Sweet Affliction [Sweet Awakenings 4] (Siren Publishing Classic) (24 page)

The house was dark and silent. So much so that a team of crickets chirped loudly from one of the other rooms in what must have been an apparent argument of the insect kind. A pit churned in his stomach. The women should have been here by now. AJ should have been here waiting for him.

“Where the hell are—” He snapped, but Rex quickly put up his hand to interrupt him and pointed toward the kitchen.

Nick went in the kitchen. A stove that proved his theory that this house was built in the ’50s sat untouched, grimy and covered in dust. The sink, which looked to be formerly white, now sat with rust stains and scratches all over it. The refrigerator door was hanging on by a mere thread of what piece of metal in the remaining hinge that hadn’t rusted away yet. The whole place looked like it was abandoned due to a natural disaster.

None of that mattered though. What did matter was that he was standing in a dark kitchen carrying around this heavy bag despite the burn in his side and still he saw no sign of the women or AJ.

“Still don’t see them,” he said to Rex sarcastically.

He liked Rex. He trusted Rex. If he didn’t see AJ materialize before him in the next sixty seconds though, he was going to deck Rex. The man always had been good at solving problems on and off the battle field, but the arrogant smirk he was giving Nick right now was getting on his last nerve. Obviously Rex knew where the women were, and he was in no mood and had absolutely zero patience for games.

Rex cocked his head and motioned toward the end of the kitchen. “Why don’t you see what’s behind door number one before you get your panties in a twist?”

Not amused with his humor, he walked past him and gave him a glare. He turned the handle and was stunned when it wouldn’t budge. He jiggled it a few times to each direction trying to jostle it free, but it wouldn’t budge.

He turned to Rex. “What the hell? I’m getting tired of these fucking games. Where is AJ?”

Jack let out a boisterous laugh and reached in his pocket. He took a twenty-dollar bill out of his wallet and handed it to Rex. “You weren’t kidding, he does have it bad. I shouldn’t pay you for coercing him, but it’s well worth it to watch ladies’ man Slater squirm.”

“Gee, thanks, man. I mean it’s not like I’ve had a shit week or anything.” He cocked his brow at Adam. “When this is over I’m kicking both of their asses. You know this right?”

“What are you telling me for? I had no part of this damn bet. They did the same shit to me when Chelsea came into my life.” He leaned a little closer to Nick and whispered. “But you do have it pretty bad, man.”

“You guys are all assholes, and I’ll deal with you all later. Right now just tell me where AJ is, damn it!”

Rex held up both is hands in a mocking “don’t shoot me” gesture. “All right, man. Don’t want you to start crying.” He motioned toward Jack.

All the dramatics and laughing at his expense were getting on his last nerve, but still he watched curiously as Jack backed up a few steps and reached his hand far back in one of the kitchen drawers. Whatever he was feeling for must’ve taken a second to find, but a smirk told him that he finally did. A loud click sounded behind Nick at the same door that wouldn’t budge moments before.

Rex gave him a nod, and he tried the handle again. This time it opened without any resistance. There was a dark stairway leading to the basement. He took the first few steps slowly, but the anxiety and worry over AJ had gotten the better of him. The next dozen stairs he ran down.

The basement itself looked to be in no better shape than the upstairs. A crumbling concrete floor was flanked by cinder-block walls. The room was damp and cold with no windows. One thing did catch his eye across the room, and he didn’t wait for the others to make his way toward it.

The old wooden door might have looked as though it fit in with the rest of the house to the casual observer or a vagrant who managed to break their way in, but despite its worn panels, he could tell it was actually a steel door painted to mimic wood grain.

Obviously whatever Jack had done upstairs to unlock the basement door activated this door as well. He turned the handle and pushed it open not expecting it to be as heavy as it was. Instantly the dark basement was flooded with light coming from a small living room. The sound of running water came from a hallway to his right. He walked in the room and placed his duffle bag on the leather sofa directly across the room and was about to head down the hall when he heard her.

“Nick. You’re here!”

He turned to see AJ coming toward him. Before he could even respond she was wrapping her arms around him. Her head tucked under his chin as she snuggled into him. An overwhelming feeling of comfort filled him. Until she curled into him he had no idea how much he needed to hold her.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. How are you?”

Her small hand gently rubbed his wound as she asked him the question. Jesus, her voice still sounded just as angelic as the first time he’d heard it.

“We’ve got a lasagna in the oven, and we’re going to make some garlic bread. Everything should be ready in about an hour, but if you’re tired you could always eat it in your room.” Tamara stood in the doorway to what was apparently a kitchen.

Nick smiled at her. Jack’s wife was a smart woman. It was apparently obvious that he wanted to be alone with AJ, and being the kind woman that she was, she was giving him the excuse he needed to do just that.

“Thank you, Tamara.”

He turned to walk down the hallway, keeping his arm around AJ. Not before he gave each and every one of his brothers a look so they knew this was not the time to test his patience. The last thing he wanted was to be disturbed, and he could guarantee if anyone did he would knock him on his ass.

AJ led him to a room at the end of a long hallway. The basement that held this secret residence seemed to be bigger than the house that hid it. There was a bed, a small bistro-like table with two chairs, and a door, which was open enough for him to tell it was a small bathroom.

She closed the door and led him over to the bed to sit him down. Kneeling down on the floor in front of him she lifted his shirt and winced when she looked at his wound. Judging from her bunched brows he figured his assumptions were correct that he tore a stitch or two when his side slammed into the SUV’s door handle. Her delicate fingers were caressing his side and wreaking havoc on his senses.

“AJ…come here.”

She looked up at him, and he could swear the only thing missing was a halo. She was an angel, so beautiful. Taking her face in his hands, he pulled her up to him. When his lips touched hers and his tongue found refuge in her mouth he forgot the burning pain he felt in his side. Just a few hours of being without her and he would swear it had been years.

He loved how her hands reached around his back and held him tightly. There was no way he was going to let her go, but feeling her hang on as though he might and that she was unwilling to let him get away made him feel ten feet tall and bulletproof.

“Nick…” She whispered his name when his mouth trailed down to her neck.

He didn’t answer her, his attention was too focused on the curve of her neck and sliding his mouth over every inch of her he could taste. He was already hardening and desperate to get their clothes off.

“You have to…stop.”

What? Stop?
Breathless and confused, his kisses moved away from the small dip in her shoulder.

“What’s wrong?”

AJ got up off her knees and stood before him. “Nick, you’re hurt. You tore a stitch, and you bled a little. We need to get it cleaned up so you don’t get an infection.”

“Later.” He pulled her toward him and lay down on the bed, taking her with him .

No stitches or lack thereof was going to stop him from being with her, kissing her, touching her, or feeling her.

Proving to him she was indeed an angel, she rolled to the side to keep from lying on his wound. No longer fighting him with ridiculous arguments of a torn stitch, she lifted a leg and hitched it over his hip. The small gesture was unusually aggressive for her and caused him to swell and grow even harder.

This time he stopped her. “Get undressed, sweetheart.”

He watched as she got up off the bed. Every movement she made was graceful, as though it was carefully rehearsed a dozen times before she enacted it. Her eyes, he saw the fire back in them. The flames were dancing wildly as she stood before him, unbuttoning her khaki shorts.

Rising up to a sitting position, he reached out to her, his fingers brushing along the side of her hip as she let her shorts fall to the floor. A smile crossed his face when he saw her panties. Cotton just like the last pair he’d seen, but these were zebra striped and bore a shocking contrast to her tanned skin.

He hooked two fingers in the waistband and pulled her to him. With his other hand he lifted her shirt and placed a kiss to her stomach. Her fingers combed through his hair and held him.

For several minutes he placed kisses all over her belly. From hip to hip and stopping at the belly button each time, he couldn’t get enough of the feel of her skin under his lips. It was soft and felt so warm against him.

Her slender fingers left his scalp and ran down his back. Bunching his shirt in her hands she pulled it up, lifting it over his head and breaking his concentration.

She threw his shirt on the ground and placed her hands on his cheeks. “Nick…I just don’t understand how when I’m with you everything else disappears.”

For a moment his heart stopped beating and he just looked at her. Damn if she wasn’t the most intoxicating woman he had ever known. It wasn’t just her beauty, it was her. Everything about her seemed to overpower him. He knew exactly what she meant. It was what she did to him.

When the thump in his chest returned to a normal pace he smiled at her. “You finished getting undressed and I’ll show you just how much I can make the whole world vanish.”

AJ lifted her shirt the rest of the way, pulling it over her head. She couldn’t help but smile at the enticing way he was leering at her. The way he managed to get her to do whatever he said was just one of the many reasons she found herself hypnotized by Nick Slater.

She dropped her shirt to the floor where it joined her shorts and Nick’s T-shirt. Reaching around behind her she unsnapped her bra and slowly slid the straps down her arms. Her nipples were already hard and tingling as though trying to send out a signal to him to suck on them like he once had. The mere memory of their first time together singed her from the inside out.

“You’re so beautiful, AJ.”

Whatever signal her body was trying to send, it worked. He pulled her that much closer to him, spreading his legs apart to invite her into his embrace as he covered her entire areola with his mouth. She arched her back and ran her fingers through his short hair.

His suckling felt so good. The way he would alternate between that, a teasing lick, and a gentle nibble of his teeth made her wonder if he knew how the different sensations rocketed through her body. Her core heated with liquid desire whenever he touched her, but his mouth left her achy and completely helpless.

As if on cue and reading her thoughts, his large hands pulled her panties down her thighs. Reaching around with one hand, he firmly grasped one of her ass cheeks, squeezing it before one of his fingers slid past her lips to reveal her wetness. No man had ever been able to elicit such a response from her body so quickly before. She was an aching puddle of need when it came to him, needs that she didn’t even know she had.

She found herself wanting things that never much interested her before. In the past two days her mind had wandered to that last day in the beach bungalow when he made love to her and took her body to heights of pleasure it had never felt. Each memory and thought that raced through her mind always seemed to bring her back to an elemental craving and every time she thought of it she found herself excited at the prospect.

She wanted to taste Nick. Not just his kiss but his essence. She wanted to know what it was like to have him fill her mouth as she opened herself to him. It was a surprise to both her mind and body. Boyfriends of the past had always wanted her to do it. She even gave in a time or two, but giving in was all it ever was. There was no desire. She didn’t enjoy it and certainly never found herself craving it. With Nick though…it was different.

Her body jolted and she was shaken from her thoughts. Nick’s finger flicked across her clit and sent her body into a state of urgency. She was already so wet that the only sound in the room was the sloshing sound of his fingers playing with her pussy. As he explored her body, sliding them in and out and then applying pressure, it made a slurping sound not much different from when his mouth had been there just two days before.

With her eyes closed, her back arched and hands in his hair the only senses she was really aware of was his touch, the sounds of the room and the images racing through her mind.

“Oh…”

Again he flicked his finger across her little nub, which he manipulated so easily. Her normally reserved behavior was no match for her body’s primal longings. She ground herself against his hand when she felt his other hand grasp her behind, squeezing and kneading her cheek.

She was on fire, from her flushed cheeks to her aching breasts all the way down to her pussy. She could feel the proof of how much her body responded to him trickling out past her lips. Inside she could swear there was a fire racing just dying to break free and ignite sparks all over her body.