Page 48 of Fierce Love
“And we’d leave…”
“Tonight. The New York apartment is available, so we can stay there. Maximize our time tomorrow before the concert.”
I want to ask him if his mother knows he’s doing this for me, for Kinsley. It’s one thing for him to fund a TV show I’m part of, but it’s a whole different vibe to whisk me and my sister off to a weekend in New York on the family jet and to stay in the Tucker family apartment.
Except, there’s nothing going on between me and Nate. He’s doing this for Kinsley.
Which, if I’m honest, is also for me because I’m the one who promised and wasn’t going to come through. Nate saving my relationship with my sister one over-the-top kindness at a time.
“You know I’m not staying in Bellerive once our show wraps. Kin and I are going back to New York. So, if you think… I don’t know… I just want to make sure that’s clear.”
“I know what you’ve said,” Nate agrees easily, eyeing me. “And I know that we’re adults and that New York isn’t on another planet. It’s one short flight from Bellerive. My stance hasn’tchanged, Hols. You don’t want us, you don’t want us. But if you think youcan’thave us, you’re wrong.”
Sometimes you don’t understand you can hate someone for something they’ve done until you’re confronted with the crime.Ihate myself for the pain I caused Nate. Necessary, maybe, but unforgiveable.
“I get to pay for all our meals, including anything we buy at the stadium,” I say.
Another amused expression floats across Nate’s face, and I know that even if he agrees, he’ll find some way to thwart my efforts. The number of times he let me pay for anything when I was a teenager, I could count on one finger. Of course, I couldn’t really afford to pay for anything, but my pride wouldn’t let me stop trying. He was the master of slipping someone his card when I wasn’t looking or prepaying before we even arrived.
“Deal,” Nate says. “Shall we shake on it?”
He extends his hand, and I eye it for a beat, nerves zipping up and down my spine. As our palms make contact, a shiver cascades across my skin, a familiar sensation. He has calluses, and I wonder if he still cuts wood with Cal, ball cap backwards, skin glistening in the sun. The thought causes my own cheeks to heat.
With a gentle tug, he draws me between his legs, and he releases my hand to run his thumb along my cheekbone. Gentle and intoxicating. Our gazes are locked, and there’s a part of me that wants him to lean in, brush his full lips against mine, slide his hand into my hair, angle his mouth over mine, deepen the kiss, make me forget all the reasons I can’t let us happen.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” he whispers. “Every time I see you across a room, standing in front of me, literally cradled in my hands, I question everything. Do you know how often and how long I wished you were here?” His voice is gravel, scraping across my heart.
“Nate,” I breathe out. I never let myself wish for him because I knew wishes were futile. I used up all my wishes on something else.
“I’m in no rush, Hols. I’ve got time, but I’m not letting you go without showing you that you don’tneedto leave. Not this time.”
And then I do the thing I know I shouldn’t, that’ll only lead us into something that’ll break both our hearts. I grip the back of his neck, and I kiss him.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Nathaniel
Victory shoots through my veins, followed closely by intense desire. My body is so present, so fully engaged, that the powerful emotion would be unnerving if this wasn’t Hollyn, if this wasn’t how it was between us from first contact. I forgot how hard the sense of rightness hits me the minute we’re skin to skin. Every inch screaming the same claim.
Mine. Mine. Mine.
Without pausing to question why she’s kissed me, I angle my head, deepening the kiss, seeking a fuller experience. God, with her, I long for deeper. Nothing is ever deep enough, connected enough, close enough to satisfy whatever exists inside me that’s so inextricably entwined with her.
The kiss is wild, unleashed. Passion races through me as though we’ve uncorked a shaken bottle of champagne, and the spray is soaking the room in anticipation.
I dip my tongue into her mouth, and she responds in kind. Her fingers are rough in my hair, as though she’s fighting with herself, but I don’t fucking care. We’re doing this. Free-falling back into something. For weeks, I’ve been tiptoeing around her, hoping she’d come to me.
Now that she has, now that she’s made the first move, I intend to make her glad she did.
I clutch her ass cheek and spin us so she’s pressed against the desk. Then I’ve got my hands under the hem of her skirt, pushing it up her thighs. Her hips arch toward my body, seeking contact. This urgency, this need, is even stronger than when we were younger, as though it built up in the years between, as though I never quite released the full force of my yearning with anyone else. Or maybe this intensity only existed with Hollyn. Maybe we were made for each other, can only ever bethistogether.
Hollyn moans as I lift her onto the desk and step between her spread legs, leaning against her, letting the heat of my desire rub against her core, and the simple friction is almost enough to bring me to my knees. She gasps, clutching the back of my neck and my arm that’s braced against the desk, and I swallow the sound.
There is no greater discovery than this fire, burning, the realization that I can still make her whimper, crave more. She’s shaking with need, body primed and ready for whatever I’m willing to deliver.
I slip a hand between us, cupping her sex, and now it’s my turn to groan at how soaked she is, so ready for me that my cock strains against my pants at the thought of sliding into her wet heat.
A tiny part of my brain knows I shouldn’t be fucking her in my office on my desk as a way into a second chance.
