Single Mom Seeks... (17 page)

“Me? Trouble?” She feigned outrage.

He nodded. “But I just couldn’t resist. Especially after you helped me get rid of Audrey that day in your kitchen. I could not stop thinking about you. And your neck.”

“You’re the one who caused all the trouble—”

He laughed, kissed her again. “But when I really knew there was no going back, was when you wanted to go to Jake’s house, to look for him again, and you asked me where I would go when I was really scared and sad and feeling all alone in the world. And I realize, the answer is easy for me now. I’d go to you.”

She took a breath, started to cry then.

“And everything would start to get better, because you’d be by my side. I need you to always be by my side, Lily. I love you, you know? And I’ve never said that to another woman in my life, and I promise you, I never will.”

“I love you, too,” she said, kissing him quickly, urgently, her tears falling fast.

“You can have as much time as you need to be sure and for your girls to get used to me and the idea of us being together, but I want you to promise me now that you’ll marry me.”

“I will,” she promised.

“Just think, we’ll actually get to sleep in the same bed all night,” he said.

“If you let me sleep.” She grinned. “And you have to let me work sometimes, Nick. We have to get some work done.”

“We will. Although, afternoons in bed…You have to admit, it’s a really nice way to live, as often as we can get away with it.”

“You should be warned,” she told him. “I’ve heard teenage girls are so much scarier to raise than teenage boys.”

He groaned. “You’re kidding.”

Lily shook her head. “Too late to back out now.”

Lily woke the next morning stretched out on her side, the front of her body chilled, the back all toasty and warm.

Leaning back into that luxurious heat, she felt it give beneath her weight, until she rolled over and found Nick propped up on his side, bare everywhere she could see and most likely where she could not, judging by the feel of his strong, solid length pressed to hers.

He leaned over and kissed her softly, then brushed her hair back from her face, giving her a beautiful smile.

“It’s about time I got to wake up with you,” he said. “And have you in my bed. I’ve wanted that for a long time.”

Lily smiled back at him, the crazy, scary night they’d spent searching frantically for Jake and the exhaustion of the next day finally over. Marcy had offered to take the girls for the night, and the hospital had kept Jake overnight. Jake, who’d looked highly insulted at the idea that Nick hadn’t wanted to leave him alone so soon after fearing Jake had been lost to him for good.

So Nick had brought Lily back to his house, too worn-out to do anything that night but refuse to part with her. They’d climbed into his bed and slept like the dead, for how many hours she didn’t know.

He’d stroked and kissed her awake at some point deep in the night, made love to her urgently, fiercely at first, and then hauled her into his arms and held on to her like she was his only hope of surviving until morning.

That was the last thing she remembered.

Him holding her so tight she could barely breathe, trembling again, her trying to reassure this big, strong, brave man, loving him so much her heart ached with it.

He touched his thumb to her bottom lip, brushing across it, then kissed her again, sweetly, quickly.

“We found Jake,” he said, as if he needed to hear it once again.

“Yes, we did.”

“And he’s safe.”

Lily nodded.

His gaze went dark and smoky and serious. “And you’ve forgiven me for being such an idiot as to think I could ever live without you. As if I’d ever want to.”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“And you love me?”

“I do. I love you,” she promised, reaching up to pull his head down to hers so she could kiss him.

By the time they were done, he’d settled himself on top of her, nudging her thighs apart, his weight on his elbows, back bowed, sliding ever so easily inside her body, still soft and yielding from the last time he’d made love to her, sometime in the night.

She gasped, then gave herself up to what he wanted, needing that connection to him in every way possible, the feelings so intense, still so new. So much had changed so quickly. It was hard to believe any of it was real.

He closed his eyes and groaned, leaning his head down until his forehead touched hers, then started rocking back and forth just a bit, the sensations all the more intense for the slowness with which he moved, the deliberateness, the concentration.

Nick.

She arched into him, trying to make him move faster, harder, deeper.

He kissed the side of her neck, whispered, “Say you’re going to marry me. Say it for me now.”

As if she’d ever denied him anything.

Lily was trembling. It was as if he’d brought every nerve ending in her body to alert in seconds.

That was what he did to her heart and what he did to her body, and together they were almost too much for any woman to bear. So much more than she’d ever found in any man. A connection she hadn’t even known she was missing.

Until she met him.

“Say it,” he whispered.

But the words were a pure demand.

“Yes.” She gave in. “I will. I’ll marry you.”

And then the passion he’d held in check, simmering in those exquisitely slow movements of his hips, burst open, in him and in her. She held on tight, felt him surging inside of her, and moments later collapsing in her arms.

When he finally lifted his head and slid to one side to take the bulk of his weight off of her, he looked as vulnerable as she’d ever seen him.

“Tell me you’ll never scare me the way Jake did two nights ago. That we can love each other and live together and raise our children together without that kind of terror.”

“Oh, Nick. I can’t tell you that. No one could.”

He nodded, little lines of tension still in his face, put there by the night they’d spent looking for Jake. “I was afraid you’d say that.”

“But I can promise that no matter what, I’ll be right here beside you, helping you through it.”

He kissed her gently, reverently. “I’ve never had anything in my life that I couldn’t stand to lose before. And now…there’s just so much. So much I couldn’t live without. I love you, Lily. I want to wake up every morning just like this, with you beside me. I want to hold you in my arms every night. I want to give you everything you’ve ever wanted.”

“There’s nothing left for you to give,” she told him. “Nothing else I need. I’ve got it all right here, right now.”