Too soon after, Nico loosens his grip on me.

“Where is your menu drawer?”

“How do you know I have a menu drawer?”

“I’ve seen how you cook first hand now, remember?”

Playfully, I smack at his stomach with the back of my hand and it meets a brick wall.  “Second drawer down to the right of the sink.”

Nico rummages through my menus.  “You eat this junk?”

“Which one?”  I look over at the pile of menus thinking he’s found one that he doesn’t approve of.

“All of them.”   For the first time, I look at my heap of menus and recognize that it’s a pretty thick pile.

“Only when I want to eat.”  I smirk and Nico shakes his head disapprovingly, but I can tell he’s teasing me.  If I had a body that looked like his, I’d only feed it healthy food too.  I might even learn to cook if I looked like him.

One menu catches his attention and seems to meet with his approval.  “Is there anything you don’t eat?”

“I’m pretty easy.”

My response earns me a devilish grin before Nico takes out his cell phone and orders.

After we’re done eating, Nico shows me the movie he brought and I look down at the movie, then at his face.

“Do you really want to watch this?”

The corner of his mouth twitches upward in barely concealed amusement. “Not really.”

“Then why did you bring it?”

“I thought you’d like it?”

I tilt my hand to assess the man.  He earns credit for bringing something that he thought I would like, but I’m not going to let him off this easy.

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why did you think I would like The Notebook?”

“Because you’re a woman and women like this mushy crap.”

Taking his hand, I lead him to my closet off the living room and open the door to reveal two shelves filled with some of my favorite movies.   He peruses the titles and then looks back at me in shock, as if I had just showed him the dead body I kept locked in the closet instead of a simple movie collection.

“You like action movies?”

“The more jumping out of planes, the better.”

Nico wraps his arm around my waist and turns me, pulling me to his chest before planting a chaste kiss on my mouth.  He looks down at me.  “Yep, totally worth it.”  I almost don’t hear his words, they’re spoken so low.

“Worth what?”

Another kiss is planted on my mouth.  “Nothing.”

Throughout the movie we have periodic make out sessions.  Nico’s big hands glide up and down the side of my body.  His fingers slow as they pass the curve of my breasts and his thumb just barely grazes the swell underneath so that I can’t be sure if his fingers touched me or just came really close.

As the movie credits roll on the screen, we’re locked in a steamy kiss that I don’t want to stop.  My hands slowly feel their way down from his muscular chest and stop on his abdomen.  I’ve never been the one to make the first move, but I don’t care at this point.  I want more from this man.  Need more.  My hands slip under his shirt and I gently score my nails against his tight flesh as my hands retrace their path down, stopping as I feel the top of his waistband.

A low growl erupts from Nico and he guides my back down on the couch as he climbs on top of me.  With his weight pushing into me, I can feel every muscle up against mine and I swear I might finish before our naked flesh ever meets.   He’s just that damn incredible to feel.  A low moan from somewhere within me escapes and our kissing becomes deeper, almost frantic.

Groaning, Nico sits up and leaves me breathless on the couch.   My body is desperate and I need more.  When I look up, I find Nico running his hands through his hair in frustration.

“Why did you stop?”  My voice comes out like a whiney high school girl who is unsure of herself with her new boyfriend.  But that’s what the man has reduced me to, heavy panting and desire with no happy ending.

“You have no idea how hard it is to stop.”  His voice is raw and honest and filled with emotion.  Somehow it makes me feel better knowing it isn’t easy for him.  But it also confuses me.  Why does he keep stopping?

“So why then?”

Nico struggles for a moment, “Because I want you to know me first, so I don’t scare you away.”

“Why would you scare me away?”

He thinks for a long moment, before he responds.  “Because it’s who I am.”  Nico looks at me and touches the side of my face gently with his thumb.  “You’re a beautiful, smart, strong woman who is used to being treated like a lady.”

I’m confused at his words and Nico sees it on my face.  He pulls me to him and buries his face in my neck.  His breath is so close to my ear when he speaks, I feel the words throughout my body as he speaks them. “But when I finally get you underneath me, I’m definitely not going to treat you like a lady.”

Elle

Regina buzzes in to tell me William is on the phone.  It’s the first time I’ve heard from him since I told him I couldn’t see him anymore.   When I told him I wanted to remain friends, it wasn’t just a line.  Our friendship is important to me, and I’m glad he called, although I hadn’t expected to hear from him so soon.

“Hi.”

“Hey.”  A second too long goes by that makes me feel like this might be an awkward conversation.

“I wanted to let you know that your letter was a success.”  William’s tone is more business than friendship.

Momentarily, I’m not following the conversation.  Then I realize what he must be referring to.  “They’re going to let Nico out of the contract?”

“Yes, they seem to agree with you that it’s in their best interest to walk away rather than entertain a public lawsuit regarding their ethics.”  My letter was a bit more underhanded than I normally would like.  A thinly disguised, veiled threat to remind them we didn’t even have to be successful in a lawsuit over their ethics.  The damage to their reputation would come through public persona, just from trying the case in a public forum.

“That’s great news.  Have you told Nico yet?”  My voice comes out a little more excited than I had intended it to.

“No.  I called you first.  If you want to call him and give him the good news, that’s okay with me.”

Briefly, I feel badly about wanting to be the one who tells Nico the good news.  But another part of me wants to be the one that pleases him.  William tells me he will fax over the termination paperwork for my review and I agree to look at it as soon as it comes over since they want a response quickly.

After we hang up, I realize just how clinical our conversation was and I feel badly that our friendship may not make it.

Nico

I easily knock the first two guys Preach puts in the ring with me on their asses.  He’s trying to build my confidence, but I’m losing patience.  “Give me a real partner or I’m done for the day.”

Preach laughs at me.  “They are real partners, you just got a bug up your ass today.  But let’s keep it there for the next three weeks.”

It takes less than three minutes to blow through the third sparring partner, and I feel more frustrated than when I started.  Preach is blowing smoke up my ass about how good I look, but I think he’s just giving me weak partners.

I spend the next fifteen minutes taking what the jerkoffs in the ring couldn’t handle out on the speed bag.  My knuckles are swollen and bloodied by the time I’ve let off enough steam to take a calm breath.

Preach looks at my knuckles and shakes his head.  We’ve been together too long for him not to recognize when something is bothering me.  Sometimes he knows what it is before I do.

“What’s eating you son?”

“Nothing.”

“Alright.  How’s things going with Elle?”