“Travel sick,” she explained throatily, in answer to his darkly questioning eyes.
He nodded sagely. “These roads can be hell. I’ll take them more slowly.” And in the sweetest of gestures, he kissed her on the top of her head, then ruffled her hair.
Missy pressed her head into the cool leather of the seat and closed her eyes, praying they were almost there.
She didn’t see the house loom into sight, but when she finally opened her eyes and gazed upon it, it took her breath away. It was a sprawling Italianate villa, all terracotta walls, enormous open windows and verandas, decorated every which way with geranium and lavender bushes. There were lemon trees running all the way around the front perimeter, and gnarled, old grape vines climbed opportunistically over the front. The house stood at the very top of the hill, and overlooked in every direction the Mediterranean Sea.
Illness forgotten, Missy enthused, “Ohhh. Nate. It’s beautiful.”
He threw her a grin as he lifted their two bags over his shoulder. “It’s got charm, that’s for sure.”
While the outside of the villa was possessed of a rampant, old world charm, inside was a marvel of modern design. The open plan design of the villa had been preserved, but terracotta tiles on the floor were the only remaining trace of the original design. It was all glass and steel, with a kitchen that a Michelin star chef would feel lost in. One of the many downstairs living spaces had been converted into a state of the art office and upstairs, there were six luxurious bedrooms, each with an adjoining ensuite.
Beyond the villa, Missy could see another building. She pointed to it and asked, “What’s that, Nate?”
He came to stand behind her, his body pressed against her backside, as he peered through the same window. She shifted, uncomfortably aware of how quickly his nearness had sent her internal temperature skyrocketing. His lips quirked at the giveaway move. “That, Missy, is the security residence. I’m afraid they’re a necessary evil. Have been all my life.”
She turned on the spot. They were standing only centimetres apart; his legs locked her in place. Her breath not entirely even, she asked, “What was that like, growing up?”
He brought a finger to her cheek and stroked it along the edge of her face, to her full lips, that pouted while she waited for his answer. They were so kissable, so perfectly desirable. He could already feel a stirring in his groin. He shifted so that she could feel it too, and saw an answering colour in her cheeks.
“It was the only life I knew. It didn’t bother me. You might have noticed that my security detail is trained to stay out of sight.”
She took her lower lip between her teeth, only partially concentrating on their conversation. “Mary mentioned that you have a brother. How did he find it?”
Nate began to kiss her neck, tiny, hungry kisses that promised more. Much, much more.
Missy shuddered with pleasure but she did desperately want to know about his childhood. After all, her child was going to be born into this family, and she needed to know as much as she could. Her head sunk forward, pressed against his chest. “Your brother?” she prompted huskily.
“Right. BJ.”
“BJ?”
“Benjamin, but BJ since birth. BJ is two years younger than I am, infinitely more sensible, too. He’s my best friend, has been since we were kids.”
Missy found her attention drifting as he cupped her breasts with his hands. She moaned low in her throat. “Did BJ find the security oppressive?”
“Damn it, doc,” his voice was gruff. He bent down and picked her up, easily carrying her up the stairs and along the corridor. “I will tell you anything you want to know. Afterwards. Please don’t make me think about my brother right now.”
She laughed, happiness bubbling out of her mouth. “Afterwards! Aren’t you being presumptuous?”
He threw her onto one of the king size beds and swiftly fell on top of her. He kissed her hard on the lips, with the desperation of a dying man. She understood how he felt. These few days apart had been torture to her as well. She pushed him with both hands, suddenly, so that he was lying flat on his back, and she straddled him. Between her legs, she could feel his powerful erection and it made her ache with hunger for him.
“Nathaniel Anderson, would you agree that in the art of sex, you are my tutor, and I your student?”
He focussed an intense gaze on her and nodded. She swivelled her hips for good measure, just in case he was worried she was leading them into another wordy conversation.
She leant forward and pulled his polo shirt over his head, marvelling at his wonderful stomach. She gulped, swallowing air into her lungs to give her the confidence to continue.
As she spoke, she unbuckled his belt and jeans, and pulled them over his slim hips. “There is something I would like to learn,” she whispered, not taking her eyes from his face. She had released him, and just the sight of his erection made her feel wet inside. She groaned. This was going to be torture.
“What’s that, Missy?” His voice tore from him in ragged bursts.
There was a moment of indecision –after all, this was so far out of her field of experience it wasn’t funny – but she had been fantasising about it since they’d slept together and he’d given her so much uninhibited pleasure. She leant forward and kissed his abdomen, feeling his muscles contract pleasurably.
His hands came to rest on her shoulders, and when he would have pulled her up, she shook her head. “This is my show, Nate. Lie back and instruct,” she ordered huskily. If there was room for ambivalence in her words, her actions left no such doubt.
She brought her mouth down on his penis, taking it in her mouth. At first, it was a shock, but his body jerked with such gratification, and she found she enjoyed the control immensely. She pulled away and glared at him in mock annoyance. “You are not instructing me, Nate.”
Through gritted teeth he said, “That, my dear doc, is because you are blowing my mind.”
She grinned and dipped her head again, revelling in the feel of his silky length in her warm mouth. She felt him pulse and pulled away, only to immediately straddle him. She had removed her underwear when they first arrived, and was able to slide his length into her underneath the sun dress she wore. She rode him with all the pent up pleasure and frustration of someone who’d been denied heaven for two days straight.
It was her first time on top, and the feeling of him so deep inside, while she held control, thrilled her beyond words. Nate’s strong hands at her hips set their pace, and Missy bucked and swayed until she felt the divine release she had craved. Nate rocked his pelvis, pulled her hips lower and exploded in answer. She fell on top of him, spent, but by no means satisfied.
Nate, it appeared, was of the same opinion.
They made love twice more, as the sun set. Missy had no one to compare him to, of course, but his stamina and libido left her gasping. He was so very virile, so totally male, and so totally, heart-stoppingly good.
Afterwards, they swam naked in the heated infinity pool, watching the sun set over the ocean beyond.
As Nate’s arms took him down powerful lengths of the lap pool, Missy preferred to lean against the edge, feeling the water lap against her breasts as her head rested on the sun-warmed pool tiles. Nate swam up behind her and held her, kissing the back of her neck.
“This has been an incredible afternoon, Missy,” Nate said quietly.
“Is it always like this?”
She felt, rather than saw, Nate shake his head. “This is rare, Missy. Connections like this are hard to come by.” He paused for a beat too long. “You just want to hope you feel this with the person you settle down with.”
It was such an innocent, throwaway comment but it left Missy feeling cold. He was already looking beyond this fling, and that future didn’t include Missy. Worse, it saw Missy with someone else altogether. She shuddered in revulsion at the thought.
Missy had given herself so totally to Nate that she couldn’t bear the idea of being with a
ny other man. So complete had their bonding been, so total her surrender to him, that she knew she would never, ever want anyone else, as long as she lived. He owned her, body and soul. She was his, to do with as he would.
The idea was oddly unsettling yet freeing at the same time. In resigning herself to that fact, she felt liberated. Whatever may come, however he reacted to news of their baby, she would never seek to replace him. He had imprinted on her, and she wanted him to be the only man who ever entered her special, private heart.
He wrapped her long blonde hair around his fist, feeling the silky smooth pony tail in his fist. “You’re so young,” he remarked distractedly, more to himself than to her. She was so young and desirable, and in so many ways, everything he’d ever looked for in a partner. And yet, Nate always felt she was holding back. He’d developed an exceptional sixth sense when it came to people, and his spider-man senses went into overdrive with Missy. She was holding something back. Something important. He didn’t trust her completely, and trust was one of the most important criteria he placed on any relationship. The sex was great, but beyond that, he couldn’t let emotions get involved. Angelique had taught him that lesson, and he wasn’t planning to forget it anytime soon. He kind of loathed himself for doing so, but he had engaged the services of a private investigator, two mornings ago. After they’d had such an explosive night of lovemaking, he had needed to know if there was any potential in their attraction, or if it was just a short-course of hot sex. Either way was fine with him, but it was always better to set your expectations as early as possible.
As he held her naked body close to him now, in the early evening, he hoped beyond hope that the PI wouldn’t turn up anything that made him hesitate. For at that moment, he could not imagine much more pleasurable than endless nights with Missy at his side.
CHAPTER FIVE
The next morning, the team of Swedish architects arrived. There were two women, both painfully elegant and blonde, and three men. One, balding and clearly in charge of the group, and the other two, tall and slim, one blonde, one brunette. The latter, the dark haired designer, took an obvious shine to Missy, and at first it made her a little uncomfortable. Claus was his name, and he attached himself to her from almost the first moment.
While Nate appeared not to notice, so absorbed was he in the enormity of the project, Missy fielded endless passes from the good-looking architect. All her life, she’d suffered attention from men she found wanting, and she had learned from a young age how to kindly deflect unwanted advances. And yet, Nate’s determined avoidance of the situation made her hesitate to fully rebuff the Swede. After all, he was kind, and sweet, and he was very interesting. They chatted at length about her favourite artists, and the Impressionists in the national gallery, and the city of London itself.
Over lunch, which Nate had served picnic style by the beach, Claus made a point of staying by Missy. He fetched her endless glasses of refreshing mineral water and plates of Panini, and pregnant Missy found she was happy to sit back and enjoy the sunshine and the attention.
By afternoon, Nate had sent Missy a few glares, all of which she’d chosen to ignore. After all, she was still technically just his employee. Sure, so she’d slept with the boss. That didn’t make her his, and he was mistaken if he thought she was going to give her whole life to him. Okay, so she would, in a second, but damn it, she didn’t want him knowing it. Purely to spite Nate, she determined to enjoy the kindly Claus’s attentions all the more, even being so bold as to occasionally grab his arm while she laughed at something moderately funny he had said.
After lunch, the team set off in two four-wheel drives to survey the island. Missy excused herself with a saccharine smile. “After all,” she said sweetly to Nate, “what you do is really none of my business.”
He threw her an inscrutable glance and left. Alone, and at liberty to examine her behaviour, she was not proud. No matter how annoyed she was with Nate, nor how hurt she was by his inability to commit, she shouldn’t take it out on an innocent bystander. Claus didn’t deserve to be caught in the cross-fire of their lack of commitment, and the problems that arose from it. She blamed hormones.
Nate and his team of architects were gone for hours, but finally, as the sun was dipping over the ocean, they returned, the cars coming up the hill with puffs of dust being thrown out by the powerful wheels. Missy was reading in Nate’s bedroom, which she was sharing out of necessity while the team visited. Nate, she realised, was driving one of the cars. It interested her, because she’d never seen him drive before.
She continued flipping through her book, though the words were swimming in front of her eyes.
Which is how he found her, when he opened the door. Lying on his bed, a book in hand, looking too tempting to resist.
Missy placed the book down beside her and smiled at him. It was an inviting smile, and he felt overwhelmed by the need to be with her. He closed the door quietly and locked it from inside. Missy’s heart began to race at the small but telling gesture.
He came to lie beside her, propped on his side, looking down at her. She stared back at him with her clear, aqua eyes.
“Did you have fun?” She enquired silkily.
“I would have had more fun if you were there. You should have come.”
She shrugged. “It’s your business, like I said.”
He chose not to reply to her comment. He could have pointed out that she technically worked for him, but it seemed pretty vulgar given the direction their relationship had taken. Instead, he ran a finger down her nose, which had a sweet little ski-jump tip, and down to her full red lips. He traced the outline with his pinkie finger, enjoying the sensation of her warm breath caressing his hand. She drew in a deep breath and he knew he was going to have her, then and there.
He drifted his finger lower, over the cleft of her chin, to her delicate décolletage, and then to the buttons of her shirt. He paused at her cleavage, looked at her face. She was biting her lower lip, her cheeks were pink. Yes, she wanted him.
He straddled her, and pulled the blouse apart, to reveal a lacy bra containing her round, full breasts beneath. He reached behind her and removed it quickly, delighting in the sight of her breasts being freed from the fabric constraints. She hardly ever wore a bra, and he like that. He liked imagining her breasts free beneath whatever it was she had on.
“Perfect,” he sighed, taking a nipple in his mouth and teasing it with his tongue. He felt her body shake and he smiled against her warm skin.
With furious need, they undressed. Nakedness was imperative, they needed to be close. He took her swiftly, rocking her bodily with him until she was moaning with pleasure. Their bodies were covered with sweat.
Afterwards, they lay there, completely entangled and panting. Missy spoke first, once her breathing had returned to normal. “And to think, I thought you were so jealous of Claus that you might be too mad to do that!” She said it as a joke, to make light of the looks he’d been throwing her when he’d become aware of the other man’s attentions.
Nate’s brow furrowed. “Why would I be jealous of Claus?”
Missy coloured, “Oh, ah, he just seems to be a bit amorous, that’s all.” She dismissed it, not wanting Nate to think she had an ego the size of Brazil.
“Missy, he could ask you to marry him for all I care. I don’t own you. I know you’re just my pretend girlfriend. You don’t need to be worried I’m blurring reality with fiction.”
His words were like tiny but very real bullets, hitting her in the chest. She rolled off the bed, shaking, with spent pleasure and shock. He was truly brutal.
“Why does that upset you?” He asked from between drawn brows.
“Call me old-fashioned, but I would have liked the man I’m sleeping with to feel a bit pissed off that someone else is clearly hitting on me.”
“Do you want me to be jealous?”
Damned his analytical brain. “No! You’re right, you don’t own me. Forget about it.” She turned her back on hi
m and pulled her clothes on. She left the room before he could say anything, feeling hurt beyond words.
The villa staff, a small army of efficient and unseen helpers, had laid a table on the deck, complete with local seafood and pasta delicacies and wine brought over from the mainland. It was well into the dinner when Missy, her attention straying from the now tipsy and a bit annoying Claus, noticed that Patrice, one of the women of the party, was making ga-ga eyes at Nate. Missy noticed with displeasure how the other woman listened to his every word, laughed at his jokes, leaned her pretty head close while he spoke and stared deep into his eyes.
And though she knew it made her a total hypocrite after light heartedly flirting with Claus all day, she couldn’t stand it for another moment. “Excuse me,” she said, as soon as dessert was cleared, “I must get an early night.”
She absented herself brusquely. She walked in the back door, from the veranda, grabbed her scarf, and walked straight back out the front door. She needed time alone, and that she would not get in the villa, overflowing as it was with people. She headed for the beach. It was not far, a couple of kilometres, though admittedly the hill was steep. She didn’t care. The whole way, as she walked down the winding road, she could see the ocean, aglow with the sheen of the silvery full moon, and she ached to sit in the silence and let her tortured brain think.
Once she reached the coastline, she slipped her ballet slippers off and padded out onto the sand, relishing the sensation of the gritty beach between her toes. She dug her feet in delightedly, until she reached water’s edge. It was too cold to swim, by far, but she enjoyed letting her feet dip into the shallows. It brought a rush of clarity and calmness to feel the searing shock of the ocean.
After a while, she stopped walking, and went back to the sand. She lay down on the cold shoreline, and stared up at the crystal clear stars and sky.
She wasn’t even surprised when Nate appeared behind her. His face was clenched tight with rage as he stood above her. She looked up at him resolutely, feeling at a disadvantage from where she lay on the ground.
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