Page 31 of Naughty or Nice?
“It’s just the family wondering where I am.”
“Nothing to worry about—you’re just with your son’s thotty ex-fiancée whose busted it wide open for you.” I give a self-depreciating laugh as I pull the pan off the burner and empty half of the scrambled eggs onto my plate and the other half onto his.
Nicholas isn’t amused. He dials down the heat on the burner he’s frying the bacon on and then reaches for me by the waist.
“Stop talking about yourself like that. You didn’t ‘bust it wide open’. You made a choice to enjoy yourself after my son broke your heart. And if thotty means what I think it does, that isn’t true either. You won’t speak about yourself like that again… or St. Nick really will make a return. Are we clear, darling?”
I almost smile as I nod. “I guess it’s going to take some work to get it through my head I haven’t done anything wrong. I mean, Nate and I are over. And you and I are consenting adults. We’re both single. It might not be the cleanest situation… but what is? Everything’s messy when you look at it from different perspectives.”
“Exactly right. Not everybody’s going to agree with what we’ve done, but I’ve never lived my life according to what others thought. You shouldn’t either.”
“Okay, let’s say this goes beyond this holiday. Let’s say we put aside the whole ex-fiancé’s father thing. There’re still other hurdles, Nick.”
We carry our plates and mugs of coffee to the table in the dining room and sit down to enjoy the breakfast we’ve whipped up. Nicholas bites into his first strip of bacon and pins me with an inquisitive stare from across the small table.
“Care to name a couple?”
“Our age difference. Our life goals. Our places of residence. Our careers. The fact that we have a hell of a lot of chemistry, but we’ve only really fucked. We haven’t dated or really gotten to know each other,” I say, ticking each one off with my finger. “I’m thirty-six. My biological clock is starting to kick in, Nick. I want marriage. I want kids. You’re in your fifties and you’ve already had those things. You said it yourself. You never thought you could ever be with someone else after Laura passed.”
“I did feel that way. But that was before you.”
“And what do you feel now?”
“I feel like I’ve met a woman I can’t stop thinking about. I’ve met a woman who I want to get to know and who I’d like a future with. I loved Laura more than words can say—and nothing’s ever going to change that—but every love is a different kind of love. Every relationship should be judged on its own scale. You can’t compare them because you and Laura are two completely different women. And I appreciate that. I’m sure you can say the same about me and Nate.”
I think on what he’s said. “Our relationship wasn’t perfect, but there were good times. We’ve been together for almost three years. I really did love him.”
“Life tends to be like that, darling. You’re allowed more than one love.”
“But I want marriage and kids, Nick. If we pursued a relationship, you’d really be open to that?”
“I’d marry you in a heartbeat,” he says plainly. “I’d be proud to make you my wife and the mother of any children we would have. I’m in my fifties… but I’m not dead. I’ve got plenty of years left to live. And I like the idea of spending ’em with you.”
“I don’t live in North Carolina.”
He shrugs. “We can take turns visiting each other. Or one of us can move. I can expand my business to Georgia.”
“I travel a lot for work, Nick. It put a strain on my relationship with Nate.”
“Darling, if you’re my wife and mother of my child, I want you at home with me,” he says, his gaze twinkling as he takes my hand. “I’m a traditional man. I want my lady in my bed every night and want her to enjoy the life we have together. If it’s travel that you want, we can do that together… for leisure. You don’t need to be serving in-flight meals to do that if you’re with me.”
I can’t help the small laugh that leaves me. “Nate felt the same. I guess that’s one similarity between you.”
“Any other reservations?”
My mind comes up blank. I can’t think of a single thing to protest.
“We can take it slow in the beginning,” he says, stroking the back of my hand. “We’ve, err, already become pretty damn acquainted with each other in the bedroom. But we can press the brakes and go slower. Date and get to know each other.”
“And your family? Your phone’s pinging again. I know we said we’d keep it our naughty secret, but that was when I was turned on and wasn’t thinking straight.”
The laugh that he releases is deep and thick and makes me warm all over. He really is like a sexy lumberjack version of Santa Claus, and it still boggles my mind that he’s interested in me.
“We sit them down and tell them the truth. As soon as you’re comfortable doing so,” he says. “Would you be open to staying for the days you were originally going to stay for? Before the Nate ordeal?”
I’m caught between answering. Nicholas is patient waiting for me to do so, holding my hand and giving me the time to think.
I’m seconds away from answering. A sharp knock on the door interrupts before I can.