Chapter 17

17

G ennie stood at the stove, balancing on one leg, flipping pancakes and gritting her teeth every time her sprained ankle pounded. It was a lot better, though.

Guess I can be a pancake-flipping flamingo if I have to. Ain’t no thang.

Pancakes were the only breakfast she knew how to excel at – well, that and nailing the perfect milk-to-cereal ratio like a boss. She was determined to give something back to Abby and Nathan after all they’d done for her.

Even though the mood was extremely weird.

The sound of batter sizzling filled the kitchen, mingled with some pop tune crackling from the ancient radio perched on the windowsill. Nathan was fiddling around, setting the table with a distracted air, as if his mind was a million miles away.

He was probably still mulling over last night’s disaster.

When I threw myself at him like a desperate housewife and he shot me down like a clay pigeon.

She snuck a glance at him from the corner of her eye and took in the tense set of his shoulders, the crease between his brows. Even with that extra-glowering face, he looked absurdly hot. Like some kind of lumberjackish wet dream.

Down, girl. Pretty sure you blew your shot with that one. If you ever even had one.

Abby, sitting at the table with her nose buried in a comic book, suddenly looked up. ‘Da, you’re not saying anything. That’s weird.’

Nathan blinked as if he was coming out of a trance. ‘Am I, now? Must be the lack of coffee.’

‘More the lack of sleep,’ Gennie muttered under her breath and flipped another golden-brown circle onto the stack with a little more oomph than necessary.

Abby frowned and paused her fork in mid-air. ‘It’s too bad that I missed the thunderstorm last night.’

Gennie snorted and set her plate of pancakes down on the table with a thud. ‘Trust me, kiddo. You didn’t miss much. Just a whole lot of noise and not a lot of action.’

Nathan choked on his coffee, sputtering into his chipped mug. Gennie shot him a fierce look.

Yeah, that’s right, big guy. I went there.

Abby, oblivious to the palpable friction between the two adults, dug into her pancakes. ‘These are so good, Gennie! Almost as good as Da’s.’

‘High praise.’ Gennie slid into her seat, grabbed the syrup, and drowned her own stack in a stream of sticky-sweet goodness.

Nathan grunted and shovelled forkfuls into his mouth as if it were a chore. Gennie watched him from beneath her lowered lids and took in the flexing of his jaw, the bobbing of his throat as he swallowed. Even pissed off and brooding, the man was a work of art.

Especially then.

Abby was lost in her sugary breakfast. ‘Becca’s da is picking me up for school today,’ she announced between mouthfuls.

‘That’s right,’ Nathan said and ruffled her hair. ‘You be good, aye?’

‘Aye!’ She finished her last bite and grabbed her jacket and bag. A few minutes later, a car honked at the end of the driveway.

‘That’s Becca,’ Abby proclaimed as she bounced back into the kitchen. She gave her dad a cheeky salute before dashing over to Gennie, throwing her arms around her in a quick hug. ‘Thanks for breakfast. See you later!’

‘Have a nice day, sweet pea,’ Nathan called after her as she dashed out the door.

Gennie watched Abby scamper off and her heart did that odd flip-flop thing again.

And then there were two.

Gennie pushed her own plate away, her appetite suddenly gone. She felt his eyes on her, but she couldn’t bring herself to meet them. Not after that epic crash-and-burn.

‘Gennie.’ His voice was low. ‘About last night.’

She cringed and her cheeks flamed with embarrassment and irritation. ‘Look, can we just…not? Let’s pretend it never happened and move on. I think that would be best for everyone.’

He was silent for a long moment, the tension between them stretched like a rubber band ready to snap. Then he pushed back from the table and his chair scraped the floor like nails on a chalkboard. ‘No. We can’t pretend it never happened. We need to talk about this.’

She let out a bitter laugh and finally lifted her head to meet his gaze head-on. ‘Talk about what, exactly? How I threw myself at you like a wasted prom date? Thanks, but I’ll pass.’

A muscle ticked in his cheek. ‘That’s not what happened, and you bloody well know it. I was trying to do the right thing. Trying not to take advantage of you when you were vulnerable.’

‘Oh, spare me the white-knight routine, MacMillan.’ She pushed to her feet and ignored the twinge in her ankle as she stood up to him. ‘I’m an adult. I know what I want. But apparently, the feeling wasn’t mutual. Message received.’

He made a coarse sound that vibrated through her. ‘You seriously think I didn’t want you? Are you out of your goddamn mind? Did you not feel how hard I was? I wanted nothing more than to see the disbelief on your pretty face when my cock filled every fucking inch of you.’

Her heart crashed against her sternum like a wrecking ball. ‘Then why didn’t you? I was there of my own volition. I made the first move.’

Frustration rolled off him in waves. ‘Because I’m not fucking a scared woman. And because I care about you, dammit! I didn’t want our first time to be some rushed, frantic distraction-shag in the middle of a thunderstorm because you were shitting yourself.’

She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry as the Mojave desert.

Our first time.

He’d…thought about this…about them. Did that mean he was planning on a second time? And a third? What exactly did he want – some kind of…relationship? With her? That was…surreal. Completely nuts.

But…

Fuck it.

‘So what now, Nathan?’ She held his gaze, her nipples tightened under the thin fabric of her tank. The blatant greed in his eyes was turning her on so hard.

With a few quick steps, he crossed the distance between them. His hands came up to frame her face, his thumbs caressing her cheekbones in a touch that set her whole nervous system ablaze.

‘The cleaners will be here any minute,’ he murmured. ‘But if they weren’t…I swear to God…’

‘Then what?’

She didn’t even have time to gasp before his mouth was on hers, hot and demanding. His tongue swept past her parted lips to claim her in a kiss that incinerated her senses like a blowtorch.

Oh holy shit.

‘You like that, Gennie? You like bringing a man to his knees, making him lose his fucking mind?’

‘Yes… If that man is you.’

‘God, you’re wrecking me. That sweet, sinful mouth of yours…’

She surrendered to the onslaught of his kiss with a sigh, her fingers tangled in his hair as she gave herself over to the slide of his lips against hers. Nathan kissed her like a man possessed, like he wanted to devour her whole, and she revelled in the desperate hunger of his touch. His fingers dipped beneath the hem of her shirt to brush the skin of her lower back.

‘Fuck, Gennie,’ he rasped against her mouth and his hips rocked into hers in a slow, dirty grind. ‘The things you do to me… I can barely control myself around you.’ He nipped at her bottom lip, soothing the sting with a swipe of his tongue.

‘Then don’t. Don’t control yourself, Nathan. Let go. Make me feel good.’

He flipped her around and pressed her against the kitchen counter, yanking her back against him. Her heart wanted to leap from her ribcage.

‘Greedy girl, begging for it.’ His breath caressed her ear and his lips traced her lobe. ‘You’re still thinking about last night, aren’t you?’

His Scottish burr raked over her tender nerve fibres. She could barely nod, her body responding to the press of his hard arousal against the curve of her ass.

‘I can’t stop replaying it, Gennie.’ His lips moved against the hollow of her throat. ‘The sounds you made…’ His calloused hands slid up under her shirt, gliding over the skin of her belly. Rough. Gentle.

She felt him smile against the skin of her neck before he nipped at it. His scruff felt abrasive. Delicious.

‘Everything about you turns me on, but your tits are fucking phenomenal.’ His hand cupped her breast. ‘So heavy and soft. Can’t decide if I wanna go face or dick first.’

‘Nathan…’ She curved into his touch.

‘I want to make you come so hard you forget your name. I want to fall asleep with you in my arms and wake up with you all over me. When I make you mine, you’ll be mine for good. But I want you to be as sure as I am.’

Her knees threatened to give in. Damn him and his ability to reduce her to a shivering mess with a few words.

His other hand played with the drawstring of her pants. He loosened it and slid down to cup her mound, rocking her against his ridge. ‘God, I’m so hard again, just thinking about it.’

He pushed into the flesh of her ass to make her feel it.

And fuck, did she feel all of it. The way he was packing down there…

‘So don’t you dare go saying I don’t want you, Gennie. You hear me?’

She fought back a moan. Her pulse careened between her thighs and her core clenched with an empty ache. Her hips tilted back against him. Needy.

‘And I am,’ she managed to pant, ‘so wet right now.’

His hand moved lower and dipped into her panties. He ran a finger through her pulsating core and let out a deep moan. ‘No, baby. You’re not wet. You’re fucking soaked.’

‘I think…it’s because…I might like you.’

‘Good. Because… Mhm…’ He groaned as he plunged his digit deep into her, ‘…I might like you, too. So we’ll take our time.’

Her head fell back against his shoulder. She pushed into his touch and her breath came in short gasps as he continued to work in and out of her.

‘I want you in my bed tonight, Gennie. Laid out and open. Not hiding with fear, shaking like a leaf. But because you’re ready to make that choice. And not just for one quick tumble. As long as you’re under my roof and come into my bed, you’re gonna take my cock again and again. All of it.’

Her eyes fluttered shut as the images he evoked flooded her mind. ‘Nathan,’ she moaned and fisted the worktop. ‘I need more. Now. Please. Please .’

‘I know, baby. I feel it. You’re making a fucking mess of my hand. Here, taste how much you’re aching for me.’

His fingers came up to her lips, and she swirled her tongue around his rough pads.

‘But you have to wait. When I finally have you, it’s game over. And I’ll take my time savouring every last bit.’ He took his two fingers from her mouth into his, licked them, and let out a satisfied growl.

Oh yeah.

Whatever he wanted her to do, she was ready. So ready.

He pushed her hair back to free her neck and kissed her there. His teeth grazed over her skin. ‘So, will you come to me tonight, Gennie?’

She felt him shift his weight. As if he were nervous, asking her out to prom. Like a schoolboy with a crush.

A hot and handsome, twelve years older schoolboy with a solid jumbo-sized pencil in his pocket.

‘I have an idea,’ she said breathlessly and ground her ass back against his thick erection, just to tease him. ‘Why don’t we go on a date first, and then see if I really let you go beyond third base?’

But before he could give her an answer, the doorbell rang.