Lori Wilde - There Goes The Bride (27 page)

“It’s more than a job and you know it. The amount of love you poured into this house is exceptional. You’ve taken the heart of this place and made it bigger than anyone thought it could be. You’re an artist, and I’m so pleased you chose my house as your canvas.”

“I only hope that by expressing my creativity I didn’t ruin your chances of selling the house. It got us on
American Home Design
, yes, but it doesn’t achieve your ultimate goal.”

In the distance, below the noisy hubbub of the Vinettis’ celebration, the phone rang. A few seconds later Gina came into the kitchen wagging the cordless in her hand. “Delaney, it’s for you.”

She took the phone. “Hello?”

“Delaney, I’ve got fabulous news,” Margaret Krist, the real estate agent, exclaimed.

“What’s up?”

“We’ve had a bid on Lucia’s house. The potential buyer saw the
American Home Design
and they just have to have it so they called me on my cell phone. Get this, they offered fifty thousand dollars over the price we were asking before the program aired.”

Emotion overcame her—relief, happiness tinged with a dose of sadness that it was over. “That’s wonderful news.”

“Oh, that’s not all.”

Delaney could feel the excitement in Margaret’s voice. “How much better can it get?”

“My phone has been ringing off the wall with clients wanting you to stage their houses. Check your messages. I’m sure you’ve received a lot of phone calls as well. This is it, Delaney. Your career has just been made. All your dreams are coming true.”

Delaney looked through the archway from the kitchen into the living room, saw Nick playing with Zack and Jack, and her heart just sank. Margaret was wrong. There was one dream she knew would never come true.

“Thank you, Margaret,” she said. “I’ll let the Vinettis know.” She hung up the phone and broke the joyous news to the family. The crowd let out a shout of happiness.

She found herself deposited breathless and laughing in the kitchen right next to Nick, who looked moody and disgruntled. She reached out to touch his arm.

“We did it,” she said. “We restored your grandmother’s house and got an offer just in time for her to close on the condo.”

Nick hardened his jaw. She saw the emotion play across his face. Sadness, regret, anger.

Was he mad at her? She didn’t understand. “You’re not pleased?”

He didn’t say anything. He just removed her hand from his arm, got up, and walked out the back door.

Now this was ridiculous. She was tired of his moodiness. She knew he’d been through a lot. But enough was enough. He needed a good, swift kick in the seat of his pants. He’d lost a lot, yes, but the man seemed to have no idea what he had. And she was going to give him a piece of her mind.

Delaney went after him.

He was already climbing into his pickup truck.

What was his problem? Her hurt and rejection turned to fury. How dare he spoil his grandmother’s party? Determinedly, she followed, yanking open the passenger door and hopping inside as he started the engine.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he snarled.

“With you.”

“You’re not invited.”

“Too bad.” She thrust out her chin and folded her arms over her chest. “I’m going anyway, I . . .”

“Get a clue; I don’t want you here,” his deep, belligerent voice cut her off, his face looking like a volcano about to erupt. She half expected to see plumes of smoke rising out of his ears. He was steamed, and as far as she could see he had no excuse for his behavior.

“I’m not leaving until you talk to me.”

“If you don’t get out of here, be forewarned, woman, I can’t be held accountable for my actions.”

“What’s the matter with you?” she scolded. “You’re acting like a butthead.”

Some of the family had come out on the back porch and were staring at them as they sat in his truck.

Nick swore loudly, put the pickup truck in reverse, and blasted out of the drive.

“What’s your deal?”

He shot Delaney a visual bullet with enough power to arm a dictator-toppling death squad. Nick gripped the steering wheel so tightly she feared it would snap off in his hands. Grinding his teeth, Nick was headed for Seawall Boulevard, his brow furrowed. He did not speak a word.

Delaney shrank back against the seat, uncertain what to do next.

They drove in silence, past the main drag, away from the cluster of lights toward the secluded beach where the family had picnicked on the Fourth of July. He took the sandy road too fast and the truck bottomed out.

Delaney clutched the seat belt with both hands, hanging on for dear life. They bumped out onto the beach. There was no one else in sight. Nick pulled up on the hard-packed sand just short of the water, shut off the engine, and got out.

He went around to the passenger side and flung open the door. “Out,” he commanded.

Her eyes widened. What was going on here? He was so forceful, so masculine. It both scared and thrilled her.

“You’re going to leave me here?”

“You wanted to come, you wanted to hear this, well get out of the truck and listen.”

“Why couldn’t we have had this discussion while we were driving?” She glanced nervously around the dark, empty beach. “Or back at your grandmother’s house?”

“Because I needed to move.” He fisted his hands and paced the sand. “Because I’m so filled up with . . . with . . .”

“Rage?”

“Jealousy.”

“Jealousy?” she squeaked. It was not what she expected him to say.

“Jealousy,” he confirmed. “We’re sitting in my grandmother’s living room, watching your ideas on television, and then the phone rings and we find out you’ve sold her house.”

“I thought that’s what you wanted. What we all wanted.”

“No,” Nick shouted. “I wanted to be the one who took care of her. But you . . . you . . . come into her house, into our lives, and you changed everything.”

“It was your idea to decorate the house in a Tuscan theme. I wanted to do it in something simple and chic. I wanted to make it look like some house from a glossy magazine. You’re the reason her house sold, not me. You have no reason to be jealous.”

He jammed his fingers through his hair in frustration. “You don’t get it, do you?”

“No, I don’t.” She sank her hands on her hips and watched him stride back and forth, back and forth, a caged animal desperate to break free.

He stopped pacing and came over to glare at her. “I’m jealous of that ring you have on your finger and of the man who put it there. I had to sit across the room from you tonight, watching you, wanting you, being so proud of you, and knowing I can’t have you. You fit in so well with my family. It’s like you belong there more than I do. And every time you looked over at me, smiled in my direction, it was ripping my guts out.”

His words were ripping her apart too.

“I tried the very best I could to control myself,” he said. “And whether you realize or not, you’ve been toying with me. Flirting and confiding in me, but then using that damn diamond ring as a shield from getting close.” He ground out the words.

Was it true? Had she been leading him on? It wasn’t a pretty thought. She reached out her hand to touch him. “Nick, I’m so sorry, it was never my intention to lead you on.”

“Don’t touch me,” he threatened. “If you touch me, I’m going to lose it. I’ve been hanging on by a thread ever since we kissed, and I can barely keep my hands off you.”

Silence strummed the heavy salt air, stretching between them vast as the ocean.

She felt sorry for him. And for herself. They had met at exactly the wrong time in their lives. She was spoken for and he, on the rebound, hurting from his knee injury and his grandfather’s death, couldn’t really trust what he was feeling for her.

Nick was an intensely physical guy cursed with a strong moral compass. He wouldn’t let himself act on his desires. No matter how difficult it was for him to keep them in check. She understood then why he’d gone into law enforcement. The attraction such a dangerous job held for a man like him. To Nick, the combination of a job that let him move and breathe and the justice it meted out would be the best possible career.

It would be wrong to touch him now. So very, very wrong. Compounding the problem. Making things worse.

Helpless, unable to hold herself back, she reached up and ran her fingertips along his jaw.

“You’re playing with fire, Delaney.” His eyes were dark and deadly. “I’ll burn you up.”

A hot rush of overwhelming desire surged through her. Her knees trembled. “Burn me,” she cried.

He cupped her chin in his palm. “Be very careful what you ask for, Rosy.”

“Nick.” His name slipped past her lips on a sigh.

He captured her mouth without a moment’s hesitation, fast and deep and hot.

Her lips parted for his. Eager and excited.

He splayed one hand against the back of her head, stabbing his fingers through her hair and hauling her closer.

They were chest to chest and she could feel his heart leaping against hers, quick and thrilling.

The reckless wildness startled Delaney. The stunning intensity of her feral need. Raw nature. Their passion was a brewing hurricane, threatening to roll ashore and decimate everything in its path.

How she wanted to ride out the storm! To let it overtake her, bring her down. Ruin her.

She wanted him here and now. Nothing else mattered. All she knew was that nothing in her life had ever felt so right.

Sighing, Delaney sank against him, swept up in the feel of his calloused palms against her bare arms, the force of their tangling tongues and raspy breaths. Who would have guessed they’d be so hot together? The cool heiress and the fiery cop.

His lips trailed from her lips to her cheeks, to her forehead, to her temple where his mouth rested quietly against her throbbing pulse. The sweetness of the gesture in the wake of that fever-pitched kiss left her breathless and trembling.

She couldn’t think, could barely remember her own name. The civilized part of her brain was numbed with lusty hormones. The animal part took over. Claimed her. Each and every sensation in her body dominated by the rough, decadent touch of him.

“Take me,” she whispered.

Nick needed no more invitation than that.

He pushed her into the sand, not caring that it was damp. He was as hard as a man could get and growing harder by the second. His heartbeat spiked. It was a sudden kick in his chest, a vigorous thudding in his groin.

Any doubts he might have had about what he was doing vanished in the hazy heat of the moment. He forgot that she was engaged. Forgot that they were on a public beach where anyone could come upon them at any moment. He was consumed by a hunger so elemental it transcended everything else. He felt it to his soul, this wanting. He’d never felt anything quite this intensely.

She made him feel so real. So alive. He hadn’t realized how shut off he’d become.

And when she slipped her arms around his neck and drew him closer still, the pupils of her eyes widening darkly, he surmised she was just as startled as he was by the power of this thing between them.

He’d grown so cynical over the years and he thought he was immune to these kinds of feelings, especially after Amber. But here he was aching with the need to explore her fully, to burrow his way deep underneath her perfect facade.

Blindly, without purposeful thought, Nick trailed his fingertips over the nape of her neck and leaned his head down to kiss the throbbing pulse at the hollow of her throat. Her silky skin softened beneath his mouth and a tight little moan escaped her lips.

His hand crept from her neck and down the hollow of her throat to her breast heaving with each inhalation of air. A simple but lingering touch that escalated the intimacy between them and felt extremely erotic.

The air smelled of electricity. The ocean crashed loudly with the darkness of his deed. Stealing another man’s woman. Time hung, suspended as they looked into each other’s eyes.

Nick could not fully comprehend the hold Delaney had over him. She made him want to chuck all his values and morals and just do what felt good. He was a lost soul, vanquished by her kiss. Nick could think of nothing else but being melded with her in any way that he could.

She rocked her pelvis against him, lithe and graceful.

Blood dove through his body, pouring out from his heart and pooling into his crotch, setting his erection in stone. He closed his eyes, grappling for some semblance of control, but it was nowhere to be found.

He kissed her again, his clashing tongue hot against hers, enjoying the glorious taste of her.

She shivered in response, a tremor quaking through her slender body. He pulled his lips from hers and ran his tongue over the outside of her ear and she shuddered even harder.

Her quick intake of breath, low and excited, in the vast openness of sea and sky, ignited his own need, sending it shooting to flaming heights.

She lightly bit his chin.

The feel of her teeth against his skin rocketed a searing heat to all of his erogenous zones and he groaned. God, she was one helluva woman, willing to walk out on this limb with him.