Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Ru
“Ru! Ru!”
“Huh?” I turn my head to face Jenna just as a cushion connects with it. “Ouch!” I exclaim with indignation.
“You can’t get hurt by soft furnishings,” Jenna scoffs, as I rub the side of my head and mock scowl at her to prove her wrong.
“Where were you?” she continues. “Still dreaming of your American hunk?”
“No!” I almost shout, and she snorts—she can see right through my terrible lie. I tip my head back on the sofa and sigh.
“Ughh.” I can’t seem to shake off the funk that’s been following me around since I got back from Australia.
I hate that Nate occupies my thoughts so much, and has done so over the last few months. I’ve tried to put him behind me, and after what he did I really should, but there’s a part of me that’s still mad at him for it. But I also have memories of how good it felt—not just the sex, though that was incredible—and I haven’t been with anyone since as I know they just won’t compare to him.
There’s something more... a connection I felt to him. He was easy to be with, and I finally felt I could be who I was meant to be with him. It’s not a sensation I’ve had around anyone I’ve been with before, and it’s that feeling—the freedom, the wholeness, even though it was for a few brief days—that has me drifting off into dreamland.
Everything I experience now is held up in comparison to that time and found wanting. I may be remembering it with rose-tinted spectacles, but I don’t care. It was perfection for a few days. Something I’ve craved all my life, and I want it again.
I really should forget about him, as I’ve told myself a million times.
He lives in the States.
I'm never going to see him again.
I barely even know his last name.
I could ask Chase, but I don’t have any contact with him, so it would seem odd to ask about one of his guests in particular. Especially as I left barely thirty minutes after arriving. He hasn’t mentioned that to my father. If he had, I would definitely have known and received some sign of his disapproval. I’m grateful he’s kept it quiet, but it might just be because he’s forgotten about it. Contacting him might make him remember, and I don’t want to risk that happening.
Another cushion bounces off my skull, reminding me that I’ve drifted off again.
“You know your problem, don’t you?” Jenna asks, rising and walking across the room to an ornate wooden dresser holding a tray with decanters of several spirits. She pours a couple of drinks, not bothering to add water, soda, or ice, and brings them back to the couch.
“Enlighten me,” I groan, as I’ve been subjected to Jenna’s wisdom on many occasions.
She hands me a glass—whisky from the look of it. I’m sure it’s too early to be drinking hard liquor, but I take it anyway.
“You need to get laid,” she pronounces, and folds herself back down onto the couch beside me. “I mean it. The only way you’re going to get this guy out of your system is to find another one just as good, maybe even better.”
“Yeah, right.” I give her my most withering look, because chances of finding anyone even half as good as Nate are slim to none. Even if he was an arsehole.
“I mean it, Ru.” She clinks her glass with mine and takes a drink. I take a sip, grimacing at the burn of the liquid.
“Says the voice of someone who’s getting it regularly, like it’s some sort of a cure all,” I say.
She gives a sly smile and I groan, as I don’t want to hear about her sex life.
Ever.
I am pleased she’s found someone, though. I’ve met Alice a few times, and she seems as much into Jenna as Jenna is into her, but I know it’s still complicated for Jenna and she’s keeping her relationship a secret from her father. Which is the real reason why I’m here this afternoon.
Alice is an artist—a very talented one. She has the opening of her latest work at a gallery this evening, and Jenna has asked me to be her date because she doesn’t want to go alone. She fears that if she does, she’ll try to monopolise Alice, which isn’t fair as she’ll be in demand, and she also doesn’t want to draw media attention to their relationship.
Alice is already out, so Jenna is playing it cautiously. Whether or not that causes tension between them, she hasn’t said, but she knows I’ll be here for her if she needs me.
Despite my usual protestations at being paired with Jenna, which to be fair is only when our parents suggest it, I’m looking forward to going to the gallery with her tonight. I do need to get out, not looking to get laid as Jenna suggests, but because I do need distracting from my constant thoughts of Nate.
We’re in Jenna’s parents’ town house, with them thankfully being back in Oxfordshire right now, as are mine. Though they’re all expected to be back in London next week.
I think I’ll make an excuse then and go back there instead.
Anything to stay away from my father. I have my own flats in London and Oxfordshire, but if he’s close, then he’ll be constantly summoning me, though he’s spending more and more time in the country and less in town at the moment.
I know when he’s in town he’s been visiting a doctor at Harley Street, but every time I ask him about it he dismisses it and says it’s nothing. Even my mother won’t tell me anything. There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with him, and he certainly seems well enough to keep a close eye on me. I’ve wondered if sending me to Australia was more to do with a health issue than wanting to give me more responsibility. He’ll never say, but the time I spent there was good for business relations, and now some clients are asking for me personally, so at least I no longer feel like I’m in my father’s shadow.
* * *
I can’t really complain about arriving at any function with Jenna on my arm since she always looks stunning. As the car pulls up at the gallery and we get out at the entrance, I want to ignore the press and the cameras, but Jenna with her hand tucked into my arm pulls me to a stop.
I know we’ll end up in the pages of some society magazine next week, and she’s doing it to throw everyone off the scent of her being with anyone else, but I can’t help growling slightly.
She gives my arm a little squeeze, and I know it’s in appreciation, but I hate all the lies, and it’s that which makes me scowl, not Jenna wanting protection.
For her sake, I plaster on my most impressive society smile and escort her inside. I feel her buzz with excitement when she catches sight of Alice. It must be wonderful to be so in love that you can spot your lover instantly in a crowded room and feel like there’s no one else there.
She takes a deep breath and grips my arm tighter, anchoring herself to my side as if she’s in danger of floating away.
I scan the room and one of the first people I see is Chase.
What on earth is he doing here?
Thankfully, I manage to school my startled look into something more neutral as he turns round and catches sight of me. His face spreads into a friendly smile, and I find myself returning it, which is the wrong thing to do because now he’s coming right over.
“Rupert, how are you?” He holds out his hand and I shake it firmly.
“I’m good. What brings you to London?” I ask.
“Well, I do live here,” he replies, and I inwardly cringe before I remember my manners.
“Of course. Sorry. Let me introduce Jenna Marchant.”
Chase turns his winning smile on Jenna and she beams back at him. “Jenna, this is Chase Knightly. He’s a client and friend of my father.” Chase frowns a little at the last statement, but his smile doesn’t falter.
“Sorry you left us in a hurry back in Melbourne.” Chase turns his attention back to me. “I don’t know what you said to Nate Waterford, but he was looking for you.”
The first thought that hits me is that he was looking for me, and something shifts deep inside me.
I’m still mad at him, but maybe he was trying to make amends, even if he didn’t do a very good job of it and I wasn’t in a mood to listen.
The second thought is that I have a full name for him. Not that it would do me any good. I don’t do any sort of social media. I have a message app for the few friends I can trust, but I stay away from everything else. I hate the vultures in those places, and I don’t want any random people following me.
Jenna does, though, and I see her slyly take out her phone and start tapping, a wicked gleam in her eye.
Chase and I talk for a few more minutes, and he says he’ll be visiting the office soon so I’ll see him then. As I watch him walk away and find some other acquaintance to talk to, I feel a sharp dig in my ribs.
“Fuck, Ru. No wonder you’ve been pining for months.”
“I have not been pining.”
I turn to Jenna, and see the phone screen she’s holding out to me.
It’s a picture of Nate, shirtless, tanned, smiling, and looking fucking beautiful. My heart tightens at the sight of him. Even my dreams haven’t been able to do him justice.
“I’d forgive him, and I don’t even like men.” She gives me a shit-eating grin. I take the only action I can towards one of my best friends, and go on the attack.
“Does your girlfriend know how shallow you are?”
Jenna just laughs at me and pulls her phone back, scrolling through Nate’s account and making appreciative noises that have me looking over her shoulder. And for the first time in my life, I regret not being on these apps.
“You could always join under a pseudonym,” Jenna says as if reading my mind.
Nope, not gonna happen. I look up and see Alice walking towards us, and I wait until she’s within earshot.
“Jenna, you can stop looking at half-naked men now, Alice is here.”
“Well, if your boyfriend wants to put half-naked pictures of himself all over the place, what can I do?”
“He is not my boyfriend,” I grind out, but she’s already given her attention to Alice, and I’m left with the same feeling I have whenever I try to get one over on Jenna or my sister.
Never pick a fight with girls.