“Because the baby is mine.”
Dead silence. Then, “Fuck. I must’ve drunk some bad tequila. I’m putting Shaylee on.”
Nikki stood in the middle of the room, one hand on her belly as she looked around at the gallery exhibit.
They’d drawn a good crowd tonight. Couples and singles were clustered around various paintings, analyzing her art and debating whether or not to spend the money.
“Congratulations.” Lisa, the owner of the gallery, came to stand beside her. “This is probably your most successful exhibit since last summer.”
Nikki glanced at her friend and offered a brief smile. “Thanks. I’m a little shocked.”
“Why? The winter series paintings you did with the snow went fast.”
“Yeah, no kidding. We sold all but one.”
“Well, that may not be true in a few minutes. You have an interested buyer.”
“For Cupid’s Tears?” Her voice rose.
“Yes. A man expressed interest a couple minutes ago.”
Nikki took a deep breath and looked away. She’d known it was a possibility and had wanted the price set so high it would discourage buyers. She hadn’t been ready to part with the painting.
The inspiration for it had come from her weekend with Chase. The oil painting, a mingling of blue and gray, showed the cabin in winter and, in the falling snow, hinted at a lover’s embrace.
“Actually, that’s why I’m here. The potential buyer has some questions for you. I put him in the office if you don’t mind running over there real quick.”
She swallowed her disappointment and gave a brief nod. “That’s fine.”
“Great, thanks.” Lisa gave her shoulder a triple pat before dashing across the floor to talk to some more potential buyers.
Nikki took a deep breath, smoothing the black empire waist dress over her expanding curves and headed to the back office.
She stepped through the door and froze, all the color draining from her face.
“Hello, Nikki.” Chase stepped forward, reaching past her to shut the door behind her.
She had the ridiculous urge to run behind the desk and hide her belly. But yeah, a little late for that.
He stepped closer, a tiny smile on his face. But really, he didn’t look amused.
Maybe he truly was just interested in the painting. It was possible he wasn’t noticing her enormous belly, breasts and ass. Or if he had, he’d probably just assume it was somebody else’s baby.
“So.” He stepped forward and reached out to touch the side of her cheek, sending warmth through every inch of her body. “Were you planning on telling me about the baby?”
Okay. So he wasn’t an idiot. Her heart thudded so loud she was sure he could hear it. She swiped her tongue across her lips.
“Of course, I was going to tell you. You’re a dentist. Free dental for the kid.”
His eyes darkened, and she was fully aware she’d just pissed him off.
“Nikki—”
“I was kidding.” She lowered her gaze, her hand moving automatically to the baby bump. “Yes, Chase. I would have told you. You’re his father. You have the right to know, whether you choose to be involved in his life or not.”
A sense of wonder and protectiveness swept through Chase. She’d said his father. He was having a son. His chest expanded as he breathed in raggedly. How could she have kept this from him?
“If I want to be involved?” His voice dropped an octave, shaking with the anger he couldn’t quite hold in check.
He backed her up, until she was pinned between him and the door. Her eyes widened, and he could see the confusion in them.
He ran his gaze from her top to bottom. She’d changed her appearance a bit; wasn’t as punk. Her black hair was in big curls around her face, and her makeup was still heavy but rather more 1940s glam now.
She still smelled the same, that sweet patchouli oil scent that would forever remind him of her.
Her body was lush with curves, her stomach already rounded with their child.
She was sexier now, five months pregnant, than she had been that weekend five months ago.
“Yes, if you want to be involved,” she said, looking overly confident for someone who was about to make him lose his cool.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve.”
“Yeah, so do you.” She met his glare with one of her own.
“You think so? You haven’t seen anything yet.” He lowered his head toward hers, his blood pounding.
He heard the change in her breathing and dropped his gaze to her breasts. Her nipples were tight against the fabric.
“Are you threatening me? Because let me warn you, asshole, you never threaten a pregnant woman. I’ll have you—”
He covered her mouth with his, needing to feel the softness of her lips. To remember the sweet taste of her. She pushed against his chest, her outrage obvious, but he refused to let her go.
The longer he held her, the slower he moved his tongue against hers, the less she resisted. He relaxed his grip on her, murmured a sound of approval. Then she bit his tongue.
He jerked back with a curse. “What the hell—”
“Don’t you kiss me. You can’t walk in here and just haul off and kiss me,” she snapped, folding her arms across her chest. “I will not be your side piece. So you just march that cute ass home to your wife or girlfriend. Whichever one it is.”
She turned, reaching for the handle on the door. “I’ll call you after Dexter’s born and we can work out a parenting plan.”
Chase blinked and the anger drained out of him, leaving him in complete confusion. “What the hell are you talking about? I don’t have a girlfriend, and I’m certainly not married.”
Her hand stilled on the door handle, and she glanced over her shoulder at him.
“I heard you. On the phone in the cabin that night. Why the hell are you lying to me?”
“On the phone?” He shook his head. Where was she getting this?
“You said I meant nothing, and she was the only one you wanted.”
It took almost a minute until the light dawned. The conversation with Justin? How much had she heard? Obviously, only the part to make her assume the worst. Was this why she’d left him that night?
“I was on the phone to Justin, Nikki. If you were going to eavesdrop, you should have listened to the whole damn conversation.”
She gave him a wary look. “What do you mean?”
“I mean I was giving him advice on what to say to Shaylee after he got caught kissing another woman.”
“You mean you’re not married?”
“No.”
“And you don’t have a girlfriend?”
“Obviously not.”
Her mouth opened, but she didn’t say anything. Just blinked a few times. Then she opened the door and walked out of the office.
Chapter Ten
Chase grabbed onto the back of a chair to steady himself. She’d left him. His chest went tight, and suddenly it was hard to breathe. Oh God. She’d left him.
What the hell could he do? Force her to marry him?
“Sorry.” She came back into the office and walked toward him, out of breath. “I had to tell Lisa that I won’t be available the rest of the evening and that under no circumstances should she come into this office in the next hour, no matter what she hears.”
With her arms wrapped around his neck, and she slammed her mouth onto his. Walking him backward, she pushed him down into a chair and then straddled his lap.
Relief raced through him, and he locked his arms around her, pushing her dress up around her waist.
“Damn, you’re aggressive.”
“No, I’m horny. I can’t even tell you how horny this pregnancy has made me.” She dropped a slower, less urgent kiss on his mouth. “That, a
nd I’m in love with you.”
“You love me?” His pulse slowed then sped up to double time.
“That’s what I said.” She bit his lower lip. “Hint: now’s the part where you say you love me too.”
“I love you too.” His fingers slid between her legs, finding her, indeed, very horny. “It nearly killed me when I found your note.”
“Yeah,” she gasped when he slipped his fingers into her panties. “Sorry about that. It was complete bullshit.”
“I know that now.”
“Good, now make love to me. But you’d better put on a condom first or you’ll knock me up. Oh wait…”
His laugh turned into a groan. “I’m pretty sure the condom I used during shower sex was expired. I think I realized it when I grabbed it, but my little head was doing all the thinking.”
Awareness dawned in her eyes and she nodded. “Ah, well, I think it’s working out all right. Don’t you?”
“Better than all right. I love you, Nikki. And I love that you’re going to be my wife, and that you’re having my baby.”
“You haven’t actually asked me to marry you.”
“Oops. Marry me?”
Her expression softened and her eyes shone with love. “Hell yeah I will.”
“Good.” He pressed his lips to hers again, swiping his tongue deep. Then he pulled back and touched her cheek. “Oh, and Nikki?”
“Mmm hmm?” She kissed the side of his neck.
“We are not naming our son Dexter.”
About the Author
Shelli is a New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author who read her first romance novel when she snatched it off her mother’s bookshelf at the age of eleven. One taste and she was forever hooked. It wasn’t until many years later that she decided to pursue writing stories of her own. By then she acknowledged the voices in her head didn’t make her crazy, they made her a writer.
Shelli is a true pluviophile (lover of rain) and currently lives in the Pacific Northwest where she writes various genres of romance. She’s a compulsive volunteer, and has been known to spontaneously burst into song.
Look for these titles by Shelli Stevens
Now Available:
Trust and Dare
Theirs to Capture
Four Play
Foreign Affair
Take Me in Tahoe
Savage
Savage Hunger
Savage Betrayal
Savage Revenge
Seattle Steam
Dangerous Grounds
Tempting Adam
Seducing Allie
Chances Are
Anybody but Justin
Luck be Delanie
Protecting Phoebe
Holding Out for a Hero
Going Down
Command and Control
Flash Point
The McLaughlins
Good Girl Gone Plaid
Kilty Pleasure
Loch and Key
Highland Fling
Coming Soon:
Can’t Buy My Love
Don’t miss these other titles by Shelli Stevens
Being bad has never felt so good…
The McLaughlins, Book 1
In high school Sarah fell for her best friend’s older brother—one of the sexy, Scottish McLaughlin boys. But a painful betrayal showed her she’d been a fool to give her heart to a bad boy. At least it made it easier to leave him and move halfway around the world when her Navy dad got stationed in Japan.
Eleven years later, the death of her grandmother has forced Sarah back to Whidbey Island for a month. It’s the length of time she must stay in her inherited house before she’s allowed to sell it, take the money and run. But when she sees Ian, bad as ever and still looking like sin on a stick, she can’t keep her mouth from watering.
One look at Sarah stirs up the regret lingering in Ian’s heart—and never-forgotten desire lingering in his body. He should walk away, especially since divorced single mothers aren’t his style. But when she starts showing up at his family’s pub, he can’t resist a little casual seduction for old time’s sake.
One thing quickly becomes clear, though. The heat between them is causing an avalanche of secrets and betrayal and nothing will ever be the same.
Warning: A bad-boy hero who’s good with his hands, a heroine who’s trying to be good. Contains liberal consumption of Scotch whisky, a Highland Games competition, men in kilts wielding large poles, and a potential Sarah McLaughlin of the non-musical kind.
The man who vows to protect her may be her biggest threat.
Savage, Book 1
Being the daughter of a world-renowned scientist, Sienna Peters has struggled to carve out her own career in the field. But her world is sent spinning when she discovers a secret species being held in the lab where she works, and the horrible things being done to them. Compelled to do more than hand off an information-packed jump drive to her father, she sets out to free the creatures.
The minute his team enters the compound, federal agent Warrick Donovan knows their mission will have more trouble than they bargained on. Unfortunately, trouble comes in the form of Sienna Peters, the younger sister of his close friend. Now not only does he need to save her pretty ass, he needs to discover just how involved she is with the imprisonment of the shifters.
Sienna knows she should trust no one—not even the man she might still love. But as the danger escalates and past passion ignites, her heart has other ideas. Even when the shroud of mystery is ripped off more than one stunning truth…
Warning: Must love alpha males, be intrigued by federal agents who may or may not shift into wolves, and most importantly be prepared for intense action of the dangerous and sexual kind.
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They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B
Cincinnati OH 45249
Take Me in Tahoe
Copyright © 2016 by Shelli Stevens
ISBN: 978-1-61923-166-5
Edited by Tera Cuskaden
Cover by Kelly Martin
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: January 2016
www.samhainpublishing.com
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