“Yes,” she snapped. “One minute you’re hot. The next you’re cold.”
Right now, I’m anything but darling.
“I guess that’s something else to jot down,” he said with a half-smile. “You did say you were going to get to know me, whether I liked it or not.”
God, did that almost make me fall to my knees.
The way she’d been so forthright had him only managing to get out that she’d be the death of him.
Emily studied him for a beat. “I did.” Her shoulders sagged with a sigh. “I am.”
“And what have you learned so far?”
“That you’re a man shaped by everything good in spite of an unbearable father…yet somehow you credit that to my eighteen-year-old self.”
Nicolas’s heart plunged to the lowest depth possible, yet somehow it still managed to keep him alive. He could feel his desire becoming overpowered by a sensation that reminded him this attraction to her was more than physical.
“I’ve worked hard, Em. I won’t deny that. But your words worked harder.”
“I’m happy to hear that my presence has been of good influence,” she joked. “That’s all any celebrity wants.”
He watched her, his heart clinging to her playful smile that had broken free. “I wasn’t the only person, I’m certain.”
Saying that out loud was a reminder that he’d had to share her with the world. And he would have to again with her new work. But it was their blessing. They were lucky someone like her was willing to offer her talents to them.
She arched a brow impressively far back. “Oh, so you think I’ve been out there charming the masses? That’s more flattery than I know what to do with, Nicolas.”
He stepped closer, the scent of lavender and vanilla clouding his judgement. “Flattery? I’m just saying, if your words worked so well back then, I can imagine what they’re capable of now.”
His voice sounded husky even to his own ears.
“Mmm, why does it sound like you want to test that?”
Nicolas’s head tilted down, nose brushing against hers. It incited that little gasp out of her. “You’re right, I do. I’d say yes to any and everything involving your lips, Em.”
Her eyes became wider than he’d ever seen them.
He swore beneath his breath and tore himself away. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
Had his control slipped away? He thought he’d been doing a good job.
She shook her head. “No, Nicolas, I?—”
“Emily!” Anna pranced toward them from an open door. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”
Nicolas took the chance to slip past them and out of her air.
19
Nicolas went to his makeshift bed on the floor. It was made up of a padded comforter and a pillow in the corner of the room. Emily was humming in the shower. The sound made him go stiff. She sounded lovely. Probably looked lovely too.
Images of her soap-lathered form infiltrated his thoughts. He feared for a repeat of earlier when she had enraptured his mind and body. After his and Emily’s moment on the balcony, he’d walked briskly into his old bedroom and had bolted the locks.
Like a man starved, he’d stripped down his pants, revealing his strained cock. His erection had been so painful he’d hissed once his hand had wrapped around it. The head had leaked with precum as he’d begun fisting its length.
He’d groaned from where he’d been seated on the edge of the bed, parting his legs wider, the material of his pants falling further and gathering at his ankles. Golden brown eyes had popped into his mind and the smell of lavender and vanilla had flooded his senses.
“Fuck...”
