Page 60 of Faith

Dammit, why did he have to do that? She was already in danger of falling completely in love with the man, and he had to turn sweet?

Nicola leaned forward and brushed her lips against his cheek. He looked at her with his eyebrows raised.

“What was that for?”

“Until tonight,” she said with a smile. She grabbed her robe, slipped it on, then rose out of bed. He tried to grab her hand as she tied the belt. “Nope. It’s work time. I need a shower and to get ready for the day.”

“Fine, be that way,” he said, but she heard the humor in his voice. She opened the door and stuck her head out into the hallway to be sure no one was around, then slipped out into the hallway, closing the door behind her quietly. She hurried to her room, trying to get her mind wrapped around the idea of what had transpired the previous night. She turned on her shower, then waited for the water to heat up. She studied herself in the mirror. There was whisker burn on her breasts and she looked happy. Not just happy. Beyond happiness. She wasn’t sure she had ever experienced a night with a Dom like she had last night. The only one who came close was Micah, and that was only because he was her first Dom.

That meant Serenity had been right. Sure, Nicola knew she had feelings for Jensen, but she didn’t know the depths of them until last night. One could argue that it had more to do with their friendship, but she had been friends with some of the Doms she played with for three or more years. This didn’t account for the way she felt when they made love a second time and she cried again. She never cried during sex, but she had twice in one night with Jensen.

The mirror was starting to fog, and she realized that she had been standing there for too long. Before she could step into the shower, her phone buzzed. She noticed it was Julienne. Damn, she didn’t need this. Not right now when she was trying to figure out what last night had meant to her. But then again, there was a good chance she would never figure that out.

“Hey,” she said answering the phone.

“Where have you been? I tried calling at what would have been eight at night your time last night and you weren’t answering.”

I was letting your brother do all kinds of deliciously naughty things to me.

“Nowhere. Had a headache and went to bed early. What’s up?”

“Nothing much, just wanted to make sure you hadn’t killed Jensen yet.

“So, you haven’t talked to him either?”

“I don’t carethatmuch. If he’s gone, then Jakob and I can split the money.”

She chuckled. “I was about to step into the shower.”

“Oh, okay.”

“We have a teleconference with the Johnson family this morning, afterwards I’ll give you a ring, okay? I just want to get cleaned up since your brother just sprung this on me. No warning, just threw it out there.”

“Brilliant. I’ll talk to you later, ta.”

She hung up before Nicola could respond. With a sigh she clicked off her phone and stepped into the shower. Time to get her head on straight so they could get to work.

* * *

After a massive breakfastand lots of coffee, Nicola’s ability to think was back. She didn’t know why they had wanted this meeting, but it was definitely a ploy of some sort. The Wulfs didn’t do that many takeovers and, truthfully, she never had much to do with these kinds of proceedings. This was different, though. It wasn’t as much as a takeover, but a helping hand. She knew the Johnson’s had no reason to trust them, but as far as she knew, The Wulf family had never taken over a family business—ever. They tended to help with capital, with the agreement of the ability for a buyout. It was a win for both sides of the business.

Jensen had pulled a chair up beside him for the meeting. She sat down and tried to ignore the clean, masculine scent of him. He didn’t use cologne, but he bathed in a sandalwood soap that she loved.

“Are you ready?” she asked.

Jensen answered, looking at her over the top of his reading glasses again. He really needed to quit doing that. It was rather silly how it turned her on so much, but it did. Why had she come up with a stupid rule about no play during work hours?

“Yes.”

The computer played a tune, telling them that the other group was calling them. Jensen clicked to accept the call.

“Good morning,” he said.

She recognized the group sitting there. All of them—minus the older son—were seated around a conference table. Robert sat at the head of the table.

“Good morning,” Robert said.

He was the oldest, his hair stark white and years in the sun had weathered his skin. As the patriarch, he’d run the family business for all of his adult life. She knew the story of how he started from nothing, working to build massive wealth, which he was now in danger of losing.

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