Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty-Five

B ritt paced the kitchen, waiting for Nick to escort the last reveller off the property.

She shouldn't be this nervous.

It wasn't as if she'd never had sex with him.

Though as she watched him stride towards the house, broad shoulders squared, long legs eating up the distance, a full moon casting shadows across his face and glinting in his dark hair, she knew the man he was today was a far cry from the boy he'd been ten years earlier.

If she'd loved young Nick unreservedly, what hope did she have of holding back her emotions this time around?

As he neared the door, she quickly sat on the nearest chair and picked up a magazine from a messy stack in the corner, pretending to flip through it without a care in the world.

When he entered, she peeked over the top of the magazine, confused by his wide grin.

'Everyone gone?' So much for casual. Her voice came out a high-pitched squeak and she cleared her throat, rustling the magazine, ready to duck behind it.

'Uh-huh.' He stalked towards her and she gulped, wanting to be in his arms so much it hurt, yet petrified once she was there she'd never want to leave. ‘Doing a bit of light reading?'

'Mmm.'

His muffled guffaw implied he hadn't bought her ruse for a second. 'That's interesting. I'd never have pegged you for a girl interested in cattle mating seasons.'

Heat swept her cheeks as she slapped the pages shut, flung the magazine back on the pile, and folded her arms.

'Because if you are, you can have those magazines. They were Pa's and I'm in the process of doing a major clean-out before the sale, so be my guest.'

Seeing the funny side of it, she chuckled. 'Thanks, but I'll pass. Leave the cows and bulls to it.'

The twinkle in his eyes intensified as he held out a hand to her and when she placed her hand in his he pulled her to her feet. 'You don't have to be nervous around me.'

'I'm not.' A quick rebuttal belied by her tumbling stomach, wobbly knees, and hands that shook slightly.

He sent a pointed glance at the magazine and raised an eyebrow. 'Really?'

She sighed and placed her palms on his chest to anchor her. 'Okay, I'm a tad nervous. Aren't you?'

‘No.' He slid his arms around her waist, creating a welcoming cocoon she could happily snuggle in forever. 'We're not strangers. This is you and me, Red.'

'But—'

'No buts. Unless it involves this one.' He gave her backside a playful pinch and she laughed, her nerves dissipating as he intended. 'Tonight is about you and me. No second guessing. No overanalysing. No regrets. Okay?'

It sounded logical when he put it like that, but she knew come morning she'd be analysing every second. She'd always been this way around him, off kilter and out of her depth, and now the moment she'd been anticipating had arrived, she couldn't quell the bundle of nerves knotting her resolve.

She wanted him. It should be simple. But nothing was simple about her relationship with this dynamic, enigmatic man, and the moment she started underestimating the power of his hold over her was the moment she'd lose control.

Not a bad thing, but she was scared—terrified in fact—by the depth of emotion for a bad-boy rebel who still cradled her heart in his powerful hands.

'You're thinking too much.'

She nodded, her mouth kicking up in a wry grin. He knew her so well, knew she'd be analysing every angle of this momentous step.

‘I know I acted like a jackass earlier. That I put a halt to us having sex and didn't give you an explanation why.' He screwed up his nose, an adorable quirk he'd had a decade earlier. ‘I guess I didn't want to rush you into anything you may not be ready for. Because you're right, I'm nervous too. I don't want to complicate things between us but I want you so damn badly. I'm over-thinking and second-guessing and waiting and—‘

'Ssh.' She pressed a fingertip to his lips. ‘It's okay. I want you too.'

When she lowered her hand, the lips she'd just touched kicked into a bashful smile. ‘Yeah?'

‘Yeah.'

‘In that case, I'm done over-thinking,' he said, a second before he covered her mouth with his, his commanding kiss obliterating every doubt.

Nick's lips teased hers, brushing and crushing, alternating pressure, making her mindless with wanting him. As his tongue duelled with hers, the ever present passion between them ignited, and she was lost to the frantic flurry of eager hands, low moans, and hot, bare skin.

'I didn't want it to be like this, not here—'

'Don't stop.' She panted, arching into him, her pelvis melding to his. 'Please Nick, I want you now.'

His guttural groan raised goosebumps along her skin as his hands bunched her skirt up around her thighs while he plundered her mouth again.

Sensation bombarded her, from his mouth ravaging hers with fierce intent to his hands stroking her thighs. Mindless pleasure that built and receded and built again until she could barely stand.

Her muscles tensed, she spiralled higher, and when his fingers finally delved beneath the elastic of her thong and circled her clitoris, she came apart on a long, drawn-out cry.

She must've closed her eyes at some point because when she opened them, the reverence in Nick's wide eyes made her want to cry.

'Nick, that was—'

'Just the beginning.'

His wicked grin sent a tremor of excitement through her sated body and she gasped when he spun her around. His arm around her waist pinned her to him, her back in delicious contact with his front. His very aroused front.

'Let me please you—'

'You already have, sweetheart, by hearing you come,' he whispered in her ear, his teeth grazing the lobe, nipping and nuzzling, until she could do little but sag against him, boneless with longing. 'But just so you know, I'm calling the shots now.'

‘Good to see my bad boy is back.'

With a faux growl, he hugged her tighter. 'Then it's time I showed you how bad I can be.'

She shivered as he slid his hands up her ribcage to cradle her breasts, his thumbs teasing her nipples by brushing across them repeatedly until a flood of mind-numbing need drenched her.

He didn't stop there, making good on his promise, as one hand braced the wall over her shoulder while the other stroked her wet core.

Desire tightened within her, her hips rocking of their own volition as her inner muscles spasmed again and again as she threw back her head in absolute abandonment.

'Nick…' She cried out his name as a part-plea, part-warning. She couldn't take much more of this teasing, needing him inside her, now.

'I'm right here, sweetheart.'

With a swift unzipping and a rustle of tearing foil he was back, pushing against her, holding her hips and angling them forward as he nudged against her.

'Nick, please…'

He drove into her, hard and fast and long, the exquisite pressure filling her. She'd waited so long for this, had dreamed about it, and when he started to pull out and thrust back into her again and again, the sheer intensity of it robbed her of breath, of reason.

'Britt, my beautiful Britt.'

His possessiveness thrilled her as much as his hands gripping her hips, tilting them to increase the friction as he plunged into her repeatedly.

She met him thrust for thrust, clenching around him, moaning as his fingers dug into her hips. When he increased the rhythm, slamming into her like a man possessed, she lost the last of her sanity as he drove them towards a shattering climax.

They yelled ‘yeah' in unison, her entire body humming, thrumming, and sated as she sagged against him, her head lolling against his shoulder.

His barely audible oath had her head jerking up as she spun around to face him. 'What's wrong?'

'This. Here.' He gestured at the kitchen before lowering his gaze to her bunched skirt and thong around her knees, shaking his head. 'You deserve more than this.'

Mustering what little dignity a woman with her panties around her knees could have, she wriggled back into her thong before jabbing him in the chest.

'Don't you dare apologise for the best sex I've ever had. It was perfect.' Understatement of the year. ‘Better than perfect, it was stupendous.'

The corners of his wickedly sexy mouth kicked up. 'The best, huh?'

She nodded. 'The best.'

His grin widened. ‘You like a guy so out of control he can't make it to the bedroom?'

‘Not any guy.' She grabbed his lapels and hauled him close until their noses almost touched. 'I like you , Nick Mancini. Every delicious, bad-boy, inch of you.'

'I love it when you talk dirty to me.'

'I didn't mean—'

'I know.' He chuckled and rubbed noses with her as he stroked her back; long, languid strokes that relaxed her, and she rested her cheek on his chest, inhaling his seductive scent. 'Do you think it's ironic we're back here where it all started?'

She pulled away and glanced up at him. 'You mean my first time?'

He nodded, caressing her cheek with a tenderness that stole her breath and warmed her heart.

'I wanted to make it special for you then too. Which meant the oven chose that day to malfunction so the pizza was cold, the frozen apple pie didn't defrost fast enough, and I sprayed cola all over you.'

She smiled at the memories. 'That night was special and it was all because of you.' Her fingertips skimmed his jaw, savouring the faint prickle of stubble, before hovering over his lips, tracing their outline. 'You were incredible and I've never forgotten that night.'

Or the few months after it, when they'd sneak down to the river to have sex underneath the towering eucalypts or beneath the beautiful jacarandas. To this day, she couldn't walk past a jacaranda without blushing, its unique fragrance a poignant reminder of Nick laying her on a carpet of purple blossoms and taking her to the heavens and back.

'I say we recreate the magic.' He winked. ‘Though this time, we might make it to the bedroom. You in?'

Excitement surged through her as she nodded, and he swept her into his arms and headed for his old bedroom.

'I'm definitely in,' she said, laughing out loud when he twirled her around a few times before bumping the door open with his hip.

'Good, because if you'd said no, I would've dropped you.'

Nipping the skin beneath his jaw, she nuzzled him. 'You wouldn't dare.'

'Never dare a rebel,' he said, dumping her on the bed before joining her, their laughter surrounding them in lovely warmth.

She glanced around the room, at the wooden shelves stacked high with trophies, several motorbike helmets in one corner, old leather jackets in the other. 'This room hasn't changed.'

He shrugged, a blush stealing into his cheeks. 'I never stay here. My life's in Noosa now. I guess Pa was too busy running the place when he was alive to worry about changing the bedrooms.'

Did Nick know his voice changed when he spoke about his father? Deepened, softened, as if caught up in good times. She envied him that, had always envied him the easy, close relationship he'd shared with his dad. It was one of the reasons she'd liked hanging out here so much; that, and the mean lasagna Pa cooked.

'I love this place. Do you really need to sell?'

A momentary shadow clouded his eyes before he blinked and it vanished. 'It's not fair to let it run down. And I don't have the time to do much out here.'

'Why don't you hire a manager? Farm hands? Get the plantation up and running again?'

He shook his head, the tiny indentation between his brows a sign she shouldn't but into business that didn't concern.

'You know what this place meant to Pa.' He didn't have to add 'and me'. She could see his reluctance to sell in his clenched jaw, in his rigid neck muscles, and could hear it in his formidable tone.

'All the more reason to keep it, bring it back to life—'

‘It's time to let the place go.' His jaw clenched. ‘You of all people should understand the power of memories and the need to move on.'

Oh yeah, she understood the need to move on all too well. As for memories, her good ones involved Nick and, rather than push the issue about the farm, she needed to start creating new ones.

'Yeah, I get it.' Her gaze caught a flash of silver hanging off the mirror. 'Hey, is that the medallion I gave you?'

He followed her line of vision, the deepening pink on his tanned cheeks a dead giveaway he'd rather forget that he'd kept a girly trinket.

'Maybe.'

She rolled off the bed, evading his arms as he made a lunge for her. 'I can't believe you kept it all this time.'

'Like I said, this room has been untouched since I left.'

Her heart expanded as she slung the delicate chain on her finger, tracing the outline of the star on the medallion with her finger.

'You know why I chose a star, don't you?'

He shook his head and she dangled the chain on her finger a second longer before rehanging it on the mirror.

'Because you hung the stars and moon for me back then.'

He came up behind her, slid his arms around her waist, and held her close. 'And now?'

'Let's find out.' She turned in the circle of his embrace, ready for his kiss, every cell in her body crying out for him, only him.

His mouth moved over hers, hot, challenging, and she matched him, their kisses deep and long and luscious, the type of kisses to melt a body and sear a soul.

If they kissed like this all night long she'd be happy, but she didn't want to settle. Not tonight.

Tonight she wanted those stars and that moon.

'I want you so much,' he murmured, trailing his lips down her neck as his thumbs nudged the underside of her breasts, toying with her, teasing her, before drifting upwards to circle her tight nipples through the silk.

Her head fell back on a moan as he deftly flicked the clasp on her shoulder and the Grecian dress slithered down her body in a rustle of silk, its caress almost as erotic as Nick's hands.

‘Wow,' he murmured, his gaze raking her from head to foot before resting on her breasts, the naked need in his eyes making her tremor with unbridled lust. 'You're even more gorgeous now if that's possible.'

Smiling, she tugged on his jacket. 'Still the sweet talker.'

His dazed expression vindicated he found her mature body just as appealing as the lithe teenager she'd once been.

Sliding the jacket off his shoulders, she started working on his bow tie. 'But for now, less talk, more action.'

'You want to see some action?'

His scorching kiss had her grateful for the edge of the bed bumping the backs of her knees as she collapsed onto it, happily watching as he shucked off the rest of his clothes in record time.

'I like those,' she said, pointing to the black boxers that had been haunting her dreams ever since she'd glimpsed them on their wedding night.

'And I like this.' He toyed with the top of her white lace thong, sending a river of heat straight to her core. 'But not enough to keep them on.'

He whipped them off and tossed them over his shoulder, his eyes glazing as his gaze roamed her.

'Come here.' She held her arms out to him and he entered her embrace in a second, the touch of his bare skin against hers sizzling hot.

He kissed her, laved her, delved his fingers into her until she was panting for release, clutching at him, crying out his name, sobbing her need when the mind-numbing tension climbed and spiralled and shattered into a million shooting stars.

She couldn't think, couldn't speak, and she whimpered when he left her for a moment to strip off his boxers and roll a condom on.

'I'm right here, sweetheart.'

'Where you belong,' she said, a second before his mouth claimed hers and he lay on top of her, sliding inside with a smooth, powerful thrust that made her gasp.

He filled her, completed her, and she wrapped her legs around him, tilting her hips to encourage deeper contact.

When he slid in and out, over and over, every move sent shards of exquisite pleasure firing through her, making nerve endings sit up and cry for more.

He gave her more.

He drove into her, his chest rasping her sensitised nipples, his tongue mating with hers, his rhythm taking them higher and higher until he stiffened and cried out her name, shuddering into her.

Britt had no idea how long they stayed locked together, their heart rates slowly calming, their mingled breaths soft and ragged.

She didn't mind his weight, didn't mind the slick of sweat between their bodies.

She'd asked for the stars and the moon.

Nick had delivered the whole damn solar system.