“Well, we’re not there yet. Adams just has a couple of questions. He thinks we have enough to press them into a settlement.” The defendant in this case was an insurance company that had taken a man’s pension from him and refused him long-term disability after an accident at work. I’d put in weeks on this case, and it was good to see it coming to a close.
“Put the squeeze on. I don’t care what their number is.”
“Great. Are you coming in this afternoon?”
I thought about it. “Yeah. Yeah, I am.”
“Glad to have you back, Nathan.”
The comforting feeling of being competent took over, fading out some of the loss of control. Of not being able to be who I wanted or with who I wanted.
When I rang off, Ava was watching me with a strange expression. “It’s not that you can’t, is it? You love this.” Her voice was cooler than it’d been a few minutes ago.
I tried to remember what we were talking about. “Love what?”
“This!” She waved a finger at me, the car. “Who you are. What you do. It’s not that Townsend Price needs you, Nate. You need it. I could see the way your eyes lit up when you were on the phone. Even if you didn’t choose it, you crave it.”
Her words got my back up. “I thought you said I craved righting wrongs.”
“You do. But is that all you want? Or is it about following in the Townsend footsteps?”
We’d entered the city and crossed the bridge. It was getting harder to split my attention between the road and our conversation.
“So you’re questioning my motives because I can’t see myself dropping everything to start over.”
Her voice tensed. “That’s not what I’m saying. But it’s easy to dream, Nate. It’s harder to follow through when you can’t make everyone happy and still do what you want.”
Something about her words chafed. “Are you talking about me or about us?”
Ava looked at me like I was the biggest idiot in the world. “Nate, you ask me to wait for you, say things will work as soon as the lawsuit isn’t between us. But we’re not even in midtown and you’re back in lawyer mode. This week we were in an alternate universe. It was easy to get lost in each other. Now we’re back to our lives and everything that pulls us apart.”
What does that even mean?
I didn’t have an answer, but I turned it over in my mind.
When I pulled up in front of our building a few minutes later instead of heading for parking, Ava looked surprised. “You’re not coming in?”
“Not right now. I’m going to the office for a few hours.” I had a suit at work. Going in meant I could finish out my day and do something productive.
She shut the door, leaning in the window. Her expression said she’d proven her point but was sad to have done it.
“All right, Nate. I’ll see you later.”
Chapter 24
Ava
“Bryson’s counsel wants to meet,” Lex told me the next morning. She passed me coffee as I pulled a stool up to the island next to her.
“About what?”
“John says we’ll find out. We’re meeting them at five at Townsend Price.”
Part of me dreaded seeing Nate in that room again. We hadn’t parted on great terms the day before. I thought about calling him but didn’t know what to say, except to apologize for getting so freaked out on the drive home.
I couldn’t promise to wait for him, as much as part of me wanted to. The truth was, the only times we ended up together were when one of us—or both of us—said Screw it, let’s forget the world.
We could only run from it for so long.
I’d filled Lex in on my impromptu vacation the day before. She’d listened openly, nodding and being more non-judgmental than I could have. Especially given her warning about staying away from Nate.
After I spent the day catching up on business and trying to put the lawsuit out of my mind, Lex and I met John in the lobby of Townsend Price late in the afternoon. The three of us were shown to a conference room with one other person.
“Where’s Nate?” I asked immediately.
“He’s attending to other cases. I’m Evan. We met once before.” Nate’s co-counsel extended a hand. “I suggested we meet because it seemed prudent to make you aware of a recent ruling. Earlier this week, a New York court awarded five million in damages to a plaintiff on a major copyright case.” Evan passed a file to John, whose face was schooled into an impassive mask.
John never looked worried, but the usual snappy replies weren’t there.
This development couldn’t have been what Nate was talking about on the phone. The case they thought they could “put the squeeze on.” Unless he’d lied to me …
I couldn’t believe he’d do it.
Not even for the firm?
No. But I couldn’t bury the seed of doubt.
How could he not know about this? It’s his damn case.
“Mr. Bryson is a reasonable man,” Evan was saying. “He would be open to considering settlement offers. I understand if you want some time to discuss this—”
“We’re not settling,” I bit out.
Three surprised faces turned toward me.
“Now Ava—” John’s voice was a warning.
I cut him off, anger boiling my blood. “We copied nothing. We stole nothing. We did nothing wrong. We sure as hell won’t be hung out to dry by some sorry-ass, past-his-prime jerk who wants a piece of our hard work.” I pushed myself up from the chair I’d barely sat in. “Lex, I’ll meet you out front. There’s something I have to do.”
I stormed out of the room. “Where’s Nate Townsend?” I demanded of what looked like an intern in a cubicle outside.
“Ah, in his office.” He gestured.
I took off down the hall. The office with Nate’s name was at the end, tucked away in a corner.
Even if Nate hadn’t been talking about this right in front of me, he did not get to hide from me. I burst inside without knocking.
“We need to talk.”
Nate glanced up from his desk. He hit a button on his phone and picked up the receiver. “Let me call you back. Thanks.”
His dark blue suit set off eyes that were clouded with annoyance. Features that usually made me swoon just aggravated me more.
“That was a client,” Nate said after hanging up.
I yanked the door shut behind me. It made a satisfying boom when it hit the frame.
“I don’t care if it was the president, Nate. Lex and I came all the way down here to meet with you about another of your clients. Tony Bryson, remember? But the thing is, you weren’t even there.” I stalked up to his desk, vibrating with anger. “So what is it? You can’t face doing your own dirty work? You can fuck the girl you’re suing, but you draw the line at physically wrenching the money out of her hand?”
Nate flinched.
I wanted him to shout back at me. Instead he just rose and crossed to the door.
“Price and I decided my time was better spent somewhere else.”
Nate had two composed voices: one when it came naturally, and one when it was forced. This was his forced voice, which meant something was wrong.
“Tell me what happened.” The anger receded by degrees, replaced by worry.
“Now’s not the time. You shouldn’t be here.”
“Then tell me and I’ll leave.”
“Let it go, Ava.”
A knock sounded on the door and we both jumped. Nate pulled it open.
“Security, Mr. Townsend. Everything all right here?” A tough-looking guy in a uniform looked between us.
“Ms. Cameron was just on her way.”
I glared at Nate, incredulous.
“Miss?” the guard prompted.
“You’re kicking me out? Real brave, Nate.” With a last disgusted look at the office’s resident, I followed the guard down the near-empty hall.
Lex was waiting for me at the main reception, where the guard left me. “What just h
appened?”
I stabbed the button for the elevator. “I was a gullible idiot. That’s what happened.”
I’d been there for Nate, done things for him, cared about him. And now, Nate wouldn’t even talk to me. Humiliated tears welled up in the backs of my eyes, but I forced them down.
Celeste was wrong. Nate didn’t need a woman to back him up. He had it all down himself. He was on the single-minded superhighway to corporate lawyer hall of fame.
The elevator dinged when it arrived.
“Ava. Wait.”
I turned to see Nate running down the hall past the empty offices toward me. Lex put a hand on my arm.
“I’ll see you at home, Lex,” I breathed.
“I don’t want to leave you here,” she insisted.
“Really, it’s fine,” I told her.
She gave in, stepping into the elevator with a worried look.
My eyes cut back to Nate, who’d pulled up a few feet behind me. His chest was rising and falling under his suit.
“What are you doing, Nate?”
He ignored my question. “Tell me why you broke up with Josh.”
He’s completely lost his mind. “I’m having a little trouble keeping up right now. I thought you just kicked me out for airing our dirty laundry in the hallowed halls of Townsend Price.” But I remembered it was late in the day. John had probably left. Evan would be back in his office, wherever that was.
“Will you just tell me? Come on.” He relented, asking instead of commanding.
“Because he—”
Nate shook his head once, stepping closer to me. His gaze ran over my face, my mouth. “Don’t make this about him. It’s never been about him.”
His closeness was affecting me. In his earnest eyes I found a shred of the Nate I’d seen in the Hamptons. The one I couldn’t hide from and wouldn’t lie to, no matter what.
“Fine,” I said, my throat working. “It’s because you make me feel like I am exactly who I’m supposed to be. I’ve always been too loud, too harsh, too naive, too … something. But not with you. I know everything that happened between us was an accident, but now that I know I can feel that way about someone who’s totally wrong for me? I can’t give up on the possibility of feeling that way with someone who’s right.” I sucked in a shaky breath. “Is that what you wanted to hear?”
He grabbed my arm and tugged me into a room off reception, then flicked the light, shut the door, and hit the lock.
I looked around us, dazed. It looked like a small storage room for files, printers, and shredders. “Nate, what the—?”
“Yeah. That’s what I wanted to hear. Because it means I made the right choice.” His handsome face was determined.
“What?”
“I’m off the case, Ava,” he said softly. “I recused myself this morning. Evan’s prosecuting it without me.”
Everything I’d been about to say vacated my brain. “But—did your father do this?”
“No. I went to Price, who’s technically in charge until my dad’s back in the office Monday. I had to. Because I can’t do my job. Not when you’re around. And even if you’ll wait for me? I don’t want to wait for you.”
Nate’s body was tight with anxiety, his voice laced with desperation.
“Say something, Ava. For fuck’s sake.”
“Oh.” The syllable fell from my mouth. My mind was, for once, blissfully blank.
Nate took a step toward me and I took one back, instinctively. He backed me up another step, then another, until I hit something hard.
“I’m going to need more than ‘Oh.’”
I was already in shock when he grabbed my waist and lifted me onto a table, my legs on either side of his hips. Too stunned to do anything but grip his forearms for balance.
I jolted like a skittish animal when I felt Nate’s hand on the outside of my thigh, just under the edge of my skirt. His fingers pressed into my leg, his thumb rubbing in slow circles.
My eyes locked on his. Startled, aroused. Soaking in all of him, the dark suit, his penetrating gaze, the tight set of his jaw. The dark hair that, I realized, wasn’t as perfect today as it usually was.
“What are you doing?” I asked breathlessly.
“What I should’ve done a long time ago.” His fingers traced my skin in a dance, over and over. “Last year I met a girl. I spent seven minutes cursing her, seven hours worshipping her. And then seven months regretting that I let her leave.”
His hand moved to the inside of my thigh. Skimmed up to the edge of my panties. My breath hitched and I bit my tongue to keep from moaning. The door might’ve been locked, but we were still a few feet away from the rest of Townsend Price.
“I kept telling myself there was no way one girl could have affected me like that.”
Nate’s eyes darkened as he slid a finger under the lace. When he grazed my slick skin, I couldn’t stop the whimper.
“Then I saw her again,” he went on. “And I knew I’d been lying to myself.”
His finger started stroking.
He drew his wet finger up and over my clit, slowly. I moaned and grabbed his hair for balance, pulling him toward me.
“No matter what comes between us,” Nate continued, his voice hypnotic, “I need her. Like I’ve never needed anyone.”
He dipped a finger inside me, still rubbing his thumb over my needy clit.
Fuck. My hands tightened on his head, one wrapping around to grab the back of his neck.
“But she’s not how I remembered. She’s better. She’s loud. And sweet. And terrifying. In fact, this girl has me begging on my fucking knees.”
His words were rough against my mouth. Hearing him swear just pushed me higher.
“Nate,” I moaned in frustration, so far gone I couldn’t put thoughts together.
Another finger slid into my wet heat and I struggled just to breathe.
“So if you don’t want me to start doing everything I’ve been getting off on in my fantasies all year,” he muttered roughly, “then tell me to stop.”
I’d nearly convinced myself in the car yesterday that his mother was right. That he wanted the neat life laid out for him, and a woman to help him get there.
But could I deny him when he was so certain that I was what he wanted? When he’d given up this case, disobeyed his father, for me. When I couldn’t just have him someday. I could have him now.
“Nate, please.”
“Please what?” His blue eyes were electric. His lips brushed mine, but not in a kiss. A dirty, dangerous tease.
“Please don’t stop,” I groaned. “Don’t ever stop.” I pulled his mouth to mine.
His fingers were alive again, moving roughly in me. Then I was coming, hard, his greedy mouth swallowing my cries.
“Shit, Ava. I can’t breathe without wanting you.” His hoarse words reverberated in my chest.
I loosened his tie. Got the top button of his shirt undone but ran out of patience, growling as I grabbed and pulled until the buttons gave, flying across the room. A rush of satisfaction washed over me.
He didn’t bother with my shirt but went for my bra instead, undoing it so he could reach under and palm my breasts. When his thumbs grazed my nipples I thought my whole body would explode with sensations.
He pulled back so his eyes locked with mine. I must’ve been flushed, my hair a mess from his hands, my lips swollen from his unforgiving mouth, but all I could think of was having him bury himself inside me.
“I’ve thought about this. A million ways. Every single day.” Nate’s breathing was labored as he watched my reaction. He grasped my ankle and tugged my leg onto his shoulder, blue eyes never leaving mine as I heard the zip of his fly. I knew what was next.
Now. Yes.
We were racing to the finish. There was no hope of prolonging it. We’d already wasted too much time antagonizing one another, fighting ourselves—for days, weeks, months.
Nate grasped my hips and positioned himself at my wet entrance, then slid
in to the hilt in one stroke.
I gasped and arched backward as he groaned.
“Fuck yes, Ava, all of me,” he muttered, lips grazing mine. Then he stilled, jaw tight and eyes on the floor while his fingers dug into my thighs.
He was so deep it hurt. “Don’t move, don’t move. Not yet …”
Nate watched, concern warring with need in his gaze.
I nodded, and Nate grabbed my other ankle and pulled it to his shoulder, then started rocking into me.
I fell back, my hands splaying above my head until my fingers found the far edge of the table. I grasped it to brace myself. With every stroke I felt more of him. His length pushing in me, building me higher, winding me tighter, filling me, stretching me.
“God I’m so close,” I cried. I’d never come from intercourse alone.
Until Nate.
On a groan, he leaned forward, changing the angle again. The new tension had me nearly screaming, and my panting mixed with his as he thrust into me.
Nate pressed his hand to my mouth and I held it there with my own as my climax barreled through my body. I cried out against his hand. He tightened over me and came, groaning my name.
Chapter 25
Nate
I had to remind myself how to breathe. Feeling slowly came back to my fingers and toes.
Half of me couldn’t believe I’d been stupid enough to do it in the damn copy room of my father’s office. The other half planned to send a fruit basket to whoever had the foresight to put a lock on the door.
I turned my head to look at her. Her dark hair was fanned out on the table, her shirt hanging off a shoulder.
As if she felt my eyes, Ava turned toward me. Her face was still flushed, lips parted. She was as wrecked as I was. It was the most perfect I’d ever seen her and I wanted to do it all again.
This morning when I’d come in, I’d told Price I needed off the case. My dad wouldn’t be happy I’d gone behind his back. But I’d deal with it.
Now the only noise was our staggered, gasping breaths.
“Sounds like you need to work out, Townsend.”
“No. Again. Give me five minutes,” I groaned.
Stripped (Travesty Book 2) Page 18