Married by Contract (4 page)

She wasn’t even sure when the headache had come on, since
she’d felt pretty good when they’d left for dinner. But sometime between the
appetizers and dessert, as she’d been making pleasant small talk and trying to
sell this uptight buyer on her line of baby clothes, her normal tension headache
had formed, and it was killing her by the time they returned.

She wanted to go hole up in her room and turn out all the
lights, but Nick had been really good tonight—charming the wife and asking
intelligent questions of the husband—so she wanted to make sure he knew she
appreciated him.

“Thanks for everything,” she said, managing a smile as she
dropped her purse and kicked off her heels. “You were a big help tonight.”

Nick was peering at her closely. “Good. I’m glad.”

“I think I’m going to turn in early,” she said, pulling out
the pins in her hair and letting it fall around her shoulders. “But I really
appreciate you being so good with them. They liked you a lot.”

“You don’t want your massage?” he asked, when she turned
around to walk away.

She paused. Of course, she wanted it, but she suddenly felt
a little guilty, like she shouldn’t want him to touch her so much. “You don’t
have to.”

“It might help your headache.”

“The headache isn’t too bad.”

“Yes, it is.”

She turned back to face him, wondering why she could never
fool him—about anything. “But you’ve done more than your husbandly duty
tonight. You really don’t have to bother.”

“It’s no bother.” He was frowning at her thoughtfully, like
he couldn’t figure her out. “Do you not want me to anymore?”

She almost choked on how absurd the question was. “It’s not
that. I just don’t want to…be a bother.”

He gave a soft chuckle and came over to guide her into a
chair. “I already told you it’s no bother. Why are you being so standoffish
tonight?”

She had no idea why she was being this way. She just
suddenly felt nervous and jittery—which she’d never felt around Nick before.
She sat down where he put her and closed her eyes. “Sorry. I really appreciate
it.”

“You don’t have to say that again.”

She didn’t understand why he sounded a little frustrated,
and she couldn’t say much of anything anyway, since Nick had combed his strong
fingers through her hair.

She sighed in pleasure when he started to knead her scalp,
pushing into pressure points and making them ache deliciously.

“Why did this dinner have you so stressed out?” Nick asked
after a few minutes.

Since the question sounded casual, she heard herself
replying, “I don’t know. Just that he doesn’t seem to like me.”

“Why wouldn’t he like you?”

“He thinks I’m too aggressive.”

“Did he say that?”

“No. I just sense it from him. He looks at me like I’m an
unnatural woman.” She let out a low groan when Nick adjusted his hands and
found new spots to press into.

“That’s ridiculous.”

“I’m not making it up.”

“It doesn’t matter if you’re making it up or not. It’s still
ridiculous. If he thinks that about you, then he’s wrong. And he doesn’t know
women at all.”

“I’m sure he expects all women to be like his wife.”

“There’s nothing wrong with his wife, but it would be a
pretty boring and unsexy world if every woman was like her.”

Jenn couldn’t help but laugh. The tightness in her head and
neck was softening, as it always did to Nick’s touch, and the laughter
unexpectedly got caught in her throat. She felt one stray tear stream down her
cheek, which was bizarre since Jenn almost never cried.

She had no idea what was wrong with her. She hadn’t realized
she was so bothered by the man’s impression of her, but Nick was making a pain
she hadn’t known was raw feel better.

To her relief, Nick either didn’t see the tear or didn’t
mention it. He massaged her head for several more minutes before he moved down
to her neck.

Her headache was now mostly gone, and she felt herself shuddering
with pleasure and relaxation as he rubbed the tight muscles in her neck and
shoulder. He usually stopped once he’d loosened up her neck, but tonight he
leaned her forward in the chair so he could reach lower on her back.

Jenn started to moan, her eyes closed and her body becoming
completely relaxed. Her hair was hanging over her face, and she was glad of the
veil it provided, so Nick couldn’t get a clear view of her expression. She was
afraid it might be embarrassing.

Nick eventually moved back up to her shoulders and slid his
hands down to her arms, although the muscles were completely relaxed there, her
arms hanging limply.

Jenn groaned some more, since his touch felt so good.

She heard Nick clear his throat behind her, and she was
suddenly aware of a deep throbbing between her legs. Her body had evidently
gotten some mixed signals, and she was now completely, achingly aroused.

And Nick was still touching her, sliding his hands down the
length of her arms and back up to her shoulders. Then he reached down and
stroked over her breasts, cupping them briefly.

She gasped loudly and arched into his palms, her head
falling back.

“Jenn,” Nick said hoarsely. The first word either of them
had said in a long time.

“Hmm.” She couldn’t form a complete word. Her arousal pulsed
almost painfully, and Nick was still holding her breasts.

“We decided the terms of our contract. We can change them if
we want.”

“What do you mean?” Her mind wasn’t working clearly enough
to follow his logic.

“It looks like you might want to have sex.” His voice was
still deliciously husky, and he gave her tight nipples a little flick.

She made an embarrassing sound at the jolt of pleasure.

“And I definitely want to have sex too,” Nick added.

Those words got through to her, and she turned her head to
look up at him.

His eyes were hot—unexpectedly primal—and his skin was
slightly flushed and damp.

He was turned on too. Just as turned on as she was.

“But it’s not been a week yet,” she managed to say.

“That’s what I meant by changing our contract. We can decide
to change the terms if we want.”

Jenn was shaking now—her blood roaring with excitement about
the idea of having sex with him again. Now. Four days earlier than they were
supposed to.

But that flutter of nerves she’d been feeling all day
intensified at the recognition of how much she wanted it.

She shouldn’t want it so much. She should be more in control
of herself than this.

“Do you want to?” Nick prompted. He was standing perfectly
still, staring down at her.

She took a shaky breath. “We better not. Our arrangement is
good. If we start changing it now, things will start to…”

“Start to what?”

“Get out of control.”

For a moment, it looked like he would argue. If he did, Jenn
was sure she would cave—since she was dying to have sex with him. But Nick
finally relaxed, dropping his hands back to his sides. “I guess we wouldn’t
want that to happen.”

There was a strange timbre to his tone, but she couldn’t
think clearly enough to work it out. She made herself stand up and hoped she
didn’t look too shamelessly aroused. “No. I think we better stick to the
rules.”

He gave her a little smile that was almost bittersweet. “The
rules it is.”

Relieved by his response, since it helped her regain her
perspective, she smiled back at him. “Thanks, Nick. My headache is totally
gone.”

“Good. Maybe you can get some sleep then.”

Maybe. But she was pretty sure she would first have to do
something to take care of her throbbing arousal. It wasn’t going to go away by
itself.

On Tuesday, Jenn was in a very good
mood.

Yes, her optimism hit a minor bump when Nick wasn’t awake
before she left in the morning. He often wasn’t. As he’d told her many times,
she got up ridiculously early. But lately he’d often been up before she left,
and Jenn liked to see him all rumpled and groggy in the mornings.

He must not have been scheduled for that early job he’d been
doing, however, since his bedroom door remained closed until Jenn left the
apartment at ten minutes to six. She didn’t let that small disappointment get
in the way of her mood, though.

She had a good day planned—one where she could work in her
office all day, without any meetings or annoying projects to complete. And then
she got to have sex with Nick this evening.

Assuming he was in the mood.

If he wasn’t, her mood would take a definite nosedive.

He’d seemed quite enthusiastic before, though, so she was
hopeful for this evening.

The morning all went fine. She was able to clear out her
email—which was a victory she seldom achieved—and she got through three weeks’
worth of memos to review and documents to sign, which had been collecting in the
inbox on her desk. Her assistant, Mary, went down the block to get her favorite
salad for lunch, and Jenn happily ate it at her desk, wishing all days could be
so productive and stress-free.

She was feeling so good that she found herself reaching for
her phone and dialing Nick.

He answered before she could think of any good excuse for
calling him. “Hey,” he said, sounding warm and relaxed. Very Nick-like. “What’s
up?”

“Nothing,” she replied, searching her mind for a sufficient justification
for calling him. She called him sometimes during the days, but only when there
was something to say. She never called just to say hi, and she wasn’t sure why
she had now. “Am I interrupting anything?”

“No. Not at all. I’m just sitting in the car.”

“You seem to do that a lot.”

“I’d say it’s about seventy percent of my job. Excitement
isn’t really in my job description. What are you doing?”

“I was just having lunch.”

“By yourself?”

“Yeah. At my desk. Mary got me that salad with the balsamic
strawberries on it.”

“Ah. Good lunch, then.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Your morning was okay?”

“Yeah. I got a ton of work done because I didn’t have any
meetings. I’ve got a phone call scheduled for one-thirty, but that’s the only
thing on my schedule for the whole day.”

“I didn’t think you had days like that.”

“I don’t usually, but I was supposed to fly out to Seattle
today, remember? And then it was canceled at the last minute, so the day never
got filled up.”

“Nice. So did you need me for something?”

She paused. She’d been hoping he’d forget to wonder why
she’d call him. “No, not really. I’m sorry to interrupt your work.”

“I already told you that you weren’t interrupting. I’m glad
for the distraction. This job feels like it’s never going to end.”

There was a faint edge of something in his tone that made
her worry. He didn’t talk about the specifics of his job very much, and Jenn
had always tried to respect his privacy and not ask him. But she was worried by
his tone, so she said, “You don’t usually get stressed about your work.”

“Yeah. But I normally just catch cheaters.”

“You do more than that. What’s this job you’re doing now?”

“I’m looking for a teenage runaway.”

“What?”

“My clients have a daughter who ran away a couple of months
ago. She’s fifteen, and she’s just disappeared. I’m trying to find her.”

“How do you even start doing something like that?”

“I’ve talked to her friends and traced her movements for the
first few weeks. Then she just dropped off the map.”

“Do you think she’s still alive?”

“I don’t know. I can’t find any death that seems to fit her,
though. She ended up doing things a fifteen year old should never do.”

“Shit,” Jenn said, shaking her head. “That’s awful. So what
are you doing now?”

“I’m following the last guy I can verify actually had
contact with her. He’s…not someone I want to spend this much time watching.” He
was trying to sound casual, but she knew he wasn’t.

She understood the edge to his tone, and her heart went out
to him. He’d been trying to live his life with as little pressure and turmoil
as possible, after his experiences in the military. This job didn’t fit that
description at all. “That’s got to be rough. How long will you look before you
have to give up?”

“I don’t know. Her parents have a lot of money, and they’re
willing to spend it to find her.”

“You’re not doing this one job all day long, are you? You
need to do something else in between that isn’t so hard emotionally.”

“I’m fine.”

“Are you?”

“Yeah. It’s actually nice to do something that
feels…important.”

“You do a lot that’s important.”

“Do I?” It sounded like he was smiling now, which was a real
relief.

“Sure you do. I bet even those cheating photos you’re always
mocking are meaningful to the spouses who needed proof. I can just imagine how
they must feel. We’re not even in love, but if you were cheating on me, I’d be
really upset.”

“If you were cheating on me, I’d be more than upset.”

Jenn smiled, glad to hear him sound more like himself. “So
then we’re agreed. Even your cheater photos are important to someone.”

“Right.”

“And you really do need something else to think about
besides this poor teenager.”

“I have other things to think about.”

She shivered at the slight thickness to his tone, wondering
if he was remembering they could have sex this evening.

She was definitely remembering it.

“Okay,” she said, pushing away the thought. “I better get
back to work. I don’t want to ruin my productive streak today.”

“Go to it, then. Thanks for calling.”

She wasn’t sure what to say to that, since she hadn’t really
been calling to be nice to him. But she liked that he appreciated it, as if
simply talking to her was a good thing. “Okay. See you later.”

As she hung up, she was smiling.

***

When she walked into the apartment
that evening, she didn’t see Nick.

He was normally hanging out in the kitchen or living room,
watching TV, working on his computer, or cooking something for dinner. Her
heart dropped painfully as she looked around at the silent, empty rooms.

Why wasn’t he here? This was their sex night. Surely he
didn’t want to put it off until another day.

Reminding herself that he had a job and a life, and he
wasn’t always just waiting around for her to show up, she dropped her bag on
the floor. He was probably just running late. Or maybe he was having a beer
with his friends. He did have a few guys he hung out with occasionally. She
could use a shower before sex anyway.

As she passed his bedroom door, she gave a little jerk of
surprise when it suddenly swung open. Nick stood in the doorway, wearing
nothing but a towel.

He must have been in the shower.

Surely that was a good sign.

“Hi,” she said, trying to sound normal. “I thought you
weren’t home.”

“Why the hell wouldn’t I be home tonight? Am I crazy?” He
reached out for her and dragged her into his bedroom, kissing her hard and
deep.

She clung to him, off-balance and thrilling with excitement
and relief.

At least she wasn’t the only one who’d been waiting for this
evening.

“So I guess you want to have sex?” she asked breathlessly
when he finally released her lips. She was hit with the desire to tease him a
little, maybe just an overflow of her mood.

He stared at her, flushed, rumpled, and panting.

“Did you want to ask if I’m in the mood too?”

He blinked. “Aren’t you?”

“It’s in our contract, you know, that we both have to be in
the mood.”

“You’re not?” He rubbed at his face with both hands.
“Seriously?”

He looked so taken aback that she couldn’t help but giggle.
She planted her hands on his chest and pushed him back toward the bed. “It’s
your lucky day. I’m suddenly in the mood.”

“Damn it,” he muttered, swinging her around and then onto
the bed. “You’re playing with me.” He lowered himself on top of her, narrowing
his eyes as he propped himself over her with both arms.

“Not playing,” she corrected, still trying very hard not to
laugh. “Teasing a little. You just seem so…”

“So what?”

“Eager.” She said the word because she knew he wouldn’t like
it.

He made a growling sound, and she couldn’t hold back another
giggle.

He held himself very still for just a moment, and then he
hauled himself back up to his feet, tucking the towel more snugly around his
waist since it was at risk of falling off.

She leered at the top of his towel—at the firm muscles,
tight skin, and the top of the line of hair trailing downward.

“Since you’re obviously not in the mood,” he said, “I’ll let
you go. We wouldn’t want to break the terms of our contract.”

“Hey! I’m in the mood. I was just teasing.” She searched his
face and was relieved to see that the repressed indignation was just for show.
It looked like he was trying not to smile underneath it. “Now get back here to
bed.”

He gazed at her for a minute, his expression softening just
briefly in a way that made her heart jump.

“And take off that towel,” she added, “since that’s just
going to get in the way.”

He chuckled, loosening the tail of the towel and letting it
drop from his body.

She perked up as she saw he was already erect. She reached
out for him as he approached.

He chuckled again as he lowered himself back on the bed. “I
see I’m not the only…eager one.”

“Definitely not.”

He kissed her with a gentleness that surprised her, and her
heart responded as much as her body. Her hands skated over the lines of his
naked flesh, feeling the hardness of his muscles, the coarseness of his hair, a
few softer spots that delighted her.

Eventually, he pulled out of the kiss and slowly took off
the jacket to her suit. Then her top. Then her pants. And then finally her bra
and panties. He kissed and caressed her skin as he removed the clothes so, by
the time she was naked, she was deeply aroused.

“Nick,” she gasped, after he’d been teasing her breasts for
what felt like a really long time. “I’m ready to go here.”

He raised his head and stared down at her, his gaze hungry
and possessive. “Are you?” He slipped one of his hands between her legs to
check. “I guess you are.”

“You knew I was ready five minutes ago,” she said, taking
his face in both of her hands. “You’re just torturing me for fun.”

He laughed softly and reached over for the condom packet on
the corner of the bed that he must have taken out earlier before he showered.
“I only get to do this once a week. I want to make sure it’s good for you.”

“I’ll let you know if for some reason it stops being good.”
She took the condom out of his hand, tore it open, and pushed him up enough for
her to roll it on over his erection. “Since we’ve obviously both been waiting
for this, let’s get this show on the road.”

He was still laughing as he eased her legs apart and
positioned himself between them. There was something deeply satisfying about
the feel of his laughter as he slid himself in. She gasped and then moaned as
the tightness of the penetration, and then she wrapped her legs around his ass
to pull him even deeper inside her.

Nick was holding himself above her on straightened arms. His
face twisted in a way that made it clear he was feeling just as much as she
was, but when she looked up again, she saw he was smiling.

“What are you smiling about?” she asked, since it was such
an unexpected expression.

He gave a little thrust, pushing her body in a way that felt
incredibly pleasurable. “Because this is so damned good. Why do you think?”

She realized she was smiling too as she reached up to hold
onto his biceps. When he gave another hard thrust, she made a silly whimper.

“You like that?” he asked hoarsely.

When he thrust again, shaking her body, she gasped, “Oh,
yeah!”

He kept thrusting in the same way, building up a rhythm that
jiggled her body, and her gasps and whimpers soon turned into cries of
pleasure. She didn’t understand exactly why, but something about the way he was
shaking her body as he thrust was stimulating all the right parts of her. She
felt a climax rising inside her, and the pressure got deeper and stronger as
Nick’s motion accelerated.

Soon, Nick was grunting like an animal as he took her hard,
and she was babbling out all kinds of helpless sounds as she clawed at his back
and his ass. When her orgasm finally broke, her entire body clamped down around
the pleasure, and Nick froze for a minute, a word choking in his throat.

Then he released it with a long, low groan as his body
jerked and shuddered through his own climax.

Jenn couldn’t stop mumbling, “Oh, God,” as Nick rolled over
and collapsed on the bed beside her, holding onto the condom so it wouldn’t
leak. Her skin was hot and damp, and her muscles had relaxed in deep
satisfaction. She managed to find the energy to turn her head to look at Nick
and was pleased to see he looked just as exhausted and sated as she did.

“It seems to get better and better,” he said, after a minute
of panting.

“Yeah.”

“Just think how good it will be once we have even more
practice.”

“If it gets too much better, I might just pass out.”

He chuckled and reached over to stroke her hot face. “Well,
give me a few minutes to recover and we can get back to practicing. My goal now
is to make you pass out.”