Dynasties: The Barones

“Well, thank you,” he said, knowing the words weren’t adequate. “From both of us.”

“My pleasure.”

“Maybe we could celebrate tonight by going to Baronessa’s for ice cream.”

Gail’s face fell. “I can’t, but you two should definitely go.”

Nicholas frowned. “Why not?”

“It’s my night off, and I have a date.”

“Oh. Maybe another time,” he muttered, irritated that she had a date, irritated that another man was going to have the opportunity to be with her tonight, irritated that he was irritated.

Nicholas returned to work and arrived home in time to watch Gail leave for her date. She wore a short black dress, more elegant than some of the others she’d acquired, and he noticed she’d improved her makeup technique. Her perfume lingered after she left, and he stood in the foyer inhaling it until he realized what he was doing and felt like an idiot.

Tired from her day of walking, Molly fell asleep early, so Nicholas nixed the idea of visiting his family’s gelateria. He wasn’t much in the mood, anyway. Nor was he much in the mood to watch a Boston Celtics game or read the newspaper in front of him. The hour grew late, and his imagination went through the roof. He wondered what Gail was doing.

He wondered if this guy she was out with cranked her engine and if she had decided to give her lipstick the eight-hour lovemaking test. He wondered if this guy would try to find out if she was wearing panties, or a thong or nothing beneath that black dress.

His gut tensed at the images, and his skin felt too tight for his body. He should be thinking about the woman he would be seeing tomorrow night, not Gail. He was attending a cocktail party with one of the most beautiful women in Boston. It should be easy to switch his focus away from Gail. So, why wasn’t it?

Just after midnight he turned off the television and walked toward the stairs. He heard a sound outside the front door. The door whooshed open and Gail, drenched from head to toe, stumbled inside. Her makeup was smeared and her hands were trembling.

“What in hell?”

She gave a short smile. “Had a little disagreement with my date.”

An ugly suspicion seeped through him. “What do you mean?”

“He insisted that I go back to his apartment with him and I disagreed. He got pushy…”

Nicholas tensed. “How pushy?”

She wrinkled her nose. “You know if you don’t want somebody’s tongue in your mouth, you definitely don’t want it down your throat. And you definitely don’t want him going fishing under your dress. He was worse than a toddler. I must’ve said no a dozen times. Maybe he was deaf. And I didn’t try any of the goddess come-on lines.”

Fury raced through him. “What’s this guy’s name? He sounds like he needs to learn some lessons about how to treat women.”

Gail looked at Nicholas in surprise. “His name was Jeremy, but—”

“Are you sure he didn’t hurt you?”

“Absolutely sure.” Taking off her coat, she looked down at her shoes and winced. “High heels were not designed for a one-and-a-half-mile trek through Boston. I’m going to have the worst blisters in the history of my existence, and this guy was not worth it. Could you please turn around? I can’t bear to have these stockings on one more minute.”

Nicholas turned, still infuriated. “Maybe you should let me screen your dates.”

“My dates are screened. I ask the guys on the volleyball team, and they get the scoop. This guy was new in town, though.” He heard her sigh. “Oh, thank God, the stockings are gone. I think I really offended him when I told him to take a cold shower.”

She seemed less shaky now. Relief trickled through him. “Did you really walk that far?”

She nodded. “No cabs available this late in the rain.”

“You should have called me,” he said, moving closer to her.

She sighed. “I couldn’t do that. You’re my boss.”

“Damn it,” he said, taking her arm. “Your safety is important to me and Molly. If you ever get in this kind of situation again, I insist that you call me.”

She paused, her gaze meshing with his. “It’s not likely to happen again, but if you really mean it—”

“I do.”

“Okay. Now all I want is a hot bath.”

“Jacuzzi?” he offered, pushing a damp strand away from her face, wanting to take her in his arms and frustrated that he shouldn’t.

Her eyes darkened with the same forbidden desire that he felt in his gut. She shook her head, but he could read the memories of their shared passion written on her face. “The Jacuzzi is a big no-no for me,” she said. If her eyes could talk, they would have said, in the sexiest way possible, “And you’re the biggest no-no, of all.”

Nicholas felt the growing, dangerous urge to show Gail just how pleasurable her no-nos could be.

Six

Nicholas was out with one of his beautiful women. It should be a long evening. Dinner and the opera. Gail told herself she wouldn’t have wanted to attend the opera, anyway.

“You are lots more fun than any opera,” she said to Molly as she fed her SpaghettiOs.

Molly opened her mouth and gave a pasta smile.

Gail winced. “We are definitely going to have to work on your table manners.”

The doorbell rang, and the housekeeper called out that she would answer it. “Wonder who that is,” Gail said to Molly when she heard several female voices. She’d barely blinked before four women filled the doorway. She immediately recognized Gina, and though all the women had distinctive features, she could see a Barone family resemblance.

“We’re here to see the bambina, and we’re not taking no for an answer,” the most petite woman said. With dark-brown hair and brown eyes, she was exquisitely pretty.

“Stop it, Maria,” Gina said. “You’re scaring Gail. The least you can do is introduce yourself.”

The young woman immediately stepped forward with a friendly smile and extended her hand. “I’m Maria Barone, the youngest. We couldn’t stay away when Gina told us about Molly. Nick says she’s walking. You must bring Molly to the gelateria.”

“We were going to come last night, but I had a date and Nicholas is at the opera tonight.”

“Oh, he’s gone,” another of the women said in delight. “That means he won’t be able to hustle us away too quickly. I’m Rita, number seven in birth order.” The energetic woman laughed. “Don’t worry. There won’t be a quiz. Gina, Maria and I live in the same brownstone. I hope you don’t mind us barging in. Since I wasn’t working and none of us had plans for the evening, we decided we had to get a look at our niece. Nick has been very protective of her.”

The quietest of the group stepped forward. “I’m Colleen,” she said. “I’ve heard many good things about you from my mother. She says you’ve done wonders with Molly.”

“Thank you,” Gail said, overwhelmed but delighted to meet Nicholas’s sisters. With this group, she wouldn’t have even a minute to think about him and his date. “I’m pleased you could visit. Molly and I didn’t have anything planned except finishing SpaghettiOs and a bath.”

“SpaghettiOs,” Maria echoed, making the sign of the cross. “My father would wig out. But he’s not here, so he doesn’t need to know. May I feed her?”

Gail gave the spoon to Nicholas’s sister and moved to the side so that she was still in Molly’s line of vision. “You don’t live with your other sisters?” she asked Colleen.

Before Colleen could reply, Gina stepped forward, shaking her head. “Colleen left the convent a couple of years ago, but she decided it would be a shock to her system to live with us after living with nuns.”

Colleen chuckled. “I think they were more concerned about my moral influence.”

“It’s hard to combine wild and wise,” Gail said, envying the family closeness, “but it could be fun to try.”

“Henri gave you a copy of Goddess magazine, didn’t he?” Gina asked, apparently recognizing the lingo. “I love your new haircut.”

“Thank you. Yes, he did. I don’t think I’ve reached true goddessdom yet. I ended up walking home from a bum date last night.”

Gina gasped. “Oh, no. Are you okay?”

“Fine. Your brother’s very protective.”

All four sisters groaned, then burst into laughter. “Tell us something we don’t know,” Rita said. “When we first moved into the brownstone, he and my father wanted to hire an on-site chaperon.”

“Gosh, it must be nice having such a big family,” Gail said, unable to hide the secret longing she’d had for years.

“It’s got ups and downs,” Colleen said. “What about your family?”

“Both my parents have passed away, so it’s just my brother and me.”

Colleen murmured sympathetically and patted her hand. “Well, we can adopt you.”

“Sure,” Gina said. “We can intrude in your business, show up unannounced and tell you how to run your life. We’re very experienced at that.”

“Sounds great to me,” Gail said.

“Oh, I like this one,” Rita said with a smile. “And I bet you have a great effect on Nick.”

Gail’s heart stopped and she shook her head. “I’m not at all his type.”

“Why not?” Maria asked, cleaning Molly’s face with a wet cloth.

“Well, for starters, I’m not beautiful,” Gail said, rising when Molly began to fuss. “Cleanup’s gotta be done fast with this one.”

“Who told you you’re not beautiful?” Maria asked.

“No one needed to,” she said, uncomfortable with the discussion. “I’m just not his type.”

“He must think you’re important if he’s protective of you,” Gina said. “Otherwise, he wouldn’t bother.”

“Oh, I’m very important because Molly needs me,” she said as much for herself as for Nicholas’s sisters. “Who wants to help give her a bath?”

“Me,” the women said at once, and Gail was relieved she’d successfully changed the subject. She couldn’t help liking the women for their gentleness with Molly. Each of them took a turn caring for her. After they put Molly to bed, they surprised Gail by each embracing her at the door before they left.

Afterward Gail sat at the kitchen table and daydreamed about what it would be like to have such a large, caring family. She suspected they didn’t know how precious their bond was. The yearning to belong knotted her chest, and her eyes watered.

Dismayed at her emotional reaction, she sniffed back her tears and pulled open her latest issue of Goddess. Surely that would distract her.

Nicholas entered the quiet house and leaned against the wall, giving a sigh of relief. The evening had been interminable. Corinne had looked incredibly beautiful and classy. She had hung on every word, agreed with everything he said, and he’d been bored out of his mind.

Gail paid attention to him, but she didn’t hang on every word, and she sure as hell didn’t agree with everything he said. He closed his eyes and squeezed the bridge of his nose. This situation was growing more insane with each passing day. He had thought an evening with Corinne would wipe Gail from his mind, and Corinne had indicated she would be more than willing for him to stay the night at her condominium.

He should have stayed. He should have allowed her to take care of his needs, but the prospect had left him lukewarm at best. Lord, he hoped nothing was wrong with him, he thought, pushing away from the wall and heading for the kitchen. He pulled a bottle of wine from the cabinet and tugged the cork from the bottle. He inhaled the aroma from the cork, then poured himself a glass of the merlot.

He took a long, slow sip and savored the full-bodied flavor. Glancing at the table, he noticed a magazine open on the table. Gail or his housekeeper must have left it there. Curious, he walked over and looked at it. The title of the article grabbed his attention immediately: “50 Wicked Ways to Seduce Your Man.”

This was definitely not his housekeeper’s magazine. Nicholas checked the front cover. Goddess. He should have known. He flipped back to the article and scanned the list of suggestions. “Lick his earlobes… Blindfold him and skim all his sensitive places with just your hair… Lick his belly button… Lick his…”

Growing warm, he could easily imagine Gail letting her wild hair fall over his bare body. He grew hard.

If Gail was reading this, he wondered with whom she planned to try out the fifty wicked seductions. The idea of her trying any of them with any man but him drove him nuts.

“This is not good, old man,” he muttered to himself. He scanned a few more of the wicked suggestions and groaned. He shut the magazine and swore under his breath. How in hell was he supposed to sleep now?

“Your sisters visited last night and your mother called,” Gail said to Nicholas the next morning as she set a cup of dry cereal on the high-chair tray in front of Molly.

“My sisters visited whom? You and Molly?” he asked.

She nodded, her eyes wide. “All four of them.”

“Did they overwhelm you?” he asked, pouring himself a cup of coffee. After taking his cold shower, he’d had a hard time going to sleep, so more than ever he needed a jolt of caffeine.

“No, I liked all of them. It must be wonderful having a large, close-knit family.”

“Most of the time,” he said. “What did my mother want?”

“She’s having a cocktail party tomorrow night and wants you to come. She also asked me to come and bring an escort.”

Nicholas gulped his coffee, nearly scalding his tongue. He was starting to feel as if there was a conspiracy against him. First his sister had encouraged Gail to get a makeover from Henri. Now his mother was inviting Gail and a man of her choice to a cocktail party. “She did?”

“Yes, but I don’t have to go. Someone needs to watch Molly and—”

“We could leave after Molly goes to sleep and Ana can watch her,” he said.

She eyed him carefully. “Are you sure? After all, I’m not family. I’m an employee.”

She seemed determined to remind him of that. “But you’re a personal family employee. If my mother invited you, then you should attend. And if you can’t think of an escort—”

“Oh, I can,” she said quickly. “And he’s been checked out by all the guys on the volleyball team. Very nice guy. A doctor. He already asked me out, so I just need to see if he’s available tomorrow night.”

Nicholas’s coffee tasted suddenly bitter in his mouth. “Okay. If it doesn’t work out, let me know.” He watched her from behind his cup, and desire twisted a knot in his belly. “When I came home last night, I happened to see the article you’d been reading.”

“What article?” she asked, her face blank. Realization hit, and her cheeks turned pink. She looked away. “Oh, that article.”

“Have you found anyone on whom you want to try out those fifty wicked seductions?”

She bit her lip, keeping her gaze focused on Molly’s cereal. “Not yet, but if I keep trying, then maybe…”

“Maybe?” he prompted.

“Not maybe,” she said with a resolute expression. “If I keep looking, then I know I will.”

Her determination gave him heartburn. Damn it. If she was going to try wicked things with a man, then he wanted to be the man. Warning bells clanged in his head, but he ignored them. It had been a long time since Nicholas had wanted a woman the way he wanted Gail. “Number thirteen looks interesting,” he said, dumping his coffee into the sink.

She whipped her head up to stare at him. “Excuse me?”

“I said number thirteen looks interesting,” he told her, moving closer. He brushed his daughter’s head with a kiss, and trailed his finger over Gail’s open mouth. “Watch out. Don’t catch a fly,” he joked. “Did anyone ever tell you that you have the kind of mouth men fantasize about?”

She shook her head.

“Hmm. See you tonight,” he said, and headed for the door with a hard-on and an ounce of satisfaction from her stunned expression.

As soon as Molly allowed, which turned out to be during her afternoon nap, Gail zipped in front of her bathroom mirror to stare at her mouth. She poked at it and stretched it, trying to see what Nicholas had seen. She had the kind of mouth that men fantasized about? Why? she wondered. Her lips were a little plumper than average, she supposed, not small and dainty. But then there wasn’t much about her that was small and dainty, she thought wryly.

She kept looking at her mouth and wondered what kind of fantasies men had. The magazine’s list came to mind, and she watched herself blush in the mirror. Giving up on the appeal of her mouth, she headed back downstairs to find out exactly what number thirteen was. Not that she would ever take part in it with Nicholas, but it would just be interesting to know.

“Straddle his lap and give him a deep French kiss just before you—”

Woo-hoo! Gail felt her temperature skyrocket and slammed the magazine closed. So that was what Nicholas liked. She closed her eyes and a hot visual filled her mind. She wondered if she would be able to do that, especially with Nicholas. Gail took a deep breath, opened her eyes and reopened the magazine again, studying the article with new eyes. What would it be like to do all fifty wicked things with Nicholas?

That evening Molly was fussy due to teething, so it took some extra time and effort to get her settled. By the time the baby was sleeping, Gail was tired and her shoulders ached. Nicholas had stayed late at the office, but she knew he had arrived home because she could hear him moving around in his bedroom. The flood of images that had crossed her mind earlier that afternoon invaded her mind again.

Gail shook her head. “Uh-uh. I’m not going there again,” she told herself, and turned toward her bedroom. Just as she opened her door, Nicholas stepped into the hallway. She automatically stopped.

“How was Molly today?” he asked, moving toward her.

“She was teething a little, but she was still mostly intent on perfecting her new skill. She was walking like she was planning a hike to China.”

“Bet she wore you out,” he said. “Why don’t you join me for a glass of wine downstairs?”

Why don’t I? A dozen sensible reasons immediately sprang to mind. The expression in his eyes sent those same reasons scattering. “That sounds nice. Just for a few minutes,” she added more for herself than for him.

She followed him downstairs to the den, where he opened a bottle of red wine and poured each of them a glass, then turned the Boston Celtics basketball game on low volume. Gail hadn’t perfected the art of appreciating red wine. She took a big swallow and wrinkled her nose.

He chuckled, sitting beside her on the sofa. “You don’t like it?”

“I’m not used to it. I was raised by a teetotaler. I’m trying to acquire the taste,” she said. “Any tips?”

“Sip it. If you really want to enjoy fine wine, you don’t gulp it the same way you do a soft drink.”

“Okay,” she murmured, looking at him over the rim of her glass. She took a tiny sip, which went down more smoothly. His gaze locked with hers and she felt her chest tighten. She searched for a way to break the tension. “How was your day?”

“Long, but productive. We’re in the process of unveiling another flavor of gelato for Valentine’s Day. Everything needs to be coordinated with Operations. PR and Marketing often ask the impossible.”

“But you deliver,” she said, instinctively knowing he did. She absently rubbed her sore shoulder.

His eyes glinted with sensual promise. “I try.” He pointed to her shoulder. “What’s going on there?”

She shrugged. “Just a twinge I get every now and then from that night I overdid it at the volleyball game.”

“Turn around. I’ll rub it,” he offered.

“Oh, no, that’s okay. It’s not that bad. It’s just—”

“C’mon,” he coaxed, setting his wineglass on the coffee table. “I’ll make you feel better.”

A delicious shiver ran down her spine. If any man could make a woman feel better, she would just bet it was Nicholas. “I’m not sure an employer should—”

“We’re more team than employer/employee. Would you let one of your teammates rub your shoulder?”

“I guess,” she said, thinking that her teammates didn’t have bedroom eyes. The background noise of the game was comforting, not mood music, she told herself. She gave in to temptation and turned around so that her back was to him.

She felt him move so close she could feel his breath on the nape of her neck. Her heart jumped. Maybe this was a stupid idea, she thought. He lowered his hands to her neck and she pushed away her protests. His fingers kneaded her tight muscles. His hands were pure magic.

Closing her eyes, she couldn’t hold back a moan.

“Good?” he asked.

“Yes,” she whispered, and another moan escaped.

“That’s a sexy sound,” he murmured.

She hadn’t intended to make a sexy sound, she thought. “I didn’t realize how tense my shoulders were until now.”

He said something in Italian.

“What does that mean?” she asked.

“You have beautiful hair,” he said, continuing to massage her shoulders and neck.

“Before or after the haircut?” she asked.

“Both, but you don’t try to restrain it as much since you got the cut.”

She laughed. “I’ve been trying to restrain my hair since I could hold a rubber band.”

“And now it’s time to let it go wild,” he said, shifting so that he could prop one leg on the sofa and pull her between his thighs.

Acutely aware of the way his body surrounded hers, she only managed a nod. He slid his fingers underneath the neckline of her pullover, and she felt another rush of tantalizing pleasure. He lightly skimmed his fingertips around the front of her neck and down to her collarbones, then returned to her shoulders.

When she inhaled, she caught the seductive scent of his aftershave. An edgy kind of restlessness skipped through her. Although his hands soothed her shoulders, other parts of her felt jumpy, sensitized, hungry. She took a sip of wine, then another.

He kneaded his way down her spine, then slipped his hands up under her shirt and slowly moved his fingers over her back. He skimmed his fingers under her bra strap, but didn’t undo it.

The mere suggestion of him touching her bare skin and bra made her nipples tighten. The instant response took her off guard. If he affected her this much with a mere back rub, what would happen if he tried to seduce her?

The thought made her even more restless, and she shifted. He paused at her movement and she heard a quiet intake of breath before he continued. It took less than a moment for her to register his arousal against her derriere.

Was that possible? she wondered. Her mouth went dry and she sipped the wine in earnest. His fingers slid from the center of her back to her rib cage. She held her breath, a forbidden part of her not wanting him to stop. The game continued to play in the background, although she couldn’t have told the score if her life had depended on it. He rubbed his thumbs on her back while his fingers slid upward to just below her bra. She held her breath again, wondering if he would touch her breasts.

He slid his hands down again and she bit her lip in frustration. Her body humming with unspent need, she shifted against the restless feeling.

He stopped again and murmured something under his breath.

She would have asked him what he’d said if she could have found the words, but her pulse was pounding as if she’d just run a marathon.

He skimmed his hands upward again just beneath her breasts. He slid his fingers underneath the edge of her bra and she waited breathlessly for him to continue. He stroked the underside of her breast, and she felt a growing heat between her thighs. When his fingertips finally brushed her taut nipples, she sighed with relief.

She took another sip of wine to combat the dryness of her mouth.

“Good?” he asked, his voice vibrating deliciously against her ear.

She nodded.

“You mean the wine?” he asked in a voice that taunted and teased.

“Everything,” she had to admit.

He unsnapped her bra, pulled her back against him and cupped her breasts. “You know how you’re sipping that wine,” he said, rubbing her nipples between his thumb and forefinger so that she felt a corresponding tug in her secret places.