He wasn’t here when I was, so I have noidea how he knows I stopped at home after visiting Nana. I’m going to have to check every room in this apartment a little more carefully. He’s probably got hidden cameras in here to keep an eye on me.
“I went to my friend Cleo’s house to help her get ready for a date.”
He looks me up and down. His gaze settles on my lips just long enough to make them tingle. “You did not ask my permission to go to someone’s house.”
The irritation of the day is quickly compounding, and I feel myself getting angrier by the second.
“I didn’t know I had to get permission tobreathe.”
He takes a step toward me. “You need my permission foreverything.”
I knew he was reluctant to allow me to continue working at the dance studio, and we had spoken briefly about my schedule, but I assumed that if I met all of my calendared obligations that I’d be in no danger of breaching the terms of our agreement. He never said anything about clearing every minute of my day with him.
“I was under the impression that I’m your student, not your pet,” I say sarcastically.
His hand wraps around my bicep and he pulls me against him with one harsh tug. Our eyes clash and my breath hitches in my chest. I have to tilt my head back to look up at him and there’s a vulnerability in that. He’s so much taller than me, broader, stronger, but I find being at his mercy like this a little thrilling. Nate can do anything he wants to me.
And maybe I want him to.
“You’re right, you are my student—and it’s time foryour first lesson. The connecting door will be unlocked. You have twenty minutes to freshen up and come to me.”
The back of my neck tingles. I knew this moment was coming, of course. This whole arrangement is about sex, after all. My palms grow warm and the sudden urge to throw myself in his arms nearly gets the better of me. How can I want to run away and launch myself at him so equally?
I’m not ready for this.
What he did to me in the car on the way back from the restaurant is one thing. That was sensual in a way I can’t really describe. It shouldn’t have been. Having his hand up my skirt while stopped in traffic like that, doing those things to me where anybody walking by could have looked in and seen us through the window. I shouldn’t have liked it. But I did.
What does he have in store for me this time?
He releases his grip, then turns his back on me and stalks out of the apartment. Standing in the middle of the living room, I clench my hands into fists and then release them again and again as I ponder what’s going to happen tonight. The exhaustion I felt earlier is gone.
Well, that’s not completely true. It’s still there, but it’s now laced with sweet anticipation and a whole lot of nerves.
I can’t imagine what he’s going to do to me. Or what he’s going to want me to do to him. All I know is, I’m way out of my league.
And I have no idea what he meant by “freshen up,” but I go right to the bathroom and take a quick shower. I already shaved earlier, and I’m careful not to get my hairwet, so the process of lathering myself up with my sandalwood and vanilla body wash and then rinsing off is quick. I’m in and out in five minutes, and because I’m not sure what else to do, I slip on a silky nightgown and robe, then touch up my eye makeup and add a little blush.
And that’s it. I don’t know what Nate Windemere wants from me, who he expects me to be. He’s the teacher and it’s his job to outline expectations. But he didn’t, so he’s getting me at face value. After all, that’s pretty much the only value I have right now.
He’s loosening his tie with one hand as I meet him in his kitchen. The top few buttons of his shirt are undone, revealing a flash of tan skin below the hollow of his throat. He doesn’t acknowledge me as I stand beside the counter and wait. Removing his tie, he tosses it on the counter next to me, then crosses to the fridge and pulls out a bottle of water.
“Why do you need a bodyguard?”
The question takes me off guard. Once he’d mentioned me having a lesson, I’d forgotten all about what happened today. Pulling the edges of my robe tighter around my body, I snug the tie around my waist and smooth the fabric because I need something to do with my hands.
“Paparazzi showed up at the studio when I was working and harassed me and the kids. They took pictures, yelled some things through the front door. I’ll be lucky if I don’t get sued by angry parents over this.”
His voice is flat. “You will not get sued.”
“Fine. But I can’t have my students getting caught in the crosshairs whenever these jerks want to follow mearound. And before you suggest it, no, I’m not quitting my teaching job.”
“Follow me.”
Nate walks through the house and leads me up to his bedroom. Leaning against the doorframe, he indicates that I should go in first. Mentally preparing myself as I enter the room, I freeze when I see a laptop open in the middle of the bed. The screen is facing me and though the volume is down, the video playing makes it very clear what’s going on.
My face heats with mortification and I divert my eyes.
Inside my chest, my heart double beats hard. Suddenly, Nate’s hands are at the nape of my neck. The backs of his fingers run down my bare skin before he slips them beneath the robe and rips it down my body. It flutters down my arms and gets stuck against the tie around my waist. He reaches around me to release it and pulls the robe off me in one smooth motion. His hand finds the back of my neck, palm pressing hard against my spine as his fingers dig into my skin.
