Chapter 4: : Chapter 4

She was pissed.

Nate’s mouth tipped into a grin when he saw Kris standing in Hilltop Park, her eyes sparking with fury as she watched him approach. With her white dress, dark hair streaming in the wind, and deep scowl, she resembled an avenging angel on the verge of smiting the poor mortal who’d dared cross her.

Except Nate was no mere mortal. She needed him. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t have called for an in-person meeting a week after she’d listed a few creative places where he could shove his counteroffer and hung up on him.

Nate had taken a huge risk with the counteroffer, but if there was one thing he’d learned about life and business, it was this: always negotiate. The opening offer was rarely the best one, which was why he’d tested the waters and upped the price to $15,000. An extra five grand may not mean a lot to Kris, but it meant a shit ton to the Reynoldses.

As for the kiss part of the deal…well, it’d surprised Nate as much as it did Kris when the words fell out of his mouth, but the more he thought about it, the more he wouldn’t mind confirming whether her full lips tasted as sweet as they looked.

He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her since they met, and it was driving him insane. Nate wasn’t the type of guy who worked himself into a tizzy over a girl. Normally, he barely had to lift a finger before members of the opposite sex threw themselves at him, promising everything from BJs to threesomes to the kinky shit you only found on porn sites.

Then again, nothing about this situation was normal.

“You’re late,” Kris said flatly.

Nate hitched his shoulder up in a shrug. “Sorry. My audition ran over, and Long Beach is a long way from Hollywood, especially during rush hour.”

The audition had been for a minor role in an upcoming crime thriller, and he was sure he’d nailed it. The role comprised only a few lines, but it involved direct interaction with Oscar Bravo, the biggest action star in the world.

Nate thrilled at the thought. Oscar was one of his idols.

Kris huffed. “First your ridiculous counteroffer, now tardiness. You’re pushing your luck.”

“If it’s so ridiculous, why are we here?” Nate leaned against one of the stone columns bracketing the low concrete wall.

True to its name, Hilltop Park sat perched on a hill overlooking Long Beach, Rancho Palos Verdes, and downtown L.A. in the distance. It wasn’t huge—just a round space dotted with benches and surrounded by a rolling carpet of lush grass. The only other people there were a high school couple too busy making out on a bench to pay attention to Kris and Nate.

“None of the other actors I hired could get the job done,” Kris grumbled.

Nate’s eyebrows shot up. “It’s been a week. How many did you hire?”

“Three. And no, I didn’t pay them all $10,000, just a hundred each to flirt with Gloria and see if they could catch her interest.” A frown creased her smooth brow. “No dice.”

Thank God.

Nate had been consumed with dread and guilt all week, thinking he’d thrown away ten or fifteen grand by being too bold in his negotiations, but now, his usual confidence made a comeback.

“You think I’ll be different?”

Nate knew he would; he just wanted to hear her say it. He wasn’t the boasting type, but he also wasn’t going to fake humility over his looks. He was aware of his effect on women—including Kris. The heat in her eyes wasn’t entirely due to anger.

Nate hadn’t had sex in a public space since he banged Sheri Cummings at the beach when he was sixteen and learned the hard way that beach sex was not, in fact, that sexy. It’d taken him days to get all the sand out of areas he didn’t even know he had.

But there was no sand around now, and Kris was so small he could lift her with one arm and use his other hand to—

“You better be, given your terms.” Kris’s cold words snapped Nate out of his X-rated fantasy. Instead of dampening his arousal, they only turned him on more. He loved a good challenge, and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d had to do more than smile to get a girl into his bed—or car, or bathroom, or whichever surface was nearby.

Nate didn’t drink. Didn’t gamble. Didn’t do drugs. Sex was the one thing he indulged in regularly, though it had been a good two weeks since he’d seen action from anything besides his right hand. He’d been too busy.

“…plan, which is going to guarantee her interest in you,” Kris finished.

Shit. He’d missed the first part of what she said.

“What makes you so sure it’ll work?” Nate asked, hoping to draw more details out of her. He didn’t want to let on that he hadn’t been paying attention, not when their deal wasn’t set in stone yet.

“It’ll work. Gloria’s a vindictive, envious bitch who wants everything I have.” Kris pulled a manila envelope out of her giant purse and shoved it at Nate. “I’ll discuss the plan in more detail after you sign the contract and NDA.”

His disbelieving laugh filled the air. “You’re joking.”

“I don’t joke.”

“You’re seriously making me sign an NDA?”

“I have a fifty percent deposit waiting for you—in cash—after you sign.”

Five minutes later, Nate handed over the signed contract and NDA in exchange for $7,500 worth of green. He split up the hundred-dollar bills, tucking some in his wallet, the inside of his jacket, and even his socks.

Instead of weighing him down, the money buoyed him up. How many shifts would he have had to take at the cafe to earn that kind of money? Too many. And now, he’d gotten it without having to do anything except scribble his signature on a few documents.

He’d looked the contract and NDA over—they were straightforward enough. It wasn’t like Nate was planning to tell anyone about his and Kris’s agreement, anyway.

After a night of agonizing over whether to accept her offer, he’d concluded that he would be an idiot to pass up the opportunity. Black-and-white morals were a luxury when you had a family to feed and a roof to keep over their heads.

Besides, Nate could get Kris her incriminating pictures without having sex with her father’s fiancée. The right angle captured at the right moment could work magic on a person’s imagination.

As for breaking up someone else’s relationship…

Nate felt a stab of guilt. He was no home wrecker. But if he had to choose between his family and someone else’s, he’d choose his. Every time.

“Paranoid, aren’t you?” Kris watched him stuff the last of the cash in his left sock.

“You can never be too careful.” He smiled a slow smile. “I’m missing one part of my payment, though.”

“I told you, I’ll pay you the rest—oh.”

Kris had agreed to Nate’s One Kiss stipulation—not verbally, but in the contract. It had been one line, buried in the middle of legal mumbo-jumbo, but it had been there.

“Fine. Get your kiss.” Kris lifted her chin.

Nate stepped closer until they were mere centimeters apart. She smelled like warm amber and lush florals—rich, sensual, and so damn sexy he wanted to bury his face in her hair and fill his entire being with her scent.

He grazed his knuckle over her cheek and along her jaw. Her skin was softer than velvet, and he’d bet his last dollar that having all that softness wrapped around him while he pounded into her would feel like heaven.

Kris had concealed the earlier heat in her eyes with a concrete wall. Those big dark irises betrayed no emotion, but there was no mistaking the faint pink tint on her skin or the quick, shallow rise and fall of her chest.

She wanted him to kiss her.

Nate curled his hand around her back of her neck and leaned in until their lips almost touched, and Kris’s eyes fluttered closed.

He wanted to devour her. To throw her on the ground, shove her dress up, and take her right then and there, witnesses be damned.

Who knows, maybe the teenyboppers over there would learn something.

Instead, he moved his mouth to her ear and nipped her lobe.

Quick. Gentle. A promise of future pleasures to come.

“Not yet,” he whispered. “I’ll kiss you when you’re begging for it.”

A wicked grin slid across his face when Kris’s eyes flew open and she shoved him away.

Anger and a hint of frustration touched her features before she shut it down. “That’ll be never.” She tossed her thick dark hair over her shoulder. “Not that I care. You’re the one who insisted on a kiss. If you don’t want to claim it, that’s your problem.”

“Oh, I’m going to claim it.” Nate slouched against the stone column, confidence oozing from every pore. “And when I do, you’re going to remember it for the rest of your life.”