Chapter Seven
January 6, 2011
The club was heaving when they arrived and Haley tightly held onto her boyfriend's hand as he led them further inside. Somehow, they managed to find an empty table and while he went to get them some drinks, she pulled out a chair and sat down. Surveying her surroundings, she noticed the dance floor and the mass of writhing bodies presently using it. Picking up and playing with one of the coasters, she wondered whether or not she'd be able to persuade Nathan to dance with her.
"Here you go," he said a short while later when he finally returned from the bar, setting down her vodka and cranberry juice. Sitting down opposite Haley, he brought the bottle he was holding up to his mouth and took a long drink of Coke.
It had been a long time since he'd last been in a nightclub and, as he'd thought might happen, unwanted memories began popping into his head. The temptation to swap his soda for something alcoholic was getting stronger by the second but apart from the fact he was driving, he was also concerned about losing control and what he might say or do whilst under the influence.
"Thanks for bringing me here," Haley said, raising her voice to be heard over the loud music.
"No problem," Nathan replied. He let his gaze roam all over her and he felt a rush of lust pool in his stomach. She looked amazing. The black and red dress she wore molded to her every curve like a second skin and the high heels she wore made her legs look even longer. She'd left her hair down but the sides were pulled back and secured with tiny black combs which gave him a glimpse of her diamond stud earrings which, he thought, went well with the snowflake necklace he'd given her. He loved that she was wearing it pretty much every time he saw her.
Taking a sip of her own drink, she leaned forward and asked, "So, is there any chance I can get you to dance with me?"
Smirking, he cupped his fingers around his ear and pretended that he hadn't heard the question. "Sorry, baby... I can't hear you."
Haley repeated the question a couple of times before she realized what he was up to. "Okay, for that, you have to dance with me now."
He was just about to shake his head and say no when the music changed tempo and so, pushing back his chair, he went over to her and took her hand; gently pulling her up out of her seat. "Fine, you win."
She beamed up at him. "Yay!"
Stepping onto the dance floor, Nathan drew her forward into his arms, his hands resting on her lower back while hers crossed behind his neck. Swaying to the slow, sultry beat of the music, he lowered his head and breathed in the fruity scent of her hair. The feel of her pressed flush against the length of him was making his entire body thrum.
Turning her head slightly so that her mouth was beside his ear, Haley said, "You're better at this than you think."
Her warm breath puffing against his skin added to the already blissful sensation of having her in his arms and he closed his eyes to savor it. He knew that soon enough the music would change to another up-tempo song and there was no way he was dancing to that.
Nathan was right. Within a few minutes, the song had changed again and the DJ was once more playing a fast track. He was just about to release her when Haley turned herself in his arms so that her perfectly rounded bottom was in direct contact with his groin. Placing his hands on her hips, ready to ease her away, he bit back the groan when she took his hands in hers and wrapped them around her stomach, leaning forward slightly as she began to rub her ass against him in time to the music.
His breath hitched in his throat when she began sliding his hands up and down her body over the silky fabric of her dress; skimming them over the top of her thighs and then up to glide over her ample breasts. He tried hard not to think about how good she felt.
For a brief moment, Nathan wondered if she was drunk because this so wasn't like her. At least he didn't think it was. Their relationship was new and they were still finding out things about each other but, having said that, he just couldn't imagine her letting someone... even if that person was her boyfriend, feel her up in front of a club full of strangers.
Linking their fingers, he managed to still her hands as they began sliding upwards again. "Let's go and get some fresh air," he said, speaking directly into her ear. He felt her nod against him and a minute later they were making their way through the throngs of club-goers towards the exit, remembering to stop at the cloakroom first to pick up their jackets.
"I didn't mean for us to leave," Nathan told her once they were outside.
"I know," Haley replied. "I just thought maybe we could go to my place and, uh... have a nightcap."
He didn't know what else to do but nod and as they waited for the valet to bring around his car, he cursed himself. How the hell was he going to get out of this without ruining what had, up to now, been a terrific date.
Their night had started off by him picking her up and taking her to a family-run Italian restaurant a work colleague had recommended to him where both the food and atmosphere was excellent. It was while they'd been eating their dessert that Haley had mentioned she hadn't been to a club in a while and before he'd known what he was doing, he told her they could go tonight if she wanted.
The thing was, he figured the later he kept her out, the more chance there was of her feeling tired and not inviting him inside when their date was over. Yeah, some fucking plan that turned out to be, he mused angrily.
The drive to Haley's apartment was over much too quickly for Nathan's liking and he still didn't know what he was going to say to get out of going inside with her. Mentally, he crossed his fingers and hoped that her roommate was home so he could use that as an excuse. He knew it was ridiculous. They were all adults and he knew full well that Lindsey's boyfriend stayed over and that, as such, she most likely wouldn't have an issue with him staying over with Haley.
Finding a parking spot just around the corner from her building, he put the car into park and as soon as he turned to look over at his girlfriend, she unfastened her seatbelt and made her move; grabbing the sides of his face and holding him firmly in place as she all but devoured him using her lips, tongue and teeth. When he moaned, the sounded echoed around the confines of the vehicle, making the noise appear even louder.
Nathan had to admit, he was impressed when she managed to squeeze herself between him and the steering wheel and, reluctantly, he moved his seat back to give her some extra room to maneuver. Bad idea, he realized a second later when she began rubbing the lower half of her body against him. He was still semi-hard from their encounter on the dance floor as well as from the hand she'd placed on his upper thigh during the car journey home and with what she was now doing to him, he was back to full tumescence.
"Touch me," Haley whispered.
There was a moment of hesitation before he ran his hands up and down her bare arms, unable to stop the sense of pride welling up inside of him when he felt her shiver. When she laced their fingers together and brought their joined hands down to her pantyhose-covered thigh he held his breath to see what she would do next and he loudly expelled it when she slipped it beneath the hem of her dress and he discovered that she was in fact wearing stockings. "Holy fuck!" he murmured.
His expletive made Haley giggle against his neck and caused her to release the patch of skin she'd been furiously sucking on. "You like that, huh?"
"Uh huh," Nathan whispered, finding her lips and kissing her hotly. His fingers trailed further up her thigh, caressing her delicate skin before moving downwards again and drawing circles over the lacy stocking-top he could feel. God, she was so sexy!
Slowly rocking her hips and feeling the ridge of his cock through his pants, Haley felt so wanton. She couldn't believe that after all of these years she had Nathan Scott exactly where she wanted him. "You wanna know a secret?"
"Always."
"I've wanted to do this with you since I was fifteen."
Her confession sent his temperature and blood pressure skyrocketing and he felt beads of sweat break out on the back of his neck. "Haley..." Fusing their mouths together, he kissed her long and deep before she finally pulled away, totally breathless.
"Come home with me," she said a moment later, her breathlessness making her sound even more sultry. Kissing one side of his neck to the other, she swirled her tongue around the shell of his ear, adding. "I want you so much, Nathan."
This was it... the moment he'd been dreading all night.
"I-I can't, Hales." His eyes snapped shut as she began suckling his Adam's apple.
"Yes, you can," Haley told him, kissing the sensitive spot behind his ear.
Removing his hand which was still under her dress, he placed it on her hip while his other hand rested on her shoulder. "No, I can't."
That familiar sense of disappointment reared its ugly head again and she drew back from him so she could look into his face. "Why not? What's the excuse this time? Wait, let me guess; you've got another early meeting tomorrow."
Nathan nodded, his gaze leaving hers to stare past her through the windshield. "Yeah, I have. I've got a ton of paperwork I need to review beforehand and—"
"You know, maybe we should stop going out on dates during the week 'cause I'd hate for you to have to tear yourself away from work just to take me out."
"Haley, I—"
"No, I don't want to hear it, okay. You keep doing this to me... I keep letting you do it and it's not fair." Climbing back into the passenger seat, she reached into the back seat to grab her jacket. "I just wish you'd tell me if you didn't want to be with me."
Grabbing her wrist, he said, "I do want to be with you... you have to know that."
The sting of tears burned behind her eyelids and she wrenched her arm away from him. "How can I, Nathan? Every time we start getting intimate you close yourself off and then push me away. There's only so much rejection a girl can take... there's only so much I can take."
Nathan felt like the biggest bastard on the planet. She didn't deserve to be treated like this but the more time he spent with her, the more selfish he became because he couldn't give her up.
He watched as she grabbed her purse from the floor and then opened the door. "I'm sorry," he whispered as she stepped out of the car, unsure as to whether or not she had heard him.
The sound of the passenger door slamming shut made his heart ache and his throat felt dry and scratchy. He sat in the car for long minutes, wanting to make sure she got inside safely as well as waiting for his suddenly blurry vision to clear.
As he began the short journey to his own apartment, he couldn't remember ever feeling lonelier.
* * * * *
Lindsey glanced up from her place curled up on the couch when she heard the key in the front door and upon seeing the familiar frustrated look on her friend's face as the other woman entered the apartment she bit her lip to keep from smiling. "You're back early. I'm guessing he still won't give it up, huh?"
After a previous date when Haley had returned home feeling completely rejected as well as frustrated, she'd ended up confiding in her roommate and venting to her about the situation.
Haley gave the blonde a pointed look as she kicked off her high heels and then slipped off her raincoat to reveal the elegant red and black cocktail dress she wore beneath it. "Very funny!"
"So, what was his excuse this time?"
Taking a seat in the over-stuffed armchair opposite the couch, Haley sighed. "He said he had an early meeting tomorrow morning and had some paperwork to read over at home to prepare for it."
"And you think he was lying?" Lindsey asked. Leaning forward, she picked up her bottle of water from the coffee table and took a sip.
Haley shrugged. "Yes! No! Ugh, I don't know. He sounded genuine and his excuse sounds plausible but..."
"But?"
"I-I just feel like... like something's off."
"It's still early days, Hales. You've only been seeing each other for a couple of months or so an—"
"I know what Nathan's like," she interrupted. "Back in high school he was with a different girl practically every other week and I figured when we started seeing each other that he'd have me in his bed by the end of our first date. Now it's almost three months later and it feels like we're standing still. Maybe it's me—"
"Don't you even start with that crap," Lindsey quickly cut in, her voice firm. "Look, you don't know the reason or if there's actually a reason to be worrying about. I mean, you told me you guys are kissing and stuff, right?"
"Uh huh."
"Well, maybe he is just busy and preoccupied with work. He hasn't been there very long, after all," she reminded her.
Laughing, Haley shook her head; her honey-blonde curls bouncing with the movement. "Believe me, the old Nathan wouldn't have let work get in the way of getting laid."
"That's just it, you're thinking of the old Nathan. The two of you haven't seen each for the past, what? Ten years? People change, Haley. Even those you thought never would. It's worth keeping that in mind."
"Yeah, I know. If he wasn't into me he wouldn't be kissing me the way he has. I guess I just find it… strange for him not to have at least tried getting me into bed yet."
Picking at the label on her bottle, Lindsey smiled. "You could always try talking to him."
"I've tried and I already feel like a… a sex fiend for constantly bringing it up. "
"Whatever," she replied, tossing a throw pillow at her friend who easily caught it.
"Hey!"
Getting up from the couch, the other woman laughed. "I'm off to bed since, like Nathan, I've got to be up early for work." Just before she disappeared into her bedroom, she called out, "Oh, and while you're waiting for Nathan to... uh... take charge, you might want to stock up on fresh batteries for your vib—"
"Lindsey!" Haley shouted, her cheeks flushing a furious shade of pink upon hearing her roommate's words.
"Sweet dreams, Hales," Lindsey called back, her laughter muffled as she closed her door.
"If only," Haley mumbled to herself as she pushed herself out of the comfy chair and made her way to her own room. Ever since she had bumped into Nathan three months ago at the coffee shop not far from the office block she worked in, her dreams had been anything but sweet. Erotic would be a better word to describe them. She'd woken up more times than she could count, her body flushed and tangled in the sheets, and the only way she had been able to get back to sleep had been to try and relieve the throbbing ache between her thighs, either with her fingers or using her trusty vibrator which she kept tucked away at the back of the drawer in her nightstand.
She had a feeling she'd be using it again tonight given how frustrated she was feeling, mainly due to the hot and heavy make-out session they'd had in Nathan's car when he had dropped her back home but also because of his... reluctance to take the next step.
Sure, they'd only been officially dating for the past ten weeks and it was still very early days but still... Like she had told her friend, Nathan's reputation with girls back in high school had been somewhat legendary and even though Lindsey was right about people changing, etc, Haley didn't think he would've changed that much... at least not when it came to the opposite sex.
She was pretty sure he was attracted to her, hell she'd felt his arousal pressing into her when he'd pulled her over onto his lap in the car but, then again, she knew some guys could get turned on without necessarily being into the other person. That intense stare of his though... the way his blue eyes would darken as they roamed all over her, his gaze lingering on her lips... his fingers softly caressing her face... she was sure he felt something for her, something more than a simple attraction.
The funny thing was, she'd never felt like this with her two previous boyfriends. Sex had always been a big deal to her and it wasn't something she did lightly. She had been eighteen when she'd lost her virginity to her first serious boyfriend and she'd made him wait almost a year before she'd slept with him. Her second boyfriend had had slightly less of a wait at eight months but, nonetheless, she hadn't jumped into bed with him after just a few dates like she knew some of her friends tended to do.
She didn't know what it was about Nathan that made her want to throw caution to the wind. More than likely it was because they already knew each other and had sort of been friends before anything else. When she'd first been assigned to tutor him, she figured he was nothing more than an arrogant jock and while she did catch glimpses of that, she discovered there was so much more to him. Despite her being two years younger than him and a "lowly sophomore", he'd seemed to really open up to her during their sessions; talking to her about things she had a feeling he hadn't shared with too many other people. She'd never admitted it to anyone but she'd formed a little bit of a crush on him and even now they were actually seeing each other, she sometimes felt the urge to pinch herself to prove it was really happening and wasn't just a figment of her imagination.
After the kisses they had shared at the end of their first official date, she'd lain in bed and wondered why he hadn't tried to have sex with her. She'd all but expected it and even bought condoms the day before and placed them in the drawer of her nightstand. She was more than a little surprised when he'd turned down her invitation of coming into the apartment and had said something about not wanting to spoil things between them before they'd had a chance to get started. It had been in stark counterpoint to the promise-filled kisses he'd given her outside the door to her apartment but after making arrangements to meet up the next day and one last kiss he'd turned around and left.
She remembered standing there and staring at the empty hallway for long minutes before she'd finally unlocked her front door and gone inside.
If someone had told her that the same thing would still be happening now after approaching three months of dating… she wouldn't have believed them. She'd hoped things would improve of their own accord mainly since raising the issue with him felt so… scary. Having plucked up the courage to tell him how rejected she felt, she was still none the wiser about his reasons for continuing to do so and Nathan telling her that he just wanted to take things slowly and not rush into taking that next step wasn't really allaying her fears. No matter what he excuses he gave her, she still felt like he was keeping something from her.
"Ugh!" Haley grumbled. All of these thoughts swirling around her head were driving her crazy. Getting undressed, she frowned as she glanced down at herself. As well as wearing her favorite dress tonight, she'd also put on the sexiest lingerie she owned; a black silk and lace demi-bra, which gave her already ample cleavage an extra little boost, together with a matching thong. Black thigh high stockings completed the ensemble along with her three inch stiletto pumps. What a waste, she thought to herself as she stripped out of them and tossed the delicate items into her laundry hamper.
The sudden ringing of her cell phone startled her for a second and she quickly retrieved it from her purse. Seeing Nathan's name on the display panel had her heart racing and she took a couple of deep breaths before answering the call. "Hi."
"Hey, it's me."
"I know," she said, her voice a soft whisper.
"I just... I wanted to apologize about before." Hearing her slightly ragged breathing on the other end of the line, he asked, "Are you okay? You're sounding a little breathless."
"I'm fine," she replied. Wanting to test the waters a little, she added, "I'm, uh, just getting undressed."
There was a long pause before he responded. "Really?"
Haley shivered at the husky tone in his voice. "Uh huh."
"What are you wearing right now?"
Glancing at her reflection in the full length mirror fixed onto the inside of her closet door, Haley smirked. "Nothin' but a smile."
On the other end of the line, Nathan felt beads of sweat break out on the back of his neck. "Uh..."
"Cat got your tongue?"
He laughed. "You're a little minx. I don't remember you being like this during our tutoring sessions."
"Hmm, that might've had something to do with me being only fifteen at the time."
"And I was the big bad senior, I suppose?"
"You said it." Walking over to her dresser, Haley pulled open the middle drawer and removed a pale blue nightgown from inside of it and pulled it on over her head, switching the phone from one hand to the other while she slipped her arms through the garment's spaghetti straps.
"I think you're just messing with me... you know, about being naked right now."
"Is that so?" She decided against revealing that she'd just slipped into something. "You're more than welcome to come over and see for yourself." Unconsciously, she held her breath as she waited for his response to her not-so-subtle come-on.
"I-I'd love to, Hales, but... I've got that meeting tomorrow an—"
"I get it," she interrupted. "I'll, uh, talk to you another time, then... maybe when you're not so busy. Night, Nathan." Not giving him the chance to say anything, she ended the call, making sure to switch her phone off before tossing it onto her nightstand.
The man was infuriating! If he wasn't into her why didn't he just say so instead of getting her so hot and bothered only to then throw a freezing cold bucket of water over her. Maybe she should just cut her losses and end things now before she got even more involved with him. What the hell had happened to the notorious Nathan Scott she'd known back in high school, she asked herself as she threw back the covers and climbed into bed. Somehow she had a feeling it would be yet another restless night for her.
Damn him!
* * * * *
Across town, Nathan stared at the cell phone he was still holding in his hand. He couldn't blame her for hanging up on him. He knew he had hurt her feelings earlier when he came up with that dumb-ass excuse about having an early meeting tomorrow and ended their date much sooner than she would've liked.
The way she'd climbed over the centre console and straddled his lap had initially taken him by surprise and while he knew he should've put the brakes on sooner, he hadn't been able to stop himself from returning her sizzling hot kisses or from caressing the creamy skin of her thigh when she'd slipped his hand beneath her dress. He could still hear the sexy tone of her voice and feel her hot breath on his skin when she'd asked him to come upstairs with her and it had almost been his undoing. Somehow, though, he'd managed to stay strong and decline, once again using work as his excuse.
The hurt look on her face had killed him but he didn't stop her when she scrambled away from him.
It was a wonder she hadn't broken up with him on the spot.
To be honest, he couldn't help feeling somewhat shocked that Haley James was wanting to get him into bed so fast. A part of him couldn't help remembering her as the innocent little tutor who continually blushed around him, especially when he blatantly teased her. He'd wondered whether she might've had a crush on him but, apart from the blushing, she never given any indication that she did and so he hadn't known for sure.
He now knew differently thanks to what she had whispered into his ear during their frantic make-out session in his car.
"I've wanted to do this with you since I was fifteen."
Hearing her whisper those words into his ear had made him even harder than he'd been already and his hold on her hips had tightened. He was now thankful that he hadn't known she'd felt like that about him during high school, mainly since he knew she came from a large family and the last thing he needed was being threatened by her two older brothers.
But also because he would have hated to end up hurting her.
He hadn't been the nicest person back then... but he liked to think he would've treated her better. Haley was so different and nothing at all like the people who used to hang all over him just because he was captain of the basketball team and his family happened to be wealthy.
It was kind of weird to think that, in many ways, his young tutor had been his closest friend; someone he'd felt able to confide in.
Never in a million years would he have thought that ten years later they would be an actual couple. He chuckled at the irony but, at the same time, he was unable to stop himself from wondering how long they'd stay that way. There were only so many excuses he could give her before she'd run out of patience with him... if she hadn't already, that was.
Rubbing the back of his neck, Nathan got up from the armchair he was seated in and headed down the hall towards his bedroom even though he was sure he wouldn't be getting much sleep.
It was something he'd become accustomed to.