Sweet Seduction Serenade (30 page)

I looked at him closely, trying to gauge what emotions those were. Anger? Disappointment? Jealousy? Or was it a little disgust? I was certainly feeling that last one in spades.

"It sounds terrible," I admitted.

"Not too good, no," he acknowledged, only making me feel more like a tool than ever.

"I was lost," I tried to explain.

"And now you're found," he said a little sarcastically.

"No need to be a jerk," I replied, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Well excuse me, Eva, but
I
wasn't the one picking up with an ex when the person I should have been with but was too chicken to be with was shot back home and recovering on his own."

My eyes flicked down to his legs. I think they said that someone had shot him in the leg, but which one and where? He limped walking out of the bar, I'd noticed, even though I was busy floating on a cloud of bliss after those kisses and finally admitting he was my home and heart and match.

"Did it hurt?" I asked in a tiny voice.

"Like fuck," he replied, still a little pissed off.

"I'm sorry," I whispered and I meant the apology for more than just one of my crazy cousins shooting at him in the leg.

He sighed. It sounded weighty. "Eva," he said on another breath of air. "I don't need your apology. I need you."

"You've got me," I said instantly, my eyes coming back up to his.

"Have I?" he asked pointedly, eyebrows raised in a question of their own.

"Yes," I reiterated. "Unequivocally," I threw in, because it seemed like I needed to make this point work.

"Then phone him now and tell him you're going home to be with me."

Whoa. That was placing your cards on the table right there. I opened my mouth to argue, to say Derek deserved to be told face to face. And then I slammed it shut. Yes, face to face would have been better, there's no argument there. But delaying it until he was back in Nashville on Monday was not. Leaving with Nick tomorrow without at least having tried to talk to Derek first was not.

And not sorting this out, with Nick looking at me impassively from the other side of the cab, was definitely not. This was a test of sorts and I'd already decided what side I was on. I just had to put my money where my mouth was and face up to my mistakes.

I fished my cellphone out of my jacket and thumbed through until I found Derek's number, then without forming the words I'd say in my mind first - stupidly - I hit the call button and waited for the sound of his voice.

It took only three rings before he answered, but time stopped when he heard what I had to say.

It was about as hard as you can imagine, not made easier by having Nick sitting there watching me keenly, listening to every word. But two minutes after Derek answered the call it was done. He tried to argue, he tried to sway me to his way of thought, but there's not much you can say to the obvious fact that
the other guy holds her heart
. I tried to let him down easy, but he kept trying to persuade me I was wrong. So in the end, turning my back on Nick to allow myself a semblance of privacy, I had to say it. Which meant Nick now knew the truth.

I fell short of actually saying "I love Nick," but to make Derek understand I had to say something convincing. And that something ended up being, "There's never been anyone else since Nick." I know it hurt Derek, but we'd been casual for the past six months and although he'd wanted more, I'd never actually given him it. Was it so hard to believe he'd never had a shot at all?

With a heavy heart I disconnected, after Derek had wished me all the best of luck. He'd make some cowgirl happy one day. He deserved to be free of me and available to meet her instead. He wouldn't see it that way for a while, but eventually he'd come out the other side. Because Derek was cowboy through and through. No two ways about it.

I slunk down on my side of the car seat just as we entered my street. Nick didn't say anything, just handed the driver a twenty and climbed out of the cab, holding the door open for me to follow. He took my hand as I exited the vehicle, searched my face for a moment and then led me up the front path to the house.

The lights were on inside, Cary had beaten us home. Which made me wonder if he'd left the bar as soon as he'd left me, no doubt having spotted his partner in crime and headed home to effect his part of the plan. I shook my head as we walked in the front door. How had he kept quiet about it? Cary was crap at keeping any secrets at all.

"Hey, y'all!" he shouted from the back of the house near the bedrooms, hearing the front door close behind us. "I'll be out in a tick."

I couldn't speak up to answer him, so Nick did on my behalf.

"We'll be in the lounge, Cary." His eyes, however, didn't leave my face. "Angel," he said softly, taking the steps necessary to bring him within inches of me. I kept my face tipped down at the floor, frown in place and tumble-weed rolling through my head.

"Are you regretting phoning him?" he asked quietly at my side, not touching me, but close enough to feel the heat coming off his body.

"No," I said just as quietly back.

He hesitated, then asked, "Are you regretting leading him on?" I cringed at his words, because that's in effect what I had done. But not intentionally.

"It wasn't my best decision," I admitted softly.

"But not why you're cutting yourself up right now," he surmised. I shook my head in agreement. "Then it's what you said," he added correctly. "Or maybe that I was there to hear it." Bingo.

His fingers found my chin and lifted my face up to his.

"I have a confession, angel," he said softly, laying first one kiss on one cheek, then another on the other. Then following those up with kisses on each eyelid and then my nose. "For eight years no one has come close to you either. Not a single one. For eight years you've been the standard by which all others were measured and failed to reach."

My eyes opened slowly to look into the stunning ice-blue of his. My heart leapt from my chest, just as he enveloped me in his arms and kissed me soundly on the lips. And just as quickly as my heart leapt free, he caught it and returned it in one piece back to me.

The kiss became a little frantic, somehow we ended up on the couch. Nick on top of me, his hand up the inside of my shirt, wrapped around my breast through my bra, the other hand tangled in my hair tilting my head to the side to allow him perfect access to my lips, chin, throat and neck. He didn't waste any time devouring them either, he licked and nibbled and bit and soothed again with another lick, making me writhe beneath him, frenzied myself to feel his skin beneath his shirt.

"Cary will be in your bedroom packing," Nick said breathlessly against my lips. "I gotta have you now, stake my claim, make you mine once and for all. Where, angel?"

I couldn't think straight to save myself. "Um..." I said fumbling with his shirt in his jeans, trying to pull it free to gain access to his skin.

"Eva, angel, I gotta fuck you. Here? Or where?"

"Bathroom," I said through a mouthful of his flesh on the side of his neck. Cary's room would be out, so was mine and the only other place we could lock the door would be the bathroom. Thankfully it was at the front of the house, away from where Cary currently was. Anywhere else he could walk in on us and I was thinking that would not be a good idea, even if thinking was a little hard right now.

In an instant Nick had me up off the couch, but still wrapped in his arms and under his lips and tongue.

"Which way?" he demanded against skin.

I pulled him into the hallway, took a quick glance to make sure Cary wasn't coming out of the bedrooms down the back and crossed the hall to the bathroom. Nick closed the door behind us and locked it in a flash.

"Skirt and knickers off," he demanded from his position by the door. "Leave the boots on, I wanna fuck you in those."

I stripped the denim skirt I had on down my legs, then went back for my underwear, not even thinking of disobeying his command. I was already wet and well on board with any plans he had.

"Top and bra too. I want to see all of you in the mirror when I take you from behind. I want you to watch how beautiful you look while I move inside you."

I swallowed but did as he said.

"Turn around, hands on the vanity, arch your back." His voice was getting lower, rougher. I could see a muscle twitching in his jaw.

"What about you, are you going to strip too?" I asked, getting into position.

"Not enough time," he said gruffly. It sounded like sandpaper over rocks.

He came up behind me and leaned forward, his hands beside mine on the bench, then licked a trail down my back, from my neck all the way to my rear.

"Jesus, Eva, you are so fucking beautiful," he said, pulling back and undoing his belt and jeans. I heard them slide to the floor. "Spread your legs for me, angel." He helped me with the tip of his still booted foot against the inside of each ankle. His eyes found mine in the mirror. "This is gonna be fast and hard. Me claiming you, OK?" I nodded. "I'll love you slow when we get home, angel, but right now I have to do this my way." I nodded again, stunned at his honesty and the raw need I could see in his eyes.

His hands found my hips, I think they were shaking before they touched me. He pulled me back further, arching my back even more and spreading me wide for his taking.

"Ah, fuck," he said, swallowing. "You drive me crazy, angel. You make me want to shout to the world you are mine." His hand ran over my ass and then down my rounded curves to between my legs. A finger stroked through my folds finding them saturated. "Wet," he growled. "All for me."

Again I nodded, because really, what else could I say? He made me this way, hungry with need, trembling with anticipation, wet and wanting and waiting for him to
take me
as only Nick had ever been able to do in the past.

"Ready?" he asked, softly, leaning forward and laying a kiss on my bare shoulder.

"I was ready five minutes ago, Nick," I advised and received a grunt of amusement and then the tip of his erection pressing its way inside.

"Yes," he gasped as he continued to work his way in and out slowly - so much for hard and fast - his eyes never leaving mine. Then still holding my eyes intently, he buried himself to the hilt and breathed out, "Home."

It was all a bit frenetic after that. He found his pace - indeed hard and fast - and I was right there with him, encouraging him on, "harder, faster, more" over and over again as he sunk in deeply in one swift plunge and pulled out to the tip, almost completely free, then slammed back in again - over and over again. I felt sweat trickle down my spine and he leaned forward and lapped it up, never alternating his speed nor depth, just pounding into me relentlessly, driving himself to the very edge.

"Play with yourself, angel," he instructed. "Make yourself come and I'll be right behind you."

It was difficult to release the edge of the vanity, his movements so forceful I'd needed both arms to brace for each thrust, but he must have realised, because he altered his pace slightly, changed the angle and depth, which meant the force tapered off enough for me to brace with just the one hand. Allowing me to follow his instruction and slip a hand between my legs.

"Oh fuck, that's a turn on," he rasped behind me. "I'm gonna get you to spread your legs for me while you play your guitar naked one day," he whispered huskily against my ear, then moved his hand down my right leg, wrapped his fingers around the back of my knee and lifted my foot up to the vanity.

The new position allowed us both an excellent view in the mirror of him impaling me from behind and my fingers rubbing circles on my nub at the front.

"You are the sexiest cowgirl in the world, Eva," he said on a groan. "I'm not gonna last much longer, babe, come. Now."

It was like he'd flicked a switch, commanding me when to orgasm. Within a split second a wave of pure bliss rolled over me, making me groan and then mutter my own "Fuck!" as Nick slammed harder and faster into me, his face a mixture of pleasure and pain as he breached that final wave right behind me.

Then loud enough for Cary to hear, I was sure, he groaned thickly, "Fuck!" as his sex pulsed inside me, the undulation of the muscle obvious from the angle we were at before the mirror. His eyes had shut as he'd given himself over to the ecstasy completely, but I got to see it all. Him, face enthralled with bliss, his hard cock slowly sliding in and out of me as it pulsed his release inside.

He sagged against my back, but didn't forget to help me to lower my leg first. His arms came around my waist as he lay delicate kisses across the skin of my shoulders and neck.

"You are mine, Evangeline Rowe," he announced. "No more running, no more hiding, no more thinking yourself out of my bed." His teeth came down on the skin between my shoulder and neck, and bit firmly, making me surprisingly turned on rather than wanting to jerk back in pain. He laved his tongue over the bite mark soothingly. "Mine," he said softly, staring at his mark. "Inside and out. And don't you forget."

His eyes came up to meet mine. We stared at each other for several seconds, neither moving. He was slowly slipping out from between my legs and I could feel his release trickling down the inside of each thigh. It was incredibly erotic. My legs twitched with a delicious rush of desire, my walls squeezing against Nick's shaft as it continued to slide out.