Return of the Jerk (Sweet Life in Seattle, Book 2) (34 page)

“Apparently, I am.” He laughs. “Weird.”

“Things aren’t quite
that
desperate. I’m still human after all—and female.”

“That you are,” he murmurs, rolling toward her. “You should let me pick out your clothes sometime, though. Think I’d like that.”

Blair smiles at him, plays with his hair as he draws her in closer. “What would you have me wear?”

“That’s easy, a short skirt to show off your legs. You’ve got great legs, babe.” As if to make his point, he runs his hand down her leg, squeezing along the way. “And of course, a tight shirt. Low-cut with no bra, or maybe one of those pretty ones you have with all the lace. Yeah,” he’s nodding slowly, “and lace panties. That sounds real good. Can wear those sexy shoes of yours, too.”

“So, you’d dress me up like a call girl?”

He chuckles. “Hey, this is only for me. You’re not going out in public like that.”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t want a bunch of horny assholes staring at my wife.”

Blair blinks, tries to hide the effect his words have on her. She knows he only means it as a joke, but his words are like a knife.

She closes her eyes for a long moment.

He doesn’t even know he’s being cruel.

“Do I get to dress you, too?” she asks, still trying to cover the impact of what he said.

“Course. What do you have in mind?”

Blair thinks it over. In truth, she wouldn’t change a thing about Nathan’s clothes. He looks hot in everything.

“A suit,” she says, realizing she’s never seen him in one before, knows he’d look devastating, especially with his hair long like it is.

He frowns, though. “You’d want me to wear a suit and tie?”

She nods. “I’ll bet you’d look great in one.”

Nathan grows quiet, and his playful mood appears to have evaporated. “I’m not that guy and never will be. You get that, right?”

“What guy?” Blair is confused. “I thought this was supposed to be for fun.”

Nathan doesn’t appear to be having fun anymore as he pulls away from her.

“Are you angry?” she asks. “A moment ago, you were dressing me like a hooker. If I might remind you, I’m not a hooker.”

“Yeah, I know.” He gets out of bed and throws his clothes back on. “I’m going to get some writing done.”

He leaves, not quite slamming the door behind him. Blair wonders if she should go after him and try to resolve this, but figures maybe he just needs some time alone. She listens as Fiona starts in with her nightly weeping.
Right on schedule.
Fiona’s been toning it down the past couple of days, but it sounds like she’s in a fine state tonight.

How did my life get like this?

The next morning, Nathan is up with her at their usual early hour. Despite Fiona’s wailing, Blair managed to fall asleep and didn’t even notice when he came to bed. They take their shower together. As far as she can tell, he’s not angry from last night anymore. Things feel mostly normal as he’s soaping her up, being playful, sliding his hands everywhere. She grabs him, too, reaches down for his cock. Hard and ready.

“Why is it we never have sex?” she blurts out. “The real kind.”

Nathan’s hands slow down and she senses the way he’s gone on alert. “Figured you didn’t want to. You seem comfortable with this.”

Blair doesn’t say anything, brings her arms up and rests them on his shoulders as she looks into his face.

“Do you want to have regular sex?” he asks, studying her. His hair’s wet, and there are water droplets in the blond stubble on his cheeks from the shower.

Blair tries to sort through the jumble of emotions coursing through her.
Do I want that?
She figures at this point, her heartbreak will be the same no matter what. “I think so.”

“You think so?”

She licks her lips. “I do. I want that with you.”

His eyes search hers. She can see he’s aroused, maybe conflicted a little, but those golden-green eyes are definitely aroused. “You still on the pill?”

Blair pauses, then takes a deep breath. “No, I’m not on it anymore.”

“Didn’t work for us last time anyway.”

“No.”

“All right, I’ll get some condoms at the store today.”

“You don’t have any?”

He shakes his head. “No, haven’t needed any, obviously.”

She smiles a little at that. “I guess we’ll have to wait then.”

“Guess so.” But then he also smiles, pulling her in close. “Good thing we know plenty of other ways to keep each other satisfied.”

After their shower, Nathan seems in great spirits. Blair figures knowing he’s going to be getting laid for real is probably a factor, but has to admit she’s enjoying his happy mood. In truth, she wants this kind of intimacy with him, too.

If it’s going to kill me, I might as well make it something worth dying for.

She’s standing over by her closet, still wrapped in a towel as she’s trying to decide what to wear.

“Let me help dress you,” he says, coming up behind her, bringing the scent of citrus body wash and a hint of smoke. His hands are on her hips as he kisses the back of her neck.

“As long as I don’t look like a ‘working girl.’”

She can feel his smile. “No worries, babe,” his voice low in her ear. “How about I take care of the undergarments?”

“I guess that’s fine.”

Nathan lets go of her and walks over to her dresser. He’s wearing jeans and a fitted gray T-shirt. She turns to watch him.

“This the pantie drawer?” he asks, opening the correct one. Starts looking through it, holding up various items and grinning. “You have some nice lingerie, princess.” She’s admiring his muscular back when suddenly her stomach drops because she remembers something in her underwear drawer. Something that shouldn’t be there.

“Wait, stop!” Blair moves toward him in a panic, but sees it’s too late. Nathan already has it in his hand.

“What’s this?” he asks, holding up a piece of green paper.

“I can explain. It’s not what you think.”

He unfolds it and the grin on his handsome face disappears. “What the hell?” His brows slam together as he stares at it. “Why do you have Isadora’s title?”

“It’s just a silly mistake,” she says quickly. “I meant to put it back, but I forgot.”

Nathan stares at the paper some more, then at her. “How did you get this?”

Blair bites her lip, squirming. “I got it from your desk.”

She can see the way his mind is working. “You went through my stuff?”

“I know how it looks, but it’s not like that. It was the day I thought you took Isadora’s keys. Remember? I was upset and took your computer, but I gave it back.”

Nathan is shaking his head and doesn’t appear to hear a word. “Exactly what were you planning to do with this? Steal my car?”

“No! I was angry. I saw it and grabbed it.”

“This was in an envelope with a bunch of other papers. Personal papers. Letters. You look through all those, too?”

“I wouldn’t normally do something like that. It’s not my nature, but I was really upset.”

He lets out his breath. “Jesus Christ.”

“Look, I’m sorry.

“Don’t give a shit that you’re sorry!” He slams her underwear drawer shut. “Can’t believe you’d invade my privacy like that!”

And that’s when Blair loses it. All the emotion building up inside of her these past weeks erupts like a volcano.

“Really? I’m invading
your
privacy?” She steps closer and yells, “Fuck you, Nathan!”

He stares at her, eyes blazing.

“Take a look around! Who’s the invader here?” She throws her hands in the air. “You and the Wicked Witch! But I’m done. Do you hear me? DONE!”

Blair strides out of the bedroom, still wearing nothing but a towel. Before she even plans it, she goes into her hall closet and yanks out her large overnight bag, brings it into the bedroom and throws it on her bed.

Nathan stands there, arms crossed, watching her as she rapidly pulls clothes from her closet and stuffs them into the bag then marches over to her drawers, pulling out more clothes. She remembers her Jimmy Choo platform pumps and grabs them, shoves those in, too.

“What are you doing?” he asks, somewhat bewildered.

Blair rips her towel off so she’s naked, grabs clean panties and a bra along with jeans and a striped shirt. Nathan’s eyes are still on her, taking in every movement, but she ignores him as she quickly gets dressed.

“Seriously, Blair, what the hell are you doing?”

She zips her overnight bag shut and shoots him a skewering look. “I’m leaving, that’s what!”

Nathan uncrosses his arms. His mouth twitches. “Babe, you can’t leave. This is
your
place.”

“Really? It sure doesn’t feel like it!”

“Look, I’ll leave if that’s what you want. Fiona, too.”

“Don’t bother. You’ve obviously made yourself quite at home!” Blair grabs her overnight bag and lugs it to the bedroom door. She turns to glare at Nathan, whose laser focus is glowing red-hot. “And you better take damned good care of my cat!”

And with that, she heads for the front door.

NATHAN TRIES TO
stop her, but Blair pushes right past him. “Get out of my way!”

“This is seriously whack, babe.” He follows her down the hall to the entryway.

“Don’t call me that!”

“Let’s talk about this.”

Before he knows it, though, she’s gone. The front door bangs shut behind her. He’s tempted to go after her, but what’s he going to do, drag her back?

Nathan heads back into the bedroom and sits on the edge of the bed, trying to think. He rubs his face with both hands then pushes his hair back.

Jesus Christ.

He could tell something was bothering her last night when she came home from work. Come to think of it, she’s been out of sorts the past few days.

Hell, I’m the one who should be pissed here! Can’t believe she was going through my stuff. Took Isadora’s title. What was she thinking?

He gets up and grabs his phone from the nightstand, but decides to wait on calling her. Give Blair some time to consider her actions.
This is her place, after all. She can’t leave.

Fiona comes into the bedroom with wide eyes, taking it all in, her black eye cover pushed to the top of her head like sunglasses.

Nathan shakes his head. “Not now, Fiona.”

“Marital stress?”

“Seriously.” He strides past her. “Just stay the fuck out of it.”

Fiona watches him. “I don’t blame her. She’s probably fed up with both of us. I mean, my
God
, I’d be, wouldn’t you?”

He goes into his office and slams the door shut.

Nathan takes a seat and decides this is all going to blow over.

Blair will come to her senses. Course she will.

He starts up both his computers. Tries to get some work done. The first computer runs his site while he keeps the other open to the file with his book. He skims his site first, checking the stats, glad to see everything looks in order with no obvious problems. No messages from his tech guy, either. There are some new ads running and he checks on those next. He finally hired someone before he left London to handle advertising. Nathan sorts through the email forwarded from his assistant, James. The ones from clients and other bloggers go into a top-tier folder so he can look them over later today. Other emails and more low-level stuff he tries to work through as quickly as possible.

After a short while on the blog, he turns to work on his book, but it isn’t going so great. Can’t stop thinking about Blair. The way she yelled ‘fuck you’ at him. He’s never seen her that pissed before. Doesn’t think he’s ever even heard her swear. Watching her whip that towel off in a fury had been something else, too—nothing but ass, breasts, and creamy white skin. He’d been momentarily blinded. To be honest, the whole thing had turned him on.

Had no idea she had such a fiery temper
.

Nathan stares at his book. He still doesn’t have an end, but he did figure out part of the problem with it. He was missing something—a theme to tie everything together. He thought a lot about what made him leave Seattle to begin with and how he was back now. Blair had a lot to do with that. Their doomed marriage.

Eventually, he reaches for his phone and decides to call Blair, waits as it rings. She doesn’t answer, though. He tries again, and there’s still no answer. “Shit,” he mutters, listening to her voicemail.