Front Page Affair (10 page)

His dad let out a derisive snort. “I know you're linked to one woman after another, but it never lasts more than a couple weeks because there's no connection.”

Yeah, he supposed if anyone had the skill set to recognize something like that it was his dad. Hindsight and all. “You've been spending too much time with your nose in the tabloids.”

“I saw you laughing with her. The way she looked at you.” His dad stared him straight in the eye. “This one's not going to let go so easily.”

Nate shook his head. “Yes, she will.”

When the time came, she'd have to. And until then, she wouldn't get too close.

He wouldn't let her.

T
HEY'D
spent the evening enjoying dinner, drinks, and non-stop laughter at the Gold Coast home of Diane and Garry Ortiz. Nate tried to warn her ahead of time about his former Marketing VP's larger-than-life personality trapped in a pixie-sized body—but it wasn't until Payton found herself gasping for breath within the enthusiastic squeeze of Diane's shockingly strong arms that she fully grasped his meaning. Stunned, she took a step back, laughing as Nate steadied her with a hand at her hip.

“Diane, I think you broke my date,” he joked, dodging to avoid the swat of her arm.

“Oh, stuff it, Nate.” She took a deep breath that seemed to fill her entire body, nearly bringing her to her toes, and then let it out in a huge rush. “It's just so wonderful to have finally met you, Payton. I can't believe the nerve of this guy in keeping you a secret for so long.”

“Thank you. Tonight was so much fun.”

Diane cast a mocking scowl Nate's way. “See? She likes us. No reason to keep her holed up the way you did.”

It was hardly the case. As absurd as the suggestion had been, Nate hadn't been kidding about sharing his friends. In their few short weeks together, he'd been steadily circulating her through the various groups he socialized with, encouraging relationships outside himself. Keeping up his end of the
bargain while maintaining the ruse around the timing of their reunion for the sake of a child half a world away.

Cocking his signature grin, he winked. “Guess I just wanted her all to myself.”

Diane waved him off, pulling Payton into another suffocating embrace, and then set her back with a satisfied smile. “About time you found one worth hanging onto, Evans.”

“Definitely.” He looked casual, utterly at ease with the implication they had a future together. But Payton knew the truth.

With Nate romancing her several nights a week, filling her days with unexpected surprises, texts and phone calls—it should have been heaven. But their romance was running on borrowed time.

Nate had ways of reminding her. Nothing overt or hostile. Just a subtle distancing when he sensed she was getting ahead of herself. The problem was, she didn't want the distance or to hold back, and more than that she didn't want Nate holding back either. What they had wasn't going to last and, no matter how she sliced it, when the romance ended her heart would break. There was no defense against it. So until that happened, she was going after everything she could get.

 

Sunshine poured clear and bright from the October sky, the lingering Indian summer giving the city as a whole a reason to smile. Payton, clipping down the sidewalk in her favorite flowing skirt and calf-hugging, heeled leather boots, was no exception. It was an off day from seeing Nate, and thanks to a field trip her afternoon classes were cancelled—which left her free to catch up on a few overdue errands. Only as she rounded the corner of her block, she caught sight of Nate—dangerously appealing in Aviators and dark jeans—pushing off the rough brick pillar at the end of her walk.

“What are you doing here?” she called, rushing forward. “I thought you had meetings all afternoon?”

“Being the boss has its benefits.” Nate stretched out his arms, gesturing around him. “Too nice a day to be cooped up indoors. Let's drop your stuff and take a ride.”

Payton frowned down the street. “I'd love to, but I've made appointments around town. Papers to sign at the lawyers. Stuff I've been putting off too long.”

Nate slipped his fingers beneath the lapels of her jacket and tugged her gently into him, his cajoling smile running at full strength. “So reschedule. Lawyers do it all the time.”

“No, I shouldn't—”

“Sure you should.”

She sighed, bristling slightly at Nate's domineering attitude. But then he tucked her beneath his jaw and it felt so good in his arms. So right.

“Tell your lawyer it's a crime against nature to waste a day like this one and you'll see him next week.” His fingers sifted through the curls at her back, the touch sending a shiver of pleasure skirting her spine.

It would be easy enough to reschedule. But Nate simply expecting she drop everything to accommodate his whim didn't exactly sit right. Even if she had been thinking about him all day, she didn't want to be treated like just another one of his beck-and-call girls.

No, she was making too much of it. The man wanted to see her so he'd dropped by. Big deal. It was a nice thing.

And it wouldn't last forever.

“Come on. We'll play hooky. It'll be fun.”

“Hooky?” she scoffed, giving in with a slow caress of her hands down his chest. “What are we going to do? Go to the mall? Catch a movie? Hide out under the bleachers?”

Nate's smile was pure mischief, his tone pure seduction. “Is that what you did?”

“Please. Like I've ever ditched.”

He'd moved into leering territory now, his blue-eyed gaze running the length of her. “But I bet you wanted to.”

“I did,” she replied, her answer escaping on a wistful sigh.

“Yeah,” he answered, face tilting toward the sky. “Me, too. But I couldn't exactly get away with it when Dad was teaching two doors down from my homeroom.”

“I guess not.”

“But no one from the office would dare call him now.”

She let out a conspiratorial laugh. “And your secret is safe with me.”

Grinning, Nate pulled his phone from his pocket and handed it over. “Reschedule.”

Five minutes later Nate threw his leg over the black bike parked at the curb, watching with satisfaction as Payton's eyes went wide and her lips parted on a small intake of breath.

He brought the bike off its center stand and held out the spare helmet. “Hope you like to go fast.”

Payton's eyes shot from the bike to the helmet and back to him. “I've never been on one before. I don't know how.”

“Really?”

“I always wanted to.” She smiled, her eyes seeming to focus on some distant point from the past. “You used to ride that big bike around. I thought it looked so cool. Like such fun.”

He remembered. It had been his cousin's. On loan for the summer while Nate worked a job the next county over. He'd seen her walking in town one sunny day and offered a ride. She'd wanted it, her expression reflecting pure desire, but she'd turned him down anyway. Looked guiltily behind her, as if she'd been afraid someone might have seen.

Someone with a heart condition she didn't want to worry.

He hadn't realized at the time. But that was what it had been. He couldn't help but wonder how many desires, big and
small, she'd pushed aside to keep from upsetting her father. Or how devastating the loss of him must have been after sacrificing for so long—even if she'd known that, ultimately, the loss was inevitable.

Payton would have her fun now.

His blood pumped faster as he gave into the urge to play. Catching her wrist, he pulled her close. “So I'll be your
first
.”

A coy look from beneath the fringe of her lashes. “You will. Be gentle?”

Damn, he had fun with this woman.

“Don't worry. I'll start slow,” he promised with a nip at her bottom lip before pulling the helmet over her head. “And if you get scared, just hold on tighter.”

The pink tip of her tongue smoothed over his love bite, leaving a moist trail he wanted to follow with a lick of his own, but days like this one didn't last forever. So settling for a too-brief kiss instead, he winked and patted the seat behind him. “Let's hit it.”

As it turned out, taking it slow wasn't an issue. Not in the slightest.

He'd expected Payton to be scared. To be holding on for dear life. Exhilarated by the experience, perhaps, but still maintaining some semblance of reserve. A healthy respect for her safety. He had
not
expected the little minx in the leather jacket and flowing hippy skirt tucked around her thighs to be shamelessly feeling him up with one hand flat against his abdomen, the other snaking over the rise of his thigh. To nearly drive him over the edge with the breathy sounds of her pure, unadulterated delight as she begged him not to stop…to go faster…
yes, yes, yes, like that
…

Damn, how did she keep surprising him like this?

Taking everything he gave her and turning it into something beyond what he'd expected it to be.

He'd been after a quick spin down by the lake—the wind in his face with Payton's legs hugging his hips. That had been three hours ago.

One night. That had been over three weeks ago—

—and with no end in sight.

His back tensed beneath the press of her breasts.

Things were going too far. And he was
letting
it happen.

Even when he held back, she didn't… And the way Payton had fun—her enjoyment amplifying his own—made the willing surrender of his control an all too easy temptation to give into. But falling over the line in the sand he'd drawn—again and again, just because it felt good—was going to land him in a place where he didn't want to be. A place he'd have to walk away from. And that wasn't how he wanted it to go.

Daring fingers flexed and splayed over his thigh, moved ever closer to the hard ridge they'd provoked, forcing a strangled groan from Nate's throat as he throttled down the road toward his place.

Time for a reminder about who was in the driver's seat.

Time to take back control and set some limits. And if boundaries were going to be tested, it would happen the way he liked—on his terms. It was time to push
Payton
to extremes—make her pay for that wandering hand and finally get
her
to say “when”.

M
INUTES
later they were rounding the top level of the parking garage in Nate's building. The sun burned low in the sky, casting the stark concrete supports in gilded rays.

“That was incredible!”

He barely heard her over the roar of the engine echoing through the structure and waited until he'd pulled to a stop and cut the engine to respond. Pushing the machine up on its stand, he grinned. “Yeah? Glad you had fun.”

“I'm not sure fun even begins to describe it.”

He stripped off his helmet and then turned to help her with hers. Damn, that smile was enough to drive a man to distraction.

And about that…he had some payback to attend to.

“Come here.” He slipped one hand under her thigh and, the other around her back and, ignoring her squeak of surprise, pulled her around to straddle his lap. The gauzy fabric of her skirt bunched between them. Her heeled leather boots—looking decidedly bad-girl when paired with his bike—tucked behind her as she settled warm and soft against the hard-on he'd been battling for hours.

She stroked his jaw, brushing over the day's growth of stubble with a silky smile that had him responding even as he willed himself to heel. He shook his head, his gaze searching her face, trailing down her neck and body, and then returning
to her eyes as he nuzzled into her palm, kissed the hollow and then ramped past “sweet” bringing a scrape of teeth into the action. He wanted her to know where this was going.

Payton's heart skittered to a halt as instant heat surged through her, twisting into a needy ache that left no part of her unaffected. Her breasts, her belly, her fingers and toes. Every fine hair that covered her body took notice, bowed beneath the desire born of his touch.

His tongue licked out as his blue eyes pierced her with his intent. Her breath sucked in. Her body coiled tight. And then he licked again, trailing a cool, wet path of erotic sensation in a circle around the first.

“We should go inside,” she murmured, more than ready to let Nate take the exhilaration of the ride to the next level. This was a man who made her want everything. A man who, when merged with her, made her feel invincible. Unstoppable and completely alive.

One large hand snaked around her waist, while the other went to her nape, guiding her closer until their lips met in a soft brush, a teasing introduction after too long apart. Her fingers curled against his thighs, and he angled his head, taking the kiss deeper.

Willing and eager, she opened to him. Moaned against the claiming thrust of his tongue as he filled her mouth. So good but she wanted more than a taste. She wanted him everywhere and all at once. Everything he had. Everything he was.

Something was happening within her, something she knew better than to give into but couldn't seem to stop.

Take me. Make me yours.

The forbidden wish rose unbidden from the dark shadows of her mind.

Hold me. Forever.

When Nate let go of all his careful restraint, he gave her what she'd never had before. Showed her what she didn't know
existed. It was incredible. Addictive. It was more than the physical. More than the mind-blowing sensation spearing through her at his slightest touch and deepest penetration.

But it wasn't what they'd agreed to. It wouldn't last. Only when he held her in his arms and stopped holding back, she felt as if, maybe, just maybe…it could.

Soft and wild. That was Payton. It was the sound of the cry that escaped when he caught her lip between his teeth, held and tugged the slightest bit. The sultry moan when he gripped her bottom, dragged her closer and drove his tongue deep into her mouth. Rocked harder as the muscles of her lean thighs bracketed him, flexing and tensing to the rhythm he'd set—until their breath came in fevered bursts between them. Desperate draws cut short by their need for more contact—deeper contact.

“Please…please…oh, God.”

That's right. Just like that.

His hands fisted at her hips, seizing the delicate waistband of the panties that kept him from where he wanted to be. Sweet perfection tangled with his tongue, curling around, licking over him, sucking every bit of restraint from a mind that hadn't had much to begin with.

Control.
That was what he was after. But her kiss stroked like a match-head over rough stone, igniting Nate in a flash flame. And there was no controlling the combustible desire when she opened to him, invited him in.

Tearing back from the kiss, he sucked air, tried to get a hold of himself. But all he could see were those soft wild curls swaying from side to side as Payton's mouth devoured his neck, his ears, his jaw, and then more when her fingers got in on the game—working the buttons of his shirt, with her lips following down his chest. Each heated kiss punctuated by her breathy pleas and silky declarations, “Nate, oh, Nate. What you do to me…want you…need you… don't stop…”

He couldn't stop. Didn't want to stop.

Don't ever stop.

His eyes opened. Had she said that? Or was it simply where his mind had taken him following his train of thought?

And then, somehow, she'd opened enough of the buttons to get the bulk of his chest free, and the little demon was licking at his nipple again. Her teeth grazing around it and then sucking with enough force the sensation pulled straight from his groin—where her deft fingers tugged at his straining fly and he was once again left panting through gritted teeth as he raced to keep up with her.

He was supposed to be holding the reins! It was Payton's turn to say “when”.

“No.” Hands clamped on her shoulders, he set her back against the fuel tank.

Her brows pulled together in pained confusion. “Why?”

“No condom.” It was true, though only occurred to him as he'd grasped for an excuse to modify their positioning.

“I need to get on the pill,” she groaned. Her heart rending cry of distress over their predicament would have been comical if his groin hadn't tightened to the point of pain at the forbidden memory of skin on silky smooth, wet skin. If he weren't totally caught up in her parted, kiss-swollen lips and the warm pants escaping them at a rate that damn near matched his speeding pulse.

“Upstairs,” she urged, trying to sit up from her reclined position at the head of his bike.

Nate stopped her by running his hands up her splayed legs, still wrapped around him, and issuing a gruff, “Not yet.”

He had a point to make and then, once she got it, he'd take her to the privacy of his apartment and spend the next twelve hours making her scream. But first, he took her hands and then brought them up to the handlebars at either side of her head. “Hold on.”

Her eyes went wide and he waited for it, tasting the satisfaction of a success sure to come. This was where she told him “no”. Where common sense and self-preservation prevailed and she realized she needed to slow down. Be more careful. Only her knees didn't pull closed, she didn't put a hand out to stop him.

She did as he'd commanded. She held on.

A part of him let out a cheer at the opportunity to take this fantasy come to life a step further. She'd break soon enough, but for now…

Backing down the seat to make his intent perfectly clear, he fingered a bit of her skirt and then flipped it back to expose her panties.

Turquoise. Lace.

Damp.

“Nate,” she gasped.

Oh, yeah. Here it comes. “We should stop.”
Only then, nothing but the anxious shifting of her thighs, the soft musk of her arousal driving him past sanity.

Fine. Desperate times called for desperate measures. “Don't worry,” he growled. “There isn't much traffic up here. I doubt anyone will catch us.”

No way he could meet her eyes after that one—no one came up to his private garage level, ever—but he was all about pressing the advantage, so, eyes on those racy panties that should have come with a warning, he slid his arms beneath her legs.

This would do it.

He draped first one supple leg and then the other over his shoulders until he had her so erotically laid out he didn't know if he could last. But it wouldn't take much more. It couldn't.

He was taking back control. Showing her who was in charge— Except then he felt it, the slight dig of those killer-heeled boots at his back. Pulling him in.

Payton, Payton.

His hands tightened around her thighs and, slipping the damp scrap of her panties aside, he sank into her sweetness, tasted her cry and the pulse of her body's ready desire. It was insane and irrational, and yet—those stunned breathy gasps of pleasure, the widening of those deep brown eyes he couldn't stop watching—suddenly, he didn't want her to do anything but go with it.

She was desire mixed with an eager curiosity and sense of adventure that left him panting, straining, and demanded he step up to the challenge and make every damn minute they had before this ended the most exciting she'd ever experienced. He wanted her to let him take her as far as he possibly could.

He licked and kissed, circling outward until he felt her writhe beneath him and then working back in until he earned it again. Plumbing with deep thrusts of his tongue and nibbling with the softest graze of his teeth. He closed his mouth over that little bead and drew against her, tasting her cry on his tongue, increasing the strength of his pull with her escalating pleasure until her voice broke, her body quaked and spasmed and she came apart for him with the gift of her total abandon.

When she'd finished, he gathered her close. Ignoring the strain of his erection, he wound his fingers in the back of her hair. The hair that completely betrayed the wild woman inside. Hair that defied conformity, rebelling against every method of restraint imposed upon it. Escaping every bind. Sexy, beautiful, vibrant hair.

He unclasped the barrette she'd secured it with at the nape of her neck, releasing all that wild, soft rebellion into his hands. Sifting through the curls with his fingers as his tongue delved into the wet haven of her mouth.

So he couldn't control everything.

So what. Maybe he didn't want to. Maybe giving into
Payton for a while was just what he needed. Holding back only made him want her more, and at the rate they were going, it would be years before he got her out of his system enough to give her up.