza. In conjunction with Lake Grove getting the Extravaganza, the city would be putting in new roads, stop lights, sewage, everything necessary to bring such a giant mass of humanity to an area that thus far had been inhabited by a community of old people.
“Plus, it’s Christmas. Not such good PR for my office to be ousting little old ladies from their homes at Christmastime,” Mayor Wilkins said. “I hear you know this tree hugger who’s got the national media up our a-holes.”
“We were classmates.”
“Can’t figure why such a lefty liberal would ever think business school was the right place for her.”
“If I recall,” Nick said, “her grandfather was a very well-regarded businessman in Chicago, as was her father. Noel thought she might be of service to not-for-profits once she finished business school.”
Mayor Wilkins shot Mr. Jones a look. “How close were you two?”
“Business-school classes are very small—you often get to know your classmates. She dropped out before the end of our second year.”
“And now she’s here and making me look like the most heartless mayor in the Midwest. Damn”—he rubbed his palm across his bald pate—“I’m not heartless. I just have a wife who likes to shop. I’m trying to give this suburb the financial shot in the arm it needs.”
“Mr. Mayor, you do recall that all the White Pines residents agreed to the buyout and relocation package prior to Miss Klaus’s arrival?” Nick asked.
“That fact isn’t making the news,” Mayor Wilkins said. “Not nearly as sexy as a woman chained to a door with a bunch of white-hairs standing behind her.” Mayor Wilkins drummed his hands on the ink blotter on his desk. “Nick, I’m afraid we’re going to need to hold a special session and bring the Extravaganza zoning up for a new vote. Damn—public pressure is just too great.” Wilkins thumped his palm against the blotter.
Nick wrinkled his eyebrows. Public pressure? Another vote? “Mr. Mayor, isn’t this a bit rash?”
“Rash?” A giant grin breached Mayor Wilkins’s face. “Spoken like a man who doesn’t depend on the voters to keep his job.” Wilkins squinted one eye and leaned forward. “North, I got an old lady in the hospital, a woman who chained herself to a door, a couple thousand constituents on my phone sheet calling for my resignation, and the public perception of being a Christmas Scrooge. This isn’t rash, sir, oh no—this is me being sane and quite determined to save my job.” Mayor Wilkins brushed his hand over his jaw. “This is local politics.”
“Understood,” Nick said. “Give me seventy-two hours?”
“What for?”
“I’m in talks with Ms. Klaus and her grandmother. I have a meeting with Mrs. Klaus at her hospital later today. Give me seventy-two hours and then, if I don’t have an agreed settlement worked out, hold your new vote.”
“Well, Mike?” The mayor looked at Commissioner Jones. “What do you think?”
“I think we can sell that. They’re in talks. Demolition plans have halted for now. Trying to work out a compromise. Plus we got the holiday end of the week. Folks’ll be too busy shopping and wrapping.”
Mayor Wilkins looked at Nick. “Yes, sir, you just bought yourself seventy-two hours. Good luck with the tree hugger and her grandmother. I wouldn’t wish that woman on my worst enemy.”
Nick stood. Noel could be a pain in the ass, but she was also the smartest, most beautiful woman Nick had ever met. He didn’t wish Noel on his worst enemy … he only wished for Noel to be with him.
*
“How long have you been here?”
> Noel’s eyelids fluttered open. She sat in a chair beside Nonna’s bed with her head laid on the bed next to her grandmother’s waist. A cold and hollow darkness greeted her from the other side of the window. She turned and a stiff pain shot through her neck.
“Ow.” She reached for the spot where her neck met her shoulders, but Nick’s strong hands pressed into her skin.
Heat flashed through Noel. Her nipples pebbled. She leaned into his touch. The muscles beneath his firm touch didn’t simply soften; her entire body tingled.
“That feels so good,” she murmured. Her eyes closed and she relaxed into the rough but firm feeling of Nick’s hands on her neck.
“You didn’t answer me,” he said. “How long have you been here?’
“I’m not sure. A while.”
“Have you eaten?”
The grumble of her stomach was a response to his question.
“A bit of breakfast.”
“Come.” His hand grasped her shoulder and his other hand wrapped around her arm.
“I don’t want to leave her.” Noel looked longingly at Nonna. She seemed so little and frail in the hospital bed.
“You’re no use to her if you get sick or aren’t strong. You’re coming with me.”
He steered her toward the door and she let him. Nonna was asleep for the night. The rules prohibited Noel from sleeping in Nonna’s room and the nurse would soon be by to toss her out.
“I saw Nonna earlier today,” Nick said. “She seems better, but she won’t be happy if you don’t take care of yourself.” His gaze hardened.
Noel shivered.
“Come with me,” Nick said. “I’m going to take care of you.”
Chapter Seven
Twenty minutes later, she was high above the city in a nearly bare penthouse with a view.
“So this is how you live.”