The Billionaire's Matchmaker(76)

He stood and watched her.

“I said sit.” She waited until he’d done what he was told, then settled on the cushions behind him. “You spent the day helping me. It’s time for me to do something for you.”

“You don’t have to,” he said as soon as she touched his shoulders.

His concern made her smile. He was offering her space, a chance to protect herself through distance again. His giving her the choice made her decision all that much easier. “Let me do something nice for you,” she told him.

Slowly, she began kneading the muscles between his shoulder blades, her smile growing when he groaned and let his head fall forward.

“Feel good?”

“Mmm.”

“Good.” Beneath his cotton shirt, Nick’s muscles tensed and released. She was enjoying his pleasure. So much so, it surprised her. A slow familiar heat began to curl through her.

She still couldn’t believe Nick had come to Gabby’s studio with her. The ladies, of course, thought he was amazing. She knew they would. Especially when he used his coat to swaddle Lulu and the pups.

“Do not let him get away,” Mia had whispered.

Jenny had to admit, his behavior was swoon-worthy. She wanted to tell Mia it wasn’t a case of letting Nick get away.

Now, with the day’s drama behind him, the familiar insecurities rose up to taunt her again. As if a man like this could care about you.

And yet today, when Lulu went missing, he’d been there for her. Not just by helping her look for the missing dog, but by understanding and holding her hand. He didn’t have to go into town when Gabby called. He could have stayed in his mansion, safely ensconced in his darkened room. Instead, he drove into town – into the public eye - without a second thought. For her.

A lump found its way to her throat. What Nick did today took courage. Maybe it was time she showed a little courage herself and trust Nick might stick around..

Taking a deep breath, she leaned forward and whispered, “This might be easier if you took off your shirt.”

She felt his body tense. He was waiting. To see if she truly meant what she said. Not every fear of his had been conquered today. “It’s all right,” she told him. “Let me see you.”

When he didn’t move right away, she reached out and slowly pulled his T-shirt over his head.

Based on the newspaper descriptions, she expected scars. And there were. There was also a body that looked carved from marble. The burns formed a granite like mosaic, dark on pale, across his defined skin. Covering his arm, the marks spread over his shoulder, and down his right side. Starting at the top, Jenny let her index finger trace the pattern edge down to his rib cage. The texture was rough, but not overly so. Splaying her fingers, she slowly ran both hands back up along his spine. The sigh that Nick breathed out was soft and laced with gratitude. Made Jenny want to drape herself over his back and hold him tight.

“She called me a monster,” he said in a soft voice.

She, meaning Megan.

“It was after the accident. I heard her on the phone. She said there wasn’t enough money in the world for her to want to wake up to my face every morning.”

“Oh, Nick.” She wanted to say she couldn’t imagine hearing such awful things, but she could. She knew that kind of pain all too well.

“Sometimes I think she was right. I used to be a selfish bastard. Sometimes I wonder if the accident didn’t just take the ugly from the inside and move it where people could see.”

Wow, they really were two scarred peas in a pod, weren’t they? No wonder they found each other. Was he “the one” like the voice in her head kept saying? Who knew? He might be, he might not. But what she did know was that right here, right now, she felt closer to him than any man she’d ever known.

“I don’t think you’re ugly,” she whispered. “Inside or out.”

“That’s because you’re looking at nine months of state of the art skin grafting.” It was a feeble attempt to make light of her comment. A defense mechanism she knew well. Hearing this man fighting the same insecurities dissolved the last of her fears.

Arms slipping around his waist, she leaned forward and pressed her lips between his shoulder blades. “Not ugly at all,” she repeated.

Nick’s hand rested over hers. “Jenny…”

Again, offering her the chance to change her mind. Jenny answered by kissing a path down his back, her tongue flicking across each knob on his spine.

Down his back, across to his rib cage, until he swiveled around. Hands finding her shoulders, he pulled her toward him. “Jenny,” he said again, this time the word sounded like a groan. They came together in a need-fueled kiss. Nick’s tongue licked her lips, demanding entrance.

Jenny obliged without hesitation. He tasted as wonderful as she remembered.

“God, what you do to me,” Nick groaned. “Ever since that night in the woods… It’s like I was dead, and now I’m alive again.” Jenny gasped as he took her hand and pressed it to erection pressing at the front of his jeans. “Feel what you do to me?” He thrust up against her hand. “How hard and desperate you make me? I need you, Jenny. You and only you.”

Jenny shocked herself by whimpering and fumbling for the button at his waist.

“Shhh,” he said, stilling her. “Not yet. We’ve just started. I want to make sure you want this as much as I do.”