Her gaze lifted reluctantly to his. Nate always seemed so much taller when they were standing up. "Okay. I'll pay your fucking price. How much do you want?"
"Don't be ridiculous," Nate chastised. "I don't want your money. I want some damn relief."
Sheena made a face and felt like screaming. "From what? If you're suffering, it's from your stupidity for keeping too many blasted secrets. All you have to do is tell me the truth and you'd feel a hell of a lot better."
That was the final insult Nate could handle in his tormented condition. His mouth was on Sheena's before he could talk himself out of kissing her when he was so upset. Sheena's protest was silenced by his tongue doing to her mouth what another part of him wanted badly to do to another part of her. They both moaned as he pressed against her, his hands molding her body to his. He wanted to keep kissing her more than he wanted his next breath.
Pulling Sheena to her toes, Nate surprised them both with an aggressiveness he'd probably never shown her before today. After a hundred years of not touching the woman, he was a much more desperate man, especially now that he knew Sheena was a one of a kind bliss.
He would have liked nothing better than to tell her that some things had changed for him in the last century. For one, his ability to weaken Sheena's legs had evidently more than quadrupled. When she fell against him in surrender, Nate felt a sense of accomplishment nothing else in the last hundred years had given him. Her breath was choppy and erratic when he finally let her up for air.
He groaned at Sheena's vulnerability and put his forehead against hers. "I'm truly sorry I can't tell you everything. I'm also sorry I didn't take you up on your offer this morning."
"Don't flatter yourself. I thought you were some random stranger I'd taken to bed," Sheena said weakly.
Annoyed, Nate pinched her ass hard. He smiled when Sheena yelped and bumped roughly against him. "You want me, and I want you. Maybe that attraction is nothing we can rationally act on, but don't lie about it and make me question my sanity. If I hadn't pushed you away this morning, you'd have mounted and rode me until we both got it out of our system. And it would have been great, Sheena. Just like it always was between us."
"That's not true. It was not always great." Sheena pushed her hands against his chest. When had Nate gotten so muscular? She pushed harder. He still wasn't letting her go. "This morning would have been nothing more than a drunken mistake and you know it."
Grateful now that Angus had recently irritated him enough to get back on his weights, Nate snorted as he glared at Sheena for denying her feelings. He wanted to shake her and barely restrained himself. "You always told me you didn't make mistakes, Dr. McNamara."
Sheena huffed in response and put some real energy into her efforts to get away. "I don't normally, but this morning would have been one. Turn me loose."
"No," Nate said. "I did that once and it didn't work out well for me."
Irritated by the shock lighting Sheena's face, Nate let his mouth descend to hers once more, this time with a savage hunger that quickly had them both moaning again. Sheena's hands went from pushing him away to fisting the front of his shirt to hold him in place.
He wanted to feel victorious. Instead, all he felt was mean and horny. He'd forgotten how hormonally driven she made him. Knowing this madness was not helping either of them, Nate reluctantly dragged his mouth from hers. He squeezed her tight, surprised at his unwillingness to let her completely go.
"Care to discuss the results of this kissing experiment, Doctor? Or would you prefer to see a report on that too?"
Sheena put her forehead against Nate's collarbone and moved it from side to side. "I think I hate you right now," she told him.
"Good. At least that's something real," Nate whispered, bending to drag his lips from the corner of her mouth up the side of her cheek.
He kissed her temple when she lifted her face, pulling Sheena tight against his hips trying to stop the ache he had for her. Finally, he had no choice but to let her go completely. It was either that or drag her to the metal floor of his cramped airship office.
He stepped away and went behind his desk, hoping the action would keep him from chasing after her. "Go away before I do something insanely stupid that only one of us will regret," he ground out through clenched teeth.
Instead of leaving, Sheena turned to face him. "How can you expect me to respond favorably to your manhandling?" She refused to call it lovemaking. She refused to think of Nate that way anymore. "They're exact replicas of my parents-my parents, Nate. You could tell me the truth about Angus and Erin if you wanted, but you won't. Why? Because you're still putting your bloody work first. Just admit it, Nate. You're never going to do anything else."