18. Chapter 18
Chapter 18
Nate
A dalie stands in front of me, frozen, as her family asks what she’d been thinking, marring her perfect skin with ink. And I feel like a complete ass because I’m not sure if I should step in and say something or stay quiet. With this group, saying something could very well make things ten times worse for Adalie and that’s the last thing I want to do.
Instead, I take off my leather jacket, draping it with hers on the love seat we’d been sitting on. I’m wearing a white t-shirt today, so the tattoos that cover my arms and the backs of my hands are on full display. I place a hand on the small of her back. The way we’re standing, no one can see the gesture. Adalie doesn’t look back at me, but she presses her body into my hand, seeking the support I’m offering.
Even as I watch, she seems to get smaller and smaller under the weight of the words of her family, her parents telling her how they’re disappointed in her choices lately, her brother telling her no one will take her seriously in business with such a prominent tattoo, her sister saying she can’t believe Adalie would do something like this.
I’ve had about enough of it and am about to tell them to back off. Adalie is strong and competent. She’s smart and funny. She’s responsible and careful. They don’t need to tell her what to do. But I’ve waited too long because a timer sounds from the kitchen.
“I have to finish dinner,” Adalie’s mom says, stalking away. Everyone else disperses, Elliot and Suzanne returning to their phones, Calista and her father taking seats as well and falling into a conversation about Calista’s latest Instagram posts.
“Do you want to get some air?” I ask Adalie quietly.
She nods and leads me out the back door on the other side of the dining room. It opens to a large deck with an outdoor patio set, but Adalie bypasses it and stands at the railing, looking over the backyard.
“I’m sorry about that,” she says.
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
She turns to me, startled.
“Why are you apologizing? They were attacking you. I was about to say something when the timer went off and everyone finally stopped.”
She shakes her head. “I’m glad you didn’t. They would have been worse if you drew attention to yourself.”
I stalk toward her, cupping her face in both my hands, tilting it up to look at me. “I can handle them. I don’t care what they think. I won’t let them talk to you like that anymore.”
Her eyes drift closed as she leans into my touch. Her hands circle my wrists, holding on to me as I bring her closer.
Someone behind me clears their throat. I turn to see Elliot standing there.
“Can we talk for a minute?” he asks Adalie.
I haven’t let her go. I’m not sure I want to.
“Sure,” she says. She tugs my hands off her face but doesn’t move away as I settle my arm around her waist instead.
Elliot looks at me nervously. Good.
“Alone?” he asks.
Immediately, I think, fuck no . Adalie glances up at me with a question in her eyes. I shake my head. I don’t want to leave her alone with any of her family members.
“You can talk in front of Nate,” she says.
He looks at me again like he wants to argue but realizes he has no chance so takes a breath. “Well, I was going over some finances the other day, and I’m a little behind on a couple things. I was wondering if I could borrow some money. You know, just for a few weeks.”
Adalie lets out a breath. “We can talk about it, yeah. How much do you need?”
He looks at me again and I have the feeling he’s going to ask for something ridiculous and he knows she’s going to say yes. Before he can ask for anything, their mom calls, “Dinner’s ready.”
Adalie turns to Elliot. “Talk after dinner?”
He nods and we return inside. They’ve seated me across from Adalie and I hate it. I want to be next to her. I want to be able to touch her. Regardless, I’m ready to step in if they start any more shit. At first, everyone is quiet as they dish out food. Calista starts rambling about some party she went to the night before. But there’s tension around the table and it’s only a matter of time before they go after her again.
I’m practically sitting on the edge of my seat as I wait for the first attack, knowing it’s coming. Adalie has told me a little bit about her family. It’s why I wanted to come with her today, to be here for her. I hadn’t expected the viciousness though.
However, what I should have expected is, when they start in on her again, they do it through me.
“Are you the reason she got that awful stain on her skin?” her mother asks me.
“Mom,” Adalie says. “My tattoo was my decision. Leave Nate alone.”
“I’m just wondering where you got the idea,” she continues, looking my arms up and down with disdain.
“Lots of people have tattoos,” Adalie says. “All my friends have them. Spencer has two, Vic has at least three, and Derek has like six.”
“If your friends jump off a bridge, are you going to do it, too?” her mother asks.
I think of bungee jumping but don’t mention it.
“All I’m saying is,” Adalie says far more calmly than I would have, “Nate didn’t convince me to do this. It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time. He just helped me find a good artist.”
“So he is the reason,” her mother says with a sniff. “I’m not surprised. Calista told me she met you before and that you’re a single father. The tattoos, the motorcycle, and you can’t manage a responsible relationship—”
Adalie stands abruptly. “No,” she says, cutting her mother off before I can. “I’m not going to sit here and listen to you belittle him. You know nothing about Nate. You haven’t even let me introduce him. You look at him, see the motorcycle, the leather jacket, and the tattoos and think you know who he is, but you don’t.”
“Adalie, don’t be so dramatic,” her mom says. “I was only saying—”
She draws herself up to her full height. “I don’t want to hear what you were saying. Come on, Nate. It’s time for us to go.”
I don’t argue. I simply stand as well, coming around the table and placing a supportive hand on the small of Adalie’s back.
“Thank you for dinner, Mrs. Murphy,” I say, because being polite will piss this woman off. I grab our jackets from the living room, and we start toward the front door.
“Wait,” her dad says. “Adalie, come back to the table this instant.” His tone brooks no argument, but she doesn’t listen. She continues down the stairs, pulling on her boots and zipping them up.
Her parents follow us, but stay at the top of the stairs, watching as I hold out Adalie’s jacket for her then shrug into mine.
Adalie doesn’t look back at them when she opens the door and we go outside. As soon as the door closes behind us, her posture deflates. She sags and her hands cover her face.
“Hey,” I say. “Are you okay?”
She shakes her head. “I’m sorry. They were awful to you. I should never have brought you here. I knew they were going to be terrible. I’m so sorry.”
I grip her wrists, pulling her hands away. Tears stand in her eyes.
“Awful to me ? Adalie.” I shake my head. “Do you think the way they do?”
“Of course not.”
“Then don’t apologize. Your opinion is the only one that matters to me.”
She blinks up at me, swallowing as her gaze drops to my lips. I realize how close we’re standing and remember all the times we’ve almost kissed in the last few weeks. I glance up at the front window of the house and I can tell someone is there, watching us, though I can’t see who. It could be the whole fucking family.
“You want to give them a real show, princess?” I ask, looking back at her.
Her breath catches and a spike of heat washes through me with the knowledge that she wants me. Possibly as much as I want her. Ever since that first kiss, I’ve wanted a second. I’ve wanted to feel her small body pressed against mine, her lush lips opening for me.
“Yes.” Her agreement comes out as a whisper and she sways toward me, as though she’s a flower being blown in the wind.
I let go of her wrists to cup her face and lower my head to hers. As soon as our lips touch, she makes a low sound that sets my blood on fire. She leans closer, her arms winding around my shoulders. My hands slip from her face to around her waist, tracing a line down her back to grab her ass and pull her to me. My dick approves, hardening. She has to feel it against her belly.
She makes another sound that goes straight to my head, and I deepen the kiss, my tongue delving inside to caress hers. One of her hands creeps up, her fingers sliding into my hair.
I release her lips to capture the skin of her neck, and she tilts her head for me.
When she sighs my name, I forget everything else around us. I forget all the things that were supposed to be reasons we shouldn’t do this. What I had meant to be a show for whoever was watching becomes me desperately wanting to peel her clothes from her body and sink into her.
“Can I take you home, princess?” I say.
She blinks up at me, like she can’t quite understand my words. Her bright green eyes are filled with hazy lust, and I have to kiss her again.
“No hard feelings if the answer is no,” I say.
She kisses me this time, her eyes closed. “Yes,” she whispers against my lips.
I don’t wait, tugging her with me to my bike, strapping on her helmet. I climb on first and she gets on behind me, snuggling up against my back, wrapping her arms around me. It takes forever to get to her place and I’m frustrated every second. Riding a motorcycle with a hard on is not the most pleasant experience. Eventually, we arrive and she points around the corner to the back of her building where she climbs off and pulls out her keys to let me park in the underground. She follows me to a visitor spot and removes her purse from my saddle bag, pulling out a visitor parking card.
“You always have one of those on you?” I ask.
“Yes,” she says, then takes my hand, leading me to the elevator. As soon as we’re inside and travelling up, I pin her against the wall, our lips crashing together once more. She moans as I lift her, wrapping her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist. When the elevator stops, she hops down and leads me through the hall. I’m right behind her when we reach her door, sliding her hair out of the way so I can kiss the side of her neck.
I chuckle after a moment and say, “You haven’t opened the door, princess.”
She quickly unlocks it. One step inside, she turns, holding a hand up. “Wait,” she says, disappearing through a door to my left. She’s only gone a moment before she comes out with some condoms, her face bright pink, those sweet freckles standing out on her nose.
She takes my hand again and leads me through another door straight ahead: her bedroom. Her hands are trembling when she sets the condoms on a bedside table and turns back to me.
“Are you nervous?” I ask.
“A bit. It’s been a little while for me.”
I place a gentle kiss on her lips and her hands slide along my chest, curling to grab my jacket and hold me close.
“Just remember, princess. You still have your safe word. We can stop anytime you want.”
She smiles up at me, and yeah, that smile is definitely going to get me in trouble. “The safe word is for if I don’t want to do something you’re taking me to do.”
“I’m taking you to bed right now to do something. It counts.”
I kiss her again, hardly able to get enough of her, removing her riding jacket to get a little closer. As I’m removing mine, there’s a shift in the way she’s kissing me, like she’s gone inside her head and isn’t here in the moment.
I pull back, not letting her go, but not kissing her anymore. Which feels like a crime. “Is something wrong?”
She bites her lip—hard, taking half a step back, forcing me to drop my arms. She wraps hers around herself instead.
“I—” She takes a breath and smooths her hands over her shirt and pants, then clasps them in front of her.
“Don’t do that,” I say.
She meets my eyes, clearly confused. “Do what?”
“Try to make yourself be brave. You don’t need to be brave with me. Tell me what’s wrong.”
Now, she looks utterly bewildered. “How do you—?”
“When you’re trying to psych yourself up for something, you do what you just did,” I gesture at her hands that give her away every time. “You smooth down your clothes. When it works, your shoulders straighten. When it doesn’t, you fold your hands together in front of you.”
I’ve maybe been paying more attention to her than I let myself believe.
She watches me in surprise for a moment, then says, “I promised Vic something a while ago. The next time I had sex, I’d tell the person something. But it’s awkward.”
“You can tell me anything, Adalie.”
She nods and squeezes her eyes shut, taking a deep breath, speaking in a rush. “I’ve never had good sex.”
I’m not sure what I’d been expecting, but it wasn’t that. I stand there, without speaking until she peeks one eye open.
“Oh, good. You’re still here.”
“Where was I going to go?” I ask.
“I was afraid you’d think I’m a lunatic and leave.”
“Well, you’re maybe a little bit of a lunatic, but I’m not leaving.”
She laughs and some of the tension seeps out of her. I gesture toward the bed and say, “Let’s sit. Tell me more about this.”
I sit on the edge, and she takes a place next to me, her legs tucked underneath her.
After a steadying breath, she says, “I’ve never been able to… come… with a man except once when I did all the work to make it happen.”
My eyebrows shoot up. “Never?”
She shakes her head. “Until last year, I thought it was a problem with me, so I talked to Vic about it. She asked if I’d ever… orgasmed on my own.” Her face turns that adorable shade of pink again. I really want to kiss her, but I hold back.
“And?”
“I had, but only with…”
She lifts one hand off the bed.
“Your fingers,” I say, taking the hand with mine and guiding it to my lips. I kiss the tip of each of her fingers, loving the way she watches me do it.
“Yes,” she says, breathless.
“Continue with the story, princess,” I say.
She tugs her hand back. “You’re distracting me,” she says. “Anyway. Vic said the only way to have good sex is to let my partner know what’s working and what’s not. And the only way to know is to practice. She took me out… and we went… shopping… for…”
“You can say the word.”
She looks away from me. “Toys. We started with a couple and since then I’ve bought a few more. Trying to find out which ones I like best. I have a collection.”
Holy fuck. This woman has a collection of sex toys. And she’s been practicing orgasming for the next time she has sex. My dick is painfully hard right now, but she’s also nervous and has only ever come with a man once when she’s done all the work to make it happen.
When her eyes finally meet mine again, I say the only thing I can think of.
“Show me.”