Page 70 of Breaking the Ice

“So… are we going to talk about what happened or are we going to ignore it and pretend it didn’t? Like the alley. And the elevator.”

Glancing at him, she nodded, an expression of resignation setting her mouth into a straight line. “Of course. Can I go first?”

“Shoot.”

“I’m sorry about the other night. I’m not usually such a… tease and I shouldn’t have let it happen. It was the wine and the birthday, but I don’t want it to be awkward between us so do you think we could just file this under stupidity and forget it?”

She wanted toforget it? No fucking way could he forgetanyaspect of that night. From meeting Bec all the way through to hearing her moan when he was deep inside her. “Nope. Not until I know what the hell happened. I mean, one minute you were there, and the next you were running away.”

She blew out a breath. “I told you that I found climaxing difficult.”

“Sam.” Nick strode into the room because he didn’t want to have this conversation with so much space between them. “You were a nanosecond away fromclimaxing.”

“I don’t know about a nanosecond…”

“You were close. And then you lost it. You started tothink.”

She blasted him with a glare. “So, I shouldn’t think?”

“Notduringsex, no.” He shoved a hand through his hair. “The thinking part comes beforehand. Then it’s all sensations and emotions. You give yourself up to a higher power. You don’t think. You just feel.”

“Well.” Samantha folded her arms, clearly annoyed. “I happen to think sex is highly intellectual.”

“Sure. Agreed. The brain is the body’s biggest sexual organ, blah blah blah. But it can also be your worst enemy. Look, I don’t mean to sound conceited, butI knowwomen and I can read their body language and their responses really well. And Iknowif you’d just let go, it would have been a birthday you’ll never forget. But you seemed to be… fighting it. Where the hell did you go to, Sam?”

Her stormy gray gaze held his for long moments before her arms dropped and she huffed out a breath. “You wouldn’t understand,” she murmured as she crossed to the sink and leaned her ass against it, her hands sliding onto the edge.

“Try me.”

“Iwasclose.” She paused as if searching for the right words. “And it was… amazing. And I was thinking how good you were at it and the next thing I was wondering how many women you must have been with to be that good and then I started thinking about the types of women you went out with and you had this handful of myassand a voice inside was shit talking about me being the biggest woman you’ve ever been with and then I started to lose it and then I started to worry that I was taking too long and I couldn’t get back on track… I just couldn’t.”

“Oh Sam…” He covered the distance between them in three paces, stopping a hand’s breadth away. “What do I have to do, or say to convince you that I think your body is great? That it turns me on? Even drunk and vomiting in the toilet, it turns me on.”

“Your pattern with women says otherwise.”

“Okay. Yes, I’ve been photographed with less curvy women and even dated a few, particularly in my rookie years when everything was new and exciting. But I’m thirty-eight years old and notwithany of them. And do you know why? Because going out to a meal with them is a fucking nightmare.”

“No dessert menu?”

Nick smiled. “Oh hell no. You, on the other hand, are much more interesting to be with. You don’t order lettuce or egg white anything and you love dessert and we talk abouteverything. You’re smart and sexy and funny and I wanted to give you amazing sex the other night because you deserve it and I think about it all the time.”

Nick stalled at the frank admission, not quite believing it had come out of his mouth. But then he figuredscrew it. Every word was true. He didn’t regret it. She, on the other hand, was looking a little like a stunned mullet.

“Say something,” he said after a long pause.

But Samantha didn’t get the chance as the door dinged and Dulcie and Kelly burst into the shop with a startling announcement.

“They’re closing down Martha’s Teahouse.”

24

Samantha felt the weight of Dulcie’s and Kelly’s rage, knowing they expected her to be as livid. And she was. Somewhere way back in the recesses of her mushy mind, she was really ticked. But she was also grappling with Nick thinking about having sex with herall the time.

“Nick!” Dulcie spied him standing in the doorway to the back room. “You in? We have todosomething. It’sMartha’s. Your grandmother would be rolling in her grave.”

Samantha glanced over her shoulder, immediately shying away from the look in Nick’s eyes. The one sayingdon’t think I don’t know you’re going to use this to avoid our conversation. But taking on city hall seemed much easier than facing whatever the hell was happening with them.

“It’sMartha’s, Nick,” she appealed.

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