MARRIAGE-BARGAIN

CHAPTER 9

NICK POV

Nick started to say something, then stopped cold. The sight of her sipping and enjoying her wine put every muscle in his body in a lock.

The blood pounded through his veins and his groin shot to full alert. Her tongue licked her lips with such delicate strokes, he wished she

tasted something other than the wine. He wondered if she made those throaty sounds when a man was buried deep inside her wet, clinging

heat. He wondered if she'd be as tight and hot as her mouth, closing around him like a silky fist, milking every last drop of his reserve and still

demanding more. Those stretchy pants revealed every curve of her body, from her sweet butt to the luscious length of her legs. Her

sweatshirt had ridden up and flashed him with a strip of bare skin. And obviously she'd ripped off her bra, not thinking of him as a man who

wanted her, but more like an annoying older brother without male urges.

Damn her for starting to make things complicated. He dropped the bowl of pasta on the table and quickly arranged the place settings.

"Stop drinking the wine like that. You're not in a porno flick."

She gasped. "Hey, don't take things out on me just 'cause you're cranky. I can't help it if business was more important to you than a real

marriage."

"Yeah, but as soon as I gave a price you jumped. I bought you just as much as you bought me."

She grabbed the pasta bowl and filled her plate. "Who are you to judge me? You've had everything given to you your whole life. You got a

Mitsubishi Eclipse for your sixteenth birthday. I got a Chevette."

He stiffened at the memory. "You got a family. I got shit."

She paused, then grabbed a piece of hot garlic bread dripping with mozzarella. "You got Maggie."

"I know."

"What happened to you guys? You used to be close."

He shrugged. "She changed in high school. Suddenly, she wouldn't talk to me. She stopped letting me in her room for our talks, then shut

me out completely. So, I let her go and concentrated on having a life of my own. You lost touch with her for a while back then, didn't you?"

"Yeah. I always thought something happened, but she never talks about it. Anyway, my own family was screwed up for a while, so you

weren't alone."

"But now it's like the Waltons in there."

She laughed and crammed a mouthful of pasta into her mouth. "My father has a lot to make up for, but I think we've managed to heal the

cycle."

"Cycle?"

"The karmic cycle, when someone screws up really bad and hurts you. Our first instinct is to hurt back, or refuse to forgive."

"Sounds reasonable."

"Ah, but now the cycle of hurt and abuse continues. When he came back, I decided I only had one father, and I'd accept whatever he could

give. Eventually, he gave up the booze and tried to make up for the past."

Nick made a rude sound. "He took off when you were young and left his family behind for the bottle. Abandoned your twin sisters. Then he