Chapter 4
4
M y dress for dinner had been selected by Mom’s wedding planner, and I’d been strong-armed into wearing it for the sake of color scheme balance or some shit, but I felt like the worst kind of imposter as I strode into the restaurant in a lavender satin dress that cost more than six months of my rent.
“Ashley, is that you?” an elegant silver-haired woman gasped as I approached the private dining room that’d been booked for the dinner.
I smiled in delight, holding out my arms. “Nana Grace, don’t act like you don’t recognize me.”
She gave a chuckle, sweeping me into a hug clouded with Chanel No. 5 perfume. “I was just shocked to see you out of jeans, darling girl. You look phenomenal.” My grandmother released me and held me at arm’s length to take in my gown. Strapless and corseted, with a draped skirt and high slit up my thigh, it was significantly more sophisticated than I usually dressed. “Goodness, you are a showstopper. You must get your looks from my genes, of course.”
I laughed loudly at that, since she was my granddad’s second wife—Mom’s stepmom—and not blood-related to me at all. “Of course. How was rehearsal?”
Nana Grace shrugged. “Boring, to be fair, but these things always are. Let’s get you a drink before you join the table. Some of Max’s family are a whole handful without a little liquor to soften the blow.”
I had only met a few of them, but I could imagine. So I accompanied my grandmother to the bar and told her all about the trials and tribulations of my cramped living situation while we waited for the bartender to mix us up classic daiquiris—Nana Grace’s favorite.
We’d just received our drinks and started back toward the dining room when I caught sight of someone strangely familiar.
Was that…? No. Surely not.
“Ashley? Is everything okay?” Nana Grace asked, touching my elbow gently.
I blinked rapidly, the familiar person disappearing from view. “Hmm? Oh, sorry. I thought I saw a client from work but that would be insane. Sorry, I think I’m just stressed and tired.”
Nana Grace scoffed. “Of course you are, sweetheart. You share a bedroom with two other girls on opposing schedules. I’m amazed you lasted this long. What date do you move into the dorms at Nevaeh?”
My jaw dropped, the familiar guy forgotten. “You knew about the scholarship?”
She grinned, wicked as hell. “Who do you think found it and pushed your mother into seeing it through?”
A light bell tinkled and one of the servers politely asked us to take our seats, so that conversation would need to wait for later. We made our way into the huge dining room and browsed the extravagantly decorated table to find our place cards. Nana was a few places along from where mine was, right beside Mom.
Just as I was about to pull my chair out, someone reached over and plucked my name card off the plate, switching it for Suzette Marie—Mom’s best friend and bridesmaid.
“Uh, excuse me?” I protested, confused and annoyed.
“Sorry, Ash, that wedding planner is making mistakes all over the place. You’re down here,” the guy responded, turning away before I could get a good look at him. He carried my name card farther down the table and set it back down on the seat that must have been Suzette’s, then turned to smile at me.
Or smirk. That smile definitely wasn’t a friendly one.
“Thanks, I guess,” I muttered, already uncomfortable. He was handsome, no question about it, an easy head taller than me even in the high heels I wore, with a rich burnt-toffee brown hair that matched Max’s perfectly. “Nate, I presume?”
His smirk widened and his whiskey-brown gaze raked over my body in a decidedly unbrotherly sort of way. “You’re not as dumb as you look, that’s a relief. Sit down, Sister . The happy couple is about to arrive.”
I rolled my eyes. I knew it was all too good to be true with how lovely Max was. Of course his son was an entitled brat who couldn’t handle sharing his daddy.
“We’re both adults, Nate. How about we act like it, hmm?” I placed my cocktail down on the table, then slid into my seat as though he didn’t exist. Fuck that petty nonsense. Our parents had been dating for years and we’d never met, so I saw no need for us to suddenly play happy family. After the wedding, we could go back to six degrees of separation.
He clearly didn’t like being dismissed, because he made an irritated huff as he pulled out the chair right beside me and sat down himself. Damn it. Why bother swapping my seat with Suzette if he was just going to be an asshole?
“Nathaniel, darling!” the woman in question trilled, approaching where we sat. “Don’t you look just delicious in that suit?”
My brows shot right the fuck up. Was my mom’s friend hitting on Max’s twenty-four-year-old son? Wow. Maybe the seat swap wasn’t about me after all.
“Suzette, lovely to see you,” Nate replied, not standing to greet her properly. “I believe you’re sitting beside Carina.” He waved in the direction we’d come from, clearly dismissing her.
I tipped my head to see Suzette’s reaction, but Mom’s friend had her sultry gaze pinned on Nate instead. Was there…history?
She leaned down and whispered something to Nate that I couldn’t hear, but his jaw clenched hard enough I could see it. Interesting.
“Not interested in Mrs. Robinson?” I murmured as Suzette sashayed away, unable to curb my curiosity. Nate’s sharp gaze snapped to me, and I met his unflinchingly. If he thought I’d turn into a simpering mess at a few hard glances, he was sorely mistaken.
After a tense moment, he blinked and looked away. “Something like that.”
A wolf whistle rang out and I rose to my feet along with everyone else to clap as my mom and Max made their way to their seats in the middle of the table, all smiles and looking amazing.
When I went to sit again, Nate pushed my chair in for me and I frowned my confusion his way. He ignored me, though, tucking himself into the table and reaching for his glass of water.
Two seats remained empty opposite us, along with one to my other side, and I leaned over to see what name was on my absent neighbor’s plate.
Carter Bassington Jr.
I rolled my eyes. Why did wealthy families always give their kids such wanky names?
“Ah, there’s my seat,” a man said just a moment later, and from the corner of my eye, I caught sight of a deeply tanned hand pulling the chair out from the table. “Oh, this is a nice change to the seating chart, Nate. I thought we were stuck with Cougar-Marie all night?”
I shifted in my seat to look at the newcomer who had a definite British accent and was currently eyeing me up like I was the main course meal. Fucking hell, wanky name or not, he was hot . Tanned skin, black hair, twinkling dark blue eyes, and the hint of a tattoo showing at the edge of his collar… I found myself staring until Nate draped his arm over my shoulder.
“Carter, I don’t think you’ve met the newest member of our family? This is Ashley .” The way he purred my name made my skin prickle. What was his problem? He was too damn old to be jealous of his daddy not paying him enough attention.
Carter plucked my hand up from the table and pressed his lips to my knuckles, making my brain momentarily short-circuit and my pulse quicken. “It’s such a pleasure, Ashley. We’ve been hearing so very much about you.”
My eyes widened, and I couldn’t seem to withdraw my hand from his warm grip. “You have?” I asked instead, puzzled.
“Oh yes,” he replied, those beautiful eyes sparkling. “We know all the juicy details.”
Huh?
“Like mother, like daughter, hmm?” Nate added, his arm still over my shoulders and his fingertips stroking across my bare collarbone. “At least now I know what the going rate is.”
What?
I tugged my fingers free of Carter’s grip and shrugged Nate off my shoulders. “What the hell are you?—”
My words broke off as I nearly swallowed my own tongue in shock. Now I wished I’d paid more attention to that familiar face I thought I’d seen.
“What time do you call this, boys?” Max called out as the two remaining guests took their seats opposite me.
“Sorry, Max!” the blond one called back, but I was too stunned to blink.
“How rude of us,” Nate purred. “Ashley, this is Royce D’Arenberg and Heathcliff Briggs—oh, wait, you already met Heath, didn’t you? Intimately .”
Oh god. The massage appointment…the proposition…it was all a setup. He’d booked that session knowing exactly who I was and used a fake surname for what ? Then it clicked. Heath had tried to pay me for sexual favors which would, by definition, make me a whore. Exactly what Nate was implying.
Rage filled my chest and I glared death at the man who’d starred in far too many of my dirty dreams over the past month. I should have fucking known it was too good to be true.
“I don’t know what you told your little friends, Heathcliff , but you and I both know nothing happened.” Apart from that kiss . My glare narrowed and my lip curled with disgust. “How pathetic of you all that you need to try and pay a woman for that sort of attention…and how embarrassing that you got turned down. Try harder next time.”
A dark, cold expression crossed his face as he stared back at me, not speaking even a word to address my correction of whatever bullshit he’d sold his friends. He just sat there, slouched in his seat like he was king of the damn world, totally at ease. Except for his eyes. He was staring at me like no one else even existed in the room.
“Ah, so you want us to believe that Heath lied to us, hmm?” Nate drawled the words like I was telling a funny joke.
I shrugged, breaking eye contact with Heath to look at Nate in disdain. “I don’t much care what you believe, Nathaniel. You clearly have your panties in a bunch about daddy remarrying, but that’s an issue for you and your therapist—nothing to do with me. Now, since I’m not a masochist, I think I’ll find somewhere else to sit.” I pushed my seat back and stood. “I wish I could say it was lovely to meet you all, but frankly I’ve had more pleasant experiences stepping in dog shit.”
Royce—the blond who’d arrived with Heath—snickered, then quickly covered it with his hand. Not that I stuck around to wait for a response. Instead I picked up my drink and strode away from the silly little rich boys and their childish taunts.
“Ash, is everything okay?” Mom asked as I approached her and Max. “Are the boys being kind?” The edge of worry in her tone said she already knew what an asshole Nate was and had never warned me. Nor had she warned me that Nate came as a package deal.
Great, more secrets. As if hiding an eight-year affair with her hot boss wasn’t enough.
In fairness, Mom and Max had suggested I bring a friend myself, but for one thing, I’d planned on bringing my dad…and for another, I had no close friends.
“Nothing I can’t handle,” I reassured her. “I hate to do this when I already skipped the rehearsal itself, but I’m actually feeling a bit headachy. Would you be upset if I left?”
“Of course not, honey, don’t be silly! Go to bed, get some rest. You don’t want that turning into a migraine. I will need you tomorrow.” Mom gave me a worried frown, then glanced at the drink in my hand. “Alcohol won’t help, Ash.”
My face heated. “Oh, I was just taking this to Nana Grace.”
The frown melted off Mom’s face instantly. “You sweet girl. Go, get some rest. I’ll see you in the morning.”
She and Max both gave me a quick hug, then I made my speedy exit from the dining room. The second I was out of sight, I drained my cocktail in one gulp, then nearly choked on the acidic drink when someone grabbed my arm.
The glass smashed as it hit the floor, but my attacker whisked me into the cloakroom before anyone could connect me with the breakage.
“Nate, what the hell?” I spluttered, coughing a little from the droplets of daiquiri I’d inhaled. “Did I not make myself clear enough? I have no interest in your schoolyard bullying crap.”
In the dimly lit cloakroom, it was hard to make out his expression, but the way he had me boxed in against the wall didn’t bode well.
“I’m almost impressed, Ash,” he murmured, leaning way too close into my personal space. “You must be good at poker with how convincing a liar you are, but you forgot one thing.”
I scoffed. “Oh, really? And what’s that?”
He leaned in closer, his breath feathering my ear as he replied. “You cashed the check.”
My pulse raced and my breath hitched. It sure didn’t look good, and it was way too much money for a tip without anything extra. There was no use in denying it, though. For all I knew, the money had come directly from Nate himself.
“Nice car, by the way,” he told me, pushing back and opening the door. “That paint must have been a bitch to match.”
My jaw dropped, but he was gone before I could reply. That mother fucker was the one who’d keyed my car!