Chapter 4
NATHAN
The San Francisco sun blazing through the vast panels of glass in my bedroom is what wakes me up.
I’m slightly dazed, and then it hits me at once with the force of a tornado.
Ari.
The phenomenal woman I spent the night with.
Patting the other side of the bed, which is cold, I quickly roll over and confirm I’m alone. Disappointment washes over me like a rain shower on a sunny day. It’s unexpected and I’m unprepared for the thick emotion building in my throat.
I wish she hadn’t snuck out.
Grabbing my cell off the nightstand to check the time, I scrub a hand over my face to wake up. Eight o’clock. “Shit.” It’s the latest I’ve slept in years, which is likely due to the siren that screamed my name until the early hours of the morning.
For someone who said they hate lawyers, she sure didn’t complain when she was sucking my cock.
She even told me how good I tasted and how perfect my dick was.
That is the first time a woman has ever told me that, and I didn’t miss how she mumbled to herself about how it was made just for her, then told herself to shut up, which I found amusing.
Maybe she’s right, because it felt like it was made for her.
But that can’t be right, can it?
As weariness set in, she seemed perfectly content nuzzling into me before falling asleep in my arms.
One, I never have women stay over, and two, I’m not someone who snuggles, but with her, it felt good.
Right, even.
I’m drawn to her not just for her beauty or because I lack anything in my life, but her energy and that fucking smart mouth of hers drives my dick wild.
She’s different.
Forget her—you don’t have time for a woman in your life.
I throw back the comforter and storm across the room, then pull on a pair of boxers before heading out of my bedroom to search for the woman I hope is still here and who I appear to have a new obsession with.
Moving into the open space of the living area, I stop in my tracks then hide behind a pillar and watch in amusement as Ari struggle to find her clothes.
“Where the hell are my panties?” She hops up and down on one leg as she puts on one of her heels and then the other, her long dark hair swishing everywhere as she runs around. “Pull yourself together, Arianna.”
I roll her full name over my tongue, testing how it feels. “Arianna.” It’s pretty, like her.
I’m fascinated by everything about her and I watch on, mesmerized as she comes to a standstill and holds her hands out on either side of her.
Taking a deep breath, she surveys the space before smoothing down the fabric of her red dress that kisses her sinful curves.
“Screw it. Who needs panties anyway?” She shakes her head, grabs her purse, and makes her way to the elevator, making her heels ricochet off the marble floor.
“Shit,” she curses before walking on her tiptoes.
Oh, she clearly does not want to be caught sneaking out.
Normally I struggle to get rid of the women I choose to keep me company, not that I do that very often. In fact, it’s been so long since I have, I can’t even recall when I last had sex, and Ari creeping out is a complete surprise to me.
Not one I like. In fact, I fucking despise it.
It’s Saturday, which means I’m playing tennis with my brothers this morning then working later but I’d rather cancel my plans and spend the day with her, because I want to get to know her better.
Wishful thinking? Maybe.
A pipe dream? Definitely.
I’ve never had these thoughts before.
Odd.
I don’t think I like them.
There is no time for a woman in my life; that’s why I never got married. I didn’t even come close. I never found someone I could see myself committing to.
She would have to be something kind of wonderful to put up with my manic hours and enormous workload and possibly raise children by herself.
I never wanted to inflict that on anyone and that’s why I vowed to stay single forever, despite what my mother expects.
I watched her raise me and my three younger brothers single-handed while my father worked his ass off to build the law firm we all now work for.
We employ hundreds of lawyers, making us one of the largest law firms in the country, but he made sacrifices and was never around.
He missed every baseball and football game my brothers played, and he never once made one of my tennis matches.
Since I took over running the firm alongside my three brothers, I understand why he was never home before midnight and only took one vacation a year: the firm demands your time; all of it. Between cases, I barely have the time to sleep. There’s no space for anything else, let alone a wife.
Working long hours is how kings are made, and I don’t need a queen.
Although, weirdly, settling down with someone is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, which is stupid of me, when I know it’s not an idea I should entertain given my career; however, having been invited to more weddings than I have digits in the last year, I’ve started to wonder recently if I’m missing out on something.
If all my friends are getting married to their soulmate and finding love, maybe there is something more to the whole marriage thing they have become obsessed with.
It doesn’t matter because that’s not meant for me. It can’t be.
And I’m not a sheep—I lead and don’t follow.
Remaining silent, I hang back in Ari’s blind spot, carefully watching her.
“Come on.” She presses the call button repeatedly as if that will make the elevator come quicker.
While staring at the digital counter, she shakes her knees back and forth nervously.
The whirling sound of the elevator signals its arrival, and it chimes before the doors open.
“Silence,” she hisses, her finger motioning toward the elevator doors. “You’re going to ruin my escape.”
I curl my lips. Without even knowing it, she’s funny.
The doors whir open, revealing my three brothers standing inside, and their loud and overlapping voices instantly go quiet as they have a stare-off with Ari.
There’s a beat of silence and I see the power she has over them.
She’s breathtaking and one look from her can render you speechless.
Something that happened to me several times last night.
Specifically, when she was sucking my cock like she couldn’t get enough of me and looked up at me with those big eyes of hers.
She wasn’t just doing it to please me, it was because she was enjoying it and needed more as she turned herself around and sat on my face and sucked me until I couldn’t see or think straight before she came all over my tongue.
What a rush.
Why the hell am I letting her leave?
Because it was only one night, you fucking asshole.
I do not and will never do commitment.
“Fantastic,” Ari mutters under her breath before she says a polite “Morning.” Nodding her head in the direction of the elevator, she points to it. “I was just leaving.”
Eventually, Max, who is younger than me by four years, is the first to jump into action and exit. “Right, yeah. Good morning.” He coughs.
Then my youngest brother, Cole, awkwardly steps out of the elevator, following Max and avoiding eye contact with Ari. “Sorry. We, were just…”
“Please ignore my brothers’ bad manners.” Eli, who is seven years younger than me, trails behind them, apologizing for their stunned awkwardness. “Morning, ma’am.” I don’t miss the way his gaze drifts over her curves.
“Oh, these must be yours.” Sounding surprised, Max hooks his finger into a pair of panties hanging from the side lamp on the entry table and holds them out for Ari to take, the amusement in his tone evident.
Turning brighter than a strawberry, she whips the sliver of red silk off his finger and scrunches it into a ball inside her clenched fist. “Please pretend you didn’t see that.” Her gaze bounces back and forth between my three brothers who are looking back at her.
Max holds his hands up in mock surrender. “I have no idea what you’re referring to.”
“Great.” She steps inside the elevator, and I take this moment to reveal myself and say goodbye.
Her face pales as I come to a full stop just outside the doors. I cross my arms, plant my feet firmly, and lock my gaze on her. “Arianna.”
“Nathaniel.” She holds her chin high, and I take note of the way she checks my physique out before the doors slide closed.
Then she’s gone.
Why do I wish she was staying?
“Who the fuck was the siren?”
Max.
“Spill the tea or whatever the fucking saying is.”
Eli.
“Please tell me you got her number?”
Cole.
I could do without playing tennis with the three stooges this morning.
Ignoring their line of questioning, I deal with them the best way I know how. “No. No. No.” I point at each one of them and walk back to my bedroom. “I’ll be ready in ten minutes.”
Eli sounds exasperated when he says, “He’s a killjoy these days.”
“What do you mean, these days? Hasn’t he always been a mood vampire? And anyway, at least someone is getting their dick wet,” Cole grumbles.
Max jumps in on the defense. “Hey, I have no complaints.”
“Man whore,” I mutter to myself and walk inside my bedroom that smells like sex, sin and reeks of her perfume that I wish I knew the name of.
I’m never having my sheets washed.
What the hell is wrong with me?
“Enough now.” I rub my temples, then push my boxers down my hips and step out of them, and jump in the shower to scrub away my stupidity, instantly regretting it when the scolding water hits me, because for some reason I hate that I don’t want to wash her off me.
Maybe I’ll bump into her again.
Maybe not.
San Francisco is a big city and I’ve never seen her before.
I bang my fist against the tiled wall, mad at myself for not asking for her number.
Although she was sneaking off, which tells me everything I need to know; she’s not interested in anything more than one night.
And that hurts more than I care to admit.
Oh well, here’s to never seeing the only woman I’ve ever felt excited about.
I’m better off being alone anyway.
And did she just call me Nathaniel?
No one calls me that except my mother.
Though, I guess it doesn’t take a genius to figure out Nathan comes from Nathaniel.