I'm Not Your Husband!

Thanks for the feedback. This chapter is short because it really doesn't fit with the one in the works.

I know NH have been kissing a lot in this fiction. Maybe it's time to tone it down.

Chapter Six

Nathan had never been more aware of a woman, her soft curves, satin skin and soft billowy mane. His own body reacted in a turbulent variety of scrambled sensations. Above all, it was amazing holding her in his arms. He wasn't sure when and dared not examine the feelings.

Slowly, leisurely, she lowered her head again. She made a soft wavering sound as her mouth touched his.

Nate let out a breath of ecstasy, lost in the moment he had meant to free himself before her kiss deepened or things went further.

Haley must have sensed his apprehension because her tiny hands slid down his neck in a delicate caress, drawing him even closer. Her mouth began a sensuous journey along his jaw and over his chin.

"Haley!" He moaned her name, uncertain of what he had to tell her.

"Hmmmm?"

"Are you hungry again?" He wondered desperately if the mixture of food smells coming from the barbecue meant they were done, beside maybe she would stop and they could end this make out session. He had lost his resolve a long time ago.

"Very hungry." She purred. "I've never been hungrier."

"But you had lunch and then a couple of bunches of grapes in the canoe."

She tediously raised her head."Nathan, are we talking about the same thing here? Oh hell, what does it matter? This is what matters." She covered his parted lips with hers.

Nathan felt his limbs go weak and slumped against her, his fingers tangled in her unruly curls and gripping the back of her head as though he expected to collapse at any moment, which was becoming a distinctive possibility as he kissed her.

"Haley, c'mon, I can't take much more of this." She he was the one clinging to her tiny frame. He had to do something and fast, before his ability to reason was lost entirely.

She drew an unsteady breath and muttered something he couldn't comprehend as her lips rubbed the fragile lobe of her ear.

"We ... Need to talk." He announced, keeping his eyes closed tightly. If he didn't look at the beautiful woman across from him, he could concentrate on what he had to do.

"Okay." She agreed. "You get us a glass of wine and meet me at the picnic table by the grill. I'll set everything up for dinner."

With a weighted sigh, Haley abruptly released him. The hammock swayed and Nathan nearly tumbled out of his resting spot, but Haley held it steady and let him escape to stand before her. He unconsciously bent down and swept her mouth, as if he wasn't entirely positive even now that she'd wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back.

She hadn't been playing this time or taunting him. The kisses they shared were intense. The type a woman gives a man she's very sexually attracted to, a man she is interested in having a relationship with. Nathan found himself shaking and unable to move.

"Would you like for me to get the wine?" She suggested.

He nodded and scurried to the wooden table about 100 feet away. The young man barely made it there on wobbly legs, there's no way he could have made his way over to the bar and carried two glasses of wine back.

Haley came back a few minutes later with two chilled goblets of Chardonnay and carefully handed him one, then sat across from him on a bench.

"You wanted to talk?"

Nathan's tilted his head up and down. "Yes." His throat felt thick, clogged with confused emotions and forming coherent words suddenly seemed impossible. He tried gesturing with his free hand, but that only serve to irate Haley.

"Nathan." She asked. "What's wrong?"

"Jennifer." The name came out in a gruff groan.

"What about her?"

"She called me."

"You already told me that."

"Don't you get it?" He cried, the breaks in his voice were now clearing. "Jennifer is finally showing some interest in me and now you're kissing me and telling everyone we're married among other crazy things." She paused to draw a heavy sigh. "I know I kissed you and I shouldn't have. Haley, please, you cannot fall for me?"

"Fall in love with you?" She echoed incredulously. "Nathan, you can't be serious. It won't happen, no way and no how!"

"Not a chance, huh?" Nathan remarked, slightly insulted and convinced she had misunderstood him.

Her taste was still on his lips as he licked them as couple of times as if that would correct his hearing. Either Haley was underestimating his intellect, or she was more of a wench than he had realized.

"There's nothing to worry about." She sipped her wine, serving him a burger and coleslaw, her gazing steady and emotionless. "I'm not falling in love with you."

"Oh, so you make a habit out of kissing unsuspecting men?"

"It isn't a habit, more like a luxury per say." She answered pensively. "It's one of my many hobbies."

"You certainly seem to be making a habit out of it with me."

His rage was growing and he was at odds to understand why he found her blasé' attitude so offensive. She was telling him exactly what he wanted to hear. But he hadn't expected his ego to take such a knock out in the process. The fact that she wasn't the least bit interested in falling in love with him should have appeased him. It didn't.

It was as if their short make out sessions were little more than refreshing break for her, something to past the time and keep her from growing bored with his company.

"This may come as a shocker, Nathan Scott." Haley continued gingerly. "A woman doesn't have to be in love with a man to kiss him."

"I know that!" Nathan barked, fighting to hold back his anger, which was threatening to explode at any moment. "But do you have to be so ... so cold about it? If I wasn't involved with Jennifer, I might have taken you seriously."

"Last time I checked, you weren't involved with Jennifer." She returned with slight sarcasm.

She propped her legs up on the bench, bending them slightly as she took a bit of potato salad, looking very relaxed.

"I wouldn't be hanging out with you and kissing you if you were seeing someone. I wouldn't do that to you or to her. I'm not that kind of woman, Nathan. The way I see it, your involvement is all one sided, on your part. Am I wrong?"

"No." He reluctantly admitted. iIt's just like a woman to bring up semantics during an argument. Arrrggh/i

"So," She leaned back, crossing her legs in an innocent but sexy pose. "Do you enjoy my kisses? I take it they have improved since we were fourteen."

"Please tell me you don't want me to rate you?" He sputtered, choking on his drink.

"Obviously, I'm better than when we were kids, otherwise you wouldn't be so flustered. " She took a bit her pineapple chicken, smiling pleasantly all the while.

"Believe me, I'm not flustered."

She arched a brow. "Oh really."

"I'm sure you expect me to be your lap dog, overcome by your ...your feminine wilds. Well, If that's what you're waiting for it's going to be a hell of a long wait!"

She grinned devilishly, as if she were picturing him on all four panting in front of her and enjoying the sight.

"I think the problem here is you're the one falling in love with me and just don't know it."

"Falling in love with you and don't know it." He repeated with a loud doubtful snort. "You're Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. There's no chance of that."

"Why not? Plenty of men tell me how desirable I am every day. I'm a hot chick." She quoted sharply. "Plus, I possess a certain charisma. I'm perky and accommodating …."

"Did your dad tell you that?" He made it sound like the wackiest thing he'd heard in years.

"I hate for you to join us in reality, but I do have admirers."

Why this news should add fuel to the fire of his temper was beyond Nathan, but he was so livid with her he could barely sit still.

"That's undeniable, but if I fall in love with a woman, you can believe it won't be just because she's a quote, unquote "hot chick"." He leered sardonically. "Look at Jennifer; she's my type of woman. Yes, she's gorgeous, but what is inside counts more than outward appearances."

"Then why are you so worried about falling in love with me?"

"I'm not worried! It's the other way around. The only reason I mentioned anything is because I thought you were beginning to take our times together too seriously. I was trying to be sensitive."

"I already explained that wasn't a problem."

"So I heard." Nathan sat his glass aside. Haley was upsetting him so much; his hand was shaking hard enough to spill it.

"Well," Haley murmured, peering at him. "You never answered my question."

"Which one?" He vexed irritably.

"About how I rate as a kisser."

"You weren't serious!"

"On the contrary." She set down her fork and climbed to the left and into his lap. Caught off guard, Nathan froze, too astonished to struggle.

"Let's do a retake." She whispered in a seductive tone.

"Ah …" A scary excitement took hold of Nathan. His mind commanded him to push this woman away, but some emotion, far more powerful than common sense, cautiousness, pressed the opposite.

Before he could protest, Haley bent toward him and pinned her mouth to his. He'd hold himself stiff and unresponsive, that's what he would do, teach her a lesson she deserved. How dare she imply she was some …. Some bewitching siren all men adored. But the second her lips met his, Nathan trembled with a mixture of surprise and deep-seated pleasure.

Everything in him wanted to cry out at the unfairness of it all. It shouldn't be this good with Hales. They were friends, nothing more. This was the kind of response he expected when Jennifer kissed him, if she ever did.

He planned to pull away but instead, Nathan moaned softly. It felt so incredibly wonderful, so right. At the moment, all his worries were gone except for the likelihood his heart would burst from beating so hard or she would notice the tent he was pitching in his briefs.

Suddenly, Haley broke the contact.

Nathan's instinctive disappointment was even more prevelant than her unexpected actions and sent his eyes flying open. His own vivid blue ones met brown ones, which seemed caramel.

"So how do I rate?" She faltered weakly as though she was having trouble speaking.

"Good." A one-word reply was all he could manage, although he was furious with her for asking.

"Just good?"

He nodded frantically.

"I thought we were better than that."

"We."

"Naturally, I'm only as good as my partner."

"The-then how do you rate me?" He had to ask.

Like a fool she handed him the gun and he'd shot himself in the foot. Haley was sure to take this opportunity to belittle him, stomp all over his ego, and turn this whole fiasco into a joke. He couldn't handle that right now. He dropped his dark head, waiting for her to break him.

"Much improved."

He knitted his eyebrows in surprise. He had no idea how to reply.

They were both silent.

Then Haley said quietly, "You know, Nate. We're both getting a lot better at this, much, much better." She pushed her forehead to his. "If we're not careful, you jut might fall in love with me after all."

So I didn't cut down on the kisses. Sorry:lol:

Pamela