Touching Lace (Vaughn)

“The freaky horizontal?” Lacey choked out around a laugh.

Nick’s face split into a grin. “Or the freaky vertical, I’m cool with that, too.”

Lacey laughed full-out. “Lord, help me. What have I gotten myself into?”

Chapter Five

After her orgasmic afternoon delight, they’d separated to the locker rooms and taken showers. They were now in his driveway and Lacey was nervously chatting about a client who hadn’t lost any weight. Nick half-listened as he stared at his front porch.

Lacey had been to his home before, lots of times, but only as a friend. Never as his lover. Everything took on new meaning now.

His house could have been right out of a home decorating magazine. Nestled in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, it was incredibly homey. He could easily visualize a couple of rowdy kids playing h-o-r-s-e. He was all set for a family; he only needed the wife to get things started. Not just any wife would do. He wanted Lacey.

“Nick, I just have one more question.”

“Shoot, baby.” He was so far gone at this point he’d tell her anything to get her inside the house and away from prying eyes. Nick loved his neighbors, but they could be damn nosy at times.

Lacey squinted at him suspiciously. “This thing between us, is it just sex lessons?”

Lacey seemed to be holding her breath, as if terrified he was going to say it was much more. He studiously ignored the part of his soul that was afraid she’d never see him as anything more than a means to an end. If he were completely honest with himself, of all the things Nick thought she’d ask, this was nowhere on the list.

“You’re thinking it death. It’ll all work out, I promise.” he hedged.

She visibly relaxed, but Nick could practically see her walls going back up. What had she been hoping he’d say? He mentally stored the question away for later. Right now, he wanted to kick off his newest venture as Lacey’s sex instructor.

“Come on, baby, quit stalling.” He opened his door and left the car, pleased when she did the same. He started to make his way around the hood to take her hand when Lacey stopped him. “I just thought of something. I don’t have anything with me. We should have stopped at my apartment first.”

He knew she was nervous, otherwise she would’ve remembered her stash of clothes and toiletries. She’d stayed over before. Once when she’d had too much to drink, which for Lacey was all of two beers. Also, a couple of times when a movie they watched ran late and he wouldn’t let her leave—for safety reasons, he’d told her. The truth was, he liked having her in his home. Nick enjoyed waking up and finding her all curled up in his bed, looking adorable as hell. So much so that he hadn’t minded sleeping on the couch.

In two long strides, he was in front of her, taking her hand and murmuring, “Remember when you slept over that night last year? It was New Year’s Eve and you’d gotten a little tipsy. I had to put you to bed.”

She nodded, smiling up at him with a mixture of woman and friend. It drove him crazy every time. “Didn’t you ever wonder how you ended up in my t-shirt the next morning?”

Lacey blushed. Every time her cheeks filled with color it turned him on. Lacey’s blush was more potent than another woman’s touch.

“I didn’t even think about it, because—”

“Because you hardly remember anything when you drink. You thought you’d changed into the shirt yourself and just didn’t remember doing it.” She nodded again. “You didn’t. I undressed you and put you to bed that night.”

“Oh God.”

“Don’t go all shy on me, baby. I made a point of getting the job done as quickly as I could. Still, I did see you in your underwear. You’d just gotten out from under the clutches of Lucas the Octopus and you were feeling sort of low that night.”

“I remember. I didn’t particularly miss Lucas, but I was feeling crappy thinking another year was gone and I was still no closer to finding my Mr. Right.”

“Yeah, you told me that. Lacey, did you never wonder why I wasn’t with anyone that night either?”

He could see the chagrin come over her face and she started to stammer. He stopped her with a finger to her lips.

“I wasn’t with anyone because I knew you were alone and all I could think about was maybe this time Lacey Vaughn would see me as a man, and not just a good pal.”

“Oh.”

Nick went back to the question she’d originally asked. “You don’t need anything from your apartment for what I have in mind. This time, I won’t be quick when I undress you, either. This time I’m going to take it real slow, and I’m going to take a long time looking.”

He watched, mesmerized, as she licked her lips. The way her nipples went perky and her breathing sped up made him want to jump her right there in his driveway. Push her against his SUV and fuck her from behind.

Unable to help himself any longer, Nick lowered his head and touched his mouth to hers, kissing her with a gentleness which surprised even him. The warm summer night, full moon high in the sky, and Lacey’s soft full lips pressed against his. Oh yeah, Nick could easily believe in all that magic Lacey had talked about the night before.