CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
NATHAN
I feel her before I see her. It’s odd, how attuned to Anika I’ve become in the past couple of weeks. The hairs at the back of my neck rise and I get the sense I’m being watched. I know it’s her before I turn around to look.
She’s standing right by the door into the gym. Her position reminiscent of the first time we were in here together. The look in her eyes is softer though. It’s amazing how far we’ve come. She went from wanting to kill me to looking at me at like that. And while I don’t have a name for the look. I like it a lot. I turn back around to turn off the treadmill before stepping off.
“Don’t stop on my account,” she calls out.
I grab a towel to wipe off the sweat on my chest.
“What are you doing here, sweetheart?” I ask, trying to regulate my breathing as I walk over to where she is.
Although I can probably answer that question myself. She’s wearing black riding boots that come up to her thighs. The blue jeans she’s wearing are made of a stretchy material that clings to her legs. She’s’ wearing a cream colored top and a cropped jacket.
She looks sexy. But then again, when does she not? Images of us in a bed while she’s wearing that outfit rise unbidden in my mind. Her being a cowgirl, riding my cock. I clear my throat, shifting and trying to keep my expression blank.
We had sex a week ago and it wasn’t enough. I still want her. Over and over again. This is so fucked.
“I was enjoying the view,” she states with a light smile.
Is she flirting right now? After a week of stolen glances and cordial conversation. I arch an amused eyebrow, wondering what’s suddenly changed.
“Sorry to cut your show short. But really, what are you doing awake so early, sleepy head?”
“I came here to ride Winter,” she replies and I’m momentarily distracted by the bow of her strawberry lips.
Curiosity tugs at me at the mention of her horse. I’ve almost headed to the stables several times to check it the animal that’s obviously so special to her but I’ve held back.
“I thought you were avoiding me.” She did tell me that was the reason she had stopped coming here in the mornings.
Anika shrugs, “I’m not going to be doing that anymore. It’s stupid. Plus, there’s no reason to avoid you, right?”
Apart from the fact that all I can think is how tempting her eyes are and how much I want to kiss her.
“No, none at all,” I reply dryly. “Did you just get here?”
“Yeah,” she answers.
“And you came looking for me first?”
Her eyes narrow and she points a finger at my face, “Don’t get cocky. I just knew you were already here and almost at the end of your workout. Do you have the same routine every day?”
I nod, “Most days yeah.”
“Be careful. Having a rigid routine is a surefire way to attractive serial killers.”
I chuckle, “Serial killers?”
“I’ve been watching a lot of criminal minds,” she admits with a small smile that somehow lights up her face. “Anyway, I just came to say hi. I’ll see you at work later. We’re scheduled to close the deal for the next Phantom painting right?”
“Yeah,” I reply, glad that this deal hadn’t caused nearly as much trouble as with Mr. Simmons. It was mostly thanks to Anika and her contacts. She’s also very convincing when it comes to getting people to give her what she wants.
“Bye, Nathan.”
She starts to turn around to leave.
“Wait,” I murmur. “I want to meet your horse.”
“Winter?” she questions, her brows furrowed. “Why?”
I shrug, “I’m simply curious.”
She thinks it over for a couple of moments.
“Okay, but be careful. She’s not a fan of strangers. And I talked a lot of shit about you to her so she might not like you.”
I smirk, “Don’t worry, sweetheart. I know my way around horses.”
“Fine, let’s go.”
She waits for me to grab my gym bag and turn off some equipment I used, before leading me towards the stables. There’s an old man standing outside the wooden doors leading into the stables when we arrive.
“Hey, Chris,” Anika greets amiable.
“How are you, sport? And why are you here so early?”
“No reason,” she replies easily before gesturing at me. “That’s Nathan Wolfe. You remember him right? And Nathan, this is Chris. He’s a friend.”
The old man steps forward. He’s changed a lot in the past twenty years.
“Of course. Nice to see you again, Nathan. You sure grew up,” he states looking up at me.
“You grew too, Mr. Ross,” I tell him.
He was a pretty big fixture in my family’s home when I was younger. He helped out with managing the staff we had at the mansion for a while.
“Really old,” he smiles. “How’s your father?”
“Fine,” I reply shortly, keeping my expression blank.
He nods once before stepping back. “Well I’ll leave you both to it. See you later, sport. And you too, Nathan.”
We watch him leave and I finally turn to the raven haired firecracker.
“Odd friend you’ve got there, sweetheart,” I note.
“What? Chris is amazing. He always has the best gossip in town. But don’t tell him I said that,” she grins before walking on ahead into the stables.
There’s a table with food for the horses at the entrance. I quickly grab a couple sugar cubes, figuring I’d need to bribe Anika’s horse in order to get it to like me.
She walks past three stalls with well-groomed horses before settling on one that already has the horse looking outside. It’s a midnight black horse, the color of her hair, which I think is really fitting. It’s a beautiful horse, perfectly suited to its owner. It leans forward as soon as Anika’s in front of it.
“Hey, girl,” Anika says, reaching to pat the front of her head. “You remember the guy I called a jerk face and some other colorful words that may or may not have been appropriate.”
There’s no inclination that the horse understands what she’s saying. But its dark eyes stay on hers, listening.
“Definitely not,” I say on a laugh.
“Anyway, he wants to meet you. He’s reformed now. Play nice.”
She steps back to allow me to move closer to her horse. It huffs out a breath as I do so, its body language becoming slightly aggressive.
“Easy girl,” I murmur, pulling some of the sugar cubes in my pockets. “You want some.”
It huffs out another breath before snorting. I’m going to take that as a yes. I feed some cubes to her which she accepts happily and soon enough she’s letting me pat the front of her head just like Anika did earlier.
“You bribed her,” Anika says accusingly.
I chuckle, “The end justifies the means, sweetheart.”
“Do you want to join me on the ride?” she questions hopefully. “You can use one of the horses at the back. They don’t have an owner.”
“I wish, sweetheart. But I have to get to walk,” I reply, slightly disappointed that I can’t stay longer. “But I’ll be sure to join you next time.”
She nods and after a quick goodbye to Winter, she follows me out the stables. I notice a far off, almost sad expression on her face for a moment but it clears within seconds. Anika has a habit of hiding how she truly feels behind a smile and an exuberant attitude. But she usually doesn’t do that with me.
“Hey, you okay?” I ask softly, leaning against the stable doors.
“Sure why wouldn’t I be?”
There’s definitely something up, but I doubt she’ll tell me. Still I’m glad for this morning though. We finally feel normal. And while I wish we could have more. I’ll settle for anything she has to give.
I linger against the door, not wanting to leave just yet.
“Why did you name her Winter?” I question.
She’s a little surprised by the question, her eyes widen slightly before falling to the ground. I watch as she chews on her bottom lip, hesitantly.
Tell me, beautiful, I urge silently.
Finally she blows out a breath, “Because my life felt cold, at a standstill when I got her. It felt like Winter.”
I suck in a sharp breath, hating that she felt like that.
“And now?”
“Now, I don’t know. I would say it’s more like I’m in limbo. Trying to figure it all out.”
“You will, sweetheart,” I assure her.
She smiles, “Thanks for the vote of confidence. Anyway, you should go. I’ll see you later.”
Before I can say anything else, she’s heading back into the stables, putting out conversation to an end. A part of me wants to push her to figure out what’s really bothering her at the moment.
But then the answer comes to me later in the day, in the form of a guy wearing black ripped jeans and a shirt with his face on it. He has an electric guitar slung around his body and resting against his back. I was walking along the hallway leading to my office when Josh appeared with him in tow.
“Who’s that?” I ask, although I already know.
I saw him only once at the wedding two years ago. He’s still as disappointing as he was back then, barely changed.
“We were just in your office, sir,” Josh quickly explains. “This is Edward Stein. He’s the lead singer of Soul Face, the band I told you about earlier this week.”
My eyes narrow, “I told you I’d take care of it later.”
“Yes sir, but he insisted on meeting with you.”
Seemingly tired of being ignored, the asshole brushes past Josh, stretching his hand towards me.
“Hey, Mr. Wolfe. I’ve heard a lot about you. I’m a big fan of your work.”
I stare down at his hand with barely concealed disgust before looking up to meet his blue eyes.
“What work?”
He retracts his fingers when it becomes clear that I’m not going to shake him.
“The one where you’ve earned billions. That’s going to be me one day.”
I hear Josh snort softly at that, while my eyes trail over the guys face. He’s exactly what I thought he was going to be. Pathetic.
I’m opening my mouth to say something less than kind when Josh speaks up.
“Like I told you, Mr. Stein, we’re still making decisions and we’ll get back to you.”
He places a hand on his shoulder to guide him away, but he slips out of the grip, not even paying Josh a lick bit of attention. It only serves to piss me off further.
“Is there any way we could talk in your office, Mr. Wolfe?” Stein questions hopefully.
My lips press into a frown and I want to tell me hell no. Instead I let out a short breath.
“Sure, let’s go. You can head back to the theatre room, Josh.”
He walks away while I lead Stein to my office, hoping for patience in dealing with him. Once we’re in there, I don’t take a seat in my chair. Instead I lean against my desk with my arms crossed. He has two choices, either take a seat on one of the chairs at my side, or stand. He chooses to stand, which is fine by me.
It’s an intimidation tactic taught by my father. Unfortunately, everything I’ve learned in business was handed down to me by him, including the way to sit when dealing with different variations of people.
“How can I help you, Mr. Stein?” I ask feigning politeness.
He tilts his head to the side, probably wondering why I’m treating him with so much hostility. He’ll learn soon enough.
“My band and I would like to play on the opening night of the center,” he informs me. “I’m not sure if you’ve booked anyone yet. We’re pretty good and I’m sure we’d put on a good show.”
“Opening night?” I ask with a raised eyebrow.
He nods with a shit eating grin on his face.
I let out a dry chuckle, “And why the hell would I let your band play on the opening night for the opening of my center?”
He falters, caught off guard by my tone.
“Listen man, we’re actually really good. If you’d like to listen to some of our songs,” he starts to pull something out of his pocket.
“No need,” I state.
I watch as his confident air slowly disintegrates. He does a good job at acting like he’s all that, in control. But the truth is he’s nothing but a man with a lack of confidence. Which is probably why he’s failing so hard in his career as well. You have to believe you actually have talent.
Faking it to you make it will get you nowhere.
“Hey, do we have a problem?” he asks slowly. “Let me guess, Carson talked shit about me, didn’t he? He never really liked me for some reason. Fuck knows why, I treated his sister like a queen.”
I feel my body grow tense.
“His sister?” I grit out.
Stein continues talking, unknowing that he’s digging himself further into a hole.
“Yeah. I don’t know if you’ve met her. She has long black hair, super-hot. I dated her for a bit. Broke up with her almost two years ago.”
“I see,” I murmur calmly, although there’s a storm brewing inside of me.
“Yeah, we had a lot of fun together. She was a great girlfriend, helped me out a lot with the band. She always made sure to go to every single one of my shows. Real nice and sweet as hell.”
“And what did you do for her in return?” I ask, my tone curious.
That gives him pause, “I don’t know, man. I guess I fucked her pretty good. She’s a screamer,” he says waggling his eyebrows. “Maybe I’ll hit her up now that I’m back. I’m sure she’ll come crawling back to me.”
One minute I’m leaning against my desk, the next I’m in front of him, my hand wrapped around his throat, slamming him against the wall.
“Shut the fuck up,” I snarl, feeling rage rush through me.
I can barely see through all the anger, all I can feel is his pulse beneath my hand. His eyes grow wide like saucers. He grabs my arm, struggling to get me to release my grip. I simply tighten it, cutting off his circulation.
“P-lease,” he chokes out.
In the back of my mind I hear knocks on my door but I don’t answer, too busy watching the man in front of me squirm. The door opens eventually and I hear a short gasp.
Anika rushes towards us, her scent someone permeating through the rage.
“What the fuck? Edward?” she questions in shock.
Frantic brown eyes meet mine, “Let him go, Nathan.”
I squeeze even harder. Her soft palm rests against my arm, the pressure light.
“Nathan!” she calls again.
With an eye roll, I release the fuckers’ throat. He crumbles to the ground, coughing and trying to catch his breath. I walk backward, heading back to my desk. Anika follows me. She places a hand on her hips, her expression equal parts confused and angry.
“What the hell was that? Were you trying to kill him?” she questions.
I shrug, “He pissed me off.”
She shuts her eyes briefly before exhaling a soft breath. I take the time to check her out. I haven’t seen her since earlier at the stables. She’s wearing a short sexy brown gown with a low-cut top and a fancy looking belt around her waist. I’m momentarily distracted by the cleavage of her breasts. A part of me really wants to rip her clothes off.
“Nathan!!” she calls, snapping her fingers in front of my face. “Are you going to tell me what happened here?”
My lips press down in a dissatisfied frown, “No.”
Her eyes narrow in frustration. She turns around about to head towards to fucker that’s still writhing on the floor I’m assuming. I stop her in place, grabbing her wrist and pulling her to my side.
“Don’t even think about it,” I mutter.
She struggles against my hold, “He’s in pain. I need to check up on him.”
“He’ll live.”
I rub a thumb over her wrist for a couple seconds, enjoying the way she shivers at my touch. She relaxes almost immediately but she still looks pissed off.
Stein starts to recover. I watch as he slowly pushes himself to his feet, although his face is a little red. He walks over to us, his breathing labored. I smirk as he points a finger at my face.
“What the fuck is wrong with you? You almost killed me!” he yells, his voice harsh.
“The keyword being almost,” I return. “Talk about Anika like that again and I’ll make sure there’s no doubt about what happens to you next time.”
“Why do you care? Who is she to you?” he asks angrily.
I don’t even have to think about my next words. They come to me easily. My fingers around her wrist slide down so I’m holding onto her hand instead. I intertwine our fingers, lifting it in between us so the asshole has a clear view.
“Anika’s my girlfriend,” I announce.
His eyes widen with shock, meanwhile Anika stiffens beside me.