Chapter Seventeen
MARLEY
I need a moment away from the perfection.
Away from Nitro in that tuxedo that makes him look like he stepped off a runway. Away from Derek’s eyes, tracking us across the ballroom like a predator watching his prey.
The balcony is blessedly empty, just me and the Vegas Strip glittering below like a constellation of broken promises. I grip the railing, trying to steady my breathing.
“There you are.”
Derek’s voice makes every muscle in my body tense. I don’t turn around. “I’m not in the mood, Derek.”
“Too bad.” He moves closer, his expensive cologne choking me. “We need to talk about your boyfriend. Tell me, Marley, you think a guy who looks like that actually wants you? This is obviously for show.”
The words land exactly where he intends them to. “You don’t know anything about us.”
“I know you.” His eyes rake over me with clinical cruelty. “You’re still the same girl who couldn’t lose weight if her life depended on it. You really think someone like him is interested in all…” he gestures dismissively at my body, “… this? Come on! He’s probably being paid to escort you.”
My hands shake on the railing. “You’re so unfairly cruel.”
“I’m honest. I tried to motivate you to be better, and this is how you repay me? Parading some fake relationship in my face?”
“It’s not fake,” I say, but uncertainty creeps into my voice.
“Isn’t it? You’ve known him what, a few weeks?”
“Choose your next words very carefully.” Nitro’s voice cuts through the night like a blade. He stands in the doorway, filling the entire frame, and his face is carved from stone, cold and furious in a way that makes even Derek hesitate.
Derek turns, his bravado faltering. “We were having a civil conversation.”
“No.” Nitro moves forward, each step deliberate, and Derek actually steps back. “You were tearing down a woman who’s worth ten of you. That’s not a civil conversation. That’s you being a fucking coward who can’t handle that she’s moved on to someone better.”
Derek’s face flushes. “Who do you think you are—”
“Her boyfriend,” Nitro states, his voice deadly calm.
“The one who sees exactly how incredible she is. How brilliant. How beautiful. Every single curve, every quirk, everything you were too blind, stupid, and immature to appreciate. Now get the hell away from her before I forget we’re at a professional event. ”
Derek looks as though he might argue, but then he sees something in Nitro’s expression that makes him reconsider. “You’re both making a mistake,” he mutters, backing toward the door. “Don’t come crying to me when your little arrangement falls apart.”
He disappears inside, and suddenly it’s just us and the city lights.
“You okay?” Nitro asks, his voice immediately softening.
“No.” I turn to face him, and all the confusion, hurt, and anger from the past few hours come rushing up. “Derek just said everything I’ve been thinking since we started this arrangement. That you’re too good to be true. That this can’t possibly be real.”
Nitro closes the distance between us, his hands coming up to cup my face with devastating gentleness. “Marley… my feelings for you are real. You can’t fake a chemistry like ours. Tell me you believe that?”
He’s right, you can’t fake the way my body ignites around him.
The way he lights up around me. The way my day is always better when he is in it.
So, do I believe him? I have to. “I believe you about your feelings,” I say finally, my voice steady even though everything inside me feels like shaking.
“But Derek makes me question everything. I hate that he does that.”
Nitro’s shoulders relax just a fraction, relief flickering through his expression.
“Right now…” I continue, sliding my hand into the crook of his arm and lifting my chin. “We are going to go out there and show Derek exactly what he lost.”
Nitro’s lips twitch into a slow, dangerous smile.
And yeah, I’m concerned whether this is real.
And yeah, the age gap is a concern.
But tonight?
Tonight, I’m not giving Derek one more ounce of power.
Relief floods his face. “Whatever you need. Whenever you’re ready.”
I straighten my shoulders, feeling something settle deep inside me, solid and certain.
“Right now, I want to dance with you in front of everyone and make damn sure that bastard knows this is real. That you’re mine, and I’m yours.
” My throat works around the next part. “And then… then we’ll go home and figure out the rest.”
Nitro’s breath catches. Not visibly, not theatrically, but in that subtle way where his chest freezes for half a second as if the world just shifted. There’s understanding in his eyes, and something darker, hungrier, fiercer.
“You sure?” he rumbles, voice low, as though he’s giving me one last chance to run.
But I’m done running.
“I’m sure I don’t want to risk whatever this is between us,” I say, my pulse thundering in my ears. All that matters is the way he’s holding me like I’m precious, looking down at me like I am the only thing that matters, his thumb tracing patterns on my hip that make it hard to breathe.
“You’re staring,” I whisper, my voice barely audible over the music.
“Can’t help it,” he murmurs back. “You’re beautiful, Marley. So fucking beautiful it hurts to look at you sometimes.”
The words settle over me like a blanket, warm, safe, and dangerous all at once. Because I want to believe him. I want to trust that this is real. I want to think we’re real, even though I know we started as a lie.
“Nitro—”
“I mean it,” he interrupts, his eyes intense on mine.
“Every word. Derek was a fucking idiot to let you go. To make you feel as if you are anything less than perfect. And I know I’m not perfect either.
But I swear to you, Marley, the way I feel about you, that’s the most honest thing in my life right now. ”
My eyes burn with unshed tears, and I blink rapidly, trying to keep them at bay, but before I can form the words, I catch sight of Derek watching us from the edge of the dance floor, his expression thunderous, and something reckless and vindictive rises in my chest.
“Kiss me,” I breathe, the words spilling out before I can think them through.
Nitro’s eyes go dark, his hand tightening on my waist. “What?”
“Kiss me. Right here, right now. Show everyone that this is real. Show Derek that he lost something he’s never getting back.”
For a heartbeat, he just stares at me, and I think maybe he’s going to say no. That he’s going to point out that kissing for an audience defeats the entire purpose of trying to be real.
In one giant step, he’s in front of me, then he bends down, his hand coming up to cup my jaw, his thumb brushing across my cheekbone with devastating gentleness. “This isn’t for show,” he murmurs against my lips. “Not anymore.”
The air changes.
It thickens.
It crackles with electricity.
He doesn’t move at first. He stares as if he’s memorizing the moment, as if he’s imprinting me somewhere under his ribs in that big heart.
That look alone knocks the breath out of me, because no man has ever looked at me like that.
Like I’m a choice he’s making, not by accident, not out of convenience, but deliberately.
And before I can even inhale, he slams his lips to mine.
Not softly.
Not cautiously.
Not like he’s asking.
But like he’s been holding this in for weeks, and his body finally snapped under the weight of wanting me.
I gasp, and he swallows it, pulling me flush to him, lifting me onto my toes as if I weigh nothing. My fingers clutch his lapels, desperate, needing to feel him, to anchor myself, because my whole world tilts as he devours my mouth as though he’s afraid I’ll change my mind.
Heat bolts down my spine, my stomach flipping, my knees threatening to buckle.
My heart slams against my ribs as if it’s trying to break out and fuse itself to his.
He kisses me deeper, slower for a second, then hungrier again, a rhythm that feels like he’s relearning and claiming me all at once.
Sparks explode behind my eyes, and my skin feels too tight, too alive, too everything.
His hands slide to my waist, gripping, pulling me entirely into his chest until every inch of me is pressed against every inch of him.
I feel him breathing and the barely leashed emotion trembling under his skin, the need, the relief, the possession, his fear of losing me, all of it crashing into the kiss.
I moan, quietly, helplessly, and he answers with a low, guttural sound that hits me straight in my clit.
He breaks the kiss only because breathing becomes necessary, but even then, he doesn’t let me go.
Our lips brush, our breaths mix, our foreheads press together like we’re still kissing in every way that matters.
Both of us are gasping.
Shaking.
Ruined in the best possible way.
His voice is rough, completely wrecked. “Marley…” He swallows, his thumb brushing my cheek as if he can’t stop touching me. “If you weren’t sure before, that kiss just made me yours.”
My chest squeezes hard, emotion swelling so big it threatens to crack me open. His breath mixes with mine, warm and unsteady, his hands still cradling my face like I’m something precious he refuses to let go of.
“Let’s go back in there,” he murmurs, voice low and certain. “And let every asshole in that room know exactly who you belong to.”
And God help me, I do belong to him—in every way possible.
I feel invincible in his arms.
Ready to walk back into that ballroom like we’re a damn earthquake.
Together.
He leads me back inside, his hand warm and possessive on the small of my back, and we make our way directly to the dance floor. The music swells around us, something slow and romantic, and suddenly we’re swaying together, and nothing else matters.
Not the age gap that puts miles between us.
Not the fact that I feel inferior to him in every way.
Not even Derek, watching from the bar with murder in his eyes.
All that matters is the way Nitro holds me as if I’m precious, the way he looks down at me like I’ve rearranged his entire universe.
“I meant what I said out there,” he murmurs against my ear. “I adore you, Marley. I’m going to spend however long it takes proving it to you.”
“I adore you too. I just hope you can put up with me being uncomfortable with praise.”
He smirks, then he kisses me again, right here in the middle of the dance floor with the entire gala watching. He kisses me as if he means it, as if he’ll never get enough, and I’m the only person in the whole world who matters.
We spend the next couple of hours invested only in ourselves.
Dancing, drinking, having a good time, all while Derek and his hanger-on of a girlfriend watch from the sidelines.
If my plan of bringing Nitro as a fake date was a good one, falling for him in the process and having him as a real boyfriend was even better.
If that’s what he is now.
Tonight, I’m going to celebrate the relationship we have and not care what anyone else thinks.
I’m choosing to be fearless.