CHASING TROUBLE

In seconds he was lying on top of her, kissing and nipping, their hands working together in a frenzy to strip away the barrier of clothing. Shrugging his shirt off, he covered a breast with his mouth and greedily sucked and licked, hands wrenching at the silk shorts she’d dragged down to her hips, then worshiped her other breast as he worked the shorts to her knees.

She kicked them off while her hands tugged at his unbuttoned trousers, sitting up to get a better grip before she yanked them down with his underwear until they were kneeling before each other, naked and panting with lust. For no more than a second they stared into each other’s eyes. Nicholas’ arousal reached boiling point to see the unashamed desire in hers and the color slashing her face.

He pounced. She pounced. Their mouths locked together as he fell back on top of her. Caroline’s thighs parted with no thought from her brain. There were no thoughts. Only sensation. Such glorious, heavenly, mind-blowing sensations. The weight of Nicholas on her, the feel of his skin against hers, his taste and scent on her tongue and infused in all her other senses… The heat burning between her legs was almost too much to bear and when she felt the heavy weight of his erection right where she needed it to be, she moaned, “Please, Nick. Please. Now.”

He drove inside her in one long, hard thrust. The relief was so great that she cried out. Arms wrapped tightly around his neck, legs hooked around his waist, mouth buried in his shoulder, Caroline closed her eyes and fell into the saturating pleasure.

Deeply he thrust into her, in and out, a fusion of heat and flesh driving each other on until she felt the thickening between her legs and clung even tighter as the pulsating ripples broke free and carried her to a peak that left her limp and boneless.

___________

A breeze came through the opened door. Nicholas closed his eyes and welcomed its cooling touch. Caroline lay on her back beside him, the sheets pulled up to her shoulders. When he’d rolled off her she’d wriggled away from him. She’d made no effort to touch him since.

They hadn’t exchanged a word since their explosion of lust. He didn’t know about her but the thumps of his heart had been impossible to speak through. It was yet to settle back into a normal beat. It had never beat normally around her… He took a deep breath. That kind of thought was what had made him end their relationship.

“What are you thinking?” he asked.

There was a long period of silence before she answered. “Why?”

“Why are you so quiet?”

“Nothing, Nick.” She sighed and turned her face to his. “Shouldn’t you go back to your own room?”

“Do you want me to?”

She looked back to the ceiling. “I think it’s best.”

“Why?”

“Sometimes Charlie wakes early. I bring him back to bed with me.”

“Can’t you do that with me here?”Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

“It would only confuse him.”

“Why?”

“It just would. I don’t want him to think you and I are like other mamas and papas.”

“Isn’t he too young to think like that?”

“I don’t know what he thinks. He might have lots of fully formed thoughts in his head.”

“He might,” Nicholas conceded. “And one of those thoughts might be a wish for his mama and papa to live together.”

“Don’t speak like that.” She rolled to the edge of the bed and slipped her robe on.

“Why not?” he challenged. “Is that not a normal wish for a child?”

She tightened the sash and got to her feet. “Nobody’s normal is the same as anyone else’s.” She stepped out onto the balcony. A moment later, the outside light was turned off and she came back in, closing the door behind her.

Using the dim light of the moon and stars to illuminate the way, she carried the baby monitor to her bedside table and sat on the bed with her back to him. “I mean it, Nick. I don’t want to confuse him.”

“Neither do I.”

“Good.”

“I only want to do what’s best for him, as I know you do.” Her head dipped forward. “Which is why I think we should consider getting married,”

The stiffening of her back, the slow turn of her body to face him, the wide eyes and open mouth were almost comical but the situation was too serious for him to find amusement in it. Now that the idea of marriage had rooted in his head, he knew he had an uphill battle to get Caroline’s agreement but was confident he would succeed. All he had to do was pull the right strings. As difficult as the task would be, there was already relief that the decision had been made.

Nicholas’ feelings for his son grew by the day. He wanted to be a real father to him, with autonomy, not someone for Charlie to visit a few times a year. He wanted the security of knowing his son could never be taken from him. He could manage a year of marriage and then separate from Caroline knowing he had the right of being a father in the law’s eyes on his side. Marriage would give him much greater protection he needed. She wouldn’t be able to deny his demand for equal access.

A year of marriage also meant a year of having Caroline in his bed and that brought relief of a different hue. Such a short time since they’d made love but already fresh awareness was coiling through him. It had been like this before. His desire for her had intoxicated him. Almost driven him to madness.

A year of marriage would be long enough to spend his passion for her and allow them to reach the natural end. Now all he needed to do was persuade Caroline to say yes.

Caroline shook her head as if expelling water from her ears. She’d been holding onto herself by the skin of her teeth, desperately fighting the craving to lie in Nicholas’ arms and recapture the closeness when he’d dropped his bombshell on her. He thought they should marry? How was she supposed to process something like that? It would have been less of a shock if he’d told her he wanted to fly to Jupiter and colonize it.