Chapter 24
24
Cat
T heo is throwing a party tonight. A pool party. He allegedly has a pool on his roof, though I’m not sure how that works in a nineteenth-century mansion. It’s been a week since he taught me how to drive and we practiced touching. A week of breakfasts during which he’s helped me with my homework, and dinners with his investors. Even with our practice, those are still awkward.
I frown at my reflection in the mirror. I’m being foolishly shallow, I know, but I wish I had something better to wear. The Royals hockey team will be here, and I don’t care what they think, but if Theo needs me to play a part tonight, I’m not going to be able to do it in jeans.
Fuck it. I have to study later anyway. I don’t have time to party. All the time spent with Theo means I’m falling behind on my homework, even with his help at breakfast. I smooth my hands down my pants and make my way out of my room to the stairs that lead up to the roof. I can hear music and laughter from here. He’s lucky he doesn’t have neighbors. They’d hate him.
The gym and the roof deck are an addition on the top of the mansion, and the blond wood and large windows are totally at odds with the Gilded Age glamour down below.
A door on the side of the gym leads to a path with planter boxes full of grasses. The late March wind cuts through me, and I shiver. I follow the sound of voices, but Theo finds me first.
“You came.” He smiles at me, and my heart does a funny little flip. “I didn’t think you would.”
He’s painfully handsome, in all black again, the hood of his sweatshirt pulled up over his face in a way that makes him look mysterious and dangerous. There’s a smile playing on his lips and a gleam in his eye that says he’s up to no good tonight.
I stop in my tracks when I see the pool. It’s huge, with underwater lights that make it glow, surrounded by lounge chairs and tall plantings to block the wind. There are heat lamps everywhere and little drinks with umbrellas in them. Steam wafts off the top of the water, swirling into the air.
“You have a pool.”
“Yes. Of course.” Theo gestures to the bar in the corner. “Want a drink?”
“You have a pool,” I repeat dumbly. “On the roof of a nineteenth-century mansion. On 5 th Avenue.”
The depth of his wealth hits me. I grew up rich. My family had nice cars, fancy clothes, and a huge house. But this is on another level.
“How else would I throw pool parties?” He winks at me.
“Pool parties,” I say. “A dead Vanderbilt is crying somewhere.”
He barks a laugh. “I mostly use it for swimming laps. The roof is retractable. Come have a drink.”
“There are a lot of people here,” I hiss. At least fifty. This isn’t what I imagined, and it’s not what I’m comfortable with. I scan the crowd, looking for a friend, and spot Lane with Miles. Cole’s here too, along with what seems to be most of his teammates. They’re taller and broader than most of the other guests, so they’re easy to spot.
“Don’t worry,” Theo says easily. “They’re all friends.”
Lane makes her way over to us, smiling at me. She’s wearing a black sweater dress, and I spot the ties of a bathing suit peeking out over the collar.
“You’re here,” she exclaims. Her smile is wide, and her brown eyes are warm.
She squeezes me while I whisper, “What the fuck?” to her.
She laughs. “You married him,” she says.
The him in question is currently clapping his hands for attention. “All right. Pool’s open for business. Everyone in.”
He turns to me. “Cat? Want to do the honors?”
I look down at my outfit. A sweater and jeans. Guests around me start stripping, and I realize that I’m about to be left on this pool deck while everyone enjoys themselves.
I dig my nails into my hand. I will not feel sorry for myself. I’ve had everything. A life of unimaginable luxury. But for once, I would love to fit in.
Lane looks at me, her eyes sharp. “Cat has to change,” she says.
“I do?” I give her a puzzled look. “Actually, I think I’ll just—”
“Come on,” she responds, already leading the way back into the gym. I follow her while Theo starts pulling off his clothes.
She pulls me into the bathrooms off the gym and flips the lock.
“What if someone needs to use the bathroom?”
She turns to me. “It’s your house. They can fuck off.” She digs in her purse before handing me a bag. I peer inside. It’s a bathing suit.
“You didn’t have to.” I look up at her, love for her pinching my insides.
“I knew you didn’t have anything to wear. Besides, I want to see the look on his face when he sees you in a bathing suit.” She gives me an evil smile, and I laugh, but I head into the stall to change.
“How did you know?” I ask her as I pull on the bikini. The bottom is cheeky, with a high waist, and the top is simple—just a bra made of black neoprene.
“A lucky guess. You didn’t have any going-out clothes, and you let a few things slip that led me to believe you left your parents’ house in haste. ”
Lane doesn’t know the full story, and suddenly, I want to tell her what so few people know.
I open the stall door. “Thank you, Lane.”
She’s in her own bathing suit, a plain bikini that shows off the pretty tattoo between her breasts. She smiles at me. “Looking good. Theo is going to lose his mind.”
I shake my head. “I really don’t think so.” If he does, it will just be biology, like it was when I was on his lap last weekend.
We walk back to the pool deck. “We’ll see about that,” she says. “I do so love to see a man brought low.”
I choke a laugh and step onto the deck. The air is freezing without my sweater. Lane yelps, and we hustle over to the pool, where steam swirls into the night air. The water is blissfully warm, almost hot tub temperature. I sink gratefully in, all the way to my chin. My eyes snag on Theo, who is talking to a pretty brunette. I look away. Theo can talk to whomever he wants. This marriage will be over in eleven months. He won’t be alone forever.
Miles swims over, stealthy and silent in the water, and splashes Lane from behind. “Miles,” she exclaims. “I’ll kill you.” He pulls her into the water against his chest, grinning and kissing her neck. “You like me too much,” I hear him tell her while she pushes at his chest. My friends’ antics make me smile. Lane is lucky. And Theo is still talking to that woman. She puts her hand on his arm. His bare arm. I can’t blame her. He has nice arms. They’re slick with water and firm with muscle, but not so much that he looks like a gym bro. Strong too , my traitorous brain reminds me.
Don’t go there.
But I always go there. Not a week goes by that I don’t remember that kiss and the way Theo held me up in the water, like he would always be there to protect me. And like every time, an ache starts inside me, and I inevitably think of the next night. When I got all dressed up for a party Theo begged me to attend, and I walked in to see a girl on his lap. His hands on her waist, a smile playing on his mouth, and every ounce of his attention on her.
Like it is now .
My chest constricts, and it’s not jealousy. Not all of it, at least. I shouldn’t have made assumptions. We were just friends. Theo owed me nothing.
I turn for the bar. I need a drink. Theo sees me and straightens. From here, I can see his expression sharpen. He scans me, his jaw flexing. He steps forward, ignoring what the woman is saying. My heart starts a frantic beat in my chest. I feel like prey.
Before he can take more than a single step, I hear “Cat” in Cole’s deep voice. I turn. Theo’s brother is there, with Grant, their goalie.
“Captain Archer,” I say.
“I was hoping you’d be here,” Grant says with a flirty smile.
Cole smiles but quickly rolls his lips between his teeth.
“Were you?” I raise my brows.
Grant nods. He really is handsome. Both he and Cole are slabbed with muscle, and Grant has a hard-edged beauty to him until he smiles and his face softens.
But nothing about him makes my pulse pound like Theo does.
“Company is bad at these, but now it’s way better,” Grant says.
Cole snorts. “Speak for yourself,” Cole says mildly. “I’m perfectly happy.”
Grant grins. “He’s going to escape in twenty minutes to go read, just watch him.”
I laugh. “Sounds great,” I say. “I have to study later, or I’d be reading too.”
“Study?” Grant cocks his head. “For what?”
“I’m getting my MBA.” I wait for the inevitable surprise that an heiress would be in school, but instead, Grant’s eyes flare with interest, and he steps closer.
“Tell me about it,” he says. His eyes are intent on me, and a frisson of awareness skitters under my skin.
Cole gets called away by a teammate, and it’s just Grant and me in the shallow end of the pool.
“My favorite class is the two-week intensive on mergers and acquisitions. Corporate takeovers. Levered buyouts. Tender offers. ”
“Mmm, tender offers.” He wags his brows, before grinning sheepishly. “Sorry,” he says. “Tell me more.”
I open my mouth to respond, but I hear “Hitting on my wife?” in Theo’s deep voice before his arms slide around my waist.