by K. I. Lynn
I was home.
We were one in that moment, together again, bound to each other in a way neither of us understood, but were beginning to accept.
I was in love with him. I loved Nathan Thorne.
Everything solidified, and I knew the truth behind those words. I finally found my home, the place where I belonged.
CHAPTER 22
Nathan was always stiff and sore in the mornings; some symptoms showed more than others. That day fell into the latter category. He literally rolled out of bed, and the limp in his leg was very pronounced.
A few hours later, I watched as Nathan popped more pills into his mouth, his hands moving to his temples, rubbing them in a counter-clock-wise motion.
By two in the afternoon, he was on the third set of pain pills to numb the aches and migraine that plagued him. He had woken with a headache and it had increased as the day wore on. The medicine didn’t seem to help, and he skipped lunch, opting to lie down in a dark empty office.
He stood and continued to limp, heading to the break room. It was so bad, that he was unable to walk it off.
Throughout the day, I observed him as he wiggled in his chair and readjusted himself in an attempt to find a comfortable position. He’d give up, sighing in defeat, and settled for whatever position he found to be the most tolerable.
It was easy to forget about his physical pain most of the time because he never showed the signs, but it was always there, lurking beneath the scars.
His hand swiped across the ribs on his left side in an unconscious attempt to soothe a sudden discomfort that flamed beneath.
There had been five broken ribs on his left side.
He helped me count them one day while exploring his body. He never shied away from my touch, but stared at me with a curious expression as I traced my hand around the long line of raised skin. Odd shaped scars left as evidence of his ribs cracking and breaking through the skin. I could feel them then, the places where bone had grown to mend the ribs back together.
I then took hold of his hand and guided it to the ribs on my left side. My hand pressed his fingers into my skin as I counted off where the four ribs my stepbrother had broken when I was younger were.
After work, we went straight up to his condo. He didn’t speak as he guided me into the bedroom, or as we stripped out of our suits. Not even when he pulled back the comforter and crawled in, his eyes beckoning me forth.
His arms wrapped around me, his head on my chest. My fingers ran through his hair, brushing the strands away from his face. He sighed and snuggled his head in further before his body relaxed.
I hoped the next day would be better because it hurt to see him in so much pain and discomfort when I knew there was nothing I could do to help.
We had a luncheon scheduled a few weeks later that consisted of Andrew, Benjamin, two clients, Nathan and I. It was to discuss the takeover of a smaller company and all the legality that would go into it.
We met at a nice restaurant downtown, and they sat us back in a private room. I was thankful to not be sitting between Andrew and Nathan, who were unhappy enough to be in the same room together, but hid from the client. Instead, Nathan had maneuvered it so I was sitting next to him in the large round table, with Benjamin on the other side. It seemed he liked Benjamin and his devotion to his wife, Marianne. Was it because it made him a non-threat in Nathan’s possessive eyes?
Our salads arrived, but before I could even pick up my fork, I felt a hot hand on my thigh. It took everything in me to stop from jumping. I looked around to see if anyone had noticed, but everyone seemed to be too engrossed with the plate of veggies in front of them. I relaxed and felt the tingling sensation of Nathan’s hand on my leg, gripping tight. Once he seemed satisfied no one was paying attention, his fingers began a circular motion on my skin.
I tried to concentrate on my salad, but it was difficult with him touching me. I stifled a moan while taking a bite as his hand moved up, reaching the hem of my skirt.
With slow, torturous movements, he roamed, leaving fire in his wake and an ache that was growing out of control. My hips flexed forward, shifting in my seat, trying to draw his hand down to where I needed him.
The wait staff cleared our salad plates and the conversation turned from getting to know one another to learning what the client needed.
No one noticed Nathan’s missing hand, nor the nearness in which his chair was situated to mine, angled toward me. His hand pushed my skirt up farther while we waited for the main course, and I was thankful for the large table cloth that covered my lower half. He was just inches from the Promised Land. My thighs shook with need.
My face was hot, and I knew I was flushed scarlet due to his fingers stroking me through the thin material of my panties. I brought the glass of water to my lips right when Nathan’s finger pushed the edge of my panties aside and slipped one finger in. I tried to swallow the water, but it became stuck when he entered me, and I began coughing and choking.
That gained everyone’s attention, and five males turned to look at me. All the while, Nathan didn’t stop, his fingers working slower, but deeper, sinking further.
“Are you okay?” Benjamin asked from my left.
“Yes, thank you, it just went down the wrong pipe.” The looks of concern from the men at the table relaxed, and out of the corner of my eye, I could have sworn Nathan was smirking. “If you will all excuse me for a moment, I need to use the ladies room.”
Being the gentlemen they were, the whole table stood as I exited the private room and made my way down the hall.
I located the ladies room and rushed in and shut the door, leaning against the cold tiled walls. After taking a moment to collect myself, I moved to the sink and turned on the water.
I was splashing some cold water on my face when I heard the door swish open. A hand grabbed me as I was drying my face off, and a second later, it had spun me around. My gasp of surprise was deadened by Nathan’s lips on mine as he pulled my body flush to his.
“Baby, baby… Fuck,” he whispered with a groan. His hand grabbed mine and moved it down, placing it over the rock hard length hidden beneath the fabric of his suit pants. “Feel what you fucking do to me.”
I moaned, my lips searching out his while I rubbed and squeezed him. It earned me a growl, his eyes dark, showing the predatory sexual animal in him I desired.
“I need you. I need you now, or I’m never going to make it through the rest of this meeting without throwing you on the table and fucking you right there,” he whispered into my ear.
I shivered at his words, my body igniting, moisture soaking my panties. He grabbed hold of me and we walked backward toward the wall.
“Nathan, we don’t have time,” I protested as he spun me around to face it.
He bit down on my neck. “We’d better be quick then.”
His hand pressed on my back, and I leaned forward, my hands bracing against the wall. My legs spread while his hands moved under my skirt, pushing it up and over the curve of my ass. The sound of his belt coming undone echoed off the tile walls, followed by his zipper dropping.
His finger grasped onto my panties and pulled them down just enough to expose my throbbing wet pussy.
“Dripping for me already, baby? Such a fucking slut, you are.” His voice was husky, making his dirty talk that much more powerful.
With a quick push, he slid between my folds and set up a lightning pace. I tried to remain quiet, which was always a difficult task whenever he was inside me. A few muffled mewls leaked out of my clenched lips. My hips pushed back against him, driving him deeper.
“Fuck. That’s it, give it to me.”
It took everything I had not to scream, but I couldn’t keep it in when he slammed into me hard.
“You have to be quiet, little whore, or else they’ll hear you and come in here. And I don’t want them to interrupt my cock pounding your pussy. It feels too fucking good,” he said with a moan. He hissed out a “fuck” when I tightened around
him at his words. His hand moved from my hip to my mouth and he pushed two fingers in. “Suck.”
I complied, my tongue working around the digits. I bit down when he found my sweet spot and continued to pound into it. My legs were shaking, my body tensing.
My mouth opened and my head tilted back, his fingers slipping from my lips. His hand then went to cover my mouth, stifling my cries as my walls clenched around him.
He continued to pound me, and I loved the feeling of my orgasm crashing around him, before he let go. The motions of his hips were erratic as he released inside of me, before stilling flush against my ass. He drew in a hard, ragged breath, the erotic sound causing me to moan.
He leaned forward, pressing his head against my back, one hand holding his weight against the wall. “Fuck, baby. That was…fucking great.”
I let out a little laugh and shook my head. “You are so bad.”
As my brain cleared, I realized the situation we were in.
I’m fucking out of my mind and out of control…
What was I thinking leaving the table? Of course he’d follow me; he was already fingering me before I’d left without any qualms even though we’d been in the middle of a business luncheon.
My head spun at the thought of getting caught in here with him.
How did he always make me forget everything that mattered to me—or used to matter?
My job was important to me, but Nathan meant more.
My chest clenched as I thought about what he meant to me.
“We need to get back out there,” I reminded him since he was still behind me, bent over me, panting.
I needed to get my head back on straight and my panties as well. At least until the work day was over—then I could be what he needed, do what he needed.
After a moments rest, he pushed off the wall and removed himself from me. I whimpered at the loss, and he let out a little chuckle before leaning down and kissing the top of my head.
“Come on, Honeybear, we better get cleaned up real quick and get back out there before they send out a search party,” he said.
I snorted at the way he made it sound like I hadn’t just said the exact same thing, except without the nickname. He began zipping his pants back up, and I rolled my eyes.
It was amazing how he could go from brutal fucking one minute to lighthearted and silly the next. It was the Nathan no one else saw but me, and I reveled in that fact.
A smile spread from ear-to-ear as I straightened out my appearance. I evened out my breathing and smoothed my hair back in place.
A minute later, we were both inspecting ourselves in the mirror real quick to make sure we were presentable before attempting to sneak out of the bathroom. We walked back through the hall to the private room, and in the journey, I tried to make my legs behave, but I was still a little jelly-legged.
“There she is,” Benjamin said with a smile. “And she found Nathan.”
I smiled as I sat down, followed by Nathan. No one seemed to notice anything as I gazed around the table, until I reached Andrew’s face. He wasn’t looking at me, but considering there was food in front of him, it didn’t surprise me.
But something seemed to be brewing behind his blue eyes.
“We sent Andrew out to find you two, but he came back empty handed,” Benjamin said as he speared a piece of the pork chop in front of him.
I froze at Benjamin’s revelation.
“I caught her coming out of the ladies room and dragged her outside with me for a minute,” Nathan interjected, pulling me from my internal musings and coming up with something halfway plausible. “We had something we needed to discuss.”
Andrew didn’t say much for the remainder of the luncheon, or when we returned to the office. Even when he did speak, it was with effort and he wasn’t smiling. I began to worry he had, indeed, heard us and what that might mean.
At the end of the day, we packed up, loaded into our respective vehicles and headed home. Nathan and I greeted Mike upon entering and stepped into the elevator together.
“You were a very bad boy today, Mr. Thorne. I don’t know if I should let you in tonight,” I teased, attempting to sound aloof once the elevator doors closed.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him smirk before turning to me. “Oh, really? And how are you going to manage that when I have a key?”
“Hmm, good point.” Titling my head, I pondered how I could torture him. My index finger tapped against my lips. “I could deny you access.”
His eyebrow quirked as he looked down at me. “Could you?”
“I think I could,” I said trying to sound confident in my answer, but already knowing I would never deny him. I needed him more than he needed me; I needed his growing affections and the want that rolled off his body.
Leaning further over me and stepping closer, he had me pinned to the elevator wall, one of his hands on either side of my head. With his head next to mine, he whispered in my ear, teasing me. “Could you?”
His lips met mine and my mouth opened up to him. It took a few sparse seconds before our bodies were pressed together, arms pulling each other closer.
I fisted his hair and pulled his head back so his eyes met mine. “Could you?”
“Never,” he admitted with panting breaths. “I could never deny you.”
Somehow, I felt there was a double meaning to his words, but I didn’t have time to ponder it because his lips were back on me, his tongue massaging mine. Our actions changed to a more desperate pace, and we were moaning while frantically trying to rid each other of our clothes.
The elevator signaled our arrival and we stumbled out of the carriage and straight into the wall on the opposite side. We were impatient as we attempted to disrobe each other. Hands and arms tangled with clothing and bags while we bumped against the walls on our journey down to my condo.
I somehow managed to get the top three buttons of his shirt undone, my tongue lapping at his skin, and was working on getting his suit jacket off, but couldn’t get it past one shoulder. Nathan reached down and grabbed my thigh and brought it up to his hip. Unbalanced, we hopped backward until my back crashed into the wall where the hallway branched off to the different condos.
With my back braced against the wall, he picked up my other leg and pushed my skirt up my legs so he could nestle between my thighs. My legs locked around his waist and he pushed his hips forward, grinding his hard cock into my center.
He nipped down my jaw, panting and groaning. “You aren’t going to walk straight when I’m done with you tonight.”
I moaned and pushed my hips down against him. His teeth nipped at my neck while I continued my pursuit to rid him of his jacket.
“What the fucking shit is going on?” Andrew’s voice roared from the end of the hall, grabbing our attention and making us stop as we turned our heads to look.
I stared at his tall figure in…surprise, horror, terror, shock? I couldn’t decide which emotion, so I chose all.
Well, if Andrew didn’t know before, he certainly knew now.
Nathan turned back to me, his head buried in my neck, hissing “fuck” over and over into my skin. His fingers dug into the flesh of my ass.
My face fell as my heart plummeted while I stared at Andrew. How could I have been so reckless? The whole day had been one bad judgment call after the other. We’d been so good, so careful, over the past few months, but it was obvious we’d slipped.
I’d never seen Andrew anywhere near as angry as he was in that moment; red faced, tense, seething, and shooting death glares at Nathan.
“I told you to fucking stay away from her!” he yelled. “And I told you to stay away from him!”
At that, Nathan released my thighs with a heavy sigh, and once my feet were seated on the ground, he let go of me completely. I was straightening my skirt and didn’t notice Nathan had started down the hall toward Andrew. The muscles in his back were tense, and I chased after him in an attempt to diffuse the situation…or at least get us insi
de.
“What fucking right do you have to fucking say that to either of us?” Nathan questioned, staring Andrew down.
Andrew sneered while stepping forward and leaning over Nathan. “I can’t fucking stand you. Now, get the fuck away from her.”
Nathan’s spine straightened, pushing him forward. “Make me. If she wants me to get away from her, she needs to do it, not some overgrown, jealous Neanderthal.”
The situation was escalating, and I needed to get them out of the hall.
I pushed past them. “Boys, we need to get inside before my neighbor comes out, and you both know how she is.”
I began searching for my keys, which ended up taking longer because I was going too fast. After a moment of not finding them, Nathan pushed his keys into my hand.
“Here.”
Andrew gasped behind me, and I could imagine the look on his face.
I located the key and unlocked my door, ushering them both inside before handing Nathan back his keys.
“Are you kidding me? He has a fucking key? To your condo? Hell no,” Andrew all but bellowed.
I slammed my bags down on the ground before shutting the door. “Andrew! You don’t know anything about what is going on, so shut up.”
“He’s fucking playing with you, Lila. Open your eyes. He sticks his fucking dick in anything that has a pussy!”
At that, Nathan growled, and was standing inches in front of him.
If I thought I had seen an angry Nathan before, it didn’t compare to the Nathan in front of me now. Every muscle was tightly coiled, his glare bone chilling.
His lips twitched as he snarled. “You don’t know anything.”
“How long have you been stringing her along? Making her think she’s different from the other girls?” Andrew’s posture mimicked Nathan’s. I moved to pick up the glass vase from the entry table to protect it from being a casualty. In my mind, I was preparing to use all of my weight to force Andrew out the door to keep them from breaking out into a fist fight.
“As I said, you don’t know anything. Because if you did, you would know the only woman I’ve been with for almost four months is Lila.”