Chapter 16
16
N ate’s furious face greeted me as I stepped out of Carter’s chauffeur-driven car and took the hand he offered me for balance. With the pencil-thin heels of my new stilettos, I needed the hand, and since he’d been a perfect gentleman for the whole drive, I didn’t hesitate.
“Is this a fucking joke, Bass?” Nate demanded in a strangled growl, his left eye practically twitching with fury as he gave me a once-over. Then his eyes widened ever so slightly as he did it again. For a scarce moment, his lips parted in surprise, then Carter tugged me forward and slammed the car door shut, breaking the spell.
“Are you laughing?” Carter responded, not seeming to have noticed the shift in Nate’s mood. He touched a light, gentlemanly hand to the small of my back and nudged me to walk with him…leaving Nate to follow or fuck off.
Nate let out a furious sound, following. “Clearly fucking not.”
Carter gave a small shrug. “Well then, I guess it’s not a joke. Doesn’t your new sister look just divine in Portia Levigne Couture?”
“Bass, don’t fucking walk away when I’m talking to you,” Nate barked, reaching out to grab Carter’s shoulder.
Even I could have told him that was a bad move, but it was Nate, so I found it hard to care when Carter whirled around and grabbed him by the front of his dress shirt. Unlike when I’d been on the receiving end of Carter’s light switch mood change, Nate didn’t flinch.
“Watch your fucking tone, Essex,” Carter snarled, radiating violence.
Nate just shoved him back, dislodging Carter’s grip on his shirt. “Eat a dick, Bass. I kicked your ass when we were twelve and I’ll do it again now.”
As much as I wanted to see Nate get his face ground into the pavement—because my money was on Carter—we were drawing a lot of attention and a familiar couple had just exited a Rolls-Royce Phantom farther along the drop-off line.
“Unless you want Max to see those true colors of yours, Nate,” I spoke up, quickly stepping between the two of them before Carter could retaliate, “I suggest you rein in your toddler tantrum.”
He paused, brows pinched as he looked at me with confusion. Then when I tipped my head to the left, his gaze followed. The instant shift in his expression and posture said he’d spotted our parents, and he quickly smoothed a hand over his rumpled shirt.
“Nathaniel, Carter,” Max greeted the boys as he approached with my mother on his arm. “I trust we aren’t interrupting a physical altercation?”
Nate glared at Carter over my head, then pasted on a tight smile for his father. “Not at all. Carter just lost his balance, is all. I suspect he’s been drinking again.”
Max gave a heavy sigh. “Carter, son, we talked about this…”
Carter snaked a hand around my waist, his palm flat on my stomach as he pulled me back a step into his embrace. “Max, I wouldn’t dare drink while responsible for this lovely creature.”
Max’s eyes widened and he gave a startled noise. “Ashley? Good lord, sweetheart, I didn’t even recognize you.”
My mother had, though, and was giving me a sly smirk. “Of course you didn’t, darling, but she looks magnificent, doesn’t she?”
Max’s cheeks flamed with embarrassment and he gave me a sheepish smile. “Sorry, honey. I’m used to the boys bringing rather painful girls to these events. You’re here together?” He glanced at Carter’s hand on my stomach and then cast a puzzled glance to my mom.
She just shrugged and tugged his arm gently. “Come on, leave the kids. I just saw Henry and Alice arrive.” To me she gave a warm, reassuring smile. “Ash, you look just divine.”
“She gets it from her mother,” Carter purred, and my mom barked a laugh.
“Charmer,” she accused, grinning. “Come on, Max.”
They continued up the main stairs of the enormous mansion home, and no one spoke for a minute. Then Carter gave me a gentle nudge to walk with him, ignoring Nate entirely as he led me toward the entry foyer where Mom and Max had just disappeared.
“This discussion isn’t over,” Nate snarled from behind us.
Carter’s response was to extend his middle finger and continue walking.
“What was that all about?” I asked once we reached the top of the stairs and waited for the people ahead of us to check their names off the guest list. “I had the impression the four of you were thick as thieves. Brothers.”
He glanced down at me, one dark brow lifted. “We are.”
“Okay…so the fact you nearly came to blows back there was?—”
He chuckled. “Nate’s all bark, no bite. He wouldn’t risk messing up his pretty face again, and he knows I’d leave a mark.”
“That…is sort of my point.”
The couple ahead of us moved inside, and Carter announced our names to the host to mark off on the guest list. I was surprised to hear he used my name, and not plus one, but maybe that was the gala’s requirement.
“Nathaniel is very upset that I brought you as my date tonight,” he elaborated once we were inside the foyer. “Possibly even more upset than Heathcliff, but for different reasons.”
A cold stab of anxiety lanced through my gut at the mention of Heath. He was here somewhere with Jade of all fucking people. “And that’s a good thing because…?”
“Because my friends don’t think straight when they’re worked up, which means they aren’t putting their full efforts into the Society Challenge.” He spoke softly, keeping his volume low enough that it felt like a secret. Like he was telling me things I shouldn’t know. It gave me a weird, fluttery feeling. “And that means that we , Ashley dear, are going to win.”
Okay. I was intrigued. “What do we win?”
Carter’s sexy grin spread wide as he met my eyes. “The satisfaction of beating Nate, Spark. Don’t tell me that’s not enough for you—I can see the desire to take him down a peg written all over your pretty face.”
My answering smile no doubt told him everything he needed to know. “What do we need to do?”
“All in good time, beautiful. For now, we attend the gala. Do you dance?” He gestured toward the handful of elaborately dressed couples literally waltzing around a ballroom. An actual honest-to- fuck ballroom. I had no idea they even existed in this century, but my mind quickly noted that the mansion itself was likely built in a time when balls were more common.
I shook my head. “I do not.” A passing waitress offered her tray, and I reached for a glass of champagne, then hesitated. “Am I okay to drink?”
Carter rolled his eyes, taking two glasses off the tray. “Nate’s a dick,” he said, handing me a glass. “I had a very brief substance abuse problem when we were seventeen. Not alcohol. But Max was my legal guardian at the time and got more than a few calls from our school. He assumed it was booze and I never corrected him.”
Surprise held my tongue for a moment and I took a sip of the champagne in my gloved hand. Carter just watched me, waiting for a reaction, so I cleared my throat and said what I was thinking.
“You’re being very open and honest tonight, Carter. Why?”
His lips curved. “I don’t believe in secrets, Spark. They only serve as ammunition for those who want to hurt you. Better to lay everything out there and give them nothing to work with. Ah look, here comes your boyfriend. ” The pointed twist to that word made me groan.
We’d been wandering while talking and had made it across the ballroom but still had a clear view of the entry foyer. Sure enough, Heath had just arrived, looking stiff and pissed off with Jade pasted to his side. As I watched, she batted her long lashes up at him, saying something as lights danced off the heavy jewels around her throat.
“Want to know how I guessed you were faking it?” Carter murmured in my ear, making me jolt out of the trance I’d slipped into as I stared.
I wet my lips, purposefully turning my back on Heath and Jade. Out of sight, out of mind. Right?
“Sure. How?”
“Oh, I asked if you wanted to know. I never said I was going to tell you.” He held my gaze as he sipped his own drink, smug as all hell.
I rolled my eyes. “What happened to not keeping secrets, hmm?”
“I’m not keeping secrets, I’m strategically withholding information. Big difference.” His dark blue eyes flicked away from mine, observing someone behind me. “Just a word of warning, Spark, physical altercations at these events are deeply frowned upon. If you want to bitch slap Jade, you’ll need to save it for another day.”
I scoffed a laugh. “She’ll get more than just a bitch slap from me if she starts anything, and you know it.”
His gaze flicked back to me with a heat that made me inhale sharply, but whatever he might have said was rudely interrupted by Jade’s nails-on-chalkboard voice.
“What is she doing here?” she demanded as I turned to look. “This event isn’t for initiates.”
Carter’s brows lifted, but it was Heath who grabbed Jade’s arm in what seemed like a painful grip. “Keep your fucking voice down,” he snapped.
She gave a pathetic little whine that made my eyes want to roll right back in my head, but Royce captured my attention as he arrived into the ballroom looking like he’d stepped right out of a GQ Regency shoot. He didn’t seem to have a date with him as he sauntered across to join us and snagged a glass of champagne on the way.
“Well, this is an interesting development,” he murmured, eyeing me up and down. Slowly. “How fun. Where’s Nate?”
Heath seemed to be trying to stare a hole through my head, but I was deliberately not looking back at him and, by default, found myself meeting Royce’s unreadable eyes. Was he mad to see me here like everyone else was? His expression gave nothing away but somehow I had the feeling he was amused.
“Here he is,” Carter commented, nodding toward the foyer. As I shifted my eyes off Royce, Carter’s arm went back around my waist, his palm flat over my stomach in the possessive way he’d held me outside. What was up with that?
Royce noticed it too, giving Carter’s hand a pointed look, then raising an eyebrow in question at his friend. Then his gaze shifted to Heath, and a somewhat-cruel, knowing smile curved his lips. Great. Now I was really starting to feel like a pawn on a chessboard I couldn’t even make sense of.
Nate still looked like he was in a foul mood as he crossed the ballroom to join us, a pretty but somewhat dazed-looking, blond girl clinging to his hand all the while. She wore a pale pink taffeta ball gown like some kind of fairytale princess, but the state of her hair and smudged lipstick suggested she wasn’t as innocent as her outfit.
“Paigey!” Jade squealed in delight, dropping Heath’s arm to embrace the blond girl. “Thank goodness you’re here, I was starting to worry I’d be stuck with the trailer trash all night.”
Oh good, now I was trailer trash.
Nate’s girlfriend gave me a cold, lifeless glance, then tucked her arm through Jade’s to walk away from us all. Paige leaned in to say something to her friend, and Jade let out a high-pitched giggle as the two of them sashayed away across the ballroom together.
In their wake, none of the four guys spoke. The silence stretched long enough that it became uncomfortable, and I puffed a short sigh.
“Well. I think that’s my cue to leave too,” I muttered, peeling Carter’s hand off my dress.
“Don’t go far,” Carter told me in a low murmur. “We have a big night ahead of us.”
I didn’t reply, but that fucking fluttery feeling started up inside me again. What was that all about?