Indecent Arrangements: Tabloid Affair, Secretly Pregnant!

He wouldn’t let her.

Chapter Fourteen

THEY’D spent the evening enjoying dinner, drinks, and non-stop laughter at the Gold Coast home of Diane and Garry Ortiz. Nate tried to warn her ahead of time about his former Marketing VP’s larger-than-life personality trapped in a pixie-sized body—but it wasn’t until Payton found herself gasping for breath within the enthusiastic squeeze of Diane’s shockingly strong arms that she fully grasped his meaning. Stunned, she took a step back, laughing as Nate steadied her with a hand at her hip.

“Diane, I think you broke my date,” he joked, dodging to avoid the swat of her arm.

“Oh, stuff it, Nate.” She took a deep breath that seemed to fill her entire body, nearly bringing her to her toes, and then let it out in a huge rush. “It’s just so wonderful to have finally met you, Payton. I can’t believe the nerve of this guy in keeping you a secret for so long.”

“Thank you. Tonight was so much fun.”

Diane cast a mocking scowl Nate’s way. “See? She likes us. No reason to keep her holed up the way you did.”

It was hardly the case. As absurd as the suggestion had been, Nate hadn’t been kidding about sharing his friends. In their few short weeks together, he’d been steadily circulating her through the various groups he socialized with, encouraging relationships outside himself. Keeping up his end of the bargain while maintaining the ruse around the timing of their reunion for the sake of a child half a world away.

Cocking his signature grin, he winked. “Guess I just wanted her all to myself.”

Diane waved him off, pulling Payton into another suffocating embrace, and then set her back with a satisfied smile. “About time you found one worth hanging onto, Evans.”

“Definitely.” He looked casual, utterly at ease with the implication they had a future together. But Payton knew the truth.

With Nate romancing her several nights a week, filling her days with unexpected surprises, texts and phone calls—it should have been heaven. But their romance was running on borrowed time.

Nate had ways of reminding her. Nothing overt or hostile. Just a subtle distancing when he sensed she was getting ahead of herself. The problem was, she didn’t want the distance or to hold back, and more than that she didn’t want Nate holding back either. What they had wasn’t going to last and, no matter how she sliced it, when the romance ended her heart would break. There was no defense against it. So until that happened, she was going after everything she could get.

Sunshine poured clear and bright from the October sky, the lingering Indian summer giving the city as a whole a reason to smile. Payton, clipping down the sidewalk in her favorite flowing skirt and calf-hugging, heeled leather boots, was no exception. It was an off day from seeing Nate, and thanks to a field trip her afternoon classes were cancelled—which left her free to catch up on a few overdue errands. Only as she rounded the corner of her block, she caught sight of Nate—dangerously appealing in Aviators and dark jeans—pushing off the rough brick pillar at the end of her walk.

“What are you doing here?” she called, rushing forward. “I thought you had meetings all afternoon?”

“Being the boss has its benefits.” Nate stretched out his arms, gesturing around him. “Too nice a day to be cooped up indoors. Let’s drop your stuff and take a ride.”

Payton frowned down the street. “I’d love to, but I’ve made appointments around town. Papers to sign at the lawyers. Stuff I’ve been putting off too long.”

Nate slipped his fingers beneath the lapels of her jacket and tugged her gently into him, his cajoling smile running at full strength. “So reschedule. Lawyers do it all the time.”

“No, I shouldn’t—”

“Sure you should.”

She sighed, bristling slightly at Nate’s domineering attitude. But then he tucked her beneath his jaw and it felt so good in his arms. So right.

“Tell your lawyer it’s a crime against nature to waste a day like this one and you’ll see him next week.” His fingers sifted through the curls at her back, the touch sending a shiver of pleasure skirting her spine.

It would be easy enough to reschedule. But Nate simply expecting she drop everything to accommodate his whim didn’t exactly sit right. Even if she had been thinking about him all day, she didn’t want to be treated like just another one of his beck-and-call girls.

No, she was making too much of it. The man wanted to see her so he’d dropped by. Big deal. It was a nice thing.

And it wouldn’t last forever.

“Come on. We’ll play hooky. It’ll be fun.”

“Hooky?” she scoffed, giving in with a slow caress of her hands down his chest. “What are we going to do? Go to the mall? Catch a movie? Hide out under the bleachers?”

Nate’s smile was pure mischief, his tone pure seduction. “Is that what you did?”

“Please. Like I’ve ever ditched.”

He’d moved into leering territory now, his blue-eyed gaze running the length of her. “But I bet you wanted to.”

“I did,” she replied, her answer escaping on a wistful sigh.

“Yeah,” he answered, face tilting toward the sky. “Me, too. But I couldn’t exactly get away with it when Dad was teaching two doors down from my homeroom.”

“I guess not.”

“But no one from the office would dare call him now.”

She let out a conspiratorial laugh. “And your secret is safe with me.”

Grinning, Nate pulled his phone from his pocket and handed it over. “Reschedule.”

Five minutes later Nate threw his leg over the black bike parked at the curb, watching with satisfaction as Payton’s eyes went wide and her lips parted on a small intake of breath.

He brought the bike off its center stand and held out the spare helmet. “Hope you like to go fast.”

Payton’s eyes shot from the bike to the helmet and back to him. “I’ve never been on one before. I don’t know how.”

“Really?”

“I always wanted to.” She smiled, her eyes seeming to focus on some distant point from the past. “You used to ride that big bike around. I thought it looked so cool. Like such fun.”

He remembered. It had been his cousin’s. On loan for the summer while Nate worked a job the next county over. He’d seen her walking in town one sunny day and offered a ride. She’d wanted it, her expression reflecting pure desire, but she’d turned him down anyway. Looked guiltily behind her, as if she’d been afraid someone might have seen.

Someone with a heart condition she didn’t want to worry.

He hadn’t realized at the time. But that was what it had been. He couldn’t help but wonder how many desires, big and small, she’d pushed aside to keep from upsetting her father. Or how devastating the loss of him must have been after sacrificing for so long—even if she’d known that, ultimately, the loss was inevitable.

Payton would have her fun now.

His blood pumped faster as he gave into the urge to play. Catching her wrist, he pulled her close. “So I’ll be your first.”

A coy look from beneath the fringe of her lashes. “You will. Be gentle?”

Damn, he had fun with this woman.

“Don’t worry. I’ll start slow,” he promised with a nip at her bottom lip before pulling the helmet over her head. “And if you get scared, just hold on tighter.”

The pink tip of her tongue smoothed over his love bite, leaving a moist trail he wanted to follow with a lick of his own, but days like this one didn’t last forever. So settling for a too-brief kiss instead, he winked and patted the seat behind him. “Let’s hit it.”