A Taste of Honey (11 page)

She had always wondered how someone as gorgeous and sought after as Nick managed to stay so damn nice. If anyone had the right to act like a cocky jerk when it came to women, it was Nick. But when women whispered and cast admiring glances, instead of preening and swaggering, Nick had always looked faintly bemused as though wondering what all the fuss was about.

To Kelly it was no mystery. Sure, he was hot—tall and burly with big, strong hands she could easily imagine sliding over her skin. But it was his eyes that really got her. Big, soulful pools of amber, promising a woman pleasure beyond anything she’d ever imagined. And he was so damn sweet, the kind of guy who could smash your heart into smithereens and you’d thank him all the same.

In the two years since she’d seen him he’d somehow managed to get even better looking, damn him. The clean lines of his cheeks and jaw were sharper and more defined, the intriguing laugh lines at the corners of his eyes deeper, his body harder and tighter.

All in all, her personal wet dream come to life.

Unbidden, the image of Nick straining over her, pumping high and hard inside of her, filled her head.

He was so big he completely stretched me out! I could barely walk for three days!

Vicki Jenkins’s voice echoed in Kelly’s head. Her cheeks flamed, and she gulped the glass of ice water she’d stashed behind the bar. Kelly had been fourteen, sitting alone on the bus as usual, trying to drown out Vicki’s voice behind her as she checked over her homework. Her ears immediately pricked when she heard his name. Her crush on Nick had started her first day of freshman year when he’d helped unstick her jammed locker.

“I swear,” Vicki was saying, “Nick Donovan has the biggest dick I’ve ever seen. It was so big he could barely get it all the way in.”

“Did it hurt?” Kelly didn’t recognize the other girl’s voice.

“Oh God, no. He ate me out first. I was so wet when he finally fucked me it felt so unbelievably good.”

At fourteen, Kelly had known the basics of sex, of course—had even read some D.H. Lawrence novels and had experienced the first tingles of arousal. But stretching? Eating out? Her naturally pale complexion had gone beet red as her mind struggled with Vicki’s descriptions.

And from that moment, she’d never been able to look at Nick the same. At first he’d frightened her a little. When she’d started tutoring him their senior year, the prospect of spending several hours alone with him had made her extremely nervous. The night before their first tutoring session, she’d even had a nightmare where Nick was chasing her around his house sporting a baseball-bat-sized erection, screaming about how he was going to eat her.

But as the year went on, her nightmares were replaced by vivid fantasies until she could barely keep her focus on their work. She fought to keep her crush hidden as thoughts of him touching and kissing her naked body threatened to drive every coherent thought from her head.

But Nick had been either unaware of, or unwilling to act on, her attraction to him. Which, in hindsight, had definitely been for the best. Although at the time her fifteen-year-old self had been ready to throw herself off a building from his apparent indifference.

Despite the sudden appearance of ripe, womanly curves the summer just before her fifteenth birthday, Kelly had still been way too young for a guy like Nick to be fooling around with. Because even at age eighteen, not even out of high school yet, Nick had been a man, with a man’s passion, a man’s desires, not to mention a man’s body.

Now, however, at twenty-six, Kelly wasn’t an inexperienced virgin anymore. But she still couldn’t help but wonder if she was finally ready to handle a man like Nick.

She scanned the room, letting her gaze fall on the Donovans’ table. And was gratified to see Nick staring at her with his penetrating amber gaze. She smiled at him, oddly delighted when he looked away as though embarrassed.

Kelly hummed as she polished a glass.

Her heart skipped a beat when, fifteen minutes later, she spotted Nick striding up to the bar, his hot amber gaze fixed on her. The thudding of her heart was matched by hot pulsing between her legs, and Kelly clenched her thighs together, as though somehow Nick might realize that under her jeans she was soaked just from looking at him.

She pasted a smile on her face and did her best to act nonchalant. “Do you guys need a refill? I can send Maggie over.”

Nick smiled, a flash of perfect white teeth against his olive skin. “Nah, I need to close out our tab. We have an early start tomorrow.”

She did her best to hide her disappointment, quickly tabulating their check and exchanging it for a handful of bills. Her hand shook a little as she handed him his change, and she spilled a handful of coins on the bar.
Klutz,
she silently berated herself.

Laughing nervously, she bent her head and snatched up the coins. Thick locks of hair fell forward into her face, and when she lifted her head, she saw Nick through a veil of near-black waves.

He reached out and tucked her hair behind her ears, and she nearly gasped as the callused tips of his fingers brushed the skin of her cheeks. The heat between her thighs intensified, and she suddenly worried that Nick could see her nipples, straining eagerly against the soft knit of her sweater.

But when she looked up at him he was staring directly into her face, taking in her flushed skin, seeming to focus on her mouth. Nervously she licked her lips and for a moment, she could have sworn he leaned in, licking his own lips, as though preparing to kiss her.

Instead he straightened abruptly, gave her a slightly strained smile, and thanked her. He tossed a few bills on the bar for a tip before leaving with Mike and Tony.

Kelly tried to convince herself she wasn’t disappointed.
Yeah, right.
Stupid to even let herself get all fired up. Guys like Nick didn’t go for brainy nerds like Kelly, and it was a testament to how long she’d gone without sex that she could be so aroused by a friendly smile and a touch of his fingers.

Maggie, who had worked at Sullivan’s for as long as Kelly could remember, must have noticed the lust in Kelly’s gaze. “They are delicious, aren’t they?” Maggie chuckled her raspy two-pack-a-day laugh.

Kelly turned a frown on Maggie. “I’m not—” If Maggie, a notorious gossip, thought there was anything going on between Kelly and Nick, it would be spread across town and all the way over into Nevada before morning.

Maggie waved away Kelly’s lame protest. “A shame what that girl did to Nick, though.”

Kelly bit her lip, not wanting to encourage Maggie but unable to resist taking the bait. “What girl?”

“Some girl from Stanford. A real piece of work. Came up here to study trees or some bullshit, acted like she was too good for us hicks who live here year-round. But she took a liking to Nicky, I’ll tell you that, and he seemed pretty taken with her too.”

“Are they still living together?” Kelly tried to keep her tone lightly curious but couldn’t stop the knot of jealousy from forming in her stomach.

“No, the bitch left him this spring.”

Kelly blew out a sigh of relief, which gave her pause.
Why should I care if Nick is single
, she scolded herself. She didn’t stop to dwell on it as soon as she heard Maggie’s next words.

“That girl thought she was too good for this town, too good for Nick.”

“Too good for Nick? Nick’s one of the best people I’ve ever known,” Kelly blurted, too angry on Nick’s behalf to be embarrassed about putting her heart on her sleeve.

“You’re telling me, Kel,” Maggie said, busying herself filling four pints of Guinness. “But you know, some people are suited for small-town life with a guy like Nick”—she paused and looked meaningfully at Kelly—“and some people aren’t.”

Kelly thought about her conversation with Maggie later that night as she watched the late show and tried to get tired enough to go to sleep. She couldn’t imagine a woman ever dumping Nick once she had him. As far as she could remember, most girls, once they had their hands on him, dug their claws in deep in an attempt to keep him around.

Nick, he was a slippery one. He always managed to break free.

Maggie was right about one thing. Some people, like Kelly, weren’t suited for life in this little mountain town with a guy like Nick. Not permanently, anyway.

At a very young age, it had become apparent that Kelly was, in a word, different. And when she read her parents’ complete set of Encyclopedia Britannica by the age of five, it was clear they were going to have to do something with Kelly to keep that overactive brain of hers from getting her into trouble.

Since their school system didn’t have a well-defined “gifted” program, her parents had decided to have Kelly skip several grades.

It might have been the best choice for her brain, but it was the worst possible option for the future of Kelly’s social life.

Not only did she screw up the curve in all of her classes, but her classmates were busy dating and studying for their driving tests while Kelly was still asking Santa for Barbie’s Dream House for Christmas.

Worse, her family hadn’t known quite what to do with her. Her sister resented being known as “the geek freak”’s sister and to this day had a major chip on her shoulder about what she considered Kelly’s special treatment during their childhood. Even her parents seemed a little freaked out that two people of average intelligence could produce such a freakish level of genius. The one saving grace during her childhood was when Kelly’s dad had let her work at Sullivan’s. Technically she shouldn’t have been serving beer at such a young age, but since her dad was a friend, the sheriff looked the other way. The patrons were amused and charmed by her, and Kelly had found friends, of sorts, and much-needed acceptance in some of the regulars.

But none of that mattered now. She was living in Donner Lake only for a few weeks and, in many ways, it was a relief after so many intense years of work and study. She had no doubt she’d be stir crazy and ready to get the hell out by the time she had to leave, but for now it was nice to come back to a place where people didn’t worry much beyond the high school football team and whether this ski season would bring decent tourist traffic downtown.

For the time being, she was free from egotistical doctors, cranky nurses, and patients whose lives depended on her skills as an emergency room physician.

Her thoughts went back to Nick and the way he had touched her hair earlier tonight. Had he really been thinking about kissing her? Just the thought of Nick’s lips moving over hers was enough to make her thighs clench. If only she’d had the nerve to grab him by the back of the neck and lay one on him.

She groaned and laid her head against the back of the couch. God, it had been so long since she’d had sex. And even then, she’d practically had to write Jared step-by-step instructions.

Which went to show that, for a man, locating the clitoris is only half the battle.

No doubt Nick would know exactly what to do.

Which got her thinking.

In high school, she’d never had a chance with Nick. But now she was older, she was available, and she was in town only for a brief time. According to Maggie, Nick wasn’t looking for a commitment, and neither was Kelly. But with their parents such close friends, they’d have to be very careful to keep it quiet.

It might mean making the first move, which definitely wasn’t her style. Then again, what did she have to lose? She was leaving in a few weeks anyway. The worst thing that could happen was he’d reject her.

Which, she conceded, would really, really suck. For more than ten years, Nick, in some version (Viking, Scottish Warrior, hunky EMT) had popped in and out of her fantasies, and he never said “no, thanks.” Was her ego prepared for his rejection?

Stop being such a wimp! You always wait for guys to make the first move, and what has it gotten you?

Mediocre sex with men who would never measure up to her fantasies of Nick.

Pun intended.

Was she really going to let her ego ruin the one chance she had at making those fantasies come true?

N
o way was Nick getting within touching distance of Kelly Sullivan.

That’s what he told himself early Thursday morning when his alarm woke him at 6:15. He sported a particularly intense case of morning wood, thanks to a vividly erotic dream. Just like last night, he’d arrived at Sullivan’s to find Kelly working behind the bar. But instead of the jeans she’d worn last night, Dream Kelly was wearing a skirt. And when she bent over to reach for clean glasses, her naked ass had peeked out from under the hem.

In his dream, Nick had magically transported himself over the bar. His clothes conveniently disappeared as, without preamble, he pushed her skirt up to her waist and shoved his cock deep inside her wet, clenching heat.

It was so real, so vivid, he could smell her skin, the scent of her arousal, feel her soft ass cheeks rubbing against his abs with every thrust.

But her screams of pleasure grew ever more shrill and unpleasant. That’s when Nick realized that the noise in his head wasn’t Kelly’s orgasmic cries, but rather the insistent
BEEP BEEP BEEP
of his alarm clock.

Sighing, he stepped under the scalding shower spray and quickly jerked himself off, closing his eyes and savoring the lingering images of his dream.

But dream or no, as far as he was concerned Kelly might as well come complete with a bright orange
KEEP OUT
sign.

So why, he asked himself later that evening, was he back at Sullivan’s? He never came to Sullivan’s on a Thursday. And yet here he was.

Kelly’s dad, Ryan, was seated at a table near the bar, an aluminum cane perched conveniently nearby. He greeted Nick with a hearty wave and a broad smile on his ruddy face. His thick, dark hair was liberally peppered with gray, but it was easy to see where Kelly had gotten her Black Irish good looks.

“Nicky!” Ryan called. “Sit your ass down here and have a beer with me.”

“You seem to be making a rapid recovery,” Nick observed as he settled himself into a scuffed wooden chair.

“Oh, I’m doing pretty good. Kelly didn’t want me to come out tonight, but Jesus, I’m getting stir crazy. For the past week I’ve seen nothing but the inside of my condo and the physical therapist’s office.”

Nick nodded sympathetically. Suddenly the short hairs at the back of his neck prickled. He turned his head, and sure enough, there was Kelly, balancing a tray of drinks on her shoulder. And, God help him, she was wearing a skirt.

Her face lit up in a wide smile when she spotted him. “Hey, Nick. I’ll be over in just a second to take care of you.”

Oh yeah, she could take care of him all right. Nick did his best to banish lustful thoughts of Kelly, at least for the moment. It seemed bad form to be thinking filthy thoughts about a woman when you were sitting with her father.

Within minutes, she reappeared. Tonight she was wearing a Sullivan’s T-shirt tucked into her denim miniskirt. Seated, Nick was nearly eye level with the full globes of her tits, straining against the soft cotton fabric.

“What can I do for you, Nick?” Her voice was low and slightly raspy.

“Now there’s a question,” he teased, instinctively flirting.

Roses bloomed on Kelly’s cheeks, and her eyes traveled deliberately down his torso before coming to rest briefly on the bulge pressing against the fly of his jeans.

His balls tightened as he felt that look like a caress. There was no mistaking it, Kelly was as aware of him as he was of her. Last night, when he’d touched her cheek, a lightning bolt had jolted straight from his fingertips to his dick. He’d heard Kelly’s gasp, seen her eyes dilate, her lips part. Trying to convince himself that he’d imagined her reaction, he’d beat a hasty retreat before he’d done something really stupid like haul her over the bar and stick his tongue down her throat.

As for his own gut-deep response—he put that down to the fact that he hadn’t had sex since he’d come home to Ann’s suitcase and her announcement that she was heading back to San Francisco.

Never mind the fact that he’d never gotten a hard-on simply by touching a woman’s cheek. It was high school all over again, when just the barest brush of Kelly’s arm against his had sent him into a death spiral of lust.

“How about a pint of Harp’s and a basket of wings.”

“Extra hot?” Kelly asked.

Nick licked his lips. “Absolutely.”

Fortunately, Ryan didn’t seem to notice the sexual tension that fairly vibrated between Nick and his daughter.

Kelly quickly returned with his beer, her breasts brushing lightly against his shoulder as she leaned over to place his drink. Even through the cotton of her T-shirt and the fabric of his shirt, he could feel the heat of her skin.

Forcing himself to focus on something other than the thought of Kelly’s hot, bare skin against his, he turned his attention on Ryan. “You’re a lucky man to have Kelly taking care of you.”

“Oh, she’s not taking care of me—that’s what I pay for over at the Oaks.” Ryan had moved into a condo in a nearby retirement community shortly after his wife’s death. “After taking care of Connie—God rest her soul—I made sure I’d never put that burden on the girls.” He smiled somewhat sadly up at Kelly, who moved behind him and rested her hands on his shoulders.

“Nope, Dad needs me here to take care of Sullivan’s until he’s getting around better. Maggie could probably do it,” Kelly said, giving her father a little squeeze. “But you know what he says, ‘As long as this place is called Sullivan’s—’”

“There’d better be a Sullivan in charge,” both Ryan and Nick finished for her.

Kelly took a few more orders, and then returned with his wings.

“Take a load off, honey,” Ryan said.

Nick obligingly snagged a chair and pulled it up for Kelly to sit and then tucked into his wings. He would leave as soon as he was finished. No use in torturing himself sniffing around Kelly when there was nothing he could do about it.

But instead he found himself drawn into conversation with Kelly and Ryan, talking about everything—baseball, the ridiculous amount of building going on in the area, the challenges of ER medicine, even politics.

Kelly got up several times to get refills and take orders, and several customers interrupted them to welcome Ryan back. The next thing he knew, it was after ten and Ryan was practically dozing in his chair.

“Come on, Dad,” Kelly said, giving him a little nudge. “Maggie, can you cover for fifteen minutes while I run Dad home?”

“Honey, don’t bother coming back. There’s no one here, and I can close up tonight,” Maggie called back.

Kelly thanked her and helped Ryan stay steady as he pulled himself up, then left to pull the car around.

Nick stood up too. “I better get going.” He started to pull out a twenty but was halted by Ryan’s grumble.

“On me tonight, Nicky. Thanks for keeping me company.”

Nick nodded in thanks. “Need any help, Ryan?”

Ryan waved him off. “Nah. I need to learn to get around by myself if I ever want to get back full time.”

Nick followed the older man just in case.

“Shit!” Kelly’s curse echoed across the parking lot, accompanied by the slam of a car door.

“Watch your language, young lady,” Ryan yelled. “You’re not too old for me to feed you soap.”

Nick couldn’t help laughing. He’d forgotten that Kelly could swear like a trucker if the mood hit her.

“Sorry, Dad,” she replied in the least apologetic tone Nick had ever heard.

“What’s the matter?”

She blew a stray strand of hair out of her face in an exasperated sigh. “My car won’t start.”

“Pop the hood. I’ll take a look.”

“Umm, I doubt it’s anything you can fix,” Kelly muttered. It was hard to tell in the dimly lit lot, but he swore she blushed. “I, um, ran out of gas.” She looked at her watch, swore again. “And the gas station’s already closed.”

Nick threw back his head and laughed. “I can’t believe you. IQ of over two hundred and you still can’t remember to fill your tank.”

“I had other things on my mind.” She shoved her hands in the pockets of her skirt. “No big deal. I’ll borrow Maggie’s car and take care of it in the morning.”

She started back to the bar, but Nick grabbed her elbow. “Let me give you a ride.”

She couldn’t hide the relief in her face. “Are you sure? It’s really not a problem to borrow Maggie’s car and just get a ride home after we close.”

Nick smiled, squeezing her upper arm reassuringly. His thumb traced little circles against the skin of the inner curve of her elbow. Was she this soft everywhere? He swallowed heavily and released her arm.

“Kelly, it’s five minutes out of my way.”

Apparently satisfied that she wasn’t inconveniencing him, Kelly went back to wait with her father as Nick pulled his extended cab Dodge around.

It was a short ride to Ryan’s condo complex, and ten minutes later Nick helped Ryan down from the truck and waited while Kelly walked him to the door.

The atmosphere changed as soon as they were alone. Suddenly the cab was thick with the tension of two people intensely aware of one another but trying to pretend they weren’t.

Before, conversation had flowed easily. Now, Nick couldn’t think of a damn thing to say. Kelly wasn’t any help. She stared silently out the window, hands clasped in her lap in a pose that belied her earlier vibes of sexual interest.

Nick cleared his throat nervously. “So are you still living in Boston? Jake mentioned he’d run into you a couple of times.”

Her smile was tight. “Yeah, I saw him and Kit a couple of weeks ago. How funny that they ended up together.” Silence filled the car, along with tension so thick he could practically see it. Finally Kelly broke it. “I was getting ready to move to Manhattan when Dad got hurt. Unfortunately they couldn’t hold the position open, and now I’ll have to find something else.”

Nick could tell by the grim set of her mouth she regretted the lost opportunity.

“It must suck for you to have to give that up.”

Kelly shrugged. “He’s my Dad, and I wasn’t always there for him.”

Nick could only assume she referred to the aftermath of her mother’s death but didn’t want to pry. “He’s lucky to have you.”

He could barely make out her smile in the flickering light of the street lamps, slightly sad. She was silent for several moments, looking out the window.

He imagined how small and backwater the redwood-lined streets and rustic country houses must look to her. “This place must seem so boring to you now after living in the city.”

She turned to face him. “The city’s great, but this town has its charm. There was a time when I couldn’t wait to get out of here.” Then, licking her lips nervously or provocatively, he couldn’t tell, she said, “But now I realize it has some things worth coming home to.”

Kelly mentally slapped herself upside the head. Her big chance to put the moves on Nick, and she sat like an uptight schoolgirl, saying inane things like “it has some things worth coming home to.”

What was it about Nick that made her cool competence disappear? It wasn’t as though she was a complete social reject anymore. She’d made friends at work, had a respectable run at relationships.

And now, presented with the perfect opportunity to put the moves on him, she turned into a blithering idiot.

Clearly Nick felt the same, because he didn’t bother to make conversation for the rest of the drive.

When they pulled up to the small two-bedroom house she was renting, she scrambled for the door handle. But Nick had already alit from the cab and was at the passenger door. He opened it and cupped her elbow as he helped her down.

“Thanks so much for the ride, Nick,” she said once her feet were firmly on the ground. “I’ll see you around sometime.” She started up the walk but was stopped when Nick grabbed her arm again. She shivered, and not merely from the cool autumn breeze against her bare arms.

“Hold on, let me walk you to the door.”

Kelly laughed softly. “It’s not as though this is the crime capital of the world. I’m sure I can make it twenty feet safely.”

He smiled, his teeth white in the dim streetlights. “No way. My mama always told me, you walk a lady to the door.”

She found herself oddly touched by the chivalrous gesture. “Jeez, I practically had to pay the guys I dated in Boston to walk me home.”

She could feel Nick’s disapproval in the subtle tightening of his fingers around her arm. Underneath his easy-going exterior she knew that Nick was a man who would protect and care for his woman.

Kelly murmured a silent apology to all of her feminist values and let herself fantasize, for just a moment, about how it would feel to have Nick Donovan protecting her and seeing to her every need.

She pulled her key out of her purse, only to have him take it from her hand and unlock her door. Her stomach quivered. Chivalry again.

She tilted her head up at him, her mouth open to say good night, but stopped dead. In the glow of her porch light, Nick’s eyes glowed amber, seeming to devour the curves of her face and mouth.

Anticipation washed through her. He wanted her. She was nearly certain of it. Hadn’t she vowed to do something about it the next chance she got?

Nick started to push away from the open doorway, his expression once again one of polite friendliness.

Oh no, he was leaving!

“Do—do you want to come in?” Kelly blurted. She mentally slapped herself again. Smooth, Kelly, real smooth.

Again, the heat of awareness flared in his eyes.

Maybe she hadn’t completely blown it.

But then Nick started to shake his head. “I really should—”

It was now or never. Before he could utter the word
go
, she cupped his face in her hands, pulling his mouth down to hers. For a full second, his mouth was unresponsive, slack with surprise. Her stomach fell somewhere near her knees.
Stupid, stupid, stupid!
She’d known she’d make a complete fool of herself!

But then Nick was kissing her back, his tongue thrusting eagerly into her mouth, his hands sliding down her back. One hand slid into the waistband of her skirt, gliding roughly over the cheeks of her ass, while his other arm wrapped around her waist.