Breach: The Boxset (19 page)

Around nine, Caroline said her goodnights and that she’d see us in the morning, promising to act normal.

I turned to him as we cleaned up the mess from dinner. “Did your phone really die?” I had to admit, I loved that we were able to spend time with someone else knowing about us. It was liberating.

He smirked, and my suspicion flared up. Had he known and come anyway?

“Yes, it died after lunch.”

“How long after lunch?” I asked.

A devilish grin spread across his lips. “Sometime around when you got coffee. I was surprised to find she followed you home. I thought she would come over later.”

“Oh, God, you did read it and came over anyway?”

“Technically, I read half of it…then my phone died.”

“Unbelievable!”

“I thought it was a good idea. One of your friends should know, in case…” He trailed off. I didn’t ask him to elaborate. I’d learned that sometimes it was best to let certain things go. He would tell me in his own time.

I hoped.

“You couldn’t have given me a heads up? I was freaking out!”

He placed a kiss on my neck. “I’ll make it up to you.”

“How?”

He wiggled his eyebrows. “Oh, I think I have a few tricks up my sleeves…and down my pants.”

I shook my head and chuckled. “Do you, now? I’m not sure I’m convinced of your professed prowess.”

A complete lie. He had shown me again and again his skills in the bedroom—or wall, living room, elevator, shower, just about anywhere and everywhere.

“Are you challenging my ability to make you come and come often?” he questioned in mock incredulity.

He was being playful. Just what had gotten into him that evening, I didn’t know. Maybe he had taken his meds when he was upstairs. Whatever it was, I wasn’t going to complain. I liked this side of him. A lot.

After the dishes were dry and put away, he leaned over and picked me up, tossing me over his shoulder.

I cried out in protest. “Nathan!”

“Time for bed, number one.”

“Number one?” I asked.

“Yes, you’re number one in the Boob Squad.”

“Says who and why?” My hands reached out to grab his perfect ass, hovering in front of my eyes.

He cried out my name in surprise, smacking my ass before answering. “Because you show me a hell of a lot more of your tits than they do. Way more of them, and way more often.”

We reached my bedroom and he dropped me down onto the bed, his body crashing on top of mine. His hands roamed up my arms, moving them, pinning them above my head. The bulge in his pants was being pressed into my hot center, right where I wanted him. My hips tilted upward to grind against him, resulting in a hiss before his hooded eyes came within mere inches of my own. Neither one of us could stop smiling for the next several breaths as he continued to nestle himself between my thighs and rock me a little back and forth.

Then the mood shifted as his eyes darkened.

“Something you want, baby?” His voice was low and husky, and I shivered at his question. I lifted my hips in response, earning another small hiss. “Words, Delilah. Tell me in words what you want.”

“Kiss me,” I replied, wanting to feel his lips against mine, to taste him.

“Where?”

My breathing picked up, hips rocking.

“Everywhere,” I whispered, unable to get any other sound out.

His lips crashed into mine, his tongue sliding in and tasting me.

Sex was where we felt safe, where we knew each other. Nothing else seemed to matter when we took a hold of each other that way. I didn’t have to worry about Caroline, about the next day at the office. None of it mattered because I was with him and we both had what we wanted. There was sanity in the chaos. And breath back in my body.

He released my lips, his eyes staring into mine with a softness that had my heart hammering. “I meant it, you know.”

My eyes fluttered at the soft caress of his fingers moving along my cheek and down my neck. “Meant what?”

“When I told Caroline how beautiful and sexy you are.” His lips ghosted across mine before his eyes scrunched in pain and he shook his head. “I don’t know how anyone could ever tell you different, but they were wrong. Believe me, baby, they were so wrong about it all. It kills me and pisses me off to no end to know that there are more of their lies rattling around inside that head of yours.”

Tears welled in my eyes, and I had to look away. “You can’t know they were all lies.”

He cupped my cheek, bringing my gaze back up to his. “Yes, I can. I may be fucked up beyond repair, but I can still see the truth. You deserve so much…you deserve a loving heart and a caring hand, understanding and kind words to erase the false ones.”

My heart clenched, a tear releasing from my eye and rolling down my cheek. The sincerity in what he said took me by surprise. My arms wrapped around his shoulders, pulling him closer as I buried my face into his neck, a small sob breaking free.

His arms wrapped around me like a secure blanket. He made soothing sounds as his hand brushed over my hair.

“It’s okay, Honeybear, I’ve got you.”

I didn’t know if he knew the implications of what he said, but I wanted all of it, and I wanted it with him.

CHAPTER 20

Later that week, thanks to the Boob Squad, we became aware of the accused offenders of the alleged affair: Sadie from our accounting department and Will from tax law. They were not only hiding a relationship, but were expecting.

The story running rampant was Benjamin and his wife were at the OB/GYN for a checkup when they bumped into Will and Sadie. Benjamin’s wife told one of her friends about it, who told another, who told another, and so on, before it ended up in one of the biggest office gossip’s ear. You didn’t tell Sheila, Mr. Holloway’s assistant, anything that you didn’t want spread around.

I felt bad for them, worrying about when the situation came to a head. I understood Holloway & Holloway’s policy and why it was in place. I was there during the Antonio and Karen blowup. The difference I found here was that Sadie and Will worked in separate departments and never interacted for work, while Karen had been Antonio’s legal assistant.

Mr. Holloway could amend it so that they could keep their jobs because they were in different parts of the business. I knew Jack was kind and just trying to protect his business and his employees, but if he couldn’t amend it for this couple, I knew there was no hope for Nathan and me. Either way, we would be separated at work, both of us fired for our indiscretion.

I feared that day.

Even though I couldn’t express my feelings for him at the office, just having him near soothed me. Thinking about not having him there was enough to almost send me into a panic. I wanted to be near him.

Always.

I was amazed how fast time moved since Nathan had come into my life. Two weeks had passed since Caroline had joined in on our little secret. She’d been doing a great job hiding the fact that she knew anything was going on. In fact, she joined in with me against Nathan and the Boob Squad in our less-than-friendly, sarcastic banter in the office, and then laughed all through lunch about the reactions.

I think she was having way too much fun, but that’s what made it great because Nathan would laugh at night about the things Caroline had said during the day.

Nathan laughing was something I wanted to encourage as much as possible. I couldn’t wait to tell him that night that Caroline had called Tiffany a “street-walker-wannabe” due to the outfit she had picked out that day.

I shuffled the groceries, setting them on the floor of the elevator as I stripped off my suit jacket, revealing the tank top beneath. I sighed as the cool air hit my heated skin.

I hated having to hide my arms, but the bruises…I knew people wouldn’t understand.

While folding my jacket over my arm, I leaned down to rifle through my purse in search of my keys. I found them just in time for the elevator doors to open and picked everything back up. I twisted the key in the lock and made my way inside, kicking the door closed with my foot.

The sound of voices could be heard as I walked to his kitchen to put the bags down. It didn’t sound like the television, and I was certain one of the voices was Nathan’s.

“Nathan?” I called out.

There was a pause and some more mumbled words before his voice rang out. “In the living room.”

I crossed the hall and turned the corner before stopping dead in my tracks.

Nathan had a visitor.

Nathan
never
had visitors.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I apologized, but I wasn’t sure what for. Interrupting them? Seeing them? Being me?

I was sure my eyes were wide as I took in the graying brown hair and crisp blue eyes of the attractive older man occupying a cushion on Nathan’s couch. My attention moved back to Nathan, and he beckoned me to his side. I was nervous as I walked to stand next to him, still in shock at seeing another person in his home and not knowing how to act because of it.

“Lila, I’d like to introduce you to my father, George Thorne. Dad, this is Lila, my…my Lila.” His grip tightened on my waist, pulling me closer to him.

A gasp drew my attention back to the man I now knew as Nathan’s father. He was looking at me with surprised eyes, filled with joy.

He held out his hand. “Lila, it’s a true pleasure to meet you.”

Stepping away from Nathan, I walked forward and took his hand in mine. “You as well, Mr. Thorne.”

His fingers curled around my hand. “George, please.”

His gaze moved down to my arm, and shock covered his entire face. It was quickly replaced with a forced smile.

I looked down to see what brought about the change.

Nathan’s hand print on my bicep and the light bruises on my wrist from where I had pulled at his tie when he had restrained me to the bed the previous night.

“Are you staying for dinner, George? I’m making chicken marsala.” I pulled my hand free from his and stepped back to Nathan’s side.

“No, no thank you, my dear. I would love to, but Mrs. Thorne is expecting me home soon,” he said, that forced smile still in place, his jaw tight.

The tension in the air was thick as George looked from Nathan and back to me.

“Well…I’ll just let you return to your conversation, and I’ll go work on dinner. It was very nice meeting you, George.”

As soon as I was out of view, I heard George speak in hushed, harsh tones.

“Nathan, are you…hurting her?”

“What?” Nathan sounded truly bewildered.

“Son, she has bruises on her biceps and wrists. Are you abusing that girl?”

I stopped all movement in complete shock. He thought Nathan was hurting me? The thought made me sick. Nathan healed me—he never hurt me. The thought that someone, anyone, let alone his own father, had doubts about the kind of man Nathan was didn’t sit well with me. I couldn’t let it continue. I wouldn’t.

I stormed out of the kitchen and into the living room, my hands at the hem of my shirt.

“He is not hurting me,” I said, my voice raised and shaking. How could he even consider his son capable of abuse?

“Lila, no.” Nathan reached for my hands. The panic was evident in his features.

“No. He has to see. I will
not
allow your father to think you are abusing me! That you are
hurting
me!” I argued, pulling at my top.

Nathan’s hands pushed mine back down.

“I said no, baby. Only I get to see you without your clothes, even if my father is a doctor.”

We stared off, neither backing down from our positions.

“Fine,” I conceded, my hands releasing the hem. Turning to George, I lifted my hair up, exposing the area hidden beneath. He gasped as his gaze took in the obvious bite marks on my neck and shoulder, handprint bruises on my arms, and my tank top exposed the bruises and bites along my chest. “I’m an easy bruiser, Mr. Thorne. Malice and hate does not mark me. Nathan’s passion and need do. I know the sting of an angry hand, and
that
is something Nathan does not have with me.”

Sadness etched George’s face, and the same emotion echoed in Nathan’s. He lifted his hand up and caressed the marks he had left there. Leaning forward, he placed light, reverent kisses where he’d just touched.

I grabbed a hold of Nathan’s shirt and pulled his collar back aside to show his father the matching bite marks I’d given his son. “See? He’s not doing anything to me that I don’t want him to. We just get a little…carried away, is all.”

George cleared his throat, gaining Nathan’s attention again. Nathan pulled his head back, his hand gathering mine and lowering it down to our sides.

“I’m sorry, Lila, Nathan. I was just concerned. It’s apparent your anger is getting out of control. I mean, look at what you’ve done to the entryway in the past few months. I was just worried that you…Darren told me you haven’t been by in months. He wanted me to let you know he won’t refill your prescriptions anymore unless you get back in to see him.”

Nathan’s hand released mine and moved to his face, rubbing at his eyes. “I know, I know.”

“This is serious, son. I want you to get better. I want to see you smiling again. I want to see you happy.” George’s gaze flickered to me. “But you’ll never be any of those if you don’t get help.”

Nathan snorted in response. “Yeah, because the last three and a half fucking years of therapy have done wonders.”

“It only works if you actually want help and work at getting better. Not going in months, not talking to him about your new relationship… Things are changing for you, and you need some support to help you get through this, work through this. To move on, so you aren’t weighed down any longer. You deserve it, as does Lila,” George said, love and concern written all over his face. “You’re going through your meds at a much faster rate than usual. David also told me you missed your last appointment.”

“I had to reschedule it, that’s all.” Nathan’s tone was a bit harsh in his agitation. “And I’ll call and get in with Darren this week.”

“Because you’re out of meds?”

Nathan sighed and nodded in agreement, his father seeing the truth.

“Well, I should be headed out now before your mother begins to worry.” George pushed off the couch and moved to stand in front of Nathan. He wrapped his arms around his son, pulling him into a fierce hug. “I love you, Nathan.”

Nathan hugged his father back with matched ferocity. “I love you too, Dad.”

To my surprise and shock, George wrapped his arms around me and whispered in my ear. “Thank you, Lila. Please take good care of him.”

I stood frozen in his arms for a moment, and then with slow, tentative movements, my arms wrapped around him. I still wasn’t good with hugs, and sudden ones, such as George’s, were the hardest.

“Have a good night. I hope to see you at dinner sometime soon. Your mother misses you,” he added before turning for the door. “Oh, and don’t forget to bring this lovely young lady with you. Your mother would love to meet her. It was such a pleasure meeting you, Lila.”

“You too,” I said as he stepped through the door.

We stood in the living room for a few minutes before I broke the silence.

“Dinner?”

A grumble from Nathan’s stomach caused us both to laugh, breaking through the tension in the room.

“Please.”

After dinner, Nathan grabbed my hand and pulled me to him, bringing my lips to his with a gentle touch.