A/N: Hey guys. So I decided to go ahead and continue. I thank all of you who read the first chapter, and I especially thank those of you who left a comment, even the negative ones. I remind you this is a fictional story, and in no way means I support adultery. On the flip side, we're imperfect humans and often times fall short of the people we should be and make bad decisions.

Nathan and Peyton have always been my favorite characters on the show, and one reason for this is because of their tendencies to royally mess up. Also, to me, Nathan was on the verge of cheating several times throughout the series, but never followed through (in my opinion due to the writers' fear of losing the Naley fanbase) so I firmly believe this is a more realistic scenario for a guy who is always so prone to temptation and making wrong choices. I apologize if this offends anyone. I do respect your opinions. For those of you who wish to keep reading, I thank you and hope you enjoy this chapter.

...

"No! Nathan, stop it!" Peyton laughed hysterically as Nathan's fingers dug into her ribs, tickling her mercilessly.

"You gonna give me one?" he asked, momentarily pausing his hands just above her as he awaited her reply.

"No," she said, stretching her arm out as far away from him as she could get it.

"Ok, you asked for it then," he said, getting back to the tickling frenzy he'd been imposing on her for the past five minutes since he'd pulled her atop him for refusing him a cookie from the bag she'd brought over.

It was a full week since his visit to Tree Hill, five days for Peyton, and they'd gotten back to the routine they'd had before they'd gone, with some minor changes. In the day they both worked at their individual careers, but the nights Peyton stayed at his apartment suite, provided for him from the NBA. He never stayed at her hotel anymore, or even went to it, for that matter. It wasn't nearly as luxurious as his place since she wasn't lucky enough to have her employer set her up in it. Besides that, Nathan's place was better protected against the string of reporters that always seemed to pop out of nowhere. It was much safer there.

She continued to scream and squirm, begging for mercy, but he showed her none.

"Ok, you're enjoying this way too much," she said between gasps of breaths, knowing full well he could easily just take the bag from her hand if he really wanted to.

He smiled slyly, blue eyes sparkling devilishly. His hot blonde lover thrashing around on his lap-hell yeah he enjoyed that. "Give me one," he repeated for probably the dozenth time.

"No," she said just as many times.

The sweet torture continued. Until his cell phone went off in his pocket. Haley's ringtone.

As though Haley could miraculously see them through the phone, Nathan's hands instantly dropped from Peyton's waist, and Peyton nearly leapt off his lap.

"Hey, Hales," he said after pulling his phone out and answering the call. "What's up?"

Peyton went and leaned against the counter, listening with dismay to Nathan's part of the conversation.

"Oh, ok," he said, glancing at Peyton. "Yeah, Jamie'll like that. We can just Skype tomorrow," he added.

Peyton couldn't help notice the disappointment in his tone, even though he tried to hide it. She knew he looked forward to skyping with Jamie, but apparently that wasn't happening tonight. She silently wondered why.

"No, no Haley, it's fine. Go have fun. You deserve a night out," Nathan continued. "Me?" Peyton heard. "Nothing. Just watching TV." He listened a moment. "No plans, no. Probably just finish this movie and go to bed early. What? Oh, uh, I don't know. I was flicking through channels and it looked interesting. Not sure what it's called."

Peyton rolled her eyes. No, he didn't sound suspicious at all. Then again, maybe she was just being paranoid.

"I know," he continued speaking. "I miss you too."

Deep sigh from the blonde listening. But clearly Haley had said it first. What choice did he have?

"I wish I could," he said. And then, "Hey, I love you."

From him first, that one.

That's when Peyton stood up fully and went into the bedroom, away from the present, agonizing one-sided conversation she was hearing. Forgetting they were both married with families was so much easier when it was just the two of them, but reality always had a way of putting its hand in there.

Nathan watched her walk away, wishing she'd look at him so he could at least mouth her an apology. But she didn't look at him, and Haley was still talking to him. "Sorry, what was that?" he asked of whatever she'd said last. "Oh, yeah, ok. Can I maybe just talk to Jamie for a bit first? Thanks." There was a pause as he waited for Haley to transfer the phone to Jamie. "Hey buddy!" he exclaimed when his son took over. "Laser tag, huh? Sounds like fun. ..."

...

Phone call over, Nathan tossed his cell on the coffee table, grabbed his half drank beer bottle, and went to the bedroom where Peyton waited.

"Hey," he said, knowing instantly she was no longer in a playful mood. Knowing it even more when she voluntarily handed him the cookie bag she'd so teasingly resisted giving him before Haley's call. He didn't actually want a cookie though. He'd just been goofing around. "Yeah, she was just calling to say Jamie's staying with a friend tonight because they're going to play laser tag, and since he'll be gone, Brooke's dragging Haley to some play or something."

Peyton nodded silently.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"About what?"

"She doesn't usually call at this time. I wasn't expecting it."

She shrugged her shoulders. "You're her husband," she said dully. "She's well in her rights to call you anytime she feels like it."

Just as she said those words, her own cell phone went off. Lucas.

"Speaking of," Nathan muttered. It was funny how both knew each other's spouses' ringtones. "Tell him you're busy," he added.

"Hey, baby," she said into the receiver, watching Nathan's reaction, satisfied when he pulled a face. "No, I was just working on a sketch, but I could definitely use a break."

Nathan rolled his eyes and stood listening to her conversation.

That is, until Luke apparently asked what she was wearing, and she started telling him about the sexy negligee she had on - which she actually didn't have on. He left then. He didn't want to hear that.

...

He was well past his first six-pack when Peyton came in the kitchen a while later.

"You're gonna be hung-over for the game tomorrow," she said lightly, noticing how quickly he was guzzling them back.

He shrugged his broad shoulders. "Wouldn't be the first time."

She took the beer from his hand and took a swig before handing it back.

"There's more in the fridge if you want one."

Of course there was. He always had beer in the fridge. She shook her head. "Just needed to wet my throat."

"Yeah, good phone sex always makes me thirsty too," he muttered irritably.

"Thirsty, huh?" she challenged. "Well then, you guys are doing it all wrong."

"Lucas do it right?" he blatantly asked.

"Nathan..."

"D'you fuck him when you went to Tree Hill last week?"

Taken aback, her eyes widened in disbelief. "Did you fuck Haley?" she countered, matching his icy tone.

"All night," he answered blithely.

Her face fell at his words, and she crossed her arms over her chest angrily. "I so did not need to hear that."

"You want me to lie instead?" he asked, polishing off his beer and going to the fridge for another. "Because right now," he continued, "you're the only person I can be completely honest with."

She took in his words and nodded in understanding. Ever since their affair started a few months ago, or rather because of it, he'd become that person for her too. "I know what you mean."

"You didn't answer my question," he pressed.

"Do you really want me to?" she asked him.

He stared at her expectantly so apparently he did.

"Fine," she conceded with exasperation. "He's my husband and we hadn't seen each other in two weeks."

"So, that's a yes then?"

"Ok, Nathan, I think you need to lay off the beer. It's making you crazy."

"It's not the beer."

"Then what is it, Nate? Why are you acting like a jealous boyfriend, all of a sudden?"

"Oh, I don't know," he spat. "Maybe because you were just having phone sex with your husband, aka my brother in my bedroom."

"Because you told your wife, aka my good friend how much you love and miss her right in front of me!"

"What was I supposed to say, Peyton? Ditto? She would have known something was off."

"Except that you said the 'I love you' first," she countered.

"Force of habit," he excused. "I've been saying it to her for almost ten years."

"Ten years," she repeated softly, not much caring for the reminder of what exactly she was tramping on. She sighed, trying to calm herself before speaking again. "Listen, Nate, we're gonna have to figure out what we're doing here because we can't keep going like this. Sooner or later, people are going to find out."

He'd rather later. But he didn't say so. "I know," he said instead. "We'll figure it out."

She smiled now, happy he acknowledged they had something to figure out. "Now would be a good time for one of those fantasy stories," she suggested. "Make us both feel better."

He smiled back and nodded agreeably before pulling her over to the couch. "Alright," he began as his arm went around her and she leaned into him. "It's about two years from now and we're all going to Mexico for vacation..."

"Who's all?"

"All of us. The whole gang."

"Ok. Why Mexico?"

"I don't know. Just go with it."

"Ok."

"It's a couples' vacation..."

"Oh. Well then, wouldn't somewhere like Paris or Jamaica make more sense?"

"The place doesn't matter."

"But it's more romantic."

"Fine. Jamaica then."

"No! A boat cruise!" she exclaimed.

"This my story or yours?"

"We could sneak off the boat at night and go skinny dipping."

"Boat cruise it is."

"No wait. It's the middle of the ocean. There'll be sharks."

"Nah, sharks don't exist in this story."

"Nice."

"So, anyway," Nathan continued. "We're there on this cruise. You and me are openly together."

Peyton smiled.

"Lucas is with Brooke..."

"Why Brooke?"

"Because she still has a thing for him since high school and wouldn't sleep with his brother."

"Wow, you really just said that," Peyton deadpanned.

"Sorry. I could put Lucas with Rachel instead."

"No, Brooke it is."

"Tim and Bevin are still together, Mouth and Millie, Chase is with, I don't know, Mia or Alex, whichever one you like better..."

"Definitely Mia," Peyton returned.

"Whatever," Nathan agreed, not really having a preference. "And Haley's with..."

"Chris Keller?"

"Hell no," he replied with a frown. "Haley turned to women after the loss of me so she's with Alex...or maybe Rachel," he added with a boyish grin.

"What's with guys' obsession with two women?"

"It's hot," he said matter-of-factly. "Now quit interrupting or you'll miss the best part."

"I'm listening."

"We went on this group boat cruise because we're all still friends. Nobody was mad when they found out about us, they were all just happy for us, even Haley and Lucas. No, especially Haley and Lucas."

"That would be nice."

"Yeah. See, the trip was actually their idea so they could throw us an engagement party."

"Oh, we're engaged too?" she asked, loving how he just threw that in there.

"Well yeah, hence the engagement party."

"I see. Go on."

"We all have a great time, we go back to Tree Hill and get married. Lucas is my best man, Brooke's your maid of honor, of course, and Haley, well she's just in the church pews because even though she's happy for us, she can't be a part of the wedding party because it's too hard for her, me marrying someone else..."

Peyton chuckled. "Oh, is it? It's such a breeze for Lucas then, huh?"

"Well, he has Brooke to comfort him."

"And Haley has Rachel."

"But Brooke and Lucas are a real possibility. Haley hates Rachel."

"And then there's Alex," she reminded him.

"Fine, Haley's with Alex and she's a bridesmaid. Jamie's the ring boy and Sawyer's the little flower girl."

"That would be so adorable. What kind of flowers is she holding?"

His brows lifted at her question. "Regular ones."

"That narrows it down. Are they roses or carnations or..."

"It doesn't matter about the flowers. At the reception, Lucas makes this grand speech about how great we are together and how he always knew, since high school, that when you dumped me for him, it wasn't the end of us."

"I didn't dump you for Lucas. I dumped you because you were a jackass."

"Oh, whatever. You dumped me and then immediately tried to hook up with him."

"Kinda like how you moved on straight to Haley like, a minute after we broke up?"

"It was more than a minute."

"Not much."

"Ok, well, you want to hear the end of this story or not?"

"Yeah."

"Some time during the reception, Brooke catches your garter thing, and then you and me leave early and go do what we've always done best."

"Fight?"

"No, the other thing," he said. "The end."

"Not bad, Scott," she told him. "Kinda perfect, actually."

"Thanks. I thought you'd like that one."

"Too bad it wouldn't work out that way in real life," she said with a wistful sigh.

"Yeah," he agreed. "But hey, that's what fantasy's for, right?"

"Yep."

"And I'd say it's your turn now, but since you took over half my story, you don't get a turn."

"Well, maybe I had my reasons," she teased him. "Ever think of that?"

"What reasons?"

"Maybe I wanted to combine both stories in one so we could hurry up and get to the thing we do best," she said, smiling coyly.

He smirked sexily. "You could have told me that at the beginning of the story," he replied, laying her back and getting on top of her, his lips on hers mere seconds later. "Wait," he said pulling back to look at her. "This isn't because of the phone sex with Lucas, right?"

She shook her head. "No, it's because I can't stand all this clothes hiding that magnificent body a second longer."

"Well, in that case," he said, pulling his t-shirt off and throwing it on the floor. "Better?"

Much better, she thought. "It's a start," she said.

...

It was a few days later, on a Saturday morning, when Brooke plopped herself down across Haley at Karen's Cafe.

"Hey, girlie," Haley greeted.

"Hi," Brooke returned. "Where's Jamie?"

"Believe it or not, at the news station with Mouth."

"Really?"

"Yeah, he wanted to go and Mouth told him he could so, why not?"

"That's nice of Mouth."

"Yeah. So anyway, how was your date last night?"

"Ugh," Brooke grunted as though Haley had just reminded her of it. "Remind me to never let Millie set me up again."

"That bad?"

"We went to a movie, and the guy paid with change at the snack counter," Brooke huffed.

Haley laughed at her friend. "Is that all?" she asked.

"Is that all?" Brooke gasped in horror. "Maybe you didn't hear me. He paid with change."

"I heard you, Brooke. It just doesn't seem like such a horrible thing to me."

"And did I mention he only bought one drink for us to share?"

"Well so? Nathan and I do that all the time."

"That's different, Tutor Mom. You and Nathan have been together since the dinosaur age."

"Ha, funny. Still not seeing the difference."

"The difference, oh-so-clueless-married-lady, is it was our first date. On the first date you aim to impress. If he was some broke high school kid, it might have worked, but a highly paid executive? Umm, no. You don't go cheap on the first date when you can afford not to be."

"If he was some broke high school kid, I guess that would make you a cougar," Haley jested, laughing at her own wittiness.

"Haha, you know what I mean."

"Ok, maybe he wasn't being cheap, Brooke," Haley returned reasonably. "The drinks at the theatre are super-sized, they're gigantic. No one can ever finish one on their own."

"And that's why you get two smalls instead," Brooke pointed out stubbornly.

"Well, that's not very practical," Haley came back with. "You get so much more with a large than two smalls for cheaper."

"Practical does not exist on a first date," Brooke argued. "It's all about first impressions."

"And you're going to be single forever if you keep looking for flaws in every guy you go on a date with."

"I don't look for them," Brooke defended. "They're just there. You wouldn't get it because you found the perfect guy right away."

"Not right away," Haley denied. "He needed a few...adjustments."

"True, but you had him trained in no time."

"Trained? What is he, a dog?"

"He used to be. Now he's the best guy I know."

Haley's face took on a dreamy expression. "I did get pretty lucky, didn't I?"

"You know it, Tutor Mom," Brooke replied. "I swear you got the last good one on this entire planet."

"Oh, that's not true. There are plenty of good guys left out there."

"Yeah, yeah, and I just have to kiss a bunch of frogs before I get my prince, right?"

"Something like that. But seriously, Brooke, the right guy for you is out there. I know it."

"Yeah? Mind pointing me in his general direction?"

"Wish I could," Haley told her sweetly. "Unfortunately, you never know until the time comes. He could be thousands of miles away right now, or he could be right under your nose and you don't even know it."

"Hey, you two," they suddenly heard as a body joined them at their table. "Hales. Cheery."

"Hey, Luke," Haley greeted.

"Broody," Brooke said.

...

"It's a wrap," the guy shooting the commercial said.

"Finally," Nathan muttered under his breath, walking off the set toward Clay.

"Not bad," his agent remarked with humour. "It only took you a dozen or so takes to get it right this time."

"Yeah, real funny," Nathan mumbled. "How many more of these stupid commercials do I have to do? I feel like an idiot," he complained, slipping his shirt back on.

"But you look like a movie star," Clay pointed out. "Trust me, the ladies are going wild."

"Married, remember?" Nathan said, shooting his friend a glare and showing him his wedding ring as though Clay really had forgotten.

"Ah yes, the lovely Mrs. Scott," Clay replied. "Now, you know I could never forget her. But Nate, just because you're unavailable that's no reason not to keep the other ladies drooling and boost your career at the same time."

"Whatever," Nathan mumbled in return. He just wanted to play basketball, not make silly body spray commercials. "I gotta go. I'm meeting Peyton for lunch."

"Uh, about that," Clay began. "As you know, there's been a lot of negative press about you two lately. You sure you should be spending so much time with her?"

"It's lunch, Clay."

"Even so, maybe you should cool it with her for a while."

"Yeah, I'm not gonna do that," Nathan returned belligerently. "I'm the only one she knows here."

"Hey, I'm not trying to bust your balls here, but you know how the paparazzi get. As your agent, I couldn't care less. The more exposure the better. But as your friend...Nate, just think about how all this press is going to affect your family. Remember last year with Renee? It nearly destroyed your marriage."

"Apples and oranges, Clay."

"Is it?"

Nathan's eyes narrowed. "You accusing me of something?"

"No, I'm not. I'm just saying how it might look to your wife..."

"Well, don't worry about it, ok?" Nathan said haughtily. "Thanks for your concern and all, but everything's under control. Haley knows me and Peyton are friends. My marriage is fine."

"Ok, sorry I said anything."

"As for the press," Nathan continued as though Clay hadn't spoken, "it's your job, as my agent, to make sure they don't get out of hand. And you haven't done a real great job with that so far."

Clay's jaw dropped and he was about to ask Nathan how he expected him to do his job if he wasn't going to follow his advice at all, but Nathan was out the door before the question could be asked.

Clay shook his head. Nathan was his best friend, but he wasn't always easy to manage. He supposed no athlete ever was, though he certainly could be wrong about that. He shrugged off his irritation as he'd learned to do since becoming Nathan's agent. This wasn't their first disagreement nor, he felt sure, would it be their last.

...

It was late morning the following Sunday, and Nathan and Peyton lay on his king size bed, stripped of all clothing after round two of an extremely pleasurable morning.

"You're right," Peyton nearly purred. "We always were good at this."

"And we've only gotten better," Nathan agreed.

Peyton seconded that and they lie there quietly for several minutes, catching their breath. "So, I've been thinking a lot lately," she said after a while.

"Uh oh," he said, earning him an elbow to the gut. "Ok, sorry. What were you thinking about?"

"Us."

"What about us?"

She sat up and climbed atop him, straddling him.

He ran his hands up her bare legs and a cheeky grin appeared on his face. "More?" he teased. "You might wanna give me a few minutes. I know I'm good but I'm not super-human."

She slapped his hands away with a chuckle. "I'm being serious."

"Ok, I'm all ears," he said, resting his hands at his sides but his smile still firmly in place.

"Nate, I love... being with you," she said seriously.

"I love being with you too."

She nodded before proceeding. "But we both know what we're doing here is so wrong on every level."

"It doesn't feel wrong when we're together," he argued lightly.

"I know. For me either. But it is."

"What are you saying, Peyton?"

She took a deep, shaky breath. "I want us to come clean."

"Come clean," he repeated, no trace of humor left on his face.

"Yeah," she confirmed. "So we can be openly together, not just in our fairy-tale life but for real," she revealed. "I want to tell Lucas and Haley about us," she added firmly, watching his expression closely for some kind of sign that he wanted the same thing.

But what she saw didn't look too promising.