Part 10 (1/2)

Nicola couldn't remember the last time she felt this tired...or this good. And yet, if she slept now, knowing it was all over in the morning, her dreams would be unsettled. Upset despite how amazing her night with Marcus had been.

And the truth was, had she been more awake, more lucid, she never would have asked, ”How about two nights instead of one?”

The perfect way they fit together, the way he pulled her closer and stroked his hand over her hair, was her answer. No longer needing to stay awake, Nicola let herself relax all the way into sleep.

Holy h.e.l.l.

Marcus stared at the ceiling, the bright lights of downtown San Francisco s.h.i.+ning in through the sheer curtains on the windows.

He'd always loved s.e.x, but what had just happened with Nicola tonight...it was way beyond good s.e.x.

His mind wasn't just blown, his body was, too.

And now, she wanted another night.

Of course, he did, too. How could he not want a repeat of the most spectacular s.e.x of his life, with what had to be the most beautiful, most responsive woman he'd ever had the pleasure of making love to?

But that was just the problem.

It should have been f.u.c.king.

It should have been mindless s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g.

It should have been nothing but pleasure, nothing but checking off one o.r.g.a.s.m after another.

Nicola s.h.i.+fted against him, her soft curves arousing him when he should have been long past the point of no return, at least for a good thirty minutes or so.

Maybe if he wasn't thirty-six years old; maybe if he hadn't just been screwed over by a woman he'd thought he was going to marry; maybe if he hadn't just been party to something so extraordinary it made his groin throb with renewed need...maybe then he could have told himself the lie he wanted to believe.

But he knew better than to even try.

Because the undeniable truth was that the night he'd just spent with Nicola had been more than he'd bargained for.

He liked her. A whole h.e.l.l of a lot more than he was comfortable with. Somehow all the visions of her with those kids at the elevator, his memory of the way she'd slept on his lap and then had been so sweetly nervous in his brother's kitchen, combined with the s.e.x G.o.ddess she'd been all night in bed, made her seem like his version of the perfect woman.

If one night could take him this far, then where on earth would he be after two?

Chapter Eleven.

Nicola was having the most marvelous dream. She was in a deliciously cozy bed, cuddled into a hard, heated wall of muscle. With that warmth wrapped all around her, she felt so safe-safe enough to let loose her innate sensuality as a large male hand found its way over her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, down her stomach, to the vee between her legs. It was pure instinct to arch into that arousing touch, to moan her pleasure, to widen her thighs and press into sure fingers now circling her c.l.i.toris.

Her lower belly clenched once, twice, with pleasure, and then-oh yes, right there!-those fingers were moving lower still to slide through her slick wetness, to tease her mercilessly before pus.h.i.+ng inside her flesh.

She felt it coming, then, an o.r.g.a.s.m so big it felt like it was starting at the tips of her toes and would end at the pads of her fingers. Her breath was coming out in gasps and through her fluttering eyelids she could almost see the dream cloud parting.

No! She didn't want to wake up, didn't want to lose the thread of one of the most amazing dreams she'd ever had before she- RING! BUZZ! RING! BUZZ! RING!.

The loud sound of a cell phone jumping on a tabletop was almost immediately joined by the harsh ringing of the hotel's phone on the bedside table, barely three feet from Nicola's head.

Oh s.h.i.+t! She jumped up in the bed, her heart pounding as the words s.h.i.+t, s.h.i.+t, s.h.i.+t! played on repeat in her head.

How could she have forgotten about her video shoot?

She was a heartbeat away from throwing the covers off and running into the bathroom to fling herself into the world's quickest shower when she realized the large hand on her thigh wasn't a dream.

As the final vestiges of sleep cleared and everything came flooding back to her, she found her heart beating hard for a reason that had nothing to do with being late for work.

She was still throbbing between her legs with almost-realized pleasure as she reached for the sheet and pulled it up over her naked body. She knew it didn't really make sense for her to do that after last night. Maybe it was how fl.u.s.tered she felt waking up so abruptly. Maybe it was that Marcus looked impossibly gorgeous, his skin tanned and dark against the snowy white sheets.

Or maybe it was simply that she wasn't used to waking up in bed with a man's hand between her thighs.

”I'm really late for my video shoot. I can't believe I forgot to set the alarm.”

She'd made it a point to be early for everything, especially since the debacle with Kenny when her reputation as a wild party girl had blown up around her.

At her blurted words, Marcus's hand slid from her thigh and she immediately missed the warmth of his touch. He s.h.i.+fted on the bed to sit up as well, only he wasn't at all concerned about his nudity.

He was big and hard and for a moment her brain forgot all about business. All she could think was how good it would feel to climb up over him, to sink down onto him and take him inside her body. A body that was more than ready to make love again.

And she probably would have done just that, had he not said, ”It's my fault. I kept you up too late last night, even though I knew you needed to work today.”

G.o.d, why did their mornings always have to be so awkward? It didn't help that her phones wouldn't stop ringing.

”I'm sorry,” she said, ”I need to get that real quick just to let them know I'm on my way.”

She grabbed the phone closest to her and said, ”Hi. Sorry.” She had her face in her hands as she said, ”I overslept. I'll be there really soon.”

She hung up. ”That was Lori. She sounds really worried about-”

Her words fell away as she noticed that Marcus wasn't in the bed anymore, that he was standing on the opposite side of the room and had already put on his pants. She was the one who should have been dressed already and heading out the door, but from the look on his face, he was clearly planning to beat her to it. She could also clearly see from his stiff body language to the regret on his face that he wanted nothing more than to walk away from her, from the incredible night they'd spent together.

Of course, right then, she had to remember what she'd asked him before falling asleep in his arms: ”How about two nights instead of one?”

Nicola's first reaction was to cringe, to feel like a pathetic idiot for having asked for more time with him. She pulled the sheet off the bed to cover herself as she stood to face the man who had brought her more pleasure than she'd even known was possible.

Only, instead of letting him leave before she embarra.s.sed herself any further, something hit her: Everything she'd ever wanted, she'd gone for.

Despite how hard it was, how potentially mortifying, despite the huge potential hit to her pride, she knew deep inside that she and Marcus had shared something special. Not just the s.e.x, but those sweet moments of connection, too.

She wasn't willing just to let it all end. She wasn't willing to let herself be pleasured and left like this.

Which was why she refused to let the nervous pace of her heartbeat keep her from moving across the room to him. His eyes darkened as she came closer, the muscles in his rigid jaw jumping as the sheet slipped further down on her chest.

She knew she could drop the sheet and get what she wanted, that his reaction to her naked curves was almost guaranteed. And it was tempting, so tempting, to be consumed by his flames of desire all over again that she almost did just that.