Jo Leigh - One-Click Buy - September Harlequin Blaze

She didn’t doubt it. He’d aroused her half out of her mind and right now, she wanted him plunging to the hilt inside her. Grabbing his hips, she dug her nails into his butt and arched up for him. “Take me, Nick. Fill me up.”

He seemed to forget about restraint because he did exactly what she asked, plunging hard and deep until Izzie howled at how good it felt.

He stretched her, embedded himself in her, then drew out and plunged again. “Oh, my God,” she groaned. “This is amazing.”

Better than amazing. It was absolute perfection. Worth every one of the years she’d waited for it.

Thrusting up, Izzie took what he gave and demanded even more. When she became too frenzied, he slowed the pace, showing so much control she wanted to sob in frustration. But he wouldn’t relent, taunting her with slow, deep strokes and teasing half-ones. He kissed her so often and so deeply she wasn’t sure she’d remember how to breathe when she wasn’t sharing the breath from his lungs.

Finally, though, she heard the tiny groans he couldn’t contain. His hips thrust harder, more frantically, and she wrung as much as she could out of every stroke.

“I can’t…oh, Izzie…”

“Do it,” she ordered, feeling another climax building in her from the friction of their locked bodies. “I’ll come with you.”

That seemed to satisfy him-that he had her permission-and he finally lost his head and gave her the deep, pounding thrusts they both needed. Again. And again. Until he threw his head back and shouted as he reached his climax.

She found hers a second later and wrapped her legs tightly around him to ride it out.

As if knowing the floor was hard against her back, Nick scooped her in his arms and lay down, dragging her on top of him. They were both panting, gasping for air, and he kissed her temple, smoothing her hair away from her sweaty face.

“Izzie? I have to tell you something.” His words were rushed. Choppy.

“Yes?”

Closing his eyes, he dropped his head back onto the floor.

“I’m going to call you Cookie until the day I die.”

FUNNY. Nick had once thought that having absolutely mind-blowing sex with a woman would make her friendlier. At least more approachable.

No. Uh-uh. Not Izzie Natale. Because within minutes of their incredible lovemaking in the back of the delivery van, she was back to freezing him out, trying to act like nothing had changed between them.

After sex like that, he’d kind of expected to be invited in for a cup of coffee…if not dessert. Oh, man, he was never going to look at a cannoli the same way again.

But she hadn’t invited him in. Hadn’t answered him when he’d asked if she wanted to go get a bite to eat somewhere. And over the next couple of days, hadn’t returned his calls. Hadn’t even met his eye in the past couple of days.

The woman was killing him, she really was.

When he’d finally confronted her on the sidewalk in front of the bakery Friday afternoon, she’d erupted. “It was a one time thing, Nick. It was fabulous, I loved it, but it’s not going to happen again. Because if it does, then you’re going to be more of a pain about wanting me to go get a pizza with you, or go visit the folks, and then the whole neighborhood will be congratulating poor little Izzie for finally landing her man.”

She’d stalked inside without saying another word. She hadn’t needed to. He got the message, loud and clear. She’d loved the sex, she just didn’t want all the stuff that went with having a sexual relationship. Or any relationship whatsoever.

He thought about proposing that they just set up a weekly sex-buddy meeting in the parked van behind her shop, suspecting he could have her on those terms if he wanted her.

He didn’t want her on those terms.

“Hell, admit it, you want her on any terms,” he muttered aloud as he walked out the back door of Santori’s that night. He hadn’t even realized anyone else was there until he saw his brother, Joe, who’d just parked his pickup in one of the empty spots in the alley. Fortunately, Joe hadn’t heard Nick talking to himself and so wasn’t dialing for the rubber-walled wagon.

“Hey, where you off to?” Joe asked as he hopped out and pocketed his keys. “I was going to take you up on that pitcher you owe me.”

“I’m not very good company right now,” he admitted.

Joe, who was the best-natured of all of the Santori kids, threw his arm around Nick’s shoulders. “Then what better time to share a beer with your brother?”

He had a point.

“Okay. But not here,” he said, looking back at the closed door to the kitchen. “I really need someplace quiet.”

Joe’s smile faded and he immediately appeared concerned. “Everything okay? Is there a problem?”

“No problem. Just a case of family overdose.”

“I hear ya. Come on, let’s go across the street.”

Following Joe into a neighborhood bar on the corner, Nick ordered a couple of beers and paid the tab. If Mark had been sitting across from him, Nick knew he’d be getting one-liners aimed at making him say what was on his mind. Lucas would be doing his prosecutor inquisition. Tony would throw his oldest-brother weight around and try to browbeat him into talking. Lottie would jabber so much Nick would say anything to get her to shut up.

Joe just watched. Listened. Waited.

“Thanks again for pointing me toward the job,” Nick finally said, filling the silence. The bar was pretty empty-it was too early for the weekend regulars, who’d be drifting in for a long night of drinking and darts before too long.

“How’s that going?”

“Pretty well. I’ve only worked the past two weekends but the money’s good.”

“You still haven’t told the rest of the family?”

Nick shook his head. “Just Mark.”

Joe nodded. “Probably just as well. I know Pop and Tony are talking nonstop about you coming in on the business.”

Yeah, they had been to him, too. Nick couldn’t prevent a quick frown. Because managing a pizzeria was not the way he saw himself spending the next six months, much less the rest of his life.

“It’s okay, Nick. Nobody can force you to do anything you don’t want to do.”

“Guilt goes a long way,” he muttered.

“Don’t I know it. But guilt didn’t stop you from enlisting. It didn’t stop me from picking up a hammer and learning construction. Didn’t stop Mark from strapping on a gun or Lottie from…well, from doing whatever it is Lottie does.”

“Like marrying a man who killed someone?” Nick asked dryly, still not having gotten used to the idea that his new brother-in-law, Simon, had killed a woman, even if in self-defense.

“Let’s not go there,” Joe said with a sigh. “She’s happy, and he’s crazy about her.”

True. Lottie and Simon’s recent marriage had contributed to the 95 percent marital success rate in the Santori family.

“The point is, you can live your life the way you want to live it, and nobody will try to stop you.” As if realizing he’d left Nick with one major argument, he added, “Except for Mama’s crying. Which we’re all used to and you can get past. You just need to figure out what you want to do, and go after it.”

Good idea. And lately, Nick had been figuring out what he wanted to do, especially since he’d been working at the club. “An old buddy of mine from the service is putting something together with a couple of the other guys. They’re talking about opening up a protection business.”

“Professional bodyguard?” Joe asked, looking surprised.

“I have the military background for it and I like what I’m doing at the club.”

Joe smiled. “Especially when the people you’re guarding are very easy on the eyes.”