Chapter Eleven
By Saint Medard, the Patron Saint of Storms at Sea, Nico was boiling hot. He had to get out of these clothes, and then divest sweet Gigi or hers. The two of them would make a nest out of all the torn silks and satins shed by the weird mannequins and they would make love for hours, days.
Love?
He didn’t do love, did he? Except this was the one and only gorgeous Gigi DeWitt he was talking about here. He needed to get closer to her, touch that velvety soft skin, uncover those lithe curves, worship every square inch of her.
Oh, finally, his shirt was off, except that in no way helped.
He felt like he was on fire. Needing more clothes off, boots next.
Glancing down at his left boot, something about that, something he needed to remember.
Yet he couldn’t grab hold of it. Gigi’s scent tantalising his senses, sending his already supernova ready cock up another level, almost bordering on painful.
Get naked. Get Gigi naked.
Priorities man.
Toeing off one boot, even as he tried to unbutton his trousers. Grrr, somehow the button almost seemed like it had melted. Bloody Hell. Struggling with it, trying and failing to tear it open, even with his super strength.
All the while Nico was aware of the ache in his jaw. His teeth clamped as tightly together as he could manage, nothing was getting out of there, not one single word. But why was he doing that? He didn’t like the ache. And he had so much to say to Gigi.
He should be seducing her with his words first, then maybe she might help him with his trousers. Yeah, words. No. Yes, he needed to tell Gigi how her breasts reminded him of perfect dew kissed melons harvested from the southern fields of Carborca. Ripe and ready to be plucked and tasted.
No. No!
Another uncomfortable jab speared Nico’s gut. For a moment his head cleared. Do not talk about Gigi’s breasts.
A wave of heat slamming through him. Of course not, he should start with her eyes. Tell her how they reminded him of the dark purple shimmering night skies above the sand dunes of Egypt during a full moon. Mysterious. Captivating. Hypnotic.
Yes.
No!
His teeth were unclenching. Words bubbling up from the deepest secret part of Nico. No. He was stronger than this. Nico refused to be a moon-sick calf. Except the words were coming, Saints help him. “I find your work ethic really commendable.”
“Pardon?”
He’d surprised her with that one. Women liked surprises, didn’t they?
“And the success of your Emporium. It’s really admirable, given that over sixty-one percent of first time food industry establishments fail within the first three years.”
Gigi felt like she’d just been slapped. Where was the fawning? The Pepe le Pew seduction routine? Nico had just been struck by cupid’s arrow, he should be tearing his clothes off and making wild lust based declarations and promises.
Well, she’d put a stop to the tearing off of clothes.
So that was on her. He’d divested himself of his shirt too quickly, but she’d had a moment to remove several elements from the buttons of his trousers, and magically wielded the button fly closed.
Problem was, a barefoot, bare chested Nico was still a lot to deal with.
He had really nice arms. And those defined abdominal muscles of his were entirely too lickable. Hah, exactly who was the one who’d taken a hit from cupid’s arrow?
It would be wrong to take advantage of Nico in his current state. Didn’t mean she couldn’t look and marvel at the results of good genetics and the hours Nico spent running and swimming.
And sue her. She was feeling a little peeved. Which was ridiculous. But Gigi had imagined this seduction playing out a little differently. Yes, he was stalking her, almost like they were dancing. As she backed up, and he shadowed her around the room.
But where were the grand romantic gestures?
The declarations of overwrought infatuation?
Seriously? Why wasn’t the man waxing lyrical about her lips, butt or toes?
That arrow should make her his perfect prospective romantic partner, right?
At least temporarily. Cupid’s arrow was designed to give love a chance so it struck hard and fast. Then its effects began to wane and either true feelings remained or they didn’t.
Clearly Nico was fighting the effects of the arrow’s influence with everything he had.
Though he couldn’t seem to prevent the heated looks or the telling bulge in his pants.
Yet he must have the internal fortitude of Hercules, because everything coming out of his mouth wasn’t anything she hadn’t heard before at the local chamber of commerce twice yearly Haven Bay Business Owners Meeting.
Clearly this man despised love. It was disheartening. Wait, what?
No, all she meant was that everyone deserved a little love in their life, that was all. Because she was a good person, not because she was the faintest bit interested in what it would take for a woman to make Nico Yanez trust in love again.
Whoops. She’d been so distracted she’d backed herself up against a column.
Nico closing in fast, trapping her in place.
Leaning in so close she could feel heat radiating off his bare chest. Her fingers gripping either side of the column behind her, for support, not because she was afraid she might reach out and trace the lines of all those muscles and indentations.
Nico leaned in even closer. Heavens. His warm breath brushing over her ear, little tingles of excitement and anticipation racing up and down her spine.
“Branding.”
Good Goddess. The idea of him marking her skin for some weird reason almost had Gigi’s knees buckling. An unexpected throbbing ache bursting into life between her legs. No. Down lady parts. Down.
“Yours is very impressive. Adopting a signature colour was smart. Every time someone sees one of your purple and white boxes they think of your Emporium. And being able to turn the boxes into trays, genius.”
Oh. Gigi emotions warred. Nico wasn’t talking about touching her, marking her… branding her. He was still waxing on about her business smarts, which was really quite flattering. Wasn’t it?
Gulping, she watched one of his hands slide across his chest, down over his stomach, to tug futilely at his trouser fly. He was flushed, bright colour staining his tanned cheeks, annoyingly making his eyes look like pans of sticky dreamy toffee sauce.
“My fly seems to be stuck. Don’t suppose you could help a man out in his time of need?”
Help Nico get naked? Sure, she could do that with a flick of her magic, separating all the elements in the material of his trousers would be child’s play.
But there was a reason she shouldn’t, though her mind was a blank right now.
“Er, no, thank you?” Gripping the sides of the column even tighter, commanding those untrustworthy knees of hers to get their act together.
“That’s alright.” He slugged her with a killer smile that made her knees almost give up altogether. “If I get desperate I suppose I can always just rip them off.”
Like a stripper? One who was dressed as a pirate? Gigi bit the inside of her cheek in order to keep a moan at bay. Damn, where was Canary? Surely it had been five minutes since he’d exploded, that was usually the maximum amount of time he needed to reform.
“Now, let’s talk about your…”
Gigi swallowed hard, yes, let’s talk about her…?
“Advertising strategy.”
Heaven help her, this man would be the death of her. Was he seducing her or not? Quite frankly she couldn’t tell, though her knees and lady parts knew which way they would be voting. Hold on a moment, did she actually want Nico to seduce her?
He was admittedly way hot, but he was so gruff, and determinedly anti-love.
Just look at the way he was fighting cupid’s arrow.
It was impressive, how he was trying to circumvent it.
Though his nearness, the look in his eyes and the bulge in his trousers let her know he wasn’t completely immune to her charms.
Hold on. That was the work of outside forces, the arrow. Perhaps Nico wasn’t attracted to her at all. Which was fine. More than fine. They were just temporary business slash spy partners. Caught up in the shenanigans of the Gods.
“You’ve really cornered the market on word of mouth advertising. After every family party I always hear someone in the bar reminiscing about a scrumptious cookie or chocolate treat they recently consumed.”
Merciful Lady. Would he ever shut up about her business prowess?
To be fair, she supposed he couldn’t. Praising her accomplishments was his way of blunting the effects of the arrow.
Well, at least she knew he respected and admired her business acumen and actually did consider her his partner, finally.
She sensed Canary reform. Calling him over.
She considered spraying Nico with some quick hardening taffy, but he wasn’t doing anything more than looming extra close to her.
Giving her go nowhere heated looks whilst he waxed on lyrically about her entrepreneurial acumen.
It was a modern woman’s dream come true, right?
It was ironic how typical this moment with Nico was proving. A perfect example of what had gone wrong with all her previous boyfriends. Was it wrong to be wanted, admired, loved for everything that made Gigi… well Gigi.
étienne had wanted her for her chocolatier abilities.
Inviting her to run away to Paris with him where they would make beautiful chocolates together all day and love all night.
Except it quickly became clear that her role in his perfect scenario was to act as silent junior dessert chef and let him take all the credit and glory for her creations. No thank you.
Christopher had only wanted her brains for his Think tank. Her looks were just an advantage. But he belittled and disparaged her hobby of chocolate making and dreams of worldwide chocolate domination at every turn. Hit the road, buddy.