For The Love Of Nick

10

DANIELLE WAS REELING enough to let Nick take over. Enough to watch while he took care of all evidence of her being in his place, including shoving his sheets in the washing machine.

He looked perfectly at home measuring out the detergent. He even dumped the trash, which included, as she knew all too well, three used condoms.

It was only when he came to the two huge land mines in his front yard, left there by Sadie, that he hesitated. Still, he gamely found a shovel and took care of that, too, though he did shoot Sadie several dark looks that the dog freely and openly returned.

Then Nick tossed a duffel bag in the truck bed and backed them out of his driveway. Sadie had gotten into the vehicle docilely enough-probably because Danielle had as well-but now, as Nick drove, she whined.

Danielle felt like doing the same.

After about twenty minutes, Nick pulled up to a hotel. He turned off the truck and turned to her. Reaching for her hand, he gave her a careful once-over. “You okay?”

“Peachy.”

“I take it that’s a no.”

Danielle closed her eyes. “I just can’t believe how stupid I was. I would have let her walk me right into a trap.”

“Not stupid. You trusted her.”

“I keep forgetting trust isn’t an option.”

He slid his fingers beneath her hair, massaging the back of her neck until she looked at him. “You can trust me.”

“I-” The denial backed up in her throat at the open but fierce expression on his face. “I don’t want to trust anyone,” she whispered.

“I know,” he whispered back, and slowly pulled her against him.

He felt good, solid and warm, and for just a moment she let herself cling. And then somehow she sucked it up, found some desperately needed strength and pulled back. “What are we doing here?”

“Checking in. Then we’ll hunt down your Donald and make sure he’s on the up-and-up before you approach him.”

“Checking in?” She turned forward to face the hotel. “Here?”

“We can’t stay at my place.”

“We can’t, no. But you can.”

He waited until she looked at him, and his expression was light, neutral almost, but she knew him better now, and didn’t miss the determination. “I’m not leaving you alone to face this,” he said. “So just forget it.”

Why wouldn’t he just walk away? Why did he have to sit there looking so good, so right? So…hers? “I can’t let you do this, Nick. I don’t have enough money for the room, and-”

“It just so happens that I do. I know,” he said, putting his fingers over her lips when she would have spoken again. “You don’t like help, but you appear to be stuck with me for now.” Opening the door, he got out and held out his hand.

She followed, with Sadie in tow. “They might not appreciate Sadie as a guest,” she said as they entered the reception area.

“Given that I personally cleaned up after her this morning, I can see why,” he said dryly. “But this hotel takes dogs.” He pointed to the sign, Dogs Welcome. “Traveling with pets, especially dogs, is pretty common in this area. How many rooms do we need?”

He had the most amazing eyes, she thought inanely, her body tingling in reaction to his unspoken question.

How many rooms? Just one bed, her body cried. But her brain was in charge. “We shouldn’t get used to-”

“Yeah.” And hiding his reaction to that, he turned to the receptionist and reserved two rooms.

AFTER CHECKING IN, Nick drove Danielle to see Donald. When they got there, his office was boarded up, with a sign that announced, We’ve Moved!

Nick pulled out his cell phone, dialed the new number posted, and handed it over to Danielle, who spoke to the art director’s assistant.

When she clicked off the phone, she found Nick watching her very closely.

“Well?”

“I can’t see him until tomorrow,” she said.

“I heard. What I didn’t hear was how you’re holding up.”

“I’m holding.”

His mouth curved. “Good. Now you’ve got an entire day of vacation ahead of you.”

She gaped at him, then laughed. “Vacation?”

“You say that like it’s a bad word.”

“It’s just that I’ve never really taken one.”

“Well, then…” Nick took Sadie’s leash in one hand and slipped his other arm around her, starting a lazy walk back to his truck, ignoring the fact that he had to practically drag the reluctant Sadie, who didn’t want anyone holding her leash but Danielle. “Stick with me,” he said to both unnerved females. “I’ll show you how to relax.”

But that’s what Danielle was afraid of. If she relaxed, she had to let down her guard. And if she let down her guard, he was going to crawl into her heart and make himself right at home.

AT THE HOTEL, Nick waited outside Danielle’s door until she slid in the key card and opened her door. “Danielle,” he said, and when she turned to look at him, he pressed her against the jamb for a quick, hard, hot kiss.

“What was that for?” she asked a little breathlessly.

He smiled as he trailed a thumb over her bottom lip. “To remind you that even though I’m in another room, you’re not alone.”

All her life she’d been surrounded by someone or another, and all her life she’d fought a loneliness she never understood. Now, with just this man for company, she hadn’t felt alone once.

“Maybe another kiss would help me remember,” she said very softly. “You know, just to be sure.”

With a quick, sexy grin, he leaned in, but she put a hand to his chest. “And maybe…” She trailed off.

“Maybe?” he repeated.

“Maybe not so quick this time.”

His eyes heated. “Got it.” His lips came within a fraction of an inch of hers, then stopped, making her nearly moan out loud. “Is there anything else?” he whispered, his breath mingling with hers. “You know, while I’m here?”

“Well…” He could make her forget anything, including the fact her life had fallen apart. He could make her feel warm and fuzzy and safe by just looking at her. And shameless. He made her shameless. “Maybe just one more thing…”

“Anything.” He pulled her against him, letting her feel how hard he was. “You want what you wanted last night? The blinding kisses? The touches that had you trembling?” His voice went rough and low. “How about when I put my tongue-”

“That,” she whispered shakily. “That’s the one.”

“Ah.” Eyes gleaming, he dipped his head for a long, messy, glorious kiss that did indeed numb more than half of her brain cells. When he came up for air, he backed her into the room. Kicking it closed, he moved with her until the backs of her legs hit the bed. “I live to provide pleasure,” he said wickedly, and pushed her down to the mattress, following her with his long, hard body.

Looping her arms around his neck, she surged up for a kiss, but Nick suddenly went still, then craned his neck to first one side, then the other, looking for something.

“Nick?” She wanted him to take her to oblivion, if only for a little while. “What are you-”

“Sadie?”

Now he wanted to talk to her dog? “Nick, I think she can wait-”

“Sadie!” He pushed to his feet, looking around with a startled look on his face. “Where did she go?”

Danielle came up to her elbows. The room was small enough for her to see in one sweeping glance there was no giant dog anywhere. “Oh my God.” She leapt to her feet. “She must have walked off when we were in the doorway.”

Nick had already hauled open the door again. “Not in the hallway,” he said. “I’ll go right, you go left.”

Danielle ran out the door and turned left, coming to a flight of stairs. Up or down, she wondered frantically, then decided down. Sadie would have gone down, it was easier and she was, after all, an incredibly lazy dog.

At the bottom, she pushed open the already ajar door, which led into a courtyard. Bright sunshine had her lifting her hand to block it from her squinting eyes.

Flowers in every color and hue covered every corner. Benches lined the paths, where quite a few people milled around. It looked as if the hotel had hosted a late lunch of some sort, as plenty of well-dressed, important people milled around holding champagne and plates filled with food.

And in the center of the courtyard, in a bed of flowers she’d completely flattened, lay Sadie, her tongue hanging out of her mouth, her coat covered in fresh dirt from the plants, her tail making lazy swipes in that dirt.

Danielle sagged in relief even as she cringed at the damage the dog had done to the flowers, but her relief was short-lived. Because right next to Sadie, tongue also hanging out, tail also swiping lazily in the dirt, lay…another dog.

An even bigger dog, who with long, shaggy, dark hair and sheer hugeness had to be none other than a Newfoundland.

When Danielle stopped short at the sight of them, the Newfoundland came to full alert and stood up in front of Sadie.

It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see that he was male, and that he’d clearly just claimed Sadie as his own.

In more ways than one.

Nick caught up with her, also stopping short at the sight of Sadie with her new beau, both of whom wore a sleepy, happy, sated expression.

“Well.” Nick glanced at Danielle. “I had no idea dogs could look so utterly…laid.”

“Oh, no,” she groaned. “This can’t be happening.”

“I take it she’s not…er, fixed.”

“I was going to eventually breed her! With a purebred!”

Sadie’s boyfriend sat regally, his tongue hanging out as he panted.

Nick rubbed his jaw, looking like he was fighting a grin. “He looks like a decent enough sort of dog.”

Poised and ever so elegant, the male dog lifted his leg and began to lick himself.

Nick laughed.

Danielle groaned, refusing to acknowledge the way the sound of Nick’s laugh had the most devastating power to make her want to return it. “This is all your fault!”

“My fault!” Now he blinked, looking comically shocked. “How do you figure?”

“You distracted me with that kiss, otherwise I would never have forgotten about Sadie, not even for a second.” She stepped into the flowers and grabbed the loose leash at Sadie’s side. Then, in a cosmic timing that could only be described as very bad luck, the sprinklers came on.

“Don’t say a word,” Danielle warned Nick, stepping out of the planter with no dignity and lots of water dripping off her. “Not a single word.”

Also dripping water and mud, Sadie shook her self-all over Danielle-then whined, craning her neck to catch one last glimpse of lover boy, her eyes bright and beaming his way.

Lover boy whined in return, and let out one sharp bark.

Nick steered clear of both the dirt and water, looking fit, perfectly dry and…suspiciously amused.

Danielle didn’t know if she wanted to smack him, or crane her neck at him and whine, too.

“AREN’T YOU WONDERING?” Nick asked as they came to a stop outside their rooms once again.

What she was wondering was, if his voice would ever stop sending a thrilling shiver down her spine. “Wondering…?”

He spoke in her ear. “If she enjoyed him as much as you enjoyed me.”

“Step back,” she said, still dripping everywhere as she opened her door. “Or I’ll make sure you get as hot and wet as I am.” His chest brushed her back, his jaw glided along her hair. Simple touch, but oh man, not such a simple reaction, as her knees actually knocked together. “I mean it,” she warned.

“Are you really hot and wet?” he asked silkily. “How about creamy? Are you creamy, Danielle?”

Because just the words made her pulse race, she ignored him and hauled Sadie into the bathroom, slamming the door.

Then stared at herself in the reflection, at her glowing skin, at her eyes which were more alive than she’d ever seen them, and took a slow, deep breath.

“It’s really a shame he drives me so insane,” she told herself. As she could get really, really attached to him.

NICK HAD NEVER BEEN issued a challenge he hadn’t faced head-on, and that slammed bathroom door was a challenge if he ever saw one.

Given that, and also that Danielle had just turned on the shower-he sure hated to miss any fun-he reached for the door handle.

Not locked, good sign. He peered around the door to see a still fully dressed Danielle trying to coax a yawning Sadie into the shower.

“Come on,” she huffed and puffed as she shoved Sadie from behind. “You’re a mess. You’ve got to…Ugh!” Giving up, she walked around and tried pulling Sadie instead, backing into the spray, closing her eyes as the water hit her full on.

Sadie merely grunted and applied opposite pressure, until with a little screech, Danielle’s hands slipped free and she stumbled back against the shower wall.

Sadie escaped.

Still under the spray, Danielle closed her eyes and shook her head.

Grinning, Nick toed off his shoes, and fully dressed, stepped into the shower with Danielle. “Hey, you can wash me. From head to toe, if you’d like.” Following up on that promise, he slipped his arms around her and pressed close, thankful that the water currently hitting him in the face was at least nice and warm.

“You’re crazy,” she said, sounding baffled and grumpy, but she warmed his heart by slipping her arms around his neck. “Completely crazy.”

“Yeah.” He bent his head and nibbled at her neck. “You taste good.” His hands got busy, too, dropping her soaking clothes from her body, eager to be hot, wet flesh to hot, wet flesh.

“Nick.” She let out a little sound when he cupped her perfectly curved butt in his hands, gliding her over the unmistakable bulge straining his pants. A sound that suggested she was slightly less grumpy now. “We can’t.”

His mouth ran over her throat to her bare shoulder, which he gently bit, making her clutch him tight. He liked the way she gripped him, as if she didn’t want to ever let go.

“We can’t do this in front of Sadie.”

“You mean the dog who only a little while ago was doing the same thing?” Nick gestured to the mat on the bathroom floor, where Sadie had passed out on her back, mouth open, eyes closed, snoring away. “Don’t think she really cares at the moment. She’s exhausted.” His hands slid up her body and cupped her breasts, his thumbs rasping over her nipples. “Let’s get exhausted, too.”

Her misty gray eyes filled with dreaminess and arousal, and she leaned into him, making Nick’s heart surge right up into his throat. He wanted that expression on her face permanently, the one that said he was the center of her universe. To make it so, he reined in on the need ripping through him, slowed them both down, dragging out the passion, the hunger, the desperate need until they were panting with it. Only then, when she’d come apart for him, over and over, did he slip into her body and take them both to heaven.

MUCH LATER, Nick ordered them room service. While they waited, Danielle opened her laptop.

Nick hadn’t bothered with clothes, and while she waited for her Internet connection, she marveled at how utterly unselfconscious and comfortable in his own skin he looked, studying the room service menu, absently pushing aside a bag of doggie treats on the table.

The bag crinkled, and from a dead sleep on the floor, Sadie came to full attention.

Nick looked at Sadie. Sadie looked at Nick-the two creatures in Danielle’s life who’d not yet come to terms.

Nick fingered the snacks.

Sadie stood. Cocked her head. Stared at the treats.

Nick pulled one out, looked it over.

Sadie whined and moved closer.

“So.” Nick raised a brow at the dog. “You like me now.”

Sadie licked her chops, eyes glued to the treat.

Rolling his eyes, Nick tossed it to her. “You’re so easy, dog.”

Sadie inhaled the treat, licked her chops and whined again.

And unbelievably, Nick reached back into the bag and tossed her another one.

Danielle felt her insides go still, then sort of melt. Ted had been charming to all dogs. People, too, for that matter. But she suddenly realized it was a fake sort of charming, the kind that never quite reached his eyes. Added to that was the disconcerting fact that he’d cared so deeply what others thought, especially about him.

There was nothing fake about Nick. He was confident, appealing and quite possibly the most easygoing, laid-back man she’d ever met. He didn’t care what others thought, of him or anyone else.

Why was that such a turn-on?

She was so busy thinking about this, thinking and staring at Nick’s magnificent body as he leaned over the table studying the menu and his selection, that she nearly missed it.

Her Web site had been set up with a bulletin board, so that she could arrange for dog-handling jobs online. She also answered questions and offered advice, and posted the shows she’d be attending.

Among her messages was an anonymous one, and it took her breath.

You can run, but you can’t hide.