FLOATING in a warm cocoon of scented bubbles with my back pressed to Nathan’s chest in his giant bath, a wave of contentment washed over me. Soft classical music played from unseen speakers and candles flickered on the nearby vanity, but I was aware only of Nathan—his arms around me, the steady thrum of his heartbeat against my back, and our fingers and legs entwined beneath the water.
Nathan pressed his lips to my temple, leaning forward to add more hot water to the bath. We’d talked for so long our fingers were pruney, and this was third time he’d topped up the bath with hot water. We’d talked about my father’s recovery and the meeting with Professor Everett. Nathan told me about his new role in the West End play and how he would be pursuing the kind of roles he wanted in the UK for the time being. To be close to me.
‘I never left you,’ he soothed, kissing me again. ‘I know how those photos looked, but it wasn’t what it seemed.’
‘I know.’
‘We had an interview with a journalist at a hotel—a standard interview session about the film. I didn’t know there was a lurker. But Claudia loves being photographed. I wouldn’t be surprised if her publicist tipped them off that we’d be there. When I was leaving, she leaned in to kiss my cheek, like she always does, and at the last minute she grabbed me and twisted her face. It lasted a second before I pushed her away, but by then they’d already got the shot.’
I closed my eyes, willing my body to remain relaxed as his explanation unfolded.
‘I’m done with her—I won’t act with her again. She’s toxic. I’m just sorry it took me so long to recognise it.’ His arms flexed, squeezing me tighter.
‘I called you. After the nurses found your note. She answered your phone.’
‘Jake had it—said she wrestled it from him and answered it. I’m sorry—I could have lost you forever.’ His deep voice rumbled through his chest. I felt the vibrations at my back. Reaching for a sponge, he poured a measure of body wash and ran the suds down one of my arms to the tips of my fingers. Scooping the hair from one side of my neck, he placed a soft kiss on my shoulder before drawing the sponge gently over the skin there.
‘Soph, I missed you,’ he whispered, his voice gruff with emotion.
‘I missed you too, Nathan, almost more than I could endure.’ The confession felt cathartic, and my spirit soared with the rightness of it. ‘Tell me about your play?’ I willed my thoughts back from the abyss, that dark frigid place where I’d existed without Nathan.
His arms relaxed, his chest expanding on a sigh. ‘It’s a period drama, set in Ireland.’
‘Have you done period work before?’
I felt his nod behind me as he slipped the sponge beneath the water, using it to caress my breasts and belly.
‘You didn’t play Mr Darcy, did you?’ I turned to glance at him. ‘Cos we’d have to rent that on DVD if you did.’
He raised an eyebrow, his crooked grin teasing me. ‘Got a thing for Mr Darcy, have you?’
‘Who hasn’t?’
‘No, I’m afraid not. I played Frederick Wentworth in Persuasion.’
‘Oh—do you still have the costume? I’m sure it would work for Mr Darcy.’
‘I’ll see what I can do if it means that much to you, beautiful girl. Come on, let’s get you to bed. It’s after one.’
Nathan rose from the water and retrieved two towels form the heated towel rail. Wrapping one around his waist, he held the second open, bundling it around me. Quickly, he dried the droplets from his skin. Lucky droplets. I wanted to lick them off, but I was too tired, my limbs heavy and my head fuzzy. It had been many days since I’d slept soundly—I hoped to break the cycle tonight, wrapped in Nathan.
He dipped and swung me up into his arms, striding to his bed and depositing me on his cool sheets. Moments later he returned with a hairdryer, which he used to quickly dry first my hair and then his own. Climbing in beside me, he wrapped his arms around me, spooning. I felt his erection nudge my backside, and I arched my back, pressing him between our bodies.
‘Ignore that—it’s missed you too. Go to sleep, beautiful girl.’
Overwhelming contentment enveloped me and I slept.
***
I opened my eyes to the orange glow of a spectacular morning peeking through the curtains of Nathan’s bedroom in St Johns Wood. I was warm, comfortable and euphoric to find myself here.
Nathan slept, his arm and leg flung over me, caging me in. His familiar features were relaxed, his hair a sexy, rumpled mess—just how I liked it. I wanted to touch it, but didn’t want to disturb him, loving the feel of his solid body pressing me into the mattress and the rhythmic expand and collapse of his chest as he breathed in slumber.
The sheets were pooled around his waist, exposing his golden torso to my greedy gaze, and I longed to wake him. I had a surprise for him today.
Affording him a few more minutes of sleep and myself a little longer to indulge in my blatant staring, I thought back to the chat show last night, grinning at the success of my gamble.
How had I ever believed I could live without this man whose presence in my life felt as necessary as oxygen? Yes, there would be tough times ahead, obstacles to overcome, but he was worth it, and I would appear on the nightly news naked wearing a snorkel mask and flippers if I had to in order to be with him.
I thought of his confession to Eddy Miller last night—he’d come back to London for me. He’d taken UK-based work to be close to me. I’d wait until later to tell him I was willing to move to LA.
Turning my head so it faced his on the pillow, I pressed my lips to his forehead, my nose in his hair, breathing him in.
His lips twitched and I moved my mouth to his eyelids, feeling the soft caress of his eyelashes on my lower lip. Emerging from sleep, his arm tightened around my waist, pulling me in, and his lids fluttered open beneath my mouth.
‘Good morning, beautiful.’ His voice was sexy, thick with sleep as he groaned, turning his face into my neck and pressing his morning erection into my thigh.
‘Morning,’ I whispered, my lips caressing any part of him they could reach. ‘Guess what day it is today?’
He gasped, his head shooting up from the pillow. ‘It’s not your birthday, is it? I thought you said it was November second.’ His hair stood on end and his panicked eyes gave him a comical air. I clamped my lips together to stop the laughter that threatened to ruin my morning seduction.
‘No, not my birthday.’ I could draw out the suspense for a while—tease him. But I was impatient, my news bursting to escape.
He relaxed back on the bed, tugging me up on top of him until I was sprawled over his hard chest, my naked breasts squashed between us and my hair spilling around my face.
‘I know what day it is.’ His fingers teased my scalp as he tilted my head back so he could stare at me. ‘It’s the day I tell you I love you again, over and over until you get it.’ His mouth dipped to mine as he whispered those three words over my lips, between kisses.
My heart stuttered, his words expanding my chest until I could no longer breathe. I grasped his wrists, gathering my wits to steer my game back on track. ‘Nope, two more guesses.’
His head dropped back onto the pillow and he moved his hands from my hair, trailing them down my back to cup my buttocks as he lifted his hips to meet mine. ‘It’s the day you move in with me—I’m not letting you go again.’
His words thrilled me, ramping up my excitement until I almost blurted out my secret. ‘Oh dear, last guess, and if you don’t get it this time you’ll forfeit your reward.’ I rolled to the side, fully intending to leave the bed to keep my tease going. I didn’t get far. In a swift move I was pinned beneath Nathan’s hips, both my hands clasped in one of his above my head.
He fully embraced the game, his eyes sparkling with mirth and a sliver of excitement. ‘Tell me what day it is.’ His free hand cupped my breast, his fingers working on my nipple. ‘Or I’ll pleasure it out of you.’ His mouth replaced his hand as I writhed beneath him.
I choked out my words before the power of speech deserted me completely. ‘Well now I’m never going to tell you.’
He lifted his head, flashing me a crooked grin. ‘Fuck you’re beautiful. I missed you.’ His mouth covered mine once more and I forgot I was teasing him, forgot what I wanted to tell him. I practically forgot my own name as I succumbed to the pleasure. We kissed for a long time, the lush, languid kind of kisses of two lovers in no hurry, drawing every drop of rapture from every caress.
Moving my lips to his ear, I whispered, ‘It’s No Condom day.’
‘What?’ He pushed me away, his excited gaze searching mine and his mouth gloriously swollen. We’d switched places during all the kissing and I straddled him, pinning his hands to the bed beside his head as I lowered my mouth to torture him some more. ‘You heard me—what are you waiting for? What’s with all the chit-chat?’ I sucked his silky earlobe into my mouth and flicked it with the tip of my tongue, simulating the amazing things he did to my clitoris.
I leaned forward so that my hair fell in two curtains around our faces. A lock tickled his nose and he blew it away to the side. Brushing my lips against his in a barely-there caress, I teased him with the sway of my hips, rubbing my sex over his taut abdomen and leaving behind a trail of moisture. Bending a little lower, I nudged the head of his erection with my backside.
He hissed, gripping my fingers tighter, and watched me with hooded eyes. His hips lifted off the bed and I moved out of reach, enjoying my power trip.
‘You know it’s going to feel amazing, don’t you?’ I taunted him, my lips barely touching the curve of his ear. ‘When you’re buried inside me, it’s going to feel warm and soft and wet.’
Groaning, he twisted his head, trying to capture my lips with his.
‘I’m going to come around you, squeezing you, sucking you inside me, and you’re not going to be able to stop yourself, because it will feel so good. You’re going to come too, inside me, skin to skin.’
His tenuous control snapped. With a sudden shove and a twist, our positions were reversed and I was crushed beneath him, my hands pinned. He kissed the triumphant smile from my face, his mouth claiming mine with a feral groan. I’d done my job well. He was wildly aroused and, I hoped, intent on our mutual pleasure.
Locking his arms, he raised his chest up and ground his erection onto my slippery sex, bumping my clitoris and sending tiny shockwaves down to my toes.
He had a lazy grin on his face, and his leer cruised over my breasts and across the curve of my tummy.
Pinned to the bed and aching with need, I was helpless and at the mercy of his heated stare and grinding hips. I needed more. My nipples throbbed for the warm suction of his mouth and I craved the amazing fullness of his hard length inside me.
‘Nathan.’ I tilted my hips up to encourage him. I was beginning to regret my little game now the tables had been turned.
‘What’s wrong, Soph? Do you want me to bury my tongue inside you? To suck your hard little nipples until you’re so wild, you start to pull at my hair?’
I nodded, desperate, as he continued to nudge my clitoris with the broad head of his erection. His erotic words ignited my libido, his husky voice a sensual treat.
Crushing me with his weight, he wrapped his lips around my erect nipple, flicking it with his tongue, his eyes trained on mine.
‘Do you want me to fill you, to stretch you, to rub inside you until you come around me, squeezing me like a vice?’
‘Yes, oh Nathan, yes.’ I wasn’t above begging. My hips bucked, seeking the friction I desperately needed.
Finally, taking pity on me, he slipped two fingers inside me and plunged them in and out in unfaltering strokes. It wasn’t what I wanted, but it satisfied some of the need raging inside me.
Rolling to the side, he scooped his free arm around my waist, taking me with him. Withdrawing his fingers, he lifted me astride him, shimmying underneath me until his head was between my thighs, his intention clear.
‘I’ve missed your taste.’ His voice was thick with lust as he positioned me above him, caressing my breasts, my hips and my backside with reverent hands.
I grasped the headboard, my knuckles white with tension, and threw my head back, mewling as he found me with his hot, ardent mouth. Covering my folds, he went to work licking and sucking until my thighs trembled and my head swam, thick with desire. He pushed his fingers inside me again and massaged my walls, muffled groans emanating from him. My vision tunnelled, and my breath caught in my throat in broken gasps. I stole one last glance down between my thighs to find Nathan’s vivid green eyes watching me.
‘Nathan, Nathan,’ I chanted, my orgasm ripping through me. As the intensity rose, I dragged my gaze from his, scrunching my eyes closed and riding out the last delicious spasms, my hips bucking over his mouth.
Nathan moved quickly, flipping me onto my back and surging above me, flames licking at his emerald irises and his mouth tight with contained need. He pressed inside me with agonising slowness, his eyes holding mine as our souls connected as deeply as our bodies. A prolonged groan escaped from him as he sheathed himself fully inside me, his fingers digging into my hips with white-knuckled force.
He held himself still, absorbing the pleasure my body offered him while a strangled gasp tore from his throat and he finally succumbed to the intensity, scrunching his eyes shut. ‘You were right. You feel incredible.’ His eyelashes fluttered and once again I was lost in his verdant stare. His mouth found mine and I clung to his shoulders—he was a lifeline in the fathomless vacuum of space in which my body floated.
Holding still inside me, he tore his lips from mine, his eyes burning with emotion. ‘Soph, I love you.’ Before I could respond, his mouth returned to mine and he began to move his hips, his hands caressing my face from both sides. I was lost in the bliss of his kisses, spiralling towards the peak once more as he moved inside me.
Dragging his mouth away, he reared up onto straight arms, gripping my thighs and pushing my knees back towards my chest, and then entwining our fingers and pressing my hands into the mattress besides my head. His hips continued to pummel my sex, his gaze fixed on me as he watched me react to the pleasure.
His eyes rolled back as he lost himself, only to slam back open at my words. ‘I love you, Nathan.’
As his release erupted deep inside me, he yelled out a broken cry, his frantic stare clinging to mine as he pumped all that he was into me. I joined him seconds later, clamping down on his still hard erection and wailing as the climax deprived me of speech.
***
The sheen of sweat evaporated from my chest, cooling me as my breathing returned to normal. Nathan’s head was a dead weight on my stomach, his body crushing me into the mattress and our legs tangled. He was heavy, in a post-orgasmic slump. Relaxed and sated. And I never wanted him to move.
I ran my fingers through the silky strands of his sex-rumpled hair, loving the sensual glide of it over my skin.
‘Mmm.’
I smiled. He hadn’t recovered the powers of coherent speech. I was barely there myself.
‘Soph?’
‘Mmm?’
He lifted his head, crawling up the bed until he was level with me. Pulling me into his arms, he pressed his mouth to mine—slow, lazy, possessive. I opened my eyes, the intensity in his regard stealing my breath. I brushed my fingers through his hair, the exhilaration of being loved by him still so new, I struggled to contain it.
‘Will you marry me?’
My hand froze in his hair as I turned wide eyes to him.
A small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth and he glanced down at his hand, which appeared between us holding a black velvet box.
I gasped, my hand flying to my mouth as comprehension dawned. This was real. He was serious.
Sensing my unspoken questions, he said, ‘I bought it weeks ago, in LA, before you left.’ He opened the box. The ring was flawless—simple, traditional, and elegant. My eyes burned as I watched him pull it from the box, his breathtaking face brimming with love as he clasped my left hand.
‘Sophia, Grace King, I love you.’ His voice grew thick with emotion and I squeezed his fingers, letting him know I was there with him, the same overwhelming love choking my throat. ‘I’ll love you forever. I want to share every moment of my life with you, make babies with you, grow old with you. Will you marry me?’
As my chest split open, joy spilling out, I could only nod as my eyes filled. Throwing my arms around his neck, I crushed him to me, burying my face in his neck. ‘Yes. Yes.’
He slid the ring onto my finger, his grin infectious. ‘Let’s get married today?’
My startled mouth, busy with his kisses, had no answer.
He was deadly serious and I was sorely tempted to give in. A quiet ceremony in his beautiful garden, a quick trip to the registry office, even a drive through chapel in Vegas. I’d be happy with any of those options.
Even with the paparazzi, the gossip magazines and the constant speculation and intrusion into everything we did, I wanted forever with Nathan. And I’d take it all on to have him.
‘Okay.’
He raised his head from the pillow. ‘Really?’ His cheek was red where he’d lolled for too long on my stomach. His dimple flashed, his face alight with excitement.
‘My mother will never talk to you again, but yes.’
He rolled his eyes and flopped back down, pulling me on top of him and raising my ringed finger to his lips. ‘No, you’re right. But soon, Soph, okay?’
‘We should get up. You have a rehearsal.’
‘Five more minutes.’ He pressed his lips to my throat, persuading me to snuggle a little longer. I didn’t mind, loving any scenario where we touched.
‘Come on, shower time.’ He rose, kissed me soundly, and then sauntered to the en-suite, a naked visual feast.
I lifted the ring box from the nightstand, my thumb brushing the soft velvet and snagging on a corner of paper protruding from the gap between the box and its lid. Prizing open the box, I pulled the folded note from the lid, a giddy smile playing on my lips. He’d drawn a stick man and a stick woman holding hands with a single word written below.
Forever.
I raised it to my lips, love surging inside me and warming me from within. Padding across the room, I placed the note in my bag to be added to the others in my special hiding place later. With one last glance, I smiled in agreement. ‘Forever’ said it all.