Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Nate
A fter nearly two weeks of trekking up to Daisy’s cottage using his tokens, the security guys on the movie set knew who he was and gave him a nod when he passed them. He went the long way around to get to her via her office window in case she was still working. That had happened one evening the previous week.
The office was in darkness when he strode by, and he jogged the rest of the way to her cottage. When he got to her back door, it was open. The kitchen was in darkness, and he couldn’t hear anything. The house was so eerily quiet. Still, somehow he knew Daisy was at home.
Nate bolted up the stairs knowing the layout of the cottage blindfolded, and headed straight to her bedroom. Daisy huddled in the corner on the other side of the vast room as big as his workshop. Her knees were up, she’d wrapped her arms around her shins, and she stared into space .
This was the third time he’d seen her like this, and he hated it. Not only did it scare the shit out of him, but there was so much pain distorting her face he wanted to rip the memories out of her head.
Nate fell to his knees in front of her and then flopped back on his arse with Daisy in his arms. He rocked her from side to side as she burrowed into him. He kissed her temple and then eased her back in his arms to press a kiss to her mouth. She had kissable lips, plump and soft, and he wished to fuck that she felt his kiss because he wanted her to kiss him back so badly.
“Daisy,” he whispered over her lips. “Come back to me.”
Her mouth twitched below his, and he kissed her again, more firmly than the last two times to see if she would come round more quickly. To his surprise, she puckered her lips and pecked at his mouth. He stayed where he was, brushing his lips over hers as she came around from her spaced-out daze. He didn’t dare move until he knew she was lucid and at the moment.
“Nate, what happened?” she whispered, her voice filled with panic.
He moved back to focus on her face. Her eyes were still closed, and she whispered like she was hoarse.
“I found you in the corner, curled up, knees to chest, rocking.”
“I’m not sure what triggered it.”
“If a memory from years ago invades your head and scares you, it’s possible you are still dealing with that fear internally, especially if it comes up without you consciously bringing it up. The memory stresses your body and reacts. In your case, it shuts down, possibly because you’re not ready to deal with it. But the fact they are coming out now could mean you’re strong enough to meet the fear head-on. If you don’t consciously deal with it, then your body and head are going to think you might end up in the same situation. So we need to come up with why you have these flashbacks and why you think it may happen again. Then we need to put things in place to prevent that from happening. I suspect you are already doing one of those things, but avoidance isn’t acceptance.”
Daisy hummed but said nothing.
“Have these been happening outside of the two times you had them with me?”
“Yeah,” she said and then burst into tears.
“Hey, don’t cry. You’re safe here with me,” he said and kissed her cheek. “You’re going to be okay.”
“I hate that this is happening. It’s too much for my mind to process being back on Copper Island.”
“Please don’t say you want to move away,” Nate said.
He was frantic that she might run away. Daisy had already told him she’d run away for a month after the first flashback when she saw Luke argue with one of the staff from Turner Hall. Getting to know Daisy night after night was the highlight of his day. He fixed the actor’s boat in record time, so the customer had given him a list of things to do on the boat during the day while he was filming. It still gave him his evenings free.
He usually slouched on his sofa, watched TV, or went for a pint, but that all changed once he’d swam in her tub. It had nothing to do with bathing in luxury and everything to do with the bohemian woman in his arms. He never wanted to spend another day away from her.
Maybe he was being overprotective, but she needed looking after, and her brothers checked in on her but not on a deep level. She had three friends that he could tell, and they were her brothers’ wives and fiancée. They led busy lives, and Nate wasn’t sure she was sharing her pain with them for fear it would get back to her brothers. Daisy said they have their own pain to work through and didn’t want to bother them with hers.
“Would you miss me or my bath?”
Nate grinned and pretended to think about it.
He wanted to be skin-to-skin with her and not have sex. Nate needed her to know how much she meant to him since they met a month ago.
Nate knew he couldn’t let Daisy out of his sight, not even for a moment. He was afraid that she’d disappear like a gust of wind, never to be found again. Her pain was too much for her to bear alone, and he was the only one who could comfort and make her feel alive again.
“Will you have a bath with me?” Nate asked.
“Yes,” she said instantly.
Nate’s heart skipped a beat.
Undoubtedly, he wanted to take her to bed, but he wanted to take things slow.
Nate had long longed to hear those words, but he didn’t want to take advantage of her vulnerability.
“Are you sure, Daisy? I don’t want to push you into anything you’re not ready for.”
Daisy smiled at him, her eyes glimmering with unshed tears. “I’m sure, Nate. I trust you.”
Nate knew he couldn’t resist her any longer. He leaned in, lifted her up, and carried her to the bathroom. Nate sat her on the chair in the corner and stripped down to his boxers. Turning on the taps, he swiped his hand back and forth under the water for the correct temperature and then turned to Daisy.
Nate knew he couldn’t let her slip through his fingers. He had never felt this way for anyone, not even his high school girlfriend, who left him and moved off the island a few years ago. Daisy was different. She was vulnerable yet strong, and he always wanted to be there for her.
As he stood there, their eyes locked in a trance. Nate could feel the chemistry between them growing stronger every second. As they stared, he couldn’t resist moving across to her and tugging off her jumper.
He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her cheek. She was flush, from what he wasn’t sure, as the room was filling with steam from the hot bath.
“What flavour are we going for today?”
“Strawberry,” she said and stood to move to the cabinet.
Nate let her do what she needed, so she was voluntarily getting into the bath with him.
As she rummaged through the cabinet, Nate couldn’t help but admire her figure. The tight-fitting tank top and leggings she was wearing accentuated her curves. He could feel his arousal growing, but he tried to suppress it. He didn’t want to come on too strong and ruin the moment.
Finally, she found what she was looking for and turned to face him. In her hand was a bottle of strawberry-scented bubble bath. She walked over to the tub and poured a generous amount of the pink liquid into the warm water.
Nate watched as the bubbles formed, creating a frothy layer on the surface of the water. He took off his boxers, revealing all of his body. He stepped into the tub, feeling the warm water enveloping him. Nate didn’t dare look to see if Daisy approved of how he looked. If she did, there would be no way of hiding his erection. If she didn’t, he feared he might cry.
He could see from the corner of his eye Daisy removing her clothes. He couldn’t look away once he moved his head. She was hiding a fantastic figure under her clothes. Everything about her was tight and toned.
Dropping his hand into the water, he forced his arousal down by pinching the head and pushing.
“Come on in,” he said, extending his hand to her. “The water’s perfect.”
She hesitated for a moment, then Daisy threw one leg over, and he had to shut his eyes from the vision of her perfect pussy on show. She was completely bare. He opened his eyes once he felt her legs press against his splayed knees.
The bubbles covered their bodies.
As she settled at the other end of the bath, Nate moved his hand to her ankle and lifted it so it rested on his hip. He nodded to her other leg for her to mirror the action. Nate needed her to participate.
“Are you okay?” he asked her.
Daisy nodded, her eyes wide at what she was doing. She looked terrified. He wanted to bring her closer.
Afraid he might scare her away, he stayed at his end of the tub.
But Nate wanted her on his lap, his cock deep inside her.
“If you want to get out, just get out. Don’t worry about my feelings. If you want me to close my eyes when you get out, then say it. You won’t offend me. I would prefer you down this end, but I get why you’re at that end. I won’t move. You’re safe here.”
“Okay,” she said, looking at him.
That one word nearly killed him. Daisy seemed so inside herself, the spark lost from their sparring the night before.
“Tell me what you were doing before I found you?”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
“To make you cower in the corner, something must have made you feel that way. It looked to me like you were hiding, but there wasn’t anyone in the cottage.”
“I’d got changed out my work clothes into comfy, sitting in a bathroom, clothes,” she said, her lips tipping up.
Thank God she was coming back to herself. Nate began to relax.
“Go on,” he said, slouching down and putting his feet on either side of her hips.
“I’d gone to the window to close the curtains,” she said.
Then she craned her neck to look out through the bathroom door into the bedroom.
“I can’t see. Are the curtains closed?”
Nate turned around and saw most of the windows, then turned back.
“One is open, and one is closed.”
“I must have seen something,” she mused.
“Someone from the movie set?”
“I doubt they would get past the security fences erected to protect the cottages.”
“You must have seen something that sent a message to your mind that scared you.”
“I’m not sure what would have sent me into a spiral. Thank you for turning up when you did. I’m not sure how long it lasts.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to offer to move in, but even to him that sounded extreme, but she brought out all his protective instincts. He couldn’t bear the thought of her being alone in the cottage, terrified and vulnerable to whatever it was that had caused her distress.
As Nate looked at her, he couldn’t help but notice how strikingly beautiful she was. Her long dark hair cascaded down her back in gentle waves, and her eyes seemed to sparkle with intelligence and humour .
He cleared his throat and tried to sound casual. “Listen, I know this might sound crazy, but why don’t I come and stay with you for a few days? You have a spare room, and it might help you feel more at ease.”
He couldn’t explain why he felt so drawn to her, but something about her made him want to keep her safe at any cost.
She looked wary, so he changed the subject.
“Do you have anyone to talk to apart from me?”
“I talk to my mum. She’s trying to help me work out what is freaking me out. I send her pictures of where I am after it happens. Did you know the armchair in your garage used to be in my playroom at Turner Hall?”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. How did you get it?”
“My dad bought it from someone on the island. I’m not sure, really. I can ask him when I call him next.”
“I think that might help. It seems bizarre that you have it.”
“Maybe it is fate.”
She gave him a baleful look, and he grinned.
“Daisy?”
“Yeah?”
“I didn’t think any of you were in contact with your mother. Throughout school, it was rife about your mum leaving your dad and the four of you. Do your brothers talk to her too?”
Daisy shook her head and played with the bubbles that reached her chin as she dipped lower. Her calf brushed his thigh, and he wanted to yank her forward so she was on his lap and he was inside her.
“They’re going to hate I’ve been in contact with her.”
“Why? ”
“Because they don’t like she walked out and left us.”
“She didn’t walk out on you?”
“No. She had to leave. If Mum hadn’t left, she would’ve killed her.”
“Who Daisy? Who would have killed her?”
Daisy dropped her head into her hands and let out a loud sob. There was no way Nate was leaving her at the other end of the bath. He scooted forward, water slopping over the sides and scooped her up to sit sideways on his lap.
Daisy’s tears continued to flow down her face as Nate held her tightly in his arms. She buried her face in his chest, her sobs muffled.
Nate stroked her hair softly, whispering sweet nothings in her ear. He couldn’t bear to see her so upset and knew he had to do something to make her feel better.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said firmly, his voice gentle and soothing. “I care about you, Daisy. I’m right here.”
Daisy looked up at him, her eyes red and puffy from crying. She searched his face for any sign of doubt. He hoped all she saw was sincerity.
“I care about you too. I barely know you, but I wouldn’t want to be in anyone else’s arms,” she whispered, leaning in to kiss him.
Their lips met in a tender caress. As they kissed, the water sloshed around them, the steam rising from the surface. Nate pulled away before it got too heated.
“I really want to kiss you properly, but this seems an inappropriate time.”
“This is the perfect time,” she whispered, lifting her fingers to press against his lips. “At least I’ll remember it this time.”
Nate cupped the back of her head and took in every inch of her face. He needed to be sure she wanted him to kiss her because he knew it wouldn’t be quick once he did. Nate squashed her breasts against his chest, her arse on his thigh, and his cock was telling her loud and clear he wanted her. There was nothing he could do about that. Nate would not hide his desire. He wouldn’t act on it either until she was ready.
“You ready?” he asked with a grin.
“Yeah, kiss me like you want me,”
“Oh, I want you, Daisy Turner, more than you can imagine.”
He leaned down and moved his head from side to side, brushing his lips across hers for a few beats until he pressed hard. On the second kiss, he swiped his tongue along her bottom lip, and then he swooped inside. She jolted in his arms at the same time he did. It was like someone had put a live wire on his heart. He knew she felt it too because she couldn’t get close enough and kissed him so wildly he could barely keep pace. His aloof, distant Daisy was now passionately kissing him, dancing her tongue in and out of his mouth.
He wanted to marry her.
Right then, at that moment, he wanted Daisy as his wife.
She was the one he’d been waiting for.
To love her, protect her.
If he could wangle it, he never wanted to leave her side. The jolt of electricity, the electric kiss happening right then, was all he needed to know.