Indecent Arrangements: Tabloid Affair, Secretly Pregnant!. Julia James

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.”

      As it turned out, taking it slow wasn’t an issue. Not in the slightest.

      He’d expected Payton to be scared. To be holding on for dear life. Exhilarated by the experience, perhaps, but still maintaining some semblance of reserve. A healthy respect for her safety.

      He had not expected the little minx in the leather jacket and flowing hippy skirt tucked around her thighs to be shamelessly feeling him up with one hand flat against his abdomen, the other snaking over the rise of his thigh. To nearly drive him over the edge with the breathy sounds of her pure, unadulterated delight as she begged him not to stop…to go faster…yes, yes, yes, like that…

      Damn, how did she keep surprising him like this?

      Taking everything he gave her and turning it into something beyond what he’d expected it to be.

      He’d been after a quick spin down by the lake—the wind in his face with Payton’s legs hugging his hips. That had been three hours ago.

      One night. That had been over three weeks ago—

      —and with no end in sight.

      His back tensed beneath the press of her breasts.

      Things were going too far. And he was letting it happen.

      Even when he held back, she didn’t…And the way Payton had fun—her enjoyment amplifying his own—made the willing surrender of his control an all too easy temptation to give into. But falling over the line in the sand he’d drawn—again and again, just because it felt good—was going to land him in a place where he didn’t want to be. A place he’d have to walk away from. And that wasn’t how he wanted it to go.

      Daring fingers flexed and splayed over his thigh, moved ever closer to the hard ridge they’d provoked, forcing a strangled groan from Nate’s throat as he throttled down the road toward his place.

      Time for a reminder about who was in the driver’s seat.

      Time to take back control and set some limits. And if boundaries were going to be tested, it would happen the way he liked—on his terms. It was time to push Payton to extremes—make her pay for that wandering hand and finally get her to say “when”.

      Chapter Fifteen

      MINUTES later they were rounding the top level of the parking garage in Nate’s building. The sun burned low in the sky, casting the stark concrete supports in gilded rays.

      “That was incredible!”

      He barely heard her over the roar of the engine echoing through the structure and waited until he’d pulled to a stop and cut the engine to respond. Pushing the machine up on its stand, he grinned. “Yeah? Glad you had fun.”

      “I’m not sure fun even begins to describe it.”

      He stripped off his helmet and then turned to help her with hers. Damn, that smile was enough to drive a man to distraction.

      And about that…he had some payback to attend to.

      “Come here.” He slipped one hand under her thigh and, the other around her back and, ignoring her squeak of surprise, pulled her around to straddle his lap. The gauzy fabric of her skirt bunched between them. Her heeled leather boots—looking decidedly bad-girl when paired with his bike—tucked behind her as she settled warm and soft against the hard-on he’d been battling for hours.

      She stroked his jaw, brushing over the day’s growth of stubble with a silky smile that had him responding even as he willed himself to heel. He shook his head, his gaze searching her face, trailing down her neck and body, and then returning to her eyes as he nuzzled into her palm, kissed the hollow and then ramped past “sweet” bringing a scrape of teeth into the action. He wanted her to know where this was going.

      Payton’s heart skittered to a halt as instant heat surged through her, twisting into a needy ache that left no part of her unaffected. Her breasts, her belly, her fingers and toes. Every fine hair that covered her body took notice, bowed beneath the desire born of his touch.

      His tongue licked out as his blue eyes pierced her with his intent. Her breath sucked in. Her body coiled tight. And then he licked again, trailing a cool, wet path of erotic sensation in a circle around the first.

      “We should go inside,” she murmured, more than ready to let Nate take the exhilaration of the ride to the next level. This was a man who made her want everything. A man who, when merged with her, made her feel invincible. Unstoppable and completely alive.

      One large hand snaked around her waist, while the other went to her nape, guiding her closer until their lips met in a soft brush, a teasing introduction after too long apart. Her fingers curled against his thighs, and he angled his head, taking