Chapter 99
1705words
Then the sound of splashing water caught my ear.
...what the fuck?
I sat bolt upright in bed, cupping a hand over my ear as I craned my neck toward the doorway. It was soft, but I was certain. It was water alright. And from the sounds of it, it was coming from the middle of the house.
For a split second, I was completely baffled. Then I suddenly remembered my client's latest winter purchase, and instantly understood.
I wasn't the only one who couldn't get to sleep...
Quiet as a mouse, I padded down the stairs and into the living room. Sure enough, Nicholas was back in the hot tub. Leaning back. Eyes closed. Wet hair dripping down his neck. As a precaution, he was wearing some sort of black swim trunks, but at this point, it hardly made a difference. The man looked like sex. Nothing he could do about that now.
'Back in the hot tub, then?"
His eyes shot open, and he gazed up at me with a steamy smile.
'I've grown ridiculously attached to it. I'm thinking of getting one for every room."
I giggled and shook my head. That sounded like Nicholas.
'You could start a trend..."
His grin faded slightly as he looked me up and down.
'I didn't wake you, did I? Sorry—I tried to be really quiet."
'No, no—I was up," I reassured him, perching on the edge. 'I have no idea why. That is hands down the greatest bed I've ever slept in...I just can't turn off my brain."
He glanced up at me, as if he was well familiar with the problem, then cocked his head invitingly toward the water. 'Care to join me? It'll help you relax."
Somehow, I sincerely doubted that. I stared for a second at the gorgeous, dripping man in front of me, then glanced down self-consciously.
'I don't have a bathing suit..."
He reached down beneath the waves, and the next second, his dripping black swim trunks were in a puddle on the floor. 'There. Neither do I."
My breath caught in my chest, and I said a silent prayer of thanks that he'd turned on the foaming jets before I'd come down. Otherwise, there would be no way I could string together a coherent thought. Let alone force it into a sentence.
I opened my mouth to automatically refuse, prepared to go back upstairs and plant myself firmly on the right side of the line the two of us kept blurring. So it was as much of a surprise to me as to anyone when I heard myself saying, 'Okay."
Well aware that his eyes were watching every move, I slipped the silk bathrobe off my shoulders. Then the tiny nightgown beneath. Without a single stitch of clothing on my body, I slowly reached up and let loose my hair. It tumbled in dark waves down my shoulders as I stepped into the tub. At once, my face steamed up and I flashed him a grin.
'It's hotter than I thought."
He nodded slowly, but didn't respond. His eyes
had dilated almost completely black during my little strip tease, and he seemed no more capable of speech now, than I was when I'd first come down and seen him.
Finally, when he could manage, he patted the seat beside him with a little smile. I waded slowly into the water, but took a seat on the far side instead. Somewhere just slightly out of the man's reach. Somewhere that I could look at him to my heart's content.
He followed every movement, tracing my hair's spiraling journey down my chest before looking back up with a twinkle in his eye.
'So...what's the verdict?"
'We'll buy ten of them in the morning," I announced. 'Then another for the plane."
He chuckled softly, and nodded his head.
'Yes ma'am."
The chuckle made me smile. Then I remembered that look on his face.
'Nicholas?" I asked softly.
He looked up swiftly, picking up on the change in my tone.
'Yeah?"
'Is everything..." I paused, wondering how to phrase it. It's not like I could admit that I'd been spying on him from the balcony. 'Are you...upset about something?"
'Upset?" he repeated in surprise. It was an admirable performance. If I hadn't been there for the first one, I might have believed it myself. 'No—why would I be upset?"
I shrugged, dropping my eyes to the foamy waves. 'I just thought...I don't know. I just thought you looked like something was bothering you when we went upstairs for the night."
Only someone who knew him well could have caught it. The way the muscles in his face froze—betraying just the slightest hint of guilt. The way his eyes tightened ever so slightly. The involuntary twitch of his hand.
For a second, it looked like he was going to deny it all anyway, then he bowed his head with an almost imperceptible sigh.
'Sometimes I forget."
I shook my head, trying to follow along.
'Forget what?"
He glanced up with a wry grin.
'That you're you."
I blinked quickly, and looked back down at the water. It was a rather strange way to start a discussion, but on the other hand, I didn't think there was any greater compliment he could have given me.
I didn't know what to say. Instead, I simply looked up—waiting for him to begin.
'When you asked about the press," he began uncertainly, 'when you asked if I'd like you to leak it to the press about our date..."
He trailed off, then lifted his eyes slowly to meet mine.
'This is never going to be real to you, is it?"
A cool chill washed down my spine, despite the hot water. So this was it then. We were laying all our cards down on the table. And as usual, Nicholas had made the first move.
Just as intently as I'd been staring at him, he stared at me now. Watching me flounder as I tried to sort through my thoughts. Interpret my feelings. Find a single moment of clarity amidst the fucking catastrophe that had become this ‘fake' relationship.
Don't think, Avy. Just talk. You know what to say.
And somehow...I did.
'Do you remember that night in the bar, when you asked me why I picked Elisia?" He nodded silently, and I took a deep breath. 'I picked her not because I knew you wouldn't like her...but because I didn't want you to."
His lips parted as a cloud of steam wafted up between us, hiding my blushing cheeks and sticking my wet hair to my shoulders. By the time it cleared, he was standing right in front of me.
'Nicholas—"
'Enough." He pressed a soft finger over my lips, then tilted my face up toward his. 'I don't want to talk anymore, Avy. We've talked enough."
Without another word—I was in his arms.
My legs wrapped around his waist, and our lips came together like it was the most natural thing in the world. Like we'd been designed specifically for each other—cut from that same magical cloth. Nicholas was right. We were finally alone, with all our cards out on the table. And we'd waited long enough.
While one hand wound through my hair—anchoring my face to his—the other wrapped around my legs and carried me out of the tub and up to his bedroom. At least, I think that's where we were headed. I couldn't stop kissing him long enough to open my eyes.
He navigated his way blindly through the door, and kicked it shut behind him. A second later, he was laying me down on the bed.
My skin was alive and ready. A trail of little chills followed his hand it ran slowly down the contours of my stomach before vanishing between my legs. My body twitched and writhed beneath him, but before I could even catch my breath, that same hand forced my legs apart.
The next second, he was slamming into me.
'Fuck," I gasped, dropping my head back against the mattress.
It was almost too much. Very close to too much.
It was fucking perfect.
'Sorry," he whispered, dropping his lips down to my ear, 'are you okay? I could—"
My eyes snapped shut, and my back arched up to meet him.
'Don't you dare fucking stop."
A breathless grin spread up the side of his face, and he picked up the speed. Soon, the air was filled with the sound of frantic gasps and moans as the two of us clung to each other with all our might. His hands balled into fists on the pillow beside me, as my fingernails raked long streaks down his back. He let out a sharp cry, then hitched my legs up even higher, thrusting his hips with an impossible force and speed.
I have no idea how long we went at it. I was trapped in one of those ‘floating above your own body' moments where time ceased to matter.
But just as the pressure inside me was getting almost unbearable, he let out a wild cry and threw back his head. Just the sight of him sent me right over the edge as well, but his lips came down over mine to stifle my scream. Absorbing it into himself instead.
We stayed there for a moment—kissing, frozen, and shivering in the aftershocks—before he rolled off of me and landed beside me on his back.
'That was...worth the wait."
I had to commend him for even talking. I could hardly catch my breath.
'Avy?" He rolled onto his side, beaming uncontrollably as he trailed a finger in a casual figure eight around my breasts. 'I'm going to need to do that from now on, alright?"
A peal of breathless giggles erupted out of me, and I pressed a pillow over my face.
