A cold trickle of water, followed by another one, rolled down Adam’s throbbing nose and dropped onto his now equally throbbing denim-clad crotch. He was half-afraid it would start to steam.
Nikki put her hands up to her hair and pushed it on top of her head as she gyrated, letting it tumble down over her shoulders as she turned her back to him. Hot! Hot!
But then his gaze dropped again to her ass and the mosquito bites, now shiny with cortisone cream…not to mention the tufts of mud and grass on her heels. Worse, the twin mosquito bites now stared out at him from each cheek like a couple of angry red eyes.
Her thong formed two frowning eyebrows as it dipped horizontally from each hip, and the vertical part in this context looked like a nose. The cheeks were, well, cheeks. And that sweet, sweet underside as her bottom met her thighs—well, it grimaced at him.
Adam couldn’t help himself—he guffawed, knowing as he did so that it was probably the worst offense he could commit.
Nikki stopped dead, her whole body stiffening in outrage.
He winced and ducked reflexively, thinking that she’d throw something at him. But it wasn’t anger on her face as she turned—it was something much worse: shame. Complete and utter humiliation. And shock. And deep, deep hurt.
“Nikki—”
Shaking, she ran into the bathroom and slammed the door.
Nice, Adam. You’ve sure gone and done it now, haven’t you?
His bedside manner needed work. He groaned and walked to the door, then knocked softly. “Nikki, I wasn’t laughing at you—”
“Yes, you were!” Her voice was thick with shame.
“No, not the way you think.”
“I know I have no rhythm or talent and I know I’m fat,” she wailed.
“Fat? Are you crazy? No, Nikki, you’re not. And you do have talent…” Okay, not much, but enough to get a guy’s motor running, that was for sure.
“It was the M&M’s,” she blurted.
“Huh?”
“Oh, God…why don’t you have something in here that I can just
kill
myself with?”
Alarmed, Adam tried the knob, but she’d locked herself in. “Nikki, you can’t be serious. Please, please, let me explain.”
“There’s nothing to explain,” she wailed. “I danced and you laughed.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“Yes, it is.”
“No, no, no. Look, just give me a chance—”
“You
would
have to have an electric shaver,” she said bitterly. “I can’t slit my wrists with that.”
“Nikki!”
“And no sleeping pills. Not even any freaking
dental floss
that I could strangle myself with.”
“Nikki, don’t you think you’re blowing this out of proportion? I mean, even if I
had
laughed at your dancing—”
“You
did!
” This time she bellowed it.
“No, I didn’t. Not the way you think.” Adam ran his hands over his face, which was a mistake, since he aggravated his nose all over again. “Look. Nikki, do you have a sense of humor?”
“What?”
“I asked if you have a sense of humor.”
“What do you mean?”
“If you have to ask,” Adam said patiently, “then you probably don’t have one.”
“I do, too.”
O-kay.
“Then turn around and look at your, uh, bottom in the mirror.”
Silence. Then, she said, “You want me to check out my own butt?”
“Yes. Just do it.”
More silence. “What
ever,
” she said, in tones that indicated she was only humoring a lunatic.
Adam waited.
“Oh, my God!” she shrieked. “It looks like there’s a whole face back there!”
“Exactly.”
Now a definite giggle emerged from behind the bathroom door. Almost faint with relief, Adam made another suggestion. “Okay, now look at your heels.”
This time she whooped.
More progress.
“I ask you,” Adam appealed to her, “if you would not have laughed yourself.”
Silence.
Then Nikki unlocked and opened the door, her eyes brimming with mischief and streaky makeup behind the wet washcloth she held to her flushed face. She’d pulled on the hotel’s terry bathrobe.
Adam held up his hands, palms out. “Funny?”
“Funny,” she confirmed, nodding.
He nodded, having absolutely no clue what to do or say next. “Listen, I feel really bad that you thought I was laughing at your dancing.”
“It’s okay.” She scrubbed at her eyes with the cloth, only succeeding in smearing around all the black and purple goop she had on.
“Can I fix you a drink from the minibar while you take that stuff off your face? It’s the least I can do to make things up to you.”
She hesitated, then nodded. “A bourbon and Coke, please.”
He made two of them and handed one to her when she came out. “Cheers.”
“Thanks.” She took a deep gulp. “How’s your nose?”
“Fine. How are your mosquito bites?” He grinned.
She wrinkled her nose at him. “Fine.”
“Nikki, where did you ever get the idea that you’re fat?” he asked abruptly.
She tugged at the robe around her body and hugged herself with her free arm. She took another long swallow of her drink. “Oh, you know.” She shrugged.
“No, I don’t know. You have a smokin’ body.”
“I was a really chubby kid,” she blurted. “They used to call me—” She took another swallow of the bourbon and Coke, effectively finishing it off. “Never mind.”
Adam took the cup from her and went to the minibar to make her another. “What did they call you?”
She picked up a guide to local attractions and thumbed through it without seeming to see anything inside.
He didn’t know why he cared, but he did. “Nikki?”
“Chubba Bubba,” she said, snapping the magazine closed. She shrugged again. “Stupid, huh? Really dumb that I still think about it now, at age twenty-four. But I guess it’s still a sore spot.”
“It’s not stupid,” Adam said. He gave her the second drink. “Kids can be incredibly mean.”
“You have no idea,” she said, taking another big gulp.
He almost advised her to take it easy, but he’d already offended her once and was unwilling to repeat the offense. “Oh, I do have a good idea. I got picked on a lot in junior high.”
“Really? Why?”
He shrugged. “I was a small, nerdy kid with glasses and braces and a bad case of acne.”
Surprise crossed her face. “Yeah?”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
“But you’re gorgeous,” she blurted. Then blushed. Then gulped more of her drink.
It was his turn to blush. He felt color searing his face. He’d filled out, gone to a dermatologist and lost the braces by his sophomore year in high school. “Uh, thanks, I guess.” He covered his discomfort by burying his nose in his own drink.
“I embarrassed you,” Nikki said. “I’m sorry.”
“Well, I laughed at your backside,” Adam said. “So I guess we’re even, huh?”
She dimpled and leaned forward to set down her cup on the cocktail table. Her robe gaped open as she did so, and his gaze fell straight to her spectacular breasts—what his buddy Devon would call her “luscious golden Winnebagos.” The idiot.
Maybe it was the alcohol. Maybe it was temporary insanity. Or maybe—
“I’d never, ever make fun of your front side,” Adam croaked, as she noticed where his gaze was fixated.
She instantly put her hands up to tug the edges of the robe together.
“Please don’t,” he asked softly.
She froze.
He tried a smile. “They’re so beautiful. Like the rest of you.”
She swallowed, hesitating. Then, blushing furiously again, she tugged the lapels of the robe
open.
And then, to his stunned disbelief, she removed the pasties on her nipples and let her breasts spill out to greet him.
The air went out of him so fast that his lungs almost collapsed. His mouth gaped open like a grouper’s.
D cups. Perfect, high and round and cherry-capped.
Fair?
No, this was incredibly
un
fair. Because Adam wanted to touch them in the worst way. His palms itched, he wanted them so badly. He was afraid he was going to start panting like a dog. He was crazy; he shouldn’t have brought her here. He needed to be studying for the exam on Monday. Where was his legendary hard-won focus?
“Are you okay?” Nikki asked. “Because you have a very peculiar expression on your face.”
He groaned. His woody was back with a vengeance.
“Adam?”
“Look,” he said. “Nikki, don’t take this the wrong way…but the expression on my face is lust, pure and simple. The fact is, sweetheart, that I’d like to fu—uh, screw you into next Friday.”
5
NIKKI CHOKED.
“OH!”
she said once she could manage the words. A tingle spread down her spine and intensified between her legs.
“Er,” Adam responded sheepishly, looking as if he couldn’t quite believe the words had come out of his mouth. “Sorry. That was probably a little uncensored.”
“Yeah…but I liked it.” She smiled at him.
“Did you?” He stared at her intently and then upended his drink as she nodded.
Adam set down the cup, ditto the ice pack, and got to his feet. He wiped his hands on his jeans as he crossed the carpet to where she sat; her nerves grew taut and the tingle between her legs intensified. She stopped breathing as he came to a stop in front of her.
“May I?”
Clearly, he wanted to kiss her. Nikki tilted back her head to look up at him and examined that chiseled, beautiful mouth of his. It was firm and masculine, but also sensual. His lips weren’t full, but she liked the lines of them, the way they curved, the way they smiled. She imagined how those curves would fit to her own lips, fantasized about how they would feel against hers.
He bent his head, gazed into her eyes. Would he put a finger under her chin to tilt her head back? Would he take her whole face into his hands? She waited in anticipation.
But she was wrong. Adam didn’t kiss her. She gasped as instead his fingers grazed her breasts. His hands were cold from the drink and the ice, but since the rest of her was inexplicably hot, the sensation was erotic.
He lifted her breasts and held them as if they were precious, then rubbed his thumbs slowly over the nipples.
She forgot all about kissing. A moan escaped her and she pushed them farther into his hands, a wordless request for more.
Adam’s breathing quickened and the pupils of his eyes dilated, went darker.
Her gaze dropped from his to the formidable bulge now straining against his fly, and his hands tightened on her flesh, kneaded. He continued to tease her nipples, rubbing circles around them and flicking them gently as the sensations drove her half-crazy. Small sounds came from her throat that she couldn’t control, and he seemed to like that.
“Lick them, Adam,” she said. “My breasts. Please…”
He dropped to his knees between her legs, needing no further invitation. He pushed the robe from her shoulders and squeezed her breasts together, taking both nipples into his mouth at once, playing them with his tongue, and then sucking hard.