by Faye Avalon
“Oh, for God’s sake.” Her head was beginning to spin watching him pace back and forth. “Sit down. You’re making me edgy.”
“Wanting a fucking threesome,” Tynan snapped. “Picking up human men in a goddamn bar, for fuck’s sake.”
Propelled by fury, Naomi snapped her glass down on the side table and almost lunged at him. “You damn hypocrite. How many times have you gone into a bar with the express aim of picking up a woman for sex?” She stabbed him in the chest. “And before you start harping on about it being different for women, I’d strongly urge you to reconsider.”
She made to stab him again, but he grabbed her wrist. “If you want to experiment? Fine. I’ve got no damn problem with it. But you’ll do it in a safe environment, somewhere where you won’t have to run off into the night with your clothes half-off.”
“Oh, will I? I’m so pleased you have no problem with my wanting to experiment. I’ll sleep easier knowing I have your blessing.”
“And what the hell do you think you’re playing at with Nathan? It’s not going anywhere for either of you. You’re wasting your time if you think—”
“What the hell has my playing with Nathan got to do with all of this?” Naomi wrestled her wrist from his hold. “And for your information, I don’t think anything. And if I’m wasting my time, it’s mine to waste. What gives you the right to barge in here and start laying down the law? Nobody controls my life anymore, Tynan. Nobody.”
Her breath hitched on the last few words, but she rolled back her shoulders and raised her chin. “I run things the way I want to, and if I make mistakes, I take responsibility for them. I don’t need you or anyone else laying into me or trying to save me from myself. Hell. Some people are so bloody holier than thou, it’s frightening.”
“Meaning me?”
“There’s nobody else here giving me grief.”
His jaw moved, his sensuous mouth flattening into a long tight line. His gaze, burning with a potency that made her throat ache, never left hers. “After that stunt you pulled last night, I’d say someone has to save you from yourself.”
“And you’re just the man to do it.”
His nostrils flared, and he stepped forward. It made her want to take a step back. “This is fucking bullshit, Naomi. We’ve been in each other’s lives far too long for you to expect me to just walk away from this.”
“You walked away before.”
Oh, damn and blast. Where did that come from? She hadn’t meant to speak the words; they’d just flown from her lips.
Tynan’s throat contracted, his hand going to the back of his neck. “I should never have taken you to the moor that night. It was my responsibility to protect you, but instead…” He rubbed his neck, a pained look on his face. “Shit. It was my fault. I was too rough with you.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake.” Naomi crossed her arms over her chest, unable to listen to him deliberate on her lack of maturity that night. “I knew exactly what I was doing going to the moor with you. So don’t take it all on yourself and act like some martyr.”
“Then why did you run home without talking to me?”
She remembered shifting, flying across the moor and praying he wouldn’t chase after her. Mortified, all she’d wanted to do was get home and away from him.
“There was nothing to say, was there?”
“Plenty from where I was standing. But you refused to see me when I came by your place, wouldn’t let me try to make things right. I had no damned option but to leave you alone. But I never walked away, Naomi.”
She hadn’t refused to see him. She hadn’t even known he’d called. Her father had likely taken care of that. He’d never liked Tynan—or any of her friends—and would have turned Tynan away had he come calling. In that moment, Naomi hated her father even more.
A small glimmer of hope that Tynan might have wanted her broke through the painful memories. She was about to tell him how stupid she’d felt for acting so immaturely, how her father had been the one responsible for keeping them apart, but he placed his hands on her shoulders.
“What happened between us was a mistake,” he said, shattering her fragile hope. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t care what happens to you now.”
Gently, his fingers kneaded her tense shoulders, but it was the tightness in her throat that needed a salve.
It was a mistake.
Her hand flew to his chest more by instinct than design. She didn’t want him this close, didn’t want to feel his breath on her cheek, his hands on her shoulders. Mostly she didn’t want the words that drove a knife into her aching heart.
It was a mistake.
Against her palm, his heart beat strong and steady. She had to fight against the desire to drop her head against his chest, to wrap her arms around him and simply hold on. To tell him, convince him, that it hadn’t been a mistake. Never a mistake.
Except she couldn’t, because deep inside, she realized that maybe it had been. If it had never happened, they might have remained friends. But even as the thought brushed through her mind, she knew it could never be that simple. That she could never be friends with Tynan and not want more. So much more.
His thumbs brushed against her throat, slow and easy, rekindling all kinds of need long ago buried and now resurrected with spectacular force.
While she knew it was asking for trouble, her gaze moved to clash with his.
Oh, damn it to hell. His eyes smoldered with a green-gold hue, and the intensity she saw there shot heat deep into her core.
He lowered his head, and his mouth touched hers. Hot, insistent, yet with a fluidity that stole her breath. Her already stuttering heart banged against her rib cage, desire thundering through her, demanding she meet, and match, his unrelenting possession. She opened for him, her tongue clashing with his.
When his arms banded around her, a warning came from deep inside her that she should put an end to this, push him away. But he pulled her closer, and she felt the press of his erection, making the temptation to grind herself against him impossible to resist.
It was wrong, the warning said. They were wrong.
It was a mistake.
His words crashed around in her mind, making her heart ache. Despite the consequences of their disastrous liaison, she had never truly regretted it. But he obviously did, in which case, what was he doing kissing her like this?
She knew she should push him away, tell him to go to hell. And she would. In just a moment. One…more…delicious…moment.
It was a mistake…mistake…mistake…
Summoning every ounce of willpower, Naomi pushed at his chest and came out of his arms so violently, she almost toppled back against the sofa.
She steadied herself. “You’ve got a damn nerve. I didn’t ask you to kiss me. I didn’t want you to kiss me. You lecture me on who I have sex with and then grab me like a piece of meat?”
He stared back, a ferocious light in his eyes. “But you damn well asked for a whole lot more than a kiss when you put yourself out there like that piece of meat, offering yourself to any man who cares to take up the invitation. Maybe I just wanted to sample what seems to be on offer to all and fucking sundry.”
Her hand itched to slap that infuriating face. “Well, it might be on offer to all and fucking sundry, but that doesn’t include you.” Exasperated, she marched to the door and hauled it open. “You need to leave.”
He took his time walking toward her. “And you need to stop hanging around in bars and picking up men.”
While she fumed, he breezed past her and out into the hallway.
Naomi gritted her teeth and slammed the door hard behind him.
“Arrogant prick,” she shouted at the closed door.
Stamping back into the living area, she grabbed up her wine and threw it down the sink. She felt furious, edgy and…horny, damn it. He’d gotten her a
ll heated up. And all it had taken was a kiss. A blow-your-socks-off, panty-dampening kiss.
She headed over to the breakfast bar and snatched up her cell. Since she couldn’t find her keys, she tipped the contents of her bag onto the counter.
So he thought she offered herself like a piece of meat, did he? That she should stop hanging around in bars? Damn it to heaven. One time, one time, she’d done something even remotely reckless and this was how it turned out.
Okay. Maybe it hadn’t been the best way to go about it, but she was damned if she’d apologize to anyone. It wasn’t entirely her fault she’d gotten herself tangled up with a couple of morons.
Having located her keys, she stuffed everything back in her bag and thought about the implications of what Tynan had told her. Had they picked her up purely by chance? Or had there been some motive that went beyond casual sex? She didn’t see how. Especially considering she’d chosen Seth’s hotel on the spur of the moment. How could they know she’d be there?
Bloody hell. Leave it to her to deviate from the norm, and what happened? It all came tumbling down and bit her sharply on the ass.
Maybe it was a sign she should stick to the tried and tested.
With that thought in mind, she locked her apartment and headed out.
If it was casual, uncomplicated, albeit extremely satisfying sex she wanted, perhaps it really was better to stick to the devil you knew.
Chapter Four
Naomi stood in Nathan’s doorway and raised her eyebrows. “Are you alone?”
“Yeah.” He looked over her shoulder to where her car stood creatively askew across his driveway. “Everything okay?”
She waltzed past him into the hallway, where she shrugged out of her coat.
Nathan had built his home several miles from town, preferring the solitude of the moor. The house was like something out of Architectural Digest. Sleek clean lines, minimalist furnishings and oozing masculinity. Just like its owner.
“So what’s got you all steamed up?” Nathan led the way through to the state-of-the-art kitchen, fitted out with monochrome appliances and decor. He opened the refrigerator and took out a bottle of pinot blanc.
“Your moronic friend, for one.” Naomi plopped her bag on the black granite countertop, then hopped onto a barstool. “And thanks for telling him my business, by the way.”
In the middle of uncorking the wine, Nathan raised dark brows. His expression told her she didn’t have to elaborate. “You did that yourself. Running out of Seth’s place with your panties around your knees.”
His comment hiked her simmering temper. “Oh, for God’s sake. I didn’t have my panties around my knees. And isn’t anything sacred around here? I can’t even blow my nose without people knowing about it.”
Nathan took down a glass and poured her some wine. “Comes with the territory of having people care about you.”
“I care back, but I don’t go sticking my beak into your business, or Tynan’s.” She took in a breath and blew it out. “I happen to think what you do is your own concern, and that you have the intellect to sift through the dross and do what’s right for you.”
Nathan slid the glass toward her. “And you think a threesome with a couple of undesirables is right for you, that it?”
“Of course not.” She watched him take a beer from the fridge and uncap it, thinking about Tynan’s abject refusal earlier when she’d offered him one of Nathan’s stash at her place. “I didn’t know they were undesirables, did I?”
Watching her, he took a swig from the bottle, before hopping onto a stool opposite. “Which is exactly my point. And Ty’s.”
“Apparently, he hurt his face when I shoved him.” Naomi sipped her wine, hoping it might help allay the queasy feeling in her stomach. Every time she thought of last night, she couldn’t quite shake the knowledge that she’d had a damn lucky escape.
“Yeah. Hotel clerk said he was nursing a shiner to go along with it,” Nathan said conversationally, bringing the bottle to his mouth.
“Do you think this is connected with Seth’s security problem?”
Nathan raised a shoulder. “We’re just covering all the bases.”
Confirming what Tynan had told her. “The Council won’t have to know about it, will they? My grandfather?”
With another pull of his beer, he narrowed his eyes. “Not at the moment. Like I said, we’re just checking things out right now.”
She squirmed in the seat, tipping her glass from side to side while contemplating the implications if a link was found. She’d become a doctor to help her pack and the community into which they had integrated. If word got out that she sought kinky outlets to appease her sexual urges, she might, at the least, be made a nudge-nudge oddity, and at the worst, she could actually lose patients.
Naomi had worked too long and hard to let that happen. But it really was nobody else’s business what she did in her personal life, was it?
Looking up, she found Nathan eyeing her.
“What?”
His slow grin answered her question, but he shrugged. “Just wondering if you came here for conversation, or because that threesome went belly up.”
She glowered at him, pushing away the image of Tynan that flashed in her head. “Maybe both.”
He tipped his beer. “Works for me.”
With that slow sexy swagger he’d made an art form, he came around the counter. He placed his hands on her shoulders and pivoted her barstool around until she faced him. Nudging his knees between her legs, he eased her back until she dropped her elbows onto the counter. The action pushed her breasts forward and brought a low groan from Nathan.
“Have I exhausted my allotted conversation time?”
Nathan’s hooded eyes captured hers. “You’re uptight and pissed,” he said, sliding his hands under her arms to place his palms on the countertop. “You’ll be in a better state of mind for chit-chat once we take the edge off.”
Damn it. The man was so bloody arrogantly alpha. But right now, he was exactly what she wanted. And he was right. She was uptight and extremely pissed. Since Tynan had come storming in and questioned her about her sex life, then had gotten her all heated up with that kiss—and what the hell was he trying to prove anyway? He’d as much as said he didn’t want her, that it was all a mistake. Then he’d proceeded to confuse her, anger her.
Nathan leaned over her, his muscular chest brushing against her sensitive breasts. Her breasts responded immediately to Nathan’s touch. She raised her chin, searching for his hot and clever mouth. She needed to feel Nathan’s kiss, in order to destroy every trace of Tynan’s. While she’d always enjoyed kissing Nathan—he was one heck of a kisser—it didn’t pack anywhere near the punch Tynan’s had.
But then she and Nathan had an arrangement, didn’t they? Fuck buddies didn’t need to set each other alight with a simple kiss. All they required was mutually satisfying and enjoyable sex, with absolutely no emotional attachment outside of affection.
She was reminded how perfectly well it worked for her and Nathan when his hands dropped to her knees. He slid his hands up her thighs, slow and firm, and beneath her pant-covered legs, her skin heated. Her pussy responded to his searching fingers, but instead of touching her, he reached for the waistband of her leisure pants and drew them down.
Naomi leaned into her elbows and raised her hips from the stool. Nathan looked down, easing the fabric over her backside and revealing her bared pussy.
“You came prepared, sugar,” he drawled in that dark sexy tone that never failed to get her juices flowing. “Don’t want to waste any time?”
“No point,” she said, sitting back down and lifting her legs so he could pull the pants right off. She wrapped her fingers around the hem of her tee and started to tug it up. “Shall I? Or do you want the pleasure?”
In answer, he tapped her hands away and relieved h
er of her top. She shook out her hair, letting it fall in curls around her shoulders. Naked, she leaned back on the counter.
Nathan stood back, eyeing her with lascivious pleasure. He shrugged out of his muscle shirt before divesting himself of his pants. Like her, he was commando, and she reveled in the pure masculine beauty of the man.
Broad shoulders, muscular chest, strong powerful legs. His erection stood proud, thick and beautifully long. She wondered briefly why some woman hadn’t snapped him up, despite his fierce intention to remain unattached. A man like him had women sniffing around in droves, but Nathan had never been tempted. Not even close.
She knew that, like her, he had his secrets. A past that had shaped him into the solitary man he was. Some people, she thought, were happiest alone. Just as she was.
Her thoughts were interrupted when Nathan dropped to his knees and pushed her knees apart. He placed his hands on her hips and yanked her forward. Moments later, his hot mouth covered her pussy, his tongue pressing deep and hard.
Her muscles contracted, and she hooked her legs over his shoulders. He worked her hard, his insistent tongue demanding a response. Seconds later, she came, throwing her head back while her breasts thrust into the air.
Relentless, Nathan pushed her further until her momentarily lax muscles began to contract again. Master of the multiple orgasm, she thought biting her bottom lip. Nathan liked to drive her hard and fast. She loved that recklessness about him. It suited her while having sex. That way, she didn’t have to think too much. Didn’t have to reason. To remember…
Damn it. She wasn’t going to let her thoughts drift down that lane. It was different now. She was different. But regardless of her determination to drive those thoughts away, an image of Tynan flashed in front of her eyes.
She squeezed them shut, as if the action could block out his face. But the image hovered there…
It took a moment to realize that Nathan was standing over her, his mouth slick with her juices, his chest heaving, cock jerking.