“That’s it, baby, fuck yourself for me.”
His growl sent shivers of pleasure to her skin. She couldn’t believe how comfortable she felt with him, how easy it was to simply spread her legs wider and slip one finger into her sopping-wet core. None of the other men she’d been with had made her feel this way. None of them had succeeded in helping her let go of her inhibitions and actually enjoy the sex.
Nate groaned as she fingered herself, his hand pumping furiously at his cock. Charlotte’s breathing grew labored, the tension inside her coiling tighter until ripples of impending orgasm danced in her belly and curled her toes.
She abruptly stopped her ministration and squeezed out, “I want you inside me when I come.”
Without even blinking, Nate joined her on the bed and covered her body with his. A second later, he plunged deep inside, summoning the orgasm she’d tried to keep at bay. Shards of light filled her vision and she moaned loudly as release consumed her body. She wrapped her legs around Nate’s trim hips and thrust upward, crying out when he hit a sensitive spot inside of her and triggered another spurt of pleasure.
When she finally relaxed her legs, she realized that she could feel him. Him, and not the latex he’d evidently forgotten to use. He must have realized the same thing because he cursed under his breath and said, “We didn’t use anything.”
He made a move to pull out, but she kept him in place. “I’m on the Pill and I don’t have any diseases.”
“Me neither,” he admitted then searched her face. “You want me to keep going?”
“God, yes.”
His laughter vibrated against her achy breasts. She rubbed her nipples against the wiry dark hairs on his chest and urged him to move again. He immediately obliged, thrusting in so hard she gasped with pleasure that bordered on pain. She wanted him to come, wanted to feel him pour himself into her, and it wasn’t long before she got her wish. She watched his face in fascination as he shuddered with release. His expression went from tortured to sated to utterly hazy. Then he bent down and slid his tongue into her mouth, kissing her so deeply she forgot how to breathe.
They lay there kissing for a long time until Nate reluctantly rolled off her and headed into the bathroom. He returned with a wet washcloth then proceeded to clean her off while she watched him with a bemused smile. “Always the caretaker,” she teased.
He shifted in discomfort. “Doesn’t sound very manly.”
“It’s a perfectly acceptable thing to be,” she assured him. “I remember the way you used to take care of your brothers, how you looked out for them. I thought it was really sweet.”
And sexy, she almost added. Yeah, it had definitely been sexy watching eighteen-year-old Nate toss a football with the fourteen-year-old twins or helping eleven-year-old Austin with his math homework. Nate had been the eldest, their role model, and he’d taken the job seriously, especially since Henry Bishop had been as terrible a parent as Charlotte’s mother.
But Nate, despite the fact that everyone thought he was a bad apple because he rode a beat-up Harley around town, had been so good to his brothers. He’d been good to her.
Anger bubbled in the back of her throat. And then he’d taken everything good he’d ever said and done and turned it into something ugly.
Unable to fight the burning in her gut, she slid up into a sitting position, nearly banging her skull on the headboard of the bed.
“You okay?” Nate asked, concern lighting his eyes.
“No,” she choked out.
Screw pretending she’d forgiven him. Lexie Price had been right—she was playing games, and after this latest round of amazing sex, Charlotte couldn’t hold her tongue anymore.
“Why did you do it?” she blurted. “Why did you throw me away like a piece of garbage?”
Chapter Six
Nate hadn’t been expecting the question or the sudden cloud of resentment that turned Charlotte’s light green eyes into a dark forest green. He tossed the washcloth onto the nightstand and warily got to his feet, reaching for the jeans he’d discarded on the floor. As he pulled the denim up his legs, he saw that Charlotte wasn’t making any move to get dressed. She just sat there cross-legged, buck naked while her long red hair fell past her shoulders, barely covering her breasts.
“I need to know,” she said, her voice coming out in a whisper. “I know I said I was over the past, and a part of me really is, but I still want to know why you did it.”
A sigh rolled out of his chest. Moving back to the bed, he sat down at the edge and met her agonized gaze. “I did it so you would leave town.”
Irritation flashed across her face. “Yeah, I got that. You didn’t want me around.”
“No,” he said quickly, “I… What I meant was I did it so you would go to Julliard.”