Page 85 of Brooklynaire

“What?”

“Surveillance is so sexy.” He lifts my hand up to his mouth and kisses my palm. His sexy mouth is hidden from view, but his eyes lift with a gaze so hungry that I feel it like a blast of heat. He kisses my palm again, and his scruff enlivens all my nerveendings.

Wow. He’s only touched my hand, but I want to scale him like atree.

He speaks again, and it’s a struggle to make myself listen. “Ramesh has the night off because I knew if I asked him to drive us back to my place, you would have trouble looking him in theeye.”

I probably would,too.

“…I also asked one of Lauren’s minions to make our dinner reservation, because if I had asked Lauren, she would’ve made me tell her who I was dining with. And you made it clear how you feel about officegossip.”

“That’s very thoughtful of you. And lovely of you to remain my dirty little secret.” I punctuate this little barb by stepping sideways to hip checkhim.

He puts an arm around my waist. “You can do that now without losing your balance. Welldone.”

It’s true, although I’m a little surprised that Nate noticed. “I’m never stepping out on that ice again. Justsaying.”

His arm stays around me the whole walk home. I get increasingly nervous, though, as we approach his mansion. He opens the little front gate and holds it aside forme.

I walk through, because even if I’m apprehensive, I still can’t helpmyself.

Nate taps in his security code at the door, which clicks open for him. I follow him into the grand foyer, wondering what happensnext.

“Evening, Nate!” Bingley callsout.

“Evening,” he replies. He slips my coat off my shoulders and hangs it up. “I put some of that Mexican soda you like in the den refrigerator.” He points upstairs. “Wantone?”

“Sure!” I say brightly. My knees feel a little shaky, and I can’t blame my health. I actually have the jitters. It’s so unlike me, too. “God, I can’t wait until I can just have a glass of wine like a normal person.” I’m babblingnow.

Nate just smiles and holds out a hand for me to walk upstairs withhim.

Upstairs. Where his giant bedis.

I stop climbing on the fourth or fifthstep.

“This is probably a bad idea,” I whisper. Weirdly, it’s the same thing I say in my very frequent Nate fantasy—the same one where he ignores it and then fucks mesenseless.

That’s not what happensnow.

Nate sits down right there on the grand stairway. He pats the thick carpeted runner besidehim.

Isit.

“Everything okay?” heasks.

“Yes and no,” I whisper. “I just want to do the smart thing. And sometimes it’s not easy to know what that is.” Nate probably won’t understand, though. Everything he does issmart.

“You think I’m a bad idea. You’reright.”

“Iam?”

He puts an arm around me. Leaning in, he kisses my jaw. Slowly. So that I feel every brush of his whiskers against my face, and the softness of his lips. All the hair stands up on the back of my neck as he whispers in my ear. “Very bad. Because I want to do bad, bad things to you. Naughty things. And if you’re not on board with that, better say sonow.”

“What kind of things?” I ask as my nipplesharden.

“I could tell you,” he continues, his voice low. “If you have a half hour or so. Because I’m very detail-oriented. In fact, there’s a PowerPoint presentation I’ve puttogether…”

My nerves get the better of me and I start togiggle.