Chapter Eleven
A whisper of Nate’s cologne hung in the air of their shared room. The scent only served to enhance the soreness between Ellie’s legs, the tender spots on her hips from where his fingers had dug into her flesh.
She did her best to ignore those little reminders as she stepped out of her heels, then stripped off her tight jeans and T-shirt. Tossing them aside, she made her way to the shower, shutting the door firmly behind her and locking it, even though Nate had seen everything there was to see not even an hour before.
She needed a minute alone to process everything that had happened in the last couple of days.
Hissing as the scalding spray hit her skin, Ellie tipped her head back to wet her hair. Inhaling the rapidly thickening steam, she tried to let go of the jumble of emotions rioting around inside of her.
Tomorrow was her brother’s wedding, after all. She should be preparing to celebrate with him, not feeling torn apart by the very notion of attending.
She couldn’t get the look in Nate’s eyes out of her head. When he’d been standing talking to his mother, the blankness that she’d seen there had—well, it had terrified her. Logically, she figured that he was compartmentalizing. He’d been away from Ruby Beach for so long, and hadn’t expected to see Hannah, so it only made sense that he was trying to keep his feelings about that away from everything else in his life.
But that only served as a reminder for her, an indication that when it came to whatever this was between them, there were things that he was probably not going to share with her. Ever.
And when it came to Nate, Ellie was selfish enough to want it all.
She washed and conditioned her hair, rinsing out the scents of beer and stale air that always seemed to accompany a trip to a bar. Stepping out of the shower, she wrapped herself in a towel that felt like cardboard, scrubbing it over her skin as if to wash away the feel of Nate’s hands.
It didn’t help—she could feel the imprint of every one of his fingertips, claiming her. Her throat thickened as tears that she didn’t want started to rise.
She was falling for him. Hell, she’d fallen for him years ago. But right now she had no one to blame but herself for the fact that, come Monday, her heart would be an open wound.
“Shit.” Ellie reached for her robe, only to discover that she hadn’t brought it into the tiny bathroom with her. She eyed the puddle of clothing that she’d stripped off, but it was lying in a pool of water and besides, she was loathe to put dirty clothes against her clean skin.
She wrapped the towel tightly around her breasts. The party had still been raging when she’d left—chances were good that Nate was still there.
Of course, this meant that as she exited the bathroom on a cloud of steam, clinging to the towel, she found Nate sitting on the edge of the bed. Her fingers clenched on the stiff terrycloth as he lifted his head to look at her, a part of her expecting the same blankness that she’d seen as he spoke with his mother.
Instead, the gray of his eyes showed a million different shades of feeling. Grief, rage, and heartache, all things she would have thought that the bad boy of Ruby Lake was impervious to—they were all there, calling out to her in the same way the damaged teenage boy had once done.
Now, like then, something about the way he looked at her told her that he needed her. And despite her reservations about protecting her heart, she couldn’t help but give him what he seemed too proud to ask of anyone else.
“Nate.” Cautiously Ellie closed the space between them, perching herself on the edge of the bed next to him. She opened her mouth, then closed it again, not sure what to say.
“I don’t want to talk about it. Not right now.” Nate stood, then started stripping off his shirt. Ellie couldn’t stop the acceleration of her pulse as the solid planes of his chest, the ink, the glint of that ring in his nipple came into view.
Slowly, she released her grip on the towel. She was confused, she was overwhelmed, but one thought overcame it all. Her heart was already his. And if he needed her to ease his pain, he could have her, body and soul.
The damp towel fell to the floor, leaving her naked to his stare. His hands made quick work of his jeans, sliding them and his boxers down the muscled length of his legs, leaving his own nudity open to Ellie’s avid stare.
She sucked in a deep breath, wondering what he was going to do, what he had in mind. Did he want her hard and fast again, did he need her to surrender? Or would he need something even more?
Her pulse stuttered when, rather than reaching for her with the rough touch that she’d come to crave, he cupped her face in his palms and dipped his head to kiss her. The glide of his lips over hers was light, almost sweet, yet Ellie could still taste Nate’s possession on her tongue.
She expected his hands to move to the usual places, to stroke and ignite the flames. She was wet already, something she seemed unable to help when it came to him. But rather than cupping her breasts, tugging her nipples, sliding his fingers inside of her, he pulled the covers of the bed back and eased her back on the pillows before lying down beside her.
“I just need to be with you.” He wrapped an arm around her waist, pulled her back to his front, speaking into the tender skin at the nape of her neck. Ellie felt her heart trip, then take that final stumble as the warmth of his breath misted over her skin.
“Is that okay?”
She swallowed thickly, willing herself to relax into his embrace. But every nerve was a live wire, loaded with sensation and ready to snap. This wasn’t just sex. It never had been. And now it was oh so much more. She was in love with Nathan Archer. Maybe she always had been.
But even as she offered Nate what he needed, the warmth of her embrace and her quiet understanding, she knew that it changed nothing. On Monday, he would still be gone.
* * *
Nate had slept better with Ellie in his arms that he had in recent memory. It was a strange sensation, waking up feeling relaxed and refreshed rather than irritable and in strong need of coffee.
With Ellie sprawled across the bed fast asleep, Nate pulled on some fresh jeans and headed to the nearby diner that they’d hit up two nights earlier. He didn’t feel the clawing need for caffeine that he usually did, but he still got a cup of steaming brew and sipped at it, black, pretty sure that he’d need the fortification for the day ahead.
Ellie was sitting up in bed when he returned, paper cups in each hand and a brown bag tucked under his arm. He noted that she’d pulled on one of his T-shirts, and the sight of her in his clothing did funny things to his heart.
“Morning.” He could tell just by looking at her that she was feeling guarded, and though it made his heart sink, he couldn’t blame her.
He’d opened himself up to her last night. He hadn’t known what else to do—he’d needed her. But he also knew that, to a woman as smart as Ellie, a woman who didn’t care about things like his money or the parties he was invited to, he wasn’t exactly a catch.
And didn’t that just figure. He’d finally found a woman he wanted to keep, and he’d scared her off before they even got started.
Ellie’s stare darted around the room before settling back on Nate, as though she felt trapped. He watched as her lips curved into a forced flirty smile.
“Snuggles and coffee?” She reached for the steaming cup that he held out toward her, her smile not quite reaching her eyes. “I must have been very good in a former life.”
He knew what that flirtatious smile meant—she was deflecting, trying to take them back in time two days to when this had just been about sex.
Too bad that he was a million miles beyond that already. And he knew, he just knew that she was right there with him, she just didn’t want to be. Whether it was his screwed up family or his reputation, he didn’t know.
What he did know was that he had to prove to her that he was so much more than what she thought—that they could be good together. And it wasn’t enough to tell her—he had to show her.
He’d already started with sex. Next he’d show her they were compatible outside of the bedroom, too. Though looking at the way her rosy nipples pressed against the stretchy white fabric of his T-shirt, he realized that that particular resolution just might kill him.
“I thought we could both use the caffeine today.” Seating himself cross-legged on the bed across from her, Nate opened the brown bag he carried and offered her a foil-wrapped breakfast sandwich.
“True enough.” She took a long sip of her coffee, making a greedy noise deep in her throat that made him shift, hoping she didn’t notice the fact that his cock was already swelling, just from being around her.
“God, this is good. How did you know that I like it with cream and sugar?”
“That’s how you used to take it.” He watched, riveted, as she ran her tongue over her rosy lips. “I took a gamble that your taste hadn’t changed.”
He grinned, glad he still knew her well.
He’d found something—someone—worth risking everything for. And risking everything was exactly what he planned to do.
“Some things never change,” he said as he unwrapped his own breakfast sandwich, biting into the egg and bacon concoction, even though it tasted like sawdust with his mind otherwise occupied. “And other things change completely.”
Ellie’s spine stiffened as she set her breakfast down on the empty brown wrapper. “Nate—”
In his pocket his cell phone vibrated before starting to ring, a sharp, staccato blast he’d chosen to grab his attention no matter how deeply he was focused on work. He hesitated before answering, wondering if he should ignore it, then decided it would be good to let Ellie have a moment to think about what he’d just said.
“Archer.” Nate turned away from Ellie, looping his legs over the side of the bed, but he kept an eye on her as he did. Her lips were pursed, and she was clearly thinking.
Good. Let her think about things that had changed. Let her think about him.
“Nate.” On the other end of the line, Chase sounded more than a little worse for wear. “Wasn’t sure you’d be up.”
“I’m not the one who drank a dozen bottles of beer last night.” Nate couldn’t help but grin a bit at the groom’s expense—what were friends for, after all?
“Shit!” A screech from behind him had him whirling, his heart in his throat. He found Ellie with coffee all down her front, hissing at the heat.
“Hold on!” he barked into the phone before tossing it onto the bed. With efficient movements he stripped the stained shirt off of Ellie, then probed at the abused skin with gentle fingers.
It was pink, but that would fade shortly—the coffee hadn’t caused a serious burn. Still, he had half a mind to drag her into a cold shower, just in case.
Ellie’s hands waving in the direction of the phone he’d forgotten about deterred him from that. “Is that Chase? Pick it up or he’ll think that something is wrong!”
Rolling his eyes, he gestured toward the bathroom, indicating that she should rinse herself off. Instead she picked up her sandwich and settled herself back on the bed as he again picked up his phone.
“Sorry about that.” Nate watched as Ellie finished her sandwich, then eyed his. He couldn’t hold back the grin when she stole a piece of bacon out of it, smirking at him. “Did you need something, Chase? I’m just about to hop in the shower here.”
“Why are you with Ellie right now?” Chase might have been hung over, but the edge of brotherly protection was plain and clear in his voice—a deadly blade. “Especially if you’re about to hop in the shower?”
Shit. Chase had heard Ellie’s scream. And Nate had shot himself in the foot with the shower comment—he couldn’t claim that he’d just run into Ellie somewhere in town.
More than that, he didn’t want to. He wanted to tell Chase the truth—that he was in love with his little sister, and that he’d do anything to make her happy.
But a certain blonde spitfire would skin him alive if he did. And since he was trying to give her happy thoughts in his direction, it didn’t make much sense to piss her off.
“We both got stuck staying at the motel, remember?” He actually couldn’t remember if he’d told Chase that or not, but it didn’t matter—what mattered was that he didn’t know they were staying in the same room. “Ellie got pretty drunk last night. I thought she might need some coffee before today’s events, so I brought one over.”
“What? No, I didn’t!” Ellie hissed at him as she crumpled her now-empty cup and threw it at him. “What are you talking—oh.”
She clued into the fact that Nate was covering, but still shot him an exasperated look, muttering as she stood and made her way to her duffel bag. Nate found himself more than a little distracted by the fact that she was naked and seemed to have forgotten than all important fact.
“Right.” Chase didn’t sound convinced, but he didn’t press the matter either, and Nate exhaled on a sigh of relief. “Anyway. I just got a call from some trombone player, wanting to confirm details for today? He gave your name.”
“Trombone player. Right,” Nate repeated, though his attention was firmly on Ellie and the way that her breasts swayed as she bent over her bag. “What’s the issue?”
“Dude, what trombone player?” Chase sounded aggrieved. “We don’t have a trombone player.”
“Huh?” Nate forced himself to pay attention to his friend. It was Chase’s special day, after all. “Oh, right. Well, shit. I suppose the cat’s out of the bag then.”
“Explain.” Chase’s voice was full of suspicion, and Nate frowned. What did he think, that Nate had hired a herd of strippers to prance down the aisle behind Meredith?
“I heard Meredith say once that Love Actually is her favorite movie.” Nate waited; Chase waited. With a sigh of exasperation, he continued. “Okay, at least let this be a surprise for her, okay?”
“Not getting any younger, Nate,” Chase muttered to someone in the background, and Nate distinctly heard the word aspirin. It put him in a slightly more forgiving frame of mind.
“Well, if it’s Meredith’s favorite movie, I’m assuming she’s made you sit through it a time or two.”
Ellie took that moment to lift up her bag and upend its contents, and Nate had to stifle a groan as the flesh of her ass jiggled with the movement. Needing to focus, he turned away from her completely, facing the door.
“Remember that scene where Keira Knightley and the one dude get married?” he asked.
“Sort of.”
“Work with me, Chase.” Nate ran a hand through his hair. He felt the spikes of it sticking up in the wrong direction and snorted. A far cry from his usual groomed look, but he hadn’t even thought to look in a mirror this morning. “The wedding. Keira Knightley. They’re in the church, and their recessional music starts playing. Then one by one, different musicians stand up in the crowd and start playing along. By the end of the song, there’s almost a freaking orchestra, a choir, and a gospel singer playing the couple out of the church.”
There was silence on the other end of the line, and for the first time in a long time, Nate squirmed with uncertainty.
“I, ah. I thought it would be a nice wedding gift.” He swallowed, wincing to himself. Maybe it wasn’t—maybe it was just lame. “Aaah… surprise.” The silence stretched out, and Nate started to feel like the world’s biggest dumbass. “Look, if you hate it, I’ll cancel it. No big deal.” Man, but what a nightmare that would be. All of the musicians were coming in from Seattle.
Well, he’d get his assistant to do it. It would be her punishment for booking him into this motel in the first place.
“No. No, man. It’s great.” Chase’s voice on the other end of the line sounded suspiciously thick, and it set Nate back on his heels. “Trust you to out-romance me at my own wedding.”
“Uh.” Nate wasn’t sure what to say to that, so he settled for grunting. “Only if you’re sure.”
“Yeah, I’m sure. Meredith is going to love it.” For the first time in the conversation, Nate could hear the smile in his friend’s voice. “I have to say, I’m surprised it’s coming from you. But thank you, man. Thank you so much.”
Nate muttered a goodbye, then just stood for a moment as he contemplated Chase’s final words.
I’m surprised it’s coming from you.
Well, what the fuck was that supposed to mean? Did the entire world think of him as one big, self-centered asshole, a playboy who thought of nothing and nobody but himself?
Remembering that Ellie was in the room, he turned, his stomach clenching. She watched him with a curious gaze, and he felt the muscle around his heart tighten just looking at her.
If everyone thought the same thing about him, then he probably deserved it. But that shit was changing… today.