Master Debater

21. Nate

On Sunday evening, after helping Willa into the passenger side of my car, I circled around the hood, oddly happy to be attending the art exhibit. Usually, I dreaded these types of events, mostly due to boredom from being around a lot of stuffy people who wanted to brag about how successful they were. Not to mention my mom’s constant matchmaking attempts.

With Willa on my arm, I’d be ready to take on anything. It also helped I’d hijacked another one of Fowler and Fowler’s clients this past week—an entire hockey team, who was in the middle of a shakeup. It’d leave me damn close to crossing that line in a month, if not place me on the other side of it. Victory was going to taste about as sweet as my date.

As soon as I settled behind the wheel, Willa cleared her throat. I turned my head and drank in the sight of her. The red dress emphasized her hourglass figure, and the plunging neckline showed off her cleavage with perfection. “Did I not do a good enough job telling you how incredibly gorgeous you look? I thought my dropped jaw and vow to strip you bare later tonight made it clear, but I’m happy to do it again. There are other adjectives I could use too. Sexy, dangerous, so fuckable I’m not sure I’ll be able to behave myself.”

Two spots of cheeks bloomed on her cheeks. “Thank you, but that’s not what I’m talking about.” The dangly earrings in her ears rattled together and reflected sparks of light across the dashboard as she shook her head. Then she gestured to the gear shifter and the lacy thong around it.

More specifically, the lacy thong I’d removed from her that night in the performance center, when I’d been tongue deep in her pussy. “I told you that you weren’t getting them back and that they now belonged to me.”

“Trust me, I remember. I just didn’t know you were going to put them in your car for everyone to see.”

“My windows are tinted, and they’re for me to see. If someone gets a glimpse, well then, it’s their lucky day. As long as they look and don’t touch, and that goes for the panties and you.”

“And you’re sure I can pull off this dress?” Willa smoothed her hand down the side of it. “Leah talked me into buying it over FaceTime while I was in the dressing room, but I worry it’s too snug and too red, even if the sale was too good to pass up.”

“There’s no such thing as too red, not with that body.” I reached over the console, grabbed hold of her hand, and lifted it to kiss her knuckles. “You look stunning, Willa. I can hardly keep my eyes off you, and I definitely won’t be the only one, which is why I’ll be keeping you at my side all night long. Then, after I make everyone jealous, I’m going to enjoy stripping that dress off you and seeing it puddled on my bedroom floor.”

A smile curved Willa’s pearly pink lips. “Thank you for the reassurance and compliments. You’re one of the reasons I felt confident enough to try it on in the first place.” She leaned across the console, placing her hand on the side of my face as she brought her mouth down on mine. “And don’t worry. I plan on being very much plastered to your side.”

She planted her other hand high on my thigh and swiped her tongue across the seam of my lips, lingering for long enough to send the world spinning.

On the way back to her seat, she tried to sneakily remove her thong from the gear shifter, and I curled my hand around hers, the lace, and the knob. “You’d better stick to your day job, sweetheart, because you’d make the worst pick-pocket or spy ever.” Her lower lip popped out, and I reached across her, snagged the seat belt, and clicked it in place. “How many times do I have to prove that I’m going to win whatever debate we have?”

“I might surprise you one of these days.”

Truth be told, she’d surprised me several times this past week. I’d been so fucking grumpy the other night, and she hadn’t cared in the least. She sat at my side and aimed her sunshiny personality at me until it’d slowly spread and overtaken my inner thunderstorm.

Something was shifting between us, and I couldn’t decide whether I should embrace it or run before it was too late. So, I deflected, clinging to the cockiness that would hardly come as a shock to her. “That’s cute,” I said as I pulled onto the road. “But it’s never going to happen.”

Waiters circled the floor with fancy trays, and I lifted two flutes, thanking the waiter before handing Willa one of them.

She took a sip, humming her pleasure over the bubbles, and then looped her elbow through mine. Then she inclined her head and said in a voice only meant for me, “For someone so uncivilized in the bedroom, you’re such a gentleman. And I mean that in the best possible way. Have I mentioned how hot and bothered it leaves me?”

I splayed my hand on the small of her back and curled her tight to my side. “I seem to recall you saying something to that effect, but please, tell me more.”

Her lips brushed my ear as she whispered, “I’m starting the countdown to the moment when you follow through with your promise to strip me of my dress.”

I clucked my tongue. “My, my, keep talking like that and I’ll be forced to spank you.”

Willa sank her teeth into her bottom lip and batted her eyes at me, pushing her breasts against me and providing me with a view of her breasts that left me growing hard against her hip. “If that’s supposed to be motivational, you need to work on your threats, Mr. Fox.”

Fuck me. The woman wasn’t going to rest until my massive erection was part of the art exhibition. Fingers crossed the people in attendance had suddenly become extremely open-minded. And calling me Mr. Fox? She was downright daring me to make good on my warning. Actually, that fell short. The siren was tempting me to take her into the nearest empty closet or room so I could punish her and brand her as mine.

“I’m going to tally up how many times you were naughty during this event and make you pay.”

“It’s more greed than naughtiness. Someone left me high and dry last night while they were at the office, and when it comes to you, I want it all. The gentleman and the caveman. Tender caresses and the spanking.”

Keeping my arm tight around her, I maneuvered us so our backsides were aimed at the wall and gave her a tiny smack. A teaser of what was to come. Besides her and then me, that was.

“Willa! Nate!” The voice was familiar, but it took me a second to clear away the lust haze and recognize it. Right in time for my mom to barrel toward us, her heels clacking against the floor, so much happiness on her features that panic automatically bubbled up within me. It was one thing for me to take a risk, but ever since Dad passed, Mom took losses in general harder. If she got attached to Willa, only for it to not work out…

My lungs flattened, turning into heavy, useless organs inside my chest.

“It’s so good to see you.” Mom gave Willa a hug, complete with an air kiss to her cheek. Then she hugged me and, as she pulled away, she placed her hand on the side of my face and Willa’s, beaming as she glanced at the both of us. “It’s extra lovely to see both of you in the same place.”

Considering she and I lived in the building, that struck me as funny. But then she added, “You look quite cozy as well. I had a feeling I might need to give Nate a nudge, and I was so pleased that instead of having to wait to get you both together at the gallery that he called to inform me that he’d simply bring you with him.”

Willa laced her fingers with mine and squeezed, reading me like a damn book. I peered down at her, prepared for a hint of sorrow or perhaps irritation. Instead, she gifted me with a comforting smile that said she was here with me, not to freak out, and that she had my back.

Which made it easier to release the tension in the line of my shoulders and shake off the pressure.

“…going to galleries and attending art exhibitions. As it happens, I’m such a fan that I have a one-eared kitty named Van Gogh,” Willa said to my mom. Obviously, I’d missed the start of the conversation, but I squeezed Willa’s hand, thanking her and conveying I was there for her as well. “I’ve always loved him—the artist, not the cat. Although, that holds true for the cat too. He was so surly. Now I do mean the cat.” She laughed, the noise so cheery and infectious I watched her with an awestruck grin. “But it does echo how I felt when I discovered the artist back in high school.

“I feel like the Starry Night gets all the glory, and while I totally understand why, my favorite has always been Starry Night Over the Rhone. It’s like the calm before the storm in Van Gogh’s life, right before he lopped off his ear and ended up at an asylum. It makes me think of the calm measures in a song, when the world is picturesque and reflective, and lovers are out for a walk. The quiet of a pianissimo causes the crescendo and forte to stand out that much more. Not because that section is loud, but because you hear and experience the contrast.”

Willa’s dreamy expression faded as she returned from wherever she’d gone to the present. She reached up and fiddled with her earring, a nervous, adorable tick of hers. “Sorry. My Music Theory Professor is showing.”

So was her passion, her beauty, and intellect. She was so much more than sexy or beautiful. She could keep up with me in every way, and my heart swelled until it could hardly fit in my chest.

I wasn’t the only one experiencing an abundance of affection for Willa either. It radiated through Mom’s features as she threw a hand over her heart. “Don’t apologize. I completely agree. I’ve always loved Starry Night Over the Rhone more.”

“In fact, she has it hanging over the fireplace in the study,” I added.

Mom was someone I’d never put on the witness stand, as every emotion she felt showed plainly on her face, and a pinch of alarm arose at the way her eyes misted over. “Rashida was so right about you. You’re as brilliant and beautiful as she claimed, and I just knew you and Nate would hit it off. Do I get matchmaking credit?”

“Oh,” Willa said. “Nate and I aren’t… We’re getting to know each another and I suppose this is technically a date, but it’s still early in our, um?—”

“Yes, Mom. I bequeath you all the credit.” At this point, it was too late to avoid attachments. Not only on my mother’s end, at that. But to lighten my reply, I lifted a hand to the side of my mouth and faux whispered to Willa, “Just go with it. Trust me, it’s just easier to give in, or she’ll spend the rest of the night defining our relationship for us.”

Willa’s jaw dropped, and I wondered if I’d crossed a line, answering on both our behalf without consulting her first. “Wait. You give in sometimes? Like, you’re actually capable? Because earlier this evening, you told me I’d never win a debate.”

“He did what now?” Mom shot me a stern look that said she’d raised me better, although she knew as well as anyone it didn’t take. She’d once referred to me as the most obstinate child on the entire planet. “Nathan Evan Fox. You let Willa win once in a while.”

Willa jabbed her elbow into my side. “Yeah, Nathan. It’s only fair.”

Oh, she wanted to go there? I dipped my head, my mouth inches from Willa’s ear, triumphing in the shiver she failed to repress. “Is this really how you want to win? By playing dirty?”

Right as I was smugly celebrating my victory, Willa snaked her arm between my suit jacket and shirt, pivoting into a side hug as she whispered, “As I recall, you like it when I’m dirty.”

Eyes locked onto hers, I did my best to convey I’d make her pay for her outburst later. “If you’ll excuse us, Mom. I promised to show Willa around the gallery. There’s a piece I’m very eager to show her.”