Page 7 of The Billionaire's Royal Secret

“Really. I’m doing okay.” He had no urge to drink, no sinking thoughts, no dread. His heart, still guarded, dared to hope for the first time in a year. He hoped it wasn’t false.

“Okay,” his father answered. “Well, if that changes, you know–”

“Where to reach you, yeah,” he said as he skirted around a few people on the sidewalk. “And where to find a meeting if I need one.”

“Do you need one?”

“No, Dad. I’m not drinking. I don’t have the urge to drink.” For one of the first times in the past year, he didn’t. He bypassed the bar he’d planned to stop at and continued on to his office at GenoTech, his father’s biotech company.

He wandered past the helix logo and past the glass offices toward his corner office at the back. With his background in pharmacology, he’d taken a lead role at his father’s company. Although it wasn’t only his background that had given that to him.

He shook off the bad memories of the war with his brother that had nearly cost him his family and clicked into his emails.

“Hey,” his father’s voice said.

Nate glanced up to find his father leaning against the door jamb. He flicked his gaze back to his screen. “Checking in person.”

“Maybe,” his father said as he strode inside and sank into a chair across from Nate.

“Well, as you can see, I’m fine.”

“Good. Melinda said you ran out of here and I just…wanted to check.”

“Yeah, I had some bad memories of today and just needed a minute. I was going to grab coffee, but the line was too long. I came back.”

His father narrowed his light eyes at him. “No stops at the bar?”

Nate grabbed a folder and tossed it into his outbox folder. “I have not been drinking.”

“That’s really…excellent, Nate. None of us would blame you, though, if you had a slip.”

“I didn’t slip,” he said, his jaw tightening.

He knew his father had every right to ask. He’d hit rock bottom once. They wanted to make sure he wouldn’t do it again. He should be glad they cared after what he’d done to his brother. Most families would have cut him off. But not the Kingsleys. With Charles Kingsley leading the family, they’d rallied around him, sometimes being more supportive than he wanted.

“Okay, son,” the man said. “Well, again, that’s excellent. This is…a real step forward for you, Nate. A few months ago…”

“I would have been six shots deep just at the mention of her name, I know.”

His father bobbed his head up and down. “She was the problem, Nate. Not you.”

“That time,” Nate murmured.

“Put her out of your mind, son.”

He bobbed his head up and down. “Right. Now, I’d like to do that with some work. We’re close on the age slowingproject, I know it.”

His father stared at him, balancing his face against his thumb and forefinger. “Well, I’ll leave you to it. See you at dinner?”

“No,” Nate said with a shake of his head.

His father lifted his graying eyebrows toward his salt-and-pepper hairline.

“I’m meeting a client,” he lied. He hated lying after the last few years, but he didn’t want to tell anyone about the woman who had enchanted him. He didn’t need a lecture on jumping in before he was ready—especially if she turned out to be nothing more than a tiny blip on the radar of his life.

He opened a research report but found himself unable to concentrate. Sparkling green eyes danced through his mind along with that sweet smile. He reminded himself not to rush into things.

He couldn’t tell her who he was. He’d done that before. With Chloe. Only he’d found out that she wasn’t in love with him like she’d said. She’d manipulated him, played the game, cleared the board, and stood as the winner.

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