Nick left earlier than he normally would, returning to his place around midnight. The lights in his bedroom were on, and Lily was in bed, wearing pajama pants and a low-cut tank top. He’d given her a key so she could come back here after her night out with her friends.

  He didn’t say anything, just smiled at her.

  When he climbed onto the bed and crawled toward her, she returned his smile hesitantly, and he couldn’t help wondering why it wasn’t her big grin.

  “I was...” She shook her head. “You sure look good in that tux.”

  Then she was kissing him, tearing off his jacket and throwing it on the floor, followed by his tie and shirt. He should hang them up, he really should, but in the end, he left them on the floor.

  He pulled Lily’s tank top over her head; she wasn’t wearing anything underneath. When her bare chest met his, it felt so good, so right.

  She unbuttoned his pants, slipped her hand into his boxer briefs, and started pumping him up and down. He needed to touch her, too. He slid his hand under her clothes and ran his fingers over her wetness, loving her response to him.

  Normally after an event like tonight’s, he’d be having sex, but with a woman he didn’t know well, not like his Lily.

  His. Yes.

  He peeled off the rest of their clothes, then cupped her ass and pressed her against him.

  “I really missed you tonight,” he said, looking deep into her eyes. He had to make her understand.

  “I missed you, too.”

  She rolled them over so he was on his back, and she took his cock in her mouth. He hissed out a breath. She bobbed up and down, occasionally looking up at him from beneath her pretty eyelashes.

  He’d had many women in this bed over the years. He’d enjoyed all of them, but now, he only wanted Lily, could think of no one but her.

  She lay down on the bed. “I need you.”

  Nick rolled on a condom and pushed into her, not wanting to delay any longer.

  He moved inside her and kissed her everywhere he could reach. She felt amazing, and he was incredibly lucky that he got to be with her all the time. How had he gotten so lucky?

  He licked his finger and circled it over her clit, in the way she liked best. He knew exactly what she liked now, and he loved that. Loved, too, that they could have many different kinds of sex. They’d had that not-so-one-night stand, and he’d fucked her in front of the mirror and watched her discover a side to her sexuality that she hadn’t known existed.

  Now, she was giving him a kind of sex he’d never experienced before.

  Sex with someone he cared for so very much.

  She trembled beneath him, close to her orgasm. She never screamed when she came, but her face would open up...just like that.

  He came with her, holding her tightly against him.

  Yes, this was what he wanted, more than anything.

  * * *

  Something was wrong when Lily woke up the next morning. She tried to sit up, but her body wouldn’t obey, and her head felt like shit.

  She hadn’t drunk that much last night, had she? No, she’d had two cocktails fairly early in the evening, and by the time Nick returned, looking so damn handsome in his tux, she couldn’t feel them anymore. They’d had sex before going to sleep. She’d meant to talk to him last night, but she hadn’t been able to help herself from jumping him.

  Nick wasn’t in bed now, but just the thought of sex was unappealing. Her body ached and her head felt like it was stuffed with cotton and her throat was sore. She was definitely sick. Physically sick.

  But her heart also ached. She remembered looking at the hashtags for the gala on social media. She’d found lots of pictures of well-dressed people. Nick was in a few of them, looking like he was exactly where he belonged.

  She knew she didn’t belong in that life.

  There was a picture of him standing next to a gorgeous woman in a deep purple dress. Lily had Googled her and discovered she was a high-powered businesswoman.

  For now, Lily was a novelty for him, but that would end eventually, and her chest caved in at the thought. This was even worse than being sick.

  She collapsed back against the pillow.

  A little while later, Nick came in. He was carrying a tray with coffee and—were those the coconut lemon squares that his mother had told her about?

  Neither interested her right now. Usually she loved her morning cup of coffee, but not today. Coconut lemon squares weren’t normal breakfast food, but of course she would have eaten them if she had any appetite whatsoever.

  “What’s wrong, Lily?” he asked, setting the tray on the night table.

  “I’m not feeling well,” she mumbled.

  “Oh, no.” He put his hand to her forehead. “You have a slight fever.”

  “I’m not in the mood for coffee and coconut lemon squares, sorry.”

  “What do you want? I could make wonton soup. I have some wontons in the freezer. Tea? Hot water bottle? Do you need any painkillers?” He looked at her earnestly.

  “Wonton soup would be great.”

  She dozed for a while, until Nick tiptoed into her room with the tray again. This time, it held a large bowl of soup and a glass of orange juice.

  He sat on the edge of the bed. “Do you need me to feed you, or can you do it yourself?”

  “I’m not that sick. I can do it.”

  He handed her the orange juice. “Vitamin C. You know, I was in China for a business trip once, and they’d heard that North Americans like orange juice for breakfast, so they served Tang. And since it was China, they’d heated it up. Warm Tang.”

  She laughed at that. Not as much as she usually would, but still.

  He did make her laugh, and he was being so sweet right now, looking after her and keeping her company when surely he had better things to do. He had a big job, and he went on business trips to the other side of the world.

  Then she berated herself for thinking this was a big deal. All he’d done was bring her a small meal in bed when she wasn’t feeling well. It was a natural thing to do when you cared for someone, but perhaps Douglas had taught her to have low expectations when it came to men.

  She was still afraid, but maybe she should just talk to Nick.

  “I have something to tell you. I...”

  She stopped when she heard someone pounding on the door.

  Chapter 13

  With a sigh, Nick got up from the bed and headed to the door.

  He knew exactly who it was.

  This happened once or twice a year. His family, bored in Mosquito Bay, would spontaneously decide to drive to Toronto and show up for a visit.

  Last time, a woman had just been leaving his penthouse, and that had been...interesting.

  This time, there was a sick woman in his bed, and he wanted to focus on her, not his family.

  He opened the door.

  Mom, Dad, Ah Ma, and Ah Yeh shouted, “Surprise!”

  He pinched the bridge of his nose. “You know it’s not my birthday.”

  “Of course we know. Don’t be silly,” Mom said. “We’re taking you out for dim sum! Greg will meet us at the restaurant.”

  “This isn’t the best time. Lily—”

  “Lily can come with us!” Ah Ma said gleefully. “We will ask her lots of questions. Make sure you have been treating her well.”

  “Lily is sick,” he said. “She’s in my bedroom.”

  “Oh, no,” Mom said. “What does she have? Is it the flu?”

  “You must not give her anything cold,” Ah Ma said. “No ice water! Warm water is best.”

  “I just made her soup.”

  “I want to see her,” Mom said. “Make sure she’s doing okay.”

  “Me, too,” Ah Ma said.

  Dad shook his head. “I don’t want you to catch anything, Ma. You should stay away from sick people.”

  “Aiyah. How do you think I got so old? I am invincible!”

  “You are eighty-seven. You are not invincible.”

  “I am eighty-eight!”

  “No,” Dad said, “you’re eighty-seven.”

  “Eighty-eight. Lucky age!”

  “I thought you said you had one foot in the grave?”

  This was giving Nick a headache. “Look, could you please quiet down?”

  Ah Ma marched into his place, not even bothering to take off her shoes, and went straight to his bedroom. Having been here several times before, she knew exactly where to go.

  “Lily!” she said when she reached the bedroom door, Nick right behind her. “You are sick, I hear? Good thing Ah Ma is here to take care of you.”

  “I’m fully capable of doing it myself,” Nick said.

  “Wah, is that cold orange juice I see? Why you always serve juice cold?”

  “Because it tastes weird when it’s warm.”

  “I will make jook.”

  “No,” Ah Yeh said. “I make better jook than you.”

  “I can cook chicken noodle soup,” Mom suggested.

  Lily looked exhausted, and she’d been about to tell Nick something important when his family barged in.

  Goddammit.

  “No, no, it’s okay,” Lily said. “You said you were going to have dim sum? Go ahead. I’ll be fine here for a couple hours.”

  “We will bring him back to you soon!” Ah Ma promised. “Then I will take care of you.”

  “No,” Dad said. “You’re old. People should be looking after you, not the other way around.”

  “Fine.” She stuck her nose in the air. “Carry me!”

  “I’m not carrying you!”

  “Please,” Nick said, “let’s allow Lily to finish her food in peace and maybe get some more sleep. I’ll go out for dim sum, but I won’t stay long, okay?”

  “Are these coconut lemon squares?” Mom was already in the kitchen. “You made them this morning? They look fresh.”

  “I did.”

  “Coconut lemon squares are not good for sick people,” Ah Ma said. “Too much sugar.”

  “Unless you make them,” Ah Yeh said. “You used salt instead of sugar.”

  “Too much salt is bad, too.”

  “Obviously! They were inedible.”

  Once Nick had finally herded his family out the door, he returned to Lily. “Are you sure you’re okay if I go out for an hour or two?”

  “Yes, don’t worry. I’ll be fine.”

  “Text me if you need anything. You can tell me whatever you need to tell me when I get back. I’m sorry about this.”

  * * *

  Lily alternately fretted and slept as she waited for Nick to return from dim sum with his family. They appeared to have the uncanny ability of arriving just at the wrong time.

  She was about to text Tara when she heard the door open.

  Her heart kicked up a notch, like when he’d returned from the charity gala last night. Except now she was sick and filled with more self-doubt.

  “Hey,” he said as he walked into the room. “How are you doing?”

  Often she felt a spark of lust when she saw him, but not today. Her body was in no mood for anything but staying in bed and shuffling to the kitchen and bathroom.

  But she smiled because she couldn’t help it when she saw him. He’d made her feel safe from the very first night he’d taken her home.

  The thought of losing him, the thought that she might not be enough for him...

  He sat down on the bed and clasped her hands in his.

  “I don’t want to give you my germs,” she said.

  “I don’t care.”

  He might care if his body felt the way hers did right now, but she didn’t say that.

  “I saw lots of pictures of you at the gala,” she began. “You looked like you were on the red carpet at the Oscars. So polished, probably paying a thousand bucks or more for your ticket. And I’m an ordinary woman. I’m not rich; I’m not even interesting. I don’t belong in your world. When it was just for a night, I could push that aside, pretend it was no big deal, but now...” Tears pooled in her eyes, but she didn’t let them fall.

  “Lily,” he murmured, wrapping his arms around her. “Oh, Lily.”

  “When we’re together, it’s wonderful, and you’ve always been good to me. And yet...”

  “I’d never even had a girlfriend until I met you.”

  So he did think of them that way. Still...

  “Maybe,” she said, “you wouldn’t have one now if you weren’t jealous that I’d been set up with your brother.” The words were bitter in her mouth, but they came out anyway.

  “I admit I was jealous, but even if the circumstances had been different, I can’t stay away from you. After our first night, I kept thinking about you. Last night at the gala, more than anything, I wished you were there with me.”

  He stretched out on the bed next to her and held her more tightly.

  “I just worry,” she said quietly, “that someday you’ll get bored of me.”

  “I will never get bored of you.”

  “My ex broke up with me because he found me boring, which is why I made a list of new things to try—including a one-night stand. I told you that, didn’t I?”

  “Your ex is an ass,” Nick said, with quite a lot of passion. “Truly, I could never find you boring. I think you were just stuck in a bit of a rut.”

  She nodded. “It was tough after my dad passed away.”

  “You did what you had to do to get through it, and for you, that meant following a tight routine and never stepping outside your comfort zone. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

  “Plus, I’ve always been the well-behaved daughter. The one who didn’t get in trouble. And now...” She trailed off as she realized something. “With you, I feel like myself. I do. I just can’t help worrying that your life has gotten less snazzy and fast-paced with me in it.”

  He sat up and took her hands in his. He looked into her eyes like she was the only thing that mattered. “I don’t want my life to be exactly as it was before. It’s not the same with you in it—and that’s a good thing. I like what I have with you.”

  She managed an inelegant sniffle. “You’re serious about us? You’re not afraid of long-term relationships?”

  “I admit I was a bit uncomfortable with the idea a few weeks ago, but not now.” Nick cupped her face in his hands and swept his thumbs over her cheeks. “I love you, Lily. I always knew I didn’t want the life my parents had in Mosquito Bay, and I did my best to make sure my life was nothing like theirs. But now, what I want more than anything is to be with you, and please never call yourself boring because it’s not true, not at all. I want to learn every little thing about you. I’m fascinated by the strange way you eat Nanaimo bars—”

  “I eat them like a normal person! None of your one-layer-at-a-time crap.”

  “—and by the way you eat fried chicken so daintily.”

  “I do not!”

  He smiled. “You totally do, and it’s cute. I’m fascinated by the noises you make when I’m inside you—and the way you’re blushing now. I love how you’re so careful and aware of everything around you but completely uninhibited in my arms. There’s a freckle on the back of your earlobe, did you know that? I love that, too. And you’ve already met my family and haven’t run away screaming. I want to have lots of new experiences with you, and although I’m never going to be the man who has a quiet life in a small town—”

  “Don’t worry, I don’t want that either.”

  “I know.” He paused. “I don’t need the whirlwind that I’ve been living for the past decade, and to be honest, when I look back on it, it seems like a rather shallow life. I want exactly what we have together. Please don’t feel like you’re not good enough just because of my money and ‘snazzy’ life. That means nothing compared to what I feel for you, Lily, and it certainly doesn’t mean we don’t belong together. God, no. I’ve been lucky in life, and if I lost all that but had you, I would still count myself lucky.”

  He slid his hands to her shoulders and looked into her eyes. She couldn’t doubt the sincerity in his words, in his touch.

  “To be honest,” he said, “sometimes I think I’m not good enough for you, especially with my lack of experience in this area. Try not to let those feelings overwhelm you. I’ll reassure you whenever you need it, and we don’t have to go to galas if they make you uncomfortable.”

  Lily nodded. She was doing a strange combination of hiccupping and sobbing, and he didn’t tell her to stop, just handed her a tissue.

  She wasn’t at her best. She tried to look put together most of the time, but now she was sick and wearing pajamas, and he’d declared his love for her all the same. Much of the past few weeks had been full of exciting new experiences—well, not all of them were new, but they felt new because she was doing them with Nick Wong.

  But he didn’t just want her in the busy moments. He wanted her in the quiet moments, too. He wanted all of her.

  “Although my past doesn’t show my ability to commit,” he said, “I am definitely committed. Here, I got you something as proof.”

  He picked up a container she hadn’t noticed before. It was emblazoned with the logo of the dumpling place they’d gone to that first night.

  She laughed.

  “I believed in love before,” he said, “but I never thought it would be part of my life, and now... Well, I wasn’t even tempted to eat these on the walk home, that’s how much I care for you.”

  “You weren’t tempted? What are you, a monster?”

  He chuckled. “Okay, maybe I was a little tempted.”

  Lily wasn’t sure she’d ever loved any gift as much as she loved these soup dumplings. Soup dumplings were pretty amazing on their own, but these were extra amazing because they’d come from Nick and they were just for her.

  “I’m not sharing.” She placed a protective hand over the dumplings.

  “You don’t need to.”

  She opened the container and took the pair of chopsticks he handed her. God, these smelled good. She didn’t have a huge appetite today, but her stomach rumbled, and as she looked from Nick to the soup dumplings and back to Nick, her insides turned to...well, soup.

  “I love you, too,” she whispered. “I was just scared that you didn’t feel the same way and that I was foolish for giving my heart to a guy who was supposed to be a one-night stand. I’m sorry for being insecure—”

 

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