Page 8 of A Lot Like Forever
Even if he screwed everyone in his little black book, he doubted he’d get Faith out of his head. Because it was her he wanted in his bed, her body he wanted naked and glinting with sweat beneath him, and he wanted her right now.
His phone rang, breaking the dead silence on the ranch and scaring the shit out of him.
“Hello,” he said without looking at the caller ID.
“You’ve been hiding away, Brother.”
Of course, it had to be Chase. Again. “Just training my new housekeeper.” Two could play at this game.
“A hot live-in one? I should have gotten me one of those when I was single.”
Nate clamped his jaw and refused to be baited. “Look, she’s Sam’s sister and she needed a place to stay, so I gave her the job. End of story.”
“She always did drive you crazy, huh?”
Nate didn’t want to talk about it.“Just keep all the guys away from her. She isn’t the type to be toyed with and we both know that’s their specialty.”
“Fuck you,” Chase said good-naturedly. “You’re the love ’em and leave ’em king; what do you care?”
But he knew she was more in danger of him toying with her than anyone else right now. Even her hair had been a temptation, falling over her shoulder every time she’d leaned forward to reach for a slice of pizza, hiding the delicate skin of her neck and making him want to sweep it back and press his mouth there. He wanted to strip her naked and see exactly what that lush body looked like bare, preferably bent over his kitchen table.
Damn it!She’d been roughed up by her ex; the last thing she needed was Nate wanting to rip her clothes off.
Nate shook his head and hitched his heel on the rail in front of him.She was driving him insane.
“You’ve got to admit that she’s hot, though, right? I mean--”
“Enough,” Nate ordered. “Just be nice to her if you see her.”
“Yes, sir,” Chase said. “I had no intention of being anything but. You do know I’m married, right? Or have you forgotten all about the fact you have another sister-in-law?”
Nate said good-bye to his brother and stared at his phone. Just his luck Sam would call him next, and then Nate would be forced to lie to his best friend. For a guy who’d decided to keep his head down and stay out of trouble now that he was running the King empire, he sure wasn’t doing very well at it. Not very well at all.
He jumped when his phone buzzed again, his concentration lapsed, but the ID told him it was a call he wanted to take this time.
“Yeah,” he answered.
“Nothing unusual going on with the guy, not that we can see, but we’ll keep tailing him.” The man cleared his throat. “And we have a man for the job, if you decide not to take care of it yourself. Seems to me that it won’t be hard to take him, if you know what I mean.”
Nate took a slow, deep breath. He knew it was wrong to want to hurt another human being so badly, but teaching this guy a lesson was something Nate was starting to look forward to. “You just get me the info I need; I’ll take care of the rest.”
Nate shut the phone. It was time Faith’s ex had a taste of his own medicine, and learned the hard way that it was never okay to hit a woman. The easier thing would have been to pay someone else to do it, but getting other people to do his dirty work wasn’t the King way.
* * *
Faith hadn’t often woken up in a house that wasn’t hers, but there was something liberating about being at Nate’s place. She’d been guilted into looking after her dad for years, until she’d finally realized she didn’t have to pay for her mother’s mistakes for the rest of her life. Her mom had walked out, and Faith’s dad was a drunk, and for years she’d felt she owed it to her dad to stay with him.
When she’d moved out she’d been so determined not to repeat the mistakes she’d already lived, not to ever let a man treat her bad or not respect her. At least she’d left as soon as he’d hurt her, though—for that she’d be forever proud, even if it had been scary. She wasn’t about to repeat the mistakes her mom had made, letting a man break her heart and stifle her dreams.
Faith ran her hand along the banister as she walked down the stairs, loving the smooth texture of the timber beneath her palm. It was early, too early for Nate to be up, and it was a nice feeling to just pad around his luxurious house and enjoy her freedom.
Faith crossed the hall and peeked into a room she guessed was Nate’s office, before heading for the kitchen. She was thinking of making something simple like an omelette for their breakfast, because she knew he at least had fresh eggs, but then--
“Oh my god! Sorry,” she gasped.
Faith forced her mouth to shut and tried not to stare, but it wasn’t easy. Nate was standing in just a pair of running shorts, bare chested, a carton of juice in one hand. He had sweat dripping off him, chest slick, and way too much skin on show for her to be admiring.
“I didn’t expect you to be up already.”
