Just Toying Around… Page 18

  Nick cursed again, collapsed onto the bed and rested his head in his hands.

  She was gone.

  He glanced through the connecting door she hadn’t bothered to close and a dry chuckle vibrated up his throat. As usual, she’d done everything in a perfectly organized way. Not one single trace of her had been left in the room, curiously, not even the smell of her perfume.

  Through this entire ordeal, Nick had been completely out of his element, so at a loss for what to do. How to make things right.

  And yet, as he sat there, his chest heavy with dread, with remorse, in an empty room, Nick had never been more certain of what he needed to do in his life.

  He had to find her.

  He didn’t know how—hell, he didn’t even know her name, where she lived, had no personal details other than her career—but he had to find her. Had to explain, apologize. Make her his.

  Come hell or high water, that’s what he firmly intended to do.

  15

  “MEG, IT’S NICK. If you’re there, please pick up. Please. Come on, I have to talk to you.” Deep sigh, then. “Okay, look, I’ll call back later.” Dial tone.

  Meg reached over and deleted the message, the same as she had every other message Nick had left on her machine since early this morning. She couldn’t imagine how he’d found out her name, and quite frankly didn’t understand why he’d gone to the trouble. It hadn’t taken him long, only a couple of days to run her to ground.

  It would seem he’d had some sort of attack of conscience, but that was too bad. If he currently wallowed in guilt, that would be his hell to deal with. She certainly didn’t intend to absolve him of any of it. Between crying jags and bouts of self-loathing, Meg didn’t have the strength to deal with him anymore and had begun to refer to him as just The Bastard. It was a petty comfort, but she’d take it where she could get it at this point.

  Meg had arrived home with dozens of boxes in her carport, and she knew she would eventually have to get back to work. She had the money and Pierre’s course to consider. But her heart simply wasn’t in it. Every time she picked up a toy, she’d think of Nick and her eyes would well with tears.

  Despite everything that he’d done—the bitter betrayal—her body simply wouldn’t forget him. She could force him from her mind at times, but she still craved his touch. Missed the mind-numbing release she’d only found in his traitorous arms.

  The Bastard.

  How screwed-up was that?

  After she’d gotten home, Meg kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, for Marcus to call and fire her. But Nick’s information could only hurt her if she had something to hide, so Meg had decided to call Marcus and level with him. Beat Nick to the punch. Meg had confessed about her lack of experience, confessed about Nick. Marcus had been shocked, but to her surprise, he’d said, “Well, you do a great job and it sounds like you’re qualified now, doesn’t it?” Surprisingly, neither Nick nor Ron had called him. And that had been that. She’d kept her job. Marcus had promised to contact Ron Capshaw and make sure that rumors didn’t start to surface. This was a humiliation Meg would just as soon not share with the public at large. She’d had to tell Marcus, but she didn’t plan to confide in anyone else.

  Besides, knowing that he’d betrayed her didn’t change her feelings for him. Regrettably, she was still in love with him. She was angry, hurt and would most likely never forgive him, but the heart only knows what the heart knows and Meg’s foolish heart refused to be swayed, turning a deaf ear to reason.

  In her case, the old “out of sight, out of mind” adage didn’t hold true, because she hadn’t been able to think about anything but Nick since she’d gotten home. While most of the thoughts had been mean-spirited, vindictive and painful, the rest had been hedonistically depraved, filled with visions of the two of them in the throes of ecstasy. If she focused really hard, she could almost feel him there, positioned between her thighs, pumping in and out of her….

  Meg swore as heat rushed to her core. She had to stop this. He’d set out to seduce her, to ruin her. She shouldn’t be thinking about how well he’d done it. But the initial anger and outrage had dimmed, had given way to less volatile emotions like regret and despair.

  Who knew? Maybe if he hadn’t been such a bastard, if he hadn’t been Ron’s brother and set out to seduce her and they’d met at the hotel under different circumstances, things might have worked out. The convoluted wishful thought made her laugh out loud.

  Micky, her gerbil, abruptly stopped running on his wheel. He gazed at her with little black eyes and his whiskers trembled in confusion.

  “Think I’ve gone off the deep end, do you little buddy?” Meg asked her pet. Micky ran into his soup can, clearly not up to any lengthy discussion. Just like a man, Meg snorted.

  She sighed, pushed herself up from the couch and trundled into the kitchen for another ice cream anti-depressant. She’d just shoved the hot fudge into the microwave when the doorbell rang.

  “Who is it?” she called through the door, not really up for company. She peered through the peephole, but something obstructed her view.

  “I’ve got a delivery for Meg Sugarbaker. I need a signature for this one.”

  Meg sighed and flipped the locks. Normally they could leave packages in her carport, but she occasionally had to sign for them as well. When she opened the door, Meg immediately saw what had obstructed her view through the peephole—a huge refrigerator-sized box.

  She frowned. “What is this?”

  “Don’t know,” the deliveryman said. He tilted it on the hand-truck he’d used to maneuver it up her steps, making something heavy shift inside. Meg heard a groan and assumed the delivery guy had made it. “It’s from a company called Guilty Pleasures. Where do you want it?”

  “I don’t— I don’t know.” Meg backed up a step. “I guess the living room will be fine for now.”

  Guilty Pleasures. Meg’s mind was still reeling when the deliveryman thrust his pad under her nose for her signature. Meg hastily scribbled her name and escorted him to the door.

  She turned back and thoughtfully studied the box. She couldn’t imagine why Guilty Pleasures would send her anything, and furthermore, couldn’t begin to guess what kind of sex toy required so much room that it would need to be packed in a refrigerator box.

  Meg tentatively crossed the room and inspected the label. The Guilty Pleasures logo, address and in big bold letters the words, BOY TOY.

  Interesting, Meg thought, thoughtfully tapping her chin. Her curiosity piqued, Meg quickly went to work opening the box. One long seam lay horizontally down the front. Meg tugged the tape loose and, to her surprise, the flaps burst open.

  She jumped back and screamed as packing peanuts and a naked man burst out of the box.

  Nick.

  Nick ducked out of the box and stood up. Other than a giant red bow tied to his genitals, and a sash reading BOY TOY draped across his chest, he was completely naked.

  Flabbergasted and caught off-guard, Meg clamped a hand over her mouth, burst out laughing…until she remembered she hated him.

  Nick had laughed along with her, but his chuckle had died swiftly with hers. He cast her a sheepish look. “I—”

  “What the hell are you doing?” Meg shouted shrilly.

  “You wouldn’t answer your phone and I needed to talk to you.”

  Meg folded her arms over her chest, battled the renewed desire seeing him wrought. “I don’t recall you being so dense. If I didn’t answer my phone it’s because I didn’t want to talk to you.”

  Nick knocked a packing peanut off his foot. “I know, but I needed to explain. I needed—”

  Pain made her cruel, made her want to lash out at him. “If I would have required an explanation, I would have waited for you to come back from your meeting,” Meg told him.

  Nick sighed. “Meg, you’ve got to—”

  Another thought struck. “How did you find me? How did you find out my name?”

  He had the grace to look
chagrined. “I went back to The Matador. I’d remembered you running for cover when the chef started to make his rounds.” He shrugged one beautifully sculpted shoulder. “I figured he knew you.”

  So he had noticed. She’d wondered. “Whatever. Look, Nick, I’m sorry that you’ve gone to all this trouble—” she glanced pointedly at his naked body, steeled herself against it “—but, it’s been for nothing. You’re going to have to climb back into that box and wait for UPS to come back and get you. I should warn you, though, sometimes they can take up to a week.”

  Meg took supreme satisfaction in watching him quail. He looked from the box, then back to her. “Would you please just hear me out?”

  She shrugged. “It’s a waste of our time—particularly mine—but, sure. Go ahead and tell me why you planned to sleep with me and get me fired from my job. I’d really love to hear how you’re going to justify that.”

  Nick met her gaze levelly and for the first time since he’d maneuvered his way into her living room, she felt perilously close to crying. “First of all, I didn’t set out to seduce you, just simply get close to you, and I never said I’d try to justify it, just that I’d like to explain.”

  She didn’t want him to explain. He’d make her weaken, she’d throw herself at him, make a fool of herself. Meg bit her lip. Tears burned the backs of her lids. “Go ahead. Then you leave.”

  Nick blew out a breath, seemingly at a loss now that he had her undivided attention. Tension vibrated off him, shivered around him like an aura. “Look, the long and the short of it is, I was simply trying to keep Ron from bleeding our mother dry. Ron’s business was failing and he convinced me that you were the cause, that your reviews were ruining him. He thought you were a fraud and I—”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Meg interrupted, outraged. “His shoddy products were ruining his business, not my reviews.”

  “I know that now, but I didn’t then.” He blew out a breath. “Look, I’m not trying to justify what I did—I was wrong. It was sneaky and underhanded—”

  “Heinous, devious and cowardly,” Meg interjected.

  Nick pushed a hand through his hair. “That, too. And I wasn’t going to seduce you. You have to believe me. I tried so hard to hold back, to not let things go so far…but I just couldn’t help myself.” Nick paused again, looking miserable. “I want you to know that I’m very sorry. If you don’t believe a word I say, please believe that. I’m truly sorry. I never meant to let things get so out of hand and then I…I just wanted to be with you.”

  Meg swallowed, feeling her resolve weaken. “You mean sleep with me.”

  “That, too. God knows I wanted you from the moment I saw your mouth. But I mostly wanted to be with you.”

  Her mouth? Meg frowned with confusion.

  In her distracted state, Nick moved closer to her. He tipped her chin up and ran the pad of his thumb along her bottom lip. Desire washed through her, made her reflexes sluggish. How else could she account for standing here letting him touch her?

  “You have the most carnal mouth I’ve ever seen. It makes me hot,” he murmured huskily. “Surely you don’t think I was faking all that?”

  No, she really hadn’t. Men could fake lots of things, but an erection was hard to manufacture without the presence of need. Meg’s breath hitched in her lungs. No, he’d wanted her every bit as much as she’d wanted him.

  The Bastard.

  She wanted him now.

  “I know what I did started out for the wrong reasons, but I kept telling myself that I could fix it, if I just had more time I could make it all right.” Nick paused and his tormented gaze found hers. “I did go down to see Ron, but I didn’t tell him anything about you. I couldn’t.” Nick smiled ruefully. “I’m now a silent partner in Guilty Pleasures, the partner with the cash committed to quality products.”

  Meg blinked as what he’d just told her seeped like soothing glue into the broken fragments of her heart. Hope sprouted beneath her breast. “Are you saying—”

  “I’m saying I bought into the company.”

  To save her job, Meg realized with a start. He’d done it for her. Joy bloomed in her chest, making a smile sneak across her lips. Unable to control herself, Meg gave into the longing to touch him and smoothed the backs of her fingers down his achingly familiar cheek.

  “Will you think about forgiving me?” he asked. With a self-deprecating laugh, he gestured to his virtually naked body. “I’ll be your Boy Toy.”

  Meg hummed. “Let me see,” she said, slowly circling him. She slid her palms down his back. Nick shuddered at her touch. “Pleasing texture.”

  Meg came back around and stood before him, licked his nipple, drawing another quiver from his magnificent body. “Mmmm. Wonderful taste. That’s two out of three. Let’s check out your size.”

  She gently untied the bow circling his penis and palmed him. Her lids fluttered shut as need bombarded her. The hot, throbbing length pulsed against her palm, causing a similar sensation to commence between her thighs. Heat and moisture flooded her feminine folds. Her breasts tingled and pouted and warmth snaked through every limb. It had only been a couple of days and yet it felt like forever. “Oh, y-yeah,” Meg stuttered. “Size will more than suffice.”

  Nick hissed a breath through his teeth. “So— So you’ll keep me, then?”

  Meg tiptoed, whispered in his ear, “That depends.” She trailed her tongue down the side of his neck.

  “On what?” Nick breathed.

  “On whether you’ll give me a free trial demonstration…right now.” Smiling, Meg snagged a fluorescent condom from a nearby box and tossed it to Nick. He swiftly applied it, then groaned and kissed her.

  His mouth descended hungrily to hers, the taste of him at once familiar. Wonderful. Within seconds he’d divested her of her clothes and they collapsed onto the floor. Packing peanuts stuck to her back, but Meg didn’t care. She wanted him. Inside her. Now.

  “Nick, you’ve got to—”

  “I know,” he growled impatiently. He clamped his lips onto her breast, sucked hard and at the same time he thrust a finger deeply inside her, testing her readiness. Meg bucked against his hand, her body quickening for the impending torrent of sensation. She kissed his neck, his shoulder, lightly bit him, desperate for the blessed weight of him between her legs. She parted her thighs, gripped his butt and eagerly met him as he plunged into her welcoming heat.

  Commingled sighs of sublime satisfaction sounded in her living room as they locked together, two pieces that had come together once more to make the perfect whole. “You feel so good,” he told her, raining kisses all over her face. “I’ve missed you.”

  “I’ve missed you, too,” Meg admitted, but pillow talk came after sex, not during. She was desperate for him, utterly pathetic in her need. “Move. Your. Ass.” Meg punctuated each word with a rock of her hips.

  Nick chuckled. Subjected her to long, painstakingly perfect thrusts. “I think we should slow this down a little,” he teased. “We’ve got the rest of our lives.” Nick began to sing, “I love Paris in the springtime, I love Paris in the fall…”

  Laughing, Meg anchored her legs around his hips, drawing him more deeply into her. “Not so fast, Slick. This is your trial run, remember?”

  “Oh, well, in that case…” Nick buried himself to the hilt in her warmth, wrenching a cry of delight from Meg’s throat.

  “Is that…what you’re…talking about?” Nick grunted, pumping harder, his big hard body pistoning in and out of her. Harder, faster, harder, pushing her further up the great mountain of release.

  Meg’s neck arched with pleasure and her eyes all but rolled back in her head. “Oh, yes.”

  “Good…I aim…to please. Satisfaction…guaranteed.”

  A fine coat of sweat glistened on his gorgeous form. Meg bent forward, licked the pulse point at his throat, tasting that salty essence. Tension coiled tighter and tighter inside her, spiraled hotter and hotter and pushed her further up until she finally reached the
precipice and he sent her free-falling over the edge. Lights danced behind her lids, her chest heaved and the glorious aftermath of release trembled through her as her feminine muscles clenched, rode out the gusts of sensation.

  With a guttural cry, Nick thrust a final time. His body arched and shuddered with the force of his climax. Breathing hard, she smoothed her hands down his back, still hungry for the feel of his skin. For him.

  Nick rolled her onto her side, careful to keep himself still lodged inside her. “What…do…you say? Did I pass the free trial?”

  Meg chuckled, kissed his chest. “Most definitely.” She sighed. “You can be my permanent Boy Toy. I’m ready to play again. What about you?”

  “Yeah, but I have a confession to make first.”

  Meg stilled. She’d heard that line before. “You do?”

  Nick’s breath stirred her hair. “Yeah…I’m in love with you.”

  Happiness welled, contentment saturated her every pore. “You are?”

  “Unquestionably.”

  “Good.” Meg sighed. “Wait right here. I have a gift for you.”

  Puzzled, Nick watched as Meg disappeared from the room. She returned in short order with something hidden behind her back.

  “What are you up to?” Nick asked suspiciously.

  Meg drew her hand from behind her back. A pair of fuzzy handcuffs were fastened to one of her wrists. Sweet heaven, Nick thought. She was offering him more than her heart, she was giving him her trust as well. Something just as precious.

  A tremulous smile curled her lips. “I think I’d enjoy bondage with you,” she told him. “You’re…special.”

  “Meaning?” Nick fished, lazily tugging her back down beside him. Instead of cuffing her hands together, he attached the other manacle to his own wrist, binding her to him.

  Meg gazed at their joined hands. Her eyes misted with emotion, then just as quickly darkened with desire. She kissed him deeply, desperately. Nick hardened once more, quickly planted himself between her thighs and stilled, savoring the exquisite sensation of their joined bodies. Of being irrevocably linked to her. “Meaning?” Nick repeated.