Her gaze cut away as she debated my argument, but when she again met my eyes, I kissed her again, longer, harder, more convincingly… and she kissed me back until I asked, “Is that a yes?”
“Fine,” she conceded, but there was determination in the way she lifted her chin and added, “But the trade-off is that once Jade and Max get home, I’m going to my place and not yours. I’m tired and have plans early tomorrow morning.”
“Nice try, Jersey. You were supposed to be with me tonight.”
“Why would you assume that I was spending the night? Did I actually say I was?” I blinked a few times, allowing a long enough pause for her to add, “No, I didn’t. Don’t go assuming. Nate. Otherwise this arrangement between us won’t work.” She seemed angry, back to her old self. Gone was the easy demeanor I had witnessed earlier.
“Okay, that’s how you want to play it?” I asked, slipping back into my own cocky self. Her body stiffened when I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her against me. “Fine. Next weekend you’re my date and hostage. You’ve been warned… no ifs, ands, or buts.”
I didn’t have to rush home last Saturday night because of early-morning plans.
I needed to.
Call it keeping the upper hand or remaining on the defense… either way, leaving Jade and Max’s place and going to mine was necessary. I may have had an epiphany in deciding to keep this thing going between us. I mean, why shouldn’t I indulge in him? I deserved the kind of pleasure in my life that I’d only written about.
Having said that, I couldn’t lower my guard when it came to Nate. As it was, it had been almost two weeks since we’d last had sex, and I wasn’t handling it all that well. My stubbornness set me up for another long stretch of being sexually frustrated, and every part of my body pulsed with an annoying ache. Never had that happened to me with another man. Huge red flag.
Nate also consumed every thought I had in between and caused a fuck ton of daydreaming. He could easily railroad me into just about anything merely by existing. It didn’t take a genius to know that my heart would be in trouble if I didn’t maintain a level head over our situation.
It was hard enough to keep from growing feelings for him while it was just sex. Adding anything more would most definitely wreck me… like attending family functions.
What the hell was he thinking? I should’ve killed that suggestion the moment the words passed his lips. I had no business going to that damn wedding. My so-called friend Jade was no help at all. Just go with the flow, she’d said… the same woman who, until recently, had spent most of her life wound tighter than a drum. Besides, what did she know?
Okay, maybe getting knocked up on a one-night stand and then falling in love with the guy gave her some perspective on plot twists, but still. This wasn’t just a plot twist. The more invested I became in my relationship with Nate, the more I wanted to run. Until my libido piled up more excuses against my argument, like little building blocks. I’d literally become my own worst enemy.
Meanwhile, on his end the man remained cool, calm, and collected. It actually irked me a bit. Except for a text announcing what time he would pick me up on Saturday, and a reminder to pack for overnight, I never heard from Nate. He was probably going about his day, dominating the world, without giving me so much as a thought.
So, all of it—the “Is he going to call?” insecurities that a grown-ass woman shouldn’t have to ever worry about, to the way he was never far from my mind, forced me to make a decision. I’d go to this wedding, I’d spend the night with him in an inn, as he arrogantly assumed, and I’d get a good dose of a man who had already become addicting.
I conveniently ignored that that was the problem. Since he came along, I haven’t been myself. Being consumed with thoughts over a man and how he made me feel wasn’t part of my norm. Would experiencing such an intense, out-of-this-world kind of passion be worth it if I’d end up damaged from it?
I’d just have to take one day at a time, while remaining on the offense. And no more accepting invitations to family events, no matter how persuasive he could be.
It was that new level of resolve that got me through the jitters… until the door buzzer sent my heartbeat into a frantic gallop. The reaction only served as another apropos reminder of why I needed to walk away from this sexy-as-hell man.
I pressed the button and announced, “I’ll be down in a few.”
After one last pee and one last glance at myself in the mirror, I grabbed the handle of my overnight bag and headed out.
“Here goes nothing,” I said to myself, opening the door to find Nate standing right there in a pair of khakis, a pale-green dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and that sexy-as-fuck watch on his masculine wrist. His skin still tanned from summer and that crisp clean scent made him appear as though he’d spent the day on a beach. That and the way his hair looked as though someone had just run their hands through it literally caused water to pool in my mouth.
“Here goes nothing?” he questioned, repeating what he’d obviously heard me say.
Ignoring his probe, I countered with, “How did you get in?”
“Your cute neighbor. Redhead, smoking body. Chelsea something?” An irrational surge of jealousy zapped through me until he added, “Speaking of smoking bodies.” His eyes skated over the flirty pale-blue cocktail dress I’d chosen, hovering at a neckline that revealed a hint of cleavage before moving on to where it hit midthigh.
When they again met mine, he seemed almost angry, enough to have me blurt out, “I scoured the internet searching what was appropriate apparel for a farmhouse chic wedding, and I hope that I got it right.”
While I shrugged on a silky fine-gauge sweater, his response came in the form of a long, slow nod. “Yeah, Jersey. It’s perfect.” He snaked his hands around my waist to pull me against him. The hard planes of his chest and the searing glare right into my soul had me forgetting my own pact. “In fact, I have an idea.” He nuzzled my neck with the tip of his nose. “We have some time, and since he missed you—”
“He who?”
“My cock,” he stated matter-of-factly, pushing it into my pelvis.
“You refer to your cock as a he?”
“Yep.” With that, he pressed his mouth against mine and, with the perfect amount of suction, proceeded to suck every shred of logic that I held on to like a security blanket.
The kiss was everything.
Every. Thing.
And when he broke it, I almost wept.
“It’s obvious what we both want. So are we going to rectify our situation?”
I’d been left so disoriented that my brows rose a bit in confusion. “Rectify how?”
“Are we going to fuck before being forced to drive two-plus hours?”
I finally came to my senses. “No, we’re not going to fuck. Don’t push your luck, Mr. Navarro.” I shoved him out of my doorway, grabbed my bags, and slammed the door shut behind me. “Let’s get this over with,” I grumbled like a petulant child.
“I got this,” he said, equally as grumpy. He took the bag from me as we walked down the hall, side by side… me on wobbly knees while doing my damnedest to appear unaffected by him.