Moon over the Bay (Moonlit Nights) (2 page)

Nathan
was sitting in the courtyard outside Sadie’s apartment staring blankly at his
laptop. He was supposed to be working on building a website but his mind kept
drifting.

First, he thought about Sadie’s
face when he and Kyle had walked into the apartment. She looked like a little
girl who had been given a unicorn from Santa. The couple shared a very
passionate kiss. They were so into it that Nathan had to be an asshole and
cough loudly to break it up before they went at it in the entry way. After they
broke apart, Sadie gave Nathan a bright smile and hug. She really was
fantastic—anyone who could remove the stick from Kyle’s ass deserved his
admiration.

Which led Nathan to daydreaming
about the day he’d have a woman who would look at him like he was her sun and
the moon. He realized a small part of him was jealous at how happy Kyle was now
with Sadie. Nathan wanted a woman to spoil, cherish, love, and all those other
ridiculously mushy things. He’d never in a million years admit to it aloud, but
he was man enough to admit it to himself.

The irony of wanting to take care
of someone was not lost on him. After having a father who died when he was a
toddler and a mother who barely noticed she had a kid once he could fend for
himself, the idea of taking care of someone should be foreign to him. But in
reality it had the opposite effect; it made him want to depend on someone and
have them depend on him. He’d had enough of being independent.
Nathan had put
himself through college while his mom was busy trying to score her next trophy
wife position. He had made friends all through school and college who were more
his family than she ever was.

Drama class, in a sense, had been
his therapy. For years Nathan was able to pretend he was someone else. During
that time he was Peter Pan, Willy Loman, Sweeney Todd, and his personal
favorite, Tony from West Side Story. All the time spent getting lost in
characters kept Nathan from thinking about his own life.

Looking back at the last few
years, he realized there was no need to continue to be someone else. He had a
good life now; he had a steady flow of work even without acting. Kyle and his
dad, Miles, were the best family a guy like him could ask for.

Nathan didn’t need to get lost in
a role now that he didn’t have to hide from his loneliness. The whole process
of acting almost felt like a habit instead of a dream. His graphic design
business had been on a steady incline for a while now, and Nathan felt a lot of
pride in pleasing his clients. But if he wasn’t going to pretend to be someone
else, then who was he? Could he really give up on the dream he’d had for as
long as he could . . .

“Shit!”

Nathan looked over at the gate to
the courtyard when he heard the jingle of keys as they fell to the ground
followed by another curse. He sat his laptop down on the table next to his
chaise lounge and ran over to help.

“Here, let me get the gate for
you,” he said when he noticed someone trying to bend down with a carrier full
of coffees and a big white bag dangling from one hand.

“Thank you, I didn’t realize the
gate was sticking. Guess I’ll have Sadie send someone out here to fix
. . .” The voice trailed off at the very moment Nathan’s brain quit
working.

In front of him was a goddess
with fiery red hair and the largest gray eyes he had ever seen.
She was simply
stunning, and Nathan was at a loss of words.

She stared at him briefly before
blinking and looking down to reposition her items carefully.

“Thanks again,” she said. “You
must be Kyle’s friend?”

“That’s me, I’m Nathan Wolfe.
It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Nathan stated confidently. “And you must be
Jess?” Nathan wanted her to say no. If she were Sadie’s friend then he wouldn’t
be able to do the naughty things he was thinking while looking at her shiny
pink, pouty lips.

“Yes, Jess Dempsey.”

Damn!

“Here let me take that.” Nathan
said as he held his hand out for the coffees, watching Jess blush. She handed
over the coffees and placed her hand in his other extended hand and shook it.
He immediately felt a tingling sensation run up his arm.

He gestured for her to lead the
way to Sadie’s apartment. As she stepped ahead of him, he had the chance to
admire the view. She wore a pale-pink top, the same color as her lips, under a
gray jacket that stopped at her waist giving him a perfect view of her body.

Jess briefly looked behind her,
and Nathan was glad he wasn’t staring at her ass.

The black leather knee-high boots
she wore with dark-blue pants accentuated her lean legs, and they looked to be
painted on they were so formfitting. The sight sent Nathan’s blood rushing
south of the border.

“I smell coffee!” Sadie announced
as she greeted Jess at the door and grabbed one of the coffees from the tray
that Nathan was still holding.

After a round of hugs, Jess
mentioned the gate was sticking. Sadie managed to nod as she guzzled her
coffee. “Okay, I’ll call someone to check it out. Sorry I can’t stay, guys, but
I’ve got an appointment in an hour, so let me show Nathan around the apartment,
and we’ll catch up later, okay?”

“Thanks for the room!” Sadie
added.

Jess waved her hand as if it was
nothing. Nathan nodded at Kyle as they headed back toward the door.

Jess led Nathan back across the
courtyard to the spare unit and dug in her huge purse for a set of keys. After
unlocking the door, Nathan followed her in to inspect his new weekend
accommodations.

“Even though the building is old,
everything works and housekeeping comes once a week so you have fresh linens.
All you’ll need is to buy some food if you decide to eat here. Just please toss
anything out that might spoil when you leave.” Jess gestured around with her
delicate hands.

He followed her into the kitchen
where she laid her purse on the counter. It was a nice place. All the furniture
was fairly new and in great shape. The kitchen had been remodeled and had new
appliances.

As Jess was explaining how
everything worked, Nathan couldn’t take his eyes off of her shiny lips.
He wondered if the
gloss was flavored. Jess kept running her fingers through the tendrils of hair
below her messy bun and playing with the zipper on her jacket. Was she always
nervous like this, or was it because of him? God he wanted to kiss her.

_____

Jess was so flustered she didn’t
know what to do, so she kept talking. The hottest man she’d ever seen was
staring at her lips like he wanted to eat her up. She wasn’t totally against
the thought at the moment.
He stood at least a foot taller than her even in her high-heeled
boots and had the typical laid-back-surfer look. Sun bleached hair and golden
tanned skin, which made his sky blue eyes jump out. His chiseled cheekbones and
a strong square jaw made him look like a movie star. But what made her weak at
the knees were his full sensual lips.
The very same lips he kept licking while gazing at her.

She finally quit talking because
she was pretty sure she had no idea what she was saying and casually leaned
back against the counter, placing her hands on the edge behind her for support.

“I think that’s it. Do you need
anything else?”

“Yes, this . . .” he
said as he cradled the sides of her face and placed his luscious lips on hers.

He was gentle, barely touching
before he moved closer and increased the pressure. One of his hands moved to
her back and pulled her into his body as he deepened the kiss. Nathan’s tongue
coerced her lips until she relented and let him in with a sigh. He let out a
faint moan once their tongues started a sensual dance, and she lifted her arms
to wrap around his neck.

Just as she pressed herself
against him fully and felt how aroused he was, he pulled away from the kiss.
Disappointment and embarrassment washed over Jess.

“I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have
done that,” Nathan said as he let out a breath and shook his head, backing away,
covering his mouth.

“It’s all right. I could’ve
stopped you.” Jess stated, turning away from him to hide the heat in her face.
To top it off, she’d known him a whole five minutes before sticking her tongue
down his throat and rubbing against him like a cat in heat. Maybe it was time
to pull out her trusted battery-operated boyfriend, BOB, instead of assaulting
strange men.

“I’ve got to run, but here’s my
card in case you need anything.” Jess left her card on the counter, grabbed her
bag, and walked out the door without glancing back.

She’d been planning to say
goodbye to Sadie, but she had a pretty good idea what her friend was doing so
she headed to her car instead. Once outside the complex, Jess took a deep
cleansing breath. Gawd that man was hot, and his kiss was even hotter. Though
he said he regretted it, she didn’t, and would be thinking about it later when
BOB was hard at work.

_____

Nathan stood in the bathroom
toweling off after his shower. He should’ve been tired, instead he felt
invigorated. He had stayed up all night finishing his project a week ahead of
schedule. While admittedly it was extremely difficult to concentrate on work
after the scorching kiss he briefly shared with Jess, he also felt inspired.

Maybe it was the northern
California air, or the little quaint courtyard he had become fond of that had
ignited the fire in him. It was only after he was done with his work that
Nathan allowed his thoughts to turn back to the minx who’d caused him to take
matters into his own hands while in the shower.

A knock on the door startled
Nathan from his thoughts.

Wearing only the towel, he yanked
the door open and found Kyle standing there with a very large cup of coffee.

“Damn, I would kiss you, but I
know where that mouth has been,” Nathan gushed as he greedily grabbed the
coffee.

“Hey, how did you know it wasn’t
my coffee?”

“Because I can smell the
hazelnut, and I know you hate it.” He let out an appreciative sigh after taking
a healthy drink.

“Jesus, maybe I should’ve brought
an IV for you. You look tired,” Kyle said as he followed Nathan into the living
room.

“If that were a feasible thing,
I’d be all over it. I stayed up finishing my latest project. I like this place,
and it translated into me being inspired. Who am I to fight it?” Nathan shrugged.
Kyle agreed, dropping into a chair while Nathan sprawled on the couch.

“Yeah, I like it here a lot too.
Which is why I came up here this weekend, well, other than the obvious reason
of course. Did you know Jess owns this whole building?” Kyle asked, causing
Nathan to sputter in his coffee.

“No shit?” The little fiery pixie
owned the damn building? Whoa.

“Yeah, I know. I guess the story
goes, her grandma left it to her in her will. It’d been owned by her great
grandfather at one point, and he gave it to his daughter as a wedding gift.”
Kyle explained. “By the way, your junk is about to fall out of your towel.”

Nathan shrugged indifferently.
“Wow, that’s a pretty awesome gift. Explains why she was concerned about
someone fixing the gate. I thought she owned this unit, not the whole damn
building.” Nathan was a little shocked. If she’d inherited a whole building
then what the hell kind of money did her family have?

 
Nathan finished his coffee and, deciding
he’d tortured Kyle enough and it was a good time to put on clothes, headed to
the bedroom.

“Sadie being the onsite manager
was part of her rental agreement when she moved it. It helped both girls out in
the end; Sadie had discounted rent, and Jess has someone here for emergencies.
Actually, I recently spoke with her about buying the building,” Kyle called
out. “For Sadie, of course.”

Nathan almost fell over in shock
as he pulled up his pants.

“Are you serious? You want to buy
your girlfriend of a couple of months a building? An apartment complex to be
exact?” he said incredulously as he pulled a shirt on and came to sit back down
next to Kyle.

“Well, she’s a lot more than my
girlfriend, or I hope she will be. I plan to ask her to marry me after I buy
the building,” Kyle said, fidgeting with his phone.

Nathan was a little blown away by
the whole idea and at the fact that Kyle was nervous about it. The man with
whom he’d been best friends since freshman year of college was never nervous
about anything. Wait . . .

“If you are going to buy her a
building, does that mean you’re going to be staying here? You’re going to leave
Los Angeles?”
And I’ll be left alone.

“I would be. I can get a job at
any number of the firms here. She’s already well known in the art community.
She has regular showings here, and I don’t want her to have to start over again
in Los Angeles. My ultimate hope is you’d come to stay here too. I thought that
if I bought this building, you could live here, and we’d use the other unit for
my dad and Kat when they come to visit, or Olivia.”