Brooke nodded and lifted a hand in assent, knowing that left her to sit with Nate, since the riders went two by two on this ride.
Nate sent her a reassuring sidelong glance as they strolled through the maze of metal bars. He clapped a companionable hand on her shoulder. “It’ll be over before you know it.”
“Not soon enough,” Brooke muttered under her breath. “My knees already feel like Jell-O.”
“You’re a good sport to be doing this for the guys,” he said, with an approving glance that made her feel all warm and tingly inside.
“That’s me,” Brooke joked nervously. “Always taking one for the team…”
As was Nate…
Their glances locked, and another thrill swept through Brooke.
Before long, Cole and Landry were climbing into their seats. Seconds later, Brooke found herself sitting down, too, with Nate beside her. As soon as they were securely latched in, behind the boys, Nate reached over and took her hand. Squeezed it hard. And then they were off.
“YOU DON’T LOOK SO GOOD, Mom,” Cole told Brooke what seemed like a lifetime later. In reality, only a few completely harrowing minutes had passed, minutes she had been absolutely sure she would not survive.
“Yeah,” Landry noted, “you’re kind of green.”
She felt as if she was about to throw up.
Nate studied her with compassionate eyes. And there was no doubt about it, Brooke admitted a little resentfully, given her wuss status in the day’s events thus far. Nate’s own color was great. He had the same flush of exhilaration staining his face that their boys had, the same euphoric laugh as they exited the ride.
In fact, Brooke realized, surveying him closely as she tried to get her land legs back, Nate looked good all over. In sneakers, knee-length shorts and a loose fitting, short-sleeve shirt that brought out the vibrant blue of his eyes, he was the epitome of a dad on a weekend outing with the kids. Only a whole lot sexier than the other dads around them. A lot sexier, in fact, than any dad she had ever seen.
The realization brought heat to her cheeks.
Nate’s brow furrowed.
Obviously, he had misinterpreted the reason behind her sudden flush.
Nate wrapped a steadying arm about her shoulders, which only made her discomfort worse. He peered at her closely before turning to Cole. “I think your mom needs to sit down a second and catch her breath.” Briefly, Nate shifted his glance to the teens. “Why don’t you boys ride the tower? Unless—” Nate looked back at Brooke “—you want to do that one, too?”
Just the sight of the ride had all the blood draining from her head once again. “Thirty-two and a half stories straight up and down again, at a speed of forty-five miles an hour?” Weakly, she reiterated the information in the brochure.
Cole and Landry gave each other fist bumps. “It’s got the best view of the park!” Landry claimed.
Brooke lifted a hand, begging for mercy. “I don’t think so,” she murmured, still feeling a little shaky. “You-all go ahead and have a great time!”
“I’ll stay here with your mom,” Nate volunteered.
Relieved, the boys raced off to get in line.
Nate led Brooke over to an empty bench with a clear view of the ride. Propping a solicitous hand on her shoulder, he lowered his face to hers and asked with a mixture of bemusement and quiet sympathy, “Can I get you anything?”
How about a kiss? A fierce, warm hug. The opportunity to rest my head on your broad shoulder and close my eyes and forget the terror I just felt.
Knowing it couldn’t happen, shocked by the notion that she was even longing for such a thing, Brooke pushed the thought away.
“How about a heart that’s not pounding so hard it’s about to leap out of my chest?” she quipped.
He grinned, reassured, then tapped the park map she held clutched in her hands. “We could do the less intense rides for a while.”
Brooke shook her head. Cole needed her to be strong and fearless.
So she would be.
“The boys want the maximum rush today. So let’s make sure they do all the fastest, highest rides at least once,” she stipulated firmly.
He smiled in admiration. “You going to be able to do any more?”
“Yep.” One way or another, Brooke would conquer her fear. It would be easier with the indefatigable Nate by her side. “I’m warning you, though,” she teased, her good humor returning as her system settled back into a normal rhythm, “I might squeeze your hand off in the process.”
“That’s okay.” He flashed a very sexy smile that melted her insides. “I can take it.”
And take it he did, Brooke noted as the day wore on.
The park had twelve thrill rides. The boys rode them all, and Brooke managed to do ten of them, which was a personal record for her. They saw a show, ate way too much food, and even spent time playing games in the arcade before staying for the fireworks that closed down the park.
The boys talked about their adventure all the way back to Nate’s.
Still reliving every adrenaline-filled moment as they all got out of Nate’s car, Cole grinned. “This was the best day ever.”
Landry looked Nate square in the eye and said with heartfelt sincerity, “For me, too.” He hesitated before extending his hand.
Nate swallowed up Landry’s palm and shook it warmly.
Aware this was the first formal physical expression of acceptance between the two, initiated by Landry, Brooke got a lump in her throat.
“Thanks, Nate,” the boy said huskily.
Nate looked as if he had just won the lottery. “Anytime,” he promised thickly.
His eyes suspiciously moist, Cole shook hands with Nate, too.
“It was a great day,” Brooke told Nate warmly, before they said good-night.
The only thing that would have made it more perfect, she noted as she and the two teens headed for the cottage, was if the four of them had been the actual “family” they’d felt like all day.
“I’VE BEEN THINKING,” Landry said the next morning, over breakfast in the newly reconfigured kitchen. “Maybe I should visit my great-grandmother, after all. I mean, she might be kind of lonely or missing me or something.”
Or in other words, Brooke thought, Landry yearned to see Jessalyn now, as much as the elderly woman had been wanting to see him. “I think that’s a great idea,” she enthused.
“Can you take me over to the retirement village after camp today?”
Brooke set plates of blueberry oatmeal pancakes in front of each boy. She lounged against the other side of the breakfast bar. “I’ll have to clear it with Nate.”
“Clear what with me?” he asked, walking in.
He circled the counter to help himself to some of the coffee in the pot while Brooke explained.
“So is it okay?” Landry asked.
Nate looked longingly at the golden cakes on the griddle. “Of course. In fact, I can take you if you want.”
Landry looked at Brooke, half seeming to want her to intervene, half not.
She’d never been one to manipulate a situation, but this was for the best. She plated a breakfast for Nate, too. “Actually, Landry, it would be better if Nate drove you over, schedulewise.” If the two of them were alone, they’d have a chance to build on the rapport they had already established, maybe feel even more like father and son….
“Can I go, too?” Cole asked, eager to be part of things.
Everyone turned to look at him.
Nate took his breakfast and sat down on a high stool at the island counter. The closest seat available was on the other side of Cole.
“Landry?” Nate leaned forward, tossing the ball back to him.
Landry grinned at Cole with brotherly affection. “Sounds good to me….”
And there went the solo bonding time, Brooke thought with a sigh.
But maybe this was good, too.
With Cole along, Landry was less likely to back out. And he needed to visit his g
reat-grandmother.
Because Brooke was expecting a delivery, Nate drove the boys to camp that morning, as well. Since he was already in a suit and tie, she expected him to go on to the office from there. Instead, he came back to the mansion and walked upstairs, just as the truck that had brought the furniture for Landry’s bedroom in the main house was driving away.
Brooke met him in the hall. “Everything okay?”
Nate glanced at the work in progress that would one day be his son’s room.
“I wanted to thank you for bringing the boys here for breakfast this morning.”
Glad he hadn’t thought she was overstepping, Brooke went back to unwrapping linens. “The kitchen here is much nicer now than the one in the caretaker’s cottage.”
“That isn’t why you did it.”
It had been, however, the reason she had given the boys. She climbed up the ladder and slid the covering on the mattress of the elevated loft-style bed. Digging in his heels about only being there temporarily, Landry had never committed to any one particular style or color, so Brooke had had to rely on her intuition when selecting the decor. She was confident Landry would like it, however, once he moved out of the cottage and into this room. The large suite was the perfect place for him to call home, the furniture she had selected a harbinger of college years to come, with bookshelves on one end of the loft bed’s base, a built-in desk on the other. A futon and easy chair in another corner provided space for Landry to hang out while listening to music or watching TV or talking on the phone.
“Yesterday was so nice…. I thought you might like to expand on that and spend time together,” she said.
Nate came in to check out the dorm-style furniture system and decor. “Which is, I’m guessing, why you wanted me to pick him up from camp today.”
Brooke climbed down the ladder, unfolded a set of organic cotton sheets. “His seeing his great-grandmother again is a big deal.”
Nate steadied the ladder while she climbed up to finish making the bed. “As is his taking Cole with him.”
Brooke smoothed out the soft warm blanket and boldly striped duvet. “It seems like everything is finally working out the way you had hoped.”
Nate handed her the pillows. “Thanks in no small part to you.”
Brooke arranged them artfully, then climbed back down to stand beside Nate once again. “Don’t sell yourself short, Nate. You’ve got a natural affinity for kids.” She looked around, pleased at the way the space was coming together, then turned back to him. “You’re going to be…scratch that. You already are a great dad.”
The corner of Nate’s mouth lifted as he followed her out of the bedroom. “Coming from you, that’s high praise.”
“It was deserved,” she admitted sincerely. “Being a parent is hard but rewarding work.”
“You make it look easy,” he said.
Brooke flashed a tremulous smile. “And we both know it’s anything but,” she murmured.
“True.” Suddenly, the only sound in the entire mansion was the sound of the two of them breathing.
Their glances meshed. Another second passed. Once again, Brooke had the strong sensation Nate wanted to kiss her. Almost as much as she suddenly wanted to kiss him…. And just as swiftly, she knew she had been lying to herself. “We’re not going to be able to do this, are we?” she asked, knowing she could avoid this reckoning if she only had the strength to move away. But she didn’t. And Nate didn’t want to move away, either. He’d already made that clear.
He made it clear again as he moved toward her. “We’re not going to be able to do what?”
She lifted her hands in a humorous expression of defeat. “Remain just friends.”
Nate’s eyes darkened. “I can be patient.”
“So can I,” she declared.
But as they continued looking at each other, something changed. There was a smile in Nate’s eyes and they went from mutually concerned parents who had once made love and shared a great weekend together, to a man and a woman sharing something deeper, more powerful.
Brooke hadn’t allowed herself to feel anything like this in a long time, and the emotions were too overwhelming to resist. She reached for Nate. “Suppose I’ve changed my mind.” Suppose I’m tired of being alone, tired of denying myself what I really want, which is you. She gulped, wondering when she had gotten so bad at negotiating. As two successful businesspeople, this should be their strong point. They ought to be able to come to some meeting of the minds. “Suppose—” she paused, looking deep into his eyes “—I don’t want to wait.”
“The first time we made love…”
The only time.
She’d told herself she was rebounding, that it had been nothing more than a way to assuage her injured pride, to prove she was worth something as a woman again.
Brooke saw now it had been so much more, a way back into a fully lived life.
A door to the future…their future?
Or just the here and now?
She didn’t know, didn’t care, as long as the incredible pleasure, the intense feeling of being alive she felt whenever she was with him, didn’t stop.
Nate threaded his hands through her hair, holding her head. The unchecked longing on his face had her rising on tiptoe to kiss him.
“I wanted you then, too,” she admitted passionately. “I just didn’t want to admit how much.”
He kissed her reverently. “You won’t have to convince me again.” Heat radiated from his body as he swept her into his arms and carried her down the hall to his bedroom. He shut the door behind them. “I’ve wanted to be close to you, too, Brooke.”
“Then make love to me, Nate,” she said, her pulse pounding, as he slowly set her down. “Make love to me without a view toward tomorrow, or a glance back at yesterday.” She wound her arms about his neck and kissed him persuasively. “Keep us in the here and now. Without rules or restrictions…”
Still kissing her, Nate drew her down onto the bed he’d been in too much of a rush that morning to make. When at last they broke apart, Brooke kicked off her sandals and lay back against the pillows. Nate shrugged out of his jacket, his tie. Unable to wait, he also kicked off his shoes and lay down beside her, looking unexpectedly vulnerable. “You’re sure?”
Very. “I never do anything just for me,” she whispered, lowering the wall around her heart a little more. She gave him a reason she thought he could accept. “I want you, just for me.”
COMMON SENSE TOLD NATE to kiss Brooke until kissing was an end in itself. And then wait the traditional amount of time, until they knew each other thoroughly and they’d had a proper series of dates, before taking things to the next level again. He was old enough to know that was the safe way to proceed if he wanted to protect the investment he was making in their future together, especially if he wanted to convince her that what they had was much more than a fleeting sexual attraction. But when her hands skimmed over his entire body, there was no way to deny her. No way to stop the velvet caress of her lips pressing against his, any more than he could stop the burgeoning pressure against his fly. He wanted her, too.
And it wasn’t just lust, as she wanted to think….
He needed her, needed this. Needed to discover the softness of her skin beneath her clothes, the warmth of her body, the jump in her pulse every time they connected. She was absolutely exquisite. Urging him on, trapping him with the sleek muscles of her long, slender thighs, she caressed him evocatively with her hands. She twisted beneath him, cupping his buttocks, molding her body to his, until they were both on fire.
The first time, he had seduced her. Now she was seducing him.
And still his hands rubbed down her back, claiming, exploring. The gentle curve of her hips, the swell of her breasts, the delicate skin between her thighs…
He followed the caress of his hands with the homage of his tongue, the adoration of his mouth. She arched her back and sucked in her breath. And then that, too, was too much.
He moved
upward, claiming her mouth again, claiming her.
She encircled his neck with her arms and refused to let go. She wrapped her legs around his waist, giving herself over to him completely. And all the while she made soft sounds of surrender in the back of her throat that drove him wild.
He lifted her hips. And then they were one.
Soft as silk, hot as fire. Tight. Wet. Wanton.
Together, they rode the wave.
Faster, harder. Soft and slow. Slower, hotter, wetter still. And then she was his, really his. Not just for now, he determined, clasping her close. But as long as she would have him.
BROOKE LAY WRAPPED IN Nate’s arms. In his bed.
The first time they’d made love they’d ended up in hers. Now they were in his.
Both times, it had felt right.
The only difference was that this time she wasn’t as scared.
Now she was actually contemplating letting Nate become a part of her life. One step at a time. Wasn’t that what she always told Cole? You can do anything if you break it down, and take it slowly?
On the floor beside them a humming began.
Recognizing the sound of a vibrating cell phone, Brooke lifted her head. Her phone was still set to ring. “That has to be for you.”
Nate’s eyes remained closed. “Let ’em leave a message.”
She peered at him playfully, between her spread fingers. “Are you sure you’re a CEO?”
The phone buzzed again.
The next thought occurred to both of them simultaneously. “What if it’s…?”
“One of the kids.” Nate let her go long enough to roll over and capture the offending electronic device.
He rolled back onto the pillows, lifting the screen where he could see it.
He hit a button, frowned, hit another button.
As their normal everyday life crept back in, Brooke found she needed reassurance. “Tell me that’s not the kids with another field trip emergency.”
“Actually, it’s worse.” The corners of Nate’s mouth pulled down even more. “It’s individual text messages—from my parents.”
BROOKE SAT UP, holding the sheet against her bare breasts. Nate looked so distressed she had to ask, “Is everything all right with them?”
The Mommy Proposal Page 12
