by Jo McNally
“I guess the power’s back on.” He stretched and sat up. “The generator only covers certain breakers and that wasn’t one of them.”
“Oh, good. I thought it was morning!”
Nate looked down at her, laughing. “And that would be tragic because...?”
Her cheeks warmed, but she figured she’d already seduced the man, so it was too late to be demure.
“Because you promised me a long night of slow, sizzly sex.” She brushed her hair off her face. “And I’d hate to think we both slept through it.”
Nate tipped his head back and laughed. He sounded so relaxed and grounded compared to her nerves, which were suddenly running all over the place. He leaned down and kissed her forehead.
“Well, good news, kitten. It’s not even midnight. Are you hungry?”
She hadn’t thought she was, but as soon as he asked, she realized she hadn’t had anything since she and Nora ate some fast-food burgers that someone had delivered early in the afternoon.
“Actually, yes. I could eat, but not a lot.”
“Stay right there.” He stood, tugging on a pair of gym shorts that were hung on the back of a chair. “I’ll make sure the generator’s off and check the lights. Then I’ll make us some sandwiches and grab a couple beers.” He arched one brow. “Or wine?”
She stretched, feeling a few protests from parts of her body that hadn’t been used in a while. But the pain was sweet and totally worth it. Damn, they’d had a good time earlier.
Nate chuckled. “If you don’t stop looking at me with those do-me eyes, there won’t be any food because I’ll crawl right back into bed. Beer or wine?”
“Beer’s fine.” He headed to the door, but she stopped him as he reached for it. “And by the way, we can have both.”
He looked over his shoulder, confused. She clarified with a wink.
“We can have food and then you can crawl back into bed with me.”
And that was what they did. Nate made sandwiches with thinly sliced turkey and Swiss cheese on toasted kaiser rolls. And a plate of grapes. Brittany had pulled Nate’s T-shirt back on and was perched on the bed when he brought them in. He joined her there, picnic style on the sheets. Brittany held her sandwich up and sniffed it, then laughed in surprise.
“Only a bachelor would put tartar sauce on turkey. Tartar’s for fish, Nate.”
He took a huge bite of his sandwich, unconcerned, then closed his eyes in appreciation.
“Have you tried it?” He was talking around his food, so she wasn’t sure she’d heard him right.
“What?”
He swallowed. “Have you tried it?” He lifted his sandwich for another bite. “Before you get on your high horse, you might want to taste it first.”
“I don’t have a high horse.” She sniffed. Then she met his gaze and her shoulders dropped. She couldn’t fool this man. “Okay, maybe I have a medium horse. But not a high one.”
They both laughed, and she took a bite of the sandwich. Her eyes went wide.
“Oh, damn. That’s...good!” It was sharp and tart and it worked. “Who taught you that trick?”
“No one. Being a bachelor—” he winked “—sometimes means making do with what you have. One day all I had was tartar sauce for my sandwich. And it tasted good.”
She nodded in agreement, leaning back against the headboard and stretching her legs in front of her. “So you’ve always been a confirmed bachelor?”
He didn’t answer right away, chewing his sandwich and staring down at the sheets between them. “I don’t know how confirmed I was, but that’s how it worked out. It’s not like I never ever dated, but it’s a small town and...”
“And you ran out of prospects?”
Nate barked out a laugh. “Something like that. When you’re friends with people, and they’re friends with your friends, things get weird in a hurry if you change the dynamic. That’s why I don’t do...”
“One-night stands?” She fought the frown that started to pull at her. She’d talked him into this. And it definitely had changed the dynamic of their relationship. What if this was a huge mistake? As if he’d read her mind, Nate reached out and patted her leg.
“Hey, I wasn’t saying anything about us, kitten. I’m talking about me being the hardware guy everyone in town knows. It’s awkward if I start dating someone local. Everyone in town gets...invested.” He finished the last of his sandwich.
“And you don’t think they’ll be invested in us?”
It was one of those moments when her thoughts occurred out loud as she thought them. She was just as surprised as Nate was, and they stared at each other. Were they dating? Or was this really just a one-night stand? The thought made her heart feel pinched and tight. Nate set his plate on the nightstand and moved closer to her, taking her hand.
“Okay, let’s talk about that. Do you want an us? I mean...what are we doing here exactly?”
Of course she wanted an us. Maybe not long-term, but for now. Until he learned why she was in Gallant Lake. Until he learned she’d been lying about buying property. She blinked back a shocking rush of tears burning her eyes. That would end everything.
“Whoa.” Nate moved quickly to take her in his arms, his fingers brushing her face. “What’s this? Let’s save this conversation for morning.” He kissed her temple, holding his mouth against her skin. “I don’t know how we got from tartar sauce to this, but forget it. We had plans for tonight, remember?” He pulled his head back and stared straight into her eyes. “And if we decide in the daylight tomorrow that we want to keep this going, then I won’t give a damn what people get invested in. Like you said, we’re adults here.”
“Do you want to keep going after tonight?” She didn’t understand why, but she needed to know.
The corner of his mouth twitched before he grew serious. “Yeah, I do. We both know one night isn’t going to be enough. As long as we stay honest with each other, Britt, I don’t see why not. How about you?”
There was the one word she couldn’t swear to. Honesty. She’d already left two messages for Conrad this week, suggesting he reconsider his plans for Gallant Lake. She told him the town was going to fight the project. The problem was, she had three property owners who were ready to sell. But Conrad didn’t know that yet. She swallowed hard, trying to figure out a way to answer.
“You’re right, Nate. One night won’t cut it with us. So we’ll play it by ear. I hate to sound so cliché, but we can take it a day at a time, right?” She skipped right over that honesty thing.
Nate’s smile deepened. “Even better, let’s take it an hour at a time. A minute at a time. We don’t need to go past that right now. We don’t need to go past this minute right here, Britt.” He kissed her softly, pulling her in even closer. Her hand caressed his bare chest as he kept talking, his voice low. “And right this minute I need to keep my promise. I’m going to explore you for the rest of the night, and right into the morning if we can.” Another kiss. “And I’m gonna start...” A kiss. “Right now.”
He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her deeply this time, making her forget everything but how he made her feel. His hands slid down her arms and they both slid down to the mattress. Her shirt came off. His briefs came off. And Nate Thomas fulfilled his promise. Slowly. Carefully. Seductively. Fingertips. Mouth. Body. He took her to the edge over and over again, leaving her pleading. Finally granting her the release she needed, then starting all over again. Her body was humming with a dizzying blend of satisfaction and desire.
No, one night would never be enough with this man. She couldn’t help wondering if any number of nights would be enough. She had a feeling her body would never be satisfied with anyone else. Ever.
Chapter Eleven
Nate made pancakes.
It wasn’t like he needed comfort food after all the...um...comfort he got last night with Britta
ny. But he was restless that morning, and pancakes—from scratch, not a box—required some attention. Concentrating helped settle him, and he needed that. Their night together had been amazing. This felt like a defining moment. Like everything in his life as he knew it had been forever altered. As if he might look at things as being before Brittany and after Brittany. And that was the part that created the tightness in his chest this morning. What was after Brittany going to look like?
“Something smells delicious.” Her voice was husky from lack of sleep as she slid her arms around him from behind. “And I am officially starving. Is there coffee in this establishment?”
And just like that, his worries were gone. Her touch did that to him. Calmed him. Steadied him. He nodded toward the coffee maker.
“Hot and ready. But you’ll have to use milk for creamer. I drink it black, and I wasn’t expecting overnight guests.” He hadn’t been expecting anything that happened in the past twenty-four hours.
She moved away, patting him on the back as she did. “I’ll forgive you this time, but in the future, I prefer French vanilla creamer, thank you very much.”
In the future.
That meant she wanted last night to happen again. Probably a big mistake. But one he was totally on board with making. The tops of the pancakes were bubbling, so he flipped them. A minute later he was sliding them onto a plate for her and pointing to the silverware drawer. It felt so...normal. Having a woman here in the morning. Making her breakfast. As if it happened all the time.
Which was almost laughable, because it hadn’t happened in years. And the few times a woman had woken up at his place, he’d never made her pancakes. He’d usually just had a cup of coffee waiting, and his guests had gone on their way.
He looked to where Brittany sat at the 1950s enamel-topped kitchen table, wearing one of his flannel shirts like a robe over one of his T-shirts. Her long legs and bare feet were wrapped around the metal legs of the kitchen chairs. Her hair was pulled up on top of her head and secured somehow, but not well. It was loose and wild, with long strands breaking free and curling down around her neck. Without her usual designer armor on, she looked like she belonged there, stuffing her face enthusiastically with his pancakes.
He smelled something burning and quickly flipped the cakes he was making for himself. They were going to be a little crisp on that side, but that was okay. Right now everything felt okay.
“Mmm,” Brittany moaned. “These may just be the best pancakes I’ve had in my life, Nate. So freakin’ good!” She looked around the kitchen, with its bright yellow walls and black-and-white-checkerboard tile floor. “I feel like I’ve stepped back in time. But it’s...cute.”
His face twisted.
“Cute wasn’t exactly what I was going for.” He joined her at the table. “How about...authentic? Period appropriate? Attractive?”
Her eyes shone with laughter and something hotter, too. “I think authentic works. And attractive.” She winked, and he knew she wasn’t talking about the kitchen anymore. “As for period appropriate, I’m not sure about that. You’re a man for all periods. Except maybe the current one.”
He chewed his pancake and thought about that for a moment, then grinned.
“I disagree. You’re the epitome of current times, and I think I did just fine with you last night.”
She laughed, pulled one foot up onto the chair seat and hugged her knee as she sipped her coffee. “You did more than fine last night. That was fun. Really fun.” She hesitated, her laughter fading. “It was special, Nate.”
“It was.”
She set her coffee down and stared at him.
“So now what?”
“That’s the hundred-thousand-dollar question, isn’t it?” He blew out a breath. “Didn’t we decide we’d take it a day at a time?”
That felt too temporary for Nate’s liking. Too fragile. She seemed to feel the same way.
“I know I said I’m fine with the occasional, consensual one-night stand. But we have something...” Her shoulder lifted, then fell. “It feels like something that should be explored, doesn’t it?”
Before he could answer, Joey came trotting into the kitchen, sniffing the air, his tail wagging. Brittany laughed.
“Well, good morning, Joe! Did you smell breakfast?” She reached down and scratched the dog’s ears. Her voice was practically cooing. “That’s usually what it takes to get you up in the morning, isn’t it, you lazybones?” She stood and gave Joey a piece of pancake before putting her dish in the sink. “We have a routine. I need to let him out. Then he gets breakfast. Then he sleeps again until our noontime walk.” She opened the door for Joe.
“For someone who insisted she wasn’t keeping that dog, it sounds like you’ve become a permanent matched set.”
She walked to the back door. “He’s a great companion, but nothing in my life is permanent.” The words had been tossed over her shoulder casually, but that was not how they landed. She caught up with the change in the room’s atmosphere a moment after he did. “Nate...I didn’t mean to sound so coldhearted about it. But let’s face it. Whether it’s a dog or a guy, nothing stays in my life for long.”
“Why do you think that is?”
Her forehead furrowed in thought.
“I’m just not wired that way, I guess. It’s not in my nature to get attached.”
“Because of how you grew up?”
Her eyes went steely. “What do you know about how I grew up?”
“Nothing!” He raised his hands. “You mentioned not having a lot as a kid, and I thought that might be why you don’t get attached.” He walked to the sink with his empty plate, then turned to pull her into his arms. “You know how curious I can be, but I didn’t mean to grill you. If you don’t want to talk about it, then don’t.”
She rested her head on his shoulder with a heavy sigh. They stood like that, just holding each other silently. After a few moments he could feel the tension leaving her. He kissed the top of her head, but waited for her to speak first.
“Okay, here’s the deal.” She took a breath, then rushed ahead. “I never knew my dad. He left my mom when I was a baby, probably because Mom was a barely functioning alcoholic. She couldn’t hang on to a job. She couldn’t hang on to an apartment. She met some other random guy and had my little sister, and the dad took off.” She tipped her head back, looking at him with a sad smile. “Do you sense a pattern there, Dr. Freud?” She rested her forehead on his chest as if she couldn’t tell the story while looking into his eyes. “There were a lot of nights when our bed was the back seat of her old Toyota.”
His heart felt like it was in a vise.
“You were homeless?”
She nodded against him. “We managed to stay a step above the cardboard box and shopping cart kind of homeless, but not by much. The car at least gave us a roof and locking doors. And it was always temporary. A few nights while she tried to find a new place. A few weeks if things got really bad.”
“I’m so sorry, babe.”
She stayed in his arms a bit longer, then pulled back. She raised her chin and straightened her shoulders. She was pulling up her defenses. Even her voice got an edge to it.
“Don’t be sorry for me. We made it. At least, Ellie and I did. She graduates college next spring. And I’ve made sure neither one of us will ever go through that again.”
If his heart had been squeezed before, it felt shattered now. There was so much to unpack in those sentences. Especially that last one. I’ve made sure... Brittany had single-handedly taken it on her shoulders to protect her sister and herself. That explained a lot. Why she was so driven. Why she wore her expensive clothes. Why she held everyone at an arm’s length.
“And your mom?”
She blinked and looked away, her voice hard, but cracking just a little. She wasn’t as tough as she let on.
“She di
ed when I was in college. She got in with a worse crowd than usual and started using drugs. Just like everything else, she was really bad at it. She OD’d.” She took a breath, trying to smile again. “I worked two jobs to keep a roof over Ellie’s and my heads. She’s diabetic, and once she started on insulin, I dropped school and just worked nonstop to cover the bills. I finished my degree online a few years later. And here I am, in Gallant Lake. Sleepin’ with a picker.”
He chuckled. She was changing the subject, and he was glad to follow along.
“You’re lowering your standards, Britt.”
“On the contrary.” Her smile softened, becoming more genuine. “At the risk of inflating your ego, you raised the standards, Nate. Which brings us back to the original question. What now?”
The dog yipped outside the door, so Nate let him inside and put some food down before turning back to Brittany.
“I agree with what you said before. This feels...special. What we have. How you make me feel. I don’t want to lose it. If it doesn’t freak you out too much, let’s see where it takes us.”
“You know I can’t...”
“Stay? Yeah, I know.” He didn’t like thinking about it, but he understood it a whole lot more after what she’d just shared. “But until that time comes, let’s explore what we have.”
She stepped into his open arms and kissed him. “Do you mean right now literally? Like...let’s go do some exploring? Right...” She kissed him again. “Now?” Another kiss.
“Let me call Darius and make sure he can open the store for me.” He kissed her again, hating what he had to say next. “But I’m going to have to go in eventually. After the storm, people are going to need supplies, and it’ll get busy.”
She smiled against his lips. “So what are we waiting for?”
What indeed? He followed her into his bedroom, making sure to latch the door so they wouldn’t be interrupted. He wanted to give her his full attention. It might have to be fast, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be thorough.