“Fuck, Jersey,” he finally groaned. “That was…” The rest of that sentence died during a firm shake of his head.
Proud that I’d rendered the hotshot lawyer speechless, I stood and quipped, “And now we’re even.” His gaze followed me when I sauntered over to my cold coffee, dumped it in the sink, and refilled my mug. While I took my first sip, he remained in his bare-assed position against my cabinets, in some sort of a daze.
The way he stared at me, as though he wanted to pounce, had my nipples pebbling beneath my massive T-shirt. It took every fiber of my being to maintain eye contact and not stare at his naked, perfect body or his semihard dick.
“Are you going to stand there all day?” I finally spoke.
“I may have to.” I loved that my performance had left him in the state he was in. It evened the playing field between us, because one thing was for sure, Nate knew how to fuck.
And that was just what it was each time with Mr. Navarro… fucking, be it against a door or in the middle of my kitchen.
Of the three times we’d had sex, four if you counted the first time at his apartment, not once had we done so in a bed. Whether it was deliberate on his part or not I didn’t know. Maybe that made it all too intimate for him?
Although he hadn’t seemed to have had a problem falling asleep and sharing my bed all night. If anything, I found that to be extremely intimate. I’d never been a fan of being forced into keeping close proximity with another warm body, and I hated that awful awkwardness when you woke. That could’ve been attributed to the men I’d been with, since I didn’t feel uneasy with Nate.
Last night, every so often I’d wake to feel the weight of his arm across my body, or his leg tucked between mine, only to fall back into a fitful slumber.
I even remembered my dream, something that never happened. Warm, powdery sand was beneath our writhing bodies, and a turquoise sea lapped at our entwined legs as we made love. A large wave came out of nowhere and blindsided us. I sputtered my way to the surface and saw Nate calling for me as another wave hit.
When I came up gasping the second time, there was no sign of him. It was that moment my subconscious chose to rouse. Still not realizing it was a dream, I reached for him in my sleep, only to jolt awake when my hand was met with nothing but cold sheets. And he witnessed the entire embarrassing moment play out.
I wasn’t sure if waking during the best part or if seeing him there watching annoyed me more. Either way, I felt exposed and needed my space, only to emerge from the bathroom to find him walking around butt naked like he owned the place.
He pushed himself off the cabinet and announced, “I’m starving.” Apparently fully recovered now, he set out to make us breakfast. It was my turn to stand dumbfounded, and each time he caught me staring, that damn smirk of his appeared. Meanwhile, he moved around my small kitchen, pulling out the tools and ingredients needed without a care in the world.
He seemed to think I liked him better when he was sans clothes. Okay, fine, having him in my kitchen making coffee, toast, and eggs, all while still in the nude, was hot as fuck. The entire scenario gave me a girl boner, but I wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of knowing that.
Clothing or not, the man exuded cockiness, arrogance, and an air of authority. Something about him brought out the worst in me… except for the erogenous six-inch circumference between my thighs and a one-by-one-inch corner of my brain. Those measly seven inches seemed to defiantly raise their fists in support of the bastard.
Ten minutes later, he placed our plates on the table. “Ready to eat?”
But before he sat down, I pleaded, “Can you please get dressed?”
At first, he stared at me as though there was something he wanted to say. But then he wordlessly sauntered over to where his clothes were on my couch. For the record, watching Nate redress was hot as hell, not excluding the way he stared at me as he fastened his sexy watch to his sexy wrist. And once done, being sockless and wearing black slacks and a gray button-down shirt, meticulously rolling the sleeves toward his elbows while staring at me, was as sexy as him being naked.
“Better, Jersey?”
“Much.”
“Good. Wouldn’t want to stress you out.” He took the seat across from me and shoved a forkful into his mouth before motioning toward my plate. “Eat.”
When the first bite of his perfectly cooked eggs caused a moan, he smiled. “This is delicious. I had stuff in my fridge to make this?”
“You did. Trick is to add cheese to the eggs. Learned it from Max.”
We slipped into silence even though I had so many things I wanted to say, to ask. Part of me refused to. But it didn’t matter how indifferent I acted; the bastard knew it, and I hated that more. Throughout the meal, he never stopped staring at me. That only added annoyance to my mix. “What?” I finally asked.
“You tell me, Jersey. It seems you’re having an entire conversation with yourself over there.”
I responded, “When was the last time you had sex… before we did?”
“August thirty-first,” he easily answered. Three days before the auction and fifteen since. “And because your stubbornness won’t allow you to ask, she was an old friend in town on business.” The thought that his dick was inside someone else seventy-two hours before me spurred an irrational level of jealousy. “You?” he asked.
“Weeks ago.”
Nate’s jaw tightened just as I glanced his way. It’d been so subtle that if I hadn’t looked at that moment, I never would’ve seen it. “Anything else you want to know?” he asked. He shoved away his now-empty plate and folded his arms.
Yes, tons. But resisting the urge, I merely shook my head and quipped, “Nope.” Not at all convinced, he threw me that smirk before taking his mug and plate to the sink. “I’ll do that,” I said, shoving him aside and loading up the dishwasher. By the time I closed the door with a loud click, he was standing before the wall-to-wall bookcases in my small living room, snooping.
I watched as he slid out one of my earlier novels, flipped it open to read a few pages, and put it back. He studied the other titles on that shelf, smiled at a picture of Jade and me when we were kids, and stopped to lift a picture of my parents and me just before my dad passed away.
The more he studied it, the more I felt exposed. Nate really knew nothing about me. Until now, I wasn’t even sure he knew my dad was Black and my mom was White, if he knew I was an only child, or even if he knew my dad had died. I, for sure, wasn’t prepared to discuss such personal details about my life.
Sensing my gaze, he turned with the photo in his hand. “Why the look now, Jersey?”
“It’s almost ten,” I announced to steer him away from asking questions.
He twisted his wrist and glanced at that sexy watch he wore. “So it is.”
“You said you were leaving after breakfast. Thank you for cooking it, but breakfast is now over.” As if I hadn’t even spoken, he went right back to perusing my things. “Nate, I have work to do.”
“We have one more condom left,” he said matter-of-factly.
“And?”
“And… it’d be a shame to waste it.”
I gawked at him. “It’s not happening again.”