A Special Summer (Love Conquers All) (26 page)

The last thing she needed was for that man to spend the night under her roof. Although she had determined in her mind a thousand times she was letting him go, her heart and body had a hard time cooperating with her head. The very sight of the man made her weak in the knees. Why did he have to stand in her bedroom doorway looking all sexy and everything? Talking in that deep voice that had the hairs on the back of her neck standing up. Telling her he loved her hair and that her body looked tight. What kind of game was he playing anyway? He barely said “boo” to her over the last six weeks. Besides, by now he should have known there was no going back for them. Too much damage had been done. The only thing they had in common was their son. NJ would be the only thing that kept them involved as parents and nothing else.

After showering, Summer stepped out of the tub turning off the cold water and leaving the hot water running giving the bathroom a sauna effect. Before she could reach for a thick terrycloth towel to dry off she jumped turning toward the door as it flew open. The barging in of her intruder startled her something terrible as she stared wide-eyed at him.

“Summer…” Nick’s words trailed off mid-sentence. He was not prepared for what he’d barged in on. Unconsciously he licked his lips as he drank in the vision before him. There she was completely nude as the day she was born. Body glistening as drops of water lazily glided down her breasts, abdomen, thighs and legs. Immediately his body responded. In his head he screamed, “
Daaayum! Double Daaayum!”
as his eyes roamed her petite body from head to toe and then in reverse again.

“Nick! What are you doing?” Summer yelled crossing her arms shielding her breasts from his roaming eyes.

“I just…wanted…to know…how long to let…the bottle sit…in the hot water. And is… hot tap water okay…or should I…boil it?” He asked distracted, hardly able to get the words out as his eyes continued to roam.

“About three to four minutes. And yes, hot tap water if fine. You should’ve knocked before barging in here,” she snapped, irritated with him.

“I thought you were still in the shower. I heard the water running.” Getting over his initial shock of what he’d stumbled onto Nick could no longer suppress the sly, wolfish grin spreading across his face.

Stomping her foot, crossing her arms tighter, Summer yelled, “Stop looking at me like that!”
Dirty dog !

“Like what?” he grinned.

“Like you’ve never seen a naked woman before,” she snapped.

Shutting the bathroom door he advanced a step closer, Summer withdrew a step. “I haven’t.”

Summer snatched at a towel on the rack. Nervous jitters replaced irritation as she fumbled, dropping the towel to the floor. “You haven’t what?” she asked breathless.

Too self-conscious to bend down to retrieve the towel she stood rooted to the floor.

Nick moved with the grace of a large cat as he stooped down in front of her picking up

the towel with his left hand as his right hand caressed her from ankle to hip as he rose to his full height. Summer took the towel backing away from his touch as she covered her nakedness.

Continuing his advancement until her back was against the wall, he had his prey trapped. Placing his hands against the wall on either side of Summer’s body boxing her in, he said, “Seen a naked woman in a very, very long time.”

What in the name of…?
Summer’s heart began to pound in her chest as Nick lowered his mouth to her neck. Just as he was about to zero in on the area of her neck he wanted to taste, she said, “You hear that?” Craning her neck further to the side straining her ear to hear beyond the closed bathroom door gave him exactly what he wanted. It wasn’t her intention, but unwittingly she’d given him absolute access. Like a vampire he descended upon her, biting into, then sucking the soft, succulent exposed flesh. Nick’s eyes rolled in the back of his head as he ravished her flesh. Never before had anything tasted so sweet, so tender.

Summer let out a yelp from the pain of having her tender flesh ravished, only to be followed by eyelids heavily drifting shut as she gave into the pleasure. Right at that moment, she never wanted him to stop. One second she was whimpering and the next moaning as he sensuously alternated between biting, sucking and licking. It was as if her body was craving the attention he was giving it. Soft moans escaped her lips as he kept up his assault, giving her the perfect balance between pleasure and pain. Her body again betrayed her as her stomach quivered and the sensitive spot between her legs throbbed and ached for only him.

Oh this feels so good, too good. I need to stop this before I do something stupid. Like…

The noise she heard earlier was like a bucket of cold water being doused on her as her eyes popped open.

“Nick, you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

Summer pushed against his chest with the palms of her hands.

“Stop Nick, listen.”

He lifted his head tilting it to the side. Shrugging a muscular shoulder, “I don’t hear anything.” He was too engrossed in breaking down her defenses he hadn’t heard a thing.

Summer turned her head as Nick tried to capture her mouth with his. As much as she wanted to lose herself in his kiss, she pleaded with him again. “Come on, Nick, please stop. I think I hear the baby crying.”

Backing up Nick heard the frantic cries of a hungry infant before he even opened the door. The urgent cries of his son immediately brought him under control.

“Duty calls,” he said as he left to tend to the needs of his son.

Good
timing little man,
Summer said to herself, holding the towel close to her traitorous body as she watched Nick’s retreating back.

Turning off the water, stepping in front of the mirror, she wiped it with her hand.“I knew it.” On her neck was a hickey the size of Texas. “What was I thinking? A second longer we’d be knocking boots. I wish he’d leave me alone and go find somebody else. I’m never going to get him out of my system if he keeps sniffing after me like some dirty old hound dog.”

Summer was flat out lying to herself. She didn’t want Nick to find anyone else. She wanted him to find
her
with his heart. But the only thing he had managed to do once they were alone was to get her all hot and bothered. And that upset Summer. Wasn’t she supposed to flee temptation like the pastor said on Sunday? But how in the world could anyone flee a drop dead gorgeous, six-three, two hundred twenty pound temptation?

♥♥♥

Going down stairs, Nick stopped in the living room long enough to put a pacifier in NJ’s mouth to quiet him as he laid him in his bassinet. The babe had been crying so hard his little face was as red as a tomato. “I’ll be right back buddy,” he crooned soothingly to the baby.

Once in the kitchen he prepared the bottle as Summer instructed him. Shaking the bottle on his wrist like the model in the baby magazine, he tested the milk. Satisfied the milk wouldn’t scorch the baby’s tender mouth he made his way to the living room. Picking up his son Nick settled his large frame down on the sofa. Becoming inpatient, NJ spit the pacifier out, squirmed and squealed, demanding to be fed. He greedily accepted the bottle as Nick placed the nipple in his mouth. The baby sucked and grunted at the same time as his hunger was being satisfied.

Nick smiled. “Buddy, you were hungry.”

Each time Nick held his son, he tripped. It was a good trip though. For years, he told himself he didn’t want children. That he didn’t have time for them or that he would never find

the right woman to have any with. In spite of all he believed, here he was with a child on the heels of turning forty years old in two short years.

Raising a child was a serious commitment. He never committed himself to anything in his life other than his business. It amazed him how such a tiny baby had impacted his life and filled his heart with so much love. Love he never knew existed, nor knew he was capable of giving. No longer was he that self-proclaimed bachelor. He was now accountable and responsible for someone other than himself, and it scared the hell out of him.

He’d been wrong about everything. Having a child was a wonderful gift. Each and every time his son gazed at him, with eyes identical to his own, Nick fell in love with him all over again. He refused to have the same strained relationship with NJ that he had with his father. The strained relationship was partly because his father never had time for him. He was too absorbed in his career to be involved with Nick as a child. His father’s main objective was becoming a federal judge. His primary love was for the law and not his family.

Every game, boys scout outing, field trip, or any other activity he was involved in as a child his mother attended every event as if she was a single parent. As a small child around the age of five or six he remembered an argument between his parents. “You never spend time with your son. All you do is take on case after case, leaving me to raise Nicholas on my own. He needs you to be a father to him,” his mother tearfully complained. Nick never forgot his father’s harsh rebuttal to his mother’s complaint. “You wanted a baby. Now deal with it! And leave me the hell alone!”

Nick until this day resented his father for placing that burden on his mother. He promised himself that he would never treat his son as nothing more than a mere interruption to his life.

For years, he couldn’t figure out why his mother put up with his father. That wasn’t the first, or the last time he witnessed his father’s gruffness toward his mother where he was concerned. After making his first million, Nick offered to take his mother from his father’s home. She refused telling him, “Son my place is with your father. I made a vow before God to love him until the end.” And that’s exactly what she had done up until the last breath left her body.

The night of his mother’s death, he and his father nearly came to blows as Nick released years of pent up frustrations. The sight of his father weeping over his mother’s dead body made him sick. After years of neglecting his wife, he decided to be a husband. However, it had come a little too late for Nick’s mother. After thirty-five long years of marriage, she had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of pancreatic cancer. That night he accused his father of never loving his mother. “You never loved my mother. You practically ignored her for as long as I can remember. She should’ve left you years ago. Maybe she would’ve had
some
happiness in her life.” When his father angrily defended himself, Nick brought up every overheard argument beginning with the one he’d heard as a very small boy.

He would never place that heavy burden on Summer. Never would she be made to feel as though she was a single parent. He was involved with their son from the moment of his birth. Summer was very accommodating and sensitive to Nick’s needs as a new father. Before he could suggest going to NJ’s first doctor’s appointment, she had called him at the office requesting he go with her so he’d be familiar with the baby’s pediatrician. When she first brought NJ home Nick would call to make sure it was okay to come over to see his son. “Nick, you don’t have to ask permission to see your son. Just come over whenever you want to see him.”She was making the best out of a situation that had the potential to be downright ugly. And Nick appreciated her for doing so.

After feeding NJ, Nick placed him on his shoulder and gently patted his back the way Summer had showed him. When the baby gave up a big burp, Nick cradled him with his head in his hands and his little body resting on his forearms.

“Buddy, what am I going to do about your momma? Your old man messed up real bad. It may be too late for me. I treated her like s
―
” Nick abruptly stopped, not letting the foul word escape his lips as he remembered he was talking to an infant. Lately he was making a conscience effort to curb his inappropriate language around the baby. He didn’t want NJ picking up his nasty habit when he got old enough to talk.

The entire time he talked the baby intently held his gaze as if he understood. NJ’s little lips curved in a toothless smile and he cooed as if to say, “You better hurry up and figure it out Daddy.” A deep rumbling laugh rose from the pit of Nick’s stomach. Leaning down he placed a delicate kiss on the baby’s forehead. “Don’t worry. Daddy’s going to win your momma back.”

Floating down the stairs in a pair of lavender silk pajamas, Nick got a whiff of Bath and Body Work’s newest scent, Brown Sugar and Fig as Summer rested a hip against the edge of the sofa closest to him.

Flicking through cable channels with the remote in one hand while holding the baby in the opposite arm he tried to ignore the tantalizing scent dancing beneath his nostrils.

“Do you want something to drink or to eat? She asked as she leaned across Nick and touched NJ lightly on the tip of his nose with her finger.

“Sure, what you got in there?”

“My mom made some baked chicken, greens, candied yams and macaroni and cheese before she left.”

“Cool, I’ll have that.”

Summer’s mom was mean as all get out, but the woman sure could burn. Nick was the recipient of many a tasty meals while she stayed with Summer and the baby over the past six weeks. And he had enjoyed every single meal.