*
She couldn’t stand it. It was agony and ecstasy combined. He circled her nipple with his fingers, and it hurt in such a blissful way, she wanted to cry. He pulled her breast into his mouth, and his tongue began to skim over her nipple, slowly at first, then rhythmically, building in intensity.
She took his head in her hands and drew it up toward hers. She wanted to look at him. She needed to see him while she touched him.
She crashed her lips against his, longing to taste him again, demanding his tongue inside her mouth, to feel that passion and desire. And as his mouth opened to her, she took him in her hand, slowly, touching, caressing, moving in a deliberate rhythm, feeling him press his body closer to her with every motion.
She watched him. He closed his eyes and held an expression, a look of something between concentration and arousal. Then he opened his eyes again and locked his gaze with hers.
‘Autumn,’ he began.
‘Don’t say anything.’ She didn’t want the moment broken. This special closeness they shared, something she’d never had with anyone before, she wanted to savor.
He lifted her up, and she wrapped her legs around him, moving to let him slide inside her. She closed her eyes and held his body tight, feeling that, right now, nothing else mattered.
Thirty-One
It was almost seven. He’d slept the entire night. It felt strange. He felt strange, somewhere between completely rested and wiped out. It was probably the jetlag, combined with the turn of events over the last few days.
Autumn was still in his arms. Her hair lay over his chest, and her head rested in the crook of his elbow. He took a section of hair in his hand and toyed with it. What was he going to do?
*
She opened her eyes and reached out for him.
‘Nathan.’
‘Morning,’ he answered.
She pulled herself up, drawing the duvet around her, and turned onto her side to look at him. There he was, her bodyguard, looking just as sexy as he had last night. His face was dark with the first signs of stubble, and his hair was roughed up. She had done that. She had pulled at his hair and wound her fingers through it as they’d made love, against the dressing table, again in the shower, and finally in the king-sized bed with the Egyptian cotton.
She reached out and touched his face, half expecting him to pull away. When he didn’t, she brought her thumb down to his lips and he kissed it. He drew it slowly into his mouth and sucked the tip.
He kissed her other fingers, in turn, then took her hand in his. His long fingers enveloped hers and held them tight.
She moved closer as he put his arm around her. ‘Thank you,’ she whispered.
‘What for?’
‘For giving me this time, these moments.’
He shook his head at her and tightened his lips. ‘Don’t you do that, Autumn.’
‘Don’t do what?’
‘You’re saying goodbyes. You don’t need to do that. I’m going to protect you.’
‘I know, it’s just… If this was it—my last day—then I’d have a lot to thank you for.’
As she said the words, her voice failed, and she had to pause and swallow down a knot of sentiment.
He pulled his arm from her and got out of bed. ‘You have nothing to thank me for,’ he insisted.
She watched him as he pulled on his underwear. ‘I know there’s no future in it. I mean, you said last night, we don’t know what’s going to happen, but… if we did… if there was… do you think there would be?’
‘Do I think there would be what?’
‘A future in it,’ she said.
She felt the atmosphere still as he turned his back on her and began picking his clothes off the floor.
‘You and me?’ he eventually answered.
She waited until he had turned around to face her before she shrugged.
‘Are you talking about a relationship?’ he asked.
‘You’re going to laugh and say something rude. Please, don’t do that. Please. I know I’m not normal. I do know that. I’m a control freak, I’m a snob sometimes, and I’m a little bit self-obsessed but—’
‘A little bit self-obsessed,’ he interrupted.
‘Well, you’re no picnic either! You’re extremely rude, and you swear too much. You should shave more often, because not shaving makes you look older. You eat really badly, too much junk, and you never let anyone in. But I want to be let in, and I think you’re thinking about it. I think you want to let me in. You’re just too scared to,’ she concluded.
*
What had started out as a character assassination ended with her hitting the nail on the head. He’d not had a relationship with anyone since Carolyn died. He’d had sex often, whenever the opportunity had arisen, but there hadn’t even been small talk, and definitely no connection of any kind. He’d had the arousal, but none of the stomach-churning, mind-spinning he’d experienced with Autumn. What should he say? He didn’t trust himself to say anything.
There was a knock on the door, and all thoughts of what came next were knocked into second place. He reached for his gun and went to the door. He checked the peephole and saw it was Tawanda.
She banged her fist on the door a second time. ‘Mr Nathan, please, tell me Autumn is with you. She is not in her bed.’
‘It’s okay, she’s here,’ Nathan called.
‘Oh, Lord, have mercy! Thank God!’
Nathan still didn’t open the door. ‘Do you want to order us some breakfast?’
‘The service is at ten,’ Tawanda stated.
‘Yeah, I know.’
He heard Tawanda leave for the suite next door. He turned back to face Autumn.
‘I suppose I’d better go and get changed,’ she said, reaching for a hotel robe.
‘Yeah,’ he replied.
She tied the belt around her and moved toward him. ‘I’ll see you for breakfast?’ she queried.
‘Yeah.’
She went up on tip-toes
