When Love Comes Around (Love Conquers All) by Victoria Wells Page A

kids.”
    Taking long strides, he’d already made up in his mind whoever was at the door was about to get a good cussing out. As much as he adored his children, they were quite cranky and evil when sleep deprived. A trait they’d inherited from him.
    Not bothering with looking through the peephole, snatching the door open, Nick growled, “What the―” His annoyance was cut short by the sight before him.
    Hair sticking straight up in the air, smeared makeup, wrinkled dress, panties in one hand, bra in the other, and barefooted, stood Starr Avery. He had never seen such a beautiful woman look so unsightly. Starr was torn up from the floor up! She looked a hot mess!
    Taken aback, Nick just stood there like an idiot staring at her wondering what in the world had happened to her.
    Starr was the first to break the uncomfortable silence. Shifting from barefoot to barefoot, she stammered, “Um, Nick…is Summer here?”
    He wanted to ask her where else would she be at six-thirty in the morning. Instead, he held his tongue. Stepping aside allowing her entry, he had to jump back as the unkempt blur darted past him nearly trampling his bare toes. She didn’t even give him a chance to respond to her question.
    Leaping on the bed, she cried, “Summer…Summer, wake up. I need to talk to you.”
    Summer moaned, “Give me five more minutes.” After a night of drinking white wine spritzers and then later happily indulging her husband, she was beyond exhausted. The man had the stamina of twenty year old.
    Starr pulled the pillow from Summer’s head and shook her more vigorously. “Come on, wake up. There’s a man in my room and I don’t know how he got there.”
    Starr nearly jumped out of her skin. And Summer was like the dead coming back to life at the sound of the deep, baritone roar coming from the doorway. “What the hell do you mean there’s a man in your room and you don’t know how he got there?”
    Neither woman had been aware Nick was standing behind them overhearing Starr’s tearful confession.
    Starr covered her face with her hands and wept from pure embarrassment. Never in her adult life had anything like this happened to her. The last thing she remembered… Oh, no, no, nooo.
    Wrapping her arms around her friend who was in apparent distress, Summer soothed, “It’s okay, honey. Everything’s going to be all right.”
    Shaking her head, sobbing even louder, “No, Summer, I think…I think… I did something stupid.”
    Becoming further irritated, Nick demanded, “I’m still waiting for an answer.”
    How in hell does she not know who’s in her room? I know she has more sense than to have picked up some man off the street.
    Shooting her husband an evil glare, Summer snapped, “Why don’t you go down there and see Nicholas!”
    Nick clenched his jaw. Summer only called him by his full name when she was irritated with him. How had his morning gotten off to such a terrible start? If they hadn’t been interrupted, he probably would have eased himself between the warmth of her legs again, and rode her one last time before the kids woke up. That’s not going to happen. .. That last thought made him throw his hands up in the air and bark, “Maybe I will!”
    “Well good! Go then!” His once timid wife barked back, rolling her eyes at him.
    Crossing the room, huffing, he snatched his shirt from off the same ottoman his jeans earlier occupied. Throwing on the shirt and shoving his feet into a pair of casual loafers he threw over his shoulder as he left the room, “I’ll be back.”
    Hearing the door slam, Starr apologized. “I’m so sorry. I got you and Nick fighting over me.”
    “Girl, don’t pay him any mind. He’ll get over it. Now tell me what happened.”
    Feeling embarrassed all over again, she admitted, “That’s just it. I don’t know. I can’t remember everything.”
    “Well, tell me what you do remember. Maybe it’ll come back to you.”
    “Okay.”
    Starr started with everything she