Into the Fire - Leslie Kelly [36]
Nate followed her, taking a quick glance around her apartment. It was decorated in simple bright colors with lots of house plants and photographs. Not ritzy, not expensive, as he might have expected for the daughter of a multimillionaire. But nice, classy and elegant, much like Lacey herself. "So are you really sick?"
"Sick in the head for letting you in," she retorted.
"Look, I'm sorry about last night. But you can't exactly blame me for your friend's big, huge mouth."
Lacey shrugged as she opened the brownies. She wasted no time with plates or napkins, pulling out the biggest piece and biting right into it. "I know. It's not your fault. Venus is, uh, somewhat unpredictable," she mumbled between bites.
"I liked her." Nate noted her resigned shrug.
"Most men do."
He clarified. "I said I liked her. I wasn't attracted to her." He stepped closer, until he stood within touching distance of Lacey. She took a tiny, tentative step back but couldn't go far because of the kitchen table behind her.
"None of my business if you were," she said, her voice not much more than a whisper.
"Of course it is."
She cleared her throat and glanced away. "Why is that?"
Nate stepped closer, until the toe of his shoe was even with the ends of her pretty rose-tinted toenails. Tipping her chin with his finger, he forced her to look at him and note the seriousness of his words. "Because you're the one who has some serious misconceptions about who I am and what I'm like. Contrary to what you might think from my column, I'm not the type of man who would chase after the woman sitting next to me when I really want the one sitting across from me."
Turning her head away, she swallowed nervously. He watched the movement in her throat and remembered how her skin tasted there, right there, in that sweet hollow.
"You're speaking metaphorically, right?"
He shook his head. "I haven't felt a serious attraction for any woman for a long time. Except one."
Nate watched as a flush came to her cheeks. She looked much as she had in the robe Friday night—hair damp, no makeup. Dressed in shorts and a T-shirt that had definitely seen better days, she was still beautiful to him. She took another nervous nibble of her brownie, obviously not ready to have this conversation. Too bad. It was overdue. "We can't avoid this, Lacey. What's more, I don't want to avoid this."
"Avoid what?"
Nate leaned closer, staring into her beautiful face, counting those freckles, getting lost in those blue eyes. "Avoid you and me. What happened." He lowered his voice. "What else is going to happen."
She had a tiny crumb of brownie on the corner of one lip, and as his stare zeroed in on it, she licked it away, catching the crumb with her pink tongue. He had to close his eyes as the memory of how she tasted, how her mouth felt when joined to his, invaded his mind. He took a deep breath, catching the sweet rose scent that was so uniquely hers.
When he opened his eyes, he saw her biting her lip, staring just as intently at him. Her face so easily gave her emotions away—nervousness, anxiety and mistrust warred with the same siren's call of attraction to which they'd both succumbed Friday.
"What else is going to happen, Nate?" Her whispered question revealed her confusion, and her need.
Caught up in the same feelings he'd had when they were together on the trampoline, Nate repeated his first prediction. "Something amazing."
Glancing lower, he noticed a hole in her shirt below her right collarbone. Remembering kissing her in that exact spot a few nights before, he was unable to resist a slow, lazy smile. Though he waited for her to duck away or turn around, she didn't move an inch as he lifted his hand to the front of her shirt. "It's torn," he whispered. Moving the tip of his index finger to the small hole, he rubbed the soft cotton, then lightly brushed the softer skin beneath.
She gasped in reaction. But still she didn't move away.
"How can you look more beautiful