Working Man (12 page)

Dakota sat back and stared at Nick. Once again he'd caught her off guard. What he'd just said was worthy of Dr. Keith Ablow or even the great Oprah herself. Her face showed everything she was thinking and she felt her cheeks redden when he called her on it.

“I got you thinking now, baby! You're wondering who that handsome devil is next to you with all the million-dollar psychology. It ain't Dr. Phil, it's just me, Miss Lady,” He laughed raucously, and then looked at her with warmth and affection. “Don't worry about this, Dakota. We've got everything we need for this to work out just fine.”

He parked the Escalade at a strip mall that had a large farmer's market at one end. There was also a greasy spoon which was Nick's immediate target. “You like hotdogs?”

“I sure do,” she answered.

“Good. These are great. Chicago-style, you'll love them. Then we can go to the farmer's market. I noticed you like a lot of fruit and vegetables and they have real good produce there.”

When they were seated in the tiny restaurant, Dakota sniffed her 'dog appreciatively before eating. “Mmm! I love hotdogs, always have. I actually like them better than burgers. Better than a Philly cheese steak and that's sacrilege where I come from. I'm from Pittsburgh, not Philadelphia, but cheesesteaks are still the big thing back home.”

“Do you like Reubens?” he asked. She nodded because her mouth was full. “I got the deli for you, then. We'll go there later on. I'd take you tomorrow, but Paul and Patsy want me to bring you over. It's Ebony's birthday and she's home for the weekend.”

“Oh, that would be nice! I want to pick her up a nice present,” Dakota said. “She's really working hard on that degree, going to summer school and all. I used to do the same thing,” she said.

“Ebony's a good kid. You'll get to meet the rest of the kids this weekend. They were in Georgia the last time you were over,” he told her.

Dakota didn't answer; she was sipping her root beer. She was staring at him, unaware that her expression was soft and full of love. He looked up to find her eyes on his face and smiled. “What's up? I got mustard on my chin or something?”

“No, nothing like that. I was just wondering why you never got married,” she blurted out. She almost said what she was thinking, which was that he would make a wonderful, loving and attentive husband for some lucky woman.

Nick's expression changed. “Who says I never got married? I was married,” he said succinctly.

 

Only Dakota's extensive experience as an investigator kept her face from showing her surprise. “You were? I didn't know that,” she said with studied nonchalance.

Nick shrugged. “No reason for you to know. I married my high-school sweetheart. Now, we had everything in common,” he said sardonically. “We grew up country and poor, we both liked the same foods, same music, same everything. We knew the same people and shared the same hopes and dreams. The height of our ambition was to have a split-level house in Atlanta. That was big livin' to us. We wanted a split-level house and two kids, a boy and a girl. And two cars,” he said, holding up two fingers for emphasis.

Dakota couldn't take her eyes from his. “What happened, Nick?”

“She had a slightly different timetable than mine, I guess. Got tired of waiting for me to get out of the service, but she didn't want to come with me, which she could have done. I wanted her to. I wanted her to see some of the world with me before the babies came. It just seemed like to me she'd want to be someplace besides old dusty south Georgia. But she wouldn't come.” He took a long drink of iced tea. “So she started screwing her other high-school sweetheart and got pregnant. I guess she figured the army took away my ability to count, because she tried to convince me the baby was mine. I was country, but I wasn't stupid. So I divorced her, left Georgia and never looked back. Me and Paul settled up here and that's it.”

Dakota wanted to say something insightful and appropriate, but she couldn't think of anything that would sound right. But Nick wasn't finished. “Paul, now he's with his girl from back home and that worked out right nice. She came with him when he was in the service and she took every kind of course she could. She started out wanting to be a nurse, but she ended up a teacher. They have four of the nicest kids you'd ever want to meet and they're real happy.”

She had to ask, it just came tumbling out of her mouth as though she had no control over her brain. “Do you think you'll ever get married again?”

Nick burst out laughing. “Baby, of course I will. I'm going to marry you. Haven't you figured that out yet?”

I
t took the rest of the day for Nick to convince Dakota that he wasn't kidding. She'd jumped as though she'd been stung by a bee, and then she'd proceeded to knock over her root beer while he sat back and grinned like he was king of the universe. “That isn't funny,” she hissed, sounding just like Cha-Cha in a snit.

“It's not meant to be,” he said confidently. “You're my woman, I'm your man, and we're gonna get married sooner or later.” She ignored him as she furiously mopped up the root beer with napkins. “You can't get mad at me for stating facts, Miss Lady.”

“I'm leaving,” she said hotly. She slid out of the booth and picked up her good Coach bag, frowning when she saw that it too had borne the brunt of the root-beer episode. She ungraciously snatched the handful of napkins he was holding out to her and continued her hasty departure, wiping her bag angrily. Nick easily caught up with her and took her arm.

“The farmer's market is that way,” he nodded toward the other end of the strip mall.

“I really don't feel like looking at tomatoes right now, thank you. I feel like going home.” She sounded like a pouty schoolgirl, but she couldn't help it.

“Why? Just because I spoke the truth? Are you upset because I didn't give you moonlight and roses and get down on one knee?”

Dakota opened her mouth to deny it, but the words didn't come out. She had suddenly remembered the night Jonah had proposed and it was indeed on a moonlight cruise down the Potomac with roses everywhere and a rather ugly ring that she never warmed up to. He had indeed given her moonlight, roses and the traditional kneeling pose and look how that turned out. Frustrated, she looked up at Nick with a frown. “It's not that. It's just that I take marriage very seriously and I don't think an open declaration in a dingy diner constitutes a proposal,” she said angrily. “I'm not your plaything, Nick, and the sooner you learn that the better.”

She tried to pull away from him again, but he was too strong and too quick for her. He had his arms around her and her head tilted up to his in a heartbeat. “Look here, Dakota, if anybody is playing it's you. Look in my eyes and see if I'm joking. You know I love you, woman. You know I want you and you know you're mine. What else can happen besides we get married? We're not kids and I'm not trying to go steady until we're fifty or some dumb mess.”

She opened her mouth to make a heated rebuttal and found herself in a heated kiss instead. Nick applied his mouth and tongue to hers, and besides arousing her it gave her an odd sense that he was telling the truth. The kiss could have gone on forever as far as she was concerned, but a couple of comments from passersby reminded Nick that they were in a parking lot.

“Damn, baby. I'm sorry,” he apologized. “I wasn't trying to put all our business out in the street,” he said comfortingly. He kissed her on the forehead and they started walking towards the farmer's market. “I'm not too good at the smooth talk and the romantic stuff, I guess. Kinda out of practice,” he admitted. “But it's going to be fine, Dakota, I promise you it is. You said I haven't broken a promise to you yet and I won't. You believe me?”

“Yes, but…”

“No! Not the ‘yabbuts,' not from you, baby.”

Dakota had no idea what “yabbuts” were, but Nick apparently found them highly amusing. He explained as soon as he got through laughing.

“I get that from my crew, or I used to. Same thing in the service. You tell somebody what to do, they don't do it and you call them on it. First thing out their mouth is, ‘Yeah, but…' I got so sick of hearing it I started treating it like a disease. Anytime somebody starts making an excuse they go, ‘Yeah, but…' Yabbut, yabbut, yabbut. My crew knows not to say that to me. I don't take excuses, I'm looking for responsibility.”

They'd reached the entrance of the farmer's market. “So try not to get the yabbuts, baby, it's a deadly disease.”

Dakota was trying to think of a smart remark, but Nick kissed her again and she forgot whatever she was going to say. “It's going to be fine, Dakota. Better than fine, we're gonna have it all, wait and see.”

She leaned against him, loving the way his hard muscled body felt against hers, despite her temporary angst. Maybe life really was that simple after all. You meet, you click, you claim each other and then you get married and have some happily-ever-after for a change. Maybe he was right about everything.

 

They shopped at the farmer's market long enough for Dakota to get a couple of cantaloupes, a honeydew, a seedless watermelon and everything else she'd need to make a fruit salad for Ebony's party the next day. Nick tried to convince her that it wasn't necessary.

“There's going to be a ton of food, there always is. You don't need to go to any trouble.”

Dakota disagreed. “It's no trouble. I'm just cutting up some fruit. Besides, you can't go stepping up to somebody's house empty-handed and I don't want to bring something store-bought.”

Nick looked down at the top of her head and pressed a kiss on her soft, scented hair. “Patsy is going to love you for this. She already likes you, but she's gonna love you for doing this.”

After putting the groceries in the SUV, they went to a Bohemian area that was home to a number of cute little shops. She found a gift store with some lovely handmade stationery and some really nice leather journals. She bought the paper and a few journals for Ebony's birthday present. “Writers like to
write,
” she explained. “Even in this e-mail, text-message, cell-phone society, a real writer likes seeing words on paper. I think she'll make good use of these.”

“Ebony thinks you hung the moon. You could give her a dollar-store trinket and she'd be happy as a pig in mud,” he said dryly. He had selected a very stunning and expensive Mont Blanc pen for his niece, something of which Dakota heartily approved.

“Nick, she'll be thrilled. I had one once and I lost it at a book signing. I think someone wanted a souvenir from the author,” she said ruefully. “It was a graduation gift and I never replaced it because I just couldn't spend that much money on myself for a pen. If you're really nice to me, I'll gift wrap it for you.”

He leaned down to whisper in her ear. “I'll be more than nice to you for the rest of our lives if you let me.”

Dakota's knees buckled a little and she felt that familiar tremor running through her body. Maybe life could be that simple. She uttered a fervent and silent prayer that this time it would be.

 

Things got a little chaotic after Nick brought her home. First she had to beg Cha-Cha's forgiveness for keeping her man away from her all day. Then she had to get some clothes together for their date. Nick said it didn't make sense for her to get ready there since she would be spending the night with him. So she had to pack a small bag with her cosmetics and accessories, as well as pick out two outfits, one for tonight and one for tomorrow. “Where are we going tonight, honey?”

“My favorite club.”

Dakota waited for details but they weren't forthcoming. “Thanks, honey, that was helpful,” she muttered. “How dressy?”

“Dressy as you wanna be, I guess.”

Nick was sprawled across the bed with Cha-Cha, who was leaping and frolicking all over his long legs. He wasn't going to be a bit of help.

She was remembering two pieces of fashion advice, neither of which seemed really helpful. One was from the great Bill Blass, who'd said, “When in doubt, wear red.” Then there was the adage about when you wanted to get attention, wear white. She had a better idea. When you're stuck, call your sister. She took her cell phone out of her pocket and punched in Billie's number, hoping that her wandering sister wasn't in some remote location where her signal had disappeared. Luckily, Billie answered on the third ring.

Dakota explained her dilemma, and Billie had the perfect answer. “Wear that white halter dress tonight. It's white, so it can go for dressy. It's cotton, so it will still feel casual. And it's hot so you won't have to wear hose. Tomorrow you can wear the red shorts with the matching tank and the multicolored sandals. Aren't you glad you didn't let Johnny take me back to the hospital?” she laughed.

Their brother had indeed wanted to return Billie when it was revealed that he had another sister. He had wanted a brother, or at the very least, a football. “I would have never let him do it. I was the one who wanted a sister, remember that. Thanks for the advice. What have you been up to lately?”

“Same ol' same ol'. Photo shoots and runways, a couple of TV appearances, nothing too fun. I'm only doing this one more year and then I'm off like a prom dress. I want to start living in the real world,” Billie said. “But let's not worry about little me. Let's talk about you and what you've been up to with ol' green eyes. Something naughty, I hope?”

Dakota was delighted to answer in the affirmative. “Very naughty.”

Billie's squeal pierced Dakota's eardrum. “Go, Dakota! It's about time. Was it good naughty?”

“The best. And that's all you're getting out of me. If you're not in Bali or Monaco or Timbuktu in a month or so you should head this way. I'm having a housewarming and Mama and Daddy and Johnny will be here. Please come,” she begged.

“And you know this! I'm not about to miss it, girl. Besides, I want to see you and Nick together again. You look so good and he's so sweet to you. The two of you give me hope, big sister. I've kissed enough frogs, there must be a prince for me out there somewhere.”

They said goodbye and got off the phone. Dakota put her selected outfits in a garment bag and slipped the appropriate shoes into the weekender. When she emerged from the walk-in closet she was touched and amused to see Nick asleep with Cha-Cha lying across his chest as though she was claiming him.

“Chach, you know you're my main kitty, but that's
my
man, so you can forget about it. Now come on so I can get you some extra food and make sure your box is clean. You're going to be on your own tonight.”

“Why can't she come with us?” Nick's deep voice made Dakota jump.

“You should let a person know that you're not really sleeping. You scared the life out of me. Cha-Cha will be fine on her own. She's used to being alone from time to time, Nick, she'll be okay.”

His eyes were fully open now and when she looked at the bed two pairs of beautiful green eyes stared at her reproachfully. She burst out laughing. “You know, you and Cha-Cha look a lot alike, especially around the eyes. That's so funny! But she's still not going. We'd have to take her food and her toys and her cat box and besides, she hates riding in the car, it would be a disaster. No. No way,” she said firmly.

Thirty minutes later she and Nick were in the Escalade, on their way to his house. She was driving and Nick was the passenger with Cha-Cha purring happily in his lap. She was sitting up so she could watch the scenery and she seemed perfectly content, which annoyed Dakota to no end.

“She doesn't like that carrier, baby. I don't blame her. That's not a good place for her to be. Look at her, she's no trouble at all.”

Cha-Cha actually turned to face Dakota and gave her a smug little grin accompanied by a little chirp of joy. “Okay, you ganged up on me and she got her way. I just hope you don't plan to do this when we have children, Nicholas DeVaughan, because that could get ugly,” she muttered.

She didn't see the huge grin that Nick flashed when he heard her words. Whether she realized it or not, Miss Lady had just agreed to be his wife.

 

It took Dakota a little longer to get ready than usual, primarily because she had Nick helping. First, there was a long bubble bath in his big tub equipped with whirlpool jets. There was no way she could get into something that wonderful all by her lonesome, so the two of them bathed each other and discovered new ways to pleasure each other in the hot, fragrant bubbles. The jets were amazing, but even better was the hand-held shower attachment with different settings. She lay against Nick's broad chest while he showed her the different settings, trying each one out on her nipples. Every concentrated burst of water brought a new sensation until she was about to faint. But Nick wasn't having it. He coaxed her into a kneeling position and had her bend over at the waist. Then he directed the warm pulsing water at her most feminine parts and increased the pressure until she was once again writhing in pleasure and screaming his name.

She had her revenge for that sweet torture, though. She waited until he was letting the water out of the tub and they had rinsed all the suds away from their bodies. She was, for once, quicker than he was and when he'd put one foot on the thick bath mat and one foot in the tub, she made her move. She knelt down and took him in hand, holding him firmly while she guided him into her mouth. While he was groaning his pleasure she was treating him like the most delicious lollipop in the world, running her lips and tongue all over him and pulling him into her wet mouth until he was so hard he felt like steel. He roared her name and showed his strength and agility when he pulled her up out of the tub and hoisted her up until she could straddle his waist and slid down onto the bulging erection she'd created. He leaned against the granite-tiled wall and she managed to grab a towel rack to steady them while he took her to yet another level of sexual fulfillment. He could easily access her breasts while they were joined in this position and he took full advantage, fastening his mouth on one of her nipples that was as huge and sweet as chocolate candy. The combination of him in her and on her was so intense she felt as if they were doing this for the very first time.