Chapter 4
Chapter Four
N athan kept his hand on my back as we maneuvered our way through the club and out the door. It was chilly outside, but the warmth in my cheeks combined with the warmth between my legs made it seem sweltering.
Nathan flagged down one of the taxis waiting to pick up drunk club kids. He opened the door and gestured for me to go first, then slid in next to me. Once we were both seated, his hand wandered from my back to my thigh. His fingers were mere inches away from touching me in an entirely inappropriate way, considering we were in the backseat of a car.
"Address?" the taxi driver grunted.
Nathan lifted an eyebrow at me, questioning.
"Let's go to your place," I said. "I live with my parents."
His whole body convulsed as his face contorted.
"Shit, you are legal, right?" he blurted out.
"Yes!" I was torn between laughing and frowning. "They're just… overprotective. I live in the basement suite, anyway. It's not like I'm still sleeping in the same bed I did as a little girl."
"Fuck, you scared me for a minute." His eyes were still wide, his face pale.
I did have to laugh now. "You look like you swallowed a frog."
He ran a hand over his face and peeked at me through his fingers. "I was three seconds away from jumping out of this taxi, you know that?"
"It's not moving yet." I waved my hand in the air dismissively. "You would have been fine."
He snorted. "Then I guess we're going to my place."
"Address?" the taxi driver said again, louder and more impatient.
Nathan leaned forward to give the driver directions, then sat back down. His hand immediately returned to my thigh.
"So what do your overprotective parents think about you staying out this late?" he asked.
"It's not like that," I said. "They don't care about the day-to-day stuff. It's only—" I paused, wondering how to explain without actually explaining anything. "My job pays more than minimum wage, but not a whole lot more. My mom and dad don't want me living in a cheap rat trap." That was as good of an excuse as any, and it was true. "They used to rent out their renovated basement apartment but now I'm living there until I save up enough to get something nice." And until I could convince them to cut the apron strings.
As I spoke, Nathan's hand squeezed and massaged my thigh. It was hard to concentrate with his fingers so tantalizingly close to the seam of my jeans. I mourned not wearing a skirt. I might have already had his hands on my skin by now.
Then again, I had a feeling once his hands touched my bare skin, I'd spontaneously combust, and I didn't want to blow up the poor taxi driver's car.
We quickly reached what I assumed to be Nathan's apartment. It was a multi-story building, but it didn't look as fancy as I would have expected from a rich rock star. No marble pillars, no valets waiting outside to park resident's vehicles. Just a plain concrete and brick facade. It had that sort of grungy feel that older buildings tended to have.
"You live here?" I asked.
"Not all that impressive, right?" he replied. "I know, I'm a rock star, I should be living like a king."
"I live in a basement," I reminded him. "Anything is a step up from that."
Nathan removed his hand from my thigh and entwined our fingers. That shivery feeling took hold of me again. His palm was warm.
He handed a wad of bills to the driver and we stepped out of the taxi. As we waited for the elevator, Nathan put his hand back around my waist, tugging me close. He brought his lips to my ear.
"It might not look like much, but I've got the whole top floor to myself," he said. I felt his lips curve into a smile. "No neighbors to complain about the noise."
My insides clenched at his words. I'd known when we'd left the club where things were heading, but now, with his hand on my hip and the phantom touch of his lips on my ear, my mind and body finally caught up to each other.
I was really doing this, wasn't I? We'd flirted and we'd danced, but up until now I didn't think my brain had really been paying attention to what was happening. I was just having fun with Nathan, the creeper guy from the hospital.
But he wasn't just some guy I'd run into. This guy was gorgeous. He was rich. He was famous. He was a freaking rock star.
And we were about to spend the night together.
A part of me wished I could go back a few years and tell my younger self this story. I wouldn't have believed it, of course, but it certainly would have given me something to dream about. Something to cling to on the hard days.
As we rode the slow elevator to the tenth floor, Nathan's thumb continued rubbing circles in the hollow of my hip. After what felt like hours, we finally reached the door to his apartment. He unlocked it and guided me inside with a hand on the small of my back.
As I toed off my shoes, I looked around furtively. I had half-expected to see a messy bachelor pad with dirty clothes and empty food containers everywhere, but the place was surprisingly well-kept. The decor didn't really go together — there was no matching living room set or perfectly arranged art on the walls — but the place was tidy, aside from a handful of guitars and piles of music sheets laying around.
"Surprised?" Nathan asked as I looked around.
"A little."
He headed to the kitchen and opened the fridge. "My mother would never let me get away with being a slob."
"Is she the overprotective type, too?" I asked.
"If anything, it's the other way around," he murmured absentmindedly as he pulled two bottles of water from the fridge. "You thirsty?"
"Making sure I keep myself hydrated?" I asked. "I only had the one drink, you know."
"If you rarely drink, you're probably a lightweight."
I took one of the bottles from his outstretched hand. "You said it's the other way around. What did you mean by that?"
"Hm?" He raised an eyebrow as he twisted the cap off his bottle.
"Your mom," I said. "I asked if she was overprotective and you said it was the other way around."
His brows drew down into a frown before his expression smoothed. "She was just dealing with some stuff when I was growing up," he said with a shrug he probably meant to look more careless than it did. "So I did the adulting to help her out."
Some stuff . He also said he'd been dealing with some stuff when he left his previous band. Was it the same stuff or different stuff?
I didn't know why I was so curious. There was just something about Nathan. He teased and grinned and bragged, but I'd seen flashes of a different man behind that carefree attitude he gave off.
"Sounds like you've got a good relationship with your mom," I said.
His face softened. "Yeah, we're pretty close. She was always the one encouraging me to go after my dreams."
"She sounds like a wonderful woman."
"She is."
"What about your dad?"
"He's not in the picture." Nathan took a sip from his bottle of water and wandered over to one of his guitars. "It's always just been me and my mom." He fiddled with the neck, going quiet.
"I get along with my parents, too," I said to fill the silence. "They worry too much. But that's what parents do, I guess."
"What could they possibly have to worry about with you?" he asked. "It seems like you'd be the perfect daughter."
"Just the usual things," I said quickly. "Making sure I'm not living off ramen or whatever, nothing too crazy."
My usual things sounded suspiciously vague in the way that Nathan's some stuff was pointedly lacking details.
I supposed it didn't matter. We weren't here to spill our secrets like a therapy session. We were here to?—
Nathan came up behind me and pressed his firm chest against my back. He wrapped one arm around my middle and used the other to brush my hair over one shoulder. I tilted my head to the side, allowing him access. He pressed his lips to the crook of my neck. The touch of his lips made my belly tumble over.
"I was about to ask you if you wanted to come to my place, back there at the club," he murmured into my skin. "But you asked me first."
He placed a soft kiss on my neck, not continuing. I rolled my hips, pressing against him.
"And…?" I prompted. "I asked you first. So what?"
"I usually want to be the one who makes the first move," he said. "But with you… I don't know." He pressed another sucking kiss to my neck. My nerve endings flamed. "I liked it."
And I was liking this. No, I was loving this. The fire between my legs threatened to scorch me from the inside out, and Nathan had barely laid a hand on me. I didn't know if I'd make it when he finally slipped between my thighs and gave me what I craved.
Although as far as dying went, that was a pretty nice way to go. Much better than…
I shifted my thoughts back to Nathan. I turned in his arms, pressing my hands to his chest. He was tall. I had to look up to meet his gaze as I said the words I'd been thinking all night.
"Kiss me, Nathan."