The Predicament (The Proposition #3.5) (3 page)

Her thoughts were interrupted by a high-pitched squeal. After striding over to the doorway, she cautiously questioned, she strode over to the doorway. “Everything okay?”

“Nothing I can’t handle,” Nate replied in a humorous tone.

“If you’re sure.”

“Positive, babe.”

Within a few seconds, Olivia quieted down, so Casey went back to the bathroom to touch up her hair and makeup. After a day at work and then an afternoon with Olivia, she could have used another shower, but she didn’t have the time. Much to her dismay, the voices of self-deprecation about her appearance didn’t stop even after her full lips shimmered with gloss or her dark hair fell in waves down her back. In the end, she felt like she had just painted the pig, or she was the equivalent of Jabba the Hut styling too tight lingerie.

She was just about to lose her nerve and throw in the towel, or in this case the stethoscope, when she heard Olivia’s door close. “Oh fuck it,” she muttered before hurrying out of bathroom and into the bedroom.

At the sight of Nate in the doorway, she lunged forward and threw herself into his arms. He hadn’t anticipated her, and they both went staggering back into the hallway. “I guess you’re glad I’m coming to bed, huh?” Nate asked.

“Oh yes. But not to sleep.”

“And here I was thinking that’s what we did in there,” he replied, his voice vibrating with amusement.

She eased back in his arms. Running her fingers through the strands of his dark, curly hair, she said, “If sleeping is all you remember us doing in there, I think you need your head examined, Dr. Rossi.”

When Nate’s dark eyes flared with desire for her, it instantly silenced all the chattering voices of doubt in her head. “God, you’re sexy as hell in that outfit.”

“Really?” she asked, her cracking and betraying her false bravado.

“Oh yeah.” He dipped his head to capture her lips with his. The kiss sent a tingling from her head straight between her legs. He had always been able to make her weak in the knees with just a kiss, and after all their years together, he still had the gift.

When he finally broke the kiss, both of their chests rose and fell in harsh pants. “So you’re up for a head examination, Dr. Rossi?”

“Mmm, hmm.”

Casey slid one of her hands down Nate’s chest past his belt to cup his growing erection. “I think this head needs my immediate attention. Don’t you?”

“I’d like that very much, Nurse Casey.” Shooting her a sexy grin, he added, “I leave myself in your capable hands.”

While she kept stroking him over his slacks, she used her free hand to unbutton his shirt. Once she had it open, Nate helped her by sliding it off his shoulders and letting it drop to the floor. She then turned her attention to freeing his cock that was straining against his zipper.

After sliding his pants and underwear over his hips and down his thighs, Casey couldn’t help standing back and admiring Nate’s body. He kept himself in fabulous shape. She traced his washboard abs with her fingers, causing them to tighten at her touch.

“Your examination methods could use some work, Nurse Casey.”

Tilting her head at him, she questioned, “You don’t like the care I’m giving you.”

He smiled. “That’s just it. You’re killing me with the teasing.”

“By all means, please tell me how to do my job. I want to take care of you,” she urged. It was more of a challenge to him since he usually wasn’t the dirty talker in the bedroom—that was usually her job.

“I want—no I
need
you to put your hands and mouth here.” He brought her hand back to his dick, which throbbed under her fingertips.

“I’m so sorry. Let me take care of that for you right away.” She guided him over to the bed before placing both hands on his shoulders and playfully shoving him back to where he fell down onto the mattress. His hooded eyes stayed on hers as he pushed himself up in the bed, giving her the room to kneel over him.

While he might’ve given her all the room she needed, the fabric of her nurse’s outfit didn’t. It took two tries before she was finally able to get up on the bed. Cursing inwardly, she swore she would burn it the minute she got free.

Bending down, she brought her lips to his. When Nate widened his mouth, she darted her tongue inside, dancing hers along with his. Knowing he was dying of anticipation and probably a case of blue balls, she decided to prolong his agony a little. After all, delayed gratification usually made the most mind blowing orgasms, and she wanted more than anything to give him that.

She started kissing a trail over the stubble on his chin, down his neck across his bobbing Adam’s apple to his chest. While some women hated chest hair and would have encouraged Nate to wax, she happened to rather like the dark dusting across his chest and stomach. Of course, she had to draw the line with back hair, which a lot of the Italian men in his family had.

When his erection bucked against her stomach, she teasingly rubbed against it, giving him a little friction. “I think I’m going to have to report you to the charge nurse,” he rasped.

Casey grinned as she flicked her tongue across Nate’s pebbling nipple. When she drew back, she blew air across it, causing Nate to suck in a harsh breath. “At least I’m not making you beg.” She cocked her brows at him. “Yet.”

“I’ll make sure to remember this when it’s
my
time to play doctor.”

His words coupled with the dark look glittering in his eyes sent a shiver down her spine and a shot of heat between her legs. Wanting to get to that moment, she decided it was time to get down to business. When she took him into her hand, he groaned and arched his hips off the bed.

After taking him deep inside her mouth, she bobbed her head up and down, alternating between fast and slow. Call her crazy, but she was one of those strange women who actually liked giving blowjobs. She wasn’t necessarily someone who thought it was better to give than receive, but she loved nothing more to have Nate groaning and writhing with the pleasure she was giving him.

With her nurse’s uniform starting to cut off the circulation around her middle, she was forced to momentarily let Nate’s cock fall free from her mouth as she shifted from sitting on her knees to lying down beside him.

Closing her eyes, she lay her cheek against Nate’s thigh, which still gave her easy access to stroke and lick him. She found the position a lot more comfortable than she had imagined. It was downright cozy. Why hadn’t she thought of doing him like this other times? Before she realized it, her hand began to slide slower and slower on his shaft.

“Casey?”

“Hmm, what?” she murmured drowsily.

“Um…I think you fell asleep.”

“Huh?” What the hell was he talking about? Of course, she had fallen asleep. I mean, they were in bed after all. Her eyelids flicked open to take in her surroundings. To her surprise, she not only found herself eyelevel with Nate’s dick, but she had it in her hand.

Her gaze left Nate’s deflated erection to stare up at him. Propped up on his elbows, he wore an expression of amused concern. “You just fell asleep in the middle of giving me head,” he replied.

Holy shit. She had seriously just dozed off…with Nate’s dick in her hand. How the hell was that even physically possible? Maybe she had passed out…maybe she’d had a stroke or something while she was stroking him. I mean, she couldn’t possibly have checked out voluntarily in the middle of a sex act.

A fiery mortification burned its way over her body causing her skin to feel inflamed and not in the good, erotic way. Her lungs screamed for the air that she couldn’t seem to bring into them while her stomach lurched and churned.

“Babe?” Nate questioned. He rose up to a sitting position and reached for her.

The moment he touched her, she scuttled away from him so fast that she ended up falling off the end of the bed. “Ow!” she cried as her ass smacked against the hardwood. Of course she had to fall off the end and not the side where the ton of throw pillows would have been to cushion her.

“Jesus, are you all right?”

When she stared up into Nate’s concerned face, her already overwrought emotions went even more haywire. For a second, she wished he was mad or frustrated at her for what had happened. But considering the goodhearted guy Nate was, he was worried about her feelings…and her soon-to-be bruised ass.

“I have to get out of here,” she blurted as she lunged to her feet.

“Casey, it’s okay.”

“No. No, it isn’t.”

“But I’m not mad. I swear,” he said.

Sprinting into the bathroom, she eyed the pile of clothes she had shed a half an hour ago. The tight as hell nurse’s costume would take too long to wrangle out of, and she needed to be out of the bedroom and house. Like five minutes ago.

She snatched her terry cloth robe off the hook and jerked it on. As she was frantically tying the belt, Nate appeared in the doorway. “Babe, let’s talk about this.”

She couldn’t bear to look at him. “I’m sorry, but I can’t. Not right now.”

After she blew past him and started out of the bedroom, he called in surprise, “You’re not leaving, are you?”

“I just need some time to myself,” she replied in a low-tone as she went past Olivia’s closed door.

“Where the hell are you going to go at this hour?”

“I don’t know.”

It wasn’t a second before Nate was at her side. He tugged gently on her arm. “Casey, I don’t want you driving when you’re upset like this.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Case—”

When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she whirled around and held up her hand. “Please, Nate.”

The pained expression he wore told her how much he wanted to argue with her, but instead, he clamped his lips together. Crossing his arms over his chest, he said, “Fine. Just promise you’ll be careful.”

“I will.”

She didn’t have to tell him to take care of Olivia—that was a given. Instead, she grabbed her keys and hurried into the garage.

She had told Nate she didn’t know where she was going, but that wasn’t the truth. There was only one place—one person—that could make her feel even the slightest bit better at the moment. She had to see Emma.

After careening into the familiar driveway on two wheels, Casey screeched her SUV to a halt just before dinging the garage door. Not even bothering with her phone or purse, she flung open the car door and sprinted up the flower-lined front walk. She gathered up the hem of her bathrobe to pound up the porch steps.

Just as she reached for the doorbell, she quickly recoiled her hand. Considering how late it was, she didn’t dare ring it for fear of waking Noah and Caroline. Instead, she started banging out a steady rhythm like Morse code on the wood. It took a few moments before the porch light flicked on, and the door swung open.

Standing before her with a bewildered expression etched on his handsome face was Aidan Fitzgerald. Barefoot and shirtless, he sported a pair of orange and green checked boxers—a subtle nod to his Irish heritage. In one hand was a longneck Corona and in the other was a baby monitor.

His blue eyes widened as he took in her disheveled appearance. When he opened his mouth, she held up a hand. “Out of my way, douchenozzle. I need to talk to Em.”

Aidan didn’t protest as she blew past him through the front door. Nor did he give her any grief about calling him “douchenozzle”. While she had first used it as a derogatory term against him, it was now a more endearing nickname between the two.