by JC Harroway
Nathan held my arm, a scowl marring his face.
‘What?’ If he wanted to go party, he could. It wasn’t like we were a real couple, and hopefully we’d already been seen together enough to support our pretence.
‘I’ll see you home.’ He took his phone from his pocket and fired off a text.
I pulled my arm from his grasp, stepping away from him. ‘I’ll be fine.’ Why was I snapping all of a sudden? Ten minutes ago, I’d genuinely been enjoying myself. Now my insides were hollow and my skin itched with impatience.
‘If I’d wanted to go, I wouldn’t be here now.’ His scowl deepened and I missed the easy, flirtatious Nathan I’d spent the evening with. Despite his denial, he was obviously pissed that he felt obliged to escort me home instead of snorting coke off Claudia’s lithe torso in the hottest club in London. Well, I hadn’t asked him to forgo his … fun.
I huffed. ‘It’s obvious you’re annoyed. I don’t want to cramp your style. I’m just tired.’ It was after two a.m. and I’d been in these heels for ten hours.
The set of his mouth closed the subject. ‘I’ve called my driver. I’ll take you home.’ He took my hand and led me around the edge of the dance floor, where the party continued to rage. The volume of the music prohibited conversation until we were in the stairwell heading down to street level. At the bottom of the stairs, we stopped just inside the doorway, each retreating to lean against opposite walls while we waited for the car.
My limbs turned leaden as hostile energy sparked in the air, separating us. How had we arrived here? One minute we’d been joking around, dancing and flirting, and now we could barely even look at each other.
A wave of fatigue washed over me. I braced one hand on the wall as I reached down to relieve my exhausted feet of their four-inch-heeled burdens. I moaned, the pleasure of freeing my feet too great to contain.
When I opened my eyes, Nathan stared at me, a slight smile tugging at the corners of his mouth as he leaned in a lazy slouch against the black wall. One knee was bent, his foot propped up and his shirt was loose about his neck. Even at two o’clock in the morning he was camera-ready, edible and entirely fuckable.
My irritation grew.
‘What?’ I didn’t care if there were one hundred paparazzi outside ready to photograph me with my shoes off; there was no way I was putting those torture devices back on.
‘You can’t blame me for the feet. I promised you I wouldn’t stand on them.’ He pushed his shoulders away from the wall and took a step in my direction, his casual confidence commanding in the small corridor.
My chest fluttered. ‘You were right. You’re not a bad dancer.’
He shook his head, a smile playing on his lips. ‘Not bad?’ He clutched his hand to his chest. ‘You wound me. And you’re a doctor. Those were my best moves.’
His flirty tone was back, but rather than easing my irritable mood, it only heightened it. I was snarky. ‘I thought I’d seen you give your best moves to Claudia at the premiere tonight.’
He tossed his head back and laughed, refusing to take the bait and bicker with me. Tutting, he shook his head from side to side. ‘It doesn’t count if it’s not fun. That was work.’ He took another step closer, his gaze lingering on my mouth.
His growing proximity confused me. I wanted to close the gap, but I also wanted to lash out at him. ‘Huh, right. What a terrible job you have. No fun at all.’
Another step closer—another surge of adrenaline. ‘You don’t believe me?’ His voice was low—an ominous rumble, issuing a challenge.
‘No, I don’t. I’m sure most men would happily swap jobs with you to writhe around naked with a beautiful woman.’
His eyes sparkled. ‘Are you jealous, Soph?’ He was so close now, the back of my head hit the wall behind me as I craned my neck to maintain the heated eye contact between us.
Jealous? Yes, but his ego didn’t need to know that. I opened my clutch to retrieve a tissue, lifting it to his cheek to wipe away the small smear of Claudia’s lipstick.
‘Why would I be jealous?’ My knuckles grazed the long stubble on his chin, sparks of electricity zinging up my arm. ‘I told you to leave with her.’ I dropped the tissue back inside and clicked my clutch shut. ‘Perhaps she was after a repeat performance.’
He braced one arm on the wall beside my head, his stare fixed on mine with suffocating intensity. ‘That’s the thing.’ He lifted a hand to tuck a stray curl behind my ear. ‘That’s exactly what it was—a performance.’ He dipped his head until his mouth was a mere whisper from mine, his face so close his eyes swam out of focus.
Despite the champagne, the jet lag and the sore feet I was suddenly completely sober and aware of every message from every nerve ending in my body.
‘You’re a good actor then. It looked very real.’ My breathing was shallow, gusting out in rapid pants, every inhale dragging his decadent scent into my lungs.
The briefest nod. ‘I am a good actor.’ His voice was a husky murmur, his breath mingling with mine as my lungs fought for air. ‘I can show you the real thing, if you want to see the difference for yourself.’
I wasn’t sure who moved first, but by the time his lips crashed to mine, I’d already dropped my shoes and clutch to the floor and tangled my fingers in his hair, holding his mouth captive. His body crushed mine to the wall, pressing against me from chest to thigh.
The moment our lips collided, the worries and turmoil of the past week seeped away and I embraced the heady euphoria of my desire for him. All reason fled. Any lingering objections and doubts faded away and my irritable goading of moments ago morphed into aching need.
His large hands cradled my jaw, and his fingers tunnelled into my hair as my lips parted on a gasp, allowing his tongue access. His hips jabbed into my belly, pinning me with determination. We were making out like randy teenagers in a swanky London hotel and I didn’t care.
Nathan pulled back a fraction, mumbling against my lips, ‘Hold that thought.’ With one hand on my waist, the other fished in his pocket and he pulled out his phone. He turned his head so he could read the text before slanting his mouth over mine once more. His breath whispered over my sensitised lips as he spoke. ‘Driver’s here.’ Another swipe of his lips. ‘Come home with me? No performance, just us.’
I dropped my forehead to his chest, sucking in sufficient oxygen to operate my brain. His heart thundered as he waited for my answer.
I placed both palms on his lapels and pushed him away so I was free to stoop and pick up my shoes and bag from the floor. Tucking the clutch under my arm, I held both shoes in one hand. I met his gaze, holding it for what seemed like hours but in reality was only seconds.
Decision time.
When I reached for his hand, a smile twitched his lips. Pulling me close, he relieved me of my shoes and ushered me outside to the waiting car.
Chapter Nine
INSIDE the large entranceway of his home Nathan took my clutch, placing it on the hall table. He lowered my shoes to the floor and shrugged out of his jacket. ‘Would you like a drink?’
I shook my head, desire chasing away the last of my nerves. I clutched the open neck of his shirt in both hands and pulled his mouth down to mine. With a low growl he took the lead, surging forward to deepen the kiss, parting my lips under his with the thrust of his tongue. His hands cupped my backside before sliding down my thighs. He scrabbled to bunch up my dress and then hoisted me up onto his hips, pressing me onto his growing erection.
My blood, spiked with a heady cocktail of lust and euphoria, delivered the rush to every cell in my body, and I gasped as the feelings spilled over. I was going to do this—my attraction to him was too powerful to be denied.
His shoulders flexed under my hands as I clung to him and wrapped my legs around his waist. Without breaking the kiss, Nathan turned for the stairs, cupping my thighs in his hands so he could carry me.
Near the top he almost stumbled, and we laughed into each other’s mouths, our lips and tongues still
working to relieve some of the ferocious tension between us.
‘Don’t injure yourself.’ I sucked on his lower lip, my fingers desecrating his glorious hair.
‘It’s okay.’ He smiled around the kiss. ‘I know a great doctor.’ He staggered across the landing in two quick strides, pushing open the door to what I assumed was his room. Two bedside lights cast a soft glow on the sumptuous space and the king-sized bed had been turned down.
Nathan lowered me on to the bed and stood back, his eyes luminous and his chest heaving. Barely controlled lust sharpened the angles of his face and I realised how insipid and contrived his performance with Claudia had been. Confronted with the evidence of his blatant desire for me, there was no denying his ‘scene’ in Daddy Date had been just that—an act.
‘Fuck, you are one beautiful woman, Sophia King.’ He dropped to his knees at my feet and lifted the hem of my dress, pushing it up past my knees.
I followed the path his sexy hands took as they skimmed up my stocking-clad thighs, taking the dress with them. The sight of his hands on me, as he took his time to unwrap me like a parcel was almost as good as the sensation—the slide of his heated palms, even through the nylon that separated us, scraped my exquisitely sensitive skin. Liquid pools of emerald lifted from the lacy tops of my stockings and my chest tightened as he stared into my eyes, squeezing the air from my lungs as if I’d breathed my last.
With firm hands, he pushed my knees apart, slotting his body between them, and leaned in to kiss me again—a delicious tangle of tongues, teeth and lips.
Desperate to get at him, I fumbled with the top few buttons of his shirt, exposing a triangle of his warm, fragrant skin. My fingers brushed the soft dusting of chest hair, and I pulled my mouth from his so I could bury my nose in it and inhale his scent.
Nathan growled, pushing me back onto the bed. ‘Lie there.’ He stood, divesting himself of his cufflinks, which he put into his trouser pocket. Shrugging off his waistcoat and shirt, he threw them towards a chair across the room, his gaze never leaving mine—intense, carnal and tinged with triumph.
The air trapped in my lungs as I took in his magnificence. Golden skin covered the smooth, sculpted lines of his fit, toned and sexy-as-hell body. His trousers hung low on his hips, framing the sexy V thing he had going on and partly concealing the thin strip of hair that began just below his navel and disappeared beneath the waistband of his pants. He was a visual feast and if I wasn’t already lying down I’d have collapsed, victim to the devastation of his male beauty.
His lust-glazed eyes flicked over my fully dressed form like he had X-ray vision, returning to mine while he took his time opening his belt and the fly of his trousers. I wanted to view the progress of his trousers down his muscular thighs, but the heat in his stare held me captive.
I lay there in breathless anticipation as he dispelled with his shoes and socks, casting them in the same direction as the shirt. His erection strained the front of his tight-fitting cotton boxers and my face flamed. Caught staring.
Climbing onto the bed above me, his lazy inspection scorched me. ‘Now, beautiful. It’s my turn to ogle you.’
His husky promise began a chain reaction of trembles inside me, ramping up my longing until I wanted to tear at the gown I’d spent a week’s salary on so I could feel his naked skin next to mine.
Sitting astride my thighs, Nathan pulled me up into a sitting position and reached around me to lower the zipper on my dress, peeling it from my shoulders.
His fingers traced my collarbones. ‘Your skin is amazing. So soft,’ he whispered, caressing my shoulders and my upper arms and drawing circles with his thumbs. Pushing the dress down farther to reveal my black lacy bra, he moved his hands to my breasts and circled my nipples through the lace.
The erotic tension was too much and I closed my eyes, shutting out the intimacy of his bold eye contact.
‘Look at me, Soph. I want to see you and I want you to watch what I’m going to do.’
Hypnotised by his seductive words, my eyelids fluttered open to watch him slide the bra straps from my shoulders and push down the lace to expose my breasts. His eyes flickered with renewed heat with each tiny gasp and moan that stole from me. His gaze dipped to my exposed nipples and he sucked in a small gust of air, his tightly wound control slipping for a second. The muscles in his jaw bunched as his fingers traced the peaks of my breasts and I marvelled at his restraint—but for my arms trapped at my sides by my clothing, I’d have clawed at him. Clearly, we were doing this his way and he savoured every second, extracting every drop of pleasure from each new touch and exploration.
‘Watch me.’
I nodded, gripping his forearms for balance. His mouth encased my nipple in moist heat and I couldn’t have looked away if my life had depended on it. With his eyes raised to mine, sucking with strong pulls, he ramped up the torture with expert little flicks of his tongue before biting down gently on my sensitised nipple.
I gasped as the pleasure jerked through my body and down to my core, my head falling back as I fought to contain such furious rapture.
His lips formed a smile around my flesh and he released me only to scrape his bearded chin across my nipple en route to the other breast, where he repeated the whole mind-blowing process.
Whimpering at his ministrations, I moved my hand between our bodies to slide my fingers down his ridged abdomen. My hand found its target and I caressed him through his boxers, chuckling as he stopped torturing my breast to mutter a broken expletive, his eyes scrunched closed and his face twisted in sublime agony while his hips jerked towards my hand.
Growling, he jumped off the bed, dragging me with him, and he pushed my dress down so it pooled around my ankles. With alarming one-handed skill, he snapped open my bra and tossed it.
‘So fucking sexy,’ he muttered, kneeling in front of me and trailing his tongue down my stomach in electrifying little licks that had me clinging to his shoulders for balance.
I was high, so drugged by pleasure my legs wobbled, and I plunged my hands into his messed up hair and held on tight. He made short work of removing my stockings, nipping kisses across my stomach from hip to hip, until I stood there in nothing more than black lace panties.
‘Nathan,’ I pleaded, finding my voice at last, not sure I could withstand much more of his sensual onslaught.
He tilted his head back, a wicked gleam in his eyes, his smiling lips brushing my skin.
I trembled, completely mesmerised by him—in that second, I understood. The screaming fans, the constant stream of beautiful women, his lady-killer reputation—his bedroom eyes and lascivious smile were devastating and I was as powerless to resist them as the next mere mortal.
Hooking his fingers into the waistband of my panties, he peeled them down my legs with agonising slowness. I used his shoulders to steady myself as I stepped out of them. He was driving me insane with want and my legs might have buckled at any moment.
With his face level with my sex, he leaned forward and nuzzled his nose through my strip of pubic hair, watching my reaction with hooded eyes. His groan reverberated through me as he pressed his forehead to the soft swell of my belly and clutched my backside in his hands. In a blur of motion, I was pushed back onto the bed as he dived, parting my thighs and covering my sex with his mouth.
I cried out, my back arching off the bed and my hands finding his hair once more. My desperate fingernails clawed at his scalp, but I was too far gone to stop and he wasn’t complaining. Slipping his hands under my buttocks, he lifted me to his voracious mouth as he swirled his tongue around my clitoris.
I thrashed my head from side to side, trying to absorb the jolts of pleasure Nathan’s tongue wreaked, losing the battle when he pushed a finger inside me, thrusting it in and out and then adding a second.
‘Nathan, Nathan.’ My moans turned to chants as the rapture built and my mind shut down to everything but the scorch of sensation spiralling out from my core.
Nathan groaned, and I glance
d down, capturing his stare, which gleamed with triumph as his mouth devoured me more vigorously. The vibrations from his incoherent growls reverberated through my sex, tipping me over the edge and I came, clenching hard around his fingers and tugging on his hair as the riot of sensation slammed into me again and again.
Panting hard, I opened my eyes as Nathan crawled above me, satisfaction sparkling in his green eyes. He kissed me, his tongue invading my mouth, my scent clinging to his lips and beard.
‘I. Am. Never. Shaving. Again,’ he said between kisses, his voice gravelly.
I was spent, my limbs so heavy they sank into the bed as I tried to recover from the best high I’d ever experienced. Nathan encouraged my languid body up into a sitting position.
While I’d been lying replete and delirious, he’d removed his boxers, his erection now straining between us as he sat back against the headboard and pulled me onto his thighs so we were face to face.
‘Help me with this.’ His voice was gruff. He handed me a condom, the price of his control evident in the taut set of his jaw.
I tore the packet open and rolled the condom onto him, loving that my touch sent his head dropping back, his mouth opening on an ecstatic gasp—achingly beautiful, exposed, vulnerable.
‘Come here,’ he whispered, his hands trailing between my waist and hips until he grasped my buttocks in both hands and pulled me closer.
I obeyed his husky command and covered his mouth with mine as I lowered myself onto him, inch by inch. He stretched and filled me and when I could lower no farther, he wrapped his arms around my back, crushing my breasts to his chest as his mouth continued to consume mine, capturing every gasp and sigh.
‘You feel incredible.’ He peppered kisses over my face—my lips, my cheeks and my eyelids, his gaze honing in on mine every time, maintaining the insane intimacy of the connection between us with his bold verdant stare. Flecks of gold tinged his irises and the tiny muscles contracted, dilating his pupils.