Billionaires Dollar Series

But I’m a woman on a mission, and correcting my uncle will have to wait. I look from him to Nick beyond. He’s outside, in the dark and cold, choosing it over the warmth and commotion inside.

He always chooses to stand apart.

“Excuse me,” I tell my uncle, and step out to join Nick in the cold autumn air.

“Here you are,” I say, wrapping my arms around myself.

Nick doesn’t look down at me. He keeps staring out into the distance, and even in the dim light, I can tell his jaw is clenched. “Found me,” he says.

I swallow. “Why have you been avoiding my calls all week?”

“Why do you think?” He takes a sip out of a glass I hadn’t seen him holding.

I glance back to the crowded room inside. We can’t do this here-not with people watching. “Come on,” I tell him. “Let’s go inside.”NôvelDrama.Org © 2024.

And to my surprise… he follows without protest. I lead him around the back porch to the kitchen entrance. It’s open, thank God, and none of the waiters raise an eyebrow as we walk through the butler’s pantry to the back staircase. Nor do we run into my mother, and for that alone, I need to write a thank-you note to fate.

“Far away from prying eyes,” Nick comments, but his voice isn’t amused so much as it’s dry. It’s the Nick from months ago-the Nick who couldn’t look at me with anything but disdain or indifference.

I thought we had banished that Nick forever.

“In here,” I tell him, pulling him into my brother’s study. It’s the one room I can always count on being deserted.

Nick glances around. “This room. Again.”

The room where we’d kissed. Yes, I remember, but I won’t be sidetracked. Not even by the way his suit-worn disdainfully, as always-looks like it’s cut specifically for him. The five-o’-clock shadow on his face is more pronounced, like he hasn’t shaved in days, bringing out the heat in his eyes.

“So you finally have me here,” he says. “Let’s hear what you’ve wanted to tell me all week.”

The faint hope I’d harbored falls with his words. Hope that there had been some form of misunderstanding, that he’d changed his mind, that the argument we’d had was truly no more than a bump in the road.

“That’s your attitude?” My voice comes out more pained than I want it to. I brace my hands behind me against the desk.

“My attitude?” He raises an eyebrow. “You were the one who quit your job immediately after our argument, and without a word of explanation. Actually, let me go first, to spare you the trouble. You’re right. This isn’t a good idea.”

My chest feels like it’s caving in. “Working together?”

“Working together, getting to know one another, sleeping together.” The seething force of his reply catches me off guard.

“That’s what you want, then? For us to stop… what we’ve been doing.”

His eyes are black and dazzling with unrestrained fury. Why is he so angry? I don’t understand it. “Yes. That’s for the best, isn’t it? What you want and what I want isn’t compatible.”

“Right,” I agree faintly.

“And now we don’t have to talk to Cole about it.” He rolls his neck, like it’s stiff, glancing away from me. “Problem solved.”

My words aren’t considered. They aren’t measured, tactical, precise. They flow out of me faster than I can dam them. “You’re afraid again. You’re afraid this might become something real, for once, so you’re retreating.”

“I’m the one retreating? You’re the one who quit the job without a word. Whatever. I’m done with this. Go back to hating me, Blair. It was better that way.”

And then he does the unthinkable.

He turns away, like we’re done with this conversation, like this is all we needed to say. My hands tremble with anger as I cross the room to him.

“I quit the job for you, you idiot,” I say. I grip the lapels of his jacket and pull myself up on my tiptoes. There’s a glimpse of his face, set in angry lines, before I close my eyes and press my lips to his.

So we’re not good with words.

But I’d like to see him lie with his lips.

His mouth is furious under mine, echoing the same anger in my own. His hands grip my hips and I’m pulled roughly against the full length of his body.

Yes, I think. You don’t want to go back to being nothing at all. I know you don’t. Stop being afraid.

Nick’s hand rises up to bury itself in my hair and then he’s fighting me for control of the kiss, his lips opening mine, his tongue sweeping in.

I surrender to his lead and slide my hands inside his suit jacket, along the hard planes of his chest, warm to the touch even through his shirt.

The sound of the door opening breaks us apart.

And standing there, shock on his face, is Cole, and behind him, a very curious Ethan.

To his credit, my brother doesn’t scream or yell. He doesn’t flip out. He goes very white instead.

“What,” he says softly, “the hell is going on here?”

Nick steps away from me. A glance at his face tells me he’ll be absolutely no help here. If Cole is shocked, Nick looks struck. The blacks of his eyes are flat.

“Cole,” I ask, “please. Please, just give us a moment…”

He tears his gaze away from his best friend to me. And whatever he sees in my eyes is enough, apparently, because he reaches out and shuts the door to his study. The door slams behind him.

The room is drenched in silence.

Nick bends over Cole’s desk, his hands braced along the edge. He looks frozen in place-a marble statue of misery. Atlas punished, I think. Prometheus bound.

The tension is clear in every line of his body.

“He’ll understand,” I say. “He will. There’s nothing to-”

“He won’t. Please, Blair. Tell him whatever you like, but just… leave me alone.”

I don’t understand his emotions. There’s no clear path for me to approach them, no way forward, no obvious entry point. I take a careful step closer.

“Why do you do that? Why do you push everyone away?” I ask. And then stronger, when there’s no answer. “It’s easier to be an asshole than to have someone know you and walk away, right? Better to never give them a reason to get close in the first place.”

His shoulders heave with one strong breath. “Go back to your friends, Blair,” he says quietly. “We’re done here.”