She burst out laughing, the tension that threatened to overwhelm her dissipating under Nate’s juvenile antics.
He was joking. Well over the line of ridiculous—so why was she suddenly burning with the need to touch him? Tear the sleeves off his shirt and make him beat his chest and roar.
Darn it! He was working around her defenses. But she had more to fight for than a good time. She needed him. In the few days since they’d reconnected she’d discovered how incredible it was to have someone who really saw her. Let her laugh and joke. Have an opinion that didn’t follow everyday convention. Someone to talk with. She didn’t want to give it up. Couldn’t go back to the lonely isolation that had been so much a part of her life for too many years now. It didn’t matter the number of people surrounding her, there was only one who actually saw her.
“Nate, this is serious.” Her lips pressed together in a firm line as she sought for a means to make him understand. “I don’t have a lot of friends—”
“I do. I’ll share. And if they aren’t enough, we’ll start trolling the social clubs together.”
“You’re making jokes,” she shot back. “But the idea of risking something this important isn’t funny to me. You pick up pretty, shiny playthings at every turn, have your fun and toss them aside without a backward glance once you’ve lost interest. I don’t want to be another discarded toy in your wake.”
A muscle in Nate’s jaw ticked, his posture taking a subtle shift. “It wouldn’t be like that.”
“No? Why not? Is the press really so far off in what they say about you?”
“I don’t know, Payton, how accurate are they about you? Could they have predicted it would be like this between us?” He broke off and shoved a hand through his hair. Blew out a harsh breath and then seemed to pull inward for a count. And then he was back in control. Cool. Steady. Reasonable.
“It’s not that I don’t want to be friends, Payton. It’s that I don’t think we can be. Not with what’s between us…I know you feel it, too.”
She bowed her head with a stubborn shake, hiding the conflict warring in her eyes. Unwilling to reveal the power of his effect on her. How right he was.
She felt it. The connection that messed with her head and threw off her equilibrium, made her dizzy and hot and wanting to justify all kinds of things she knew she shouldn’t. Made her want a man more controlling than all the other men in her life put together. Insanity.
“You’re going to deny it?” he drawled, low and rough, ominously seductive. The change in tone and tack alerting her to the coming danger.
Clint had been right. Nate was a predator. And she was prey.
She swallowed hard and, shaking her fuddled head, answered, “Yes.”
“Hmm. You seem confused. Conflicted.” He leaned closer so the heat of him scorched her skin. “I can help with that.”
Panic burst to life. Her eyes bulged at her body’s betrayal and her own stupidity. He overwhelmed her. Dominated her senses in the realm of desire.
Get it together!
“No.” Some rebuke, all breathy and weak.
“Convincing,” he taunted, eyes gleaming. “So which is it, Payton? Yes. No. Do you even know yourself?”
“This isn’t fair, Nate.”
He leveled her with his gaze. “I think it is.” Then after a moment that cocky grin broke out across his lips. Trouble. “Here, how’s this for fair? We’ll put it to a test. I’ll kiss you.”
Her chin tucked, but he waved off her concern. “Don’t worry, in the interest of accuracy, I’ll give it my all. And when I’m done, you tell me if you still think we can be friends.”
This time her mouth and body worked in unison, her steps carrying her back in quick repetition as her hands flew up to ward him off. “No. That’s a very bad idea. You said the attraction would die off. It’s only Tuesday. A few days! We haven’t given it enough time.”
He closed in on her again, confident and sure. Overwhelming in ways beyond his powerful build. “Has it? Only been a few days for you?”
God, that look in his eyes. He knew. A few days plus thirteen years.
This was a disaster. “Nate, we’re talking about more than just this next moment—”
“Damn straight we are. I thought I’d proved I could last more than a minute Saturday night.”
Suddenly the wall rose up behind her, ending her retreat. Heat burst out over her chest, neck and cheeks. “You know what I mean. I want us to be friends.”
His gaze turned serious and for an instant she thought he might walk away, but then he shook his head in response to the hope lighting her eyes. “I do, too, Payton. But it’s not going to happen if we can’t handle the attraction. Put it in its place.”
“We can!” She flicked her hands out in a frantic motion to sweep him away. “We start by putting some distance between us, that’s all, and we’ll handle this fine.”
But instead of stepping back, Nate braced one hand at the wall above her head and caught her wrist in the other. “You seem so sure. But what happens if we touch…accidentally?”
There was nothing accidental about the stroke of his thumb across the sensitive skin of her wrist or the way he leaned close enough that the air around her went thick and a current of need coursed through her.
His grip was loose, the barricade of his powerful arm limited to one side. She could have pulled away, should have fled, but even when he released his hold to draw the tip of one finger down the length of her neck, the only escape she could manage was to shut her eyes.
“Are you going to go up in flames at the DVD store? Melt all the ice cream in the frozen-food aisle when we hit the market some night?” His breath at her ear sent a jolt through her nervous system, accelerating her pulse and pushing heat to lick at the surface of her skin.
“You know I want you,” she whispered on a shaky breath. “But I want something else more.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.” The single word hitched free, begging for something more than what she claimed.
He was so close she could almost feel the light rasp of his jaw, the strength of his body against her, the too-confident smile at his lips. “Then put your money where your mouth is and show me.”
“What’s a kiss going to prove?” she asked, wanting to kick herself for the husky quality of her question. Only if she dared move her leg an inch, she had no doubt she’d find it wrapped around Nate’s hip and all her resistance would be for naught.
Nate straightened, taking the warmth and promise of his body away. “Simple. If we can stop, then we’ve got a shot at being friends.”
It was all too easy to let herself believe the kiss was inevitable. That Nate had decided this was the way to handle the dilemma of their attraction…and so it would be done. But she knew it wasn’t true. Somewhere along his line of reasoning the pure masculine scent of him had slipped beneath her skin, making her ache and want. Wonder. Was he right? Was it even possible to have the friendship knowing the fuel of desire burned so hot between them?
Her body trembled. Maybe she had to know, too.
She searched his eyes for understanding, for mercy. “And if we can’t stop?”
Nate’s features pulled taut, his nostrils flaring with a forced intake of breath. The arm he’d braced against the wall gave at the elbow, slowly bringing him into her space. “Then we don’t.”
It