Eternal Vows (Hideaway (Kimani)) (19 page)

“I don’t think it was as much about you as much as it was about her not being strong enough to deal with a partner with special needs.”

“What ever happened to the promise to love in sickness and in health?”

Peyton nearly recoiled when she heard the chill in the query. “You weren’t married, Nicholas, and that in and of itself gave her an out.”

“Wrong! I couldn’t have been more committed to her. The only thing that was missing was the marriage license and vows. And if the tables were reversed I would’ve stayed with her even if I had to physically carry her around. I loved her just that much.”

Peyton released his shirt, smoothing out the wrinkles. “Some people love with their hearts and actions, others with words. It was apparent your ex chose the latter.”

“You’re right about that. It took me a while to get over her deception.”

“Do you trust women?” Peyton asked him.

“I trust you.”

“That’s not what I asked, Nicholas.”

“If you ask me the same question again I’ll give you the same answer.”

“Why me?”

“I’ve had a lot of time to observe you and during that time I realized you possess all the qualities I like in a woman. I’ve never seen you lose your patience with your demanding cousins who are definitely little divas in training. It’s apparent you love animals and they appear very calm when you’re around. You’re loyal. Sheldon, Ryan and Jeremy adore you and I’m certain the feeling is mutual. Your ex probably recognized this when he asked you to marry him, but he was either too stupid or arrogant to believe he could continue banging hookers and if caught, you would forgive him.”

“Reginald didn’t know me and he never took the time to get to know me.”

Moving with the agility of a cat, Nicholas straddled Peyton while supporting his greater weight on his arms. “That’s something I plan to do. I want to know what you want, like and don’t like. And if there is anything you need and it’s within my power to give it to you all you have to do is ask. Remember I’m your personal genie.”

Peyton stared up at him through her lashes, wishing she could see all of his face in the diffused light. “There’s nothing I want.”

“Are you sure?”

She nodded. “Very sure.”

“What about a second chance?”

“A second chance at what?” she asked.

“Love.”

Peyton closed her eyes. Her heart was beating so fast it was her turn to feel light-headed. Nicholas was offering her what she’d wanted since ending her marriage but was too afraid to attempt again with another man. She’d blamed herself for marrying the first man who’d proposed marriage and in the end she had paid for her impulsiveness. It was so easy to fall in love with Nicholas. He was everything Reginald wasn’t and couldn’t hope to be. But once burned, twice shy.

She wondered why he was sending her mixed messages. He’d been forthcoming when he said
what I’d like is a relationship with a woman who doesn’t bore the hell out of me.
He’d talked about a relationship so why was he now talking about love?

“Is that what you’re looking for?” she asked.

Nicholas smiled. “I like being in love.”

“We fall in love, and then what?”

His smile faded. “That would be up to you.”

Peyton pushed against his chest, but she couldn’t budge him. “You’d wait for me to fall madly in love with you, then ask you to marry me?”

“If it comes to that.”

Forcing a brittle smile, she shook her head. “Do you really think I’m that desperate for a man, Nicholas? That I’d hook up with you, hoping you’ll marry me?”

“No.”

“Then what is it?”

“I just want you to keep an open mind that maybe what we have—”

“We have nothing right now,” Peyton interrupted.

Nicholas sprang off the bed, pulling her up with him. “Wrong. We have friendship. And right now you and your friend are going to play poker and I’m not going to spare your cute little behind when I take everything you have.”

She didn’t want to believe Nicholas could talk about love in one breath, then playing poker as if he’d never brought up the dreaded four-letter word, wondering if he was still suffering from the effects of the accident. Giving up a military career and losing a disloyal fiancée paled in comparison to the possibility of his remaining in a vegetative state or possible death. He’d asked whether she wanted a second chance at love when Peyton suspected he was referring to himself. It was obvious he needed the second chance more than she did.

“I don’t have anything to go with the wine,” Peyton said as she walked out of the bedroom.

“Next time I’ll bring cheese, fruit and a baguette.”

“What do you know about baguettes?”

Nicholas caught Peyton around her waist, easing her back against his body. “I remember being in Paris and getting up early to go to the bakery for baguettes fresh from the oven. I’d end up eating half before I’d make it back to my flat.”

“You lived in Paris?”

Nicholas pulled out a chair in the dining area, seating Peyton. “My parents used to take us to different countries in Europe on holiday. One year it was Italy, the next Spain or France. Dad would rent a flat for two months and we would take day trips. The year we stayed in Paris we took the train to Rome and spent three days there. That could be the reason why I joined the navy because I loved traveling.”

“My holidays were usually spent going up to Canada. We didn’t live that far from Montreal and at least once a month we’d go up to shop. That was before you needed a passport. The year I turned sixteen I found out my father and Sheldon were cousins, and that’s when I’d come down here for the summers.”

Nicholas took the glasses, corkscrew and the bottle of merlot out of the bag. “You’ve never been to Europe?”

Resting her elbows on the table, Peyton supported her chin on her fisted hands. “No.”

“Maybe one of these days we’ll go together. Where would you like to go first?”

“Italy.”

It was the first country that popped into her head. Peyton wondered if this was how he’d treated Arden. Had he been her personal genie, granting her every wish and when he needed her most she fled because she hadn’t been emotionally equipped to care for someone who might never walk again?

“I’m glad you said that, because I got an email from my parents who are currently traveling throughout Europe. Dad says they found a villa in Venice they’re thinking about buying.”

“They see something and just like that,” she said, snapping her fingers, “they decide to buy it?”

Nicholas uncorked the bottle and half filled the wineglass. “How much do you know about my family?”

“Not much,” Peyton admitted. “Tell me about them during the game.”

Sitting down opposite her, Nicholas removed the cards from the box, then stacks of chips. “How much in chips do you want?”

“I’ll start with a thousand.”

He wiggled his eyebrows. “Remember the house doesn’t extend credit to first-time players.”

Reaching for the deck, she shuffled the cards. “I don’t expect to owe the house.”

“So my baby likes trash talking.”

Peyton handed him the deck. “Shuffle.”

Nicholas shuffled the deck several times, then dealt the cards. He peered at his hand, clenching his teeth in frustration. He’d started out with a bad hand. Placing his cards facedown on the table he picked up the wineglass. “To friendship.”

Smiling, Peyton touched her glass to his. “Friendship,” she repeated. The glasses were nothing like the ones she’d ordered but fully leaded crystal. She took a sip of the wine, savoring the sweetness. “I like the wine.” She hadn’t sampled the rum punch at dinner because she was sitting with the children.

“Thank you.”

They played, Peyton winning the first two hands with a straight flush and three of a kind: three queens, a five and three, and Nicholas won the next with a full house. She listened, intrigued, when he revealed that his gentleman farmer great-grandfather went to Cuba after World War I to purchase a sugarcane plantation but failed because of anti-American sentiment. But the trip wasn’t a total loss because he met the beautiful daughter of a man who produced some of the finest Cuban cigars on the island.

“Samuel Cole married Marguerite-Joséfina Diaz and brought her back to Florida where they went on to have four children together.”

Peyton glanced up. “I noticed you said
together.
”

“Samuel had an affair with his secretary and she had a son whom my father didn’t recognize until Joshua was an adult. Samuel’s accountant married Joshua’s mother before he was born, so Josh became Kirkland instead of Cole. My great-grandfather was as astute a businessman as any you have today that head the Forbes list. He never lost his fortune during the 1929 crash because he’d withdrawn all but five thousand dollars from the banks and hid it in his mother’s root cellar.”

Peyton tossed a card on the table. “How did he make his money?”

“Coffee, bananas, Cuban cigars, soybeans and eventually vacation properties.”

“He grew soybeans back then?”

Nicholas smiled. “Yep. Remember the Chinese had grown them for centuries even before it became popular in this country. He made it through the Depression unscathed and when the economy picked up again his wealth ballooned. There were rumors that he was a billionaire but that was something he never talked about. He’d set up five-million-dollar trust funds for each of his legitimate children and years later Joshua was given his share.”

Peyton frowned at the five cards. She couldn’t have been dealt a better hand. “What about the family owned company?”

“It’s privately held. Only a direct descendant of Samuel Cole can become CEO. My father ran the company for thirty years and now my brother is CEO and my cousin Joseph is CFO. When Samuel passed away anyone with Cole blood inherited millions. I used the monies from my trust and my inheritance to set up the farm.”

“So that’s what you mean when you say you’re not a pauper.”

Nicholas nodded. “How many cards do you want?”

Peyton met his eyes. “What makes you think I want to change my hand?”

The light coming from an overhead fixture shimmered off her face and hair. “You’re glaring at your hand.”

“Because my children are being naughty—mama’s going to put them in time-out.”

Nicholas drained his glass, then refilled it. He glanced at Peyton’s. She had barely touched hers. “My kids are behaving.”

“Good for you.” Picking up several chips, she dropped them on the mounting stack. “I raise you three hundred and call.”

Nicholas placed his cards on the table. “Straight flush.”

Peyton laid down her hand. “Straight flush.” She had all hearts beginning with a seven, while Nicholas had all spades. His high card was a five. Reaching across the table she scooped up the chips. “Are you broke yet?” she taunted.

Nicholas stood up, reached across the table. One second she was sitting and in the next she found herself in his arms, with him striding in the direction of the bedroom. She opened her mouth in protest but he stole the breath from her lungs when his mouth covered hers in an explosive kiss.

“I never figured you for a poor loser,” she gasped when he raised his head.

Nicholas shifted her body when he pulled back the duvet. “I told you before I don’t like losing.” He dropped her on the bed, his body following hers down after he’d kicked off his running shoes.

Eyes wide in fright, Peyton struggled to breathe. “What are you going to do?”

The smile on his face appeared macabre in the flickering candlelight. “I’m going to punish you for taking my money.”

Chapter 16

W
hat is he going to do to me? Please don’t tell me I’ve hooked up with a psychopath. And who’s going to hear me scream all the way out here? The nearest house is at least five hundred feet away.

Peyton opened her mouth to scream, but it died on her lips when Nicholas kissed her again This time it was a long caress that left her wanting more. Her arms went around his neck, holding him fast while she parted her lips to his searching tongue. The press of his body, his heat and the taste of wine stirred her slumbering libido as she tried to get closer.

Nicholas kissed Peyton’s mouth, the hollow of her scented throat, the curve of her shoulders. He pushed the straps to her tank off and down her arms, baring her breasts. The flesh between his legs grew heavy, but he didn’t and couldn’t stop until he tasted every inch of her satiny skin. His tongue swept over her breasts, smiling when the nipples hardened. He rolled one between his teeth, nipping it, and then gave the other equal attention until Peyton moaned, the sound coming from deep within her throat. He ignored the bite of her fingernails on his biceps when he increased the pressure. Her moans became a low keening that raised the hair on the back of his neck.

When he’d come to her house it wasn’t his intention to make love to her. Not when he hadn’t brought protection. His hands slid under the cotton top, covering her small firm breasts. After the accident he’d opted to remain celibate, while he’d resorted to other methods to assuage his own sexual needs, but it was the first time in a very long time he longed to be inside a woman.

Lowering his head he planted tiny kisses over her flat belly. He unbuttoned her shorts, pulling them down her hips and she went still. “It’s all right, baby. I’m not going inside you because I didn’t bring protection.” Within seconds he felt her relax.

Nicholas relieved her of the scrap of fabric that barely covered her behind, tossing it on the floor. Her tank top followed, but he left on her bikini panties. His plan was to make love to her without having sex. Moving up the bed, he hovered over her. “Are you okay?”

Peyton swallowed to moisten her constricted throat. “Yes.” She didn’t know what Nicholas planned to do but she didn’t want him to stop.

She expelled a breath when he reached down and took off his white T-shirt, then moved off the bed to remove his jeans, but not his pair of boxer briefs.

He returned to the bed and then erotic torture began. Nicholas’s mouth was everywhere: her armpits, along her rib cage, inner thigh, the soles of her feet, before he flipped her over and fastened his mouth at the small of her back. The occasional nip of his teeth and butterfly kisses along her inner thigh had her close to climaxing.

He turned her over again, burying his face between her thighs, alternating blowing his breath against her mound. Peyton screamed for him to stop when she felt the beginnings of an orgasm but Nicholas was relentless. It was as if he knew she was about to come, yet he continued until she went still and cried out, her body bucking wildly when the first orgasm came, holding her captive. It was followed by another and yet another, and she collapsed exhausted by the sensations that had taken her to a place where she’d never been. The tears leaking from her eyes rolled into her hair spread out on the pillow.

Her limbs felt like lead and she couldn’t move if her life depended upon it. The sensual fog cleared enough for her to ponder how could Nicholas give her so much pleasure without penetrating her? He lay beside her, pulling her moist body against his chest.

“Are you going to beat me again?” he whispered in her hair.

Peyton’s mouth curved into the most beguiling smile. “Hell, yeah,” she crooned, her mouth inches from his.

He also smiled. “It’s obvious you like being punished.”

“I like it a lot more than you like losing. Maybe you should’ve said the best of seven instead of five. That way you’d have better odds of winning.”

“Yeah, right. I didn’t realize I was being hustled by a card shark.”

“It’s math, Nicholas. Poker is based on probability. In five-card poker, there are fifty-one hundred forty-eight possible flushes of which forty are also straight flushes. If I had pencil and paper I would show you the equations.”

He rose on an elbow, staring down at her. “You count cards?”

“Not really. But I had a friend in high school that did. Once he turned twenty-one he went to a casino and won nearly two hundred thousand before the croupier caught on to him. He was allowed to keep his winning but was banned from the premises.”

“Did he ever do it again?”

Peyton smiled. “No. He needed the money for medical school and he didn’t want to have to repay student loans once he graduated.”

“That’s quite a hustle.”

“A hustle that could’ve gotten him beaten to within an inch of his life. I think the thing that saved him was that his father was in law enforcement. He dropped his father’s name as soon as they put their hands on him.”

Nicholas grunted. “Lucky kid.”

“That’s what I told him when he called me to tell me what had happened.”

“How much do I owe you?”

“Nothing. I should’ve told you before that I don’t believe in gambling for money.”

Nicholas cupped her hip. “Now you tell me. I would’ve left the chips home.”

“I couldn’t resist jerking your chain.”

“Please don’t mention jerking, baby.”

Heat rushed to Peyton’s face as if she’d opened the door to a blast oven. “I’m sorry.”

Nicholas kissed her forehead. “It’s all right.”

“I...” Whatever she was going to say died on her tongue when her cell phone rang.

“Let it go to voice mail,” Nicholas said softly when she pulled out of his embrace.

“I can’t. That’s my mother’s ringtone.”

Pushing to sit, Nicholas watched the outline of Peyton’s tiny body as she walked over the table beside the chaise. Her unbound hair swayed with each step. Making love to her without taking his own pleasure was a new experience for him. Usually when he shared a woman’s bed he shared her body.

But he knew when he first laid eyes on Peyton Blackstone that she was different. The way she’d looked at him made him slightly uncomfortable. It had been a mixture of curiosity and confusion. It was then that he’d noticed her slight squinting, wondering perhaps if she needed glasses. Reaching over, he turned on the bedside lamps when the candles began sputtering and going out.

* * *

Peyton answered the call. “Hi, Mama.”

“Hi, baby. I’ve changed my mind.”

Vertical lines settled between her eyes. “You changed your mind about what?”

“I decided to come down to see you.”

Her face clouded in uneasiness. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong. Am I not entitled to change my mind?”

“Of course you are, but this is not like you. Tell me what’s going on.” Peyton felt her heart beating outside her chest when there came a prolonged pause. “Please, Mama.”

“I’m leaving your father.”

Peyton gripped the phone so tightly she was certain it would leave an impression on her palm. “Did he hit you?” she screamed.

“No. Al would never hit me.”

“Don’t you dare lie to me, Mama.”

“I’m not lying. Please, baby. Don’t make this harder on me than it is.”

“Does Daddy know you’re coming here?”

“Yes. I told him.”

“What did he say?”

“There’s nothing he can say. I’m a grown woman and I can come and go as I please. I need some alone time. I’ll be fifty in a couple of weeks and I’ve never been anywhere by myself.”

Smiling, Peyton closed her eyes. Her mother had to wait until she was fifty to come into her own. “Good for you. Come on down.”

“I’ll call the airlines tomorrow and make a reservation. As soon as I get a flight I’ll let you know.”

“Mama?”

“What is it?”

“If Daddy gets funky I want you to call and let me know.”

Lena’s laugh came through the earpiece. “I don’t think that’s going to happen because he’s too shocked to say anything for at least a couple of days.”

“What did you say to him?”

“I told him if he didn’t stop trying to run my life I was going to divorce him.”

Peyton knew the threat must have brought Alphonso Blackstone to his senses. Never had his wife ever raised her voice or talked back to him. “Call me when you finalize everything. If I don’t answer my phone, then be certain to leave a voice-mail message.”

“Thank you, Peyton.”

“For what?”

“For being you. I love you.”

She felt hot tears prick the backs of her eyelids. “I love you, too.”

Peyton set the phone on the table, combed her hair with her fingers until it covered her naked breasts and walked back to the bed. She sank into Nicholas’s embrace when he extended his arms.

“My mother’s coming down.” She didn’t know how much of the conversation he’d overheard but she repeated what her mother had told her.

“If she needs time alone, then she can stay here and you can move in with me.”

Peyton shook her head. “I can’t do that.”

“Why not?” Nicholas questioned. “You know this place is too small for two people. When your mother says she needs alone time that means without you hovering over her. She needs to get up when she wants, eat whenever she wants and go to bed whenever she wants.”

“You’re right.”

Nicholas ruffled her hair. “I know I’m right. Now, when is she coming down?”

“I don’t know yet.” Peyton squinted. “I need to stock the refrigerator just in case she prefers cooking for herself. She likes to watch television, so that’s also on the shopping list. And of course a radio. Can you think of anything else, Nicholas?”

Nicholas massaged her scalp with his fingertips. “You can stock the fridge from Cookie’s pantry. We buy everything in bulk or restaurant size and that means you’ll have to buy containers for the condiments, flour, sugar and dairy. We’ll have to go into town for the electronics equipment and I’ll have someone set up the cable connection.”

“How long can she stay?”

He gave her a steely stare. “Why on earth would you ask me something like that?”

“I don’t want to take advantage of your hospitality.”

Nicholas shook his head in exasperation. “Did I not tell you that if there is anything you need all you have to do is ask? You asked me whether your mother could stay here and I said yes. Shouldn’t that be enough or do you want me to repeat it in Spanish?”

Peyton refused to look at him. “Facetiousness isn’t a very endearing quality.”

“Neither is distrust.”

This remark garnered a withering glare from her. “Erasing distrust isn’t like pulling down a shade to shut something you don’t want to see.” Nicholas buried his face in her hair, pressing kisses to her scalp. He lay on his back, bringing her to lie atop him, her legs sandwiched between his. “I hope I’m not too heavy.”

“I probably can bench press you with one arm.”

Peyton counted the strong beats of his heart under her cheek. “I don’t think so.”

“Do you want me to prove it?”

“No, because I’m too relaxed to move.”

Nicholas cradled the back of her head with one hand and her hip with the other. “You don’t have to move.”

“I’m falling asleep on you,” she slurred.

He kissed her hair. “Go to sleep, sweetheart.”

Minutes later, Nicholas closed his eyes and he, too, fell asleep.

* * *

Peyton glanced at the monitor in the airport, her gaze scanning arrivals. She smiled. Her mother’s flight was on time. Minutes later her cell phone chimed the familiar ringtone. “Yes, Mama.”

“We’re on the ground. I just have to pick up my luggage at baggage claim.”

“I’ll meet you there.”

The past three days had become a whirlwind of activity for Peyton. She’d moved her clothes from the cottage and into a closet in a bedroom at Nicholas’s house. He’d accompanied her when they traveled to pick up miscellaneous housewares and to an electronic store for a flat screen, satellite radio and DVD player. Jackson filled containers with flour, sugar, mayo, mustard and an assortment of spices, loaded up cartons with eggs, butter, pasta, coffee and tea. Peyton knew her mother preferred canning her own fruit and vegetables, and she informed the cook not to put any canned goods in the carton.

She’d awakened the first day in her new home disoriented. Nicholas had left a little after midnight with a promise he would see her the following morning. It took most of the day to process what had happened between them. At first she’d believed it was another erotic dream but when she saw the impression on the pillow beside hers and could still detect the lingering scent of his cologne she knew it had been real. And when she saw the wineglasses in the sink, the chest with the cards and chips, the corked bottle of wine on the countertop she knew it had been very, very real. The most obvious sign of their lovemaking was the dark red splotches on her breasts and along her inner thighs. Each time she caught a glimpse of the love bites it excited her all over again. Although most of her clothes were stored at Nicholas’s house, Peyton decided not to move in until after her mother’s arrival.

It was apparent Nicholas had informed his housekeeper that she would be moving in when Eugenia greeted her at breakfast with the news she’d readied her bedroom for her. Peyton also wondered how the other employees would react when they discovered their vet had moved in with the boss, and when she’d voiced her concern to Nicholas he countered that it was none of their business.

Checking on the horses had become her sole focus. She’d continued her practice of rising early, going to the stable and checking each of the horses before they were washed, groomed, fed and turned out to pasture or exercised. Peyton checked their vaccination records, examined their teeth and hooves, and constantly checked their skin for parasites, cysts and warts.

Most of the men had become accustomed to seeing her in the stables or sitting on the rails watching the trainers exercise the horses. Jesse had returned from Florida and he and Nicholas spent hours together either in the office or touring the farm. Peyton knew Nicholas wanted Jesse to familiarize himself with the farm as quickly as possible because he wanted to attend a horse auction to buy several fillies.