CHAPTER TWENTY

NICK

It was official.

Alicia wasn’t the only one losing her damn mind. Mentally and emotionally, I was fucking breaking. Falling apart as surely as I’d fallen for her.

It hit me that I was in love with her the second she looked at me like I was a criminal, and my heart felt like it had suffered a fatal blow from the accusation in her eyes. I didn’t give a fuck about what people thought about me, but seeing Alicia look at me like that ripped me to shreds.

That was when I knew that it was game over for me. I didn’t just care what she thought of me. I was fucking devastated that she thought I was just as bad as those guys who’d been trying to kill us earlier.

I needed to prove to her that I wasn’t. Since I wasn’t good with words, I did the only thing I could think of. I kissed her like the fucking ship was going down.

Alicia shoved at my chest. Hard. A loud whack pierced the air, followed by an intense stinging sensation in my cheek. Damn. She’d slapped me. My eyes snapped open.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Alicia roared.

I tightened my grip on her, holding her against me. “What I should’ve done weeks ago. I’m making you mine.”

Her eyes widened in disbelief, her chest rising and falling with heavy breaths as she stared at me. “What if I don’t want to be yours? I don’t even know who you are anymore.”

“Yes, you do.” Reaching for her hand, I placed it over my heart. “You know who I am in here.”

“No, I don’t. I thought I did, but the man I thought I knew would never protect someone like my dad.”

“It wasn’t your dad I was hired to protect, warrior princess. It was you. You crept under my skin the second I met you, and I just knew that I couldn’t leave your safety in someone else’s hands. So, the man you thought you knew, Alicia. That is the man that I am.”

“But you did protect him, too. You’ve kept his secret for weeks, knowing that he was one of the bad guys. What kind of man does that?”

A light breeze on the beach caused her hair to lick at her face. I reached down and tucked it behind her ear, locking my eyes on hers and praying that she could see the sincerity in mine.

“The kind of man who thought that he was protecting the best person he’s ever met. There’s not a single bad bone in your body. That’s who I was protecting. You. I’m not blind. I can see how much you love Warren, and I knew it would break your heart if you knew the truth. I never wanted to be the one to do that to you. Truth be told, I wouldn’t have given a fuck about anything happening to Warren if it wasn’t for the fact that I knew that it would hurt you, too, if it did.”

Alicia tipped her head up, and for the first time since they’d slung those accusations at me back in the car, her eyes softened. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. It’s all about you for me, warrior princess. I give you my word on that, and you can trust it. I promise you, you can trust me. Hearing you say that you couldn’t broke me. I couldn’t stand you thinking that. I couldn’t stand the thought that you felt alone. You’re not alone. I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere. Not unless you want me to, because of the kind of man I am, and you know it. I would literally take a bullet for you, but I will also stay away from you if that’s what you want. I’ll wait for however long it takes to prove to you that you can trust me, but I’ll never stop fighting for you.”

Alicia blinked, gazing deeply into my eyes as she gave a small shake of her head. The accusations fled from those enchanting orbs, and her body relaxed against mine. “No. That’s not what I want.”

“What do you want? I’ll give you anything I have. Everything.”

“That won’t be necessary,” she said, her lips curling into a small smile. “I just want you.”

“You mean it?” I had to be sure. There would be no going back after this. I was tossing the rule book so far away that I couldn’t even see where it landed.

“Yes,” she answered simply. The word had never sounded quite as incredible as it did in that moment. I gazed down at her, so fucking beautiful in the pale moonlight as she said the words that broke my world apart and put it back together again more perfectly than it had ever been before. “I want to be yours, Nick. So, go ahead and do what you said you were doing earlier. Make me yours.”

“You trust that I’m telling you the truth?” I asked.

“Yes.”

A low growl ripped from my chest. I brought my hands up to cup her face and slanted my lips over hers, kissing her the way I’d wanted to since the very first time I’d seen her.

Unlike when I’d kissed her before, her hands came around my shoulders, and her fingers threaded into my hair, tugging at it in a way that told me she was just as lost in me as I was in her. My body had never reacted to anyone else like it did to hers. Especially my damn heart, beating like a war drum.

I wanted her, and I was finally going to have her. Alicia trusted me. She was all mine, and I knew exactly how I wanted to celebrate.

I never wanted to stop kissing her soft lips, moving so urgently with mine, but I had to get her inside the bungalow, and then, I had to get inside her. Breaking the kiss was more difficult than it should’ve been, but a few strokes of her tongue later, I groaned and lifted my head. “Let’s get inside.”

“Yes.”

“That’s the only word you’re allowed to say from now on,” I told her, grabbing her hand and dragging her to the house.

Alicia laughed, scrambling to keep up with me. “Is that what being yours means? That I’m no longer allowed to speak?”

“I’m going to show you what being mine means as soon as I get you to your bedroom,” I told her, stopping to lift her and toss her over my shoulder, caveman style, loving the way her breathing hitched and the happy little giggles that escaped. “Just so long as you never say no to me.”

She slapped my ass playfully. “I never have. You’re the one who kept saying it.”

“I’m such an idiot,” I groaned. “Rules be damned. I should’ve done this a long time ago.”

“Stubborn idiot,” Alicia corrected, then sighed. “But you’re my stubborn idiot now.”

Carrying her through the door, I flicked on lights in the house as we went. I knew which bedroom had been designated as hers, and I was a man on a mission to get her there.

“Is it as pretty right side up as it is from here?” Alicia asked.

She was right. The bungalow was beautiful. Airy and white with windows everywhere, every surface gleaming, but we may as well have been in a shack for all I cared.

“It’s nothing near as pretty as you,” I said.

“I like this, ‘you being straight with me’ thing, more and more.” Alicia sighed. “For the record, I think you’re pretty, too.”

“I’m more ruggedly handsome,” I grunted, finally reaching the bedroom and setting her down carefully.

Alicia smiled, but her gray eyes were heavy, glazed with lust, her pupils almost completely dilated already. I was pretty sure mine were the same. “Whatever you say, big guy. Now are you going to come over here and take what’s yours or what?”

The dress that had been driving me insane all damn day fell to the floor, revealing a deep blue corset and matching panties that I was going to tear off. With. My. Teeth.

I was on her less than a heartbeat later, my balls tightening and my dick hard. A little noise escaped from her mouth. I swallowed it, backing her up until her knees hit the bed. Dropping my head to kiss her shoulder, I leaned down farther to kiss the swell of her perfect breasts, all the while sliding the panties off. She wiggled out of them and kicked them across the room.

Alicia grabbed my face and kissed me. “Get the freaking corset off me. Then get naked.”

I followed her orders as fast as I could.

Alicia naked was the best fucking thing I’d ever seen, and I’d seen a lot. For a second, we just stood there, staring at each other. Then, our lips crashed together in furious need. After more than a month of denying each other, all the weeks had turned our bodies into frenzied machines built for a single purpose: finally getting to satisfy each other.

I ran my hand down her side and down her thigh before it landed on her wet pussy. “God, you’re so wet.”

“Nick,” she cried, her hips arching into my hand as I slid my fingers inside her. She felt so good, so tight that I already knew that I had next to no hope of lasting very long once I got inside of her.

Sliding down her body, I replaced my fingers with my tongue, and she writhed like she wanted it inside of her. She tasted better than I remembered, so good that I couldn’t lick her enough.

“Please, Nick.” She was begging now, and I couldn’t stand to hear her beg any more, not after what I’d put her through by denying her for so long, in so many different ways.

I kissed a path up her stomach and chest.

“I’m right here, princess. I’m not going anywhere.” I kissed her deeply. I meant it. She bucked her hips, and my dick hit her entrance, hot and inviting. My wildest fucking fantasy.

Both of us moaned at the contact. Her gray eyes blinked open, desire mixing with the sweetest tenderness in them. I needed to be inside of her. Now.

Rolling over on the bed, I reached for my wallet in the pocket of my jeans and pulled out a condom, rolling it on faster than I ever had.

When I hovered over her again, she whispered against my lips. “Nick, please make love to me.”

“Yes,” I told her, finally sliding my cock into her.

Alicia arched her back, and her hands flew to my ass. “You were so right. That’s all you’re allowed to say from now on, too.”

She used the leverage on my ass to pull me deeper, and my head fell in the crook of her neck. I couldn’t control my breathing or my body anymore. Thrusting until I was buried in her all the way to my balls, I started moving with a rhythm that felt so good that I had to change it up almost immediately to keep from blowing my load so soon.

“You are so fucking tight, princess,” I rasped at her neck, worshiping every inch of her bare skin. I was completely consumed by how incredible it felt to be inside of her, so consumed that I barely heard her moaning beneath me.

Alicia raised her hips and met my every thrust with wild abandon. Just like I’d known it would be between us, it was like we both knew exactly what the other person needed and when. She turned her head and sought out my lips. I kissed her, feeling more connected to her than I’d ever felt to anyone before.

I loved her. I loved her so fucking much. I reached for her hands, and our fingers entwined on the pillow next to her head, just as her walls started spasming around me and her muscles started shaking.

“Nick. Nick, I’m coming.” Her voice was frenzied and loud. She exploded around me, and just like I’d suspected, I didn’t last much longer after that. I couldn’t. Not when her head was thrown back in perfect ecstasy and she repeated my name over and over again.

I let go. My orgasm tore through me as I came like I’d never fucking done it before.