Free For the Love of Nick by Jill Shalvis Page B

there.
    With a screech, she arched up off the bed, right into his mouth. “Perfect,” he whispered, and slowly and thoroughly devoured her.
    She tried to hold back from him. Clearly, this was not the hot and fast she’d intended, but he refused to give that to her. This was no quick fix, this was more. And if he had to know it, recognize it, then so did she. “Come for me,” he whispered against her.
    And she did, with a wild abandon that thrilled and aroused him all the more.
    Damp flesh slid over damp flesh as he slid back up her body, every bit as hostage to this vicious need as she. He rubbed his cheek to hers as she fluttered her eyes open. “There’s still more,” he said.
    “Yes.” She tried to draw him inside her body. “For you.”
    “For both of us.” Putting on a condom was tricky, as his hands were shaking. Shaking. Danielle didn’t help matters by lending her ineffective yet over whelmingly arousing fingers to the task. Finally, he lifted her hips, stared deep into her eyes and sank into her.
    She took him, every inch, then let him in even deeper.
    “This,” he managed to say, fighting back the tide that threatened to take him over the edge with his first stroke. “This is more. For both of us.” And lowering his mouth to hers, he began to move.

9
    N ICK AWOKE IN THE DARK . From what he could gather with his few still-functioning senses, he was sprawled on his back, sideways across the bed. Given the breeze blowing across his lower parts he concluded the window was open. As for the restriction of air to his lungs, that was Danielle, who lay a deadweight on his chest.
    She was also buck naked, which happened to agree with him.
    Grinning, he slid her off, then settled himself between her legs. Murmuring something sleepily, she slipped her arms around him. “Nick?”
    God, that voice. It did things to his insides, things he wasn’t ready to face, so he concentrated on what she did to him physically.
    And physically, he wanted her again. “Yeah, it’s me. You’re so beautiful, Danielle.”
    “It’s dark.”
    “It doesn’t matter.”
    “Oh, Nick.”
    “Open for me.”
    Arching up, she wrapped her legs around his hips.
    “Yeah, like that.” Tilting her face up for his kiss, he sank into her body and took her again. Took them both to a place he’d never been with anyone ever before.
     
    T HE NEXT TIME Nick woke up, morning light slanted in through the windows, making him squint as he reached out for…nobody.
    Given that the pillow he’d shared with Danielle all night long felt cold, he sat straight up, his heart in his throat.
    And came face to face with a monster, a huge monster with dark, red-rimmed eyes and incisors capable of gobbling him up in one bite.
    With a shocked gasp, he jerked back.
    The monster leapt back, too, and let out a sharp, surprised bark.
    “Damn it.” Flat on his back in the middle of the bed, Nick blinked at the ceiling and tried to recover his pulse. “You’re giving me gray hair.”
    The bed shifted as two heavy paws hit it.
    Nick craned his neck to the side, eyeing Sadie cautiously. “I suppose you think that’s funny.”
    Head cocked, a line of drool puddling on his sheets, the dog eyed him and licked her chops.
    Hastily, Nick scrambled for the sheet. “Don’t get any ideas. I’m not edible.”
    “I wouldn’t say that.”
    Nick lifted his head as Danielle came back into the room. She was dressed in another pair of khaki shorts and a sleeveless blouse—red this time—looking sleek, beautiful and more than a little wary. Her backpack was on her shoulder, her laptop tucked under her arm. She was holding the developed photos he’d given her.
    Not a good sign on his chances of coaxing her back into bed.
    “I wanted to thank you again,” she said quietly, staying by the door.
    Uh-oh. Definitely, he had some fast talking to do in order to get lucky. “You’re dressed.” Oh, smooth.
    “I’ve got to go.”
    Stall. Not because he couldn’t let