“Tonight?” she asked, deciding it best to ignore his strange tone.
“Tonight, tomorrow night, the next night, the next week.” He stopped but only because he was finished talking not because what came after next week wasn’t included in his statement.
This idea warmed her very soul but she was a practical Indiana girl. There were other things to consider.
“But I live in Somerset,” she told him.
“Now, you live here,” he returned as if it was as easy as that.
Her body jerked in stunned surprise at his announcement and she lifted herself to her elbow, reaching down at the same time to grab the sheet and pull it up to her chest. He was blithely unconcerned with his (rather wonderful) nakedness but she was not.
She stared down at him. After one date he expected her to move in with him?
“I own a house in Somerset,” she explained.
His eyes moved to hers and they were unreadable. “We’ll visit on the weekends.”
She gasped.
“But I have a job in Somerset!” she informed him.
“Resign. You no longer have to work.”
She gasped again, this one even more shocked than the last.
“I’ve been working since I was thirteen years old!”
Something shifted in his eyes as she glared at him and she realised that she’d surprised him somehow.
She had indeed been working since she was thirteen. Neither her parents nor her grandmother thought idle children were a good thing. She had a paper route that she did every morning, not to mention she’d gone to work at one of her father’s friend’s golf courses, picking up the balls on the driving range all day Saturday. When she was able to work legally, she’d found a job at a fast food restaurant for a year. At Oxford she definitely had to work and pulled pints at a local pub.
She didn’t tell Nate any of that nor did she let him comment but continued to speak.
“I don’t know how not to work. I wouldn’t know what to do. What will I do?”
He came up on his elbow and faced her, his hand moving the hair from her neck to behind her back.
“You can shop, go out to lunch with Laura. She’d love it.” His voice was soft and his eyes were on her mouth and he obviously thought this was a satisfactory answer.
As much as she liked shopping, she couldn’t do it every day. It wouldn’t be fun if she could do it every day. And she had a mortgage, she had credit card bills, she had to work.
“I need a job,” she told him determinedly.
His head was descending.
“Then get a job,” he said against her lips. He was pressing her back on the bed and she didn’t resist. She couldn’t have even if she wanted to, which she didn’t. He came over her and then he kissed her. Her belly was warming up for a full-blown gymnastic extravaganza, she could feel it.
“Nate…” she began, this time far less fervently as her voice was quivering.
But finally he took her seriously.
He lifted his head, his voice was low and determined and his eyes were completely black.
“Lily, I’ll take care of you. Always. Whatever you want, just ask and I’ll get it for you. You’ll never need for anything, want for anything, not while you’re with me. I’ll take care of everything.”
Then, the subject closed, he kissed her again and when he did all thoughts of jobs, mortgages and credit card bills swiftly exited her mind.
Much later she learned how to sleep with someone. Nate pulled her back against his front, wrapped his arm tightly around her waist and buried his face in her hair.
Lily fell asleep thinking it felt rather nice.
Chapter Ten
Lily’s Ending
Lily was worried.
How she could be happier, more contented and at peace than she’d ever been in her whole life, and be so damned worried all at the same time, she did not know.
Things with Nate were wonderful… no, splendid… no, magnificent.
Well, most of the time.
He worked quite a bit. Even at his age (he was only 28!), he was the Executive Vice President of two divisions of his father’s company and he took his job for his father very seriously. Deadly seriously. It was almost like he owed his life to that job. Nate left before Lily woke up every morning, and Lily was an early riser, and didn’t come home until after eight o’clock every evening.
Sometimes she’d have dinner ready when he’d come home. Other times he’d call her during the day to tell her he was going to take her out to some fabulous restaurant (so fabulous, Nate was significantly taxing the limits of her wardrobe). Twice they’d been to Victor and Laura’s for dinner.
Every night he’d make love to her (and mornings besides), most nights more than once and each time was better than the last.
She’d gone back to Clevedon the second morning after their first night together. She’d told him she had to give Maxine notice and work that notice out at the store. He hadn’t been happy but she’d put her foot down telling him the truth, that her mother and father would never forgive her if she just quit a job and didn’t work out her notice, it was bad form. Eventually, sensing how important it was to Lily because she repeated it, over and over, in a louder and louder voice, he gave in. It was the only time he didn’t go to work early. Instead he took her to the train and kissed her on the platform, kissed her in a way that made her not want to go.
“I’ve changed my mind, I’m not going,” she whispered against his lips.
He’d smiled against hers and she had to admit, she really liked it when he did that.
“Now,” he murmured also against her lips and she really liked that too, “I don’t mind that you’re going.” He kissed her lightly and finished. “I’ll see you at the weekend.”
Maxine, at first, had not been happy.
“I’m never giving you time off again!” she’d yelled. Maxine was somewhat dramatic so Lily was used to her yelling.
“But Maxine, I just quit,” Lily had replied gently and sensibly.
“Tell me about him. What’s he done to you?” Maxine demanded to know.
Maxine had never known Lily Jacobs to even look at a man, much less date, much less drop everything in her life to move to London for some bloke she’d known three days.
Lily told the story, the full story, leaving nothing out. She would have left out the sex parts but Maxine was insistent that she wanted it all.
When she was finished, Maxine contradicted herself.
“You’re not working out your notice. Get back to this man, get back to him now!”