Nikki shrugged, self-conscious. She wasn’t accustomed to feeling inept. Complicating things was the fact that he was being so understanding.
“Well, I couldn’t exactly risk poisoning you now, could I?”
He laughed, dismissing her last words. “You couldn’t be that bad.”
She thought of her last foray into the culinary arts. Her mother, otherwise known as her biggest cheerleader, had almost choked on the dinner she’d tried to make. She’d made her promise never to cook for a prospective boyfriend until after the deal was sealed. “I wouldn’t put me to the test if I were you.”
Lucas reached over, covering her hand as he spoke. “Tell you what. Why don’t we wipe the slate clean? Forget about my fiasco last week and forget about this excellent, catered meal, although my stomach may vote against that,” he commented, then got back on track. “What do you say I take you out to dinner at a restaurant next time, so that we both can relax?”
There it went again, her heart upping its rate. His hand touching hers wasn’t helping the situation any. You’re not supposed to get involved, remember?
“I’m not sure about the relaxing part,” she confessed quietly.
Feeling something electric telegraphing itself between them, Lucas withdrew his hand.
“You’re right. But then on the other hand,” he reconsidered, “maybe a little tension is a good thing.”
Lucas raised the glass of wine to his lips, then stopped.
“Something wrong?” she asked.
He put the glass down on the table. “Well, if I finish this wine, I’m going to have to stay a couple of hours longer. I’ve only had one glass, but I wouldn’t want to risk getting pulled over and wind up being charged with a DUI if I fail a breath test.”
A safety net had suddenly materialized. This was where she agreed and got him to leave. But instead, she heard herself saying, “No one’s ushering you out that I can see.”
He smiled into her eyes, scrambling her already knotted stomach. “You talked me into it.”
Mayday. Time to put distance between them at the very least.
“Nice to know I can be so persuasive.” Nikki rose. She nodded at the glass in front of him. “Why don’t you take that into the living room while I clear off the table?”
“I’ve got a better idea. Why don’t you take your glass into the living room, Nikki, and I’ll clear the table?”
She stopped picking up the dishes, placed the ones she had already gathered together on the table and shook her head. “All right, you have to stop that.”
As far as he knew, he hadn’t said anything offensive. “Stop what?”
“Stop being perfect.”
He smiled broadly—and shyly. “Not so perfect, but I was trained well.”
Since he’d brought it up, she felt it was safe to take a guess. “Your wife?”
“My mother,” he corrected. “She always said that there was no shame in pitching in, that there was no such thing as ‘woman’s work’ or ‘man’s work,’ just ‘family chores.’”
“I like your mother.”
“Yeah, me too. My father didn’t quite see things that way,” he allowed, “but he was crazy about my mother so he went along with things—when he was home,” Lucas allowed. His tone indicated that it wasn’t all that often.
“He travel a lot?” she asked.
Now there was an understatement, Lucas thought. “You could say that. My father was a Navy SEAL. He was gone for months at a time. When he came home, he’d play catch-up. By the time he was caught up, it was time for him to leave again. For the most part, my mother was the one who raised me.”
And from what she could see, he turned out rather well. “Sounds like a special woman,” she said as she picked up the plates again.
Lucas gathered up his own plate and placed it inside the large serving dish. There wasn’t so much as a drop of food left.
“She was.” He saw the hesitant question in her eyes. He answered before she could ask. “My mother died about five years ago.”
He’s certainly had more than his share of tragedy to bear, she thought, walking into the kitchen and placing the dishes on the counter beside the sink. “I’m sorry.”
He thought of his father. The man had remained stoic throughout the funeral and its aftermath, but Lucas knew it hadn’t been easy for him. His father wasn’t made out of stone no matter how hard he tried to pretend he was. “Yeah, we all are.”
The napkins she was holding slipped from her hands. Nikki quickly bent down to pick them up. And so did Lucas. They wound up bumping their heads, causing her to lose her balance.
She started falling backwards, but just before she wound up ignobly sitting on her rear, Lucas grabbed her arm to steady her. Rising up, he brought her to her feet along with him.
And just like that, Nikki found herself a little too close to him.
Again.
The moment froze.
Chapter Eleven
Breathe.
She had to remind herself to breathe. Breathe, not pant.
Every single promise Nikki had made to herself about not getting involved, about keeping her distance from Lucas, about not messing up what could possibly be a very nice friendship in the making went up in smoke just like that.
The heat of the moment burned those promises to a crisp.
And the moment did have heat. So much more than its rightful share. All of her felt ablaze with this wide, all-consuming desire. She couldn’t say that it hadn’t been there before, but certainly not like this. Not even close.
Although Nikki tried desperately to hide it, to suppress the feeling, she knew that there was hunger in her eyes, knew that he would see it unless she suddenly threw a paper bag over his head. Or hers.
Where was a frantic parent calling her answering service when she needed one? Her phones—her landline and her cell phone—remained dormant.
Her heart didn’t. At this point, it raced more than a mile a minute.
The debate in Lucas’s head went on for less than half of a heartbeat. He could do the right thing and step back. Or he could give in to a need that had emerged out of the shadows, taking him both by storm and by surprise.
There was just a twinge of guilt, the tiniest moment of indecision. He would have expected more, thought he would have agonized more, but all that had come before he’d ever felt this drawn to a woman. To Nikki.
The internal struggle didn’t last long.
Lucas gave in.
The next moment, he released the arm he’d been holding and pulled Nikki even closer to him. Just before he pressed his lips against hers.
The kiss blossomed. The urgency grew, deepened, sweeping them both away.
The more he kissed her, the more he had to kiss her. The more he wanted to absorb her.
His heart slammed against his rib cage, threatening to break out. It didn’t matter. Lucas could only keep on doing what he was doing. Losing himself in her in hopes of eventually finding his way out of this deep, long tunnel.
But not too quickly.
Not until he’d had his fill. Until this insatiable feeling clamoring within him was met and sated. At least to some degree. He was in no hurry for that to happen. Not until he explored this vast, endless new world he’d stumbled into and it took on a little more identifiable shape.
Nikki felt his strong, artistic hands gliding along her sides, caressing her. Molding her. Making her his without words being exchanged.
Surges within her threatened to short-circuit her very being.
Her hands shook a little as she struggled to quickly unbutton his shirt. Because they shook, it took her twice as long to do it. But finally, she finished and she yanked the shirt away from his shoulders, pulled it off his wide, muscular arms. She threw it God only knew where. She wasn’t paying attention to something that insignificant. Her mouth still eagerly sealed to his, draining the very last bit of sustenance from it that she could, Nikki was already working on taking down h
is trousers.
That was when she realized that he was working his way through her clothes at the same time. Right now, as she’d flung away his shirt, he was pulling her sweater up, over her head. The next second, he cleared it from her arms.
All she wanted was for this feeling to continue a little longer. Just a little longer. It had been forever since she’d felt like a desirable woman.
Nikki tried very hard not to attach any kind of importance to what happened between them, to the feelings singing inside her.
This was just sex, nothing more.
But his touch was so gentle even as she felt his urgency increase, that she all but melted into him, like whipped cream into an ice-cream sundae.
They did an awkward two-step, their lips sealed against one another, as they slowly made their way into the small family room and the sofa that was there. The journey from here to there was littered with fallen articles of clothing.
The more Lucas kissed her, the more Nikki prayed he’d never stop.
The more her body burned to be taken.
When they finally reached the sofa, their bodies were naked, ready, but Lucas still continued kissing her. Continued caressing her, making her heart jump in anticipation of what was to be.
His lips finally left hers, but not to undertake the final phase of this blazing pantomime they were caught up in. Instead, he kissed the hollow of her throat, the side of her neck. The creamy, inviting expanse above her breasts.
He made his way lower, lightly grazing each breast before suckling, creating a whole new world of fire and passions within her.
Nikki arched against his mouth as Lucas worked his way down to her belly, creating mini earthquakes as he went. She was vaguely aware of digging her fingers into his shoulders, of holding him to her as his clever mouth caused explosions inside of her.
Until this evening, she’d thought that one lover was pretty much like another.
How could she have been so wrong?
Her inner core vibrated like a tuning fork and still Lucas continued playing her, arousing her. Making her crazy.
She tried, unsuccessfully, to muffle her cry when he suddenly made her climax. Failing, the sound echoed throughout the room as well as in her head. Gasping, Nikki fell back against the sofa, exhausted, only to have him start something agonizingly delicious all over again. She just didn’t have the strength to endure it.
And then, she did.
Death by indescribable pleasure, Nikki thought. Imagine that. She was part of a pioneering step, a whole new way to kill someone.
After the second climax rattled her down to the very roots of her hair and to the bottom of her toes, she could barely catch her breath. But when she finally got back some semblance of it, Nikki was determined to bring Lucas to the brink of the precipice and then push him over, just as he had with her.
Dipping her hand below his waist, her eyes on his, Nikki gently closed her fingers over him, her thumb slowly stroking the length of him. Satisfaction wove through her as she noted that each pass of her fingers increased his passion. Increased his size.
And then, just when she was within seconds of triumph, Lucas was grabbing her hand, pulling her away. She looked at him, her eyes wide with an unspoken question.
Rather than say anything, he pressed her back against the sofa, drawing the length of his body slowly along hers. Bringing her to the very edge of yet another teeth-jarring climax.
This time, rather than tease and inflame, watching her face with a very solemn expression on his own, he entered her. After a beat drawn out so long she thought he would remain sealed within her forever, Lucas began to move. At first, he did so achingly slow. And then, an eternity later, his movements intensified. And kept on becoming more urgent in tempo until the stars rained down all around her, sealing her within an exquisite wall of fiery ecstasy.
She was never going to breathe right again, she thought. But it was a very small price to pay for feeling this way. And then, ever so slowly, the warm cocoon wrapped around her parted and receded. She wasn’t ready for it to go yet. In an effort to freeze the moment, Nikki not only kept her arms around him but tightened her hold, as if that could somehow keep the rest of the world at bay. Could somehow keep the moment alive just a little longer.
To her surprise, rather than roll off her, or, in this case, draw away and leave her the way Larry, her on-staff lover always did when they made love, Lucas framed her face and lightly kissed her lips.
It had to be the most tender moment she’d ever lived through. Her heart was a few breaths away from bursting.
And then, although the sofa was fairly narrow, Lucas moved so that he was tucked in beside her in the small space. His arms curved around her as he cradled her to him.
The next few moments, he knew, would be crucial. “Do I apologize for that?”
She stiffened reflexively. “You do and I’ll be forced to cut your heart out.”
She felt his chest ripple with a small echo of a chuckle. “Good.”
Nikki struggled to rise up on her elbow and look down at him. “Good?” she repeated. Was Lucas a masochist who enjoyed diving into situations that were fraught with danger?
“Yes. Good. Because I don’t want to apologize for what just happened.” His lips barely touched her temple. But she felt the soft, fleeting imprint of a kiss. “I liked it too much to be sorry that it happened.”
The smile came to her lips of its own accord. She didn’t think there was any way she could suppress it. “Yeah, me, too.” And then she raised her head again to look down at him. “I shouldn’t have just admitted that, should I?”
“Can’t really help you there,” he admitted. “I’ve never been in this kind of situation before,” he deadpanned. “Heather’s last pediatrician was sixty-three years old and had a gray beard and sideburns.”
Amusement rose into her eyes. “So you’re not just a doctor groupie?”
His laugh was low and sexy and it immediately undulated under her skin, warming her.
“Nope, afraid not,” he whispered softly into her hair. His fingertips stroked her hair ever so lightly. “You’re the first woman I’ve slept with since…well, since,” he ended, leaving it at that. Knowing that she would know.
It’s not personal, don’t take it too personally, she cautioned herself urgently.
“Are you considering this your coming-out party?” she asked.
“I’m not sure what I consider this,” Lucas admitted truthfully. “Except, maybe, for damn confusing.”
Struggling, Nikki did her best to sound as if she was in control of herself instead of in danger of melting like a vat of vanilla ice cream accidentally left out on the counter overnight.
“Regrets?”
“None,” he answered firmly. And then he turned his head and looked at her as her question came back to him. “You?”
She saw no point in playing coy. “Only that it’s over.”
The smile that slowly unfurled on his lips was the last word in sensual. And tempting. “It doesn’t have to be.”
She grinned. “I could always make you drink another glass of wine so that you’d have to stay for at least another hour, if not more.”
Lucas touched her chin with the crook of his finger, sending fresh waves of desire through her. “I don’t need wine to make me stay.”
She could feel him wanting her again. Feel him hardening against her. Excitement vibrated through her limbs. The lovers she’d had, even the best of them, had all opted for sleep once the sex was over. The way Lucas felt against her told her that he was ready to go all over again.
Nikki watched him incredulously—and with admiration. “You’re kidding.”
“I might be smiling,” he qualified, shifting so that he was over her again. “But I’m not kidding.”
The delicious dance began all over again, and even though she knew—or thought she knew—what to expect this time, it wound up feeling like a wonderful surprise all over again. There were the same d
elightful surges, but somehow, they were new and different all the same.
This was not unlike being a child who had entered an amusement park by way of a different gate. The end destination would be the same, but the path to get there was not.
Delight waited for her at every turn. Delight, excitement and anticipation. They all scrambled within her.
It was all too incredible.
Lucas made her body sing.
And although she tried to turn the tables on him, tried to make Lucas feel as wildly enthusiastic as he made her, she only partially succeeded.
He was the master here, she willingly admitted, even as he made it all seem so effortless.
This time, she was fairly convinced, when they came together and made the rest of the world all but sizzle away into smoldering embers, that she would never breathe again. At least not evenly, without being conscious of making the effort.
Her heart hammered even harder this time around than the last.
Her only satisfaction—and it was a small one—was that, as she leaned her head against his chest, Nikki could hear his heart pounding just as hard, just as fast, as hers. The rhythm of Lucas’s heart was strangely comforting. So comforting that she nearly dozed off without realizing it.
Coming to with a start, Nikki struggled to push herself upright. When she finally did, she looked down at his face. She’d hardly known him, yet he both excited her and, oddly enough, made her feel comfortable. The latter was more dangerous that the former.
She would have to be careful.
Otherwise, she could very easily find herself sliding into a relationship that wasn’t there. It was all too wonderful to last. Right now, given the state of his life, he could be faithful only to one female. His daughter.
Even as she wanted just to remain like this and fall asleep in his arms, she forced herself to murmur, “It’s getting late.”
Lucas raised his left wrist and angled it so that he could look at his watch.
When what he saw registered, he bolted upright. “Oh, God, you’re right. It is late.”
Lucas thought of the woman he’d left with Heather. She’d been so nice to him, he didn’t want her feeling as if he’d taken advantage of her and the situation. That was no way to repay an act of kindness.
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