After going through the recent media coverage, Val spun in her computer chair and regarded Nate, who was sprawled out on her couch. “How are we gonna get through this? It keeps getting worse and worse. Every time I think we’ve turned a corner…” Her optimism had faded in the harsh light of day and overwhelmed didn’t seem a strong enough word for the emotions coursing through her.
Nate rose, striding to Val, then took her hand to help her stand. “We’ll get through it.”
“I hope so.”
He pulled her into his arms. “If something happens and you lose your job, you can always come work for me. There would be special perks involved.” Nate smiled and waggled his eyebrows, and she could tell he was trying to distract her. It didn’t work.
She shook her head. “I don’t want to move.”
“You wouldn’t have to. You could work from here.” The thought of having him so close and yet so far away depressed her, but she pushed those maudlin thoughts to the back of her mind.
“After doing work like the stuff I’ve done for the hospital, I’m not sure how much tolerance I’d have for dealing with some starlet’s sex tape or an athlete’s arrest for gun possession.”
Nate nodded as if ceding the point. “We can talk about it later, if it ever happens. Even if the board wanted to, though, they’d have to be complete idiots to fire you right now.”
“I would’ve said that about Doug, too.”
“Somebody had to take the fall, and it makes sense it would be him and not you. He had oversight of the hospital, you didn’t. You’re just doing your best to clean up the mess. It’s not your fault things aren’t going well on that front, and it seems maybe the board recognizes that.” Picking up a stress ball from Val’s computer desk, he cleared his throat. “I’m actually very surprised it took them that long to act. They must’ve really liked Doug, but felt they had no other choice.”
“What’ll he do now?”
“I have no idea. Hopefully he’ll call soon. I’ve left messages, but he hasn’t returned them.” He set Val away from him and she instantly mourned the loss of body contact. “For now all we can do is what we’ve been doing. That’s what he would want.”
“You’re right.” Val rubbed her forehead, feeling another headache coming on. She’d love a nap, but didn’t see that in the offing.
As the evening drew near, he rose once more and stood behind Val, his hands lightly stroking her shoulders. “Have dinner with me.”
She looked up. “Um, sure.”
Val suggested a local Italian restaurant, where they dined on lasagna and shared a bottle of Chianti. When they returned to her house, she knew it would be rude not to invite him in. And who was she kidding, anyway? She wanted Nate and it looked more and more as if their time was limited.
He came inside and they began making out on her couch like a couple of teenagers. When she was finally able to tear her lips from his, it was only to lead him to her bedroom.
“The inner sanctuary,” he murmured as he stopped in the doorway. “I’m honored.”
“Don’t be honored, get in here,” she retorted, grabbing Nate by the front of his shirt and tugging. The move must’ve surprised him as he stumbled forward and then spun to land on his back on the bed with a whoosh.
He leaned up on his elbows and said, “Wow, I guess you’re a take-charge woman when you’re on your own turf.”
Val raised an eyebrow. “How do you know I’m not a take-charge woman all the time?”
Nate gave her a half-smile. “Let’s just say I’ve seen evidence to the contrary.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She reached behind herself and pulled her t-shirt over her head. Nodding toward him, she said, “Now you.”
He grinned. “Is this like strip chicken? Whoever stops disrobing first loses?”
“It seems if we’re both naked it’s a win-win situation, not a loss. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“Hmm. This is a good point.” Sitting up, Nate undid the buttons down the front of his shirt and then shucked it off, throwing it on the floor to join her top. “Now you.”
Val laughed. “So that’s how we’re gonna do this?”
“Yep.”
With an exaggerated roll of her eyes, Val reached for the waistband of the comfy pants she’d worn since she didn’t have to physically go in to the office to work today. She pushed them down, hopping on one foot and then the other to remove them completely. She kicked them to the side and cocked her head.
Nate lifted up, unzipping his pants and pulling them off in one smooth motion. With a purely wicked smirk, he dropped them to the floor. He was now only clad in a t-shirt and tight boxer briefs, while she wore her black bra and matching panties. Nate reclined again, watching her intently.
“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” she teased him, reaching for the front clasp of her bra.
“An offer I can’t refuse.” His shirt joined the growing pile on the floor and he looked up expectantly.
With a devilish smile, Val decided to torture him. She opened the clasp and then flashed him a quick peek at her breasts before closing the bra once more. He growled and she couldn’t help the giggle that worked its way free. “You want something?”
He pointed toward her breasts and then said, “Yeah. Those. In my mouth. Just so you’re aware, I’m perfectly willing to help rid you of that, you know, but it’ll be in shreds.”
“My, my. Are you trying to scare me?”
He adopted a wolfish grin. “All the better to…”
“Don’t even finish that sentence.” She could feel her cheeks burning. Without another word, she re-opened the clasp and pulled the bra down her arms and off.
“Gorgeous.” Nate sat up, grabbing her and latching onto a nipple, suckling hard, as one of his hands worked her other nipple, rolling and pulling until it elongated. “So pretty…”
Val moaned as he moved away and then plumped her breast before placing a chaste kiss to the top. Then he pushed both together and used the very tip of his tongue to flick back and forth over her nipples, not stopping until she moaned again, tugging hard on his hair.
He looked up at her. “Tell me you want me, baby.”
“I want you.” It was pointless to pretend anything different.
“Then you’ll have me.” Nate leaned back and held out his hand. “Come to bed.”
She climbed on and he settled her underneath him, letting her feel the weight of his body pressing her into the mattress, and she found herself reveling in it. After a few minutes, though, she pushed him and he fell onto his back with a lazy grin.
“This again? Not that I’m complaining…”
“Hush.”
Gazing at him, she decided a body like his should be worshipped slowly. Slowly, and thoroughly. Scooting to the foot of the bed, she lifted his feet, took off both socks, and began to massage the arch of one foot.
“You’re a goddess. Have I told you that lately?”
Val chuckled. “Uh, no.”
“You’re a goddess.”
“You just don’t want me to stop rubbing your feet.”
“I can think of several other parts I’d be okay with you rubbing.”
“And rubbed they will be, as long as you behave yourself.”
His eyebrows shot up, eyes widening comically. “Behave myself? Man, you’re really letting this ‘in charge’ thing go to your head.”
“Like I said before, shut up and enjoy it.”
“Yes, mistress.”
She lifted his other foot and gave it the same treatment, then leaned down to run her tongue along the side of his foot and up to his calf. Her breasts brushed the hair on his legs and a frisson of sensation shot through her. Who knew that would be erotic?
Val continued to massage, lick, and suck her way up his legs. When she reached his upper thighs, though, she looked up at him. “Think I’ll just skip this part for now.”
“Are you kidding?” Nate was panting, his breath sawing in and out of his lungs
.
“Why would you think I was kidding?” She shifted, placing a kiss right over his navel.
“You’re killing me. I take back what I said.”
“About what?”
“About you being a goddess. You’re more like a siren.”
She laughed. “Sorry about that.”
“I’m not above begging. Please, Val, please pay attention to my cock before my big head explodes along with the little head.”
Val almost fell off the bed laughing. “I can’t believe you just said that.”
“Whatever it takes, babe.”
She gently ran her fingernails over the bulge in his boxers. “Poor, neglected Mr. Happy, huh?”
He glowered at her. “I don’t call him Mr. Happy.”
“No?”
“No. I call him ‘desperate for Val’.”
“Wow. What foreshadowing on your part.”
He grabbed her hands. “Are you deliberately torturing me?”
“You thought me incapable of it?”
“No.” He heaved a dramatic sigh. “But I never took you for a cruel woman.”
Val reached down and pulled his boxers down to mid-thigh, and her mouth was on him a scant few seconds later. He arched up and she released him. “Better?”
“Not if you stop.”
He divested himself of the boxers and then pulled her on top of him. Soon her panties were gone and they were touching skin-to-skin from chest to knee. A sound suspiciously close to a purr escaped her.
Nate pushed his hands into her hair and brought her lips to his. “I love kissing you,” he whispered just before he took her in a deep, drugging kiss. Before he could take control again, though, she pushed her body down his torso and he shivered as she attacked his nipples with her mouth in much the same way he’d done to her not long ago. Her heart was already racing and Val worried she may actually pass out if she came. She’d always figured that was an exaggeration, but right now she wasn’t so sure.
Licking her way down the “happy trail” from his navel to the trimmed thatch of hair at his groin, she then licked up his rigid length. Nate’s hands clenched in the sheets and she barely suppressed a smug smile. Val ran her nails lightly over his chest, paying special attention to those still-hard nipples, and he arched again.
“Please, Val, please. I’m dying.”
“Hmm. I doubt that.”
“I need to be inside you.”
Leaning her chin on his chest, she asked, “Inside where?”
“Shit, I don’t care, just don’t leave me like this.”
“Like what?”
“Aching,” he bit out through clenched teeth, and Val decided she’d better not press her luck. Straddling him, she reached over to her bedside table. Sliding the drawer open, she found a foil-wrapped packet and then settled back over him, moving down until her legs bracketed his. “Put it on me.” His voice was little more than a rasp and Val performed the task quickly.
He rolled them again, and she expected him to put her on her back, but instead he moved her until she was lying on her side and he was spooning her. Lifting her top leg, he pushed it forward and then fit the head of his cock to her opening.
“Do it,” she whispered.
Nate entered her in one long, agonizing sweep and Val’s inner muscles immediately clenched around him. “So deep…” He began to rock back and forth, holding her still with a tight grip on one hip. “So good…”
Val had to agree. The position hit an entirely different set of nerves. She tried to push back, but he prevented her. “Nate, oh God.”
“You were in charge before, now it’s my turn.”
Her sex clenched again at the rough timbre of his voice, trying in vain to hold him inside her. His hand moved from her hip to play with her breasts, lightly pinching. She wanted to watch the show, but found herself burying her face in the pillow to stifle the sounds of her neediness.
Nate pushed closer to her back, the angle of his body pushing him deeper as he continued his maddening strokes inside her. “Don’t hide from me. Let me see you. Let me hear you.”
“Can’t take it,” she panted.
“Yes, you can. You can take it, baby. I want to hear those little noises you make.” His fingers moved down her torso and soon were rubbing her clit. “Come for me.”
“I want to, oh God, I want to.”
“Then do it, sweets,” he hissed right into her ear, and that was all it took. She flew apart, convulsing uncontrollably around him, and only vaguely heard him give in to his own release with a grunt. After long moments, she finally calmed down. Nate left the room briefly to take care of the condom. When he came back, he said, “Please tell me I can stay here. I don’t think I can drive after that. Hell, I can’t string a coherent sentence together.”
“You just did,” she mumbled, already half-asleep. Reaching for him, she said, “Stay,” just before the blackness claimed her.
Chapter Fifteen
On Sunday after a leisurely, languid morning in bed and then brunch on the deck of a little café in the city, Nate returned to his hotel room and Val spent the rest of the day catching up on housework and email. He’d made Val promise she would work on her other projects unless the need to deal with more fallout arose. As she tackled mundane chores to keep her household running, her mind was busy with thoughts of both the crisis at work and the impending separation from Nate.
Neither of them had made any declarations, but whereas once she’d finally given in she’d been content to enjoy him while he was here, she now found herself wishing they might be able to continue a relationship after he went back to New York. It was pure foolishness on her part. Nate hated flying and it would take hours to drive up here, which left most of the onus for travel on her shoulders. Given both of their busy schedules, she doubted they would be able to see each other more than a few times a year. Despite that, for the first time in her life Val really considered the possibility she was falling in love.
When she arrived at work early Monday morning, feeling downright weepy, she closed herself in her office to stay away from Nate. If he showed tenderness for her now, Val was afraid she would burst into tears. That would surely scare the hell out of him. Nate seemed to take her assertion she needed to catch up on her work in stride, and left her to it after giving her a quick kiss.
As she waded through yet more of the hundreds of unread emails in her inbox, her attention wandered despite her best efforts to concentrate. She knew Nate had plenty of things to do for his own work, but she wanted to spend time with him in the little they had left. It put her in a quandary. Val felt badly he’d been neglecting his company for nearly two weeks though, and forced her thoughts back to her own tasks. She needed to keep momentum on her projects and he needed to make sure he still had a company to return to.
But as soon as the clock turned to half-past eleven that morning, she was out of her chair and striding to Nate’s makeshift office.
“Want to get some lunch?”
He looked up, surprised. “Sure.” Rising, he bent to nip at her earlobe. “How was your morning?”
“Eh. You know, wading through the masses of email, updating spreadsheets. Nothing special. How about you?”
“Called my office. Some young D-list actress has accused an A-list actor of fathering her child. She was an extra in a film he starred in last year, so it’s possible. Anyway, of course the dude denies it. The funny thing is, they both called me, which happens occasionally. The A-list guy got to me first, though, so my assistant told the woman no and told him she’d get back to him. I’m not sure what I can do from up here…”
His speech trailed off and a pang of guilt shot through Val. She cleared her throat. “Why don’t you go back to the room if you need to and try to take care of it. And really, as far as I’m concerned, anything in our department is at your disposal.”
Nate shot her a funny look, but said, “Thanks. I’ll call him back after we eat lunch.”
“You sho
uld do that now. I doubt patience is one of his strong suits if he’s used to getting his way.” She began to back out of his office. “I’ll just keep working, and you can come get me when you’re ready. Or if you’re busy I can go pick up something for you.”
“Are you sure you don’t mind? I mean, we’ve still got a lot going on.”
“Nate, this is your business. This,” she indicated the office with a sweep on her arm, “is not.”
His features darkened. “Right.”
“I feel awful you’ve been so selflessly helping us while your own business suffers.”
“It’s not suffering,” he grumbled.
“Well, anyway, I’ll leave you to it.” She’d almost made it to the door when he moved past her, closing it abruptly and spinning to face her.
“What’s going on? Are you trying to get rid of me?”
“N-no. Of course not.”
He stepped closer and instantly her body went on full alert. “Then why the brush-off?”
“I’m not brushing you off. I’m trying to give you a chance to actually do something for yourself.”
“Uh-huh.” His eyebrows drew down, and then he grabbed the back of her head in one hand as he leaned down to her. “Kiss me.”
That wasn’t exactly a hardship, and she opened to him instantly. With a faint growl he backed her up, until she was against the wall behind the door, and pushed his body flush with hers. She whimpered when his lips moved from hers, skimming over her jaw before he attacked the rioting pulse point on her neck.
“Nate.”
“Yes?”
“Can’t.”
“I know, but I want inside you.” Val squeaked and he covered the sound with another kiss before breaking away and unleashing a litany of curses. “What you do to me, Val.” He ran a hand through his hair, his breathing heavy as he obviously fought to regain control of his body. “I’m going to make you come unless you leave right now.” When he turned his heavily-lidded gaze on her, she knew he wasn’t kidding.
Her intake of breath was involuntary, and she was unable to move, as if a thousand tiny tendrils were holding her to that wall. “God, Nate…”
Seducing Chase Page 14
