Page 49 of Marked

“Uh, can I have that?” Nate asked me.

Snapping my eyes up to meet his, I found him looking at me without the slightest hint of embarrassment. If anything, I thought there was a mischievous glint in his eye as he held his hand out for the towel.

“Yeah,” I squeaked, and handed it over.

As soon as he took the towel, he dropped his jacket. The man apparently had no shame whatsoever. I had the briefest and most fleeting glimpse of what lay behind that jacket. Water droplets still running in rivulets toward?—

I whirled around, nearly falling over in my haste to get my eyes off the image of Nate wrapping the towel around his waist. The naughtier parts of my mind screamed at me to turn back and get a really good look, but the more mature and adult part urged me to keep looking away. Thankfully, the grown-up portion of my brain won out.

As though to punctuate what had already been one of the worst days of my life, I heard the front door open and close, along with Gael’s happy shout.

“Mama!”

Of course Mom would be home early. Why thehellwouldn’t this be the day she got off work more than an hour before she was supposed to? Now, I had to worry about what she wouldsay about Nate. I didn’t want her getting the same idea Gael had about the stranger inside our apartment. What would I do? How would I explain? Even if I said Rick and I had broken up, it didn’t explain Nate being here. My heart thundered as I went through a dozen different explanations.

The bathroom door opened again, and Nate leaned out, still wearing nothing but the towel and a cocky grin.

“Who’s that? Your mom?” he asked.

Then, from the kitchen, my mother spoke up. “Mija? I’m home. Cameron? Where are you?”

Her footsteps neared the hall. Any second, she’d see Nate’s wet hair and pretty face. Panicking, I shoved him back into the bathroom, throwing myself in after him and kicking the door shut behind me. Before the door even had time to latch, regret washed over me. This was possibly theworstidea I could have had. It would be a thousand times worse for Mom to find meinthe bathroom with a naked man than for him to have simply been in here by himself.

“Very forward of you,” Nate said, the deep, rumbly bass of his voice sending a tremor through me. “Trapping me in here when I’m naked like this.”

He placed his hands on the door beside my head, effectively caging me in. The tattoo on his left arm caught my eye. Sets of tally marks running from his wrist up his forearm, four in total.

Twenty? What was the significance of that?

Nate inhaled deeply, pulling my attention away from his tattoo. He’d leaned in close, his eyes mere inches from mine. The intimacy of the moment—his breath mingling with mine, the smell of my soap on his skin, and the towel hanging loosely around his waist—sent me into a tailspin of eroticism. This wasnotreal life. It couldn’t be.

I knew I should shove him away, but a mysterious part of me enjoyed this. Actually, Ilikedhaving him right on top of me.My nipples ached. A steady, warm pulse throbbed between my legs, and as I looked down at the towel, only a few seconds away from slipping off him, I grew wet and rubbed my legs together, enjoying the friction.

What the fuck was wrong with me? Why did it fill me with so much contentment to be in this man’s presence? I barely even knew him.

The towel slid another quarter inch, and I licked my lips, my mouth suddenly very dry. Nate lowered his head, catching my eye again, and I felt like a fish who’d just had a hook sunk deep into her lip. The look in those deep gray eyes sent an involuntary shudder of desire through me. Nate’s gaze bounced from my eyes down to my lips. For a single second, every square inch of my body screamed at me to close the distance and kiss him. To lunge forward and shove my tongue down his throat while his hands roved across my body, to yank the towel off him, sink to my knees, and take his?—

Nate touched a stray curl, ripping my thoughts away from the erotic movie playing in my mind. I shivered, desire and need flooding through me.

“Why do I affect you like this?” Nate whispered, leaning even closer, his lips a hair’s breadth from mine.

The flirtation in his voice, like he was speaking to a lover, should have sent me running. Ineverliked it when men assumed too much and tried too hard. For some reason, though, Nate had the opposite effect on me. If I were being honest with myself, I loved every minute of it. I forgot all about the breakup drama and even the attack. The only thing in the whole world that mattered was this moment with this man in this room. Everything else seemed surreal and unimportant.

“What do you mean?” I whispered back, aching to feel his lips on mine.

“You know what I mean,” he murmured, releasing my hair. He ran a finger across my collarbone, and my eyes almost rolled back in my head at the touch. “And how are you tempting me like this? No other woman has this effect on me.”

“I, uh, assume there have been a lot,’” I said, my voice shaking. Dear God, why were my panties wet? What the hell was wrong with my body?

He grinned. “I have a way with women, yes. Does that upset you? It shouldn’t. You’ve got a way withme.” He lowered his voice even more, barely audible. “It’s like both sides of me want you.”

“Bothsides? What does that mean?”

Ignoring my question, he lowered his head, his nose grazing the side of my throat. Nate took a deep breath, like he was smelling me. It should have been weird, but I’d never experienced anything so hot in my life. My knees were getting weak, and it was all I could do not to grab that towel and pull it off. But the questions remained. What was he talking about? And what was he hiding? I didn’t even understand all these secrets, and I was supposed to lie to my family and friends.

After breathing me in, Nate gave me a quizzical look like he’d discovered something interesting, but he didn’t say a word about it. Instead, he leaned in even closer, the heat of his body radiating into mine.

Summoning all my willpower, I pressed a hand to his chest, pushing him back.

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