Second Chance Pass (Virgin River #5)(98)

“Nikki, you have no panties on, and I’m a dead, dead man.”

“Then take your hand out of there,” she advised breathlessly.

“I. Can’t.”

He put his lips back on hers for a long, deep, wet kiss that lasted two minutes at least. But, he proudly thought, he was somehow able to keep his hand from wandering any farther than her naked bum. One large hand on one small, round, perfect cheek. He had cast a mental image of Crazy Glue holding him there, because if he slid it any farther south all the blood would drain from his brain and he would faint. And then came the danger zone. She pressed against him, rubbed against him. She gyrated her hips a little and moaned softly. She knew he was hard and ready to burst. She knew he knew she knew. He lifted his head. “Nikki. Let’s,” he said.

“Oh God,” she said. “We shouldn’t.”

“Let’s make love.”

“How tacky is that? The maid of honor having sex with a marine on the deck?”

He chuckled in spite of himself. “I’ll take you somewhere.”

“By that time, I will have come to my senses,” she said.

“It’s not far. I drag my bedroom around with me.”

“Wow. Talk about always being prepared…”

He kissed her again. Hot and hard kisses that lasted forever. “It’s not really mine. I borrowed it from Paul. There aren’t exactly rooms to rent around here….”

“That funny little trailer?” she asked him.

“The door locks,” he said against her lips. “It’s very comfortable.”

“Listen,” she said, pushing him away a little bit. “I haven’t ever—I mean, I’m no nun, but I’ve never done anything like this. This one-night stand thing. Never.”

“It’s not, I don’t think,” he said.

“Hmm?” she said, yielding to his lips again.

He wasn’t going to bother saying something that was just going to sound like a line, even if it seemed entirely true. He felt something. He’d been feeling it since the moment he saw her in the bar with Vanni a while back, felt it again the second time he saw her, had been feeling it all day today and he had absolutely no idea what it was. But it sure didn’t feel as if he was going to be cured of it in one night. “It’s just the first night,” he said.

“Talk me into it,” she pleaded.

“No. No way,” he answered, pulling away a little. “It’s up to you. If you want me to, I’ll make love to you. If you don’t, I can step away right now.” He kissed her again. “It wouldn’t be easy, but I could let go of you.”

“But what will people think—”

“Shh, people don’t have to know if you don’t want them to. This—it’s just about you and me. It only matters what you think, what you want. Don’t do anything you don’t want to do.” He made a derisive sound deep in his throat. “That was really hard advice to give, by the way.”

She answered by kissing him deeply, pressing her body up against his, and he was only further weakened. Or maybe he was further strengthened, because he was feeling more and more sure that he had to have this woman next to him, in his arms, in his life. There was some terrible curse on this place that turned fine, upstanding, confirmed bachelors into ridiculous, desperate men who tripped over a pretty girl and began to instantly think life would not go on if they didn’t have her forever. They hadn’t even been intimate and he already couldn’t imagine letting her go. He tried to tell himself that by morning that feeling, that compulsion would be gone, but he doubted it. He’d wanted before, but he couldn’t remember wanting like this. Like he was drugged. Like he was glazed over and totally out of his mind for this one person.

She pulled away. “I want to,” she said.

“Sure?”

“Sure.” She drew a ragged breath. “I’m really sure.”

He smiled down at her, took her hand in his, and they walked down the steps into the yard and around the house, stopping every few feet to embrace, to kiss and fondle. And then he opened the door to that funny little trailer.



It was a little awkward at first, stepping up into that tiny trailer, because Joe was tearing the place apart looking for a condom. And she asked him, hadn’t he brought any? And he told her he never expected something like this to come up while he was in Virgin River. “We usually just hunt. Play poker. Drink a little too much.” And then he found a box of condoms in the drawer under the microwave and said, “Ah! God bless Paul.”

After that discovery, the awkwardness passed as he began to seduce her and became seduced by her. There was nothing under that pink dress but Nikki, and she was exquisite—tiny, firm, beautiful, sensual. Despite his condition, which was one of being so worked up and turned on he was afraid he might embarrass himself, he managed to make a decent study of her body and make long, slow, delicious love to her. Love that he was sure was completely satisfying to her as well as him.

Then they lay in each other’s arms and talked for a while. “Don’t tell me about him, I don’t want to know. But tell me more about you. Where you came from, what you like to do, how you want to spend the rest of your life.”

He learned that she had grown up in the city, gone to private schools, disappointed her parents by choosing to fly as a cabin attendant rather than becoming a neurosurgeon or astronaut or something. She liked to travel, ride horses, read. She was a good cook. What she wanted was to have a family, which was why she ended up with this guy who finally made it clear he was completely opposed to that idea. She had no idea it was really going to come to that. “Whoops,” she said. “I think that might’ve been about him.”