The Circle Eight: Nicholas (7 page)

Nick, feeling guilty since he’d let the cat in, squatted down and scooped it up. “I prefer my eardrums in one piece.” As he walked back toward the door, the cat wriggled, attempting to escape. “Oh no you don’t. Out you go.”

It took him three tries before he was able to get the critter on the other side of the door. It yowled in protest. Loud enough to wake every bird within two miles. Shaking his head, he turned and found Winnie laughing silently.

“Wrangling cats is different from wrangling cattle, hm?” She appeared to be highly amused by his battle with her crazy cat.

“Not so much. Cattle are just as annoying.” He folded his arms and scowled. Her smile disappeared and he cursed silently for being the cause of it. Nick forced himself to relax and attempted to calm his unruly brows.

She shook her head. “You cannot stop yourself, can you?”

“Stop myself from doing what?”

Winnie stepped up to him and lifted her small hand toward his face. She
smoothed her finger above his eyes. “You’re barely twenty-four and already have dents in your forehead.”

His cheeks heated and he damn well hope
d he wasn’t blushing. “I’m in the sun a lot.”

“You wear a hat in the sun.”

He wanted to move away from her but at the same time, he wanted to stand there and let her touch him all night. “I am who I am.”

She cupped his cheek. “
As am I.” She stood on her tiptoes and brushed her lips across his.

Nick closed his eyes and hoped for the strength to resist her. He couldn’t be distracted by their physical pull. If he wanted to help her find her daughter, he needed all his wits about him. That wouldn’t happen if he spent his time thinking about her beautiful breasts or how soft her thighs were.

She moved away and he swayed toward her. Foolish man. Fortunately she didn’t see the lovesick idiocy.

“I have
plenty of food left from what Eva packed. She must have thought there were six of us.” Winnie, unaware he was fighting the urge to do more than stand there, set out food on plates. “I have water to drink. I hope that will do. I normally have milk delivered from a farm nearby but since I haven’t been here—” She stopped and turned to look at him. “Nicholas?”

He shook his head. “
I’ll sleep in the barn.”

Her expression fell and he refused to acknowledge the pain in her eyes.

“You don’t have to.”

Nicholas wanted
nothing more than to stay with her in the boardinghouse. To stay with her. But he couldn’t, not yet. If ever. Before he could even consider living his life, he had to stay the course and find Winnie’s daughter. It had become his banner, one he would fly high as he traversed the unknown battle ahead.

“I do.”

She sighed. “I don’t agree with you but I won’t argue with you. Please at least eat some food before you hide yourself from me.”

“I’m not hiding.” He slapped his hat against his leg.

“Yes you are.” She stuck her nose in the air and returned to the food on the counter. Her back was straight as an arrow, her shoulders stiff. Nick had hurt her, of course. He seemed to be good at that, no matter how much he didn’t want to be. “Eat up and go where you need to go.”

They sat down at her large table, the room
echoed with emptiness with just the two of them. The damn cat still yowled outside, while inside, a very awkward meal progressed. Nick swallowed the slightly tough biscuits and ham but he didn’t taste a bite of it. Winnie picked at her food, which was his fault. The cool well water washed down the food although he was afraid he might see the supper again later.

Sometimes when Nick was twisted up in knots, so was his stomach. He never told anyone about it, preferring to do his business privately.
No one knew any of his secrets.

Except Winnie.

She was the only person he ever confessed anything to. There were other things she didn’t know. Those shadows would stay hidden.

It would be a very long night with only the horses and a meowing cat for company. In the morning, he had to be at his best. For her. For him.

He was afraid if he wasn’t, there was no future. Ever.

Winnie slammed the coffee pot down onto the stove with a definitive
clang!
It felt so satisfying she did it again.

Clang!

She was annoyed and frustrated. Nicholas had refused to sleep in the same house with her. What did he think she was going to do, seduce him while he slept? While not a bad idea, it was something she wouldn’t appreciate herself, therefore would never consider it. The man was stubborn as the day was long. He made her angry and, at the same time, sad for the tight box he kept himself locked in.

She should be more patient but her emotions were wound up tighter than the cogs of a clock. Ticking away inside her second by second.

Her anger wasn’t solely targeted at Nicholas. Her anxiety more about searching for Grace, of starting down a path she had been afraid to follow for ten years. The sad fact was she had no earthly reason not to look for Grace except her own fear. She’d given away her own child. No matter that she was sixteen years old and recovering from childbirth. She should have fought her own helplessness.

Regrets were useless. They
left a bad taste in her mouth. She ought to kick them out of her mind for good. Easier said than done. Her world had been inundated with regrets for so long, she didn’t know how to purge them.

Nic
holas had pushed her, and for that she would be grateful for the rest of her life. She didn’t want to hope too hard they would find her daughter. If they didn’t, or found out something Winnie couldn’t bear to hear, it would break her heart all over again.

The coffee burbled merrily in the pot and she poured cool water from a pitcher to settle the grounds. As she reached for a cup, a masculine voice sounded from behind her.

“Ah, can I help with breakfast?” He surprised her at every turn. She’d heard from Elizabeth that her family had grown up with everyone knowing how to do all household chores. An unusual arrangement but one Winnie respected.

She poured a cup of coffee and turned to hand it to him. His brown hair
curled in damp waves at the edges while his freshly shaven jaw gleamed in the sunlight coming through the window over the sink. Heat rushed through her at the sight. The man was handsome as sin.

“I don’t have much here.
I usually have a local farmer who delivers eggs and milk. Plus Consuela cooks when I have boarders. She also makes the bread twice a week for me.” She winced at the meager offering in the larder.

“I don’t think I could eat anyway.” Nicholas’
s expression was tight with tension, mirrored on her own face, she was sure.

“Coffee?” She held up a cup.

“Fine. Then I’ve got to get that rig back to whatever idiot rented it to you.”

“Old man Sylvester is
quite nice. I’m sure he didn’t realize the conveyance needed repair.” Winnie had always rented from him. The elderly livery owner had lost much of his clientele. She felt sorry for him and wanted to be sure he ate and had enough money to survive.

Nicholas snorted. “Like hell he didn’t know.”

She scowled at him. “You make judgments too quickly.”

“And you trust too easily.”

It was her turn to snort. “Me? I very rarely trust anyone. My circle of trust extends to three people right now.” She couldn’t trust people. Not after all she’d been through in her life. Too many disappointments and pain.

“I’m not one of them.” His
glanced out the window, the sun’s rays highlighting the beautiful blue-green eyes and the pain within them.

Winnie wanted to lie to him but couldn’t. It wouldn’t e right or fair to him. She had feelings for him but their relationship was too new, too fresh, to consider trusting him.
“Not yet.”

“Yet.” He shook his head. “You trust me with your body.”

She inwardly winced at his bald speaking. The Grahams definitely didn’t believe in dissembling.

“I suppose that’s true. Nicholas, Nick, we don’t know what will happen between us. Until we know, I, well, I can’t.” Her hands itche
d to take his, touch him.

“
Uh-huh. I’ll take that coffee now.” His jaw was tight enough she thought she heard his teeth crack.

She refused to feel guilty. If he stayed at her side and showed her that he could be trusted, then she would trust him. For now, however.
The tension between them had to break. They wouldn’t be successful at their journey to find Grace if they couldn’t have a civil conversation.

“No.”

“No?” His brows rose. “Pardon me?”

Winnie gritted her own teeth. “No. I’m done with this anger and your foolish inclination to always be unpleasant.”

If possible, his brows went up farther. “Unpleasant?”

“And repeating what I said is annoying.” She banged the coffee
pot down once more and then strode toward him. He watched with surprise until she grabbed his collar and yanked him toward her.

The moment her lips touched his, fire licked at her skin and her clothes were entirely too constrictive.
He reared back and stared at her, this time with an intensity that made her shiver.

“You kissed me.”

“Do you have an issue with my actions?” She trembled with the need to touch him again. Even her voice shook. It was madness. Sheer madness.

He didn’t answer and her heart dropped to her feet. Instead, he pulled her back against him, breast to chest, hard to soft. She wrapped her arms around his neck and sank into his kiss. Sweet, wet heat swept across her
skin.

The man was like a strong drink, bracing and enough to make her mind malfunction. Winnie held onto him, anchored by the strength of his muscles honed by years of ranching. It was like embracing a living, breathing, hot oak tree.

Her nipples hardened to aching points, needing more than to feel her underclothes. She yanked at his shirt until it popped free of his trousers. He grunted when she reached down to find the soft skin of his back. She slid her fingers lower and grasped the top of his buttocks, then squeezed.

“Do you think this is a good idea?” he murmured against her mouth.

“No, but we’re going to do it anyway.”

“Damn right we are.” He released her long enough to finish removing his shirt, then made quick work of his trousers. He stood before her, deliciously naked. A few scars puckered his skin, but otherwise he was perfect. Soft whorls of brown hair
decorated his chest, leading down a flat stomach and lower still, to the hard cock that stood in a nest of curls framed by an impressive pair of testicles. Winnie had never considered a man could be beautiful.

Nicholas changed all that. He changed everything.

“You’ve far too many clothes on.”

Winnie smiled and unbuttoned her dress, dropping it to her feet. His gaze raked her up and down, once, then again.
His finger traced the scar from the bullet on her shoulder.

“You forgot to put your frilly underthings on.”

This time she smiled, knowing by the second just how hard her nipples were becoming. “No, I didn’t forget.”

His nostrils flared at the same time his cock jumped, slapping against his stomach. “Holy hell, woman.”

“Indeed.” She stepped back until the table was behind her.

“What are you—”

Before he could finish the sentence, she slid up onto the table and spread her legs. He was there in an instant, nestled between her thighs. Her body nearly sighed with relief. He belonged there.

“You’re so wet.” He slid his h
ardened staff in her ready folds. She closed her eyes and pulled him closer still.

“In an instant. Only for you.” So very true. There was no one in her life, before or after Nicholas, who would evoke such a reaction.

“I can’t wait.”

“Don’t.” She took hold of his rod and it pulsed beneath her hand. Her heart thundered as she guided him to her core.

He pushed in slowly at first, inch by inch, until she scratched at his shoulders, urging him to do something other than tease her. When he thrust into her to the hilt, she gasped. They were made to fit together, perfect as a custom key in a lock. She spread her legs wider, pulling him deeper. Until she didn’t know where he ended and she started.

Her forehead pressed against his. Their breaths mingled and she breathed in his essence.
Their combined heat spiraled up between them. It was instantaneous combustion.

Winnie wrapped her legs around his hips and grabbed the edge of the table. He thrust in a slow rhythm,
sending tingles through her from her pussy to her breasts, radiating out. Every small hair on her body stood on end.

“You’re so damn tight.” His voice had dropped to a husky whisper
that skittered across her ear.

Pleasure was something she hadn’t expected to feel with a man but with Nicholas, her past disappeared. Anything she
shied away from previously, she now embraced. He had found the person inside her who had been buried away for nearly all her life.