For the Love of Nick by Jill Shalvis Page B

first.
    “It’s my decision, Nick. This can’t go on.”
    Pulling out the keys, he turned to her, his eyes shockingly full of protectiveness, belying that easygoing, almost lazy voice. “You’re right,” he said. “It can’t go on. Do you have a plan?”
    “Not yet,” she admitted, hating that she didn’t. “But I can—”
    “ We can. Whatever it is, we can.”
    Her heart stuttered. She wasn’t ready to accept a “we,” but having him there at her side had made her feel safe, secure. Two things sorely missing in her life. “You have your own life to get back to. You can’t keep doing this with me forever.”
    “No one can do this forever.”
    “Nick—”
    “I’m not going to walk away, Danielle. Not until you’re okay. Don’t ask me to.”
    “I have to.”
    His eyes were dark. “Is that what you want?”
    “I’m sure we both want that.”
    “Don’t speak for me,” he said with his first hintof temper. “I’m asking you. Is that what you really want?”
    “Yes,” she whispered, then covered her eyes. “Yes. God.” She looked at him again. He’d been so quick to mask his surprise and hurt, she wasn’t sure she’d even seen it. “It’s for the best, Nick, for you to go back to your life.”
    “I never did like what was best for me,” he said, and just like that something inside her warmed. “You realize Ted knows you’re here, in the area.”
    “Yes.” She was trying not to panic, not to look over her shoulder at every little sound.
    “Let’s check out of the hotel, then find another place to go while we figure out what to do.”
    “That’s a lot of ‘we’ stuff.”
    “Yeah.” His eyes dared her to say more, and suddenly, she didn’t want to.
    What she did want no longer shocked her. “Actually,” she said with a catch in her voice, “there are some pretty good uses for the word ‘we.”’
    His brow raised, and he sent her that slow, sure, sexy smile that never failed to melt her as his strong, warm arms came around her. “Such as…?” His mouth nuzzled her ear, and light-headed already, she tipped her head to the side to give him more room.
    “Such as this,” she practically purred. “This is good ‘we’ stuff.”
    “Mmm.” His fingers danced up her ribs. “So the ‘we’ is working for you?”
    “At the moment…” Good Lord, his mouth. “Only because I like the way you kiss,” she warned breathlessly.
    Against her skin, he grinned. “I can live with that.”
    “Just so you know…” She broke off with a moan as he’d found a spot on her collarbone that made her writhe. “Soon as I’m done letting you kiss me, I’m done with the ‘we.”’
    Laughing, he pulled her even closer. “Give it your best shot, sweetheart. Give it your best shot.”
     
    “S O WHAT’S THE PLAN ? Drive as far as the tank will take us?”
    Nick smiled as he drove. “You’re a planner. I didn’t know that about you.”
    “You don’t know a lot about me.” Danielle smiled back at him from the passenger seat of his truck, though he knew her well enough now to see past the dazzling beauty to the nerves shimmering beneath.
    What was it about her that made him want to soothe? Protect? He put a hand on her knee, needing the contact in a way that no longer surprised him. “Which reminds me, I’d like to know more about you.”
    “Other than I’m a wanted woman?”
    Her quip didn’t fool him. She was scared and unsettled and it infuriated him that her life had come to this. “What have you been doing since high school?” he asked, thinking to distract her. Hell, if she opened up to him in the process, so much the better. “Other than handling dogs, that is. College? Travel? What?”
    “No college.” She looked out the window. “No money for that, and my grades weren’t the greatest. I had a hard time keeping up with school-work, with working odd jobs at night.”
    He’d known that money had been tight and cursed himself for bringing up bad memories.