Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chloe

The Geico gecko stared at me like he had every right to be in my shower, a weird red gizzard thing expanding under his neck as he breathed. I shouldn't have screamed like that, but my mind was focused on escaping the embarrassment of confessing my inner child's deepest wound in front of Nikolai. He turned sweet on me and looked at me with such compassion—and also heat—that I was about two seconds away from begging him to take me to his bedroom. Even though I lectured myself daily—hourly?—about not approaching that subject with the single dad.

And now that look has turned into a raging inferno that threatens to burn us both down if he doesn't get the hell out of this bathroom. Every square inch of me is bared to him and the man doesn't seem intent on leaving anytime soon. His bare chest heaves and his hands are balled into fists at his sides. I know the man is built. Have felt those muscles under my hands the few times we allowed ourselves to touch, but seeing it in person? While naked? This is practically a holy experience. Would it be too weird if I dropped to my knees in supplication? Because they are definitely quivering.

"What is wrong?" he barks.

I toss my head to the side and swallow hard, still rearranging my breasts and arms and hands, trying to cover all the various bits that have no hope of being covered right now. For the life of me, I can't recall the name of the reptile that just scared the crap out of me. "Brown crawling thing."

"Spider or lizard?"

Ah. There it is. "Lizard!"

Nikolai's thick eyebrow hitches upward. "A lizard has you screaming like you are being murdered?"

"Hey," I snap. "How about you save the lecture for later? You know, when I'm not naked?"

His gaze instantly drops, like my mentioning my state of undress is permission to finally look down. I stifle another scream, and he claps his hand over his eyes. The slap is hard enough to echo off the tiled walls and would have made me wince if I wasn't preoccupied with fumbling for the towel on the wall and wrapping it around myself before that hand falls away again.

"Okay," I mutter, holding the towel around me tightly. "Decent."

Nikolai drops his hand and assesses my new outfit. There is zero–and I mean zero–chance of me being able to ignore the fact that the front of his pajama pants have tented with an erection so large it's making my mouth water. Instead of ignoring the elephant in the room, Nikolai just reaches down and adjusts himself and suddenly I've forgotten all the reasons why I can't have a teeny tiny taste of this man.

He steps forward and I think maybe all my dreams have come true, but he sweeps by me, reaching into the shower. He lunges beyond the shower curtain and curses in Russian under his breath. He lunges again and that damn gecko (or lizard, I guess...how would one know the difference?) jumps out of the shower and makes a run for it in my direction. I let out another muffled scream and hustle to the other side of Nikolai, hiding behind his back.

The little guy runs right out the bathroom door as I peek around Nikolai in horror. It takes me a minute to realize that Nikolai is shaking, not in fright like me, but in laughter. I look up and up and up, seeing miles of tanned skin covering mounds of muscle. It takes my eyeballs years to make the trek, but they've never been so happy to cover so much ground. Yep, the man is laughing at me.

He spins and reaches for me, cupping my face and pulling me into his warm torso. Dear god, he's thick everywhere, making me feel like a small doll compared to him. I'm acutely aware there's just a flimsy towel between us. The look in his eyes holds humor, but also something else. Something that makes my belly swoop and my heart wish for things I know aren't possible.

"Two things, Chloe Cooper." His voice is a low, sexy grumble that has me leaning all my weight into him. "I will slay dragons for you. A little lizard is not a problem."

I've never had a man make dinner for me, let alone slay dragons. I know it's just a silly phrase and yet I believe Nikolai. He already saved me from a ruined house. "And two?" I whisper.

His eyes lose every ounce of humor, turning stormy as the sea in winter. "You are more beautiful than any woman that has ever existed. You should always be naked."

He flexes his hips, his erection harder than a sledgehammer as it presses into my soft belly. Proof that what he says is true. Before I can gather enough spit in my mouth to even attempt a response, he releases me and steps back. I'm suddenly cold, feeling like I had everything I ever wanted in my grasp one moment and I'm bereft the next. Which is crazy. I literally lost my husband a year ago and didn't feel this gaping sense of missing half of me.

Nikolai spins and leaves the bathroom without another word, closing the door behind him. I stand there, gripping my towel and staring at the space he just occupied, wondering what the hell has happened to me. Have I done the unthinkable? Have I developed feelings for this man? Because this all feels suspiciously like feelings that start with the letter L.

The next morning is a frenzy of activity from the second I wake up. The court-appointed guardian ad litem is coming today to assess Ayana's living situation with her father. Nikolai and I don't discuss the events from last night, which is fine by me. I need several more days to wrap my head around my feelings–especially when this year is supposed to be all about having fun, not weighing myself down with responsibilities and heavy things like falling for a guy I can never have.

A woman barrels through the door right as I'm finishing cooking eggs and toast for all of us. She nods at Nikolai and heads into the house, a vacuum in one hand and a bucket in the other.

"Who's that?" I ask, sitting down and pointing to the plates. Ayana digs in and Nikolai sits across from her, his own plate stacked with more eggs and toast than I can fathom one person can eat.

"I scheduled the housekeeper to come today. She normally only comes once a month since I am usually by myself or traveling."

I finish chewing the bite in my mouth. "Oh, I was going to do laundry and run the vacuum around today."

Nikolai puts down his fork and gives me a serious look. "You do the sheets every other day. Your job is to be with Ayana, not clean this house. I should have hired her to come more often right from the beginning. I am sorry."

My cheeks heat. I flick a glance at Ayana, seeing that she's occupied with the iPad Nikolai lets her have for exactly one hour a day. I lean closer to him and lower my voice. "That's just from the hormonal night sweats. You didn't need to pay for her to be here more often. I can do my own sheets."

He frowns, eyebrows drawn together. "Night sweats even with the air conditioning going full blast?"

I shrug, used to this particular symptom. My doctor in Wisconsin assured me it was normal, especially considering the stress of the last few years. "Yeah. It's not really something that you can stop, even with an arctic blast. I sweat like a sinner in church almost every night. The AC is nice, but it doesn't stop the sweats. Old lady hormones are just hormoning."

He's still frowning as he shakes his head. "This is not right. Women should not have to go through this."

I grin. He's not wrong. "That's why we're the tougher of the two sexes."

"Agreed." He digs back into his breakfast while I try not to swoon over the fact he noticed my frequent trips to the laundry room and scheduled his housekeeper to take over.

"Hey, I talked to...the guy fixing my condo." I flap my hand in the air, searching for a word I can't seem to grasp. The guy with the toolbelt telling everyone else what to do. Damn this perimenopausal brain! "They should be done in the next few days. I'll be out of your hair before you know it." I keep that smile on my face, even as my heart sinks at the idea of not seeing Nikolai every day.

He puts his fork down again, looking puzzled as he says, "I like taking care of you. You are not...in my hair, as you say."

"Dad?" Ayana pipes up and we both swing our gazes over to her. She's looking at both of us, iPad forgotten, the corners of her lips turned down. "I don't want to leave."

Nikolai looks like he's been punched in the gut. Ayana knows she goes back to her mother's house tomorrow. Nikolai shoves his chair back and comes around to the other side to pull Ayana into a tight hug. "Your mother and I are working out a plan so that I can see you more often. I promise you. No more months in between visits."

My heart aches, seeing the two of them together. Then Ayana turns her sweet face in my direction, her blue eyes filled with tears. "But what about Chloe?"

I reach over and stroke her arm where she's still wrapped in a hug with her father. "I'll see you all the time at hockey practice, sweetie. And if your father is okay with it, we can do a few ice cream dates after practice, so we have a chance to talk."

She beams, tears forgotten. "Please, Dad?"

"We'll see about that. Ice cream is not good for you," Nikolai grumbles.

I snort and Ayana laughs. We both know we'll be going on those ice cream dates. He can't say no to us when we combine forces. I help clean up from breakfast, and when the guardian ad litem arrives a couple hours later, the place is spotless, Ayana is happily drawing at the kitchen table, and there's no way this woman can find fault in Nikolai's parenting. Especially when Ayana interrupts the interview to tell the woman about the horrible confetti cake we attempted to make a few nights ago and how we'd get kicked off Bake Off for baking such a sad-looking cake. No one can resist that little girl's giggle.

The woman leaves, but only after informing Nikolai she'll have a glowing review to give the judge. His shoulders drop away from his ears as he closes the door behind her. I put a hand on the middle of his back, so happy for him I could burst. He stiffens at my touch.

"You did it," I say quietly.

Nikolai spins around and glances at Ayana trying to sit on Paul's back while he dodges her advances and then looks up at me. "No, we did it."

He gives me one of his rare, unguarded smiles and that's when I know for sure. I've completely fallen in love with the grumpy goalie.