Page 79 of Secrets in Love
Pulling away from Nate’s naked body that I, despite refusing to admit the fact, never want to stop touching, I almost fell from the bed, taking the sheet with me and wrapping it around my equally bare body. “I’m going to take another shower…alone this time. Jocelyn and Iris will be back soon, and this room smells like a bloody brothel. I need to wash the sheets and get rid of the man-smell before the old girl catches a whiff.”
Nate’s horrified face tickled me to no end as I sashayed into the bathroom and locked the door.
It was only then, as I leaned my palms against the marble vanity and faced my reflection, that I allowed myself to swoon. “Oh my God. I lost my virginity… I fucked Nathaniel Myers, the hottest guy in Byron Bay,” I whispered to myself as I performed a little happy dance on the cold tiles. “Eat shit, Luke Bailey.”
After I showered, and while Nate did the same, I got a warning text from Jocie that they were a few minutes away, and I unsuccessfully tried calling Finn again as I stripped the bed.
“Stubborn shit,” I muttered as I slipped my phone into my pocket and attempted to slip from my room before Nate reappeared. With my big toe barely hitting the wood floor of the hall and my arms full of sheets and a quilt cover, two strong and sexy arms snaked around my waist. I smiled despite myself. “Hands off, bucko. You have to get dressed, and I have to get this laundry in the wash before Jocie gets back…which will be any minute.”
Nate pressed his lips to the crook of my neck and let me go. When I returned, his new khaki chinos were on, and his white tee was slipping over his head. Damn, his body was insane. With his arms stretched like that, every muscle in his arms, chest, abs, and obliques were on display.
“I can sense you, Evie. Stop watching me.” Gorgeous brown eyes met mine as his face appeared and tanned skin was covered by cotton. To hide my blush, I threw the fresh linen in his face and barked orders. “Stop being an idiot and help me.” He kissed me hard and raw, and it took all my strength not to throw him on the bed.
“I’m not sure why we’re bothering with this.” He winked and tossed the sheet over the mattress with one annoyingly easy flick of the wrist. “We’re only going to mess it back up later.”
Deciding whether or not to argue back or ignore his cockiness was an easy decision. “Snort. You’re confident, aren’t you? How do you know I’m not done with you now that I’ve gotten what I wanted?” Nate dropped the pillow he was wrangling into a pillowcase, grabbed my wrists, and pulled me against him, kissing me fiercely.
“Because I heard your whimpers and cries as I fucked you.” He kissed me again. “I saw your face as you fell apart on my mouth.” Then he ran his nose down and devoured my neck. “Despite the lies that spout from those pretty lips I’ll soon have wrapped around my cock, I know you want me as much as I want you. Your body always tells the truth.” Goosebumps broke out all over me as Nate’s lips continued to pepper my neck. “See, look what it does when I talk dirty. Your body betrays you. It loves my filthy mouth.”
I crashed my lips into his, pushed him back on the bed, and straddled him. “Fuck you, you arrogant sexy asshole,” I snapped as I ripped my top over my head.
“No bra? God, you’re fucking amazing.” Nate sat up and latched onto my right nipple while rolling the left between his fingers. Cocky or not, he knew me. The sheets weren’t even tucked in, and they were wrapping around us.
A car horn beeping at the rear of the house broke us apart. “Shit, it’s Jocie!” I leapt from Nate in such a rush that I stepped smack dab on the middle of his stomach. “Get up, you fool.” I threw my top back on and straightened out the bed around him while ignoring his wails of pain.
“I would if I wasn’t in agony. Come back to bed and heal me.”
“No, I can’t,” I laughed despite myself. “Please, just get up and act normal.” After groaning and wailing a little more, Nate jumped from the bed, followed me out the door, and grabbed me again.
“Now, you listen to me,” I snapped as he pressed me against the wall in the middle of the staircase, in full view of the door that rattled as Jocelyn fumbled with the lock, and kissed me for the four hundredth time in an hour. “Not a word about us to anyone. Finn thinks he’s so clever. He thinks he knows it all, but he doesn’treallyknow that whathethinks is happeningisn’treally happening. As per usual, the guy is clueless.”
“He’s not the only one.” Nate rubbed the back of his neck. “I have no idea what you just said.”
“Just keep your hands and lips to yourself. Jocie was sus this morning, but she has no evidence. It’s all filthy speculation, and I want to keep it that way.”
“Sure, keep telling yourself that, Gidge.”
The door swung open, and I ran down the remaining stairs. “Hey, guys, how was—”
“Evie and I are a couple. We’re dating!” Nate shouted at the top of his lungs. His words hung over my head, suspended in mid-air like a bucket of water that drenched me when Jocelyn squealed in delight.
“Nate!” I spun on my heel and found him striding toward me.
“Sorry, Eves, but I refuse to play games. I love you, and I want the world to know.” Jocelyn gasped as Nate laced his hands through my hair and pulled me into a brain-frying kiss. The second he moved away, she latched onto Nate’s face and squished his cheeks like he was a fat man-baby. She then tried it on me, but I stealthily dodged her affections.
“Evie,” Iris said thoughtfully, “do you love Uncle Nate too?”
Nate was standing just out of my view behind me, but I knew his eyes were on me. I could feel the heat of his gaze. “Sure I do, bubs.” My shadow inhaled sharply and squeezed my thigh. “LikeI love my favorite pjs or roast potatoes.”
“Geez, don’t get all mushy on me, woman.” Nate huffed, releasing his grip. I turned to face him, and though his words were playful, and he wore a smile, it was not his real smile—the one that lit his eyes and took my breath away, that had me surrendering and falling harder and faster than I’d imagined possible or planned to ever admit.
After blushing, squirming, and grouching my way through the fuss and excitement of the delighted duo, I hung Iris’s coat and neatly placed her shoes in the rack by the door. We then followed her and Jocie in their matching rainbow socks toward the kitchen. Nate’s hand rested on the small of my back, the gentle heat of him driving me crazy. “I thought I told you not to say anything,” I whispered from the side of my mouth. “It was supposed to be a secret.”
Suddenly, Nate pushed me into the laundry room, quietly closed the door behind us, and pressed me against the washing machine. “We don’t have time for secrets, Gidge. Remember what you said in the shower after I made you come? ‘I’ve wasted so much time.’” He ran his thumb over his lip like he was holding back or deciding his next move. “Damn it, Evie.” He surrendered and kissed me like it was against his will, and it was desperate, needy, and full of possessive tongue and lip sucking and biting. “You keep saying you’re not coming home with me…well, fine. I’ll let you be stubborn and pigheaded about that for now, but you can’t say that what’s between us isn’t real or pretend that it’s not happening, ‘cause it’s bullshit. Everybody can see it, Evie. Everyone. You want me. I want you. Let’s just stop the charade, enjoy whatever this is, and not waste another minute, okay?”
Stunned, I heard a whispered, breathy, “Okay,” leave my lips as he kissed me again. He then adjusted his cock, which had hardened deliciously as he pressed into me, opened the door, and confidently waltzed out. “So, Iris, did you buy your Uncle Natey a present?”
Sitting around the kitchen table, I half-heartedly listened to the conversations flowing around me. Nate and Jocie tried again to contact Finn and gave up, while Iris gave us a fashion parade featuring all the outfits she managed to swindle from her great-aunt.
