Chapter 17

Nate

I'd said too much the last time I saw her, but I couldn't help myself. The minute she admitted to somehow falling in love with me over the last year... all bets were off. Not that I'd honestly considered taking her life. I hadn't. I couldn't. I'd rather have taken my own.

The bundle of flowers in my hand felt awkward. I'd never bought a woman flowers. Never even picked a fucking flower and handed it to someone.

"Ugh. What am I doing?" I ran my fingers through my hair and continued to pound the pavement by her car. If Ashley saw me outside the coffee shop with flowers in my hand, all hell would break loose.

Or would it?

The nasty bitch wanted me to court Jenna. To woo her and bring her to love me so that we could get married. As disturbing as it was, I wanted that too, but for very different reasons. I didn't want the money stacked behind her name that I might eventually get ahold of in years to come.

I wanted to wake up next to her in the morning, to kiss her soft skin and make her moan every night. To buy her flowers. Make her breakfast.

Glancing around, I found a trash can and realized I had to run. She would lose her life because of me, and where that would have been perfectly acceptable with anyone else, it wasn't with her. Not my girl.

Not my Jenna.

"Hey. Are those for me?" Her voice was soft, unsure.

"Naw... these?" I lifted them in the air and shrugged. "I stole them off some kid down the street missing a leg and a few fingers. No big deal."

She laughed and walked toward me, reaching for them as her eyes lit up.

I was so fucked by this girl.

"You don't seem like the kind of guy to hurt a little boy." She reached up and wrapped her hand around the back of my neck, pulling me down toward her.

I pulled her in tightly and leaned in, kissing her deeply as I rubbed my hands down her sides to her hips. "This is what flowers get me?"

"No," she whispered and pulled back, locking eyes with me. Fear swam through the center of my stomach. I would have to run. Now, goddamnit. Now. "Flowers get you a blow job."

I swallowed hard. "I kinda like the way you handle a dick."

"Your dick." She leaned in for another soft kiss, teasing me a little as her tongue moved across my lips.

I growled low in my chest and tightened my grip on her. "Watch where you step, princess. It's been two days, and a man like me doesn't put up with too much teasing before I take what I want."

"And what is it that you want, Nate?" Her sexy attitude had me wanting to toss the flowers and take her back to my place for an all-night fuck-fest, but it would only bind me tighter to her.

"To spend the afternoon with you." I nipped at her lips and moved back. The air never tasted sweeter as I pulled it deep into my lungs. She had too much power over me.

It was fucking intoxicating.

I should have asked about her brother in some off way, but I figured she would bring him up eventually. Maybe not. Seemed weird that she would keep something so personal away from me, but the possibility existed that I wasn't the only one playing games.

Highly unlikely, but who knew for sure.

"And where do you want to go." She pressed her face into the flowers and breathed in deeply.

"How about Central Park? It feels too good out here today to spend the rest of the afternoon inside." I reached for her hand and walked us toward my bike. "Or we could go for a ride up north?"

"How about both?" She smelled the flowers again before tossing them in the dumpster beside my bike.

I lifted my eyebrow sharply and snorted. "Does that mean you don't like flowers?"

"Not at all. I'm not going anywhere that I could put them into water. The gesture was sweet, and the message was clear. I love it. That's what you wanted when you bought them, right?"

"Stole them off a blind kid. Yeah." I helped her on the bike and got on myself, reveling in the feeling of her arms around my waist.

"Oh, so now he's blind?"

"Of course he was. I'm a bastard. Put on your helmet. I don't need a run-in with the cops." I pulled mine and hers off the bike and handed her the smaller one. "You eat?"

"No, but we can get a sandwich next to the park. There's a shop right there I want to run into as well. I need to pick up a dress I ordered." She pressed her chest to my back and slid her hands down to cup my dick.

I pressed into her hold and groaned before closing my eyes and breathing in deeply. "I love the feeling of you against me."

"Good. I plan on being closer later. Maybe this time without all of these clothes?" She laughed and I opened my eyes and started the bike.

I'd never allowed myself to dream, but as we rode over to Central Park that's all I did. Vision after vision of a different life than the one I'd been living for twenty-six years. It shook me to the core that love was within my grasp, but if I was being honest, it wasn't that simple.

It never was with me.

We pulled up to the park and I offered her my hand, helping her off the bike before getting off myself and locking the thing up.

"Food or dress first?" I reached out and brushed her hair down as it flew around her pretty face.

She glanced down at her watch. "Dress. The shop is going to close in forty minutes. I don't want to wait until next week to get it."

"All right." I reached for her hand. "Lead the way, angel."

"Why do you call me so many names?" She smirked, which caused her little button nose to turn up. How she could look deliciously sexy one minute and beyond cute the next was a mystery, but both looks had my cock growing thick and heavy.

I shrugged. "I don't know. I just respond with what I see. I always have."

"I like it." She reached for the door to the small shop.

"And I like you." I moved up behind her and grabbed the door.

"Good." She glanced over her shoulder and gave me a hot little look.

"Watch it," I growled and walked over to a table of lacy panties. All of them would look good on her. Off of her. Pushed to the side while I worked my tongue deep inside of her.

"Hi. I'm Jenna Webb. I had a dress to pick up." Her voice carried back to me, and I glanced over.

Jenna Webb. One of the richest families in all of New York and yet she seemed like a commoner. Just a girl of simple means. I'd messed up a lot in my life, but this time was epic in the scope of things.

"Sure, Miss Webb. Did you want to try it on?" The older woman gave my girl a shit-eating grin.

Jenna glanced over her shoulder at me.

"Yeah. You do." I winked and turned back to the panties, picking up several pairs and walking toward the register. "And we want these too."

"Perfect. Give me one minute and I'll have the dress out for you." The woman disappeared into the back room as Jenna picked up a pair of the panties and balked at the price. "These are twenty dollars each. No fucking way."

"I got it." I ran my hand down her back and squeezed the top of her ass. "Tell the old lady that I'm going in the dressing room with you. That I'm your husband."

Her eyes widened a little. "It's a small shop, Nate."

"I know. You'll have to be a good girl and keep quiet." I squeezed her ass once more before walking toward the back of the shop.

The clerk walked out and held up the dress. "Here we go. There is only one dressing room, but you're welcome to use it."

"Perfect. I'm going to let my husband come in to help me. I had hell getting this thing zipped last time." Jenna's voice was sweet, soft. I loved it.

"Oh. I could help if you-"

"I'll help." I glanced over my shoulder and gave the woman a look that told her to pipe down. Now.

"Yeah, sure. Okay." She shrugged, looking less than pleased, but walked over to the dressing room and opened it for us. "If you need me, I'll be right here. Within earshot."

I laughed and held the door for Jenna. I almost liked the old bat. Earshot. She'd be listening. Poor Jenna.

"Nate. Let me try this on and we'll go back to my place."

"Sure. Sounds fun." I reached out and ran my fingers down the side of her face. "Just make sure when you come you don't scream my name... unless you want to."

"No. Not in here." She pushed at my chest as a serious look affixed on her face.

I pulled a condom from my pocket and wiggled around her before sitting down and opening the thing.

"Nate," she whispered roughly.

"Yes, baby?" I glanced up and dragged my zipper down. My cock was so hard that I had to work the fucker out of the hole in my jeans thanks to it riding up to my bellybutton.

"No. Put that away." Her eyes widened and she put her back to me and pulled her shirt over her head.

"That's your job." I slid the condom over my dick and reached up to pull her shorts. "Take these off. Sit in my lap. Fuck me in here."

"Be quiet," she barked and swatted at me as I pulled her closer.

"You be quiet." I tugged her shorts over her thick hips and forced her panties down with them. Brushing my fingers through her thighs left my heart racing. "So wet."

"I'm not doing this." She bent down and pressed her hands to my knees as I positioned my cock against her tight slit.

"Looks like you are."

"I hate you." She pushed back and I bit my tongue from crying out. She was beyond everything I wanted in my bed, in my lap, in my fucking life.