And He Cooks Too (18 page)

Reese clapped her hands and blinked several times to stanch unexpected tears.

Nick sank back in his chair, a huge grin on his face. “That’s great.”

“We’re not home free yet. There’s still Leonie to contend with,” Jasper reminded them.

Nick rolled his eyes. “Geez, man. Give us at least sixty seconds to celebrate before dumping cold water on the good news.”

Jasper shot a speculative look Nick’s way, as if to say, “A little cold water might not be a bad idea at the moment,” but instead, he merely smiled and shook his head. “Take the rest of the day off. I think I know how to get her on board.” Without giving them any more details, he sailed out the door.

Though Jasper’s visit had halted the wheelchair gyrations, Reese was still very much aroused, having unsuccessfully calmed her breathing. She glanced at Nick, raising her eyes and running her tongue lightly over her lips. “We, uh, seem to have the rest of the day to ourselves. Got any ideas how to spend it?”

He raised a brow. “Just one.”

Chapter Fourteen

“I don’t see either your car or your driver,” Reese said, as she pushed Nick out of the building.

“Gave James the day off. We’ll need to grab a taxi to get to your apartment.”

Her apartment. Right. Were her bedsheets clean? How about her bedroom floor? She usually dispensed with dirty underwear immediately, but every so often, preoccupation with some new cooking challenge made her forget.
Stop it, Reese. Five minutes ago, you nearly seduced him in his wheelchair, and now you’re worried about a messy bedroom?
If he was still as revved up as she was, he wouldn’t pay any attention to her housekeeping, as long as he could get to the bed.

As soon as they’d piled into the taxi, wheelchair and all, Nick told the cabbie to step on it.

Their driver took him at his word and wove around slower vehicles, accelerating whenever a space opened up to get through the next stoplight before it turned red. Despite the clip at which the vehicle moved through traffic, the cabbie apparently felt compelled to chat. Every so often, he’d glance over his shoulder to deliver some snippet of useless chatter.

Though Nick attempted to resume what they’d started back in her dressing room before Jasper interrupted—running a hand up the inside of her leg and blowing in her ear—the jostling of the cab and their driver’s penchant for conversation thwarted anything more serious from happening.

When she alighted from the cab, Reese’s nerves felt like frayed electrical wires, off-kilter, erratic, her earlier spontaneous mood dampened.

“Whew! That was some trip,” Nick commiserated as they rode up in the elevator. “Having my own car and driver, I’ve forgotten how life-threatening taxi rides can be.”

Reese couldn’t keep from asking, “You still want to do this?”

Nick took her hand, his thumb massaging the pad of her palm, and the earlier connection she’d felt to him rekindled. “What do you think?”

What did she think? That despite Trudy’s warnings not to get mixed up with their host, despite Leonie the Lioness’ best efforts to put her down to her nephew, and despite her near celibacy the last few years, she was going to get involved with this guy. If only for the rest of today, and maybe tonight, if she was lucky, better sense was going on sabbatical. Living for the moment was moving in. “I think this elevator can’t get us there fast enough.”

As soon as she’d wheeled him into her apartment, he grabbed her hand again and pulled her around to face him. “If I weren’t laid up in this contraption, I’d swoop you up in my arms and show you that our spontaneous, uh,
celebration
back in your dressing room wasn’t just your imagination. Since that’s not possible today, I’m at your mercy.” He spread his arms like a detained prisoner. “Have your way with me.” His boyish grin held both an invitation and a challenge.

She couldn’t waver now. “Wow. A girl doesn’t receive a blank check like that very often.” She inspected the
contraption,
walking around it, sticking a hand through the limited space between one of the arms and the seat.

“What are you doing?”

“I like to finish what I start, but I don’t think the two of us facing each other in that thing will work.”

A knowing look changing to one of regret came into his eyes. “Too bad. That would’ve been…memorable. Got any other ideas?” He gazed up at her expectantly.

Her mind reached for possibilities. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d entertained a man in her apartment. The floor, a kitchen chair, the sofa? She just wanted to keep the momentum going before Nick lost interest or she lost her nerve. Easiest solution? Her bed.

“My boudoir.” She didn’t give him a chance to reply as she pushed him through her small living room to her bedroom. She helped him out of the chair and settled on one side. When he started to lean back, she said, “No. Stay like that.”

He raised a brow.

“Not quite the wheelchair, but we can simulate how it might have been.”

“I like how you think, lady.”

The room temp felt like the AC had never come on today. She tugged at the collar of her jacket. She unbuttoned the garment, folded it quickly and set it aside. The action was freeing, like a snake shedding its skin to move ahead to a new life. She shook out her hair, then fluffed it. “That’s better.”

Nick eyed the snug white tee the removal of the jacket had revealed. “Much. That’s all that’s coming off?”

She stared him down. “As a matter of fact, these slacks are a bit confining as well.” She kicked off her clogs and then made quick work of unzipping and stepping out of her pants, forget folding them, simply throwing them off to the side. Her top came down to her waist, leaving three inches of skin showing above a pair of lacy white bikini panties. She’d never stripped for a man. The fewer clothes she wore, the more her confidence, along with her pulse rate, increased.

“Big improvement.” His dusky eyes were also appreciative.

“Thanks.” His rapt attention gave her a rush. She pivoted to show off her backside.

Turning back to Nick, she asked, “How about you? You must be roasting in that long-sleeved shirt.”

“I am, but with this damned wrist, I could use a little assistance.”

“At your service.” She climbed onto his lap, facing him. Straightening in her seat, a slight movement beneath gave her all the encouragement she needed to proceed.

Their faces were only inches apart. She breathed in the scent of his musky cologne blending with the smell of male, the overpowering effect causing her to sway a bit. His hypnotic blues eyed her intently. She couldn’t turn away, drawn as she was to the look of raw desire that stared back at her. Though he didn’t speak, she heard his message loud and clear. “I want you. Here. Now.”

His good hand, as if hoisted by some invisible puppet-master, reached slowly for a section of hair that fell along the side of her face. He combed his fingers through it gradually until they reached the ends, then he repeated the process.

Waves of heat consumed her scalp, as if the very follicles were on fire.

He brought the strand to his nose and inhaled. “God, that smells good. Like you shampooed in a field of lavender.” His voice had assumed a different quality, lower, throatier.

“Th-thanks.”

He released the lock of hair and looked back at her again. “Your hair was the first thing I noticed that night you ran out of
Solange
. No, I take that back. I noticed your rear first. How that incredible ass swung from side to side as you charged past me. When you pulled off that hair net, these glorious locks fell around your head like a black veil. I couldn’t bring myself to interrupt you and your boss, I was so engrossed watching you.”

She wriggled, yet again sensing the power poised below the ass he’d admired.

He drew her hair back and zeroed in on her neck. “This pale column caught my eye too.” His fingertips barely grazed the area behind her ear, but his touch made all the tiny hairs on her neck stand at attention.

She was supposed to be having her way with him, yet he was making her crazy. She was down to bra, panties and T-shirt and he was admiring her hair and neck? And heating up a body that had already reached the boiling point.

“Are you ever going to kiss me, Nick?”

He shifted away from her neck to face her again. “Impatient, aren’t you?”

“When I know what I want, yes.” She didn’t wait for him but instead covered his mouth with her own and showed him what she meant.

He returned the kiss with the same intensity. But at length, he pulled away, attempting to catch his breath. “Slow down, sweetheart. We’ve got the whole day to do this right.”

“Agreed. But right now, I’ve got this itch that needs to be scratched, and I can’t wait while you complete your examination of my anatomy. My God, you’re only at the neck!” In one swift jerk, she stripped out of her tee, just so he knew she meant business. Then she started to remove his shirt.”

“Okay, I get the message.” He helped her get the shirt off, and while she was tossing it aside, reached around her and unhooked her bra. Bad wrist or not, his expertise was clearly evident.

He sat back at the sight of her naked chest. “Whoa! Hold up. Give a guy a chance to admire the landscape.”

She
supposed
she could wait for him to take in what she usually tried so hard to disguise beneath her chef’s jacket. Meanwhile, his bare chest wasn’t such a turnoff either. In fact, she had to gulp just looking at the well-developed pecs and wide shoulders, her mouth watering at the thought of touching them. And more.

Nick placed both hands on her breasts. “No wonder you wanted me to get on with it. These needed attention.” No more fingertips, light stroking, or agonizingly slow caresses. He meant to admire her up close and personal, and that’s exactly what he did for several mind-blowing minutes.

Reese had been groped by high school boys anxious to get a feel and engaged in more intense sexual encounters in later years, but Nick’s
appreciation
was quite another matter. At length, his breath coming heavily, his lips wet, he managed to say, “You…are…incredible.”

She trailed a finger across those lips, dabbing at the moisture. “You’re not so bad yourself.” Her finger continued its path down his chin, past his Adam’s apple, which twitched as she made contact, and southward through the hard valley of his sternum and on down the furry path of his abdomen to his waist. She checked his expression.

“Do it.”

Though a novice at removing a man’s trousers, she released the button and unzipped him with great dispatch, all the while her hand absorbing the staggering heat generated by his body and feeling the rock hard bulge beneath.

Nick struggled to rid himself and Reese of the rest of their clothes. “Gonna need some help here, sweetheart, if you want to keep sitting there.”

Somewhere inside her, instinct passed down by centuries of seductive female ancestors told her not to make this easy for him. He’d appreciate the result if he had to work for it. Eyelids lowered, she breathed out, “I suppose we could give in to the conventional and roll onto the bed. But I like this better. Don’t you?”

She didn’t give him time to decide but instead lifted her buttocks just enough to get a purchase on her panties and wiggled out of them one leg at a time.

Buck naked, she straddled him, her legs parted in heated invitation, the current emptiness inside her pulsating in expectation. She actually ached for him to take her. If there had been any question in Nick’s mind about her willingness to offer herself to him before this, there could be no doubt now.

She stared into his blues. “Your turn.” With one hand, she balanced on the side of the bed and gripped the top of his trousers and briefs together, inching them down a few inches.

“Wait!”

He’d changed his mind? Please no. Not with her body so primed.

“My right pocket. Get the condom.”

Oh. Good idea. She’d totally spaced on that detail.

Emboldened, she continued to remove his pants. Her breath caught, as his package emerged, enlarged and ready for action. She wanted to shout to the heavens as she felt him stiffen, grow even harder beneath her, but her voice wouldn’t work. Her insides quivered as she felt herself grow slick.

She slid his pants and briefs down around his ankles. He kicked his good leg out, leaving the pants pooling around his booted ankle.

She glanced up to find him watching her, his eyelids heavy. “You are spectacular,” he said, his voice croaky. “I can’t keep my hands off you.”

He pulled her closer, as if that was possible, his hands seemingly everywhere at once. His lips covered her mouth, demanding, bruising. He entered her easily, whispering, “Oh, babe,” as he drove into her.

Reese could only moan, words still impossible.

Everything to this point, though staggering to the senses, was prelude. Her body exploded at the sensation of being possessed and possessing him. Though still totally conscious of every thrust, her mind floated, taking her to a level of pleasure she had never known. She felt so desirable and complete. She didn’t want this to end.

But at last, both of them spent, she collapsed against his perspiring chest, the rapid beating of his heart throbbing in sync with her own. Reese smiled to herself. She could stay like this forever. The last thing she would have suspected she’d find with Nick would have been peace and security. She’d come to him for hot, uncomplicated sex. And he’d totally delivered. But what now? She didn’t know what to think. All she wanted to do was remain close to him, listening to his heart, riding the rise and fall of his chest.

As Nick’s breathing settled, he looked her in the eyes, a lazy grin across his face. “That was some idea you had. You’re a great lay.”

Though meant as a compliment, she supposed, her mood shattered. She looked away as a tiny lump settled in her chest. What had she expected? That he’d confess his overwhelming love for her? Men talked dirty like that, thinking that’s what women wanted to hear. Couldn’t blame Nick. He’d given her exactly what she wanted. And more. She’d just have to shake off those other, deeper feelings. She didn’t need them anyhow.