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She found her luggage in the airy, dark-paneled bedroom with its king-size bed, perfectly positioned to enjoy the sunset and sunrise from through the tall, sliding glass doors that fronted the villa.
One bed. Was it an indication of where Nate’s thoughts lay? Or what had been appointed to them? Rather than cater to the nerves consuming her, she exchanged her pants and shirt for a white floral printed dress and rejoined Nate on the terrace.
He was standing, his gaze on the horizon as the sun sank below it, a fiery ball of flame on a canvas of turquoise blue. She padded across the warm wood in her bare feet to his side.
“It’s almost unreal, isn’t it?”
He nodded. “Perhaps unfair only a select few ever get to experience it.”
“The deal is almost done, you said?”
“We should finalize it this week if all the requested enhancements have been made to the property.”
And then they would head home to New York. Her home now. The thought of being immersed in Nate’s world, taking her place as his wife with so much tension between them, made her stomach tighten.
He plucked a bottle of wine from the ice bucket and poured them both a glass of the rosé. She eyed the glass he handed her warily, a flush filling her cheeks. “I’m not sure I should have any of that.”
His gaze rested on her with disturbing precision. “The way you responded to me last night was beautifully uninhibited, Mina. A massive turn-on for a man. It’s not something to be ashamed of.”
Then why had he walked away?
He set a palm to the small of her back and directed her toward the lounge area. She sat down on the sofa beside him, curling her bare legs beneath her as a breeze sent a delicious waft of air over her heated skin.
Nate took a sip of his wine, then cradled the glass against his chest, his gaze resting on her. “I needed to give us both time to think last night. To slow things down so we use our heads and not our hormones to decide if us having an intimate relationship is a good idea.”
Her breath snagged in her throat. So he was considering it. She set her wine on the coffee table. “You think I didn’t mean what I said. That because I have no experience, I can’t handle a relationship with you.”
“Can you? Can we layer the complexity of a sexual relationship onto what we already have and expect it to be manageable for both of us? Because if we can’t, if we don’t walk into this with the same expectations, we need to shut this down. Now. My primary concern is ensuring you flourish, Mina, so you build a career for yourself and you can stand on your own two feet when this is over. You’ve gone through too much for me not to do that.”
She nodded. “You’ve set me on that course. You know how much I appreciate it. But nothing is going to distract me from it. It means too much to me.”
He gave her a long look, his dark gaze contemplative. “I’m not sure you can separate your vision of me as hero with the reality of who I am. What I am.”
That may be true, but she wasn’t sure that was possible in any aspect of their relationship. What they were was unique because of the way it had started. That was never going to change. But what happened next was about them both making adult decisions fully conscious of what they were doing. And she knew what she was doing.
She took a sip of wine to bolster her courage. “I want you to be my first lover, Nate. I want to experience that with you. I want it to be as memorable as I know it can be. I don’t expect anything more of you and I won’t let it affect our working relationship.”
His gaze widened imperceptibly. “I’m not sure you can make that assurance.”
“I can and I will.”
He turned his gaze to the horizon. Silence fell between them, the cry of the birds flying overhead the only sound to break it. “Maybe I should ask the same of you,” she ventured quietly. “What do you want of me, Nate?”
He looked back at her, the glitter in his eyes sending her heart into a free fall. “I want what I’ve wanted from the beginning. You in my bed, Mina. To explore every perfect inch of you with my mouth and my hands and everything else at my disposal.”
She sucked in a breath. They were surrounded by hazy, purple sky, but it didn’t seem to be supplying enough oxygen to her brain to fix her spinning head.
Wine seemed to be the answer. The sparkling rosé was delicious: tart and refreshing. It slid down easily as the sun sank into the sea, leaving behind it a stunning dusky-pink-stained sky. By the time she’d finished it, she’d almost convinced herself it was doing the trick—relaxing her taut limbs and clearing her head. Then Nate set his hand over hers, laced their fingers together and her pulse flatlined.
She looked down at his strong, elegant hand. Thought about what he’d done to her with it last night and her stomach did a slow roll.
“You want dinner?” he asked quietly.
She lifted her gaze to his and shook her head.
A purposeful heat blazed to life in his eyes. He took the empty glass from her hand and set it on the coffee table. His hands settled around her waist to lift her up and bring her down on his lap so her knees straddled his thighs.
Her breath caught in her throat. Dio mio. He was all hard muscle beneath her, the intensity of his dark gaze fixed on hers. She might have been tempted to run if the want in his eyes hadn’t drawn her in and kept her right where she was.
