Page 19 of Nave (Henchmen MC: Next Generation #14)

Lolly

I wasn’t trying to be some sort of martyr.

I just knew that there was nowhere comfortable to sleep at either Kit or Ariah’s homes and that they’d insist I take the bed because I was a guest and because I was pregnant. I didn’t want to put anyone out.

Plus, I figured the girls would figure out the solar panels sooner or later. They seemed capable of fixing anything. They both handled power tools better than any man I’d ever known.

Then in charged Nave. For the first time since the whole woods incident, he wasn’t being weird and hesitant. He walked in all take-charge and no-nonsense.

And, well, my panties damn near melted.

Because Nave’s command didn’t come from wanting to control me, but from wanting to take care of me. There was a huge, monumental difference.

As mixed up as I was in my mind (let alone my body) about that kiss and everything that followed, I was all too happy to have a man like Nave whisk me away like some knight in shining armor.

“What’s this?” I asked when he set a plastic container on my lap after he had Edith attached to her seatbelt in the back.

“My father made lunch. And he gave me extras for you.”

“You talked to your dad about me?”

Maybe it was silly, but my heart felt a thousand times bigger at the idea.

“I did. I hope that’s alright. My parents aren’t people who will tell everyone your business.”

“No, it’s fine. I mean, everyone I’ve met so far knows I’m pregnant now. It’s not a big deal. And everyone is going to see that in the next few weeks. Did you have a good visit?”

“I did. It was just what I needed, actually. They’re great.”

“I’m not at all jealous.”

“I’ll share them with you.”

He didn’t mean it like that but try telling that to my heart as it fluttered at the idea of having grandparents for my baby, at having a caring partner. The kind to sweep you off your feet at the first sign of danger.

“You’re an only child, right?”

“Yeah. But with all my cousins, it didn’t feel like it.”

“It really felt like it for me.” My mind flashed back to the soul-deep loneliness, to the afternoons after school when I would sit outside by myself with no one to play with, no one to talk to.

God, it was no wonder I settled for someone like Ben when all I’d ever known was neglect and indifference. To that needy younger version of me, his obsessiveness would have felt like attention, like love.

If only I knew then what I knew now.

Nave’s hand reached out, grabbing my thigh and giving it a squeeze. “Sorry the people around you didn’t know how to love you. That’s not fair.”

The moisture flooded my eyes, making me turn to look out the side window as I frantically tried to blink them away.

Because little me needed to hear that so badly.

It wasn’t that I was unlovable. It was that the people around me didn’t know how to love me.

Hell, they didn’t even know how to love themselves or each other.

Even when I was composed, Nave’s hand stayed reassuringly on my thigh. I knew all he was doing was offering support. But, yeah, you try to tell my suddenly overactive sex drive that.

I’d tried to blame the new libido on changing hormones. But the fact of the matter was, Nave had just reawakened something in me that I’d all but forgotten existed.

And having his hand on the bare skin of my thigh, just inches from where the aching need would wake me up at night, had desire surging through my system as I thought how easily his hand could drift upward slightly, could put an end to the need that had been clawing at me almost since I’d seen him again.

But the next thing I knew, we were turning into the clubhouse driveway and his hand was slipping away so he could cut the engine and start to collect my things.

I squashed the disappointment as I grabbed Edith and followed Nave into the clubhouse.

It was surprisingly quiet, making me turn to look at Nave with a question in my gaze.

“Spike convinced the others to hit one of the beach bars. I imagine it’s going to be a wild party here later. But for now, I think it’s just Callow and Brooks here.”

“Where?” I asked as we went into Nave’s room so he could put down mine and Edith’s things.

“I imagine Brooks is in the glass room.”

“The glass… oh, the thing on the roof?”

“Yeah. I can show it to you sometime if you want. And I think I heard Callow knocking around in the garage. Brooks has been bitching that it needs organization for a while, but everyone keeps conveniently ‘forgetting’ he said it.”

“You included?”

“Organization isn’t my strong suit. Still overheated?” he asked as I stood in front of the vent, fanning my damp shirt.

“I feel like I’ve been roasted,” I admitted.

“You could take a dip in the pool. That should do the trick.”

I hadn’t been in a pool in almost a decade. The appeal was almost too good. “You too?” I asked. Not because I wanted to see him shirtless. Nope. Not me.

“Sure. Will Edith be alright inside? The front gate isn’t closed much these days, so I don’t want to take her out.”

I glanced over, seeing her already curling up near the air vent.

“I think she’s down for the count. It was a long night.”

“I wish you’d have had Kit call me,” he said as he walked through the common room, pausing only to grab two mismatched towels off a towering pile of them.

“I was maybe being a little stubborn,” I admitted as we moved back outside, the heat slapping me in my already overheated face.

“Maybe?” he asked, shooting me a smirk as he dropped the towels on a chaise.

“I’m not good at asking for help,” I admitted as we both kicked off our shoes.

“I get that. I do. But things are different here. With the girls. With me. You don’t have to feel weird about it.”

“Yeah, I…”

I lost the rest of my sentence as he lost his shirt.

My mouth went instantly dry. And another part of me, well, that was an opposite problem.

I mean, I knew the man was fit. He picked up heavy things like it was nothing. I’d felt those strong arms around me. I’d admired the breadth of his chest and his back.

I guess I hadn’t let myself wonder too much about the rest of him. His chest and stomach, were a treat. Deep grooves etched between his abdominal muscles. And then there was that delicious V that disappeared into his waistband.

“What’s this?” I asked, reaching out despite just telling myself a second before to keep my hands to myself.

But there was a strange, round, puckered, skin-colored scar on his stomach.

“That is what happens when you get shot in the stomach,” he admitted.

“Shot?”

My fingers touched the spot, finding it somewhat raised, but impossibly smooth.

Beneath my touch, Nave’s muscles twitched.

“I’ve led an interesting life,” he said, making my gaze lift to his. I found him already watching me—and much, much closer than I’d realized.

Up so close, I swear the man sucked up all the air because I suddenly felt breathless, maybe a little lightheaded.

Nave’s hand shot out, grabbing my forearm. “You alright? You swayed a little.”

“Yeah, sorry. Just… hot.” Just not in the way you’re thinking .

“Come on, we gotta cool you off.”

With that, he reached down for the hem of my tank top. And if he was looking to lower my body heat, feeling the brush of his knuckles against my lower back was not the way to go about it.

My arms raised instinctively, letting him pull the material off of me. I didn’t even feel the anticipated jolt of insecurity at all my exposed skin as I stood there in shorts and a cream-colored bra.

When his hands moved to my waistband, I damn near combusted.

But then my shorts were down around my ankles, leaving me in that bland bra and a pair of bright yellow panties.

Not my best look.

But I swear Nave’s jaw went to granite as he looked at me.

He was quick to force his gaze away, though, reaching for my hand instead, and leading me over toward the steps.

“I can get in, you know,” I said, charmed by his protectiveness as he insisted on holding my hand until I was down the steps.

“Not taking any chances,” he said as I slipped fully into the cool water.

Almost as if the water blocking my body from view allowed him to think straight again, he reached down to remove his own pants.

I wasn’t entirely sure I kept the little whimpering sound inside me as he stripped down to nothing but a pair of boxers.

Then he started to make his way over toward the water.

“Better?” he asked, making his way in.

Words didn’t seem possible then, so I nodded instead.

Once he was down in the water too, a little bit of the pressure on my chest seemed to subside.

“This is nice. I haven’t been in a pool in ages.”

“Yeah, I can’t imagine Ben wanted to share water with someone else.”

“Can you imagine?” I asked, snorting. And, God, it felt good to be able to laugh about him instead of feeling that knee-jerk panic at just the thought of him. “Though, these things are full of chemicals. And chemicals were his favorite thing. I have proof.”

I leaned back in the water to lift a leg out of it, pointing it toward him.

“What am I looking for?” he asked.

“It’s a ‘know it when you see it’ sort of thing.”

“This?” he asked, his finger tracing over the side of my big toe. “What is this?”

“A chemical burn. Ben brought home some new kind of cleaner. I was told to clean the shower with it. But it was a stall shower. So I had to get in it to clean it. And I didn’t want to get my slides wet, so I went in barefoot. Big mistake. God, that hurt.”

“Asshole,” Nave grumbled as his finger gently slid over the still-pink skin. I wasn’t sure it would ever go back to normal.

“Needless to say, I never used that again. I love the cleaner that Ariah and Kit make. It’s all natural and works great.”

“They drop off bottles of that shit to everyone when they make a big batch,” Nave said. “Even cater the scents to everyone’s preferences.”

When they’d realized I had such an aversion to lemon, the bottles that ended up at my door were all lavender. I’d never felt so seen as I had since I came to Navesink Bank.

“What’s your scent?”

“I don’t have my own yet. The clubhouse gets this amber-scented one? I dunno. Smells kinda like cologne but in a subtle way.”

“That fits,” I said as I spread my arms and floated onto my back, closing my eyes, enjoying the sun on my face and the coolness all around me.

If I’d been chasing freedom when I left the glass house, I’d fully found it now.

For just a few, precious moments, the rest of the world disappeared. And all there was for me was calm, pleasure, peace.

A hand closed around my ankle, gently pulling me, making my eyes fly open. I lifted my head so my ears were out of the water in time to hear Nave say, “You were about to hit the wall.”

“Oh, oops. I was having a moment,” I admitted.

“You looked at peace,” Nave said as, safely back in the shallow end, I flipped back upright. Only I misjudged just how close I would be to Nave when I did so. With the wall at my back, there was nowhere to go. Not that any part of me was screaming to retreat.

“I was,” I admitted, painfully aware that if I took a deep breath, our chests would brush. I almost wanted to try it out to see.

“That’s nice to see,” he said, his hand lifted. Water dripped from his fingertips for a second before he reached to brush my wet bangs to the side.

“It’s nice to feel.”

So what if I took that deep breath?

His fingertips had moved down my temple to tuck my hair behind my ear, dammit.

I watched as Nave’s eyes flickered before igniting.

His hand flattened on my neck.

That hunger looking back at me chased away any of my innate sense of self-preservation.

“I don’t regret it,” I said, watching as he processed the words. “Just so you know.”

It seemed to be what he was waiting to hear.

Suddenly, both his hands were at my hips, grabbing, lifting.

Water cascaded down my body as I found myself sitting on the edge of the pool.

Nave’s body pressed against my knees, and my legs parted effortlessly for him, welcoming him closer.

His hands slid up my sides, igniting little sparks that quickly became a wildfire that tore through me.

He pressed closer.

My heartbeat fluttered. My legs closed around him.

Then his hands were framing my face, and his lips were on mine.

There was nothing tentative this time, no soft explorations, no uncertainty.

Our lips collided, full of heat and need and the ache of denial.

My fingers danced up his arms to slip around his neck, pulling him flush against me, and his lips muffled my moan as the press of his desire met my core.

Nave’s head slanted, his lips sucking my lower one before they were over mine again. Harder, hungrier. Teeth grazed. Tongues teased.

Behind his back, my ankles crossed, and I used the leverage to rock myself against him, the need so strong that if he wanted to reach down and pull my panties to the side to slip inside me right there and then, I would have taken him gladly, oblivious to who might see or hear.

They didn’t matter.

He mattered.

This mattered.

But just when I was ready to beg him to take me right then and there, his lips ripped from mine. His face pressed to the side of mine, his ragged breathing in my ear.

“We can’t do this—”

“Yes, we can,” I interrupted.

“Here,” he finished, turning to look at me, heat and humor making his impossibly handsome face even more attractive.

“Oh,” I said, my own smile spreading.

The next thing I knew, he was lifting himself out of the water, soaking me through once again. But then he pulled me to my feet and wrapped a towel around me before reaching for his own.

“Hey, is this up for grabs?” a voice called, making Nave look over my shoulder toward the back door.

“No, that’s Lolly’s,” he called back.

“It smells banging.” Glancing back, I saw Dezi standing there, a big purple stain on his white tee. Judging by what I had heard about his obsession with sweet treats, I would bet good money on that being jelly from a donut.

“I can share,” I said.

“You don’t have to share with him.”

“It felt like a lot of food.”

I didn’t realize my mistake until we were dry and back inside the clubhouse. When Dezi and I were eating and Nave was offering to take Edith outside.

The moment had passed.

And my heart sank at the idea of not having another one like it again.