But it was nearly as pleasant.

I concentrated on the salad.

All the veggies were fresh and high quality. With the latter, as was the wine.

“Did you shop for this?” I asked the tomato I was cutting into wedges.

“Found out no salon openings, called you, then yeah, I went to the market,” he answered.

He just didn’t throw this together.

He’d shopped.

God.

“Speaking of salons, booked us Wednesday night.”

I turned my attention to him. “I can’t Wednesday night.”

He lifted his brows.

I answered his unasked question. “Duty supper with my mother. After it, I have a habit of going to the emergency room to ask them to check my heartbeat, in other words, if there is one, and call in the on-call dentist to examine the possibility I’ve grown retractable fangs. This, since I’m relatively certain a vampire begets a vampire and so far in my lifetime those traits have been latent.”

More deep, pleasant laughter from Nick, this time with twinkling ocean blue eyes aimed at me.

And it was then I knew I was working for it.

I needed to get smart and fast. He might be able to respect boundaries but I already knew my heart had no clue what they were.

“Not close with your mom,” he pointed out the obvious, eyes still twinkling my way.

“How’d you guess,” I murmured, looking away and tossing tomato wedges into the greens.

“Olivia,” he called.

I looked to him.

“I’ll book it another night but we’re not scheduled to be there until ten thirty. Do your duty. Later, meet me there. I’ll examine your gums a way you’ll like better, and you turn vamp, there’s a lot of places I don’t mind you suckin’ me.”

I shook my head and again looked away, allowing a slight curve to form at my mouth.

“Christ, she can smile,” he teased, reminding me my life didn’t offer me many occasions to do this, and to play it safe with Nick Sebring, I shouldn’t let him give them to me.

Thus, the curve evened out.

My name didn’t sound close to teasing when he called, “Olivia.”

I didn’t look from the salad. “I’m hungry, Sebring. Feed me then fuck me. Then I need to get home. I have a busy week next week.”

There was silence broken only by bubbling from the stove before I heard end-of-cooking noises as I focused on the finishing touches on the salad.

I was done and about to go wash my hands when I felt Nick fit his front to my back.

He didn’t wrap his arms around me and hold me but there was warmth in his closeness all the same.

“We both like what we got,” he said softly into my ear. “That means you’ll be here again. So you gotta know, the invitation is open for you to stay after we fuck. You feel you need to make your point by leavin’, your call. But I figure with the way we fuck we’re not gonna be done with each other for a long time. I like you at my side in bed because that means I get more in the morning. You want that too, stay. You’re not in the mood, go. If I got shit on I need to give attention to first thing in the morning, I’ll share that we need to see to business and I’ll walk you to your car. But outside that, you need to know, the invitation is always open.”

I twisted my neck and lifted my eyes to him.

I didn’t know what to say. What he just gave to me was more than anyone had given to me in my life, outside Tommy. And what Tommy and I had had been dangerous and stupid and we both knew it even if I was just figuring out the full extent of that years later.

So I just said, “Thank you.”

Nick nodded, touched my waist and moved to the stove.

We ate spaghetti with a spicy meat sauce, fantastic garlic bread and a delicious fresh salad.

In other words, Nick could cook.

He insisted we leave the dishes but we took the wine to his bedroom.

We fucked combative, fast and rough.

I won.

After, Nick did as promised and returned the favor of what I gave him that morning after room service.

But his ended with more fucking and me getting another orgasm.

Although I got another orgasm, that time, he won.

And after that, because to be smart I had to make my point, we got dressed and he walked me to my car.

We kissed hard and greedy at my driver’s side door.

And I nearly ran into a streetlight as I watched Nick in my rearview mirror as he jogged up his steps while I drove away.

Chapter Ten

A Goddamned Squeeze

Nick

10:38 – Wednesday Night

She was late.

Nick was not happy.

He looked at his phone to the text he got from her fifteen minutes ago that warned him she would be.

A dinner with her mother should not last this long. He knew. He’d sat through watching her do it more than once.

Shit.

Olivia Shade.

He was fucked and getting more fucked by the day, and not in ways he wanted.

This included the fact that the last two nights, later than their normal meets, at his invitation she came to his place. Once there, she immediately tried to climb on his dick (he allowed her to be successful before he stopped allowing this). He gave it to her and she gave it to him. After she was done, at her choice, they got dressed and he walked her to her Range Rover.

She had not retreated. She spoke. The sex was just as aggressive, but with their conversations, the outing of her scars, there was a trace more intimacy.

And she was learning to give him full access. She definitely came out of the moment if he touched her scars, but she fell back into it faster and faster and no longer tried to avoid it.

But other than that, she was giving him nothing. No in. She accepted his invitation to be friendly but only accepted it to the point she was comfortable with it, which was not much.