Up in Smoke (5 page)

She scooted a bit closer to him, something she couldn’t name wanting to be as close to this man as possible.
Is it just me being needy after sex? I’ve always wanted to know what it was like to cuddle afterwards, but Joe had always said that I was being a whiny bitch and should go to sleep
. So she was pleasantly surprised when Nathaniel scooted a bit closer, as well, until her head rested on his chest. Her last coherent thought was,
DAMN, the man is built like a giant, but inside he’s like a big ole’ pussy cat
.

*****

The sun was going down when Susan woke up with her head still resting on Nathaniel’s chest. She lifted her head and met his eyes immediately.

“Hello again, beautiful,” he greeted her in a half growl.

“Hi,” she replied with a whisper, right before his lips came down to catch hers. This was a more demanding kiss than earlier, but gentle nonetheless. Her sleep-addled mind hadn’t caught up with her yet, so when she didn’t respond to his request of entry with a lick across her lips, he gently nipped the bottom one. She gasped, opening her mouth, which he took quick advantage of. His tongue was stroking over her own, the roof of her mouth, anywhere he could reach. Soon, she broke off, needing air. She was all too aware the only reason she had been able to break the kiss off was because he allowed it. Then fear raised its ugly head.

What was she doing practically having sex with a guy she had just met that day? Never mind that, he was her boss’s brother!
Oh shit
! What would Walter and Sissy think of her? Humiliation flooded her face as she thought about walking into the office the next morning. Did she even have a job? Although her bills were paid up-to-date, she certainly couldn’t afford to go without work for very long. Would everyone in the office know?

She gulped and closed her eyes, wishing she could just sink into a hole somewhere and never come out. How had she allowed this to happen?

“Hey, what’s wrong, sweetheart?” Nathaniel asked in a voice so caring that it almost brought her to tears. Oh, how she could learn to lean on this man so easily. He raised her face up to his with a finger under her chin.

“Baby, open those pretty blue eyes and talk to me.” His voice was still caring, but with it now held a hint of steel, letting her know he wanted answers.

She sighed deeply as she opened her eyes, willing the tears to stay back for just a few more minutes.
I’ll get him to drop me off at home,
and then I can cry over a bowl of ice cream while I figure out what I’m going to do tomorrow.

She brought her hand up to his. “Listen, I had a really good time with you this afternoon. I’m sorry for falling asleep on you, but I need to get home.”

He looked as if he had just been punched in the gut. What in the world had she said that had upset him so? All she asked for was to go home. Surely, he didn’t mind driving her…did he? When he didn’t move, didn’t even blink after a few more moments, she decided on a different course.

“Okay… Well, you know what? I’m just going to go get dressed and call a cab. I’m sorry to be a bother.”

This seemed to bring him out of his trance quickly. “A bother?! What are you talking about?”

“Well, you just sat there, so I assumed you didn’t want to give me a lift home. I’m just going to catch a cab.”

“Go ahead and get dressed, but don’t call a cab.
I’ll take you home,”
he replied with a frown on his face.
What was his problem?
Did he think he was going to give her an orgasm or two and force her to move in with him?

She wrapped the throw around herself and quickly picked up her discarded clothing, heading to the bathroom.
Once inside with the door firmly closed and locked, she looked at herself in the mirror.
Her head was spinning now that she’d had time to think of the ramifications of everything that had happened.
Who in the hell slept with the boss’s brother the same day they met him?
Gawd, Sissy and Walter were going to be so disappointed in her.
And that broke her heart in two.
She didn’t have many friends and she had really clung to the budding friendship between herself and Sissy, her sister, Betty, and Lucas’ mate, Meredith.

Tears sprang to her eyes as she attempted to put her clothing back on.
It was like the floodgates of her emotions broke loose.
She started shivering, her hands shaking so bad
she could hardly put her clothing back on.
A sob escaped her.
Lord, she was a mess!
A loud banging on the door startled her, causing her to jump and yelp.

“Susan, open this door, now!”
He sounded mad, but she knew if she didn’t open it, he’d just tear the door off the hinges.
He was a vampire; a flimsy, little door was no barrier.

She was just reaching for the handle when she heard him in a much softer tone state, “Come on, babe.
Open the damn door.
You are killing me out here.
Whatever has you so upset we can talk about.”

She opened the door, but couldn’t see much of anything since her eyes were filled with tears as they poured unchecked down her cheeks.
“Oh, honey, I’m sorry.
I didn’t mean to upset you, honestly.
Come here,” he crooned as he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight.

By the time her tears had dried up and she saw that most were
seeping into the fabric of his shirt, she realized they were nowhere near the bathroom.
He had taken her back over to the sectional sofa and had her cradled in his arms.
Her head rested on his shoulder with her nose buried in his neck.
She couldn’t help herself, he smelled so damn good.

“You feeling better, doll?” he asked as he placed a kiss on her brow.

“I think so,”
she whispered with a shaky breath.

“Okay, well, you know men are stupid.
So I don’t make the same mistake twice, can you please tell me what I did that upset you so much?”

“It wasn’t all you, Nathaniel.
It was just that everything hit me full force.
I don’t even know if I have a job to go back to; you’re my boss’s brother!
What is he going to think of me when he finds out that I almost had sex with his brother the same day we met?
And to top everything off, I didn’t even bother showing back up or even calling after lunch.”
She stopped and took a couple of shaky breaths.
“And then you seemed like you were mad at me, because I asked to go home.
It was just all too much at once to deal with.”

“Okay.
I think I understand where you are coming from, and I’m sorry.
First of all, your job is fine.
I went ahead and asked Walter for the afternoon off for you before coming to the restaurant.
He actually said if we needed a couple of days that he was fine with that.
Second, he already knows you’re my mate, so he knows we’re going to have sex.
And third…”

“What?!
Walter knows I had sex with you?
Oh My God, just kill me now!”
She threw her head back against the back of the sofa.

He chuckled as he watched his mate become more flustered. “Babe, it’s not that bad.
It’s what mates do.
It’s like humans marrying.
It’s expected that they are going to have sex on their honeymoon.
And as far as me getting mad at you for asking for a ride home, no, I didn’t get mad.
I had hoped that maybe you would have wanted to stay, but then I remembered we are taking this slow.

“But honestly, sweetheart, you are my mate.
And as such, I’m going to need to be around you as much as possible.
I don’t mean to crowd you, or won't try taking over your life, but I simply need to be near you.
It’s a mate bond thing.”

She thought about what he said for a moment.
What he was saying was making sense.
Lucas and Meredith were recently mated and they couldn’t keep their hands off each other.
And they were almost always seen together.

“I understand what you are saying, Nathaniel, but I really need a little time to try to
process all of this information.
I’m not shutting you out, I’m just asking for some time.”
She looked up at him with those big, blue eyes of hers and he knew he was a goner.
He would never be able to deny her anything.

“It seems time is something I have a lot of, so I think I can afford to give you some,”
he replied with a grin.

Standing and reaching down to take hold of her hand, he pulled her up with him.
“Come on, let’s get you home before I decide to strip you bare and have my wicked way with you, again.”

*****

The following morning, Nathaniel’s truck pulled into Susan’s driveway at seven fifteen.
Neither of them had to report in for work until eight thirty, so he thought that maybe he could take her out to breakfast.
Staying away from her last night was one of the hardest things he had ever done.

He’d taken Jake for a long run.
Then he’d come back and stripped down to his swimming trunks.
He had done laps in the pool for the next hour.
From there, he redressed and went to the grocery store to stock up on human food.
He did anything he could think of to try to
take his mind off his mate.
Nothing helped.

He knocked once before the door opened and Susan stood in the doorway staring up at him.
“I’m sorry, babe, I just couldn’t stay away any longer.
I thought I’d offer you a ride into work and if we hurry, we could stop somewhere for breakfast.”
Although he very rarely ever ate any human food, it was important in law enforcement to be able to blend in well with humans.
So he had watched humans habits for years now and he could mimic the best of them.

“Oh, uh, sure.
I’ll be just a few more minutes.
I wasn’t expecting you to drop by, so I’m not quite ready,”
she stated.
She opened the door for him to enter, even though she was moving away from the door and heading toward the back of the house.

Nathaniel waited in the living room.
A smile tilted his lips when he looked around and realized that even though his mate might not have a lot of money to buy new furniture or fancy things, she took very good care of what she had.
The room held a definite woman’s touch, something he was sure his own home was lacking.
Well, that would hopefully be rectified soon.
Funny, up until yesterday, he would have never thought his home lacked a feminine touch.

Roughly an hour later, they arrived at work together, Susan with her coffee in hand.
Although he was willing to buy her breakfast, she informed him that she only ever drank coffee in the morning.
So they had stopped in at a coffee shop so she could order a double latte.
He’d watched as she took that first sip of her drink and wished he were her cup.
The pure blissful look that skated across her face was worth it.
If that drink put that look on her face, he’d make damn sure she had one every damn day of her life.

He opened the front door to the Ranger’s Headquarters and waited for her to enter first.
Although he told her last night that everything would be fine, he could still hear her heartbeat pick up pace as she walked into the cool, air-conditioned building.
He followed her over to her desk where she sat her purse and cup down.

“I’m going to go check in with Walter.
I’ll see you a little later, okay?”
She smiled up at him briefly as she was already distracted by reorganizing the things on her desk.

Walter was just coming out of his office as Nathaniel approached. “Hey, didn’t expect to see you here today.” He lowered his voice so only Nathaniel could hear. “Is everything okay with Susan?”

“Yeah, we are just taking it slow,” Nathaniel replied in his own quiet voice as he rolled his eyes. Was Nathaniel asking too much for his little mate to just let him be in charge and handle everything? Apparently so, hence why they were going at her ‘speed'.

“Well, come on then. We are just getting ready to have a staff meeting. Might as well catch up on whatever is going on.
Maybe you can leave a better impression with my staff than the one you left yesterday?” Walter teased as he headed for the large room they used for meetings.

Nathaniel chuckled. He probably had left the wrong impression on a few of his new coworkers
yesterday when he barged in. Sighing, he decided he was in a fairly good mood today, especially since Susan hadn’t given him a hard time about driving her to work this morning. Yeah, he could afford to fix a few wrongs from yesterday morning.

*****

Nathaniel found himself whistling a tune that he had heard earlier that day while riding with Donte. He hadn’t seen Susan since this morning and he was more than anxious to be near her again. When Walter had assigned him to the street detail with Donte, he had gone out to tell her only to find that she had gone out for lunch with Sissy.

Knowing she was in good hands, he had left her a note stating he would be on the street all day, but would call her later to make arrangements for tonight. When he had called in at the end of the day, she told him she had made arrangements for Meredith to give her a lift home. He told her he wanted to take her out tonight and that it was her choice as to where she wanted to go.