Wild About the Man (Mills & Boon Modern Tempted) (13 page)

Nick groaned and neither of them noticed that they were swaying so slowly that they were practically standing still. Green eyes held grey as emotions tumbled and churned. Clem sucked in her breath and gripped the lapel of Nick’s jacket.

‘I don’t want to not sleep with you tonight. In fact, I don’t want to sleep. Let’s not sleep, Nick.’

Nick’s fingers tightened on her waist. ‘What are you saying, Clementine?’

Clem’s eyes were clear and direct when they met his. ‘Take me to bed, Nicholas. Make me yours.’

‘It’s not a good idea, Clem. We know this.’

‘I’m sick of being sensible and smart. I want to feel and I want you.’

Nick’s eyes darkened and they held hers. ‘You sure, Red? You don’t get to change your mind halfway through.’

‘Yes, I’m sure. We’ve been building up to this for weeks and I don’t think I can do another night without knowing what you feel like.’

Nick muttered an oath. ‘You kill me, Red.’

For the sake of propriety, Clem pulled back so
that there was a hair-sized space between them. ‘When can we leave?’

Nick’s hand on her back pulled her back to where she was. ‘After the auction we can slip out.’ He rested the side of his head against Clem’s and sighed. ‘I want to leave now.’

‘Me too. What if I just offer you a million for everything on auction and we get it done?’

Nick’s thumb brushed her cheekbone. ‘It’s a measure of how much I want you that I’m seriously considering that offer.’

Luella Dawson’s blog:

THE
minor items donated for the auction had been sold off and had received record prices. The free alcohol and convivial atmosphere had loosened wallets and reckless offers were made and accepted by Jess and, beyond her gracious smile, Clem could almost see Jess calculating the proceeds.
Ching-ching
, her eyes shouted when they met Clem’s as she passed over gold-covered envelopes
to the bid winners, explaining how and where they could collect their purchases.

Clem kissed cheeks, murmured thank yous and endured the occasional squishy hug as Nick looked on, standing below at the front of the audience, flanked by his parents and brothers. Good-looking bunch, Clem thought. She sent him a secret smile when he shot back the cuff on his tuxedo jacket and tapped his watch. She had to drop her head to keep the guests from seeing her flushed cheeks and heavy eyes.

She was going to spend the night with Nick.

The auctioneer started the auction for the last item, a week’s stay at the tented camp at Two-B, and the bids flew in thick and fast. Every person there knew that there was a long waiting list and would’ve paid whatever they could to jump the queue. Eventually, the bids headed past ridiculous and trickled off and three men were fighting for the prize, outbidding each other in increments of five thousand. After ten minutes, to someone who was eager to get her hands on Nick’s hot body, it started to get tedious and she wished someone would just make a huge offer and get the auction over with.

‘One hundred and twenty-five thousand …’ the auctioneer intoned.

The voice was clear, rude and achingly familiar when it floated across the heads of the guests from the back of the room. ‘Oh, for the love of God! This is excruciating! Two hundred thousand …
How much is that? Twenty thousand dollars? OK, my bid. Two hundred thousand!’

‘Going once, going twice …’

Clem watched in horror as the crowd parted and Cai strode through the buzzing crowd, dressed in a purple velvet tuxedo, his long, streaky blond hair falling out from under a cream fedora. Clem’s mouth fell open as she battled to breathe—from what rock had he slid out from under?

‘Sold to Mr Cai Campbell,’ the auctioneer announced as Cai bounded up onto the stage. She was still taking in his presence when his arms encircled her waist and his soft—yuk!—mouth dropped onto hers. Clem considered raising her knee but she couldn’t, not just because her dress didn’t allow it but also because she remembered that both Liam’s and Mdu’s cameras—and the cream of Johannesburg society—were catching every frame of this disaster movie.

Cai pulled back and Clem narrowed her eyes at him. ‘What are you doing here?’ she said in a low voice.

Cai didn’t bother to moderate his tone. ‘I’ve come to claim my woman.’

‘Like hell—’ Clem hissed and bit her tongue as Cai stepped away from her, grabbed the stunned auctioneer’s microphone and dropped to one knee.

Oh, no, please. Clem closed her eyes. He wasn’t going to make some huge romantic gesture, was he?

‘Clem, I’ve been ten different kinds of an idiot.’

You still are, Clem silently told him. Needing support, she reached out and found Jess’s hand and held on with a death grip.

‘I love you. I have always loved you. You are my sun and my moon and …’

What utter twaddle. Cai had no idea of who she was, what she wanted. To him, she was a pretty face and an acceptable body who had a surname that would always capture the interest of the press.

That was all he needed from her and it wasn’t, in any universe, fractionally enough for her.

‘… I can’t live without you. Please say you’ll forgive me, my darling, darling girl. I’ll be a better man, I promise you. Will you marry me?’

Clem couldn’t help it. A laugh bubbled up from inside her and the more she tried to subdue it the bigger it got. He looked so ridiculous, kneeling there in his purple suit and stupid hat and his ultra-pointy shoes … like the worst caricature she could imagine of an ageing pop star with a Peter Pan complex.

Clem turned to share the joke with Nick and his hard, cold expression made her frown. He had the same look of utter concentration that he had when he was dealing with a major problem or facing down an aggressive animal. She didn’t like the fact that his piercing, infuriated gaze stayed fixed on Cai’s face.

Clem silently cursed as she felt Jess squeezing her hand. Lifting her eyes, she caught Jess’s infinitesimal
nod at Cai and her unspoken plea to save the ball she’d worked so hard to make a success.

Right, so this was where she used every acting skill Cai had told her she didn’t have.

Looking for and finding her biggest smile, she held out two hands to Cai and when he placed his hands in hers she pulled him to his feet. Reaching to kiss first one cheek and then the other, she muttered in his ear, ‘You utter jerk. What do you think you’re doing?’

She then took the microphone and placed her hand on her heart. ‘Cai, you always did know how to set a party alight. Now, you and I are not going to bore these delightful people with any more of our dramas …’

‘We’re not bored!’ someone yelled and laughter skittered around the room. ‘What’s your answer, Clem? You going to marry him or what?’

Clem held up her hand. She’d rather eat scorpions. She patted Cai’s shoulder with the tips of her fingers. ‘Cai has a flair for the dramatic but he knows, as well as I do, that our time has passed. Thank you for the offer, but no, I won’t marry him.’ She sent the audience a dazzling smile. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your donations to support the important work Nick and his staff are doing at the Baobab and Buffalo. Jessica?’

Jessica mouthed a thank you as she took the microphone and proceeded to wrap up the evening.

Clem walked across the stage, down the stairs and took the hand Nick held out to her.

‘You OK?’ he asked her, worried. He pushed his hands into her hair and tipped her face up to look into her eyes.

‘What a prat.’ Clem shook her head. ‘Sorry about that.’

Nick shook his head and dropped his hands from her head. He muttered an insult that had his mother’s eyes widening. ‘Nicholas James!’

Nick winced and looked embarrassed. ‘Sorry, Mom, but really!’

‘Pat and I had to hold Nick back when Campbell kissed you,’ Christopher, the brother closest in age to Nick, merrily told Clem. ‘We could see steam coming out of his ears.’

‘Shut up!’ Nick hissed.

‘Never seen you so jealous, bro,’ Patrick added.

‘I have,’ John jumped in. ‘When I scooped May Grady from under his nose in eighth grade.’

Nick sent his parents a resigned look. ‘Seriously, guys, you could’ve skipped having those three and just had Jess.’

Nick knew that his brothers were trying to lighten the atmosphere and he was grateful. And he had been—was—jealous of Campbell, for the fact that he’d spent the last decade with Clem, that he knew her body intimately, that he’d lived with her and spent all that time with her … He’d only a few weeks and he hardly thought that was fair.

After all, he wasn’t a prat.

He’d held his breath while waiting for her to refuse Campbell’s stupid proposal—of course he’d known, intellectually, that she’d never say yes—but his heart still jumped around and he could feel hot blood moving through his veins. It was a terrifying revelation to realize how much she meant to him.

He shoved a hand into his hair. ‘What now?’

Clem placed two fingers to her temple. ‘I need ten minutes with him and then I’m going up to the suite. I’ve got a pounding headache suddenly.’

‘Want me to come with you?’ Nick asked, sending Cai, now surrounded by simpering females, another fulminating look. He didn’t want her anywhere near him on her own.

Clem shook her head. ‘No, I’ll be fine. Thanks, though. See you upstairs?’

Nick rubbed his thumb across the back of her hand before letting her go. It would be so much quicker and cleaner just to wipe the floor with Campbell’s face.

And it would make him feel so much better.

Clem leaned her forehead against the door to the suite and took a deep breath. Cai was out of her heart and her mind for ever; she was emotionally free of him and he’d never be more than a memory again. She’d had an explanation of why he was here—he didn’t like seeing his woman with another man and he loved her—and why he’d lied to her about the vasectomy—he wanted to tell her
but couldn’t. His explanations were rubbish and not worth the time thinking about them.

But she had enough dirt on him to gag him; he wouldn’t be talking to the press about her again and that was worth putting up with his slimy presence for ten minutes.

Nick was behind this door and he was waiting for her … Was she a fool for wanting this time with him, knowing that they had nowhere to go?

And why did she know, with that fundamental soul-deep feminine wisdom, that being with Nick—sleeping with Nick—would be a turning point in her life, the best and worst thing that could happen to her? It would be wonderful and devastating in equal measure. Wonderful because, well, it was Nick … Devastating because it would be nearly impossible not to fall in love with him if she did.

Could she do this, knowing that she still needed to leave? Shouldn’t she just leave things as they were and save herself from the heartbreak of remembering what it was like to be loved by Nick? She knew that Nick wouldn’t ask her to stay and realized that if she took this final step leaving him would be torturous.

But didn’t she owe herself this space in time, these couple of days of mental and physical pleasure? She’d never known complete and utter abandon in the arms of a man, had never been the complete focus of a man’s passion and attention.

She would be with Nick and she deserved that.

Devil and deep blue sea … Either way, she’d walk away feeling as if she’d lost a couple layers of skin.

Clem took a deep breath and opened the door to the suite, which was in total darkness. She slipped off her shoes as she closed the door behind her, groaning when her feet sank into the plush carpet.

‘Is it done?’

How was it that she didn’t have to explain herself to him? Nick knew that her encounter with Cai had been a watershed moment, that she’d needed to face him and deal with him. ‘It’s done.’

‘Good.’

Nick took two steps before he reached her and then his hands and mouth were everywhere. Clem felt sidewashed by his heat, his power, the sheer passion she could feel radiating off him. As his mouth explored hers, his fingers found the zip of her dress and he pushed the fabric off her shoulders and she stood in front of him, in her high heels and her underwear.

Nick, still dressed, stepped away from her and switched on a side lamp. In the muted light he looked at her; his eyes tracing her face, her body, her legs … His mouth quirked at her sky-high heels and pretty French manicured toes.

‘Every man’s fantasy,’ he murmured, one index finger running across her collarbone. ‘So beautiful. Such smooth skin.’

‘I need you to …’ The words stuck in Clem’s throat.

‘I will. I’ll do it all,’ Nick said as he shrugged out of his jacket. He yanked at his collar and pulled his bow tie apart and ripped his shirt open.

Putting his hands on his waist, he sent her a serious look. ‘You sure about this?’

Clem shook her head. ‘No … yes. I need to be with you.’

She watched his eyes turn to molten silver. ‘And I have to have you, Clementine.’

‘Then do something, Nick! I’m standing here, practically naked—’

Nick’s mouth twitched. ‘Not yet.’

Clem gasped while he proceeded to destroy her with a multitude of scintillating somethings.

The next morning Clem rolled over, forced her eyes open and found Nick standing, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, at the window of the suite. She moved and felt the twinges in her body, a reminder of hours and hours of concentrated attention that Nick had bestowed on her body.

She’d never been so thoroughly loved. No, that was too tame a word …
worshipped
as she had been last night.

‘Nick? What are you doing up?’ she asked on a huge yawn as she scooted up the bed to lean back against the headboard.

‘I’ve got to get back to Two-B. The rhinos from
up north are coming in tomorrow and I have a lot to do.’

‘OK. Well, order some coffee and I’ll get dressed and then we can go,’ Clem said as she slid out of bed. She saw her robe on the foot of the bed and pulled it on.

‘Can I watch the rhino relocation?’ she asked, walking over to him and putting her hands around his waist. Maybe she could persuade him to come back to bed …

Nick gripped her wrists, pushed her arms to her sides and stepped back. ‘Go back to bed, Red.’

Clem heard the hard note in his voice and ignored it. ‘Come back to bed with me. Then we can take a shower and then we can get dressed.’

Nick shook his head and swore.

Clem’s stomach tightened. ‘What’s going on, Nick?’

‘You’re not coming back with me.’

It took Clem a moment before the words registered. ‘I beg your pardon?’

She felt the icy fingers of heartbreak and agony tapping their way up her spine.

‘I think you should just go back to London or New York … there’s no point in you coming back to Two-B.’

No point? She looked at the bed they’d just shared, the pillows on the floor, the half ripped away sheet.

‘I’m sorry, I thought the deal was that I’d come back to Two-B with you for a couple of days before
I returned home.’ She kept her voice very controlled, very calm.

‘That deal is off.’

Clem lifted her eyebrows, aware that her heart had reached her toes. ‘Why?’

‘Last night was a mistake,’ Nick said, leaning his shoulder into the wall, his eyes shuttered. ‘As we knew it would be.’