Chapter Five
Nate ran a hand down her back, and Carly let out a sigh. “How are you feeling now?”
He’d been right. There was no way to make it good for a virgin, and he’d hated himself for it.
“I’m fine.”
After taking Carly’s virginity, it had been one of the hardest things he’d ever had to do, and considering the shit he had to do on a daily basis, that was saying something. Carly had stared up at him with tears in her eyes, and it had torn him apart to witness. He didn’t want to hurt her. It had been the last thing he wanted to do, but he’d fucking done it, and that pissed him off.
He’d done what he had vowed to never do. After he’d … completed, Nate had done what he’d read in those books she loved so much. Yes, he’d been a sucker to see what drew her attention. Not that he should have cared, but he had. In secret, he’d gotten copies of her favorite books and read them. All of them had been erotic romance with some intense storylines as well. Most, if not all, of the heroes had taken care of the woman after her first time.
Nate didn’t want to shy in comparison to some of her book boyfriends. That was what Carly called them to Sarah, not his words.
So, he’d run her a bath. Unlike the selfish bastards in the books, he’d not joined her. Instead, he’d stayed with her, washed her body, her hair, took care of her. He’d given the bath salts time to work their magic, and he’d gone back to his bedroom and changed the sheets. There had been a few droplets of blood on the bed from taking her virginity. A part of him had hated seeing that blood. It was proof of the fact he’d hurt her, when he’d promised he never would. It was a promise broken. At the same time, a part of him felt this rather primal need to slap his chest, to stake his claim, his ownership of Carly.
No other man had touched her.
No other man was going to touch her.
She belonged to him, no one else, and he didn’t want to share her with anyone.
Once all the bedding had been taken care of, and he’d changed the bed himself, he went back to Carly. This time, he helped her get dry, and then carried her back to bed.
She’d already slept for a couple of hours, and Nate had watched her.
Sarah had texted and he not so politely told her to fuck off.
Now, it was just him and Carly.
Dalton, Mitch, and Reese had also texted him, and he’d told them to leave him alone. He didn’t know what game they were playing, and he wasn’t going to join them.
“Fine?” he asked.
Carly smiled and turned toward him. She folded the pillow she’d been lying on in half, and stared at him. “Yes, I am fine. How are you?” She reached out and put a hand on his cheek. “I feel I should ask you how you’re feeling.”
“I’m fine. I’m not the one who was in pain.”
She winced. “Yeah, I didn’t know if I should warn you about that. I didn’t know if the books were lying or telling the truth.” She let out a laugh. “I guess they weren’t lying. It can be quite painful.”
“I only wanted it to be good for you.”
All he ever wanted for Carly was happiness and goodness.
“It will be,” Carly said, then frowned. “Well, I guess the next time we do this, it will be. Unless of course, I have gotten pregnant.”
He saw her cheeks going bright red. “What’s the matter?”
“I don’t know what this is.” She nibbled her bottom lip.
“What, what is?”
“This. Is this like … I don’t know, the sperm injection?” She scrunched up her nose. “Or is this something else?”
“Tell me what you want this to be,” Nate said. He’d give her the world. All she had to do was ask.
“I … we’ve moved so fast.” She looked past his shoulder. “I … we’re going to have a baby, right?”
He nodded.
“And we’re best friends, and I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize that.”
“Carly, we’re not going to do anything that will ruin our friendship.” He wouldn’t let that happen. As far as he was concerned, they were moving in the right direction.
“Then, I … we’re going to have a baby together, and I don’t want this to get weird, and I’d like us to try this out.” She frowned.
“Try this out?”
Carly suddenly sat up and pulled the blanket around her body, hiding herself from him. “This is going to sound so silly, and I get it if you want to kick me out afterward.”
That would never happen.
Nate was curious as to what got her so nervous.
“I’d like us to try and be … boyfriend and girlfriend. You know, like an actual couple. We could do it in secret, you know. Not tell any of the others what’s happening. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you with a girlfriend before, and, well, I’ve been pretty clear that my dating experience is next to nothing. I have no idea what I am doing, or what to do in a relationship…”
And she kept talking, well, babbling, which he knew Carly did when she was nervous, and it was so cute and adorable to see.
Nate put her out of her misery by slamming his lips down on hers. He didn’t give a fuck if the others knew about them or not. He had a feeling they were all in on some kind of game, but he wasn’t going to call them out, at least not yet.
For now, he had gotten what he wanted. Carly was his, but he also did have a plan. He needed to get Carly knocked up and married to him, and he wanted to get it done sooner rather than later.
****
Staring across the bed at a sleeping Nate, Carly had a mad desire to reach out and touch him, to see if he was real, but that was stupid. She didn’t want to wake him, as he did look so peaceful in sleep, and Nate rarely looked at peace.
She knew he put on a good front, but he was a damn good boss and businessman. Lifting the blanket, she rose from the bed slowly and quietly. She didn’t have any change of clothes, but she grabbed the robe she had on last night and tiptoed out of the bedroom.
There were plenty of other bathrooms in Nate’s house for her to use, and she didn’t want to wake him.
Sneaking downstairs, she found the spare bathroom. Of course, there would be clean toothbrushes for her to use. She unpackaged one and brushed her teeth. She ran a comb through her hair, splashed cold water on her face, and she did all of this after using the toilet. With that done, she made her way into the kitchen.
Nate didn’t have many staff. Sometimes he hired a cleaning crew, but that was rare. Carly had spent many a day stopping by to clean his house. He had some serious paranoia, and she knew he’d made a lot of enemies. She wasn’t dumb or blind to what Nate was. He didn’t know what to title himself—crime lord, crime boss, or whatever. Either way, Carly didn’t care. He’d done a lot of bad things.
She knew there were a lot of bad people in the world. In her first years of life, she’d spent a lot of time with bad people. Pushing those memories to the back of her mind, she instead went into his kitchen and straight to the fridge.
There were no leftovers. The guys had snagged them last night and promised to bring the bowls back. She believed them, as they did this at every barbeque. They took what they wanted and then returned with clean dishes. She was just pleased they had decided to clean the stuff first. They never returned anything dirty.
She spotted the bacon and sausage and knew she’d cook Nate a breakfast and take it to him in bed. Reaching for the meat, she then stopped herself. Would that be crossing a line? Would that be like a stalkery girlfriend thing to do? She cooked for the guys all the time, even Nate.
This was stupid. She was seeing normal stuff she did all the time as stalking. This was being nice. They hadn’t changed who they were. She was still Carly, and he was still Nate. They were best friends, and now they had sex and were in the throes of making a baby. She put the packages on the counter and then pressed a hand to her stomach.
Was she already pregnant? She knew it only took one time.
This was crazy.
She couldn’t be pregnant yet. They had only just started.
“Focus, Carly. Just focus. It’s all okay. Totally okay.” She took a deep breath, and then expelled it slowly. Nothing had changed.
They were going to have a baby, which is what couples did all the time. She paused again as she held a frying pan. Couples. Were she and Nate a couple?
She closed her eyes and then decided she didn’t need to know quite yet. Breakfast. She was going to make them both breakfast and not overthink what they were doing. Everything was going to be okay.
Once she had given herself a pep talk, she got to working on breakfast. Frying up some bacon as well as the sausage, she couldn’t help but hum as she got to work.
This felt good. She loved taking care of people. Even though she hated when they were all sick, she loved the excuse to get her big stockpot out, add a whole chicken, and get it cooked up for everyone to enjoy. Everyone did enjoy her chicken soup. It was medicinal in every way that counted.
She was about to crack the eggs when hands wrapped around her stomach, and lips kissed her neck.
“You snuck out of my bed,” Nate said.
Carly giggled. “I wanted to make you breakfast in bed.” She turned her head toward him. “Now you’ve ruined my surprise.”
“It’s still a nice surprise and it smells so good.” He pressed his face against her neck and breathed her in.
“Do I smell nice, or the food?” she asked.
“You both do.” He breathed her in again. “I missed waking up beside you.”
He was saying all the right words, and she couldn’t help but moan as his lips nipped at her neck, right at the pulse where it felt so good. Almost too good.
“I need to focus on breakfast,” Carly said.
He groaned and she felt the hardness of his cock pressing against her ass.
“Fine. I’ll take a coffee instead.”
She’d already gotten the coffeepot running.
Carly tried to focus on the breakfast, and for several moments completely forgot what she was supposed to be doing. The eggs, sitting in their carton, reminded her what she had to be doing.
Eggs, breakfast, cooking.
She had to feed them both, but her body wanted something else. It was like Nate had awakened a need inside her that she hadn’t thought was there.
She had lived a long time without sex, and she could live another few minutes or hours without it.
Once she had gained control of her senses, it was only another few minutes and breakfast was ready. She would have loved to have made him waffles, but she had kind of forgotten about them in the sex haze that had swept over her. instead, he got bacon, sausage, eggs, tomatoes, and some toast. It was the best she had to offer him at the moment.
Nate carried their coffees while she carried their plates, going toward the dining room. His home was always so nice, and she had thought many times how lovely it would be to raise a family here. Nate would make a fantastic father.
Sitting beside him, she put the breakfast down in front of him, and then sat beside him. Picking up her knife and fork, she waited for Nate to take the first bite, and as he did, she watched his eyes close. So long as he was enjoying his food, she didn’t mind.
She cut into her sausage, took a bite, and it was delicious.
Sharing their meal together felt good. It felt right. Carly didn’t want to think of anything else but how right this felt, especially now.
****
“Why are we back here?” Dalton asked.
Sarah glared at Dalton and then brought her hands together. All three of the men looked a little worse for wear. Mitch just looked tired. Reese and Dalton looked like they went home and continued to party, but she wasn’t interested in any of their excuses.
“I have a plan,” Sarah said.
This time, all three of the men groaned at the same time.
“That’s insulting.”
“Look, I’m not meaning to be a downer or anything, but none of your plans work, Sarah. That’s why we don’t follow your plans,” Dalton said, scrunching up his face.
“Yeah, remember what happened when you said it would be fun to completely deface the school gymnasium, and that you had watched and the principal didn’t have any kind of sensor or security on the school?” Reese asked.
“First of all, who puts security cameras and alarms around a school? That could have been anyone’s mistake. I was just unlucky. Second, we got off with a warning.” They had always held that little incident against her, even though it didn’t technically go on their permanent record.
“That’s not all the trouble you got us into. Should we even talk about the time in the supermarket?” Dalton asked.
“Then of course, there was the chicken you convinced us was cooked through and that pink was a normal color,” Mitch said.
She glared at them. “I was young, and we all make mistakes.”
“But your track record isn’t exactly flattering,” Reese said.
She growled. “This is not about doing anything stupid or childish. This is about helping our two best friends. I get it, I’ve made a lot of mistakes and suggested things that are not great. I do take full responsibility for all of it, but this isn’t about that. This is about us helping our friends come together.”
Sarah watched as Dalton, Reese, and Mitch shared a look.
“What?” she asked, stamping her foot.
“Why don’t you let them figure this out?” Mitch said.
She shook her head.
Reese got to his feet. “If we meddle, we could mess this up.”
“Do you really think they will do the right thing? This is Nate, he is going to mess it up.”
Mitch blew out a breath. “Nate has never messed anything up and you know how protective he gets of Carly. They seem to be … getting closer. You’ve already told us what you overheard in the kitchen. Why can’t you just let them figure this out on their own?”
She put her hands on her hips and glared at each of the men in the room. “You’re cowards.”
Mitch threw his hands up in the air.
“We’re not cowards, Sarah,” Reese said. “But those two … they’ve been dancing around each other for years. Only they know if they’re going to … you now, figure out that they’ve been in love with each other forever.”
“Why can’t you guys just help me nudge them in the right direction?” Sarah asked. “I want what’s best for them. They will be so good together, and make gorgeous little babies.” She couldn’t help but smile thinking about it. “Come on, it’s like keeping Mom and Dad together.”
She knew the others felt the same way. Carly and Nate were the parents of the group. They did make the best decisions. The only reason she and the guys got off on the whole gymnasium debacle was because Nate and Carly had bailed them out. She also knew it had cost Carly a lot of spare time, helping to tutor the football team for their final exams. Carly never yelled at her, or held it against her. Unlike the three men in front of her.
None of them could argue with her assessment of Carly and Nate. They were the parents they all never had.
“It wouldn’t hurt to see what she has to say,” Mitch said.
Reese looked ready to cave, but Dalton moaned.
“And what if this plan costs us and them some?” Dalton asked.
“It won’t,” Sarah said. “I want them to realize they love one another, and that they have for a long time. Please, just hear me out.”