Page 5 of One More Kiss

Nicole watching Nash, an expression I didn’t want to name burning in her blue eyes. Always looking at him when she thought no one would notice. I’d ignored it, refusing to acknowledge that my father’s new wife would drool over another man. Nash was the kind of man that drew attention—and not just from the opposite sex. Men took stock of him the moment he entered any room. It was impossible for them to measure themselves against him, each one instantly knowing they were somehow lacking.

While my father was a handsome man, he lacked the aura of confidence Nash exuded so effortlessly.

Each interaction I’d witnessed between Nash and Nicole replayed in my head, taking on a new point of view. Unlike me, Nash didn’t even pretend to tolerate the woman. That muscle that always ticked in his jaw when he ground his teeth was a constant companion when she was near. Before, I’d figured it was because she annoyed him as much as she did me.

But what if that wasn’t why at all?

What if…

What if it was because he was jealous of her being with my father?

Bile rose in the back of my throat.

Oh God, what if he’d been with her the whole time we had been together?

We’d never discussed if we were exclusive. I’d just assumed…

A lot of things, apparently.

Nicole had come into my father’s life suddenly five months ago. Before then, I’d never met the woman. She wasn’t from Vegas, and she definitely didn’t have other friends in our social group. It was right after Grandpa Howie passed, so Joseph’s short acquaintance with her, followed by the two of them randomly announcing they had gotten married, had taken me by surprise.

But never once did I imagine she and Nash had a past together.

“What do you want, Nicole?” Nash asked, his tone arctic yet oddly bored, almost detached. “Make this quick. I’m already late for an important meeting. Joseph’s continued incompetence has put me behind schedule, as usual.”

Even if I set aside the whole insinuation that Nicole had sucked his cock at some point in the past—it better have been the distant past!—it stung hearing him describe spending time with me as a meeting, something he needed to add to his schedule. As if I was a chore he had to check off his to-do list.

If he was even referring to his promised nap with me.

Stupid girl. Of course he wasn’t actually going to snuggle with you. He knew you were upset with him and was looking for a way to placate you.

Nicole’s laugh was meant to be seductive, a purr of amusement. I’d heard it one too many times while she flirted with my father. To me, it sounded like nails on a chalkboard.

“I think it is I who should be asking you that, Nash. You broke up with me eight months ago because you said you had to marry that stupid girl. Howard Royal insisted. Now, here you are, not married or even engaged.”

My heart lurched, then squeezed hard when Nash remained silent.

“You’re making Joseph anxious,” Nicole snipped, her tone going from coy to hard in the same moment. “The will stipulates if you haven’t married her by her twenty-first birthday, the Royal half of the hotel becomes yours. That will strip her and Joseph of their birthright. How can you be so heartless, Nash? ”

No!

A wave of dizziness had me bracing a hand against the wall, dread and rage and heartbreak a swirl of chaos in my mind.

When my grandfather’s will had been executed, the only two people who had been allowed to sit down with the lawyers were my father and Nash. I’d been too distraught with grief to care. Neither of them ever spoke about the will afterward, but I had felt a rise in the tension between Nash and my father ever since. It hadn’t surprised me, though.

Nash thought my dad was incompetent—which was fair. He definitely did not have what it took to run the hotel smoothly. Grandpa Howie had given him small projects over the years, but they all fell through, and then he would have to be dug out of the mess he’d made. After Howard’s death, however, Nash had to work closer with him. Which had been disastrous at best.

With Nicole’s arrival on the scene, Joseph had been even more distracted. He liked to gamble, but not in the casinos. For him, the stock market was where he kept his focus, and he was fairly good at it. He should have made that his career.

“I see the idiot didn’t keep his mouth shut,” Nash commented in that same bored tone. “He had one rule to follow and couldn’t even get that correct. Do you understand the amount of money he will lose now that I know he shared details of the will with you?”

“Only if you tell the lawyers,” Nicole murmured. “And you’re not going to, are you, Nash baby?”

“That tone didn’t work on me when I was fucking you. It sure as hell won’t help you now. One call to the lawyers and half of the money Howard left to Joseph will be gone. He knew the stipulations, and he still chose to violate them.”

“Are you really going to do this?” Nicole cried. “Joseph will lose everything but our money if you don’t marry Delilah by her twenty-first birthday. That’s only two weeks away!”

“Tragic.”

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