Into the Light (Untwisted series Book 3)

by Raine, Alice

  Stepping forwards I took the gigantic bouquet from him and staggered towards the kitchen sink to deposit them on the counter, which given its size was actually quite difficult. Gazing down at the glorious blooms I suddenly felt tearful, my eyes welling up as tears threatened to spill over down my cheeks, which was ridiculous and would no doubt freak Nathan out, so to hide my watery eyes I leant forward and buried my head in the gorgeous scents coming from the flowers.

  Once I had control over my girly emotions I lifted my head and risked a glance at Nathan, half expecting him to be rolling his eyes at me, or scowling his trademark dark look, but instead I caught what looked quite a lot like a smile on his lips. Wow, whatever next!

  ‘Do you have a vase?’ I asked, really not expecting him to say yes. I couldn’t imagine a man like Nathan buying flowers just to make his house look and smell nice. In fact, given his uncomfortable stance I wondered if this was the first time he’d ever bought a bunch of flowers in his life. Scoffing, I shook my head. Don’t flatter yourself, I thought sourly, mentally giving myself a ticking off. With his charm and bedroom skills Nathan had no doubt ‘flowered’ his way into many a woman’s knickers in his time. The thought was distinctly unpleasant, but instead of lingering on being a jealous harpy I instead focused on the fact that today Nathan had bought them for me, and they were glorious, and probably very expensive.

  ‘Shit, I didn’t think of a vase,’ he muttered, looking momentarily crestfallen. ‘I think there might be one around here somewhere – Miranda my cleaner bought some flowers for the table last Christmas.’ Let’s hope so, otherwise this stunning display was going to spend the next week prettying up the kitchen sink. In silence Nathan and I both began searching through the various cupboards until eventually I spotted a dust-laden vase right at the back of a cupboard full of pans. Poor Miranda, she must have used it once and given up on him.

  Busying myself trimming the ends of the stems I then filled the vase with water, tipped in the little sachet of plant food, and set about arranging the flowers as elegantly as I could. ‘Wow, they really are beautiful, Nathan. Thank you,’ I said softly, standing back to admire them again with a happy little sigh. Clearing his throat gruffly Nathan turned away and started to fiddle with the pile of post on the kitchen counter and I smiled – even though he’d bought the flowers for me apparently he wasn’t comfortable with my gratitude just yet.

  ‘We’re going out today,’ Nathan suddenly said, still focusing his gaze on the letters in his hand, although he didn’t really seem to be reading them.

  ‘Oh … OK.’ This was new too. We never went out together, apart from that one visit to Club Twist a few weeks ago. We never did anything together except sex and eating, but that was mostly done in companionable silence, and always at the apartment.

  Possibly hearing my hesitation, or my surprise, Nathan closed his eyes and frowned as if considering something very hard, ‘That is, if you would like to?’ he added, sounding like the words were particularly hard for him to say.

  I had a choice? I always enjoyed our Sunday sex sessions – by then, Nathan was always less fevered and so the sex was a little more like lovemaking, slower and attentive and lovely, albeit with a few handcuffs or blindfolds thrown in the mix, but going out and spending some time with him would be totally new, and getting to know him better was a rather exciting prospect.

  ‘Um, yeah, that would be nice,’ I replied, immediately hoping we weren’t just going to repeat our last excursion and go back to Club Twist. I wasn’t keen to bump into Dominic again, I’d thought Nathan was going to kill him last time, but seeing as it wasn’t even lunchtime yet a trip to the club didn’t seem particularly likely. ‘Where are we going?’

  Once again Nathan tensed his jaw as if selecting his words very carefully. ‘You choose,’ he offered, sounding almost reluctant. What?

  ‘My choice?’ I squeaked. I couldn’t help it, I was stood frozen in the kitchen staring at him like half of his brain was hanging out of his nose. What had happened to him? The dominant Nathan I knew never asked for my opinion and he was certainly never considerate like this. He was almost acting as if his brain had been pulled out of his nose.

  ‘As long as we can get ice-cream I don’t care where we go,’ he added shrugging out of his jacket.

  ‘Ice-cream?’ God, I sounded like a complete imbecile repeating all his words back at him, but I was seriously struggling to grasp this new reality that I had been thrown in to. First flowers, and now ice-cream? Where the heck had Nathan been this morning to make him so different?

  ‘Yeah, it’s hot outside today. Ice-cream would be nice,’ Nathan murmured. ‘I’m going to change, be ready in fifteen minutes,’ he ordered. But as he stepped towards the kitchen door I heard him sigh and pause, dropping his head as he did so. ‘Please,’ he added, before walking from the kitchen, leaving me standing stock still and gaping at his retreating figure.

  What in the name of all things holy was going on? Was I missing something? Was it National Be Nice To Your Submissive day? Shaking off my haze of confusion I hastily made tracks up to my bedroom to change, deciding that whatever the reason for Nathan’s odd mood I may as well make the most of it.

  Slipping into some lovely new ivory lace underwear – a replacement set from Nathan for the panties he tore up at my office – I stepped into a pale yellow sundress, grabbed a cardigan just in case, and then after touching up my light make-up I headed back to the kitchen.

  As quick as I’d been, Nathan had still beaten me to it; he was still in his jeans but he’d changed his white T-shirt for a navy blue polo shirt which did devastatingly good things for his pale blue eyes. Blimey, talk about sinfully sexy. And all mine. For today anyway.

  We walked to the lift in silence and it wasn’t until the doors closed that he spoke again. ‘So, where are we going then?’ he asked, tossing his car keys lightly in his hand. He wasn’t smiling, but I thought perhaps I could hear a trace of humour in his voice as if he too found it strange to be asking me my choice in matters.

  ‘How about Greenwich Park?’ I offered – it was just the other side of the River Thames from here and if we took the Docklands Light Railway I knew we could be there in less than twenty minutes, plus there was great little ice-cream parlour near the entrance that I was fairly sure would satisfy Nathan’s demand for icy goodness.

  Nodding, Nathan stepped from the lift in the direction of his car but I took hold of his arm and stopped him, a smile popping to my lips. ‘We don’t need to drive Nathan, its only three stops on the train.’

  ‘The train?’ Nathan sounded almost appalled by my suggestion and I couldn’t help myself, I laughed at him. Loudly. Which of course immediately echoed off the concrete walls of the parking garage like surround sound. Oops. First he looked mightily pissed off, then slightly offended, then determined to shut me up and I promptly stopped laughing as he stepped forwards with a particularly menacing look on his face. I expected a telling off, or a harsh word about my behaviour, but what I got instead was a long, firm kiss on the lips which quickly heated to something far more passionate as his tongue pushed into my mouth and whipped me into a needy frenzy within seconds.

  Abruptly pulling himself away from me I staggered slightly from the dizzying sensations of Nathan’s touch and he grinned down at me. ‘Who’s laughing now?’ he smirked darkly, before grabbing my hand and dragging me and my wobbly legs towards the pedestrian exit. ‘Come on then, woman, introduce me to the delights of the London public transport system.’

  He wasn’t joking either, from the baffled way that Nathan stared at the ticket machines in the station a few minutes later it was clear that he very rarely used trains, if ever. He literally lived a two-minute walk from the station! How the other half live, eh? I suspected that if we had had to wait for a train I would have endured several smug comments from Nathan about the usefulness of a car, but thankfully even though it was a Sunday with reduced service we walked straight onto a carriage and were on the move jus
t eight minutes after leaving Nathan’s apartment.

  The train was smooth and quick and gave me some time to try and work out what on earth had happened to Nathan this morning to cause this radical change in his personality. After five minutes I was still totally clueless. He literally seemed to have evolved overnight, not that I was complaining; with the flowers, smiles, consideration, and hand-holding I was feeling rather giddy with happiness at the moment and decided to just let the day play out.

  Once we drew into Cutty Sark station there was just a short walk before we entered Greenwich Park, each with a large cone stuffed with delicious Cornish ice-cream. It was perhaps a little early for ice-cream, but seeing as Nathan was so intent on fulfilling his need I didn’t mention the time and happily joined in.

  As we meandered along a path in silence it came to my notice that there was something rather erotic about the way Nathan licked his ice-cream, not that he seemed aware of this, but every time I watched his tongue lash up the soft, creamy cone I couldn’t help but imagine him doing that to my neck, my breast, or perhaps somewhere even lower down on my body.

  I was practically fixated on the movement and I think perhaps I may have moaned out loud, because suddenly Nathan stopped eating his ice cream and turned to stare at me intently.

  A smile curved his top lip. ‘Oh, Stella. That’s a very naughty thought.’ Nathan murmured softly, a flash of desire darkening his eyes and causing me to flush instantly. How the hell did he know what I was thinking?

  ‘You can be so transparent when you want something.’ he added, stepping closer so his head was dipped right next to mine and I could smell the sweet strawberry ice cream on his cool breath. Transparent? Right now with desire thumping between my thighs like a steam train I felt pretty flimsy on my legs too.

  ‘If we weren’t in public I’d like nothing more than to drip this ice-cream on your hot little clit and take my time licking it off very, very thoroughly. Would you like that?’

  Oh-my-God-yes. And right now I didn’t really care who was watching, his few simple dirty words had made me so needy that I had to grip his shoulder to steady myself and squeeze my thighs together to try and find some relief. Seeing the shift of my legs Nathan chuckled, apparently rather pleased with himself, dropped a quick ice-creamy kiss on my lips and then started walking again whilst humming a little happy tune. Bastard! I was ready to combust and he was strolling casually away!

  Thankfully after a second or two of deep breathing my sanity returned and I decided that a police warning for public indecency would possibly spoil the day, so I got my libido under control and caught up with him feeling slightly calmer. I couldn’t believe he was humming to himself either, it was just such an un-Nathan-like gesture. Cutting across the grass we walked in a happy silence as we ate our ice-cream and then once the cones were gone and our fingers were clean – thanks to the clean wipes in my handbag – Nathan took hold of my hand and started to pull me up a path to the left.

  ‘I want to show you something,’ he said as way of explanation, but to be honest I didn’t care where we were going; I was out in London, it was a beautiful day and to top it all off I was with Nathan, and he was in a ridiculously good mood and holding my hand.

  Jeez, this was all so weird that I felt a bit like I was having a seizure or a massive brain malfunction; first the flowers, now a walk in the park with hand-holding? Hand-holding? I had to concentrate all my effort into acting normally, when all I wanted to do was gawk at Nathan and check his forehead for a fever that might explain his sudden behaviour shift.

  ‘This is the Old Royal Naval College,’ Nathan said, pointing to the huge building we were approaching, although to call it a ‘building’ didn’t really cut it, it was a sprawling mass of white columns, domes, and beautiful windows that looked more like a palace than a college. This was one of my favourite parks in London and so I’d walked this particular path many times before, but although I’d admired the building I’d never known what it was. ‘It was designed by Sir Christopher Wren over three hundred years ago,’ he added, but when I looked over to Nathan I saw he was lost in a world of his own, his eyes meandering over the building almost lovingly. ‘I got my inspiration to go into architecture from his work.’

  Crikey, I had learnt more about Nathan in the last two days than I had in the rest of our time together and I greedily soaked up all the information he was giving me. ‘Why?’ I enquired.

  ‘He’s one of the most highly acclaimed architects in British history, I want to be like him.’ A simple answer, but it was typical of Nathan to aim to be the very best, in fact I couldn’t imagine him any other way, somehow his confidence, which bordered on arrogance a lot of the time, really suited him. No doubt he planned on being even better and more famous than Christopher Wren one day too.

  ‘Well, I guess you’ve pretty much achieved that, I mean you own one of the most successful architectural companies in London,’ I said, suddenly realising just how true it was, and just how insanely successful Nathan was.

  He gave a vague grunt that I took to be agreement, then gazed at the building one more time, letting out a happy sigh before he finally turned back to me. My eyes had been on him as he turned and he seemed particularly embarrassed when he caught me looking at him, so he turned away, clearing his expression as he began walking along the path that I knew led to a small boating lake and children’s play area.

  Walking beside him I glanced down at our hands which were still joined and couldn’t help but smile to myself. I still had no idea what had gotten into Nathan today, but as the warmth of his skin soaked into my palm I had to say I liked it. Probably a bit too much, actually, if he went back to his usual stroppy self tomorrow I knew I would miss this more relaxed version of him terribly.

  Pausing alongside the small lake we stood in silence for a while and watched a group of ducks greedily fighting over some bread that a young family were throwing to them. ‘Shall we sit?’ Nathan asked, indicating the grass behind us and I nodded – a little spot of sunbathing would go down a treat. The only disappointing thing was that we had to break our hand hold to sit down, and Nathan didn’t reconnect it afterwards. It had only been a hand hold, but I realised that I missed his warmth now that it was gone.

  ‘So do you play rugby then?’ I asked, indicating to the polo shirt that he was wearing. It had the number 22 on the area over his heart above the letters HRFC, which I assumed stood for something Rugby Football Club, and the same two digits emblazoned on the back in much larger font. I couldn’t imagine a more formidable or terrifying opponent than Nathan on the rugby pitch; he was so tall and well-muscled that tackling him would probably be like running into a brick wall.

  ‘I used to,’ he replied, shifting himself back so he was reclining and leaning on his elbows.

  ‘Why did you quit? Too busy with work?’ I mused, pulling at a blade of long grass in front of me and absently running it between my fingers.

  ‘No,’ he answered, giving no more information than that, but it was the tone of Nathan’s one word that caught my attention, it was suddenly cooler and when I glanced across I saw a dark look on his face. Shit. Obviously I had somehow put my foot in it – again. I shifted awkwardly on the ground, unsure how to get back the easier air that had been between us earlier.

  ‘Sorry,’ I murmured, not quite sure what I was apologising for, but feeling the need to do it anyway.

  Several moments passed and I started to chew on my lip nervously, how had such an innocent question ruined the entire day? Puffing out a breath I stared at the lake wishing I could get in one of the little hire boats and float away.

  ‘No, I’m sorry, Stella. You weren’t to know that it was a sore point for me,’ Nathan said suddenly. Turning to look at him I saw an anxious expression on his face, his lip chewing much more vigorously than mine had been. ‘I started playing rugby in high school, my father wouldn’t let Nicholas or I go out after school with our friends but we were allowed to participate in after-school cl
ubs.’ Nathan sat himself back up and looped his arms around his bent legs hugging them to his chest. ‘I joined as many clubs as I could, just to get some extra time away from the house.’ He was opening up again, I just couldn’t believe it, but I shelved all the questions forming in my mind and let him get it off his chest, ‘I was pretty good at rugby and when I joined college I got straight onto the team. I’d only been playing for them for a few months when …’ Nathan paused, swallowed loudly and ran a hand through his hair, his agitation obvious, ‘… when the stuff with Nicholas happened.’ He finished in a low tone. ‘After Nicholas’s suicide attempt my parents were arrested and charged with child abuse so we were on our own. I was eighteen, Nicholas was sixteen, so technically we were legally old enough to be independent, but the trauma specialist who treated Nicholas deemed him to be ‘vulnerable’ and wanted him in foster care until he was eighteen so he could stabilise emotionally.’

  Shaking his head Nathan looked well and truly lost in his memories. ‘I couldn’t let us be split up, not after everything he’d been through, so I said I’d look after him. It took a bit of convincing, but eventually I was allowed to be his official guardian until he turned eighteen. I knew we’d need more money than council benefits would provide so I quit college that very day and managed to blag my way onto a paid apprenticeship scheme at a local builder’s.’ Nathan glanced at me briefly, a sad reflective look in his eye, then looked away again, ‘So, no more college meant no more rugby, but to be honest the job kept me so busy I didn’t have time to miss it.’

  Wow, another huge piece of the puzzle had just been filled. Nathan really had sacrificed everything for his brother and I couldn’t help but feel immensely proud of him. ‘You’re incredible, you know that?’ I whispered, well aware that I was probably about to get all mushy on him which he would hate.