How He Really Feels (He Feels Trilogy) (12 page)

He checked the two texts – both from Dana, and then showed them to me.

Text 1 said
,
Nicky! Are you free tonight?

Text 2 said
,
Heading to a club. Want to come?

Damn that Dana
!
I thought. Instead, I said, “Nicky?” laughing.

“Yeah, that woman calls me that. I really can’t stand how she constantly hits on me. She thinks that because we went to the Christmas party together that we are an item. Did you know that
she
asked
me
to that party? I bet you didn’t know that,” he said, sounding annoyed.

“No, I didn’t know that,” I said. “I’m so sorry…Nicky,” I tried to sound serious, but I couldn’t help the giggle th
at escaped my lips.

He rolled his eyes and then grinned at me, and then I started laughing even harder as I thought about his nickname.

He laughed with me, and I loved these little moments we had together. I was falling for him, and it was so much more than just a physical pull we had. We laughed together, we talked about things that mattered, we had fun, and yet we could also be serious when we needed to be and we worked well together. This was already working out to be the most unsurpassed relationship of my life.

Eventually he texted Dana back to let
her know that he was indeed booked for the evening, and we finished the movie. Nick had a little bit of work to catch up on while I got ready for dinner. I took my time, perfecting my make-up and curling my hair so that it tumbled in sexy, loose waves down my shoulders. I donned the dress that he had told me to pack. When I emerged into his family room, he was on his iPad. He glanced up at me and immediately set the iPad aside. His eyes widened as he took me in, and I smiled. “Wow,” was all he said.

He stood and walked over to me. He was wearing a black suit with no tie, the top button of his white shirt underneath open. I wanted to lick the little patch of neck that stuck out from the top of his shirt.

“Wow, yourself,” I said as he took me in his arms, nuzzling my neck and crushing my body against his.

“That dress,” he murmured. I was glad I had chosen it. I had thought twice about it; it was
lower cut and a little tighter than I usually wore, and it was hot pink. But, I thought, apparently it did what I wanted it to since I felt his erection pressing into me. “Mmm, and those heels.” Matching hot pink, five inch stilettos. Apparently he liked those, too. He grinned. “You’re leaving those on when I get you back here after dinner.”

“Deal,” I said, smiling. “And that’ll give you something to look forward to.”

He grinned. “Oh, I was already looking forward to getting you back here after dinner.”

I put on a coat since it was January (even Phoenix gets cold in January), and fifteen minutes later, we pulled up outside a small seafood restaurant. Nick walked around to my side of his BMW to open my door for me, a sweet gesture that didn’t go unnoticed. He helped me out of the car and guided me toward the door, reaching under my coat with his hand on the small of my back. My dress was low cut in the back, and feeling his hand on my bare skin was enough to send the tingles up my spine again. The level of lust I had for this man was unparalleled.

Our hostess sat us at a small table in a quiet corner by the window. There were only two chairs at the square table, and they were next to each other so that we could both look out the window at the gorgeous view of the sun setting behind the mountains.

Nick ordered mahi-mahi and I opted for the salmon, and Nick chose a bottle of white wine from the menu. The sommelier poured a small amount of wine into a glass, and Nick tasted it and nodded curtly at the waiter. His control of the situation was sexy, and a brief flash of me being tied up in his bed ran through my mind. Suddenly I felt dampness between my legs just thinking about Nick and his bed.

After Nick toasted me (“To my lovely Julianne”), we sipped our wine and chatted while we waited for our food.

“Usually on a first date with a woman, I don’t know much about the woman,” Nick said. “I like that I already know a lot about you from working with you for the past year.”

“You probably learned more about me from happy hours than from work.”

“You’d be surprised what I have learned about people just from observing them work.”

“Oh? What have you learned about me?”

“Like you chew your bottom lip when you’re concentrating.
You tap the eraser of your pencil on your notebook when you’re thinking. You suck on your pen cap when you’re checking your email, and God, that drives me insane. In a good way. You’re organized almost to a fault, you’re the most creative person on the team, and you’re one of the greatest collaborators I’ve ever worked with.”

I blushed. “I suck on my pen caps?”

“Yes.” He laughed, and then he leaned into me and lowered his voice. “And it’s fucking hot, watching those lips wrapped around that cap.”

My blush deepened.
When he said things like that… well. Goodness. “So let’s pretend like this is a first date and we don’t know each other very well.”

“Alright.
Let’s do it.”

“So, Nicholas, is it? Tell me about yourself.”

“You can call me Nick. I am thirty-two, and I own my own company.”

“You’re thirty-two?”

He nodded.

“I didn’t know that.”

“But you knew I owned my own company?”

“Ha, ha.
Obviously you don’t since you work at McMillan with me.”

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-six.”

“I’ve always liked younger women.”

“Pervert.”

He shrugged and raised his hands in the air, as if to say, “Well, what can I say?”

“So what do you do for a living, Nick?”

“I’m a marketing exec. I’ve worked in marketing for ten years.”

“I also work in marketing.”

“Oh yeah?”

I nodded. “I’m an account consultant. I have a sexy boss.”

“Interesting.
And have you acted on your feelings for your boss?”

“No. He will never notice me.” I looked down at my place setting. “I’ve had the hugest crush on him for a year, and he doesn’t even know I’m alive.”

“A beautiful girl like you? I bet he noticed you the first time he saw you walk into the conference room late. I bet he saw your cute blush and was immediately enamored with you.”

I looked back up at him, and his gorgeous hazel eyes gazed back at me with genuine sincerity.

“You think so?”

He nodded. “I’m sure of it. I would venture to guess that he couldn’t take his eyes off of you that entire meeting, and for the first year he worked there, he tried to find a way out of the stupid agreement he signed about not dating people in his department. I would even wager that he invented reasons to see you, to be near you, to accidentally brush his arm against yours to feel your warmth.”

I pondered that. “Did you?”

He gazed into my eyes, warmth and lust and authenticity staring at me for a long, quiet moment.

“Julianne, it’s only been you since the day I met you.”

My heart started beating erratically in my chest as I felt breathless at his words. For me, it had only been him, too. I told him that.

“We wasted so much time,” he said, running his knuckle down my cheek and then leaning over to kiss the trail his knuckle left, trailing a kiss down to the sensitive flesh behind my ear and setting my skin on fire with his touch.

“What made you finally act on it?” I murmured.

He leaned back. “Honestly?”

I nodded.

“Word sort of got back to me that you were interested.”

“Who told?”

“I’d rather not say.”

“Tell me!”

He grinned. “Jake.”

“Jake, huh?
Well, someday I’ll have to thank Jake.”

Just then, our waiter arrived with our food. Our “first date” conversation continued, though.

“Tell me about your family, Nicholas.”

“Nick.”

“Right. Sorry, Nick.”

“I have a younger brother, Josh, who you have yet to meet. He’s one of my best friends, but he’s not as cool as me. My mother and stepfather live in California. My dad died when I was seven.”

I touched his hand. “I’m so sorry.” This was something else I didn’t know about him.

“Thank you. I was close to my dad, but I was a little boy. I often wonder what sort of relationship we would have had if he was still alive today.”

He seemed comfortable talking about it, so I asked. “Can I ask how he died?”

“Car accident.
We lived in Denver at the time, and it was a winter night. He was coming home from work and his car slid on the ice into oncoming traffic. It was instant.”

“God, how horrible.”

“It was awful. I miss him every day, even though it happened almost twenty-five years ago.”

“Tell me about your mom.”

He paused. “I see my mother about twice a year; Christmas and my birthday. She forces Josh and me to go to California for Christmas every year, and she and her husband come to Phoenix in June for Josh’s and my birthdays.” His tone turned bitter, and I was afraid I had hit on a nerve. “She is very much into appearances. She married a very wealthy man within the year after my dad’s death, and she wasn’t really there for Josh and me when we were grieving. Probably because she was a newlywed. She divorced him and took all of his money and married the guy she’s married to now. Tell me about your family.”

I was glad he ended by asking about my family, because I didn’t know how to respond to his revelations about his own family. I felt blessed that I was as close to my family as I was. “I’m close with my parents. I have an older sister, Jamie. She and her husband, Brandon, have a baby boy, Brady, and another kid on the way. And Brady is the sweetest little boy in the world.”

Nick smiled. “How old is he?”

“Three. Want to see a picture?”

“Sure,” he said, and I pulled out my phone and pulled up a picture of me holding Brady next to the Christmas tree.

“Adorable. The kid’s cute, too.”

I laughed and mock smacked him in the arm.

“They have a dog, too.”

“Is it a Golden named Charlie?”

“You remembered that?”

“What do you mean? This is our first date, remember? Lucky guess.”

I chuckled.

“When is your sister due?”

“Next month. February 4.”

“Boy or girl?”

“They decided to wait to find out. I hate that.”

“Can I tell you a secret?” he leaned in to me conspiratorially. I nodded. “I hate that, too. It’ll be a surprise regardless of when you find out, so why not just know for the convenience of knowing?”

“Right?
That’s exactly what I said to Jamie. They waited with Brady, too, and then they had to scramble to find boy stuff after he was born because they got all gender-neutral stuff at her shower.”

He shrugged.
“To each his own.”

“Do you want kids?”

“Sure, someday. I always pictured myself in the future with a pretty little lady and two or three little ones.”

“Me too.
Except for the lady part,” I giggled.

“The lady parts are my favorite.”

“Pervert.”

“That’s twice you’ve called me that, and on a first date, too. That might be a new record.”

I laughed. “Well, if the shoe fits.”

As we ate, it hit me how perfect we were for each other. Our conversation came easily, and there were no quiet, awkward pauses as I had encountered so many times on dates. We played on each other’s stories and felt very comfortable with one another. Nick paid for our meal and we headed to the car. He started it up and headed in the opposite direction of his house. As he drove, I stared out at the gorgeous mountain views surrounding our car and pondered our conversation. I actually had learned a lot about Nick from our pretend first date scenario. I learned that his dad had passed away when he was seven and that he wasn’t close to his mom. I wondered what sort of long-term effects that had on a little boy.

We pulled into a wine bar named Vino a few minutes later. He led me inside, and the place had a unique ambiance that made me feel elegant and at home at the same time. A piano played slow melodies, and a few couples were swaying to the music, clinging to one another. Nick led me to the bar, and we each ordered a glass of wine. Then he led me to the dance floor, and I couldn’t help but think that this was just a super classy nightclub; a place for drinking and dancing. We set our wine down on a table nearby, and he pulled me into his arms, his hands hitting that bare spot on my back and driving me crazy with desire for him.

After a bottle between us at the restaurant and another glass of wine at Vino, I was starting to feel the effects of the alcohol. I held onto Nick as he swayed gently in time to the music. I had never been treated to such a classy date; typically the guys I dated wanted to take me out for beer and hot wings. That was fun, but I was enjoying being romanced. No man had ever put in the effort to make me feel so special and elegant before. Nick treated me right, and it was a welcome change.