“A concerned neighbor who wants to get in your pants,” he said, muffling the last with a sip of his beer.
But she’d heard it. “Why do men always assume other men are thinking about sex?”
“Uh, because they are,” he stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Natalie rolled her eyes, refusing to be baited about something so ridiculous. “Even if you are right, why do you care?”
Something angry flashed in his eyes, but she wasn’t sure whether it was directed at her or himself. He put his beer down with a hard slam. Now she had his attention. “I don’t. I just don’t want him sniffing around while I’m here.”
“Well, if that was your goal you picked an odd way of going about it. The friendly route might have made him less suspicious.”
“He was already suspicious. You weren’t exactly making your nervousness unclear. What happened to thecool, confident woman who deceived everyone around her, including me, for the past few years?”
“I don’t know. Maybe I just got tired of being that person.” She didn’t even know who she was anymore. Not the young idealist who’d gone to Washington thinking she could save the world, but not the Stepford Washington insider, either. Natalie’s shoulders sagged. “Maybe I’m just tired.”
And she was. It was as if the weight of the past few years had finally caught up with her, and she just couldn’t pretend anymore. Why should she? The cat was out of the proverbial bag. She was amazed that she’d gotten away with it for so long—especially given who Scott was. He was trained to see deception everywhere. But maybe she was so bad, she’d actually been good. She hadn’t deceived him because her feelings had been authentic. She’d truly loved him.
She still did.
She moved out of his view and headed for the stairs. But he stopped her, standing from the couch to block her path. There were a couple of feet between them, but that didn’t stop her body from reacting. From feeling as if his shadow had somehow enveloped her in heat. From smelling the warm spiciness of his soap and shampoo. He always smelled incredible. He might look scruffy and disheveled, but his aroma hadn’t changed.
“Why didn’t you say anything? Why didn’t you try to run?”
Natalie wasn’t sure. She’d thought about it. She gazed up at the man she’d thought she’d never see again. To the man she’d wronged so terribly. She knew every detail of that handsome face, but she couldn’t stop her eyes from roaming over it freely—gluttonously—as if still unable to believe that he was alive.
The strong jaw, the navy blue eyes framed by thick golden brown lashes, the straight, patrician nose, thesmall scar on his left cheek, and the tiny crow’s-feet lines etched in his skin from the months—years—spent in the harsh Middle Eastern sun. Only the darkened hair, stubbly beard, and fierce expression reminded her that she couldn’t reach out and touch him. He wasn’t hers anymore.
“I didn’t want to put you in danger,” she said.
“It’s a little late for that.”
“Anymoredanger,” she qualified. “I figured you are in hiding for a reason.”
She wasn’t surprised when he didn’t take her up on the chance to enlighten her.
She took a deep breath. “And maybe I thought I should try to give you the trust that I didn’t give you before. I don’t want to be looking over my shoulder the rest of my life, and I don’t want that for the baby, either. Even if you don’t want to protect me, I know you will protect our child.”
His eyes blazed and his expression grew even more fierce. “Assuming it is ‘ours.’”
“Right,” she said, a spark of anger firing her own gaze. “Assuming I didn’t plan all this by finding some random guy to sleep with so I could pass his baby off as yours in case you came back from the dead. That makes a lot of sense as opposed to me getting pregnant on the night we didn’t use a condom.” She brushed up against him seductively, using a soft, sultry voice that belonged in the bedroom. “Or maybe you want me to remind you what happened that night.”
She was so close now, her breasts were grazing his chest. It wasn’t enough. She leaned in closer, sliding her body up his with a movement that wasn’t at all suggestive. It was explicit. Obvious. It told him exactly what she wanted him to remember.
Them. Together. In bed. Their bodies sliding together as he thrust inside of her.
He’d been out of control that night. He’d taken her roughly. Desperately. As if he needed something from her. It was a wild, uncivilized, stripped-to-the-core version of her always-in-control, buttoned-up-tight SEAL commander that she’d never seen before. Later, she found out that something had gone wrong on a mission, and he’d lost one of his guys. But after that night, something had changed between them. He’d showed her a side of him that she suspected few if any people had ever seen. It had brought them closer, fusing their connection even tighter. She’d almost convinced herself that he might love her.
Except that hadn’t been her. If he’d cared about her then, it was the version of her that Mick had created. She wasn’t fancy or sophisticated. Far from it.
She could see from the way his eyes blazed that he got the less-than-subtle message. But she didn’t know whether the heat was anger or arousal. Maybe it was both.
“It wasn’t my idea, Scott,” she taunted him. “Youwere the one who forgot to put on the condom. I even reminded you. But do you remember what you said?”
She gave him a hint, nudging her hips provocatively against the part of him that answered her question about arousal. He was hard as a rock. She felt a rush of heat and pleasure that spread over her in a warm glow. He wasn’t immune to her. Not completely. He might hate her, but he still wanted her. It was something she could hold on to. One connection that wasn’t fake and hadn’t been severed.
“I remember,” he bit out angrily.
But she ignored him, heady with the rush of feminine power. “You said that you didn’t care. You said that you didn’t want anything between us.”
