Chapter Thirteen
A faint, warm draft tickled Natalie’s shoulder, gently lifting her from deep, delicious sleep. A part of her insisted she scratch it before her mind could kick into scrambling-mother mode, but the rest of her was content to relax. To burrow deeper into the snug cocoon around her and enjoy the quiet moments before her alarm went off. She hummed and smiled, wiggling against the firm heat blanketing her back.
Her eyes snapped open and her heart lurched. That wasn’t a blanket. That was 100 percent man spooned tight against her, complete with arms banded around her waist and legs tangled with hers. And they were both naked.
Every high-definition detail from the night before blazed bold and bright. How beautiful he’d made her feel. How thoroughly he’d seen to her pleasure, and how playful and easy he’d made every moment.
Well, not every moment had been playful. A few times she’d sensed them dancing awfully close to a line he wasn’t willing to cross, while others had shaken her clear to her soul. The whole night had been a revelation. A decadent temptation to toss caution to the wind and drown in the picture-perfect fantasies he’d created.
But she couldn’t do that. They’d agreed to light and easy, not happily ever after. The only chance she stood of keeping her heart from being shredded was to keep that reminder foremost in her thoughts.
The soft-blue readout on her alarm flicked from 5:57 to 5:58 a.m.
Thirty more minutes to savor and enjoy the feel of him next to her before her alarm went off. A whole half hour of indulgence before she faced reality without him there to distract her from all her worst-case-scenario mind games. But he’d given her last night. Helped her through her fears and given her something amazing to hold on to. Calmed her thoughts in the most toe-curling way possible.
His chest rose and fell in a deep, steady rhythm, and his breath ghosted across her bare shoulder. God, he felt good. Not once in her life had she woken with a man like this. Wyatt hated cuddling after sex beyond what he felt was obligatory, and she’d never actually spent the night with a man before him.
What was the protocol for a morning-after moment like this anyway? Should she be sweet and attentive like she would on a date? Or was she supposed to act like having him there was no big deal?
His arm around her waist tightened and he nuzzled the sweet spot behind one ear. The deep rumble of his voice moved through her like a caress, a sexy, sleepy rasp that stroked in all the right places. “Turn that mind of yours off and relax.”
“I can’t,” she whispered. “I have to get up and go to work.”
“Bet I can find a way to make you forget about work.” He inhaled slowly, kissed the back of her neck and ground his hips against her ass, making it abundantly clear that one particular part of him was wide awake and raring to go.
So, was she supposed to let him sleep, or roll over and initiate them kicking off their day with a quick and dirty version of last night?
“You’re overthinking it, darlin’.” He pushed up on one elbow and rolled her to her back. His thick blond hair fell forward as he cupped the side of her face and swooped in for a kiss.
For a split second, she froze, panicked by the one-two reminder punch of morning breath and bed head, but then his lips touched hers and switched her worries into neutral. How he did it, she couldn’t figure out, but the second he got his mouth on hers, all her common sense went out the window.
This morning’s kiss was no exception, though it was still a new experience. While the others they’d shared had been quick to flare and deeply heated, this one was light and languid. A lazy feast of lips and tongues reserved for quiet Saturday mornings.
Slowly, he lifted his head. “Promised you I’d keep this light and I meant it. You gonna let whatever worries were scampering around in your head go now?”
Light and easy. No happily ever afters.
She rolled toward him and snuggled against his chest. “I wasn’t worried so much as I was trying to figure out morning-after protocol. I don’t think I’ve ever woken up with a man wrapped around me.”
He grinned, the languorous weight of his heavy-lidded stare making it alluringly potent. “It feel good?”
The best. Completely safe and protected in a way she’d never felt before. “Yeah.”
His grin spread to a full-on smile full of teeth and dimples. Though, before she could fully appreciate it, he rolled to his back and pulled her with him so her torso lay half on and half off his chest. He combed his fingers through her hair like he’d done it a thousand times before. “What time do you get up?”
“Six-thirty. My title might say I’m a processing agent, but it’s really more of a glorified call center role. So long as I’m at my desk by seven-thirty, appearance isn’t high on the importance scale.”
“Good, then you’ve got time to talk.”
All the lighthearted easiness of the morning whooshed out of the room, leaving her muscles locked up tight.
He chuckled low and hugged her tighter. “Just reminded you I plan to keep things light. Not going to follow that up with the It’s been fun speech. Now, relax.” He traced her bare spine with his fingertips and goose bumps lifted in their wake. “Don’t know much about pregnancies and deliveries, but I’m thinking that scar isn’t because of Levi.”
She huffed out an ironic laugh and smoothed her hand above his sternum. His heartbeat thrummed strong and steady, and the faint dusting of hair between his pecs tickled her palm. “Oh, it’s because of Levi all right, but not his delivery.”
The hand coasting up and down her spine stilled. “Was it Wyatt?”
“Not like you’re probably thinking. He only struck me once, and it was after I’d goaded him pretty hard.”
“No excuse for hitting a woman. I don’t care if you went after him with a baseball bat.”
“Maybe not for a man like you, but Wyatt’s got a sizable ego to go with his MD. It’s bad enough when a wife questions his judgment, but when I called him out on something as a nurse, he flipped.”
“Called him out on what?”
She shrugged, hating the topic now as much as she had back then. “I found some bootleg pharmaceuticals in his office. Designer injectables from God only knows where. I pushed him to fess up and he hit me.”
The loose hold of his hand on her shoulder tightened and the mood in the room shifted to something dangerous.
She propped herself up beside him.
His mouth was tight and his gaze lasered onto the ceiling.
God, how stupid could she be? He’d told her abuse was a trigger for him, but she’d gone and red-flagged it all over the place. “The scar is from a tummy tuck,” she added, hoping the distraction would take his mind off wherever his thoughts had gone.
He shifted his attention to her and frowned. “A what?”
“A tummy tuck. Women get them when they’ve got loose skin around their middle and want to get rid of it. Levi did a number on my belly and Wyatt didn’t like it. I didn’t want the procedure, but I was so damned eager to earn back even a little of the man I’d married, I finally agreed.”
He smoothed her hair away from her face and cupped the back of her head. “You were smart to run when you did. Someday Levi will thank you for it.”
“I should’ve gone sooner. I just got too lost. Too hung up on trying to get back what I thought we’d had, but the more I tried, the worse it got. By the time he hit me, I’d lost so much of myself it was hard to function.”
“But you found your way.”
Her voice dropped to a whisper, the reality of how far she’d sunk before she ran a weight she couldn’t shake. “Not before he hit Levi.”
“No, but you took action as soon as he did. That’s something to be proud of.” His voice hitched. “Trust me.”
There it was again. That hint of something raw and vulnerable he kept tightly guarded. More than anything, she wanted to take it from him. To ease the burden if only for a moment the same way he’d done for her. “You say that like a man who’s got his own secrets.”
“Not secrets. Regrets maybe, but not secrets.” He toyed with her hair, winding one strand around his finger while he studied her face. “Not all women get out. Some of them live it their whole life. Worse, some of them die young never knowing they could have had better.”
“Anyone in particular?”
He hesitated, pain flashing behind his beautiful blue eyes for one defenseless second. “My mom.”
The room’s quiet roared and her heart squeezed. No wonder he’d reacted like he did. Why he’d been so willing to step in and help her. She laid her head on the pillow and cuddled beside him. “Is it too much if I ask what happened?”
“The same thing that happened almost every day in some form or fashion. Dad was in a mood and he took it out on Mom. The only difference that day was he took it too far and killed her. He used his pistol and took his own life when he’d realized what he’d done. Fucker was too much of a coward to face the consequences, I guess.”
“Where were you?”
“At school.” His expression hardened. “I found them when I got home.”
Desperate to comfort him, she ran her fingers along his strong jawline. His morning stubble rasped against her fingers. “I’m sorry.”
He rolled to his side and faced her, a little of his tension eking back to wherever it was he kept it hidden as he studied her face. “Don’t be. It sucked watching my mom go through that, but their deaths brought me Frank and Bonnie. It took six foster homes and more trouble than my social worker could handle to get there, but I made it. Frank helped me get my shit straight. Gave me a home and taught me what a family’s supposed to look like.”
“They adopted you?”
“Yep. Best day of my life when my last name changed to Raines.”
“Smooth sailing after that, huh?”
He grinned and rolled to his back, some of his playfulness rebounding. “Uh, no. Up until I graduated maybe, but I took sowing my wild oats after high school to a whole new level. Damn near threw away all the upbringing they gave me before Axel found me.”
“Axel?”
“One of my brothers.”
She frowned at that. “One of the men in the picture?”
“Yep.” He knifed up and prowled over her, pressing his hard body against hers in a way that promised all kinds of decadent distractions. “But that’s a different story, and you’ve gotta get to work.”
“I can be late.”
He cupped the side of her face and gave her more of his weight. “Got plenty of time to learn all my dirty laundry. This week’s about us having fun and me keeping your nights distracted. Now are you good with me crashing here with your mom on the other side of the living room, or are you packing a bag and staying at my place?”
Her mind hitched and scrambled to reprocess. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Distraction, darlin’.” As if to remind her what his special brand of distraction was, he rolled his still very erect cock against the core of her. “I’m keeping your nights busy until Levi’s back. I promised I’d keep it light, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be boring.”
“You can’t be serious. You’ve got two different companies to run.”
“Yeah, and feeling your heels digging into my ass while I’m driving my cock deep is fan-fucking-tastic stress relief. Now what’s it going to be? Your place or mine?”
She opened her mouth.
“A word to the wise,” he said before she could speak. “You’re loud when you come.”
“I am not!”
“Are too.” He smiled and nipped her lower lip. “Fucking love it, too.”
Her cheeks burned and it was all she could do not to duck under the covers. Still, it had been forever since she’d had even the slightest inclination to do something so spontaneous and fun. To throw her schedule out the window and live like she didn’t have a thousand responsibilities hanging around her neck. “Okay you win. I’ll pack a bag. But if I do, you’d better give me something spectacular to scream about.”
He chuckled low and bit his lower lip. His eyes smoldered with wanton promise. “Darlin’, you won’t just scream. You’ll beg.”