ends of his hair brushed her knuckles like the whisper of cool silk, and the heat from his hot, hard body seeped through layers of denim and flannel and sweater to warm her skin. Unlike Tommy, rhythm poured through Nick, easy and natural, like a languid stream in no great hurry to get anywhere. “You could’ve
“You’re right. I could have.”
“This is the nineties. Most men have abandoned the cave.” The scent of him filled her head with the smell of clean cotton and warm man.
“Most men like your old boyfriend?”
“Yes.”
“Tommy thinks with his dick.”
“So do you.”
“There you go again,” he paused and his voice lowered a fraction, “thinking you know so much about me.”
Her stomach knotted in a tangle of conflicting emotion. Anger and desire, breathless anticipation, and gut-level fear. Tommy Markham, her first love, hadn’t created such chaos within her. Why Nick? He’d been nasty to her more times than he’d been nice. They had a past she’d thought she’d buried. “Everyone in town knows you spend time with quite a few women.”
He pulled back far enough to look down at her. Light from the stage sliced across the left half of his handsome face. “Even if that were true, there’s a difference. I’m not married.”
“Married or not, indiscriminate sex is still disgusting.”
“Is that what you told your boyfriend?”
“My relationship with Tommy is none of your business.”
“Relationship? Are you going to meet him later for some of that indiscriminate sex you find so disgusting?” His hands moved up her back to the base of her skull. “Did he get you hot?” He plowed his fingers through her hair from beneath, holding her head in his palms. His eyes were as hard as granite.
She pushed at his shoulders, but he tightened his grasp, pressing his strong fingers into her scalp. He wasn’t hurting her, but he wasn’t letting her go either. “You’re sick.”
He lowered his face and asked against her lips, “Does he turn you on?”
She sucked in her breath.
“Make you ache?”
Delaney’s heart pounded in her chest and she couldn’t answer. He lightly brushed his mouth over hers and slid the tip of his tongue across the seam of her lips. A current of pleasure swept across her breasts. Her body’s immediate reaction surprised and alarmed her. Nick was the last man for whom she wanted to feel such aching desire. Their past was too ugly. She meant to push him away, but he turned up the heat, and the kiss turned carnal. His tongue entered her mouth for a long hot assault, devouring her, consuming her resistance, and creating a delicious suction with his lips.
She wanted to hate him. She wanted to hate him even as she kissed him back. Even as her tongue encouraged him. Even as she wound her arms around his neck and clung to him as the only steady thing in a dizzy chaotic world. His lips were warm. Firm. Demanding she kiss him back with the same fiery passion.
He slid his big hands down her sides, then slipped them beneath the loose edge of her sweater. She felt his fingers lightly caress the small of her back, the stroke of each across her skin. Then his warm callused palms slipped to her waist, and his thumbs skimmed her abdomen, fanning lightly over her heated flesh. The knot in her stomach tightened even more and the sensation of pinpricks tingled her chest, drawing her nipples taut as if he’d touched her there. He made her forget she stood on a crowded dance floor. He made her forget everything. Her hands drifted to the sides of his neck, and she tangled her fingers in his hair. Then the kiss changed, became almost gentle, and he softly pressed his thumbs into her navel. He slid his thumbs beneath the waistband of her jeans and pulled her tight against the long hard bulge just to the right of his button fly.
Her own choked moan brought an instant of sanity, and she tore her mouth from his. She gasped for breath, ashamed and appalled at her body’s uncontrolled reaction. He’d done this to her before, only that time she hadn’t stopped him.
She pushed at him and his hands fell to his sides. When she finally looked into his face, his gaze was hooded and watchful. Then his jaw hardened and his eyes narrowed.
“You shouldn’t have come back. You should have stayed gone,” he said, then he turned and forced his way through the throng of people.
Stunned by her behavior and his and the desire still surging through her veins, Delaney was unable to move for several long moments. Blues continued to pump from the big speaker, and the couples around her swayed to the beat as if nothing disturbing had just happened. Only Delaney knew that it had. It wasn’t until the music stopped that she stumbled back to her table. Maybe he was right. Maybe she should have stayed gone, but she’d sold her soul for money. A lot of money, and she couldn’t leave now.
Delaney shoved her arms into her jacket and made her way to the front entrance. There was only one way she was going to survive the next seven months. Revert back to plan A and avoid Nick as much as possible. With her head down, she stepped out into the brisk air. Her breath hung in front of her face as she zipped her coat.
The unmistakable rumble of Nick’s Harley shook the night, and Delaney glanced over her shoulder. He stood with the big bike between his widespread legs, his back to her, and a worn black leather jacket stretched across his shoulders. He held his hand out and one of the Howell twins jumped on behind, bonding her perfect self to his butt like super glue.
Delaney’s head snapped back around and she shoved her hands in her pockets for the short walk home. Nick had the morals of a tomcat. He always had, but why he’d kissed her when he had one of the Howell girls with him was beyond Delaney’s understanding. In fact, why he’d kiss her at all was past comprehension. He didn’t like her. That much was clear.
Of course, he hadn’t liked her ten years ago, either. He’d used her to get back at Henry, but Henry was dead now, and getting involved with her could mean he’d lose the bequest Henry had given him. Nick was many things, all of them complicated, but he wasn’t stupid.
She took a left at the alleyway and walked toward the stairs leading to her apartment. It didn’t make sense, but many things Nick did had never made any sense to her.
In any other city, Delaney might have been afraid to walk the streets after dark, but not in Truly. Occasionally one of the summer homes at the north side of the lake got broken into. But nothing really
Delaney had lived in too many big cities to leave without locking her apartment. Once she’d climbed the stairs and was inside, she secured the door behind her and tossed the keys on the glass and black coffee table. While she unlaced her boots, she thought about Nick and her crazy reaction to him. For a few unguarded moments, she’d wanted him.
And he’d wanted her, too. She’d felt it in the way he touched her and in the hard bulge of his erection.
The boot in Delaney’s hand hit the floor, and she frowned into the darkness. On a crowded dance floor, she’d kissed him like he was a fresh batch of sin and she was dying for a taste. He’d made her burn, and she’d wanted him like she hadn’t wanted any other man in a long time. Like she’d wanted him once before. Like no one existed beyond him and nothing else mattered. Nick was the only man she’d ever known who could make her forget everything. There was something about him that went straight to her head. He’d gotten to her tonight, just as he had the night before she’d left Truly ten years ago.
She didn’t like to think about what had happened, but she was exhausted and her mind did an unstoppable turnback to the memories she’d always tried to forget, but never could.
The summer after high school graduation had started out bad, then proceeded to go to hell. She’d just turned eighteen and figured it was finally time for her to have a say in her life. She didn’t want to attend college right away. She wanted to take a year off to decide what she really wanted to do, but Henry had already preregistered her at the University of Idaho, where he’d been a member of the Alumni Hall of Fame. He’d chosen her classes and signed her up for a full load of freshman courses.
At the end of June she got up the nerve to talk to Henry about a compromise. She would go part-time to Boise State University where Lisa was going, and she wanted to take classes she thought sounded fun.
He said no. End of subject.
