Unexpected Consequences (13 page)

They’d talked late into the morning hours, laughing and getting to know each other better. They’d talked about their childhoods, school days, football games and dances. It seemed one topic had led to another in an endless exchange of life experiences, though he was careful not to expand on the difficulty his father had caused in his family. For the time being, it was enough for her to know that he and his father hadn’t got along. He’d tell her the story one day—but not today.

After he’d put another log on the fire, and teased her repeatedly for being cold enough to even need one in the middle of summer, they once again gave in to their desires before falling asleep in each other’s embrace. That’s where he awoke, resting comfortably under the warmth of the throw from the back of the couch.

The beeping continued until he lifted his head, needing to figure out just what it could be. Turning his head slightly, he realised it was coming from her bedroom upstairs.

“Kelsey,” he whispered then kissed the top of her head. “Wake up, baby.”

She groaned without opening her eyes and held him closer. “Just give me a few more minutes. Then I’m all yours.”

“That sounds nice, but I think your alarm clock is going off.”

“Huh?” she grunted and lifted her head from his chest. “What time is it?”

“Seven a.m.”

She groaned as she dropped her head back down. “I’m not ready to get up yet.”

“You’ll get no argument from me.” He adjusted their position until she was lying on top of him. “I can think of several things we could do instead of getting up. Well, up off the couch, anyway.”

She gave him a sleepy smile when he rubbed his hand along her ass cheek. In return, she flexed her thigh, trapping his cock between her leg and his. Today, his morning hard-on wouldn’t go unsatisfied.

“You feel good,” she whispered in a deep, sexy voice.

“So do you.” He slid his hands to her thighs. He spread her legs until she straddled him, his seeping tip teasing against her moistening pussy. “This feels even better.”

He looked deep into her eyes when he gently slipped himself inside her.

“Yes, it does.” With little encouragement needed, she began to move. She lifted her upper body, while she kept her hands on either side of his head. He enjoyed the view as she steadily increased her pace.

“Oh, Bright Eyes,” he breathed, amazed by how close he was to the edge. He lifted one hand to her breast, slipped the other between her legs and began to massage her clit.
Hell, no, I’m not coming before her.

Almost immediately, she shuddered with a loud gasp as she came. He shifted his grip to her waist, thrusting only a few more times before surrendering to his release. Once she had caught her breath, she began giggling, inadvertently squeezing his semi-flaccid shaft, still buried inside her.

“Oh, baby. Do that again,” he moaned, fully enjoying the sensations her laugh gave him.

“It’s a bit soon, isn’t it?”

“No, I mean laugh. It feels incredible like this.”

“You mean when you’re inside me?”

“Oh, yeah.” She laughed hysterically as he wiggled his fingers around her waist, remembering the ticklish spots he’d discovered the night they’d met.

“Stop! Stop!” She struggled to form words between her fits of laughter. He wondered who was laughing harder when he started chuckling at her reactions.

Disappointed when he slipped from her warmth, he stopped tickling and instead enjoyed the feel of her body against his. “Thankfully, I’m not an insecure man, Bright Eyes, but could you tell me what you found so funny you started laughing after sex?”

“The alarm. I should probably turn it off,” she said breathlessly, although she made no attempt to remove herself from his embrace. Her words brought his attention back to the alarm clock upstairs, still beeping repeatedly.

“It’s not bothering me.” He held her closer, not wanting the moment to end.

“Well, it’s driving me nuts.” She finally lifted off him and ran for the stairs with the throw wrapped around her, leaving him lying naked on the couch.

He heard her bang the clock loudly as he slipped on his jeans before heading to the kitchen to make some coffee. There was no better way to wake up as far as he was concerned, but disappointment soon followed when he realised it was Thursday and she’d soon leave for work. He figured he’d whip up some breakfast so they could at least eat together before she had to go.

As he rounded the counter, Nick suddenly got the strange feeling that he was forgetting something. He patted his pockets, finding the normal items—his billfold, butterfly knife, pocket change. His head snapped up when the realisation hit.

“My phone! Fuck!” He remembered how he’d tossed it on his bed the night before, but had forgotten to pick it up before he’d left.
If they tried to reach me… Shit, this is not good.

“Sorry about that. I guess I never got back upstairs after you arrived last night,” she said from the staircase. She was now wearing a fluffy yellow robe and placed the folded throw back on the couch before joining him in the kitchen.

“Bummer.” He quickly gathered himself, not wanting her to suspect anything was remotely wrong. Unfortunately, in his line of work, pretending had become all too easy.

“What?”

“I liked what you had on before better.”

“I was naked before.”

“Exactly.”

“I’m still naked under this robe.”

“Yeah, I know. So is your fridge. Don’t you buy groceries?”

“Sure, I do. I just don’t cook much. I eat a lot of takeout.”

“Well, there’s not much to work with here.” He moved his search from the fridge to the cupboard. “Oh, here we go.”

She sat back with a cup of coffee and watched as he threw together the limited ingredients she had into a decent breakfast. She nodded when he set her bowl down in front of her. “Mmm. Oatmeal.”

“Don’t sound so excited. You’re the one with the empty kitchen. We may have to spend our date tomorrow night grocery shopping.” He walked around the counter and sat beside her, stirring his bowl to cool it down.

“Does that mean we could come right back here and spend the evening alone? Sounds like a good date night to me.”

“You’ll get no argument from me. Now eat.”

She lifted a spoonful and blew on it until the lines of steam dissipated. “Wow. What did you do to this? It’s wonderful.”

He had every intention of telling her, but the way she held her lips as she blew on the hot cereal was driving him crazy. “Do that again.”

“Do what?” Her brow furrowed in confusion as her spoon remained in mid-air.

“Blow on it.”

She tauntingly licked her lips and over-exaggerated her pucker as she blew small puffs of air towards her next bite. “You mean like that?”

“Yeah,” he said, before forcing himself to look away.
Those lips—those incredible lips. She has no idea how crazy she makes me.

With great effort he managed to keep his hands to himself as they ate their breakfast in silence, occasionally stealing quick glimpses of each other. By the time they’d finished cleaning up the kitchen, the tension between them was on the verge of ignition. The only thing stopping Nick from bending her over the counter and fucking her silly was the reminder of his missing phone. Every minute that passed was the potential loss of his job. And that would ruin everything.

Ever the tease, she licked her lips as the familiar look of desire filled her face. “Some boyfriend you are,” she said with a mock pout. “I haven’t even gotten a good morning kiss.”

Shit. Well, what’s another half-hour?

“You got something better, baby,” he said in a deep voice as he leant down towards her, “you got a good morning fuc—”

His words were quickly cut off when she pressed her mouth firmly to his, no longer holding back. It was no surprise when their kisses gained momentum until they were once again wrapped in each other’s arms and breathing heavily.

“I have an idea,” she said as she broke away and glanced at the clock. “How about you come upstairs and share a shower with me?”

Dude, get out while you can. You get in that shower with her and neither of you is leaving this apartment today.
“Oh, baby, that sounds nice,” he said while willing his dick to soften, “but you’ve gotta get to work and I should get going.”

He forced himself from her embrace and walked to the living room to retrieve his shirt.

“I’m sorry. Did I do something wrong?” she asked as she followed him out of the kitchen.

“No.” He shook his head, his back still to her. He couldn’t let her believe he was rejecting her. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Then why do you want to leave?”

He turned and saw the hurt in her eyes. It was becoming harder to pretend with her. “I don’t want to leave. I just know that you need to get to work and I’m afraid I won’t let you go if I stay any longer.”

“Will you call me tonight?”

He smiled at the gentle expression on her face. “Try and stop me.”

“I don’t want to.”

He grabbed his leather jacket from the couch and headed towards the door. “Oh, I almost forgot. A buddy of mine invited me to his house to have a cookout with him and his wife. He told me to bring you along.”

Her face lit up. “You told your buddy about me?”

“Yeah.” He wrapped his arms around her waist. “He asked if there was anyone special in my life. They don’t get more special than you, Kelsey.”

The hurt disappeared from her eyes. He never wanted to see it again.

“So are you free on Saturday? Do you want to go with me?”

She nodded, apparently too emotional to speak.

“Good.” He pulled her in for one last kiss before he had to go—pleased she was no longer upset with his departure. His unfulfilled passion swelled as their kisses intensified.

Just as she began tugging on his jacket he pulled back, knowing his shortness of time. “I’m leaving, baby,” he said with one last kiss. “God, I want you, but I’m leaving.”

She giggled and tried to pull him back. “Nick,” she whispered seductively.

“You’re killing me, Kelsey.” He finally broke free and stepped out of the door. “I’ll call you tonight!”

Chapter Fifteen

“Well, well. You are alive.” Krissy Donaldson’s face held a motherly glare as she walked into the emergency clinic.

Kelsey looked over her clipboard to see her older sister approaching. “Nice to see you, too, sis.”

“You don’t call people back?”

“Is something bothering you, Krissy?”

“I haven’t heard from you since Sunday.”

“And?”

“I just thought I would have heard from you by now.”

“I’ve been busy. This emergency clinic is running me ragged. You know that. If there was something you needed, why didn’t you call me?”

“I did call you. On Sunday. You blew me off.”

“I was busy,” Kelsey said, turning away. She knew if her sister saw the blush she felt creeping on her face at the memory of exactly what she’d been doing when she’d called, she would never rest until she knew everything.

“I’m sorry, honey. I was just concerned. I usually hear from you a couple times a week and when I didn’t, I started to worry something was wrong.”

Kelsey smiled and set her clipboard down on the desk. “I’m sorry, too, Krissy. I guess I didn’t think about it. But, you know, the phone works two ways. If you were worried, you could’ve called me.”

“You’re right. You’re right.” Krissy nodded. “So, how have you been?”

“Good.” Kelsey looked everywhere but at her sister. “I’ve just been working a lot.”

“You were always a rotten liar. What’s going on?”

“What do you mean?”

“You look different.” Krissy scrunched up her face as she tried to figure it out. “There’s something. You look…happier.”

Kelsey could no longer suppress the smile that’d been hiding and knew she’d have to confess her secret to her sister. “I am happy.”

Krissy gasped. “You met a guy!”

“Is it that obvious?”

“It is to me! Who is he?”

“His name is Nick. I met him at The Rusty Spoke on Saturday night.”

“You met him at a bar? Kels…”

“Oh, please, Krissy.” Kelsey rolled her eyes. “If you’re gonna give me a lecture, I’ll pass. I have work to do here.”

“Okay, okay. Go ahead.”

“He’s so great. He just… He just does things to me, you know?”

“Did you sleep with him?”

“Well… I…”

“Never mind, never mind,” Krissy said with a shake of her head. “I don’t want to know.”

Kelsey remained quiet. She’d always maintained a good relationship with her sister, but because of their age gap, they had never been as close as Kelsey had been with her brother, Bart. In many ways, Krissy felt more like a mother figure than a sister, but they loved each other and made sure to keep in close contact, even while Kelsey had lived away.

“So when do we get to meet him?”

Her sister’s question made her think. It wasn’t that she didn’t want her family to meet Nick, she just wasn’t sure if Nick was ready for the whole clan. They could be quite a handful. “Well, Krissy, we just met. I don’t know if it’s the right time to have him meet everyone.”

A young boy’s exasperated call from the doorway interrupted their conversation. “Mom, are you coming?”

“I’m sorry, Alex,” Krissy said to her son as he approached. “I thought I told you to wait in the car, honey.”

“I know, Mom, but I want to get to the toy store before it closes.”

Krissy laughed. “It’s still morning, sweetie. We have plenty of time. But I know you’re anxious.”

“Well, you better get this little guy to the store,” Kelsey said as she tickled the eight-year-old’s belly, “before he busts with excitement. How about a kiss for your Aunt Kelsey?”

Alex giggled happily and kissed Kelsey’s cheek. “Hi, Aunt Kelsey.”

“Okay, sis, we’re gonna go. You keep in touch, okay? And you make sure this Nick fellow treats you right, got it?”

If only you knew how right he treated me.
Kelsey gave her sister and nephew a hug and escorted them out of the door. The car had barely pulled away when the realisation hit. She could no longer hide it. Now that Krissy knew, it wouldn’t be long before word spread. It was time to tell her family.