by Sarah Hegger
His gaze flickered to her mouth. “Babe.”
Beneath her palm, his heartbeat kicked up, his skin warmed.
The two inches of air between their faces thickened until it dragged hot with promise into Bella’s lungs. “Kiss me.”
His lids hooded over the scorching heat in his eyes. “You know where that leads, Bella.”
“Yes, I do.” She spread her fingers wide over his chest and slid two of them between his buttons to find the skin beneath. “And I want that.”
“Fuck.” His breath hit her mouth. “You say that and I get hard, but you’re in shock.”
“Maybe.” She pressed their foreheads together. Their breath mingled. “But right now I need this. I need you.”
Gripping her hips, he groaned her name against her mouth, “Don’t let me be the asshole who takes advantage of you.”
“I’m the one taking advantage.” Bella straddled him. Against her, his erection pressed hard and ready, and Bella ground down.
Nate moved, jogging her. He stood with her in his arms. “If we’re going to do this, we do it right.”
Bella tightened her legs around his hips.
He moved them up the stairs, barely even breathing hard as they reached the top.
In his bedroom, he put her down gently on the bed, coming down between her thighs. His broad hands framed her face as he stared down at her. “You sure?”
Never more sure of anything in her life, Bella tugged his mouth to hers.
Nate slowed the kiss, exploring her mouth with deep, drugging thoroughness.
Bella writhed beneath him. She wanted to get lost in the heady rush of him.
Refusing to be hurried, Nate moved down to her neck. “So soft,” he murmured. “And so damn sweet.”
Bella tugged his shirt out of his pants and finally got her hands on his back. Muscle flexed beneath her palms. She dug her nails into it.
Nate hissed in a breath. He straightened his arms and loomed above her. “You got a little wild in you tonight, honey?”
“I want to forget,” Bella said. His lion eyes stripped her to the raw.
“Trust me.” He shifted his weight and slid his hand beneath her sweatshirt. “Let me take this slow and easy.”
“Maybe I don’t want that.”
His hand slid over her ribs to cup her breast. “Why don’t we give it a try?”
With her nipples being gently tugged, she would agree to just about anything. “Okay.”
Chuckling, he sat back and whipped her sweatshirt over her head.
Bella hadn’t put a bra on after her bath.
“I still see these when I think of you.” Almost reverently, he put his hands on her breasts, weighing them in his palms. “You’re such a tiny thing and yet you have such incredible curves.”
Enough with the chatting. Bella arched into his hands.
He lowered his head to her breast and sucked. Hard.
Heat shot through her and Bella pushed into the pressure of his mouth. She wanted his imprint on her skin, to have him sink soul deep into her and keep him there. Threading her fingers through his hair, she tugged his head closer.
Gently grasping her wrists, he pulled her hands down, pressing them into the mattress. “Bella, baby.” He kissed her. “You need to slow the hell down.”
“Why?” She whimpered.
“Because I want everything from you.” His lips skimmed her ribs, found her belly, and lingered in the hollow of her navel.
Okay, then. Bella sucked in her breath against the wet heat of his mouth. She shifted her thighs together, trying to alleviate the building pressure.
Releasing her wrists, he hooked his thumbs in her waistband and tugged her yoga pants down her legs. Her panties followed.
Nate stood and stared. “Look at you, baby.” He parted her knees and slid his palms up the inside of her legs.
With a tug, his shirt came over his head and sailed across the room.
Never mind look at her. Look at him. Damn, he was beautifully put together. Muscle bunched across his shoulders and chest. His pecs stood proud over a hand-on-her-heart eight-pack he had going on. Bella’s mouth watered. She rolled toward him and crawled forward, desperate to get her mouth on that.
His skin tasted slightly salty on her tongue. She skimmed her teeth across his muscle.
Nate dropped his head back and groaned. Beneath her mouth, his abs contracted into a sharp ladder.
Bella grabbed his belt and unbuckled it. She tugged his pants open and slid her hands inside.
Yes, Nate was going commando again. She wrapped her hand around his cock. It jumped in her hand, silky smooth and hard and so hot it tingled against her palm.
Impatiently, she pushed his pants down.
“What are you doing, baby?”
She thought that was rather obvious. Bella took him in her mouth and sucked him deep.
Nate gripped her head, fingers pressing into her scalp.
She flattened her tongue along the underside of his cock and dragged it all the way to the tip.
His eyes bored into her, hot enough to incinerate.
He tasted salty on the top. Gripping the base of his shaft, she slid him back into her mouth. Dear God, she enjoyed doing this to him.
The inarticulate sounds coming from Nate encouraged her further. He wanted her to slow down, and she did. Working him in and out of her mouth, cupping his heavy balls, sucking him deep. She even added the slightest graze of her teeth.
Nate tugged her head back. “Enough.” He pushed her back. “My turn.”
His lips hit her core with no preliminaries, sending Bella arching off the bed. He ate her as if he couldn’t get enough of her. She was primed and ready to go. So horny already that she could barely stand it.
Nate worked his fingers inside her. His mouth found her clit and sucked.
Bella’s orgasm slammed into her. It seemed to go on and on.
He crawled up, laying heavy on her. “Do you even know what slow means?”
“Maybe.” Bella couldn’t help it; she felt so damn good that she laughed.
Nate kissed the corners of her smile. He nibbled her lips with his.
Against her thigh, his cock pressed hot and hard. It reminded her that they weren’t finished here. Nate had more to give her and she wanted to collect.
He slid his tongue into her mouth, sharing the taste of her.
Bella sank into the kiss, letting it take her with it on a lazy swirl of sensation that settled between her thighs. She reveled in the heat and strength of his body on hers. Opening her thighs, she let his slim hips slide between. She gripped his ass and pressed him against her.
Damn, he was so hard. It was a turn-on all by itself.
His chest rubbed her sensitive nipples. It felt even better when she undulated against him. Now she felt content to play. To relish in how good he felt on her, sink her teeth into the swell of his deltoid, dig her fingers into his ass.
Nate snatched a condom from the bedside table and separated from her to put it on.
Then he was at her entrance, pushing his cock’s blunt head into her, stretching her around him. He went slow, letting her feel every part of him until he was fully sheathed in her.
Bella wrapped her thighs around his hips. She wanted to pull him as close to her as she could get him.
He moved in slow, sure, deep thrusts that drove her into the bed. Rising up on his elbows, he watched her. Their eyes met and locked.
Bella held on to his forearms as he drove them forward.
The gentle slap of skin hitting skin filled the room. She felt him driving inside her. He held her with a loaded intensity in his gaze.
It was almost too much at once. All her senses latched on to him. Only him and her in the vortex they created together.
Their skin grew slick. Their breath came in short rasps, soft moans.
Nate’s orgasm built in the tightening of his jaw, the blaze of his eyes. For once his face was an open book, allowing her deep inside him, to that secr
et place she had sensed but never seen. His thrusts deepened, filling her completely.
Bella felt the finish begin in her core, spread hot through her belly in a slow, steady wave until she vibrated with it.
She watched Nate drop over the edge with her. Their eyes never lost their connection. In that moment she was his and he was hers.
Tears prickled beneath her lids and forced Bella to close her eyes. The intensity shook her. It was as if she had caught an agonizing glimpse of his soul.
He pressed his forehead to hers, giving her his full weight. Her name came out of him in a gentle sigh. “Bella.”
She wrapped her legs and arms around him and held on.
Cooling as fast as the sweat covering their bodies, already the moment was slipping away. Bella wanted it back, so desperately it left a gaping hole right in the middle of her.
She almost cried when he rolled to her side.
He kissed her forehead and tucked her head onto his shoulder.
Beneath her palm, his belly rose and fell as his breathing returned to normal.
He tightened his arms around her. “Bella.”
ChapterTwenty-Five
Nate lay beside her as the sun rose on Bella’s sleeping face. Her thick, dark lashes and pouty mouth were pure Disney. She slept curled into herself like a tiny bundle of candy.
The need to make sure she stayed safe and peaceful ached through his chest. Even now, he wanted to tuck her against him, keep himself between her and anything that might harm her. Shit! He uncurled and sat on the edge of the bed.
What the hell did he think he was doing?
He couldn’t offer any woman any of those things. Strong, protective, reliable—that wasn’t him; he was the family screwup. After his dad died and the family needed someone to step up, Matt had done it, and even Eric to a lesser extent. Him? The black sheep might have changed his outer ways, but he’d stayed rotten and broken to his core. He’d caused more trouble. Made things infinitely worse and nearly landed his ass in juvie. What he wouldn’t give to go back and not stress Matt to the breaking point, drive his mom to an overdose. But there was no going back, only forward, and try like hell not to screw up anymore. Best to stick to his kind. Women who didn’t want things he couldn’t give them.
Bella was white lace and forever, picket fences and preschool, with a man she could count on by her side. People didn’t count on Nate Evans.
If he had turned his life around to the point where the county trusted him, why couldn’t he be the man Bella needed? He froze and let that bit of crazy percolate through his spinning brain.
“Nate?” Bella touched his back.
This shit was getting so mixed up in his head, he leaped to his feet. “I’ll put some coffee on. Feel free to shower or whatever. There’s an extra toothbrush under the sink.”
He hotfooted it into the kitchen and got the coffee on. Down the hallway, heaven lay in his bed. Or the nearest a man like him could ever come to it. Wanting to take a layer of skin off, he scrubbed his hands over his face.
His history with women had never included anything like last night. Mostly, he tried not to think too much about his history with women. Before he’d learned—hook up and get the hell out before it got messy—he’d left plenty of broken hearts behind him. The idea of Bella hurting because of him soured his gut. For years he’d been patting himself on the back for his honesty. In the light of the pure thing Bella offered, it made him seem less like a hero and more like a coward, because as much as he tried to stamp on it, this what if flickered into life and blinked on and off like a faulty electrical circuit. What if he could be the man Bella deserved? And what if he broke her so bad he took the sweet out of her?
Filling in time, he got out some eggs and bacon and made her breakfast.
The pipes moaned as Bella turned the shower on. The sooner she realized he had nothing to offer, the better off she would be, which would leave him alone. But alone suddenly seemed like a bad place to be.
He was putting breakfast on the table when she pattered into the kitchen. “Hey.”
“Hey.” He managed to crank out a noncommittal smile.
Until he looked at her, and then his head scrambled again. Scrubbed clean, hair braided and wet, she looked like she had last night. Vulnerable, pure, and so beautiful it hit him like a rib punch.
She looked at the table. “You made breakfast?”
“Yeah.” He had to get away, clear his head and find clarity before he did something stupid. “Coffee’s over there. I need to get ready for work.”
“Nate.” Her voice stopped him at the kitchen door. “It’s all right, you know. I don’t expect anything from you.”
Why that made him feel like shit, he couldn’t say. “I know.”
* * *
Under Nate’s watchful eye, Bella opened the store three hours later than usual.
She’d barely managed to choke down enough of her breakfast to make his effort worthwhile. She didn’t need Dr. Childers to recognize a man in full retreat. Bitched the entire time about her opening the store but drove her over anyway. He’d even fetched her favorite coffee for her. All in the brooding silence that made her relieved when his cruiser finally backed into Main Street and drove off.
She leaned against the door and let the hurt roll through her. The problem with expectations was they hurt like hell when they weren’t met. Nate was Nate. He hadn’t changed much since first grade. Ten years from now, Nate would still be—surprise, surprise—Nate.
Yet, somehow, being with him put all those self-preservation thoughts into hibernation. Until the next morning. Even if she didn’t love the stupid man, watching your lover go into chew-his-arm-off retreat the next morning stung.
She called Pippa and told her about what had happened—the Adam part, not the Nate part. The Nate part still scraped raw inside her.
Pippa said enough of the right things to help Bella feel sort of all right. She had it firmly in place as Liz’s flashy red SUV pulled up outside the store.
Bella did a double take as Liz climbed out. Hair scraped back into a ponytail and sweatpants poking out from beneath an old parka.
She scurried into the store, slamming the door behind her. “Babe! I must be the best motherfucking friend on the planet to come out like this to see you.”
Yes, she was, and Bella grabbed her into a hug.
“Hey.” Liz hugged her back. “What’s with the PDA?”
She really couldn’t talk about it. She had to sniff a little as she pulled back. “What brings you out in sweatpants? I didn’t even know you owned any.”
“I’ll deny it if you tell anyone.” Liz strolled into the store. She flipped through a rack of dresses. “So, last night?”
Bella knew a clever deflection when she saw one. “How about you tell me what’s going on with you?”
“I’m not going to talk about me after what happened to you last night.” Liz stopped clacking hangers together. “How’re you doing?”
“Okay.” Bella chased dust bunnies out from beneath the racks. “Trying not to think about it.” She fixed Liz with a stare. “A good friend would take my mind off it by telling me what’s going on with her.”
“This is the problem with having friends.” Liz threw herself onto the chaise. “People get to know you.”
“Uh-huh.” Bella turned on her register and grabbed up her duster. “They also know when you’re stalling.”
Laughing, Liz tucked her legs up beneath her. “It’s Noel. He’s driving me batcrap crazy. After what happened to you last night, I swear the man thinks he’s going to be my knight in shining armor or something.”
“In what way?” Keeping to her dusting, because Liz would be more comfortable that way.
Liz dropped her face into her hands and growled. “He’s so . . . determined.”
“To get you back?”
“Uh-huh.” Liz propped her chin on her palm and looked so much like a tween, Bella had to smile. “And I was so sure I wasn’t
going to go there with him. Even for the sex. And girl”—Liz raised a brow—“the sex was awesome. That man is hung—”
“You told me.”
“Well.” Liz huffed. “It bears repeating. Donkey!”
“Somehow I sense that’s not the problem.”
“Well, look at you.” Liz sat back. “All sassy and mouthy. A couple of trips around our hot sheriff ’s bedroom and you’re a new woman.”
Her chest ached and she swallowed. “We’re not talking about me.”
“Now.” Liz pointed a royal-blue talon. “We’re not talking about you now. But once we’re done with me . . .”
“Okay.” Because fighting with Liz was like holding back the tide with one hand tied behind your back. “Noel is driving you crazy.”
“He’s there all the time. I get home and he’s waiting for me.” Liz jerked straight. “Not like your psycho . . . shit . . . I mean, Adam.”
“I know that.”
“He wants to spend time with me. He wants to be with me and he’s making it impossible to say no.”
Bella took a seat beside her. “So what’s stopping you from saying yes?”
Liz gaped at her. “Are you kidding me right now? That man hurt me. He slept with a friend of mine while I was going through chemotherapy.”
Yeah; Bella couldn’t put a positive spin on that. “What does he say about that?”
“This is the shitty part.” Liz sighed. “He makes no excuses. He tells me he’s sorry. Apparently, it scared him when I got sick and he did a stupid thing. He swears nothing like that will ever happen again. That he loves me.”
“And you?” Bella said slowly. Liz seemed so fragile.
“I’ve never stopped loving him.” Liz’s shoulders slumped and she looked beaten. “I dealt with the cancer. The feeling sick all the time with the treatment. But Noel . . .” Her voice wobbled. “He broke me, Bella.”
Screw Liz and her boundaries. Bella wrapped her arms around her. “No, he didn’t, because here you are. Still standing and telling the story.”
“Just barely.” Liz sniffed. “I really don’t know if I can go there again.”
“You don’t have to. This is your choice.” Look at her with all the great advice she didn’t use herself.
