Love Redone (40 page)

Surprisingly, Alanna asked more about Shannon’s business and family th
an about the circumstances of her and Nick’s sudden engagement. She seemed genuinely shocked to learn of Shannon’s friendship with Jules and indulged in a decidedly grandmotherly smile when Shannon went off on an enthusiastic retelling of Dominic’s super birthday party.

“Shannon, you need not tell me
, of course, but I can’t help but wonder where my son fits into all this. He is rarely in California, and even I was surprised when he announced that he was going to take some time away from the business to travel west.”

Shannon
glanced out the window to the tree house far back in the yard where she could just make out Nick looking over the old tree. “Did you meet through Julianna?” Alanna quietly asked.

Ah, here’s the heart of the matter
, Shannon wryly thought. How much should she tell her future mother-in-law? Nick seemed especially close to the woman, so she doubted there’d be very little in the way of secrets going forward. Eventually the whole story would come out, especially once Jules finally caught up with her mom.

She sat back and crossed her long legs, noting briefly how
lovely her sparkling ring looked against the dark jeans she wore. Resting an arm along the back of the loveseat, Shannon leaned her head onto her uplifted hand and gave the woman across from her a pensive look.

The sigh that found its way from her depths hung in the air until
, finally finding her voice, Shannon replied simply with, “We knew each other years ago.”

Nodding fractionally
, Alanna queried, “Did my son do something incredibly stupid, Shannon? It’s okay, dear, you can be frank with me. I’m a mother, not an idiot, and while I know he’s certainly considered quite a catch, and not all that bad on the eyes, he is still a man, and if he’s anything like his father in the relationship department, I am pretty sure he doesn’t have a clue where women are concerned.”

With her head still resting on her hand
, Shannon smiled slightly and shrugged. “We didn’t part well, I will admit that, but I think the rest of the story is Nick’s to tell. As for not having a clue, he’s getting up to speed, but at times he’s just so…ugh!” she grunted.

Alanna laughed and chimed in with
, “Bossy? Is that what you’re trying to say?”

They both laughed at that while Alanna kept on. “His dad was the same way and it drove me mad. Thought all he had to do was snap his fingers and, well…you get the picture. Of course”
—she smirked— “all that arrogant self-assurance may be annoying, but it’s also terribly exciting at times.”

Shannon’s exaggerated
, “Yes, indeed,” provided the perfect tone to what was sure to become an inside joke between the two women.

“So you are off to Boston tomorrow for a family celebration
, I believe?” Alanna asked. “Will your parents be surprised to learn of your impending marriage?”

Thoughts of Boston and her family invaded Shannon’s mind as they continued to sit companionably chatting for another half hour. Things had been going so well once Shannon had allowed Nick the opportunity to explain the mistakes of the past and mount a defense of their future.

She’d learned so much about the grown-up he’d become and was filled with nothing but pride and satisfaction at his many accomplishments. His family had welcomed her with sincerity, and they had rediscovered a passion so deep and consuming that their nights had become sensual feasts the likes of which she’d never dreamed possible.

They really were on some sort of accelerated fast track
, each having gone from empty solitude to being joined at the hip in such a short stretch of time. Her family wouldn’t be surprised—they’d be stunned. Hell, Shannon was stunned.

As the day flew by and the evening unfolded, Shannon’s mind continued to be crowded with growing anxiety each time she considered the ramifications of going home with a fiancé by her side. Something was bothering her
, although she couldn’t quite pin down what that was.

Not ever having
had even a single boyfriend in her life would make Nick’s possessive presence a mystery to be explored, of that she was sure. Her pragmatic mother and professorial father would dissect and examine their every action and nuance to get at the real story. It was just their way.

She’d been so secretive and private about their earlier relationship, never speaking of it to a single soul, that she didn’t relish having their life probed under the microscope of parental inquisitiveness.

She thought of her older brother, Ted, and his wife, Jane. After the accident, she had been forced to endure Ted’s endless attempts to pry into the root causes of what she kept insisting was a simple accident. Luckily her privacy had been protected at the hospital, and aside from a single follow-up visit, she’d never allowed any of the painful truth from that time to find the light of day.

By the time they’d all retired for the night
, Shannon was as keyed up and tightly wound as an antique pocket watch. Nick, of course, had been watching her all evening like a hawk, and while she had been friendly and lighthearted through dinner and the happy together time that followed, she knew he could see right through her.

They’d been placed in the master suite, with Nick explaining at Shannon’s quizzical look that this entire wing of the house had been redone years after his father’s death and also that his mother preferred a suite of rooms on the first floor.

Nick was quietly assessing Shannon’s every action
, aware for some time that she was distracted and unsettled, although not by word or manner could anyone else have picked up on her unease. Something was going on, so when she walked into his arms and held on fast, he didn’t hesitate to offer her the comfort she needed.

He wasn’t a genius, especially not
about women, but he knew enough to realize that putting her on the witness stand for a cross examination wasn’t going to get him anything except a cranky and out-of-sorts female to deal with.

This situation called for tactics a bit
more subtle if he was going to get her to share whatever was going on in that head of hers.

Arriving at the perfect strategy to get him the result he was after
, Nick pointed out where their bags had been placed and suggested they relax together in the Jacuzzi bath. He suspected his clever segue to relaxation and comfort would be enough to give Shannon the space to let him in, in more ways than one.

Filling the impressive two
-person tub didn’t take long at all. Nick was pleased when Shannon reappeared after just a few minutes donned only in a short satiny robe that showed a great deal of leg. She might be distracted and overly worried about something, that was for sure, but she apparently wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to snuggle with him in the warm, bubbling waters.

Trying to lighten up her mood
, he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at her and playfully teased, “Ms. Reynolds, I do believe you’re trying to seduce me.”

Throwing him a sexy pout
, Shannon tossed back a faux-whiny, “Oh really? Darn it. I hoped it was you seducing me again,” while she placed a dainty hand on her hip and provocatively cocked one sexy leg to the side.

Vapor lock. That’s what his brain did. She looked delectable standing there with nothing but a scrap of shimmery satin covering the mouthwatering curves he knew were hidden beneath.

“Okay, cheeky minx, into the tub you go,” he instructed, waving her forward. His smile couldn’t have gotten any bigger when she untied the robe and let it slither to the ground at her feet. He had followed the motion of the falling garment and noticed with intense satisfaction that she was wearing nothing underneath.

When she sashayed past him with an intoxicating sway of womanly hips
, he patted her on the butt for good measure and stood by while she eased into the steaming water.

“I’ll be back in a minute
,” Nick said before disappearing from the room. He returned minutes later, buck naked, carrying a chilled bottle of champagne, two champagne flutes, and sporting an impressive erection. The sight of him with those dimples and a wicked smile stole her breath.

“Champagne, Mr. Barrett? Are you trying to get me drunk?” she asked.

Setting the bottles and glasses next to the tub, he hopped in and sank below the bubbling waters, tangling his legs with hers as they sat on either end of the big tub.

“I don’t know about drunk
, but it did seem like we skipped an important part of getting engaged.”

Quickly filling the two flutes
, he handed one to her and made a short toast. “To us, little one.” Clinking glasses, he added, “And to the rest of lives.”

Watching her soft smile as she sipped from the elegant flute
, he whispered, “I love you, Shannon. For always,” and then drank deeply of the delicate liquid.

They sat quietly, sipping their champagne, talking about nothing and everything. He waited
; she prevaricated. He waited some more.

Were women always this complicated
? he wondered. He’d never even gotten close to a real relationship with anyone other than the silent brooding female who was presently twisting him inside out, so how the hell would he know?

The irony of wielding incredible power in the boardroom set against being tongue
-tied and unsure of himself with Shannon was not lost on him. God, she was challenging and exciting and completely, adorably drop-dead gorgeous. What’s a guy to do?

Crap, he thought.
He might as well just go for it since she didn’t show any signs of suddenly opening up.

He adjusted their positions in the swirling waters by pulling her across his lap and settling her in the crook of his arm. She didn’t resist
, making relief surge through him and giving him the fortitude to push ahead.

“Spit it out
, babe,” he quietly said. “Whatever it is, we’ll be alright. I can feel that you’re troubled. Did my mom say something to upset you? Was it something I did?”

Shannon wasn’t surprised that he’d finally asked what was going on. She’d been a fool for thinking she could worry without his knowing.

“It’s nothing at all, really, Nick. I’m just being silly.”

“You aren’t fooling me
, Sharona, out with it.”

“Let it be
, Nick,” she sighed.

“Absolutely not
,” he shot back in response. “We made a promise to speak the truth, and pretending everything is hunky dory when you are clearly worried and upset about something you won’t talk about is not being honest.”

Snuggling closer to his massive chest
, Shannon sighed some more, and after finding no more ways to hide from her emotions, she lay her head on his shoulder and looked up into his worried face.

“It’s all been so perfect,
y’know? The last few days, I mean.”

Damn if she didn’t wiggle just at that moment
, causing Nick’s barely leashed libido to kick into overdrive. Why the hell couldn’t she just hold still, he wondered as he fought to stay focused on the situation at hand. He’d tame the wiggle later and maybe add a few shimmies of his own, but for right now the subject wasn’t her sexy rump but whatever was making her so quiet.

“Your mom is great
, Nick. Really and truly great.”

More nervous wiggling ensued while Nick revisited the fine art of counting backwards from
one hundred. Ninety-nine, wiggle. Ninety-eight. Ninety-seven. Ninety-six…and then she lay her leg over his under the churning water.  The only word his mind could find to slot into the situation was a pithy
fuck
as he employed every distracting skill he knew to stop from hauling her slippery wet ass from this tub and subjecting her to a wildly raw coupling that didn’t exactly fit into the current scenario.

“It’s my family
, actually. Been some time since I’ve been home is all, and I suppose that’s making me sort of stressed.”

She started playing with the droplets of water trickling through his chest hair, tracing the wet path with gentle fingertips. He was going to have to back up to a thousand if he was going to survive. Nine hundred and ninety-
nine,
keep breathing
. Nine hundred and ninety-eight,
swish
.
Fuck.
Nine hundred and ninety-seven,
plunk
. Her fingers dawdled against his flesh below the surface of the water. Nine hundred and ninety-six,
help me god
.

“We’re going to cause a bit of a stir, wouldn’t you think? It’s their anniversary and all. I don’t want to be answering a master’s thesis of questions when the attention should be on them.”

She was making a good point, Nick knew, and though she seemed convincing, there was still the tiny spark of something yet hidden. Unfortunately, the distracting sensory activities of her beautiful hands were enough to limit him to a single-thought track if he didn’t want to embarrass himself.

“Shannon
,” he replied, “I am eager to meet your parents and know the extraordinary people who made you such a wonderfully caring, sensitive, and
scary
smart woman.”

Smirking he added,
“Just to clarify, I left the ‘sexy as sin’ part out for the moment since I don’t think that’s an area you want thoughts of your parents to be involved in.”

Shannon elbowed him lightheartedly and giggled into his shoulder. When she sighed
, he jumped in and continued.

“Hopefully we’ll be a five
-minute wonder and that will be it. Don’t borrow worries, little one,” he admonished as he lay two fingers against the frown lines showing between her eyes.

She was noticing that when wet, his hairline served as a straight and direct route to what sat lower. She liked the hair. Liked all that manly virility. She’d seen far too many pumped
-up, waxed, spray-tanned Hollywood hunks in the past few years to last a lifetime. All that smooth head-to-toe skin didn’t seem natural and freaked her out.

Shannon was drawn to Nick’s potent masculinity. Rubbing her sensitive breasts against the hair on his chest,
she lost herself in the feeling of his rock-hard abdomen flexing against hers while smooth legs tangled with his hairy strong limbs. Yeah, she liked it all. Liked how big his hands were and the way he used those huge paws of his to cup and fondle her plump breasts. What were they talking about? Damn if she could remember.

“After all, they say I’m a master negotiator
, so I’m sure I can bring your parents onboard pretty easily.” Oh right, Shannon thought. That’s what they were talking about.

“Uh huh.”
Hmmm, he’s so big and hard all over.

“Shannon, are you even listening?” Nick chuckled when she continued lower with her questing hands until finding what she was searching for.

His sex felt huge in her hands, already fully engorged with a wide, rounded head that she explored with infinite thoroughness.

Nick hissed in startled astonishment as she grabbed onto his erection and nearly blacked out when she began mapping him with her fingertips. The way her touch glided over his shaft
, and the slow swirling strokes she was driving him crazy with on the head of his cock, were making the steam-filled room grow even hotter.

While one dainty hand caressed him with slow
, firm strokes all along his throbbing length, the other reached lower and cupped the twin spheres tight with his desire. With his arms spread wide across the back of the tub, Nick could only grunt as he let his head fall back. His leg started to tremble, the one that had her sexy thigh thrown over it. There was something unbearably erotic about his shaft bobbing in the warm water while she slowly stroked him.

He moaned as she worked his tumescent hardness while her passion surged in a crazy white
-hot explosion of primal desire. He was hers, and she was a desperate wanton on a one-way mission to blow his control to shreds. How had he put it the other night? He wanted her helpless with desire? Begging for his possession? Pretty much summed up where her thoughts were parked at the moment.

Shannon shifted on his chest and began putting her lips and mouth to work while she continued driving him insane under the water. She was testing his limits and found herself relishing the female power she was exploring. The sensation of his aroused body sliding against her fingers under the water was amazing.

He was so big and hard. Shannon marveled at the strength and power of his manhood while shivering over the soft, smooth, impossibly wide shaft that she felt with her touch. He’d shuddered and moaned when she’d reached for his balls, so she continued fondling him there, too. Could she get him to surrender totally to her?

He had so much command over practically everything that the image of a helplessly aroused Nick
, completely beyond all limits of control and lost in the throes of passion, fired up her lady parts until the persistent thrum in her core made her want to scream.

She got control of herself
, though, and decided it was time to exit the bathtub, no matter how awesome the heated swirling water was.  She wanted to do a hell of a lot more before the night was through than just touch.

Laving his chest and neck with we
t, sweeping strokes of her tongue, Shannon latched on to his neck with an open-mouthed kiss that immediately went ballistic. In the realm of love bites, she was pretty sure this one was going to be epic.

She was rewarded with a low
, rumbling growl as his arms went around her while his head shifted just enough to give her more access.
Ahhhh
, she thought, so he likes this. Liked it a lot, if the pulsing hard-on sliding through her fingers was any indication.

Yep, enough with the tub
, she thought when she suddenly stood up, allowing water to drip down her very turned-on body. From this position, her mound was right in front of his eyes when they opened to focus on her quick movement.

She let him think about what was on display for a
heartbeat and then, as seductively as she could, stepped from the tub while giving him quite the show of what was concealed in the downy tangle of dripping-wet blonde curls between her legs.