had a hand on the back of her head, the other on the outside of her thigh, caressing her through black hose. His slick tongue stroked hers, urging a hotter, more passionate response, and she gave him a kiss that sent a shudder of raw lust through them. She slid her hands up the sides of his neck and worked the rubber band from his ponytail. The beret fell from his head as she combed her fingers through his cool, fine hair. She felt his fingers drift up her garter to the edge of her skirt, drawing a line of fire that heated the insides of her thighs and flamed the hunger deep in her abdomen. Then his fingers dipped beneath the black lace and elastic and he grasped her bare flesh. She shoved one hand inside the open collar of his shirt and touched his shoulder where he was warm, his muscles hard, but it wasn’t enough and she tugged at the buttons until his shirt lay open. He was hard and smooth, his skin hot and slightly damp. Beneath her bottom, his thick erection pressed into her and she squirmed deeper into his lap. His fingers bit into her thigh, and she felt his deep groan beneath her palm.
He moved one hand to her waist, and his strong fingers squeezed her through the thin satin. A moan stuck in the top of her chest as his palm slipped upward, over her breast, to her throat. His knuckles brushed her collarbone and across the edge of her bustier. Then he slid his sensual mouth to her throat and his hand inside the tight satin top. He cupped her bare breast, and Delaney arched, pressing her hard nipple into his hot, hot palm. Her hands moved to his shoulder, and she grasped the soft fabric of his shirt in tight fists.
She ached all over and, with her last shred of sanity whispered, “Nick, we have to stop this.”
“We will,” he murmured as he pushed the bustier practically to her waist and lowered his head. He brushed his lips across the pink tip of her breast, then sucked it into his mouth, his tongue hot and wet and relentless. His big warm hand slipped between her thighs and he pressed his palm into her sensitive flesh. Through her damp cotton panties, his fingers felt her, and she squeezed her legs together, locking his hand in her crotch. Delaney eyes closed and his name escaped her lips, part moan, part sigh. It was the sound of need and desire. She wanted him to make love to her. She wanted to feel his naked body pressed to her. She had nothing to lose but self-respect. What was a little self-respect compared to a quality orgasm?
Then his mouth was gone and cool air swept across her breast. She forced her eyes open and followed his fiery gaze to her glistening nipple. He slid his hand from her thighs and picked up one end of her boa, slowly brushing it across her sensitive flesh. “Tell me you want me.”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
“Say it anyway.” He looked up, his eyes heavy with lust and determination. “Say it.” The feathers made another downy pass across her breasts.
Delaney sucked in her breath. “I want you.”
His gaze skimmed her face, then settled on her mouth. He placed a soft kiss on her lips and pulled her bustier back in place, covering her breasts once again.
He wasn’t going to make love to her. Of course he wasn’t. He had a lot more to lose than she did. “Why do we keep doing this?” she asked when he lifted his mouth. “I never mean for this to happen with us, but it always does.”
“Don’t you know?”
“I wish I did.”
“Unfinished business.”
She took a deep breath and leaned against him.
“What are you talking about? Unfinished business.”
“That night at Angel Beach. We never got to finish what we started before you ran off.”
“Ran off?” She felt her brows lower then rise up her forehead. “I didn’t have a choice.”
“You had a choice and you made it. You left with Henry.”
With as much dignity as possible under the circumstances, Delaney removed herself from his lap. Her left shoe was missing and her boa was stuck inside her bustier. “I left because you were using me.”
“Exactly when was that?” He stood and towered over her. “When you begged me to touch you all over?”
Delaney tugged her skirt down. “Shut up.”
“Or when my head was between your legs?”
“Shut up, Nick.” She yanked the boa free. “You were only out to humiliate me.”
“Bullshit.”
“You used me to get back at Henry.”
He rocked back on his heels and his gaze narrowed. “I never used you. I told you not to worry and that I’d take care of you, but you looked at me like I was some kind of rapist and left with Henry.”
She didn’t believe him. “I never looked at you like you were a rapist, and I would have remembered if you’d said one nice word. But you didn’t.”
“Yes I did, only you chose to leave with the old man. And the way I see it, you owe me.”
She picked up his jacket from the back of the couch and threw it at him. “I don’t owe you anything.”
“You better not be around here on June fourth, otherwise I’m going take what you’ve owed me for ten years.” He shoved his arms into his jacket and walked to the door. “And paybacks are a real bitch, wild thing.”
Delaney stared at the closed door long after she heard his Jeep tear out of the alley. Her body still burned from his touch, and the thought of some sort of sexual payback didn’t sound all that unappealing. She turned back toward the room and picked up Nick’s
Chapter Thirteen
“Uncle Nick, did you see that movie on TV the other night about a girl who was kidnapped as a baby and she never knew it until she was like about twenty or something?”
Nick stared at his computer screen, going over the budget he’d projected on a home on the north shore of the lake. The foundation had been poured before the ground froze, and the roof put on before the snow. The home was close to completion, but the owner had decided on different fixtures throughout, and the finish carpentry was way over budget. Since business was slowing down, Ann Marie and Hilda only worked mornings. He and Sophie were alone in the building.
“Uncle Nick.”
“Hmm, what?” He deleted several figures, then typed in the new cost.
Sophie took a deep drawn-out breath and sighed, “You’re not listening to me.”
He glanced from the screen to his niece, then returned his gaze to his work. “Sure I am, Sophie.”
“What did I say?”
He added a restocking fee and reached for a calculator on the edge of his desk, but when he glanced at his niece again, his hand stilled. Her big brown eyes looked back at him as if he’d stomped her feelings beneath his work boots. “I wasn’t listening.” He pulled his hand back. “Sorry.”
“Can I ask you something?”
He figured she hadn’t dropped by his office on her way home from school to watch him work. “Sure.”
“Okay, what would you do if you liked a girl and she didn’t know you liked her.” She paused and looked somewhere over the top of his head. “And she liked someone else with really great clothes and blond hair and everybody liked her and she was a cheerleader and everything?” She returned her gaze to his. “Would you give up?”
Nick was confused. “Do you like a boy who dresses like a cheerleader?”
“No! Geez, I like a boy who
Nick looked across his desk at his niece, who was all shiny braces and had her mother’s Italian eyes that were way too big for her face. She had an enormous red pimple on her forehead that, despite her best efforts, would not remain concealed with the makeup she’d slapped on it. Someday Sophia Allegrezza would turn heads, but not today, thank God. She was too young to worry about boys, anyway. “Don’t do anything. You’re gorgeous, Sophie.”
She rolled her eyes and reached for her backpack sitting on the floor by her chair. “You’re no better help than dad.”
