Nate laughed too, drawing me close against his warm body.
“Our child can be whoever and whatever they want to be, as long they’re happy.”
In that moment, I was filled with so much love for this man that it overflowed, overwhelming me. I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him down until I could press my trembling lips against him.
“Come on, let’s go home.” Nate whispered against my cheek and I shuddered again, with desire this time, strong and fierce as he held my hand and we walked back towards his car.
He drove towards his penthouse and I thought about what he said. Home. Let’s go home. I wondered what that would mean as we drove. Not the tiny, two bedroom apartment I shared with Thalia.
Would I move in to his penthouse with him? Would we find a place together? I daydreamed of the apartment we would find, in the fashion district. A cute two or three bedroom, big enough for our growing family.
I glanced at him sideways. Is that what we were now? A family? I didn’t know much about family. My father had left when I was young and my mom had done the best she could for me but as a single mom working two, sometimes three, jobs just to make ends meet, I had been left largely to raise myself.
What did I know about family?
Nate reached over and grabbed my hand, squeezing it in his and a feeling of relief washed over me. I didn’t know. I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I trusted Nate and the one thing I did know was that we would figure it out, together.
He pulled into his parking space and once more opened my door. We walked inside. I’d seen his place before so I wasn’t as shocked by the casual opulence of it. He didn’t see it that way, he was just used to having nice things. He didn’t see the ten thousand dollar chandelier hanging from the ceiling or the expensive, hand crafted furniture.
In that moment, I was blind to all of them too. The only thing I could pay attention to was Nate, and the simmering desire that heated the air between us.
I kissed him, hard and quick and unrelenting. I didn’t want any more words. I didn’t want any more talking. Not yet. Right then, feeling shaky and off balance as my whole world had gotten tipped on its axis, and I knew that Nate was the only one who would be able to right it again.
“I need you Nate. I need you to love me.” I whispered the words urgently against his mouth and he drank them down, kissing me again, tilting his head to get a better angle, going deeper.
“Your wish is my command. Anything you want, it’s yours. All you have to do is name it and I swear, I’ll move heaven and earth to get it for you.”
I pulled back enough to look up at him, to meet his gaze, dark against blue.
“You, Nate. All I want is you.”
I watched his eyes widen in shock, and then heat with desire and passion and tenderness and so much love that it knocked the breath straight out of my lungs. And then he was kissing me again, and that didn’t help either, but I didn’t care. It was worth it, to feel his lips tease mine, to feel his hard body wrap around me, to feel his heart beating just as fast and frantic as mine was.
He picked me up like I was the most fragile thing in the world and I almost laughed but my mouth was too busy laying a trail of kisses down the side of his neck. I stopped at the curve of his shoulder, growling in frustration at the fabric of his shirt that blocked my path.
“Too many clothes.” I growled again, and Nate let out a hoarse chuckle.
“That I one hundred percent agree with.”
He didn’t stop until he had me in his bedroom and laid me out on the California king bed. I couldn’t wait for him, tearing off my own clothes before attacking his. I felt possessed with need, it was driving me insane and every moment that I could touch him and taste him and feel him, made me need him even more until desire was an impossible ache inside me.
“Nate, faster.” I urged him on, but he held back, staring down at me with awe in his expression.
“You are so beautiful. You know that, right? You are the most gorgeous person I’ve ever seen.”
Normally, a part of me would disagree. All those rejections, all the snickers at modelling auditions and whispers behind hands. The talk behind my back, of the ‘fat’ girl trying to be a real model.
But the way Nate was looking down at me, I knew there was no way I could doubt his words. I saw myself the way he did and it brought a tear to my eyes.
I kissed him because I had to, drawing his body down on top of my and wrapping my legs around his hips. I couldn’t wait any longer for him. I needed him now.
He felt the same, because with the same urgency, he lined the tip of his rock hard cock up with my most sacred place and rammed deep inside me. I gasped in pleasure, arching my back and hitching my hips up to meet him. He moved like a piston, in and out, thrusting as deep inside me as he could before dragging back until he was nearly out then all the way back in again.
It was heaven. It was paradise. I was lost in the ocean of pleasure that Nate opened up inside me, tossed and heaved by the crashing waves, content to drown if he just kept moving inside me in that magic way of his.
“Yes, oh god Nate, yes! Don’t stop!” I howled the words and he bit me lightly on the neck, sending another shudder of pleasure through my hyper sensitive body.
“I’m not stopping baby. I’m never going to stop loving you.”
His roughly whispered words sent me flying over the edge, that ocean of pleasure rising up like a tidal wave and slamming into me, my whole being shuddering as I came hard, ecstasy wringing my body until it was limp and damp with sweat.
Nate threw back his head, calling out my name as he shook above me, caught in the storm just as I was. We held on to each other through it all, anchoring each other as the last few aftershocks rocked through us.
I held on to him for a long time after, too afraid to let go of the only thing that felt real and solid and safe in the world anymore. We were still holding on when I finally slipped into a deep, dreamless sleep, wrapped in the only place I wanted to be, Nate’s arms.
* * *
Nate
I stared down at Poppy for a long time. She looked a lot less fierce when she was sleeping, calm, almost at peace even though there was still a tiny furrow between her eyebrows. Even in her sleep she was fighting something. She was so strong, the strongest person that I knew and it had rocked me to see her so shaken. And it had honored me beyond words, to know that she felt safe enough to let her guard down with me. To let me see the fragile side, the scared side.
I knew she would never admit that she was scared, but I had seen it for myself in her deep blue eyes, when she’d told me about the baby.
The baby! I marveled, shaking my head as I wrapped her even tighter, pulling her closer into my body as if that alone would chase away whatever monsters she was fighting in her sleep. I knew I should be terrified. I should be just as scared as she was. Poppy had been right. A baby wasn’t part of the plan, not for years yet at least, but I…wasn’t. I wasn’t scared. I wasn’t frightened. I was excited, and elated, and thrilled more than I could say.
As an only child, I’d always dreamed of having a big family, a house full of kids, but it was so much more than that. It was Poppy. We were having a baby together, and that’s why it felt so right. That’s why I wasn’t scared.
If it had been Thalia giving me the same news, I would have been terrified. But with Poppy, everything was different. My whole world was different, brighter somehow. As if she were a little sun herself, bringing life and light into all of my dark places.
I loved her. Head over heels. I was in love with Poppy, and I was more than happy to spend however long it took, my whole life if necessary, to show her exactly how much I loved her. I had a feeling it would take a lifetime or two. I smiled into the dark, holding her close against my heart. I couldn’t wait.
20
Poppy
“Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!” I muttered the curses under my breath, trying to ignore the sideways glance the p
hotographer’s assistant shot my way. The model was late. Everything was set, the photographer had his equipment set up and was looking at his phone with an expression of boredom on his face. Everyone else involved in the shoot kept sending me looks askance when they thought I couldn’t see.
This wasn’t how things were supposed to go. I looked around in a panic.
“I, uh, I’m just going to give the model a call and see what’s taking so long.” I said and the assistant smirked at me. I didn’t say another word as I grabbed my cell phone and stalked towards the back.
Monica was the model I usually used for things like this, but she was out with a cold and Thalia had recommended a friend of hers who had done some plus sized modeling in the past. We had chatted, she’d sent me her head shots and measurements, and I’d thought, she was perfect for the job. Except that she was supposed to be here forty five minutes ago and still had yet to show up or call. Hell, even a text would be welcome at this point. A signal fire. Carrier pigeon. Anything to let me know that that she was on her way.
“Hey, Poppy, is everything okay?”
I paused mid-step and looked over at Heather, my friend and the hair and makeup artist for the non-existent model, who was sitting at one of the temporary folding chairs and table the magazine had set up for everyone working on the shoot that morning.
“Heather, oh my god, I’m so glad you’re here,” I let out a sigh of relief.
“I’ve been here for an hour, but no one’s told me what’s going on and I couldn’t find you so I thought I’d just stay here, out of the way of dragon lady.”
“Dragon lady?”
She nodded towards the stern middle aged woman carrying a clip board and an enormous mug of coffee.
“She’s the content director for Open House Magazine. She’s the one who’s going to interview you.”
“Oh, fantastic.” I felt a lump settle inside my stomach, surrounded by the mass of butterflies that were already plaguing me.
“So, what’s going on?” She shot me a concerned look. I thought about lying, making up some excuse, telling her anything but the embarrassing truth. But I had known Heather for years, and I knew she wasn’t the type to throw something like this in my face.
“My model is a no show.”
“What?!” Heather gasped and all I could do was nod, squeezing my eyes shut tight as a wave of nausea washed over me, knocking me back on my feet. Oh no. Not now. Please, let me keep my breakfast down. “That’s terrible.”
“I know,” I said, nodding, then immediately stopped. I shouldn’t nod. Definitely shouldn’t nod. “I’m going to call her right now and see where the hell she is. And she better have a damned good reason for being so late.”
It turns out, she did.
“I’m so sorry Poppy. The car rear-ended me on the 101 and he’s demanding we wait for the police to finish their report, even though he was the one that hit me.”
“You’re okay?” I asked through gritted teeth, trying to sound sympathetic and not like the frazzled mess that I was.
“Yeah, I’m okay. A little whip lash. My car on the other hand…” The model trailed off and I could hear the truth of her words in her voice, “I don’t know when I’ll be able to get there, Poppy. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get there at all. My car is totaled.”
I let out a silent groan, letting my head drop into my hands for a second as my cell phone beeped.
“Hey, I have another call coming in. Just let me know how things go there, okay? Let me know as soon as you can.”
“I will, Poppy, but I think it’s going to be at least another hour, and then I have to get my car towed to a garage, try and get a rental. Is there someone else you could call?”
Right now? On such short notice? Get a model for a gig that started an hour ago? Yeah, right, okay. That’s definitely not going to happen.
I didn’t say any of that though.
“I’ll see what I can do. You take care of yourself.”
I hit the button to switch to the other phone call coming in, not even bothering to look at the caller ID. Nothing and no one could make this day any worse.
“Poppy? What the hell’s going on?” it was Thalia, and her voice sounded worried over the phone, “I just got a call from Heather. She said the model didn’t show?”
“I just got off the phone with her. She was in an accident. She’s okay, her car is totaled. Long story short, she’s not going to make it. Thalia, what the hell am I going to do? How can I do a photoshoot without a model?”
“Can’t the magazine call someone up?”
“Thalia, the shoot started an hour ago. Who are they going to call?”
“I’m sorry I can’t be there,” Thalia said after a moment.
“I know you’ve got family stuff to deal with.”
Thalia was at her parent’s house dealing with some emergency with her sister, Juliet. Even if she could leave, it was still a two hour drive from her parent’s estate just outside of Malibu.
“I still wish I could be there with you.”
“What the hell am I going to do, Thalia?”
“You’re going to put your chin up, throw those lovely shoulders back, and deal with it. You’re going to have an amazing photoshoot and you’re going to kill the interview. You’re Poppy Black. You don’t let anything stand in your way.”
I nodded at Thalia’s encouraging words. They made me feel a little bit better, but still didn’t solve my most immediate problem.
“How am I going to do that without a model?”
“You have a model, Poppy.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You!” Thalia practically shouted the word over the phone.
“No way.”
“Yes way! Poppy, you modelled for eight years. You know exactly what you’re doing, you know the designs better than anyone. You can rock them, you know that. It’s a perfect idea.”
“Not perfect! We were supposed to do the photoshoot and interview at the same time. How can I do both?”
“You are the most capable person that I know, Poppy. None of this would have happened without you. You can handle this. I know you can. You know you can.”
She sounded so confident in me, but I wasn’t so sure.
“Poppy, you were a model for eight years before launching your own design company. It’s only right that you should be the face of it, too.”
“Our design company.” I said but Thalia just snorted.
“I know who the real talent is here, Poppy. And so do you. Now, go out there and show it to the rest of the world.”
I hung up and took a deep breath, trying to calm myself but my nerves were jangling like a jazz band, all loud and discordant. I forced myself to turn around and walk back towards the tables where Heather was still waiting.
“Grab your case, Heather,” I told her, trying to sound more confident than I felt. “Our model just arrived.”
Heather looked around curiously before her gaze finally landed on me, widening in understanding. After a minute she grinned at me.
“This is going to be perfect. Are you ready to get fabulous?”
My stomach sank even further at her words. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
I sat in the chair that Heather directed me to, trying to still my nerves as she painted and contoured my face.
“Any way we can hurry this up?” I asked after several long minutes, every second dropping like a lead weight inside me.
“You can’t hurry perfection,” Heather muttered at me, not looking at me, but squinting one eye and then the other, examining her work. “Luckily for you, though. You’re make up is done. Now, for your hair.”
I bit back what I wanted to say, keeping my silence as she curled and teased my dark locks into something that was at the same time edgy, and romantic. I sat as patiently as I could, which was not patient at all but at least I didn’t get burned from the hot iron in Heather’s hand.
Finally, she announced me done a
nd I scurried behind the temporary changing room that had been set up. The garment bag was still there, still waiting for a model that wasn’t going to come.
“I’m the model now.” I whispered to myself, still not sure how I was going to pull it off. But if Thalia had that much faith in me, the least I could do was try and feel a fraction of that for myself.
I unzipped the bag carefully, pulling out the lilac confection of lace and chiffon. The top was fitted, cinching in at the waist in the most flattering way, emphasizing the hourglass shape of the form.
I slipped the gown from the hanger and stepped into it, letting out a sigh of relief that my measurements and the model’s were close enough not to make too big of a difference. The sleeves, which draped over the shoulder in an almost fairy-tale way added a bit of softness to the structured shape of the dress and the lace flowed like form fitting water, hugging all the way down. There was a thigh high slit that was hidden until I moved.
The last thing I needed was a pair of heels but the only thing I had was the pair of four inch black leather studded heels I was already wearing. I hoped it would work. It was too late for anything else. This was the fourth quarter and it was time for a hail mary.
I walked out from the behind the curtain and Heather glanced over at me, did a double take, and then whistled.
“Daaaaaamn, Poppy.”
I grinned at her exclamation.
“That good?”
“Better!” She scurried over, “Oh my gosh, so much better. You look perfect!” She grabbed my hand and pulled me around so I could look in the stand mirror that was set up on the other side of the changing room curtain.
I looked at myself critically for a long minute. I looked like windswept princess, who’d just gotten off the back of her getaway motorcycle, accentuated by the black leather boots. I smiled a little at the image. I was a wild woman. A woman who rejected the place that society wanted to pigeon hole her into because of the way she looked, or how much money she had, or where she was born. A woman who was powerful, who took her own fate into her hands, and damn the consequences.
Best Friend's Boyfriend (Be My Boyfriend Book 2) Page 15