Hunting the Bachelor (HoliDATE Series Book 3) Read online

  Hunting the Bachelor

  The HoliDATE Series

  Copyright © 2019 by Heather Young-Nichols

  Cover Art by Booked by Design

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  About Steamy Sensations Holiday Love

  Also by Heather Young-Nichols

  Acknowledgements

  Chapter One

  Waking in the morning to Gio’s hand sliding up my leg not only brought a sleepy smile to my face but caused my body to come alive in a way it never had in the morning before. The warmth, the smoothness of his skin against mine. His erection hard against my ass. All of it together had me climbing that hill of pleasure before he ever even slipped his hand into my panties and touched my most sensitive bundle of nerves. Coffee couldn’t come close to doing that.

  “Good morning,” he murmured against my ear.

  We’d lived together a year already and still I hadn’t tired of hearing his voice first thing in the morning. The deep gravel of his words reached out to me like a physical touch.

  Gio Diamati came to Harbor Point like my own personal tornado. An unexpected addition to my normal life that turned into a swirling wind that tore my life apart. Something we had to rebuild and thankfully, we’d been able to.

  “Morning,” I said with a gasp of air as he continued his work on my body. My heart raced and my breath quickened.

  The pressure built and built until it boiled over. My hand clasped the wrist of the one working me over. At the same time wanting him to stop because I almost reach the point of not being able to take any more and wanting him to keep going until I fell over the cliff. Either way he wouldn’t stop unless I told him to and those words weren’t going to leave my mouth. Not a chance. I wanted this. I always wanted this.

  Gio had the expertise to work my body in exactly the right way to get me there as quickly as possible. When he wanted to torture me he’d take his time but when he did that, it was on purpose. Sometimes he liked to hear me beg for him. This morning though, he didn’t take his time at all. Soon enough I came hard and fast against his hand. Ready and eager for should come next.

  I rolled toward him and kissed him with every ounce of desire he’d stirred up in me so early. He brought his hands up around my face, one of my favorite moves he had. His hands were large yet he held me with such firm gentleness, almost as if I might break but at the same time afraid I’d slip away. My heart raced every time he touched me that way.

  As my hand slid down the hard muscles of his abdomen toward the waist band of his boxers, Gio grabbed my wrist to stop me.

  When I looked up at him with wide eyes, he said, “No time.”

  “What do you mean no time?”

  “I have to open today.”

  “No. You—"

  “Sorry. I open,” he cut me off. “You’d think you’d remember the schedule better since you make it.”

  I groaned loudly. “I thought you worked mid today.”

  “No. You work mid today.”

  I groaned again and punched my fists into the mattress. It wasn’t his fault but I would’ve much rather spend a bit more time in bed with Gio. Course that was where I’d always prefer to be. Alas, there were things to do. Both of us were too responsible.

  “What if we multi-task?” I asked.

  “What’d you mean? We can’t have sex in the kitchen of the restaurant while I make pizza,” he countered. “Pretty sure Gramps wouldn’t approve and it might be a health code violation.”

  I slapped my hand against his chest. “I meant the shower but now you’re ruining it.”

  His body shook with laughter. A response hung on his lips, about to be released but didn’t get the chance.

  “Bianca!” Bailey’s voice echoed from down stairs. Right after the front door closed loudly.

  “Well, that’s that,” Gio said, leaned over to kiss me again quickly, hopped off the bed and headed to the bathroom. For that shower I presumed. “You’re missing out,” he called from inside.

  Damn him. I knew exactly what I was missing. While tempted to join him, I decided I should probably go see why Bailey was here first thing in the morning.

  She was already banging around the kitchen when I got down there. I to the fridge for a drink while it looked like she was… making scrambled eggs.

  “What’re you doing?” I asked her.

  “Thought we’d have breakfast together,” my best friend told me.

  “Uh… do you really think I’m going to eat something you’ve cooked?” I asked her.

  “Whatever,” she rolled her eyes and cracked another egg into the bowl. “I make great eggs.”

  It was the one thing she could actually cook. “What’re you doing here?”

  “Sal’s house is too quiet.”

  I snickered. Bailey’s lived alone before though admittedly not anywhere as large as Gio’s cousin, Sal DeLuca’s house. It made me laugh and frustrated me that she still called it his house, though. I guess technically she did still have her apartment in her parent’s building but she never stayed there and all of her personal belongings were at Sal’s. “Doesn’t he come home today?”

  “Yes but it’s been three fucking days and I hate it when he goes to Chicago because he comes back all grumpy but I’ll take the grumpiness because at least there’d be some noise.”

  “Is that Bailey Baker complaining about something?” Gio asked as he breezed into the room. “I’m shocked.”

  “Ha. Ha.” Her deadpan voice countered. “I could start to spend his nights away over here.”

  Gio froze and turned to her. “Please… don’t.”

  I giggled at the two of them who acted more like brother and sister than my best friend and boyfriend. “Besides,” I said once my laughter subsided, “I’m sure you can cheer him up when he gets here.”

  “True.” She divided the eggs onto two plates, very obviously leaving Gio out of our impromptu breakfast date. “He’ll need some of my good, good lovin’.”

  “Bailey,” I shook my head but took a big bite of food, “You can’t find love with your vagina.”

  “Yes you can,” she and Gio said at the same time.

  Whatever. Those two were so alike that it grew irritating sometimes. They didn’t like to admit it, of course. Both insisted that they didn’t even like the other but I knew that Gio would take a bullet for Bailey if he ever had to. As my best friend he wouldn’t want me to lose her and as Sal’s girlfriend, if anything happened to her, Sal would be devastated. Plus they’d grown close by their own right.

  “Don’t you have to work?” I gave Gio my best stare down. Squinted eyes and hardened face. He laughed loudly in return, gave me a kiss, and left the house for the restaurant. I’d see him there later. “So, really, you’re lonely?”

  “Yeah. Wouldn’t you be?”

  I thought about that for a minute. Every time Gio traveled to Chicago with Sal, Bailey and I had a sleepover so we weren’t alone. But Gio didn’t go very often. Sal had to go more regularly because he was the head of the company.
The company that had cost Gio, his sister Gemma, and Sal so much but now belonged to the three of them. At least with everything that had happened to them, they didn’t have to worry about money. Though Gio insisted on working at Romano’s, the restaurant I ran with my grandpa.

  “Gemma go with him?” I asked to which she nodded. “Well, you and Cash should’ve had a sleepover like you and I do when the guys are gone.”

  She looked me dead in the eye and said, “I asked. He was on call for his brother’s tow truck and said he didn’t want to wake me up if he got calls overnight.”

  I laughed again. “You really asked Cash to spend the night with you?”

  She shrugged. “Whatever. I’m not proud. Sal’s house is so quiet.”

  Leave it to my best friend, the most independent person I knew, to get lonely in a house bigger than anything either of us had lived in. It might’ve been the amount of space. I didn’t know. Bailey lived alone for a long time and never seemed to have any trouble.

  Then it hit me. She wasn’t lonely in general. She just missed Sal.

  Chapter Two

  My parents came to Harbor Point from Michigan for a long weekend because of Easter. We weren’t overly religious, but it was another excuse to come see Gramps and me. Apparently, Dad had the holiday off at the hospital because they alternated every other one. Guess I didn’t realize emergency room doctor’s got any holiday’s off. When I was a kid, it didn’t seem like they did.

  But them being here made the restaurant even busier. As if being the town’s favorite pizza place, even in the off season, wasn’t enough work, having Mom and Dad there looking over my shoulder drove me crazy. Though I gave them a harder time than I really should’ve but I liked to tell them and myself that they wouldn’t know what to do with themselves if I went easy on them.

  But somehow I’d arranged things so that Gio, Bailey, and I got the entire weekend off. Together. Which was a rare gift that we didn’t have too often. Gramps preferred one of us always be there when he couldn’t be. Especially Bailey or me since we’d expanded the restaurant to include delivery and we ran that part ourselves. We’d planned hard for so long to expand that it ran smoothly. Sure, as with any business there were bumps but Bailey and I handled those as they came.

  “I’m planning a nice ham for dinner tomorrow,” Mom said as we ate dinner at Gramps Saturday night. “Any other requests?”

  Gramps had to use his actual dining room whenever we were all together. Dad and Gramps sat on each end. Bailey, Gemma, Mom, and Me on one side, though Mom ended up kind of on the corner. Sal, Cash, and Gio on the other directly across from their significant others. No one directed us. That’s just how we ended up.

  “Everyone’s coming, right?” she asked and got a round of confirmation in return. Cash had told me that his family didn’t do anything for Easter either. Of course Sal, Gio, and Gemma had no contact with any other family than the three of them.

  “Oh, you should make your rice pudding,” I told her. “I haven’t had it in so long.”

  “I can do that,” Mom said.

  “What time?” I asked. “Noon? One?”

  “No later. Like five. Dinner time. We have the flight to catch that night.”

  “What?” We always ate special meals earlier in the day.

  “Yeah. I need the time to cook. Unless you want to come over around seven in the morning to help out.”

  Noping out of that one. “Dinner sounds fantastic.”

  They all chuckled because each and every one of them knew I hated getting up early. But Gio was particularly quiet during all of this when he was usually the first to offer his help. As if he’d be making up for our bad bump in the road forever when in reality, I’d already completely forgiven him. He hadn’t forgiven himself, though.

  It wasn’t his fault that his parents sent him here to basically take our business away. It was the way he’d been raised. Each one of the tattoos on his body, which I loved, represented different parts of that growing up. But my favorites were the ones he’d gotten since falling in love with me.

  I gave his foot a kick under the table but he looked up and smiled the way I would’ve expected. Still… his behavior confused me.

  That night, we’d gotten ready for bed and were tucked in side by side when I finally wanted to ask. This was the first we’d been alone together since he’d woken me yesterday morning in the most delicious way.

  I rolled onto my back to see him as we talked.

  “Why were you so quiet at Gramps’?” I asked.

  “Was I?”

  “Don’t play coy with me.” I pushed up and climbed on top of him. His body reacted immediately by hardening beneath me. As if he was trying to entice me to forget what I was talking about. “Every other time that my mom has mentioned needing time to get things done you’re the first one to volunteer. Even when it’s disgustingly early. What gives?”

  His hands ran up my thighs, pulling me down against him. Ugh… he knew exactly what he was doing. “Oh. I work tomorrow morning.”

  “Uh… you don’t. I make the schedules remember?”

  “Yeah. I wasn’t scheduled. I said I’d cover for Joe for a few hours.”

  “I’m calling bullshit on that but this conversation is going to have to wait.”

  His brows slammed down like he didn’t understand what I meant. At least until I leaned down and kissed him as I ran my hands over his bare chest. My intentions were clear. I’d been having dirty, dirty thoughts since yesterday morning.

  Gio flipped me over and pulled my shirt over my head all at once. He always approached sex with me as if it might be the last time. As if he could never get enough of me. That idea alone made his work a lot easier. He cupped my breasts and sucked a nipple into his mouth. His teeth scraped against the sensitive skin causing me to shiver.

  Gio continued his trek down my body, touching and licking and kissing areas I’d never known were erotic until him. His previous life of using sex as a tool benefited me in so many ways, though I hated to think of it that way. Gio said that at least there was a silver lining to everything he’d done. Experience that benefited me. Still, I tried to make him forget all about that past life.

  When Gio pushed inside me, my breath caught in my chest. I hadn’t been expecting it so soon but I sure as hell didn’t mind it. His hips rubbed against mine, coaxing me to the edge. He never allowed me to go without. One way or another he got me there. Sometimes it made me feel a bit inadequate. His vast experience far dwarfed mine. But Gio insisted the best part he’d never done with anyone else.

  He’d never been in love with anyone but me.

  Once he finished, he moved in beside me, both of us breathing heavily and fully exhausted.

  “You’re really good at that,” I said into the quiet room.

  “Only with you.”

  “I highly doubt that.”

  “I love you, Bianca Russo and that makes everything better.”

  Well… how could I respond to that other than to wrap his arms around me and push back into his chest making us as close to one person as possible? That’s exactly what I did, let his much larger body cocoon mine as we quickly fell asleep.

  Chapter Three

  When I woke the next morning, Gio wasn’t beside me. Yeah, he’d said he was working that morning but still, it seemed rather early for him to already be gone. Instead of him in my bed, there was an envelope with my name on it. And that was when I realized I’d actually slept later than normal. Of course he’d be gone.

  Bianca,

  Follow the clues. I’ll see you tonight.

  <3

  What the hell did that mean? I turned the card to the other side and found his sloppy handwriting telling me to go out to the pond where I’d lost my bathing suit as a teenager. Now, it didn’t say that exactly, but that’s what he meant. But still, he didn’t say why he wanted me to go out there or what the hell was going on.

  So I did the obvious thing. After a quick shower, I pulled
my hair back into a messy bun and headed next door where Bailey would hopefully be home for me to brainstorm with. Maybe he’d said something to her or to Sal who then told her what Gio was up to.

  I turned the door knob without knocking because we’d stopped knocking a long time ago as teenagers. We always figured that if one of us didn’t want someone to come it, we should lock the door, though we had keys to each other’s houses, too. Once inside, I heard Bailey and Sal’s voices in the kitchen. I gave the door a push so it’d close a little louder than necessary just in case they were doing something weird in there. Something I didn’t want to see. It’d happened with Gemma in the past.

  “Morning,” I said once I got to the kitchen.

  “Good Morning,” Bailey sang, much happier than she’d been yesterday morning.

  Sal just tipped his cup my way. After all these months, it still got me how similar Sal and Gio were for being cousins and not brothers. Though Sal had more bulk and less tattoos, any person on the street would’ve known they were related somehow. Probably would’ve thought they were brothers.

  “How was Chicago?” I asked him.

  “Fantastic,” he deadpanned. Meaning not fantastic at all. “I like having the company but am starting to think Gemma isn’t the one to take.”

  I snorted, “Why not? She’s got to learn the business, right?”

  He nodded but said, “She finds it more boring than I do and you know Gemma when she’s bored.”

  True. Gemma, bless her heart, was a fantastic person and had really come into her own since breaking from her parents and finding her own truth with Cash Waterford. The kind of love he gave her was the same Bailey gave Sal and I gave Gio. And it was exactly what they needed. But when she found herself with idle time on her hands or was bored and didn’t want to be where she was, the uncomfortable rambling got in the way. It was like she’d had too much sugar and needed a nap.

  “Have her bring Cash next time,” I suggested. “I’m sure he can find ways to keep her occupied.”