AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Twenty
Damaris didn’t see Nate again for several days. One thing or another kept interfering. Her work. His work. Both. She hated to admit it but she missed him. Not just the sex, either, though she did miss that. But she’d grown accustomed to seeing him more often, and to spending the night with him at one of their places. To waking up with him. To being—God help her—part of a couple.
That scared the hell out of her. Surely she wasn’t falling for him. That would be a disaster. Nate wasn’t the settling-down type. Except…he’d been different since they started their pretend dating. Especially since they started sleeping together. And if it was real…Nate and she were exclusive now, but that was only for a finite amount of time. Could she ever let go of her fear enough to have a real relationship with Nate? With any man?
She met Nate in town for Mexican food at Jalisco’s. After eating they went to his apartment. The Wildcat Tower was, as he put it, above his pay grade. He lived in an apartment complex called the Big Tree. It had taken its name from a huge old oak tree that had graced the entrance. The tree was long gone but the name had stuck. They were decent apartments. Not as nice as the Wildcat Tower on the Square and not as bad as the Texan, on the edge of the Barrels. Nate’s apartment was on the third floor and had a nice view of the woods to the east of town.
She knew they needed to talk. For one thing, there was that honkin’ big diamond to discuss. But she’d missed him, and wanted him, and he obviously felt the same. The moment they stepped into his apartment he had her backed up against the door, kissing her until she could hardly breathe. They fumbled with each other’s clothes, shedding them quickly. He lifted her up and she wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist and hung on for dear life as he thrust inside her.
She opened her eyes to find him staring at her intensely, pinning her with his gaze as surely as he was with his body. He drove into her, over and over, his gaze locked with hers until he came with a shout and she followed immediately, sensations spiraling through her on wave after wave. After a long moment, with her still wrapped around him, Nate carried her into his bedroom, placed her on his bed and lay down beside her.
Oh, God. I’m…I’m basking in a postcoital glow. What is going on with me? “We need to talk.”
“Hmm. Okay, so talk.” Nate lay beside her, one arm behind his head, naked and totally relaxed.
“You have to get dressed.”
He cracked open an eye. “Why?”
“Because we need to talk,” she repeated.
“Okay. But why get dressed? We’re just going to wind up back in bed.”
“I can’t think clearly when you’re naked.”
He sat up and grinned. “Ditto.” But he got up and pulled a T-shirt out of his drawer and tossed it to her. He grabbed his boxers off the floor and pulled them on. Sitting back down on the bed beside her, he asked, “What are we talking about?”
At least he’d put something on, even though he was still showing a lot of distracting skin. However, now that she was dressed, she felt more in control. “Grandma K wants us to get engaged.”
“She does. But that shouldn’t be a surprise.”
“It’s not a surprise but it’s a dilemma. What are we going to tell her?”
“We could tell her we’re engaged.”
“And then what? Won’t that just make it harder when we decide to end it?”
“Why do we have to end it?”
“I don’t understand. It has to end sometime.”
“Not if we really get engaged.”
Her stupid heart tumbled. But he was bound to be just yanking her chain. “Very funny, Nate.”
“I’m not joking.” He held one of her hands. “Marry me, Damaris.”
*
It wasn’t the way he’d planned it. He hadn’t planned on bringing up the subject of marriage until much later. He’d wanted to put it off as long as possible to give Damaris more time to get used to the idea. But Grandma had given him the perfect opportunity, and he couldn’t resist any longer. Of course, the fact that Damaris looked horrified didn’t help.
“You can’t be serious.”
“As a heart attack. Let’s get married.”
“This is crazy. Just because we have good sex—”
“Great sex,” he interrupted.
