Needing Nita by Norah Wilson Read Free Book Online Page A

They’d have no choice. And they wouldn’t dare take their frustration out on me, because my kick-ass lawyer wife would bring a harassment charge on my behalf.”
    “Your wife, huh?”
    “Well, I certainly hope you’re my wife by the time I need that parental leave,” he said mildly. “We might have done a few things out of order, but that’s one thing I’m old fashioned enough to want to do right.”
    She sobered. “Speaking of old-fashioned, I expect fidelity in a partner.”
    “Good. Because so do I. Even when I’m being a total ass, which I’m told I can be from time to time.” He cocked his head to the side. “Did I mention that I’m crazy about you? Yes, I think I did. And we’ve already demonstrated sexual compatibility….”
    She laughed. “You just never let up, do you?”
    “Not when I can see my opponent is weakening. You are weakening, right?”
    She groaned. “God help me, yes. I’m weakening.”
    His eyes caught fire. “You’ll marry me?”
    “I’ll date you,” she clarified. “I can’t agree to marry a man when I don’t even know if he snores. Or leaves the cap off the toothpaste, or his underwear on the floor.”
    “Don’t know, no and no. But fair enough.”
    Omigod, she’d done it. She’d just committed to a serious relationship with Detective Craig Walker.
    So, what was he doing still lounging there against her kitchen counter?
    “Craig?”
    “Yeah?”
    “Aren’t you going to … I don’t know … kiss me or something, to seal the deal?”
    “Thank you, God!” He was there in a flash, pulling her into a crushing bear hug. “I’ve been gripping the edge of that damned countertop all this while to remind myself to give you space. I think my fingernails left marks in the granite.”
    She pulled back to look up at his face, touched by his consideration. “I appreciate your restraint.” She slid her arms around his neck and pressed her breasts against his chest. “But no need for it now.”
    She felt the shudder that passed through him, which made his next words all the more remarkable.
    “There’s every need for it.” He pulled back. “You need sleep, baby. I can’t have you go back to work tomorrow even more exhausted than you were today.”
    She’d known he had a strong protective instinct when it came to women and children; she’d seen in on display on the witness stand many times. But she had no intention of being denied for her own good.
    “You’re right,” she said, lowering her gaze lest he see what she planned. “But won’t you lie down with me? I have a feeling that when I wake up, I’m going to need some concrete persuasion that this really happened.”
    “Now that I can do.”
    He tipped her chin up and kissed her, his lips incredibly soft and sweet on hers, his big hand impossibly tender. She grasped his face in both hands and kissed him back, then squeaked as he swept her up into his arms.
    “Bedtime.”
    A moment later, he lay on her bed, fully clothed, on top of the covers while she peeled off her clothes. “Aren’t you going to undress?”
    “Better not.”
    She stifled a smile at the gruffness of those two words.
    “Suit yourself.” She walked naked to her dresser and found the skimpiest piece of nightwear she owned, a spaghetti-strapped, gauzy scrap of a nightdress she kept to sleep in when the heat waves of August struck the city. She pulled it over her head, shivering as the sheer cotton batiste settled over her curves. It hit her thighs just below hip level. His gaze slid down her body, making her skin tingle just as the brush of the material had.
    She let her own gaze skate over his body, fixing on the growing bulge in the front of his pants. “Oh, my.”
    He laughed. “You were never planning on sleeping, were you?”
    She grinned back. “Not for a while yet.”
    “You win.” He opened his arms. “Come here.”
    She paused a moment, drinking in his sprawling, powerful body, his open arms, his craggy, overly masculine