Forbidden Stranger Read online

  “You’re worried that I’ll need him. You think something’s going to happen to me,” she said.

  Ewan couldn’t stomach another lie. “Yes.”

  “And you won’t be able to take care of me,” Nina added in a quiet voice. “You’re more than worried about it, Ewan. You’re terrified of something happening to me while we’re alone here. Something you can’t prevent, something you can’t fix.”

  “Yes,” he whispered.

  “Why?”

  “Because . . .” he began but could not bring himself to finish.

  Nina moved toward him. Within reach, but not reaching. They stared at each other with so little distance between them all it would take was a single step to put them together, but neither of them took it.

  “I’m going to ask you something, Ewan, and I want you to be honest with me. No matter if you think it will hurt me. I need you to be honest,” Nina said.

  He could only nod his assent.

  “Was it you? For me. Before,” she added. “Was I in love with you before the accident?”

  Relief tore through him, razor-sharp and shredding. It almost sent him to his knees, but Ewan managed to keep himself upright. He wanted to take her in his arms, but wisely did not.

  “Yes,” he said.

  Her eyes gleamed with unshed tears. “Did you love me, too?”

  “Yes, Nina. I loved you.”

  “I’m the woman you were talking about? The one you loved.”

  “Yes,” Ewan said.

  She closed her eyes and let out long, slow sigh. Her shoulders slumped, but did not shake with sobs. Again, Ewan stopped himself from embracing her, uncertain if that’s what she wanted. He waited for her to ask him if he still loved her. Begged the absent Onegod and the universe itself for her to ask, so he would be able to tell her, yes. Yes.

  Yes.

  Nina straightened and turned slightly to stare toward the windows again. She looked back at him with a small smile.

  “The angels are bowling. My mother used to say that when I was a kid . . .” She trailed off slowly, her eyes going wide at what she’d said. “I remember that.”

  Hope and despair warred inside him. “Yeah? That’s fantastic, Nina.”

  She hesitated, looking as though she meant to take that final step toward him, but hung back. “When my sister was scared, she’d ask if she could sleep in my bed.”

  Seeing her remember was like watching liquid fill a glass of rocks. Her entire expression animated, joy suffusing her. Her eyes glinted with happy tears that still didn’t fall.

  “That’s all I remember,” Nina said. “But there will be more, won’t there?”

  Before he could answer, she was in his arms. She took his face in her hands. She kissed him, hard but slowly, easing off the pressure after a few seconds with a gasp. Her tongue slipped between his lips to tease his. She pressed herself against him, then pulled away so she could look deeply into his eyes.

  “I’m going to remember everything,” Nina said.

  * * *

  Ewan’s arms slipped around her waist. “I hope so. More than anything, I want that.”

  “Baby, this feels . . . good. It feels right.” She kissed him again, savoring his taste, but only for a moment before pulling away. Giddiness swept over her; she held back a flurry of hysterical giggles. “I called you ‘baby.’”

  “You can call me whatever you want,” he said into her kiss.

  She didn’t ask him why he hadn’t told her the truth before but had come clean now. Somehow in this moment, it didn’t matter. She had loved him and he had loved her. She loved him now. And he . . . he loved her, too. She didn’t have to ask him if it was still true. She’d known it for a long time without being aware.

  Again, she slanted her mouth across his. Desire began its heated descent from their stroking tongues down through her chest and lower, to her belly and then between her legs. She pressed herself to him, relishing the pressure of his hardening erection against her.

  Ewan groaned into her open mouth. When she took his tongue between her teeth and bit gently, his body surged against hers. She ground against him harder, sucking his tongue before moving her mouth to his throat and biting harder, there.

  “I want you,” she told him. “Right here. Right now.”

  In a fluid motion, she pulled out one of the kitchen chairs and settled herself in front of him on the table. Fast and smooth and graceful, because yeah, everything was working right now. She wasn’t clumsy any longer. Not hesitant. Not embarrassed or ashamed. She pulled her leggings down, over her hips and thighs until she tugged them off over her ankles. She exposed her tiny cotton panties beneath.

  Nina stroked a fingertip over her arousal through the cotton. “Here. I want your mouth here.”

  “Nina . . .” Ewan licked his lips, his gaze burning into her. “There’s something—”

  “Not now.” She shook her head. She eased aside the cotton to reveal herself to him. “Your mouth. Here. Now.”

  Ewan muttered a curse and leaned to grip her hips. His mouth brushed the inside of her thighs, one at a time. Nina leaned back with a small, eager sigh and opened her legs. Behind her, the china clinked as the table rocked.

  Instead of the heat and soft wetness of his stroking tongue, she felt only the gust of his breath. Then cooler air as he pulled away. Confused, she lifted herself to look at him.

  “What’s wrong?” When he didn’t answer, she cupped his face and made a small, low laugh. “Are you going to ask me again if this is what I want? You said you weren’t going to ask me that all the time. I want this. I want you. Now.”

  With a groan as his reply, Ewan bent back between her thighs. He nuzzled her. His tongue found her center. She moaned when he suckled gently. When he parted her to swipe along every inch of her heat, a jagged cry escaped her throat.

  There would be time later for her to ask him all the questions she’d so far kept silent. They could cuddle naked and talk and he would tell her everything. Now, all she could think of was the rising inferno of her desire. All she wanted was sweet release beneath his hands and tongue.

  “Wait, wait,” Nina muttered, nevertheless. She pushed at the top of Ewan’s head until he stopped. She struggled to sit. “Not here. Bed.”

  He nodded and helped her off the table. She took him by the hand and led him up the stairs into his room. She looked over her shoulder at him, fingers still linked with his.

  “Your bed’s bigger,” she murmured and let go of his hand to yank the comforter and sheets back. Then she turned and lay herself back on the huge expanse of his bed and offered herself to him.

  Ewan didn’t cover her with his body, not immediately. He took the time to tug his sweater off over his head. Then his shirt. Pants. He undressed quickly and efficiently, pausing to slow only when Nina murmured, “Slowly, please, it’s too nice a view to rush.”

  When he was naked, he moved over her body and undressed her. Too slowly now. She regretted her command. She was too eager but had done this to herself, so she laughed as he took his time revealing every bare inch of her to his questing hands and exploring mouth. She arched under him as he took a nipple into his mouth. Her hands found the thickness of his hair. She laughed again, full of joy. Shaking with it.

  “Now,” she told him as she reached between them to guide him inside her.

  “Don’t you need—”

  “Now,” she whispered. “I need you, right now. Inside me.”

  Ewan made no more protests. He fit inside her. His mouth on hers. Their bodies moved in perfect sync. Her desire spiraled up and up until she gasped with it. He followed her within seconds, shuddering and crying out his own release into her mouth.

  When he’d collapsed next to her, an arm flung across her belly, Nina turned her face to breathe him in. Naked, sticky, she half rolled to tangle their legs together. She put her arm around his back and let her fingers drift down his spine to the twin dimples at the base of it.

  “How long ha