Page 82 of Secrets in Love
“Hmm, I can imagine. Bet it spiced up Janet in the bedroom that night, though.” Nate gagged and dry-heaved as he climbed from atop me and slid off the bed.
“Could we please not talk about my parents and their bedroom? How would you like it if I talked about Jocie like that?”
“Please, I have heard more about Jocelyn’s sex life than the world knows about Hugh Hefner’s. She is an open and terrifying book.”
Admiring Nate’s naked glory, I rose to stand beside him. “You two should talk tomorrow when I’m at work. Maybe she couldteachyou a thing or two since you love teachers so much. Just don’t fall in love with her.” I smacked his ass and sauntered into the bathroom. “Speaking of grossness, I need a shower. My hands have been up a giant turkey’s ass, and I can still feel its bits.”
“The words every man wants to hear from his woman after sex.” Nate rolled his eyes and pushed me back on the bed. “You stay here and hold off on that shower. I will run you a bath, and after you’ve soaked in the bubbles while touching yourself as you think of me, I have a surprise to give you.”
My bath was Chandler Bing-level opulent—soft music, candles, an exorbitant amount of bubbles, and a giant rubber ducky. Unlike Chandler, I had Nate perched beside me because we were rapidly forming an unhealthy codependency. At first, his presence was just him hovering over me annoyingly in amazement at how my nipples always seemed to burst through the bubbles like an irrepressible ray of sunshine through the clouds, no matter how much bubble bath he added. After complaining about the hardness of the cold tiles on his knees, rather than just stop, he set off in search of a stool and returned with the stepstool from the kitchen in one hand while the other had something hidden behind his back.
“Is that my surprise?” I squeaked in an embarrassingly girly tone that the hulking farmer seemed to keep drawing out of me.
“Nah, it’s the stepstool from the pantry.”
“Not that, you idiot. Whatever it is you have behind your back.”
“Oh, this?” he said flatly, flashing a dark, navy-blue book quickly in my face. “Yes, this is a surprise. It’s a collection of amazing short stories I came across during my daily snooping, and I would like to read some to you as you bathe.
“Aww, that’s really lovely, Natey. Thank you. What’s it called, though?”
Never one to take anything too seriously, Nate ignored me and loudly cleared his throat while I ducked and weaved to try and see the cover of the book he stubbornly concealed. I couldn’t see the title, but it was a beautiful deep blue with a twisting floral pattern and red, large bold font like you’d see on an old-fashioned fairy tale.
“I will begin on a random page, and you have to guess. Ready?”
“Yes, I’m bloody ready. The water will be cold if you don’t hurry up.”
“Okay, here we go…. She is all beauty and grace, flittering and fluttering like a delicate fairy, twirling on a shimmering, golden string. But her true and mighty heart beats with the ferocity of a medieval knight, and her blood runs red, burning with the fire of the dragons she will one day slay. She yearns for adventure, for independence. For stages and strangers with interesting faces. Of finding her own way. Of making mistakes and occasionally learning. Of finding and falling in love.”
“Nate! That’s one of my stories! The one you remembered!” I jumped to my feet and, of course, almost slipped on my ass. With hero-like reflexes, he dropped the book, caught me in his arms, and attempted to lift me from the water. “No!” I cried. “No!” With all my strength, I pulled him to my lips, then dropped back into the water, bringing him, fully clothed, with me. There, I continued to pepper him with kisses, undo his belt, and interrogate him. “What did you do? How did you do that?”
“I accidentally, well, not accidentally, deliberately searched for and found some of your writing. Then Teddy and I collated it,Finn did the cover and illustrations, we submitted it to a printer, and had it turned into a book.”
“Oh my God! That is such a violation of privacyandthe most beautiful thing anyone has ever done for me.” With all my might, I pushed him off me and kept on pushing until he fell backward. “I’m so fucking mad at you. Thank you so much.” Looking rightly bewildered, Nate’s back cracked into the enamel, and as soon as he maneuvered his long, thick legs from beneath him, I was able to free his hard cock from his pants and slowly slide down his hard length. “Oh God, oh God, oh God.”
“Evie, condom.”
“I don’t care! I’m on the pill now!” I screamed as I began to rock and grind and bounce. It was still a relatively new thing for me, being on top. I’d been thoroughly enjoying the weight and pressure of Nate’s body crushing me, but I felt powerful, and angry, and loved, and even though I couldn’t find the words to tell him, I could show him.
Grabbing his hands from my waist, I pressed them against my breasts and held them there, cupping and squeezing.
“You’re so fucking hot, Evie.” He sighed, biting his lip, and hypnotically watching the bounce of my breasts.
I ignored him, shot my right hand out, wrapped it around his throat, and lightly squeezed in time with the hand still held to my breast. “It was wrong of you to go through my things.” I gripped tighter, feeling his pulse race beneath my fingers and his cock swell inside me. I pushed his head back against the bath wall, enjoying the sense of control. “You need to ask me for permission. Don’t you?”
“Yes, Evie,” he moaned, his voice hoarse and so fucking sexy.
“Good boy.”Where the fuck did that come from?Nate growled and wildly bucked his hips up into me. His enthusiastic reaction to my aggressive domination was both frightening and turning me on. “Don’t do it again, Nathaniel.” With one last squeeze, I released his throat and his hand.
“Yes, Evie.” He gasped for air, slid down farther, grabbed the flesh of my hips, and pulled me down against him. His grip was hard, his nails digging into my skin, the sharp pain exciting. Sending buttons flying, I ripped open his shirt and took his nipple into my mouth. One at a time I licked then bit them, each nip drawing a louder cry. “Fuck, I’m gonna come, Evie.” Hearing those words after what I’d just done spurred on my own sudden rush of pleasure. I dropped my hand to my clit, stroking only three or four times before my whole body shook, and the most intense, air-stealing, time-warping orgasm splintered through me.
“Holy fucking hell,” he groaned and shuddered beneath me as I felt the pulsing heat of him coming inside me.
My forehead fell to his. “You’re part of me, Nate. I can feel you. I can feel you.”
Nate kissed my shoulder, wrapped, and dried my shivering body in a towel, and lovingly dried me off. His gesture and my force had rendered me, for once in my life, utterly speechless.
Thebook,mybook, laid open on the floor before me. The title, now visible, wasAoife. Tears poured down my face as I studied the stars, flowers, and beautiful fairy ballerina. All I wanted to do was tell him how I felt. To beg him not to make me choose. And to ask for him to stay.
