Blackbird (15 page)

Nate frowned in thought. His head tilted sideways,
then
the biggest smirk she’d ever seen spread across
his face.

“You’re jealous!”
Nate cackled,
loud enough that the whole street could hear.

“I’m not jealous! I’m just…”

Nate laughed even harder. “You so are!”

Claire shook her head. “Whatever,” she said softly.

When Nate had finally stopped laughing and
composed himself he asked, “Why would you be jealous?”

Claire searched his face for an answer. But all
that she could find was the eyes of quite possibly the most gorgeous, sexy,
infuriating guy she’d ever met.

She was going insane. She had to be.

“I dunno…”

Nate pulled his hands to her cheeks. “Would you
prefer that you had flirted with me instead?” he said in a deep voice.

“No,” she choked, not sounding convincing at all.

She closed her eyes. Any second longer she took
looking into those deep, dark eyes consumed her.

His hands left her face, but were quickly replaced
by his breath. “You wouldn’t like what we were talking about then.”

Her eyes shot open. She stepped back and hit him
with her bag.
“You!”

Nate chuckled. “What!”

“You’re such an ass!”

Nate shook his head. “We weren’t talking about
anything dirty. We were talking about you.”

“Me?”

“Yes, you.”
Nate smiled.

“What about me?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” he said, winking at her
and walking off towards her car.

This time her body was saying yes and her mind was
saying no as she followed him willingly to her car. Why she wanted to spend
time with him was beside her, but she followed him anyway.

***

“So what movie did you end up
getting anyway?” Claire asked Nate as they walked towards her living room.

Nate had had serious trouble trying to pick a
movie they both would enjoy, especially since he really had no idea what kind
of movies Claire was into. Thankfully Jessie had come over at the prime time
and picked out a couple of choices that she knew Claire would like.

“Well the title says what you might have had this
morning, although I doubt you had as crazy of a night like in the movie,” Nate
replied, opening the DVD player and placing the movie inside.

Claire sat down on the couch with a piece of pizza
in her hand and a very confused look on her face.

“Huh?” she mumbled through her mouthful of food.

Nate watched her drop a piece of food from her
mouth onto her lap, pick it up and put it back in her mouth in a very
unladylike manner.

He grinned in amusement. “I think you missed a
bit,” he said pointing to the gap between her breasts.

Without hesitation she peered down her cleavage,
looking for the bit of food that she thought was there.

Nate smiled to himself at his devious ploy, a
tactic that worked brilliantly when Claire began fondling her breasts in an
attempt to find the non-existent piece of food. 

“Where is-” She cut herself off when she looked up
and saw the smug look on Nate’s face. “Oh you’re such a dick! I didn’t miss
anything did I?”

He shook his head slowly.

She groaned in response, picked up the nearby
pillow and threw it at his head. He caught it mid-air and flung it back to her.
Following its direction, he sat on the couch next to her.

Instead of giving up though, she threw the pillow
right back at him, catching him off guard. He picked it up and held it in his
hands, looking over at Claire who had complacent look on her face.

“I always did love a pillow fight,” he said
playfully.

The look on her face was priceless as he threw the
pillow back at her, quickly grabbing another one beside him and throwing that
as well.

Her determination got the better of both of them
as they shot pillows back and forth between them like lightening. The moment
Claire’s aim was out, sending a pillow past Nate’s head behind the couch, he
propelled himself onto her.

His hands quickly worked her body, tickling every
inch of her. She squealed in laughter, tensing her whole body she tried to push
him off. He gripped her wrists in his hand and held them over her head, freeing
her body for him. He tickled her with his other hand, his body pressing down on
her to keep her still.

He watched her squirm against him, rubbing her
body against him. The feeling sent thrills down him. The things he could do to
her in this position…! She was so vulnerable, so unaware of his power over her.

A man can dream.

“Stop…Nate…” she cried out between bursts of
laughter.

He stopped, letting her catch her breath.

Her breathing was full and sharp. She smiled up at
him, shaking her head.

He leant closer to her. “Say please,” he said
deeply.

She looked at his eyes back and forth, suddenly
becoming increasingly aware of their body contact. There was no hiding what
this position was doing to his manhood. It was obvious as it pressed against
her stomach.
Like he wanted to hide it anyway.

“Please,” she said in a low voice.

He tilted his head slowly, watching her intake of
breath as his mouth moved closer to hers.

But crossing the line was something he wasn’t
going to do with her again. The next time they kissed, and yes there would be a
next time if Nate had anything to do with it, she would be single.

So he softly kissed her cheek and whispered, “I
always win.”

He let go of her wrists and pulled himself off her
and into an upright position. Grabbing a piece of pizza from the coffee table
he pushed the food into his mouth and fiddled with the remote to put the movie
on, acting as if nothing had happened.

He could see the cute confused look on her face
from the corner of his eye. If only things with Claire could be easy. But
things with women never were. He wanted Claire, but he wouldn’t be with her
unless she was 100% positive she wanted to be with him. How long he would have
to wait, he didn’t know. All he knew was that he was willing to do whatever it
took, maybe even wait a lifetime if he needed too.

She’s worth it.

“What’s the movie called?” Claire said sheepishly
beside him.

“
The Hangover
.
Jessie told me it’s one of your favourites, well one of your favourites that I
would enjoy too.”

“You talked to Jessie about what movie we could
watch together?”

He turned his head to her.

Interesting,
he thought.
The same
look Claire had earlier at the video store was back, all because of the mention
of Jessie.
She really was jealous.

“Yes, that’s what we talked about.” He turned his
focus back to the TV, pressing play. “I told you before, we only talked about
you. All I’m interested in is you.”

She didn’t reply, but he could tell by the way her
body relaxed that it was the answer she was searching for.

He could have made her think something more had
happened between Jessie and him just to make her feel what he felt when it came
to her relationship with Dave. But he wouldn’t, he wasn’t that type of guy, and
although Jessie had tried to hit on him, he was being honest when he said he
was only interested in one person. And that one person was Claire.

***

Claire awoke cradled in Nate’s
arms. Her eyes blinked slowly, taking in surroundings, as Nate carried her into
her room. How he knew which room was Claire’s she had no idea. The last thing
she remembered was trying her hardest to keep her eyes open during the movie.
It obviously didn’t work.

Nate laid her down on her bed.

“You fell asleep during the movie. I didn’t want
to wake you. I’ll head off now. See you tomorrow.”

She watched him turn to walk out of her room.

“Hold on,” she called out. “What time is it?”

She looked at the clock beside her bed.

“It’s ten o’clock. How do you plan on getting
home?”

He shrugged. “Bus.”

“You’re not catching a bus at this time of night.
Something might happen to you.”

He raised his eyebrows at her.
“Seriously,
Claire?”

She knew it sounded ridiculous, but even people
like Nate could get hurt. Just because he was built like a god didn’t make him
invincible.

“Why don’t you just stay the night,” she
suggested. “I mean, I don’t really feel like driving this late, and I don’t
wanna
risk the paparazzi being outside again. They’ll think
you’re some random lover and it’ll be all over the papers tomorrow.”

He considered her offer,
then
agreed.
“Fine.
But if you snore-”

“I don’t snore!”

He walked over, grabbed the pillow from the other
side of her bed and dropped it on the ground. He followed by kneeling down and
lying on the ground.

She perched her body up on the bed. “You’re not
seriously sleeping on the ground, are you?”

“Why? Where else could I sleep?”

Normally he could sleep in the spare bedrooms, but
with Tristan and Stella being home, they were occupied by the personal
security, leaving only the floor or the couch downstairs.

She didn’t really want him sleeping on the couch
downstairs. If Tristan or some of the security saw him they would probably
go
crazy thinking he was a crazed fan or paparazzi breaking
in.

The only real option was her bed.
My bed
.

“You can sleep in my bed but only on the
conditions that you stick to your side and no touching in any way.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, then,” he said, jumping up from the ground
and placing himself on the other side of her bed. “I promise to behave.”

“You better,” she said, turning out the lamp on
her bedside table.

“We still surfing tomorrow?”

“Yes, definitely,” she replied. “Wake me when it’s
morning.”

She turned her body to the side and snuggled into
her pillow. Thoughts of Nate swam in her mind as she drifted off to sleep.

Please don’t let this be a mistake.

***

Claire must have been out of it
because when Nate woke their bodies were entwined, grasping each other in
comfort.

He looked down at her head resting on his chest,
her arm wrapped around his waist.

Claire waking up in this position wouldn’t be
ideal. Every time he got closer to her, something like this would send their
relationship two steps back. For once, he wanted to enjoy the moment and not
let it
ruin
them.

He softly grazed over her shoulder with his
fingers, what he would like to do to wake her up every morning. He wanted to stay
like this. Live in this exact moment for as long as he could, but he couldn’t.
So instead he leant down and kissed her head, breathing in her beautiful scent,
and manoeuvred himself out of her grip.

It took every bone in his body to pull away,
especially when she attempted to pull him closer in her sleep when she
subconsciously felt him pull away.

Once he was completely free from her grip, he got
up
up
and stood at the foot of the bed.

“Claire.”

No response.

“Claire, wake up,” he said, a little more loudly.

She moaned deeply in her throat and rolled over,
seemingly falling back to sleep.

Okay, time for a new approach.

He picked up two random books from her study desk
and walked over to the side of the bed. With one quick movement he slapped them
together as hard as he could, yelling out her name at the same time.

She bolted upright at the sound, searching the
room in horror. “What- What is it?”

She looked up at him, smiling at how funny she
looked right now.

“Nate!” she yelled at the realization he had only
done it to wake her up.

She threw a pillow at his head,
then
buried her own into hers. “I’m sleeping!” she mumbled into the pillow.

“Well not anymore. Surf’s up.”

She turned to look at him. Smiling she said in her
best surfer dude impression, “Like totally.”

“Like yeah,” he replied in his best impression.

He turned towards the door and yelled over his
shoulder. “Let’s go, surfer chick.”

Being worried about having no make-up and bad hair
was definitely something Claire didn’t have to worry about. In his world, she
looked even more tantalizing, and every minute spent in that bedroom was making
his own morning glory want to have its way.

CHAPTER
NINE

“Here put this in,” Nate said, holding
his hand out with a CD while climbing into the passenger seat.

Claire looked at the CD. “Claire’s surfing music,”
she said, reading the label and taking note of Nate’s drawing of a girl riding
a surfboard. “You made me a mix tape?”

“Well technically it’s a mixed CD, but yeah, I
guess I did,” he said shrugging his shoulders.

Claire placed the CD into the car stereo and
listened to the first song. It was a song she recognized but couldn’t quite
pick the name. “Who is this?”

“It’s called ‘Song for the Unemployed’ by-”

“Andy Clockwise!” she interrupted.

Nate smiled at her. “I’m impressed. You know Andy
Clockwise?”

Claire’s mile beamed. “Yeah I do, I love his
music,
I
just haven’t heard it in ages.”

“Figured you for a top forty
kind of chick.”

“There’s a lot about me that you don’t know,” she
said, almost seductively.

His eyebrows rose. She giggled at his response and
turned the car fully on. She drove out of his parking bay and towards the main
road.