Chapter Three
Old? Who is he fooling? Finn couldn’t stop thinking about it. How can Prince Sullivan think he's old?
The man was in his forties, and his platinum-blond hair was natural, not dyed, with not a gray hair in sight.
It made Finn wonder why there wasn’t a line of men and women begging to spend a second with him.
He recalled the disappointed expression on that guy's face when Prince told him their night out was canceled. Finn didn’t know about Prince's relationship with the man, and it wasn’t his business, since Prince never bothered to introduce them.
Besides, Finn's only focus was on shedding his strict demeanor and having some fun.
"Oof," Finn groaned softly, his nose suddenly burning as a clean, warm masculine scent surrounded him. It smelled so good that for a moment, he almost wanted to purr and rub his face against it.
"Are you alright?" a soft, sexy voice whispered near his ear, drawing Finn's attention upward until he met a pair of silver eyes ringed in black. The scent from earlier seemed to intensify, and those striking eyes held him captive for a second longer than they should have.
"Huh?" Finn asked, clearly confused.
"Your nose," Prince murmured, his gaze dropping briefly. "It's red."
That startled Finn enough to snap him back to his senses.
He quickly glanced around, remembering they were on their way to the car and were now outside, standing almost chest to chest with Prince Sullivan.
From this close, Prince seemed even bigger than Finn remembered.
Had he always been this tall, with broad shoulders, solid chest, and those sharp silver eyes looking down at him with quiet concern.
Finn had to tilt his head back slightly to meet his gaze, which only made him more aware of how close they were standing.
"Um," Finn said, stepping back and lightly touching his nose, which still had a slight sting. He was fairly certain it had nothing to do with the cold or the fact that he had just collided with a very hard human wall. "Mr. Sullivan, I'm…"
"Get in the car," Prince instructed softly.
He stood beside a sleek black SUV, its polished surface reflecting the afternoon light.
Even without knowing much about luxury vehicles, Finn was certain the thing cost upward of eight million dollars.
The kind of car that looked more at home in a private garage than parked on the side of a public street.
One day I will drive something like this, he thought as he got into the car. Finn had plans to become a millionaire, and nothing was going to stop him.
"Thank you," he said.
The car smelled of rich leather and was just as sexy as the owner.
Finn trailed his fingers along the soft material, marveling at the craftsmanship and the clean stitching.
It wasn’t the first time he’d been in a car worth millions.
He had driven Bevin's custom-made sports car.
However, sitting in this luxury car felt different.
Finn leaned back in his seat and let out a quiet sigh as he relaxed, barely registering the sound of the driver's door opening and closing.
He gasped when a hand brushed against the right side of his face. Fuck, why do I get so fidgety around this man? Finn snapped his head to the left and immediately locked eyes with Prince Sullivan.
Their faces were unexpectedly close, close enough for Finn to catch the faint scent of Prince's cologne.
The warm, clean scent made his heart skip a beat.
For a brief, reckless moment, Finn had the sudden urge to lean in and bury his face in the man's neck, to breathe in that scent and surround himself with it.
Finn's eyes widened when he realized where his thoughts had gone, especially since the man he was fantasizing about was his best friend's dad. The realization shocked him. Up until now, his life had been simple. Making loads of money, school, and work had always been his focus.
But he couldn’t help it. Even now, as he tried to think of something else, it was hard to see reason.
Not when the other man's face was so close to his and all he had to do was lean forward and press his lips against his.
However, he was instantly brought back to reality by a sharp clicking sound and looked down to find Mr. Sullivan had already buckled his seatbelt for him.
Finn jerked back, scooting as far as he could into his seat and putting much-needed space between himself and Mr. Sullivan.
A wave of embarrassment washed over him, hot and immediate.
He quickly turned his head and stared out the window, hoping the passing view would hide the deep red creeping across his face.
"Thank you," Finn whispered.
"No problem," Prince said as he settled into his seat and buckled his own seat belt. "We're thirty minutes away."
"Why so long?" Finn asked.
"I wanted to be as far away as possible from the hustle and bustle of the crowd," Prince explained.
"Ah, that makes sense," Finn said.
But the truth was, Finn wanted to be closer to the noise. He liked the energy of it, the early mornings waking to the distant sound of skiers carving through fresh snow, the hum of life already moving outside before the sun had fully risen.
Finn continued to gaze out the window, admiring the splendor of the snow-capped mountains as he tried to shake off his earlier embarrassment and the direction his thoughts had almost taken about his best friend's father.
I’m going to blame it on being exhausted, he told himself. There’s no way I’d actually think about kissing or being with a man like Prince Sullivan.
Still, Finn couldn’t help himself. He glanced slyly at the man in the driver's seat and ended up staring a little longer than he should have, noticing where Bevin had inherited his looks. The resemblance was impossible to miss.
Finn had never met Nova Sullivan, now Westmoreland, but he had seen pictures. She was just as gorgeous, intelligent, and successful, even without the weight of her family name. From everything Finn knew, she had every reason to have once been married to Prince Sullivan; too bad they divorced.
Finn had always wondered why they had separated, but he had never wanted to pry too deeply into his friend's family problems.
"Why didn't you go to Jamaica with Bevin?"
"I'm not much of a beach person," Finn said, keeping his gaze on the snowy mountains rolling past the window.
"So you're more of a snow bunny," Prince commented, amusement threading through his voice.
Finn smirked, feeling his cheeks grow warm, and it had nothing to do with the car heater. "You could say that."
"Nothing wrong with that." The other man chuckled.
The car grew quiet, so quiet that the engine barely seemed to make a sound.
Yet the silence wasn’t uncomfortable. If anything, Finn found himself relaxing as the stillness stretched on.
His head tilted slightly to the side as the exhaustion of the day finally caught up with him.
His eyelids grew heavy and slowly began to close.
Just before they could fully shut, the sharp ring of his cellphone jolted him awake.
Finn fumbled into his jacket, pulled the phone out, and smiled when he saw Bevin's name glowing on the screen.
"Bev…" was all he managed to say before Bevin shouted in his ear, making him hiss and pull the phone slightly away.
"Mom, I need you!"
Finn glanced at Prince out of the corner of his eye and mentally breathed a sigh of relief. The man was looking straight ahead and didn’t seem to have heard Bevin's outburst.
"Mom, they're being mean to me," Bevin cried drunkenly.
Finn pinched the bridge of his nose and bit his bottom lip, trying to keep from laughing out loud.
He is such a baby when he’s drunk.
“Bev…” Finn started again, but he was interrupted by a different voice on the other end of the phone.
“Hey, Finn, sorry, man,” Shane said. “Bev got shit-faced while we were at a hotel beach party and kept crying that he wanted to talk to his mom. So we called his mother, and I don’t even want to tell you how embarrassing that conversation was.”
At that, Finn could not hold back his chuckle and shook his head.
No one can handle Bevin when he’s like this.
"I completely forgot he calls you Mom. After that call, we hid his phone, but he found it," Shane continued with a weary sigh. "Finn, how the fuck do you handle him when he's like this?"
Finn laughed even harder, feeling absolutely giddy with the sweet satisfaction of payback. "He's your problem child for the next few days. You'll figure it out." He hung up before Shane could respond and did a little jig in his seat.
"You're happy about something," Prince commented, glancing over at him briefly.
"You could say that." Finn could not stop grinning. "Those guys have their hands full for the next few days."
"Is my son being troublesome?"
"Was I that obvious?"
Prince chuckled. "Not really, but I know my son's voice."
"Oh." Finn glanced out the window. "Bevin gets a little weepy when he's drunk, which isn’t often," he quickly added. "Bevin works and plays hard, but he's always careful."
Finn wasn’t exaggerating. Whenever Bevin buckled down and focused, he became a complete workaholic, and everyone around him usually ended up begging him to take a break.
Prince chuckled warmly. "I believe you. I'm glad to know Bevin has a friend like you."
Finn looked over at the older man. "I think I'm the one who's lucky." He takes care of me like a good son.
"Either way, thanks for having his back," Prince said.