Three Wishes

Chapter Six Nate and Lily

Years later, it was the month of May and Nate was twenty-eight, Lily was twenty-two...

“We’re late,” Victor grumbled.

“I know,” Nate replied nonchalantly, lifting his chin in an arrogant gesture to the driver of the Rolls who was watching them walk down the crowded, tourist-clogged pavement outside Harrods.

“Your mother is going to skin us alive.”

Nate wanted to laugh at this ridiculous comment but he didn’t because Nate McAllister rarely laughed.

Laura Roberts didn’t have a violent bone in her body. She did have a fierce temper but Nate had only seen it twice in the sixteen years he knew her. And both times, the minute it blew, she was spent. Both times, it lasted less than ten minutes. She was the kindest, gentlest, most even-tempered creature he’d ever been honoured to know. That didn’t mean, however, that she didn’t have a steely determination when she wanted one of her children to do something they didn’t want to do, she just rarely got her way.

“She’ll get over it once she sees your anniversary present,” Nate noted just for something to say. He knew Victor was worried about the present. If there was nothing to like about the man who had become his father, and Nate thought that there was although many people disagreed, one had to admire him for his devotion to his wife.

Though an anniversary present for Laura was a challenge.

What did you give a woman who had everything, wanted for nothing and would have lived in a hovel happily if she simply had her husband with her?

“You’d make her night if you asked Georgia to marry you this evening,” Victor remarked.

He walked beside Victor to the waiting Rolls as Bennett, Victor’s chauffer pulled open the door to allow them entry. Nate had better things to do than be on this errand with Victor, many better, more pressing even urgent things to do.

But Victor had asked and no matter what Victor asked, Nate gave. That was the deal in Nate’s mind though not Victor’s). Nate owed Victor his life.

People were staring at the two men who obviously, by the look of their tailored suits, stylish silk ties, expensive shoes and gleaming watches, not to mention the chauffer-driven Rolls Royce, actually shopped at Harrods rather than visited as a tourist attraction.

Then again people often stared at Nate and most of these people were women.

He was uncommonly, one could even say impossibly, handsome. Very tall, lean, narrow-hipped, broad-shouldered with a wealth of thick, black hair that had just the barest blue sheen to make it interesting. He had strong features, a firm jaw, powerful cheekbones and a sensual lower lip. He also had glittering, dark eyes that although he didn’t know it (and wouldn’t have cared if he did), were the avid topic of many women he knew. Fights even broke out, were his eyes so grey they were nearly black or were they so blue they were nearly black? After much discussion, no answer was deemed acceptable so the battle raged on.

Nate’s sensual lips thinned at Victor’s words. He knew Laura wanted him to marry and settle down, give her grandchildren. But he was also relatively certain she didn’t want him to do it with Georgia.

“I’m not asking Georgia to marry me,” Nate stated firmly.

“Why not?” Victor asked and then went on. “She’s a damned fine woman.”

She was not a damned fine woman. She was a she-cat. She was nearly as bad as Danielle, if that could be credited. He’d caught Georgia snapping her birth control pills into the toilet, so he’d meticulously worn condoms. Then he’d caught her putting holes in the condoms, so he’d stopped having sex with her altogether and began the weary process of scraping her off.

He should never have dipped his foot in the family pool. Georgia was Laura and Victor’s best friends’ daughter. Nate even liked Georgia’s parents, had known them for years.

They all had high hopes but Georgia was history.

She’d worked hard at gaining Nate’s attention, she was leggy, slender with beautiful auburn hair and she’d always been somewhat amusing in a dry, catty way.

Therefore, Nate had rewarded her for her dogged pursuit of him. And she had rewarded him for rewarding her. As good as it was with her, and it was good, it wasn’t going to last a lifetime.

Nate knew that innately. She had too much venom in her and she let it show too often. Nate had no patience for venomous women, especially those who grew up having everything, wanting for nothing and having no reason to be the slightest bit harsh considering the privileged life they’d led.

Nate didn’t know what he wanted but whatever it was, it certainly was not Georgia.

He was saved from answering Victor when he spied a youth wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt, the hood worn up even though it was a warm day. The boy was slouching down the pavement, head bowed, hands in the front pocket of the sweatshirt, his head swinging this way and that, looking for his mark.

Nate’s guard, already on alert, always on alert, went into overdrive.

Nate’s eyes narrowed as he watched the youth and Victor started to get into the Rolls. Then, as expected, the boy darted at his target and Nate heard a woman’s outraged cry.

“Hey!” she yelled.

He watched the boy snatch the woman’s purse, his body tensing for action.

And then his eyes moved to the woman and, uncharacteristically, he froze.

“Hey! He stole my purse! Stop him, he stole my purse!” she shouted.

Nate vaguely registered she was an American tourist. Nate also absently noticed that no one moved to assist.

In that brief moment in time, Nate was too busy drinking in the vision that was her, he himself didn’t move a muscle.

She was tall, incredibly tall.

And curvy, delectably curvy.

She had the most unusual coloured hair. Hair that he knew from vast experience living in a house with Laura and Danielle for years came through a supremely talented and expensive stylist’s hands.

She had an exquisite face, flawless skin and a bearing that was extraordinary. She had been given a wide berth around her even on the crowded pavement. Not because she was screaming her head off but instead because she was majestic, radiant, elegant…

Untouchable.

In a stupor from simply looking at her, the boy with her purse charged right by Nate.

Not in a stupor, she realised no one was going to help her, gave up screaming and charged right after the boy.

At the noise, Victor turned away from the car and Nate shifted to watch in astonishment as she deftly and agilely dodged the crowd, her long legs a match for the short boy. Then Nate watched in stunned surprise as she jumped onto the thief’s back with a graceful leap.

Everyone stared in shock but no one lifted a finger except a few started to snap photographs.

“Give me back my purse, you thug!” she shouted, wrapping her long legs around her prey, one arm around his neck while she slapped him around the head with the other hand.

The thief staggered back then he staggered with intent and slammed her against the side of the building. Her head snapped back and cracked against the stone so loudly Nate could hear it from where he stood twenty paces away.

At the sound Nate jerked out of his stupor and forged forward.

“Nathaniel…” Victor called but Nate ignored him.

Regardless of the blow, she wasn’t done fighting and had not eased her grip.

“Give it ba –” she started to scream but didn’t finish.

The boy doubled in half and flipped her over. She lost her hold and went flying over his head, landing on her back on the pavement with a sickening thud.

The boy didn’t take a single step though he started to do so. With one leg lifted to make good his escape, Nate grasped his sweatshirt in a clenched fist and pulled him back. With a violent jerk Nate yanked him off his feet and around towards the side of the building and let him go, brutally slamming him against the stone wall beside a huge display window.

Swiftly Nate’s hand settled on the thief’s throat, squeezing savagely and lifting until the boy was on his toes.

“Drop the bag,” he ordered in a voice cold as ice with an edge akin to that of a razor.

The thief immediately dropped the bag.

“I… I’ll call the police.” Her low, rich American voice, a voice that had a strange twang to it, stuttered from beside him as she cautiously leaned forward to grab her bag. Nate noted she wasn’t moving cautiously because of fear but because she was hurt.

Nate turned to watch her, her head was bent as she searched through her bag and then she pulled out a mobile and lifted her eyes to him.

The moment they hit his, Nate froze again.

Her eyes were simply indescribable. A pale blue that was bottomless, inescapable, the irises rimmed by a smoky midnight that was so alluring, he thought for a moment he’d leaned toward her, he was so drawn to her eyes.

They widened upon looking at him almost as if she recognised him.

A gasping noise came from the thug.

Nate didn’t move. He stared in frozen fascination as she stole closer.

Without taking her unbelievable eyes from his, her hand settled gently on the forearm that was holding the thief against the wall. When it did fire shot up his arm from where she touched him.

“You’re choking him,” she whispered.

His hold loosened and her hand dropped. With effort he tore his eyes from hers and dropped his hand only to grasp a handful of the thug’s sweatshirt at his throat, jerk him forward a few inches and slam him viciously back against the wall.

The boy grunted in pain.

“Hurts, doesn’t it?” Nate snarled and fury unlike anything he’d known ripped through him as he looked at the boy.

“Bennett has called the police. Bloody hell, girl. Are you all right?” Victor was at their sides, had his hand on the girl’s shoulder and was bent into her, peering at her to ascertain the answer to his question.

“I think so. Just had the breath knocked out of me, that’s all,” she answered.

“What were you thinking, leaping on him like that? You could’ve been hurt,” Victor admonished because she was not all right, she was holding her body like it was made of crystal. She was not as deft and loose-limbed as she had been while flying toward her assailant.

Victor slid his arm around her waist in an effort of support because of the way she held her body.

“He took my purse,” she answered Victor’s question.

“It was still bloody dangerous,” Victor carried on with his gentle remonstration.

“I like that purse,” she returned with a slight teasing lilt to her tone and a quirky, shaky smile.

Witnessing that quirky smile Nate found he was having trouble breathing.

Victor’s head came up at her smile and then snapped to look at Nate. Or more to the point, he took one look at the way Nate was looking at the girl. Then Victor looked at her. Then back at Nate.

Then he made a quick decision.

“Nathaniel, wait for the police. I’m taking her home to Laura and calling our physician.”

“No, please, I’m fine. I’ll stay to talk to the police,” she resisted.

“Nathaniel will bring them to the house. You can talk to them at home. Come with me.” Victor was using his no-nonsense, no-argument voice, a voice that sent shivers up grown men’s spines.

She completely ignored it. “Really, no. I should stay.”

“Go with him,” Nate’s voice rumbled this command and her head jerked round to look at him. She regarded him for a moment and he wondered what she’d do.

It took a moment but she nodded.

Nate watched over his shoulder as Victor put her in the Rolls and it swept cleanly away.

Not long after, the police arrived.

Lily carefully unfolded herself out of the decadent bathtub, snatched a velvety-plush, peach-coloured towel from the heated rail and wrapped it around her sore body.

Laura had forced her into a hot, scented bath even though Lily resisted because she wanted to be available for the police when they arrived.

The physician who was at the doorstep of the house within moments of their own arrival, as Victor phoned from the car and told him to “get his ass to the house” had told her to take some ibuprofen, a long, hot bath and told Laura and Victor to keep an eye on her for a couple of days. Lily had no broken bones, no cracked skull, she was fine but just in case she was not the physician said she should be looked after.

So, after a brief but earnest talk Lily had seen them have in the hallway, Laura, with Victor’s adamant concurrence, insisted she stay the night with them rather than taking the train back to Clevedon. Then they insisted she take a bath.

Without the strength to resist them, or, indeed, the ability, they were very insistent, very nice but not the kind of people who took no for an answer, there she was in their Georgian mansion, in their opulent bathroom which was off an equally sumptuous guest bedroom decorated in what she had counted were at least seven different but coordinating shades of pale peach.

And she’d finally met the man Fazire had sent to her.

Lily was certain of it – as certain as she was that she was Lily Sarah Jacobs, daughter of Rebecca and Will Jacobs and a Hoosier born and bred. And there was no denying any of that.

When she’d lifted her gaze to look into the eyes of her tall defender she’d nearly fainted. Swooned. Fallen to the ground in an unconscious heap.

If he hadn’t been imminently facing a life sentence for strangling a man to death regardless if he was a nasty purse snatcher, she would have done it.

And now…

Now…

Now what?

She didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t exactly throw herself at him. Tell him she’d wished for him to come to her through her own personal genie that just happened to live at home with her parents in a small town in Indiana. She couldn’t seduce him because, since she was a virgin, she wouldn’t even know how. In fact he probably, considering how handsome he was (impossibly handsome), didn’t know she existed as a female with all the right parts in all the right places and with all the yearning she felt for him even though she only knew his name.

Nathaniel.

That was a very, very good name.

“Lily, my dear, the police are here.” Sweet, kindly, Laura was in the other room.

Lily had taken to Laura immediately. The older woman was petite and slightly but pleasantly rounded with middle-age. She had a soft dark-brown bob that framed her face, elegant hands with perfect fingernails (Lily thought they looked like pianists hands, they were so lovely) and warm, brown eyes.

“I’ll be right out,” Lily called.

She quickly towelled off, wrapped the towel around her body and rummaged through her saved purse for a hair band. She pulled her hair into a ponytail at the back of her head and went into the bedroom where she saw Laura standing at the bed which now had a half a dozen shiny boxes resting on it.

Lily stopped and stared.

Laura explained, “I called a few shops. Since you’re staying, you need a few things, of course. I hope you don’t mind but I checked the labels on your clothes and found your size.”

How long was I in the bath? Lily thought incredulously as she stared at the boxes.

“I can’t,” Lily resisted.

“You can, you will, you must,” Laura returned in a mother’s voice that would not be denied. Lily had heard that voice before; her own mother used it on her often. Laura lifted the lid off a box and pulled out a silvery blue silk robe with long flowing sleeves like a Japanese kimono and ordered, “Put this on.”

Lily let out a soft laugh and then exclaimed, “I can’t face the police in a robe!”

“They only have a few questions. I told them you’re in no state to be given the third degree,” she stated smartly then ripped the lid off another box and pulled out a pair of pristine white satin underwear edged in delicate lace. “If it will make you feel better, wear these… and… this.” She found and shook the matching bra at Lily.

Lily couldn’t help herself, as rude as it was, and she knew it was rude, she continued to stare.

Two hours ago she’d been walking down a London street intent on doing a bit of window shopping as her meagre finances didn’t allow much more. She had several days off from work at Maxine’s store and didn’t fancy working on her house, scraping, painting, priming or hauling herself under a sink with a plumber’s manual to try to fix a pipe. She’d come to London for a little day break, to go to a few museums which were free admission and to do some shopping.

Now she’d entered Fantasy Land.

“Laura you… honestly, really, I just can’t.”

Laura moved toward her, pressed her palm against Lily’s face like Lily’s Mom did sometimes in her tender moments (of which there were many), and looked into Lily’s eyes.

“Don’t keep them waiting, my dear. The sooner you get this over with the sooner we can all enjoy our evening.”

On that she exited the room and Lily, because of the motherly touch that Laura had given her (such a familiar touch), swiftly donned the undies, the robe and just stopped herself from running to the bathroom to grab another bath sheet and wrap that around her as well.

She gingerly walked out of the room. The bath had helped as had the pills but she most definitely felt like she’d been flipped over someone’s shoulder onto a concrete sidewalk.

Lily didn’t know what she was thinking; charging after a purse snatcher except it was an expensive designer purse that she could never have afforded under normal circumstances. She’d found it while trolling through a vintage clothing store and she’d bought it for a song. She’d never be able to replace it.

Regardless of that, her actions were reckless. She could have been hurt or harmed in some other way if he’d had a knife or another weapon.

Her parents, if they ever heard of this, would kill her. Fazire would start floating and look down his genie nose and wag his genie finger at her. She could never tell them.

Carefully, holding onto the banister, she descended the stairs. She kept her body even stiffer than it felt so as not to jar any of the aches and pains that threatened. Her head was throbbing where it had hit the wall, not the pounding pain of one of her intermittent migraines but not pleasurable either.

She was concentrating on her feet hitting each of the dove grey carpet-runnered stairs. She was also assessing her pedicure, mentally telling herself that, even in England, as it was May, it was time to move away from the deep wine colour of winter and find something else like a pearly pink. Her foot hit the parquet floor of the entryway and it was then she became aware that she wasn’t alone.

Her head snapped up and there he was.

Nathaniel.

He was watching her as any romance-novel hero would watch the heroine. With one shoulder leaned against the wall and his arms crossed on his chest.

And he was utterly beautiful in a raw, powerful, immensely masculine way.

They didn’t, however, stare at each other with blissful, love-induced wonder or at least he didn’t stare at her that way. She, unfortunately, was more than likely staring at him that way to her horror. He was watching her with narrowed scrutinising eyes. Eyes that didn’t miss a thing.

Not… one… thing.

“How are you feeling?” he asked, his voice deep and strong and sending tingles across her skin.

“Fine,” she lied and tried for a jaunty smile.

His face darkened. Obviously the jaunty smile didn’t work.

“Liar,” he said softly, dangerously, and he looked like he wanted to commit a violent act. Something like what he did to the thug, ferociously slamming him against the building like the thief had slammed her, exacting her retribution for her. The very thought of that memory chased a thrill up her spine.

“I will be fine…” she hesitated, doing a mental assessment of her aching body, “eventually.”

He watched her for a moment, his eyes sweeping the length of her, that awful look on his face. She blushed at his gaze and found she was frightened of him just a little bit. He looked sophisticated and urbane on the outside, wearing that suit so casually as if he was in jeans and a t-shirt. Somewhere, though, somewhere very close to the surface, he was anything but sophisticated and urbane.

He broke into her thoughts. “The police are in the drawing room.”

Lily was relatively certain she’d never been in a drawing room before or not one in a house where people actually lived. She didn’t know people who had drawing rooms. He pulled away from the wall and she found her body stiffening in weird preparation for something as he came toward her but he just walked by her.

With no choice, she followed.

He entered a room and she came in after him. In the room were Laura, Victor and two police officers.

“Here she is,” Laura announced, smiling at Lily encouragingly.

The room was lovely, decorated in soft pale greens accented with white cornices and stately yet comfy-looking furniture. Nathaniel moved to stand behind and beside a high backed chair. He glanced at Lily and then down at the chair and she understood somehow that he wanted her… no, was telling her to sit in the chair.

She did what she was mutely told.

The interview, as Laura promised, took less than ten minutes. They asked questions, they took notes and Laura and Victor watched her with kind, parental eyes. Not as if she’d met them hours before but as if she had been under their guardianship and devoted care since birth.

However this was not why the interview was so short.

Although she did not see him, she knew that Nathaniel stood behind her the entire time. And she knew this because she felt him there. He did not move a muscle or make a noise until the police seemed to be checking facts and asking the same questions over again.

Then in a tone that even General Patton would have calmly and unresistingly obeyed, he said, “You have enough.”

They didn’t argue or even demur, immediately one of them said, “Right, Mr. McAllister.”

They nodded at Nathaniel and Lily found she now had his last name, a name of which she approved. McAllister.

“Mr. and Mrs. Roberts.” The police nodded at Laura and Victor.

The realisation dawned that Nathaniel and the Roberts did not share the same surname and Lily wondered at Nathaniel’s relationship with Laura and Victor because he obviously wasn’t blood as she thought. He didn’t look like either Laura or Victor but Lily thought for certain the relationship was deep enough for blood ties.

Maybe he was a favoured nephew.

“We’re off,” the policeman finished.

They did not give Lily a card, ask her to call them if she remembered anything else, they just left.

Before anyone could say anything, a boyishly good-looking, not-as-tall-as-Nathaniel but still tall, brown-haired man walked in.

“What’s this? First the anniversary celebration is off, now the police are at the house. What? Has Nate’s chequered past finally caught up with us?”

Then he stopped dead and stared at Lily for some reason in open-mouthed surprise.

She didn’t think much about this new man’s open-mouthed surprise. She instead found herself thinking she did not at all consider it was surprising that Nathaniel had a chequered past.

“My God,” the man breathed bringing Lily’s thoughts back into the room.

“This,” Victor stated as introduction to Lily, “is my son, Jeffrey.”

Jeffrey came forward, extending his hand and told her. “Everyone but Mum and Dad call me Jeff.”

She lifted her hand to shake his but he turned it, bent at the waist and brought it to his mouth, brushing his lips against her knuckles. Then his eyes came to hers.

“And who are you?” he asked and she thought his tone was flirtatious although she didn’t have a great deal of experience with flirtatious, or at least for the past four years or so she naively hadn’t noticed it relentlessly coming her way.

“I’m Lily Jacobs,” she answered.

“No, you’re not Lily Jacobs. You are an angel sent from heaven,” he surprised her by saying quietly, definitely flirtatiously, finally dropping her hand after holding it longer than necessary.

As he straightened Lily noticed the entire room changed and seemed even to shift at his words. The air became so thick it could be cut with a knife. Victor tensed and his eyes flew to where Nathaniel was still standing at the back of her chair. Laura slowly stood and her eyes slid to Lily, her hand moving to her throat in a strange gesture of imminent peril. And Lily could actually feel something dangerous emanating from behind her.

Lily bravely ignored whatever was happening and her eyes held Laura’s because they seemed the safest.

“What anniversary celebration?” she asked.

Laura started to answer, “It’s nothing, my dear –”

Jeff was moving to the fireplace and he interrupted his mother, “It’s not nothing. I wouldn’t say your thirtieth wedding anniversary is nothing.” He turned and blithely leaned an elbow on the mantel.

Lily gasped and opened her mouth to speak. She couldn’t believe that they’d cancelled their anniversary for her but Jeff wasn’t finished. His eyes moved to Nathaniel and when they did they were calculating.

“By the way, Nate, Georgia called. She’s pretty pissed off about something. Likely best if you put that damned ring on her finger finally. That’ll bring her to heel.”

Lily closed her mouth with a snap.

He had a girlfriend, a girlfriend that sounded very close to being a fiancée.

Of course.

Of course, of course, of course.

She knew it couldn’t be real. He would never have even looked at her anyway, not plain, small town Indiana girl Lily Jacobs. Even with her wish from Fazire, she’d never get a glorious man like Nathaniel McAllister.

Never.

“I hope you didn’t cancel your anniversary for me,” Lily covered her disappointment with words.

Laura’s eyes, which were not so kind at the moment but looked rather nettled, moved away from her son to Lily and immediately softened again.

“We’ve only postponed it until tomorrow.”

“Oh no! You must carry on,” Lily cried.

“It’s all been sorted, Lily. Not to worry,” Victor barged into the short, now dismissed discussion and then started purposefully toward the door saying, “Jeffrey, I’d like a word with you.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake, what have I done now?” Jeffrey muttered not-so-under his breath and Laura’s eyes turned back to annoyed. “I see, my dear brother, he doesn’t want a word with you,” Jeff said to Nathaniel looking strangely like a bratty little boy.

Nathaniel didn’t utter a word which seemed to anger Jeff more.

But Lily was wondering how Nathaniel was his brother. The brother thing made sense in the way Victor treated Nathaniel and Laura looked at him. But they didn’t share the same last name and they didn’t look a thing alike.

When Nathaniel was obviously not going to be lowered into a useless fight about what appeared to be nothing, Jeff started to slink away but stopped when he reached Lily.

“I don’t know who you are but I hope to see more of you.” He smiled, his boyish good looks and good humour restored and he seemed quite charming again.

She smiled back tentatively but somehow Lily found that he made her uncomfortable. For the first time in Lily’s life she took a near immediate dislike to someone.

After he left the room, Lily turned back to Laura.

“I feel terrible. Your anniversary –” she started.

“Really, Lily, it’s no trouble. I’m actually relieved. We can have a nice quiet night just the two of us. I’d rather that anyway. I’m sure Nathaniel can entertain you while Victor and I go out to a dinner a deux.”

Laura raised hopeful eyes to Nathaniel and even though she didn’t want to Lily turned in her chair to look at him too.

Gone was the suppressed violence in its place was bland unconcern.

“I should see to Georgia.” He’d been leaning his weight on his hand on the back of her chair and with his words, he pushed away.

“I’m sure Georgia would understand. We have a guest in the house,” Laura replied.

Nathaniel approached Laura and Lily watched in fascination as he stopped in front of her and kissed her forehead in a familiar loving way.

“I don’t live here anymore, remember?” His voice was light, even teasing, and Lily felt her insides melt (just a little).

“I suppose Jeffrey will find something for he and Lily to do,” Laura said this like a dare and Lily didn’t know what to make of that.

“I’m sure he will,” Nathaniel muttered, turned his dark eyes, impossibly dark eyes, to Lily and said in his deep voice, “Lily.”

Even as his voice sounding her name stole over her skin like a soft touch, he strode, just like his father, purposefully from the room.

And Lily could swear she heard Laura say the word, “Damn,” under her breath.

Chapter Seven Nate

“I can’t believe I’m doing this.” Georgia’s voice was bitter and angry. “I can’t believe I agreed to attend your parent’s anniversary party with you after you just broke up with me. Tell me again why I’m doing this?”

Nate manoeuvred the Maserati into a parking spot, pulled up the emergency brake and shut down the car. Then he turned to Georgia, resting his forearm on the steering wheel.

“Out of respect for my parents,” he answered what he thought was obviously.

His words were short, his patience was fraying. She’d been carrying on since they left his flat and Nate vowed never again to get entangled with a spoiled-rotten, filthy-rich bitch.

“Well I’ve changed my mind,” she said sharply. “I’m not going to do it.”

He turned from her. “Then I’m sure you’ll find your own way home.”

She gasped in outraged shock as if there weren’t millions of taxis in London that would take her safely home and just like that, Nate was finished with her.

He exited the car and didn’t bother to help her alight as he normally would, a gentlemanly courtesy Laura had taught him years before. Then he walked to his parent’s home. He heard her high heels clicking on the pavement double time to keep up with his long strides. He didn’t knock because he didn’t have to, it was his home even though after all these years he still found that fact difficult to believe, and he strolled into the house.

He heard party sounds immediately, the low murmur of conversation and soft laughter.

Lily, he knew, was there somewhere.

Laura had called Nate to tell him she’d convinced Lily to stay another night and attend the party. His mother explained that Lily had woken stiff and sore and they’d called the physician straight away. Lily, Laura assured him, still had a clean bill of health but needed time to recuperate which Laura, being Laura, was determined to give her. Nate also had the feeling that Laura was instilling a bit of drama into the situation in order to keep Lily there, considering after she told him the story of Lily’s pain and suffering, she announced they were going out shopping.

Nate wondered how Lily and Jeff had spent their evening last night. He very much didn’t like the idea of a “Lily and Jeff” but he felt it was far more appropriate than a “Lily and Nate”.

Nate knew who he was, what he was and where he came from. He had no qualms at taking the cosmopolitan, seen-it-all, done-it-all Georgia to his bed. However the likes of Lily Jacobs, with her sweet low voice, perfect untouchable skin and trusting eyes was not for the likes of Nate.

Nate McAllister didn’t know his father. His mother was a drunk, a drug-addict and, for all intents and purposes, a whore. She’d been murdered by one of her many drug-addled lovers in a grimy dingy flat in a grimy dingy neighbourhood. Nate started stealing before his age hit double digits and his first mode of employment had been working for a gangster who was no longer thus but it didn’t change the fact that Nate had participated in a life of crime before he’d even entered his teens.

Lily Jacobs was too good for him.

Nate knew this straight to his soul.

“Nate!” It was Danielle, his adoptive sister, looking lush in a black dress that, as usual, showed way too much flesh.

She rushed to him and gave him an over-friendly, over-long and not-at-all sisterly hug.

“I hear you played the hero yesterday,” she remarked as leaned away from him, keeping her hands on his shoulders and her eyes, Laura’s eyes but without the warmth, peered closely at him.

He didn’t answer.

“She’s still here, the American,” Danielle informed him and disengaged when he didn’t so much as touch her. “You should see what she’s wearing. She and Mum took off somewhere this afternoon, I think Covent Garden or Notting Hill, who knows? Came back from shopping with loads of bags. It’s embarrassing, Mum shopping in Notting Hill at her age. Oh, hi Georgia.”

Georgia had arrived and stopped beside Nate, her face a mask of anger.

Danielle, ever-assessing, looked closely at Georgia then back at Nate who in turn looked indifferent. Then a sly satisfied smile stole across Danielle’s face making her pretty features a lot less pretty.

“Everything okay?” Danielle asked with feigned concern, knowing the answer. She’d been watching his relationships closely for years, she knew Georgia’s time was at an end.

“Fine,” Georgia answered curtly, knowing for a long time that Danielle considered herself competition for Nate’s affection. “What are you talking about?”

Danielle crossed her arms which forced a goodly amount of cleavage to spill out the top of her strapless dress.

“Well apparently Nate saved some American woman from a purse snatcher. She got tossed around a bit and Mum and Dad are doing the nursemaid thing.”

Then, quickly moving from adversary to ally with Georgia against a new foe as any woman, especially an attractive one and definitely a stunning one, was considered a foe by both Danielle and Georgia, Danielle went on.

“You should hear her talk. Half the time I don’t know what she’s saying, she’s got such a country twang. Says she’s from Indiana.” Danielle said the word “Indiana’ like it tasted foul. “Definitely a hillbilly. Mum thinks she’s adorable. I personally don’t see it.”

Nate found himself annoyed… no, immensely annoyed at Danielle’s words. Lily definitely had an accent that wasn’t stereotypically American Southern but certainly had an endearing, countrified lilt. Nevertheless it was not difficult in the slightest to understand her and she didn’t carry herself in any way, shape or form like a hillbilly. In fact, the very idea was ludicrous.

“I need a drink,” he announced because suddenly he did and badly.

Danielle actually batted her eyelashes at him. “Me too, be a darling and get me one, will you?”

He clenched his jaw at the sight. She was his sister for God’s sake. The concept of anything else was simply vile.

As he’d learned to do from years of practice, he ignored her and entered the drawing room.

And there he saw Lily immediately.

She was standing by the fireplace next to Jeff, looking up at Nate’s brother slightly, with high heels she was nearly his height and smiling vaguely.

Her dress was not at all embarrassing. It was not couture but it was beautiful and fit her like it was made for her. It was apple green silk and had a low, deep V at the front showing just a hint, but not a vagrant display, of cleavage. It had a thin ruffle along the neckline, the ruffle seemingly being the only thing that held the dress to her graceful shoulders. It skimmed her voluptuous body perfectly to fall in a straight line to just above her knees.

She wore not a single piece of jewellery, not even earrings, and she didn’t need to. Her sparkling eyes and shining hair that had been swept up and away from her face and off her neck, were the only accompaniment the dress required. Her feet were encased in high-heeled sandals a deeper green than the dress, the heel spiked with a daring strap around the ankles and two thin crossed straps around her toes. Toes, he noticed with his usual sharp eye for detail, which were no longer painted the deep wine of yesterday but now a pearly, iridescent pink.

She looked, regardless of the friendly smile, like a serene, unobtainable princess.

She also, Nate noted with firm detachment, looked good with Jeff. They made an excellent couple and Jeff quite obviously felt the same.

“Hello, my dearest.” Silently, Laura was at his side, touching his arm and he turned to her to bend low to allow her to give him a kiss on his smoothly-shaven cheek.

He looked at the woman who had become his mother, the only woman who had been a true mother to him and he smiled with genuine pleasure at her company.

“Having a good time?” he enquired.

“I hate this,” Laura announced honestly. She was an excellent hostess, she was very good at socialising but she much preferred to be in the company of her family or small gatherings of close friends than having a huge party. “But, Danielle was intent on making this a big deal so…”

Nate read the rest of her statement. What Danielle wanted both Laura and Victor, and now Jeff, gave to her. It was far easier than the tantrum that would result if they did not. Nate seemed to be the only member of the family who could say no to Danielle.

And he did it often.

“How’s Lily?” Nate found himself asking and at the sweet, knowing smile that twitched on his mother’s lips, he wished he had not. It had become very clear that both his parents had decided to play matchmaker.

“She’s better, I think, though I wouldn’t know. She’s determined to hide any stiffness or soreness. She was more distressed at my distress this morning when I found out she could barely move to get out of bed than at any pain she was feeling. Regardless of it all, she and I have had the best day.” She hesitated then leaned closer, saying in a quiet voice, “Nathaniel, it’s very strange but I feel like I’ve known her an age instead of a day. She’s so open, so sweet. You should hear some of the stories she tells about her family in Indiana. They’re hilarious, she’s hilarious.”

Nate continued to smile into Laura’s dancing eyes then turned back to regard Lily.

He had been to America on business on several occasions though he’d never been to Indiana. He wondered at her family. She was quite clearly from money. That purse she fought so hard to keep cost a small fortune. He knew, he’d paid for one for Laura for Christmas the previous year. Not to mention everything about Lily screamed class and breeding.

“How long is she here?” he asked, not shifting his gaze from Lily.

“I’m trying to get her to stay another day and night just to be certain she’s all right. She’s very intent on going home,” Laura answered.

Nate was surprised at this response.

“Is her holiday finished then?” he queried.

“I’m sorry?” Laura queried in return.

He reluctantly stopped watching Lily who was now talking to both Jeff and Georgia’s father and Georgia’s father seemed equally as smitten with her as everyone else. It wasn’t surprising, she’d said something that made both men throw their heads back and laugh.

Nate turned to Laura. “Her holiday, is she wanting to get back to Indiana?”

Laura looked confused for a moment then shook her head. “No, n. Lily lives here in England. Some seaside town in Somerset. She’s been here for years, came here for university, Oxford, and decided to stay.”

An American at Oxford who decided to stay, Nate thought.

Definitely money.

This knowledge cemented his resolution to steer clear of her. He could win her, of course, but if she ever found out his background she’d turn her cute but cultured nose up at him.

And that he could not abide.

“Jeff seems taken with her,” he noted to Laura, his resolution making his tone sound unconcerned and his mother’s knowing face turned instantly to dismay.

“Yes,” she agreed quietly and Nate could even hear the disappointment in her voice.

“They make a handsome couple,” he remarked absently as he turned away from Lily, pushed her out of his mind and thought instead about a drink, a stiff one. “I hope something comes of it for you especially, if you like her so well,” Nate finished then bent and kissed Laura’s cheek fondly before he departed her now disappointed company to find himself a drink.

For the next two hours as the party became a crush (no one missed a Roberts party, even if it was postponed for a day, Victor was famously free with his bar), Nate didn’t even have to try to avoid Lily. He was often sought out at these events, business acquaintances and women both pressing for his attention.

After he felt he’d done his duty to his parents, he decided to step outside for some peace and quiet and a cigarette. Laura hated his smoking, thus he did not do it in the house and Victor tried to get him to switch to cigars which was what Victor smoked, but also not in the house. But Nate felt it somehow necessary to hold on to his vice, felt it said something about him, about who he was. And at least it was legal.

He made his way to the front door and opened it then froze when he saw Lily sitting on the front step.

He had not seen the back of her dress which was cut in a low ruffle-edged V exposing her spine passed her waist in a way that seemed both vulnerable and seductive. Her hair was pulled back in a messy chignon, haphazardly but stylishly pinned in place at the back of her head and tendrils of red-gold hair fell about her neck, face and delicate jaw.

She twisted around at his arrival and he saw her wince at the movement.

His lips thinned at the sight of her pain and he thought, not for the first time, that he should never have stopped squeezing that thief’s throat.

Her face registered some emotion at seeing him, something he could not read, something that seemed strangely melancholy then he watched as she tried to hide it, not completely successfully, and greeted him with a casual, “Hey.”

“Lily,” he greeted back, vaguely annoyed. He could not return to the house and close the door, it wouldn’t only have been impolite but also shown too clearly he was avoiding her. Therefore he walked out onto the front stoop and shut the door behind him. He stood next to her and leaned his hip against the glossy-black, wrought iron railing. He pulled the pack of cigarettes out of his inside jacket pocket and held them up to her. “Do you mind?”

She’d watched him the whole time, her incredible eyes never leaving him. Then they dropped to the cigarettes and something flashed in them.

“You shouldn’t smoke,” she said in a quiet but disapproving tone.

“You sound like Laura,” he told her.

“If I do then Laura’s right,” she returned, exhibiting a little bit of the spirit he’d been introduced to during her mad dash toward the purse snatcher the day before.

At her words he moved to put the cigarettes back in his pocket but she shook her head and looked away.

“No, no, go ahead. Really, I don’t mind,” she lied.

Even though, or probably because he knew she wouldn’t like it, he lit a cigarette with the gold lighter Victor had given him while she settled back in the position he’d first seen her in, leaning forward and resting her forearms across her knees, her hands grasping the insides of her elbows.

“Where’s Jeff?” Something compelled him to ask even though he couldn’t have cared less and her shoulders moved up in a careful shrug but she didn’t answer.

She continued her avid contemplation of the steps while he quietly smoked and continued his avid contemplation of the flawless skin of her bowed back. He wondered what that skin felt like, tasted like and lastly, he wondered at her strange mood.

“I didn’t thank you,” she said to the steps, interrupting his thoughts.

“Pardon?”

She twisted again, just her head, and lifted her eyes to him.

“For yesterday, for saving my… well, me… from the purse snatcher. I didn’t say thank you.”

He had no response so he didn’t make one.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

He lifted his chin slightly in acknowledgement of her gratitude and fought back his pleasant reaction to her quiet words.

“It was very heroic,” she told him.

“It was hardly heroic,” he replied dismissively.

This put a crack in her contemplative mood and the corners of her lips moved up marginally.

“Considering there were approximately three thousand witnesses and not a single one lifted a finger to help, I’d say it was heroic.”

“I’d say three thousand is a bit of an exaggeration,” he returned, his tone light and faintly teasing. He found he was completely incapable of not responding to her small smile.

His words garnered him a full one at the same time her eyes brightened and he was momentarily transfixed.

“Is it an exaggeration? It felt like three thousand people,” she noted and leaned back, putting her hands behind her on the stoop and casually crossing her legs. The hem of her skirt rode up her knee exposing the barest hint of thigh and Nate felt his body heat at the sight of it. “I felt like a street performer, like you and I should have passed the hat around after we were done. I could swear some of them even took pictures.”

He felt his own lips twitching as her mood melted and she introduced him to her dry humour.

“They did,” he informed her.

She shook her head and laughed softly, a sound he liked so much, it felt almost as if it was a physical touch.

“People,” she muttered, the word was loaded with meaning and Nate found it adorable. She likely had absolutely no idea what people were capable of, what depths they could sink to. And then he found he wished, uncharacteristically rather fervently, that she never discovered that awful fact.

She sighed deeply and moved her head to gaze across the street.

“Even though I don’t know but a few souls in there, I should go back in,” she said.

“Yes,” he agreed.

They definitely should go back in.

One more minute out here alone with her and he was going to forget his firm resolution to steer clear of her. He was going to forget a lot of things. Things he’d not allowed himself to forget for sixteen years.

He flicked his cigarette into the gutter and he noticed her body immediately stilled at this act.

Then she did something extraordinary.

“You just littered!” she accused hotly, jumping gracefully to her feet, glaring at the smouldering cigarette butt like it was about to explode and take out half of the street in a blaze of fiery destruction when it did.

Then her glare turned to him.

He hadn’t a word to say in response. She was, of course, right.

She was also somehow even more imposingly beautiful when she was angry.

“Fazire says you shouldn’t litter. He says humans litter too much.” While talking, she had turned and was stomping down the steps in agitation. Nate watched in stupefied fascination as she marched straight to his cigarette end and leaning down slowly she snatched it out of the gutter and held it between her thumb and forefinger like it was abhorrent, which in her hands, it was. “He says humans should take better care of where they live or we won’t have it very long.” She leaned forward and smashed it out against one of the steps, giving him a tantalising glimpse at more of her cleavage.

“Who’s Fazire?” Nate asked and watched as she straightened and he saw the flush of ire on her pink cheeks and he found his resolution of earlier this evening slipping another hefty notch after the notch it had slipped while seeing her cleavage, the other one that had slipped upon witnessing her smile and the other one that had slipped upon hearing her say “thank you”.

She was looking around for somewhere to deposit the cigarette.

“He’s a family friend. He helped raise me,” she explained distractedly.

“Lily, give it to me,” Nate said softly and her eyes came to him and focussed. He’d stretched out his hand and she walked up the steps, stopped two down from the top where he stood and then she deposited the remains of the cigarette in his palm.

After her rather vain attempt to save the earth by cleaning up his lone cigarette end, she seemed to realise belatedly how bizarre her behaviour and her words were. This realisation caused her to look hilariously mortified.

“I think,” she whispered, putting her eyes on anything but him, “that might have been a little rude.” She said it as if rudeness was the worst of sins.

“No more rude than my thoughtless participation in the destruction of the planet,” he drawled, definitely teasing this time.

Her eyes flew to his and at one look at him her chagrin instantly faded and she laughed, not soft or low, but with great feeling and it was so catching, he found himself grinning at her.

And in that moment, his resolution was completely forgotten.

“Yes, true,” she was no longer laughing but her eyes were still dancing, “you are definitely ruder than me. You should feel ashamed, Nate, very ashamed.”

He asked before he could stop himself, before he could start thinking or remembering all the reasons why he should not, “Are you staying tomorrow?”.

“I’m sorry?” She tilted her head quizzically, her gorgeous eyes still smiling.

“Tomorrow. Are you staying with Laura and Victor another day?”

“I…” she hesitated, watching him, “I don’t think so. I’ve taken too much advantage as it is. Your um… parents are very kind but fish and guests stink after three days.”

“What?” He no longer had to stop himself from thinking because all he could think was that had no idea what she was talking about.

“Something my grandmother used to say, fish and guests stink after three days. Her way of saying not to wear out your welcome when you’re a guest.” She alighted the last two steps, stood in front of him and tilted her head up to look at him. “What I’m saying is that it’s time for me to go home.”

“You’ve only been here two days,” he informed her helpfully, smiling into her upturned face. Something changed in hers as she caught his smile and for some reason this caused another blush to creep into her cheeks.

“The way I figure it is, I didn’t even know Laura and Victor when I arrived so that has to shave off at least a day, maybe two. So I’m passed my expiration date.” She gave him her quirky grin and he had to concentrate all his effort on not snatching her into his arms.

She was close, not unseemly close but close enough so that she filled his vision, so he could feel the warmth from her body, so that he could smell her subtle perfume.

He straightened from his lounge against the banister. This brought them only inches closer but enough so that the once decorous distance was now not.

“Stay another day,” he urged, his voice lower in timbre as well as coaxing.

Her body gave an almost imperceptible jerk and she had to tilt her head back further to look at him.

“Why?” she whispered, her eyes adorably bewildered.

He moved closer and her head tilted back more. This was how she would look before he kissed her, he knew, and the thought shot through him like a bullet.

She seemed frozen, rooted to the spot. He lifted the hand which was not carrying her litter-saving cigarette and captured a tendril of her hair that had escaped at her neck. He twisted it around his finger and felt its softness.

“So I can take you to dinner tomorrow night,” he replied quietly.

It was then Nate realised she wasn’t breathing.

There was something about her that made him understand he was in complete and total control of her. The way she was looking into his eyes, she was lost in him, she was, quite simply, his to do with as he pleased. She communicated this with only a look not uttering a single word.

And this knowledge shook him. That this perfect, pristine, untouchable creature could be lost in Nate McAllister, the boy from the wrong side of town, the son of a whore. He had the unspeakable but heady desire to shout his satisfaction and the equally strong desire to bury himself in her, bury his tongue in her mouth, bury himself deep inside her, claim her, possess her, do something violent and long-lasting that made her truly his.

“What about your fiancée?” she breathed.

“I don’t have a fiancée.”

“Your girlfriend then… what’s her name, Georgia?”

“Georgia and I are no longer together.”

After he spoke, without hesitation she said, “Okay.”

He released her hair, lifted his hand and ran his finger down the soft skin of her hairline, right in front of her ear, down to the spot where her jaw met her neck.

Her lips trembled.

“Okay, what?” he asked softly.

“I’ll stay another night,” she answered, her voice just as soft.

Nate smiled.

Lily sighed.

Chapter Eight Lily

“Nathaniel’s here, Lily.”

Lily jumped. Victor had peeked his brown head around the door of the guest bedroom and after one look at her, he started smiling.

He opened the door fully and straightened in its frame. “You look lovely.”

“I do?” Her voice was uncertain and maybe a little frightened.

“Yes, Lily, you do.”

“I…” She didn’t know what to say, she didn’t consider herself lovely. She’d never been lovely. She had no idea that she was lovely.

In fact, she had no idea why Nate had asked her out in the first place. Temporary insanity, she decided. Or more likely thinking she was suffering from it and feeling sorry for her after she went off half-cocked at his innocent flicking of a cigarette butt. Thousands of people flicked thousands of cigarette butts a day. She acted like he’d just gone on a murder spree. The thought of it made her nearly expire from mortification.

But she was not going to look a gift horse, or in this case Fazire’s magical genie horse in the mouth as the whole reason Nate asked her out had to be Fazire’s magic.

The only thing she could think to say to Victor was, “Thank you.”

Victor inclined his head and she could swear he was laughing at her, not, however, unkindly.

This was the weirdest situation she’d ever been in, in her whole entire life.

Not that she had been in very many weird situations; she’d lived a pretty sheltered life.

That was, of course, if you didn’t count the fact that one of the “adults” participating in her upbringing was a real-life genie which she didn’t count because, as it was all she’d ever known, she found it the most natural thing in the world.

But there she was, staying with people she barely knew although she felt like she’d known them forever. She was taking advantage of their kindness although her mother and especially her father, who thought politeness and good manners were practically more important than oxygen, taught her not to take advantage of anyone. And she was going out on a date with their son although somehow it seemed that she was their daughter and they were unbelievably proud she was going out on a date with the tall, dark, handsome, popular captain of the football team.

Unsure of what to do, Lily just stood there.

She’d never been on a date in her life.

She’d dressed in one of the outfits she’d bought the day before while out shopping with Laura. She couldn’t afford it but she adored it so she charged it as well as everything else she bought yesterday. If her mother knew she was using her credit cards on anything but necessities, Becky would have a brain haemorrhage.

She wore a straight, pencil skirt in the palest pink that was boldly patterned around the hem in vermillion and orange. She topped it with a tight-fitting, pink cotton camisole and a lightweight cotton vermillion cardigan that she left open at the front. Laura had loaned her a pair of her shoes (what Lily didn’t know was that they were Danielle’s and if she had known she wouldn’t have worn them, she’d had the same reaction to Danielle as she’d had to Jeffrey), red, spike-heeled sling backs.

She looked straight from the fifties without the scarf. A Pink Lady with even more attitude.

She felt like an idiot.

She had absolutely no idea she looked stunningly chic.

She picked up the small, sleek, matching red bag Laura had loaned her.

“Is everything all right?” Victor was watching her closely.

“I…” She started again and stopped then she looked at him hopelessly. She didn’t know him as far as she could throw him but somehow she trusted him enough to tell him, “Victor, I don’t know what to do.”

Her voice was so quiet she was surprised he heard her. But he did and he walked into the room.

“What do you mean?” He looked slightly bewildered and his usually very controlled face showed it.

She tucked the bag under her arm and brought her hands up, her fingers fidgeting then she studied her manicure.

“I’ve never been on a date,” she confided to her hands, her voice even softer.

“Bloody hell,” Victor cursed, “you must be joking.”

Her head came up and her hands went out. “Do I look like I’m joking?”

She meant her appearance, what she considered her bizarre Pink Lady outfit, just her. She was, she knew from all the teasing at school, years and years of teasing, no raving beauty and she never would be. She’d lost weight, she wasn’t blind, she could see herself in the mirror and read a clothing label but regardless of that, she’d never gained any confidence.

“How old are you?” Victor’s eyes had narrowed.

“Twenty-two.”

“Bloody hell,” he repeated.

“That isn’t helping,” she tried to joke but she sounded as scared as she was.

“You must have grown up in a convent school, am I right?”

She was surprised at this response but answered honestly, “No, just a small town in Indiana.”

He came forward.

“Same thing,” he said dismissively, his hand went to the small of her back and he guided her resisting body firmly to the door. “You just go downstairs, smile at Nathaniel and after that, I promise, Nathaniel will take care of the rest.”

She relaxed enough to let him guide her down the hall. “Why do you call him Nathaniel when everyone else calls him Nate?”

There had been much talk of Nate. It seemed Nate was a popular topic of conversation with just about everyone. Her first night with Jeffrey who, Lily thought, might not like Nate very much; the next day when she met Danielle who talked about Nate quite a lot and liked him a whole lot more than their brother; at the party last night where everyone mostly wanted to know where Nate was in order to talk to him; and all day that day, a day she spent with Laura and Danielle out to lunch and shopping in stores where she couldn’t even afford to buy a hair clip.

Lily was trying to keep her mind on other things, anything other than her date with the man of her dreams, the man of her most fervent wishes, the man she’d been reading about in her romance novels for years. A man come alive and now, taking her out to dinner.

But try as she might, she couldn’t stop herself from asking about him.

“Nathaniel is the name of a gentleman, a genius, a man of means and power. Nate is just a name. And my Nathaniel is a Nathaniel,” Victor said it with such pride that Lily couldn’t stop herself from turning and smiling at him.

“You know, I think you’re right,” she told him and Victor beamed his approval at her words.

“He prefers Nate, to my and Laura’s everlasting annoyance,” Victor confided in a mock-whisper.

They were walking down the stairs by this time and she tilted her head back and laughed at his comment. And she found at that moment that she very much liked this intense man. He reminded her of her father. And therefore, being Lily Jacobs, she told him so (in a manner).

“You’re a very kind man, Victor, thank you for all the kindness that you’ve shown me.”

He stopped nearly to the bottom of the stairs, abruptly and in deep surprise. He turned to stare at her as if her words were audacious.

“I…” It was his turn to stammer and she found herself uncomfortable with his loss of control. He seemed a man who needed to be in control at all times.

She was however, confused. He had to know he was kind, for goodness sake, it wasn’t as if she told him he was Superman and she thought he could catch bullets with his teeth.

He found his control and she was happy for that as he seemed to need it, seemed to wear it like armour.

Then he remarked, “I must say, Lily, I’m delighted your purse was snatched.”

“What?” she said somewhat loudly on an effervescent giggle.

“If it hadn’t been, we may never have met you,” he explained, taking her hand and patting it in a fatherly gesture that seemed entirely out of character for him.

“What’s going on?” Jeffrey was slouching against the wall of the entry, his arms crossed on his chest, his face registering his unhappiness.

Lily and Victor finished descending the stairs and at the sight of Jeff, Lily felt a twinge of guilt she didn’t quite understand. She also noted that there was a difference to how Jeffrey stood with his shoulder against the wall than how Nate did it. Jeff’s was an insouciant slouch while Nate’s was a predatory lean.

“Lily and I were sharing a private moment,” Victor stated, his voice somehow shut off.

“Lily seems to be amassing a fair few private moments with members of the family in a very short period of time,” Jeff commented.

Something about his words stung and the way he said them made it stunningly clear that was his intention.

Victor’s face turned to stone as he stared at his son.

“Oh Lily, you look lovely!” Laura was coming out of the drawing room no doubt heralded by Lily’s near-shout and thankfully broke the odd tense moment. She was followed by Nate and at the sight of him, Jeff’s residual sting faded away and Lily caught her breath.

It was the first time she’d seen him when he wasn’t wearing a suit, instead he was wearing a pair of faded jeans, a black, v-necked sweater and black boots.

And he looked absolutely beautiful.

“It’s going to be hard for her to get on your bike in that get-up.” Jeff’s voice had gone from glum and contentious to jovial and vaguely snotty.

“Bike?” Lily murmured, confused, her awe at the sight of Nate melting.

“You can take the Jag,” Victor offered.

“You rode here on a bike?” She stared at Nate, the very thought of Nate on a bike was preposterous. Romantic heroes didn’t pedal around on bikes. It was, of course, London where bicycles were likely the best and easiest transport but she just couldn’t credit it and she found it somewhat disappointing even though she knew that was not very nice.

“The car, unfortunately, was scheduled to go in for a service. We’ll take a taxi,” Nate explained.

“Bike?” Lily repeated, still at a loss.

Jeff pushed away from the wall.

“Yeah, his Ducati. Nate likes to go fast, live dangerously, that kind of thing.” This was said in a way that was cutting but it seemed there was jealousy underlying his tone.

“What’s a Ducati?” Lily turned to Victor, still bemused but Laura answered her.

“A motorcycle, my dear, and he shouldn’t ride it. It’s dangerous. I keep telling him he’s going to kill himself, racing around on a motorcycle and in that blasted sports car but does he listen to his mother? No, he most certainly does not.”

Her eyes flew to Nate with delight.

A motorcycle!

Lily completely dismissed the idea of a man like Nate, a man who looked like Nate, a man who acted like Nate, a man who rode a motorcycle (like Nate), listening to his mother ever.

All she could think about was his motorcycle.

Her father had a motorcycle; he used to take her out on it all the time because she’d beg him to do it. She loved it, loved being out in the open air. She loved the speed, the danger (though there was no real danger, Will was always very careful and never took chances, but she could pretend).

Therefore she cried excitedly, “I love motorcycles!”

She had been telling herself all day to be cool, calm and collected. To act the sophisticate, as she was sure Nate was used to, not to let on she was just a small town girl which she was sure would bore Nate to death.

But, a motorcycle!

She had no idea that she looked exactly, enticingly, alluringly as excited as she sounded.

She turned shining eyes to Nate and asked, “Can we take your motorcycle?”

Nate, who she saw, and Jeff, who she did not see, were both staring at her, lost in her look of delight and abandoned desire.

Nate forced himself out of his daze first.

He walked towards her, a grin playing about his sensual lips.

“I’d say your skirt is not conducive to a ride on the bike.”

Without a hint of artifice or any idea of the reaction her words would cause, she waved her hand casually in front of her and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll pull it up.”

Victor cleared his throat.

Laura dropped her head and smiled at the floor.

Jeff’s (she did not see) mouth fell open and immediately (also Lily did not know) he decided silently that he hated Nate even more.

Nate’s eyes warmed in a way that made Lily’s belly do a funny flutter.

“Do you have an extra helmet?” she asked, doggedly pursuing her opportunity of a ride on his bike just as she doggedly ignored the strange flutter in her belly.

“I keep one here, yes,” his deep voice answered.

“That settles it,” she announced, clapped her hands in front of her and linked her fingers, staring up at him with glee.

“Lily.” His tone said he was going to refuse her and she leaned toward him.

“Nate, please? My Dad has a cycle,” she pronounced this “sickle” as many people in Indiana did the same, “he used to take me out all the time. I’m a good rider, you’ll see. I won’t be distracting at all. I promise.”

Her words were said in all innocence and amusement flickered in Nate’s eyes just as Jeff muttered, “That would be impossible.”

She turned to Jeff.

“No really,” she said on a huff, “I’m a very good passenger, Dad said so.” And she turned back to Nate.

He was watching her as if she was the most fascinating creature ever born.

Somehow at the same time, he also had an expression that clearly said he was going to say no.

“Please,” she begged on a whisper and Nate’s eyes flickered again and again her belly did a funny thing that felt just like a somersault.

“For God’s sake, Nathaniel, take her out on the bike,” Victor broke in, giving in in his usual manner as he’d been doing with his children since they were born.

“No!” Laura cut in. “Lily, you’re wearing a skirt,” she noted unnecessarily.

Lily just kept looking at Nate imploringly.

“You really want to ride, don’t you?” Nate asked softly.

She nodded her head happily, sensing rather than knowing she was going to get her way.

“We’ll ride,” Nate decided.

“Yay!” Lily shouted, clapping her hands in front of her, completely lost in her reaction and she would think later she likely looked like a childish fool, not realising how compelling her exuberance was.

“Fucking hell,” Jeff cursed not-so-under his breath.

“That’s enough, Jeffrey,” Victor clipped.

Lily ignored them, she wasn’t going to give Nate time to change his mind so she asked, “Where’s the helmet?”

“I’ll get it,” Laura, giving in with dignified but somewhat ill-grace, said.

“I’ll get my jacket,” Nate followed his mother and as she went toward the kitchen, he turned into the drawing room.

Victor extended his arm, a cheeky grin on his face. “And I’ll introduce you to the Ducati.”

“Okay,” Lily breathed, her eyes shining.

Victor took her to the bike which was a kind she’d never seen before (a lot nicer than the one her father owned), and she loved it the moment she clapped eyes on it.

Nate joined them moments later.

Jeff had disappeared.

“Wear this,” Nate said, shaking out a black, leather jacket.

“Oh no, you wear it,” Lily replied, finding herself shy at the thought of donning a piece of his clothing.

“Lily, something happens, the leather is at least a modicum of protection. Lord knows, the rest of you won’t be protected,” Nate explained, amusement and annoyance struggling for control of his voice.

“Are you going to crash?” she asked, tilting her head.

“No,” he replied, a grin twitching his beautiful lips. Amusement was winning, she was pleased to note.

“Have you ever crashed before?”

His dark eyes moved to his father and Victor chuckled.

“Just put the coat on, Lily,” Nate ordered in a tone not-to-be-disobeyed.

She ignored it. “You have crashed.”

Nate didn’t answer. Victor’s chuckle turned into soft laughter.

“I’ll wear the jacket,” she decided prudently.

“Good idea,” Nate muttered, opening it for her and she turned her back to him and put her arms through the sleeves.

It swam on her but she didn’t care. Something about having it on felt nice. He turned her around with his hands at her shoulders and she felt them there like they’d stay there (or like she wanted them to stay there) for the rest of her life. Then they were gone and she was facing him again. He surprised her by zipping it smartly up all the way to her chin.

She immediately regretted allowing herself to be pushed into wearing the jacket.

Now she really looked like a Pink Lady, wearing a huge leather motorcycle jacket.

Her regret melted as she lifted her eyes to Nate’s. He was looking down at her wearing his jacket and even Lily with no experience whatsoever realised the look in his eye was something intensely possessive, untamed and very, very dangerous but in a good way.

She gulped.

“Here’s the helmet.” Laura had arrived on the scene.

With great spirit, deciding instead to focus on her unexpected treat, she took the helmet from Laura, giving her a throwaway smile. Lily pulled back her hair and expertly donned the helmet while Nate pulled on his own and threw his muscled leg over the bike and Lily noticed, not-at-all-distractedly, how his jeans tightened against the muscles of his thigh when he did this.

His visor was down and he turned his head to her. She didn’t hesitate just in case he changed his mind at the last moment. While he watched, Lily wriggled her skirt up, shaking her hips and bouncing on alternately bent knees. When she had it up to her hips, enough to straddle the motorcycle, she slung her leg around the bike and settled into position behind Nate. She gave a jaunty wave to Laura and Victor and without even thinking she wrapped her arms around Nate’s waist just like she’d do with her Dad.

“I’m ready!” she shouted and her voice both ricocheted around in her helmet and was muted by it.

Nate gave a short nod, started the bike with practised movements, movements that never affected her when her Dad did it but seemed, somehow, impossibly male when Nate did.

Then they took off.

And her arms, wrapped loosely around his waist, tightened. Because Nate didn’t ride like Will did. Nate rode fast and Nate rode hard.

As they rode her tightened arms tightened even further until she was pressed against his back, the tops of her thighs pressed under the bottoms of his and her nether-regions were pressed against his backside.

She didn’t care. She gloried in it.

She was riding with Nate and that was all that mattered.

She rested her chin on his shoulder and she loved every minute of it.

They arrived at where they were going and Nate stopped the bike and settled it on its stand as Lily hopped off and wriggled her skirt back down. When she straightened her body, Nate was also off the bike. She could tell he was watching her through his dark visor and his hands were lifted to take off his helmet. She tore off her own helmet, shaking her head to clear her hair from her face.

“That was great!” she cried, still lost in the thrill of the ride. She had no idea her smile was shining on her face and her eyes were bright and carefree.

And then something happened that she would never have guessed, never have planned for, never have dreamed, not even wished for and never would have known would ever, in a million years, happen.

With his helmet dangling from the fingers of one of his hands, Nate’s other arm snaked out, hooked around her waist and pulled her forward with a controlled violence that stole her breath.

She slammed against the wall of his body.

Then his mouth came down on hers.

Hard.

At this, she made a little surprised sound which came from the back of her throat.

As she felt his body heat seep through the leather, her breasts crushed pleasantly against his hard chest, she relaxed into him. Her lips relaxed, her hands lifted to rest on his shoulders and she pressed herself against him as her belly did somersault after somersault after…

His head came up just as abruptly as it went down.

It was the first time she’d ever been kissed and she couldn’t breathe.

“After dinner, we’re going back to my flat,” Nate stated in a voice that caused shivers to go down her spine and all along her skin.

She didn’t even think to refuse him, she simply nodded mutely.

He tugged the helmet out of her hand and, both helmets in one of his, her hand held firmly in his other, he guided her to the restaurant.

And finally, on a great whoosh, she let out her breath.

“Let’s walk.”

Lily was standing out on the sidewalk gazing up at Nate.

The sun was still lighting the sky and even after all her years there, she couldn’t get used to the long summer days in England.

They’d had a lovely, delicious dinner with her doing most of the talking. Nate didn’t say much and anyway, she was nervous, very nervous mainly because of the idea of going back to his flat after dinner but also because of the way he kept looking at her.

“To the flat?” Nate asked, looking down at her, his handsome face relaxed, a smile playing about his lips.

“No, just a walk. I feel the need to stretch my legs.” She used the words Sarah often said after a meal and she tugged at his hand, a strong, long-fingered hand that was holding hers. She’d already noticed his hands, powerfully veined and well-formed with tapered fingers. Lily rather liked his hands but then again, Lily rather liked everything about him. “Come on,” she urged.

She started walking, felt resistance on her arm when he didn’t and looked back. She gave a little, inviting jerk of her head and an encouraging smile.

Nate relented and started moving forward.

The smile she directed at him deepened.

He immediately stopped, tugged on her arm and she stumbled backwards, whirled and fell into him.

His arm closed around her and he bent his head and brushed her lips with his.

Even though it was feather-light, she stared up at him dazed and, she noticed vaguely, her knees were going weak.

He seemed satisfied by something then said, “Now we can walk.”

She shook herself out of her daze and fell into step beside him.

“I’ll hold one of the helmets,” Lily offered.

“I’ve got it,” Nate returned.

“No, really –”

“Lily, I’ve got it.” His voice sounded like he was trying not to laugh.

“Okay,” she gave in, somewhat disgruntled that he found her funny when she wasn’t trying to be.

They walked hand-in-hand down the sidewalk until suddenly they reached Hyde Park.

Lily knew London well, had been there many times but Hyde Park (which she loved), regardless of its enormity, always seemed to creep up and surprise her.

“Let’s walk in the park.” She changed direction not waiting for him to answer or refuse her and entered the park. To her astonishment, he followed without argument.

They walked more and she realised that she had never been so content, so happy, in her entire life.

And she’d had led a contented (mostly), happy (mostly) life.

She sighed with pleasure.

After awhile she felt conversation was in order. Not because she was uncomfortable but because she was curious.

“Are Laura and Victor your parents?” She was timid at asking him questions. She’d tried a couple at dinner and he hadn’t been very forthcoming with answers. He’d answered, of course, but he went into no detail and seemed to prefer, vastly, getting her to talk about herself.

Nate answered, “In a way.”

She looked at him out of the sides of her eyes.

“How can they be your parents in a way?”

She thought he wouldn’t answer her but he did. “They adopted me when I was twelve.”

Reflexively, her hand tightened in his with this knowledge.

All sorts of thoughts raced through her head as to why he was available at the age of twelve to be adopted none of them near as bad, although her heart broke at them, as what had actually happened.

“Are they family?” she asked quietly.

“How do you mean?” She could tell by his tone that he was distracted and was thinking of something else and if she knew what he was thinking, she might have run screaming from the park or possibly thrown herself at him.

She walked, and always had done, watching the ground. He walked, she noted with another sidelong glance, facing straight ahead, confident and self-assured.

She found this rather affecting.

“Laura and Victor. Is one of them family? An aunt, an uncle?” she explained, thinking of his parents and how they so obviously loved him and were equally obviously proud of him, yet he didn’t call them “Mum” or “Dad”.

“No relation.” His answer was short and didn’t invite further questions.

They walked deeper into the park.

He didn’t want to talk about it, she knew. But she needed to talk about it.

He was, quite simply, hers. She’d wished for him. He didn’t know it, even she didn’t really know it at that moment, she would only really know it later but he was the love of her life.

For these reasons she carried on.

“What happened to your folks?” she enquired, her voice soft.

This time, his hand tightened reflexively and she didn’t know what to make of it except that it couldn’t mean anything good.

He stopped walking.

She did as well, turned to him and tilted her head up to look into his eyes.

“Lily,” he said quietly and looked down at her. She liked the way he said her name, it sounded good on his lips. His eyes, so dark (she didn’t know how, if they were grey or if they were blue), were intense. Nate kept talking. “I never knew my father. My mother was murdered.”

Her eyes rounded in shock and her hand shot to her mouth, her fingers pressing against her lips. He said it tersely as if it was torn from him as if he’d never said those words to anyone in his life.

“Nate,” she breathed against her fingers, she injected so much feeling in his name that she was surprised it didn’t come alive and hover in the air.

He carried on, still watching her, assessing her reaction.

“I knew Victor. He took me in and he and Laura adopted me. End of story.”

And that it was for he turned and headed back the way they came. The walk was over.

“Why didn’t you take their name?” Something made her whisper, it was none of her business and everything about him said so.

“I never want to forget who I am,” he replied, though his answer made little sense to her.

“And who are you?” she asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

And this curiosity took her irrevocably out of the safe, protected, sheltered bubble she’d resided in her whole life.

He stopped, halted her with a tug on her hand and turned to face her. Then his arm slid about her waist and brought her toward him until her body hit the heat of his. Then his head bent, she thought he was going to kiss her again and she held her breath in anticipation.

But instead he said more words to her than he’d ever said before in their short acquaintance.

And they were very, very shocking. And very, very effective.

“I’m the man who’s going to put your lush body on the back of his bike and take you to my flat. Then I’m going to take every piece of that lovely outfit off that lush body. Then I’m going to take you to my bed and I’m going to memorise, slowly, every inch of your skin. Then I’m going to watch you come while I’m inside you. That’s who I am.”

Her mouth had dropped open.

She hadn’t been spoken to like that in her whole entire life. She didn’t even imagine anyone spoke to anyone like that. And she hadn’t been naked in front of anyone, not another living soul since, well, since she could remember.

“Lily?” Nate called.

If there was a time when she should run, hide, escape, that was it.

But Lily wasn’t even thinking of escape because she was too busy staring at him in dumbfounded awe.

She realised he was waiting for her to answer.

“Yes?” she whispered.

It was then he bent his head to kiss her.

This kiss was not hard and reactionary. This kiss was not feather-light.

This kiss was something else.

His lips settled on hers firmly as his arm tightened about her waist, pulling her deeper into his body. His tongue came out and touched her lips and not really knowing what to do but thinking her best bet was to open her lips (slightly), she did so.

He took advantage, his tongue sweeping in her mouth and at the touch of it, the feel of it, the taste of it, her belly stopped all pretence at somersaults and launched right into several back handsprings and, she was pretty certain, a forward pike.

She moaned (she couldn’t help it, it felt so good and she felt his kiss not just in her belly but everywhere) and her arms went around his shoulders, her fingers sifting into the crisp, soft hair at his nape.

She heard from what seemed a great distance the helmets hitting the ground and his other arm came around her and crushed her to his body. One hand slid down over her bottom.

She moaned again (she couldn’t help it, his hand on her bottom felt so… very… nice and what she felt of him straining against her front was even nicer).

His tongue played with hers, danced with hers, duelled with hers and she matched him, mimicking his actions, going on instinct not able to wrap her mind around a single thought. She pressed her hips against his, wriggling them for good measure and to get better purchase because she liked what she felt and she slid her fingers deeper into his hair, holding his head to hers.

It was his turn to groan and she absorbed it in her mouth, realising with knees going weak, how he felt when he absorbed hers.

It was luscious.

He lifted his head or rather ripped his lips from hers in what appeared to be a great effort.

Then he murmured, “Fucking hell, you’re magnificent.”

It might not have been a compliment every girl who’d been addicted to romance novels for a decade desired to hear but it worked really well on Lily.

“We’re going home.” His voice was both determined and urgent.

Lily nodded.

Their stroll back to the bike was more like a race. In fact, halfway there she pulled her hand free and stopped while he looked back at her impatiently. She didn’t say a word, just bent over, slipped off her shoes and held them dangling from their straps in her fingers.

When she straightened, she tilted her head and smiled a quirky smile at him.

And then she ran all the way back to his bike.

Nate did not run. He strode purposefully with long-legged, ground-eating strides and he watched her as she ran.

And even though he didn’t run, he made it to the bike mere moments after she did.

And then they went home.

Chapter Nine Nate, Lily and the Conception of Tash

Nate nearly killed them on the way home.

It was sheer, erotic torture having her sweet body pressed against him after that kiss.

Once there, thankfully safely, Lily alighted from the bike first but he didn’t wait for her to take off her helmet. He grabbed her hand and dragged her behind him, using his free one to tear his helmet off as he strode into the building, completely ignoring the doorman who called out a greeting.

She struggled to keep up and struggled with her helmet but managed to pull it free at the elevator. Just like she did before, she tossed her head and her shining, gold-red hair flew free about her face and tumbled down her back as she tugged it off and she immediately tilted her head up to him.

She looked scared and excited and he found he liked that look on her face.

Very much.

The elevator came, its doors opened and he shoved her roughly inside. He followed her, tagged the button for his floor and as they ascended, he pushed her against the wall and pressed against her.

The minute his lips met hers, she moaned and at the sexy little sound, he fought to control the impulse to tear her clothes from her body in the elevator.

She opened her mouth and he took immediate advantage. She still tasted like wine and the rich chocolate dessert she’d ordered and eaten with abandoned relish, this being a first for him, most women flatly refused dessert or even acknowledged that they desired it.

Her arms wrapped around his waist under the jacket he was too impatient to force her to wear on the way home and he wondered how she could bear to touch him. He felt like a fever had overcome him and he was certain a single touch would sear her skin.

The elevator doors opened and he wasted no time, he dragged his mouth from hers, grasped her hand and advanced down the hall. She had to run to keep up with him and when he halted abruptly at his door, she couldn’t stop herself and ran into him.

This caused her to giggle as she righted herself and his head swung to look at her as he dropped her hand to put the key in the lock.

She smiled her quirky, effective smile and said, “We’re rather in a hurry, aren’t we?”

He shoved open the door. “Damned right.”

He grabbed her hand and pulled her in.

He threw his helmet in the vague direction of the couch, ripped hers from her hand, not noticing she was glancing about inquisitively, and sent it flying in the same direction. Then his hand locked on hers again and he headed for the bedroom.

“Nate,” she said behind him.

He didn’t answer and his step didn’t falter.

“Nate,” she called, louder this time with her hand tugging at his.

He heard her but he still didn’t respond nor did he release her hand. He walked into his bedroom, straight to the side of the bed.

Then he stopped.

“Nate.”

His hands went right to her cardigan as his eyes locked on hers.

“You know, Lily,” his voice was deeper than normal, and harsh, as he pulled the jumper from her body, “you get in that bed with me and it’s anything like what I felt the first time I laid eyes on you, anything like when you first touched me, anything like that kiss in the park, I’m never letting you go. Do you understand me?”

His words were irrational, even insane.

But he never dreamed he’d have a woman like Lily.

Never in his wildest imaginings of which there weren’t many, Nate was not a man prone to wild imaginings; his most fervent desires; even if he’d had a wish, even a single wish from a genie out of a bottle, he would never have expected to have a woman like Lily.

Not while growing up and sleeping in sheets that were never cleaned. Stealing food so he could eat. Watching his mother insert needles in her veins.

Never had he expected someone as regal, as magnificent, as Lily.

Lily, a woman who liked to walk in the park while holding hands; a woman who loved, with unsurpassed glee, to ride on the back of a motorcycle; a woman who would chase courageously after a purse thief and throw herself on his back; a woman who could win over Laura, which wasn’t hard, Laura had a soft heart, and Victor who most certainly did not have a soft heart, in a matter of hours.

Nate never expected a woman like that, like Lily, to so much as look at him. At least, not the way she looked at him.

As if he was conqueror of nations, creator of worlds.

As she was looking at him now, her face wreathed in awe.

“Do you understand me?” His voice went beyond harsh; it was as rough as sandpaper.

“I… think… so.”

That was enough for him.

“Good.” His hands went to the hem of her camisole and he whipped it over her head, forcing her arms up with it.

She gasped. She wasn’t wearing a bra and her own hands went to cover her breasts.

“No.” He grabbed her wrists and forced her hands behind her back, his mouth coming down on hers in a wild, bruising, wet kiss.

When he felt the struggle leave her wrists as she relaxed into the kiss, he released them and her and stepped back just enough to rip off his jacket and jumper.

This time she stared at his chest in awe.

“Christ, Lily,” he swore when he caught her look and his hands found the zipper at the back of her skirt, looking down with near the same reverence at her amazing full breasts. He yanked the zipper down and his hands slid up her back, pushing brutally against it, forcing it to arch, forcing her to bear herself more fully to his gaze. Then, completely unable to stop himself and not wishing to anyway, he bent his head and closed his mouth around her nipple.

Her breath caught, he heard it, then it released and then it came out in frantic pants as his tongue swirled around her hardening nipple.

“What are you doing to me?” she breathed in wonder, her hands sliding into his hair.

He didn’t answer. He did the same thing to her other nipple until he felt her legs buckle and he had to support her weight as he felt tremors flow freely through her.

Then he lifted his head and left her standing there as he sat on the bed, tugged off his boots and then followed his jeans.

She looked at him, her eyes wide and fearful as if she’d never seen a male form before in her life.

This didn’t register on him. He pushed her back on the bed so that she was lying across it and before she even settled he leaned over her and yanked her loosened skirt down her legs.

“Nate,” she whispered, her hands cradling her belly protectively but he didn’t note this gesture’s meaning. He simply did the same with her panties.

“Nate!”

“What?” he growled, his hands at her bottom, lifting her up and depositing her deeper in the bed.

“I need to tell you something.” She was still breathing heavily, the midnight blue had moved deeper into her irises but the pure blue was still there.

He spread her legs and settled between them.

“Talk fast,” he said against her mouth and then didn’t allow her to say a word. He kissed her.

And it was everything the kiss in the park had been.

She was beyond magnificent, she was beyond description.

His hand went between their bodies. She had to be ready for him, if she wasn’t this entire scene was going to become very uncomfortable.

She was ready, wet and slippery and when his finger slid inside her, unbelievably tight.

She gasped against his mouth, sucking his tongue deeper inside as his thumb found her. He started circling his thumb at the same time he moved his finger in and out.

When he did, she rode his hand hard, now kissing him.

Her hands were everywhere, trailing hotly against his skin, begging him through touch to give her the release he was building.

“What did you need to tell me?” His mouth was still at hers; her hips were still moving insistently against his hand. He was more than ready for her, he couldn’t wait much longer.

“What?” she asked in distraction and then gasped as his thumb pressed harder and swirled. “Oh God,” she moaned, her face flushed beautifully, her neck arched regally and he knew she was there.

Right there.

His fingers moved away, both his hands found her hips and he positioned himself expertly.

“Lily, look at me.”

Her chin dipped down and she tried to focus on him. Her gorgeous hair was spread across his bed, her blue eyes were dazed, her full mouth was swollen; she was on the edge of climax.

He’d done that to her, he’d made her look so fucking, unbelievably beautiful.

And as that knowledge scored through him, Nate drove into her.

And she screamed.

The pain, mingled so fiercely with the pleasure, tore through her like a blade.

Nate’s entire body stilled.

He was still deeply embedded inside her and she closed her eyes in humiliation. Now he would know that she’d never been touched. Now the shine would go off her wish and he’d see her as she truly was and whatever was driving him to his behaviour would fade away.

“Lily?” he called gently.

She turned her head to the side, the pain was receding. It had been sharp but her cry was mostly of surprise. She was so close to something, something resplendent and it all flew away when the pain came.

“Lily, look at me.”

She shook her head.

She didn’t want to open her eyes, didn’t want to see anything in his but the way he looked at her that night. She didn’t want to see the revulsion, didn’t want to feel him pulling away.

Although he wasn’t pulling away. He was still deep inside her and not moving a muscle.

“Darling, look at me.”

In surprise at the endearment, her eyes opened, her head righted and she did as she was told.

She wouldn’t have been more surprised at what she saw on his handsome face if every living past president of the United States of America barged in and did the can can.

He was smiling one of his glamorous smiles. This one chock full of deep satisfaction.

“No one’s ever touched you, have they?” he asked.

She shook her head.

He went on. “It’s only been me.”

This wasn’t a question but regardless, this time she nodded her head.

If anything, his smile became more arrogant, more self-satisfied.

“Why are you smiling?” she whispered, not courageous enough to use her full voice and wondering if maybe he’d gone a little mad.

His hands moved from her hips to her face and they framed it.

“Because, darling Lily, no one has ever touched you,” he explained, his voice a contented velvet purr that seemed to slide delightfully against her skin.

“Is that good?” she asked tentatively.

This, for some unknown reason, made his body shake with laughter and she felt it everywhere.

When his eyes focussed on hers again, they were shining with a light she’d never seen in anyone’s eyes ever before.

Her whole body started to warm again.

“Oh yes,” he answered softly then brushed his lips against hers before he said there, “that’s good.”

“Okay,” she allowed, “I was trying to tell you before –”

“I know.” He moved slowly, watching her closely as he slid out of her just the barest inch. When she didn’t flinch, in fact she thought it felt rather nice, he slid gently back in and that definitely felt nice.

“I was worried I wouldn’t do it right,” she confided when he slid back out, further this time and her lips pursed a little at losing him. She liked the feel of him inside.

He was watching her lips, his impossibly dark eyes darkened completely to black.

“You were definitely doing it right,” he informed her, his voice filled with meaning but his lips were twitching as if he wanted to laugh and was stopping himself.

He carefully slid back in and her mouth parted into an “o” of sweet wonder at the delicious feel of him.

It took a moment to realise his body was again shaking with laughter.

“Quit laughing at me,” she reprimanded him and he executed another smooth stroke.

His mouth touched hers and he said there, “I can’t help it.”

“You can!” she demanded and he pulled out fully and she thought he was going away but then he came back, faster this time and she lost her not-yet-fully-formed anger and gasped in pleasure as the sensations came back.

She bit her lip, he watched her do it and he lost his caution and lapsed into a heady, belly-somersault-inducing rhythm.

“That feels quite nice,” she whispered, although it felt more than nice. It felt lovely. It felt delightful.

It felt magic.

“It feels fucking unbelievable,” his voice growled into her ear and tingles slid up from her belly like champagne bubbles.

“It does?” she was still whispering, moving her hips up to meet him and finding that deepened his thrusts magnificently and she caught her breath and decided immediately to do that each time.

His tongue was at the skin just beneath her ear and she felt her belly fluttering, her skin tingling and a lovely tickling spread from her ear to everywhere.

“You’re so tight, so wet, Lily, the sweetest I’ve ever had.”

He was going faster and she was climbing higher, going to that place he took her before. His words touched her at her core and she felt herself quiver in places she didn’t even know existed.

“Nate,” she breathed as his hand went between them and touched her there again, “God, Nate!” This was not said on a breath but an explosion, her hands crawling over her skin, memorising the hard muscles of his back as he said he’d memorise her.

He thrust in and out, filling her completely as his fingers did their magic and she lifted her hips, matching his thrusts, feeling it build. It was almost unbearable, exquisite torture.

He was right, it was sweet and beautiful and she let him ride her like she rode his hand, desperate for it, her body crying out for it, the tension at waiting for it seemed to clench every muscle she possessed.

“Let go, darling,” at his murmured words dancing deliciously in her ear, she did as she was told not even knowing she was holding on.

She cried out as it overwhelmed her, planting her heels in the bed to press up against him. While the fire engulfed her, the waves of pleasure undulated deliciously up and out and all around from between her legs, he stopped all attempts at gentle, his hand moving from between them back to her hips. He held them steady as he slammed into her again and again and she gloried in the pounding.

She lifted her head, so beyond timidity it wasn’t funny, completely overtaken by insistent, heady, pulsating passion. Her hands slid into his hair, guiding his face to hers and she kissed him, opened-mouthed. His tongue invaded her mouth like his body was invading between her legs. She coaxed it, goaded it, welcomed it and when he finished, she accepted his luscious, deep groan against her tongue like it was a precious gift.

Nate liked to sleep alone.

He rarely brought a woman back to his flat, it was too difficult to get rid of them once he was finished with them. If he went to their flat, he could leave whenever he was finished.

He’d moved into this flat years ago but he’d recently purchased a large apartment closer to the office in an even nicer neighbourhood and he was moving to it in just a few weeks.

He lay on his back in the bed, the sheet casually thrown over his lower body, listening to Lily moving about quietly in the bathroom but giving her privacy.

And as he lay there, he thought of his new apartment, a purchase he had made with investment on his mind. And he thought of Lily in that apartment and nothing about investments entered his mind. And he thought of Lily in the enormous new bed that was being custom built to go in that apartment and the idea of sleeping alone never entered his mind.

He rolled on this side, grabbed his phone and dialled his parents’ number. Laura, he knew, might get worried.

Luckily, Jeff, Laura nor Danielle answered. His brother and sister, unlike Nate, had never moved out. They had never paid rent, as Nate had done on his first flat, or a mortgage, like he’d done on this one, nor had they bought a bag of groceries or anything that came close to self-sufficiency.

Instead, Victor answered.

“Lily isn’t coming back tonight,” Nate informed him.

“I figured as much,” Victor replied, not even attempting to keep the prideful chuckle out of his voice.

“She isn’t coming back tomorrow either.”

“Going back to Somerset?”

“No,” Nate answered shortly.

“I figured that too.”

Nate tried not to be annoyed at his father’s know-it-all attitude. Tonight was a good night. It was the best night of his life. He didn’t much feel like being annoyed.

“Son, when you make your mind up about something you usually don’t fuck around. Never have, likely never will. I saw you looking at that girl outside Harrods. Frankly, I’m a little surprised it took three days.”

Nate decided to end the conversation, “Good night, Victor.”

The amusement never left his father’s voice when he returned, “’Night Nathaniel.”

“Who are you talking to?” Lily was standing in the doorway to the bathroom. As the sun was finally down, Nate had turned on the lights at either side of the bed.

She had a white towel wrapped around her body and she was rubbing the balls of one of her feet against the top of another one.

“Victor,” he answered, watching her, making every effort, and it took a lot of effort, to stop himself from hurtling out of the bed and dragging her back.

She looked absolutely adorable.

And she was his, only his, no one else’s, just his.

She was the only good and decent thing in his life that had been just his.

She interrupted his pleasant reverie. “I knew that, I heard you say your Dad’s name. I meant to ask why?”

“I told him you weren’t coming back tonight.”

Her eyes rounded in shock, she took a quick step forward and halted. “You did what?”

“You’re staying with me tonight,” he told her.

“I can’t stay with you. I can’t not go back. If I don’t go back they’ll know what we’re doing, what we did, I mean, what we’ve done!”

He didn’t respond mainly because she was correct.

She shot into the room and started to grab her clothes from the floor.

“I have to go back,” she announced, bending double to put on her underwear, the rest of her outfit tucked under her arm. “They put a roof over my head. I mean, you’re their son.”

“Lily, come to bed.”

She whirled on him at the same time attempting to pull the camisole on over the towel.

“No! You have to take me back.”

“I’m not taking you back.”

She had the camisole on, ripped the towel off and threw it on the bed. This sent the clothes under her arm flying but she grabbed the skirt as it fell. Then she shook it out and was clearly about to put it on and ignore him completely.

“Lily, if you put on that lovely skirt, I’ll just take it off again.”

“They’ll think I’m a brazen hussy,” she mumbled, deep in the throes of agitation.

He wanted to laugh but sensed this was not the time. Instead he threw the covers off the bed and, naked, approached her.

She was still trying to put the skirt on, bent double again and hopping around, clumsy in her turmoil. She was also muttering to herself.

“My mother would just die of mortification and my grandmother! Oh, I don’t even want to think. She would have disowned me. She’s probably twirling in her grave.”

“Lily.” He put his hand on her back and she jerked up, tangled her leg in the skirt and started to fall backwards.

His hands shot out, he caught her and pulled her against his body.

She talked about her family a great deal, nearly all the time. At dinner she told him stories of her mother, father, grandmother and some man with the strange name Fazire who she obviously adored. Every time she spoke of them, her eyes would light with love. He’d never seen anything like it, never experienced that kind of devotion. Never let his heart melt enough to realise he had it from Laura and Victor.

And he wanted it, but from Lily.

“Nate, you must take me back to your parents,” she pleaded, her eyes meeting his. “I like them. I don’t want them to think I’m… I’m… wanton.” She was underlining her words with great regularity and Nate had to bite back his laughter.

“They won’t think your wanton.” He could barely say the word without laughing. He definitely was smiling.

Her eyes rounded further then they narrowed dangerously.

“You think this is funny,” she accused.

He bent his head to kiss her but she arched against his arm at her waist and dodged him. His hand went between her shoulder blades and forced her closer.

“It is funny,” he told her.

“It… is… not,” she enunciated every word carefully and he found, to his surprise, he liked her when she was angry. When his mother was angry she became mean and spiteful and said hideous things. Danielle was exactly the same. Laura rarely became angry.

Lily was entirely different. Lily was spirited and hilarious and Nate knew somehow that she couldn’t be spiteful if she had to do it to save her own life.

“Lily, calm down and listen to me.”

“I am calm!” she shouted not the least bit calmly, her outburst surprising even her and that subdued her. She bit her lip and her eyes slid sideways. Then she sighed before admitting, “Okay, maybe I’m not calm.”

Finally she stopped moving enough for him to kiss her and he brushed his lips lightly against hers.

When he had her attention he asked, “Do you remember what I said when we came into this room?”

She thought for a second and then nodded.

“What did I say?” he asked.

“Well…” she hedged.

He pulled her closer and reminded her even though he knew she hadn’t forgotten, “I told you, if you got in that bed with me, I was never letting you go.”

She stared at him, her eyes filled with wonder and all traces of anger simply ebbed away.

“Do you remember me saying that?” he pushed.

She nodded.

“Do you remember you agreed?”

She nodded again.

“Did you get into bed with me?”

“Well, you kind of threw me into the bed, or sort of… pushed me.”

At that, he finally allowed himself to let out a sharp bark of laughter. She was just too much.

Once he had himself under control, he realised she’d relaxed against him and her body had become pliant.

His tone gentled. “Fair enough. So, once I threw you in, did you leave?”

She shook her head.

“Do you want to leave now?”

She stared at him a moment and he held his breath.

Then she sighed and shook her head again.

He let out his breath, his relief so great he had trouble coping with it. So he set it aside and slid his hands under the camisole.

“Now, let’s get you out of these clothes and back into bed.”

He pulled the camisole up again but this time her arms came up of their own volition.

“Nate?” Lily called as he tossed her camisole aside.

He was gliding his hands across the smooth skin of her back and staring at the flawless skin of her shoulders.

“Mm?”

“Nothing.”

His eyes found hers and they were uncertain. He misread her mind and bent to brush his lips against hers again.

“Come to bed.”

She sighed again and nodded.

Lily had always slept alone.

Except a few times at sleep-overs with her best friend from grade school, Colleen. Colleen had a big double bed and they’d slept there together.

That was it, her entire experience of sleeping with another human being.

Therefore she had no idea how to sleep with a man.

She was pressed against Nate’s side, his arm underneath and wrapped around her, his fingers stroking her hip.

When he took her clothes off (again) and took her to bed, he made love to her again.

Well, not exactly, as he didn’t come inside her even when she asked him to. He told her he didn’t want to hurt her. Instead, he did things to her with his hands and his mouth and took her to that beautiful place while he watched.

She would have been immensely embarrassed by this but once she’d had her body and pulse under control, she looked at him and he was looking at her as if she’d just announced she’d cured cancer. She couldn’t be embarrassed when he looked at her like that.

And then he’d pulled the covers over them and tucked her against his side and seemed, as she was finding was usual with Nate, to be quite happy in complete silence.

Lily was not happy. Lily was thinking about what she’d promised and what that meant.

“Um… Nate?” she said against his shoulder where her head was laying and she had an unobstructed view of the wall of his chest.

She liked his chest, it was strong and broad and muscular. She liked it just as much as his hands and now she had even more reasons to like his hands, even love them.

“Mm?” This was a low rumble that seemed to come from somewhere deep inside him. She found she liked that too.

“What does not letting me go mean, um… exactly?”

His fingers stopped their lazy stroking at her hip and his hand flattened, his fingers digging into her.

“It means you aren’t going anywhere.” His voice sounded somehow tight.

“Tonight?” she asked, deciding it best to ignore his strange tone.

“Tonight, tomorrow night, the next night, the next week.” He stopped but only because he was finished talking not because what came after next week wasn’t included in his statement.

This idea warmed her very soul but she was a practical Indiana girl. There were other things to consider.

“But I live in Somerset,” she told him.

“Now, you live here,” he returned as if it was as easy as that.

Her body jerked in stunned surprise at his announcement and she lifted herself to her elbow, reaching down at the same time to grab the sheet and pull it up to her chest. He was blithely unconcerned with his (rather wonderful) nakedness but she was not.

She stared down at him. After one date he expected her to move in with him?

“I own a house in Somerset,” she explained.

His eyes moved to hers and they were unreadable. “We’ll visit on the weekends.”

She gasped.

“But I have a job in Somerset!” she informed him.

“Resign. You no longer have to work.”

She gasped again, this one even more shocked than the last.

“I’ve been working since I was thirteen years old!”

Something shifted in his eyes as she glared at him and she realised that she’d surprised him somehow.

She had indeed been working since she was thirteen. Neither her parents nor her grandmother thought idle children were a good thing. She had a paper route that she did every morning, not to mention she’d gone to work at one of her father’s friend’s golf courses, picking up the balls on the driving range all day Saturday. When she was able to work legally, she’d found a job at a fast food restaurant for a year. At Oxford she definitely had to work and pulled pints at a local pub.

She didn’t tell Nate any of that nor did she let him comment but continued to speak.

“I don’t know how not to work. I wouldn’t know what to do. What will I do?”

He came up on his elbow and faced her, his hand moving the hair from her neck to behind her back.

“You can shop, go out to lunch with Laura. She’d love it.” His voice was soft and his eyes were on her mouth and he obviously thought this was a satisfactory answer.

As much as she liked shopping, she couldn’t do it every day. It wouldn’t be fun if she could do it every day. And she had a mortgage, she had credit card bills, she had to work.

“I need a job,” she told him determinedly.

His head was descending.

“Then get a job,” he said against her lips. He was pressing her back on the bed and she didn’t resist. She couldn’t have even if she wanted to, which she didn’t. He came over her and then he kissed her. Her belly was warming up for a full-blown gymnastic extravaganza, she could feel it.

“Nate…” she began, this time far less fervently as her voice was quivering.

But finally he took her seriously.

He lifted his head, his voice was low and determined and his eyes were completely black.

“Lily, I’ll take care of you. Always. Whatever you want, just ask and I’ll get it for you. You’ll never need for anything, want for anything, not while you’re with me. I’ll take care of everything.”

Then, the subject closed, he kissed her again and when he did all thoughts of jobs, mortgages and credit card bills swiftly exited her mind.

Much later she learned how to sleep with someone. Nate pulled her back against his front, wrapped his arm tightly around her waist and buried his face in her hair.

Lily fell asleep thinking it felt rather nice.

Chapter Ten Lily’s Ending

Lily was worried.

How she could be happier, more contented and at peace than she’d ever been in her whole life, and be so damned worried all at the same time, she did not know.

Things with Nate were wonderful… no, splendid… no, magnificent.

Well, most of the time.

He worked quite a bit. Even at his age (he was only 28!), he was the Executive Vice President of two divisions of his father’s company and he took his job for his father very seriously. Deadly seriously. It was almost like he owed his life to that job. Nate left before Lily woke up every morning, and Lily was an early riser, and didn’t come home until after eight o’clock every evening.

Sometimes she’d have dinner ready when he’d come home. Other times he’d call her during the day to tell her he was going to take her out to some fabulous restaurant (so fabulous, Nate was significantly taxing the limits of her wardrobe). Twice they’d been to Victor and Laura’s for dinner.

Every night he’d make love to her (and mornings besides), most nights more than once and each time was better than the last.

She’d gone back to Clevedon the second morning after their first night together. She’d told him she had to give Maxine notice and work that notice out at the store. He hadn’t been happy but she’d put her foot down telling him the truth, that her mother and father would never forgive her if she just quit a job and didn’t work out her notice, it was bad form. Eventually, sensing how important it was to Lily because she repeated it, over and over, in a louder and louder voice, he gave in. It was the only time he didn’t go to work early. Instead he took her to the train and kissed her on the platform, kissed her in a way that made her not want to go.

“I’ve changed my mind, I’m not going,” she whispered against his lips.

He’d smiled against hers and she had to admit, she really liked it when he did that.

“Now,” he murmured also against her lips and she really liked that too, “I don’t mind that you’re going.” He kissed her lightly and finished. “I’ll see you at the weekend.”

Maxine, at first, had not been happy.

“I’m never giving you time off again!” she’d yelled. Maxine was somewhat dramatic so Lily was used to her yelling.

“But Maxine, I just quit,” Lily had replied gently and sensibly.

“Tell me about him. What’s he done to you?” Maxine demanded to know.

Maxine had never known Lily Jacobs to even look at a man, much less date, much less drop everything in her life to move to London for some bloke she’d known three days.

Lily told the story, the full story, leaving nothing out. She would have left out the sex parts but Maxine was insistent that she wanted it all.

When she was finished, Maxine contradicted herself.

“You’re not working out your notice. Get back to this man, get back to him now!”

“But, the store…” Lily resisted.

She loved Maxine and she loved that store and she would miss it. It was hidden down a cobbled alley, had a front window that was just two feet up from the cobbles, the window filled mostly with a window box chock full of dazzling flowers. Both sides of old, tiny front door were flanked with enormous, gleaming, cobalt blue flowerpots that also blazed with colour and trailed luscious greenery. The shop was crammed with fun, funky clothes and jewellery made by local artists. But best of all, it was filled every day with Maxine who was what her grandmother would call, “a character”.

Maxine went on with her drama. “Blast the store, it’ll survive. We’ve been talking for an hour and one customer came in and didn’t buy a thing.” Then she’d leaned in, her violet eyes dancing (Lily fancied that Maxine looked a little like Elizabeth Taylor, violet eyes and dark, dark hair but, it must be noted not unkindly, Maxine was an Elizabeth Taylor in her chubby, older years). “Most girls never find a man like that, Lily. You hold on, you hold on for dear life.”

Maxine, Lily knew, read romance novels too. Lots of them.

So Lily had called Nate’s answering machine, left a message and told him she’d be home two weeks earlier than expected. She went to her ramshackle house and did what she needed to do, packing a couple of bags. Nate had told her they’d be back and frequently so she’d have plenty of time to get more of her things. She felt funny leaving her house but it wasn’t going to grow legs and walk away whereas Nate already had legs and she never wanted to give him a reason to walk away, and after awhile, after she knew Nate better, they’d come to a different arrangement.

But now he wanted her in London. He wanted her with him and he was wonderful, handsome and smart. He was a fantastic kisser and even better with his hands and other parts of his anatomy and he thought she was funny.

And he looked at her like, well, like she was beautiful.

He was everything she’d ever wished she would have, everything she wished for Fazire to give her.

And she was going to hold on to him for dear life.

The first week with Nate had been fantastic; the only thing marring it was dinner at Laura and Victor’s. Jeff and Danielle had been in attendance and even though Victor and Laura seemed pleased that Nate and Lily were together (not exactly pleased so much as over the moon), Nate’s siblings did not.

Danielle said catty things about Lily’s outfit and her accent, things which made Victor’s lips thin and Laura blush with ire but it was Nate who said, “Danielle, enough,” in a way that everyone at the table knew it was enough and Danielle stopped immediately, if rather mutinously.

Then, if that wasn’t bad enough, after dinner, when Lily had been coming back from the powder room, Jeff was waiting for her. He cornered her as in literally cornered her, against the wall in a corner, blocking her path with his body so she couldn’t get out.

“I can’t believe you chose him, Lily. I can’t believe it. Do you know who he is?” Jeff was talking low and fast and looking at her as if she was a juicy steak and he was a rabid dog.

He was also scaring her half to death.

“Jeff –”

“I don’t mind that you’ve slept with him, I don’t care that he had his filthy hands on you. You and I can start again.” She stared at him open-mouthed and speechless. She didn’t know they’d started at all. “But once you know who he is, what he is, where he came from… Lily, you have to know.”

Lily interrupted him, saying, “I chose Nate.”

She wanted to get away from him, needed to get away. He was revolting, vile and now, frightening in his hatred. She didn’t know what he was talking about and she didn’t care. Lily realised she’d been right the first time she met him; there was nothing to like about him at all. He was talking about his brother, for goodness sake.

“Lily, once I tell you –” He went on, moving closer to her and lifting his hand like he was going to touch her.

“I choose Nate!” she snapped, not wanting him to touch her, angry at his cornering her and angry that a man such as Nate would be strapped with a spoiled, snotty, adopted brother like Jeff. Further she was angry that Laura and Victor had such a son. “Step away,” she demanded.

“Lily,” he said her name like a plea.

“Step away!” she repeated.

“She said, step away.”

This came in a deep, lethal voice from behind Jeff and Jeff jerked his head around just as Lily’s gaze shifted over Jeff’s shoulder and they both saw Nate.

He was standing down the hall not five paces away, his legs were planted apart and his arms were crossed on his chest. This was not a casual stance, this was a frightening one.

He was poised to strike.

And his face was horrible, even murderous, as he scowled at his brother.

Jeff didn’t move and he had his hand on the wall by Lily’s head. She ducked under his arm and fairly ran down the hall to Nate.

His stance didn’t shift but his arms came uncrossed and the moment she was in reaching distance, one shot out and pulled her against the side of his hard body.

She didn’t resist. She plastered herself there and lifted her hand to rest on his chest. For some reason she was breathing heavily.

Jeff and Nate stared at each other for what seemed like eternity to Lily.

Then Jeff said, “You should tell her, you know.”

Nate didn’t respond.

“You don’t tell her, I will,” Jeff threatened.

Nate, again, didn’t respond.

Jeff’s eyes turned Lily. “He’s adopted. He isn’t a member of this family at all.”

Lily could not even believe that Nate’s adoption was what all this was about. Her anger turned to a rage so strong, she was beside herself.

Lily leaned towards Jeff but didn’t leave Nate’s side.

“I know. He already told me,” She was pleased her voice was strong and even.

“I bet he didn’t tell you everything,” Jeff said, and he was a grown man but he still sounded like a brat.

She was pretty certain he meant about Nate’s mother being murdered. But she wasn’t going to mention that again. The last and only time Nate talked of it, she knew it was painful as it would be. So instead, she said, with all the loyalty that was born and bred in her as the granddaughter of Sarah and daughter of Will and Rebecca and with a lifetime of living amongst the people of the fine state of Indiana (which Danielle had also attacked at dinner, comments at which Lily was still smarting), “I know all I need to know.”

At Lily’s words, Nate’s arm tightened about her waist and she tilted her head to look up to him.

“I want to go,” Lily demanded.

Nate dipped his chin to look down and his eyes were glittering with something she couldn’t read. Then they left Jeff where he was standing and Nate guided her to the drawing room where the rest were sitting and having coffee.

One look at Lily’s pale, stricken face sent Victor out of his chair. Laura’s own face paled. Danielle looked on, assessing the looming situation with what appeared to be delight.

“What’s happened?” Victor asked.

“We’re leaving,” Nate answered.

“Lily, you look like you’ve seen a ghost. Nathaniel, bring her into the room, I’ll get her a drink,” Laura said, slowly coming out of her chair.

“We’re leaving,” Nate repeated implacably.

“What happened?” Victor enquired again, this time his voice a demand.

“Where’s Jeff?” Danielle asked sweetly.

Both Victor and Laura’s eyes flew to Lily’s face and they must have read the truth there because Victor viciously cursed and not under his breath.

“Nathaniel.” It was Laura’s turn to have her voice turn into a plea and Lily’s heart went out to her. How her two children could have come from her sweet body was a mystery.

“I’ll call you later,” Nate replied and that was that, no good-byes, nothing. They left.

In his sleek, purring Maserati on the way home, Lily found that although he clearly did not want to talk about it, she could not stand it. And anyway, she was angry.

“I’m sorry to say this about your very own brother, Nate, but I just do not like Jeff.”

Nate was silent.

Lily went on. “The first moment I met him, I didn’t like him and that’s never happened to me before.”

Nate remained silent.

Lily continued. “I just cannot believe he spoke that way. What’s the matter with him?”

Nate kept his silence.

As Lily had allowed her anger loose, she found it didn’t last long especially without Nate’s participation and she lapsed into silence as well.

It wasn’t until they were in his flat and Nate was preparing himself what appeared to be a very large, very stiff drink (he didn’t offer her one, by this time he knew she didn’t drink very much), that she spoke again.

“How much did you see before you arrived?”

To her surprise he answered her with, “All of it.”

Lily stared at him.

“You saw him corner me?” she asked, aghast.

He threw back the drink in one gulp. No matter how large it was, he still drained the glass.

“Why didn’t you do something?” she demanded. She was standing behind one of two leather couches that faced each other in his living room and ran perpendicular to a fireplace. Her body was stiff as a board.

This was not romantic hero stuff. Romantic heroes wouldn’t let their heroines get cornered by bratty adopted brothers and not lift a finger.

“I wanted to see what you’d do,” Nate replied.

She had no response to that. She simply kept staring. She thought perhaps she hadn’t heard him correctly.

He wasn’t looking at her. He was pouring himself another drink.

Surprisingly, he broke their tense silence. “You haven’t asked about what he said.” His eyes came to her and his were completely blank.

“What?” She was still recovering from the knowledge that he’d let Jeff corner her.

“You haven’t asked me to explain what he said.”

Lily stared at him harder, if it could be credited, and then threw her hands out in agitation, blowing a breath out to underline just how annoyed she was.

Then she started pacing.

“You already told me what you want me to know. It wasn’t any of my business in the first place, but you told me. If there’s more, you’ll tell me when you’re ready. Nothing you say or he could say would change how I feel about you –”

She stopped talking because she heard his heavy crystal glass slam down against the top of the chest where he kept his liquor and Lily, who had her back to him and was in mid-pace, whirled around.

He was stalking straight toward her.

His face was filled with…

She stared in awe.

Now Nate was staring at her like she was a juicy steak and he wasn’t a rabid dog but a starving man offered a feast, a feast that was Lily.

“What’s the matter?” she asked.

He kept coming.

She started backing up then faster as he was gaining quickly, “Nate, what’s wrong?”

He didn’t explain but when he caught her and dragged her to his bedroom, he didn’t push her onto the bed, he threw her on it. Without a further word, he made love to her in a way he’d never done before, it was fierce and violent and possessive. When she was nearly ready to climax, he stopped it, stopped her and made her say his name over and over and over again, then he finally let her finish.

It was glorious and, she felt intuitively, it was somehow immensely important and although Lily revelled in the former, she didn’t quite understand the latter.

The next time they went to Victor and Laura’s house for dinner neither Jeff nor Danielle were in attendance and Lily found that a small blessing.

Lily had tried to find a job but wasn’t having much luck. Maxine was forwarding her mail and her mortgage was due, her bills were due and she didn’t have enough money to pay them.

What she wanted most in the world was to be a writer, to live her life sitting at her computer and telling her stories. She didn’t bring her computer with her from Clevedon because she figured they’d move that later and when she confided to Nate, sleepily after he’d made love to her one evening, her dreams of being a novelist, he’d told her not to worry about getting a job and just concentrate on writing.

Easy for him to say, he didn’t have bills mounting up and no money coming in.

He’d told her he’d take care of everything but Lily couldn’t ask him for money. She wasn’t like that and further, wasn’t raised like that. She’d have to find a way to take care of her own problems.

However Nate, she was finding, was a very perceptive man. He knew as the second week slid along that something was bothering her and he asked her about it.

Lily lied. She hated it but she had to do it. She didn’t want anything, outside of his awful siblings, to mar their idyllic life. She was embarrassed she’d put herself in this position, especially the credit cards. The amounts weren’t astronomical but they were when you didn’t have any money.

So she doubled her efforts to find a job, any job.

Late the second week, she’d gone out to lunch with Laura and Laura realised something was wrong straight away.

“It’s just something I need to sort out,” Lily had responded when Laura asked.

“Is it Nathaniel?” Laura queried, her eyes gentle.

“No! Of course not, everything is fine, great, wonderful with Nate.”

Laura smiled then the smile wavered. “Is it Jeff?”

Without hesitation Lily grabbed the woman’s hand and squeezed it with reassurance and just shook her head. They didn’t need to talk about Jeff, ever.

Laura’s smile strengthened again and then she said, “Whatever it is, just tell Nathaniel. He’ll sort it out. He’s good at that kind of thing.”

She said it in a way that meant he was good at every kind of thing. Lily couldn’t help herself, she hugged the other woman and Laura returned the hug with a strength that astonished her.

Laura may have raised two terrible children but surprisingly, she was an excellent mother to the one she did not bear.

That night in bed (unless they were at the dining room table, a restaurant or at Victor and Laura’s, they seemed always to be in bed, though Lily wasn’t complaining), pressed up against Nate’s side, her arm wrapped around his stomach, she’d said, “Do you think we were a bit hasty?”

It was a silly question, obviously they were a bit hasty. They’d barely known each other and moved in together – or he’d demanded she move in with him and she’d done it.

Nate still didn’t talk very much. He didn’t share very much at all. Lily didn’t mind this. He did the same with his family, it wasn’t just her. He listened and laughed when she told stories about her family and Fazire and growing up in Indiana. But most of the time he was working. Most of the other time, they were making love. Any other time there was left over they were eating so they could have the strength to make love. Talking wasn’t exactly their strong suit.

Now she had significant money troubles and didn’t know him enough to know how to broach it with him, ask for his help.

It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him. It was that she didn’t want to take advantage of him.

He was already housing her and feeding her in great style. His flat was fantastic, she knew a bit about London real estate and it had to cost a mint, not to mention he had groceries delivered and they were from a very posh store and he had a housekeeper that came in once a week to clean and do the laundry.

Lily was certainly not going to ask him to pay her mortgage. She’d considered asking him to find her a job at Victor’s company but that was just too weird.

She’d bought her house as a screaming deal because it was so run down, it was barely worth what she paid for it. But even if it wasn’t much, it was still a mortgage.

She stopped her careening thoughts and sighed, loudly.

Then she realised Nate hadn’t answered.

“Nate?” she prompted.

It was his turn to sigh.

Then he asked, “Hasty with what?”

“Me moving in,” she told his chest.

“Lily, what’s on your mind?”

Her head came up, she looked at him and he dipped his chin to stare her straight in the eyes. He did that all the time, stared at her straight in the eyes. He was not a man who was incapable of a direct look. She liked that about him too and her father would definitely like that about him. Will always said, “Never trust a man who won’t look you in the eye.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

To her surprise, he answered her earlier question. “Yes, it was hasty, it was rushed, it was fast, but it wasn’t wrong. You know this is good, I know this is good. That isn’t your question. Therefore I’d like to know what is your question.”

She smiled at him, she couldn’t help herself. He was very astute. Nate seemed to get down, rather easily, to the meat of the matter. It wasn’t the first time she noticed it.

“Now she’s trying to distract me with a smile,” he told the room in a harassed tone and she giggled at him, put her cheek to his chest and hugged his waist.

“It’s nothing. It doesn’t matter,” she whispered.

And it didn’t. She’d figure it out, she always did. All that mattered was him and that they were together. If she needed to, as a very last resort, she could always ask for her last wish from Fazire.

“Lily.”

She slid her head up his chest and looked at the underside of his strong jaw.

“Yes?”

“You know you can tell me anything, yes?”

She didn’t answer but she nodded her head and his hand tightened where it was resting on her hip.

She sighed.

She would figure it out and everything would be fine.

The next day the mail came including Maxine’s bunch of forwarded post. It held the notice that an article she’d submitted to a magazine was to be published. It also included a cheque. It wasn’t a great deal of money but it would cover her mortgage and the minimum payments on all her cards.

Lily was ecstatic.

“I knew everything would be all right!” she told the living room and whirled around with her excitement.

The phone rang in mid-whirl and she grabbed it, beside herself with happiness.

It was, to her shock, and delight, Fazire.

“Fazire, oh Fazire, I’m so glad you called, I can’t wait –” she began.

But he interrupted her.

“Lily-child,” he said in a voice she’d never heard from the usually happy-go-lucky or sometimes pompous-know-it-all Fazire.

Her body froze at his tone and then when she heard what he had to say, it became rock solid.

“I’ll be there right away,” she assured her dear friend when he quit talking.

Then she hung up and stood frozen for what could have been a minute, it could have been an hour.

Then she flew into action.

She called Nate’s office but his secretary was not answering and Lily didn’t want to leave a message especially not this message. She called the airline, maxed out her credit card and got a ticket. She packed everything she owned because she didn’t have much at Nate’s and she’d likely need all she had.

Then she called Laura and, to her great misfortune, Danielle answered and told Lily that Laura wasn’t home.

“Can you ask her to phone me the minute she gets in? I’m leaving Nate’s in an hour.” She pulled in a breath and begged, “Danielle, I really need you to do this, it’s urgent.”

“No problem, I can take a message, you know,” Danielle retorted acidly.

Lily expressed her gratitude, suppressed her misgivings and swallowed down her tears.

She put the phone down, picked it right back up and called Nate again.

Still no answer on his work phone. He had no direct line, everyone went through his secretary and she called again three times, no answer each time.

She called Maxine and told her what had happened but didn’t stay on the phone for long just in case Nate or Laura called.

As the time slid by, Lily was becoming frantic. Laura didn’t call, Lily couldn’t get through to Nate and she had to get to Indiana immediately. She had to get to Fazire, he wouldn’t know what to do. He wasn’t even human. He was all alone in that rambling limestone house for the first time without his Becky.

She gulped down the emotion that swelled in her throat at the thought of her mother which led to thoughts of her father and she wrote a note to Nate. She was just signing it when the intercom rang, announcing someone was downstairs waiting to be let in.

Hoping it was Laura for a surprise visit, Lily flew to the intercom.

Seeing as it was the absolutely most unlucky day of her life, and that was an understatement, it was Jeff.

Lily’s heart plummeted.

“Lily, don’t hang up!” Jeff cried urgently. “I’m here to apologise. Promise. I was out of line.”

She hesitated, stared at the phone across the room for a moment, begging it to ring.

It didn’t.

Her last chance was telling Jeff. He at least seemed to like her unlike Danielle and he was there to apologise. Maybe he wasn’t the jerk she thought he was.

“Come on up Jeff,” she said and buzzed him in.

She had to leave in five minutes. She had her bags packed and at the door and while she was waiting for Jeff, she called the doorman to hail a cab for Heathrow.

There was a knock on the door and Lily moved to it to let him in. Jeff saw her bags immediately and his head snapped from them to her, his eyes alight.

She was too wired, trying to fight the tears crawling up her throat and her frenzy at needing to get word to Nate or Laura, to notice.

“What’s happened Lily?” he asked softly.

She stared at him and then it happened. The dam broke; she could hold it back no longer. She burst into tears. He pulled her into his arms and stroked her back.

“Tell me, Lily, tell me what he’s done,” he whispered encouragingly.

She just shook her head and said in a broken voice, “It’s not Nate. It’s my parents. They died in a plane crash yesterday. Both of them.”

His arms tightened.

“Oh Lily,” Jeff murmured and she could swear he actually sounded upset for her.

She pulled away, dashing her hands on her tear-stained cheeks.

“I have to go,” she announced urgently and looked at her watch. “Now!” she cried in panic. “I haven’t been able to get hold of Nate or your mother. Jeff, you must phone Nate. Tell him. You must. Please. Tell him I’ll call him later, in a few days. Promise me.”

His hand reached up and touched her cheek where a tear was sliding down.

“I promise,” he whispered.

She threw her arms around him and hugged him tight, “Thank you.”

Then she grabbed her bags and tore out the door to go home.

To Fazire.

Jeff watched the door slam behind Lily and saw the note on the table.

He calmly walked over and read it.

He thought, vaguely, that it was rather sad.

Then he bunched it in a ball and put it in his pocket.

Nate, he knew, was moving in a few days.

Lily just told him she wouldn’t call for a few days.

There wasn’t much time.

He walked through his brother’s posh flat and searched for anything that she may have left behind.

He found a bottle of perfume on a bureau, a pair of earrings on the bedside table and a lone nightgown, the only thing in an otherwise empty drawer.

That was it.

He shoved these in a trash bag, carried them out of the flat and deposited them in the first dustbin he found.

Then he called his sister.

Chapter Eleven Nate’s “Death”

“I think we should do it.”

Nate was at his desk and Victor was sitting across from him. They were going over some figures for a proposed deal that Victor very much wanted to do.

Nate was staring out the window and wondering what was wrong with Lily.

She was guarded, she was being secretive and there was something she wasn’t telling him.

He didn’t want to push her. After Jeff cornered her, she could have forced Nate to bare his soul about his past but she told him she’d wait until he was ready. Although he wanted to force her to share with him whatever was bothering her, he thought it best to take her cue and wait until she was ready to share.

Nate had no idea how to behave in a healthy relationship. He could easily cope with dysfunction, indifference, malice and greed but he was hopelessly out of his depth with Lily.

He knew she wanted more from him but it was something he couldn’t give. He didn’t want to do anything that would make her turn away, make the shining light that blazed in her eyes whenever she looked at him even dim, much less go away.

He had stood behind Lily and Jeff listening to Lily chose him, feeling for the first time in his life a fierce pride in himself that this magnificent creature would want him, would chose him. At the same time he wished for Jeff to tell her, tell her whatever it was he knew, tell her so it would be out in the open.

Jeff didn’t do it which was both a continued burden at the same time it was an immense relief.

Nate even entertained thoughts of packing her up, taking her away, going back to Indiana with her and leaving his past behind forever. He didn’t want to hang onto who he was anymore, he didn’t want it to destroy his life and what he hoped to build with Lily.

But he couldn’t do that, he could never leave. He owed everything he was to Victor and Laura and that came with Jeff and Danielle.

Nate was existing on borrowed time when it came to Lily.

Therefore, as always, he had a plan.

“Nathaniel?”

Nate’s head jerked around to look at his father and Victor lifted up the papers they were supposed to be going over as a reminder to his distracted son.

“No,” Nate stated flatly.

“You don’t want to do it?” Victor asked in disbelief.

“It’s too much of a risk.”

“Ho, ho, hoooo…” His father drew out his last “ho” grandly. “You’re getting soft.” He stared knowingly at Nate and Nate knew he meant Lily.

“Not soft, Victor. That deal’s a train wreck,” Nate responded calmly.

“Two weeks ago, you would have been all over this,” Victor volleyed.

“Two weeks ago, those papers were on my desk. I read through them and tossed them in the bin,” Nate returned.

Victor’s eyes rounded. “Jeff brought this to me two days ago.”

“Jeff wants the deal and I also told Jeff no.”

No more needed to be said about Jeff or the deal. Jeff had lost the company enough money making foolish decisions, not taking advice and not thinking things through

Nate, however, had been the driving force behind their success and both Victor and Jeff knew it. Victor was always a ruthless risk taker but it was Nate who assessed their options and advised the route. Victor always took Nate’s advice. Nate, in turn, had never been wrong and Victor had never been sorry.

Furthermore, Jeff was a sore subject for Nate especially after dinner the other night and Victor knew that as well. Knew it well enough to make certain that Nate didn’t see Jeff anywhere, not at the house or at the office.

Victor threw the dismissed papers on Nate’s desk and then sat back.

“So, no deal. Let’s talk about something else. How’s Lily?”

The phone rang in his outer office and no one answered it. His secretary was out sick and HR was having troubles getting a temp to replace her.

Nate ignored it and told his father, “She’s fine.”

“You gonna marry her?” Victor asked.

At this blunt query, Nate decided to turn his attention to the window again.

“Son, I asked you a question,” Victor said quietly but kindly. He was never menacing to Nate, as he still could be, very much so. Firstly, Nate wouldn’t respond to it. Secondly, Victor held Nate in too much esteem. Thirdly, Nate was not the type of man who could be menaced.

“I think Lily needs things to slow down,” Nate finally answered.

“Take my advice,” Victor said and Nate’s eyes shifted to him again, “get the girl pregnant. It worked for me with Laura.” After saying this, he grinned cheekily.

Nate nearly flinched at his words but he stopped himself.

“Victor, you’ve been married thirty years and Jeff’s twenty-eight.” Nate didn’t believe his father and thought he was being purposefully shocking to get his point across.

“She lost it. It was a boy,” Victor announced and Nate stared in stunned surprise as Victor’s jaw clenched. Nate had never heard this story. “She says it took her fourteen years to get him back.”

At these quiet words, Nate felt like Victor had punched him in the gut. He didn’t let on to this extreme reaction, he just nodded once to his father.

Then, the mood already turned, Victor decided to go with it.

“Laura was the best thing that happened to me. I was a thug, worse, and I had no business being with her. I knew it, Nathaniel, right to my bones. But nothing was going to stop me from having her, nothing. It wasn’t the right thing to do, fuck, wasn’t even the nice thing to do but I did it. I got her pregnant and I did it on purpose. I’d have done anything to bind her to me.”

Nate kept his silence and kept his outward calm but his father’s words were slamming into him like hammers.

“You and me, son, we’re a lot alike. I don’t know the way you process things because you’re a helluva lot smarter than me, but I know how you think.”

Nate turned his attention back to the window.

Then he told his father, “Lily was a virgin.”

“I know,” Victor replied.

Nate’s body stilled at this comment. Victor, somehow, always seemed to know everything.

Even though Nate didn’t ask, Victor went on to explain, “She confided in me you were her first date.”

Nate’s eyes turned again to his father at that bit of news. He could barely credit it.

As usual Victor seemed to know what Nate was thinking even though he hadn’t said a word. “I know, shocked me too but I swear she wasn’t lying. She was nervous as a cat.”

This made Nate smile.

Victor went on. “Lucky you had a motorcycle that broke the ice.” With that, Victor grinned at him.

Uncharacteristically, Nate decided a confidence was in order and he shared his plan.

“She hasn’t brought up the subject of birth control.”

Victor watched him closely. “I reckon you haven’t been seeing to it.”

Nate shook his head, this he also did once.

Victor beamed. “We think alike, you and me, always have.”

As Victor had said, it wasn’t the right thing to do and it certainly wasn’t a nice thing to do but Nate didn’t care. If he thought she was likely to leave him, he would have chained her to the bed. Making her pregnant would bind her to him for life. He knew that and he wanted it and he was going to do it.

If she was pregnant, she wouldn’t leave him. Family meant more to her than anything in the world. She made that perfectly clear, not only in the way she spoke of her own but in the way she treated his.

When she found out about him, whether he told her or Jeff told her or Victor or Laura let something slip, she wouldn’t be able to leave. She could move out now, divorce him if they were married, but she’d never break up a family. He, like his father, knew this to his very bones.

The phone rang again in the outer office.

“You gonna get that?” Victor asked, getting up from his chair.

“I’ve work to do, I want to be home early tonight.”

“Don’t blame you,” Victor muttered, lifted his hand casually in farewell and left.

Nate went to work.

He had no idea his life, for the second time in as many weeks, was about to be rocked to its very foundations.

Nate did get home early. He’d been meaning to tell Lily they were moving and had never gotten around to it. They always had much better things to do.

The movers would be there the next day to start packing and would be moving them the day after that. He wanted to talk to Lily about having them move whatever she needed from her house in Somerset.

However, he arrived home to an empty flat.

He hadn’t called her to tell her he was coming home early and expected she’d gone out somewhere. She was nearly obsessed with the idea of finding a job. Or she could be with Laura.

He picked up the phone and dialled his mother.

“Nathaniel, my dearest, I’m so glad you called. Would you and Lily like to come over for dinner next week?”

Nate was walking into the bedroom to change clothes and he stopped.

Then he froze.

“Nathaniel?” Laura called when he didn’t respond.

“Sorry, Laura, I’ll ring you back,” Nate murmured.

He pressed the button without listening to her good-bye and stared around the room.

Lily’s cosmetics were not messily piled on the bureau. He could smell her perfume but the bottle was gone.

He walked to the bathroom.

Her toothbrush and all the other bottles and jars (and Nate had noted there were a great number of them, the sight of this, he found to his surprise, made him feel an unusual sense of contentment), were gone.

He went back to the bedroom and pulled out one of the drawers she’d moved into.

It was empty.

He pulled out another one.

It, too, was empty.

He walked back into the living room and saw some mail on a table. She’d had another mess of post forwarded from her friend Maxine. It was all still there opened but left.

Nate noticed her mortgage was overdue as were two credit cards. Nate found this surprising and wondered, vaguely, why she hadn’t given them to him. He’d told her he’d take care of it, take care of everything. There was absolutely no reason her bills should be overdue.

There was also a letter written in a neat slightly creative handwriting. Her mother, telling Lily of the “latest antics” of Fazire and her excitement at their imminent holiday to Hawaii.

He got himself a drink and sat on the couch and waited.

After darkness had fallen, he smoked and drank more, a good deal more. He hadn’t had a cigarette since that night outside the front door of his parent’s home. Hadn’t even wanted one but he wanted one then.

She didn’t come home. She didn’t call.

Not that night, not the next.

The movers moved him and, on that day, he went to the address on her mortgage bill.

The town where she lived was smart and he could tell it was expensive by the number of BMWs, Mercedes and Jaguars parked in the drives.

Her house was right on the seafront, he could see from its position that there was a view of the Victorian pier from the back windows. He noted with detachment that it was a very fine piece of real estate, an excellent location. It was a terraced house, three stories at street level but likely another one set in the cliff. It was a lot of house for just Lily. It was also rather stately even if it looked from the outside a bit run down. She’d planted two enormous terracotta planters with a wealth of flowers and they sat on either side of the front door.

He knocked, looking to his left into a sun room that sat at the front of the house. It had mosaic tiled floors and wicker furniture in it with gaily printed cushions inviting you to sit. He was not in the mood to notice the furniture was not new and rather battered. He was not in the mood because no one answered. The house looked deserted.

Then he heard, “Are you looking for Lily?”

A neighbour had come out to walk her dog and Nate turned to the old lady. “Yes, is she here?”

“Nope, moved, moved back home I heard. Just up and left, gone back to America. Surprised me, she seemed a solid sort of girl. But there you go. You never know people.”

She kept walking her little dog and Nate watched her move down the small street Lily’s house was on. He watched her hit the wider pavement that edged the larger road that was the turn off to Lily’s street. He watched her as she disappeared down the steep hill toward the pier.

Then he got in his car and drove back to London.

Three days after Lily left, Nate moved into his new apartment, the same day he disconnected his old phone. His secretary took a leave of absence due to an unexpected extended illness.

His temporary secretary had never heard of Lily Jacobs. When she took the calls from the woman, she lost most of the messages under a pile of ones marked urgent (nearly all calls to Nate McAllister seemed to be urgent and the secretary simply couldn’t cope). She lost a lot of messages in the two weeks Nate put up with her, none of them nearly as urgent as the ones from Lily.

The ones Nate’s temp didn’t lose, Jeff stole.

Danielle was awash with delight at the strange abrupt exit of Lily. So much so, weeks later, she made her last, desperate attempt at capturing his heart by seducing his body. He’d been so revolted and he’d told her, in more words than he would normally use, exactly what he thought of her. Unbeknownst to him, five minutes after he pulled his Maserati out from in front of his parent’s house after this somewhat dramatic scene, Lily had walked up the stoop for the last time with her beloved Fazire. It was very unfortunate timing as, at that moment Lily was the last person on earth Danielle Roberts wanted to see. And anyway, Danielle and her brother had prepared well for this moment.

Victor and Laura were, at first, confused then worried then they both became angry at Lily’s unexplained departure. Surprisingly, for the first time in Nate’s life, he saw Laura’s anger turn to rage and it didn’t blow itself out in a matter of minutes. She seemed to nurse it for days, weeks, even, if Lily’s name ever came up in conversation (usually by Jeff), years.

Jeff was also quite happy and very smug about Lily’s departure. He knew something; Nate understood this by the way Jeff acted. At first he was cagey and jumpy as if he expected whatever he did to backfire which happened often with Jeff. But when it didn’t the smugness was complete and it, too, lasted for years.

Nate knew that Jeff told Lily about his past life, how his relationship started with Jeff’s father and she ran. She had told him that nothing Jeff could say would change how she felt about him but she had lied.

Nate was well acquainted with people who lied. This didn’t surprise him one bit. A glorious, twenty-two year old virgin from Indiana who probably lived in a palatial home that looked like a plantation (at least, this is where Nate saw her in his mind whenever he thought about her, which was a great deal for the first few months but later, as a well-honed defence mechanism, not at all, or at least, not during daylight hours) and had been cosseted and sheltered all her life, confronted with what Nate was…

She was probably still showering to wash away the filth of him.

The day Lily Jacobs found out her parents died was the day the Nate McAllister that she’d breathed new life into died.

He found new women, none of them a single thing like Lily. His father became Chairman of the Board while Nate took over as CEO. He bought an enormous penthouse apartment and commissioned an even bigger bed.

And he slept in it, in the rare times he slept at home, alone (or, at least, most of the time).