She heard his breathing and shouts grow hoarse as they both strained for release. His fingers were relentless, drawing out a tidal wave of pleasure like she had never known, which washed over her. A scream loud enough to jolt the neighbors ripped from her throat, followed by a shout of release as Nick exploded inside her.

Still joined together, she wilted on top of him as stars continued to dance in front of her eyes. Sweat dripped off them as they gasped for breath.

She felt Nick’s chest rumble against her own as he gently played with her hair. “I could get used to this, princess.” Then wincing, he continued, “I have something sticking me in the ass that’s killing me.”

Gently separating from him, she got shakily to her feet so he could roll over. She was horrified when she saw his cell phone lying under him. Nick started laughing when he saw the phone. Grabbing it, he looked at the display and groaned. “Oh no, baby, we butt dialed my mom while you were riding me.”

“What? Oh, my God, no!” Beth felt all the blood draining from her face. “Did she answer?”

Nick looked over his phone muttering, “Yeah, looks like the call lasted for a couple of minutes.” Giving her a hopeful expression he said, “She probably couldn’t hear anything with the phone being under my butt.”

Beth cringed as she imagined his mother hearing her yelling, “Oh, Nick, harder, oh yeahhh.” She dropped to the couch in mortification. “I can never face your mother now, you know that, right? You will have to take the kids over there by yourself. I’m sure she would rather not have to face the slut that was doing her son while he called her.”

Nick laughed, not looking the least bit concerned. “Don’t get all worked up over it. I’m sure she had no idea what was going on. Hell, I can’t hear half the time on the damn thing when it’s directly against my ear.” At that moment, his phone rang and he winced. “It’s my mother. Just stay quiet and I’ll tell her I’m somewhere else.”

Beth slumped in a nearby chair, her face flushed with embarrassment. With a smile of reassurance, Nick answered the call. “Hey, Mom, what’s up?” He was silent for a moment, apparently listening to her talk. “Oh, sorry about that. I just left the gym. I had my phone in my back pocket and I probably butt dialed you by accident.” With an evil grin, he added, “They had the music on pretty loud, that’s probably what you heard. A porn flick—I wish. What kind of gym are you going to?” he teased. He changed the subject on that note and Beth breathed a sigh of relief when he ended the call.

“Oh, God, why did you say porn flick?”

Nick chuckled. “She said my gym sounded like the soundtrack of a porn flick.” Wiggling his eyebrows he laughed. “That’s pretty accurate, huh?” She tossed a pillow at him that landed against the side of his head. Still grinning he said, “Speaking of porn, thanks for the mighty fine welcome home, princess.”

She was surprised that she could still blush around him, but she felt her cheeks heat even more. “Blame it on the babies. My hormones are going crazy and you are the lucky beneficiary.”

Suddenly looking alarmed he asked, “Should we be doing that? I’m not going to hit them, am I?”

Beth threw back her head and laughed. “Kind of flattering yourself there, aren’t you?”

“Ha-ha, you know what I mean. This is safe, right?”

“The doctor said it was fine, remember? Of course, if you want to wait for nine months, I’ll understand,” she teased.

“If my welcome home was any indication, I don’t think you could make it, princess.” Rising from the floor, he held a hand out to her, giving her that signature grin she couldn’t resist. “Let’s go shower off and have dinner. If you’re a good girl, I’ll let you wash my front.”

She could have played hard to get, but why bother? They both knew that she would love to do his front, and she knew he would return the favor. It was a win-win for everyone.

* * *

Around four in the morning, she woke up feeling sick once again. Couldn’t she have the normal morning sickness that happened after she actually got up? She lay in bed trying to fight off the waves of nausea consuming her. Finally, when she could delay no longer, she jumped from the bed and bolted to her second home: the toilet. She felt Nick’s hand on her back soon after and sagged against him weakly. He didn’t say anything for a few minutes; he just pulled back her hair and rubbed her back in between bouts.

When she had nothing left inside her, he picked her up as he usually did and sat her on the bathroom counter. She was surprised when he opened a new toothbrush for her. Seeing her questioning look, he said, “I bought you a dozen of these. I know you don’t want to use the same toothbrush after being sick.”

Beth was surprised at how his small act of kindness moved her. His thinking of something so small touched her more than she could say. She gave him a smile of gratitude and quickly brushed her teeth. He wiped her face with a wet cloth and then carried her back to bed. They had developed a routine in the last week. He supported her while she was sick, cleaned her up, and tucked her back into bed. He then curved his body around hers, gently stroking her until she drifted to sleep. He made the sickness bearable and, during those times, she felt cherished.

When she awoke a few hours later, Nick was already up and drinking a cup of coffee. She quickly showered and walked to her closet to pull out a pair of slacks. When she attempted to button them, something happened that almost stopped her heart: they wouldn’t zip. She felt the blood drain from her face as she noticed how tight the pants were. For someone terrified of gaining extra weight back, this was a nightmare come true. Nick walked in the bedroom as she was staring at herself in the mirror. He noticed her look of panic and came to a sudden halt. Alarmed, he took her arm and asked, “Princess, what’s wrong? Are you sick again?”

As tears started to roll down her cheeks, she shook her head no. Still looking worried, he asked, “Why are you crying then? Um, is this a hormone thing?” With another shake of her head, she pointed to the opening of her pants.

“I don’t have a clue what you are trying to tell me. Do you need me to zip your pants?”

“They won’t zip,” she wailed. “I can’t even pull them all the way together.”

A man to the core, Nick said, “Well, just pick another pair. You probably haven’t worn those in a while.”

The tears flowed harder and Beth gasped out, “I wore them a few weeks ago! I’m barely pregnant and can’t wear my clothes anymore. I might as well invest in some big dresses because regular pants aren’t going to cover this ass for long.”

Stepping up behind her, Nick playfully cupped the cheeks of her butt in his hands before saying, “You have one fine ass, princess, and a few extra pounds isn’t going to change that.” When she whirled around and threw her hands on her hips, she could tell he knew he had said the wrong thing.

“So now I’m carrying some extra pounds? Well, thanks so much for pointing that out. I thought maybe my body was just changing from the pregnancy, but now, thanks to you, I know that I’m just overweight!”

Nick threw his hands in the air as if trying to ward her off. “Princess . . . I didn’t mean it that way. I was just trying to say that you are beautiful no matter what size you are.”

“Get out, you big jerk!” Taking off the pants that wouldn’t zip, she hit him dead center in the back as he practically ran from the room.

When he reached the door, he risked a quick glance over his shoulder. “Are you riding to the office with me?”

My God, could he be more clueless? Did he honestly think she would get in the car with him this morning after all of his stupid comments? Deep down inside, she knew he had just been trying to make her feel better, but he had seriously botched it. Still, she needed some space. If she rode to work with him, she would probably force him to take her to McDonald’s and watch her while she ate her way through the breakfast menu. Luckily, she was saved from replying as he took her silence as no and mumbled that he would see her later.

Returning to her closet in disgust, she pulled on a soft jersey dress, which was both comfortable and flattering. She didn’t have the heart to try another pair of slacks. She took a few deep breaths, trying to fight the panic that had been with her since she tried to zip the pants earlier. No one who had never been seriously overweight could understand her paranoia over weight gain. She had worked so hard to get where she was today and being powerless to stop the pounds from piling on was enough to make her feel faint. Maybe she just needed to double her effort to watch what she ate. She wouldn’t let pregnancy be a reason to let herself go. She couldn’t go back to where she was before—she wouldn’t.

Chapter Sixteen

Nick walked into the lobby of Danvers International a few minutes ahead of schedule. He had a conference call at nine, which left him almost an hour to spare. He had been in such a rush to leave home this morning that he had missed breakfast. He was afraid that if he stayed, Beth might stab him with his fork.

He walked over to a private alcove in the spacious lobby and settled on a comfortable sofa. He picked up a copy of Newsweek and thumbed through it without reading the pages. His mind went back to the scene with Beth earlier. Could he have messed that one up any more? He couldn’t understand why she was so upset over her pants not buttoning. He had been trying to tell her how beautiful she was and damn if he didn’t keep sticking his foot in his mouth. What had happened to his magic touch with women? Beth always seemed to keep him off his mark. He could never be “Cool Nick” around her. She turned him into a clumsy schoolboy.

He almost jumped out of his seat when he felt a hand on his shoulder. “Boy, do I know that look,” drawled an amused voice. Nick looked up and cringed at the sympathy in Jason’s eyes. He sat in a chair next to the sofa and said, “So, what did you screw up?”

Jerking his head in surprise, Nick asked, “How do you know I screwed something up? Maybe I’m just relaxing for a few minutes.”

Jason laughed. “Yeah, right. I’ve had my ass in the sling too many times not to recognize the look on your face. I imagine I look the same way when I’m in the doghouse.”

Grimacing, Nick admitted, “It was about her weight gain.”

“Damn. Man, tell me you didn’t go there. You never, under any circumstances, admit to a woman, especially a pregnant one, that you think she has gained weight. That’s a rookie mistake and I never took you for one.”

“No,” Nick defended. “I didn’t tell her that she had gained weight. She was freaking out because her pants wouldn’t button and I tried to reassure her that she would be beautiful at any size. She completely went off the deep end. I thought women dreamed of a man who liked them just the way they are.”

Jason chuckled. “What kind of dream world are you in? You should have avoided the whole conversation. I’d have faked an urgent bathroom trip or whatever the hell it took to get me out of there pronto. You can’t win those conversations. You said, ‘You would look beautiful at any size.’ What she actually interpreted from that statement is: ‘Yeah, you’ve gained a lot of weight, but you have such a pretty face.’”

Nick shook his head in disbelief. “No shit? How do you know all of this stuff?”

“I’ve been there, man. And I have the battle scars to prove it. The first few months of Claire’s pregnancy were rough. She was sick all the time and miserable. I kept trying to cheer her up and just ended up making her cry. I refer to it as the first trimester from hell. When I wasn’t making her sad, I was pissing her off. She alternated crying on my shoulder and slamming the bedroom door in my face. Finally, one evening she asked me if she had a double chin. Just when I was about to give her what was probably another dumb answer, my cell phone rang and I answered it. By the time the call was finished, she had moved on to something else and I had avoided disaster. From that moment on, I used the distraction technique whenever I could. The Danvers household was back in harmony.”

Nick laughed, shaking his head. “That’s unbelievable and a lot simpler than the shit storm I created this morning. Thanks for the advice, man; you may well have saved my life.”

Gray strolled through the lobby as he and Jason were walking toward the elevator. Nick had to admit, it was hard not to envy the contentment that seemed to radiate from Jason and his brother. It was obvious that they were both happy with their lives, maybe even thrilled.

“Good morning.” Giving them a questioning look, Gray asked, “Everything okay?”

With a smirk, Jason said, “Nick took the fat bait this morning.”

Gray visibly recoiled. “Tell me you didn’t! How could you live with Mom for all of those years and not know any better?”