Her eyes moved to his hand on her arm. “Nate, I asked you not to touch me.”
She was trying to twist her arm free but he kept his hand there, just above her elbow, far away from the bruises.
“I thought you left me,” he said again, needing her to hear it, needing her to
understand
it.
“You said that already,” she clipped, tilting her head back and there was definitely fire there now, it was mingled with weariness, but it was there.
This pleased Nate. It pleased him very much.
“Jeff must have taken the note, if I’d known –”
She interrupted him, making a sharp, frustrated noise in her throat. Giving up on freeing her arm, she decided simply to move her body away from him and took a step back.
He didn’t allow this either. His hand slid down her arm and before she knew what he was doing, his fingers laced in hers and her drew her closer.
She shook her head, her hand pulling at his saying, “It doesn’t matter now, it was a long time ago. It’s over.”
She was staring at the couch, staring at the albums, clearly wanting to carry on with her task.
Nate continued, determined. “My secretary was ill, I had a temp. She lost messages.”
Lily shook her head again, equally determined to ignore him.
“I moved,
we
were moving, I’d bought a new flat. I hadn’t mentioned it because we were too busy with…” he paused and went on, “other things. I was going to tell you that night I came home, that night you left.”
She tried to tug her hand free, her head no longer shaking from side to side but jerking. If she put her hands to her ears at that moment, he wouldn’t have been surprised.
He tightened his hand in hers. “If I’d known I wouldn’t have returned your calls.”
At this announcement, her eyes flew to his, her head stopped swinging and his other hand went to her waist.
Nate finished. “I would have flown to Indiana to be with you. Lily, I’m sorry about your parents.”
She looked into his eyes and he saw the sorrow flash in hers, whether it was at his desertion or her parents loss or both, he did not know but at the sight of it, the strength of it, he felt it settle somewhere deep within him.
Then her eyes cleared and the shutters came down.
“Thank you, Nate,” she said carefully, with studied politeness. “Now, are you finished?”
“No,” he said calmly, watching her closely.
The shutters flew open again.
“Well I am,” she snapped, “no more talking!”
She again tried to jerk her hand free but he tugged it gently but forcefully and at this unexpected pull, she came forward on her toes falling into him. Her hand went to his chest to break her fall. He felt it where it touched him, searing through his shirt like a brand and his other arm immediately closed around her waist.
“No more talking?” he asked, his tone, as well, deceptively polite.
“That’s right. No more talking,” she agreed, struggling to pull fee.
In a flash, he decided to play a dangerous game, to take a risk, to move ten steps forward before the door in front of him was even opened the barest crack. He could, he knew, slam right into it. Or it could open at the last minute and let him enter.
He weighed his options in mere seconds and took the risk
“All right, Lily,” he replied gently, “we were never very good at talking.”
And then his head began to descend slowly toward hers.
As he came closer, she arched her back against his arm to get away from him, her eyes wide with disbelief.
“What are you doing?” Lily asked.
His hand released hers and stole around her, creeping up her back to press between her shoulder blades and bring her back to him.
“I’m going to kiss you,” Nate answered.
“You are not!” she snapped, her voice filled with surprise and anger.
“Yes,” he stated implacably, “I am.”
His hand went up further, slid along her neck into her soft hair to hold the back of her head. Her body came into contact with his, her breasts brushing his chest, her hips a whisper away and he fought the urge to crush her against him.
“Take your hands off me!” she cried.
He dipped his head and brushed his lips against hers.
“No.”
Still struggling, she demanded, “Let me go!”
Against her lips, he said, “This time, Lily, I’m not letting you go.”
And then he kissed her. The minute his lips pressed against hers she froze in his arms not trying to struggle but keeping her body perfectly rigid.
His lips coaxed and teased but she didn’t react. She stayed still and motionless and entirely unresponsive.
Nate wasn’t buying it and he wasn’t giving up.
He ran his tongue across her lower lip but her lips didn’t budge.
“Open your mouth,” he demanded boldly.
She shook her head, her hair sliding against his arm.
His other arm tightened at her waist bringing her into full contact with his frame.
“Lily, open your sweet mouth. Let me taste you again.”
She made another noise in the back of her throat, this guttural with some emotion he could not decipher. He decided to take this as a good sign.
“No?” he asked softly, his lips still on hers.
She didn’t move.
Undeterred, he tried another tactic.
He slid his mouth across her cheek to her ear.
“Do you know,” he murmured in her ear, kissed her there and he felt her still body turn rock solid, “that I remember everything. I have this… ability,” he flicked his tongue against her earlobe, “and I never forget anything.”
She kept her body completely controlled. One hand was flattened against his chest pressed between them. Her other hand was at his waist putting pressure there to push him away.
He moved to rest his forehead against hers, his nose along hers and his hand slid from the back of her head to cup her jaw, his thumb stroking her cheekbone.
“I remember everything about you,” he told her, looking into her eyes, those remarkable eyes hadn’t changed, hadn’t faded, with their pale blue irises ringed in midnight. “All these years they would torment me, those memories. The sound of your voice, your laughter, the sight of your smile, the feel of you pressed against me while you slept.”
She shook her head, her forehead rolling against his, both of her hands pushing against his chest now to get away. Her eyes were filled with fear.
Nate kept going. “I thought I lost you but I never forgot,
couldn’t
forget. You were so sweet, incredibly sweet. The taste of your mouth, the taste of you between your legs, your hands on me, your mouth on me, the feel of you underneath me tightening around me when you came.”
Her lips parted, in shock at his words, he knew.
And he didn’t care.
“That’s it,” he whispered encouragingly and he kissed her again, his tongue sliding inside.
She fought for a second then she gave in with a soft moan. He felt a searing of triumph as her hand at his chest slid up and around his neck, her other arm went around his waist and she held him fiercely there as if she’d never let him go. Her head tilted one way and Nate’s slanted the other and her tongue touched his.
And she tasted exactly as sweet as he remembered.
Sweeter.
He deepened the kiss as she leaned forward and fit her body into his just as she used to, wriggling to get closer, press deeper, like she wanted to be absorbed. His arm tightened at her waist as his hand did the same at her jaw, holding her head tilted to his. He felt his body harden with need, eight years of need as eight years of yearning filled the kiss, surged through his frame, heating his blood to that familiar fever that he never felt for anyone else. A fever that was only for Lily.
He groaned into her mouth and she shivered as she accepted it, her hand sliding into his hair to hold his head to hers.
The kiss was desperate and wild with eight years of longing and he was completely lost in her.
But she was not lost in him.
The kiss had proved to him that nothing had changed in Lily, except one thing.
She was a mother.
With mother’s ears and a keen mother’s sense.
She tore her lips from his and turned half-stunned, half-passion-filled eyes to the door.
Slowly, Nate followed her gaze.
And in the doorway stood Natasha staring at them with wide-eyed wonder.
Then Natasha’s face split into an exquisite, gleeful smile and the little girl broke into a run.
Before Lily could disengage from his arms, Natasha slammed into them, throwing her arms around both their waists and burying her face in the spare space between them.
That moment for Nate, who had never had such a moment in his entire life, was so profound it nearly brought him to his knees.
But he had to remain standing to support Lily and Natasha who were both leaning into his body and his arms.
The hand Nate had at Lily’s face dropped to the back of his daughter’s neck.
Lily’s head lifted from her sober contemplation of Natasha, the girl still pressed at their sides. He noted, when he looked in Lily’s startling blue eyes, she’d had time to get herself under control.
She looked him right in the eyes and whispered fiercely, “This doesn’t change anything.”
He shook his head and smiled down at her, knowing she was wrong.
Softly, still shaking his head, Nate informed her of this important fact, “You’re wrong, darling. It changes everything.”
Laura
Laura sat sipping her tea and watching both Lily’s friend, Fazire, and her husband, Victor, silently squaring off.
And in doing so, she worried.
This strange Fazire, surprisingly, didn’t seem frightened of Victor. He hadn’t even seemed frightened of Nate and nearly everyone was frightened of Nate. Her son was that kind of man, dynamic, magnetic, tall, powerfully built. You took one look at him and you knew, no matter what, you should
not
mess with him.
Victor was older, softer but still held a certain menace that only Laura and, eight years ago, Lily, could see through.
Unfortunately, it appeared Fazire could see through it too.
Victor obviously didn’t like that. He’d put a great deal of effort into honing his legendary menace.
“They’re taking a long time. Tash-child, go see what they’re doing,” Fazire ordered, his arms still crossed on his chest, his head still tilted back ludicrously to stare at them down his sloped nose as if he was used to a greater height.
“Let them be. They’ve things to discuss,” Victor contradicted as Natasha began to do what she was asked. The child glanced at Victor and then settled back in the couch again and turned to Laura.
“There’s lots of photo albums,
lots and lots
. Fazire likes to take pictures,” Natasha explained her child’s idea of what was taking her parents so long.
Laura silently hoped there were hundreds of albums.
Thousands.
“I can’t wait to see the pictures, my darling,” Laura smiled at her granddaughter then, as she had been wanting to do since she saw her, she touched the soft skin of her cheek. “Do you know how lovely you are?” she asked, mainly because she couldn’t help it.
The child’s response startled and delighted her.
Natasha nodded happily. “Oh yes, Mummy calls me the most beautiful girl in the
whole
world
.” She giggled to herself at this idea, as if it was funny, as if it was not the absolute truth.
Laura thought that she was the most beautiful child she’d ever seen. Who would have thought Nathaniel’s intensely masculine features in feminine, child-like form could be so striking.
“Tash,” Fazire called warningly and dropped his chin to stare down at her in a practised way that expected obedience.
“Oh, all right,” Natasha gave in, sounding mock-disgruntled and she scooted to the end of the couch, found her feet and skipped out the door.
The minute she was out of sight on the stairwell, Victor pounced.
“They need time together,” he snapped at Fazire.
Fazire turned to face Victor and shook his head slowly. “They do not.” Each word was said with absolute certainty.
“There are things Nathaniel needs to explain.” Victor was leaning forward at the waist, trying to hold his temper.
One look at her husband and Laura said soothingly, “Victor.”
Laura knew that this Fazire meant a great deal to Lily. Laura had heard Lily talking about him, she told Laura stories about him. He was far younger than Laura would have guessed, considering he was with Lily’s family before she was born and he looked to be in his forties.
It simply would not do to have Victor go head-to-head with him in Lily’s living room on this, their first, most delicate visit with her.