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the charging station along with
her tablet.
    Guilt gnawed at him. He should have driven to the barbecue
with her and left when she did. There were a hundred ways he could be there
more for Nicole, but he never saw them until the opportunity had passed. He
couldn’t seem to stop failing her at every turn, no matter how he wanted this
to stop.
    He briefly thought about leaving, getting back on his bike
and driving until he was out of gas, but he couldn’t keep running from this thing
tearing them apart. There had to be a solution.
    “Babe, you should have told me you were heading home.” He
stepped into the bedroom and froze.
    Nicole lay across the width of the bed, draped in a short,
cream-colored robe that gaped open. If his eyes didn’t deceive him, she wasn’t
wearing anything besides the robe. Her auburn hair spread out around her
shoulders like a cape, partially obscuring the swell of her breasts below the
fabric. She propped her head up on her hand, the other smoothing down her chest.
Her nipples stood out clearly through the material.
    He remembered this particular item very well. There had once
been a matching camisole and thong but in his enthusiasm, they’d ripped
irreparably. He was always destroying her lingerie with his thick fingers and
fumbling hands. He couldn’t help it if she reduced him to a greedy caveman,
capable of little care. Well, he couldn’t care a lot about her clothing, but
her, he cared a lot about her.
    She was exquisite. Beautiful. Full of spice and fire.
    “Are you just going to stand there, lingering in my
doorway?” Her voice was low, husky, qualities he hadn’t heard in an age.
    He swallowed and took a step closer. “I’m not lingering. I’m
admiring. There’s a difference.”
    What brought this erotic display on, he had no idea, but
neither was he about to question it. They’d once had a very active sex life,
but they hadn’t had any intimate moments in months. The few times they’d
attempted were such utter failures it never went beyond foreplay. His brain
didn’t know how to respond but his body did. Arousal coursed through his veins,
hardening his cock. He clenched his hands, imagining them wrapped in her hair.
    Jake put one foot in front of the other until he reached the
dresser, a few feet away from the bed. He grasped the edge and bent, peeling
off his boots while music filled the silence hanging between them. He kept his
gaze on her, taking in the sight of her so bare and sexual. Time hadn’t changed
his desire for his wife. There was no other woman who had ever captured his
attention so fast. He’d known from the moment he saw her sashaying down a
sidewalk downtown he wanted her.
    Shoes and socks discarded, he approached the bed slowly, as
if she were a timid creature. Not that he’d ever used the word to describe
Nicole, but it had been long enough since they were intimate that he didn’t
know how she would react. How he should touch her. His fingers felt awkward and
clumsy as he picked apart the buttons on his shirt.
    He briefly wondered if he was doing the right thing. If they
shouldn’t talk first.
    Nicole sat up and in a motion as smooth as a dancer’s swung
her long legs over the bed and stood, facing him. He stilled and waited to see
what she would do. She’d made the first move, and as much as he wanted to take
her, he waited. Allowed her to lead in this dance. She grasped his belt buckle
and, as if she’d practiced, slipped the catch and released it.
    “You need to come to bed. Now.” The way she stared up at him
through her lashes, all confidence, femininity and sexual prowess, who was he
to argue?
    He slid his fingers under the lapel of her silky robe and
pushed the material off her shoulders. She shrugged the fabric to the floor and
stood before him, a nude goddess clothed in freckles and wild red hair.
    The words “Are you sure?” stuck in his throat. If she was
this confident, he wouldn’t undermine her wishes.
    Nicole tabbed open his