Worth the fight

  I have no idea how long we talk for, but it’s nice, and I begin to think maybe William and I really can be friends. Maybe it’s what we always were. I lose track of time, and let myself enjoy the familiarity of my conversation.

  William’s back is to Nico as he approaches the bar, but I catch sight of him the minute he walks through the door. My body responds to him instantly, my pulse increasing and my breaths coming shorter and faster. My eyes follow his every step and our eyes lock the minute he spots me. The crowded room falls away as he walks to me and I shift in my seat feeling tingly all over at the intensity in his gaze. God the man makes me feel so alive.

  He’s a few steps away when his eyes finally leave mine and catches the face of the man I’m talking to. Something in his face changes, his eyes are darker, wilder, when his eyes come back to me only a second or two later. William notices my distraction and traces my line of sight, turning as Nico reaches us.

  Effortlessly, William makes the change from friend to businessman and greets Nico in the way I’ve watched him schmooze a hundred clients before. Nico nods his head curtly and I hear him say, “William,” but he doesn’t turn to acknowledge him and his eyes never release mine. The awkwardness that was missing with William, suddenly hangs thick in the air. Nico’s face gives nothing away, but I can feel the tension emanating from his body.

  His eyes squint ever so slightly as he studies me, looking for an answer to some unasked question. I’m still as Nico extends his arm toward me, his big hand gently hooking around my neck and pulling me slightly toward him as his head comes down to meet mine. His mouth covers mine and he plants a quick, dry kiss on my lips. His head pulls back slightly and he nods and speaks before he releases me. “Babe.”

  The look in his eyes is something I’m not used to, but there’s no mistaking it’s there. Jealousy, possessiveness. He’s just marked his territory with one small move. The hint of a smile I see threatening in the corner of his mouth tells me he knew exactly what he was doing. The independent woman inside of me tells me I should be pissed, finding his territorial action appalling, but my body refuses to listen. Instead, I’m aroused, finding his possessive gesture incredibly sexy and exciting.

  Regina breaks me out of my daze with her words and I find the three people we are with staring at me. I forgot there was anyone else in the room. “Do I get a greeting like that too?” Her sarcastic comment seems to break the awkward silence, and Nico responds sweetly by giving her a kiss on the cheek and treating her to his sexy grin. “Hey, Regina.” She giggles like a schoolgirl at his touch. My friend definitely has a new crush.

  William looks confused, almost shell shocked for a minute. His reaction surprises me, not that he reacts, but that he allows me to see it on his face. I’ve watched him bluff in negotiations and cover his surprise to testimony on the witness stand, without ever a hint of reveal on the outside. He’s a master at maintaining a poker face, but I think Nico’s kiss must have caught him very off guard.

  Nico extends his hand to me. “Ready?”

  I smile hesitantly at William and say my goodbyes to everyone before putting my hand in Nico’s and rising to leave.

  ***

  The restaurant is in the back of the bar and it’s quieter and more intimate. Nico pulls out my chair before sitting and the waitress takes our drink order as soon as we’re both seated. We’re finally alone and Nico is looking at me questioningly. He seems to be expecting me to say something, but I don’t. I wait, I want to know what’s on his mind.

  “Drinks with William?” His voice is low and he sounds angry. I can tell he’s doing his best to appear controlled.

  “It wasn’t a planned thing, if that’s what you’re asking.” I raise an eyebrow in question. But I know exactly what he’s asking.

  Nico studies me for a second and then nods, accepting my answer.

  Dinner is good, although I think Nico’s cooking is better. We move past whatever issue he had with William and Nico has me laughing through most of dinner, telling me more stories about growing up with his three brothers. His childhood memories are beautiful, filled with laughter and fighting and a roller coaster of emotions that always seem to land on love. It’s so different than the memories I’ve spent half my life trying to keep at bay.

  The sprawling lawn that lead to our stately home looked beautiful, like something from a tender storybook. Yet inside was anything but, instead filled with anger and violence. It should have been easy for us. We were a family. Two parents and none of the financial stresses that many have to face daily. Yet Nico’s single mom, who struggled raising four boys, seems to have been able to give them so much more. I’ll never understand why we lived the way we did.

  The waitress arrives with our check and she looks at Nico shyly. “Umm…can I bother you for your autograph? I’m a huge fan.” She’s nervously swaying back and forth as she speaks and it’s sweet, almost coquettish. I hadn’t really noticed her before. She’s a pretty girl, something about her has a girl-next-door quality.

  Nico smiles and tells her he’s happy to sign an autograph and the two of them spend a few minutes talking about his upcoming fight. Her shyness easily disappears as they talk and I watch as he turns her from shy girl to flirty woman in just under three minutes. The transformation in her is remarkable. But it’s Nico who brings it out of her. He gives her his full attention as she speaks, it’s just shy of flirting and he doesn’t even try. Whatever he has exudes from him naturally. By the time they’re done, the sweetness that I felt when the doe-eyed waitress asked him for a simple autograph has turned into something else. I’m pretty sure that something else is jealousy, but it’s new to me.

  Nico turns to me, “You ready?” He stands and offers me his hand.

  “Sure, if you’re done.” My response comes out more sarcastic than I intended, but I give him my hand nevertheless.

  Nico’s eyebrows arch in surprise at my tone and he looks at me at first in confusion, and then it quickly turns to amusement. He pulls me to him and crushes my mouth to his. He doesn’t care that we’re standing in the middle of a crowded restaurant, and he makes it so that I don’t either.

  ***

  We no longer invite each other in at the end of the night, it’s just a given. I spent years dating William and we never moved past the invite stage to where Nico and I have gone in only a few weeks. I don’t know when it changed, but I think we’ve left dating and moved into relationship. It just happened. Something slipped by me and it was too late before I noticed. Not that I would have stopped it anyway. But I find it intriguing when I look back to where things stayed with others. This man does something to me that’s different. It’s like breathing. I don’t think about it, my body and brain just work together of their own accord to take care of my need for air. Nico’s become a need.

  We settle into my apartment and Nico sits in the loveseat facing the couch. It looks more like a big chair with his large frame filling up so much space. I kick off my heels and walk towards the couch.

  “Come here.” His voice is gruff and sends a chill up my spine. He extends his arm up and pulls me down to him so that I’m sitting facing him, straddling his muscular thighs. I squirm a bit to find a comfortable place, but I feel his thick bulge beneath me and there is no place to hide with my legs spread so widely over him. He looks amused watching me, so I settle on a spot even though he’s pressed up against me in my most intimate of areas. I feel an ache almost immediately.

  “You have a jealous streak in you.” His eyes light up as he pushes my hair back off of my face with his calloused fingers. He leans in ever so slightly and kisses me gently on the lips before he speaks, his lips still so close to mine I can feel the vibration of his words. “I like it.”

  “And you, what was that little thing you did with William?” My words come out breathless from his sweet kiss, but his body tenses underneath me at the mention of William.

  Nico pulls his face back to look at me and he grips my hips tightly. “I told y
ou I’m not sharing you.” His voice is serious and rough.

  I don’t know how to respond to that, so I’m honest. “William and I have been friends since law school. He’s a good friend.”

  Nico looks at me, waiting for more.

  “We sort of, you know, added to the friendship a few years back.” I blush and bite my lower lip unconsciously.

  Nico’s jaw flexes and his green eyes go dark, cloudy gray. “And now?”

  “Now we’re friends again. I guess. I haven’t seen him since I told him that I didn’t want to see him anymore, in that way. Tonight was the first time I’ve seen him since you and I started seeing each other.”

  Nico nods. His face tells me he understands that he wasn’t my first, but it’s difficult for him to hear. Difficult to accept the thought of me with another man. I want him to forget about William, put all thoughts of our pasts out of his mind and focus on me. Us. Now.

  I lean forward and press my body up against his, the slight shift lines the length of him up against me. I can’t help but let out a small moan as I feel him hardening underneath me.

  “You’re mine now.” He groans as I push my weight down on him, the outline of him pushing up against me firmly through our clothes.

  “Does that mean I get to do whatever I want with you then?” I flirt in a suggestive tone and raise one eyebrow in question.

  “Only if that means I’m buried inside of you within the next few minutes.”

  His words ratchet up my arousal and I can’t get to his bare skin fast enough. I begin to unbutton his shirt, my fingers frantic to unwrap the prize underneath. I make it two buttons when Nico reaches behind him and grabs the back of his shirt and pulls it over his head in one muscular yank.

  I take in the sight of his bare chest, all defined and bulging. The plentiful ink woven on his arms looks like art on the most beautiful canvas I’ve ever laid eyes on. Lucky ink. I trace the lines on his chest, the crevices separating one muscle from another, allowing my fingernail to scrape lightly against his beautiful tanned skin.

  His chest heaves up and down as he watches me touch him. I circle a trail around his taut nipple and then slowly reach down and flick it with my tongue before I gently bite down. Nico groans and his grip on my hips tightens and his head falls back as he takes a deep breath, struggling to maintain his control.

  His neck exposed, I lean in and kiss gently once at the base of his neck, then move up slightly and bite gently. I alternate between gentle kisses and nipping as I work my way up his neck. When I reach his ear, I stop and whisper, allowing the hot breath from my words to float as I speak. “I’m on the pill and I’m clean, if…”

  Nico doesn’t give me a chance to even finish my sentence. My shirt is up and off of my head before I even realize he’s taken over. Raw need floods through me in reaction to the intensity of his movement, and my body shivers when he roughly pushes down the cup to my bra and takes my nipple into his mouth. I whimper when he bites down and sucks hard while his hands lift me to take off my skirt.

  He takes my mouth hungrily and I rub myself up against him, my swollen clit desperate for friction. A throaty moan escapes when I feel how hard he is and begin to ride him up and down through what remains of our clothes. With one strong arm, Nico lifts my ass and his other hand unzips his pants, freeing himself. “I’ve wanted to come inside of you so badly it hurts. Feel that clenching little pussy slide up and down my bare cock. I need in. Now.”

  It’s a testament to our desperation that we don’t even remove my panties or take down Nico’s pants. He just pushes them aside to make enough room for us to connect before he lifts me high and positions the tip of him at my opening. I think he’s just about to pull me down, spearing himself into me and I can’t wait. But then he stills…he’s shaking. “Shit. I don’t want to hurt you. You take me as slowly as you need.”

  I need him. I don’t care if it hurts or if my body isn’t ready to take him all in at once. I have to have him inside of me. Filling me. All of me. Now. I surprise him when I force the weight of me down and take him in fully in one long, agonizingly blissful stroke. Nico closes his eyes for a second and groans loudly. I’m flush against the base of him and give my body only a few seconds to adjust to accommodate the length of him.

  Nico takes my earlobe in his teeth and bites down, sending a burst of pain-pleasure down to the tips of my toes. “Ride me. You’re so tight and wet. I’m going to fill up that sexy little pussy and make it mine. I want my smell on you. In you. So that the whole god damn world knows you’re mine.”

  I gasp at his dirty words. They excite me. Fuel me. I feel my orgasm on the brink and I haven’t even moved yet. Then I begin to ride him. Fast. Hard. Wet. We’re both soaked with a sheen of sweat and our bodies slip slide up and down each other as I lift up and slam down, over and over again. Nico gyrates his hips up to meet my downward motion with each thrust and we both explode together. I feel his body harden as he releases into me and he pushes deeper and harder with each hot burst. It’s as if he wants to get all of him inside of me so deep it can never escape. I know how he feels, because I feel the exact same way.

  Minutes later, my lifeless body sags on his lap but he’s still inside of me. Still hard even after such a powerful orgasm. He pushes back my dampened hair and sweetly kisses my forehead, holding me tightly to his chest for a minute. He stands, cradling my limp body in his arm and carries me to the bedroom, gently placing me down on the bed. He takes off his pants and crawls into bed, his naked body spooned behind mine, his arms wrapped tightly around me. As I drift off to sleep, I hear him say two words quietly. “Thank you.”

  Neither of us has moved when I wake the next morning.

  Chapter 28

  Nico

  “Must be nice to have a lawyer make house calls.” Preach tilts his chin toward the front desk where Sal is pointing Elle in my direction. She smiles at me and I smile back on a draw down. I’m thirty pull ups out from finishing my morning workout, but seeing Elle gives me a burst of adrenaline and it suddenly doesn’t feel like I’ve already chinned seventy.

  It’s been more than a month now, and I’m still as into her as the day I met her. She has no idea how sexy she is. Her body is hot as hell when she’s naked underneath me, but she totally rocks the whole sexy librarian look when she’s dressed in those little, fitted, skirt suits for work.

  “Hey, Preach.”

  “Hiya, Elle. Your boy will be done in a few minutes.”

  She looks at me as I pull up on the bar and I watch her take in my shirtless torso as it flexes to bring my weight up and down. Fuck, the way she looks at me like she wants to eat me, kills me sometimes.

  “I kinda like him up there. Maybe you can make him do some extra for me today?” She teases Preach and he laughs.

  “You hear that Nico, the woman doesn’t think you’re working hard enough.”

  I finish my last pull up and jump from the bar. I sweated clear through two shirts this morning and I’m soaked again. Dripping, since I discarded the second shirt an hour ago.

  Sporting a mischievous grin, I walk with purpose the few steps between Elle and me and lift her, rubbing my sweaty body all over her pretty crisp suit. “Is that so, you think I’m slacking, huh?” She screeches at me to put her down, but I hear the smile in her voice as she smacks my back in protest of my sweaty body ruining her suit.

  I place her down gently on her feet and give her a kiss on the mouth. She pretends to be pissed, but she’s not and we both know it. But we’ll play anyway.

  “I come all the way over here to pick up these contracts and this is the thanks I get.” She motions to the wet marks I’ve left on her suit. “Next time you’ll be sending a messenger over to deliver them to me.”

  Preach walks away laughing. “Come on, I’ll take a quick shower upstairs and you can take a look at the part I don’t understand. I’ll let you watch me in the shower to make it up to you.” I wink at her and take her hand and start toward the elevator without wa
iting for her response.

  Chapter 29

  Elle

  Nico comes out of the shower in a towel and I’m already sitting at the table half way done with the contract he wants me to look at. He comes up behind me and moves my hair from one side of my neck before reaching down to nuzzle me. He rubs his nose along the side of my neck and breathes deep. “You smell so good.”

  “I used to.”

  He chuckles and comes around the table to sit on the other side, opposite of me.

  “I’m not done reading yet, but what part don’t you like. I don’t see anything too unusual so far.”

  “That’s because you haven’t read my other ones.” Nico leans his elbows on the table and clasps his hands together. It’s a common every day posture, but there’s nothing common about it when Nico Hunter does it. His normally muscular biceps are huge, even more defined from his morning workout. Everything about him is just so purely, deliciously male. His square jaw, his green eyes that turn grey with desire when he comes near me, the way he looks at me like he’s a hunter and I’m his prey. He’s incredibly distracting. Even more so sitting in nothing but a towel. Lucky towel.

  I bring my eyes back to his and he’s watching me with the sexy half grin that makes me melt and I know I’ve been caught looking at him.

  “See something you like, Babe?” His voice is raspy and sexy as all hell.

  “What? No! This is strictly a professional visit. I have to get back to the office. William is coming at three for a deposition on a case where we have co-defendants and I want to read this through before I pass it to him.”