by Amy Andrews
Rome wasn’t built in a day, after all.
Sooner or later, he was going to have to say something to her. Unless he planned on slowing the limo down just enough to open the door and kick her to the curb as they passed the docks on the way to his office, he was going to have to give some sort of good-bye speech.
One she suspected he was churning over and over in his head, despite the flurry of activity.
Two hours later, country fields had ceded to the suburban creep of Greater London and the car slowed as city traffic, even on a Sunday, affected vehicular efficiency. She noticed Nathaniel tapping his good foot rhythmically and smiled to herself.
This had to be killing him.
“You’re quiet,” he said suddenly.
Addie shrugged. “You’re obviously very busy. I didn’t want to disturb you.”
He drummed his fingers on his knee and she tried not to think about where those fingers had been, the magic they had weaved on her body, as he worked himself up to his next lot of dialogue. “About last night—”
And there it was. Right on cue.
“You’ve no need to worry, Nate,” she assured.
His terse, “Nathaniel,” made her smile. Somehow now he would always be Nate to her.
“Last night was a fleeting moment of madness, fueled by a little too much elderberry wine and proximity.” She forced herself to shrug. “Consider it forgotten.”
He quirked an eyebrow. “Trust me, last night was not something I’m going to forget in a hurry.”
Well, no. He made a good point. But he was in flight mode, she understood that, and she was happy to give him an out. A few days to calm down before she somehow managed to bump into him again. “Me neither,” she conceded with as much understatement as possible. “But you know what I mean.”
His blue eyes narrowed in what looked a lot like suspicion to her. “So the universe is in balance again?”
She gave him a Mona Lisa smile. “Something like that,” she agreed.
But taming the tycoon was just beginning.
She glanced out the window and could see occasional glimpses of the London Eye in the stop-start traffic. The sun glinted off the glass capsules and she suddenly wished she was up in one of them enjoying the simple pleasure of being a tourist in her own city instead of in a limousine with a recalcitrant tycoon.
“Did you know,” she mused, “you can see all the way to Windsor Castle on a clear day from the top of the Eye?”
Nathaniel frowned at her. “Wouldn’t know, never been.”
Addie blinked as she turned to face him. “You’ve never been for a ride on the Eye?”
He shrugged. “I’ve not been on a red bus tour or gone to the Portobello markets or visited Buckingham Palace either. I don’t have time to play tourist, Addie.”
“Too busy making money?” she inquired sweetly.
His beautiful mouth straightened into a fierce line as he frowned at her. “I will not apologize for being well off. I’ve set goals and I’ve worked hard.”
Addie shook her head—he was in a far worse state of denial than she thought. She looked around the plush car with its uniformed driver and all the mod cons of a mobile office. His usual service, as Margaret had put it. “I’ll bet you’ve never even taken the Tube, have you?”
“Of course I have,” he said impatiently.
Addie narrowed her gaze at the ready dismissiveness. “How long’s it been? Since you last went on the Underground?”
“Probably primary school.”
She shook her head. “And you call yourself a Londoner.”
Suddenly, she knew how to help him. The man lived in one of the world’s most vibrant and fascinating cities, and he was blind to it.
He needed to reconnect.
Maybe then he wouldn’t be in so much of a hurry to knock it down.
His phone rang and he picked it up. “It’ll always be here, Addie,” he said as he answered the phone.
Conversation over.
Addie watched him locate some paperwork from the pile on the seat beside him and listened as he prattled off some facts and figures to whoever it was on the other end. She wondered if he understood that whilst London might always be here, he might not?
Didn’t he understand how fragile life was? That in the blink of an eye a heart attack could kill. That in the space of a few hours your life could be on track and then a doctor you’ve never met before gives you news that cuts you off at the knees.
You have leukemia.
If Addie had learned one thing in her twenty-seven years on this earth, it was how precious life was and how no day should be taken for granted. And for Delphine and Eunice and her rose garden—but most especially for Nathaniel—it was time to pay it forward.
She shut her eyes, taking some deep breaths, tuning him out as she conjured up the beauty of pi and her brain chanted the order of decimal points that ran on and on ad infinitum. She pictured them stretching in a line that disappeared into a distant mist and a sense of calm descended as each number recited pushed the mist back.
She could do this. She could help Nate. She could keep the universe in balance.
They were a few minutes from the docks when Nathaniel finally hung up the phone, bringing her out of her center. “Sorry.” He grimaced, but Addie didn’t really think he was. She suspected he’d been more than a little pleased to not have to talk to her.
“I’m getting Carl to drop you off home and I’m going to continue on to the office and catch up on some work that’s piled up,” he said looking down at his phone and scrolling with his thumb.
Addie, feeling strong and calm, was determined to play it cool. “Sure.”
He looked at her. “It’s what happens when I have time off, you know. There’s no one else to do it for me.”
Addie thought she detected a slight defensiveness in his tone. He seemed to be waiting for her to object. Was he used to scenes with women when he tried to shake them off? Instead, she smiled at him, noticing his slightly puzzled look. She’d obviously confused him and he didn’t look like he was enjoying being pushed off center.
She knew exactly how he felt.
“Maybe there should be?” she suggested.
He gave her another confused look as if he didn’t understand the concept of delegating. “Anyway,” he said his gaze business-like again as he stuck out his hand. “Thank you very much for this weekend. You did get me out of a tight spot and you were a hit with my family, so—thanks.”
Addie looked at his proffered hand and blinked. “Seriously,” she asked, looking at his lips and thinking about much more civilized good-byes. “You want to shake?”
She felt his clear blue gaze fan like an ocean breeze across her mouth, stirring heated memories of the night.
“I think it’s wise, given the circumstances.”
She quirked an eyebrow. “Even after I massaged ointment into your thigh and then rubbed myself against you like some demented feline?”
He dropped his hand and she was satisfied to see the bob of his throat. “Addie.”
“Even after you went down on me in the wee hours of the night and I came so loudly, I woke up every sleeping alpaca on the farm, plus most of Bill’s cows?”
The smooth line of his jaw tightened. “Addie. We need to keep what happened in perspective.”
“Even though,” she continued, placing her hand on his thigh, “I’d bet my last penny you have a massive erection right now.”
His warm blue gaze met hers and held and she saw his determination to hold steady intensify even as his thigh tensed beneath her palm. “I’m a man. Sue me. Doesn’t mean I don’t want you to get out of this car so we can go back to our corners.”
Addie advanced her hand higher, stilling only when he placed his firmly on top. “Fine,” she murmured huskily, staring into his unwavering eyes. “But don’t expect me to say good-bye by shaking your hand like I met you two minutes ago, Nate.”
Addie wasn’t sure whether he reac
hed for her or she for him but in three seconds flat she was straddling his lap, pushing her tongue into his mouth, grasping the front of his shirt and proving to herself that she’d been right about his arousal.
She needed this. Just one last kiss. One final hurrah to their decadent liaison before they both went back to their corners.
He ripped out her hair band and then his hands were pushing into her hair. She gasped for breath as he tugged gently, exposing her neck to his ravaging lips, teeth, and tongue. He placed both hands on her buttocks and pulled her in close and she tilted her hips to feel the thickness of him. Her hand followed, grasping him through his trousers. She squeezed and his groan was like a mantra in her blood. His lips found hers again and he plundered them, sucking her breath away until she was dizzy.
The car slowed—they didn’t notice. It pulled to a standstill—they didn’t notice that, either. Addie’s door opened—they were oblivious. They weren’t even aware it was discreetly shut again.
Ironically, it was his phone that pierced their bubble like clanging chimes of doom.
They pulled apart, chests heaving as it rang insistently. Nathaniel looked as sucker punched as she felt, and for a moment, neither of them moved or said a word.
But the bloody phone was oblivious.
Addie picked it up and thrust it at his chest, conscious of his hands still on her butt, her hips jammed against his.
“That,” she said, “is how you say good-bye to someone you spent all night in bed with.”
And with as much dignity as she could muster, she hauled herself off him and fumbled for the door handle.
…
Nathaniel lasted three days. Three days of telling himself to forget about Addie and their one night and concentrate on his work. Three days of early mornings and late nights, burying himself in meetings and brokering deals and overseas phone calls.
Three days of getting his ducks in a row for the St. Agnes project. Of being picky and demanding and outright cantankerous with his staff.
Three days of insane productivity because every time he stopped, Addie wearing flowers in her hair and nothing but her pulled-aside purple underwear undulated through his gray matter like a belly dancer.
And just one morning of Margaret saying to him, “Sir, you’re being an intolerable arse, stop it!” for him to find himself walking, finally sans limp, into Soul Food.
The young woman chewing gum and filing her fingernails behind the counter informed him that Addie wasn’t in yet and he found himself frowning as he strode through the light crowds to find the Ida May. It was nine-thirty in the morning. Shouldn’t she be at work? Her shop was empty and her employee more than a little casual.
Did she not care about her business?
Did she not realize she could probably own an apartment at the docks if she got serious about it?
But none of that mattered as he stepped on to the colorful boat. He barely noticed the red and pink geraniums in pots decorating the top, or that the hull was painted a rich royal blue with golden yellow trim.
He was one hundred percent focused on seeing Addie again. The doors were closed and he knocked on them. When she didn’t answer after five seconds, he knocked again.
Margaret was right. This had to stop. And he hated that his body seemed to know Addie was the answer but right now, he just had to make it stop.
And if that meant doing what it took to get her out of his system, then so be it.
He was about to knock for the third time when the doors opened and Addie stood before him in some sort of workout clothes, blinking uncertainly.
“Nate?”
He didn’t even bother to correct her. His pulse leapt at the sight of her and damn it all if his name hadn’t ever sounded so good. He’d heard her say it in his dreams the last few nights and he wanted to hear her say it for real, again and again as he rocked into her.
“What do you want?”
Nathaniel pushed his hands on his hips as he considered several responses, but the pound of his pulse and the throb in his groin overruled his basic gentlemanly decorum.
“You,” he said roughly.
He watched as her eyes widened and heard her swiftly indrawn breath. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Nathaniel couldn’t agree more. “It’s a very, very bad idea. But I want you anyway.”
Her fingers tightened on the doorknob. “You should resist.”
Nathaniel quirked an eyebrow, oblivious to everything except the thrum of his heartbeat in his ears. She was right—he should. “Resistance is useless.”
“And what does that mean, exactly?” she asked, her throat bobbing.
“It means in a few seconds I’m going to kiss you—long and hard—and then I’m going to throw you on a bed or, hell, the floor if the bed’s too damned far, and I’m going to strip off your clothes and make you come loud enough to give every tourist here today something to take home with them. And if you don’t want that, Addie, you’d better speak up now because I’m barely hanging on by a thread here.”
He was breathing hard when he finished, his chest thudding as the images he’d described zinged through his blood stream, adding to the heat that already had him in its grip.
Her gray eyes held his and he could see she was waging a mental battle. But the mad flutter in the hollow at the base of her throat, the unevenness of her breath, and the flare of her nostrils told another story.
And she didn’t speak. She didn’t object. She didn’t move.
She just stood right there, waiting.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” he said, snagging her wrist and pulling her hard against him.
He slammed his mouth onto hers, sucking her breath in with his as he opened his lips wide, demanding entrance to her mouth and groaning when she granted it. She tasted like manna from heaven and smelled fresh and sweet and he grabbed her by the upper arms as he walked her backward into the privacy of the boat.
The doors closed behind them and it was cooler and darker inside. Still walking her backward, he moved his hands to her butt cheeks, pulling them in close and she moved restlessly against him as the kiss went from hot to blistering.
He reached for her shirt, hauling it up the same time he felt her fingers at his belt. His hands quickly claimed her breasts, delightfully naked, just as his foot snagged something and he almost tripped. He cursed under his breath and broke away.
“What the hell is that?” he gasped, looking at a pile of large jagged-looking crystals and some candles scattered on the floor.
Addie blinked at him for a few seconds, her mouth moist and swollen before looking at the floor. “It’s my meditation circle,” she panted.
Nathaniel frowned. “You were meditating?”
She shrugged. “Yes.”
Of course she was. He licked his lips as his sluggish brain tried to take it all in. God, what was he doing here?
“Does it matter?” she asked.
Good question. She was standing before him her chest heaving, her breasts bare, her mouth soft and wet and parted. “Nope.” He pulled the tails of his shirt out of his trousers and pulled down his fly. “Take your pants off,” he said.
The second she was naked, he knew they’d never make it to some far-off bedroom. There was a wall just behind them and he pushed her against it, lifting her up, her ankles locking around his waist, ravaging her breasts and before he knew it he was pounding into her, her hands in his hair and her cries urging him on—deeper, harder, faster.
More.
Yes, yes, yes.
Now, now, now.
And finally a deep resounding bellow that was the death knell to his absurd fancy that if he could have just one more time with her, she’d be out of his system for good. Because he knew as he held her close for their drift down from the heights that he was nowhere near finished with Addie Collins.
“I want more of this,” he said, his forehead pressed against her collarbone, feeling the pound of her heart beneath slowly
settling.
“I want to take you touring.”
Nathaniel raised his head. “No.”
Addie’s gaze didn’t waver from his. “Then no more of this.”
Nathaniel, still hard inside her, pushed back in a little more and was gratified to see her eyes close and her chest rock. “I can’t take time out to play tourist.”
“But you can take time out to come to my boat and be all ‘Me Tarzan’?”
“Damn it, Addie,” he grumbled, pushing into her again. “I don’t have time.”
She sucked in a breath and grabbed his shoulders. “Just an hour a day is all I need.” She undulated her shoulders, thrusting her breasts close to his face. “Then you can have as much of this as you like.”
Nathaniel practically drooled at the pale tips ruching before his eyes. “You’re blackmailing me in the middle of sex?”
“Yep,” she panted.
“You drive a hard bargain,” he murmured, lowering his head to capture an engorged nipple as his erection surged inside her.
Addie shut her eyes. “I think you’re driving the hard bargain.”
It was another thirty minutes before Nathaniel got away.
Chapter Nine
The next morning Addie looked up from admiring the obviously insanely expensive bouquet of flowers that had arrived twenty minutes ago as the bell over the shop door dinged. Penny marched toward her, a bunch of roses in hand that could only have come from St Aggie’s.
Addie straightened guiltily. She’d been avoiding Penny’s phone calls since returning to London. They’d been through a lot together and her friend could always see straight through her.
She took one look at Penny’s determined face and cracked straight away. “I did a bad, bad thing.”
Penny’s gaze flicked to the splashy arrangement of flowers as she lay her offering on the counter. “You slept with him, didn’t you?”
Addie nodded. “Guilty.”
Very guilty. Their tryst in Devon had probably been inevitable, but yesterday? After three days of plotting how to continue her tycoon makeover and pep talks about keeping their “relationship” platonic and focused on helping Nate, she’d ruined it by practically jumping him the minute he knocked on her door.
