CHAPTER NINE
WHEN THEY REACHED Josie’s condo, Nick offered to get the tape. “It’s been a long day. Why don’t you take a quick shower and get comfortable while I run down to the video store?”
Josie blinked up at him. “How do I know you’ll pick out a tape I like?”
“Trust me.” He tucked a wind-tossed curl behind her ear, struggling with his new feelings. He wanted to hold her close, keep her close. It was distracting, the way she made him feel complete with just a smile. “Give me your key and then you won’t have to let me in.”
To his surprise, she handed him the key without any hesitation. “I’ll see you in just a little bit, then.”
He rented two tapes, bought popcorn and colas, and returned not thirty minutes later to find Josie in the bathroom blow-drying her hair. She was bent over at the waist, her long red hair flipped forward to hang almost to her knees. Nick stared, mesmerized. She looked so young, with her face scrubbed clean and her baggy pajamas all but swallowing up her petite body.
She also looked sexy as hell.
Remarkable. No matter what she wore, what persona she presented, he found her irresistible. He wondered if she hadn’t been dressed so sexily the first time he saw her, would he have reacted the same? It seemed entirely possible given the way his body responded to her now.
He stood there watching her for a good five minutes, wanting to touch her, to wrap her beautiful hair around his hands. Her movements were all intrinsically female and he loved how her bottom swayed as she moved the dryer, how her small bare feet poked out at the end of the pajama bottoms. Ridiculous things.
In such a short time, she’d come to occupy so much of his thoughts, and his thoughts were as often sweet, like Josie, as they were hot and wild like the way she made him feel when he was inside her.
She cared about people—her sister and her patients and even his grandfather whom she hardly knew. He hoped she cared for him, but he couldn’t tell because she was so set on having a purely physical relationship. He’d encouraged her in that regard, but no more. Tonight would be a good place to start.
She turned off the dryer and straightened, noticing him at the same time. A soft blush colored her face. “Um, I didn’t realize you were back.” She started trying to smooth her hair, now tossed in wild profusion around her head.
Nick grinned, bursting with emotion too rare to keep inside. “You look beautiful.”
“Uh-huh.”
He crossed his heart and held up two fingers. “Scout’s honor. I wouldn’t lie to you.”
She put away the discarded towel and started out of the bathroom around him. “You were never a Scout, Nick. Jeb would have told me if you were.”
He followed close on her heels.
“True enough, but the theory’s the same.” He could smell the clean scent of her body, of flowery soap and powder softness. And Josie.
She headed to the couch, but as she started to sit, he pulled her into his lap, relishing the weight of her rounded bottom on his groin. The new position both eased and intensified the ache.
He caught her chin and turned her face toward him. Before he could even guess at his own thoughts, he heard himself ask, “Are you relieved you’re not pregnant?”
He saw her chest expand as she caught her breath, saw her tender bottom lip caught between her teeth.
She looked down, apparently fascinated with his chin. After a moment, she whispered, “It’s strange, really. I’d never before given babies much thought. There’s always been a succession of priorities in my life that occupied my mind. Getting past my parents’ deaths, getting through school, finding a job and then starting my own business. I suppose I’m fairly single-minded about things.”
“But?”
Her gaze met his briefly, then skittered away. “There’s really no room in my life right now for a child. But still, in my mind, I’d pictured what it would look like, if it would be a boy or a girl…”
He pictured a little girl who looked like Josie. An invisible fist squeezed his heart.
“Oh, good grief.” She threw up her hands and forced a smile. “Luckily I’m not pregnant and so that’s that. We’ve got nothing to worry about.” Her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes.
She was always so open with him. Yet he’d done nothing but be secretive and withdrawn. He’d manipulated her at every turn, even as he worried about her trying to control him.
Ha! Josie was unlike any woman he’d ever known. She wasn’t like Myra, trying to run his life, or his mother, rejecting him, or any of the other women he’d known who’d tried so diligently to mold him into a marriageable man. No, Josie hadn’t tried to change his life, and he’d been too busy trying to change hers to notice.
He was a total jerk. A fool, an idiot.
He’d lied to her from the start in order to get his way. Then he’d continued to lie to try to keep her interested, claiming he agreed with her short-term plan, when even at the beginning he’d known something about her was special. He’d even done his best to alter her job, just to make more time for himself. He’d forced his way in with her friends, but never introduced her to his. He didn’t deserve her—but damned if he was letting her go.
Pulling her close and pressing his face into her hair, he asked, “Can I spend the night with you, Josie?”
She tensed, and he hugged her even tighter. “Just to sleep. It’s late and I want to hold you.”
In a tentative tone, she said, “I’d like to see your home sometime.”
He’d avoided taking her there. He hadn’t wanted her to see the way he lived, with everything set for his convenience. Women didn’t appreciate the type of functional existence he’d created for himself, which was the whole point. More often than not, his shirts never made it into a drawer. He laid them out neatly, one atop the other on the dining-room table. His socks were in the buffet drawer, convenient to the shirts. He never bothered to make his bed, not when he only planned to use it every night, and he didn’t put away his shaving cream or razor, but left them on the side of the sink, handy.
His small formal living room had gym equipment in it and he’d never quite gotten around to buying matching dishes. He’d set himself up as a bachelor through and through.
Once a week, he cleaned around everything. He remembered now why he’d started doing things that way—to annoy Myra, and on her rare visits, his mother. He laughed at himself and his immature reasoning. For Josie, he’d even put away his toothpaste.
“Nick?”
“I was just thinking about your reaction when you see my house.”
One hand idly stroked his neck. “What’s it look like?” She was warm and soft and he loved her—everything about her. The notion of something as potent as love should have scared him spitless, but instead it filled him with resolution. Damn her ridiculous plans; she could experiment all she wanted, as long as she only experimented with him.
“My house is small, not at all like Granddad’s. It looks like every other house on the street, except that I’ve never planted any flowers or anything. I bought it because it’s close to where I work, not because I particularly like it. You’d be shocked to see what a messy housekeeper I am. I can just imagine you fussing around and putting things away, trying to make it as neat and orderly as your own.”
She leaned back to see his face. “You’re kidding, right? I barely have time to straighten my own place. I’m not going to play maid for anyone.” She kissed his chin. “Not even you.”
Brutally honest, that was his Josie. He laughed, delighted with her. “So you wouldn’t mind stepping over my mess?”
She stared at him, her expression having gone carefully blank. “I don’t imagine it will be a problem very often. Do you?”
He didn’t want to address that issue right now. He knew she wouldn’t like his house because he didn’t even like it. She wouldn’t be enticed to spend much time there.
He kissed her again, then while holding her close, he said, “One of the movies I rented is a real screamer, a new release guaranteed to make your hair stand on end. What do you say we put it on?”
Greed shone from her eyes. “I’m certainly up to it if you are.”
The movie was enough to make them both jump on several occasions, which repeatedly caused gales of laughter. At one point, Josie hid her face under his arm, her nose pressed to his ribs. They ate two huge bowls of popcorn and finished off their colas and by the time the movie was over, they were both ready for bed.
Josie looked hesitant as she crawled in under the covers. When Nick stripped naked to climb in beside her, she groaned and accused him of being a terrible tease.
It was the strangest feeling to sleep chastely with a woman, with no intention of making love. It was also damn pleasurable. Only Josie, he thought, could make a scary movie and popcorn seem so romantic, so tender. He pulled her up against his side, then sucked in his breath when her small hot fist closed gently around him. “Josie?”
She nestled against him. “I’m not a selfish woman, Nick. Just because I’m out of commission doesn’t mean you should suffer.”
He could find no argument with her reasoning while her slender fingers held him. “Sleeping with you isn’t a hardship, honey. I think I can take the pressure.”
“Nonsense.” She kissed his shoulder, then propped herself up on one elbow to watch his face while she slowly stroked him. In a whisper, she told him all the things she wanted to do to him, all the things she wanted him to teach her about his body. “Will you groan for me, Nick?”
He groaned.
She kissed his ear, the corner of his mouth. She kept her voice low and her movements gentle. “I need more data for my experimentation, you see.”
He refused to talk about that. If she even hinted at going to another man right now, he’d tie her to the bed.
“You can’t continue to have your way with me without paying the piper, lady.”
Her smile was sensual and superior. “Oh? And what does the piper charge?”
He ground his teeth together, trying to think through the erotic sensation of being led like a puppet. “I want a key to your condo.”
Josie went still for just a heartbeat and Nick thought she would refuse. But she bent and kissed him, then whispered into his mouth, “Keep the one I gave you earlier. I have a spare.”
“Josie…” He groaned again, wanting to discuss the ramifications of her easy surrender. Josie had other ideas.
And Nick, once again, gave her total control.
Almost two weeks later, he still had her key—and he’d all but moved in.
“GOOD GRIEF JOSIE, you should get dressed before you answer the door.”
Her sister’s comment might have been laughable if she wasn’t so incredibly nervous. Josie looked down at her short, snug skirt, the same one she’d worn the night she first met Nick, and stiffened her resolve. She had a new plan for changing her life, and this one suited her perfectly.
Keeping the door only halfway open, more or less blocking her sister, Josie said, “Hi, Susan.”
Susan leveled a big sister, somewhat ironic look on her. “Aren’t you going to invite me in?”
“I…uh, this isn’t the best time.”
Susan stiffened. “Oh? Is Nick in there? Is that it?” Susan tried to peek around her and Josie gave up.
“No, Nick isn’t here. Come on in.”
Josie turned away from her sister’s curious, critical eye and went into the kitchen. She had to keep moving or she’d chicken out.
Susan followed close on her heels. “Why are you dressed like that?”
Because Nick likes me dressed this way. “What’s wrong with how I’m dressed? I’m rather fond of this particular outfit.”
Susan eyed the short skirt and skimpy blouse with acute dislike. “What’s going on, Josie?”
“Nothing that you should worry about.” Josie went through the motions of pouring her sister a cup of coffee. Nick would show up soon, and she needed to get Susan back out the door. What she planned required privacy, not her sister as a jaundiced audience. “So what brings you here on a workday, Susan? Is anything wrong?”
Susan chewed her lips, twitched in a wholly Susan-type fashion, then blurted, “Bob wants to marry me.”
Josie stared at her sister, at first taken aback, and then so pleased, she squealed and threw herself into her sister’s arms. Susan laughed, too, tears shining on her lashes, and the two women clutched each other and did circles in the kitchen.
“I’m so happy for you, Susan!”
“I’m happy for me, too, Josie! Bob is perfect for me. He’s not the man I first thought him to be, but he’s proved to be even better. And I love him so much.” She wiped her cheeks with shaking hands and tried to collect herself, but she couldn’t stop jiggling around. “He treats me like I’m special.”
Josie knew the feeling well. Nick made her feel like she was the only woman alive—but he would never ask her to marry him. It was up to her to take the initiative. “You are special. Bob’s a lucky man to have you.”
“Bob told Nick this morning.” Her tone suggested that Josie should be upset by that news.
Nick had gotten so comfortable with her, and every day it seemed he spent more and more time with her, sleeping with her at night, calling her during the day. He talked to her and confided in her. He’d taken her to his house and they’d laughed together at the unconventional steps he’d taken to simplify his life.
But inside, Josie’s heart had nearly broken. By his own design, Nick had set up his life so there was no room for a permanent relationship. Jeb had warned her several times the effect his parents’ divorce and his stepmother’s spite had had on Nick. Not that Jeb wanted to discourage her from loving Nick. Just the opposite. Josie often had the feeling Jeb did his best hard sell on Nick, trying to maintain her interest.
“Don’t you want to know what Nick had to say about it?”
“He’s due home in just a little while. I’m sure we’ll talk about it then.”
Susan tilted her head in a curious way and then forced a laugh. “You say home as if Nick lives here now.”
Josie sat in her chair, stirred her coffee, then put down the spoon. She looked around the kitchen for inspiration, but found nothing except her own nervousness.
“Josie?” Susan pulled out her own chair, then frowned. There was a heavy silence. Josie tugged at the edge of her miniskirt, knowing what was coming. Her relationship with Nick wasn’t precisely a secret, not really. But it had been private.
Now, though, what did it matter? In a very short while, Nick would either decide to stay, or he’d go. “He’s been sort of staying here, yes.”
“Sort of? What the hell does that mean?”
Susan’s voice had risen to a shout and Josie sighed. “It means I have my own private life to lead.”
“In other words, you want me to butt out, even though I can see you’re making a huge mistake?”
Josie refused to think of Nick as a mistake. He made her feel alive, special and whole. Even if he turned down her proposal, she’d never regret her time with him.
Josie was still formulating an answer when Susan’s temper suddenly mushroomed like a nuclear cloud.
She launched from her seat and began pacing furiously around the kitchen. “I’ll kill him! God, how that man can be so considerate and generous one minute and such an unconscionable bastard the next is beyond me!”
Josie glanced at the kitchen clock. She was running out of time. “Susan, I really can’t let you insult Nick. It’s not fair. We made an agreement and he’s living up to his end of the bargain. I’m the one who stipulated no strings attached.”
Susan slashed her hand in the air. “Only because you knew anything more was unlikely with a man like him.” She thumped a fist onto the counter. “I asked him to leave you alone, but he wouldn’t listen to me.”
“You did what?”
“He told me he wouldn’t hurt you.”
“And he hasn’t! Oh, Susan, you had no right. How dare you—”
But Susan wasn’t listening. “And to think I was actually starting to like the big jerk.”
“You were?” Then, “Damn it, Susan, don’t change the subject. When did you talk with Nick about me? What did you say?”
In the next instant, Bob stepped into the kitchen. “I knocked, but you two were arguing too loud to hear…me….” His voice trailed off as he stared at Josie in her killer outfit. After a stunned second, he gave a low whistle. “Wow.”
Susan whirled to face him. Bob took one look at her piqued expression, quickly gathered himself, then pulled her close. He glared at Josie over Susan’s head. “What did you say to upset her?”
Josie’s mouth fell open in shock. She’d never before heard Bob use that tone. Before she could even begin to think of a reply, Susan jerked away from him.
“Don’t you snap at my sister! It’s not her fault. It’s that degenerate friend of yours who’s to blame.”
Throwing up his hands, Bob asked, “What did Nick do now?”
To add to the ridiculous comedy, Nick walked in. “Yeah, what did I do? And who forgot to invite me to the party?” He grinned, caught sight of Josie and seemed to turn to stone. Only his eyes moved, and they traveled over her twice before he frowned and lifted his gaze to her face in accusation.
“We’re not having a party,” Josie informed him, feeling very put upon with the circumstances. She pulled two more coffee mugs down from the cabinet. “I’m just trying to convince Susan that I know what I’m doing.”
Nick advanced on her, his stride slow and predatory. “I see. And what are you doing, dressed like that? Planning to expound on your experiences? Planning to breach new horizons?” He pointed a finger at her. “We had a deal, lady!”
“What in the world are you talking about?”
His cheekbones dark with color, his eyes narrow and his jaw set, he waved a hand to encompass her from head to toe. “Were you planning to go back to the same bar? Have I bored you already?”
Her plans were totally ruined, the moment lost, and now here was Nick, behaving like a jealous, accusing ass.
Her temper flared. “Actually,” she growled, going on tiptoe to face him, “I thought I’d ask for your hand—or rather your whole body—in matrimony. So what do you think of that?”
She heard Susan’s gasp, Bob’s amused chuckle, but what really fascinated her was Nick’s reaction. He grabbed her arms and pulled her closer still, not hurting her, but bringing her flush against his hard chest.
“You what?” he croaked.
“You heard me. I want to marry you.”
A fascinating series of emotions ran over his face, then Nick turned, still holding her arm, and practically dragged her from the room. Josie had no idea what he was thinking, because the last expression he had was dark and severe and forbidding. In her high-heeled shoes, which still hampered her walk, she had no choice but to stumble along behind him.
Susan started to protest, but Bob hushed her. Josie could hear them both whispering.
Nick took her as far as her bedroom, locking the door behind them. Josie jerked away from him, but he simply picked her up and laid her on the bed, then carefully lowered his length over her, pinning her down from shoulders to knees. Josie struggled against him. “We have to talk, Nick. I’ve got a lot to say to you.”
Still frowning, he said, “I love you, Josie.”
Her eyes widened. Well, maybe she could wait her turn to talk. “Do you really?”
“Damn right.”
She chewed her lip. “Do you love me enough to marry me?” Before he could answer, she launched into her well-rehearsed arguments on marital bliss. “Because I love you that much. I had planned to ask you properly, after a special night out. Even though I’m not the sexy lady you met that first night at the bar, I can be her on occasion. I just can’t be her all the time. I realize that now. I knew something was missing from my life, but it wasn’t what I thought.” She touched his jaw. “It was you.”
His Adam’s apple took a dip down his throat, and then Nick smiled, his eyes bright, filled with fierce tenderness. “You are that same sexy lady, honey, and you make my muscles twitch with lust just looking at you. You’re also the very sweet little sister who’s spent years showing her appreciation, and the conscientious caretaker who makes people feel important again. I love all of you, everything about you.” He kissed her quick and hard. “Were you serious about wanting to marry me?”
Josie threw her arms around him and squeezed him tight.
Nick laughed. “Talk to me, sweetheart. This is my first attempt at professing love and I’m in a welter of emotional agony here.”
“You’re very good at it, you know.”
“At suffering?”
“At professing your love.” She pushed him back enough to see his face. “Yes I want to marry you. And I want to buy a house and make babies and—”
“Whoa. About the house…”
His hesitation shook her and she cupped his face in her hands, hoping to soothe him. “A house is permanence, Nick, I know. But it’s what I want. I don’t expect you to change, to become someone else, because I love you just as you are. But you will have to meet me halfway on this.”
“No more gym equipment in the dining room?”
“And no other women. Just me. Forever.”
“I like the sound of that.” He leaned down and nuzzled her chin. “Honey, we don’t need to buy a house because we already have one. And no, don’t look so horrified. I’m not talking about my house.” He smoothed her hair from her forehead, his touch tender. “Granddad came to see me today. He’s moving into the condominium with Mrs. Wiley and he wants us to have his house, if, as he put it, I was lucky enough to convince you to marry me.”
The enormity of Jeb’s gesture overwhelmed her and put a lump in her throat. She swallowed hard. “Oh.”
“Granddad knows you love that house almost as much as he does. He insists it has to stay in the family, and he said it might help my case in persuading you to the altar. Wait until I tell him you proposed and all I had to do was say yes.”
“So you are saying yes?”
“How could I not when I’m so crazy about you?”
Josie contemplated a lifetime with Nick and felt so full of happiness, it almost hurt. “I can’t believe I’ll get to do anything and everything to you that I’ve ever imagined.”
He froze over her, groaned, then settled his mouth, hot and wet, possessively over hers. Josie had just decided she didn’t care if Bob and Susan were in the kitchen when Nick pulled back.
“I have a few confessions to make.”
She bit his lip, his chin. Her breathing was unsteady. “Not now, Nick.”
He caught her hands and held them over her head. “It has to be now. I don’t want to mess up anymore. So just be still and listen.”
Since he wasn’t giving her much choice, she listened.
“I didn’t realize it at the time, but I took you with me to see my grandfather because I knew he’d talk me up to you. I suppose I wanted you to like me as more than a damn fling, and Granddad seemed like the perfect solution.”
Tenderness swelled in her heart. “You’ve never needed any help with that one. I’ve always liked you.”
“I wasn’t thinking of anything permanent when I did that, Josie. I just wanted more time with you, and I knew I couldn’t let you start experimenting with any other guy. The thought makes me nuts.”
“I never intended to. I just told you that so you’d agree to hang around. I knew it was what you wanted to hear.”
He stared at her with widened eyes. “You lied?”
“Mmm-hmm.” She touched his jaw, his throat. His familiar weight pressed her down and had her body warming in very sensitive places. “I’d have done anything to keep you around a while.”
“Damn it, Josie, do you have any idea what you’ve put me through?”
“Are you talking about on the boat?” She dragged one foot up his calf, then wrapped both legs around him. “I remember it very well.”
His expression changed from annoyance to interest, then to grudging respect. “You know damn well that wasn’t what I was talking about, you just said it to distract me. You’re such a little tease.”
“I learned from a master.”
His grin was slow and filled with wickedness. “A master, huh? But I haven’t even come close to showing you everything yet.”
Though his words caused a definite hot thrill to shimmer through her belly, she hid her reaction and smiled. “And I haven’t even come close to testing the limits of your restraint. Do you know what I’d like to do to you next?”
“I don’t want to know. Not yet.”
She leaned up and whispered in his ear anyway. He groaned, pressed his hips closer to hers and asked, “When?”