Nathan must have been thinking the same thing, because he leaned towards her and lifted one hand to brush a strand of Zoe’s hair behind her ear. “I don’t think your hair likes being tied back.” His fingers lingered on her cheekbone.
“Take it out, then,” Zoe said, half dare, half request. Nathan pulled the tie from her hair, and it spilled down around her shoulders. He took one strand between his fingers.
“You look beautiful like this,” he said. “You look beautiful all the time, but especially like this.”
Zoe didn’t know who closed the last of the distance between them. She only knew that one moment they were looking at each other in the evening light, and the next, they were kissing. Nathans lips were warm and soft against hers. He tasted a little like champagne. He reached for her, his hands resting on the small of her back reverently.
Zoe was the one who deepened the kiss. She slid a hand into his hair and brought another to the nape of his neck to pull him closer. He gently pushed her back against the wall beside the door, his touch gentle but full of desire at the same time.
He wasn’t like the other men she’d kissed. She could feel how much he wanted her in the way he kissed her and held her, but there was no urgency to move past this part to what came next. He seemed to want to savor this just as much as she did.
Eventually, though, the kiss intensified. Nathan pressed kisses to Zoe’s cheeks and the curve of her neck as she tilted her head back, her knees weak. She couldn’t wait any more. She didn’t want to wait.
“I live right downstairs,” she said. Nathan straightened up, still holding her in his arms but not kissing her anymore.
“There’s nothing I want more than to go downstairs with you,” he said, his voice low and deep with desire. “But I don’t want to push you?—”
Zoe pulled him to her for another slow, burning kiss before releasing him. “You’re not. Now, do you want me, or not?”
“Oh, I do.” And he kissed her again, so passionately that Zoe thought her knees would turn to Jell-O, before he took her hand. “Let’s go.”
Hand in hand, they went downstairs. Zoe didn’t even care that her apartment was small and a little messy. She didn’t care that she was about to jump headlong into something she hadn’t expected and could barely believe was happening. She didn’t care that this might affect her professional relationship with Nathan, her most important (and currently only) client.
There was no space in her mind for any of those worries. All she could think about was Nathan’s hands on her hips, his lips on hers, the way he whispered her name as though it were a magic spell. They kissed as they fell into each other, giving in to the attraction Zoe had been trying to ignore since she’d first laid eyes on Nathan.
For that one night, all was well in the world.
CHAPTER 17
NATHAN
Nathan woke with Zoe’s head on his shoulder. His arms were wrapped around her, resting on her shoulder and her side, and she was snuggled against him, her hair fanned across his arm and the pillow. He could hear the soft in and out of her breath and even feel her heartbeat. She still had that soft floral scent.
Nathan didn’t want to move for fear he’d disturb her. Last night had been unexpected but breathtaking. He’d imagined kissing Zoe before, but he had never imagined that it would make the whole world stop spinning. A few moments from the night before playing lazily through his mind, and Nathan pressed a kiss to the top of Zoe’s head. She didn’t wake.
Still not wanting to disturb her, he settled onto the pillows and looked around the room. Sunlight was spilling in through the window — neither of them had thought to close the curtains in the midst of last night’s passion. It illuminated the small but well-cared-for apartment in soft morning colors. There was Zoe’s desk, around which hundreds of colorful printouts were taped up. Nathan squinted (he didn’t have his glasses on) andmade out prints from social media and news articles. These must be past clients of Zoe’s. He’d known she was a professional, and he’d seen how hard she worked on his pitch. Somehow, though, he hadn’t been able to picture all the effort she poured into her work outside of him. He saw it now.
Framed pictures hung on the walls, too, mostly black-and-white images of New York City. There was the famous picture of Marylin Monroe on the subway grate, an image of the skyline on a stormy day, a shot of kids playing in Central Park, and one of billboards in Times Square. Nathan smiled. Zoereallyloved this city.
But the more he looked around her apartment, the more he saw old playbills and pitches, and the more his heart sank. When he was showing Zoe around Islingburn or laughing with her or kissing her, it was easy to imagine spending more time together. Now, though, he saw Zoe as part of a bigger picture. She wasn’t just the smart, sometimes too serious, gorgeous woman who helped him with his show and savored strawberries from the field and was scared of ladybugs. She was also a seasoned PR professional who loved her work, and her city, above all else.
There could be no future for them. Not really. Zoe would always want to live in New York, where she had access to hundreds, if not thousands, of potential clients, as well as Thai restaurants and city skylines and all the things she couldn’t get in Islingburn. And Nathan would never leave Islingburn — he had his clinic there, but also his friends and family and the sprawling nature he loved so much.
“Nathan?” Zoe yawned and pushed herself up to a seated position. Nathan hadn’t noticed that she was awake. Her hair was loose around her shoulders, her curls mussed from sleep,and there was a line on the side of her face where she’d rested on his arm. She’d never looked more beautiful.
“Good morning,” Nathan said. He managed a smile, but his heart was heavy.
“Have you been awake long?” she asked. With a yawn, she stretched her arms overhead, then smiled back at him.
“No, not long,” Nathan told her. It was true. He’d only been lying with her in his arms looking around her apartment for a few minutes, but it was enough to see the shape of the future.
“Should we grab some breakfast?” Zoe asked. She got out of bed and padded across the floor to the door that must lead to the bathroom. Nathan tried not to stare. He’d seen every inch of her the night before, but she was even more breathtaking in the morning light. “We have that charity lunch in a couple of hours, but these kinds of events don’t usually involve eating much.”
“Charity lunch?” Nathan asked. He remembered what it was, but he was stalling for time.
“Yeah, it’s a lunch to raise money for childhood cancers, so a lot of big names in the medical field will be there. Like you.” Zoe winked. “It’ll be a good way to form some connections and increase your name recognition. Hold on, I’ll just run through the shower and come back.”
Zoe disappeared into the bathroom, and Nathan got out of bed. He dressed in the same clothes he’d worn the night before — everything else was at his hotel. Then he crossed to Zoe’s desk. There was a space in the middle where her laptop probably went, but the rest of the desk was filled with things. He traced a few social media prints with one finger, his heart sinking further.
