She ran her fingernails down over my biceps and nodded as her eyelids slowly closed. “I’d definitely say that was intense.”
It was, but even more than that, it was the first time I’d actually cared more for the woman I was with and her happiness than for my own.
Chapter Seven
Tia
My eyes flew open,and I saw nothing but darkness all around me, except for a tiny stream of light coming in where Nico’s blackout curtains joined. Oh my God! What time was it?
I tried to roll over to get out of bed, but his arm kept me pinned to him. Nudging his muscular bicep, I said, “I have to go. Can you move your arm? I can’t get up if you don’t.”
Nico mumbled something and pulled me tighter to his warm body. “Not yet. The alarm didn’t go off.”
“Grace doesn’t wake up to an alarm. If she goes to my room and doesn’t see me there, she might get scared. I need to get up right now, Nico.”
For a few seconds, he did nothing, and I was sure I’d need to find a way to slither out of his hold, but then he lifted his arm and rolled over to turn on the lamp on his nightstand. I jumped out of bed and frantically searched for my clothes. Where did we throw them last night? I vaguely remembered him tossing my underwear onto the floor. Or at least I thought I did, but now that I looked for them, along with every other piece of clothing I’d been wearing when I came to this room, I couldn’t find anything.
“Oh God! Help me find my clothes. Please!”
One glance at him sitting up against his headboard looking all too pleased told me he wouldn’t be jumping up out of bed anytime soon. Nico laughed at my panic attack, shaking his head.
“It’s not even six in the morning, Tia. Relax. She doesn’t get up for an hour.”
Finally, I located my bra and quickly slid into it. “But what if she does and I’m not there? I don’t want her to feel frightened I’m not around. I’m sure she’s got feelings of abandonment from having her mother taken away. She doesn’t need to have those compounded by thinking the only person she’s spent time with in the past few weeks suddenly disappeared. So would you please help me find the rest of my clothes?”
He smiled and pointed at the mauve upholstered chair in the corner of the room. “I think those are your underwear. They’re definitely not mine, for sure.”
As I made my way over to another piece of my clothing, I rolled my eyes. “Shamrock green panties would look so great on you. I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t wear them.”
“Bright green isn’t my color.”
As I shimmied into my panties, I swiveled my head back and forth looking for my shirt and pants. At the rate I was going, Grace would graduate from kindergarten before I got dressed and ran to her room.
Spinning around to face him, I saw he wasn’t taking this seriously at all. “Please, Nico! This is important.”
“Okay, okay. Your pants are over there on the end of my dresser, and if I’m not mistaken, your shirt is down near my feet. Come over here and I’ll see what I can do to help you into it like I got you out of it.”
Ugh! This man was nothing short of infuriating!
I grabbed my pants and got them on before I headed over to where he sat still naked, the covers barely concealing his hard on. “Where are they? Can you grab my shirt and hand it to me?”
He lifted the sheet and grinned wickedly up at me. “I think you should climb under here and fish it out.”
Utterly exhausted not ten minutes after waking, I sighed, my shoulders sagging under the weight of worry that at any second Grace would go to my room and find me missing. “Please take this seriously. Give me my shirt, please.”
“Are you always this stressed out when you wake up? You must be growing a hell of an ulcer.”
He pulled me down to kiss me hard on the lips, but as much as I wanted to straddle him and go for another round of phenomenal sex, I kept my focus on my job. I snaked my hand under the sheet and found my shirt, thankfully, before Nico had the chance to pull me into his arms.
“Thanks for all the help,” I said.
With a pout, he said, “You don’t know how to have fun.”
“I have to go.” I stopped and suddenly felt uncomfortable now that our time together had ended. “Thanks for last night.”
That sounded distinctly cheap, and I couldn’t stop myself from blushing. I didn’t have one-night stands. How I ever had the nerve to let him know I wanted him I’ll never know, but I never thought that far ahead to make it just a one-time thing for me.
“It doesn’t have to end,” Nico said with a sexy grin.