Felicia smiled. “If you’re making it, then I’m happily eating it.” The woman had yet to prepare anything that was less than spectacular. “I’ll be quick,” she promised.
* * *
True to her word, Nicole was ready in record time. Rather than blow-drying her hair, Aaron’s mother decided to just air-dry it, using a towel to get rid of the major dampness.
She came downstairs dressed in cutoff shorts, a fresh, smaller bandage on the leg that had had the hip replacement surgery.
Felicia came down several minutes later, surprised that Aaron’s mother had beaten her downstairs.
“Boy, you certainly are fast,” Felicia commented.
“When you’re a mother juggling raising three boys and holding down a couple of jobs in order to provide for them, you learn how to be extremely fast getting ready,” Nicole told her.
That didn’t sound quite fair to her. “Maybe it’s none of my business, but wasn’t your ex-husband supposed to at least pay a good part of the alimony and child support?” she asked.
A long-suffering look came over Nicole’s face. “Ah, the difference between what he was supposed to do and what he actually did do was always worlds apart. Erik didn’t let so-called responsibilities get in his way. But at least I got the house so the boys and I always had a place to stay.”
These were the Coltons they were talking about. Felicia would have thought that there was a different set of circumstances governing their actions. “Didn’t the boys’ grandmother feel any sort of responsibility to help provide for her grandsons?” Felicia asked.
Nicole affectionately slid her hand along Felicia’s cheek and laughed softly. “You are adorable, Fee. Truthfully, I doubt if Carin felt an iota of responsibility toward anyone but herself. Her own needs and desires always came first and foremost.” Wanting to get away from the subject, Nicole declared, “All right, let’s get you fed so you’re not tempted to nibble on any of the new dishes before I serve them.”
And with that, Nicole turned her attention toward making lunch.
Chapter 20
With a contented sigh, Aaron retired his knife and fork, placing them in the form of an X in the middle of his plate.
“Well, I have to say that you’ve truly outdone yourself, Mom. This had to be in the top five—no, make that the top three meals that you’ve ever made,” he said with a grin. “And I remember all of them very fondly.”
He, Felicia, his uncle and aunt along with Lila were all sitting around the dining room table. As for his mother, she more or less alighted in her chair for short periods of time rather than sat. For the most part she was a picture of perpetual motion.
Nicole laughed. “You know, if you were ten years younger, I would have said that you were buttering me up for a reason.” Smiling at him, she sat back for a moment and took a sip of the single glass of white wine she occasionally allowed herself.
“I never tried to butter you up, Mom,” Aaron protested, feigning surprise. “I knew you were too smart for me.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Nicole murmured, rolling her eyes as she waved her hand at her son. “You know, your acting hasn’t improved, either,” she told her son with affection. “I just wish your brothers could be here, but Nash has that out-of-town meeting for his company and Damon, who knows where he is these days?” she said, addressing her words to Rick and Vita.
Aaron glanced over toward his mother. That was her way of pretending that she really wasn’t worried, he thought. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one in the family who needed to brush up on his acting lessons.
“Don’t worry. He’ll turn up, Mom. He always does,” Aaron assured her. In his opinion, there was no other way to view the situation. Anything else was just too unnerving.
It was Vita who spoke up, sympathizing with her ex-sister-in-law. “It doesn’t matter,” she told her nephew as well as the other young people seated at the table. “A mother always worries.”
“Worrying never helps or changes anything,” Aaron told the two women.
Rick shook his head. “Don’t waste your breath. There’s no talking your mother or my wife out of that frame of mind. How about you, Felicia?” he asked good-naturedly, turning his attention toward the young woman that his wife had raved was doing wonders for her former sister-in-law. “Are you a worrier?”
“I don’t have any children,” Felicia answered, deftly sidestepping the question.
There was no point in admitting that yes, she was worried. Constantly. Worried that, somehow, Greg had managed to find out where she had gone and was in the process of looking for her.
“You know, Aaron was right on the money,” she told Nicole. “This has to be the very best meal you’ve ever made. But then, I haven’t been sampling your creations for as long as everyone else has. Is this for a special occasion?” she asked her patient, doing her best to redirect the conversation.
“Are you trying to say that you don’t consider having most of my family over and making dinner for them a special occasion?” Nicole questioned, wide-eyed.
Felicia looked a little flustered. “Nicole, I didn’t mean to imply—”
Vita leaned over and patted Felicia’s hand. “She’s just teasing you, honey.” She turned to look at her former sister-in-law. “Shame on you for messing with the girl, Nicole,” Vita chided. “There’s no need to draw this out. You know that we all think you’re a fabulous cook, bar none.” She smiled as she looked at her husband. “Just one look at Rick’s expanding waistline is all the evidence you need.”
“What expanding waistline?” Rick asked, feigning indignation as he looked down at his belt.
Vita laughed and patted her husband’s stomach. “That one, dear,” she told him innocently. “I don’t think you can miss it.”
Rick sighed. “I guess I did get a little carried away,” he said, patting his waistline, too, but willingly, to suggest that this was temporary. “But then I don’t get to attend these gatherings as much as the rest of you do,” he pointed out. “I just got carried away.”
Nicole clapped her hands together, calling an end to this line of conversation. There was something more important to discuss. “All right now, who’s up for dessert?”
There wasn’t a single refusal in the lot.
* * *
“How’s that fancy new artist showing coming along?” Rick asked his adopted daughter as he and the others consumed Nicole’s latest, delicious rendition of chocolate meringue pie. “What was his name again?” His forehead wrinkled as he tried to remember.
“Homer Tinsley,” Lila said, wrinkling her nose as she recalled her last experience. “And it’s still stuck in first gear, but the showing isn’t for another few weeks, so I’m hopeful that the man stops playing hide-and-seek and comes through in the long run.”
“Well, my offer still stands to teach that man some manners,” Rick told her, his eyes meeting Lila’s.
“First you need to find him,” Vita told her husband, recalling what her daughter had said about the artist being a ghost.
Lila laughed dryly at the comment. “I wish you better luck than I had.”
“Well, just say the word,” Rick said, sounding totally sincere, “and I’ll go looking for that conceited so-and-so.”
Lila smiled at the man she had loved and admired from the first moment he had entered her and Myles’s lives. To her, he was the perfect stepfather. “Thanks, but I think I’ll give it a little while longer.”
“I understand. But just remember, the offer’s on the table,” Rick said.
The meal and banter continued in this vein for close to another hour. When it was finally over and no one could eat another bite, cleanup was a communal affair with everyone pitching in. It went much faster that way.
And when it was over and everything was put away, Rick and Vita begged off. There was still a little more inventory at the nurse
ry to take care of. For her part, Lila said she had a few people at the gallery she needed to get in touch with.
“And you?” Nicole asked her son. “What’s your excuse for beating a fast retreat out of here?”
“Three hours is hardly fast, Mom,” Aaron pointed out. “But to answer your question, I thought I’d take Felicia over to the gym so we can work off some of those delicious extra calories we just both consumed.”
A smile highlighted Nicole’s eyes. Whether she was smiling in response to the compliment Aaron had just given her or because she had put her own interpretation as to why he and Felicia were really leaving was anyone’s guess. He decided that it was in everyone’s best interest not to ask about that for now.
“You do that, dear,” Nicole said to her oldest son. “You do that.”
With that she shooed the duo out the door. “As for me, I’m going to enjoy some well-deserved peace and quiet,” she told them as she closed the door behind Aaron and Felicia.
Felicia turned to look at Aaron as they went down the front steps. He had parked his car only a short distance away.
“The gym?” she questioned, not completely buying his excuse. “Really?”
Aaron grinned as he pressed his key fob. All four doors opened when he pressed the button a second time. “Well, the gym is there,” he said innocently. “And we’re going to have to pass it in order to go up to the loft.”
“Ah, the loft,” she responded, trying hard not to grin. She had really been hoping for a repeat performance of last night. “Are you kidnapping me, Aaron?”
“It’s only kidnapping if you don’t want to go,” he pointed out. Glancing in her direction, he asked, “Do you?”
If her smile was any wider, she was fairly certain that her face would crack. “What do you think?”
One look into her eyes and he had his answer. “I think that I’m going to be looking forward to my real dessert,” Aaron told her. Putting his key into the ignition, he turned it and his vehicle suddenly purred to life.
Pulling out, he guided his car to the main road. Once he was on his way to the loft, he glanced in her direction for a moment. He debated saying something, then decided why not? This had been bothering him since dinner.
“I’m sorry you didn’t get much of a chance to get a word in edgewise tonight,” Aaron apologized as he drove.
“Are you kidding?” she asked, totally surprising him. “I loved it.”
He hadn’t been expecting that. “You loved not being able to talk?” Aaron questioned. He didn’t know if she was being serious or not.
“No, not that,” she said dismissively. “I loved listening to the rest of you talk,” Felicia explained. “You all sounded like a really warm, loving family that cared about one another. That’s not as common as you might think.”
It didn’t take a genius to interpret her comment. “I take it you didn’t experience that very much growing up?” Aaron asked.
“No, I did not,” Felicia answered. There was a note of finality in her voice as she deliberately brought the subject to a close. Aaron had pulled into the gym parking lot. “Looks like we’re here,” she needlessly announced. The next moment, she was getting out of his car.
The gym that loomed before them was almost completely dark except for a couple of lights on the first floor, a sure sign that it was closed down for the night.
“Looks like everyone’s gone,” Felicia observed.
“If the gym’s closed, how are we going to work off those calories we just consumed?” she asked, pretending she was asking a serious question.
Aaron unlocked the door that led up to the second floor and his loft, then ushered her inside.
“Well, if you’re interested, I’ve got another way to work off those extra calories,” he told her, doing his best to suppress the grin that was attempting to curve his lips.
Felicia walked up the stairs just ahead of him. For his part, Aaron was enjoying the view as he followed her up.
“Oh?” Felicia asked innocently, glancing over her shoulder to look at him. “And what way is that?”
Aaron laughed, thinking, not for the first time, that she was adorable.
“I think it’s better if I just show you,” Aaron told her.
Felicia turned at the top of the stairs just before his door. She smiled into his eyes. “Sounds promising,” she murmured in a low voice that undulated right under his skin.
His smile widened. “I certainly hope so.”
He unlocked the door quickly and the very next moment, they were inside his loft. Aaron reached over inside and turned on the light, then closed the door behind him.
After that, things happened rather quickly. They were in each other’s arms, eagerly kissing and reigniting the flame that hadn’t completely gone out last night.
Any concerns she had harbored that now that they had consummated their attraction Aaron was willing to walk away from her were quickly smothered. If anything, he was more eager to take her than he had been the first time around.
The moment their lips touched, it was as if they couldn’t get enough of one another. Nor did they want to. The more they kissed, the more they caressed, the higher their desire to continue making love grew.
It occurred to Aaron that he could go on like this forever.
Until the other day, he had gone through life believing that he was never destined to meet the one woman that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. But now, as they made love again with a verve that just went on and on, Aaron couldn’t bring himself to imagine a day without her.
As Aaron covered her face and her body with kisses over and over again, quickly divesting her of her clothing, which landed in a heap on the floor next to his own, he realized that he had been waiting for this from the moment he had opened his eyes this morning.
He had certainly fantasized about this throughout the entire meal. Mentally, he had been counting off the minutes, even as he interacted with his family. He might have been talking to them, but deep down, all he had wanted was to be alone with her. So that he could make love with her again.
And again.
It was as if his very soul had been renewed.
Aaron would have been more than happy to have her in his bed for the entire night so that he could make love with her each and every time he had the occasion to open his eyes again.
But he knew that doing so would be tantamount to making their situation open knowledge as far as his mother was concerned.
He had a strong feeling that his mother probably already saw through this charade and was undoubtedly on to them. He could tell by the way she had smiled at them during dinner that she felt that they had discovered one another in that special way. There was way too much electricity vibrating between Felicia and him to believe that anything else was happening.
Still, he felt that Felicia wanted to continue to keep this a secret for a little longer, and for his part, he really wanted to make her happy. So, if this was what it took to do it, it was little enough for him to go along with.
Her happiness really mattered to him.
He kissed the top of her head, thinking that her hair smelled really, really good.
“We’re going to have to be getting back,” he told Felicia, however reluctantly the words came to his lips right now.
“I know,” she replied with a sigh, moving just a little away from him so she could look up into his face. And then she said, “Just a minute longer.”
This was like a dream come true, and part of her was afraid that if she blinked, she would realize that it was a dream. And all dreams ended, she reasoned. It was inevitable, no matter how much she fought against that notion.
“You know, we don’t have to go home tonight,” he told her. “I could call and tell my mother that we got a flat tire on the way back. We can say that we’re getting it repa
ired.”
“Right. Like she is going to believe that,” Felicia responded. “At the very least, she’ll send Rick to come get us—for that matter, she would come get us. You know that.”
Nicole was definitely a hands-on woman who didn’t wait for someone else to come to the rescue. She was the cavalry.
He laughed as he drew Felicia closer to him, reveling in the warmth of her body and the very real urges that created within him.
“Yes, I know that,” he agreed. “You’re right. We should start getting ready to go.”
But as he spoke, his lips brushed against hers. And, as expected, one kiss led to another, creating yet another fire within her as well as within him.
“You know,” he told her. “There’s no real hurry. Mom would probably welcome a late start on her exercise regimen...”
She put her hand against his lips, stopping him from kissing her. She was weakening and if he did that again, she wasn’t going to want to leave.
“Aaron, I can’t do that,” Felicia told him, struggling against the urges and desires firing all through her.
“Yes, I know,” he confessed. “But you can’t kill a guy for trying. You are so damn desirable...” His voice trailed off.
Aaron couldn’t have said anything more flattering and alluring to her if he had deliberately planned it that way.
She kissed him back.
And predictably, that led to another kiss. And then another.
Within moments, the dance between them began again.
Chapter 21
Despite the best intentions, Felicia didn’t get back to Nicole’s house until a little after midnight. The only reason she had made it back at all was because she had exercised extreme control rather than giving in to her own overwhelming longing. Aaron had made it oh-so-easy for her to stay where she was, nestled in the shelter of his arms, the light scent of his cologne teasing her senses. She knew that all she had to do was just hint at wanting to remain and he would be more than willing to oblige her.
Colton 911: Secret Defender Page 18