If You Love Me, I'm Yours Read online

  He watched Maud carefully, which made his pupils dilate and his head spin. He felt the air grow warmer and Maud sat up straight before she realised that her new top afforded him a glorious view of her chest and sprang up, almost crashing into him. ‘Sorry,’ she gasped as he steadied her again.

  ‘Maud, if you keep throwing yourself at me every time we meet, I might have to take you up on your offer,’ he joked, but her face flamed in embarrassment. He laid a gentle hand on her face and stroked her cheek. ‘Maud... I’m joking.’

  ‘Oh, ok,’ she stuttered, picking up her bag and preparing to leave.

  He grabbed her hand and opened the office door, quickly telling Mario on the front desk where they would be. Maud tried to break away, but he held firm and ushered her with him, so she had no choice but to comply.

  Turning to face her, he held her chin with his fingers and made her look up at him. ‘I know you have a boyfriend and it seems for some reason that my beloved sister doesn’t want us to be friends, but I don’t care what they think. I like your company and I think you enjoy mine. Let’s go to lunch, talk about your art and then you can go home. Ok?’

  Maud sighed and tried to move away, but as he was gently holding her hand, she couldn’t. He saw that she had noticed the sliver scars snaking up his wrist, but she didn’t flinch away and, for once, neither did he. He looked down at her and gave her no choice but to stare up into his eyes and see that he meant what he said.

  Her stomach grumbled and that made up his mind. She’d probably forgotten to have breakfast. ‘You’re coming with me.’ He tucked her hand under his arm and hugged her to him, which was something he never did. He let Dot hug him sometimes, but she was the exception. Ever since Lena, he’d avoided familiarity with anyone outside of the family, and Dot would keel over in shock if she saw them. He wanted Maud to trust him and decided that she would have to make up her own mind about him, and not go on the put-downs Dot often slung his way.

  Maud linked her arm around his waist, which surprised him, and for a split second he drew away, then pulled her further into his side as he regaled her with stories of his family’s antics as they walked up the road to the little French bistro that he favoured.

  Nate felt some of the frustration that he had been swamped with at work drain away. He’d been immersing himself in a new style, and it almost felt like the devil was inside him when he was painting. Because of this, he’d been unable to approach Maud directly, which would have been his usual way. He wasn’t one for playing games or wasting his time. He’d thought about Maud and her sexy rose shoes more than he liked and the fact that Dot was interfering, for some reason, intrigued him even more. It appeared that Maud was harbouring secrets, and he knew only too well how that felt. He had nightmares about the day Lena, his ex-girlfriend, had died and he’d pretty much steered clear of any emotional entanglement since. Maybe that was why he liked Maud, because she was off limits and he didn’t have the pressure of trying to please her, even though he wanted to. He felt a desperate urge to seduce Maud and get her out of his system. He needed to scratch the itch. That was all it was. He should really stop mooning over her and go out and get laid. The thought of what an idiot he was being made his shoulders tense. This was someone else’s girl and he’d have to learn to let her go. One meal and he’d send her on her way, but today was theirs.

  Nate tried to shake off the rage he felt when he got close to someone, but it was brimming inside him and always seemed to be just below the surface, about to erupt at any time. He’d tried being kind to Lena, but she had thrown it back in his face and ruined his life. He ground his teeth and was glad Maud hadn’t noticed how tense he was. She was on his territory now and he wasn’t one to waste an opportunity. He wouldn’t let her get under his skin and then take over his life. He’d done that before and had been burnt emotionally. He thought about the silvery scars on his arms, but the damage to his mind had been worse. The scars were a reminder every day to keep others at a distance, as life was much simpler that way. The problem was that he wanted to touch Maud. It was a compulsion that wouldn’t go away. It annoyed the hell out of him, but excited him at the same time. He hadn’t felt like this in so long that it was torture.

  As they reached the restaurant, Maud smiled into his eyes and his mood softened again. She looked like an excited child about visiting somewhere new. He reached out and opened the door to the bistro, and enjoyed the delight on her face when she took in the Parisian detailing in the furniture. He hadn’t taken much notice before, but the tall, high-backed stools at the bar and the little tables with granite tops and dove grey chairs tucked underneath, did offer a certain charm. Maud was looking in awe at the rows and rows of French wines that lined the mirrored back wall and then rushed over to gaze at the plethora of daintily-iced cakes and macaroons that were displayed in various-sized glass domes near the front window. Baskets full of freshly baked bread nestled to one side of the bar and staff dressed in crisp white shirts with grey aprons and black trousers offered menus to the guests dotted around. He couldn’t help but grin at her fascination. For a teacher, she wasn’t very worldly if a small bistro could produce such delight, but maybe she saw something he didn’t, the same way she’d seen passion and excitement in his paintings on that first night at the gallery opening. Perhaps he was the sheltered one who should get out and experience life more? He’d pretty much locked himself away for years and held no emotional attachment to anything he did. He enjoyed painting and being with Elliott or his family, but they also drove him mad with their nagging to get out more. He only ever took dates to one restaurant or the little flat above the gallery, it never occurred to him to do anything else. They preferred getting him naked to going out, so who was he to complain?

  He pulled out a chair for Maud to sit and their knees touched below the table, making her jump. He was sure the tables here were designed for love as you had to sit near each other and he was rather enjoying the feeling of making Maud nervous. He opened the menu, but he had been to the restaurant on so many occasions, he knew which dish he would choose. He wondered what Maud would pick and watched her eyes dart about the page before she sat back and placed the menu onto the table as a waiter stopped beside her, order pad and pen at the ready, and a welcoming smile for them both. He nodded a greeting at Nate and then turned to Maud to ask for her selection.

  She smiled up at him. ‘What would you recommend? I was thinking of something light.’

  The waiter thought for a moment, then decided he had the perfect dish and opened the menu with a flourish and pointed to the full description. ‘We have a beautiful three cheese soufflé, with a vibrant green salad?’

  Maud smiled delightedly. ‘That sounds divine.’ The waiter appeared thrilled that he had made her so happy and pointed to a wine that would complement the meal, whilst telling her it would taste like nectar from the Gods, which earned him a pat on the arm and another wide smile. He then turned to Nate, who was sitting back in his chair and glowering at him, making him briskly straighten his back and move away from Maud.

  ‘For you, Monsieur Ridgemoor?’

  ‘I’ll have my usual, thanks, Tony.’ Nate tried to soften his words as he realised he’d been glaring at poor Tony, who was only doing his job and couldn’t be blamed for warming to Maud. It appeared to him that most men fell under her spell as soon as she met them but she didn’t have a clue what she did to them, the poor suckers. She seduced them with her smile before they even noticed her ample chest and the soft curve of her hips. That was just an added bonus.

  Tony, who had begun to sweat under Nate’s piercing gaze, scribbled on his pad. ‘Of course, Sir. Would you like a glass of wine to accompany the cassoulet?’

  ‘I think I’ll try some of the nectar of the Gods,’ Nate said drily. ‘Bring a bottle and we’ll share it.’

  Maud nudged his foot with hers and he knew he was being rude, but she appeared to be enjoying herself and hadn’t stamped on his toes yet. Nate ran his foot along hers and s
he jumped and glared at him. ‘I thought you wanted to play footsie?’ he drawled with a suggestive wink.

  ‘You know I didn’t. Stop annoying the waiters, and you look like you’ve got something in your eye,’ she giggled, treading on his toe this time, making him yelp in pain, while her grin spread wide in satisfaction.

  He held his hands up in surrender. ‘Ok. I’ll behave myself and apologise to Tony for behaving like a child.’

  ‘Thank you, young man.’ She said primly, but with a wink of her own.

  Tony reappeared with their wine, and Nate was very gracious in accepting a glass before telling Tony it really did taste like he was drinking nectar, which made Tony very happy and Maud’s face flush, when they both turned and smiled her way. Nate grinned with satisfaction that the day was working out the way he wanted it to, and his mind began to plot other ways to meet Maud ‘accidently’, all earlier resolutions forgotten.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Nate had obviously decided he’d better stop winding Maud up because he spent the next couple of hours charming her and finding out more about her life. He seemed so interested that she didn’t question what he was up to. Tom did enquire about her past occasionally, but he began talking again before she’d finished a sentence and then changed the topic after a few minutes. She hadn’t really paid much attention to it before, but talking to Nate was so refreshing.

  As they ate, Nate began telling her a story of how his parents had inadvertently set off a hotel’s fire alarm when they had been trying a new tantric sex position, and had fallen and crashed into a panel on the wall in their room. ‘I mean,’ he laughed, visibly cringing at the memory of their candour, ‘what parent would relay this to their own child?’

  Maud gasped with laughter. ‘And now you’re telling me, so that I have that picture in my head too?’ She could imagine Camille and Cosmo entwined in a tangled mass of limbs and tried to squeeze her eyes shut and block the picture out.

  ‘Closing your eyes won’t help you. Welcome to my world,’ he joked.

  Maud spooned another mouthful of the heavenly soufflé and tried to distract herself. It worked for a while as the flavour burst and she almost groaned in pleasure.

  Nate stopped in his tracks and his pupils dilated. ‘You’re making my mouth water. I could literally lick your lips and die of ecstasy right now,’ he leaned forward and whispered huskily, making her blush bright red. ‘I haven’t wanted a woman so badly in years, if ever, and you’re slowly driving me insane.’

  Maud was speechless, but couldn’t take her eyes from his lips. He waved Tony over to add the bill to his account, as Maud looked on in embarrassment at his sudden urge to leave. She quickly spooned another bite of delicious food into her mouth as, however nervous she was about his words, she’d never eaten a plate of food that had almost left her as aroused as his sultry words, and she needed time to think before she grabbed his gorgeous face and pressed her mouth to his. She placed her cutlery neatly on her plate and, brushing a stray crumb from her lap, dared to look into his fiery eyes.

  ‘Am I holding you up?’ she asked carefully, not knowing what to do.

  Nate glowered at her again and then sighed. ‘You’re not, but I can’t watch you almost have an orgasm over a cheese soufflé and not pull you over the table and take a taste for myself.’

  Maud wrung her hands in her lap, feeling completely ruffled. ‘Nate! You can’t say thing like that.’

  Nate ground his teeth and looked like he was struggling to control his emotions. ‘I know, and it’s bloody frustrating.’

  ‘But you have a girlfriend.’

  ‘Do I?’

  ‘I... Uh...’ Maud’s brain was muddled and she couldn’t think straight. She was sure Dot said he had a girlfriend. ‘Well, I have a boyfriend,’ she said simply, almost wishing it wasn’t true.

  ‘And therein lies the problem,’ he said honestly.

  ‘I don’t know what to say...’

  ‘That you’ll bin the boyfriend and then we can get to know each other properly?’ he grinned suddenly, a glint lighting his eye.

  ‘Nate!’ Maud couldn’t believe he was being so blatant. His words were really hot, but she wasn’t that kind of girl... was she?

  Nate took her hand from her lap and ran his fingers over hers, feeling her racing pulse at her wrist. He dropped a series of searing kisses on the delicate spot and then gently placed her hand back, leaving a scorching heat there, too. ‘I don’t like competition, but I’m willing to make an exception for you. I won’t touch you again, though,’ he looked deep into her eyes, ‘until you ask me to.’

  ‘I won’t ask you to,’ Maud gasped, feverishly dabbing her neck with her napkin

  ‘Won’t you? Are you sure?’

  ‘I’m with Tom.’

  ‘So dump him.’ Nate looked like he had never wanted anything more and the fact that she was loyal seemed to be something he hadn’t encountered before. Maud guessed that if he liked a woman, he wouldn’t have to try and take them from someone else, they would probably leave of their own accord anyway. It would take a strong woman to turn down an offer from a red-hot man like Nate. He sent a woman’s pheromones into overdrive. He’d said he wouldn’t cross the line, but she could clearly see that he sure as hell wanted to.

  Maud stood up shakily and smiled her thanks to Tony. ‘Can I pay for lunch?’

  Nate got up too and ignored her question at first. ‘I apologise. I will try to learn to control my temper and stop myself from kissing you senseless and dragging you back to the gallery and upstairs to the flat.’ Maud stood open-mouthed in shock, then shut up in case he did as he said and kissed her. Part of her wanted him to grab her and kiss her anyway, but that would make her a cheat, and she abhorred that kind of behaviour. She’d been burnt by it too many times. She’d just never been in the position of being the one who could cheat before. No one had declared how exciting she was, or how much she turned them on, just by eating food in front of them. In fact, they usually made her feel invisible, and she had assumed this was normal. It was a bit of a revelation to feel so desired. Even Tom didn’t make her feel this womanly and aroused. Plus, it was broad daylight – and they were supposed to be having an innocent lunch.

  Nate was getting restless and began running his eyes over her soft curves. ‘I invited you,’ he insisted. ‘You can pay next time.’

  Maud gave him a look she kept especially for the naughty children in her class, but he grinned, as he knew he’d got her. She was too polite to not return the favour.

  ‘You are incorrigible.’

  ‘I know,’ he smiled, as he put a warm hand on her waist and guided her back to the gallery, to call a car to take her home.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Maud woke up a week later and decided that Tom deserved more of her attention. Her dreams were full of Nate and she felt terribly disloyal for being this way. Nate had kept his word and they hadn’t seen each other, but they had exchanged a few texts and had one or two late night phone calls. She’d also had a few dates with Tom the previous week, and had refused to do any more trivial tasks for Dot or Nate. Nate had called her just to chat, and she had enjoyed speaking to him, but he hadn’t flirted with her at all and, if anything, it had left her feeling deflated after their meal out together. She felt confused about her feelings for him, as he’d been pretty blatant in letting her know that he wanted sex with her. She was sure he’d be great in bed and it was time she had more than she was currently getting from Tom. For some reason she was holding him off and he was easily distracted.

  Tom had tried every trick in the book to get her to sleep with him, and she was wavering, but his moods changed so quickly sometimes that if she didn’t jump his bones when he wanted her too, then he blew cold and brushed her off. Even when she tried to explain how tired she was at work, she knew he was getting annoyed with her and she’d have to up her game or lose him. He’d told her more than once that he could pretty much date any woman he wanted to and that she was a
bit frigid, which had made her want to cry, but she’d refused to let him know how his words stung.

  Maybe he was right? He was so good-natured, usually, that he must be frustrated with her behaviour and she couldn’t blame him. She was feeling pretty frustrated and confused herself. They’d almost fallen into bed last week. They’d spent the evening at the pictures and had cuddled all the way home, but Dot had been sitting on her doorstep with a huge pizza when they got back to the bungalow and, for a second, she’d been relieved.

  Tom had been glad to see Dot and had regaled her with snippets of their night and the film. He’d slung his arm affectionately over Dot’s shoulder and whispered something in her ear, which had made her scream with laughter. Dot had been suitably impressed about their night out, but had refused to go home, and then snored quietly in Maud’s immaculate spare room and had strewn the covers all over the floor in her sleep. Tom had been uber-affectionate and asked to stay too, but the thought of Dot behind a paper-thin wall in the next room made Maud cringe, however much she thought she might like him to stay. But they had made out a lot... and things had definitely heated up.

  Over the next week, Maud hadn’t had a spare moment to go on more dates with Tom, but he seemed happier after their night of ‘almost sex’ and things were progressing. She was still feeling tired and on edge, in case her phone pinged with a notification, telling her Nate had left a message. She found herself looking forward to the texts that he sent with things she might find interesting. Once it had been a photo of a little painting of the sea he had found in a tiny gallery and another time a picture of a dog that was smiling straight up into his phone, which made her laugh and send a smiley face emoji back.

  Tom had asked her for Dot’s number so that he could speak to her about some art, and Dot had mentioned in passing that he’d called her a few times, which was odd, but she didn’t dwell on it as she had too much to do.