Free Front Page Affair by Mira Lyn Kelly

overwhelm.”
    Payton struggled up beside him. “No.” Not to be outdone, she feigned a weary sigh. “I drift off when I’m bored.” Thenfighting a gloating snicker, she added, “Can’t say for sure—I barely remember.”
    She’d take that point.
    Yes, sir.
    With a swish of her hips and spring in her step, she pushed up the sandy incline, oblivious to Nate’s narrowing eyes or the calculating set to his jaw. In a motion too fast to defend against, he reached for her, one powerful arm pulling her into his chest while the other caught her knee to his hip.
    Her breath was gone, her mouth agape. All misconceptions about scoring points swept away by the feral gleam in the blue eyes above her.
    Straining for air, she gasped, “What are you doing?”
    â€œReminding you.” The gruff threat was her only warning before his lips descended in a brutal crush. The hand at her back snaked up to wind in the mass of her hair and pull her head back, opening her to the thrust of his tongue. Once. Twice. And her body was alive, pulsing with the need for more—
    Except it was over and firm hands were setting her a step away.
    A single brow rose in question, the seductive threat radiating off him in waves. “Now what were you saying about last night?”
    Too stunned to even contemplate a quick-witted barb or smart-mouthed response, she gave him what he demanded. The truth. “It was incredible, and I’ll never forget it.”
    â€œGood.” He winked, sweeping up the discarded blanket with one hand as he started up again. “No more reminders necessary.”
    Payton stared in shocked disbelief at Nate’s retreating form, her indignation on the rise. “I thought we said one night!”
    â€œWe did,” he called back, barely bothering to turn his headto respond. “But if one night’s all I get, then, babe, you better believe I’m going to make sure you remember it.”
    Â 
    By the time they’d skidded down the beach side of the dune, Payton had her outrage, heart-rate and unwilling smile under control. The kiss had completely blindsided her, serving as an effective warning about going for the last word with a man whose drive to win apparently knew no limits of decency. But it also relieved her anxiety about Nate’s ability to handle the lovers-to-friends transition.
    That was the kiss of a man unconcerned about his ability to turn it on or off. Which suited Payton fine. After so many years of watching every word, she didn’t want to censor herself now.
    As they hit the damp packed sand, Nate offered a spot beneath his arm. She stepped into the warmth of his hold and they walked in companionable silence.
    Gulls soared overhead, and children sprinted through the sand in the distance.
    Nate pulled off his glasses and, tucking them into the V of his sweater, turned to her. The normal vibrancy of his eyes had gone brittle beneath the strain of his burden. She knew what was coming. An explanation for this cloak and dagger game with the press, the pretend affair that all too briefly turned real. He didn’t want to talk about it, but he would.
    â€œOne of the women I dated last year came to me pregnant.”
    Her heart stalled in her chest as she imagined a child, a golden-haired, blue-eyed bit of Nate, new to the world. And a woman she couldn’t even fathom? “My God, Nate…”
    What could she say? Congratulations? It hardly seemed as though joyous celebration were the theme of his disclosure considering the lengths to which he was going to shake the press off the scent of his secret. And yet, offering hersympathy seemed equally inappropriate. Questions rose fast and urgent within her, each more desperate to claw free than the one before, but she willed herself silent, waiting for him to go on.
    â€œI was fairly sure she’d been with someone else after we’d ended things, but the timing she