AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He sniffed out a laugh and looked up at her from beneath his unfairly long lashes. “What if I told you the reason was less altruistic?”
What if? she thought. But she didn’t have any qualms. She trusted his heart was in the right place. Or right enough. Her allegiance was with him.
She slid her hand into the crook of his arm, her hip bumping his companionably. “Come on, lover. Let’s go make them believe.”
She pushed away from the car and escorted him up the path, the scent of roses clear and lush on the crisp air. He unhooked his arm and slid it around her waist. She did the same to him, his body heat pressing in on her.
They walked side by side up the steps. Eyes on the big white double doors with a great lion’s head knocker snarling back at them.
Saskia looked at Nate, waited till he looked back at her and made sure he was listening. “This thing between us is new, so if I don’t know something I’ll say so. All you have to do is throw me a hot glance every now and then. Undress me with your eyes a little. They’ll eat it up.”
He stared at her for longer than was comfortable.
“What?”
“Hell, Saskia,” he said, his voice a growl as he ran a hand up the back of his hair—a move she was already familiar with.
She slipped her hand into his and gave it a squeeze.
Then when he looked down at her in question she lifted onto her toes and kissed his cheek. The rasp of his stubble tickled her lips. The scent of him slipped down the back of her throat.
Which was when she might have hummed.
The flicker of heat that sparked to life in Nate’s eyes made her sure of it.
He lifted a hand to her cheek, his thumb running slowly across her cheekbone before his fingers disappeared into her hair. Brow furrowing, his eyes roved over her face, leaving her eyes to rove over his. And what a face. Noble nose, thunderbolt eyes, lips just made for kissing. She’d tried not to remember just how good they were at that particular job, but it was an impossibility.
So much so that, when his tongue darted out to wet his lips and he bent towards her Saskia was so filled with anticipation she began to tremble.
Which was when the front door swung open, letting out a shaft of golden lamplight and noisy chatter.
Nate blinked as if coming to from a spell, then as one they looked up as a gorgeous blonde rolled her eyes at them.
“Get a room!” said she.
“Faith,” Nate growled, taking Saskia’s hand and holding it tight behind his back as if he was her human shield.
“Nate,” said Faith. “And you must be this new girl we’ve heard about. Glad to meet you.”
“Saskia Bloom,” said Saskia, but Nate had her in such a tight grip she was forced to hold out her left hand.
Faith took it, laughed, shook her head, then waved a hand to usher them in.
She bounded off, her long blonde hair swinging, but Nate kept Saskia back a moment.
“Thank you,” he said, his breath brushing her ear as he leaned in close.
“I haven’t done anything yet.”
“Yes,” he said, waiting till her eyes found his. “You have.”
Then he stepped back so that his eyes could slide down her form, touching on her neck, her wrist, her thighs, before slowly meandering back to her eyes.
“Now, let’s do this,” he said, then winked—quick, brief, but potent—before he led her into his family home.
And while Saskia tried to get over the fact that gorgeous Nate Mackenzie had just well and truly undressed her with his eyes, for a brief moment she imagined running. Far, far away.
But Saskia was a stayer. Through thick and thin. You could take her stuff, call her names, ignore her through an entire childhood and still she’d never leave you. It was her defining quality. And, no matter that Nate Mackenzie was proving to be a trickier proposition than she had at first realised, she wouldn’t let him down.
In fact he’d be so impressed with her awesome girlfriendness he’d open up and give her all the research material she’d need to do her piece. To write her love formula. To understand why some people found love every day of the week and others didn’t no matter how hard they tried and how much they wanted it.
She just had to keep one step ahead of him or she’d turn into a puddle of lust on his mother’s floor.
* * *
Saskia’s coping mechanism was sophisticated, but surrounded by the females of the Mackenzie clan, her nerves were just about shot after less than an hour.
They were all gorgeous, like Nate. His mother effortlessly charming, like Nate. So it should have occurred sooner that Nate’s family would be as sharp as he too. As dogged. As tricky.
Interweaving questions about her, and Nate, and her and Nate, with talk of current affairs, reality TV, school friends she’d never heard of, keeping her spinning in circles till her inner ear was on its last legs.
