“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 grandmother! 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.