Stealing the Billionaire's Heart (9 page)

She moaned into his mouth,
momentarily forgetting the phone until she heard her mother’s voice call out.
“Hello? Nixie? Are you there?”

Nixie yelped and pulled away,
snatching the phone from his grip. “Mom?” She gasped breathlessly. “Hello?”

“Nixie!” Her mother practically
screamed. “That was
who I think
it was
…
wasn’t it?”

“Who?”

“Nicholas Morgan. It was. Don’t lie
to me. I’ll know if you’re lying.”

Nixie’s brows furrowed in
confusion. “How did you…?”

“Have you checked the tabloids?”
her mother asked tersely.

Nick’s hands began traveling up her
body, his fingers caressing along her skin. She bit back a hiss of pleasure and
managed to reply. “No.”

“Well, there’s a picture of you and
Mr. Morgan on the front page.”

“
What
?”

“It says something about a
shooting, Nixie.” Her mother’s voice was full of concern. “It looks like it was
your house, dear, and…” She paused. “I hate to tell you this, but you were
wearing only a man’s shirt. And Nicholas looked…rumpled.”

Nixie groaned, covering her face
with her hand. “I was wearing a skirt, mom.”

“Didn’t look like it.”

Nixie ignored that and pressed on.
“And we were just shot at. What did you expect? You wanted him to iron first?”

“It didn’t look good, the way he
was hugging you against him, with you barely dressed…and now he’s answering
your telephone. What will people think?”

Nixie sighed. “Mom––”

Nick, who had been listening to her
end of the conversation, grabbed the phone from her hand. “Ma’am, your daughter
went through a very traumatic experience last night. I felt it was my
responsibility to stay here and make sure she didn’t have an emotional
breakdown.”

Nixie rolled her eyes. Yeah, because
he was a boy scout all of a sudden. She noticed how he conveniently left out
the part where he tore her place apart and handcuffed her to the bed during his
little snit fest.

“And if it makes you feel any
better…” Nick continued, giving Nixie a crooked grin as he spoke. “I fully
intend to marry your daughter, so you have no need to worry about what people
will think.”

Nixie gave a startled gasp and
heard her mother do the same thing.

“So you can rest assured that Nixie
will be perfectly fine,” Nick concluded. “She’s in good hands.” After a minute
of idle chatter in which he invited her mother over for dinner the following
week, Nick said good-bye and handed the phone back.

Nixie blinked at the receiver for a
second, her brain still stuck on the whole marriage thing. She finally grabbed
a hold of it when Nick bucked his hips up to silently get her attention,
motioning for her to wrap things up with her mom. Putting the receiver to her
ear, she said, “Yeah?”

“What a wonderful young man.” Her
mother gushed. “And here I thought you’d never get married.”

Nixie gave the phone an insulted
look but didn’t comment.

With a happy sigh, her mother
added, “I’ll let the two of you enjoy the rest of your morning. I can’t wait to
meet that lovely young man in person.”

“Uh-huh,” Nixie mumbled, half
dazed. “Okay…yeah…bye.” She hung up and tossed the cordless receiver to the
floor.

“The tabloids, huh?” Nick asked,
that boyish grin plastered to his face. “Amazing. Those guys don’t miss a
single thing.” With a shrug, he said, “I actually find that pretty sexy, having
our picture splashed across every newsstand in the country. I can’t wait to
pick up a copy.”

Nixie stared down at him, baffled
at how he could be discussing the tabloids. “Nick,” she said slowly,
cautiously. “You just told my mother we’re getting married.”

“Yep,” he said, voice chipper.

“Okay…” Biting her lip, she waited
for him to explain what was going on in that very gorgeous head of his. “Why?”

“Because I came to the conclusion
last night that we should.” He explained this as if it was the most normal
thing in the world.

“Oh…um…when were you going to fill
me in on this plan of yours?”

“I didn’t have a ring yet, so it
didn’t seem appropriate to tell you right away.” Nick shrugged. “But since your
mother was giving you a hard time, I figured I’d help her relax over the whole
situation.”

“I see.”

Nick’s eyebrows drew together in a
look of concern, as if realizing for the first time that he might need her
permission for such an event to transpire. “You do want to marry me, don’t
you?”

Nixie was speechless for a moment.
Was he seriously semi-proposing to her? “Are you fucking with me?” she asked
cautiously. “Because that’s not a very nice joke.”

“I’m absolutely serious,” Nick said
earnestly. “I’ve never felt this way about anyone before. I want you in my life
until the day I die…which might be soon, judging by how the past couple of days
have gone.” He offered her a teasing smile before his face grew serious. “It
only makes sense for us to get married. Will you at least consider it?”

Nixie gave a squeal of delight and
threw herself down into his arms. “Of course I’ll think about it. I would have
to be an idiot—”

Nick crushing his lips against hers
cut off her sentence. “Wonderful.” He held her tightly against him. “I think we
should have some more of that unprotected sex to celebrate the occasion.”

Nixie giggled against his mouth.
“That sounds perfect.”

Nick moaned in delight as Nixie
rubbed the front of her body along his. “What more could a guy ask for? I’m
getting sex before eleven on a Monday morning.”

“You are lucky,” Nixie agreed,
nuzzling into his neck. “You…” She sat bolt upright with a cry of horror.
“Monday morning?” Whipping her head around, she looked at the clock. “Shit! I
was supposed to be at work almost an hour ago.” She dove off of him, got her
feet tangled in the blanket, and tumbled roughly to the floor.

Nick sat up and stared over the
edge of the bed at her in amusement. “You okay there?”

“Do you not understand?” Her voice
was a shriek. “I am so going to be fired.”

She sprang to her feet and went to
rush toward her dresser when Nick grabbed her arm and pulled her back toward
the bed. He moved so that his legs were hanging over the side and pulled her in
between them. “Babe, first off, you never have to work another day in your life
if you don’t feel like it.” He leaned in and kissed her stomach, his eyes
lifted to hers. “Secondly, if you walk in there with me right next to you and I
look like I intend to spend money, your boss won’t even think about firing
you.”

Nixie’s pulse returned to a
somewhat normal pace. “You think?”

“I know. Like you said, I’m an
important guy.” He gave her a devilish wink. “I’ll tell your boss I was
questioning you about a purchase I wanted to make. He wouldn’t dare be upset.
You were busy bringing in business.” He gave a lazy shrug. “I do still need to
get my sister something for her birthday. I’ll spend a nice wad of cash, and
your boss will forget you were ever late.”

She grinned down at him.
“That’s…that’s so sweet.”

“There’s also the fact that someone
tried to kill you. That should be a good enough reason for being a couple of hours
late.” Nick’s arms encircled her waist, pulling her firmly against his chest.
“So now that you know you don’t have to rush to get to work this morning, how
about that sex? It’ll help you unwind and put you in a pleasant mood for the
day.”

“I don’t know,” Nixie said
uncertainly. “I would feel pretty guilty if I purposely took advantage of the
situation…”

Nick gave a groan but reluctantly
let go. “All right,” he said, his voice sounding as if he were suffering over
the decision. “Get dressed. I’ll drive you.”

Nixie looked down at him with an
impish grin, letting him know she’d been teasing. “There’s no way I’m going to
work before you give me an orgasm.” Leaning down, she brushed her lips against
his.

Nick grinned up at her in delight.
“That’s my girl.” Grabbing her by the waist, he pulled her down onto the bed
and rolled on top of her. “Though I’m aiming for at least two,” he whispered
before lowering his mouth to hers.

That’s how Nixie spent the next
forty-five minutes before finally getting motivated enough to climb out of bed …
and just for the record, the count reached three.

Chapter Seven

Nixie sat in the passenger seat of
Nick’s Jaguar, staring dumbfounded at the front cover of a tabloid magazine.
Just like her mother said, there was a picture of her wrapped in Nick’s arms,
her legs bare for all to view. “Shit,” she grumbled.

Nick glanced away from the road to
the tabloid photo. “I still say it’s sexy.”

“You would,” she griped as they
pulled to the curb about half a block from her work. With a huff, she climbed
out of the car and began fishing around in her purse for change to put in the
meter. “How come good stuff always happens to you? Like finding a great parking
spot. That never happens to me. I always have to park in the grimy garage
fifteen blocks down.”

Nick walked around the front of the
car to the curb just as she was shoving a quarter into the meter. “I’m just
lucky like that.” He pulled her to him for a quick kiss before releasing her
and starting the short walk to Joe’s Jewelry. “Is there anyone else out there
you know who can get robbed and somehow manage to get laid out of the deal?”

Nixie laughed and shoved him
playfully in the chest. “Oh, shut up.”

When she shoved him, Nick grasped
her hand in his and laced their fingers.

“You know what, Nick? I think—”
Nixie’s sentence was cut off with a strangled yelp of surprise when Nick shoved
her roughly to the side. She tumbled to the pavement, scraping her palms and
tearing her nylons. “What the…” She trailed off as she looked up just in time
to see Nick bounce off the front of a moving van. “Nick!” she screamed in
horror.

The driver of the van threw it into
park and hopped down to the pavement. “Bitch!” A vaguely familiar voice screamed
with rage.

Nixie looked up to see Sarah Spade
stalking angrily toward her.

“I don’t get dumped.” Sarah growled
with a feral snarl. “I do the dumping. I say when a relationship is through.”
Sarah stood over Nixie, her tiny hands balled into fists. “I understand the
urge to slum it every once in a while. I totally get it.”

Nixie’s eyes narrowed. Slumming it?
That’s what this chick viewed her as?

“This is
ridiculous
, though,” Sarah continued as if she hadn’t seen the
glare. “Nicholas looks…his face says that…” She trailed off, unwilling to admit
that Nick looked as if he was actually in love. Her features straightened out,
took on a calm look. “Well…if I can’t have him, no one can.”

With that said, Sarah pulled out
the biggest gun Nixie had ever seen…not that she’d seen many. She’d seen a
paintball gun, once, and had managed to shoot herself in the foot.

Sarah spun and marched toward Nick,
the gun pointed alarmingly at his chest.

Nixie struggled to her feet and, in
a move that was braver than she felt, charged at Sarah. She jumped onto the
model’s back, dragging her to the ground.

Sarah shrieked in rage.

As they tumbled to the pavement,
the gun went off, blasting chunks of brick out of the building in front of them.

The gun fell from Sarah’s hand and
skidded out of reach.
 
With a snarl, she
rolled to face Nixie. “He’s mine!” She screamed like a wounded animal. Reaching
up, she grabbed two fistfuls of Nixie’s hair and pulled with all her might.

Nixie yelped in surprise but
quickly recovered. Eyes narrowing angrily, she used the palm of her hand and
drove it into Sarah’s nose.

Sarah howled in pain and her hands
released Nixie’s hair to cover her own nose. Though she covered her face, blood
began seeping through her fingers. “I’m going to kill you!” She screeched her
threat and then attacked.

Nixie and Sarah rolled back and
forth on the pavement. They fell into the embarrassing female habit of
scratching, biting, and pulling hair.

Time seemed to stop as Nixie
desperately clawed for her own safety. They rolled and struggled. Finally, she
managed to get on top. She straddled Sarah’s waist and shoved her head back
against the pavement.

An instant later, arms grabbed her
around the waist and hauled her away from Sarah.

Nixie fought against whoever was
grabbing her, unsure if it was another assault or not.

“It’s
Clark
!”

The person holding her hollered out
his name, as if it should mean something to her. Clark …
Clark
…
Officer Clark
.