Harlequin E Contemporary Romance Box Set Volume 2: Maid to CraveAll I HaveThe Last First DateLight My Fire

by Rebecca M. Avery

  Her sensitized nipples met springy hair on his chest and she moaned against the sensation. It had been too long since she’d let go like this. Too long since she’d felt a man’s body against hers and damned if she wasn’t going to milk this for all it was worth.

  Nate dipped his head to draw one nipple into his mouth. Lily thought her body might burst into flame. He rolled the peak in his mouth, flicking with his tongue and teasing with his teeth. She arched her back, wanting more. More of Nate. More of this. More, more, more. Her hands fisted in his hair, trying to hold him to her, but she was powerless against the hardness of his mouth.

  His tongue wreaked havoc with her breasts, turning from one to the other, leaving an unsatisfied mass of nerve endings in his wake. His mouth tasted its way down her body, suckling at the indentation of her waist, dipping his tongue into her belly button. Lily squeezed her hands against the sheets, wrinkling the soft-as-satin, thousand-thread-count sheets. His hands led the way down her body, smoothing along her belly, down her thighs, playing with the backs of her knees until she was a writhing mass on his bed. As he tasted his way down her body, the temperature in the room soared a few degrees higher. Nate probed her folds, his fingers delving into the slick space as he pushed one finger and then two into her. Lily lifted her hips, giving him better access, and his thumb found that tiny nub of nerve endings screaming for his touch.

  Someone moaned. Her? He crooked his fingers inside her, pressing more deeply into her until he found her G-spot.

  “Nate. Please. More.” Her voice cracked over the words. The rhythm of his thumb over her tiny bud and his fingers inside her sent Lily over the edge, flying off into an abyss of feeling. But he wasn’t done.

  Nate took a second to sheath himself in a condom before filling her with his length. Slowly, he began to move. In. Out. The glorious friction teasing and tempting her, making her want even more. Lily raked her nails down his back as Nate took her mouth with his own. And then she forgot everything as his thumb flicked over her clitoris and then pressed down. The room exploded in a bright flash as her body lifted from the mattress. Nate grunted and then collapsed on top of her

  He rested his forehead against hers, breathing heavily.

  “We aren’t done,” he said when she moved under him.

  “Not nearly done,” she agreed.

  “Just give me a few minutes to recuperate.”

  “Thank God for stamina.”

  * * *

  Lily wasn’t sure how long she slept. After the first two orgasms, everything blurred into one long erotic moment. So much for rule number three: No sleepovers. Ha! She sighed, still sated. No trace of cautious Lily to be found—no concerns about what anyone would think, no unpleasant morning-after worries.

  She opened her eyes, squinting at the brilliant sunlight streaming in through the windows as the pounding behind her eyes increased. Naked. Above the covers. Okay, maybe a hint of cautious Lily remained. She grabbed an afghan from the foot of the bed and pulled it over her. Closing her eyes, she turned to the side, took two deep breaths and then opened them again.

  Nate lay beside her on his stomach, breathing deeply, one arm hung over the side of the bed and the other was flung up toward the headboard. She reached out to trace her fingers over his spine, but drew back at the last second. He was still asleep and she needed to get out of here before all her carefully drawn rules blew up in her face. He shifted on the bed and she just resisted the urge to push back the lock of hair falling over his forehead.

  Lily wrapped the cover around her body and searched for her clothes. She had to get out of here. Having sex with Nate in the middle of the night, in the dark, was one thing. Waking up and having the Morning After talk? That was what Rule Number Three was about.

  Lily MacIntyre was not a sexed up socialite looking for a good time with the bad boy from her past. Although, Nate would certainly blow up the perennial teenager image the producers of her old sitcom held firmly in place. Lily paused. Could she do it? Use Nate to push her image out of high school and into her twenties where it belonged? She bit her lip and shifted her gaze to the man sleeping on the bed. Her body advised her to take the chance. Spend a few more nights in Nate’s embrace, make some memories to keep her warm.

  Her heart. That was another voice. Screaming at her to run. Forget not only the friends-with-bennies rules they set up last night. Turn it into a one-off and get back to her regularly scheduled programming. Focus on the show, let her work on Star Power stand on its own merit. If she did a good job, the teen-star image would be simply a piece of her past. She would move on, work on another show.

  She hesitated another moment. Watching Nate sleeping. Wanting to crawl back into the bed and forget the show, her plans and just be.

  That thought pushed her one more step away from the soft mattress and the hard man lying on it. And then another. Because she had plans. She could stand on her own for the first time in her life. She wouldn’t use Nate to shatter the image she’d been perfectly satisfied with until the studio shut down her show. She would shatter it on her own.

  Her clothes lay in a heap near the door, the strapless bra hung from the footboard but her panties were nowhere to be found. She turned to the bed. Had to be somewhere in there.

  She twisted her mouth to the side. No, she was not going in there after them. Nate could keep them. As if he needed tangible evidence to go along with the proverbial notch she’d already made in his bedpost.

  Wait. No placing blame. Last night was her decision. Just like leaving this morning was in her best interests.

  Sighing, she left the bedroom. Lily pulled the camisole over her head and worked the leather pants up her legs, zipped the side closure and looked around. Her shoes and coat lay in a path to the door and she gathered them as she went. Her evening bag was last, lying beside Nate’s keys. She shoved her bra inside.

  Leave a note? And say what? Had a great time, call me? No, that was what Rule Number Two was about: no calls, no texts. No note-writing was along the same lines. Leave it as a good memory, she told herself as she quietly closed the door behind her.

  What she wouldn’t give for the car service or a taxi. Lily looked left and then right from just inside the front door of the cottage. Nothing. Well, at least there was no one to notice her, right? She exited the building and, staying close to the imposing brick, started toward the main hotel.

  A flash to the left caught her attention. Followed by another and another. She saw the photographer, crouched down behind an azalea bush near the wrought iron fence around the hotel’s property, and ducked her head. He was shooting her. Coming out of Nate’s hotel cottage.

  Damn. Lily backed away, found the doorknob and twisted it sharply to the right. She ducked back inside and slammed the door.

  “And here I thought no long goodbyes would be one of those unspoken rules.”

  She froze at Nate’s voice, insolent, coming from the main living area. Slowly, Lily turned around. He sat, in another pair of board shorts, bare chested, on the red suede sofa, cup of coffee in hand. Nate inhaled the vapor from the brew and then sipped.

  “I’m thinking no long goodbyes would make a good Rule Number Four.”

  “And I’m thinking Be Discreet would be a great Rule Number Five.” She hitched her thumb toward the door. “There’s a photographer scoping out your front porch.”

  “Comes with the territory you say you want.” He shuttered his gaze, not letting her in. “You can’t have it both ways, Lil. You can’t have the squeaky clean image and be the rock goddess this show will require. You can’t sleep with me and expect me to be the hands-off friend in the morning. So what do you want?”

  It shouldn’t hurt this much, not when she set up the rules. Not when she knew going in that this would mean so much more to her than it ever could to him.

  Suck it up, Lil.

  “I didn’t say I was changing my mind. I’d just like to not have the whole walk-of-shame experience splashed all over the tabloid s
ites by noon. At least not looking like this.” She pointed at her hair, frizzy and a mess after their night together. She’d looked in vain for an elastic, but while her party bag held extra lipstick and mascara along with her ID and a credit card, there were no essentials to be found.

  He studied her as if looking for a flaw and Lily knew he had to see about twenty—from last night’s clothes to her makeup-free face to her messy hair. The wide-toothed comb she’d found in his bathroom was not the styling tool she needed this morning.

  “You look fine to me.”

  “Says the boy who saw me post-wipeout with hair in my face when I was sixteen. I think your vision might be a little clouded.”

  “I also saw you spread-eagle on my bed last night, with a look in your eye that made me catch my breath.”

  Lily’s own breath caught in her throat and she opened her mouth to form a comeback, but nothing came. Nate rescued her.

  “So, let’s see what we can do to create a nice, hedonistic image for the tabs to cement the image we’re creating.” He rose from the sofa, his abs doing wonderfully erotic aerobics in his midsection as he did. With board shorts brushing his knees, she could almost imagine he was still just her brother’s best friend. But then he pushed a lock of hair behind her ear, sending a zing of pleasure straight to her core and she knew their relationship would never recover. No matter how many rules they attached to this fling, Nate would never be her friend again.

  And just like that, the pep talk she’d given herself in the bedroom not ten minutes before flew out the window. She knew she wasn’t using Nate to lose the teen-star image. Let the tabloids tell whatever story they saw fit; they usually did, anyhow. If she knew the truth, that Nate was more than a fling, it would have to be enough. Lily barely resisted laying her cheek in his palm as his fingers continued to caress her jaw.

  “Are you ready for this?”

  She knew he was only asking if she was ready to face the photographer; he wasn’t concerned about the state of her heart once this fling was over. Lily didn’t trust her voice so she only nodded.

  “You already look suitably mussed from last night, although you could use a little color in your cheeks. I think I can fix that.”

  And his lips descended on hers. The kiss was an inferno, starting hot and growing hotter by the second. Nate wrapped his hands around her neck and rubbed over her vocal chords with his thumbs. He pushed her back against a side table, knocking it into the wall and sending the flowers crashing to the floor. But he didn’t stop there.

  Nate deepened the kiss, demanding that she come along for the ride. Lily hooked her hands around his neck and hung on as he pushed the kiss from a small blaze to a bonfire. She leaned into him, tangling her tongue with his. His hands began a fast trek to her chest, kneading her breasts beneath the fine silk. One hard-edged sequin found her nipple and she gasped at the pain, but Nate soothed it away with his tongue in the next instant, leaving her wanting more of the delicious torture. She held his head in place at her breast, wanting to feel his tongue on her skin instead of through the thin material separating them.

  His hands drifted farther south, beneath the cami to play with the sensitive skin at her belly button. He pushed the cami up, up, until it rested above her bare breasts.

  He chuckled. “Well, aren’t you just full of surprises?”

  “I like to live dangerously,” she lied. “Besides those underwires are murder.”

  He tweaked her nipple and then sucked it deep into his mouth. Lily arched her back and wrapped her legs around his waist. His erection was hard against her center and she wanted that, too. She wanted it all.

  * * *

  As quickly as it began, the kiss was over. Nate set her back on the table and stepped away, cocking his head to the left as if she were under inspection. Lily scrambled to stand, as if Nate hadn’t just rocked her world with a kiss. Again. She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and dug through her bag for lip gloss. Finally, Nate nodded.

  “Yeah. You look like a woman who’s been up to something.” He took her hand, leading her to the front door. “Ready?”

  Not even a little bit, but Lily nodded. Nate opened the door and walked her to the steps. A flashbulb snapped in the distance.

  “So I’m not your type.”

  “And I won’t call you fifty times a day so that you won’t forget the sound of my voice.”

  He placed his hand on the crown of her head. “I could never forget the sound of your voice.” He pressed his forehead against hers. “I’m thinking discreet just flew out of L.A. and we’re killing the no-long-goodbyes thing.”

  Her system was on overload, sending mismatched messages to her body. She was hot, but she shivered when Nate ran his hand over her hair and down her back. She bit her lip and looked at him from under her lashes.

  This time the kiss was so much worse. He pressed his mouth to hers, softly, as if coaxing her into it. He was gentle, weaving their fingers together and squeezing as his tongue traced the seam of her lips. Her mouth opened and he tilted his head, deepening the kiss.

  More flashbulbs sparked, but Lily ignored the little blasts of light, pretending the kiss was real. That Nate wanted more than a bed buddy for the next few weeks.

  She closed her eyes, sinking more deeply into the web of seduction Nate wove around them.

  He pulled their hands up, so that she could feel the fast beat of his heart and her own.

  “I’ll call you later.” The words were a whisper between them. Lily nodded.

  “I’ll answer.”

  Before she could push him back into the cottage or beg him to take her inside, she broke away from the kiss. From Nate. Just a little distance. A tiny piece of reality. Of solid ground.

  She would get her equilibrium back.

  But the rules were out the window.

  * * *

  Nate blew out a breath as the front door closed behind him. He shouldn’t have done that. One more kiss, that was his penis talking. Hoping Lily would make a move. Come back inside with him. Forget whatever plan their little fling was shaping up in her mind and just come along for the ride.

  And she had a plan. Lil always had a plan. The first time she brought him back to her family’s Malibu mansion, it was because she had a plan to feed him. Chase was home sick and the playground bully took the opportunity to pick on Lily. Nate defended her, and that made him a hero in ten-year-old Lily’s playbook. She’d noticed he didn’t eat lunch and dragged him to her house after school. Where the kitchen seemed bigger than his entire apartment, and it was filled with every food he could imagine.

  Nate had gorged on ham sandwiches and grapes, sucked down three different Gatorades and snuck a few apples and bottles of water into his backpack. When he got home, Lily had put another two sandwiches inside, along with chips, some sodas and a slice of the richest chocolate cake he’d ever tasted.

  That started their friendship. He wondered if she remembered that? Chase and Lily were a unit at school, it was the twin thing they always said, but after Lily brought him home, it was the three of them. She had a plan to graduate high school early, get her college degree early and use marketing to start a career of her own in Hollywood. She achieved those goals, and just because her show was cancelled, it didn’t mean Lily’s plans were.

  She had a plan. He needed to figure out what it was.

  One night with Lily wasn’t enough. One week with her wouldn’t be enough. The next three months on the show would be pure torture, but at least he would have her coming home with him after filming.

  Hopefully.

  Damn it, where was the hard-hearted rock star he’d worked so hard to create?

  Nate finished the sandwich he’d been eating, pulled milk from the fridge and drank straight from the carton. Something he’d never do if Lily was in the house. He wiped the back of his wrist over his mouth and tossed the empty carton in the trash. And then wiped the crumbs from the counter and did a little clean up because even if Lily was gone, she
was still with him. Always.

  Frustrated, he grabbed his running shoes and a tee from the closet and left the cottage. He started his circuit, down the one-way streets near the hotel, tuning out the traffic and other pedestrians. He made it through the first half of the run and still didn’t have any answers. Lily was still in his head so he picked up the pace, pushing harder, running faster.

  He’d been running from Lily nearly as long as he could remember, keeping her at friend status because he didn’t want to muddy her up with his past. Alcoholic, drug-addicted parents. Welfare checks that never went far enough. His father had moved them into a car at one point, just before their senior year. His past wasn’t a secret but knowing someone’s past didn’t mark the soul the way living through it did.

  Lily deserved better than that kind of personal history. Nate sped up one hill and down another. No amount of money or fan-filled venues had changed anything about his past. And yet, for a little while last night, all that had faded away and it had only been him and Lily and the future.

  A red hand blinked at him from the crosswalk sign ahead. Nate slowed and then stopped, bent at the waist and put his hands on his knees, gasped in a hard breath and ignored the pinch at his ribs.

  Last night, his past faded away. It didn’t touch Lily, even a little bit.

  He stood straight, putting his hands on the back of his head. The crosswalk sign turned to a blinking green arrow and he walked across to the other side. He looked around, but didn’t recognize the street. A fried chicken joint stood on one corner, a bail bondsman on the other. Small apartments would be housed above the businesses. Nate started walking, heading back in the general direction of the hotel. A numbered road sign caught his attention and he stopped. His parents’ apartment was two blocks in the other direction. The place he’d grown up. The neighborhood hadn’t changed much. New names on the signs, but the businesses were basically the same.