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At least his father had the good grace to look away, but Nate simply straightened, hands on his hips, his gaze fixed on her butt. “Oh, Payton. I’m sorry, honey, but yes it is.” Then ducking low, he wrapped an arm around her and pulled her up and against him. “Is your foot okay?” he asked, one palm warming her hip.
She looked at her second and third toes, both red and throbbing angrily, and sighed. “Just stubbed. I’m fine.” Really it was her pride suffering more than anything else right then.
Nate glanced back over his shoulder. “Close your eyes, old man, or I’m putting you in a home. You’ve had enough cheap thrills for one morning.”
A dismissive, “Yeah, yeah,” came from behind them, and with that she was swept up into the cradle of Nate’s arms for the princess-style escort back to his room. Too bad her scantily clad bum was hanging out, ruining the effect.
When Nate deposited her at the door to the master bath, she touched his arm and looked up at him imploringly. “Uh, Nate, how about I let you catch up with your dad? I’ll see you—”
His hand closed over hers with a telling squeeze. “No. I’m giving you thirty minutes and then you’ll sit there with us enjoying breakfast and making small talk. That’s what good girlfriends do.”
“Are you afraid of your dad?” She raised a mocking brow and met one in return.
“Aren’t you?”
“Well, yes.” Everyone had been. He’d been the toughest teacher at school. “But he’s your dad.”
“Yeah, who drove all the way into the city to slap a paper with our picture in it against the side of my head.”
The image that conjured had her near giggles, only what was behind it wasn’t very funny. “He seems upset.”
Acknowledging with the barest nod, Nate extracted the weapon in question from where he’d tucked it under his arm and flipped through until he found their page. “Here we go.”
Setting it on the granite countertop, he leaned close so the heat of his chest warmed her back as they read. Payton’s brows drew down as she scanned the column. There was more information than she would have expected them to find. Particularly since she’d been ignoring the reporters’ calls herself.
“Did you do this?” she asked.
“Some.” He pointed to the line about being seen around town since the relationship had been publicly outed earlier that week. “I had my assistant Deborah drop the hint that we’d been keeping it under wraps. Hey, they hit the school where you work, too.”
An involuntary groan slipped out and Nate chuckled above her. “What, it can’t be the first time the press showed up there.”
“No. Not the first time.” There’d been a few months following her father’s death where the interest in her had peaked and reporters seemed to lurk around every corner, waiting for the opportunity to pump her fellow teachers for information.
How was she holding up? Was a wedding in the works? Could the romance sustain through the tragedy? Would she be leaving the school to take a seat at Liss Industries?
It hadn’t won her any friends at the new school back then, but over the past year the alienation she’d experienced had died down along with the press’s interest. Still, every time she’d found herself pictured in the paper she’d sensed a subtle backlash. She wasn’t looking forward to the reaction come Monday.
“It’s pretty much what I’d expected.” Nate knocked the paper aside with a knuckled fist and stepped back. “Deborah’s got a few more nuggets to dole out over the next weeks, so I’d say we’re in good shape.”
“Mission accomplished.”
Rubbing a wide palm over the scrub of his jaw, he nodded. “As for my dad—I don’t really talk to him about the women I’m dating, but I should have told him about us. Things are different with you.”
“Different?” Hope lit through her veins, pushing into her heart with welcoming ease.
“Yeah.” He met her with a blind stare. “He knows you. Probably feels as protective of you from those high-school days as I do.”
Nate shook his head, thankfully too wrapped up in the situation with his father to notice the falter of her smile as her most vital organ hollowed out. It was stupid. She knew what she’d signed on for and the surest way to ruin it or any chance of maintaining a friendship after would be to spend every minute they were together imagining more meaning into Nate’s words than they deserved.
“I’m a big girl,” she said, as much a reminder to herself as to him. “He doesn’t need to worry about me.”
This brought a low chuckle as his gaze raked down the length of her. “Okay, big girl. You were all over this whole girlfriend business last night. Rolling around in the title like you owned it. Time to start paying those dues.”
She let out a cough. “Dues? Come on—”
“Payton, I’m not asking you to see him through his retirement years.” He raked a hand through the thick mess of sandy blond spikes. “Just to hang out for an hour or two and show my dad I’m not treating you like some floozy or pulling the wool over your poor innocent eyes.”
And suddenly she realized he was serious. “You’re worried about what he thinks.”
“That surprises you?”
It shouldn’t have. But after having spent a lifetime worrying—obsessing—about how her every action would be interpreted by her own father, she’d never really thought of Nate, who always came across so fun and carefree, as having the same issues. “I guess you never seemed…concerned.”
“Yeah, well, my mom took off when I was young, so it was just my dad and me. And, you know him, he’s not a halfway kind of guy. Since raising me fell wholly on his shoulders, he took the job seriously. Made a lot of sacrifices and spent a lot of years making sure I knew right from wrong, worked hard and did the right thing. Honestly, he couldn’t care less about the financial kudos or bank account I’ve built. He measures my success—and his—by the kind of man I’ve made. So, yes. It matters to me that he knows he did a good job.”
Her heart rolled over with a little sigh for this man who loved his father and had his priorities so well aligned. If only there were room in his heart for more. “He did a very good job. Go get me some grub while I get dressed and I’ll tell him so.”
It was early afternoon by the time they’d said their goodbyes and the elevator doors slid shut with a quiet whoosh. Nate leaned a shoulder against the brushed-steel interior and watched his father. Waiting.
Payton had recovered from her initial embarrassment by the time they’d returned with breakfast. He’d expected the quiet poise and well-mannered reserve she was known for, but she’d been relaxed and comfortable, charming his old man with her bright smile and fresh take on the adventures of academia.
She’d been perfect. Too perfect. Too comfortable. Too right a fit between what had always been just the two of them. God only knew what his dad was thinking now—but he didn’t have long to wait to find out.
Solemn eyes that had been shining with merriment half an hour before turned on him. “What are you doing with her?”
Or, more to the point, what was a nice girl like Payton Liss doing with a guy like him? “We’re just having some fun, Dad. It’s not serious so don’t start knitting any booties.”
A beat of silence and then, “Does she know that?”
Staring at the numbers as each floor illuminated and went dark, he offered a single nod. “Give me some credit. We wouldn’t have gotten anywhere near a bed if she didn’t.”
“She’s not like the others.”
Nate fought back a grin. His father hadn’t had a say in his sex life since he’d slapped a box of condoms in his hand in high school and sat him down for a man-to-man. “What do you know about the others?”
“I know you haven’t introduced me to a date since you were seventeen.”
“You already knew Payton. And it wasn’t like I brought her home for dinner. She walked in before I could get rid of you.”
His dad let out a derisive snort. “I know you’re linked to one woman after another, but it never lasts more than a couple weeks because there’s no connection.”
Yeah, he supposed if anyone had the skill set to recognize something like that it was his dad. Hindsight and all. “You’ve been spending too much time with your nose in the tabloids.”
“I saw you laughing with her. The way she looked at you.” His dad stared him straight in the eye. “This one’s not going to let go so easily.”
Nate shook his head. “Yes, she will.”
When the time came, she’d have to. And until then, she wouldn’t get too close.
He wouldn’t let her.
Chapter Fourteen
THEY’D spent the evening enjoying dinner, drinks, and non-stop laughter at the Gold Coast home of Diane and Garry Ortiz. Nate tried to warn her ahead of time about his former Marketing VP’s larger-than-life personality trapped in a pixie-sized body—but it wasn’t until Payton found herself gasping for breath within the enthusiastic squeeze of Diane’s shockingly strong arms that she fully grasped his meaning. Stunned, she took a step back, laughing as Nate steadied her with a hand at her hip.
“Diane, I think you broke my date,” he joked, dodging to avoid the swat of her arm.
“Oh, stuff it, Nate.” She took a deep breath that seemed to fill her entire body, nearly bringing her to her toes, and then let it out in a huge rush. “It’s just so wonderful to have finally met you, Payton. I can’t believe the nerve of this guy in keeping you a secret for so long.”
“Thank you. Tonight was so much fun.”
Diane cast a mocking scowl Nate’s way. “See? She likes us. No reason to keep her holed up the way you did.”
It was hardly the case. As absurd as the suggestion had been, Nate hadn’t been kidding about sharing his friends. In their few short weeks together, he’d been steadily circulating her through the various groups he socialized with, encouraging relationships outside himself. Keeping up his end of the bargain while maintaining the ruse around the timing of their reunion for the sake of a child half a world away.
Cocking his signature grin, he winked. “Guess I just wanted her all to myself.”
Diane waved him off, pulling Payton into another suffocating embrace, and then set her back with a satisfied smile. “About time you found one worth hanging onto, Evans.”
“Definitely.” He looked casual, utterly at ease with the implication they had a future together. But Payton knew the truth.
With Nate romancing her several nights a week, filling her days with unexpected surprises, texts and phone calls—it should have been heaven. But their romance was running on borrowed time.
Nate had ways of reminding her. Nothing overt or hostile. Just a subtle distancing when he sensed she was getting ahead of herself. The problem was, she didn’t want the distance or to hold back, and more than that she didn’t want Nate holding back either. What they had wasn’t going to last and, no matter how she sliced it, when the romance ended her heart would break. There was no defense against it. So until that happened, she was going after everything she could get.
Sunshine poured clear and bright from the October sky, the lingering Indian summer giving the city as a whole a reason to smile. Payton, clipping down the sidewalk in her favorite flowing skirt and calf-hugging, heeled leather boots, was no exception. It was an off day from seeing Nate, and thanks to a field trip her afternoon classes were cancelled—which left her free to catch up on a few overdue errands. Only as she rounded the corner of her block, she caught sight of Nate—dangerously appealing in Aviators and dark jeans—pushing off the rough brick pillar at the end of her walk.
“What are you doing here?” she called, rushing forward. “I thought you had meetings all afternoon?”
“Being the boss has its benefits.” Nate stretched out his arms, gesturing around him. “Too nice a day to be cooped up indoors. Let’s drop your stuff and take a ride.”
Payton frowned down the street. “I’d love to, but I’ve made appointments around town. Papers to sign at the lawyers. Stuff I’ve been putting off too long.”
Nate slipped his fingers beneath the lapels of her jacket and tugged her gently into him, his cajoling smile running at full strength. “So reschedule. Lawyers do it all the time.”
“No, I shouldn’t—”
“Sure you should.”
She sighed, bristling slightly at Nate’s domineering attitude. But then he tucked her beneath his jaw and it felt so good in his arms. So right.
“Tell your lawyer it’s a crime against nature to waste a day like this one and you’ll see him next week.” His fingers sifted through the curls at her back, the touch sending a shiver of pleasure skirting her spine.
It would be easy enough to reschedule. But Nate simply expecting she drop everything to accommodate his whim didn’t exactly sit right. Even if she had been thinking about him all day, she didn’t want to be treated like just another one of his beck-and-call girls.
No, she was making too much of it. The man wanted to see her so he’d dropped by. Big deal. It was a nice thing.
And it wouldn’t last forever.
“Come on. We’ll play hooky. It’ll be fun.”
“Hooky?” she scoffed, giving in with a slow caress of her hands down his chest. “What are we going to do? Go to the mall? Catch a movie? Hide out under the bleachers?”
Nate’s smile was pure mischief, his tone pure seduction. “Is that what you did?”
“Please. Like I’ve ever ditched.”
He’d moved into leering territory now, his blue-eyed gaze running the length of her. “But I bet you wanted to.”
“I did,” she replied, her answer escaping on a wistful sigh.
“Yeah,” he answered, face tilting toward the sky. “Me, too. But I couldn’t exactly get away with it when Dad was teaching two doors down from my homeroom.”
“I guess not.”
“But no one from the office would dare call him now.”
She let out a conspiratorial laugh. “And your secret is safe with me.”
Grinning, Nate pulled his phone from his pocket and handed it over. “Reschedule.”
Five minutes later Nate threw his leg over the black bike parked at the curb, watching with satisfaction as Payton’s eyes went wide and her lips parted on a small intake of breath.
He brought the bike off its center stand and held out the spare helmet. “Hope you like to go fast.”
Payton’s eyes shot from the bike to the helmet and back to him. “I’ve never been on one before. I don’t know how.”
“Really?”
“I always wanted to.” She smiled, her eyes seeming to focus on some distant point from the past. “You used to ride that big bike around. I thought it looked so cool. Like such fun.”
He remembered. It had been his cousin’s. On loan for the summer while Nate worked a job the next county over. He’d seen her walking in town one sunny day and offered a ride. She’d wanted it, her expression reflecting pure desire, but she’d turned him down anyway. Looked guiltily behind her, as if she’d been afraid someone might have seen.
Someone with a heart condition she didn’t want to worry.
He hadn’t realized at the time. But that was what it had been. He couldn’t help but wonder how many desires, big and small, she’d pushed aside to keep from upsetting her father. Or how devastating the loss of him must have been after sacrificing for so long—even if she’d known that, ultimately, the loss was inevitable.
Payton would have her fun now.
His blood pumped faster as he gave into the urge to play. Catching her wrist, he pulled her close. “So I’ll be your first.”
A coy look from beneath the fringe of her lashes. “You will. Be gentle?”
Damn, he had fun with this woman.
“Don’t worry. I’ll start slow,” he promised with a nip at her bottom lip before pulling the helmet over her head. “And if you get scared, just hold on tighter.”
The pink tip of her tongue smoothed over his love bite, leaving a moist trail he wanted to follow with a lick of his own, but days like this one didn’t last forever. So settling for a too-brief kiss instead, he winked and patted the seat behind him. “Let’s hit it.”
