CHAPTER NINE
NATHAN
“I THINK WE’D have a lot more fun without an audience.” Sadie’s words were laced with invitation, her fingers trailing down my arm as if she had any right to claim me.
All around us, the bass of the club thrummed against the walls like a second heartbeat—low, relentless, and drowning out everything but bodies and desire.
Between the strobe lights and overpriced bottle service, the booth we were tucked into was supposed to feel exclusive.
Private. But the longer I sat here, the more suffocating it felt.
Sadie’s blue eyes glinted with the promise of an unforgettable night, but unfortunately for her, I wasn’t interested. Despite her tight dress and come-hither attitude, she wouldn’t be coming home with me tonight.
Tall, with long platinum blonde hair and a body that could stop traffic, Sadie Stevens was gorgeous, there was no denying that.
But instead of making plans to take the Hollywood actress back to my place, I found myself zoning out, only half paying attention to the kisses Sadie was peppering on my neck.
I sat back against the plush velvet couch, my eyes glued to the glass of Hennessy Paradis in my hand, though I wasn’t really focusing on it.
My thoughts kept drifting back to that damn dinner with Elise in my office two weeks ago. The plan was simple on paper: get Elise to fall for me.
But in reality, it was anything but. Because the truth was, I wasn’t just asking her to fall for me. I was asking her to believe in something that didn’t exist.
And I knew exactly what that made me.
I could’ve offered her a deal. Made it clean. Mutually beneficial.
She would’ve walked out before I finished the sentence because Elise wasn’t the kind of woman you negotiated with. She didn’t want convenience. She didn’t want security dressed up as affection.
She wanted something real.
Which meant I had to give her the illusion of it.
I dragged a hand over my jaw, exhaling slowly.
I didn’t like it. Not the deception. Not the idea of watching her trust me, knowing exactly where it was leading. But the alternative was losing everything my father had built.
And that wasn’t an option.
Still, there was a part of this I hadn’t fully accounted for. Because at some point, she was going to find out. And when she did, she wouldn’t just be angry.
She’d walk.
No hesitation. No second chances. No looking back.
Which meant the window I was working with wasn’t indefinite.
It was limited.
I just had to make sure that when she found out, the cost of leaving would outweigh the impulse to do it.
That meant everything had to be careful, calculated, controlled. I had to peel back her walls slowly, not shove the truth in her face before she was ready. Because if I was blunt, she’d walk. And maybe that would be the last time I saw her.
I wasn’t just trying to soften her up; I was trying to keep control. Keep the upper hand in a game where I felt dangerously exposed.
Love had destroyed my father. It left him broken, bitter, and empty. Watching that ruin him made me swear I’d never let it happen to me.
Having dinner in my office seemed like a natural first step. It wasn't the first time we shared a meal but I realized too late that I couldn’t treat this like one of the thousands of times we ate together.
To get Elise to see me as more than her boss, I had to change the dynamic and let her see me as a person, not just a businessman. That meant removing the mask of the man she’d always seen and showing her a different side, no matter how foreign that side felt.
The glass of brandy in my hand was almost gone, but I wasn’t drinking it fast enough to dull the persistent memory of Elise and I in my office.
Her voice had been soft, almost vulnerable, as she tried to convince me the Monarch reps saw something in me.
The way she’d looked at me, like she wasn’t just seeing the CEO, but the man beneath the surface, had thrown me off.
Elise didn’t fit the mold of someone who flattered for the sake of manipulation.
That dinner and her unguarded words, had left me rattled in a way I couldn’t shake.
Sadie’s lips on my skin pulled me back to the present, but the distraction was fleeting. She could tell something was off. Her kisses stopped, and I felt her eyes on me. “What’s going on with you tonight?” she asked, her voice a mix of irritation and curiosity.
I didn’t answer right away. Instead, I set my glass down on the table and leaned back into the couch, letting the silence stretch between us. Sadie was waiting for an explanation, but I was no longer in the mood to entertain her.
I wasn’t sure when it happened, but somewhere along the line, I’d grown tired of the charade. The casual hookups, the predictable flirtations, the way she always seemed to want more—I had had enough.
“Sadie,” I said, my voice flat, not bothering to hide my disinterest, “It’s time for you to go.”
Her eyebrows shot up, and the sultry smile she always wore faltered, replaced by something sharper, more demanding. “What the hell, Nathan? I’m not going anywhere.” Her tone was a mix of disbelief and growing anger.
I didn’t flinch. I leaned back further into the couch, hands in my pockets, and looked at her like she was a nuisance. “I’m not going to tell you again.”
Her jaw clenched. “You’re really kicking me out? After everything we’ve—”
“Ryan,” I interrupted, my voice cold, signaling to my bodyguard, who stood idly by in the VIP section.
Sadie’s face turned red, her eyes flashing with a mix of rage and humiliation.
“This is how you’re going to do it, huh?
” she spat, her voice low, venomous. She stood up from the couch, glaring at me with a look that could have burned a hole through me.
“You really just going to end things?” Sadie’s lips parted in disbelief when I didn’t respond and my bodyguard finally stepped in, his presence enough to discourage any physical or verbal attack she might have been planning.
Sadie shot me one last look with pure venom in her eyes before storming off, cursing under her breath.
I didn’t watch her leave.
A part of me knew that I should’ve ended things with Sadie sooner. She was too clingy. She wanted to put a label on things. Both things I didn’t like.
When this was all worked out with Elise, I’d have to rotate another woman to the top of my roster. Marriage wasn’t a contract I intended to honor forever, just a necessary maneuver to secure the company, to keep the legacy intact.
I didn’t fool myself into thinking this would be anything more than a business deal dressed up in a ring and vows.
Love was a liability, a weakness I couldn’t afford, especially not now.
But Elise was sharp, stubborn, and not the type to marry for money or convenience.
If she were, I would have made her a deal: Marry me in exchange for whatever she wanted.
But I knew Elise long enough to know she couldn’t be bought.
She’d reject the deal the second I finished explaining it to her and I couldn’t afford to take that risk.
That only meant the harder I’d have to work to play the part, to soften the edges until she saw a version of me she wanted.
But what about her? What would it feel like to wear my ring, to call me her husband, only to realize the truth, that this marriage was never about us, never about love?
To see that everything she thought she had in me was carefully measured, controlled, and meant only to serve my plan?
That the man she married was never really hers at all?
That’s how it had to be. Because letting my guard down was a luxury I couldn’t afford, not after what I’d seen happen to my father.
I downed the remainder of my drink and swiped my phone off the table in front of me. The intention was to find another name in my roster and invite them over for a drink, but instead, I found myself opening an unread text message from Elise.
Elise:
We’ll be at the Bark & Barrel until 11 if you want to join us.
I frowned. Dive bars with sticky floors and watered-down liquor weren’t exactly my scene.
I wasn’t sure how much sincerity was behind her invitation, or if it was just Elise being polite, something she’d assumed I’d never take her up on anyway.
And honestly, she would’ve been right. That kind of place wasn’t where I belonged anymore.
But tonight, with the usual distractions falling flat and her voice still echoing in the back of my mind, I couldn’t shake the feeling that part of me wanted to go, wanted to be near her, even if it made no sense.
I glanced at my watch.
It was half an hour past 10. Would she still be there? There was only one way to find out.
***
TEN MINUTES LATER, I stepped into the bar and was immediately hit with the familiar scent of cheap beer, fried food, and years of bad decisions soaked into the wood.
The place hadn’t changed much since the last time I’d been here.
It was still too loud, too crowded, and lit mostly by neon beer signs that buzzed faintly behind the bar.
Faded sports memorabilia lined the walls, and a decades-old jukebox sat unused in the corner, overtaken by the real draw of the night which was the karaoke stage.
If you could call it that. Really, it was just a raised platform with a mic stand and a cracked screen displaying lyrics no one seemed to follow.
The sound system was questionable at best, but that didn’t stop the crowd, half of whom looked like they worked for me from belting out songs like their rent depended on it.
Colored lights strobed across the room, casting flickers of red and blue over the sweaty faces packed inside.
It was chaos. Loud, unpolished, and painfully human.
I didn’t respond. Instead, I let my eyes roam over the room until I found the person I was looking for. It didn’t take long to find her. Elise effortlessly stood out in any room she was in.