She’d seen the pain in his hollow eyes and had wanted to give him the joy of life again. But he’d given her the same and much more. It was like her mother and father all over again. There would never be another man like Nick for her. How could anyone else measure up?
Nick walked into the room holding two cups of steaming fragrant coffee. He looked very sexy naked. “I brought you something.”
“It had better be from your luggage. I’m halfway to an orgasm and I just need a little help getting there.”
He lifted one dark eyebrow. Part of a dimple showed in his cheek. “I only have what you can see. But I think I know what will help.”
“God, I hope so.” She pressed her thighs together harder.
He placed the coffee cups on the dresser and climbed into bed behind her. His hot skin singed her where they touched.
“Do I have your permission to do whatever it takes to achieve your goal?”
“God, yes!”
“You’re so easy.”
Later that morning Marisa let her lover drive her home. It was only a few miles from his cabin to her apartment and it was late enough that the other tenants in her building would already be at work, so they wouldn’t see her coming home dressed in yesterday’s clothes. In a small town, it was all about rumor control.
As they approached the pier, Nick stopped the car. She glanced to the left to see what had caught his attention. What looked like all the town’s police vehicles were parked in the lot.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“We’d better find out.” He pulled into an empty parking space.
She’d noticed Nick seemed to be attracted to trouble spots. Occupational hazard for a firefighter, she supposed. Maybe like a cop, he couldn’t turn it off. She wondered how that had added up to job burnout.
They had to cross the railroad tracks where Carolyn had died only a few days ago. Marisa felt chilled to the bone, as though Carolyn’s ghost haunted the place where she’d died. Maybe Carolyn couldn’t rest until Marisa proved she hadn’t killed herself. Guilt pressed in on her. While she’d been burning up the sheets in Nick’s bed, thinking only of pleasure, Carolyn’s name remained slandered. Marisa hurried down the promenade, as though she could outrun the guilt.
They found Brian on the pier looking harried, his hair in complete disarray. When he saw them, he groaned and rubbed his forehead.
“What happened?” Nick demanded.
“We’ve got a lot of dead fish and an extremely high salt level in the lake this morning.”
“More sabotage?” Nick asked.
“It could have been the storm.”
“What storm?” Marisa could have kicked herself.
Brian pinned her with his gaze. “The one last night that knocked down tree limbs, took off half the fall foliage, and left part of the town without power. Don’t tell me you slept through it?”
Marisa vaguely remembered her screams of pleasure vying with the ferocity of a storm. Her cheeks burned.
Brian’s glance traversed between her and Nick. His eyes widened and then he narrowed them at Nick. “I see.” He studied her again and she squirmed under his examination. She’d showered with Nick — twice — but her clothes from yesterday were dirty and wrinkled, and her lips were slightly swollen from hours of kissing. She looked like what she was — a woman who’d spent the night in a man’s bed.
Brian looked out toward the lake, frowning. “I’ve sent out divers again to look for man-made causes. We’re checking the salt levels along this end of the lake. The sheriff’s got me handling the fishermen, who are pretty upset, and gathering reports as they come in. We’ve even had calls from property owners on the west side of the lake about fish on their beaches. The inns are pretty concerned.”
“Is there a tie-in with what we talked about yesterday?” Nick asked.
“Too soon to tell.” A small boat containing two men chugged for the pier. “Listen, I have to talk to these fishermen. I’ll let you know what we find out.”
Nick nodded and took hold of Marisa’s arm. She fought the urge to slide her hand upward and interlace her fingers with his.
“Nick, Marisa, be careful.” Brian stared hard at Nick.
As they made their way back to the rental car, Marisa spoke her confusion aloud. “What’d Brian mean by that?”
“There are a lot of odd things happening. We have to be aware of what’s going on around us, of who is around us.”
“Does he think the problems with the plant are related to my problems?”
“He doesn’t know yet. But keep alert for things you think are accidents that might not be.”
Her head snapped up. “You don’t think my car accident was an accident?”
“No.”
“What else don’t you think was an accident?”
“Your trip on the stairs.”
Marisa’s belly went cold. “And you think they weren’t accidents because of the trouble at the plant?”
“I don’t know.”
Nick settled her in the car and they drove the short distance up the hill to her apartment. She waited until they were inside to broach another subject.
“Your friend knows we spent the night together.” Her cheeks burned, even though she willed them not to.
“He’s a trained observer.”
She led the way into her bedroom, her body abuzz with the knowledge of where they were. Did he think she’d brought him in here for more of what they’d shared last night? When she turned, her eyes met his. His were heated chocolate — a marvelous idea with lots of possibilities.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
“Melted chocolate, you and me naked.” Her lower body tingled.
He groaned. “You’re going to be the death of me. I’m willing but I don’t know if I’m able just yet. How about a raincheck until tonight?”
Excitement sizzled through her veins. He wanted to spend another night with her. He was dark, virile strength amid the flowered femininity of her bedroom. He was a flame that burned away the memory of any other presence. She wanted him to imprint himself on her pale sheets and on her tanned flesh.
“Or this afternoon?” She didn’t think she could wait until dark.
“Yeah, that might work.”
Marisa swallowed. “I have to change clothes.”
“I’ll watch.” He settled himself in the room’s overstuffed chair.
Marisa hesitated. She didn’t have yesterday’s near-death experience driving her to feel alive again. No, she had the memories of every moment they’d shared, every intimacy. Nick was no stranger to her body and she fully intended to share it with him again.
She lifted her shirt, peeling it slowly off her body, and then pulling it over her head in a rush. She didn’t want to miss a moment of Nick’s intent expression. Tossing her shirt aside, she unsnapped her shorts. As she pulled down the zipper, the heat of Nick’s desire seared her, branding her flesh.
Wriggling out of her shorts reminded her of yesterday. She saw the memories in Nick’s dark eyes. She wanted to repeat yesterday, everything they’d done together. She licked her dry lips.
Her bra came off easier than it had yesterday. Now she had no doubts about offering her breasts for his mouth to worship. She shimmied out of her panties in a rush. She couldn’t wait to spread her legs and let Nick feast on what was between them. Her vagina clenched in anticipation.
“God, you’re beautiful and so sexy.” Nick’s voice sounded like a hungry growl.
His words flowed over her like hot syrup. Her nipples stood at attention. Her clitoris tingled.
“I should have had protein for breakfast,” he muttered.
Marisa couldn’t help the disappointment she felt.
“But how about a little snack? Come here, honey.”
Her lower body clenched. She tried to be seductive as she walked toward him, but her legs trembled badly.
Nick ran his palms up her thighs and around to caress her buttocks and then her back. Marisa shivered with desire.
“You know I want you, right?” His voice sounded thick.
She knew by the fire in his eyes he was telling the truth. She nodded.
“I’d spend all day in bed making love to you if I could. I should have paced myself last night.” He continued to caress up and down her body, moving inwards on her thighs. She was very wet for him.
“But I wanted you so badly.” He stroked her lower lips.
Marisa shuddered. Her nipples ached. Her vagina clenched.
When he looked up at her, his eyes were molten darkness. “You like that. You like everything I do to you.” He slid a finger across her channel.
“Yes. Everything.”
Nick pushed his finger into her. She clenched around it, moaning. He pulled it out and stroked across her clitoris with his wet finger. Her body quivered.
“You can’t scream here. No matter how good it feels.” He stroked again once, twice.
Marisa stiffened, her clitoris throbbing and her vagina aching.
Nick pushed her backwards as he rose from the chair, stroking a wet finger across one hardened nipple. Marisa moaned. He pressed her into the chair he’d just vacated and pulled her hips forward. Then he knelt between her legs and smoothed her thighs wide open.
“You can’t scream.”
She watched his dark head lower between her thighs. She tensed in anticipation, clenching hard inside. The first touch of his tongue on her clitoris made her jerk. A jolt of pleasure ached through her core. She arched to his tongue. He pressed hard, stroking. Marisa groaned. Her vagina clenched on emptiness.
“Don’t scream.” His words blew across her sensitized flesh.
He spread her vulva wide with his thumb and forefinger and speared her clitoris with his tongue. Marisa stuck her fist in her mouth, strangling a shriek.
His tongue stroked flame across her clitoris over and over. The pleasure built higher and higher until she feared she’d combust. Yet she never wanted it to end. She wriggled away from the intensity of his touch, but he followed, pressing the most sensitive spot. He pushed two fingers into her vagina. Marisa bucked, which pressed her against his mouth. She was almost there. He pushed in a third finger, thrusting fast. His tongue stroked hard.
Orgasm grabbed her. She convulsed helplessly under the dual assaults of pleasure. He wouldn’t stop. She cried out against her fist. He intensified his assaults. It was too much, too much. He forced her into orgasm again, and she bucked hard against his mouth.
Then he let her rest. Her vagina tightened over and over with aftershocks. He crawled up her lax body and placed his hot lips around her nipple, sucking. Marisa squirmed under him, groaning against her fist. Her vagina clenched again.
He sucked her other breast, making savoring noises. She squirmed against him and reached for his shorts.
But he stopped her, gripping her hands.
She stared a question at him. He leaned forward and fused his mouth to hers. He tasted of her. She ate him up, his warm, wonderful lips.
Finally he pulled away, gasping. “That’s to hold you over until later.”
“But you … ” How could he not finish what they’d started? How could he take nothing for himself when she was willing to give him anything he wanted?
“I’d come inside you if I could, but … ” He looked sheepish. “Even after all that, my guy is still tired.”
Marisa laughed, as she knew he’d intended. The tension lessened. “But, I want you all night.”
“I’ll be up for it — literally — by this afternoon, I promise. You’ll get all night. And just to make sure, I’ll stop at the drugstore and buy something to help.”
“You don’t need the blue pill.” Just the opposite.
“Not a pill.” He kissed her. “They sell something to help sustain an erection for hours. And it comes with a little added pleasure for a man’s partner.”
Marisa didn’t want to ask how he knew about the product, or whom he might have used it with. She burned with jealousy. But reality intruded. Nick lived in New York City. He was going back there, to the women who lived there. She had only a few more days with him.
“Buy a gross of them.”
• • •
Marisa was glad Nick was along as she climbed the steps of the big white house to face Scott Wentworth for the first time since the lawyer’s office. She was afraid she’d scream like a banshee or lunge for Scott’s face with her fingernails for cataloguing his wife’s family’s belongings like a shopkeeper.
It took a long time before the front door opened. And there stood Brooke Shroyer, her long blonde hair in disarray around her shoulders, wearing only a man’s shirt, which covered her to mid-thigh. She had legs a mile long. She looked shocked to see them.
Words failed Marisa, but not Brooke. “Scott, someone to see you,” she called over her shoulders, making the word “someone” sound like an insult. Then she slinked away.
Marisa didn’t dare look at Nick. Her thoughts and emotions collided together like the train cars had the day Carolyn was killed.
Scott appeared in the doorway, shirtless, with his belt undone and his always-controlled hair rumpled. Marisa couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
He looked from her to Nick, his expression icy, and sneered, “You’ve got some nerve coming here.”
“Me?” Marisa wanted to scream at him and hit him. Or scratch his eyes out and bite him. Her anger seethed inside her on a primal level.
But Scott lashed out first. “You claimed you were my wife’s friend, but as soon as she’s dead you try for her fortune with your vicious lies.”
“I’m not the liar.”
But Scott wasn’t finished. “You’ve decided to use the rumors of your bastard origins to your advantage. What’s that make you?”
She wasn’t the one who was disloyal. “At least I’m not counting her pennies while she’s lying in the morgue.” Marisa choked on the words. “And screwing your secretary in her bed!”
“A man has needs, Miss Avalos. No man will begrudge me solace while I’m in mourning, and Miss Shroyer is willing.”
“You’re despicable!” Marisa fought tears. Poor Carolyn, married to this … snake … for four long years. He couldn’t have loved her, not when he moved on to the next warm body without a second thought. She’d been right not to like him.
She glared him down. “I want the box of mementos Carolyn left me in her will.”
Scott narrowed his eyes, and his expression went even colder. “I haven’t had time to look for it.”