The past two days have consisted of three things:

1. Fashion Shows

2. Lectures on Fashion

3. Nick and I, lying in bed and making love every spare moment.

Of course the thought of having no condom two nights ago still worries me, but trust me… there is a big supply here now – trust me.

The long hours of fashion shows and seminars have been slightly boring. Nick and I look at one another, wondering how long we have to leave that show or lecture so that we could come back here to the beach house. We have learned absolutely nothing here fashion wise except that we are so far ahead of the game for the spring line that it’s not even funny.

I called my father and talked to him about this, and he was very happy. Nick talked to him for a long time last night and they discussed me. It was in a business sense, but still it was me. Nick told me that my father asked if I had been talking to him about my birth mother and if I was okay about that situation.

It made me happy to know that my father trust Nick with me. It gives me hope that one day in the future he will be okay with us hiding this relationship because I know when he finds out, he’ll be very pissed. He might disown me and fire Nick. I just hope to God that when my father does find out, it won’t become between Nick and I.

Now I’m standing at the front door to our Miami offices, looking out at the rain and wind, blowing against the windows. They said that it was from, of all names, Hurricane Erin. It was a category 2 hurricane, and they were telling everybody to evacuate the beaches. Sadly, when we called my father to ask if we could leave early, he had his cell phone off and was out of the office. By the time he got back to us, the airport had already cancelled all incoming and outgoing flights.

I was waiting on Nick to come down from upstairs. He was in a meeting with the manager of the Miami division of seamstresses. I looked back to see the receptionist and she smirked at me. She noticed that Nick had some of my lip gloss on his lips when we came in this morning. It was very obvious where he had gotten it from so I know in her little plea-sized brain she knows about us now.

“Erin, I’m ready,” Nick said as he walked up to the windows. He looked out and had a look of disgust on his face. “God, this thing is really going to hit isn’t it?”

“Yep, and our dumbass selves haven’t left the beach house yet,” Erin replied as their driver pulled up. We rushed out of the building and to the car, trying to avoid getting wet too badly. “You sure you don’t want to go to a hotel?”

“You think it’s going to get that bad?”

“You two are actually staying there in that house on the beach?” the driver asked, looking in the review window at us. “You’re crazy. You need to at least go to a hotel.”

Nick and I looked at one another. The guy was right; we shouldn’t even risk staying on the beach when a hurricane is going to directly us.

We got back to the beach house and packed up our things. We did it in a hurry while the driver was waiting outside and we finally got in touch with my father. He wanted us out of Miami but there was no way we could leave unless we drove and that was too dangerous.

We were able to get a room at a rather nice and sturdy looking hotel in downtown Miami, away from the beach but it didn’t look like it would matter much – we were still going to get beaten by the hurricane.

“God, I hate being here and knowing that Katie is back home,” Nick muttered, sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at the weather report on the television. I lay on my side on the other double bed in the hotel room, staring at him. He was nervous and upset. He wanted to be with his daughter and not stuck in a hotel room in the middle of a hurricane.

“We’ll be okay Nick,” I whispered. He looked at me and smiled before laying down across the bed he was on. He stared at me questionably and then pointed at me. “What?”

“Let’s play twenty questions,” Nick said as I shrugged my shoulders. “I go first.”

“Fine.”

“When, where, and with whom did you loose your virginity?” he asked as I laughed. Did he really just ask me that? “What? It’s a good question.”

“I was seventeen, it was at Lily’s house and it was with her older brother. He was twenty-one at the time,” I said, staring at him. “We dated for like two weeks and I thought I was in love and it turned out that he just wanted to sleep with me and when I gave in, he dumped me.” He stared at me in return as if he was in shock. “So, how many women have you slept with?”

“Three,” he said, smiling at me. “You, Katie, and my high school sweetheart who’s name was Erin too.”

“Only three?”

“Yep, you?”

“Five,” I said, looking away. “Lily’s brother, Simon who was a designer at the company and I was only eighteen and in college, so my father fired him, Ben Affleck –“

“Really, Ben Affleck?”

“We dated for like six months,” I replied, not even wanting to go there. “Daniel and then you.”

“Not too shabby,” he said while laughing. “Not that I’ve slept with a movie star.”

“Yeah, well,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Where do you see yourself in five years?”

“Settled down, married, with maybe another kid,” he said without even hesitating. “I want to give Katie a normal family like I had growing up.” I smiled and looked away. “Who’s better in bed out of the five guys?”

“It doesn’t matter who was best, it matters which I liked more.”

“Then what and why?”

I looked down shyly, afraid to say anything. “You, it’s just different with you,” I replied, looking up at him. He smiled, climbing over to my bed and laid down beside me. He was about to say something to me when the wind blew a tree limb against the window, busting it open. “Shit!”

“Shit, come on, we need to go where there’s no windows,” Nick said, grabbing my hand. We ran into the bathroom and locked the door. “Should have been in here to begin with.”

“This isn’t fun anymore,” I replied, crossing my arms. Nick smiled at me and pulled me into his arms, giving me a hug. “I just want to go home.”

“Just take your mind off of it,” Nick whispered as I lifted my head up to look at him. “I’ve been in them before, most of the time stayed at my place. It’ll be okay.”

“It’ll be okay,” I whispered, smiling back. He smiled, leaning down to kiss me softly on the lifts. He backed away, sucking on my lips and I smiled again.

“Erin, I love you,” he whispered. I paused, staring at him. Did he really just say that or was I imagining things? “I’m falling so in love with you that it’s not even funny.”

“Nick,” I whispered, trying to kiss him back but he stopped me.

“I mean it, I love you and I really think I’m falling so in love with you,” he said, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. “I just want you to know incase something happens and I was going to tell you tonight anyway –“

“I’m falling in love with you too,” I whispered, seeing a smile smear across his face. I couldn’t believe that I had actually just said that, but there I was – telling him that I was falling in love with him.

He smiled, pulling me to the cold tile floor slowly and leaned against he wall. He pulled me to his lap, smiling up at me. I leaned over to kiss him, feeling him wrap his arms around my waist. I was getting so turned on by the sound of the rain and wind outside and by just being there with him.

“The condoms are outside,” I whispered, sucking on his bottom lip. I wasn’t about to have sex again without one considering how much that night made me think.

“I think I left them at the beach house,” he whispered, putting his hands up the back of my top. I paused, looking at him. “Sorry.”

“God,” I muttered, putting my forehead to his. “I’m so turned on right now.”

“I can pull out in time,” he whispered, kissing me softly. He began sucking down my neck, turning me on even more. “Come on, it’ll take our minds off of what’s going on outside.”

I sighed, knowing there was no way that I could tell him no now and before I knew it, we were both naked and making love to one another. All I could think about was the fact that we had just told that to one another “I love you” basically. It took almost six months before Daniel and I ever told that to one another but yet we were practically living with one another.

Nick was kissing and touching me all over my body, practically showing me every way that he loved me. We moved over onto the floor so that I was on my back. The cold tile floor wasn’t giving me my chill bumps, it was Nick. Everything he was doing to me was driving me crazy. The way he held onto my hips and sucked on my neck. I knew that I wasn’t pleasing him as much as he was me, but my mind was too pre-occupied.

He leaned over and whispered “Are you okay?” in my ear and I smiled, nodding my head. Damn, he really was paying attention. I wrapped my legs around him, pushing him harder into me. I began moving my hips up to meet his as he thrust inside of me. I was just getting into it, knowing that I was close to my release when he leaned over to tell me that he was moving out of me because he was there too.

“No, don’t,” I whispered, opening my eyes to meet his. He smiled, leaning over to kiss me deeply and began moving inside of me harder and deeper. What the hell was becoming of me? What was Nickolas Carrington doing to me? He was turning me into someone else. I wasn’t the same prepared and safe young woman that I once was.

I have become this new person that goes around having unprotected sex and telling men that she’s forbidden from that she loves them.

Nick collapsed on top of me with his head resting in the crook of my neck as my orgasm finally came. I laid there, staring at the pale white bathroom ceiling wondering what had become of me. I knew my worst fear would end up happening. I would become pregnant, my father would find out about Nick and myself, and then fire Nick.

Telling Nick that I was falling in love with him is just going to make everything harder – much harder.

“Erin,” Nick whispered, leaning up to look at me. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure,”

“What’s your middle name?”

“Scarlett,”

“Can I call you Starlet?”

“Why?”

“Because, just,” he said, shyly. “I just want something to call you that’s just mine and you’re my starlet…”

I smiled at him. For some odd reason, I found it incredibly sweet. “On one condition… only if I can call you Cowboy.”

“Cowboy? Why?” he asked, with a confused look on his face. I laughed, wondering if I should even tell him.

“When I first met you, I didn’t know your name so I called you my cowboy because of your southern accent,” I said, looking away. I was embarrassed and I just knew that I was turning red.

“Yes, you can call me Cowboy,” he whispered, leaning over to kiss me lightly on the lips. “I meant what I told you earlier. I thought I was in love once and it was nothing like this, Erin. I just wish your father would understand and we wouldn’t have to hide it.”

“The season will be over soon enough and we’ll have the show and then we can just slowly let it out in the open to him,” I said, staring at him. “I really think I’m falling in love with you too. I didn’t really think about it at first until Lily pointed it out to me, but you’ve sort of changed me and for the better I think,”

“I haven’t changed you –“

“You have Nick,” I said, propping myself up on my elbows. “My relationship with my mother is so much better and we’re actually bonding because of you. You’re helping me come to terms with the lie I’ve lived with my whole life. You helped me get over that whole Daniel thing and I didn’t even know you then. I saw you that night and you took Daniel right out of my mind. Katie is making me unafraid of children now. I’ve changed.”

“When my parents come back to town in two weeks, I want you to meet them,” he said, kissing me lightly on the lips. “I want them to meet the girl I’m going to spend the rest of my life with.”

Hold up – rest of his life?

I thought he was afraid of commitment. Now he’s telling me he loves me and he wants to introduce me to his parents as his future wife or something?

I smiled at him lightly, wondering if he took what I said the wrong way. I know he said he wanted to give Katie a real family, but I hope he doesn’t think that time we tell my father about us that we’ll get married and I will pop a few puppies out.

If he thinks that, this relationship will never last.