“When Marcus holds me in his big, powerful arms, I just melt. No man has ever treated me like this before me. I get excited just thinking about him.”

With those tender words, O.J. Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole revealed to a close friend the secret afternoons of passion she and football superstar Marcus Allen shared – behind the backs of both O.J. and Marcus’ fiancee Kathryn.

The world learned about the red-hot affair from her best pal Faye Resnick, who mentions it in her new book, “Nicole Brown Simpson: The Private Diary of a Life Interrupted.”

Now an exclusive ENQUIRER investigation has uncovered the intimate details that not even Faye knew.

Although Marcus was pals with O.J., that didn’t stop him from pursuing O.J.’s ex-wife, said Nicole’s friend.

“Marcus and Nicole began as friends. He used to come by her house two or three times a week.

But starting in February 1993, their relationship changed – and that spring, Nicole told me that she and Marcus had become lovers.”

It was one of the happiest times of her life.

“One time I went to Nicole’s house and there was a large bouquet of fresh wildflowers in the kitchen. She said, ‘Marcus gave them to me. He’s so sweet.'”

Nicole especially appreciated the way Marcus treated her after she had suffered at the hands of wife-beater O.J., said her friend.

“She told me, ‘O.J. treats me like a child. He’s always telling me a stupid. But Marcus likes me as a person. He thinks I’m beautiful and he knows I have a brain!'”

Marcus encouraged Nicole to get out from under O.J.’s shadow, revealed her friend.

However, Marcus abruptly ended the affair in June 1993 after he married Kathryn – in a wedding at O.J.’s estate.

“Nicole was crushed,” said her friend.

Marcus denied the affair after Resnick and her coauthor Enquirer gossip columnist Mike Walker, revealed it in their book.

But Nicole herself told her friend, “If Marcus would just stand up and proclaim his love for me publicly, I’d marry him in a minute!”

The National Enquirer (November 8 1994)