by Katee Robert
Nathan just bet it was. He trailed behind the group, trying to convince himself that he couldn’t assault the guide the hotel had set them up with.
That car couldn’t get there soon enough.
9
It took a solid fifteen minutes of standing under a stream of scalding water before the chill disappeared from Chelsea’s bones. Even then, she didn’t want to leave the sanctuary the shower offered. As soon as she did, she’d have to face Nathan and what she’d done. What was it about him that pushed her buttons so easily? When he’d turned their conversation to her skirt, she should have shut it down immediately.
Instead, she’d pulled up said skirt and given him a show.
She wasn’t some sex kitten who got turned on by a man watching her touch herself, so what was wrong with her?
She knew the answer before she’d fully asked the question. It wasn’t just any man who brought out this side of her—it was Nathan.
And, God help her, she loved every second of it.
It had taken years before she finally felt as if she’d moved on. Years to recover from the way her body yearned for him, making the ache in her heart a thousand times more impossible to forget. And now? Now things were so different. Their encounters this weekend were worlds away from their time together eight years ago. He was rougher, harsher…and she’d come harder than she thought possible.
Nathan would never allow her to live it down if he discovered he was the only man she’d ever been with, but what about him? The question she couldn’t bear to ask hovered at the edges of her mind, demanding an answer that she was convinced would destroy her. Exactly how many women had he practiced on to become as skilled as he was now?
With a sigh that felt a lot like a sob, she shut off the water. She didn’t have a right to that answer, but the knowledge hurt all the same. That privilege was supposed to be hers. When he’d said his vows, it was supposed to be forever. He wasn’t supposed to join the Army, leaving her to deal with her family alone, and then spend the next eight years with God only knew how many women.
He was supposed to realize what he’d done, chase me down, and tell me how much he loved me and couldn’t live without me.
Another sob threatened, but she pressed her hand over her mouth. There it was. The thought she’d never allowed herself to indulge in. The one thing she’d wanted more than anything. It didn’t matter. Not anymore. He hadn’t come for her, not once in eight years. And when he finally did, it was to summon her to his brother’s wedding as if she were a wayward child who’d run off.
Not at all the fairy tale she’d secretly dreamed of all those years.
She straightened, wrapping the last scraps of anger around her like a shield. It didn’t matter what changes Nathan brought about in her. He was part of her past and, once he signed the divorce papers, he’d stay in her past. It was the only way to save her father’s campaign and—more importantly—her heart.
Dinner was in a few short hours. She’d have to face all those people who’d been in the canoes earlier. The very same people who’d seen her practically naked.
At least they hadn’t seen what she’d been doing before the canoe tipped.
Needing more time before she faced Nathan again, she dried her hair and put on her makeup. The polished woman in the mirror was the daughter of the next senator of Washington State, a professional powerhouse, someone incapable of being ruffled. This was the woman Chelsea would be—not the sex- charged creature who did outlandish things in order to push her almost–ex husband over the edge.
She stopped short in the doorway to the room, the past disappearing in favor of the present. Please, God, tell her she was seeing things. “What are you doing?” Nathan nodded to Danielle’s care package.
“Satisfying my curiosity.”
“Don’t you dare!”
He held up his hand, a pair of panties hooked on his finger. “Vibrating panties? I think I like Danielle.” Thank God he hadn’t gotten to the anal plug yet.
Chelsea wasn’t sure what Danielle thought was going to happen this weekend, but she’d obviously hit up an adult super store on the way to the Oregon border. “Put it down.” Instead of listening to her, Nathan upended the bag onto the bed. Chelsea shifted from foot to foot, fighting not to throw herself over the pile to keep him from seeing what Danielle had packed. It wouldn’t do a bit of good, and it’d make her look like an idiot. Desperate for some semblance of calm, she noted Nathan sitting on the bed, a massive pile of condoms strewn around him. How many times did Danielle think they were going to have sex in a few short days? “She went slightly overboard with the condoms.”
“Guess so.” He held up a pair of fuzzy leopard- print handcuffs. “Her taste is somewhat questionable, too. And a pink anal plug? Seriously?”
No longer caring if it made her look like an idiot, Chelsea hurried across the bedroom and knocked the items out of his hands. The sight of them made her wonder what it’d be like if he used them on her. The thought wasn’t an entirely unpleasant one, despite her reality check in the bathroom. “Put that stuff away.”
When she went for his hands again, Nathan grabbed her wrist in a punishing grip. “I think that’s enough.”
“Let go.” She yanked against his hold, getting nowhere. The more she pulled, the more heat pulsed through her. Damn her body for betraying her when all she wanted to do was wipe that smug look off his face. “If you didn’t try so hard to push my buttons, I wouldn’t be losing my mind like this.”
Something on his face changed, making warning bells go off in her head, but he didn’t give her a chance to backtrack before he released her wrist. “You’re right. You should be losing your mind in other ways.”
Not if she wanted to keep her sanity intact.“I don’t think so.”
“You don’t think so?” he asked. “Take off your towel.”
In response, she clutched it tighter to her chest. “No.”
“Take off the towel, or I’ll take it off for you.”
Why did he have to keep pushing her? If Nathan would just stop being…himself…it’d be so much easier for her to remain unaffected. But no, he sat there with a glint in his eye that she’d already come to crave in such a short time. He looked at her as if everything hinged on her response, as if she was the key to everything. He wouldn’t force her into making this particular decision.
He’d wait for her to make the choice on her own.
Chelsea unwound the towel and dropped it on the floor. “This is what you wanted to see, isn’t it? Well, here I am.”
The expression on Nathan’s face was worth compromising her original plan. He might be getting to her, but she was getting to him just as badly. Her body practically hummed in anticipation.
“Come here.”
And give him what he wanted? No way. She took a step back, but he was too quick. He snagged her wrist and yanked her forward, stopping her momentum with his body. He positioned her between his knees, pinning her wrists behind her back with one hand. She took a deep breath and went still, vowing to herself that she wouldn’t betray her body’s reaction to him.
“Do you want me to let you go?”
What did he think to accomplish by constantly asking for permission? Was he trying to humiliate her even more than he already had? As she looked into his unreadable brown eyes, the truth dawned on her. That wasn’t it. It wasn’t it at all.
He was trying to prove that she could trust him. Her heart beat faster. “No.”
“No, what?”
She swallowed hard. “I don’t want you to let me go.”
“Good.” His grin made things tighten low in her stomach. “You know, you have the most amazing breasts. They’re full and fit my hand like they were made to be there.” “They weren’t.”
He continued, obviously intent on ignoring her comments. “And your ass… Christ, baby. Your ass just begs to be spanked.”
Heat flushed her body as she remembered how he’d smacked her that morning. It had hu
rt, but it’d also spiked her pleasure. To be bent over his knee, completely helpless as he spanked her and stroked her and spanked her again? She didn’t have a response to that, not one that wouldn’t give her away.
He traced his finger in the air down her body. Though he didn’t actually touch her with that hand, her skin sparked as if he had. Down and down again, until he reached the apex of her thighs. “And that pussy. Yes, I said pussy. You never shaved when we were together.”
Her clit throbbed as if he’d touched her there. “I wax.”
“The same principle applies. Your bare little pussy makes me want to spend hours tasting every inch of that smooth flesh.”
Desire almost sent her to her knees. She wanted him to do exactly that. To lick and nip and kiss her until she came against his mouth. She was terrified of the things she’d do in order to get his tongue on her one more time. Chelsea’s breath shuddered out.
He nodded as if she’d answered a question. “I thought so. Turn around.”
When she hesitated, he used his hold on her wrists to spin her around. His rough hands stroked up her arms and back down again, drawing a small whimper from her. She closed her eyes, wondering what he’d do next—if he’d slip a hand between her legs or perhaps bend her over her bed and take her until she begged for mercy.
What she didn’t expect was for him to step back and let go. She spun around, a little unsteady on her feet, but he was halfway to the bathroom. “What are you doing?”
“I need a shower.”
“What?” He was going to walk away right now?
His eyes were almost crazed as he backed away from her. He fisted his hands, knuckles white as if he was fighting against the need to reach for her. He wanted her, wanted her as desperately as she wanted him. So why wasn’t he pushing for more?
“Please.”
“Make no mistake, Chelsea. This will happen, but it’s not going to happen like this.”
She wanted to scream. To beg. To do whatever it took to understand what his end game was and to reach it. “What do you want from me?”
Nathan stopped in the bathroom doorway and looked back. “Everything.”
Nathan didn’t masturbate in the shower. It would’ve felt wrong to leave her hanging while he was getting his release, no matter how frustrated he was—though he wasn’t about to tell her that.
He’d almost thrown the damn plan out the window and taken her back in the room. It had been everything he could do to back away from her and shut the door between them. But, even if he’d been forced to change his plan repeatedly, he sure as hell wasn’t changing this. When they had sex again—and it was a goddamn sure thing at this point—it wasn’t going to be in the middle of some one-upmanship. It would be fucking real.
But that didn’t mean he was going to play nice before then. She thought she was pissed now? She was about to get a whole lot more pissed.
He got dressed, ran his hands through his hair, and walked back into the bedroom.
She sat on the bed, staring blankly at the television. It broke his heart a little bit to see her looking so beaten down, but he knew exactly how to bring her around. “Up.”
After giving him a baleful glare, she climbed to her feet. When he made a circling motion with his finger, she obeyed, once again turning her back to him. Now, safe from her gaze, he could let himself look his fill.
To have Chelsea Callaghan at his mercy was a fantasy Nathan had held as long as he’d had fantasies. In high school everything had been too new, too in the moment to delve deeper into some of his darker desires. He wouldn’t trade those sweet moments for anything in the world, but this was a different need he desperately wanted filled.
He traced a single finger down her spine, causing her to shiver. “If you’ll allow it, tonight you’ll be handcuffed.”
“Nathan, this isn’t—”
“And then I’ll do everything to you I described earlier. You remember how well that paid off this morning, don’t you?”
She froze, and a small sound slipped out of her mouth. He could barely wait for tonight, to have her spread out before him, helpless while he filled his seemingly insatiable need to touch every inch of her skin. He sat on the bed and towed her back to sit next to him. “Just sit, baby.”
Chelsea crossed her arms over her chest and glared. “Yes, sir.”
He liked it when she called him sir. He liked it a lot. He yanked her suitcase over and, ignoring her protest, rifled through it until he found a dress that would work. “We are having dinner with my brother and a few other people tonight. I want you to wear this.”
It was a pale green dress that, from what he could tell, would gather beneath her breasts and fall loosely around her body otherwise. Chelsea frowned. “Why are you choosing my clothes?”
“That’s not all I’m choosing.” Nathan picked through the pile of stuff on his bed until he found what he wanted. “You’ll also be wearing these.”
“I never pegged you for a man to dig through my panty drawer.”
“Only because there was never a pair of these in your drawer before.” Nathan slid off the bed and went to his knees in front of her. “Leg.”
With a pained sigh, she slipped her feet through the appropriate holes and stood as he pulled the panties into place. They were ridiculous things, bright pink and reading “Horny Honey.” Sewn into the front was a tiny vibrator. One to which he now held the control.
Nathan rose and circled behind her. He pressed against her back and nipped her neck, making her jump. “All evening I’ll be controlling these—controlling you. Be very, very good and I’ll let you come.” He paused, doing his damnedest not to hold his breath. “Unless you want me to take them off.”
“What?”
She still didn’t get it. It would be all too easy to rush ahead with this shit, and she’d be happy to let him. But then she’d turn around and tell herself that he’d steamrolled her. That she hadn’t really had a choice. Fuck that. He needed her with him, every step of the way. “I’m only going to play this game if you want to play it with me. Say the word and they come off.”
He felt as if he might pull a muscle from the tension radiating through his body while he waited for her to work through it. He was asking for her trust—just a
little of it—and her answer carried more importance than her letting him spend the night driving her crazy with lust. As much as she might not want to admit it, they were making progress. This hadn’t gone like Nathan expected, but he found himself enjoying the new give and take between them.
Finally, Chelsea propped her hands on her hips. “Let me make sure I understand. I say the word, and you take off my panties?”
He froze. Holy shit. “That’s one way to interpret it.”
She turned to face him. “Do your worst.”
He cupped her breasts, loving the way they filled his hands. She hadn’t been stick-thin before, but her curves had definitely filled out in the intervening years. “You haven’t begun to see my worst, baby.”
He moved back to his bed and grabbed the remote to thumb on the dial. Instantly, Chelsea’s body went tense. After a considering look, he decided she was more uncomfortable than turned on. Nathan adjusted the vibrator, doing his damnedest to resist the need to taste her again. This night would play out according to plan, and the plan did not include him losing his control like he had this morning. If he did that now, they weren’t going to make dinner.
Or breakfast tomorrow.
Or maybe even the ceremony itself.
He slipped his fingers into her panties and spread her wetness around, until her clit was thoroughly covered. Then he adjusted the vibrator one last time and was rewarded with Chelsea’s gasp.
“I do believe that’s the right spot.” He held up her dress, giving her one last chance to change her mind, though he doubted she would.
Chelsea moved to her suitcase and bent at the waist, leaving her ass at eye-level, and Nathan nearly groaned aloud. Christ, the woman was t
emptation personified. As she leisurely dug through the pile of clothing, it dawned on him. She was toying with him.“I think you get off knowing you drive me crazy.”
“You’re the one staring at my ass. Are you thinking of putting the anal plug into play?”
Christ. His cock hardened to the point it was a wonder he could put together two thoughts. Fuck this making her wait for an orgasm. He was going to play with her now. “Come here.”
She huffed out a breath. “Again?”
“Keep up the attitude and there will be no coming at all tonight.”
She laughed as she stood and fastened a beige bra into place. “I can’t make any promises.”
Obviously she thought she had things well in hand. Nathan grinned and motioned her closer. “Considering the things I’m planning on doing to you, you had goddamn well better be on your best behavior.” He pulled her into his lap and ran his hands over the front of her body. For all her bravado, she melted against him at the first touch.
He kissed her shoulder and then neck. “Now just try to relax.”
10
When Chelsea finally got home, she was going to put Danielle through the ringer. Vibrating panties? What was the woman thinking? But, oh, it felt so good to be on Nathan’s lap with his arms around her and his mouth on her skin. Knowing he had total control over her pleasure only inexplicably added to it.
“Spread your legs.”
She obeyed and was rewarded when the vibrator pressed against her clit increased its pace. Chelsea let her head fall back against his shoulder, her hips moving on their own.
“Do you like that, baby? I think you do. I think you fucking love it.”
She didn’t even consider keeping silent, though that may have been the smarter way to go about this. What more did she have to lose? She’d already given him permission. There wasn’t much more she could do to make it worse at this point. “Yes.”
He nipped her shoulder, nearly hard enough to hurt. “Do you want me to stop?”