All of Me (Heart of Stone Book 11) Page 4

  Her eyes filled with tears, even as she gave me a big smile. “I made you nervous? I never would have imagined that back then. You seemed so in control, and I couldn’t even focus. All I could think about was how much I wished your hands were on me instead of that tie.”

  “I was thinking the same thing,” I admitted and nudged her higher up on my lap.

  Nina dropped her head and looked down at where she sat. “Good to know I can still have that effect on you too,” she said with a shy smile.

  Lifting my hips off the couch, I brushed my hard cock against her. “Like the tux and cologne, that has never changed.”

  Nothing in that department had changed between Nina and me in all the years we were together. No matter what life handed us, no one else in the world turned my head or made me want her as much as she did.

  I slid my hands under her dress and gently tugged her panties off, with a little help from her wriggling out of them. Our foreplay started, Nina unbuttoned my pants and slowly unzipped them.

  “You went commando tonight? You’re pretty damn confident, Mr. Stone. I think I like that in a man I plan on having mind-blowing sex with,” she said with a giggle.

  “Underwear are for the timid,” I joked as she pulled my cock out and wrapped her hand around it.

  “I’ve never known you to be timid, for sure.”

  “No, you haven’t,” I said as I lifted her off my lap so my cock nudged against her already wet pussy. “And I’m not the only one ready to go, I see.”

  “I told you. It’s the cologne. And the tux. And how great you look…” she whispered in a needy voice.

  Nina leaned forward and kissed me hard, and I slowly eased into her, loving how fucking incredible she felt as she took all of me. Each time we made love was like the first time so long ago, but even better, if that was possible. Maybe it was because we’d been through so much together, or maybe it was because she still made me feel like the man I was when I fell in love with her. Whatever magic existed between us, it never failed to make me thankful for the woman I couldn’t imagine living without.

  As she rolled her hips, Nina whispered in my ear, “See, this is what date night is all about. Mmmm…”

  I set my hands on her waist and guided her as she rode me, keeping her movements slow to make sure our time together lasted as long as possible. Like always, just watching her excited me, and I wanted this to last forever.

  She fought me, wanting her release immediately. Bucking against my hold, she whined, “I thought men loved when women want to fuck like banshees. What happened to wild women being the best?”

  How could a man not love a woman like her?

  Shaking my head, I tried not to smile as I answered, “I’m trying to make this last longer. If you keep riding my cock like that, I’m going to have to resort to figuring out depreciation estimates to keep from coming you feel so good.”

  My answer made her stop moving for a moment, so I took the opportunity to pull her down onto my lap, filling her completely. Finally, she giggled and kissed me.

  “Depreciation estimates? Sometimes you say the strangest things, Tristan. Thank God you have the effect on me that you do because any other man saying that would make me not want to have sex ever again.”

  I lifted my hips off the couch and thrust my cock hard into her. “It’s the tux. I knew I’d get lucky because of it.”

  She smiled sweetly and giggled again as I kept her still on me. “Are you doing some kind of tantric thing here? Not that I don’t love how this feels, but this woman needs movement to come. I’ve never mastered that Zen thing when it comes to sex.”

  And that right there was the reason I loved her more than life itself. Yes, she was beautiful and caring and she’d given me three beautiful children while standing by me through thick and thin. But the part of Nina I loved the most was how she brought light to everything we did together, even when she was riding my cock.

  Moving my hands down her body, I cupped her ass and she immediately began rolling her hips again. She looked like a goddess fucking me in her white sundress, and I watched in awe that this woman could still rock my world even now after so long.

  Nina moaned my name in a soft voice that sounded faraway, and I knew it wouldn’t be much longer before she came. I stuffed my hands into her hair and tugged her head down to kiss her hard on the mouth, snaking my tongue past her lips to mingle with her tongue. She tasted sweet like the peaches in her cobbler.

  “Mmmm…God, you feel so fucking good, Nina,” I moaned as she rocked against me, taking every inch of my cock into her one final time before her body began milking me through her orgasm.

  A tiny whimper escaped her throat, and she clawed her fingernails over the back of my neck before collapsing on me. Her lips pressed just below my ear, sending waves of need through me as she whispered, “I’m sorry that happened so fast. I guess I should have listened to you when you wanted to go slow.”

  It didn’t matter. Once I felt her body milk my cock, it never took long for me to come. I wrapped my arms around her and pumped into her, turned on even more by the feel of her still quivering thighs teasing my abs.

  Just as I got close, Nina recovered enough to sit up straight on me and ran her tongue over the shell of my ear. “I think I’m going to come again, Tristan.”

  And then, it felt like everything in the world stopped, except us. Our bodies surrendered to one another as they had before, but this time felt like something new had started between us.

  Once again, Nina collapsed on top of me, her hands clinging to my neck while she rode the aftershocks of her second orgasm. I smoothed her hair and ran my hands down her back, utterly content with the only woman I could ever imagine loving.

  “That was incredible,” she said quietly after we sat without saying a word for what must have been five minutes.

  I took a deep breath in and let it out in a rush. “Not bad for two people who’ve done this a few times before.”

  Not bad at all.

  Chapter Four

  Tristan

  As I finished the roast beef dinner I’d had delivered, I smiled at Nina. “I think this was pretty good, even if it was cold.”

  “We could have heated it up. We didn’t have to eat dinner right after we finished in the living room.”

  I shrugged and smiled as I thought about our first go-round for the night. “I was hungry after that. Having a woman ride you burns up calories.”

  Nina rolled her eyes and stood from the table. “Not to mention what it does for the woman. I’ll be right back. I assume I should just bring the entire pan of cobbler out?”

  She knew me too well. As I untied my bow tie, I winked at her. “Absolutely. I have to make up for all of those calories I burned before, and all I calories I’m going to burn on round two. And round three.”

  “You know how sexy I think you are in that tux, and now you’re undoing your tie? I swear you’re such a tease,” she said before leaning down to place a kiss on my lips.

  I looked into her blue eyes and saw that sensuality in them I loved. We hadn’t been like this in far too long, so I planned to take advantage of every incredible second of my time with her tonight.

  Watching her walk away, I thought about having her naked beneath me for round two and said, “Don’t forget the whipped cream!”

  Nina looked back over her shoulder at me, clearly not yet where I was in the night. “You never like whipped cream on cobbler.”

  “I wasn’t thinking about it for dessert. Well, at least not the cobbler. We have a can of it in the refrigerator, I think.”

  A slow smile crept onto her lips, and she shook her head. “You are crazy tonight. I think I love it.”

  She turned into the kitchen as an even better idea occurred to me, so I yelled, “And cherries! I thought I saw a bottle of those cherries I like in the cabinet the other day. Grab those too!”

  Maraschino. That was the name of those cherries. I hoped she didn’t think I meant the kind
used in pies. Those were okay too, but that could get messy.

  While I waited for her to return with our dessert and the extras for later, I unbuttoned the top few buttons on my dress shirt. I thought about just taking everything off by the time she got back. That would surprise her.

  “How long are you going to be in there?” I asked in a not-so-sly attempt to find out if I had enough time to get out of these clothes.

  “I have to run upstairs, but everything’s ready. Give me a minute.”

  Sixty seconds? More than enough time to get out of this tux and ready for round two. As I slid the black bow tie from around my collar, I smiled at that memory of teaching Nina to tie that Windsor knot all those years ago. I didn’t know why it took me until tonight to tell her the truth of that for me. I would have thought we’d shared everything there was to share between us by now.

  I liked that there were still things to learn about one another. Hopefully, that would never end.

  While I sat there lost in the fantasy of what Nina and I would be doing after dessert, I heard a sound that made my heart stop.

  Was that a cry? I strained to try to hear it again, but then everything fell silent. Standing from the table, I froze and listened again for the sound.

  But I heard nothing. Had I imagined it? Or maybe it was the house. Old homes like ours made sounds all the time.

  It hadn’t sounded like a house noise, though.

  “Nina, are you okay?” I called out as every moment she didn’t walk into the room real fear made my heart pound a little harder.

  Seconds ticked by without an answer from her. Again, I yelled, but louder now. “Nina! Where are you? Are you okay?”

  A quiet sob of pain and a faint plea for help filtered into the room. Was Nina somewhere in the house and hurt?

  I quickly rushed into the kitchen and saw the peach cobbler still in the baking dish sitting on the counter. Next to it were the can of whipped cream and jar of Maraschino cherries I’d told her to get too. But no Nina.

  Rushing out into the hallway, I ran toward the front stairs. She’d said she needed to run upstairs for a minute. She had said that, right? She was probably struggling with something she wanted to do for dessert.

  Then why would she need to go upstairs?

  My mind raced. Maybe she wanted to change her clothes? That sounded logical. Then why didn’t she answer when I called for her, and why had I heard that noise that sounded like something was wrong?

  Frantic and terrified at what could be going on, I heard the sound again as I reached the stairs and looked up to see her lying on the landing.

  My heart slammed into my chest as panic tore through me. “Nina! What happened?” I asked as I took the stairs by two to get to her as fast as possible.

  Gasping for air, she clutched at her throat with one hand and reached for me with the other. “Tristan…help—I can’t breathe…”

  I gripped her hand in mine, and my brain scrambled to figure out what to do to help her. “Nina, what’s wrong? I’m calling an ambulance. Hang on, honey. It’s going to be okay. I’m here.”

  Lifting my head, I barked out, “I need 9-1-1 now!”

  The home security system designed to handle any crisis went to work and a moment later, a woman’s voice said, “9-1-1. What’s your emergency?”

  “This is Tristan Stone. My wife Nina can’t breathe. I found her on the stair landing. I don’t know what’s wrong, and she can’t tell me. We need an ambulance here now!” I urged, the words tumbling out of my mouth.

  “Sir, I have your address, and I’m dispatching one right now. Can you see if there’s anything blocking your wife’s airway?” the woman asked.

  Nina shook her head, but I leaned down and pried open her mouth. Looking in, I saw nothing that would cause her to not be able to breathe.

  “No. I can’t see anything, and my wife is shaking her head. I don’t know what happened. We just had dinner and then I found her lying here in distress.”

  “What did she ingest?” the woman asked.

  “We had roast beef for dinner. It’s one of her favorites. She’s never had a problem with it or anything we had tonight.”

  “Has she taken any medications today?”

  Again, Nina shook her head and I answered, “No. She took nothing.”

  Squeezing my hand, Nina gasped, “Allergies…pollen…I can’t breathe, Tristan…”

  I lifted my head again and said, “She thinks it’s allergies, like pollen. I’ve never seen her like this. Where is that damn ambulance?”

  “I can’t breathe, Tristan… I’m scared,” she said in such a small voice, terrifying me that we might run out of time before the paramedics arrived.

  I leaned over and took her into my arms. “I’m right here. You’re going to be okay. I promise, Nina. I promise.”

  “Tristan, help me,” she gasped and then flailed her left arm to grab onto my shoulder. I looked down at her in horror. All the color had left her face, and in her eyes I saw fear like I’d never seen before. I had to do something.

  “I’m going to do CPR. I can’t let her keep gasping for breath like this.”

  The dispatcher quickly answered, “No, Mr. Stone, don’t do that. Your wife is breathing, so CPR isn’t indicated. I see the ambulance has arrived at your home, so let the paramedics do their job. I need you to stay calm and make sure the front door is open for them, okay?”

  I couldn’t think clearly, so I nodded my response to her and said to Nina, “I’ll be right back. You hear the sirens? The ambulance is here. We’re going to get you help, and you’ll be okay, baby. I have to open the door, Nina. The ambulance is here, so you’re going to be okay. I promise. I’ll be right back.”

  Jumping to my feet, I took the stairs by threes this time to reach the front door and get it open for them just as they rushed toward me and into the house. I pointed toward the stairs and said, “She’s on the landing up there. Please hurry.”

  Frantic and my mind racing with what could have happened in those few minutes she was out of my sight, I ran up behind them and returned to Nina’s side as they began to work on her. I focused on her face and forced myself to smile, even as I knew everything in my eyes told her how scared I was.

  “You’re going to be okay, Nina.”

  The men worked on her, but I couldn’t look at them. I had to make sure she saw me there with her and only focused on her.

  One of them asked, “Is it possible she’s been poisoned?”

  I looked at him and then back at Nina. “No. I don’t think so. We had roast beef for dinner. Maybe it’s that? She’s never had a problem before. I found her here on the landing. She says she can’t get a full breath of air in. She’s been running a high fever, but then it goes away every day. She had the flu last week, but she got over that. I don’t know what happened. We had dinner that I had delivered from a place we always eat at. We had the same thing. Roast beef. Baby carrots. She loves those. The restaurant puts some kind of sauce on them that she loves. Maybe it was that? But she’s had those carrots dozens of times. We were just about to have dessert.”

  Everything I said made so little sense. Nina had been fine just a few hours ago when she called me and then while we were together in the living room and eating dinner in the dining room. What could have happened to her?

  My mind raced as they continued to work on her. Was this allergies? I’d never seen her have an allergy attack as bad as this. Did the restaurant put something different in the food, some spice they just began using? I didn’t know. Dinner didn’t taste any different than it did every time we ate it. Fuck. I didn’t know any of the right answers, and now the woman I loved lay gasping for air as I stood there unable to figure out what the hell was wrong.

  They brought a stretcher in and placed her on it while I watched in horror as her eyes fluttered closed. Grabbing her hand, I held it and followed the stretcher and the paramedics out to the ambulance.

  “We’re going to take care of your wife, Mr.
Stone. We’ve got her on oxygen, and in just a few minutes we’ll be at the hospital. Please sit down and feel free to hold her hand to let her know you’re here with her.”

  I looked at her lying there, and my heart clenched. “Nina, you’re going to be okay. I promise.”

  But she didn’t respond. Her eyes remained closed, and when I squeezed her hand, she didn’t squeeze mine in return.

  The ambulance sped down the driveway and over the roads to the local hospital, and all I could do was silently pray to God not to take her away from me. We didn’t have enough time together yet. There were so many things we didn’t get a chance to do. She couldn’t leave me to live this life alone.

  Nina, don’t go. Stay with me. Don’t go. I can’t do this without you.

  Chapter Five

  Tristan

  As much as I hated to let her go, I released my hold on Nina’s hand and the paramedics rushed her in through the Emergency Room doors into the hospital. For a moment, it felt like I’d never see her again. My chest hurt simply thinking such a horrible thought, so I forced it out of my head.

  She’d be fine.

  For a long moment, I stood outside in the hot July evening unsure of what to do next. Without Nina, I was lost. Even the mere thought of never hearing her voice or seeing her smile again made my entire body feel like someone had hollowed me out, leaving nothing but the outside for the world to see.

  Everything else went with her into that ER.

  I had to call the kids. They needed to know so they could get there as soon as possible just in case…

  Stop fucking thinking like that! She’s going to be fine. You haven’t lied to her since you two got married, and you’re not starting at the worst time in your life together. She’s going to be fine. Get it through your damn head, man.

  I reached into my pocket and grabbed my phone. Ethan and Summer were the farthest away, so I had to call him first. I stared at the screen, and my mind drew a blank for a moment, like I didn’t know how to even use my phone. Then, in another moment, it passed, and I said in a shaky voice, “Call Ethan.”