For The Love Of Nick

“You tell me.”

“I don’t want to play any guessing games here, Nick.”

“Funny. Me, either.” He set a hand on hers, over the steering wheel. “Come up. Get your pictures. Get some rest. The end. Can you do that?”

“Especially the end part.”

Now his smile reached his eyes. “That’s a girl. One step at a time, right? Let’s go.”

One step at a time. Easier than it sounded, but she got out of the car and grabbed Sadie’s leash. She hadn’t wanted to put him out, hadn’t wanted to be any sort of burden, but she’d already blown his obvious plans for the evening with the human Barbie Doll.

And as it had been all those years before, he hadn’t said a word to make her feel bad, not one. Hadn’t told her how stupid she’d been to get into this ridiculous situation in the first place.

Hard as it was to accept the help, after so many nights in the cramped car if he had so much as a comfortable chair for her to nap in, she’d be eternally grateful.

He led her through the small front yard. On either side, there were impeccable gardens. Grass so green and thick one could get lost in it, flowers of every hue in the rainbow.

In contrast, Nick’s yard was mostly brick, with two large potted trees.

“Low maintenance,” he said, putting his key in the lock. “I’m gone for long stretches. No need to keep killing pretty flowers with my neglect.” He gestured her in first.

But Danielle hesitated. “What about Sadie?”

“Does she have an aversion to being inside?”

“No.”

“Well, then, show her in.”

“She’s…” Danielle looked down at Sadie, knowing that while the dog was her own personal treasure, she was also not easy. “She can be a bit messy.”

“I hadn’t noticed,” he said dryly, waiting with that same calm patience he’d shown her since she’d first walked into the photo studio. The same calm patience he’d shown her all those years ago.

“Be good,” she whispered to the dog.

“Make yourself at home.” Nick took them through a wide, open living room sparsely furnished with light oak furniture, photographs from all over the world and the biggest couch she’d ever seen.

Covered in cushions, it was dark forest green and so inviting she nearly crumpled on it right then and there. Her body actually leaned toward it, begging, but Nick kept walking.

With an exhausted sigh, she followed, Sadie in tow, her toenails clicking on the hardwood floors.

The kitchen was light and airy, too. There was a basket of fruit on the counter that had her mouth watering. And a loaf of bread right next to it.

When had she last eaten? There’d been the burger for lunch, but nothing for breakfast…

Nick opened the refrigerator. “You’re in luck, I actually bought some food the other day. Usually this place is empty. What would you like?”

“The photos.”

“Yes, your pictures,” he said with the first hint of impatience in his voice. “But first, food. When did you last eat? What did you last eat?” He craned his neck and looked her over. “You look like a good wind could blow you over. Never mind,” he said in disgust when she just lifted her chin. “Good God, why would anyone ask a woman what she wants to eat? She’ll say nothing, and then just as likely eat everything on my plate. We’ll have soup and sandwiches,” he decided, talking to himself now. “Fast and filling.”

Pride warred with fierce hunger at the thought of hot soup and a big sandwich. “Do you always feed perfect strangers just because they look hungry?”

“We’re hardly perfect,” he said calmly, opening a can of soup, pouring it into a pot and putting it on the stove. Then he pulled out the sandwich fixings and started working, as if he were an old pro in the kitchen.

She tried not to notice how utterly sexy he looked concentrating at putting mustard on bread.

“And as for the strangers part…” He lifted his head and pierced her with a hot, intimate look that curled her toes. “I already told you. I stopped thinking of you as a stranger long ago.”

She forced her gaze back to the job at hand-food. His long, tanned fingers delicately placed lettuce on the bread. “High school was a long time ago.”

He nodded, his mouth curving in memories.

Helpless to resist the lure of the thick turkey he was now layering over the lettuce, she moved closer. “You… haven’t forgotten how horrible it was.”

“I’ve forgotten nothing.”

“I’ve never really forgiven myself for those days.”

“You sure enjoy paying for the sins of others, don’t you?” He leveled his timber-green eyes on hers while he brought his hand up and sucked a drop of mustard off his thumb. “It wasn’t your crowd I dreamed about.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.” A smile grew. “Oh.”

She looked into his now-mischievous gaze, her heart catching at what she saw in it. “You really dreamed…”

“Oh baby, you have no idea how many fantasies you headlined for me over those years.”

She actually looked behind her. “Me?”

“You.”

“Well, that’s…” Thrilling. Tantalizing. Terrifying. “Disgusting.”

Still smiling, he looked unconcerned. “Most high school boys are. And I was all boy.” He went back to the sandwiches, adding cheese.

“You really had…sexual dreams about me?”

“Hmm.” He sucked his thumb again, closing his eyes, a fully sensual, passionate creature, enjoying every possible sensation. “Good dreams, too,” he murmured, his voice impossibly husky. “Did I mention I had a great imagination?” His gaze, scalding now, skimmed over her from head to toe, then slowly back again. “And even in my wildest dreams, I never, ever, put you together as good as the reality.”

He poured her a bowl of soup from the stove, loaded one sandwich on a plate, then dumped half a bag of potato chips on it. “Enjoy,” he said lightly, gently shoving her onto a bar stool at the counter.

He turned back to the cutting board and chopped up some turkey and cheese. Then he set it into a bowl and eyed Sadie. “Watch my fingers, dog,” he warned, putting it on the floor.

Sadie charged at the bowl, and Nick nearly fell over backward, trying to get out of the way.

Danielle would have laughed, except…he’d fed her dog. Unprompted. Just…fed her.

“Holy smokes,” he said, still staring at Sadie.

Sounds of Sadie’s chomping filled the air. Her tail beat the air as she swallowed everything in the bowl in two seconds flat.

“She likes her food,” she whispered through a clogged throat.

“She was starving,” he said, sounding horrified.

“No, she always eats like that.”

He continued to stare at her, carefully staying out of tail-wagging range, clearly realizing that it was a tail that could slice a man in two. “Wow.”

Danielle lifted her sandwich to her mouth, then nearly moaned at her first bite. She swallowed hard when he watched her, because there was just something about the way she received his entire, undivided attention that both unnerved and aroused her at the same time. “Nick…”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

He broke eye contact to get his own sandwich, and she took a good second look at him. And a third. Not because he was so beautiful he stole her breath-which he did-and not because she wanted him in a way that made her ache-though that was true, too-but because there was something…

Being thanked made him uncomfortable.

Having wolfed down his sandwich, he held up the film canister. “I’m going to go get this started.”

“Yes, but-”