Stiletto Secrets (19 page)

“Then tell me, Nicholas,” she continued, “what exactly is this between us?”

Nicholas let go of her hand, and stared at the table. “I don’t know.” He looked up, his eyes unblinking. “And I can’t promise you anything right now. I can’t tell you that there’s a future written somewhere for us. But what I can tell you is that if I do by some miracle deserve to have a future with anyone, by God I want it to be you.”

Emma sucked in a breath, her heart pounding vigorously with relief. Yet she still felt so much uncertainty. “It just doesn’t make sense for someone like you to want someone like me.”

“It’s not supposed to make sense, Emma.” Nicholas leaned forward again and took her hand. “Listen to me. We haven’t known each other that long, we still have plenty of time to see where this is going. Let’s just take it one day at a time, okay?” He smiled at her warmly, and his thumb drew loving circles on the top her hand.

“I just don’t want to get hurt, Nicholas,” she whispered.

He squeezed her hand. “Neither do I.”

For a second Nicholas allowed her to see his vulnerable side. He admitted that he too was risking getting hurt and somehow that seemed enough to ease her doubts…for now.

“Okay.” She loosened her hand from his.

He smiled. “Okay.”

After a few minutes of conversation about everyday mundane stuff, Emma took the last bite of her hotdog and Nicholas stared at her in shock, or amusement, she wasn’t sure.

“I cannot believe you ate all that. Where do you put it?”

“It’s not so much where I put it now, but where my metabolism stores it tomorrow.”

Nicholas smirked. “I can help you and your metabolism out by letting you work it off.” He winked at her.

“Nicholas Blake, you are insatiable, aren’t you?”

“Princess, I have a feeling that when it comes to you I will never have enough.”

And cue electricity. Buzzing, jolting, crackling electricity.

“Nicholas?”

He winked at her. “Emma.”

“I think now is a good time for you to take me home.”

“Thank God.”

It took Nicholas under twenty minutes to get her home—his home. The entire way there he couldn’t keep his hands off her. Driving and feeling her up at the same time seemed like the easiest thing in the world for him to do. But she wasn’t complaining. She was moaning yes, but definitely not complaining.

As soon as he parked the car in the driveway he reached out, cupped her head and pulled her closer, pressing his lips against hers and started kissing her like her lips were his oxygen.

“We better make it upstairs and into my bedroom within the next few seconds or I can’t be held responsible for what might happen right here in my car, in front of my house, where people might see us. And despite what Adam might think, I’m not an exhibitionist, especially when it comes to you.”

Emma loved how possessive he sounded. She loved the fact that he had already claimed her as his own.

“Then we better hurry.” She winked and then jumped out of the car.

Both of them hastily made their way inside the house and up the stairs, straight toward his bedroom.

The second he shut the door behind them, his hands were all over her, busy tearing her clothes off. Her pants, her shirt, her underwear were splayed on the floor in record time. And his clothes followed suit.

The air around them felt so intense. Blistering passion and burning desire surrounded them, demanding that they rush to get as close as possible as fast as possible.

But when he stepped up, pressing his naked body against hers, he stopped and took both her cheeks in the palms of his hands, staring down at her like he was searching for answers to his questions on her face.

“I have no idea what’s happening.” He sounded pained, tormented, and Emma struggled to swallow. His gaze dropped from her eyes to her lips, and then back up again. “It’s scaring the shit out of me.”

Reaching up, she placed her palm over the hand that still clutched her cheek and closed her eyes as she leaned deeper into his touch. His thumb gently traced across her bottom lip before he leaned down and kissed her so softly, she wasn’t sure if it was his lips or his breath that she felt.

When she finally managed to open her eyes, she noticed that he was staring at her, his sapphire eyes dark with all kinds of emotion.

“Believe me, Emma, when I say that I plan on sticking around to find out exactly what’s happening between us and I hope you’re okay with that.”

She smiled. “I’m more than okay with that.”

“Good.” The corners of his lips pulled up. “Now if you have no objections, I’d like to be inside you ASAP since I need to hear those beautiful moans of yours hit the goddamn roof.”

Tracing a fingertip down his cheek, his neck, over his chest and then leisurely circling a dark nipple, she replied, “No objections at all, Mr. Blake.”

Nicholas let out a breath. “Oh thank God.”

It took him all of ten minutes to let her moans hit the roof of his bedroom as he made her experience the most mind-blowing, soul-burning, body-shaking pleasure.

And then it took him all night to worship her between his sheets over and over again, just like he promised he would. He pushed her body to the extreme, and she loved every second of it. His kiss, his touch, everything about being with him was the closest to perfection Emma would ever be.

Lying all tangled up in each other, Nicholas stroked his hand up and down her arm. “Emma?”

“Hmmm?” She nestled her face against his chest.

“Do you believe in love?”

Emma lifted her head and stared at him with confusion.

He placed his hand leisurely behind his head. “I mean, with everything that happened with your mother’s death, your father and Lillian, do you believe that love can exist without pain?”

She placed her head back down. “I don’t know. I guess I’d like to think that it can.”

“You mean hope. You’re hoping that it can?”

Emma traced her finger down the middle of his abs until it reached the trail of black curls just above his V. “What is life if there is no hope, Nicholas?”

Silence.

Emma felt his chest rise and fall beneath her, and she listened to the steady beating of his heart. It was like his heart played a symphony just for her, and it was the most amazing sound.

“Come on.” Nicholas shifted beneath her and jumped out of bed.

“Where are you going?”

“Get dressed. I want to show you something.” He grabbed a shirt and a pair of sweatpants from his closet and tossed them to her.

Emma glanced at the bedside clock. “It’s one a.m., Nicholas.” She watched as he slipped on a pair of sweatpants and quickly pulled a white T-shirt over his head.

Nicholas jumped on the bed, pulled the blanket off her and grabbed the sweatpants he had tossed on the bed.

“Nicholas, what are you doing?”

“Since you won’t dress yourself, I’m dressing you.”

He pulled the pants over her feet and jerked them up over her knees until he reached her hips. “Lift,” he ordered.

Emma chuckled and placed her palms over her eyes when she lifted her waist and he pulled the pants up.

“Why, Miss Tremaine, are you shy because I’m dressing you?”

She continued to laugh.

“You know,” he grabbed her hand, lifted her up, and pulled the shirt over her head, “usually women are shy when they get undressed, not the other way around.” Then he quickly pecked her on her nose and swatted her thigh before clambering off the bed. “Now move that sexy ass of yours, and come with me.”

“I thought I already did.”

Nicholas paused mid-step with his back to her, and Emma snickered.

Slowly he turned around, blue irises burning wildly as he fixed his gaze on her. She stopped laughing.

“Emma, baby.” He gave a step closer. “Believe me when I say that I can barely contain myself around you as it is.” He continued forward, and Emma could not take her eyes off him. “But when you talk like that it makes me want to do incredibly naughty things to you, things that will render you incapable of walking for days.” Emma swallowed as all sorts of erotic fantasies flashed through her mind. “And if you do manage to walk, I can assure you that you will ache all over. And every fucking ache you feel will remind you that I’ve been there, that I was the one that ripped your soul apart by giving you the most intense orgasm you have ever had in your whole goddamn life.”

When he leaned forward bringing his lips within inches from her mouth, Emma closed her eyes, waiting, anticipating, wanting to feel his kiss. But nothing.

She opened her eyes and he was staring at her with a wicked grin on his face. “And I will do all those things to you after I show you something. Now get up.”

Dear God, every part between her hips was on fire. She inhaled deeply and grabbed hold of the last shred of self-control she still had left.

Whether it was curiosity or the fact that she just wanted to get it over with so that he could do all those promised naughty things to her, she didn’t know. But Emma was up and out of bed before you could say “horny-as-hell.”

When they walked down the hall hand in hand, she looked up at him. “So where are we sneaking off to?”

“The garden.”

“The garden? At one in the morning?”

He glanced down at her walking beside him. “You’ll see why.”

When they finally reached the courtyard and Emma stepped into the garden, she stood amazed at what she saw.

There were hundreds of lights decorating the garden, illuminating the different colors of the early spring blooms. Reds, purples, yellows and every other color you can imagine glistened under the lights. It was obvious that the flowers had been watered not too long ago, the smell of grass lingering in the air.

Emma gazed at the picture perfect scene in front of her. “Nicholas, it’s beautiful.”

“Wait until you see this.”

Nicholas pulled a switch against the wall and all the lights went off simultaneously, leaving them both in darkness.

“Why did you turn off the lights?” Emma turned to him.

Nicholas pointed behind her. “Look.”

When Emma turned back around, her breath caught in her throat. The full moon shined perfectly over the large water feature which stood right in the middle of the courtyard. The soft spring breeze caused ripples to move over the water, and the glimmer of the moon made it look like diamonds drifted across the surface.

Emma felt two strong arms wrap around her waist and he rested his chin on her shoulder. She placed her arms around his. “It seems almost magical.”

“My dad used to bring my mom out here almost every night. I would watch them from my bedroom window while he held her just the way I’m holding you right now.”

Emma tightened her hold on his arms. “He loved her.”

“He did.”

Nicholas turned her around, took her arms and placed them around his neck before he lowered his hands to her waist.

“They would stay out here dancing under the moonlight for hours.” Nicholas started to gently sway them from side to side. “I couldn’t hear it, but I was sure my father hummed a tune to which they danced.”

Emma narrowed her eyes. “How can you be sure if you couldn’t hear?”

“Her face.” Nicholas glanced over her shoulder to the fountain and then looked back at her. “My mother’s face would light up every time my father leaned closer to her ear. His lips never moved, but the way she smiled I knew he was humming to her.”

Emma heard the sorrow in his voice, the longing as he spoke about his mother. She was also certain that some of that longing was directed at his father as well.

She tightened her hold around his neck and placed her head on his shoulder. “Sounds incredibly romantic.”

They continued to sway to the silence around them when Nicholas softly started to hum. Emma recognized the tune.
I knew I loved you before I met you
, Savage Garden. It was one of her favorites.

Nicholas tightened his hold around her waist and leaned closer to her ear as he continued to hum the tune.

The moment was so perfect, so romantic that Emma had to fight back tears that threatened to ruin it all. Her heart felt strong and weak at the same time. Her chest tightened with fear of what that actually meant, yet her stomach was filled with a thousand butterflies, thinking that there might just be hope.

He stopped humming, and they stopped swaying, but she didn’t lift her face from his chest.

“Emma?”

“Nicholas?”

“I’d like to think that love exists without pain too.”

Emma closed her eyes and allowed a single tear to slowly slide down her cheek. That was the moment Emma completely and irrevocably fell in love with Nicholas Blake.

“NICHOLAS?”
He heard a soft, beautiful voice next to him. “Nicholas.”

He smiled. He knew who that voice belonged to. “Princess.”

“I need to go,” she said softly, and he felt a finger trace along his forehead. “And I was told to never go without saying goodbye again.”

“Damn straight.” Nicholas reached out and pulled her back into bed with him, and his lips found hers. With slow, leisurely strokes he glided his tongue against hers, and all he could think about was how great it felt tasting her first thing in the morning. He didn’t even care that he probably had morning breath. It didn’t seem like she cared either.

Nicholas pulled back and bit his lip while he stared down at her. “It seems we have a problem.”

Emma lifted a brow. “What problem?”

“You can still walk, which means that I didn’t do a very good job last night. So clearly, I’m going to have to try again.”

He reached down and cupped her between her legs causing her to gasp. “And this time I’m going to have to make sure that you can’t walk when I’m done.”

Emma reached between them and took his hand, lifting it away from her. “While I’m pretty sure you will have no problem accomplishing just that, I have to go.”

Nicholas groaned, and then glanced at the bedside clock. “Where do you have to go at five in the morning?”

“I need to go back to my apartment to get ready for work.”

Ah, yes. Work. Her job. Her job that required her to work in his kitchen, fold his laundry, clean the halls and dust the windowsills. Her fucking job.