Solving For Nic (15 page)

“Ten.” Nic paused, swallowed back the rest of the story. He didn’t want to lie to Lizzie but he wasn’t ready for her to know the truth. He reached for the wine bottle and topped off their glasses and the words started spilling out of him before he could stop himself. “I was at boarding school. I broke my arm and Claudia used it as an excuse to bring me to Texas.”

His heart stopped. He’d never talked about his childhood. Had never wanted to, but telling Lizzie took the sting out of the trauma he kept buried. She was easy to talk to. She smiled, her gentle expression understanding without being invasive. Then she surprised him by leading the subject in a different direction. “I guess public school in Texas was a big shock?”

Lizzie sipped her wine and pretended she didn’t notice the relief sweeping over Nic. He’d already told her more than he’d meant to. She knew because he kept trying to slide behind his calm façade.

“It was,” he agreed. “For one thing it was co-ed.”

“Not a bad thing?”

He shook his head. “No, not a bad thing. They didn’t have a rugby team so I played football.”

He had to be teasing her. “You? Played football? Seriously?”

“I was the kicker.”

It was easier to picture him in rugby shorts and socks than football pads but she could believe him as a kicker. “I'll bet you dated all the cheerleaders.”

Her heart raced at his slowly, sexy smile. “A few. Were you a cheerleader?”

A cheerleader? Her? No, they hadn't let math geeks on the squad at her school. “No, Jen and I went to high school in Toulouse. The cheerleaders there are picked at birth.”

“Toulouse?”

“Small town between Slidell and Baton Rouge. We lived there after Katrina for a few years.”

“You lost your home in the storm?” The gentleness in his tone soothed along her skin, beating back the chill that always accompanied the memories of Katrina. Lizzie never talked about the days following the hurricane. She didn’t want to think about it and talking about them dragged it all up again.

“We were lucky. We got out of the city and stayed at a friend's farm. We always stayed there in the past when there were storms. They have horses and we'd ride, have a big BBQ and go home.”

“Katrina was different?”

Lizzie pushed the fish around her plate and let the candlelight flickering off the china distract her. “It kept coming. It was a category three when it destroyed the farm but we were lucky. Mr. Masters has a helicopter and he flew us to Atlanta. We stayed there until Dad and Stefan found a place in Toulouse. We lived there until Mom and Dad compromised on moving to Slidell. Dad wanted to build our house back in the city but Mom refused to live on that side of the Pontchartrain again.”

She focused on Nic, not wanting to think about Katrina. She had no right to be upset anyway. They’d been lucky. The X on their house hadn't had a body count.

“No cheerleading?” he teased, distracting her from the memories tightening her throat.

“No cheerleading,” she agreed, the nightmare of Katrina sliding away.

Jet black eyebrows narrowed at her. “What have I told you about looking at me like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like you're starving.” His voice was hoarse again.

She glanced away, the dark magic swirling around them becoming too much for her. “Nic, please tell me I’m not the only one feeling this. I think I’m losing my mind.”

She was reaching for her wine glass when his fingers caught hers. “No,” he rasped. “You’re not.”

She watched, fascinated as he stroked his thumb across her knuckles. He turned her hand over and teased the tender skin on the inside of her wrist. Chills ran up her arm. “I don’t know if I can do this.”

He spoke slowly, a teasing tone offsetting the seriousness of what he said next. “I’m not sure we have a choice.”

The darkness in his voice surrounded her and the ambient noise from the restaurant fell away. The craziness in her mind quieted down. She couldn’t take her eyes away from the contrast of his tanned fingers, circling around her wrist. She could feel her blood thickening with each lazy round of his thumb.

Time simply had no meaning any longer. When he spoke, she was startled by the sound.

“We should get going. Finish your wine. Then I’ll show you the beach.”

A few minutes later, she was walking down the soft sand, her new shoes dangling from one hand and her other hand lost in his. The moon was high and bright in the sky bathing the beach in silvery light. It was a gorgeous night and better than anything she’d ever dreamed.

He stopped her and pulled her around to face him. She kept her arm extended for a minute, then let him pull her to him. His mouth brushed against her forehead. “I didn’t take your phone,
bella
. It’s on the charger in my office. Your purse is sitting next to it on my desk. If you’d bothered to snoop through my things, you would have found them right away. But you didn’t, did you?” he whispered, his arms tightening around her. “You were by yourself most of the morning and I bet you didn’t open a drawer.”

She shrugged. Did arm candy snoop? She really didn’t care. She flattened her hands against his hard chest, then threw her head back. “Stop wasting moonlight, Nic. Kiss me.”

He nodded, accepting her change of topic without hesitation. “How can I say no to that?” His hand curved around the back of her head and he kissed her. It was a gentle, searching, scorching kiss she’d never ever forget. The way Italian princes must have kissed centuries ago. Fairytales and moonbeams wove around her and she sighed when he raised his head.

It was a few minutes before she could open her eyes. It was all so perfect that it was hard to remember that it wasn’t real. It felt real, it tasted real, but it was only temporary. They only had a week. Then the crystal shoes were going back.

“Dinner was delicious.” She sighed, as they continued back to the resort.

“Successful first date?”

She nodded, glancing up at him. She smiled when she saw his relaxed expression. He seemed younger, more approachable. Nothing like the harsh businessman she’d arrived with earlier. She slid her arm through his and leaned into him. “Perfect.”

Later, when the Aston Martin came to a stop in the garage, Lizzie’s heart tried to escape her chest. She leaned back against the seat, her face turned toward Nic watching him put the car into park, turn the engine off, push his not-so-steady fingers through his hair. He’d been beautiful in the moonlight on the beach and he was just as gorgeous under the stark fluorescent light in the enormous garage. She loved watching him. It didn’t matter what he was doing. Fishing, cooking, dancing, breathing. Every move he made was a singular work of art and she could drown in the view for a lifetime and never notice.

He turned to her then, his eyelids low and his lips not touching. He watched her too. The intensity of his gaze burned through layers of skin and muscle, right to her bones. She ached for him like she never had before.

His hands curved around her face, then his mouth moved hard over hers. His tongue pressed deep, filling her with his taste. Spicy with traces of the wine they’d had at dinner and the mint he’d popped into his mouth when he thought she wasn’t looking.

Her fingers slid into his hair and she held his head while he took the kiss deeper, taking them too close to the edge. His mouth lifted so they could breathe but his forehead touched hers. They stared at each other, breathing too hard and unwilling to be the first to let go.

“Lizzie,” he whispered, his breathing ragged. “Back in New Orleans, I rushed you. I don’t want to tonight. I’m going to kiss you again, then I’ll take a guest room.”

“But—”

Fingers covered her mouth.

“Get a good night’s sleep because we’re taking the boat out early.”

He eased away from her, sucked in a ragged breath and got out of the convertible in one graceful move. Stunned, she stared at the space he’d occupied. The passenger door opening startled her out of the daze and she glanced at him. His expression was unreadable but his eyes were warm and his mouth did not have that hard edge to it. She was pretty sure if she put her ear to his chest she’d find his heart banging as erratically as hers.

As soon as they were inside the house she turned to speak but he was kissing her again. Her arms went around him and she held on while he turned them both inside out. He lifted his head.

“Goodnight,
bella
.”

“Goodnight, Nic.” She started to turn away from him, then turned back. “You know I’m going to dream about you now.”

“Try not to wake up before the good part.”

He kissed her again. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

She found her cell phone the second she stepped into his office. It was right on his desk where he’d said it was. Her red beaded bag next to it. She took it off the charger and slipped back into the master bedroom. As soon as she turned it on a barrage of text messages and e-mails set off notifications.

Most of them were from Jen wanting to know why she wasn’t answering her phone.

Lizzie swallowed hard and turned the location setting off on her phone in case anyone got clever about finding her. She was an adult. She didn’t have to explain where she was. Except Jen had resorted to a voice mail and that meant she was worried.

This was not going to be a short phone call so she took the phone into the master bathroom and decided to give the whirlpool tub a spin. She sat down on the edge of the tub and called Jen back.

“Where are you?” Jen demanded a second later when she answered.

Lizzie twirled her finger through the hot water steaming up the bathroom and switched to speaker phone. “Key Largo.”

“Key Largo?” Jen echoed, her voice anything but calm. “What are you doing in Key Largo? We don’t even know anyone in Key Largo, Lizzie.”

“Nic Maretti,” Lizzie said simply, as if it explained everything. And actually, since it was Jen, it kind of did.

“Noooooo way.” Jen breathed out the word with appropriate shock and awe.

“Way,” Lizzie chirped, not wanting the conversation to get too serious. Jen knew she’d had a crush on Nic forever, but she hadn’t told Jen what happened the night of the wedding. She wasn’t ready to share that yet and it felt weird not telling Jen everything.

“You’re serious?” Jen balked. “You’re in Key Largo with Nic Maretti?”

Lizzie stripped off the blue-green dress and carefully draped it over the vanity stool. “Yeah, why is that so hard to believe?”

The water was heavenly as she stepped into it.

“Because you are supposed to be at school.”

“I sort of finished early.” She groaned as water surrounded her. She stretched out in the tub and decided she was apartment shopping until she found one with a real bathtub.

“What are you doing?”

“Bubble bath.” Lizzie laughed. “Alone.”

Jen laughed and Lizzie relaxed even more.

“So are you going to tell me why you’re in Key Largo with Nic Maretti?”

Lizzie laughed softly. “He brought me down here to distract me from Rogan.”

“And have you been?” Jen teased. “Distracted?”

“Oh, you have no freaking idea.”

“So you and he…uh…did you?”

“You’re married now. You can say sex.”

“I could say sex before.” Jen got quiet on the other end of the line suddenly and some of Lizzie’s delight faded. “You always kidded around saying you were saving yourself for him, I didn’t realize you actually meant it.”

“Well, I didn’t know I would get to mean it.”

“You don’t think he’s a little old for you?”

“Uh, hello, Stefan is too old for you except that he’s immature for his age so it doesn’t matter. And trust me, Nic is so not immature for his age. Besides, we’re just having fun. I don’t think wedding bells are chiming in the distance. He’s not a forever kind of guy, Jen,” Lizzie explained. Saying it out loud, and hearing it out loud, made her stomach twist painfully.

“Then why are you involved with him?” Jen asked, adding quickly, “And Stefan is not immature for his age.”

“He so is. What did he say when he found out about the zipper? Or lack of one?”

Jen sighed. “I’m not speaking to him. Do you have any idea what that dress cost?”

Lizzie sputtered with laughter, making water slosh against the side of the tub.

“Lizzie,” Jen said, her voice taking on that wary but gentle tone. “This is me. Remember? The one person on the planet who actually knows you. You wouldn’t have gone with him to Key Largo if you weren’t serious.”

“The thing is…” Lizzie sat up in the water. “This is my chance to finally get him out of my system. I’ve had a crush on him for so long, I’m not sure who I am without it.”

“Maybe it’s not a crush.”

“Okay, what? Obsession? I don’t have time for it. I can’t daydream in class about him anymore. These professors aren’t fooled. They can actually tell if I’m paying attention or not.”

“Oh, you mean school just got real for you?” Jen laughed. “Now you know how the rest of us feel.”

“Shut up.”

“Be careful, Lizzie.”

“We’re just having fun. I went to the spa today, then we had an amazing dinner, and walked on the beach. Tomorrow we’re taking his boat out and I’m going to work on my tan.”