Addicted to Nick

The words tumbled out in a breathy rush. “I don’t know what you want from me.”

“I think you do know. I think that’s what scares you.”

Nick’s voice was as soft as the moonlight. T.C. felt a shiver run through her. Not cold, but heat. “Casual sex isn’t something I handle well,” she breathed.

“You think this would be casual?”

Her startled gaze flew to his and was immediately trapped by his intent expression. Her breathing grew shallow; her pulse pounded like racing hoofbeats on summer-hard earth.

“I imagine nothing’s ever casual with you,” he said slowly.

Dear Reader,

Welcome to Silhouette Desire! We’re delighted to offer you again this month six passionate, powerful and provocative romances sure to please you.

Start with December’s fabulous MAN OF THE MONTH, A Cowboy’s Promise. This latest title in Anne McAllister’s popular CODE OF THE WEST miniseries features a rugged Native American determined to win back the woman he left three years before. Then discover The Secret Life of Connor Monahan in Elizabeth Bevarly’s tale of a vice cop who mistakenly surmises that a prim and proper restaurateur is operating a call-girl ring.

The sizzling miniseries 20 AMBER COURT concludes with Anne Marie Winston’s Risqué Business, in which a loyal employee tries to prevent a powerful CEO with revenge on his mind from taking over the company she thinks of as her family. Reader favorite Maureen Child delivers the next installment of another exciting miniseries, THE FORTUNES OF TEXAS: THE LOST HEIRS. In Did You Say Twins?! a marine sergeant inherits twin daughters and is forced to turn for help to the woman who refused his marriage proposal ten years before.

The sexy hero of Michael’s Temptation, the last book in Eileen Wilks’s TALL, DARK & ELIGIBLE miniseries, goes to Central America to rescue a lovely lady who’s been captured by guerrillas. And sparks fly when a smooth charmer and a sassy tomboy are brought together by their shared inheritance of an Australian horse farm in Brownyn Jameson’s Addicted to Nick.

Take time out from the holiday rush and treat yourself to all six of these not-to-be-missed romances.

Enjoy,

Joan Marlow Golan

Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire

Addicted to Nick

Bronwyn Jameson

MILLS & BOON

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BRONWYN JAMESON

spent much of her childhood with her head buried in a book. As a teenager, she discovered romance novels, and it was only a matter of time before she turned her love of reading them into a love of writing them. Bronwyn shares an idyllic piece of the Australian farming heartland with her husband and three sons, a thousand sheep, a dozen horses, assorted wildlife and one kelpie dog. She still chooses to spend her limited downtime with a good book. Bronwyn loves to hear from readers. Write to her at bronwyn@bronwynjameson.com.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Prologue

Nick didn’t know what coming home should feel like, but he figured something ought to register on the nostalgia scale. Nothing major, mind you, just a touch of the warm and fuzzies. Hell, even a twinge of bitterness would be better than the emotional numbness that seemed to have settled over him during the long flight from JFK to Australia.

He hated the lack of feeling. It reminded him too keenly of the first time he’d stood in this drive gazing up at Joe Corelli’s mansion, except that time he had deliberately schooled his eight-year-old heart to blankness. He hadn’t wanted to feel anything—not fear or confusion, shame or hope—so he’d simply looked at the big house and wondered how long till someone realized they’d made a serious mistake.

Kids like Niccolo Corelli got arrested for being anywhere near houses like this.

But the stranger who introduced himself as some relative of his dead mother had looped a comforting arm around his shoulders and said, “This is your home, Niccolo. Forget what came before—you’re part of my family now.”

Part of a family.

Nick hadn’t a clue what that meant, and, despite Joe’s best efforts, he’d never been allowed to forget his origins.

He stared a while longer at the big house and felt nothing. Maybe he just needed sleep. Ten hours, uninterrupted, between sheets. Yeah, that was exactly what his jet-lagged body and emotion-lagged mind needed, although they weren’t getting horizontal yet. With a barely stifled yawn, he unfolded himself from the hire car and stretched his limbs. Then, as he turned toward the house, he caught a flicker of movement at an upstairs window.

Big Brother George watching from on high.

Just like that first time, Nick thought, although today he raised a casual hand in acknowledgment instead of the single-finger salute of fourteen years before. The curtain shifted back into place, and Nick puffed out a derisive laugh. Idly he scanned the ground-floor windows and wondered who else might be watching.

How many of the four women who had grown up as his sisters waited inside the thick stucco walls? Sophie, no doubt. At the faintest whiff of trouble, Sophie always came running. She was the one who dobbed to her mother the first time he bloodied George’s nose…and to her father the last time. It was Sophie who eavesdropped on the heated argument between her parents before Joe brought him here, and who spread the phrase “dirty whore’s brat.”

Yeah, he would bet money on Sophie turning up—if George had bothered to let his sisters know he was coming. His adoptive brother’s communication record was something less than stellar.

He slammed the car door on that thought, but as he strode up the drive, he could feel the tension in his jaw and a stiffness in his muscles that had nothing to do with jet lag. He didn’t want to be here—not here in Melbourne, nor at the country stables he had reportedly inherited.

Reportedly.

Wasn’t it just like George to play petty games with the facts and to ensure that the solicitor handling Joe’s estate played along, too? Nick blew out an exasperated breath. As soon as he learned the full story and slapped a For Sale sign on Yarra Park, he was gone.

This time for good.

One

If the night hadn’t been so still, silent but for the occasional swoosh of straw under restless hooves, T.C. wouldn’t have heard the faint creak of gate hinges.

Or the crunch of footsteps on the gravel path leading from the house-yard to the stables.

She could have made her way back to the stable hand’s quarters at the far end of the barn and crawled back into bed, convinced her sleep had been disturbed by an unfamiliar and unforgiving mattress rather than the audible signs of a midnight intruder.

The footsteps paused, and a chill of fear shivered across her skin. “Turn around and go back the way you came. Get in your car and drive away. Please.” Her entreaty was a whisper of breath that barely pierced the thick night air. She closed her eyes, counted to ten—slowly—but no car door clicked shut, no starter-motor engaged. With her heart lurching painfully against her ribs, she edged to the end of the stable row and peered out into the night.

Nothing moved except some ghostly strands of autumn fog—strands that seemed to slither up from the Yarra River to wrap the house in the promise of winter. T.C. retreated a step, drew a long breath. The air was cold enough to sting in her nostrils, but it was also rich with leather and horsehair, sweet molasses and fresh clover hay, familiar bracing aromas that lent strength to her weak knees.

Someone was out there—maybe the jerk who had dialed her number over and over these past weeks, only to hang up without speaking a word. She pictured him standing on the path, head lifted to test the air as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. Most likely a burglar who thought the place would be easy pickings with only a woman in residence, knowledge he could have gleaned in a casual chat with any of the locals in nearby Riddells Crossing.

Her fingers tightened around the gun in her right hand. It weighed next to nothing yet it felt curiously reassuring, considering it was useless. She switched it to her left hand and wiped her damp palm on her thigh…her pajama-pants-clad thigh, she amended. A semihysterical giggle bubbled up, and she pressed a hand to her mouth to stifle the sound.

Some scumbag was stalking her stables, and she intended taking him on dressed in oversize flannel pajamas and armed with nothing but a kid’s toy cap gun. She would take him while he was rolling around the floor laughing!

The footsteps started again, approaching rapidly this time and without any pretense of stealth. She had no time to consider this, no time to consider anything, no time to plan. A dark figure came through the barn entrance less than a pace away, close enough for her to absorb the soft tang of his aftershave on a swiftly drawn breath.

Close enough to touch, in the ribs, with the toy gun.

“Don’t move, mister, and I won’t have to shoot you.”

The phoney tough-guy line rolled from T.C.’s tongue without conscious thought. She closed her eyes and grimaced. Had she really said that? With such cool calm strength, when her insides were quivering like half-set Jell-O? The quaver transferred to her legs and started them trembling. She prayed the hand holding her make-believe weapon wouldn’t follow suit.

The stranger slowly raised his hands above his head. “Take it easy, sweetheart. Don’t do anything stupid.”

“I have the, um, gun, so you should be the one avoiding stupid moves!” T.C. hated herself for that stumbling pause, but before she could do more than wince, she sensed him start to move and jabbed him with the gun. Hard.

“I get the picture. I’m not to move, right?” He eased out the words in a deep, soothing monotone—the exact same voice she used to settle a nervous horse. That gave her pause. Why was he trying to mollify her? She wasn’t the one creeping about someone else’s stables in the dead of night.

“Right,” she clipped out, irritated as well as confused. “No…wrong.” She circled about him, transferring the gun from his ribs to his back, as she regathered her composure. “I do want you to move. I want you to turn, slowly, and put your hands up against the wall.”

Surprisingly he complied, although his posture looked way too casual for T.C.’s liking. “You want me to spread ’em?” he asked. A hint of amusement colored the rich depth of his voice.

“That won’t be necessary,” she replied, absolutely unamused. The guy acted like having a gun—okay, a toy gun, but he didn’t know that—pointed at his back was more an entertainment than a concern. She needed to assert some authority, but how on earth did she go about doing that? This was not a small man. At least six foot and, unless her night vision was severely impaired, most of it muscle. Her only advantage was a handful of plastic imitation weaponry.

What if he had a real weapon?

The alarming thought caused her throat to tighten. She had to clear that solid lump of dread before she could ask, “Are you armed?”

“And dangerous?” he mocked.

T.C. cursed herself for expecting to learn anything from such a foolish question. In order to find out she needed to search him…to put her hands on him….

She steeled herself by drawing a deep breath but found the air edged with his disturbingly appealing scent. She let the breath go with a snort. So even bad guys can find their way around a bottle of Calvin Klein, she told herself. So what? Get on with it!

Plunging forward, she patted down his jacket, found two outside pockets and two sets of keys—nothing unusual there. Her hand stilled on the jacket. Not cheap vinyl but real, malleable, high-quality leather, which did strike her as unusual.

What kind of burglar was he?

“There’s an inside pocket you’d better check. And one in my shirt.”

Obviously a helpful one.

Stung out of immobility, she took another C.K.-imbued breath before sliding her hand inside the jacket. His shirt was incredibly warm and the fabric so fine that she could feel the muted texture of his chest hair against her palm. And beneath that…holy toledo! she felt the rippling curves and indents of some exceedingly fine pecs. It was like stroking the finest horseflesh, all supple and deceptively languid, while underneath the slow, steady beat of his heart pumped all that heat into her hand, her blood, her belly.

Stroking?

She pulled her hand back sharply, and a shimmer of sensation skimmed across her fingertips, settled in her skin. “Static electricity,” she muttered, shaking her fingers.

“Pardon?”

“I wasn’t speaking to you.”

“Then who?”

“None of your business.” T.C. spoke through clenched teeth. “I’m going to search your pants now.”

“Be my guest.”

It was amazing how much amusement he managed to pack into that short statement. Enough to really rile T.C. She prodded him in the ribs with sufficient force to cause him to flinch. Good—maybe now he would show some respect!

His pants were jeans of the close-fitting variety. One rear pocket housed a slim leather wallet; the other contained nothing more than finely hewn muscle. She took a half step back and wiped her palm against her thigh, then scrubbed it harder. Somehow she couldn’t erase the imprint from her skin.

She jumped clear off the ground when he drawled, “Don’t stop there, sweet hands. There are more pockets around the front.”

“I have a better idea. Why don’t you just tell me where your weapon’s hidden?”

He laughed, a low rich belly-laugh that did strange things to T.C.’s insides. “Why don’t you slide that soft little hand around here and find out for yourself?”

Heat blazed into her cheeks. How dare he be so…so… Words failed her. She did the mental equivalent of spluttering and told herself the warmth in her cheeks was not due to his softly purred suggestion. She transferred the gun from left hand to right, stretched her tight tendons finger by finger, and inspected the hand that was indeed little but hadn’t been soft for more years than she could remember.

“Don’t,” she said, her voice as crisp and chill as the night air, “make the mistake of associating my size with softness.”

And with the strength of those words ringing in her ears, she did exactly as he’d asked. She reached around and checked the front pockets of his jeans. Very quickly. Then she slid her hand up and checked the waistband. Neat fit, hard to hide anything there, she noted. She also noted when he drew breath. She could tell by the sudden tautness of his abs beneath her hand.

What she didn’t realize was that the breath was taken in preparation.

His turn was quick, as was the hand that dislodged the gun. It clunked against the wall, hit the floor, then slid a long long way before clattering to a standstill. It took the stranger less time to twist her arm behind her back and right up between her shoulder blades.

“I’d like to think you were touching me up for the sheer pleasure of it, but something tells me that’s not it. How about you tell me what is going on?”

He stood close behind her, close enough that the words washed over her nape in a warm wave. She shook her head to rid herself of the sensation, and he stretched her arm further.

“Ouch,” she breathed. “You’re hurting me.”

“You think that piece of plastic you were brandishing hasn’t bruised me?” He released the pressure on her arm, although he didn’t let it go. Long fingers manacled her wrist. “Well?” he prompted.

T.C. frowned. If he knew the gun was fake, it explained his casual attitude, but why hadn’t he called her on it? And why had he asked her to explain? She wrenched her arm and found herself hauled backward, right up hard against his body, so when he spoke his voice hummed close against her ear. “All right, sweet hands, if you don’t want to tell me why you’re skulking about in the dark, I’ll have to start searching for clues.”

His hand slid over her hip. T.C. yelped and tried to swat it away, but he pulled her nearer by banding an arm around her chest. Her back was pasted to his front, so close that when he laughed, the low sound vibrated from his chest into her body. It set up a resonant buzz along her spine, like a tuning fork perfectly pitched.

Or maybe that was in reaction to the hand cruising down one thigh then back up again, inch by leisurely inch. Omi-gosh, now it was inside her pajama coat, sliding across her belly. She wriggled frantically, needing to escape his touch—but wriggling was a big mistake. It brought her backside up hard against his thighs. All the breath left her lungs in a rush.

“What’s the matter, sweetheart? Not used to having a perfect stranger run his hands all over you? Intrusive, isn’t it?”

“My name’s not sweet anything!” She kicked out, and the sudden flurry of legs and boots caught him unaware. The arm holding her slipped, and she swiveled sideways; his free hand grabbed…and closed over her left breast.

For a long second they both went completely still. T.C. heard the rasp of her own breathing, not quite steady, over the heavy thud of her heartbeat. Then she kicked out again, and this time her booted heel caught him in the shin.

He swore succinctly, and T.C. felt a rush of vindictive satisfaction. This was his fault. He shouldn’t have been touching her at all, let alone in that deliberate way. She swung her feet again, and he grunted as he shifted sideways to avoid her heels.

He cursed again. “What are you, half mule? Stop kicking, for Pete’s sake!”

“Then…let…me…go!”

“I’ll let you go when I can see what you’re up to. Where’s the light switch?”

When she didn’t answer his arm tightened. “Down there…straight ahead…last door on your left.” T.C.’s instructions came out in reluctant grunts against the arm crushing her diaphragm.

He frog-marched her the length of the breezeway, pushed open the door to her quarters and flicked the switch. T.C. squeezed her eyes shut against the sudden brightness. Dazzling yellow figures danced across the backs of her lids. She heard Ug yap a greeting, the scratch of her nails as she scampered across the concrete floor, then felt the little dog bouncing around her legs…no, make that their legs.

Oh, great. First my dog doesn’t even hear him arrive, then she greets him like a long-lost friend!

“Down. Sit.” His instructions were so do-not-argue that T.C. almost sat herself.

Needless to say, her traitorous dog subsided.

The stranger’s grip eased. His hands moved to her shoulders, swinging her around until she stood staring into his broad chest. Her nose almost touched the front of his shirt and the chest hair revealed by two open buttons.

She swallowed with difficulty and raised a hand to push against the solid wall of his chest. It didn’t budge. Beneath her palm beat the steady pulse of his heart. She tipped her head back, found herself too close to see anything beyond a chin dark with regrowth and centered with a faint familiar-looking cleft.

Oh, no, it couldn’t be….

She backed up until the full lips and long, straight nose came into focus; then she closed her eyes.

Oh, yes, it most definitely was!

“Tell me I didn’t just kick Nick Corelli in the shins,” she said on the end of a long tortured groan. Tell me I didn’t just run my hands all over Nick Corelli’s body. Except she knew she had—the knowledge still tingled in the palms of those hands.

She opened her eyes to find his focused intently on her, and for a long moment she could do nothing but stare back. His eyes weren’t obsidian dark like all the Corellis she had met but the pure cerulean of a summer sky. So unexpected, so unusual, so giddily, perfectly beautiful. Finally she remembered to take another breath, to close the mouth she feared had fallen open in gobstopped awe.

“You know me?” He sounded startled by that, and there was definitely surprise lurking in those amazing eyes. Surprise and something more. Interest? Or merely curiosity?

She shook her head, as much to clear her stunned senses as in reply. “We’ve never met, but I recognize you. From photographs. Your father showed me photographs.”

“You recognized me instantly from a couple of pictures?”

More than a couple. T.C. felt herself color as she recalled how many…and how often she’d pored over them. Good grief, she had actually freeze-framed a video of his sister’s wedding on one spectacular shot. It was a wonder she hadn’t pegged him as Nick the Gorgeous One in the total dark!

“I take it you aren’t a burglar. Do you work here?” He glanced down at where Ug lay at his feet—almost on his feet—and grinned. “Let me guess. You’re security, and this is your guard dog.”

T.C.’s heart did a slow motion flip-flop as the effect of that lazy drawl, the warmth of that slow grin, rippled through her body. She couldn’t help her automatic response. How could she not smile back at him? How could she watch one quizzically arched brow disappear behind the thick fall of his hair and not think about combing it back from his face?

Belatedly she realized that the brow had arched in question. Asking what? Something about her working here? “Um…I’m the trainer. I train Joe’s horses.”

His expression changed from quizzical to startled in one blink of his dark lashes. “You’re Tamara Cole?”

“That’s me.”

He inspected her with unnerving thoroughness, starting at her boots and working all the way up her legs and body. When he arrived back at her face, he let out a choked sort of snort that sounded like equal parts disbelief and suppressed laughter, and the warmth suffusing T.C.’s veins turned prickly with irritation. She knew she wasn’t looking her best, but that was no reason for him to shake his head and grin as if he couldn’t quite believe what his eyes were telling him. She folded her arms and regarded him as coolly as the hot flush of mortification allowed. “What are you doing here, Nick?”

“Apart from being attacked by a crazy little horse-training woman dressed in pajamas and boots?”

“I mean,” she said tightly, as he continued to grin down at her, “I’ve been waiting to hear from someone for weeks and weeks, but I didn’t expect you. Last I heard, you were lost in the wilds of Alaska.”

The grin faded. “Who told you that?”

“George mentioned it. After the funeral.” She shrugged off the memory of that short, unpleasant meeting. Who-told-who-what didn’t matter when important questions remained unanswered. Like, what was Nick doing here, and why had he arrived unannounced in the middle of the night? “You should have let me know you were coming.”