Nate woke up and instantly reached for Gracie, but when he found her side of the bed cold, he jackknifed to a sitting position. Where the hell was she? He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and looked for a note, then checked his phone to see if she’d messaged him. Nothing.
Shit.
He pushed the blankets off and checked the time. That’s when he realized she probably left through the night to go finish her comic strip. Dammit, she was supposed to wake him, not sneak off in the middle of the night without letting him know. As he thought about why she’d do that, a knot tightened his stomach. Could he have taken things too far and scared her off? But he’d felt her body beneath his, felt the way she’d opened for him, whispered his name when she came. There was no way she could deny the sex between them was perfect. Everything between them was perfect.
He grabbed his clothes from the floor and pulled them on. Just as he was about to open the door and go find her, someone knocked.
He opened it quickly to find Gracie standing there. “Come here,” he said, pulling her inside and closing the door behind her. He looked over her face. “Is everything okay?”
“I don’t think so,” she said.
His heart fell into his stomach. “Oh fuck. I fucked things up, didn’t I?”
“Kind of.”
“Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.” He said and fisted his hair. “I’m so sorry. The last thing I ever wanted to do was jeopardize our friendship, Gracie.”
She looked down. “Well, you certainly did that.”
He cupped her chin and lifted until her eyes were locked on his. “What can I do to make it right? I don’t want to lose you.”
“We can’t go back to being friends, Nate. We just can’t.”
“Fuck, Gracie. Don’t say that.” She pulled something out from under her arm and handed it to him. “What’s this?” he asked.
“It’s the Valentine issue. I thought you might want to see it. It’s already gone to print.”
He pulled opened the paper, and when he read her strip, his heart stopped beating. “Holy shit,” he said as his throat tightened. After he read the words Kate Loves Nate, he lifted his gaze from the paper to find Gracie smiling at him.
“We can’t ever go back to being just friends, because I never want to stop being your lover, Nate.”
“Gracie,” he said and pulled her to him. His mouth crashed down on hers, and he kissed her with lust, need, possession.
“So what do you think?” she asked, nodding toward the paper. “Did I nail it?”
He laughed as emotions pressed against his heart. “Yeah, a few times.”
She laughed with him. “Just so you know,” she said, putting her hand on his chest and backing him up until his knees hit the bed. “I really am Kate.”
“I know that. It’s your middle name.”
“And Kate really does love Nate,” she said.
“Just like Nate loves Kate.” He unzipped her jacket and pushed it from her shoulders. “He always has, you know. He was just too afraid of doing something to jeopardize the friendship.”
“Well, he sure opened Kate’s eyes last night when he did something…something big.”
He cocked his head and gave her a wry grin. “Are you saying Nate’s big?” When she laughed, he dropped a soft kiss onto her mouth. “I can’t tell you how happy I am that Kate loves Nate.”
He deepened the kiss, and she moaned. “Nate?” she asked, her voice a breathless whisper.
“Yeah, baby?”
“Why are we talking in third person?”
He laughed. “I have no idea. But I do know one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Now that you’ve changed the direction of your comic, you’re going to have to start gathering material if you want to fill a weekly column.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“I’m suggesting we both call in sick and spend Valentine’s Day together right here, in this bed. I mean, you did say you’d be my Valentine, right?”
She arched a brow. “What, no flowers and chocolate?”
He brushed his thumb over her mouth, and she leaned into him. “Are you craving something sweet, baby?”
She shook her head. “No. All I need is standing here right before me.”
“And all I need is standing right before me, too.” He frowned and fingered the top button on her blouse. “There’s only one problem, though.”
Her eyes dimmed with desire as he pushed the button through the hole. “What’s that?”
“Nate is craving something sweet, and your clothes are seriously in his way.”
THE END