Innocent Next Door (Military Men Book 1) (15 page)

“I’ll drop in and see you on the way home.”

Summer gaped at his handsome countenance. Bottle Top Bay was a little out of his way.

“Not tonight,” she said.

“I won’t stay long. Just long enough to reassure myself you’re okay.”

His words made her nervous. Was he going to turn out to be one of those weird stalkers? A man who refused to take a hint? Her stomach flipped with an attack of anxiety. It was easy to imagine her family’s reaction. And Nikolai’s.

“I think we should slow things down between us. I’m not ready for anything serious. I’m too young.” She cringed inwardly and was glad Nikolai and her family weren’t present to hear her excuses.

“Can you see the marina down there?” Dare asked.

Summer gaped. Was that it? That had been English coming from her mouth, not a foreign language. “Yes.”

“We keep our boat there. You’ll have to come out with us one weekend.”

“Us?” Crooks used boats to run drugs, didn’t they?

“My brothers and I. We use the boat mainly, but sometimes my sisters or parents come out.”

“Where do you go?”

“We visit the islands around the Hauraki Gulf or sometimes farther afield.”

Summer’s mind was stuck on drugs, and crime and Nikolai. But mostly Nikolai, because she knew how furious he’d become when he discovered the name of her lunch companion.

“What do you say?”

“I… Maybe.”

The meals arrived—a large steak and a selection of vegetables. Summer would have preferred the portabella mushrooms and rice but picked at the vegetables.

Dare kept up a steady stream of conversation, talking about the movies they should see and the restaurants he wanted to check out with her in attendance.

“I need some time to study. And I have to work several late nights now that I’ve settled in my job.”

“We’ll work around your commitments,” Dare said.

His words stumped her because
Miranda
magazine hadn’t covered this situation. She’d tried the nice approach, the polite approach. Tried blunt too. What part of
not interested
didn’t the man understand? She placed her knife and fork across the center of her plate and dropped her napkin on top.

“Good. You’re finished.” Dare stood and strode over to the desk to pay for the meal, leaving her in stunned astonishment.

In the lift, he took her arm and stood close. One of the ingredients in his sophisticated aftershave didn’t agree with her, tickling at the back of her nose. A sneeze burst free. Dare stepped back, giving her room to breathe.

“Excuse me,” she said. “There’s something in your aftershave that doesn’t agree with me.” Okay, that was blunt.

Dare steered her from the lift, up the ramp and outside. A cab appeared magically and they climbed inside.

“Parnell Road, please,” he told the driver.

When they arrived at Dare’s restaurant, he gave her money.

“That’s to pay for your cab fare home. You still going to the bookshop first?”

Summer nodded dumbly.

Dare leaned inside and kissed her on the mouth, rattled the address off to the driver and stood back. At the last moment, he knocked on the window, and she pushed the button to make it open.

“Sorry I haven’t been good company today. My mind is on business, I’m afraid.” He slipped two more fifties out of his wallet and handed them to her. “My order is in. Can you pick it up for me? I’ll collect it when we go out to dinner tonight.” He bent to give her another quick kiss and strode away.

She stared after his rapidly retreating form. What was all that about?

“Are you ready to go now?” the cabby asked.

“Yes, thank you.” She settled back to puzzle out Dare’s behavior. No matter what way she looked at their outing, she came up with the same thought.

Weird. Extremely weird.

Ten minutes later, she entered the bookshop.
Miranda
magazine was in as were several of the romances from her order plus Dare’s package. She paid for them all, caught another cab and headed for home.

* * * * *

“Where the hell have you been?”

The masculine holler scared three myna birds from their food quest in Uncle Henry’s garden. They took off with indignant squawks while she attempted to control the spurt of panic that made her stomach do backflips.

Nikolai stood on his section, glaring across the wooden fence. She aimed for calm as she stooped to pull a pair of wet jeans from the laundry basket.

“Doing the laundry.” Although she would have thought her purpose clear, given she was hanging it on the line to dry.

Nikolai stomped out of sight before reappearing on Uncle Henry’s side of the fence. “You were meant to stay inside my house for safety reasons. Remember?”

“The paint smell was affecting my breathing.”

“You didn’t have a problem last night. Or this morning.”

If Summer had thought she was attracted to Dare and was in danger of becoming a two-man woman, then one look at Nikolai cured her of the misapprehension. Nikolai, bossy gene and all, was her man of the month—for as long as he wanted her.

The big, bad SAS man scowled. A flash of heat speared through her body. The air charged between them. Sexual sparks, full of possibilities.

“No problem at all.” Oh, my. Her voice—it sounded like a sultry screen siren, throaty and flirty. Turned-on.

Nikolai stepped nearer until warmth jumped from his body to hers. Her nipples tightened against the cotton cups of her bra. Then he closed the remaining distance between them and her nipples crushed against his chest. Her breath whooshed from her lungs and nothing replaced the air. She felt breathless, and it had nothing to do with her asthma.

He glanced down at her, his blunt finger traced over her bottom lip. His dark eyes glittered. “So, where have you been?”

Summer opened her mouth to speak and his finger popped right between her lips. Acting on instinct, she sucked lightly and rolled her tongue across the tip. A low groan erupted from him, and his eyes fluttered shut, a pained expression creasing his brow. Then his eyes snapped open again. Heat, dark and stormy, surged between them.

“Hey, man! I thought you said five minutes.”

“Go away,” Nikolai growled without turning.

Summer released his finger, but couldn’t take her gaze off him. What she wanted more than anything was to rip off his clothes and touch him. Of course, he’d need to do some fondling in return.

“Hell, Louie and I wouldn’t want to miss the show,” Jake said.

Louie chuckled with real amusement, and she saw the waggle of his dark brows, the humor glinting in his expression. “Yeah, not when you’re about to rip off each other’s clothes. Things are getting interesting.”

Nikolai’s broad chest rose and fell with a harsh breath. “Later,” he whispered. “I have to go out for a few hours.” His hands tangled in her hair, and he lowered his head as if he were about to kiss her. “Please lock the door when we leave. With you inside,” he added.

“Okay. I’ll be at Uncle Henry’s house. The paint is bothering me.”

Nikolai nodded, and despite the audience, he lowered his head until their mouths touched. Bold lips stole her breath, and his tongue surged into her mouth. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on tight. Finally, he lifted his head.

“Stay safe,” he murmured.

She nodded solemnly and stood on tiptoe to whisper in his ear. “I visited an adult shop today.”

His hands closed over her shoulders. “A sex shop?”

Louie whistled long and low. “Did you hear that, Jake? A sex shop. Sounds like our Nik is in for some fun.”

“Out the front,” Nikolai snapped. “Wait for me there.”

The two men went but not without big grins and banter.

Nikolai waited until they’d walked past the rose garden and disappeared around the corner of the house. He took her face between his hands. “What am I going to do with you?” A slow smile spread from his eyes down to his mouth. “Should I be worried?”

“About the toys I bought?”

His forehead wrinkled in a quick frown. “Yeah.”

Silent laughter bubbled up inside her as she thought of the vibrator, the selection of condoms, including glow-in-the-dark green, and the set of pleasure balls. “Nothing too radical.”

“That is what I’m afraid of. I’m thinking your radical and mine are miles apart.”

An impatient honk sounded as one of his friends leaned on the horn.

Nikolai leaned close, flicking his fingers over her distended nipples hard enough that she jumped. “Don’t start playtime without me.”

Even though Summer was aware of the jut of his cock, his smoky voice would have given him away. She flashed a grin. “Don’t be late, big boy.”

“Big boy.” His words came close to an undignified splutter. “One of these days, I’m gonna smack your luscious backside.”

“So you keep saying,” she chortled, enjoying the novelty of sexual banter. “I look forward to it.”

“Humph!” Nikolai said, but he kissed her before he strode off to join his friends.

* * * * *

The rest of the afternoon passed quickly enough. Summer caught up on chores and watered Uncle Henry’s rose gardens.

The phone rang around six thirty.

“Summer, I’m sorry. Something’s come up, and I can’t make our dinner date,” Dare said.

“But I—” She inhaled sharply. Was he deaf? Her breath huffed out again. “Thanks for letting me know.”

“I’ve got to go. I’ll ring you.”

The phone thudded down. A frisson of unease skittered down her backbone. Dare Martin was a successful businessman. The man wasn’t stupid, so why was he acting obtuse? She hated to admit it, but it seemed Nikolai might be right in his warnings.

She replaced the phone and wandered over to check out the contents of the fridge. Nothing looked inspiring. She slammed the door shut and reached for the kettle.

Two minutes later, Summer sat outside on the deck with a cup of peppermint tea at her side and her parcel of new books.

Summer reached into the paper carry bag and pulled out a thick book first.
Fly-Fishing in New Zealand
. It was identical to the first book she’d received in error earlier in the month. Brow puckered, she opened the pages at random, flicking past illustrations of fish and feathery hooks. Why would Dare buy two copies of the same book? And even stranger, Dare preferred the cut and thrust of the business world. He never walked when he could ride. The thought of him in the great outdoors up to his waist in cold water boggled her mind.

Chapter Twelve

Nikolai hadn’t arrived home by midnight. Disappointed, but trying hard to contain her unhappiness, she put down her book and switched off the bedside lamp.

The house creaked and groaned with comforting familiarity, and she drifted closer to sleep. The abrupt rattle of the wooden window frame jerked her rigid. Her skin crawled. Her eyes flipped open while every muscle locked. The frame squeaked as the intruder raised it fully.

Summer slid her legs from under the quilt and prepared to leap for the door. A black shadow blotted out the light as it maneuvered through the window. On trembling legs, she stood. The doors were locked, just as Nikolai had ordered. She was positive she’d locked the window as well. Too late to double-check.

A sharp creak broke the agonizing silence. Terror clamped around her chest. Everything moved in slow motion. The figure stepped toward the bed.

Summer stared in fascinated horror and edged toward the door. He was undoing his trousers. “I-is that you, Nikolai?”

“Who else would it be?” a recognizable masculine voice demanded. “I’d better not find anyone else coming in that window.”

Her shoulders sagged before she straightened to flick on the bedside lamp. She planted her hands on her hips. “You scared the shit out of me. Why didn’t you ring the doorbell? Like a normal person.”

“Checking the security.”

In the dim light cast by the lamp, she caught the dopey smirk on his face. Suspicion narrowed her eyes. “You’ve been drinking.”

The louse
. And to think she’d worried about him.

She kept her gaze off his bare torso—the well-muscled chest and the set of wide shoulders that tapered down to a narrow waist with not a trace of excess padding.
She
would not weaken despite the temptation, not with a point to prove. She was no commodity to be taken for granted.

The grin widened to broad. “Not too much that I can’t get it up.”

He wouldn’t be getting anything up anywhere. She sniffed, turned her back in a pointed manner, crawled back into bed and tugged the covers up to her chin. “Turn off the light on your way out.”

“Oh, no. No, sweetheart.” Nikolai’s hands went back to the zipper on his jeans. It rasped downward, and she averted her gaze. Clothing rustled before silence reigned.

Summer strained to hear. Bother. She shouldn’t have closed her eyes. All her senses were registering off the Richter scale. Her imagination. Just thinking about running her hands over his golden flanks, across his broad chest, spiked her temperature. Thinking about his cock and the way it had felt thrusting inside her.

All of a sudden, the mattress depressed. Her eyes popped open and came face-to-groin. His cock was fully erect, the head a deep plum red. As he’d said, primed and ready for action.

“You couldn’t ring?” she squeaked. It was difficult to remain calm and dignified with a one-eyed snake staring her straight in the face.

Nikolai slid under the covers, stretched out and pulled their bodies flush. “The meeting went late.”

“You can’t take me for granted, can’t expect me to wait for you.”

“You didn’t wait for me today.” His brown eyes bore into her as if searching for truth. She held the connection, even though she felt like a mouse baited by a cocksure cat. But lucky for her, she’d learned a thing or two from watching
Tom and Jerry
cartoons.

“I’m not a quick f…flip for you to use whenever the timing fits your schedule.”

His dark brows danced up and down, but he didn’t crack a smile. “Flip?”

Habit made Summer sneak a look over her shoulder. “My mother trained us well. Four letter words starting with f and ending with k are banned in our house. She has an endless supply of soap bars and a strong arm. Ask my brothers if you don’t believe me.”