Three Wishes (15 page)

Instead, Victor answered.

“Lily isn’t coming back tonight,” Nate informed him.

“I figured as much,” Victor replied, not even attempting to keep the prideful chuckle out of his voice.

“She isn’t coming back tomorrow either.”

“Going back to Somerset?”

“No,” Nate answered shortly.

“I figured that too.”

Nate tried not to be annoyed at his father’s know-it-all attitude. Tonight was a good night. It was the best night of his life. He didn’t much feel like being annoyed.

“Son, when you make your mind up about something you usually don’t fuck around. Never have, likely never will. I saw you looking at that girl outside Harrods. Frankly, I’m a little surprised it took three days.”

Nate decided to end the conversation, “Good night, Victor.”

The amusement never left his father’s voice when he returned, “’Night Nathaniel.”

“Who are you talking to?” Lily was standing in the doorway to the bathroom. As the sun was finally down, Nate had turned on the lights at either side of the bed.

She had a white towel wrapped around her body and she was rubbing the balls of one of her feet against the top of another one.

“Victor,” he answered, watching her, making every effort, and it took a lot of effort, to stop himself from hurtling out of the bed and dragging her back.

She looked absolutely adorable.

And she was his, only his, no one else’s, just his.

She was the only good and decent thing in his life that had been just his.

She interrupted his pleasant reverie. “I knew that, I heard you say your Dad’s name. I meant to ask why?”

“I told him you weren’t coming back tonight.”

Her eyes rounded in shock, she took a quick step forward and halted. “You did
what?
”

“You’re staying with me tonight,” he told her.

“I can’t
stay
with you. I can’t
not
go back. If I don’t go back they’ll know what we’re doing, what we did, I mean, what we’ve
done!
”

He didn’t respond mainly because she was correct.

She shot into the room and started to grab her clothes from the floor.

“I have to go back,” she announced, bending double to put on her underwear, the rest of her outfit tucked under her arm. “They put a roof over my head. I mean, you’re their
son
.”

“Lily, come to bed.”

She whirled on him at the same time attempting to pull the camisole on over the towel.

“No! You have to take me back.”

“I’m not taking you back.”

She had the camisole on, ripped the towel off and threw it on the bed. This sent the clothes under her arm flying but she grabbed the skirt as it fell. Then she shook it out and was clearly about to put it on and ignore him completely.

“Lily, if you put on that lovely skirt, I’ll just take it off again.”

“They’ll think I’m a brazen hussy,” she mumbled, deep in the throes of agitation.

He wanted to laugh but sensed this was not the time. Instead he threw the covers off the bed and, naked, approached her.

She was still trying to put the skirt on, bent double again and hopping around, clumsy in her turmoil. She was also muttering to herself.

“My mother would just
die
of mortification and my
grandmothe
r! Oh, I don’t even want to
think.
She would have disowned me. She’s probably
twirling
in her
grave
.”

“Lily.” He put his hand on her back and she jerked up, tangled her leg in the skirt and started to fall backwards.

His hands shot out, he caught her and pulled her against his body.

She talked about her family a great deal, nearly all the time. At dinner she told him stories of her mother, father, grandmother and some man with the strange name Fazire who she obviously adored. Every time she spoke of them, her eyes would light with love. He’d never seen anything like it, never experienced that kind of devotion. Never let his heart melt enough to realise he had it from Laura and Victor.

And he wanted it, but from Lily.

“Nate, you
must
take me back to your parents,” she pleaded, her eyes meeting his. “I
like
them. I don’t want them to think I’m… I’m…
wanton
.” She was underlining her words with great regularity and Nate had to bite back his laughter.

“They won’t think your wanton.” He could barely say the word without laughing. He definitely was smiling.

Her eyes rounded further then they narrowed dangerously.

“You think this is funny,” she accused.

He bent his head to kiss her but she arched against his arm at her waist and dodged him. His hand went between her shoulder blades and forced her closer.

“It
is
funny,” he told her.

“It… is… not,” she enunciated every word carefully and he found, to his surprise, he liked her when she was angry. When his mother was angry she became mean and spiteful and said hideous things. Danielle was exactly the same. Laura rarely became angry.

Lily was entirely different. Lily was spirited and hilarious and Nate knew somehow that she couldn’t be spiteful if she had to do it to save her own life.

“Lily, calm down and listen to me.”

“
I am calm!
” she shouted not the least bit calmly, her outburst surprising even her and that subdued her. She bit her lip and her eyes slid sideways. Then she sighed before admitting, “Okay, maybe I’m
not
calm.”

Finally she stopped moving enough for him to kiss her and he brushed his lips lightly against hers.

When he had her attention he asked, “Do you remember what I said when we came into this room?”

She thought for a second and then nodded.

“What did I say?” he asked.

“Well…” she hedged.

He pulled her closer and reminded her even though he knew she hadn’t forgotten, “I told you, if you got in that bed with me, I was never letting you go.”

She stared at him, her eyes filled with wonder and all traces of anger simply ebbed away.

“Do you remember me saying that?” he pushed.

She nodded.

“Do you remember you agreed?”

She nodded again.

“Did you get into bed with me?”

“Well, you kind of threw me into the bed, or sort of…
pushed
me.”

At that, he finally allowed himself to let out a sharp bark of laughter. She was just too much.

Once he had himself under control, he realised she’d relaxed against him and her body had become pliant.

His tone gentled. “Fair enough. So, once I threw you in, did you leave?”

She shook her head.

“Do you want to leave now?”

She stared at him a moment and he held his breath.

Then she sighed and shook her head again.

He let out his breath, his relief so great he had trouble coping with it. So he set it aside and slid his hands under the camisole.

“Now, let’s get you out of these clothes and back into bed.”

He pulled the camisole up again but this time her arms came up of their own volition.

“Nate?” Lily called as he tossed her camisole aside.

He was gliding his hands across the smooth skin of her back and staring at the flawless skin of her shoulders.

“Mm?”

“Nothing.”

His eyes found hers and they were uncertain. He misread her mind and bent to brush his lips against hers again.

“Come to bed.”

She sighed again and nodded.

* * * * *

Lily had always slept alone.

Except a few times at sleep-overs with her best friend from grade school, Colleen. Colleen had a big double bed and they’d slept there together.

That was it, her entire experience of sleeping with another human being.

Therefore she had no idea how to sleep with a man.

She was pressed against Nate’s side, his arm underneath and wrapped around her, his fingers stroking her hip.

When he took her clothes off (again) and took her to bed, he made love to her again.

Well, not exactly, as he didn’t come inside her even when she asked him to. He told her he didn’t want to hurt her. Instead, he did things to her with his hands and his mouth and took her to that beautiful place while he watched.

She would have been immensely embarrassed by this but once she’d had her body and pulse under control, she looked at him and he was looking at her as if she’d just announced she’d cured cancer. She couldn’t be embarrassed when he looked at her like
that
.

And then he’d pulled the covers over them and tucked her against his side and seemed, as she was finding was usual with Nate, to be quite happy in complete silence.

Lily was not happy. Lily was thinking about what she’d promised and what that meant.

“Um… Nate?” she said against his shoulder where her head was laying and she had an unobstructed view of the wall of his chest.

She liked his chest, it was strong and broad and muscular. She liked it just as much as his hands and
now
she had even more reasons to like his hands, even love them.

“Mm?” This was a low rumble that seemed to come from somewhere deep inside him. She found she liked that too.

“What does not letting me go mean, um… exactly?”

His fingers stopped their lazy stroking at her hip and his hand flattened, his fingers digging into her.

“It means you aren’t going anywhere.” His voice sounded somehow tight.

“Tonight?” she asked, deciding it best to ignore his strange tone.

“Tonight, tomorrow night, the next night, the next week.” He stopped but only because he was finished talking not because what came after next week wasn’t included in his statement.

This idea warmed her very soul but she
was
a practical Indiana girl. There were other things to consider.

“But I live in Somerset,” she told him.

“Now, you live here,” he returned as if it was as easy as that.

Her body jerked in stunned surprise at his announcement and she lifted herself to her elbow, reaching down at the same time to grab the sheet and pull it up to her chest.
He
was blithely unconcerned with his (rather wonderful) nakedness but
she
was not.

She stared down at him. After one date he expected her to move in with him?

“I own a house in Somerset,” she explained.

His eyes moved to hers and they were unreadable. “We’ll visit on the weekends.”

She gasped.

“But I have a job in Somerset!” she informed him.

“Resign. You no longer have to work.”

She gasped again, this one even more shocked than the last.

“I’ve been working since I was thirteen years old!”

Something shifted in his eyes as she glared at him and she realised that she’d surprised him somehow.

She had indeed been working since she was thirteen. Neither her parents nor her grandmother thought idle children were a good thing. She had a paper route that she did every morning, not to mention she’d gone to work at one of her father’s friend’s golf courses, picking up the balls on the driving range all day Saturday. When she was able to work legally, she’d found a job at a fast food restaurant for a year. At Oxford she definitely had to work and pulled pints at a local pub.

She didn’t tell Nate any of that nor did she let him comment but continued to speak.

“I don’t know how
not
to work. I wouldn’t know what to do. What will I do?”

He came up on his elbow and faced her, his hand moving the hair from her neck to behind her back.

“You can shop, go out to lunch with Laura. She’d love it.” His voice was soft and his eyes were on her mouth and he obviously thought this was a satisfactory answer.

As much as she liked shopping, she couldn’t do it every day. It wouldn’t be fun if she could do it every day. And she had a mortgage, she had credit card bills, she had to work.

“I need a job,” she told him determinedly.

His head was descending.

“Then get a job,” he said against her lips. He was pressing her back on the bed and she didn’t resist. She couldn’t have even if she wanted to, which she didn’t. He came over her and then he kissed her. Her belly was warming up for a full-blown gymnastic extravaganza, she could feel it.

“Nate…” she began, this time far less fervently as her voice was quivering.

But finally he took her seriously.

He lifted his head, his voice was low and determined and his eyes were completely black.

“Lily, I’ll take care of you. Always. Whatever you want, just ask and I’ll get it for you. You’ll never need for anything, want for anything, not while you’re with me. I’ll take care of everything.”