Salvation (51 page)

He took no notice. He was more interested in the side of my face, watching me glare at the woman old enough to be his mother.

“She’s gorgeous isn’t she?” Nate said to her, the arm around my shoulder pulling me closer. “I can’t keep my eyes off her.”

When I faced him, eyes wide with shock, he planted a sensuous kiss on my lips. The woman blushed so badly I actually felt sorry for her. “Yeah,” she spluttered, handing me the tickets with a harried smile.

“What did you do that for?” I asked quietly as we moved away.

“She was making you uncomfortable. It was disrespectful, so I called her out on it.” He spun me in his arms, taking me in an impulsive embrace, oblivious to the throng of people milling around us.

We snuggled on the back row, feeding popcorn to each other, enjoying the normality of our date. After a lite bite at a grill around the corner, we went home to the condo.

“LET me make you come,” Nate pleaded, sliding his hand between my legs. He cupped me, then applied more pressure with his middle finger so it felt like the lace material was non-existent. “You want my touch.”

I moaned and pulled him closer, keen to taste his mouth again. Side by side on the bed, we were a writhing tangle of wanting limbs, our connection forbidden by mother nature. The circling of his fingertip over my clit, his thumb grazing the flat of my stomach along the edge of my underwear was doing crazy things to me, and he knew it.

“Yes,” I panted into his mouth, devouring him with long, languid kisses. A warm, talented hand slid beneath the lace, followed by a groan so deep it shook his chest. I dragged my nails over his back down to his bare arse and gripped hard.

The rhythm of his hand, in perfect sync with decadent licks of his tongue, was making me climb higher to the edge of orgasm. I hooked a leg around his hip, opening wider for him. “Oh, God.”

“You’re close,” he breathed, lowering to pull a hardened nipple into his mouth. “I won’t last much longer. Give it to me.”

“Now…right there…” I bit my lip, clutching him against me as I fell apart, crying his name over and over into his neck.

“Yes, baby. Let me hear you.” His voice shook, his control slipping away with as much speed as mine.

He’d got me off so easily. Being with Nate had opened my eyes to a whole new sexual awareness of my body. The way I looked, how I moved.
What I wanted.
And I was starting to love it.

Nate rolled me on top of him and caressed my jaw. “Take me in that sweet fucking mouth of yours. Make me come.”

Those words held so much power and changed the dynamics entirely. I was the one in control now, not him. I wriggled quickly down his body, keen to give him the same pleasure he had me. “Hmm,” I murmured, taking his cock all the way to the back of my throat.

“Fuuuck.” He wrapped my hair around his wrist and fisted his hand.

I sucked enthusiastically, alternating sensation between tongue and teeth, hearing his muttered profanities and praise as my head bobbed up and down. He swelled in my mouth and his hands dived into my hair the exact second he exploded. “Sweet fucking Christ, you’re too good,” he panted, holding me captive. Days of pent up tension flooded my mouth that I eagerly lapped up.

I stayed there, nuzzling his groin whilst we both regained control of our bodies. “I feel like a horny teenager,” I admitted. I’d barely come down from my own high before giving Nate his, so only now could I fully absorb how quickly we’d both come undone.

“Tell me about it,” he muttered, his breathing resuming its normal rhythm. I crawled over him and collapsed onto my back beside him. “You could make me come just from making out. Doubt many teenagers would orgasm that way.”

“And you couldn’t make me? Nate, you make love with your mouth.”

When he didn’t respond, I turned fractionally to see if he’d fallen asleep. The grin on his face caused my heart to stop briefly from its gorgeousness. “I like that.” The tip of his finger feathered along my lips. “So do you,” he paused to kiss me, “in more ways than one.”

With a playful dig in the ribs with my elbow, I turned to the window, hooking my right leg outside the sheets. Nate switched off the table lamp and spooned behind me, wrapping an arm around my waist and nuzzling into my hair. It had been frantic and passionate, but the pleasure I took from driving Nate to the brink and seeing him fall apart when he was in my mouth, sometimes with such ferocity it shocked me, filled me with confidence and pride.

And it was one of the most liberating moments of my life.

“WHERE THE HELL did you find that?”

I stared, wide-eyed at the picture of two lovers embracing on the pavement amid a throng of curious onlookers. Within hours, the clinch worthy of an epic romance Nate and I had shared was receiving numerous hits on an internet blog.

“Well, um,” Mai stammered, looking extremely sheepish. “I kinda set up Google Alert.”

“For Nate?”

“For you.” She winced at the thunderous look I gave her. “Don’t be pissed with me. It’s exciting. My BFF is famous!”

I snorted. “I am
not
famous.” I yanked my bag onto my lap and dug out my tin of lip balm. “I feel like I’m being stalked,” I whined, slathering on the strawberry balm. Add in all of Nate’s obsessions with safety and I was becoming a little more than freaked out.

“People wanna know what Nate-sexy-as-fuck-Blake is doing,” Mai said, swiping the pad of her index finger over the waxy balm and dabbing her own lips. “You’re newsworthy by association. This blog gets all the scoops on you two. It was the first to break your relationship, now this. There’s a fashionista one that’s loving your style, and—”

“Stop.” I held up a weary hand. “Please stop.” Scrubbing both hands over my face, I sighed. “If you want to keep reading this garbage, go ahead. Only do me a favour?”

“Sure thing, sweet cheeks,” she smiled, her eyes dancing with fevered excitement.

“Don’t tell me about them anymore. I don’t want to hear about any of it.”

Mai returned to her desk, subdued and sorry for herself. I didn’t have time to worry or feel guilty. I was in the right, entitled to defend my privacy any way I could. I would have to become more vigilant and alert to my surroundings, that’s all.

A little after seven, Nate arrived at my apartment with a small overnighter and laptop bag to work on later. Whilst he showered, I ordered dinner from the organic cafe I regularly used. We ate cross-legged on the sofa and watched repeat episodes of Friends. Afterwards, Nate propped his feet on the small round ottoman stool and the laptop on his lap.

I curled up and enjoyed watching him work, fascinated by how fast his mind worked to resolve issues, and how easily he manifested ideas and suggestions for strategies and plans. He remained focused, even when he joked I was distracting him. When Indecent Proposal came on TV, I soon became engrossed in the film, even though I’d seen it many times before.

“Are you seriously crying?” Nate laughed, catching me wiping my eyes with a tissue.

“What?” I shrugged, taking another from beneath the coffee table. “He let his wife sleep with someone else, now he’s devastated.”

“More fool him,” he murmured. “If you were mine, I wouldn’t share you with anyone.”

I grinned, realising he’d been watching as he repeated one of Robert Redford’s lines. “Thought I was yours?”

“Ergo, my point is proved.”

Shifting to the other end of the sofa, I propped my bare feet in the gap between his stomach and the laptop. “You’re a gazillionaire, have you ever made an indecent proposal?”

“I want to,” he purred provocatively, eyes darkening as they raked the length of my body, “to you.”

I turned back to the TV. “I slept with you for free.”

“Poor negotiations on your part, baby.”

“Don’t think so.” Nate had given me guidance to discover myself again. That alone was worth far more than any amount of money. “Besides, I wanted to be romanced first. You had to prove you were worth the risk.” I shrugged, stifling a smile and faced him again. “Girls are suckers for all that.”

“Hmm.” Keeping one hand wrapped around my feet, the other stroked his chin thoughtfully. “You want to be wined and dined?”

“Wined, dined, then taken to bed for some exceptionally good sex,” I admitted shyly.

Nate’s mouth curved lazily, whilst his eyes flared with unfulfilled desire. It was the same way he always looked at me. Like he could never have enough. He lowered his feet to the floor, snapping the laptop shut and setting it down beside them, deliberately taking his time with measured movements. Then he tugged my ankles, pulling me flat on my back.

He crawled over my body and straddled me, the brunt of his weight taken by his thighs. “I can wine and dine…seduce you.” The intimacy of his quiet voice stabbed at my chest and squeezed all the muscles in my groin tight. His talented hands found their way beneath my tank and cupped my bare breasts.

“Copping a feel isn’t seductive.”

“No?” he teased, head tilting as his smile widened to his eyes. His thumbs skimmed my nipples. I shook my head, unable to speak for fear of a groan escaping my mouth instead. He lowered to graze the hard point with his teeth over the fabric. “I can tell you like it, though,” he murmured, blinking up through thickly lashed eyes.

I let out a long breath, squirming beneath him. Nate removed his hands and pinned mine above my head so they dangled over the arm of the sofa. “Allow me to try again.” His mouth swept over mine and started nibbling along my jaw. “This better?”

“Better,” I whimpered, filling my lungs with the fresh, clean scent of his washed hair and skin, “but keep going. I need to be sure.”

I felt him smile. “See?” One hand trailed down my arm, caressing my torso, and slid beneath my arse. “I told you I could do it.”

“You’re pretty good at it, too.” I pushed my breasts into his chest, desperate for contact.

“Yeah?” Nate sat back, releasing my hands. His eyes shone triumphantly from having his sexual prowess confirmed. I spread my fingers over his thighs, appreciating the thick slabs of muscle beneath his black sweatpants. “Are you still bleeding?”

I nodded, embarrassed, as an ache swirled its way through my core. “A little bit.”

“Damn.” Nate dropped his head, but I could see the playful smile creeping over his face. “I was kinda hoping you’d keep those glasses on, make all my wet dreams come true.”

THE next morning I woke with a driving urge to make love. I was aroused, merely laying beside Nate, the knowledge he was near seeping into my psyche, making me wet between my legs. He was propped up with pillows—his customary sleeping position—his breathing even and rhythmic. His right arm curled around my shoulders as he slept with me tucked safely against his chest.

Tentatively, I tiptoed fingertips over sculpted pecs and down, not stopping until I found him beneath the sheet. Nate’s upper body rolled, like a wave moving through him. Fearful of him waking and me losing my nerve, I circled a hand around his morning erection and began masturbating him.

Nate hummed his enjoyment, a rough gravelly sound from deep in his chest, quickly followed by a sleepily breathed, “Fuck, yeah,” that had all my senses tingling with feminine supremacy.

Sliding on top of him, I held him steady and took him inside me with a quiet gasp.

I caught the flutter of his opening eyes just as I lowered to kiss him. He took a second to respond, not fully alert. Then he opened up and let me in, his tongue joining mine in a lazy, wake up embrace.

Nate’s hands finally found me, gliding up from my waist. He gathered my hair and held it away from my face in a makeshift ponytail.

The look in his hazy blueish-grey eyes was unlike anything I’d witnessed before. The unquenchable thirst he constantly had for me was present, but something else lingered behind it. It was almost a sense of pride, of accomplishment. Nate cocked his head, his cheek beginning to dimple as he waited for my next move.

I started to rock, my palms pressed to his ribs for balance. An orgasm was brewing, purely from him being inside me, stretching me, throbbing and swelling. He was magnificent, full of sexual masculinity as he sat back for the ride, his eyes twinkling in the early morning light. Occasionally, he licked and suckled my breasts as they bounced mere inches from his face, but mostly he quietly watched me, focusing on my face…and losing control with every ragged breath he took.