tomorrow. I get it. You don’t have to worry about me, Nathaniel. You’re a sexy, interesting man. I want to be with you. But I won’t make any uncomfortable demands. No awkward endings. You have my word.”
Her ability to see right through to the deepest layers of his psyche alarmed him. The trouble was, he didn’t have any pretty speeches to say in reply. Dani was one hundred percent correct. They had today and tonight and maybe tomorrow.
After that, the snow melted, the baby was reunited with her mother and Nathaniel went back to being top dog at New Century Tech. Business as usual.
He held out a hand. “Come here, little elf.”
The choice on his part to remain still was deliberate. He needed Dani’s physical assurance that she wanted to take this step.
Instead of taking his hand, she flung herself at him, wrapped her arms around his neck and knocked the breath from his lungs. “Merry Christmas, Nathaniel.”
He hugged her instinctively. Finding her mouth with his, he dove in for the taste that was his new addiction. “God, you’re sweet.”
She bit his neck, sharply enough to bruise. “I’m not particularly interested in sweet right now. Take me, Nathaniel. Show me the real you. I won’t break, and I won’t run away.”
“God help us both,” he muttered. He kissed her wildly, sliding his hands beneath her sweater and finding warm, soft breasts. “You didn’t have to wear a bra,” he complained.
“Your fault.” Her voice was muffled against his collarbone. “New clothes. Didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”
Clumsily, he tugged the sweater over her head and unfastened the offending undergarment. When Dani was bare from the waist up, he put his hands on her hips and dragged her against him. “I’m too close to the edge,” he groaned. “Embarrassingly so. Give me a minute.”
Dani shook her head and leaned back to look up at him, her eyes bright with pleasure. “I like driving you mad,” she said. “It gives me power.”
She was joking. He knew that. He knew Dani. Still, the words sent a frisson of unease down his spine. Shaking off the sense of foreboding, he kissed her gently. “Take all the power you want, little elf. Tonight, you’re mine.”
* * *
Dani was under no illusions. She could only take what Nathaniel gave freely. There was a part of him that was off-limits to her, to everyone. She would have to be satisfied with the very appealing bits and pieces he offered. If the next twenty-four hours were to be their swan song, this unlikely pairing would be as special as she could make it.
Stuffing her doubts into a dark closet, she cupped his face in her hands. “You know how in movies the hero sometimes takes the heroine up against the front door, because he can’t make it any farther before he has sex with her?”
Nathaniel rolled his eyes, but he grinned. “I get the general idea.”
“Well...” She removed his shirt and pressed her naked breasts to his wonderfully hard, warm chest. “I was thinking we might try that.”
He shuddered when she linked her arms around his waist and slid her fingertips inside his jeans, caressing his lower back. “I could use some exercise,” he said soberly.
“Sex burns calories,” she muttered. Perhaps they might just stand here like this all afternoon. She felt safe and warm, as if nothing bad would ever happen.
Nathaniel took her idea and ran with it. Before she blinked twice, he had her pants and undies down her legs. “Step out of them,” he demanded.
There must have been a draft in the foyer. Gooseflesh broke out all over her body, and her nipples went on high alert. Stark naked, she wrapped her arms around her breasts. “Stop,” she said hastily. “Your pants have to go, too.”
He lifted an eyebrow, kneeling at her feet. “I’ve seen one or two of those movies. The guy keeps his pants on sometimes. You know...’cause he’s in such a hurry.”
She chuckled, despite her tendency to hyperventilate. “Now you’re mocking me.”
“A little bit.” He stood and shucked his trousers and boxers casually, removing a couple of condoms from his pocket along the way. “If my back goes out from these shenanigans, you’ll have to carry me to bed.”
The humor didn’t really compute. A naked Nathaniel Winston was even more powerful and intimidating than the one in the tailored suits and pristine white dress shirts. He was a male animal in his prime.
If she hadn’t been breathless with longing and terrified the baby was going to wake up at the most inopportune moment, Dani might have taken the time to study her lover’s body in detail. As it was, urgency overtook any desire to savor the moment.
“How do we do this?” she asked, the words embarrassingly weak and shaky.
Nathaniel’s smile took all the starch out of her knees. “You let me worry about the logistics, honey. Right now I’m going to kiss you until you forget your name.” With a nonchalance Dani could never have managed in a million years, he took care of the condom and tossed aside the packet.
Dani sighed when he folded her in his arms and held her loosely, brushing her forehead with a tender kiss.
“My lips are down here,” she pointed out, trying to speed things along.
“I never noticed how bossy you are.”
“I never noticed how slow you are.”
Without warning, he scooped her up and palmed her bottom. She buried her face in the crook of his neck and wrapped her legs around his waist. His thick erection pressed against her. He shuddered and panted, his entire body rigid. “More foreplay later, I swear.”
“I believe you.”
The muscles in his arms corded and bunched as he lifted her slowly and carefully lowered her onto his sex. The feeling was indescribable. Despite their pretense that Dani was calling the shots, this particular position put Nathaniel irrevocably in charge.
Gravity worked in his favor. The fit was tight, almost uncomfortable. Dani started to shake as nerves and arousal duked it out in her stomach.
Nathaniel cursed and groaned. “Too much?” he asked, jaw clenched, the words barely audible.
“No, no, no...but don’t forget the door.”
He staggered and laughed and stumbled forward until Dani’s bottom made contact with cold, hard wood. “You asked for this, elf.” With purchase now to aid his mission, Nathaniel thrust forcefully.
Dani held on, fingernails scoring his shoulders. Eyes closed, lungs starved for oxygen, she let him take her savagely, recklessly. It was too much in one second and not enough the next. Laughing, sobbing, she clung to him until she felt her orgasm rise up from the depths of her soul. It flashed and burst and consumed her.
A heartbeat later, Nathaniel pummeled his way to his own reward. “God, Dani. Hold on...” His words faded as he shuddered for what seemed like an eternity and finally slumped against her, pinning her to the door
