Best of Three (Counting on Love) (11 page)

Like he’d been expecting Emma to do. She was supposed to go inside, locate Michael and Shannon and then come back out. Simple.

She, of course, was the one person who could make him want to yell.

“Emma!” he shouted.

There was music playing, but it was low enough to allow conversation. In other words, everyone in the vicinity heard him clearly. Heads swiveled in his direction. But none of them were Emma and no one offered information about where Emma was. He’d heard music coming from the backyard too and assumed more of the party was out there.

“For fuck’s sake,” he muttered, stomping toward the back of the house.

He rounded a corner and nearly plowed into someone.

A curvy blond. Who smelled wonderful and familiar.

He grabbed her hips as she gripped his arms to avoid landing on her butt.

“For god’s sake, Nate,” Emma said with a scowl.

“What the hell is taking so long?”

“I’ve been in here for
ten
minutes.”

“Fifteen. And it’s enough time to have a beer.” He smelled it on her breath.

She nodded. “Enough time to blend in, act cool, check things out and
not
do anything stupid. Like yelling.”

“The yelling did exactly what I wanted it to do.”

“Call attention to the fact that you’re here spying on your kid?”

“Get you front and center.”

Her eyebrows went up. “You do like bossing me around, don’t you?”

He did. God help him, but he did. He loved that he’d called her name and she’d been on her way to him. It was not something that he should get used to, he knew, but he did like it. He nodded. “There’s something about taming a wild spirit.”

Her eyebrows went up even higher. “Is that right?”

It was right. Emma was exactly the kind of woman he should stay away from specifically because she wouldn’t go for any taming. A guy couldn’t be in charge with a woman like Emma. The best he could do was jump in and hang on for the ride.

That wasn’t Nate’s style.

But her tone did not sound offended or snotty. She almost sounded…intrigued.

“We all sometimes want what we can’t have,” he told her, setting her away from him.

She didn’t move far. “You can have me, Nate.” She shook her head as she looked up at him. “I shouldn’t admit that. I mean, you’re the last guy I ever thought I’d want to give any power to, but man, I’m not going to be able to stop thinking about that kiss. If you want to boss me around a little, I’m not going to complain. At all.”

Heat surged through him and he almost reached for her. Almost. Hearing her say that she would give over some power. That was going to be hard for him to stop thinking about too.

“You’re giving me power?” he asked.

“Yes. I don’t usually let on so blatantly that a guy’s getting to me. I like to keep ’em guessing. But I don’t think you’ll play that way. I think I need to be more up front with you to get what I want.”

He gritted his teeth. Dammit, this woman tied him up in knots. She wanted him? No way. Not really. He was hard to get and Emma didn’t like that. “I don’t
play
at all, Emma. I don’t like guessing and I don’t like teasing.”

“Like I said, up front. Nate, I want you. Take me to bed.”

Her tone wasn’t light and teasing like usual. She sounded entirely serious. Too serious.

His entire body tightened. Everything in him strained toward her and he wanted to push her up against the wall right now. Thank god she was so full of herself. That was the only thing holding him back. She was certain he would cave, that all it took to get to him was a few words. With Emma, he was going to need some action behind her words. Some proof positive that she could do things his way. And he was never going to get that.

“No.”

She frowned and seemed to take a moment to process the word. “What?” she finally asked.

“I’m not taking you to bed, Emma.”

She put a hand on her hip. “Why not?”

“Because it’s more involved than you know.”

“Fill me in.”

“No.”

It was so much easier to keep things to one syllable with her. The less he engaged in this conversation, the faster it would be over. Even talking about taking her to bed was making his body throb.

“Na—”

The backdoor in the kitchen, which was around the corner from where they stood in the hallway, banged open. “Hey, guys, need some more ice.”

Emma and Nate looked at one another.

“Michael,” she whispered.

He nodded. That was definitely his son’s voice.

Emma looked around, then focused on something over Nate’s shoulder. She reached past him and he heard a doorknob turn, then she pushed him into the closet.

She stepped in with him and pulled the door shut.

“What are you doing?” he asked as pitch blackness surrounded them. And her scent surrounded him. And the feel of her pressed up against him in the tiny space sunk in.

“He can’t see us,” she said. “He’ll be furious.”

She was right, of course. “No one seems to care that I’m a little furious myself,” he said dryly.

She laughed lightly. In the darkness, the sound seemed to slip over him like a caress. “I don’t think you can be a little furious. You’re furious or you’re not.”

“All right. I’m furious.”

“Oh, you are not. You’re fine,” she said.

She wiggled and he felt his hand drift to settle on her hip. Not that he moved it once it was there. He even curled his fingers slightly, testing the firmness of the muscle underneath and soaking in the heat from her body.

“I’m not sure I’m fine,” he said after a moment. His voice was husky and he couldn’t help it, or change it.

He couldn’t see her, but somehow he could sense where her mouth was. It wasn’t very far from his.

“What are we talking about again?” she asked. She sounded breathless.

He liked that more than he should.

“How to make me fine.”

“Anything I can do to help?”

She moved closer. Or he did. In either case, their mouths ended up millimeters apart.

“Because I’m here for you, Nate,” she said, her breath against his lips.

Her hands splayed on his ribs, causing him to suck in his breath. Then she slid her palms to his back and pressed against him.

“Whatever you need.”

Damn. There was no way he was going to keep saying no to her. Not indefinitely. Not completely, at least. She thought she had him wrapped around her finger. She thought she was in control.

She was wrong.

“Kiss me,” he commanded softly.

He felt her hesitation. Yep, he’d surprised her.

“Two simple words, Emma. What’s the problem?”

“No problem at all.” She rose onto her tiptoes and put her mouth against his.

It took two seconds for him to forget the point he was trying to make.

She tasted amazing—hot and sweet and oh so willing. That was what he wanted. What he needed. She could talk, flirt, lick her lips, wink, wiggle her hips…
act
…however she wanted when they were in the full light and she could gauge his responses and expressions and body language and adjust accordingly. But here, in the dark she had no idea what he was thinking or doing. And her reactions were one hundred percent honest.

He backed her up against the door, dropped his hands to her ass and deepened the kiss.

She arched against him, moaning.

Hell yeah, baby, and that’s just a start.

Her fingers dug into his back muscles, pulling him closer. Nate complied. He ran his hand down her thigh, hooked behind her knee and drew her leg up, then leaned in, fitting his pelvis to hers. She gasped and he ran his hand to the curve of her ass, then down between her legs, his fingertips brushing the satiny material of what he could now tell was a thong.

Emma ripped her mouth from his. “
Nate
.”

He brushed over her clit, thin silk all that separated his fingers from the sweet flesh.

He felt the shiver go through her and had to hold back from grabbing hold of the thong and ripping it from her body.

“I’m feeling better,” he told her huskily.

And he was. Oh, he was. He was hot, throbbing,
needing
, but he felt great. Emma wanted him. He could make her moan. She was on the verge of losing control. And it wasn’t an act.

“I’m feeling damned good myself,” she said. She ran her hands down to his ass and pulled him close again. “I can’t wait to see how I feel when we have a horizontal surface.”

The things he was going to make her feel…

Nate caught himself a breath away from kissing her again. He wanted to go there with her. He wanted to make her scream, make her beg, make her
his
.

And that wasn’t ever going to work.

He wanted to conquer her, possess her, tame her.

He generally preferred his women already…tame. Sweet, unassuming and totally fine with him setting the pace and tone of their interactions.

For him, it was part ego and part convenience.

It made life easier because he wasn’t waiting on someone else’s decision and didn’t have to deal with them making the wrong one. He’d experienced having someone else call the shots in his life—and call them badly. He wasn’t doing that again.

That’s why he and Rebecca, the woman he sometimes kind-of dated, worked so well. They’d met in medical school and had hooked up at a fundraising dinner a few years later. She came to town every couple of months to visit her parents for a week, and had no problem letting him make all the plans and decisions while she was here. She sat back and enjoyed what he came up with. Then she left.

Emma, on the other hand, was the type of woman to demand a man’s attention—and to take it from other things. She was the opposite of unassuming. And she wasn’t going anywhere. Not only did she live here, but she was one of his teammates’ sisters. A teammate who was also a friend.

Getting involved with Emma was a bad idea. A really tempting, potentially world-rocking, disastrous bad idea.

“Let’s go back to your house. Or my house. Or the nearest hotel,” Emma said, running her hands up and down Nate’s back. The guy was built. She’d known it, and admired it, before, but touching all those hot, hard muscles was so much better than she’d imagined. Now if she could get her tongue on them, things would be fantastic.

“We’re not going anywhere, Emma. I’m here to make sure Michael’s okay.”

Damn, this guy had nerves—or hormones—of steel. She’d never had to work this hard before. This was not fun. She was going to have to go all out.

“Fine, vertical will have to do.”

She wanted his hands on her. It was crazy. Nate made
her
crazy. She’d known she was attracted and would have gotten naked with him in a closet long ago given the chance, but now that she’d kissed him, now that he’d been up against her, his hand on her ass and his tongue against hers, she wasn’t going to rest until she’d had him. All of him.

“Vertical will have to do for what?” he asked.

It was completely dark in the closet, but Emma could hear that he was amused from his tone. “Will do for getting naked and nasty.”

“Nasty?” Nate repeated. “Not an appealing term, is it?”

Smug. And superior. And…sexy as hell. He seemed so uptight and that was exactly what pushed her buttons and made her want to show him how wonderful nasty could be. She’d love to see Nate get dirty. She wondered if he had it in him. He had the sexy, bossy thing going on, but maybe he acted so overbearing to cover up some nerves about what he could offer a girl.

That was kind of sweet. And she’d love to be the one to show him how to get down and dirty.

“I promise it will be appealing. It will be better than that. I’ll talk you through the whole thing.”

There was a heartbeat of silence and then he gave a low chuckle that seemed to cascade over her spine and send tantalizing waves of sensation out to her whole body.

“You’re thinking that I’m not sure how to do nasty? Is that what you’re saying?” he asked.

“Maybe our ideas about nasty are different.”

His voice was rough as he said, “That’s a good possibility.”

“But I don’t mind, Nate. I like things simple and straight up sometimes. And I promise that I won’t say anything to any of the guys or whatever. I won’t even tell my sisters. Let’s go for it and have some fun. No worries.”

“Emma.”

“Yeah?”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Ooh, that sounded promising. And whether or not it was true, she wanted this guy naked and against her
now.

“Show me. Let’s go. Right here, right now. I’m taking my top off, Nate. Then my bra, then my skirt and thong. I will be naked, right here in front of you in T-minus twenty seconds.”

“I am
not
taking you up against the door in a closet at a college beer party.”