“Do you want to leave now?”
She stared at him a moment and he held his breath.
Then she sighed and shook her head again.
He let out his breath, his relief so great he had trouble coping with it. So he set it aside and slid his hands under the camisole.
“Now, let’s get you out of these clothes and back into bed.”
He pulled the camisole up again but this time her arms came up of their own volition.
“Nate?” Lily called as he tossed her camisole aside.
He was gliding his hands across the smooth skin of her back and staring at the flawless skin of her shoulders.
“Mm?”
“Nothing.”
His eyes found hers and they were uncertain. He misread her mind and bent to brush his lips against hers again.
“Come to bed.”
She sighed again and nodded.
Lily had always slept alone.
Except a few times at sleep-overs with her best friend from grade school, Colleen. Colleen had a big double bed and they’d slept there together.
That was it, her entire experience of sleeping with another human being.
Therefore she had no idea how to sleep with a man.
She was pressed against Nate’s side, his arm underneath and wrapped around her, his fingers stroking her hip.
When he took her clothes off (again) and took her to bed, he made love to her again.
Well, not exactly, as he didn’t come inside her even when she asked him to. He told her he didn’t want to hurt her. Instead, he did things to her with his hands and his mouth and took her to that beautiful place while he watched.
She would have been immensely embarrassed by this but once she’d had her body and pulse under control, she looked at him and he was looking at her as if she’d just announced she’d cured cancer. She couldn’t be embarrassed when he looked at her like that.
And then he’d pulled the covers over them and tucked her against his side and seemed, as she was finding was usual with Nate, to be quite happy in complete silence.
Lily was not happy. Lily was thinking about what she’d promised and what that meant.
“Um… Nate?” she said against his shoulder where her head was laying and she had an unobstructed view of the wall of his chest.
She liked his chest, it was strong and broad and muscular. She liked it just as much as his hands and now she had even more reasons to like his hands, even love them.
“Mm?” This was a low rumble that seemed to come from somewhere deep inside him. She found she liked that too.
“What does not letting me go mean, um… exactly?”
His fingers stopped their lazy stroking at her hip and his hand flattened, his fingers digging into her.
“It means you aren’t going anywhere.” His voice sounded somehow tight.
“Tonight?” she asked, deciding it best to ignore his strange tone.
“Tonight, tomorrow night, the next night, the next week.” He stopped but only because he was finished talking not because what came after next week wasn’t included in his statement.
This idea warmed her very soul but she was a practical Indiana girl. There were other things to consider.
“But I live in Somerset,” she told him.
“Now, you live here,” he returned as if it was as easy as that.
Her body jerked in stunned surprise at his announcement and she lifted herself to her elbow, reaching down at the same time to grab the sheet and pull it up to her chest. He was blithely unconcerned with his (rather wonderful) nakedness but she was not.
She stared down at him. After one date he expected her to move in with him?
“I own a house in Somerset,” she explained.
His eyes moved to hers and they were unreadable. “We’ll visit on the weekends.”
She gasped.
“But I have a job in Somerset!” she informed him.
“Resign. You no longer have to work.”
She gasped again, this one even more shocked than the last.
“I’ve been working since I was thirteen years old!”
Something shifted in his eyes as she glared at him and she realised that she’d surprised him somehow.
She had indeed been working since she was thirteen. Neither her parents nor her grandmother thought idle children were a good thing. She had a paper route that she did every morning, not to mention she’d gone to work at one of her father’s friend’s golf courses, picking up the balls on the driving range all day Saturday. When she was able to work legally, she’d found a job at a fast food restaurant for a year. At Oxford she definitely had to work and pulled pints at a local pub.
She didn’t tell Nate any of that nor did she let him comment but continued to speak.
“I don’t know how not to work. I wouldn’t know what to do. What will I do?”
He came up on his elbow and faced her, his hand moving the hair from her neck to behind her back.
“You can shop, go out to lunch with Laura. She’d love it.” His voice was soft and his eyes were on her mouth and he obviously thought this was a satisfactory answer.
As much as she liked shopping, she couldn’t do it every day. It wouldn’t be fun if she could do it every day. And she had a mortgage, she had credit card bills, she had to work.
“I need a job,” she told him determinedly.
His head was descending.
“Then get a job,” he said against her lips. He was pressing her back on the bed and she didn’t resist. She couldn’t have even if she wanted to, which she didn’t. He came over her and then he kissed her. Her belly was warming up for a full-blown gymnastic extravaganza, she could feel it.
“Nate…” she began, this time far less fervently as her voice was quivering.
But finally he took her seriously.
He lifted his head, his voice was low and determined and his eyes were completely black.
“Lily, I’ll take care of you. Always. Whatever you want, just ask and I’ll get it for you. You’ll never need for anything, want for anything, not while you’re with me. I’ll take care of everything.”
Then, the subject closed, he kissed her again and when he did all thoughts of jobs, mortgages and credit card bills swiftly exited her mind.
Much later she learned how to sleep with someone. Nate pulled her back against his front, wrapped his arm tightly around her waist and buried his face in her hair.
Lily fell asleep thinking it felt rather nice.
Chapter Ten
Lily’s Ending
Lily was worried.
How she could be happier, more contented and at peace than she’d ever been in her whole life, and be so damned worried all at the same time, she did not know.
Things with Nate were wonderful… no, splendid… no, magnificent.
Well, most of the time.
He worked quite a bit. Even at his age (he was only 28!), he was the Executive Vice President of two divisions of his father’s company and he took his job for his father very seriously. Deadly seriously. It was almost like he owed his life to that job. Nate left before Lily woke up every morning, and Lily was an early riser, and didn’t come home until after eight o’clock every evening.
Sometimes she’d have dinner ready when he’d come home. Other times he’d call her during the day to tell her he was going to take her out to some fabulous restaurant (so fabulous, Nate was significantly taxing the limits of her wardrobe). Twice they’d been to Victor and Laura’s for dinner.
Every night he’d make love to her (and mornings besides), most nights more than once and each time was better than the last.