Nickolas-1 (24 page)

“Morgan, what is it? You look like you’ve seen a ghost. Here, sit down. Have you ever noticed how much I’m asking you to sit down? You might want to think on that when you’re scaring the life out of me like you are now.”

“You never ask me to sit down. You’re forever demanding that I sit, like I’m some sort of dog you’re trying to paper train. Nickolas, I need to call Damon.

Something is wrong. I...I have blood. Can you please dial it for me?” Nick picked her up and pulled her into his lap. She couldn’t see his face, but her head was resting on his chest so she could hear his heart beating fast.

“Honey, how much blood? A lot?” She shook her head no. There wasn’t really, she supposed. “Okay, is it your mucus plug? You know, the barrier? It would be sticky and clear with blood tinged in it Could that be what you saw?” Morgan remembered something about that. Damon had told her that she’d lose it sometime in the last part of her pregnancy. She suddenly felt stupid. Of course that’s all it was. She started to slide off his lap when he held her tight again.

“Please just sit here with me until my heart moves down into my chest again.

Shouldn’t be too much longer, ten or eleven years maybe.” She could hear his heart. It was just where it should be and it wasn’t pounding like it had been before.

Nick’s hand was resting on her thigh, she noticed. She wondered what he’d do if she picked it up and placed it over where his sons were currently playing football with each other. Just as she was going to lift his hand to put it there, someone pounded on the front door, startling both of them.

“I have to get that. I ordered some groceries to be delivered this morning.” He didn’t move. Neither did she. When the pounding came again, she moved off his lap and he stood up and moved toward the door. “Morgan?” She turned when he didn’t finish. “I’ll call Damon for you.” And he left her.

Morgan decided to take a shower and wash her hair. She couldn’t find her clothes and as much as she hated to bother his, she went to his closet and pulled out one of his darker dress shirts. Reaching into her bag, she found a clean pair of panties and a clean bra. Her under things were getting very tight on her, but she wasn’t spending money on things she’d only wear for a few more weeks.

Before she stepped into the living room, she could hear someone talking.

Nickolas, she could hear, but the other voice seemed farther away.

“Dr. G., I am not gonna fix a pregnant woman no breakfast without asking her if she can eat it. That would just be cruel and unusual. Maybe she don’t be liking eggs. Ever think on that one? No, we’ll just wait until she...hello there. My, aren’t you a pretty little thing?”

Morgan actually looked behind her to see who the little thing was. She realized suddenly Mary Janis, Nickolas’ cook and cleaning lady, was referring to her. Blushing hotly, she walked more into the kitchen. Nickolas was grinning at her like he was half crazed. Idiot man.

“I’d actually love some breakfast. I’m starving. I haven’t eaten since yesterday afternoon. Well, except a couple of candy bars. I was gonna eat last night, but I don’t remember getting home.” She realized just then that she didn’t even know how she’d gotten here. Looking around, she didn’t even know where here was.

Morgan must have looked confused because Nick answered her musings.

“This is my apartment. I picked you up at the bus station last night and brought you here. They wouldn’t let us fix the door, and I couldn’t leave you there alone, so here you are.”

Breakfast was delicious. She didn’t care for bacon, but there were sausage links and fried ham. Hot biscuits and hash browns, eggs, and fresh sliced tomatoes were also added to her plate. Morgan ate two helpings of everything.

“I think there might be a couple of hunks of old moldy cheese if you want it.

I’m sure Mary could fry them up for you,” Nick told her. She wasn’t going to feel bad about it; she’d been very hungry and it was wonderful.

“I wish I would have found you sooner, Mrs. Janis. I might have stolen you away to come live with me.” Nick looked at her oddly and she realized what she’d said and changed the subject. “Did you get in touch with your brother yet?”

Morgan started to clear the table when she was suddenly pulled across Nick’s lap. “No, I forgot. Let Mary do that. I want to show you something.” He picked her up and carried her to the living room with her legs wrapped around his hips. As the door swung shut behind them, he pressed her against the wall and his body.

“Morgan, let me taste you.” He ran his tongue up her throat and along her jaw to her mouth. As soon as his mouth covered hers, she moaned. The feel of his body pressed to her, his mouth doing wonderful things, made her forget that she was supposed to avoid him. When his hand gently cupped her breast through his shirt, she nearly cried out; the sensations ripping through her body nearly had her begging for more.

“Please, Nickolas, please.” She was begging, begging for him to do what, she didn’t know, but her need for him was overwhelming.

“I wish I could take you. Take you right here, right now, but we can’t. Not now. The babies…we can’t have sex because of the babies.” The babies. Oh, God, the babies. What was she thinking? Of course he didn’t want to have sex with her; she was huge. Not particularly sexy-looking either.

She tried to pull away from him, but he held her fast.

“Morgan, look at me. Morgan!”

She was so ashamed she could only look at the wall over his shoulder.

“Morgan, it’s not you. Please, look at me.”

“I’m sorry. I want you to let me go. I’m so... large. Please let me down.” It wasn’t until he pulled her chin to him that she looked at him.

“I want you. I’ve never wanted to be buried so deep inside of a woman in all my life. I want to feel you come around me, over me. I want to feel your body milk mine until I’m so crazed with need that I can’t see straight, but we can’t.

You can’t have sex anymore once you lose your plug. It’s no longer safe for the babies. But that doesn’t mean we can’t give each other pleasure. I want to see you come Morgan, taste you when you do.”

Morgan realized that he had taken them to his bedroom again when he slid her down his body. She could feel his cock pressing hard against her belly. Need, the need to feel him inside of her raced through her. Nick gently pressed her back against his bed all the while kissing her, touching her.

Nick had his shirt unbuttoned from her before she realized it and her bra pushed down over her engorged breast. They had been so tender lately that she could barely stand to wash them. But what he was doing was sensual and gentle.

“Morgan, watch me suckle at your breast. I want to see your eyes glaze when you start to come. Watch me, baby.”

Morgan leaned up and watched as he traced his tongue all along the areola, never touching the sensitive tip. His eyes never leaving hers, he flicked his tongue quickly over her nipple once, twice more before he covered it with his hot mouth and sucked.

Morgan cried out from the feel of him rolling her nipple on his tongue and against the roof of the hot cavern. She felt him shift and then his hand was touching her between her legs through the material of her panties. She couldn’t decide which felt better, his hand or his lips, and soon it didn’t matter. Her entire body was a live wire, waiting, waiting and wanting something.

“Please, I need...please help me, Nickolas.” She nearly cried out again when he pulled his head away from her breast. He could be stopping.
Please
, she silently begged him,
don’t stop.

Nick moved down her body and off the bed. It didn’t take her long to figure out where he was going and what he was going to do. Before she could protest and tell him to stop, he had his mouth covering her clit and she came apart, shattering into a million stars in the dark sky.

As he stood, she sat up and reached for him. She wanted to taste him as he had her. Fumbling with his buckle, she touched him as soon as he was free. His cock was hard and hot in her hands as she guided him to her mouth. Licking the tiny drop at the end of his shaft, she moaned at the taste. He was hot and spicy, hard and smooth.

Opening her mouth around him, he surged forward and bumped the back of her throat, causing her to gag slightly. He pulled back, cupped the back of her head, and gently showed her how to take him. Wrapping her hand around the inches she couldn’t take in her mouth, she slid her hand up and down him.

“Morgan, please...I’m so close, baby. I’m going to come.” And she felt the first hot splash of him down the back of her throat. He rocked harder and harder as he came. Reaching between her own legs still spread wide from him, she touched herself and came with him, moaning around his cock.

Morgan fell back against the bed, spent as he slowly crawled along her and to her side. She felt euphoric and happy. She laid her head on his chest and listened as his heart slowed. Her mind was all fuddled and still fuzzy from what they’d done.

“I love you, Nickolas. I think I always have.” She felt him stiffen beneath her. It was slight, but the way they were laying made it impossible for her not to feel it. Flushing with heat, she sat up, pulling away from him.

“Morgan, I’m sorry. I just can’t... I don’t know how I feel about you. I like you, but love... I don’t know. I...”

Morgan cut him off before he said anything else. What he’d said already was enough. “I’m sorry. I should go. I have things to do today and I need to...” Morgan buttoned up his shirt and moved quickly toward his door. He hadn’t moved off the bed. As she made her way into the living room, she heard him call out to her. Blinded by her tears, she didn’t stop, but grabbed up her bag that luckily was lying by the open elevator doors. The doors were nearly shut when he stepped out of the bedroom, and snapped closed as he got to them.

Morgan pushed buttons on the panel at random, hoping that she could stop it before she got to the lowest level. She had no doubt that someone would try and stop her if she went out the lobby.

The elevator stopped on the tenth floor, and she stepped off. As she did, she heard the bell ringing on the phone. No way was she answering it. Moving quickly toward the stairs, she opened the door and started down. She didn’t know where she was going, but down seemed her best bet for getting out.

By the time she made it to the fifth level, she knew she was in trouble. The third floor was a blur of pain and dizziness. When she stopped on the main level, she was bleeding, badly.

Pushing through the doors to the main lobby, someone was screaming. Over and over they screamed until she just wanted them to shut up. Blurry things were moving in and out of her vision; she could hear voices, but couldn’t make out what was being said. She felt someone try to lift her, but the person started screaming again. And she was put back down. Morgan could feel the darkness pulling at her now, starting to climb its way up her arms to her head. She saw him then, saw the phantom Nickolas. Before the blackness took her, he needed to know something. He needed to know what he’d done to her.

“I hate you. I want you to go away and never come near me again,” she said to the dream just before the darkness took her.

Nick had been sitting by Morgan’s bed for the past two days. He’d only left the hospital once and that was because his mother had threatened to have Damon sedate him if he didn’t leave for at least an hour. So he did, and was back in exactly sixty minutes.

“Nicky, any word yet?” Devin had been in and out a lot. He’d been bringing him food and drinks. He hadn’t eaten anything, but Devin continued to bring them.

“No, she’s still out. Damon said that she’s healthy and strong and the babies are doing well so we shouldn’t worry.” Sure, he thought. Not to worry. She’d almost killed herself getting away from him.

They were both quiet for a few minutes before Nick spoke again. “I couldn’t tell her I loved her. She ran from me—no, I drove her away because I couldn’t say I love her.”

“Do you? Love her, I mean?”

That was all he’d thought about since he’d seen her lying there bleeding on the cold floor in his lobby. And her screams; he could still hear them, echoing through his head and tearing into his heart like a blade. But it was her words, her telling him that she hated him that hurt the most. It was right then that he knew what his heart had been trying to tell him all along. He loved Morgan Becky Grant. He thought he’d been in love with her from the very first time that he’d met her only he’d been too stubborn and much too stupid to realize what a wonderful and giving woman she was.

“Yes. Yes, I love her. There is so much about her that I…she makes me laugh.

I have never laughed so much until I met her. Did you know that she has her own business? I’ve never met a braver person than Morgan. I don’t think she’ll ever believe me. But I do. Oh God, Devin, I’ve fucked this up so badly.” He leaned forward in his chair and rested his head on his hands.

Nick looked up at her as she moaned. She didn’t move so once every shift, one of the nurses would come in and roll her to her side, one side then the other.

They were doing it for the babies’ sake. Her lying on the bed like that gave them less room to move and they needed to get into a better position to be born.

It wouldn’t be long now, Damon told him. Morgan would need to stay on complete bed rest for at least another week before he felt better about letting her go into labor again. She had been in the beginning stages of it when she’d been brought in. They’d stopped it with drugs. The loss of blood and the ten flights of stairs had weakened her and he feared for her health if they didn’t wait. But, he told him, she would need to be awake before he’d start her labor up.

That had been two days ago. He stood up, walked over to her bed, and looked down at her. Her skin was warmer than it had been in the ambulance.

Her lips were still slightly blue, but not like they had been. Nick felt for her pulse and was relieved that it felt strong against his fingers.

“Oh, Morgan, I’m so very sorry for everything I’ve done to you. I want you to wake up and scream and yell at me. Give me that look, the one that says ‘you are just too stupid, aren’t you?’ Come on, Morgan, please wake up.” He sat down again, closer to the bed, and laid his head on her and cried.