“And you made a fort?” he asked, walking across the living room to the open doors. The warm evening breeze embraced him, a hint of salt lingering in the air. “I haven’t seen one of those for years.” He loved that she’d made it for them. There was something so sweet about it that curled around his heart.
“I thought we could sleep outside tonight,” she said from behind him. “When I was a kid my dad used to let me do it sometimes, though it was in the hills and not by the ocean.” Her voice was soft, full of memories. “There’s something amazing about the sun waking you up so you can see the first light of dawn.” She paused for a moment, as she took a deep breath. When he turned his head to look, her expression was hesitant, as though she was expecting him to laugh at her. “Riley will be home tomorrow, and my elevator will be repaired the day after that. So it’s kind of our last night together. I wanted to make it special.”
Something in her voice made him stop short. A wistfulness that wrapped around him in a silken thread, pulling tighter until he was finding it hard to breathe. “Ally, I…” He wanted to tell her that it wasn’t their last night. It was only the beginning. But would he be making promises he couldn’t keep?
He hadn’t thought about what would happen when Riley came back. Hadn’t imagined where this thing between them would go. He felt his chest contract as he remembered Stephanie and her demands. One thing he’d learned – girlfriends and bereaved teenage daughters rarely mixed.
But after the last few nights they’d had together he couldn’t bear to let her go. Every time he looked at her his heart skipped a beat.
“Maybe we should try it out,” Ally said, as though she could sense his conflict. She followed him outside, and Nate kicked his shoes off, climbing onto the mattress and scooting across. A moment later she joined him, propping her crutches against the bedframe and lifting her legs onto the bed.
They both lay back and looked up. Close up he could see the roof wasn’t a cotton sheet at all; it was a semi-transparent curtain that made the sky above them shimmer. “This is just for some privacy,” she told him, nodding up at the fabric. “When we go to sleep we can pull it off so we can see the stars in our dreams.”
“Did you do this often when you were a kid?” he asked. The need to know more about her was like an itch right at the center of him. Impossible to scratch, but he was going to try anyway. He reached out to trace his finger down her bare arm, smiling as she shivered in spite of the warm evening.
“Not that often. But when we did I used to get so excited.” The corners of her lips curled up. “I can remember Dad dragging my bed out onto the grass, letting me set it up with so many cushions you couldn’t see the covers. We’d sit outside and he’d tell me all about the different stars. My favorite story was always that of Orion. The way he boasted about killing every wild beast on Earth.” Her smile widened. “I guess I learned from an early age that pride came before a fall.” She turned her head to look at him. “Did you ever sleep out beneath the stars with Riley’s mom?”
“Natalie? No, never. She wasn’t the outdoorsy type.” He leaned over and pressed his lips to Ally’s bare shoulder. “We weren’t together for that long anyway. Just a couple of years.”
“Can I ask you what happened?” Ally was hesitant and Nate could tell. He brushed his lips to the base of her throat.
“Of course you can ask,” he said, his voice thick. “But it won’t put me in the best light.”
“Did you cheat on her?”
“No.” He frowned. “Nothing like that. I just wasn’t there for her or Riley when they needed me. Too busy building up the business. At that point I was at the shop from seven to seven every day, and Natalie was at home with a tiny baby going crazy. I kidded myself that I was doing it for all of us, but looking back I was a selfish son of a bitch. Too young to understand what Natalie needed of me. Too stupid to realize I’d made this tiny beautiful human who wanted me around. And when she gave me an ultimatum, I was cocky enough to think she would back down. So I chose the business over my family.”
He closed his eyes for a moment, his lips still pressed to Ally’s throat. He could smell her shampoo – floral and light – and a deeper note of the perfume she sometimes wore. She filled him up in a way he’d never been filled before. Made him feel needy yet peaceful too.
“It turned out I made a much better ex-husband,” he said. “And I learned to be a better father. When Riley was a little girl I’d pick her up every Friday and keep her until Sunday. Those were my favorite days of the week.”
“You took her to work with you?”
“Sometimes. But we’d done a lot of other things, too. Go to the zoo, the movies, make crazy meals together like chocolate nachos.” He smiled. “And you already know about our beauty salon nights.”
“I do.” She grinned. “And while we’re on that subject, my nails could do with some fresh polish.”
He laughed, pulling her closer against him, feeling the warmth of her skin press against his shirt. “You’ve still got your tie on,” she murmured, reaching out to unknot it with her hands. She slid it out of his collar then unfastened his top buttons. “There, that’s better.”
Curling into him, Ally slid her hand under his shirt and pressed the flat of her palm against his chest, her head nestled into the crook of his arm. He could hear her soft breaths, matching the rhythm of the waves as they hit the shore. He closed his eyes, wishing he could keep this moment forever.
“Are you hungry?” she asked, her voice muffled by his chest. “I can make us something to eat if you are.”
“Not for food, no.”
Her breath caught. “For something else?”
Yeah. Something else entirely. The only thing that left him empty and aching when he couldn’t have it. He inclined his head until his lips were almost brushing hers. Just a heartbeat away from tasting everything he wanted.
“For everything else,” he said, closing the distance between their mouths. His body began to pulse with that familiar rhythm only she knew how to play. He cupped her face with his hand, angling her so he could deepen the kiss, his tongue sliding against hers until she let out a tiny moan. “I want to taste every inch of you,” he whispered, dragging his lips across her jaw. “Then I want to do it all over again.” He lifted her tank top, pulling it over her out stretched arms and throwing it onto the deck beside them. He scooted down and pressed his lips against her belly, slowly making his way up to her perfectly rounded breasts.
God she was delicious. Falling for her would be as easy as breathing if he let himself.
It was the last night they’d be able to be this free and easy in his beachside house and Nate was determined to savor every moment of it. And from the sound of her sigh as he lifted her breast out of her bra and ran his thumb over her nipple, Ally was thinking exactly the same thing.
23
Ally pushed herself onto her elbows, frowning as she looked around her. Something had awoken her, but she couldn’t work out what it was. They were surrounded by darkness, and the air had cooled considerably. She pulled at the sheet that they’d kicked to the bottom of the mattress, tucking it around Nate who was sleeping soundly.