until around lunchtime, wondering why he had not replied to me did I figure out I left the house without my phone. I fully intended to duck home and grab it, but a busload of tourists pulled up and after a few hours of dealing with city people and silently thanking I was no longer one of them, Blake and Makena came in and asked me to join them for dinner and a drink. Phone effectively forgotten about.
Now, however, I wished that I had gone and gotten it. I missed him and just receiving a text from Nixx, seeing his name pop up on the screen was better than nothing.
As if thinking about Nixx conjured him up, my nostrils filled with the heady smell of his cologne. A tingle ran down my spine, hairs stood on end and a spark of need travelled to my core.
Oh for heaven’s sake, get a grip and act like a grown woman and not a hussy, I mentally reprimanded myself, wiggling in my seat trying to ease the ache without calling attention to myself.
“Thinking sexy thoughts, baby?” a deep familiar voice whispered in my ear, startling me and turning me on at the same time.
Moving my head quickly to the side, suddenly, Nixx’s sparkling blue eyes were right there, close and dancing with mirth and desire.
“Nixx,” I breathed, “you’re here!”
“Yeah baby, did you think I wouldn’t come for you after not hearing from you all day?”
“You texted me?” I all but squealed, delighted to hear he thought of me today.
“Enough for you think I am a stalker, yeah,” he answered, putting his hand on my cheek and leaning down to brush his soft lips to the corner of my mouth.
“I was worried when I didn’t hear back from you all day. It was only the fact that I had to go to Mansfield that I didn’t come looking for you,” he said, his mouth still lingering excruciatingly close to my lips. His warm breath on my skin heated me in all the right places.
“I left it on the kitchen bench accidentally, I’m sorry,” I apologised in a rush.
The desire and humour left Nixx’s gaze, replacing them with reproach.
“I am not angry Farron, you didn’t do anything wrong. Shit happens, I just wanted to hear from you, that’s all. So no apology necessary, okay? I am not him, you aren’t on a leash or under my control.”
Quicker than I could blink, Nixx had me off the chair, in his arms, then down on his lap and him in my vacated seat. The fast move knocking the air out of my lungs for a second or two.
“Just promise me when you read the texts you won’t run like buggery to get away from me,” he joked, “I might have gotten a little … nuts when you didn’t answer after the sixth message.”
As Nixx spoke, his arms snaked around my back, his hands lacing at the base of my waist. During the drinking session, I only took off my tee leaving my tank on; it was flimsy and was more of a camisole than a tank top, but right then, sitting astride Nixx, my jeans did nothing to stop the penetration of heat coming from his hardening crotch. Feeling myself dampen in the place I thought once dead, I did my best to focus on the light mood Nixx’s confession brought.
“Six messages?”
“Well no, it was actually ten, it was after the sixth I started to panic,” he admitted, giving me that sexy smirk I was becoming addicted to quickly.
“Why on earth would you panic?” I asked, tuning out the conversations going on around us, giving Nixx my full attention.
“I thought maybe you were tired of waiting for me to finish my work over at Waterford. This week I have been very absent as far as dinner at the restaurant is concerned, and we haven’t been able to spend any real time together.”
Smiling gently at him, I raised my arms and wound them around his neck, clasping the nape of his neck.
“You have been busy, and I get that. And you spent time with Dillion when he sprained his ankle, kept him from getting bored, which helped me out,” I pointed out, needing to see him smile again.
“I guess, but you weren’t there.”
“That is the hard part about being a business owner and a single mum. Sometimes I wish I could be in two places at once, but it would be so much harder if Dillion was younger.