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Nico attended her every whim and comfort, making sure she was also mentally okay, treating her with kid gloves and organizing appointments with Imran. He was so sweet to her. Touching her gently, making sure she wasn’t in pain, sitting and talking to her for hours by the fireside after dinner, about whether she might buy another Kombi van, and if she did what color it would be. About the best way to cultivate tomatoes in winter, and even just listening to her favorite music. The only thing they didn’t talk about was what the future held. Together or apart. It felt so normal, and in those times, she could forget about what’d happened to her and what might lie ahead, cocooned inside a little bubble of Nico-induced warmth. But they were yet to return to the bedroom since she’d come home from the hospital. And as her scratches healed, and her arm began to itch inside her cast, Lacey felt her libido coming back, and she wanted him to stop tiptoeing around her. She was ready to make love, now she just had to convince him that he wouldn’t hurt her with a tumble between the sheets.
Tonight would be the night she decided. She wouldn’t allow him to take her hand and kiss her fingertips and then place them in his lap and change the subject. Tonight she would be the one to sit in his lap, kiss him deeply, and let him know exactly what she wanted. He was so worried that he’d hurt her, that she’d already suffered enough. But it was becoming a certain type of torture to have him so near, but yet to keep things platonic.
She’d had a lot of time to think about her and Nico over the past two weeks. They might not talk about a future together, but she was certainly thinking about it. When she first arrived in Boat Harbour Beach, she’d had an agenda. A part of her always realized she’d been running away from her problems. And from herself. She wasn’t sure what she wanted from life, and so she’d put her life on hold so that she didn’t have to make a decision. But then Rania had been murdered and Lacey had been dragged into the investigation. Being so closely involved with the crime scene and being around the team running the investigation, her passion for being a police officer, for being part of the force for good, had slowly reawakened. Then there was Nico. An extraordinary man, who’d hit her like a comet shooting from the sky. She hadn’t been looking for a relationship, didn’t think she deserved one, but it’d found her anyway. His indigo-blue eyes had taken her heart hostage.
They hadn’t mentioned the L-word yet. But she knew she was in love with Nico. She didn’t know if he felt the same way, however.
She could see the hazy shape of a future with Nico evolving. If she took the job Shadbolt had offered her, she could stay in Tasmania. Stay and explore a relationship with Nico. But did he want that too?
“Here you are.” She jumped at the sound of his voice as Nico appeared, walking over the sand toward her.
She brightened, pushing her damp hair out of her face. “You’re home.”
“Yes, Charles told me to go home early today. Something about a job well done.” But his face darkened as he said the words and Lacey knew he didn’t believe his boss’s praise. He’d be beating himself up for not suspecting Gabriel from the start, for not keeping her under guard until they were sure they had the right man, for not getting to the lookout sooner, and for not being able to stop the van from plunging over the cliff. All vast miscalculations on his part and deserving of his condemnation. Nico deemed himself a failure, refusing to see the bright side of his actions. That he’d worked out where Lacey was, had thrown every resource into finding her, and had been there to rescue her in the end. Gabriel had now been charged with Rania’s murder, although he was still pleading not guilty, and so the story of exactly why he’d done it and why he’d fled the scene, leaving her still alive, was yet to be unraveled. That made two murders he was responsible for. Added to the other charges of her kidnapping and attempted murder, it looked like Gabe was going to jail for a very long time. But one thing that still bugged Nico was the motivation behind Gabe’s actions. Dr. DuPont still refused to talk about why it was so important nobody know he was a homosexual. Lacey had revealed the little she knew from her conversation with Gabe in the van, about how he needed to please his mother, how he needed to be perfect in her eyes. Perhaps Gabe would open up about his demons at a later date.
But for now… “Itwasa job well done,” she said, turning to slip her good arm around his neck. “Neither of us picked Gabe as a suspect until it was almost too late. But he’s behind bars now, and that’s all that matters.”
“I guess so.” Nico let her lead him toward his house. “I’ve brought home takeaway tonight,” he admitted. “Gabe’s trial date has been set for June, with no bail granted until the trial. So it’s a sort of celebration.”
“Yes, let’s celebrate,” she agreed. But she had a different sort of celebration in mind.
* * *
After they’d eaten, Lacey tugged Nico by the hand, leading him toward his bedroom. She was so over all this waiting until she was one hundred percent healed. She wanted him now, and she knew her body better than anyone else. It was ready. She was ready to make love with Nico.
“I’m not sure about—” Lacey covered his mouth with hers to drown out his protests. Letting her kiss tell him the story. Setting him on fire with her urgency. Her tongue dipped into his mouth, tasting him, savoring him.
“God, I’ve missed this. I’ve missed you,” he groaned into her mouth, hands roaming freely over her back, down her spine to cup her bottom and pull her up to meet his crotch, so she could feel the evidence of exactly how much he’d missed her.
“I’ve missed you too,” she said, already tugging at the buttons on his shirt.
She let him undress her, helping him to pull her T-shirt over the cast on her arm. For a second, he hesitated when he caught sight of the many small, still-healing scars on her body,
“All I can feel at the moment is you. All I want is you,” she said, drawing his gaze back toward her face. Which was also covered in scars, but she needed him to see her truth. “Nothing else matters. The only pain I’m feeling right now is the pain of not having you.”
After that, he needed no more prompting. Soon they lay together in his bed, cocooned together under the blankets. She delighted in the feel of his skin beneath her fingers, relearning all the contours of his body she’d been sorely missing over the past two weeks. His hand slid over her hip, his mouth hot on hers as they lay side by side, staring into each other’s eyes. Slowly, the heat between them built, getting hotter with every touch of a hand or lips on skin. Silently, he explored her, and a tremor ran through her as he kissed down her neck, down her collarbone, and over her breasts.
“Nico,” she whispered. “Oh, God, Nico.” His name was a devotion on her lips. A wish. Or a gratitude that he existed and was here with her now. He caressed her body so perfectly, like she was a musical instrument who only played for him. She forgot all her problems. Forgot why they were so wrong for each other and only remembered why they were so right.
I’m in love with you. The words whispered at the back of her mind.
When she couldn’t take the building intensity anymore, she reached over and sheathed him with a condom without even asking, then nudged him with her knees until he hovered above her. Tilting her hips toward him, she invited him in, and they both gasped in unison as he thrust inside. Rocking together, it didn’t take long for the crescendo to peak. She was so close…
She crested the wave, her deep moan as she arched her back into him, driving him over the edge until his own pleasure swamped him. He also let out a moan of unrestrained pleasure and then rested his forehead against hers, panting heavily.
I love you.The words were a mantra in her brain, drowning out every other thought. Their bodies fit perfectly together. Like two matching puzzle pieces. Like they were destined to be together.
“I love you.”
The utterance hung in the air between them. Oh, shit. Had she just said that aloud? Had he heard her?
Nico lifted his head and his expression morphed from languid to guarded, and she had her answer. She’d said the words and now there was no taking them back. It was a point of no return, at least for her, and she didn’t know where to go from here. Nico stared at her as if he were at a loss for something to say. She went completely still in his arms.
Shit. She was in love with him, but he was hesitating. Oh, God. Had she got this completely wrong?
“Forget I said that,” she said as she tried to clamber out of bed.
But he caught her around the waist. “Wait, Lacey.” He tried to kiss her to stop her frantic attempts to leave, but she was having none of it and pushed against him. He was stronger than her, however, and pinned her to the bed. “You can’t just leave after saying…that!”
