The Hero Sandwich (6 page)

Nicci’s cheeks burned hot with emotion. A baseball player… Check that, an out-of-work baseball player. Sounded like a lot a baggage to take on. Of course, she wasn’t without a few suitcases of her own.

“Is this going to be awkward between us, Nicci? Can we move past what happened in the hotel room? If you decide to give this Barrett a chance, it’s always going to be there. Three lonely people carrying around a ton of hurt for different reasons tried to forget for one night. I can put it behind me, can you?” Connie asked.

The clock chimed on the wall, it was past eleven. Past time for grieving, and mourning, and toting a wagon full of guilt behind her. Since Brad died, she wandered through life as an emotional zombie. She laid her hand briefly on top of Connie’s.

“Three lonely people,” she whispered. “I can try to put it behind me, but he’s too young, Connie. Why would he want a woman like me? He could have any woman he wanted. In his eyes, I’m some lonely, pathetic woman who wanted to fuck. I should never have agreed to the ménage.” Nicci frowned as she took a sip from her mug. Her heart was still mending, might not ever heal, and Barrett could break it easily if she offered it to him. His youth, his virility—Nicci closed her eyes and sighed at the memory of how virile.

“He’s twenty-eight. He’s old enough.”

“He’ll break my heart.”

Connie set down her tea and placed a comforting hand on Nicci’s. “Nicci, look at me. You’re a vibrant, vital woman in her prime. I know how much you loved Brad and how the pain of losing him devastated you. He wouldn’t want you to close your heart like this.”

Connie rose and walked to the window. She stood there for a long moment gazing out into the garden with her arms crossed. She turned, tilted her head toward Nicci, and exhaled. “I saw a passionate, sensual woman in that hotel room. I saw the kiss you shared. You think you don’t deserve a second chance at love and happiness, but you’re wrong. We both deserve it. I’m going to find my bliss. When I leave here, I’m swinging by my office and collecting a phone number I should’ve called weeks ago. What about you? At the least, hear him out. Shall I make the call, or are you going to let this man slip through your fingers?”

From the time Nicci arrived home, all she’d done was pace back and forth and try to sort out her jumbled emotions. She’d stripped off her clothes and drew a bath, but couldn’t bring herself to settle into the steaming hot water. While it might have made her feel better physically, ease the tension, it would have washed away Barrett’s scent. She wanted to cling to it a little while longer, savor the memory of his touch, his taste. Even now, her lips still tingled from his devastating kiss. Her body ached with desire at the memory, and craved his touch. She wanted him the moment their eyes made contact. Maybe there could be something between them.

“Yes, call him. Tell him I’ll speak to him.”

***

When Barrett received the phone call, he was stunned. He never expected it. Now fully sober, he walked the short distance to the Cougar Cave to retrieve his keys from the waiter and pick up his car. After punching Nicci’s street address into his GPS, he drove toward nearby Carmel. A couple of fat raindrops splattered on the windshield. Glancing up at the night sky, dark, gray clouds gathered overhead. A storm brewed. It matched the storm churning in his gut. What in hell was he doing? His whole life had been focused and disciplined; he didn’t deviate from his path for years. Baseball. He lived and breathed it. Now it was over. He reached out to Nicci as a man reaches for a life preserver in a stormy sea. Or maybe he overanalyzed it as he did everything in his life.

The kiss.
How could he describe it? He’d been with enough women to know he never experienced such a high level of intensity before. It rocked him to his soul. Nicci on her knees sucking on his cock played in his mind. Oh Christ, he could feel her luscious lips on him even now. He groaned aloud as his prick stiffened and pushed against the zipper of his jeans. What did he know about these unknown emotions? His life had been so wrapped up in his baseball career he never took the time to engage in a long-term relationship with any woman.

He stood at home plate and a perfect curve ball headed toward the sweet spot on his bat. He’d be a goddamned fool if he didn’t hit it out of the park. Nicci was that curve ball.

A ball player knew a perfect pitch by sight, knew by the sound of the crack on his bat it was a home run. Yeah, he knew all this from the first time he made eye contact with Nicci in the bar. Set the fireworks off above the scoreboard. He was
gone.

By the time he turned onto Nicci’s street, the few raindrops had picked up a steady pace. He parked the car in front of her house. Connie stood in the open doorway, arms crossed. Nicci was nowhere in sight.

Barrett climbed out of the car and headed up the driveway as Connie made her way toward him. Thunder rumbled in the distance. They stopped in front of Connie’s car, face to face. The light from the nearby coach lamp illuminated them.

She reached up and touched his whiskered cheek. Connie smiled as her fingers traced his chin and touched his lips. Lowering her hand, she stepped back.

“Swing away, Barrett.”

CHAPTER
SEVEN

A cool breeze blew in from the front door, bringing with it the fresh, damp smell of the rain. Nicci heard Connie’s heels clicking against the cobblestone until they briefly stopped, and then the engine turned over and Connie’s car pulled away. Pure masculine heat replaced the cool breeze, and Nicci knew Barrett had entered.

She turned to face him and immediately felt the electricity from his gaze as it swept over her. Nicci was still unsure of herself and her feelings as she tried to find her voice. Her mouth had gone dry. All she could think of was how this man had changed her life in a few short hours. How he had shown her the possibility of happiness and fulfillment. Yet, feelings of doubt nagged at her. Inviting a man to her house, the home she had shared with Brad, seemed strange. Maybe she should have moved out and made a fresh start long ago. At the time, the memory of Brad consoled and comforted her many a lonely night. The realization struck her right there and then the time had come to move forward. As Connie said many times, life was too damned short.

How Nicci missed the companionship and the caring. Sleeping in late on a Saturday morning and walking down the hall to be greeted with a warm, loving, and protective embrace. Having a deep, masculine voice offer to make you tea, and have soft, warm kisses move across your still sleepy eyes. Yes, she mourned the loss of everything she shared with Brad. Could she find it again? Did she want to? Oh, God yes, with every fiber of her being.

Barrett moved toward her with the stealth and assurance of a predatory animal, but his eyes reflected a deeper, passionate connection. Nicci’s conflicted emotions roiled inside her. She should send him away before it went any further, and she might have done so until he touched her cheek and smiled. Instantly her body reacted to the nearness of him. Her heart swelled with a feeling she thought safely locked away. Desire, need, and a strong sense of rightness left her without words. She could find everything she missed with Barrett Michaels. Deep inside her soul, she knew it.

“Barrett, I should never have…” Nicci’s voice trembled. Rational thought eluded her as she moved into his touch and melted into him as he captured her lips with his. He placed gentle kisses on her mouth, nibbling, pulling her lower lip with his teeth, and urging her mouth open to receive his tongue. As his hand moved to rest on the back of her neck and pull her closer, his arm snaked around her waist. When he deepened the kiss, her knees went weak. Nicci wrapped her arms around his neck. She couldn’t get close enough, and when he broke the kiss, she whimpered her objection.

Barrett moved his hands down her arms in a sensual caress. Crackling bolts of electricity rolled through her body at his touch.

“What do we do now, talk?” she said.

“Talking is good, sex is better. I’d like to do both, but not at the same time.”

His teasing, sensual smile caused her heart to beat double time. Reaching for her hand, he laid it on his erection and thrust his hips.

“I’ve had a hard-on since you ran out of the hotel. I want you, Nicci. As I’ve never wanted anyone or anything in my life.”

“Even baseball?”

Barrett leaned his forehead against hers. “Yeah, even that.”

Nicci couldn’t resist squeezing his cock through his jeans and a husky, ragged moan tore from Barrett’s lips. Talk later—she couldn’t agree more.

“I need you now, baby. Where’s your bedroom?” Barrett easily lifted her in his arms and started walking toward the stairs where she pointed. After crossing the threshold of her bedroom, he laid her on the large bed, spread her robe open, and openly admired her body, naked except for her panties. She watched with barely concealed desire and anticipation as he quickly removed his clothes. The man was beyond stunning, but while his body was made for raw lust, Nicci instinctively knew he would be a caring and tender lover. She’d already had a taste in the hotel room.

When she sat up and reached for him, he pulled her robe off her shoulders and laid it at the foot of the bed. After sliding her panties off, Barrett loomed over her as he climbed onto the bed and straddled her body.

“Touch me, Nicci. I want to feel your hands on me. I want everything, need all of you.” He kissed her neck, right on the sensitive part near her shoulder, and languidly moved his lips over the rise of her breast. She felt his hot breath as it hovered over her hard nipple and she grasped his head and guided him onto it. When his mouth latched on, Nicci moaned. The sensation went straight to her pussy. He suckled, laved her breast with his tongue, and bit gently. Nicci’s arousal grew with every action. She was on fire, her body responded to him in a primal way and she needed more—wanted more.

Barrett’s hand slowly caressed her skin, working their way down past her waist and over the curve of her hips. He nudged her legs open with one powerful thigh and stroked the tender and sensitive skin between her thighs. Fingers teased and danced along her aching flesh until Nicci thought she would scream with need. The head of his cock tempted and teased her clit as he opened her up.

“Barrett, please…” Nicci didn’t recognize the deep, sensual murmur of her own voice. Her heart pounded in her chest and her insides coiled tightly. He barely touched her and her body was ready to fracture. Barrett hooked his arms under her legs as he trailed kisses along her stomach and belly. When he settled between her thighs and flicked his tongue over her clit, Nicci shattered.

“That’s my girl.” Barrett’s warm breath tickled against her swollen and aching pussy. “I think you need more.”

No, he couldn’t, he wouldn’t—

Barrett lowered his head and began his ministrations on her mound. His tongue plunged deep inside while his thumb worked her pulsing nub.

“You taste so damned sweet,” he murmured between his deep tongue thrusts.

Nicci’s hand reached out and grabbed a fistful of his hair as she pulled him closer. Barrett was relentless, pulling her to the precipice again. A hoarse scream tore from her throat as another climax rippled through her.

He tenderly kissed the inside of her thighs. “I could stay here between your legs all night. I could stay here the rest of my damned life.”

His stark honesty caused her heart to stutter. Did he mean it? Why did the prospect thrill her down to her toes?

He shifted his body until it covered hers and the feel of his hard physique against her softer curves sent more waves of desire through her. He sat upright and picked up his jeans from the floor. He pulled out a ribbon of condoms from the back pocket and gave her another devastatingly sexy smile. She watched with anticipation as he rolled the rubber on his rigid shaft.

She barely recovered from her climax when she felt the tip of Barrett’s cock enter her. Nicci tried to lift her hips to take him deeper, but he gently held her down. “Tell me you want me, Nicci. Tell me to bury myself deep inside you.”

He teased with his cock, moving it in slightly and then pulling out to the tip. Each time, Nicci moaned, demanded with her body for him to drive deeper inside her. Nicci’s hands shook as they wove through his hair. She pulled him into her and kissed him with a fierce longing. Her voice, laced with passion and desire, pleaded with him. “Yes, please make love to me. I want you, Barrett. Take me, take me now.”

Nicci gasped as he buried his cock deep inside her. He filled her, completed her, body and soul. Nicci traced the length of his torso with trembling fingers, explored once more the hardened strength, and felt the play of movement as he thrust inside her repeatedly. Gripping his firm ass, she squeezed her fingers into his flesh as her climax built to a crescendo. The walls of her pussy tightened and his cock throbbed inside her. Both of them were breathing erratically and when Nicci’s orgasm overtook her, Barrett moaned, covered her mouth with his, and came.

The woman lying in his embrace could not be real. Nicci was so giving, passionate, and so damned beautiful. Barrett lay flat on his back with Nicci curved into his body, her hand played with the damp hair on his chest. His vision blurred, and his climax intense and earth-shattering. Already he felt his cock stiffen at her potent touch.

“Nicci, you’re not sorry, are you? When I first came in the house, you said, ‘I should never have…’ Never have what, baby?”